USA > Alaska > History of Alaska : 1730-1885 > Part 63
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When they come in from the north Pacific in early summer, the seals usually select their landing-places on the south and south-eastern shores of the Prybilof Islands, mainly, as is supposed, because the winds, blowing at that season usually from the north and west, carry out to sea the scent of their old rookeries. During the month of May only a few hundreds of full- grown males are to be seen on the grounds, but about the first week in June, when banks of gray fog begin to enshroud the islands, the males swarm in daily by thousands, and choose locations for their harems close to high-water mark.
Toward the end of the month the females arrive, and meanwhile a constant fight has been going on between the new-comers and those already in the field, during which the latter, exhausted by repeated conflicts, are often driven higher up the rookery and away from the water-line. The contests are only among the full-grown males,45 which dispute in single combat the choicest spots; and veterans have been known to fight thirty or forty pitched battles in order
" About 3,000,000 are full-grown females. Where they all harbor during the rest of the year is not known, but it is believed that they spend the win- ter south of the Aleutian Islands, in places where fish are abundant. Hittell's Com. and Ind., Pac. Coust, 332.
45 Eight years old or more.
655
SEAL BATTLES.
to maintain their ground until the arrival of the females, when it seems to be understood that those who have held their own shall not be disturbed for the season. 46
The combatants approach warily and with averted gaze. When at close quarters they make feints or passes like pugilists in the ring, their heads darting in and out and their eyes gleaming with a lurid light. After much preliminary roaring and writhing, they seize each other with their long canine teeth, and when the grip is relaxed, the skin and blubber of one or both are scarred with furrows, the blood streaming down meanwhile, and the conflict being perhaps the most singular that man can witness.
" Thus," as Elliott remarks, "about two thirds of all the males which are born, and they are equal in numbers to the females born, are never permitted by the remaining third, strongest by natural selection, to land upon the same breeding-ground with the females, which always herd thereupon en masse. Hence, the great band of bachelor seals, or holluschickie,47 so fitly termed, when it visits the island is obliged to live apart entirely, sometimes, and in some places, miles away from the rookeries; and in this admirably perfect method of nature are those seals which can be properly killed without injury to the rookeries se- lected and held aside, so that the natives can visit and take them without disturbing, in the least degree, the entire quiet of the breeding-grounds, where the stock is perpetuated."
To the bachelor seals remains the choice of taking up their abode-in technical phrase, 'hauling up'- in rear of the rookeries, or on what are termed the free beaches. For the former purpose a path is left through the married-quarters by which they pass in ceaseless files, day or night, at will. No well con-
46 Elliott states that he has seen a veteran seal fight 40 or 50 battles and beat off all his assailants, coming out of the campaign with the loss of an eye, and covered with raw and festering scars. Seal Islands, Alaska, 32.
47 A Russian word for bachelors.
656
COMMERCE, REVENUE, AND FURS.
ducted holluschick is molested on the way, but woe to him that keeps not straight on his path, or looks askant and sniffs in the neighborhood of a harem. Loss of flipper or of life is the sure penalty.
During the early part of the season, the bachelor seals that select as their ground the free beaches haul up48 within a few rods of high-water mark, and to effect their capture great caution is required. At the first glimpse of dawn, a party of natives is sent to the spot whence the seals are to be driven to the slaugh- tering-ground, and while their victims are still dozing, creep stealthily between them and the surf. When roused, they find themselves cut off from retreat to the sea, and crawl or lope in the direction in which they are guided by the Aleuts, who, brandishing their clubs, but as noiselessly as possible, walk slowly on the flank and in rear of the drove. In this man- ner, under favorable circumstances, several thousand fur-seals may be driven by a dozen men, but usually only a few hundred are taken at a time.
From the hauling-grounds to the killing-grounds the seals are driven at the rate of about half a mile an hour, with frequent halts to allow time to cool, as heating injures the quality of the fur. During the 'drive,' as it is termed, they never show fight, unless it should happen that a few veterans are among the drove. When the men think it time to halt, they drop back a few paces, whereupon the holluschickie stop, and pant, and fan themselves. The clattering of a few bones or a shout from their drivers causes them instantly to resume their march to the slaugh- tering-grounds. 49
About seven o'clock the seals are secured in the slaughtering corral, which is always close to one of the
48 A phrase applied to the action of seals when they land from the surf and drag themselves over the beach.
49 The 'drive' to Lukannon ou St Paul Island occupies about two hours, to Tolstoi on the same island two and a half to three hours, while to Zoltoi, on St George Island, the distance from the beach is trifling. These are the principal slaughtering-grounds. Id., 71 (note). Opposite that page is a plate representing a drove on its way to the killing-grounds.
