USA > Alaska > Alaska and the Klondike > Part 10
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$1.50 for each skin when seals were comparatively plenty and the market price was low, but as the price advanced from $9 or $10 to $20 or $22, as it is now, the hunters demanded and secured $5 apiece for all the skins they brought in. In their search for seal the small boats often wandered miles away from their ship and before going out of sight, as they sometimes did, took their bearings by the compass to insure safe return. The insurance was not always good, however, and many small- boat crews have chased the seal too far. Edwards relates that he was once lost on Bering Sea for over a week and the revenue cutter McCulloch on its way up to St. Michael to meet our party picked up a boat containing a hunter and two oarsmen who were lost from a Japanese seal poacher and had been drifting about several days.
The North American Commercial company, which holds from the Government the exclusive sealing privilege on Pribylov Islands, is not enjoying a very profitable monopoly at the present time. The seal herds have been so depleted that a catch of 20,000 is difficult to get and the annual product of the islands is diminishing. The annual rental payable to the Government was fixed at $60,000, but that contemplated a catch approximating 100,000 skins. This rental has been scaled down to $12,000, but the fixed charges of over $10 a pelt, in- cluding a tax of $9.62, do not leave a very large margin of profit. While the industry is now nearly extinct, owing chiefly to the ravages of the poachers, who take more pelts now than the leasing company, a suspension of the
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killing for a few years would soon restore the rookeries to their once populous state. In 1834 the Russian sealers had reduced the number on the rookeries to 8,000 seals. Seal-fishing was suspended for thirty-three years and poaching prohibited by the Russian Government, which then claimed the right to control Bering Sea, and in 1867, when the United States came into possession of the islands, the herd had increased to upwards of 4,000,000.
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THE ALASKAN FISHERIES
A T some time in the history of the world, while the earth was being prepared for human habitation, volcanic action appears to have lifted a ridge in the earth's crust above the waters of the sea till it ap- peared in almost continuous line from the southwest coast of Alaska to the Asiatic shore. How near Bering Sea came to being a bay of the Arctic Ocean and cut off from the Pacific probably not every one realises.
Beginning with the Alaskan peninsula, which juts out between the Pacific and Bering Sea for nearly 500 miles, the volcanic ridge fails to reach the surface continuously, but appears at frequent intervals, for a thousand miles further, in what is known as the Aleutian chain of islands.
It may not be generally appreciated that Nome and the seal islands are farther west than Honolulu, that Attu, the most western of the Aleutian chain, is not as far from the Asiatic coast as is St. Louis from Minneapolis and that it is nearer from Attu to the Kommander Islands, just off the coast of Kamschatka, than from Minneapolis to Mil- waukee. This Alaskan peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, if stretched out across our continent, would reach from Minneapolis to Boston. Such comparisons may help to
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convey a clearer idea of the far western reach of our Alaskan possessions.
One of the largest of the Aleutian chain is the island of Unalaska, lying in practically the same longitude with
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Unalaska
the Hawaiian Islands. Shut within the heart of this island is one of the finest harbours in the world. Entered by a somewhat circuitous route from the north side of the island, this harbour is completely surrounded by high mountains and affords a safe refuge for ships of the heaviest draft; where they may load and unload at com- modious wharves, no matter what storms may rage with- out on the open sea. This harbour, as well as the water
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all along the Aleutian chain, is open all the year round. The Japan current, a warm ocean stream, flows eastward along and around these islands, so that while their vol- canic mountain summits are covered with perpetual snow the lower slopes and valleys are beautiful from April to November in their covering of grass and moss and great variety of wild flowers. A noticeable peculiarity is the ab- sence of trees. The soft, velvet-looking surface is green and beautiful and the combination of snowy peaks, some of them smoking with internal fires, the soft green of the hills and valleys, and dark waters of the ocean, makes a picture of which the eye never tires. The climate is mild, the mean winter temperature being about thirty degrees above zero and the average for midsummer only twenty degrees higher. There is a great deal of rain and snow and fog.
