SALMON-HATCHING ESTABLISHMENT, m'CLOUD RIVER, CAL. 459 



by the boat; also I saw the messengers who were to accompany them, 

 and instructed them, and ordered them to so instruct the messengers 

 who should take their place, if there was a change before the crates 

 reached their destinations. 



" I learned afterward that the Providence crate was several days before 

 reaching its destination, from New York, through some carelessness or 

 oversight on the part of those having charge of the express between the 

 two cities. Hence this crate of salmon-eggs suffered so much loss, some 

 30 per cent., I believe, that it was not as successful as the rest of the 

 lot. This incites me to repeat that it seems, not only better, but very 

 necessary to have some one accompanying the crates from the beginning 

 to the end. There are many minute details also which will be overlooked, 

 carelessly or otherwise, by the messengers; and it is so indispensable, 

 in order to insure the healthiness of the eggs, that all these details 

 should be performed, that if anything is to be done, the person accom- 

 panying the salmon-eggs must attend to it himself, or superintend it per- 

 sonally. 



"Respectfully submitted. 



"MARSHALL L. PEREIN." 



LIFE IN CAMP. 



Owing to the remoteness of the situation and the peculiar nature of 

 our surroundings, a few words about our life in camp may possibly not 

 be out of place. 



The time passed very pleasantly with us all through the season. The 

 work of the campaign was of course the main feature of the life here, 

 and in this all seemed equally interested and bent on success. There 

 was one peculiarity about the work : it was always driving us, even to 

 working Sundays and nights, while we, on the other hand, were always 

 looking forward to a time of comparative rest. This time of rest never 

 came. At first we had to rush the work with all our might to get the 

 house built and the two hatching-tents put up in season. Then came 

 the cutting of the poles and felling of the logs for the bridge, and then 

 the building of the bridge itself. No time was to be lost in this work, 

 for the spawning-season was coming on rapidly, and, if the dam was 

 not completed in good season, before the salmon stopped running, it 

 would do no good. The bridge was no sooner finished than all hands 

 had to go to work with a will on the hatching-trays and hatching-appa- 

 ratus, in order to get them done in time for the eggs. This seemed 

 almost an endless job, so many hundred wire trays had to be made and 

 so much surface covered with asphaltum. 



The hatching-apparatus was hardly ready when the eggs began to 

 come on. Then the camp was busier than ever, and, when this work of 

 ripening the eggs was at its height, the earlier lots had become ready 

 for shipment. 



Probably no one inexperienced in packing the eggs of fishes realizes 



