SALMON-HATCHING ESTABLISHMENT, M'CLOUD RIVER, CAL. 445 



the greater pressure of water against the wheel caused by the erection 

 of the dam, it raised three or four times as much water, or about twenty 

 thousand gallons an hour. If necessary, the wheel could be made 

 to pump up enough water to hatch a hundred million salmon- 

 eggs. The filtering-tanks consisted this year of two tanks brought out 

 in the second California aquarium-car. They were splendid tanks, 

 made of eastern pine, iron-bound, and holding a thousand gallons each. 

 Tbe hatching-troughs this year were all made on the Williamson plan, 

 which obliges the water to run from the bottom to the top of each com- 

 partment, as seen in the diagram. There were eight rows of hatchiug- 

 troughs this year, each eighty feet long. In some of the troughs, the 

 shallow trays were used three deep, with one layer of eggs in each tray. 

 In others, one deep tray was substituted for the three tiers of shallow 

 trays, and the eggs placed eight or ten layers deep instead of one. This 

 new application of the Williamson troughs was suggested by my fore- 

 man, Mr. Woodbury, and is, I believe, the best and simplest method 

 yet discovered for maturing salmon-eggs for shipment. By means of it, 

 we could mature forty thousand eggs in each compartment, a quarter of 

 a million in each trough, and one million and a quarter in each line of 

 troughs. As there were eight lines of troughs laid down, our hatching- 

 capacity this year was just ten millions ; but it can be increased indefi- 

 nitely. All the troughs were excluded from the light by covers formed 

 by stretching black cloth over slight wooden frames. All the' troughs, 

 trays, covers, as well as the wheel, bridge, dam, and everything else 

 about the place, were made by ourselves on the spot. 



THE FISH AND THE FISHING. 



The upper fishing-ground, being above the dam, was practically aban- 

 doned this year, and almost all the seining was done at the lower 

 ground, where the fishing was good enough to satisfy any one. When 

 the salmon had made an unsuccessful assault upon the dam, they fell 

 back into the hole at the foot of the rapids, which formed the lower 

 fishing-ground. Here they were practically in as secure confinement as 

 if they had been caught and placed in a pound ; for the dam prevented 

 them from going up the stream, and their irrepressible instinct to ascend 

 the river prevented them from going down. Every foot of this hole was 

 swept by the seine. No better corral or inclosure for confining the fish 

 could be constructed. Here they had their natural habitat and sur- 

 roundings, the whole volume of the McCloud Eiver for a water-supply, 

 and nothing whatever to prevent them from keeping healthy and in 

 first-rate condition. It was the best possible kind of a pound for them. 

 Last year, they lashed themselves to pieces, trying to escape from the 

 artificial pens. This year, they kept as fresh and well as could be 

 wished. They accumulated in this hole by thousands. When any were 

 wanted, it was only necessary to extend the net around them and haul 

 them in. Once or twice no less than fifteen thousand pounds of salmon 



