408 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



borious work, but it gave the fish a chance to injure themselves. The 

 next plan, and the one we finally adopted, was as follows : 



We took the large box containing about 2,000 gallons of water, which 

 was first used to keep the parent salmon in, and afterward abandoned, 

 and placed it close to the corral where the salmon were confined ; we 

 then lifted the salmon out from the inelosure with a net and deposited 

 them in the box. The box was so large that it would always hold all 

 we had to carry across, and a great many more. The salmon being all 

 in, the cover was fastened down, and the box was ready for transport- 

 ing. The 2,000 gallons of water in the box weighed about ten tons, so 

 that towing it through the current with the boat was not to be thought 

 of, and we had not a strong line long enough to reach across the river. 

 We accordingly attached one end of what rope we had to the box, and 

 made the other end fast to a rock as high up above the box on the same 

 side of the river as it would reach. Then the box being ready, the boat- 

 man unfastened the upper end of the rope, and started across the river 

 at the same time that others pushed the box out into the current. By 

 quick rowing he could cross with the boat-end of the rope before the box 

 had become unmanageable in the current. The boat-end of the rope was 

 then made fast on this side of the river, and the box, with some help 

 from the boat, gradually swung across to where it was wanted. This 

 little maneuver, though so simple as to seem hardly worth mentioning, 

 really had to be conducted quite dexterously to be successful in our rapid 

 and dangerous river, and on that account assumed more importance than 

 it may seem to possess. 



3. — THE INDIAN SENTIMENT IN REGARD TO CATCHING THE SALMON. 



Our attempt to locate a camp on the river-bank was received by the 

 Indians with furious and threatening demonstrations. They had until 

 this time succeeded in keeping white men from their river, with the 

 exception of one settler, a Mr. Crooks, whom they murdered a few weeks 

 after I arrived. Their success thus far in keeping white men off had 

 given them a good deal of assurance, and they evidently entertained the 

 belief that they should continue, like their ancestors before them, to keep 

 the McCloud Eiver from being desecrated by the presence of the white 

 man. Their resentment was consequently very violent when they saw 

 us bringing our house and tents and camp-belongings to the edge of 

 the river, and taking possession of the land which they claimed as their 

 own, and settling down on it. They assembled in force, with their bows 

 and arrows, on the opposite bank of the river, and spent the whole day 

 in resentful demonstrations, or, as Mr. Woodbury expressed it, in trying 

 to drive us off. Had they thought they could succeed in driving us 

 off with impunity to themselves, they undoubtedly would have done so, 

 and have hesitated at nothing to accomplish their object ; but the ter- 

 rible punishments which they have suffered from the hands of the 

 whites for past misdeeds are too vivid in their memories to allow them 



