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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

BUREAU OF FISHERIES
HUGH M. SMITH, Commissioner

INVESTIGATION OF THE SALMON FISHERIES
OF THE YUKON RIVER

By CHARLES H. GILBERT and HENRY O’MALLEY

CONTENTS

Outline of proposed investigations - - - - - -
Itinerary - - - - - - - - - = = - = =
Important species of salmon with data concerning runs
Red or sockeye salmon - - - -
Humpback salmon - - - -
Coho salmon - - - - - -
King salmon - - - - = - - - -
Chum or dogsalmon - - - - ~ - = - - = = = = =
Yukon delta, its principal channels, and routes mainly followed by salmon
Commercial fishery operations in Yukon deltain 1920 - - - - - -
Supply of dried salmon prepared on Yukon River in 1920 - - -
Comparison of 1920 with 1919 - - - - - - - - - =- =
To what extent was Yukon cannery responsible for 1919 shortage?
Effect of cannery in 1920 - - - - - - - - - = =~ - =
General discussion and recommendations - - - = - - =- =

[Extracted from Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1920. By Ward T.
Appendix VI to the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries
for 1921, pages 128-154]

Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 909a

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1921

? .
»° >
2

Monograph

INVESTIGATION OF THE SALMON FISHERIES OF THE YUKON RIVER.

By CHAR LES H. GILBERT and HENRY O’MALLEY.

OUTLINE OF PROPOSED INVESTIGATIONS.

An exhaustive investigation of the problems presented by the sal-
mon run of the Yukon River obviously would require practical and
scientific inquiry extending over a series of years. During the few
summer months no very ambitious program could be attempted.

Many of the most important problems must remain untouched.

Time would not permit an examination of the tributaries with their
spawning beds. No study could be made of spawning habits nor ob-
servation of the fate of eggs and fry where these must lie beneath the
gravel of the ice-locked streams during the long severe winter and
spring. Yet the possible destruction of eggs by freezing may be an
important factor in limiting the size of salmon runs in far northern
rivers and may, indeed, be responsible for the practical elimination

of salmon from the streams that enter the Arctic Ocean. If natural.

propagation on the Yukon is rendered relatively ineffective because
of severe climatic conditions, the operation of hatcheries would here
produce proportionately greater results than in more temperate
regions. To the extent that natural propagation in any region is
wasteful and unproductive do the advantages of artificial propaga-
tion appear.

In a single short season it could not be hoped to carry out more
than the following program : :

1. To inspect the spawning runs as these enter the mouth of the
river and to ascertain by microscopic examination of the scales as
much as this method can furnish of the hfe history of the Yukon
salmon.

2. To examine the fishery operations carried on by the Carlisle
Packing Co., in the Delta of the Yukon, this being the only can-
nery which packs salmon bound for the spawning beds of the Yukon.

3. To investigate the consumption of fresh and dried salmon by
the resident population of the Yukon Valley and to estimate the im-
portance to them of this salmon supply.

4. To draw such conclusions as the facts warrant concerning the
magnitude of the Yukon salmon run and its adequacy to support can-
nery operations in addition to meeting the needs of the local popula-
tion and providing a sufficient spawning reserve.

ITINERARY.

In carrying out the program above outlined the writers arrived in

Skagway on May 12 and crossed White Pass and Lake Lebarge in
time to take the first steamer down the Yukon, close behind the
running ice of the spring breakup. At Tanana, which was reached
May 31, transfer was made to the gasoline launches of the Bureau of

1 28 ANYON i aL Sh

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

DEC r? 1997.

DOCLIAA Sere oo.

a

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 129

Fisheries, and from June 8 to 13, in company with C. F. Townsend,
inspector, Alaska Fisheries Service, the party proceeded by launch
to the mouth of the river, arriving June 13 at the entrance to Kwiguk
ue where was located the floating cannery of the Carlisle Pack-
ing Co

From this date until August 1 attention was given to the fishing

grounds located in the Kwikluak mouth of the river and in the off-
‘shore district beyond this mouth, and to the principal channels of the
delta which are closed to commercial fishing. From June 25 to July
1 the party proceeded: by launch from Kwiguk to Holy Cross and
return, to inspect the fishing camps of the lower river during the
height of the king-salmon run. From July 5 to 7 a trip. was
made by launch from Kwiguk to the middle mouth of the Yukon,
traversing both the Kwikpak and the Kawanak Passes, returning by
way of Old Fort Hamilton, and inspecting en route the run of
salmon in these channels. From July 23 to 29 a trip was made
by steamer from Kwiguk to St. Michael and return, passing through
the Apoon mouth. During the fishing season in the delta careful
scrutiny was given daily to the salmon runs, and scale data were
secured from extensive series of the different species of salmon which
comprise the run.

From August 2 to 20 visits were made to fishing camps along the
river from Kwiguk to Rampart, an approximate « census secured of
the amount of dried salmon, and fishermen interviewed concerning
the runs of 1919 and 1920. Having proceeded by steamer from
Rampart to Dawson, August 23 to 31, the return was made by
launch from Dawson to Tanana, September 1 to 5, visiting on the
way the fishing camps of the upper river. This phase of the i inquiry
terminated at Fairbanks on September 11, after ascending the Ta-
nana River by launch as far as Nenana.

[MPORTANT SPECIES OF SALMON WITH DATA CONCERNING RUNS.

All five of the species of salmon known on the Pacific coast of
North America make their appearance at the mouth of the Yukon
and ascend that stream for a greater or less distance. ~Two of these
species, however, the humpback salmon and the red or sockeye
salmon, are present in such limited numbers as to have no practical
significance. The three other species, namely, coho or silver, king,
and chum or dog salmon, have substantial runs in the Yukon River,
the latter two being of real economic importance.

RED OR SOCKEYE SALMON.

During the entire fishing season of 1920 the Carlisle cannery
secured only 5 cases of sockeye salmon, in the neighborhood of 60
fish. As the majority of these were taken on the flats outside the
mouth of the river, there might seem warrant to consider them as
strays which had wandered from the Kuskokwim, or from some
other stream to the southward which possesses a well-marked run
of this species. In that case they might not even be entering the
river, but playing about for a time in ‘brackish water before finally
resorting to their native streams for spawning purposes. In favor

130 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

of this theory stands the fact that no breeding ground of the red
salmon has yet been reported from any part of the Yukon Basin.
The breeding ground of this species could be looked for only in con-
nection with some lake, as the red salmon will not spawn under other
than lake conditions. And the males of the species, when on the
spawning grounds along the shores of a lake, or in the shallows of
the creeks which enter it, are of such brilliant color as invariably to
attract attention. It may be, therefore, that no permanent colony
of red salmon exists in the Yukon, and that the major portion of the
individuals observed off the mouth of the river would not enter and
ascend the stream. Occasional individuals do, however, ascend the
Yukon, for the writers learned of their infrequent occurrence from
cbservers acquainted with the different species of salmon, and one
specimen (a male, decidedly pink in color) was seen at "Ruby on
August 14. During the much longer fishing season of 1919, 20 cases
of red salmon were ‘packed by the cannery.

HUMPBACK SALMON.

The humpbacks appear at the mouth of the river more numerously
than the red salmon, but never in sufficient numbers to constitute a
run, even of small dimensions. It was noticeable that they were
far advanced toward spawning in July, often with liquid milt and
partly free eggs. It would be impossible for them to ascend the river
far with their spawning period so close at hand. In fact, there were
no reports of their occurrence above Andreafski, where a ripe male
was observed on August 3.

COHO SALMON.

The least in value of the three principal species is the coho, which
runs much less numerously than the other two, and, in addition, is
the latest to appear, often not presenting itself in any numbers in
the middle and upper reaches of the river until the ice is forming in
the fall. This species is little dried on account of its late appearance,
but may be fed fresh to the dogs or frozen for later consumption. It
seems not to be highly valued “for human food.

During the season of 1920 it was entering the mouth of the river
- in very limited numbers during the last week in July, but nothing
approximating a run had at that time developed. The individuals
then entering were bright silvery on the sides of the body, without
trace of the red coloration which later appears, and the jaws of the
male had developed no hook. Later, while inspecting the fishing
camps between the mouth of the river and Tanana, from August 2
to 15, everywhere occasional individuals of this species were being
taken. At Ruby on August 14 the fish wheels were catching from
one to six cohos each day; but at the Ramparts above Tanana on
August 20 the species had not yet put in an appearance, nor could
anything be learned of its occurrence in the main river above Tanana
up to the date of the party’s return from Dawson on September 5.
The individuals observed below Tanana were running principally
along the left (south) limit of the river, and it was reported that
their main run was always along the left bank in company with the
bright chums (“silver”) and such king salmon as run late. To what

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 131

extent the early cohos turn into the Tanana it was impossible to
determine.

In the lower two or three hundred miles of the river the cohos
during the early days of August may maintain the bright silvery
coloration with which they enter from salt water, but soon a pinkish
tinge appears, which becomes intensified to a bright red before Ruby
is reached. At the same time the upper jaw of the male becomes
bluntly hooked over the lower jaw, producing the characteristic snub-
nosed appearance of this species on the spawning grounds, and the
enlarged teeth of the males are soon in evidence. These changes in
appearance may have already occurred before entering the river in
the case of the latest individuals to enter.

