4G0 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



how much work there is in packing a half a million eggs ; hut if he will 

 undertake to pack 5,000, and then reflect that this must be repeated one 

 hundred times to make a half a million, he will get some idea of it. In 

 the first place, preparatory to the packing, the moss is to be obtained. 

 Mr. Woodbury had charge of the expedition for the moss. They went 

 sixty-five miles for it, and returned in twelve days with a hundred 

 bushels. This moss had to be all carefully washed, picked over, and 

 separated. Theu the sixty packing-boxes were to be made, and thirty 

 crates to send the eggs off in. 



This preparatory work being done, and the time being come for 

 making a shipment, all hands took hold of the work of placing the eggs 

 in the boxes. We usually allowed two days to pack, box up, and mark 

 a lot of 750,000, but on one occasion we packed the whole 750,000 in 

 one day. Now that the fishing, spawning, ripening, and packing of the 

 eggs was all going on at once, it can be easily seen that we had no time 

 to rest. The first lull in our work came when the fishing was stopped 

 and the seine hauled up for the season. This relieved the night-gang; 

 and the reduction which had been caused, by various shipments, in the 

 number of the eggs to be looked after, gave us a slight breathing-space, 

 which I employed in making slight improvements about the ranch, such 

 as putting an open fire-place in the house, for the nights had now become 

 very cold, and in bringing up incidental work that had fallen behind in 

 the hurry of the previous month. From this time, although the work 

 did not drive us as it did in the summer, we had plenty to do. There 

 were still two or three million eggs in the troughs, nearly a million of 

 which were to be hatched for the McCloud Eiver. The hatching-troughs, 

 bridge, wheel, flume, dam, and tents were to be taken down and packed 

 away, out of reach of the winter floods, and all the thousand little things 

 to be attended to that are connected with the closing up of a place like 

 this. Still, this work seemed light, compared to what we had been 

 through. It was not a little ludicrous to reflect, afterwards, that when 

 we considered our work all done, we had still nearly a million of eggs 

 to hatch, a task that, under other circumstances, would seem quite for- 

 midable ; but so strong was the contrast between it and the larger work 

 which had been accomplished, that it seemed almost like nothing at all. 



I have dwelt longer than perhaps appears to be necessary on the char- 

 acter of the work done at this station this season, because I am aware 

 that to some it may appear quite incomprehensible what we had to do 

 with so many men for so long a time. I can assure them, however, that 

 there was enough to do every moment, and such things as idleness or 

 loafing were not known in the camp. I think I ought to mention par- 

 ticularly here the services rendered by Eichard and Waldo Hubbard, 

 grandsons of Governor Hubbard, formerly United States Senator from 

 Xew Hampshire. These two young men were always found equal to 

 any occasion, whether it was to fell trees all day under the scorching 

 California sun, or to work for hours immersed in the icy water of the 



