THE COLUMBIA SALMON FISHERIES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3725, 23 June 1883, Page 4

THE COLUMBIA SALMON FISHERIES.

In his last report, tho French Consul at New York gives an interesting description of tho rise and progress of the Columbia salmon fisheries, from which it appears that the first year in which tho fish wero salted clown ancl exported was 1860, when 4000 cases, valued at lGdols each, were sold for consumption abroad. Within the next three years tho number of cases had risen to 100,000, and the price per caso had fallen to lOdols, ancl since then tho increase in tho trade has been going on without intermission. In 1881 tho total number of cases exported was 530,000, but the price had, as a matter of course further declined, beingonly sdols instead of 16, as it was in tho first year. Tho number of boats engaged in tho fisheries during 1881 was 1050, including ten steam sloops, and the average cost of fitting out each was £120. Tho nets generally used are about 200 ft long by 25ft wide. Each boat takes upon an average 2000 salmon in tho course of tho season and°thero are about 7500 .men employed, of whom 350 are Chinese. Special processes arc resorted to for cleaning the fish, cutting it up, and packing it, and when a tin has been soldered down it is at once plunged into boiling water, so as to exclude the air and prevent decomposition. In addition to the Columbia salmon fisheries there are others almost as prolific in the Red River, tho waters of Puget Sound, and tho Alaska, in which about twelve million salmon are taken every year.