It is most unfortunate that the only name by which the coho salmon
is commonly known on the Yukon is “ chinook,” which is the special
name of the king salmon of the Columbia River and is totally inap-
plicable to the coho. Near the mouth of the Yukon, where the influ-
ence of the cannery has been felt, the coho is generally and properly
designated as the silver salmon, which is one of the two names by
which the species is known in other fishing centers of Alaska. Unfor-
tunately, as will later appear, elsewhere throughout the Yukon
_ the term “silver salmon” is generally but mistakenly applied to
an entirely different species. To avoid confusion, therefore, it is
suggested that this species be known on the Yukon as the coho, a
name by which it is generally known to the trade.

KING SALMON.

The king salmon appears at the river mouth shortly after the ice
has run out—in the last week of May or the early days of June. The
numbers rapidly increase, the run culminates quickly, and then
almost as quickly declines. During the season of 1920 the first king
salmon was obtained on June 13, although nets had been set to test
the grounds for five days prior to that date. The rapidity with
which the run gets in is well shown by the records of the first few
days at the cannery. On June 15, 34 king salmon were obtained;
on June 16, 175; June 17, 1,639; and on June 18, 5,228, this being
the next to the largest take on any day during the season. The
largest capture of king salmon in any one day was 6,104 on June 21.
in no other day, except the two above mentioned, did the number
captured quite reach 4,000. The run may be said to have begun on
June 15 and to have culminated within the first week. It continued
for some 10 days thereafter at a high level, and then registered un-
mistakable decline. The average take at the cannery for the best
consecutive 16 days of the run was a little more than 3,000 fish
per day.

The experience during the previous season, 1919, was very similar
as regards the beginning, culmination, and decline of the king salmon
run. The fish appeared during the second week in June, ran most
abundantly during the following week, continued at a high level
tor two weeks more, and then rapidly fell off.

The average size of the 1920 kine salmon was greater than that
of 1919, as is shown by the average number required to make a case
in each of the two years. The average number in 1919 was 3.54 to
the case, while in 1920 it required but 3.03. The difference was even

132 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

greater than is indicated by these figures, for in' 1919 comparatively
few fish of larger size were taken out for mild curing, while in 1920
there were put up 145 tierces of mild-cured kings, with 800 pounds
to the tierce. These were all selected from the larger sizes and would
have materially diminished the number required per case if all hee
been canned.

During the early part of the fishing season the king salmon were
silvery in color, without trace of red; “the testes are small, hard, and
purplish in color ; the eggs are always small, not more than half the
size when mature. The snout of the males was then so little pro-
duced as to give no certain indication of sex. This condition con-
tinued during the greater part of June, near the latter end of which
the run indicated a decided falling off. But on June 29 a second
run appeared of small dimensions, and it was at once apparent that
these fish were further along in their development. The jaws of the
male were now somewhat prolonged and hooked, and the enlarged
teeth had begun to show. ‘They were now reddish in color, and the
bellies were so thin that they were little valued for mild-cure pur-
poses. These changes were abrupt and coincided with the sudden
crease in the run.

The natural enemies which left traces of their presence on the
entering salmon were the white whales, or belugas, and the lamprey
eels. Belugas were very much in evidence in the lower river chan-
nels during the latter part of the season, the size of their schools
increasing as the salmon were running more abundantly. Un-
doubtedly they were feeding on the salmon, and it is safe to assume
that they captured and devoured a very large proportion of those
on which they succeeded in closing their jaws. But the number of
salmon which appeared on the cannery floor bearing unmistakable
tooth marks of the beluga was surprising. The sides were scored
lengthwise by widely spaced lines, which usually described a gentle
curve, but were occasionally angulated. Evidently these salmon had
escaped from the very jaws of their pursuers.

Other marks which attracted universal attention and were usually
mistaken for hatchery brands were the scars made by the lamprey
eel. This slender eel-shaped animal has an oval sucker-shaped
mouth provided with rows of rasping teeth. By means of the sucker
mouth it attaches itself to the salmon and may rasp off the skin
_and even deeper-lying tissues for food. A scar is left which often
reproduces with great fidelity the details of the mouth, with its
outer fringe of filaments and its inner groups of teeth, which in
the scar often give the impression of printed characters.

Such lamprey scars have been occasionally observed in other
rivers, but never before in such abundance as on the Yukon. This
fact probably stands related to the large lamprey run which is
indigenous to this stream. They enter the mouth of the river in the
fall after the surface has frozen and run up under the ice, to the
under surface of which they often attach themselves when resting.
Although the run lasts but few hours at any locality, it is of enor-
mous dimensions and furnishes tons of food to those who dip them
up through holes cut in the ice.

Like the salmon, the lampreys enter the river for purposes of
propagation, and all die after the eggs are laid. The young soon

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 133

after hatching burrow in the mud of the river banks and live like
earthworms for an indefinite period of two or more years. After
this they pass out to sea when some 6 inches long, and spend the
remainder of their life in the ocean. So far as known to the
writers, the lamprey scars have been found on salmon exclusively,
and on the Yukon never on chums or dog salmon. Some king
salmon would have two or even three scars and one was found on a
sockeye, but among the thousands of Yakon chums that we in-
spected there was not one that had been attacked by a lamprey.
It is an interesting question whether the Yukon lampreys follow
the king salmon of their own river on their feeding grounds and
prey on them. It is not known that their attacks are ever dan-
gerous. The salmon observed seemed in no case’ to have been
seriously injured.

That the king salmon ascend the Yukon at a high rate of speed
has been accepted generally. An attempt was made to secure re-
liable records of their first appearance at a large number of localities
along the river. Wireless messages were sent ‘to a number of points
during the early days of the run before the dates should be for-
gotten. And, in addition, a number of important records were
secured during visits to the fishing camps, some of these giving the
catch in detail day by day throughout the season. While it is
recognized that the capture of the first salmon of the season at
different points along the river may vary within a day or two in
relation to the beginning of the run, an examination of the data
indicates that this source of error is not serious and that reliable
conclusions concerning the rate of travel can be drawn from the
table presented. In this table, when two or more records have been
obtained from the same locality, the earliest has been selected as
giving the first appearance of the king salmon in that portion of
the river.

DATE OF CAPTURE OF FIRST KING SALMON AT LOCALITIES ON YUKON RIVER, SEASON

oF 1920.

Approxi-

. mate
Locality. Date. distance
traveled .

Miles.
Southam OWbhOfmniv ele met aciascoe Sees ai ays a eee eae eke o winks Cem sri Riese se nee ra ee UUHNG 1B | sscceccuc
UM DESiMSSOUbh MODE Aes. See vals as oe seas AS See SS SSS Pee ose umes 150 Sere Ree
LNG SURHIONISS Saeerenetoe CUS eere Boob Dee AOC ae SG Bie ere hn ae ae en re June 20 107
DIBA TEUL SB 5 elie Se ey ic Ee eae aed tea er a ae eke Se Ag |Peaad Obese 144
IRUISSIATIEN ISS Onna ten eye Seek Beet oie easels aeons a a beeser peace io seemee ciel June 21 204
AVORCHYS THN GANTT Ds PE SUSE Nees OE Sate eS SRE HS SE ror ality ey ne eal ce | June 23 221
IPI 83 Be eB Se RA tee eer AS oe OS aaa ae aed Seer 4 Et, 4 Ae een oe Se Oe ene | June 22 259
FEV OYA TOSSA Wenner eee ee). ue ee Earn Wes) Saute oine o sone ween ae | June 23 279
EPAlIShRapidstabovevAuvikem aus uemieetalt chi Weekly See POE isp cir | June 24 346
Camp 51 miles below Kaltag Re SE eae bee a eee. ee ge BU at | June 27 440
TRIS Sac SGes BSSSs AOS SBE ISSR ES WHE Gale Seer Temas Oe = emi Sah) Sepia s SIN El pee Ek | June 28 491
Koyukuk BOSE GAD AU SS AACS SEB Saat £8 Bbr iain Dy Unie beat 85 Sete Soa ec ae eee eae | June 29 555
Wilnskevs@recek<abowe: Woucenes. eee sens ks cele sean seat eceee econ seems ganas June 27 622
ECU eee Te ae ee nee ee EUR De Pd AES SD eset Oe .-do 659
AVVO EE) cig oH OE EO OE SIE GG GED Tyo Ce ee ae he eet ae aN bom June 28 804
Jog Creek, aloor@ INeen pa IRBIONGIS -<cods coco ss ccoebuos se cusd5osaseuseaueoseabecues wtb 2 Be . 851
CWinClO Reena esas oc an rk NA eS See Seperate tose reese ey July 11 1,227
(Chnvavalie CRS J = gaa de ccs homeo ee Ure cae SoC ee GE SESS 5 Oe Oe eee ae ee ees nae a Seen |July 12) - 1,317
TBO So a tte Gs Se SR See RCRA. «2 Bel Nc all OS IR Ryle peel el, Sh Rage a Uae aa July 13] ~ 1,402
De Wolf’s A SHIVCE THN [AS ee a Aer Ieee ot ee eae CEE RS CR od oe block July 14 1, 478
IDE NMSOM tio sGd os See ae RO SS eb go dba 6 SOBRE e URE ES SARE Se ee eee nin aE nee ROS 8 1, 504

134 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

Inspection of the above table shows the slowest rate of travel in
the first hundred miles of the river above its mouth. From the en-
trance of the South Mouth to Pilot Station is approximately 130
miles, but it was five days after the run began in the mouth of the
river before the first king salmon appeared at Pilot Station, indi-
cating a rate of about 30 miles per day. Between Pilot Station and
Tanana, on the other hand, the rate of travel was slightly more than
80 miles per day. This discrepancy i is probably due to the habit of
playing back and forth in brackish water, on entering the river
mouth, before beginning their serious ascent of the river. It i is well
known to the fishermen at the mouth of the river that salmon enter
the gill nets as numerously from the upstream as from the down-
stream side. They pass back and forth on the tides, lingering within
the fishing district, thus giving the nets many more opportunities to

capture them than ‘would be the case if they pursued a direct course
on entering the stream.