657
SLAUGHTER OF SEALS.
Alaska Commercial Company's villages. Here they are allowed to cool until the men have breakfasted, after which all the Aleuts come forth, armed with bludgeons, clubs,50 and stabbing and skinning knives. At a given signal the men step into the corral, from which a hundred or a hundred and fifty are driven at a time, . and surrounded, the circle narrowing until the seals are huddled together and within reach of the clubs. The chief then selects those which are doomed, and a single blow of the club, which will stun and not kill, is dealt to all. If the day happen to be warm and fair, the skin will spoil, unless removed, sometimes within half an hour,51 and always within an hour and a half after the death of the seal. To avoid waste, therefore, and to allow those whose furs have been injured during the harem fights a chance to escape, the fatal blow is not struck until later, when a single well aimed stroke of the bludgeon crushes in the slen- der bones of the victim'sskull and stretches himlifeless. 52
The skins are taken to the salt-house, where they are carefully examined, and those which are damaged, the number seldom exceeding one per cent, are rejected. They are then salted on the fleshy side, and, in sealing phrase, piled, fat to fat, in 'kenches,'53 after which salt is thrown on the outer edges and kept in place by sliding planks. In two or three weeks they are pickled, when they are taken, as required, rolled into bundles of two, with the fur outward, and are tightly corded. They are then ready for shipment to San Francisco, where they are counted by the government agent and thence forwarded to London in casks containing each forty to eighty skins.54
The method of dressing and dyeing the skins is a
50 The bludgeons are of hickory, and the clubs five or six feet in length, and three inches in diameter at the head.
51 Elliott states that this occurs, but is a rare occurrence.
52 The blows are usually repeated two or three times. 53 Large bins.
54 The average weight of a skin thus pickled is 6 to 101bs. A table of the weight, size, and growth of the fur-seal at the Prybilof Islands is given in Id., 46.
HIST. ALASKA. 42
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COMMERCE, REVENUE, AND FURS.
trade secret, and for some reason this branch of indus- try appears to be almost concentrated in London. Al- though artisans have been engaged, and dye-stuffs and even water imported from England by the French, furs prepared by artisans of the latter nation are not con- sidered equal to those prepared in London. The pro- cesses previous to that of dyeing, wherein the secret lies, are very simple. In order to rid it of greasy particles, the skin is first soaked in warm water, and after being scraped clean, again soaked in warm water containing rose-wood or mahogany sawdust. The fleshy side of the skin is then shaved, in order to cut off the roots of the coarser hairs, which fall out, leaving only the soft fur, which is then ready for the dyeing process. 55
Whatever has been or may be alleged against the Alaska Commercial Company, it cannot be said with truth that it has diminished the world's wealth. Dur- ing the first term of the Russian American Company's existence, the entire catch of fur-seals at the Pribylof Islands was estimated at a little over 1,000,000, dur- ing the second term at less than 460,000, and during the third term at about 340,000, each term extending over about twenty years, and almost each year show- ing a diminution in the supply. The waste of skins caused through fault of curing has already been men- tioned.56 In 1868 the slaughter exceeded 240,000, and, as we have seen, the rookeries were threatened with extermination. In 1883 about 100,000 were killed; their value was greatly enhanced, and during the portion of the company's lease that had then expired the supply was gradually on the increase.
The catch of sea-otter now averages 5,000 to 6,000 a year, or more than double the number secured be-
55 Hittell's Com. and Ind. Pac. Coast, 335. The price of a good finished skin in London was, in 1881, about $40.
56 Elliott remarks that the method of euring in early times was to peg them out when green on the ground, or stretch them on a wooden frame. About 750,000 were spoiled in 1803.
659
SEA-OTTER AND FOXES.
fore the purchase; and their skins are worth in Lon- don from $75 to $100.57 This industry furnishes prof- itable employment for a few months in the year to several thousand Aleuts, the skin being the most val- uable of all peltry, excepting perhaps the pelt of the black fox.
Silver-gray and black fox-skins were first introduced to fashion, it will be remembered, at St Petersburg.58 Of either the catch is inconsiderable, that of the silver fox seldom exceeding one hundred, while the appear- ance of a black fox-skin in the market is of very rare occurrence. Blue fox-skins are taken to the number of about 2,000. The red fox has little commercial value. Of marten and beaver skins considerable ship- ments are made; but of these, as of other land peltry, the principal supply comes from the Hudson's Bay Company.
