The Cordova daily times., 1917-05-12
SALMON RELIABLE SOURCE FOOD
 SUPPLY
(By Associated Press)

SEATTLE, May II. - If all the land crops of the United States should fail in 1917, one source of food supply could be counted on with certainty this year from Puget Sound - the quadrennial run of sockeye salmon and the biennial run of humpback salmon. Records of a century show that these enormous runs of fish in late summers have not failed or even varied ma. terially, and the Indians told the ear. Hest settlers that the traditions of the red man were that the salmon had always been running so big runs of sockeyes each four years, and of humpbacks every second year, and smaller runs of fish in intervening years.
 There are three other species of salmon. but among them there are no such irregularities. During the big years the sockeye salmon are taken in incredible numbers - thousands in one haul of a net. All are adult fish, weighing three to seven pounds and bound to the spawning grounds in the Fraser river and the rivers that empty into Puget Sound. The millions of fish that leave the ocean perish, either in the cannery barges or from natural causes after spawning.
 The sockeye salmon pack of 1913 on Puget Sound was 1,758,00O cases, valued at $10,000. The run of that year was as large as any ever ob- served notwithstanding predictions of eXterminatiOn made the preceding year. The sockeye is practically as good in flavor and color as the fa- nous chinook salmon of the Columbia river, and is known in the trade as red salmon.
 In the big years of the sockeye the humpback is neglected, although the latter fish runs in number equal to those of the sockeye. Thus in 1913 only 105,000 cases of humpbacks were packed. Fishermen refused to catch them, because the canneries were busy packing the more valuable sockeyes | The humpback is a smaller fish and the flesh is paler Humpbacks are | known in the trade as pink salmon They bring low price, and~the pack is sold principally in the southern states to the negroes.
 It is the dream of fish culturists to build up the salmon runs so that every year will be big year.
 Two large canneries on Puget Sound are packing the dogfish, which is now eaten. eaten a and relished under vi,s,, its new 7, shark, but a decidedly clean looking fish. Until last year fishermen had looked on the grayfish as a nuisance Travelling in schools, the grayfish mu. tilated the salmon in the nets and de. stroyed the nets. On hauling the nets the fishermen threw the grayfish ashore to die. Now the fish is salable although not yet offered in the city markets. Two additional large can- neries are preparing to pack gray fish, and one of these canneries all ready has an order from the southern states for 15,000 cases. The grayfish will be cheap fish, like the pink sal mon. It is caught the year round in Puget Sound, but is irregular in it's habits, rowing about in droves, hence the original name dogfish.
 shipment of carloads of Columbia river smelts to New York during the food shortage in that city last win ter called attention to an extraordi- nary fish. The net smelt is eight or nine inches long. In January the smelt appears off the mouth of the Columbia river in millions, and when the water from the great river is of the right temperature the fish ascend the stream until they reach the Cow iitz river, on the Washington side, and the Sandy river on the Oregon side.