In the future. His threat of put
ting me in the jail in Unga he
will surely carry out if I cannot
make him believe that I, in
some obscure place, can get a
few salmon within the law. So
1 asked him if he was well ac
quainted along the mainland
coast.
“Yes,” he said, “I know the
mainland coast better than you
do. When I was a tiny little kid,
I came down river on the main
land together with thousands of
roy brothers and sisters. We had
all kinds of fun dodging trout,
ducks and seagulls, and many
more of our marine enemies; we
traveled back and forth along
the mainland and around these
islands and we are now going
back, following the same route—
bound for our birthplace in the
alluvial gravel-beds of inland
lakes,, and we use neither chart
nor compass, and we never get
lost. You have to go to school
for years to study navigation
and astronomy and must use
many different kinds of instru
ments in your travels and even
then you get badly lost at times.
You are not nearly as important
as you think you are; you imag
ine yourself to be on the apex
of creation and that everything
is created for your special use
and benefit, but the fact is, in
the general scheme of things,
you don’t amount to any more
than a dog-salmon.”
( Continued next month)
-x
For the care and custody of
persons legally adjudged insane
in Alaska the sum of $156,000
has been provided. The Sanitar
ium Company, of Portland, Ore.,
or any other contracting institu
tion is not to receive more than
$564 per capita for annum for
the care and maintenance of
these insane Alaska patients
during the present fiscal year, ~
Fishermen Of Cordova Will Not Be
Given Further Aid
Efforts of the Cordova Cham
ber of Commerce, individual
business men and others to ob
tain badly needed relief for the
local fishermen met with flat re
fusal from the U S. Bureau of
Fisheries, it was reported at the
chamber meeting.
These efforts were directed
toward obtaining an extension
in the season on the Copper
River flats on salmon which,
though probably packed by the
canneries at a loss, or at least
without profit, would have
meant bread and butter to the
fishermen during the coming
winter.
Asking relief of this form, H.
I. O’Neill, chairman of the fish
eries committee, sent a wire to
Henry O’Malley, commissioner
of fisheries. The wire read:
“Due to severe weather condi
tions the individual catch of
reds on the Copper River flats
have been very small and with
low prices the fishermen are not
able to take care of their current
accounts, let alone have any
thing to carry them through the
winter.
“As there has been a good es
capement so far think that as
an emergency you should extend
the season until the fifteenth or
twentieth on the Flats, at least
on the Eyak river side, where
there has always been a late run
tnat has never been fished.
“Would not ask this if there
were not a serious situation fac
ing us this winter and a few
thousand cases off the flats this
year would be one of the best
emergency relief programs that
the government could do for our
section during these trying
times. This request does not
ccme from the canneries but
from us who are vitally inter
ested in the situation for the
winter. Please give this your
serious consideration.”
The blunt refusal to accede to
this request was received, in a
wire sent to N. Q. Hardy, in
charge of the local office of the
Bureau of Fisheries, and signed
by Henry O’Malley. This wire
read as follows:
“Inform Harry O’Neill and
ethers interested that the bu
reau cannot give any considera
tion to extending season on the
Copper River flats. In recent
years the examination of the
spawning beds has shown no ex
cess of fish and the bureau can
not consider relaxation at this
time which might destroy a fu
ture cycle. The action in extend
ing the season in Prince William
Sound last season was entirely
unwarranted, as was shown by a
careful examination of the
spawning beds.”
The reading of these com
munications resulted in consid
erable discussion from the floor
in which it was pointed out that
the bureau had never at any
time actually made a real sur
vey of the spawning beds and
therefore was not in a position
to tell how the escapement was.
Trappers and others who had
been into the interior lakes had
reported that these headwaters
showed signs of being filled to
capacity with the spawning
salmon, it was pointed out, and
the conclusions of the bureau
were not only unjustified but
hasty and ill-advised. —Cordova
Times,