USA > Alaska > Peerless Alaska, our cache near the pole > Part 13
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line of the same size. After using, it is always coiled up, but as it gets brittle if allowed to dry too much it is inva- riably soaked in salt water before being used. The hooks used are of a peculiar shape, unlike any fish-hook I have ever seen; they are made of the knots or butts of limbs of the hemlock, cut out from old decayed logs. These knots are split into splints of proper size, then roughly shaped
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with a knife, and then steamed and bent into shape, which shape they retain when cold. This form is adopted, so the Indian informed me, because the bottom on the west coast is very foul with stones and coral formations and incrus- tations ; steel hooks get fast, and lines are subject to being lost ; but this style of hook does not get fast.
" When the hook is to be used the bait is tied on with the string. which is used to bring the two ends of the hook together and keep them in position when not baited. After the bait is well secured a piece of stick is inserted to press the ends of the hook apart. When the fish bites the bait it knocks out the stick, which floats to the surface, the two ends of the hook, springing together, close on the fish's head and hold it fast. It is usual to tie from seventy-five to one hundred hooks to the line, at a distance of about two feet apart, and the fish are so plentiful that not unfrequently every hook will have a fish. The sticks which float to the sur- face, when knocked out of the hook by the fish, serve to indicate to the Indian the sort of luck he is having at the bottom. But although the fish may be abundant, the Indian is not always sure of securing what he has caught. His greatest annoyance is the ground-sharks or nurse-fish, as the sailors call them, which will often eat the bodies of the black-cod, leaving only the heads attached to the hooks. Another annoyance is from a small fish called by the Haidah Indians 'nee-kaio-kaiung,' the Blepsias cirrhosus (Pallas) Gün., one of the family Cottide, which steals the bait and often gets hooked ; as soon as the Indian discovers this pest he quits fishing and goes to another place. As the depth of the water varies in different places it is usual to have a lot of spare lines in the canoe which can instantly be knotted together and form a line as long as required ; sometimes two hundred fathoms will be used, as the line when fully supplied with hooks becomes a trawl. A most ingenious contrivance is the sinker used by the Haidahs in this deep-water fishing. This is a stone, from ten to twenty pounds in weight. A
small kelp line is wound round this stone and held by a bight tucked under the turns, and the end made fast to the end of the larger line, which large line is wound round this stone, and a smaller stone which serves to bind it fast and as a sort of tripping stone. The large line is secured in a similar manner as the small line, by a loop or bight tucked under the turns. The stone is then lowered to the bottom and the line paid out. As soon as the fisherman sees enough pegs floating to warrant his pulling in the line he gathers in the slack till he feels the weight of the stone,
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when he gives a sudden jerk, which pulls out the bight and loosens the tripping stone, which falls out and loosens the big stone, which in turn becomes detached from the line, which is then pulled in relieved of the weight of the sinker.
" On my arrival at Skidegate, in the last of August, 1883, I arranged with Mr. Andrew McGregor, one of the partners in the Skidegate, to send some Indians to the west coast to procure some black-cod. He sent four Indians, Scanayune, Ske-at-lung, Ingow and Skatsgai, who all belong to the Gold Harbor band on the west coast. I sent a sack of salt with the Indians, with instructions to take out the gills, remove the viscera without splitting the fish, and then fill the cavity with salt, which was done, and the fish were received in prime condition. On the 2d of September Scanayune returned with twenty fine fish. A council was now called to decide the best way to split them. There were a number of eastern fishermen present, who were the crew of the little steamer Skidegate, engaged in dog-fishing for the oil works. Some were of the opinion that the fish should be split in the back, like a salmon; but I objected, as I thought people would say they were the white-flesh dog- salmon and be prejudiced, so I had them split and dressed like cod, and well salted in a vat. But now my trouble com- menced. I was of the opinion, as were all the others, that the fish should be barreled like salmon ; but we had no bar- rels or coopers, and the question was how to get them to Victoria without rusting, for we all thought that so fat a fish would rust like a mackerel or salmon. At last I recol- lected how I had seen halibut treated when it was to be smoked, and I decided on that plan. After the fish had been in salt two weeks I rinsed them in the pickle they had made, and piled them skin side up, put planks and heavy stones on them, and so pressed out the pickle. After they had been four days under this pressure I found them hard and firm, and beautifully white. I then packed them in boxes, which I made for the purpose, putting twenty fish in each box and filling up with dry salt. My intention was to repack them in Victoria and put them in barrels, but on examining the boxes on my arrival I found the fish in such fine condition that I was advised by experts of the Hudson's Bay Company to send the fish forward just as they were ; and so well satisfied were the officers of the company with the plan I had adopted through necessity, that the chief factor, William Charles, Esq., instructed the company's agent at Massett, Mr. Mckenzie, to procure all the black-
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cod he could get from the Indians, to cure them in every respect as I had done, and to pack them in similar pack- ages, as it was thought they would take better in the Lon- don market.