57 For 1879 the catch was 900 in the Kadiak district, and 4,850 in the Unalaska district, the latter including the Shumagin Islands. Petroff's Pop. Alaska, 66.
58 This vol., p. 253.
CHAPTER XXX.
FISHERIES.
1867-1884.
SALMON PACKING-PRICE AND WEIGHT OF THE RAW FISH-YUKON-RIVER SALMON-ALASKAN CANNERIES-DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE- THE COD-BANKS OF ALASKA-LARGE INCREASE IN THE CATCH OF COD- FISH-AND DECREASE IN ITS VALUE-THE HALIBUT-FISHERIES-HER- RING AND HERRING-OIL-MACKEREL-THE EULACHON OR CANDLE-FISH- VALUE AND PROSPECTS OF THE ALASKAN FISHERIES-WHALING ENTER- PRISE-THE NORTH PACIFIC WHALING FLEET-GRADUAL DECREASE IN THE CATCH-THREATENED EXHAUSTION OF THE WHALING-GROUNDS.
"IN their public prayers," remarks John Adams, "it is said that the Dutch ask of the supreme being that it may please him to bless the government, the states, the lords, and the fisheries." In 1776 the fisheries of Alaska were unknown to John Adams and to the Dutch, nor were the Russians aware of their value, even at the time of the transfer, though it is not im- probable that, a generation hence, the waters of this territory may be one of the main sources of the world's supply.
There is, of course, no immediate prospect that the fisheries of Alaska will be extensively utilized unless other sources of supply should begin to fail. It is a little significant, however, that the salmon-pack should have increased from about 8,000 cases in 18801 to 36,000 in 1883, the yield in the latter year being worth about $180,000,2 while during the interval the
1 Hittell's Com. and Ind. Pac. Coast, 375. There were also shipped in 1880 500,000 lbs of salted salmon.
2 San Fran. Bulletin, April 12, 1SS4. A case contains four dozen one-pound tins, the value of which is estimated at $1.25 per dozen.
(660 )
661
SALMON IN ALASKA.
market for canned salmon had become greatly over- stocked. More than 36,000 cases are often shipped by a single cannery on the Columbia, although the price paid per fish in 1883 was on the Columbia seventy cents, and at the Alaska canneries from one cent to five cents.
The average weight of salmon caught in Alaskan rivers, after being cleaned, exceeds fifteen pounds,3 while on the Columbia it is less than twenty pounds. The flavor of the best fish caught in the former local- ity is only excelled by that of Scotch and Norwegian salmon, which are considered superior to any in the world. The more northerly the waters in which salmon are taken, the better their flavor. The king salmon, the largest and choicest of the species found in Alaska, not unfrequently attains a weight of eighty and some- times of a hundred pounds, its range being from the Alexander Archipelago to the Yukon. It is known to ascend that river for more than a thousand miles,4 the run commencing about the middle of June and lasting till the end of August. So choice is its flavor, that during the regime of the Russian American Com- pany, several barrels of the salted fish were shipped each season to St Petersburg for the use of the friends of the company's officials.5
The run of salmon on the Yukon is immense, but lasting as it does only for about six weeks, is at pres- ent considered of too brief duration to warrant the investment of capital. The fact that the mouth of the Yukon is not navigable for sea-going vessels is a
3 In Morris's Rept., Alaska, 113, it is stated that at Cook's Inlet they av- erage 60 lbs, and that some have been caught weighing 120 lbs. The state- ment would be true if it were applied only to king salmon, but is much above the figures for the average catch.
4 Beyond the site of Fort Yukon.
5 U. S. Agric. Rept. (1870), 41st Cong. 3d Sess., 382-3. The more common species have the same range, but their run commences a few days later and they remain longer. A king salmon when dried will make on an average about 20 lbs of ukali, as the dried fish was termed by the Indians. In the report the weight of the common species is given at 10 to 30 lbs, and when cleaned and smoked 2 or 3 lbs. These figures are too low. Probably the Aleut process of curing is the one mentioned.
662
FISHERIES.
further obstacle. In other rivers and streams of Alaska, however, salmon are almost equally abundant, and it is possible that the proprietors of the Colum- bia River canneries may find competition from these sources increase more rapidly than they anticipate.
