The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-08-10
THE RIVER AHEAD
Five Thousand Cases Above
Last Years Pack.
RESUME OF THE SEASON
Royal chinooks Are Twenty Per
Cent More Plentiful Than They
Were Last Year,

Astoria, Or, 10 p m, 9th August 1856
AT midnight tomorrow evening the spring
salmon season of the Columbia river for
1895 will be thing Of the past, and below
viii be found our estimate of the pack,
giving the total figures at 492,2O0 cases,
of 5000 cases in excess of last years re-
turns for the whole river. The season
now ending has been one of unusual hap
penings and strangely fiuctuating runs.
From the 10th Of April to the Goth fish
ermen made extraordinarily good catches
and 1t looked as IL the year was going
to show very satisfactory advance over
the pack of 1894. Before the end of April,
however, matters slackened up conssd-
erably, and severe storms In the early
part of May almost entirely stopped the
fishing for some days. For three weeks
the work continued unsettled with sparse
occasional runs, the fish exhibiting signs
of being fully month ahead Of time and
much advanced in size and color. After
stacking up to a very low average at the
end of May the pack improved a great
deal, Being unlformally good during the
first week of June on the lower river.
On the Upper river at this time the can
nerymeu began to get anxious, for very
few fish had put in an appearance. Their
anxiety was fully justified by subsequent
results, and up to this date none of the
canneries above the Willamette have
made anything like an average pack. The
lower river work went on satisfactorily
till the 18th Of June, when the bottom
fell out of operations and for twenty
days there followed a period Of almost
absorftc stagnation. Very few of the
canneries were working full force OF
men, and everything looked like
heavy shortage. On July 9th, how
ever, there was "a very percepdble change
and from that time to the present writ
ing prospects have continued to improve.
On Tuesday, July 18TH, there was q mag
nificent run of salmon, easily making that
day the banner date of the year, and
since then there have been some ex-
ceptionally fine runs with very few dull
minutes between. On the ard OF the pres
ent month things Stacked up slightly,
but the pack has remained good up to
date. While not equal to the correspond
ing week of last year, the last six days
have averaged fully $50 cases to each cam
merry per day, and the season comes to
an end with small surplus in place of
a shortage. Probably the most noticeable
feature Of the years operations has
been the largely increased pack OF Chi
nook Ash, and the big decrease In the
catch Of bluelbacks The increase of Chi
nooks over last season is fully 20 per
cent Steeiheads are short of last years
pack nearly per cent. There is little
doubt that the river llas never been better
or more systematically fshed than
during the present season. The gear
employed has been both more complete
and more extensive than 1t was in 1894,
and returns seem to indicate that gill
METERS have got considerably bigger re-
turns than men engaged with any other
contrhvances. Several Of the selnes have
turned in excellent catches but many
others have done very little, especially
those higher up the river. The majority
Of the traps in Bakers Bay have not done
as well as 1t was expected they would do,
but some Of the best built and those in
the most favorable positions have sent
in very big returns. The following Is
the pack of Columbia River salmon for
the last ten years. W