" I tested the fresh fish in every manner I could think of. I had the livers and we fried and found them delicious. The females were full of eggs, which I found very small, about the size of herring spawn. This was the first of September, but I had no opportunity of ascertaining the spawning season or their spawning ground. I tried the tongues, but did not like them as well as cod-fish tongues, as they were quite small. The fish does not make a good chowder, as it is too fat ; the heads, however, after having been salted, we found made excellent chowder. The best way in which the fresh fish can be cooked is to broil it like fresh mackerel, or roast it before the open fire like planked shad. After it has been salted, as I salted those I put up, it should be cooked by first soaking till the salt is well out, then simply boiled and served with plain boiled potatoes. Made into fish-balls it excels any fish I have eaten. On the 6th day of October, 1883, I gave George Vienna, the fish dealer on Government street, Victoria, one of the black-cod, which he hung up in his stall for every one to examine. On the 18th day of December I examined the same fish, which had been exposed to the weather in the stall all the time, and it was perfectly sweet. Mr. Vienna said it never would rust; it was too well salted. A gentleman of Victoria, who had eaten of the black-cod heartily on several occasions, told me that he is unable to eat either salt salmon or mackerel, as the oil of these fish does not agree with his digestion, but he experienced no such effect from eating the fat black- cod, and mentioned the fact as something to be noticed.
" Now that the experiment of my method of dry-salting the black-cod has proved a success by the encomiums passed upon the excellence of that fish as tested by the experts of the Boston Fish Bureau, who are undoubtedly some of the best critics and judges of fish in the United States, I wish to call attention to the economy of my method for the poor settlers on our northwest coasts of Washington Territory and Alaska. All that is required for outlay is the cost of the salt for curing the fish, and the nails for making boxes, which can be made from the white spruce which abounds on the coast, from the Columbia River to Western Alaska. This wood splits as easily as cedar, is perfectly sweet and free from resin, as all the gum is contained in the thin ring of sap-wood and bark, The inside is free from resin, This
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will make the cheapest and best of boxes and save the expense of coopers and barrels, and the fish being of full size is better adapted for smoking than the same fish cut and barreled.
" The Fishery for the Black-Cod .- A very important ques- tion to be answered is : Will the black-cod be taken in suffi- cient quantities to supply the demand which is likely to spring up wherever their rare excellence is known? I think that at present the supply will be limited, as there are no fisher- men on the North Pacific coast who have the appliances or the experience in deep sea fishing as practiced at present on the Atlantic coast. Our coast fisheries are exclusively con- fined to salmon, which are taken in the rivers with nets and seines. The very few cod and halibut brought to our markets are taken with hand-lines and old-fashioned trawls, but it is rare to find any fishermen working in more than thirty fathoms of water. Our waters teem with fish, but as yet, with the exception of salmon, no organized plan has been tried for taking quantities of fish What we want are Eastern fishermen with Eastern capital and Eastern methods of taking fish. If such men would come out here they can find plenty of black-cod, but they will be found in deep, swift water, where at times it is pretty rough. But to a ' Grand Banker' or a 'George's Banker ' our most turbu- lent waters would be but a plaything. In order to develop the fisheries of Puget Sound and the Alaskan waters there should be some regular wholesale fish dealers established, who would take every thing the fishermen would bring, and find markets themselves. Our fishermen are too poor to send their fish to a distant market; but let a wholesale dealer with capital establish himself, and he would find that fish would be brought from all quarters, white men and Indians working with a will to catch fish which would bring them ready money.
" The best season of the year for taking black-cod is in the spring, when the eulachon run up the inlets and streams where they spawn ; the black-cod follow them, and can be taken in quantities ; but I am informed by both Haidah and Makah Indians that the black-cod can be taken in the deep water at any season of the year when the weather will per- mit fishing. There are undoubtedly certain seasons which are better than others for taking this fish, but as yet no one has made a study of their habits."
