River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1891-09-10
FISHES or ALASKAN WATERS.
One Species Used for CandIes=Hunting
White Whales.

riOf1ES OF REA0NRtN Wal Emo.
One Species Used for CandIes=HuntIng
White Whales.
There are all sorts of interesting
fishes in Alaska" said a government
ichthylogist to Star reporter Take
for example the candle fish, which Is
about as remarkable a creature for
varied usefulness Is syeims. 1t is sort
of smelt and swims in vast schools along
the coast. There is no better pan fish
for it is of delightful flavor and as fat
as possible In fact, these inny deli
cacies are so fat that She natives use
them dried for candles, fixing them IN
forl1ed sticks. lighting one end and
permitting them to burn until con-
sumed. Their fat the Eskimo also fry
out for butter, and as a substitute it is
not 50 bad as you might suppose Pre-
pared in the shape of oil, it serves
excellently as substitute for tHst
obtained from cod livers, and great
quantities of it are sold by apothecaries
now as a substitute for the latter
article.
''Of course the great fish wealth of
Alaska lies in the abundance of salmon.
The biggest variety, called the king
salmon, is gigantic, growing 10 from
sixty to ninety pounds in weight. 1t
leaves the ocean about June / each
year for the purpose of spawning, going
1900 miles up the rivers. The natives
dry these salmon for winter use, cutting
them into three slices after removing
the heads and leaving the back bone in
the middle slice, so that all three slices
are connected by the tail. Thus pre-
pared, the fish are called 'chowichee
ulali, and two or three of them dried
weigh at least fifty pounds. One Is
considered sufficient food supply for
one day for six men and the dogs that
haul their sledges. Bought from the
natives on the great Yukon River, a
Single ukah is valued at one leaf of
tobacco or five or six musket balls.
The chowichee of the Yukon is held in
such high esteem that the Russians
used to salt down several hogsheads of
it annually for the Cars table when
that monarch owned Alaska
I'm Alaska every native is n fisher
man, because almost the entire popula-
ton depends upon the resources of
the water for food supply. The men
spear and net and trap the salmon,
while the women do what they can to
help, dragging great strings of the capt
ured animals along the waters edge,
and watching the gill nets. in readiness
10 seize and club to death the scaly vic
Tins that get entangled. Dressing and
curing the fish fall naturally to the lot
of the females. The usual annual sup
ply of salmon put up by family of
four persons is 800 fish, averaging five
pounds each before they are cured and
half pound each when dried. The
stores accumulated in the warm season
are not touched until the inclemency of
the weather about November 1 renders
fishing no longer practicable. As rule,
by the time May l arrives and fishing
becomes again practicable, the reserve
supplies have been exhausted, and
starvation all but threatens. Each
! family, in addition to its dried stock,
puts up for the winter half barrel or
so of dried salmon roe.
THE Alaskan waters fairly swarm
1 it'll food fishes, of which there are not
I less than seveEty-five species-seven-
Fights of them useful for the table
/ While the est have value as bait OF
the coast are Goldfish banks equal in pro-
ductiveness to those of the New England
/ shore. Several kinds of rock cod swim
in vast mum bers in the ocean near land.
/ Among these is the palatable green fish,
/ so called because its flesh is of a green
/ color, but the unusual hue disappears
/ in cooking. In the rivers very far north
different varieties of white fishes take
! the place of the salmon abundantly.
/ growing to thirty pounds in weight and
| of delicious flavor. Grayling are album
/ dant also in the rapid streams. Dolly
| Warden trout simultaneously populate
| the rivers and tidal waters, growing to
! fifteen pounds. But these are only a
few of the valuable fnny species in this
| great territory that seems designed as
| a paradise for the fisherman. Pike,
/ reddish, and 'dogfish' are mostly
utilized as food for the dogs
I'm such enormous schools do the
/ common herring of the Pacific navigate
/ the northwest coastal waters-most
! delicious and fat they are said to be-
/ that vessels sail for hours through
shoals of them, and lazy Indian with
stick full of nails can impale enough
| for boat load within a short time.
| Often it happens that acres of grass ON
! shore are found covered with herring
eggs, which an unusual high tide has
/ left stranded. The natives collect the
eggs thus deposited and dry them.
| 1.-The hook for catching halibut used
| by the Alaskan Indians is much more
| effective than the weapon used by
| white men of New England for the
same purpose. 1t is a forked stick shod
1 with sharp iron at one extremity and
| baited with a whole herring. When
! swallowed it holds the mouth of the fish
/ open, so that it quickly browns, Lines
| provided with these hooks are common
| " set over night, with buoys to hold
| them made out of the inflated stomachs
/ of seals
| 1.-THE hunting of white whales is an
I important industry among the coast
| Indians of Alaska. The animals are
very timid, and, coming in with the tide,
| they are easily driven into shoal water
| bv shouting and splashing with oars,
| whereupon they are despatched with
| fiint-shod spears. No other weapons
/ can be used for this purpose, because
| to do so would be sure to entail mis-
/ Misunderstanding to tine native super
| stition When a whale is taken the
/ flesh and blubber are common property.
| but the whalebone belongs to the
captors. The jawbones are employed
| for shooting sled runners, and the ribs
/ and laws are used in constructing the
| framework of winter dwellings. Fresh
| or tainted-inGifferen meat is
| esteemed delicacy for eating.
Strips of whalebone are folded into
/ the shape of the letter \, enveloped in
/ hunks of fat and frozen that way. The
/ hunks of fat thus prepared are left in
promising spots for great white bears
/! to devour. Along comes one of the
| monsters, gulps a hunk down whole:
| the gastric juices melt the fat and eat
away the strings of tendon with which
the whalebone is bound: the whalebone
springs out straight across the animals
stomach. and presently it dies of lock-
jaw Next day Mr.. Eskimo comes
along and gathers in a big bearskin
worth several quarts of whisky.
ut is the custom that, while hunting
| white whales, no native shall chop
| wood, dig in the earth, sew or tan skins.
| To do any of these things would offend
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