Unalaska, on account of its excellent harbour, was made a base of operations by the Russians from the early days of their occupation of the northwest American coast. It was an important point in the fur-trading business a hun- dred years ago and more, when the fox and that most valuable of fur-bearing animals, the sea otter, were taken in large numbers, to the practical extinction of the latter.
To this island of Unalaska the senatorial party came on the morning of August 5, and dropped anchor in the bay twenty-four hours after leaving the seal islands. There are two settlements on this harbour, the one of most commercial importance being known as Dutch Har-
Pacific Squadron in Dutch Harbour
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bour, where large docks have been erected and where are the offices and storehouses of one of the Alaskan com- mercial companies. Farther inland lies the old Russian village of Unalaska or Iliuliuk, which means curving beach. Dutch Harbour is important as a coaling station, and when we arrived we found there the North Pacific fleet, consisting of the flagship New York, the Concord, the Bennington, the Marblehead, and the Fortune, with Admiral Glass in command. The revenue cutter Bear was also in the harbour, and soon after our arrival the revenue cutter Rush, bound for St. Michael and Nome, came in. The Bear was awaiting the return of the British ship Shearwater from the seal islands, with which vessel the Bear alternates in guarding the sixty-mile limit around those islands, and the islands themselves, from poachers. The Shearwater arrived before our departure, so that the harbour looked somewhat as if a naval review were about to take place.
Admiral Glass and the officers of his fleet had just arrived from a trip westward along the Aleutian chain, where they had been engaged for several weeks in explor- ing and surveying the harbours and coast lines, making soundings and picking out the most available places for one or two naval coaling stations, which are sure to be of importance in our naval operations on the Pacific.
The village of Unalaska is the objective of many tourists as the best place in which to buy specimens of the wonderful basket-weaving done by the Aleuts. Thither, for sale, are brought, by an old German, who is a sort of
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self-constituted chief of the island, baskets and other articles from far-off Attu, the most westerly of the Aleutian chain. In all the basketry of the native races of our western mainland and island possessions nothing com- pares favourably with the Attu baskets, while for fine- ness and delicacy of construction the weaving of some of the smaller articles made by the Attu natives out of wild grass and root fibres, compares favourably with costly laces. The population of Unalaska is chiefly Indian or Creole.
Above the cluster of white cottages and stores that front the curving beach which gives to the place its Indian name of Iliuliuk, rise the towers and dome of the Greek church. The site of this lingering vestige of Russian occupation is one of the fairest spots in all Alaska. I saw it first in the evening of a beautiful day. High overhead tower the heights of old Makushin, from whose summit floats lazily a cloud of white, steamy smoke like the waste from the tall chimney of a great factory while the workers rest and the fires are banked. The mountains rise along the west and are silhouetted sharply against the glowing sunset sky. The grey fog gathers in the valleys and follows the receding sunlight slowly up the hillsides. At the upper end of the village the waters of the bay are contracted to a narrow channel, but a little further on they spread out again and fill the deep valley in the heart of the island. Through the mists of evening which float along the surface of this placid water glides the kiak of a native propelled by his silent stroke. As one rests upon
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the grassy hillside across the channel to gather in the beauty of the scene held here in this far-away island of the Pacific, the air carries absolutely no sound. Dutch Harbour has kindly taken away all the prose and left to dreamy Unalaska only the poetry of existence. No ships lie at her deserted wharves; the days of her commercial importance are gone. And this is true of practically all the places of importance under Russian rule. Unalaska is no longer of consequence in the development of Alaska; Kodiak or St. Paul, at one time the centre of things Rus- sian on the American continent, retains much to interest the visitor in the way of reminders of its one-time impor- tance, but they are all glories of the past; Sitka, which after St. Paul became the seat of the Russian government of Alaska and which really achieved the distinction of being at one time the most important commercial and in- dustrial centre on the Pacific coast of North America, is only a beautiful, a very beautiful, reminiscence and cuts little figure in the commercial or political Alaska of to- day.
From Unalaska our route lay along the south coast of the Alaskan peninsula. The Aleutian Islands swing down to the 5 Ist parallel of latitude, only about 3 degrees above Seattle, but now we turn northeast and before we reach home find ourselves at Valdez, upon the latitude of White Horse Rapids on the 6Ist parallel. The North Pacific does not always live up to its name, and withal, revenue cruisers built for speed are not by any means the steadiest boats on a rolling sea. I am violating no con-
Kodiak, or St. Paul, on Kadiak Island
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fidences committed to me and making no confessions, but neither the seal steaks and livers brought from St. Paul Island nor the codfish taken Sunday morning on a cod bank off the Semidi Islands appealed very strongly to any number of the party. They say the table was not set that day in the captain's cabin where the senators were quar- tered, and the racks on the table down in the wardroom were not filled with the dishes of many except the officers, and one or two of them seemed to be dieting.
Time was when the fur trade was the chief source of Alaska's wealth. But that declined. Then gold began to be discovered and gold mining absorbed all attention . directed toward Alaska, and it is destined to be much more important than it is now. But unless you are much better informed with regard to Alaskan affairs than I was before I went there, you may not be prepared for the fact that the fisheries of Alaska employ more capital, and that their annual product amounts to as much, and some- times half as much again, as the gold output.
The salmon fisheries of the Columbia and Fraser rivers and of Puget Sound are well known and generally regarded as the principal source of the salmon supply, but the fact is that the whole coast line of British Colum- bia, of southeastern and southern Alaska and clear around to the Yukon River is more or less plentifully stocked with these most nutritious of all food fishes, the king, the red and other varieties of salmon. Wherever there are streams running from inland snow-fed lakes into the sea, on the islands as well as on the mainland, the salmon congregate
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at the breeding time and sometimes literally choke the mouths of the fresh-water courses on their way to the spawning grounds.
It was on the morning of August 10 that the McCul- loch dropped anchor off the mouth of Karluk River on the north shore of Kadiak Island, in a fog so dense that it was impossible to see a ship's length. The fog whistle was answered by the ringing of the bells and the shrill whistles of small steam craft, and as the fog lifted a few minutes later it revealed the large buildings of the Alaska Packing association at what has been heretofore the larg- est salmon-packing station in Alaska.
The seines had been set about the mouth of Karluk River in the early morning, and when we went ashore after an early breakfast we found the fishermen drawing in their nets. Where salmon fishing is done on a large scale, as it is at Karluk, most of the fish are taken in seines. A net, nine or ten feet wide, and two or three thousand feet long, is loaded on a scow, towed by a steam tug. The tug makes a circuit out from the shore enclosing a large area opposite the mouth of Karluk River, paying out the seine as it goes and returning to the shore, ten or fifteen rods from the point from which it started out. One end of the seine is made fast while the other is attached to a steam windlass and drawn slowly to shore. As it is brought in it is attended by fisher- men in boats to see that it does not become entangled on the rocks and broken, and when it has been drawn in so as to narrow the enclosed area to a surface of two or three
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hundred square feet, large fishing boats are brought alongside and the salmon are dipped up with huge baskets into the boats.
The draught which was loaded that morning into the fishing boats was a good one for a season which had not been particularly satisfactory. The number taken out of that net was variously estimated from 12,000 to 17,000. And what a wriggling, squirming, slippery mass, as they fill three square-built boats 8 feet wide and 18 feet long to a depth of 2 feet ! The fish in this draught are of average size, 15 to 24 inches long.
The loaded boats are taken to the cannery, where the fish are emptied into large bins convenient to the machin- ery employed in canning. The first process, of course, is the cleaning, and this is nearly all done by machinery. As the fish are brought on carriers from the bin they are deposited on tables where men called "butchers " rapidly and skilfully cut off the heads, fins and tails. A good " butcher " can handle 250 to 300 salmon an hour. They pass from this table on belt carriers to a machine which treats the fish a good deal as a corn-sheller treats the corn- cob, except that it not only removes the scales, but cuts the fish open and removes the entrails. A strong stream of water is thrown upon the fish in this process so as to wash it out thoroughly, but to make sure of a clean job, and that no fish unfit for market are packed, the fish go next to the hands of cleaners, who inspect them and finish them up ready for the cutting machine.
From the cleaner they are carried to machines where
Drawing in the Net at Karluk
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the fish is laid crosswise on an ascending belt, or a series of parallel belts, travelling side by side. Between these belts knives revolve rapidly, and as the fish are carried up on the belts they are cut in sections the length of the cans in which they are packed. They come from the cut- ting machine to another ingenious contrivance which car- ries the cans one at a time to a point opposite a rammer, which forces the fish into the can in sufficient quantity to fill it at one stroke, after which the lid is placed in position by machinery and the head end of the can rolled through molten solder in such a way as to seal it. All this process of cutting the fish, filling the can, putting on the cap and soldering it is done by machinery at the rate of 50 to 60 cans a minute.
The fish are packed raw. The cans are placed in large steam cooking tanks, where they are heated to a tempera- ture of 212 degrees. Here they remain for forty-five minutes to an hour. When they are taken out, each can is punctured with a small pricking mallet, to allow the gases and steam generated in the first cooking process to escape. The aperture is then soldered up and the cans are returned to another set of ovens or steam tanks, where they are subjected to a heat of 240 degrees for another hour. After this second cooking process they are set out and allowed to cool. They are then rinsed clean with cold water and are subjected to the final test as to whether they have been securely sealed or not. This is determined by tapping each can on the end with a little bar of iron. The Confucian who does this (the cannery employés are
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mainly Chinese) has become so expert that he can tell by the sound whether the can is perfectly sealed or not. If it is not air-tight it is set aside and the leak found and closed up. A brilliant label is attached, the cans are packed in cases containing forty-eight cans to the case, and they are ready for the market. Before the cans are filled with the raw fish a measured amount of salt is deposited in each by a simple mechanical device which salts a whole trayful at one movement.
Every well-equipped salmon cannery in Alaska manu- factures its own cans and makes the wooden boxes or cases in which the salmon are shipped to market.
The salmon appear around the outlets of fresh-water streams only during the summer season-through June, July and August. When the season approaches the can- ning companies of Alaska gather up in San Francisco, Seattle and other coast towns men who furnish the most profitable labour for this business. At Karluk the fishing is done largely by Italians. For the three months of the fishing season they receive on the average about $350, to- gether with their board and lodging, and their trans- portation to and from the fishing grounds.
Not all the salmon are canned. There is a market for salted salmon, particularly in Japan and China, where the consumer is not as particular as to quality as the American or European customer. There are several varieties of salmon, the less desirable being known as the pink salmon and the humpback. These are salted, dried and packed in barrels for export. Dried salmon is the form also in
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which the Indian prefers the large quantities which he consumes. The fish which he takes for his own use are cut open, boned and slashed into sections about an inch wide so as to open up the flesh and expose it to the air, and hung up to dry. After exposure in this way for a week or ten days it is smoked until nearly black and is ready for winter use. Dried salmon dipped in seal oil constitutes the principal part of the Alaska Indian's win- ter food and is esteemed as highly by him as is the beef roast by the beef-eating Englishman.
Very little is known about the history of the salmon. It is known that it is hatched in fresh water; that in the course of time it finds its way to the sea. But where it goes, and what has been its manner of life during the five or six years which are generally supposed to intervene before it returns to spawn in soft water, no one has yet been able to discover. But at the age of probably six or seven years both males and females swarm about the mouths of fresh-water streams, guided by an instinct which compels them to seek the sources of these fresh-water streams for their spawning grounds. As soon as the salmon leaves the salt water and enters the fresh it begins to deteriorate. The absence of the saline property seems to be fatal to his existence. The flesh begins to rot; the males particularly turn a purplish-red, with great splotches of grey on their backs and sides; their noses appear to be covered with a white fungous growth, which is only decomposition setting in, and unless they reach their des- tination within a reasonable time they die before the
South Alaska Indian in Kiak
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spawning process. When they spawn the male digs a little depression in the sand with his nose and the eggs are deposited in it. But where thousands of salmon are spawning on the same gravel bed the same season the eggs first deposited are often disturbed, and it is estimated that not one in ten ever matures under natural conditions. The spawning salmon rarely if ever find their way back to salt water, but die in the fresh water to which they have come to lay their eggs. Wonderful stories are told of the feats performed by the salmon in ascending rapids and cascades in order to reach the headwaters where their instincts impel them to go. Where the volume of falling water is sufficient they are said to swim almost perpen- dicularly for several feet, while a leap of two or three feet over an obstruction is no trick at all for these powerful swimmers.
Although the law provides that salmon fishing must be suspended for thirty-six hours out of every week in order to give the fish a chance to go up to the spawning ground, where the canning companies are taking fish in large quantities at the mouths of the best streams, nature cannot be relied upon to provide for the perpetuation of the species and the Government has required by law that all canneries shall maintain hatcheries and put into fresh water every year ten fry, as the young fish are called, for every full-grown fish canned. Some of the hatcheries comply with this law and some do not. At Karluk there is a large hatchery, the establishment of which must have cost the Alaska Packing association
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from $50,000 to $60,000, while the maintenance probably adds another $ 10,000 annually.
The salmon canneries of Alaska pay to the Govern- ment, annually, in the form of a tax of 4 cents on each case, about $90,000, and it is the judgment of the fish commission as well as the packers themselves that the fair and most effectual method of perpetuating the salmon is for the Government to establish hatcheries and main- tain them out of the fund derived from this tax, or from a heavier one if necessary, as this tax amounts to only I per cent. on the value of the output. This would not only distribute the burden of maintenance equally upon all the packers, but it would insure the propagation of the fish by the most scientific methods and the perpetuation of the most valuable species. As to the necessity of artificial propagation, there can hardly be any doubt. So many ways are found to avoid the spirit while complying with the letter of the law with reference to the taking of the salmon that it cannot be hoped that this valuable natural asset will not be materially affected if the perpetuation of it is left to the processes of nature and the only half- observed requirements as to private hatcheries. The Government is giving serious attention to this phase of the matter and during the summer of 1903 sent out the Al- batross, a ship equipped for the service of the fish com- mission, bearing a corps of fish experts for the purpose chiefly of investigating the condition of the salmon and other fisheries of the Alaskan coast.
The capital stock of the companies employed in pack-
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ing salmon in Alaska is about $25,000,000, and the value of their plants $6,500,000. The pack for 1903 is esti- mated closely at 2,204,423 cases, valued at $8,500,000. The average annual product of the salmon fisheries exceeds the original first cost of Alaska by a million dollars, and the total product since Alaska became an American pos- session will exceed seven times the amount paid by Mr. Seward for the entire district.
Alaska has other valuable varieties of fish, which, however, have not yet been developed to proportions corresponding with the salmon industry. Halibut, one of the most delicately flavoured fish, is found all along the coast, but the principal fishing for this species is done in Wrangell Narrows, where the glacial ice is picked up as it floats by and used for packing the fish for the Eastern market. Cod are found over a large area and will eventually attract more attention than they do now. Herring, red snappers, flounders, black bass, many kinds of trout, greylings, eels, shrimps, crabs and clams, but no oysters, abound in Alaskan waters.
X TRANSPORTATION-THE KEY TO ALASKA'S LOCKED-UP WEALTH
A LTHOUGH the traveller through Alaska cannot escape the evidences that he is on the far frontier; although the fact that the American occupation is recent, that the population is sparse and that we are just at the beginning of things in Alaska, is unavoid- able, one is occasionally reminded of a prior occupation and is almost made to feel as if he were moving among the ruins of an extinct civilisation. Vestiges of the earlier occupation are encountered here and there, and add a pecu- liar zest to the pleasures which the traveller may derive from a journey over the long and sometimes lonesome paths that lead to the commercial centres and among the scenic attractions of that wonderful country.
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