Three records below Tanana, those of the camp 51 miles below
Kaltag, Kaltag itself, and Koyukuk, do not align themselves with
the remainder of the series. At the average rate of travel king
salmon should have reached Kaltag by the 24th instead of the 28th
and Koyukuk by the 25th instead of the 29th. In both of these
localities the capture of king salmon was considered of little relative
importance, and the records are doubtless defective.

Above Tanana the current of the river increases materially, rapids
are encountered, and the intricate channels of the Yukon Flats are
to be threaded. It is not surprising to find that the rate of travel in
the upper portion of the river becomes reduced. Not only are the
difficulties of ascent increased but the potential store of energy in
the fish approaches exhaustion. When they enter the mouth of the
river they are the richest in oil of any salmon known, but by the
time they reach Dawson their flesh is comparatively dry and flavor-
less, the oil having been expended to supply the energy needed in
ascending 1,500 miles against the current and in carrying forward
at the same time the sexual changes which precede the act of spawn-
ing. The average rate of travel from Tanana to Dawson was
shehtly less than 45 miles per day, while from Pilot Station to
Dawson, involving practically the entire length of the river below
Dawson, the average rate was 57 miles per day.

No record of any other river approaches this in completeness nor
in the high rate of travel indicated. The unexampled speed with
which salmon ascend the Yukon is doubtless associated with the
great distances to be traversed before reaching their upper spawning
areas, taken in connection with the shortness of the northern summer.

Inasmuch as the investigators were compelled to restrict their
attention to the main river, they are unable to designate the prin-
cipal spawning areas of the king salmon, Limited numbers of kings
are reported to turn aside into all the principal tributaries of the
lower and middle sections of the river, but it is believed that a rela-
tively large proportion of the run passes beyond the mouth of the
Porcupine into the upper portion of the basin.

CHUM OR DOG SALMON.

Although the king salmon is an important source of food to the
natives and the white population, it is far surpassed in value by the

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 135

chum or dog salmon, which must be considered the principal food
product of the Yukon River.

It makes its appearance off the mouth of the river only a few days
later than the advent of the king salmon. In 1920 the first chum was
obtained June 17, and from the 17th to the 19th, 138 became entangled
in the coarse mesh of the king salmon nets set outside the mouth of
the river; but none apparently had as yet entered the stream. On
June 20, 2 were reported inside the river; June 21, 82; and June 22,
26; but during these three days 856 were taken in the outside nets,
indicating clearly that the chums were beginning to school in some
abundance outside the river, but that few were entering up to June
22, when the run up the river may be said to have begun. It became
greatly accelerated on June 29 and maintained itself with minor
fluctuations, until the cannery ceased operations the middle of July.
No strictly quantitative results concerning the run of chums could
be obtained from the cannery records during this season, as nets
with appropriate mesh for capture of chums were not employed until
the last week in June. For this reason, the apparent increase in size
of run during the latter days of June is certainly overemphasized by
the cannery statistics.

The first chums to arrive were further advanced toward sexual
maturity than were the king salmon. In the latter the testes and
ovaries were small and the snout so little produced in the males that
there was no certain external evidence of the sex of the individuals
examined. But in the case of the chums, even those earliest to run
had the milt white in color and obviously enlarged, and the large eggs
were already loosening in the ovary. The jaws of the males were not
hooked, but were showing a slight sharpening and elongation, so that
sex determination could usually be made from the appearance of the
head. All the early chums were bright silvery in color, with abun-
dant oil, and pinkish flesh which turned a deeper red on drying. All
of them were in such condition that they would have been classed as
“silvers” rather than as “dog salmon” by fishermen of the upper
river.

But changes in the appearances of the chums were soon apparent.
At first, as in the case of the king salmon, rare individuals, usually
males, showed themselves in an advanced stage of development, with
brightly colored bars on the sides of the body and long hooked jaws.
They stood out conspicuously from their fellows, which were still in
the “ silver ” stage.

But by the last of June, when a great increase suddenly occurred
in the take of chum salmon, obvious seasonal changes had appeared
in this species, as in the king salmon running at the same period. It
was now the rule for the males to exhibit elongated jaws provided
with canine teeth, and to show the beginnings of the conspicuous
color marks which characterize the spawning males of this} species.
During the first days of July the run of chums again fell off, accom-
panied by a further increase in the matured appearance of the fish.
As this occurred at the same time in chums and in king salmon, it
appeared to the fishermen that the end of the run was in sight. -

On July 7 a new run of chums suddenly set in, the great majority
of which were of bright silvery appearance and with no further sea-
sonal advancement than had been shown by the fish that ran first in
June. Among them were a few stragglers of the previous run, the

75376—21-——2

136 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

males and females equally conspicuous among their silvery compan-
ions. On subsequent dates these stragglers became more rare, and
when the party left for the upriver on August 2 the few chums that
were then running were almost wholly of the pronounced silvery
type.

It is unfortunate that confusion should have arisen in the Yukon
from a failure to recognize that the dog salmon and the so-called
“silvers ” represent different phases in the development of one and
the same species.

The “dog salmon” are the individuals furthest advanced toward
spawning. They exhibit the elongated hooked jaws and enlarged
teeth in the male, the bright nuptial coloration, and the impover-
ished condition of the flesh, which is hght in color, largely devoid of
oil, and possessing very little substance when dried.

In the “silvers” the eggs and milt are less developed, the jaws of
the male are little or not at all hooked, the externa] coloration is sil-
very, or with a light flush of red, and the meat is red in color when
dried, rich in oil, and valuable both for human food and for dogs.

In general, the “dog salmon” along any stretch of the river con-
sist of those individuals which will turn into some adjacent tributary
to spawn, while the “silvers” are on their way to the upper reaches
of the river, show relatively little of the sexual changes they will ex-
hibit on their spawning beds, and are still richly provided with the
oil which serves as fuel and principal source of nourishment during
the long journey still before them.

Many fishermen recognize the difficulty of distinguishing sharply
between “dogs” and “silvers” and relieve their embarrassment by
recognizing a third class, the “half-breeds.” But the term “silver
salmon” has acquired a fairly definite and useful significance in the
trade. “Dog salmon” are so poor in nourishment that they have
indifferent value even for dog feed, and will not be purchased except
during times of extraordinary scarcity. The natives wall feed them
to their dogs, but will not eat them themselves unless king salmon and
“silver salmon” are unobtainable.

The use of the term “silver salmon” for bright silvery chums, still
rich in substance, is so universal and of such long standing in the
interior of Alaska that it seems useless to attempt to supplant it with
any other name. Confusion will inevitably result owing to the pres-
ence of the totally different species, the coho, which is commonly
known in outside waters as the silver salmon. It is proposed, there-
fore, that the term “silvers,” when referring to the Yukon basin, be
restricted to the chums known commercially by that name, while the
three species of salmon of importance on that stream be known as
the king, the chum, and the coho.

It became evident, as we were ascending the river in August, that
the “dogs” and the “silvers” were in general keeping apart from
each other and were following distinct migration routes. Through-
out the entire lower course of the Yukon, from Tanana at least as
far as Anvik, the “dogs” predominated on the right (north limit)
of the river and the “silvers” on the left limit. This is generally
recognized by all the fishermen of that region, who also agree that the
“dog salmon” turn into all the creeks and smaller tributaries, while
the silvers “ dislike the taste of fresh water,” as a native fisherman
stated the case. It is also recognized that a heavier run of kings and

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 137

of cohos is found in company with the “silvers” along the left limit
of the river. It appears, therefore, that there is a prevailing use of
the left shore by those fish which are bound for the upper reaches
of the river. This may have connection with the fact that the ma-
jority of the tributaries of the lower river enter on the right bank.

- The run of chums is not of uniform character and quality through-
out the season. Fishermen recognize a succession of phases in the
run, characterized by fish which on the average are recognizably
different. In general, it is stated that the run of chums which accom-
pany the king salmon are ‘of relatively small size and poor quality,
commonly known as dog salmon. Following these is a run of bright
fish of good quality but inferior size, known as “silvers,” while the
last chums to run, late in August and early in September, are the
finest of all, the “silvers” par excellence, a bright rich form dis-
tinctly of larger size. This last run of “silvers” ordinarily is of
short duration, but is frequently of great intensity, and furnishes the
most highly prized fish of the season.

