402 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Yet, though it seems almost incredible, not an accident, or delay, or 

 drawback of any kind happened. We did not lose a fish from any con- 

 tingencies of any sort, nor meet with a moment's delay, but entered 

 Sacramento City with all our fish alive, just on the moment that we 

 were due to reach it by the 11.30 p. m. train which we took from 

 Albany on Wednesday the week before. 



E— THE McCLOUD EIVEE STATION. 



The next evening, after depositing the shad at Tehama, I took the 

 train for Eedding, and the stage thence for the McCloud Eiver, arriving 

 at the river at daylight of the following day, July 5, 1874. My object 

 in making this journey was to see in what condition our camp of last 

 year on the McCloud might be, and to make some examinations of the 

 river itself, with special reference to using the river-water this year for 

 maturing the salmon-eggs for shipment. I confess I was somewhat sur- 

 prised, considering the unsettled condition of the country and the pres- 

 ence of Indians, to find the house and belongings exactly as we had left 

 them. Nothing had been molested, and nothing apparently touched, ex- 

 cept some spare lumber which an agent of the California and Oregon Stage 

 Company had borrowed in an emergency, and which was immediately 

 settled for. An examination of the river seemed to indicate that water 

 for the hatching-house could be obtained by carrying it in a ditch from 

 a point about fifty rods above the site selected for the hatching- works. 



These hasty examinations having been concluded, I went to Shasta 

 City to engage the services of two fishermen who had assisted us the 

 year before, and thence I proceeded to San Francisco. Having secured 

 supplies and men for the season's campaign, I left this San Francisco 

 city again for the McCloud Eiver on the oth of August, arriving at camp 

 the next morning at daylight. 



The year before, the idea of using the McCloud Eiver water not hav- 

 ing suggested itself, I had been obliged to locate the camp and hatching- 

 works at a considerable distance from the river, in order to obtain 

 brook- water for maturing the eggs. The inconvenience of this arrange- 

 ment, which placed the fishing-grounds and the hatching-works a mile 

 apart, is apparent. In fact, the constant necessity for crossing and 

 carrying materials from one point to the other, frequently in a tem- 

 perature of 110° in the shade, became so intolerable before the season 

 was over, with its consequent labor, risk, and loss of time, that I had 

 resolved if possible, the next season, to bring the camp, hatching- works, 

 fishing-grounds, and stage-communication together at one place. This 

 I was fortunately enabled to do by using the river-water for hatching 

 at a point where the California and Oregon stage-road touches the west 

 bank of the McCloud. The first plan for conveying the water from a 

 higher part of the river to the hatching- works was not successful on 

 account of there not being sufficient fall for a satisfactory hatching- 

 apparatus, and for other reasons. This plan was therefore abandoned, 



