The Ketchikan miner., 1907-12-07

| SbfoaInS IS dUu pfoDuulI dIWdto VII he largely a matter of conjecture Some people be e'ieve thatthey cross the Pacific to Asia, returning when they are four years old. At any rate, il has been demonstrated that the theory of the old fishermen years ago that the salmon return at the end of four year. to spawn in the streams where they first saw light is true.
 Some years ago Fish Commissioner Little marked few hundred salmon in Washington hatchery by cutting out triangular pieces from their tails They were then liberated and foun6 their way into the Columbia river an6 thence to the sea. A close watch was kept in the fourth year, and many fish were caught having the unmistakable and indellible marks placed upon them when they were baby salmon.
 A story of expressing interest could be written of the salmon packing in- dustry on the Pacific coast. The pro duct of the canneries of Puget Sound and Alaska is carried over the entire world in ships that sail from Seattle to millions of people scattered from Cape Nome to India, and from Honkong to St. Petersburg red salmon canned on the Pacific coast is an article of al most as regular diet as the state oi Washington feeds with it's golden pro- duct. garnered from the granaries of the Palouse and Big Bend countries millions of black, white and yellow people. so the salmon fisheries of the Pacific coast furnish valuable food product to Chinese and Malay, to Cau- casian and dark-skinned East Indian.
 Perhaps the most interesting of Pacific coast industries is the salmon cannery in Alaska and along the Columbia river. The person who buys can of salmon has little idea of how the fish is prepared-the thousands of miles it has been shipped, and the immense number that are caught yearly, ard either dried, salted, smok- edor canned and shipped to all parts of the world. One who has visited the canneries always glances at the label on can, and the location of the cannely indicates at once the cold waters, rough or peaceful the large seines, the cutting, canning, packing and other processes that go to trans form king of fresh water fish into small delicate bits that once tasted are always liked.
 The largest salmGl hatchery in Alaska is at Karuk, on Kadiak is land, on the southeast coast of the peninsula. Nearly one hundred thousand dollars have been expended to make this hatchery success, and it is equipped with all modern appli ances,. Investigation proves that of the eggs which the salmon lays, over eighty per cent, are eaten by other fish. Artificial propagation is, there fore, necessary, and there are many interested in the salmon business who claim that the government should at tend to this out of the tax levied on every case of salmon.
 One of the most promiscuous wastes of salmon is when the cannery cannot lttend to the whole catch. As a mat ter of interest, canned salmon contains as much protein as beef, more than eggs, and more fat than most meats. Though the salmon industry has grown 10 such proportions that a so-called Ioca trust exists on the Pacific slope and in Alaska it is more important than the gold output, the primitive methods of catching the fish are still in vogue. When the fishing season is at it's height there is as much excite ment as in mining camp, and no wonder, for much work must be done quickly in three or four summer months.
 The following table is valuable as showing the growth of the salmon packing industry on the Pacific coast since it's beginning and up to and in- cluding 1907: