738 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



" There has been a vast decrease in the returns of the fyke-nets during the last twenty years. 

 In 1852 and 1853 they used to catch 700 or 800 pounds a day in one fyke-net. An average of 250 

 pounds a day for one net at Sacramento City was usually expected in those times. The present 

 catch of 75 pounds a day in twenty nets certainly presents an alarming contrast. The fyke-net 

 fishing is conducted wholly by white men, I believe, the Chinese fishermen being ruled out by 

 force of public sentiment. The fyke-nets are usually visited early in the morning of each day, 

 and the catch is sent down to San Francisco by the noon boat. The fyke-net fishing begins in 

 November and is continued till May. The best fishing is when a rise in the water drives the fish 

 inshore, where the fyke-nets are placed. During the summer months the water is warmer, the 

 fish are poor, and the fishing is discontinued. 



" On the 27th of February, 1873, I went the rounds of Mr. Ingersoll's set of fyke-nets with 

 him. \Ve visited twenty nets, but as some of them had not been examined for over twenty-four 

 hours, the yield was supposed to be equivalent to one day's fishing for thirty nets. The nets had 

 four hoops each and 14-foot wings. We took out about 120 pounds of fish in all. Hardheads were 

 the most numerous, and the Sacramento pike next. Mr. Ingersoll said that perch used to rank 

 second in abundance in fyke-net fishing, the average for thirty nets being 200 or 300 pounds a day, 

 but the perch were quite insignificant in numbers on this day. We found in the nets seven small 

 viviparous perch and two small sturgeon. I learned also that mink, beaver, and otters are some- 

 times caught in the nets. In 1872 Mr. Ingersoll caught 8 minks, 2 beavers, and 1 otter in his 

 fyke-nets. 



" SWEEP-SEINE FISHING. The sweep-seine fishing ia given over to the Chinese, who are not 

 allowed by public sentiment to engage in either of the other two kinds of fishing just described, 

 but what they are not permitted to do by the prohibited methods they make ample amends for by 

 their own methods. They are, I should say, the most industrious and persistent fishermen on the 

 river. They fish all the year round. They use fine mesh nets, with which they sweep every part 

 of the river, especially the partially-stagnant fresh- w;iter lagoons, or sloughs, as they are called 

 in California, where the fish collect in myriads to spawn. With these nets they catch vast quan- 

 tities offish of all sizes, and so destructive has their fishing been on the Sacramento, that all the 

 fish of that river except salmon are disappearing with unexampled rapidity. 



" It is owing to this kind of fishing that the returns of the fyke-nets have diminished BO alarm- 

 ingly the last few years. The Chinese have been at it for seven or eight years, and if they keep 

 on three or four years more at this rate, the small fish of the Sacramento will be practically 

 exterminated. I had no means of ascertaining with any exactness how many Chinese fishermen 

 there were on the river, but there are a large number, and Mr. Ingersoll said that they were 

 increasing every year. The most of their fresh fish they send to the San Francisco Chinese 

 markets as soon as caught, but they also dry a great quantity of them on bars and floors prepared 

 for the purpose. These are both eaten by themselves and sent packed in barrels to the Chinese 

 quarter in San Francisco. While at Rio Nita in February, 1873, 1 visited a Chinese fishing-station 

 on the Sacramento River. It was located about 80 rods above the Rio Nita steamboat-lauding^ 

 and consisted of a nest of Chinese fishing-boats numbering seven small boats and three large ones. 

 There was also on the shore, just across the road, two old tumble-down buildings with drying-bars 

 and floors near by in the open air, where some of the fishermen lived and attended to the drying 

 of the fish. The small boats were small, flat bottomed dories, square at the stern, sharp at the 

 bow, about 15 feet long, and strongly built. 



" The large boats were also strongly built, but narrow and pointed at both ends, and con- 

 structed in the Chinese fashion. Two of the three large boats had one mast, and the other one 