Herring swarm in the bays and inlets of Alaska during the spawning season in the spring, but are not at that time of as good quality as when taken in nets from their perma-
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nent banks and feeding grounds. The Indians catch great quantities with poles and boards, armed with sharp nails at an angle. These are thrust under the schools, which swim about two feet deep, and the fish are gaffed out. The her- ring spawn in salt water, and their favorite places are the quiet bays along the shores, and there every kind of kelp and seaweed is crusted with the spawn, and as the tide goes down and one walks along the beach, every step crushes myriads. I can not discover that they enter the fresh water streams at all. The most careful investigation has failed to discover their spawn attached to plants beyond the reach of tide. The Indians do not collect the eggs deposited on the seaweed, but plant at half-tide marks rows of branches of cedar and balsam, which, in a tide or two, become covered with spawn ; these are replaced by others, and hung up to dry. The spawn is eaten dried, raw and cooked in various ways, and is very palatable in either. These, however, are somewhat smaller than those of Europe, though fully equal in quality when taken in their prime. There is a factory on Burrard inlet, near the Canadian Pacific railway terminus, where herring oil is pressed out and fertilizers made from the scraps. The success of the menhaden fishing in the East should encourage herring fishing in the West.
Comparing my personal observations made at sundry times and places, I find the range of the true cod, halibut, salmon, sea trout and some other fish to be the same on both sides of the continent. The cod range between the fiftieth and sixtieth parallels of latitude. In the East the principal food of the shore-cod is the caplin, and the fishermen not only use caplin chiefly for bait, but they follow their move- ments to ascertain the whereabouts of the cod. On the west side (the Pacific) the oolachan, or the candle-fish, is the cor- respondent of the caplin, and is almost identical with it. It is smoked, salted and dried on the rocks in the same way, and is largely used for food by the Indians, being very de- licious, but it is much more oily and will burn like a candle. Oolachan oil is considered superior to cod liver oil or any other fish oil known. It is of a whitish tint, about the con- sistency of thin lard, and is a staple article of barter between the coast Indians and the interior tribes. The fish begin running about the first of March, and swarm into the rivers and estuaries by the million for several weeks, the waves of each flood tide stranding them upon the beach in windrows a yard wide and several inches deep. This period should be the cod-fishing season, which is three months earlier than in Labrador. They are caught in purse nets by the canoe load.
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In the province of British Columbia, where the manufacture of the oil is prosecuted to some extent, the fish are boiled in water about four hours in five-barrel wooden tanks with iron bottoms, and then strained through baskets, made from willow roots, into red cedar boxes of about fifteen gallons capacity each. When the run of fish is good, each tribe will put up about twenty boxes of oil.
Sturgeon are said to exist in the interior, and if such be the fact, which I can not vouch for of my own personal knowledge, here is another opportunity for lucrative profit to energetic operators, who can employ the Indians to cap- ture them. Wherever sturgeon are found in Canada or the United States, the catching of them is prosecuted with great pecuniary advantage, for there is no part of this extraordi- nary fish that can not be utilized, and in bulk they often reach 150 pounds avoirdupois. Sturgeon have a wide dis- tribution, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and through many degrees of north and south latitude. They are abundant in Fraser River, British Columbia, and in the Peace River country much further north, whose waters head in the same great divide or watershed which separates the north-eastern tributaries of the Yukon ; and there seems to be no physical reason why they should not exist in the interior of Alaska. Indeed, I have an impression that Lieutenant Schwatka mentions their being there. The strongest evidence to the contrary is the fact that the Rus- sians, who make such an extensive commodity of the stur- geon and its products elsewhere, did not prosecute this industry in Alaska. However, and whether or no, the methods of catching sturgeon are so unique and the econo- mic value of the fish so great, that I dare say a description of them here will prove interesting to the reader, even though the subject be not strictly Alaskan. In the first place, sturgeon are caught in seines, pound-nets, and drift- nets, during both winter and summer, and by hook and line. In winter gill-nets are set by an ingenious system of holes cut through the ice at equi-distant intervals. through which they are thrust and located by means of long poles with boat-hooks attached. The " pounds" used are the common trap-net with lead, heart and pocket. When drift-nets are used, they are handled from large flat-boats, and fishing is done only at night. In the morning the fish are hauled to a floating platform on the shore, where the heads, tails, entrails, backbone, and skin are removed, and the two sides are packed in ice in large boxes for shipment, to be sold for consumption while fresh, or for smoking else-
