BULLETIN OF l Hi; UNITED 8TATE8 PISH COMMISSION. 309 



»7.— CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES TROUT PONDS. 



By I.OICIA W. GREEN. 



[Letter to Prof. S. P.Baird.] 



Our weather still continues very hot and dry. California has never 

 known just such a winter before. We have had no rain sine- the lore 

 part of winter, and consequently our traps have been useless. I thought 

 there would surely be 100,000 more eggs to ship, but I fear t here will not. 

 The trout in the ponds are nearly all done spawning, and the weather 

 is so hot that it is almost impossible to handle them without great 

 loss. The temperature to-day is 9G° in the shade. Years before-we ha ve 

 always taken eggs until the last of April, and should we have rains we 

 may get the late run yet, but the creeks and river are very low. The 

 water has been warm in the river and the trout have mostly spawned 

 in the river instead of using the small creeks, as they usually do, but our 

 trout are looking nicely. I received an answer from Mr. Gordon Land, 

 Denver, Colorado, saying the 10,000 eggs arrived in good condition. 1 

 received the telegram this morning ordering eggs shipped to different 

 points. I have one lot more now on hand, which will be ready for ship- 

 ment soon, of about 10,000. At present the temperature of the air is 

 96° in the shade ; temperature of water, 50°. 



Baird, Shasta County, Cal., March 15, 1885. 



98.— LOCATION OF A SALMON HATCHERY IN OREGON. 



By €. H. WALKER. 



As'to the plan for renewing operations at the Clackamas River salmon 

 hatchery, it has been said that it did not seem to be at the right point 

 to be of any benefit to the Upper Columbia. I wish to call the attention 

 of those who are interested in the matter of propagating salmon to 

 what seems to me one of the best streams east of the Catskill Mountains, 

 namely, the Des Chutes Eiver, especially in the vicinity of the Warm 

 Springs Agency. This river runs within a few miles of the agency, and 

 for some distance above and below where the Agency River empties 

 into it there are numerous coarse gravel or cobble-stone bars, where the 

 salmon deposit their v spawn, so the Indians say; and as salmon can 

 often be seen on these bars during August and September, 1 have no 

 doubt the Indians are correct. Des Chutes is the largest stream that 

 enters the Columbia below the mouth of the Snake Eiver and east of 

 the Cascades. The temperature of the water is quite uniform the year 

 round, always cool enough to be good drinking-water during the hot- 

 test days of summer and never cold enough in winter to freeze. Dur- 