As it was necessary to make a canvass of the entire river before
the fishing season had come to a close, the writers were unable to
observe the alleged succession of forms of the chum salmon at any
locality. Distinct differences in the character and quality of the
fish appeared at the various camps visited, but these differences
were apparently dependent either on the proximity of the camp to
important tributaries into which spawning chum salmon would pass,
or, more especially, on the location of the camp with reference to
the river itself, whether on the right bank or the left. In general
when following up the right (north) bank of the river the quality
of the fish became poorer as. one approached the mouths of the
tributaries. The impression was strong that the fish destined for
these tributaries were farther advanced than those with which they
were associated on the same side of the river bound for more dis-
tant spawning grounds. A further more detailed study of the char-
acteristics of the chums at different times and in different localities
and the distribution of the various strains to their respective spawn-
ing areas would offer results of importance equally from the bio-
logical and from the strictly practical point of view. During the
season of 1919 the bright chums, or “silvers,” were said to be almost
wholly wantine. If these were the fish bound for the more distant
spawning beds, then the upper sections of the river must have re-
mained largely unseeded in 1919 and incapable of producing their
quota of a subsequent season’s supply. In 1920 the run of chums
was peculiar, in that it lasted longer than is usual in good years,
but was of less intensity, and the August run of “silvers” failed to
attain its usual proportions. In subsequent years the late run of
“silvers” should be carefully noted. If there is evidence of a pro-
gessive decline, steps should be taken to protect this most important
part of the run. To accomplish this result information should be
obtained concerning the spawning beds which are resorted to by this
large and valuable race of chums.

The chums travel up the river at a rate approximately equal to that
of the king salmon. In 1920, as has been shown, they were schooling
on the tide-flats off the mouth of the river nearly a week before they
began to ascend the stream in any numbers on June 22. Adopting
-the latter date as the beginning of the run, it appears that they

138 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

started about a week later than the king salmon. In the section of
the river between Louden and Tanana, “they were reported as 8 to
10 days behind the kings, and in the ’ district between Circle and
Dawson, the first chum was recorded 11 to 17 days later than the
first kine. It is evident, therefore, that the chum salmon, also,
although apparently far less vigorous than the king, ascend the
river at an astonishing rate of speed, maintained without cessation
for well over a month, under the necessities imposed on them by the
short summer and the. rigorous fall climate of the Yukon.

The opinion has already been recorded that the king salmon of
the Yukon is the richest in 011 of any known king salmon. The same
statement, made with even greater emphasis, may be advanced re- .
garding the Yukon chums. This species is noted in other localities
for its poor oil and poor color. The canned product is the reverse of
attractive in color or in richness, and occupies the lowest rank in
the markets of the world. In other river basins the chums do not
travel far from the sea, but enter late in the season and seek spawning
beds not far inland. But the best of the Yukon chums travel 1,000
to 2,000 miles up a river known for its consistently rapid current.
They form a rich table fish in the lower section of the Yukon, where
the king salmon, to ordinary palates, contains a superabundance of
oil. No more striking evidence of the richness of the king salmon

can be found than that presented in the smokehouses of natives in

the lower river. Here the drying salmon constantly drip a pure,
clear red oil, which is collected in vessels and preserved for winter
use. At the village of Ohogamute, above Marshall, we observed some
30 quart bottles filled with “red salmon oul, secured this season from
drying king salmon.

YUKON DELTA, ITS PRINCIPAL CHANNELS, AND ROUTES MAINLY
FOLLOWED BY SALMON.

The Yukon River subdivides numerously within its extensive delta,
and sends its waters to the sea through a large number of distinct
channels. Many of these are narrow winding canals, which
meander in every direction interminably through the flat. lands,
before they attain the outer edge of the delta. Through all of them,
doubtless, some salmon pass, but three of the channels so far
transcend the others in size and importance that for practical pur-
poses they may be considered as forming the mouths of the Yukon
and the main migration routes of the entering salmon. The channels
in question, in order of importance, are Kwikluak Pass, or south
mouth, with its important branch, the Kwiguk Pass; Kawanak and
Kwikpak Passes, which coalesce before entering the sea and form

together the middle mouth; and Apoon Pass, or ‘north mouth.

‘Much the smallest of the three is the Apoon Channel, which
traverses the northern sector of the delta, and forms the most direct
route for river steamers bound to and from St. Michael. Although
exclusively used as a steamer channel, it is poorly adapted for this
purpose, being so shallow both within and without the mouth that
light-dr aft boats have quite the habit of going aground there and
waiting until a favoring tide shall fioat them.

Few salmon apparently find their way through Apoon Pass. A
few families of natives from Kotlik village had established a fish

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 139

camp on the shore just outside the mouth of the river, but the drying
frames were scantily supplied with salmon when they were seen in
the last week of July. Between the mouth of the pass and old Fort
Hamilton no fishing stations were occupied, and the nets operated by
the white trader at old Fort Hamilton were having no success. The
general belief that Apoon Pass is of little importance as a fishway
seemed wholly justified by observations. It has probably no greater
importance than have some of the subsidiary channels through the
delta.

The lower Kwikpak and the Kawanak Passes, which together con-
stitute the middle mouth, are the least known of the three main
divisions of the river. No steamers traverse them and very few
natives have their summer fishing camps along their banks. The
Kawanak is a stream of large size and fair depth of water and the
lower Kwikpak, although choked with sandbars, carries a consider-
able current.

This middle mouth was visited July 5 to 7, at a time when the
Carlisle Packing Co., on request, was testing the run of salmon by
setting nets in the lower Kawanak Channel. Two nets were set along
the left bank and two others were set offshore along the edge of a
bank. This test was made during a slack period in . the run in the
south mouth, when the king salmon especially were running in
greatly reduced numbers and the chums were not coming in “full
force. During 14 hours’ fishing in the Kawanak Channel the four
nets took 3 king salmon and 67 chums. In a second test of equal
length the following day the showing was even less favorable.

One native fishing camp, which obviously has been occupied for
many years, is located on the upper point of the long island which
separates the Kawanak and Kwipak channels, immediately below
their first confluence near the mouth. Four families were encamped
at this place, and reported a favorable catch of king salmon during
the preceding two weeks. The run had now slackened, they said, and
the chums were just beginning to appear. They had ‘found the
season thus far very much better than the preceding year, when they
had fished in the same locality. During the season of 1919 they had
been unable to s secure Many more salmon than they had needed for
their summer’s use. At the time the camp was visited they had caught
enough king salmon to fill one rack and two smokehouses, and had
made use of two short gill nets of their own make set in an eddy along
the bank of the island. The nets were not more than 25 feet long.
Later, when a fresh run had entered the south mouth, word was re-
eeived that the native fishermen in the middle mouth were again
making good catches. It seemed, therefore, that the runs in the two
mouths were well synchronized, the fluctuations during different
seasons and between different days of the same season, following
each other closely. This was well shown in a test made in the middle
mouth, on request, during the earlier part of the season, when king
salmon were running abundantly j in the south mouth. This test was
made on June 25 and 26, and resulted in a satisfactory catch of king
salmon, with very few chums. .

In view of the tests here indicated and observations at the fishing
camp, it can not be said that the middle mouth lacks importance as a
route for salmon. Yet it is considered to be very far indeed behind
‘the south mouth in this respect. It is doubtful whether it equals in

75376—21——3

140 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

importance the subsidiary channel known as the Kwiguk, which
branches off from the Kwikluak Pass, a few miles above its mouth.
It may safely be inferred that the native fish camps are located at
the most favorable fishing sites. These are occupied year after year
and generation after generation by the same families and their de-
scendants. Where native fishing villages are most thickly grouped
will be found the largest and most unfailing supply of salmon. With
this as a basis, the writers are compelled to conclude that the south
mouth serves as the migration route for the greater part of the
Yukon run. While no data are available for an estimate, it 1s not
considered beyond the bounds of probability that nine-tenths of the
entire run enter by the Kwikluak Pass and its subsidiary channel,
the Kwiguk. About 100 families of natives were fishing in this
district in 1920, while not to exceed 10 families were seen in the
middle mouth below Dogfish Village. In no case did the latter
Dae have equal success with those camped on the Kwikluak
ass.

Tt is on the Kwiguk Channel, just below its emergence from the
Kwikluak, that the floating cannery of the Carlisle Packing Co.
has been located during the two seasons of its operation in the delta.
Protected from the heavy southerly. winds which blow up the main
channel during the summer months, this site is within easy distance
of the main fishing grounds in the lower part of the Kwikluak Chan-
nel and among the offshore shoals and islands. Inasmuch as the
Yukon salmon appear largely to travel along the banks, in the eddies,
and along the margins of submerged banks, it is believed possible
during a favorable fishing season to secure from this location as a
base a very considerable proportion of the salmon of the Kwikluak
Channel. Fortunately, no commercial fishing for export is per-
mitted in the Kwiguk Channel. Several native families were lo-
cated on this channel in 1920, and one white trader maintained a
wheel. Good catches of king salmon and chums were secured at
all of these camps, but it was believed that the run of kings was
proportionally not as heavy as in the main channel.

COMMERCIAL FISHERY OPERATIONS IN YUKON DELTA IN 1920.

The fishery operations of the Carlisle Packing Co. in 1920 were
conducted principally in the south or Kwikluak mouth of the river
and beyond that mouth among the seaward channels which diverge
from it. The mouth of the Kwikluak Channel was designated as
it was during the previous season by a stake set in the right or north-
ern bank on the projecting point of land at Ingrakaklak (see U. S.
C. & G. S. chart 9378) and by a stake set on the left or southern
bank of the channel at the entrance to the well-marked lagoon some
half mile below Nilak.

