The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-01-15

over clear waters, lightly dane
ing to the soft music of a gen
-. tie breeze waiting its way from
the snow-clad peaks Of the Cas-
'cades over that great inland sea called
Puget Sound, our steamer with its gay
crowd of Eastern visitors slowly swings
in toward a salmon fish trap. one of
the sights peculiar TO this region.
1--WE had steamed through a vast
school of salmon. We had seen them
in countless multitudes flashing
through the limpid waters, or now and
then in exuberance of sport throwing
themselves from crest to crest of the
waves. Yet that trap, with its 10000
imprisoned salmon, making an almost
solid mass well nigh forty feet square
and forty feet deep, the whole acted
on by the tide, swaying in such man
d. ner as to cause the trap owner much
'uneasiness, was the browning sight of
all.
Tie Up to the trap piles?'
. by no means" A single line from
our steamer with the slightest pull
might tear out the whole trap and $1,000
worth of fish be lost.
SO we steam easily forward and DICK
in front of the trap and watch the trap
crew with a large band net dip out
: 50 to 100 salmon at a list, until we have
seen 1000 or more transferred from the
water to the scow.
=. Practically all the salmon canned in
the world is packed in Northwest
America: that is, Oregon, Washington.
British Columbia and Alaska. Sailed
salmon are put up to small extent on
the Siberian coast, and the market is
found in China and Japan, but as no
means have been taken to keep up
supply of fish on the Asiatic coast. they
have been rapidly depleted, and to-day
the Oriental nations are looking 10 this
. country for their sailed salmon. and
orders have been sent to Puget Sound
which cannot be filled this season.
=: England and Australia draw their en-
tire supply of canned salmon from TINS
section, mainly from British Columbia
while the United States draws It's sup
: ply from Alaska, Oregon and WASH
.ington, and now the new markets OIL
the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippines
China and Japan will secure their
canned salmon from the same source.
California, in 1897, put up about 2S.OOo
cases of salmon on the Sacramento
River, but %, 900 is a mere drop in the
bucket compared with the output OF
this section, for practically 3.OO0,OOo
cases Oh SdlHlOl were PdNhCd b4leNI -
in the Pacific orthwest-Alaska. Brit
ish Columbia, Oregon and Washing
ton-each packing in round figures one
third of the output.
The salmon pack of the world in
1897 was approximately 100000 cases.
Each case consists Of forty-eight l.
pound cans; hence the number of cans
used was at least IA 900, 900. Three
million cases Of salmon are worth at
the place of production between So,
10000 and S12, 100000. AT least S9,0OO,O0O
capital is handled in producing this
quantity Thousands of men, women,
girls and boys and Cinnamon are en-
.ployed
The varieties of salmon in Puget
Sound are locally known as the
chinook, tyee or spring, the sockeye,
the humpback the silver dog and steel
:head. The sockeye is the choice can
ming fish. The flesh is a rich red, the
meat is fine fibered, the oil is rich in
coloring, and what makes this fish par
ticularly desirable from the Gamers
point of view is the fact that this
species moves in countless schools.
Five thousand salmon in a scow is an
ordinary sight. Thirty or forty thou
sand fish on the floor of a cannery
makes a showing.
The sockeye is artificially propagated
in hatcheries and spawns in a natural
state as we'll. From 5000 to 1000 eggs
make the product of one female. The
female lays her eggs as far up a creek
or river toward its headwaters as pos
sible, and, after spawning, dies. Were
il not for this provision Of nature,
coupled with the attacks of enemies
D.: without number, for it is estimated
that but per cent of the eggs Matched
naturally arrive at maturity, there
would soon be no Pacific Ocean-noth-
ing but fish stretching from the Pacific
coast to the Orient
This statement seems extravagant,
yet the logic of calculation proves it.
1t is calculated that the productiveness