Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-07-09
and smoked salmon for their winter supplies Of
food, are wholly cut of fron this resource.
WELL. WORTH CoysrpERrNo.

1000, are wholly cut OF from this resource.
WELL WORTH CONSIDERING.
1tgoes without saying that the white man
cannot AFFORD to permit considerations Of alb
original happiness and survival to interfere
with his commercial interests. Only when the
latter are seriously imperiled does he begin TO
look upon the situation with anxiety. There
Is cause for such feeling on his part At pres
emit in regard to the salmon. The total yield of
this fish IN Alaska since 1888, when the canning
business practically began there, has been
about 2, $50, 900 cases Of forty-eight pounds
each. In addition to the canned salmon,
Alaskan rivers yield annually 1000 barrels of
salted salmon Of 200 pounds each. When to
THIS Is added the enormous quantity of fresh
and dried salmon yearly consumed by the
natives. II viii be seen how valuable the in
dustry Is and how important il il to secure its
permanent establishment.
SEVERAL METHODS
have been suggested for controlling the catch
of salmon in Alaska. One is to the effect that
weekly .'ciose season" shall be prescribed from
every Saturday evening to the Monday MORN
ing Following This arrangement would permit
some part of the run" to ascend to the spawn
ing waters. Another Recommendation is that
salmon shall not be permitted 10 be caught in
any year during September and October, which
arrangement would permit schools that APP
proached the coast in those two months TO enter
the rivers and breed unmolested. Yet another
notion is to limit the catch from each river to
the estimated natural productiveness of that
stream, farming out the rights to fish to the
highest bidders, who would necessarily protect
Uncle Sam and themselves from poachers. This
last Is deemed the most practicable plan of ALL
and it is suggested that the revenue yielded by
1t might be applied first to paying for the over
looking OF the rivers, the surplus being devoted
to systematic artificial propagation.
CIVILIZATION WILL NOT DESTROY THE ALASKAN
SALMON.
Alaska will never sustain permanent civil
lied population, partly because no crops OF any
sort can be raised in the country. For this
reason there is chance to preserve the salmon
rivers, from which the fish would otherwise in
evitsbly be driven, sooner or later by indus
trial improvements. The salmon Of the Hud-
son, Connecticut, Merrimac and other eastern
streams were not destroyed by everlasting.
They were exterminated through the running OF
their spawning grounds by mills dams and
manufactures injurious to the water. The
sacramento, which was one of the greatest
salmon streams in the world when the gold
seekers visited California. has been rendered
entirely uninhabitable for the fish by quartz
mining and sawmills, so Shat there are none
there any longer where countless shoals once
swan. In no region that Is thicklv peopled can
the salmon possibly survive. Artificial propa-
CATION Is unavaiiing under such conditions.
A PROPOSED FISH RESERVATION.
1t has been recently suggested that the gov
eminent would do well to set aside, while there
is yet time, reservation for the perm anent
protection Of the salmon. The Island of
Afegnak, in the north Pacific $50 miles west of
for the purpose. This is u small island, only
about fifty miles across, but it has several
streams flowing into the surrounding ocean,
which at the breeding season contain innu-
merable fish of all the finest vareSes-the king
salmon, the "red" salmon, the silver" salmon.
the "humpback," salmon, the dog" salmon
and the dolly warden" trout. Here could be
established national salmon park. where the
fish might remain forever unmolested. The island
Is owned by the government. 1t will never be
wanted for anything else. To make 1t u reser-
Walton now will not cost a cent, the question of
spending money on it in the future being one
that may be left to be determined in time to
come. Artificial Matching can be instituted
there any day on a vast scale if desired and the
young fry can be sent in unlimited numbers
for distribution elsewhere.
ENEMIES OF THE SALMON.
The salmon commonly build nests by collect
ing stones and piling them in little heaps, lay
ing their eggs in the crevices. Around every
such nest may usually be seen a greedy horde
of little fresh-water sculpins and bullheads
Trout also gobble the spawn greedily and the
young fish are eaten in great numbers by gulls,
ducks and looms. Bears are often seen stand
ing on the banks of the streams and striking
with their claws at the breeding fish in the
shadows, throwing those which they catch upon
the shore and devouring the heads by prefer
ence. In the ocean the salmon find other enc
mics in the salmon sharks, porpoises and Sea
lions.
DIFFERENT SPECIES OF SALMON.
The most abundant and smallest species is
the ''humpback," which averages only five
pounds in weight. Only slightly bigger is the
''red' salmon, which is the most important for
canning. The Gamers first cut off the heads
and fins and take out the entrails after which
the fish are washed cut into lengths the size of
the can and fed to the latter by machinery.
Finally the cans are topped" cooked with
steam and labeled for market. Nearly all OF
the work is done by Chinese. Alaska which
furnishes about one-haIf OF the sal,no on product
OF this country, will pack this year 400 600 eases
Of forty-eight pounds each against 500 900
eases last year. Only nine of the thirty-seven
canneries are being operated.
NATIVES WHO SUFFER-.
It is not quite true, has been stated, that
5000 natives in Alaska are threatened with
starvation owing TO the destruction OF the
salmon. Those who suffer chiefly by the waste
fal Of er2tioRs OF the canueriesare Afeu.s about
$500 III number. These people certainly have
reason TO regret having come into contact with
the white man. who has reduced them to the
last extremity by DISCRIMINATING pretty nearly
everything o. which they have ALWAYS depended
for a Eselihccd, including The seals ard sea
offers. Prom 500 10 100 Eskimo on ST. Law
renee Island, Diomede Island and Cape Prince
of Wales who are walrus hunters by occupation,
will likewise be compelled TO i've ia some other
way because Of the approaching extinction of
that great ard useful beast As for the rest of
the Eskimo. who number perhaps lf 600 thew
have plentiful support Vet left In the form OF
salmon, white whales, wild reindeer and other
game. The 5000 Indians in the Sitkan archi-
pelago could set along very well wiihou. the
salmon. having the herring in countless shoals,
the hnlibut, the rock cod anu the small sh lrk
called the 'doghsh," from which last they de-
rive considerable revenue By selling the oil
from its liver to the tannerieS Of Oregon and
California.