A few fishing camps were established by the company as far up the
Kwikluak Channel as Dogfish Village, where the main river makes
its first grand division into the Kwikluak Channel and a channel
which later divides to reach the middle and the Apoon mouths.
Above Dogfish Village no fishing camps were established by the
company, but they purchased limited numbers of salmon from a few
independent fishermen, who operated at points below the mouth of —
Clear River near Andreafski. i

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 141

Commercial fishing for export was thus carried on exclusively in
the main Yukon, between the mouth of Clear River and Dogfish
Village and below Dogfish Village, in the main Kwikluak Channel
and its seaward extensions. All subsidiary channels branching off
from the Kwikluak were closed to commercial fishing, whether these
served as communicating links between larger channels, as in the case
of Aproka, Pass, or, as in the case of the Kwiguk Channel, secured
independent egress to the sea.

But in no case were the salmon which entered through these pro-
tected channels given unimpeded access to the upper river. All of
them must pass through the 40 or 50 mile stretch of the main river
between Dogfish Village and Andreafski, where they were exposed
to capture for commercial purposes; and those that enter through
the important Kwiguk Channel must in addition run the gauntlet of
a further 40 miles of river between the Kwiguk entrance and Dogfish
Village. During the past season very little commercial fishing was |
in fact carried on in the stretch of river above Dogfish Viliage, but
this was of choice and not from necessity, for no restrictions are there
imposed by existing regulations.

During the season of 1919, 65 per cent of the king salmon and 61
per cent of the smaller fish—chums, cohos, and sockeyes—were taken
beyond the mouth of the river, while in 1920 the proportion was even
greater, 69 per cent of the king salmon and 68 per cent of the chums
being taken outside.

The fishing grounds in 1920 extended much farther away from the
river than in 1919. During a part of the season 12 fishing boats were
located between 10 and 20 miles outside Nilak, along the shallow
banks bordering the Acharon Channel on the mainland side (U. S.
C. & G. S. chart 9373). The outermost stations were for a time the
most successful, meeting the Yukon salmon well down the coast
toward the mouth of Black River. How much farther in the direc-
tion of the Kuskokwim the advancing schools may be encountered in
numbers adequate to warrant commercial fishing is as yet undeter-
mined. An expedition which they sent down the coast to Cape
Romanof testifies to the interest of the Carlisle Packing Co. in this
question.

The fishing methods employed by the company in 1920 did not
differ from those in use in 1919. Almost their sole dependence was
on gill nets, set in convenient lengths in the eddies and on shallow
banks along the main channels. For the most part these were set
nets-or anchored gill nets, with one end made fast to the shore and
the outer end anchored. But during the latter end of the season,
when the river was no longer at flood, it became possible to fish on
_ shallow banks, which were not available during the height of the
king salmon run. Stake nets were then used in larger numbers
and would unquestionably have been availed of more extensively
throughout the season had the stage of water permitted.

The gill nets used were of two kinds, the king salmon nets of 83-
inch mesh and the nets for chums and other small salmon of 52-inch
mesh. As the company from the beginning of the season contem-
plated fishing largely, if not exclusively, for the king salmon, only
nets of the larger mesh were issued during the height of the king
salmon run, which lasted up to the last days of June. After this

142 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

date the smaller mesh nets were.also issued, but the number of these
on hand was not adequate to supply all the fishermen.

Forty-one boats in-all were employed in fishing, 34 of these
throughout the season, the remainder for varying periods. Four of
them were engaged so short a time and obtained so few fish that they
may well be omitted from consideration. To each boat was issued
200 fathoms of king salmon net, and subsequently 200 fathoms of the
small mesh salmon ‘net, to the extent that this was obtainable.

In addition to the gill nets, renewed attempts were made in 1920
to use fish wheels. Two of these were constructed by the company,
but were no sooner placed for fishing than they were put out of
commission by the heavy drift which was running during the early
days of the fishing season.

In addition to the above, nine wheels were privately owned and
operated within the area open to commercial fishing, and the catch
of seven of these was sold in whole or in part to the cannery. A
very limited number of salmon were obtained from independent
fishermen using nets. The number thus purchased from independent
operators using wheels or nets amounted to some 7,400 kings and
27,000 chums, “out of a total number handled by the Cae of
58 ‘AGT longs and 155 655 chums.

The fishing gear operated by the cannery and by private parties
occupied only a narrow fringe along the margins of the channels.
No attempt was made to fence or block the main channels in any
manner, nor could such an attempt at any time be successful.

The employees at the cannery numbered 254. Of these, 122 were
brought in from Seattle, including 40 Orientals and 44 fishermen.
Of the 132 Alaskans, 40 were employed as fishermen, while 48 were
natives, of which the ‘first crew of 25 ceased work in the middle of the
season. It was pleasing to learn from the superintendent that the
Alaskan fishermen gave a good account of themselves and would
hereafter be preferred by the company. -

The pack put up by the cannery in 1920 was far less extensive than
in the previous year, as is shown by the following table:

Pack oF SALMON By YUKON CANNERY IN 1919 AND 1920.

Product. 1919 1920

Canned (cases):

I Reh oveg Cre) bina Voki Aa sense eat aes eG RC IE oe tt UE er a ee ee Ce GCL cations Seen 28, 582 15, 934

BUTT Se eee ee ed SOE Ear IR BRA RO a Rd OG REN cog 24, 548 12, 819

Wolsey cyber ie ee ET Sr lelt ae e d : AEa ak a 3, 181 0

LB 3f 61 ES Pap a Ae Pec een egg I eA RID eh ANY Mie Ma ear AM YE 28
Mild-cures(tierees) 22028 Ae ORE PERS RUE | ER oot BOR: AS ACRE et eae Re eee Fee pice 145

|

The comparative lack of success in 1920 was due in part to the un-
favorable fishing conditions and in part to voluntary shortening of
the fishing season. In 1919 fishing was continued until the close of
August, but in 1920 only until the middle of July, as the low market
price for chums did not warrant the company in continuing to oper-
ate after the run of king salmon was over. The season of 1920 was
extremely late on the Yukon, and the king salmon entered with a
rush, while yet the river was very high and was carrying down enor-

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 143

mous quantities of drift, which clogged the nets and rendered them
ineficient. Also, during July the weather was unusually stormy, in-
terfering with the fishing and endangering both fishing gear and the
lives of the fishermen exposed on the flats beyond the river’s mouth.
From the cannery standpoint, the season was a failure, redeemed from
actual loss—if such indeed was the case—by the extremely high price
quoted this year for king salmon. Yet the cannery pack of 28,758
eases fell short only 1,242 cases of the maximum number of salmon
which had been designated by the Secretary of Commerce as safely
to be spared for commercial purposes from the Yukon River run.

No fish intended for export from Alaska were salted on the Yukon
River in 1920.

SUPPLY OF DRIED SALMON PREPARED ON YUKON RIVER IN i920.

On the voyage down the Yukon from Lower Lebarge to the delta,
following close behind the running ice, May 24 to June 13, few indi-
cations could be observed of preparation for the fishing season. Here
and there a white fisherman was engaged in constructing his fish
wheel in time for the short king salmon run, but the native fish camps
were unoccupied. Later it was evident that in comparatively few
instances did the natives have wheels in the water in time to obtain
any considerable number of king salmon.

On the lower river, below Holy Cross or Paimiut, the natives be-
long to the Innuit stock, and fish much less extensively with wheels
than do the Indians of the upper river.- They employ for the most
part short lengths of homemade gill nets, which they set in eddies
behind projecting points of the shore. As favorable localities are
found almost exclusively along the high right (north) bank of the
lower river, the fishing villages are confined to that side.

Above Holy Cross the use of nets becomes less and less an im-
portant factor, and wheels are relied on almost exclusively for the
capture of salmon. Rarely was the primitive fish trap or basket or
the dip net seen in use. The small-fish wheels, which seem to have
been introduced on the Tanana River in 1904, have been generally
adopted on the upper river by whites and natives alike. They cost
about $50 each, in addition to the labor of building them, and are
wonderfully effective when skillfully placed.

In the section of the river between Holy Cross and Rampart little
dependence is placed by the natives on the king salmon. There is
an early short run, and the natives are traditionally dilatory in mak-
Ing preparations. By the time their wheels are in the water the
king salmon run is largely over. It is also true that the king salmon
are more difficult to preserve, being larger in size and richer in oil.
Those that are put up by the natives are kept largely for their own
consumption and for this purpose are most highly prized. Taking
the river as a whole, a distinct hardship is imposed on whites and
natives alike when the king salmon run is below normal.

Unquestionably, however, the chum furnishes by far the larger
share of the dried salmon. Along some stretches of the river almost
complete dependence is placed on this species, locally known as the
dog salmon and the “silvers.” ‘The higher grade of chums, known as
“silvers,” form the staple dog food throughout the Yukon country.

144 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

All the traders handle them anid may deal in from 5 to 50 tons in a
year. But they refuse to purchase dog salmon except as a last re-
sort. The majority of the natives at the close of the fishing season
sell a portion of their salmon supply to the trader with whom they
deal, frequently leaving themselves without adequate provision for
their families and their’ dogs. Later in the year they are often com-
pelled to repurchase dried “salmon at an advanced price, paying for
it with the proceeds of their winter trapping. They are, of course,
more or less improvident, as in the case of other primitive peoples.
Their sale of salmon in the fall is frequently to liquidate their debts
to traders who had extended them credit earlier in the season.

