|
CHAPTER XXX.
FISHERIES.
1867-1884.
“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 improbable 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, while during the interval
the market for canned salmon had become greatly overstocked. 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, while on the Columbia it is less
than twenty pounds. The flavor of the best fish caught in the former locality
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
sometimes 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,
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 Company,
several barrels of the salted fish were shipped each season to St Petersburg
for the use of the friends of the company’s officials.
The run of salmon on the Yukon is immense, but lasting
as it does only for about six weeks, is at present 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 further obstacle. In other
rivers and streams of Alaska, however, salmon are almost equally abundant, and
it is possible that the proprietors of the Columbia River canneries may find
competition from these sources increase more rapidly than they anticipate.
About the year 1868a 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. In 1878 Cutting and
Company, also of San Francisco, established a cannery near the site of Fort Sv Mikhail, or, as it is now termed, old Sitka, and although
they did not commence operations until late in the season, their first pack was
about five thousand cases. 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 Company 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 communication, and the fact that no title can be
obtained to land. That raw fish will continue to be cheaper, because more
abundant and more easily caught than 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 overcome. 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 population 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 Indians who inhabit the territory. 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 estimated that they take 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 salmons
a year, probably at least thrice the number required to supply the demand of
all the canneries on the Pacific coast.
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 gadus morrhua,
or true cod, known to exist on the Pacific coast. The banks extend at intervals
from the Shumagin Islands northward and westward to
the ice-line of the Bering Sea, eastward to Cook Inlet, and southward to the
strait of San Juan de Fuca, those near the Shumagin Islands being considered the best, or at least the most available. East and
west it maybe 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, while the latter average 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 considered 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 offish were salted, and in 1870
over 5,300 tons, the catch for each year selling at better rates than wore
obtained in 1867. After 1870 the take averaged about 500,000 fish per year, the
industry usually giving employment to a dozen or fifteen schooners, 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 pound at the
close of 1883, and to still lower rates during the early months of 1884. Small
quantities of cod are also shipped to the Sandwich Islands and elsewhere, 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, 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. 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 Islands,
the Alexander Archipelago, and Norton Sound during the month of June. Those
caught at Unalaska 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 gallons being obtained in that
year. It is admitted that, in bulk and flavor, those taken at Unalaska and elsewhere
are quite equal to imported herring, and there appears no good reason why they
should not, if properly 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 industry may be established in connection with
other branches of fishery.
The eulachon, or candle-fish, as it is often termed, a
small silvery fish, seldom exceeding fifteen inches in length, and in
appearance resembling a smelt, abounds in river and stream as far south as
latitude 49°. It is most abundant in Alaskan waters, where for the three or
four weeks during which the season lasts, the run is more marvellous even than that of salmon. The eulachon is the fattest of known fish, and the
oil tried out from it is sold to the Indians on the Nass River near the Alaskan
border at profitable rates. When dried, it serves as a torch, burning with a
clear bright flame. Hence its name of candle-fish. When smoked and prepared for
table by broiling or steaming, it is equal in flavor to the finest quality of
eastern mackerel, and when pickled and shipped to San Francisco, finds a ready
market.
On the Nass River, eulachon are usually caught in
wicker baskets, and after being dried or smoked are stored up for future use.
The fishing commences about the end of March; and in connection with it is a
curious custom which prevails elsewhere among the natives and in other branches
of fishery. The first eulachon caught is addressed as a chief, and the natives
gathering round him, tender profuse apologies that they should be compelled to
destroy his kindred in order to supply their wants. Then follows a feast, with
speeches, songs, dancing, and of course drinking, after which fishing commences
in earnest and continues until all have procured a sufficient stock.
I have mentioned only the varieties that, with the
exception perhaps of the white fish, have or are likely to have any commercial
value, but in few parts of the world are other kinds more abundant. Among them
may be mentioned the tom-cod, smelt, salmon-trout, and grayling, all of which
are found in Alaskan waters, the first three being of excellent quality.
The value of all the Alaskan fisheries, in which
phrase is included the seal-hunting grounds, was estimated in the census of
1880 at $2,661,640, of which sum fur-seal skins and other pelagic peltry were
valued at $2,096,500, and the fisheries proper at $565,140. What will be the
commercial value of these fisheries, when, as will probably be the case at no
very distant day, the Pacific states and territories are peopled with
15,000,000 instead of 1,500,000 people, and are threaded with railroads almost
as completely as are now the western states of America. But when this shall
happen, there will doubtless be more frequent communication with Mexico and
Central and South America; for already Pacific coast manufactures have found a
foothold in all these countries, and it is predicted by political economists
that the manufactures of this coast will exceed both mining and agriculture in
aggregate wealth. The fur-seal industry is the only one at present utilized to
any considerable extent, but it is not improbable that, even before the close
of this century, the fisheries may become more valuable than are now the
fur-seal grounds.
Of whaling enterprise in the neighborhood of the
Alaskan coast, mention has already been made; but a few statements that will
serve to explain the enormous decrease that has occurred in the catch within
the last three decades may not be out of place.
Of the six or seven hundred American whalers that were
fitted out for the season of 1857, at least one half, including most of the
larger vessels, were engaged in the north Pacific. The presence of so vast a
fleet tended of course to exhaust the whaling-grounds or to drive the fish into
other waters, for no permanent whaling-grounds exist on any portions of the
globe except in those encircled by ice for about ten months in the year. In the
seas of Greenland, not many years ago, whales were rarely to be seen; in 1870
they were fairly plentiful. The sea of Okhotsk and the waters in the
neighborhood of the Aleutian Islands were a few decades ago favorite
hunting-grounds, but are now almost depleted, while in 1870 the coast of New
Siberia was swarming with whales. Schools of sperm-whale are occasionally seen
between the Alaska Peninsula and Prince William Sound, and the hump-back
sometimes makes its appearance as far north as Baranof Island. Between Bristol
Bay and Bering Strait a fair catch is sometimes taken, but most of the vessels
forming what is termed the north Pacific whaling fleet, now pass into the
Arctic Ocean in quest of their prey. Probably not more than eight or ten of
them are employed on the whaling grounds of the Alaskan coast.
In 1881 the whaling fleet of the north Pacific
mustered only thirty, and in the following year forty craft, of which four were
steamers. The catch for 1881 was one of the most profitable that has occurred
since the date of the transfer, being valued at $1,139,000, or an average of
about $57,000 for each vessel, some of them returning with cargoes worth
$75,000, and few with cargoes worth less than $30,000. In 1883 the catch was
inconsiderable, several of the whalers returning ‘clean’ and few making a
profit for their owners.
The threatened destruction of these fisheries is a
matter that seems to deserve some attention. In 1850, as will be remembered, it
was estimated that 300 whaling vessels visited Alaskan waters, and the Okhotsk
and Bering seas. Two years later the value of the catch of the north Pacific
fleet was more than $14,000,000. After 1852 it gradually decreased, until in
1862 it was less than $800,000; for 1867 the amount was about $3,200,000; in
1881 it had again fallen to $1,139,000; and for the season of 1883 there was a
still further reduction.
The whaling-grounds of the north Pacific, though of
course open to all nations, are now in the hands of Americans, and were so
practically before the purchase. It is probable that the United States will
continue to enjoy a virtual monopoly of this industry, for under present
conditions it will erelong cease to be profitable.
|