About the year 1868 a cannery was built at Klowak, on Prince of Wales Island, probably the first one in Alaska, and afterward became the property of the San Francisco firm of Sisson, Wallace, and Company, who incorporated under the laws of California, taking the name of the North Pacific and Trading Company.6 In 1878 Cutting and Company, also of San Francis- co, established a cannery near the site of Fort Sv Mikhaïl, or, as it is now termed, old Sitka,7 and al- though they did not commence operations until late in the season, their first pack was about five thousand cases.8 On account of an accident, this cannery was afterward removed to a favorable site on Cook Inlet. In 1883 the Alaska Salmon Packing and Fur Com- pany was incorporated, among its purposes being the canning, salting, and smoking of fish at the lake and harbor of Naha. Small canneries have also been established at other points, and it is worthy of note that they should find the industry remunerative, while, on account of low prices, the canneries of the Columbia, with their superior appliances, have almost ceased to be profitable.
The chief obstacles in the way of the canneries are the shortness of the season, the difficulty in obtaining labor, the great cost of supplies, the want of commu- nication, and the fact that no title can be obtained to land. That raw fish will continue to be cheaper, be- cause more abundant and more easily caught than
6 Morris states that the first year's operations satisfied the firm that the enterprise would be successful. Rept., 115.
" Five miles from the present town of Sitka.
8 Berry's Developments, Alaska, MS., 12. Berry states that the firm did not lose money the first season. In Sen. Ex. Doc., 46th Cong. 2d Sess., 105, p. 13, it is stated that the total shipments for 1879 were 6,000 cases, and a large quantity of salted salmon in barrels. At that date there were two other firms in operation.
663
COD-BANKS.
elsewhere in the world, there is little doubt. It would seem that as salmon can be bought from the natives in Alaska at less than one fifteenth of the price paid on the Columbia, and as Alaska salmon is preferred in the eastern states and in Europe to Columbia River salmon, these difficulties will in time be over- come. Moreover, it is probable that the demand for canned salmon will gradually increase, and that its present low marketable value will not long continue, for few more nourishing and palatable articles of food can be bought at the price, and the entire pack of Alaska would not yet furnish breakfast for the popu- lation of London for a single day.
The quantity of salmon shipped from Alaska is of course but a small portion of the annual catch, for this is the staple food of the 30,000 or 35,000 Ind- ians who inhabit the territory.9 A 30 or 40-pound fish will weigh but four or five pounds when prepared by their wasteful process for winter use, and it is es- timated that they take 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 sal- mons a year, probably at least thrice the number re- quired to supply the demand of all the canneries on the Pacific coast.10
The cod-banks of Alaska, like the salmon fisheries, are admitted to be the most extensive known to the world, and only in the waters near this territory, and perhaps three or four degrees farther south, is the ga- dus morrhua, or true cod, known to exist on the Pacific coast. The banks extend at intervals from the Shum- agin Islands northward and westward to the ice-line of the Bering Sea, eastward to Cook Inlet, and south- ward to the strait of San Juan de Fuca,11 those near
9 According to the census of 1880 the entire population was 33,426, of whom 430 were white persons, 1,756 creoles, and the remainder Indians.
10 The Pacific coast pack was estimated, for 1881, at 44,440,000 lbs. Hit- tell's Com. and Ind. Pac. Coast, 380.
11 U. S. Agric. Rept., 1870, 375. Dodge states that the cod fisheries extend to Bering Strait, and even to the Arctic Ocean. Morris's Rept., 113. A few stragglers may find their way through the strait during summer, but lat. 59º N., which is about the line reached in mid-winter by floating ice, is practi- cally the limit.
664
FISHERIES.
the Shumagin Islands being considered the best, or at least the most available.12 East and west it may be said that they reach for 20 or 25 miles from the shores of Asia and America, the area of the Alaskan banks already known being probably more than 100,000 square miles. They are much more shallow than those of Newfoundland, the depth of the former being usually 20 or 30 fathoms, though the best fish are taken in 70 or 80 fathoms,13 while the latter aver- age from 60 to 120 fathoms.