In the section of the main river below Rampart, where salmon are
still rich in oi] and the rainfall during the summer months is usually
heavy, resort is had to smoking the salmon in order to preserve
them. There is no commoner sight along the Yukon than the cluster
of white tents in some picturesque nook : among the hills of the right
bank, and with them one or more high, bar nlike smokehouses, which
emit a faint blue vapor. There will be a fish wheel turning in the
current along the rocky shore and a number of open-air racks, more
or less protected from the weather, on which the salmon are hung
for a time until partially dried and ready to be smoked. The pic-
ture is, of course, not complete without the native men, women, and
children of the summer camp, nor without the invariable row of
dogs closely tethered to stakes driven near the water’s edge. Here
the dogs fatten on the salmon heads and back bones and other refuse.
They scratch cut shallow holes to lie in alongside their stakes or
burrow deep into the adjacent bank, if one be at hand, to escape the
implacable swarm of mosquitoes.

Along the Tanana and the upper Yukon is a region of less rain-
fall, in which also the salmon have relatively dey meat, which is
easily preserved. Here smoking is frequently dispensed with and
dependence had entirely on air “drying. But, by whatever method
prepared, the fish of the upper river, ‘of the Innoko, the Koyukuk,
and the Tanana, are of inferior orade, and bring a lower price than
do fish imported into these districts from the main river. The best
product of all is secured from the Rampart Rapids. Here the
“silvers” are said to average larger and fatter than in any other sec-
tion. It is not improbable that inferior strains of dogs and “ silvers”
have turned into the lower tributaries, leaving at the rapids almost
exclusively high-grade fish bound far up the river.

In the coastal district when salmon are running abundantly
trenches are often dug in the soil by natives and hundreds of salmon
are thrown in without preparation of any kind. They are then
covered with earth and nature is permitted to have her unrestricted
way with them. When the contents of these trenches are scooped
out at some convenient season, perhaps in midwinter, they are said
to make acceptable dog feed and to be not wholly shunned by the
natives themselves.

The king salmon intended for their own food is often carefully
prepared and stored away by natives of the lower river. When suffi-
ciently dried and smoked, the sides are cut into pieces of convenient
size and packed solidly in large baskets made for the purpose of
woven grass, or willow roots, or frequently of salmon skins which

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 145

are neatly fitted together and sewed with sinew. The dog and “ sil-
ver” salmon are tied in bundles weighing about 60 pounds and stored
away in the caches in this shape. King salmon are also put in bun-
dles on the upper river. Mention has been made of the salmon
oil obtained as drippings from king salmon. In addition to this
product, the eggs are very generally s saved, being closely packed in
any convenient receptacle, without special attempt at preservation.

During the early part of the king salmon run, from June 25 to
July 1, a launch trip was made from Kwiguk to Holy Cross and
return for the purpose of inspecting the condition of the salmon
racks and obtaining a clue to the extent of the king salmon run
along the river. The run had been on in this district about one
week, and all the fish racks along the river contained considerable
numbers of king salmon. ‘The opinion was general that the season
was opening favor ably. It is in the delta and along this stretch of
river that fishing is conducted largely with short lene ths of gill nets
set in eddies, and in this district the run of king salmon is a very
important factor in providing the winter’s s supply of food.

In addition to the native camps, there are numerous fishing sta-
tions occupied by white men. Many of these men are married to
native women, and some of them are found in native camps, divid-
ing the proceeds with the native families. In such cases we observed
commonly that the efficiency of the camp was increased. The white
men operating on the largest scale were usually holders of winter
mail contracts, which necessitated the use of large numbers of dogs.
One such mail carrier keeps some 60 dogs and requires annually for
their feed from 12 to 14 tons of dried salmon. As these are exclu-
sively dog or “silver” salmon, the number used is between 15,000
and 20,000.

Other white men take dogs to beard during the summer and sell
all salmon they are able to put up beyond their own needs. Many
of the more intelligent natives now count on doing the same. There
is a wide and legitimate demand for dried salmon, “for use during the
winter season when all travel in the interior of Alaska must be by dog
team. As it is impossible to carry enough salmon for a long journey,
all “dog mushers” depend on the country they. pass through. ‘The
road houses maintain a supply for this purpose, the dried salmon
taking the place of hay and grain in regions where horses are em-
ployed, and being equally indispensable,

During the month of Angust and the first 10 days of September the
Yukon was traversed from the delta to Dawson and the Tanana
as far upstream as Nenana, traveling in a launch and calling at
the fish camps on the way. The number of families was ascertained
as accurately as possible, the number of wheels engaged in fishing
and the total amount of dried salmon prepared for the season. In
practically every native camp visited, one or more persons had a
sufficient understanding of English to enable them to furnish the
required information. In the majority of instances the racks, smoke-
houses, and caches were inspected, and finally some facility was ac-
quired. in verifying by observation the estimates furnished.

By this method the writers are enabled to present an estimate of
the dried salmon ae on the Y ukon in 1920, which is based on

146 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

more extended data than any heretofore furnished. That it is an
understatement of the amount of salmon actually captured and used
on the river is obvious from the following considerations:

1. The lower river was canvassed from the Ist to the 15th of
August, and there was a later run of “silvers” of limited extent, of
which the figures give no account. A message from Holy Cross,
dated September 15, indicated a medium run of “silvers” for some
three weeks after that point was passed. The still later run of
cohos is also not included in the estimates.

2. No clue could be obtained as to the number of salmon eaten
fresh during the season, but this must be a considerable item.

3. None of the tributaries of the Yukon were visited, with the

exception of the Tanana below Nenana, yet some of these, like the
Innoko, the Koyukuk, the Porcupine, and the Stewart, are im-
portant streams. The natives in these regions draw on the rivers for
their supply of dried salmon, and the white prospectors and miners
out on the creeks may obtain their dog teed from the very spawning
beds. To what extent spawning beds are invaded for this purpose
is not known, but from reports that have been received it would
seem probable the figures may reach dimensions of some local

mportance.

On the Yukon River, from the mouth to Dawson, 97 native fish
camps were observed, each of which contained from 1 to 15 families.
Three hundred and sev enty familes were listed, who were engaged

in fishing, but the matter was sometimes bnecure and the cae of |

6) 5
families may have been somewhat greater than this. The natives

operated 166 wheels, in addition to the short @ill nets of the lower
river, which were not enumerated. The dried salmon put up by
them amounted approximately to 350 tons, or nearly 1 ton to each
known family. Many families had less than this amount, but others
compensated for the deficiency by harvests of 3, 4, or even 5 tons.
The younger generation gives promise of being more provident than
the old. Some of them put up large surplus stocks for sale and
carry over fish from one season to “the next. There is some ap-
parently well-founded complaint that sufficient care is not always
given to curing the salmon, so that in rainy seasons like 1920 large
stocks may be ‘offered for sale which are renderéd almost worthless
by mold and decay. One Japanese fisherman operated a wheel on
_ the river and put up 1,200 pounds.

There were 76 white fishing camps, usually with a single white man
in a camp, but in a few instances two white men were working in
partnership, or a white man in conjunction with natives. There
were 91 white men in all, and they prepared approximately 190 tons
of dried fish.

On the Tanana River below Fairbanks there were 24 native fishing
camps, operating 24 fish wheels and containing approximately 30
tons of salmon. There were also 26 white fishing camps, with 34
wheels and some 52 tons of salmon.

Altogether, on the Yukon and the Tanana, 301 fish wheels were
operated in 1920 and resulted in a take of 622 ‘tons. Of this amount
8 per cent were king salmon and 92 per cent were chums. If an
allowance of 100 tons is made for the tributaries not visited and for
the later runs on the Yukon which were not seen—and this allowance

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. | 147

is almost certainly inadequate—there would be a total provision of
dried salmon for the Yukon and its tributaries in 1920 amounting
to 722 tons.

The only previous estimate known, based on a partial canvass of
the fishing camps, was that prepared by Messrs. H. J. Christoffers
and C. F. Townsend, of the Bureau of Fisheries, in 1918 for the
purpose of the Yukon hearing of that year. They enumerated 393
fish wheels and a total product of 650 to 700 tons for the Yukon
and Tanana Rivers, exclusive of Yukon Territory. Mr. Volney
Richmond, manager of the Northern Commercial Co. stores, basing
his estimate on conditions throughout the Yukon Valley, intimately
known by him for many years, gave 600 tons as a fair annual provi-
sion of dried salmon for the region. It is possible that more salmon
were dried in 1920 than would represent a fair average for the river,
inasmuch as the previous year had been largely a failure, prices for
dried salmon had risen to unheard of figures, and all reserve stocks
had been exhausted.

Estimating the average dried king salmon at 5 pounds, and
the average chum at 14 pounds, there were about 23,000 kings and
1,000,000 chums put up on the Yukon in 1920 for local use.

COMPARISON OF 1920 WITH 10919.

At all fish camps visited expressions of opinion were invited as to
the relative size of the runs in 1920 and in 1919. The evidence given
was overwhelmingly in favor of the run of 1919 being considered one
of the worst if not the very worst ever known on the Yukon. Natives
and whites all were practically a unit in this belief. Those who
believed the cannery was not responsible for the shortage were as well
satisfied on the subject of the shortage itself as were those who laid
the entire responsibility at the door of the cannery. Those who did
put up fairly satisfactory supplies of salmon recognized that they
were especially favored in their locations, but thought that the river
as a whole was relatively bare of fish.

