Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-01-15
THE NOR'WEST COAST.
alaska Cod and Herring Fisheries
The Wonders of Glacier Bay-A
FIftY-MIle-Long Glacier.


Alaska are only made use of as they
should be, writes correspondent
from Sitka to The New York Evening
Post, the disturbances sometimes
arising between Maine fishermen and
Canadians regarding the cod-fsheries
off Newfoundland will soon become
annoyances of the past. If we utilize
all the cod that are in Alaska, we
can afford to give England undisturb
ed possession of the 'banks," for the
channels along which we have been
sailing are absolutely alive with as
6n6 specimens Of the fish as one may
wish to see. There is but little at
tention given to cod at the present
time, though 300 tons of dried and
salted boneless cod were shipped last
year from Kilisnoo, Lerring-oil fac
tory south of Chilkhat and nearly due
east from Sitka. 1t is an unsavory
resting place, this KIlisnoo, for com
bined with the oil factory is a phos-
phate or guano establishment which
emits an OdOr that IS perceptible for
miles around. If they cared to, the
Kilisnoo people could ship unlimited
quantities of cod. The water is filed
with choice fish, averaging ~ pounds
In weight each, and they. can be
caught far more easily and at a much
less expense than can those found in
eastern waters. Say what one pleases
about Alaska Indians, the fact re-
mains that they are excellent work
men and expert fishers. At Kilisno0
at Chilkhat they are employed in
various capacities and give general
satisfaction. At the beginning of
each season they purchase a complete
outfit of clothes, rubber coats, gum
boots, and all, and live upon so little
that at the end of their work they
have laid by a considera be sum. It is
the opportunity to work provided by
the white man that will do more than
anything else to eDlighten and civilize
the Alaska Indian. Missionary work
may accomplish certain amount of
good, but once incalcate the idea of
thrift is a good thing, and the native
will begin to enter upon a new life of
which as yet he has had hardly q
glimpse
K llisnoo is located on the southern
banks of Q narrow channel that leads
out of Peril straits, and is IN the very
center OF the best herring grounds in
Alaska. The native herring here
swarms in countless numbers, and is
a delicious mOrsel. The Kilisnoo
fishermen think soothing of bringing
in from three hundred 10 i've hun
dred fish day, and in some of the
lnlets they do not use nets at all, but
drag barbed sticks through the schools
which catch the fish by hundreds.
The herring IS very oily, and early in
the season often yield four gallons of
oil TO the barrel of fish. The average
weight is about half a pound, and the
average yield Of oil to the barrel is two
gallons. The season lasts from August
factory shipped Is, 702 gallons of oil
as the product of one months work
The fish are caught, usually, in large
nets. Dying almost Immediately after
being brought to the surface of the
water, they are dumped into large
fat-bottomed barges, towed by small
steam tugs, and carried to the factory
wharf, where they are deposited IN a
tank having a capacity of fifty TONS
From this tank car runs up an
incline to another bin. where the fish
are again unloaded. From there they
are shoveled at necessary times into
the press room, where they are
repeatedly crushed and heated until
the oil is abstracted and only the dry
residue is left. To separate the oil
from the water that it contains there
is a series of tanks into which the
liquid runs until the two ingredients
are properly divided.
For long time the crushed and oil
less herring was allowed to go to
waste. Left to itself, the illsmelling
mass quickly becomes pile of living
worms. At last it was determined to
utilize this rich accumulation, and
about a year ago the company began
to make phOsphates or fertilizers from
it. At present the factory is not in
the best order, but yet 1t produces
some /, 100 sacks of guano a month,
and the experiment is considered a
success, stertilizer of great richness
being produced at d comparatively
SMALL cost.
OF all the scenic attractions of this
country, naturally 50 prolific in nat
ural wonders, Glaclsr bay must be &C
knoWledged the grandest, most beau
tlful, and most interesting. There is
nothing that can equal 1t on this con-
tinent, and nothing in the old world
that has at once its grandeur and its
picturesque beauty. The bay itself is
wide, long, natural inlet, leading Ia
northwesterly direction far away
toward a range of snowy peaks.
Uninhabited, and first visited by
white man only a few years ago, when
John Muir penetrated to it's head. the
bay never fails to call forth the high :
est encomlums of the learned and the
ignorant, the travelled and those who
are novices in sight seeing. When
Alaska is more generally visited Gla-
cier bay will be the feature Of attrac-
ton. None who has ever seen this
bay can forget its aspect, with It's
glaciers and mountains and phantom
ships of ice sailing over the deep cold
waters