In 1867, 23 vessels were employed at the cod-banks, the catch for that year exceeding 2,500 tons when salted, and its value being about $350,000, against less than 1,500 tons, worth almost the same amount, in 1866. The catch of 1867, which was then consid- ered enormous, completely glutted the market, and caused a fall in price of about 40 per cent. It is worthy of note, however, that in 1869 nearly 3,700 tons of fish were salted, and in 1870 over 5,300 tons, the catch for each year selling at better rates than were obtained in 1867.14 After 1870 the take aver- aged about 500,000 fish per year,15 the industry usu- ally giving employment to a dozen or fifteen schoon- ers, some of which were engaged for a portion of the year in the salmon fisheries. Meanwhile the price gradually fell in San Francisco to about five cents per
12 One advantage is that fishing vessels can always lie under the lee of one of the islands, and thus be protected from the swell of the ocean; another is the proximity of the Shumagin Islands to Kadiak, where, as Davidson sug- gests, a curing establishment might be opened with advantage. Coast Pilot, Alaska, 46.
13 Captain White, in Morris's Rept., 112. The captain states that at a point 700 miles north-west of Sitka his crew caught 250 fish with 20 lines in two hours, and that the natives fish in shallow water, where they catch cod weighing 5 to 15 lbs, because deep-water fishing is too hard work. William S. Dodge, in Id., 113, relates that two Kadiak fishermen caught 22,000 cod in six months; and Sheldon Jackson, that in 1879 three San Francisco firms se- cured 3,000 tons off the Shumagin Islands. Alaska, 45. The existence of these cod-banks was well known to the Russians. See Davidson's Coast Pi- lot, Alaska, 44-6, and Sumner's Cess. Russ. Amer., 42-3.
14 Each year's catch, between 1864 and 1870, together with its value, is given in U. S. Agric. Rept., 1870, 380.
15 Petroff's Pop. Alaska, 71. At the Shumagin Islands, in 1873, five vessels caught 235,000 fish. Alaska Herald, Oct. 24, 1873. In 1875 seven vessels took 440,000 fish. Id., Oct. 1, 1875.
665
HALIBUT-HERRING-MACKEREL.
pound at the close of 1883,16 and to still lower rates during the early months of 1884.17 Small quantities of cod are also shipped to the Sandwich Islands and elsewhere,18 but the demand is practically limited to the Pacific coast from California northward, and, as its entire population does not yet exceed 1,500,000, it is not probable that this immense source of future wealth will, at present, be much further utilized.
Although it is conceded that the flavor of the Alaskan cod is not inferior to that of fish caught on the banks of Newfoundland, the former always sells at lower prices in the market, the difference being sometimes as much as three cents per pound. This is probably due to defect in curing,19 and perhaps in part to the fact that Atlantic cod has always been in favor on the Pacific coast.
Among the other food-fishes with which the waters of Alaska abound, I shall mention only the halibut, herring, mackerel, and eulachon.20 The range of the halibut extends from Cape Flattery northward to the Aleutian Islands. The true halibut is smaller in size than that of the Atlantic coast, but specimens of the bastard halibut are not unfrequently taken weighing from 300 to 500 pounds. As yet, neither has been much in demand, except for local use, but the flavor, even of the bastard halibut, when salted and smoked, is preferred by many to that of salmon, while its napes and fins are a standard article of commerce.
Herring arrive in vast shoals at the Aleutian Isl- ands, the Alexander Archipelago, and Norton Sound during the month of June. Those caught at Unalaska
16 The price on Dec. 30th, according to the S. F. Chronicle, was four cents for cod in bundles and six cents for boned fish.
17 To three and five cents for the two descriptions. S. F. Bulletin, March 19, 1884.
18 In 1868 a cargo was sent to Australia, and realized eight cents per lb.
19 Petroff thinks it may be caused by the inferior quality of the salt used in the process. Pop. Alaska, 71. It is more probably owing to the fish being kept in salt for several months, until the return of the vessel to San Francisco. 20 Spelled also oolikon, ulikon, and otherwise.
666
FISHERIES.
are considered the best, but in the neighborhood of Sitka they are perhaps most abundant. At the latter point a canoe load can easily be secured within half an hour. Though a few barrels may occasionally find their way to San Francisco, the Alaska herring has as yet no commercial value except for its oil, for the production of which an establishment was in operation at Prince Frederick Sound in 1883, about 20,000 gal- lons being obtained in that year.21 It is admitted that, in bulk and flavor, those taken at Unalaska and else- where are quite equal to imported herring, and there appears no good reason why they should not, if prop- erly cured, find a profitable market on this coast.
Mackerel, equal in size and flavor to those captured in Atlantic waters, are found in the bays and straits of the Aleutian and Shumagin islands, and when shipped to San Francisco have met with ready sale, sometimes realizing as much as $24 per barrel. It is probable that, when the range and distribution of this favorite food-fish is better ascertained, a thriving in- dustry may be established in connection with other branches of fishery.
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