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where. Many fishermen inclose a space on the lake or river shore in three or four feet depth of water, by making a pen of piles or heavy stakes driven in the bottom. Here they are kept after being caught and fed until wanted for market. Numerous pens of this kind may be seen along the Detroit River and Lakes St. Clair and Huron. The American Angler, in describing the entire adaptability of the whole body of this most economical fish says :- " The meat of this fish is extremely nutritious, and when fat and properly employed is nearly equal to veal in its sustaining principles. When eaten from the young fish it highly savors, and partakes chiefly of that enticing flavor so much praised in the shad. Every part of the fish is utilized. The meat is often labeled salmon, and is often mistaken for the meat of that fish. The cartilaginous bones make a highly valued isinglass, and the stomach gives a most per- fect, clear, and adhesive glue. The residue is used as manure, and by the farmers is considered equal to that of sheep. The process of smoking is quite simple. After being cleaned the meat, which has no bones, like other fish, is cut into strips from one-half pound to two and three pounds weight, put into brine ten or twelve hours for cur- ing, hung up a short time to dry and then finished with the smoke of hickory or some hard wood for ten or twelve hours, when it is ready for boxing and shipment. The next largest industry connected with the sturgeon is the manu- facture and exportation of " caviar." This is nothing else than the roe or eggs of the female which, it is said, some- times equal one-third the weight of the fish. Generally the yield of the lake sturgeon is one and two gallons. These are taken in hand by experts, who manipulate them by sev- eral washings through sieves, with water strongly impreg- nated with the purest salt, obtained usually from Russia or Germany, until every shred and vestige of flesh and impurity is removed. The " caviar" is then treated to a certain seasoning of ingredients, known only to the initiated and carefully guarded from public ken, and put up in water- tight casks holding from 115 to 125 lbs., well headed to exclude the air. It is then ready for market and bears an average of twelve cents per pound, wholesale. In retail shops it sells at twenty-five and thirty cents, and is put up in small cans, one-half to two and three pounds in size. It would be difficult to give the tonnage of "caviar " that is prepared on the lakes and finds its way largely to New York and Boston, and probably in still larger amounts to Europe, and principally Russia and Germany. One dealer
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gives his annual trade at 400 kegs, say 60,000 lbs .; 4,000 kegs of caviar were received at the single port of Hamburg, Germany, from the middle of June, 1885, to the middle of November, from the United States. The eggs are quite small and dark colored, entirely salty in taste, and without a superior as an appetizer. For table use caviar is seasoned with onions, pepper, and such condiments as are palatable to the eater, and spread in its raw state upon bread and eaten with it, much as butter is. It is a highly popular dish among the Russians, who make it in its perfection, and is to them what Limburger cheese is to the Dutch. But the American people are gradually bringing their taste up to the Russian delicacy, as they are also fast bringing it up to the Frenchman's frog. The taste has to be educated to enjoy its gustatory flavor. It seems to have been known in Shakespeare's time. He makes Hamlet say : ‘For the play, I remember, pleased not the million. 'Twas caviar to the general,' from which it would seem not to have been a universal favorite. The value of the sturgeon is still further enhanced by its large air bladder or sound. When taken from the fish it is split open, thor- oughly cleansed and prepared by men who understand the business. When dry it is the isinglass of commerce, and sells usually at $1.50 per pound. The bladders are bought by the fishermen at five and six cents each. A considerable quantity is made in Detroit yearly. The sturgeon is one of the most oily of the finny tribe, and when put through the usual process yields a large percentage of oil, which is said to make a very good lubricating oil, and is also pre- ferred for greasing and softening harness."
