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

of the female SOckeye salmon is 3OUp
eggs. Assume that all arrive at ma
turity and that half that number. de-
VeIop into female salmon. The first
generation would consist of two, the
second generation of 5000, the third gen
tration of 1900 times 5000 or 4,50O,0 600;
the fourth generation of-Well, the limo
type cannot keep up with the process
sion Of "0'S". Or, to put 1t in another
way, it is estimated that 100000 sock
eyes were caught in this country alone
in 1897. If half these fish had been fe-
males and all of their egg capacity had
developed into mature salmon, their
progeny would have numbered $780,
100000 fish.
When d few months old the young
sockeye descendS the river and goes
to sea, and no man knows where it
spends its time until the fourth year,
when the school returns TO it's place of
birth to fulfill the functions and COM
plete the round of nature.
1t is on the return just before or just
after entering the river that the fish
is taken by traps or seines. Traps are
necessarily used in the clear phos-
phorescent waters of the Sound. In
general a trap consists of a row Of
piles driven from the shore out into
deep water. This row is frequently sew
eral hundred feet long. From above
the Sound a net is hung, making. as it
were, fence. AS the schools of sal
mon sweep along the shore they en-
counter the net, and leading along it
enter the heart of the trap through an
entrance which, however, does not
serve as an exit. The heart or trap
proper is large bag hung from the
piles, and is generally forty feet square
and forty feet deep. From the trap the
q n n he "a n
merry. AS they are thrown from the
scow into hoist which lands them on
the cannery floor, they are counted for
the first and only time
In most canneries Cinnamon are en-
ployed to do the work. They are paid
by the case. A Gamer, for instance,
makes a contract with a Chinese con-
tractor to furnish men enough to pack
10000 cases at a price ranging from 40
to 40 cents per case. If the output is
over $4,000 cases the Cinnamon are paid
for the surplus. If less the Gamer has
to settle with the Cinnamon for the diff
ference between the amount packed
and his guarantee.
The first operation in the cannery is
called "butchering," that is, the head,
fins and tail are taken off and the en-
trails removed. The fish now go into
the Shining" tank, where they are par
TALLY washed, thence into a second
tank, where they are washed thor
oughly., The fish now go TO the power
cutter-a series Of revolving knives,
which cut each fish into the length of
a can. Next, by hand, the fish is cut
lengthwise into pieces that will go into
can. The can has no top on up to
the present. There is a small guam
tity of salt in the can and the fish is
put in on top of that.
The can now filed with fish goes to
the washing machine, which not only
washes the oil off the outside of the
can, but also packs the meat down in
the can to permit the chip to be put
in and the top to be put on. You have
doubtless noticed two little drops of
solder on the top of a can of salmon,
one in the center, the other anywhere.
Both of these drops fill holes, but the
top, which is now placed on, has only
the open hole in the center of 1t. The
can now goes to crimper, which
squeezes the edge of the top down
against the body, and directly from here
the cans roll on their sides in an in
clined position, with the head lower
than the bottom, through a bath of
acid and then through a bath of solder
kept hot by fires underneath. If any
steam is generated in the can during
this process the top would not stay In
place, hence the little open hole in the