Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/175

Rh in such numbers as the interests of canning require, and it is too small for advantageous sale in cold storage. The Dolly Varden is wholly wanting in the Upper Yukon region.

The Great Lake trout or Mackinaw trout (Cristivomer namaycush) is common in the Yukon region, which has a fauna very much like that of Lake Superior. It abounds in the lakes, takes a hook readily and reaches a weight of 50 pounds or more. A certain number of these are shipped fresh to mining centers, as White Horse and Dawson.

The rivers of Alaska, considered in relation to the salmon industry, may be divided into three classes. King salmon streams, red salmon streams and humpback salmon streams. The streams of the first class from a quarter of a mile to a hundred miles wide at the mouth, have a long course and are fed by melting ice or snow, and the course for the most part is not through glacial lakes. In these rivers the king salmon or Quinnat salmon run in the spring, as in the Sacramento or Columbia. With them run also a certain number of red salmon, and in the river mouths humpback, dog and silver salmon. The run of the king salmon is however the chief characteristic. The species in Alaska is less valuable than in the Columbia, because owing to the shorter run the fishes are nearer the spawning season and a large percentage have white meat even in June, a larger percentage than the Columbia shows even in August. For various reasons, rough bottom, fewift current, high tides, etc., most of these streams are not easily fished. In the Stikine River, for example, traps are swept away by the currents, seines are tangled up, a deep gill net will meet an under current of salt water under the fresh water, and is thus upset. The only effective fishing gear is therefore a very shallow gill net floating in the fresh water at the surface. Rivers of the first class are the following: Yukon, Kuskoquim, Shushitna, Copper, Alsek, Taku, Speel, Whiting, Stikine and Unuk Rivers. The streams about Bristol Bay should not be placed in this class, as they flow through lakes and are essentially red salmon streams, in spite of their large size.

The streams of the second class or red salmon streams are those of large or small size which flow through lakes-or have lakes tributary to them. In all these the red salmon runs freely, spawning always in the gravelly bed of the stream at the head of some lake. The four greatest of red salmon streams are the Fraser River, Karluk River, Nushegak River and Kvichak River, all large streams flowing through lakes. In proportion to the amount of water, probably no stream in the world normally carries more salmon than the Karluk River.

The streams of the third class, or humpback salmon streams, comprise the remaining streams of Alaska. These may be large swift