clubs. At other times, a greater quantity being required, as for 
canning or salting, a net is used, or a wheel with canvas paddles 
is made to revolve in the stream, when the fish are lifted from the 
water with every revolution. Herring and other small fish are 
caught by the Indians with great rapidity on sharpened nails 
driven through a lath, by beating the water or quietly passing the 
lath to a depth of several feet, and then, with a sweep, raising it 
quickly ; generally a fish is found pierced by every nail. Indeed, 
the waters of Alaska voluntarily give up their fish as those who 
have visited Sitka have observed, the beach there being often 
strewn after fall of the tide with a beautiful little fish not unlike 
our young pollock. When required by the natives and others for 
immediate use they are gathered in buckets ; but generally the 
supply is so excessive they are left to decompose upon the beach, 
when the voracious crow has grown stupid from repletion. 
The ulikon is a fish of special interest, peculiar to the Pacific 
and destined to enjoy a reputation for usefulness to man equal to 
that of the cod. It is about fourteen inches long, and in general 
appearance resembles smelt. This fish supplies much of the 
oil used by the natives. It is said alcohol will not preserve them, 
owing to the excess of oil. When dried, they serve as tapers for 
the natives, for which reason they are often referred to in Alaska 
as candle fish. The refined oil is as clear, not more disagreeable, 
and, we believe, will prove as beneficial in certain diseases as our 
much esteemed cod-liver oil, for which it is substituted by whites 
in Alaska. Should the supply of cod-liver oil in the future be 
diminished, ulikon oil will be an important industry. This fish 
is so abundant in the Nasse River that the water is said, during 
the run, to appear to boil from their rapid motion. At such times 
they are the prey of bird and beast, the latter lifting them without 
difficulty from the water with their paws. The present neglect to 
further utilize this superior oil and establish whale fisheries, 
including the black and other large fish in the sounds and channels 
of Alaska, may be regarded as preliminary to greater activity 
eventually. Shell-fish, save our favorite oyster, are also to be 
obtained. The oyster, as is known, is found at few points on the 
North Pacific coast, and then of an inferior quality. 
Limited scientific research in Alaska has recognized and classi- 
