Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-24
nee Of THn EVENING efAn.
CnILoAr, ALASKA, August 6, 10e!

y
CHILoAr, ALASKA, August 6. 1889
OF our hundred and fifty passengers on the
steamship Geo. ". Elder about ons-fourth are
on business or seeking business chances while
the rest are here for recreation. Whatever
latter are certainly securing the object Of their
pursuit ts.of the eight days We have been on
board since leaving Tacoma part Of three Of
them has been. rainy and foggy, and the re-
mainder Of the time has been pleasant and
favorable for seeing all the wonderful grandeur
and beauty through which We have passed.
We have, at this point, ffty-nine degrees twelve
minutes Of north Latitude, reached the highest
altitude In the course Of our voyage to Sitka,
and have lain in Pyramid harbor for whole day
taking on thousands of boxes Of canned salmon
from the three cannery settlements in this i'm
mediate vicinity, and will be here still another
day for the same purpose. The Davidson gla-
cier Is in full view from our deck, and its
broad foot, more than two miles in width aud
over hundred feet high. Of steel-blue CORFU
gated ice, though or 6 miles away (for we have
been ashore and walked on the broad moraine
OF one of its lateral brancbes) looks to be not
more than a rife-shot distant. The tops of the
mountains, rising directly from the shore to o
height Of more than 5000 feet, are covered
with great masses Of snow, while patches of
sun in all the gullies and ravinss down nearly
to the waters edge. Our whole course Of about
!, 100 miles, with the exception of the crossing
OF Queen Charlotte sound and Dixon entrance,
openings out to the Pacific, occupying about
four or five hours, has been inside Of series Of
high green-woodsd islands, comprising the
greatest archipelago in the world and forming
continuous inland sea or immense saltwater
river, az smooth 20 the lower Potomac and with
depths marked on the sailing chart az much az
1855 fathoms and others marked by character
indicating mo bottom found"
Our first stopping place was Metlakahtla, a
village of some 600 or 700 Indians who came
there In mass from British Columbia two years
ago to escape the interference Of the English
church with the missionary labors of William
Duncan, who has been among them thirty years
and under whose instruction they have become
civilized and christianized and thrifty, indus
trious community, earning more than good
living by fishing for the salmon canneries in
that vicinity.
SALMON FISHING.
At Tongas narrows, soon after leaving Metia-
kahtla, We saw cannery in operation, and ali
about our ship as she lay at anchor and as far
as the eye could reach we saw the salmon
Jumping clear out Of the water, and as they fell
back the sound was like the splashing of the
rain In heavy shower. Some OF the passen-
gers tried their hands at salmon catch
ing, but not with net or line.
Ihey simply stood on the stones on the
side OF small stream up which
water and caught them with their bare hands
to the size Of from three to six pounds and
brought them on board to garnish our table;
but salmon have become anything but rarity,
and the founders and a halibut weighing 40 or
o. pounds, caught BY over our ships
stopped at Loring, on Revills Gigedo Island,
In Naha bay, beautiful broad sheet of water,
with the hills more rounded and clothed in
the dark green verdure Of fir and cedar, re-
minding one strikingly of the Scotch lakes.
HOW SALMON ARE CANNED.
Here we witnessed the operations Of large
cannery, which, az the superintendent informed
us, puts up $4,000 cans of salmon for a full
days work. The fish are all caught by Indians
In seines, and all the other work-the cleaning
and sailing of the fish, making the cans, filling
them, soldering them, cooking, labelling, max
ing the boxes from lumber brought from be-
low cut OF proper size, boxing, &c.-is done by
Cinnamon. We saw probably 5000 or 10000
salmon, weighing from to Is pounds each,
lying in the fish house and in boats, Just caught
and waiting the processes that we're TO prepare
them for commerce and consumption. One set
OF Cinnamon cuts of their heads. tails and fms
rips them open and removes the eutrails and
throws them into tanks of water; another set
cleans them thoroughly; another set places
~
contracting into narrow trough in which are
revolving knives which cut them into pieces.
and at the end of the trough, they are,
after having been sailed, put into the cans,
which are brought to hand by machinery.
The cans are then sealed and several dozens of
them are taken up at once in round iron crates
and lifted by machinery and dropped into a
tank Of hot water, called the tester, because
| if any air is emitted from the cans when
heated, making bubbles in the water, those
% foEA orrxa Lafv
| dered and are resealed. After this test the
cans. by similar machinery, are placed in other
| tanks of boiling water and kept there an hour
Then they are hoisted out, placed on round
| tables, still held together in the iron crates,
| and the top of each can is struck with mallet
| having pointed piece Of iron in its head
/ making a small hole in the can, through which
| a jet of hot water spurts into the air SO that
| the Chinaman performing this process, which
| is called pricking, has to be wary of getting
scalded. The hole in the can made by
| the pricking Is then sealed placed and kept
for an hour in an oven or retort with the tenn
perature at $40 degrees, and then the cans are
ready for labelling, packing, shipping and
eating.
THE TOTEM POSTS or YoRT wRANaELL,
Our next stopping place was Fort wrangell,
| where "totem posts" flourish in all their glory.
Those in front of the houses Of the past and
present chiefs are about q feet in diameter and
40 or SO feet high, and carved into the most
| grotesque figures representing the frog, the
| wolf, the whale, the raven, the eagle &C.. and
other indescribable and intranscribable char.
| acters, as can be seen in the specimens at our
National museum. There IL one carved figure
Of wolf, 6 or feet long, on the top of former
| chiefs tomb, which is ancient and quite notable,
| pictures of it being given in most of the de-
| scriptive books on Alaska, and which I hope
will yet find its way into our museum. II NAV
be of interest to say what find to be the &C.
| cepted fact that these "totems," so general
among the Alaska Indians are really their fam
lily crests or escutcheons, the head Of every clan
having his heraldic emblem or quarterinR, It
| is usually the representation of some animal,
| whether it be wolf, frog, raven or whale, BY
which that clan is distinguished and known.
The same clan or 'totem" may have it's repre-
sentativss in different tribes, but they recognize
and never fight each other wherever they NAV
| meet and do not intermarry. These animals,
as Mr.. Duncan informed me, are regarded by
them as the representatives Of spiritual exist
ences with which they have q certain affinity
or correspondence. When the gold discoveries
on Stikeen river, whose mouth Is but two miles
distant, were creating an excitement Fort
Wrangen did o thriving business as an outfit
ting place for prospectors and miners, but is
now falling into decadenoe. There may be
two hundred one-story houses occupied BY In
dians, whose men fish and make gold and silver
bracelets and other trinkets for their souaws to
sell to tourists, and about twenty regular white
Inhabitants. We were told that the Indiana