Oxford eagle. (Oxford, Lafayette Co., Miss.) 1876-current, 1904-06-23
ALetter Ero.a tie Northwest.

A Letter From the Northwest.
DEAR EAGLE: Pardon my loag
silence This beautiful spring
weather allured ne from my
island home, and | had 3 most
delightful jaunt by steamer
around Puget Sound, touching at
the principal cities and getting a
glimpse OF the country too, eve
rything is hurry and hustle now.
The Alaska fishing fleet is hurry
ing to northern waters to begin
the seasons fishing. Local crafts
are out locating traps, overhaul
ing nets, and getting ready for
the salmon run, that begins the
last of June. To one not famili-
ar with the fishing industry of
Puget Sound, it would seem lit
tie early to begin, but when | tell
you it costs about six thousand
dollars to drive a small trap, you
can readily see it is a difficult
task. A tug of the latest model
with fine Sotch marine boilers
and improved machinery takes a
pile driver to the location select
ed. The men wait till low tide,
then the piles, usually hundred
feet long, are driven down until
only about twenty feet is left
above high tide. To these piles
(Which are about twenty feet
apart are fastened the nets in
such a way as to catch the fish
when they pass. AS the men can
work only at low tide they usual
ly get in about five or six hours
out Of the twenty-four, The
lead, or line of piles twenty feet
apart is often three or four hum
dred feet long, reaching out into
the channel. Often this structure
is washed out about as fast as it
is driven, but all this is expected,
and the work IS done again and
again through the season. There
are hundreds of traps driven each
year and many fortunes made
and lost.
| On Lummy island six miles
across from US there is a tap To-
cation that sold for one hundred
and twenty five thousand dollars.
Yet some years it does not yield
enough to pay for driving the
piles. There is a small trap on
our island with a net house and
yard that cost the company one
hundred thousand dallars and for
two years it has been idle, did not
pay to operate. I saw five thous-
and fish caught there one morn
ing two years ago. 1t looked
like big thing to me but the men
) said it was nothing unusual
Every four years there is a big
run of salmon, then nearly every
one gets the fishing craze, some
make and many lose money.
There are large canneries at all
the large towns and some of the
small ones. There are many
hatcheries engaged in the salmon
industry, and millions Of fish come
into the sound annually. But for
this precaution the supply would
have been exhausted long ago.
Man is a vandal and during the
big runs the sound is streWn with
dead fish, each trap catching
more than the canneries could
handle.
The ship building industry is
rapidly developing, Moran Bros.
alone employ 1900 men. The
dry docks at Seattle will accom-
modate the largest ships afloat.
The ship yards of Pugent sound
bid fair to become as famous as
any on the Atlantic coast. Even
now her ships arc much sought
after. Alt kinds of crafts are
constructed, including battle ships
torpedo boats, cutters for the
revenue service, merchantmen,
in fact anything that floats, be it
steam, gasoline or sailing ship.
think | am justifiable in saying
that the ships of Puget Sound
sail on all known seas to-day.
This is highly commendable for a
country that thirty years ago was
almost a wilderness. VIII tell
I you of the mines in my next.
| Urban, Wash. M. B. S.