The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1883-05-31
Columbia salmon.

tereSt q Portland (OregOn) correspond
ent of the San Francisco Chronicle says.
The fishing season lasts four months.
A boat net and signal-light cost from
800 to $500. There are thirty-six can
ming firms on the Columbia River,
nearly all of them being at Astoria.
There is "A general disposition to CEN
ter the salmon-canDing business at that
ancient little town, rs il seems TO be the
cheapest place of operations, for if the
fisheries were further up the Columbia,
tug-boats would have TO be employed
to bring back the fishing-boats. Yet the
lower bay at the mouth of the Column
bia is very stormy during the fishing
season, during which there is often loss
of life and Il great deal of danger and
hardship. This is one reason the Co.
lumbia salmon cost more than the Sac
ramento salmon. Fishermen who have
their own boats and nets are paid sixty
cents salmon, weighing eight pounds.
Those whose boats are furnished by the
company are paid forty-fve cents a
salmon. One of the firms has raised the
price to seventy cents fish, but the
others refuse TO see the elevation.
Salmon are packed in one-pound cans,
and forty-eigbt cans make ease, the
average price of case being 50 or
$500. The product of the thirty-six
cannelies on the Coiumhia River last
year WAS 535, 900 cases, worth -, 1872,
900. 1t is estimated that the capital in
vested in these thirty-six canneries is
about 81, 100000. When it is known
that fishing-boats cost $500 or $500
each, and that some of the fishing firms
have 100 boats, and that total of about
be readily understood About one-third
of the salmon product is shipped to San
Francisco for reshipment to Australia,
the Eastern States, and islands in the
Pacific ocean. The remainderis shipped
direct from Astoria to Liverpool or Lon
don. One vessel recently left with TO-
900 cases, worth over $3.50. 900, the most
valuable cargo of salmon ever shipped
from the Pacific coast.
The continued run of salmon in thu
Columbia is remarkable, considering
the great destruction of fish by traps
and the merciless iron wheels that i'm
pale them like the Spanish garotte.
There is a sentiment in favor OF abol-
ishing this wholesale destruction of fish,
and it is very likely that a law viii be
passed prohibiting it. The law against
fishing between Saturday night and
Monday morning is not rigidly enforced.
This law was passed in order TO allow
the fish to ascend to their spawning
grounds. But in this wholesale and
untirnely destruction the people are
destroying the very source of their
revenue. 1t is proposed by the cannery
proprietors to establish hatchery.
Some public spirited" people think
the State should establish hatchery for
the benefit of cannery establishments.
Yet the canneries have, year after year.
packed from 400,0 900 to 535, 900 cases,
depending solely on fish that escape to
their natural spawning grounds. Ii can
easily be estimated what future awaits
this growing industry when hatchery
has been established able to turn out
millions of fish annually, and their
wholesale destruction stopped. Perhaps
then 10000 900 cases might be packed,
which would be revenue of 100000
600. about one fourth of which would
be net. Daring the last fifteen years
the revenue derived from fishing in the
There were $50, 000 cases of salmon
packed on the Pacific coast
last year, the value OF which
was $500, 900. This would leave
500, 900 cases for canneries outside
of the Columbia River When salmon
fishing began here fifteen years ago the
price was about three times what it is
now, or Sl5 case. If the wholesale
destruction of fish is not stopped, and
hateheries are not soon established, the
supply will soon be like the last run of
shad, and the price will advance. But
there is considerable salmon fishing in
Alaska, three canneries being in exist
ence there, and recent reports refer to
the establishment of another.
The .'scooping" wheels, upon which
salmon are. caught, resemble the old
fashioned "undershoot wheel" They
are built upon entertainments or pro-
jecting rocks, so that the wheel will be
in the water when the stream rises. OF
course, they are built in the low-water
season. The wheels have plank pad
dies. so that the water running down
stream sets the wheel in motion, and
the salmon coming up stream are
caught ON the wheel and literally
broken. They fall into ''chute,
something like a wood-drive, and slide
down into boxes. A wheel scoops up
5000 or 1000 salmon night. There
is no law to prevent this wholesale
slaughter and destruction, but there is
a loud cry for it.