In the lower section of the river more fish would have been pre-
pared if storms had not broken the wheels and interrupted the fish-
ing. Storms also broke wheels and interrupted fishing along this
section of the river in 1920, but racks and smokehouses were not
empty of fish. The natives about Nulato and Koyukuk would have
made better provision for the winter of 1919 had they fished dili-
gently throughout the season instead of potlatching as they did.
They would unquestionably have had more fish, but it is doubtful
whether they could have secured enough even had they fished consist-
ently with as much diligence as they ever display. It was impos-
sible to doubt, after interviewing several hundred people distributed
along the entire length of the Yukon, that the run of 1919 was phe-
nomenally deficient; and, furthermore, that if this condition should
become permanent, or should frequently recur, a very serious condi-
tion would arise in the interior of Alaska.

No basis is available for a well-founded estimate of the amount of
dried salmon put up in 1919, but we believe that 150 or 200. tons
would be an outside estimate for the entire river. The price rose
to 25, 30, and 35 cents per pound, with no stocks available even at
those prices. Men compelled to travel during the winter experienced

148 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

the utmost difficulty in securing substitute dog feed. Fresh meat was
used, although this is by no means satisfactory, and deplorable num-
bers of caribou were slaughtered by natives and others for this
purpose. Cereals and bacon were made use of, and stores and trading
posts soon found their stocks running low. The natives killed, or
permitted to die of starvation, half or more than half of their dogs,
and many white men ‘vere compelled to adopt the same course.
Undoubtedly the best dogs were retained and the least valuable were
culled out of the teams. But the general opinion entertained by those
best acquainted with the natives and their needs was to the effect that
the great reduction in the size of their dog teams was disastrous and
the dog shortage was sure to hamper them in their efforts to make a
living during the coming winter.

There were no reported cases of starvation or of serious suffering
among the natives during the winter of 1919 because of the shortage
of salmon, although they might well have occurred in outlying dis-
tricts if help had not been given by white traders and by others.
At Tanana rations were issued from the military post at Fort Gibbon,
intended to relieve distress among the sick and aged natives of that
vicinity. But the winter was in some respects unusually favorable.
On the upper river heavy snows drove the caribou to the lowlands
near the river, where natives could hunt them without making long
sledge journeys with their dog teams into the mountains. “Com:
missioner Mackenzie at Dawson said that had it not been for this
fortunate coincidence the Indians in that vicinity would have suf-
fered severely. In the Tanana-Fairbanks district moose were abun-
dant and were easily captured in the deep snows. And farther down
the river, in the Nulato-Koyukuk region, the grouse, which had been
scarce for a a of years, had begun to come back in their former
abundance. Here again had the season not been unusually favorable
for securing oan meat near at hand severe sufferine would have
been experienced. Such favorable conditions can not be expected to
recur should the salmon supply again fail.

To resume, it does not admit of doubt that there was a most serious
scarcity of salmon last winter, nor that this was occasioned primarily
by an equally serious short tage in the run. By no other theory can
so general a failure in the river fishing be explained. The lower
and middle sections of the river, the Ramparts and Upper Yukon,
_the Porcupine, the Tanana, and the Koyukuk, all tell the same story.
Dogs were sacrificed in large numbers, which were neither useless
nor - superfluous, and the natives were saved from serious suffering
only by a series of happy coincidences, which could not again be
expected.

TO WHAT EXTENT WAS YUKON CANNERY RESPONSIBLE FOR 1919
SHORTAGE?

As the cannery of the Carlisle Packing Co. at the mouth of the
Yukon did not operate prior to 1917, and as neither the king, chum,
nor coho salmon matures in two-year cycles, it 1s evident that the
cannery could have had no influence on the size of the run which
presented itself at the mouth of the river in 1919 and sought access
to the spawning beds. The individuals which comprised this run

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 149

had all been derived from eggs deposited in the Yukon gravels
before ever the cannery was established. There could be no ques-
tion, therefore of impairment of the run having resulted in 1919 from
previous cannery operations.

The only possible effect of the Carlisle cannery up to the present
time has been to diminish, by the number of salmon captured, the
runs which enter the river and are available to the native and white
inhabitants of the valley. In 1919 the company reported the capture
of 101,107 king salmon and 357,081 small salmon, largely chums. If
these had been captured upriver and dried, the king salmon would
then have averaged about 5 pounds each and the chums 14 to 14
pounds. Adopting the lower figure, the cannery pack, dried, would
have amounted to 252 tons of king salmon and 223 tons of the smaller
varieties, or 475 tons altogether. This is held to be more than twice
any possible estimate of the amount of dried salmon actually put up
during that season on the entire river.

If the 100,000 kings and the 350,000 chums taken by the cannery
had been permitted to ascend the river, to what extent, we may ask,
would the situation have been helped? It would depend on the size
of the run and the proportion which, under the conditions of 1919,
would escape capture at the hands of the river fishermen. If the
fishing camps along the river were catching 50 per cent of the run,
the cannery fish would have added some 235 tons, and the catch
would thus have been more than doubled. If they were capturing a
third of the run, the cannery fish would have increased their small
catch by over 150 tons.

Data for such an estimate are not available. In the muddy waters
of the Yukon the schools of salmon are invisible, and no direct
estimate can be formed of their numbers. There is abundant evi-
dence, however, that a large majority of the king salmon running in
1919 were captured in nets or encountered nets and escaped from
them on the way into the river. White fishermen and natives, prac-
tically without exception, including those who felt no hostility to the
cannery, agreed that the king salmon averaged smaller in size than
ever before and that the relatively few larger individuals were net
marked in the majority of cases. The same fishermen, operating in
the same localities in 1920, state almost without exception that the
king salmon in 1920 averaged large in size, and the number of net-
marked fish was so small as to be negligible.

Many opportunities have occurred to observe elsewhere salmon
caught in wheels or traps above a district heavily fished with gill
nets. The results are always the same. The smaller salmon filter
through the nets, which screen out the larger sizes, leaving the
average size of the escaping fish always greatly diminished. And
many of the fish escape through the web after being temporarily
captured, the twine having become so tightly constricted about the
body as to leave permanent marks that can not be mistaken. At the
rack which was maintained in Wood River above the Nushagak fish-
ing district there was opportunity to examine the fish escaping
from gill nets that were capturing from 75 to 90 per cent of the
running fish, but never were the escaping sockeyes so extensively
net marked as the Yukon king salmon are credibly reported to
have been in 1919.

150 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

Not all the screening out of the larger sizes and the net marking
was due to the operations of the cannery. Natives in the lower river
also fish for king salmon with nets, but the extent of their operations
is so very small compared with that of the cannery in 1919 that the
effect was negligible. Fishermen interviewed stated that they had
in previous years seen a few net-marked fish prior to the opening
of the cannery, but never anything to compare with the condition
observed in 1919. The prevalence of small-sized king salmon in
1919, taken in connection with the extent of the net marking, may
justly be considered a measure of the closeness with which these -
salmon were fished in 1919.

What was true of the king salmon was true also, it is believed, of
the run of chums. Fishing for these was prosecuted during the
months of June, July, and August. Conditions at the mouth of the
river were comparatively favorable for a maximum catch through-
out the season. As the salmon move back and forth with the tides,
passing up and down the banks where nets are staked, and loitering
in the eddies where other nets are anchored, the cannery gear has
repeated chances to ensnare them. One of the principal ‘ieheene
in the 1919 run in the upper river was the almost total failure of
the “silvers.” These, it will be recalled, are the bright chums of high
quality which run after the king salmon have passed. It was to
these that the cannery devoted its attention after the king salmon
nets had been retired. In 1919 the king salmon run had materially
declined by July 5, and it was after this date that 272,717 out of the
total 357,081 small salmon (principally chums) were taken. It is
considered certain that the operations of the cannery in 1919 very
materially added to the scarcity of fish on the river. Had the fish
captured by the cannery been free to enter the river, the run would
still have been below the normal size, but the distress and incon-
venience occasioned to the interior of Alaska by the salmon short-
age would have been largely mitigated. -

EFFECT OF CANNERY IN 1920.

The run of 1920 has been universally approved by fishermen as
the most favorable since 1916. Salmon were abundant, of good
average size, and of excellent quality. Some fishermen acclaimed
it the largest run they had ever seen on the river, but the majority
called it a fair average run of the better class of years. Certain it
was there was no necessary lack of dried salmon anywhere on the
main river as far upstream as Dawson. Some complaint was heard
of insufficient fish supply on the Yukon Flats in the vicinity of
Fort Yukon, and it was noted in certain native villages between
Circle and Forty-Mile that scant provision seemed to have been made
for the winter. But it was not evident that there was any lack of
salmon. All white fishermen and some natives in these districts made
good catches and reported the fish abundant. At Dawson, where
serious complaints were heard the previous year, sufficient supplies
were secured in 1920. Such slackness as apparently existed im
certain native camps may find its explanation perhaps partly in the
effects of the “flu,” which ravaged some of these communities in
the spring of the year, partly in superabundance of money, owing
to high prices received for muskrat pelts, and partly, in some com-

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 151

munities, to a general shiftlessness, which habitually leads to priva-
tion and suffering in the winter.

