The morning call., 1894-11-14
CHANCE FOR THE UNEMPLOYED.

1t is twenty years since Lieutenant
Schwatka drew public attention to the
fishing banks of Alaska as promising
seat of industry and source of profit, but
now that bis suggestions are being carried
into practical effect people talk of the
enterprise as being new experiment. and
crowds of people are flocking to the wharf
at which the schooner r. E. White is sell
ing fresh halibutat cents pound. Cap
ialn Lewis, the skipper OF the schooner.
will probably make a tidy sum by his
venture and the people of San Francisco
have chance of buying fine nutritious
fish at half the price of California smelt or
rockcod.
Lieutenant Schwatka described the fish
Ing banks Of Alaska as being far more
densey peopled with fish than the banks
of Newfoundland. From the Longitude of
Kodiak Island to that of Mount Elias the
shore Of the continent shelves gradually.
For two or more hundred miles a broad
bank extends parallel to the shore lire
and the water is shallow enough for deep
sea fishing with the line. Here millions Of
5alibut and cod gather to feed. The sea
is tranquil; no such storms as are en-
countered on the banks of Newfoundland
are TO be feared; the fisherman need not
apprehend that he will be run over in
fog by steamer racing past. 1t seems
that he can fiji up with fish about as fast
as his crew can throw and haul up their
lines. The Atlantic fishermen preserve
their fish with salt-iDdeed, a con sidera BILE
quantity of the cod are only fl to be dried
on shore. Or the Alaska bank the prac-
tice at present is to preserve The fish In
ice, of which unlimited quantities can be
obtained in the Alaska peninsula. The
objection to the use of Ice is its bulk; the
quantity required fills the sehooner's hold
Fishermen will probably overcome the
difficulty by using a m xturs OF ice and
salt
Here is an industry which will be fairly
remunerative to those who undertake 1t
intelligently, The halibut market cannot
be glutted. After San Francisco and the
dependent cities have been supplied with
all the fresh fish they can consume the
surplus catch can be dried on the coast
and distributed through the country as
far east as he rivers. In the heart of the
continent fish lovers are dependent for
their food On the whtefsh and ling of
the lakes and the catfish of the rivers.
both of which are poor eating and deficient
in nutritious property. All through the
river valleys people would gladly buy dried
halibut If they could get it at anything
like cents pound.
In the East the fishing industry is con-
ducted on the cooperative system. Every
member of the crew of fishing craft, from
captain to cabin-boy, is interested in the
catch, having share which is fixed bv
nofo IN n, md
boys are never idle. AT Il years of age
they ship on a fishing schooner, and a
large proportion of them adhere to the
calling through life. II they are prudent
and frugal they soon put by money enough
to build or buy a schooner for themselves
and then they are sure of a competency
and can look forward to a pleasant life, if
they escape drowning In storm or a colli-
sion. The foundation of some of the
great fortunes of Cape Cod was laid in little
craft which sailed to the hanks for cod.
There could not be a better example to
follow On this coast. We are turning out
every year from the public schools hun
dreds of boys who do not know how they
are going to make living. Some of them
start as lawyers, agents, commission mer-
chants and what not; and the odds are
that many of them will be no richer at 40
than they were when they began. Now.
if these boys appreniiced themselves to
the sea, and manned under a trained
captain and mate one OF the many schoun-
ers now lying idle in the ports and sailed
for Alaskan waters In quest of halibut the
odds are that in few years they would
own part of their vessel and command II.
When lines are fush, and the difficulty
is not to find employment but TO find
labor, young men may be forgiven for
shrinking from the icy winds of Alaska
and from the tolls of the deep-sea fishery
and coast voyage. But times are not
flush and no one knows how long the
present depression will last 1t is wiser.
instead Of hanging around in search of
something turning up, to take TO a calling
in which work can be had at once, with
fair prospect of a good reward in the
future.