384 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



lection.) Of these varieties, the perch, pike, and sturgeon are the best 

 food-fishes. 



There has been a vast decrease in the returns of the fyke-nets during 

 the last twenty years. 



In 1872 and 1873, 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 20 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 the 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 warm, 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. We visited twenty nets j but, as some of them 

 had not been examined for over twenty-four hours, the yield was sup- 

 posed to be equivalent to one day's fishing for thirty nets. The nets 

 had four hoops each, and 14-foot wings. We took 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 abun- 

 dance, the average for thirty nets being 200 or 300 pounds a day, but 

 on this day the perch were quite insignificant in numbers. We found 

 in the nets seven small viviparous perch and two small sturgeons. I 

 learned also that minks, beavers, and otters are sometimes caught in the 

 nets. In 1872, Mr. Ingersoll caught eight minks, two beavers, and one 

 otter in his fyke-nets. 



Sweep-seine fishing. — The sweep-seine fishing is 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. 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 persistent 

 and industrious fishermen on the Sacramento. 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-water lagoons, or " slews? 

 as they are called in California, where the fish collect in myriads to 

 spawn. With these nets, they catch vast quantities of fish of all sizes; 

 and so destructive has their fishing been on the Sacramento that all 

 the fish except salmon are disappearing from that river with unexampled 

 rapidity. It is owing to this kind of fishing that the returns of the 

 fyke-nets have diminished so alarmingly 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 



