per skin, and the 1,845 brown-dyed skins brought $95,430.50, an average of $51.72 per skin, while the 1,010 raw-salted skins brought $7,983, an average of $7.90 per skin. In addition a miscellaneous lot of 17 skins brought $17.65.

At the sale on May 25, 1925, 5,839 black-dyed skins brought $176,812, an average of 30.28 per skin, and 2,186 brown dyed brought $49,182, an average of $22.50 per skin.

The 362 skins sold at private sales during the fiscal year, of which 300 were brown dyed and 62 black dyed, brought a total of $16,835.13. All of these sales were authorized by the Secretary of Commerce.

From the herds of blue foxes maintained on the Pribilof Islands there were taken in the season of 1923-24, 787 blue and 15 white skins which were sold at the October sealskin sale. The blue fox skins brought $49,755.50, an average of $63.22 per skin, and the whites $630, an average of $42 per skin.

In the season of 1924-25 there were taken on St. Paul Island 81 blue and 26 white fox skins, and on St. George Island 600 blues and 2 whites, a total of 681 blue and 28 white skins.

No changes were made in the regulations previously issued for the protection of fur seals and sea otters, or in the regulations affecting Walruses and sea lions.

The following table shows the results of the fur-seal census taken n the years from 1913 to 1924.

General comparison of recent censuses of the seal herd on the Pribilof Islands

TERRITORIAL FISH COMMISSION

The 1925 legislature appropriated a total sum of $83,500 for the work of the Territorial Fish Commission in the propagation of salmon in hatcheries at Ketchikan, Cordova, and Seward and for the removal of obstructions from and destroying the natural enemies of salmon in adjacent streams, for the construction and maintenance of weirs in the elimination of trout, and for gathering data and establishing a system of records from which a comprehensive report of progress could be made.

The operations at the Ketchikan hatchery during the season of 1924-25 consisted of the propagation of pinks, chums, and Chinooks, and the fresh-water feeding of Chinook fry and the salt-water feeding of the pink fry. Through an arrangement of transfer the commission received 2,000,000 Chinook salmon eggs in the eye stage from the Washington State Fish Commission; of these, 1,949,000 were hatched and are now being held in fresh-water feeding ponds.

During the season of 1924 the run of pink salmon in Ketchikan Creek was very light; consequently, most of the pink salmon eggs were taken from the surrounding creeks. A very good run of pink salmon was located in Thorn River, where 3,477,000 eggs were taken and from which 2,952,000 fry were hatched. From Walker's Cove 2,640,000 chum eggs were taken which produced 2,571,000 fry. A large number of these pink salmon fry are now being held in the salt-water pond at Snag Harbor, Gravina Island. It is the intention to have several thousand of these pink salmon, as well as several thousand Chinook salmon fry, marked during this season and before releasing. During August, 1924, 10,000 pink salmon fry were marked by clipping off the adipose and annul fins, and were ther released. A reward of $1 is offered by the commission for the capture of each marked adult pink salmon.

At the Cordova hatchery (Eyak Lake), where 5,250,000 red salmor eggs were taken, the loss for the season was less than 1 per cent Of the 5,250,000 eggs taken 1,500,000, when in the eye stage, were turned over to the United States Bureau of Fisheries at the request of the Commissioner of Fisheries, and were planted in Ishamy Lake 'Prince William Sound district. The allotment of Chinook salmor eggs from the Washington State fish commission for the Cordova hatchery was 571,000, from which approximately 540,000 fry were hatched. A small trap was constructed in Eyak River for the pur pose of counting all fish entering the lake. At this point practically all trout were destroyed. Extensive improvements are now being made at this hatchery with a view of handling a greater number o eggs. Hair seals, which destroy countless thousands of red salmor at the mouth of the Copper River are being destroyed.

The Seward hatchery is located on Spring Creek at the head o Grouse Lake, where 1,015,000 red salmon eggs were taken and were hatched with a loss of 102,275 eggs. The allotment of Chinook salmon eggs from the Washington State fish commission was 1,429,000; after receiving the eggs, and during the period of incuba tion, the total loss was 29,000 eggs.

The operations of destroying trout on Robe River, which is the outlet of Robe Lake, has been continued with great success.

Offices for the commission have been opened at Ketchikan for transaction of all business of the commission.

MINING IN ALASKA

Some important features of mining development in Alaska during 1924 are set forth in the following statement, abstracted from the annual report on the mineral industry of Alaska, now in preparation under the direction of Philip S. Smith, chief Alaskan geologist, Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.

The Alaska mines in 1924 produced $17,457,333 worth of minerals as against $20,330,643 in 1923. The total value of the mineral output of the Territory since 1880 is $535,084,276, the source of this mineral wealth being approximately as follows:

In spite of the gradual exhaustion of the richer gold-placer deposits, the gold output in 1924 was larger than in 1923. The increase was due mainly to activity in the lode mines in southeastern Alaska. The benefits to the gold mining industry of interior Alaska that are certain to result from the completion of the Alaska Railroad are ather slow to appear in the production of gold, for the work of testing arger areas of placer ground and the engineering work needed to mplete ditches and install dredges or other power-driven mining chinery require considerable time. The results of the developts now in progress and of increased prospecting for metal-bearing es will eventually be an increase in production. The decrease in total value of the mineral output of Alaska in 1924 from that of preceding year may be attributed almost entirely to the smaller duction of copper and the lower price of that metal.

