are still being made to protect the fisheries. The value of the product of the fur seal fisheries between 1868 and 1890 was $48,518,929. The management of the seal islands paid into the U. S. Treasury in twelve years nearly $7,000,000.

Of late years the salmon fishing has been by far the largest and most important industry. Indeed, the salmon catch of Alaska exceeds that of all the rest of the world. The product of the salmon canneries between 1883 and 1890 was valued at $10,337,031. The report for 1895 of Joseph Murray, special agent to inspect the fisheries in Alaska, says that during the year nearly 7,000,000 cases, of 48 pounds to the case, were packed, and the total value of the salmon canned was over $2,000,

000.

Gov. Knapp in his report for 1892 says: The whaling business, in which forty-eight vessels were engaged, resulted in a catch for 1891 of 12,228 barrels of oil, 186,250 pounds of bone, and 1000 pounds of ivory. The total value was $1,218,293.

The cod banks in Bering Sea and off the southwestern coast near the Shumagin archipelago are more extensive even than those of Newfoundland. The catch of 1890 amounted to a total of 1,138,

ooo fish, of the value of $569,000. Since the beginning of the codfishing business in 1865 the total number of fish taken is 25,723,300, valued at $12,861,650.

Herring are as abundant as off the Norwegian coast, although the industry has not been developed far. Halibut may be taken by the ton along the southeastern coast and farther west. Whitefish, losh, and graylings abound in the Yukon, and trout and pike inhabit almost all the rivers.

According to the report of the United States Fish Commisssioner for 1893 the amount of capital then invested in Alaskan fisheries and canneries was $2,609,650.

In the census of 1890 the value of the products of Alaska between 1868 and 1890 was given as

CHAPTER VIII.

QUARTZ MINING IN SOUTHEASTERN
ALASKA.

This handbook would not approach completion if it refrained from a description of the wonderfully productive gold mines which have been worked in southeastern Alaska for the past twelve years, and which in 1895 contributed nearly $2,000,000 to the gold supply of the world. These quartz mines are the most perfectly developed in the world, and are increasing in productiveness every year. The gold yield of Alaska in 1894 was $1,288,334. In 1895 it increased to $2,328,419.

For 1895 the yield of the quartz mines cn Douglas and Unga Islands alone equaled the entire product of the territory the years before, without counting the other mining fields which have been more fully developed.

During the year 1895, 300 stamps were dropping on Douglas Island and during the summer 125 stamps were dropping on the mainland.

Other outlying districts are also coming into prominence, mainly on Admiralty Island, upon which a new ten-stamp mill is now ready for run