(1.) The necessity of banks or soundings is according to reason. Fish are not caught in the deep ocean. It is their nature to seek the bottom, where they are found in some way by the fisherman, armed with trawl, seine, or hook. As among the ancient Romans private luxury provided tanks and ponds for the preservation of fish, so Nature provides banks, which are immense fish-preserves. Soundings attest their existence in a margin along the coast; but it becomes important to know if they actually exist to much extent away from the coast. On this point our information is already considerable, if not decisive.
The Sea and Strait of Behring, as far as the Frozen Ocean, have been surveyed by a naval expedition of the United States under Commander John Rodgers. From one of his charts, now before me, it appears, that, beginning at the Frozen Ocean and descending through Behring Strait and Behring Sea, embracing Kotzebue Sound, Norton Bay, and Bristol Bay, to the peninsula of Alaska, a distance of more than twelve degrees, there are constant uninterrupted soundings from twenty to fifty fathoms,—thus presenting an immense extent proper for fishery. South of the peninsula of Alaska another chart shows soundings along the coast, with a considerable extent of bank in the neighborhood of the Shumagins and Kadiak, being precisely where other evidence points to the existence of cod. These banks, north and south of Alaska, taken together, according to indications of the two charts, have an extent unsurpassed by any in the world.
There is another illustration full of instruction. It is a map of the world, in the new work of Murray on “The Geographical Distribution of Mammals,” “showing approximately the one hundred fathom line of soundings,” prepared from information furnished by the Hydrographic Department of the British Admiralty. Here are all the soundings of the world. At a glance you discern the remarkable line on the Pacific coast, beginning at 40° of north latitude, and constantly receding from the shore in a northwesterly direction; then, with a gentle sweep, stretching from Sitka to the Aleutians, which it envelops with a wide margin; and, finally, embracing and covering Behring Strait to the Frozen Ocean: the whole space, as indicated on the map, seeming like an immense unbroken sea-meadow adjoining the land, and constituting plainly the largest extent of soundings in length and breadth in the known world,—larger even than those of Newfoundland added to those of Great Britain. This map, prepared by scientific authority, in the interest of science, is an unimpeachable and disinterested witness.
Actual experience is better authority still. I learn that the people of California have already found cod-banks in these seas, and have begun to gather a harvest. Distance was no impediment; for they were already accustomed to the Sea of Okhotsk, on the Asiatic coast. In 1866 no less than seventeen vessels left San Francisco for cod-fishery in the latter region. This was a long voyage, requiring eighty days in going and returning. On the way better grounds were discovered among the Aleutians, with better fish; and then again, other fishing-grounds, better in every way, were discovered south of Alaska, in the neighborhood of the Shumagins, with an excellent harbor at hand. Here one vessel began its work on the 14th of May, and, notwithstanding stormy weather, finished it on the 24th of July, having taken 52,000 fish. The largest catch in a single day was 2,300. The average weight of the fish dried was three pounds. Old fishermen compared the fish in quality and method of taking with those of Newfoundland. Large profits are anticipated. While fish from the Atlantic side bring at San Francisco not less than twelve cents a pound, it is supposed that Shumagin fish at only eight cents a pound will yield a better return than the coasting-trade. These flattering reports have arrested the attention of Petermann, the indefatigable geographical observer, who recounts them in his journal.[213]
From an opposite quarter is other confirmation. Here is a letter, which I have just received from Charles Bryant, Esq., at present a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, but for eighteen years acquainted with these seas, where he was engaged in the whale fishery. After mentioning the timber at certain places as a reason for the acquisition of these possessions, he says:—
“But the chiefest value—and this alone is worth more than the pittance asked for it—consists in its extensive cod and halibut fish-grounds. To the eastward of Kadiak, or the Aleutian Islands, are extensive banks, or shoals, nearly, if not quite, equal in extent to those of Newfoundland, and as well stocked with fish. Also west of the Aleutian Islands, which extend from Alaska southwest half-way to Kamtchatka, and inclosing that part of land laid down as Bristol Bay, and west of it, is an extensive area of sea, varying from forty fathoms in depth to twenty, where I have found the supply of codfish and halibut unfailing. These islands furnish good harbors for curing and preparing fish, as well as shelter in storm.”
In another letter Mr. Bryant says that the shoals east of the entrance to Cook’s Inlet widen as they extend southward to latitude 50°; and that there are also large shoals south of Prince William Sound, and again off Cross Sound and Sitka. The retired ship-master adds, that he never examined these shoals to ascertain their exact limit, but only incidentally, in the course of his regular business, that he might know when and where to obtain fish, if he wished them. His report goes beyond any chart of soundings I have seen, although, as far as they go, the charts are coincident. Cook particularly notices soundings in Bristol Bay, and in various places along the coast. Other navigators have done the same. Careful surveys have accomplished so much that at this time the bottom of Behring Sea and of Behring Strait, as far as the Frozen Ocean, constituting one immense bank, is completely known in depth and character.
Add to all this the official report of Mr. Giddings, acting surveyor-general of Washington Territory, made to the Secretary of the Interior in 1865, where he says:—
“Along the coast, between Cape Flattery and Sitka, in the Russian possessions, both cod and halibut are very plenty, and of a much larger size than those taken at the Cape, or further up the Straits and Sound. No one, who knows these facts, for a moment doubts but that, if vessels similar to those used by the Bank fishermen that sail from Massachusetts and Maine were fitted out here, and were to fish on the various banks along this coast, it would even now be a most lucrative business.… The cod and halibut on this coast, up near Sitka, are fully equal to the largest taken in the Eastern waters.”[214]
From this concurring evidence, including charts and personal experience, it is easy to see that the first condition of a considerable fishery is not wanting.