The Indians who dwell along the great Sascatchewan River in the British Northwest Territory, spear sturgeon in the river pockets just below shoals, where they resort to gather up whatever floats down stream and settles, just as all the tribes of suckers do ; and for this purpose they have an ingenious harpoon whose head comes out of the shaft whenever a fish is struck and fastened, but which is pre- vented from being carried off or lost by a free line which attaches it to the staff or handle. In roily or turbid waters where the fish can not be seen, they use a long pole, at the end of which are fastened, loosely, several large hooks, the shanks of which are tied to the pole with sinew or strong marline. The red man feels for the fish with his pole, and knowing by long practice when he has touched a fish he gives a strong pull backward, which sinks the sharp hook through the tough skin and deep into the flesh. The
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fish struggles and the hooks loosen from the pole, but are held fast by the line. Then it is only a question of strength to get the lethargic fellows out of the water, with may be a hearty wrestle on the bank to keep them out.
In Alaska, flounders, anchovies, and sole are found in large numbers, but quite unlike the fishes called by the same names on the Atlantic coast. The sole is especially different from his celebrated European namesake. Dogfish and sculpins are not esteemed as edible fish, although they are very numerous and great nuisances to those who fish with hook and line. One kind of dogfish is beautifully spotted, and one of the sculpins (Hemilepidotus tracharul) looks very much like a rutabaga turnip covered with warts, with a slit clear across the big end for a mouth. He is so ugly that old fishermen torture him just for his ugliness.
There are two kinds of coral found on the coast, and also sponges of fine texture, not round like the recognized sponges of commerce, but palmated with digital divisions, which might be made useful for many purposes. The sea cucumber is abundant also. When cured and dried it makes the article of commerce known as the beche de la mer, highly prized in China for food, where it is called "trepang." A valuable industry might be built up by preparing this commodity for market. Indeed there are lots of economi- cal natural products in this new and unprospected region which might reasonably prompt mercantile effort if atten- tion were only called to them.
The immunity of the North Pacific ocean from the inter- mittent storms which devastate the Atlantic, makes most favorable comparison in its behalf as a field for commercial fisheries and a cruising ground for fishing vessels. Cyclones are seldom heard of there, while on the Labrador coast and the gulf of St. Lawrence alone, no less than three hundred vessels and twelve hundred lives have been lost in storms during the past twenty-five years. Besides this considera- tion, the scarcity of fish in Eastern waters within the past few years is making the fisheries a precarious business. Let the disappointed fisherman of the Atlantic coast mi- grate to Alaska ! The fishing seasons are different there, and not subject to interruptions of drifting ice in the spring and rough weather in the fall ; and there is no dan- ger of starvation, even if the fisheries should fail. I see no reason why the banks and littoral waters of the Alaskan Pacific may not swarm with fleets of fishing vessels as well as those of Newfoundland and Labrador. The an- nual fish catch of Alaska is already worth $8,000,000.
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PTARMIGAN
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FUR, FISH AND GAME.
As regards the anadromous and inland fresh water fish of Alaska, there are the salmon and the sea trout, the lake trout, at least two kinds of brook trout, pike, grayling, and a very superior whitefish. Silver salmon begin to arrive in March, or early in April, and last until the end of June. They generally weigh from four to twenty-five pounds, but sometimes reach seventy. The second kind are caught from June to August, and are considered the finest. The average size is only five or six pounds. The third, coming in August, average seven pounds, and are an excellent fish. The humpback appears every second year, remaining from August until winter, and weighs from six to fourteen pounds. The hookbill arrives in September, and remains till winter, its weight ranging from twelve to forty-five pounds. There are several other varieties of salmon, not all strictly edible, of which the most numerous is the dog salmon, eaten only by the Indians. The rainbow trout, S. iridea, and the cut- throat trout, which is especially distinguished by the crimson slashes under its gills, are found in many streams and also in the lakes. A larger lake trout, of the Dolly Varden type (S. Malma), with red spots as large as a pea, is found in the lakes on the small islands, as well as the mainland. The sea trout, identical with the Canadian sea trout, and spotted in the same way with blue and crimson spots, much like the Eastern brook trout, makes its appearance at stated inter- vals like its Atlantic brothers, and ascends the rivers to spawn. All kinds of trout take bait and fly. The sea trout takes the trolling spoon readily in the bays. It is found all the way from Victoria, B. C., northward to Bering Strait, and in the Arctic seas replaces the salmon, which is not found there at all. Its north and south range on the west coast corresponds very nearly with its range on the Eastern coast. It winters in the lakes which connect with salt water, and runs down the streams in the spring. The indi- genous fish of the streams are the Salmo iridea, but there are many streams in Alaska which are bare of all fish except in the early summer and fall, and then these self-same sea trout,
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