A similar condition was observed in certain fish camps on the
lower Tanana, in which natives seemed obviously less intelligent and
less efficient than in the great majority of camps on the main river.
In a few of these was heard the complaint that there were no fish,
but it is believed that their scant supply was due to other causes. It
is of course true that any scarcity will first declare itself on the
upper river and among the tributaries, after the salmon, which
run in a single channel in the main river, have distributed them-
selves over a far wider area. It is regretted that reliable reports
could not be obtained from the Innoko, the Koyukuk, and the Por-
cupine.

n comparing the effects of the cannery in 1920 with those in 1919
conditions are met in the two years that were the very reverse of
one another.

In 1919 the total run of salmon was far below normal, the condi-
tions for fishing at the mouth of the river were favorable, the can-
nery catch was very large, and considered in relation to the number
of salmon running it was far larger.

In 1920 there was at least a fair average run of the better class, and
not improbably it was one of the best runs that can be expected in
the Yukon; but the cannery was unsuccessful, owing to adverse fish-
ing conditions. It obtained little more than half as many kings as
in 1919 and less than half as many chums. Had the 58,000 kings and
155,000 chums been permitted to enter the river more salmon un-
doubtedly would have reached the spawning grounds, but the amount
of dried salmon would not have been greatly increased. In the first
place the number released would bear a small ratio to the total num-
ber running in so good a year; and, furthermore, along that section
of the river which put up by far the larger amount of dried salmon,
wheels, if operated more than a few hours each day during the
height of the run, caught more fish than could be cleaned and pre-
pared for drying. It does not then appear that with a large run of
salmon and a relatively small cannery pack the latter has any recog-
nizable effect in lessening the dried salmon supply of the Yukon. We
are not prepared, however, to venture the assertion that such would
have been the case had the cannery pack in 1920 reached as large
proportions as it attained in 1919. But even had the cannery put
up the full 60,000 cases in 1920, for which it made preparations, it
would not have reproduced the severe conditions which existed on
the river in 1919. These, as has been shown, were the result of a

phenomenally poor season, made much worse by a large cannery
pack.

GENERAL DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.

The dependence of the native and white population on the salmon
supply of the Yukon admits of no question in the minds of any who
have acquaintance with the conditions of life in the great interior
of Alaska. The natives have other sources of food, but the salmon
form their main provision for the winter—their insurance against
starvation when other sources of food fail them, as they not infre-
quently do. No one who inquires into the matter can doubt that if

152 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

the supply of Yukon salmon should become seriously curtailed wide-
spread suffering and death would in many seasons be visited on the
natives.

The question of furnishing food for the whites is less urgent, but
isnot without importance. It was brought to our attention that with
the price of all articles of food rapidly rising, while wages in the
interior of Alaska have shown practically no increase during recent
years, the presence of a cheap source of food is of value.

But one of the most important phases of the salmon question,
which concerns whites and natives alike, is in relation to the dog.
The whole scheme of things in the sparsely populated Yukon wilder-
ness is predicated on the dog, and the use of the dog necessitates
dried salmon. The winter is the only time for travel “except along
the waterways of Alaska, and winter travel is impossible without the
dog team. Dogs are equally indispensable as draft animals and pack
animals. Transportation of the winter mails over thousands of miles
of the interior of Alaska must be accomplished by dog team. Men
of the Army and the Signal Corps, like all other ‘people i in Alaska,
are dependent on the dog whenever business makes 1t necessary for
them to undertake winter travel. Fort Gibbon alone needs 40 tons
of dried salmon each year to feed the dogs that they find indis-
pensable in their work. Prospectors need them to carry their sup-
plies into the hills. Wood choppers require them to haul in the
wood. Indians must have them on their long hunting and trapping
expeditions, and without them can neither secure meat for their
families nor furs to exchange for the other necessaries of life.

The dog is as essential in Alaska as is the horse in other regions,
and the only acceptable dog feed is dried salmon. Various substi-
tutes have been tried out when salmon could not be procured. They
were used extensively by the “dog-mushers” of 1919, when dried

salmon often could not be had at any price. Fresh meat was used,
and enormous numbers of caribou and moose were slaughtered for
this purpose. But it is impossible to carry sufficient meat for many
days, and the supply is precarious. Furthermore,.the dogs do not
thrive and work well on this diet. A dict of cereals and fat in some
form was extensively used. Stocks of rice, flour, corn meal, and bacon
were heavily drawn on. Dogs traveled well on a ration of corn meal
and bacon, but the expense was almost prohibitive, and there was the
‘labor of cooking up each night in camp a meal for the dogs after the
exhausting travel of the day with the temperature perhaps 50°
below zero and a weary famished team waiting to be fed. Dried
salmon forms a light condensed food which contains all the elements
needed to keep a hard-working team in excellent condition, and it is
always ready to be fed without preparation. There is no acceptable
_ substitute, and there is not in Alaska any divergence of opinion on
this subject. No single need in the interior of Alaska is more gen-
erally or more urgently felt than dried salmon for its various uses.

Tt is clear, then, that the Yukon and the Kuskokwim offer salmon
problems which are not pressing on any other Alaskan rivers with
the exception of the Copper River. These streams drain the far
northern interior districts of Alaska with long severe winters and
the briefest of summers. The inhabitants are few in number and
are distributed widely over a wilderness which is largely without

U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 153

population. Their lives are subject to the most severe conditions of
existence. Largely they are dependent on the resources of the
country. To deprive these people of one of their most valued and
most important resources would seem under such circumstances
peculiarly indefensible. The principle should be adopted with regard
to the interior rivers of Alaska that no commercial interests should
be permitted to exploit them until it should be demonstrated that a
portion of their salmon run could be spared without detriment to the
run itself and without encroaching on the supply needed by the
populations that inhabit the valleys of these rivers. And if there is
~ any question whether the salmon run in a given stream is adequate to
supply the demands of commercial operations as well as the needs of
the inhabitants, the doubt should at once be resolved in favor of the
people. The subject should not be one for experiment. Canneries
should not be permitted to establish themselves on these streams
while we calmly await the result. They may create havoc before the
evidence thereof is clearly shown, and in the meantime they will
have secured those highly prized “ vested rights” which make their
position difficult of attack. ;
A floating cannery operated by the Carlisle Packing Co. is already
established at the mouth of the Yukon, and it becomes appropriate
to inquire whether the continued operation of this cannery is com-
patible with the best interests of the Yukon Valley. It is evident
that if the fish required by this company can without question be
safely spared, the cannery should be welcomed, for it provides
much needed freight for a transportation company that supplies
the Yukon and it offers much needed employment for a limited
number of natives and others during a brief period of the summer.
But if the operation of the cannery should threaten encroachment
on the supply of salmon needed in the interior it should be com-
pelled to close, as no advantage to its few employees could possibly
compensate for widespread inconvenience, distress, and suffering.
As a result of the Yukon hearing, given in Seattle, Wash., No-
vember 20, 1918, the Secretary of Commerce promulgated an order
that limited the pack of canned salmon to 30,000 cases in any year
from the Yukon River, embracing all waters of its delta to and in-
eluding the area 500 yards outside each mouth or slough of the
delta at mean high tide. Beyond this area of 500 yards outside the
mouth or mouths of the river the Secretary of Commerce exercises
no jurisdiction, the Congress having failed to confer it upon him.
He is therefore helpless to extend protection to channels between
shoals and islands off the mouth of any river, although such chan-
nels may be regular migration routes of the salmon bound for that
river and as much open to attack as any part of the river channels.
Realizing this deficiency of the laws, the Carlisle Packing Co. in
1919 put up approximately the maximum pack inside the river,
and then proceeded nearly to double this with salmon equally bound
for the Yukon which they captured outside the mouth of the river.
In doing this they were wholly within their legal rights, but they
evinced thereby an indifference to the obvious purport of the order,
which was to provide for a strictly limited pack of Yukon fish. In
_ making this increased pack they happened on a year when the run
was poor and the fishing conditions were excellent. They were

154 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES.

enabled, therefore, to give a demonstration of the resul
operations when these two conditions appear in conins
disastrous year of 1919 resulted.
As to the future, there is no assurance of better praia
1919. From our inquiries it appears that the Yukon runs
are by no means uniform in size. Good years and poor y
nate, and occasional very poor years have always appeared
while the Carlisle company continues to operate without
yond the mouth of the river. Should they consider the p
success warranted the expenditure, there is nothing to pre e]
increasing the number of fishermen and preparing for
100,000 instead of 60 000 cases. Or one or more other ¢
may join in the business of catching Yukon salmon off the 1
the river if they consider the venture a promising one.
run is wholly without adequate protection as long as the
to the river are open to unrestricted fishing and are :
jurisdiction of the Secretary of Commerce.
Finally, it is the judgment of the writers that the Y
- salmon run is not to be relied on annually to produce a.
export in addition to the supply needed for local requir
the further quantity essential for propagation. During ,
a surplus might be spared sufficient to produce a limited -
during poor years the operation of a cannery will ha
of making a bad situation very decidedly worse. ;
It is recommended, therefore, that all commercial fi
export be prohibited 1 in the Yukon River and its tribut
ing the waters of the delta and an area 500 yards outsid
of each channel or slough of the delta. :
Furthermore, it is recommended that immediate steps be t
have brought within the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Co1
all those channels between the shoals and islands whi
approaches to the Yukon in order that commercial fishin
= for export may be effectively limited or entire

O