GOLD LODES

The gold miner still labors under the handicap of a fixed price for s product, although his operating costs have greatly increased. Severtheless, the search for new gold lodes continues, and each year few new mines become producers or development work in preparafan for mining is done. It is reported that the Dunton gold mine, athe Ketchikan district, was operated for most of the year. In the Hyder district development work on veins containing gold, ver, and lead has disclosed ore shoots that are considered suffiently rich to warrant the construction of a mill, and several other perties in that district are likely to become productive. In the eau district the Alaska Juneau mine increased its output considbly over that of 1923 and now produces the greater part of the de gold of Alaska. Prospecting has been active throughout the Juneau district, and promising ore bodies have been disclosed on eral properties between Funter Bay and Hawk Inlet. On WindBay a mill is being installed for the treatment of gold ores.

63948-257-3

During the year there was an increase in mining activity on Chichagof Island. The Chichagof and Hirst-Chichagof gold mines continued production, and a mill was placed in operation at the Apex-El-Nido mine. Prospecting was thus stimulated throughout the district, and interest was maintained in a number of nickel properties.

In the Copper River Basin, on Prince William Sound, and on Kenai Peninsula there were no considerable developments in goldlode mining, although a few small mines continued production. Further discoveries of gold quartz lodes at Nuka Bay, on the south shore of Kenai Peninsula, indicate that this may be the center of a large area of mineralization. One mill was to be installed in 1924, and several veins are said to be promising. In the Willow Creek district four mines yielded about the normal output of gold. A rich ore shoot is said to have been developed. Development work has been continued on a prospect carrying ruby silver, situated 12 miles east of Chulitna station on the Alaska Railroad.

The Fairbanks district showed probably the greatest rate of increase in its production of lode gold in 1924 over 1923 of any Alaskan camp, for its output of gold in 1924 was more than $100,000, as compared with a production of less than $25,000 in 1923. Most of the interest centered on the area around Ester Dome, where several properties were under development. The principal producer was the Mohawk mine. Some lode mining was done also on Cleary and Fairbanks Creeks. Development work was continued on many other lodes in the Yukon Basin, including a bismuth-bearing auriferous lode a few miles east of the railroad and about 50 miles south of Fairbanks; on lodes in the Kantishna and Chandalar districts; and on a number of other recently discovered lodes.

In the Kuskokwim Region the Whelan Mine, formerly operated as the Nixon mines by the Treadwell Yukon Co., produced considerable gold in 1924.

In 1924 19 quartz mines in Alaska produced more than $2,700,000 in gold, an increase of more than $350,000 over the output for 1923. This increase is largely credited to the Alaska Juneau mine. The silver and lead produced in Alaska were almost entirely by-products of gold and copper mining. The silver produced in 1924 was valued at about $450,000.

GOLD PLACERS

Placer gold is obtained in Alaska by three distinct methods of mining, (1) drift mining in frozen ground, which may be carried on in both winter and summer; (2) open-cut mining by hydraulic methods, by mechanical excavators, by automatic dams, by pick and shovel, or by a combination of these methods; and (3) dredging by power. The drift mines are largely independent of the amount of rainfall, though running water is needed to sluice the gravel hoisted, and in exceptionally dry years some of the dumps can not be sluiced. The dredges, too, are in large measure independent of the precipita tion, although either very high or very low water may affect the number of working days and so decrease the output. The open-cut mines, except those using mechanical excavators, are dependent upon the water supply, and their output bears a direct relation to the stream flow. In 1924 the rainfall was generally normal, and the

output of placer gold by methods other than dredging was greater by more than $240,000 than in 1923; the output from dredges showed

Although the production of gold by dredges in Alaska in 1924 was less by about $275,000 than in 1923, this decrease must not be taken to indicate that dredge mining in the Territory is declining. A number of small, more or less antiquated dredges, were not operated in 1924, and a few others had exhausted their richest available ground. Several large modern dredges were in process of installation during the year, and plans are being perfected for other dredging on a large ale. It may be predicted that before many years the output of d by dredges will exceed that by other methods of placer mining. Twenty-seven dredges were in operation in Alaska in 1924 and duced $1,563,361 worth of gold, as compared with 25 dredges in 43 that produced $1,848,596. Of these dredges 16 were in Seward ninsula; 3 each in the Fairbanks and Innoko districts; 2 in the tarod district; and 1 each in the Kuskokwim, Circle, and Yentna

stricts.

The palladium and platinum mine in the Ketchikan district was perated for a part of the year. Some platinum was also obtained a by-product of gold-placer mining. Eleven tons of tin ore valent to seven tons of metallic tin, were obtained from placers Seward Peninsula and the Hot Springs district. Although still all in amount, the production in 1924 was considerably larger than the preceding three years, and may be taken as a sign of revival Interest in the mining of this metal.

COPPER

The average price of copper in 1924 was considerably below the ready low average of 1923, and the production of this metal therefre showed a large decrease from that in 1923, and the decrease in e was still greater. In 1924 Alaska produced 74,071,273 pounds copper, valued at $9,703,721, as compared with 85,920,645 pounds 1923, valued at $12,630,335. In 1924, as in other years, the outof copper was largely made by the mines of the Kennecott oper Corporation in the Chitina Valley and on Latouche Island, gh some copper was produced by other mines in the Chitina aley and in southeastern Alaska.