BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 217 



ACCOUNT OF OPERATIONS AT THE ItlcCLOUD RIVER FISH-RREED- 

 IIVG STATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION, FROM 

 lSr-2 TO 1883, INCLUSIVE. 



By LIVINGSTON STONE. 



[Written by request of Professor Baird, for the London Exhibition, 1883. j 



The United States salmon -breeding establishment on the McCloud 

 Eiver, California, which afterwards became the largest of its kind in 

 the world, arose from small beginnings. A rough board cabin 12 feet 

 by 11 feet, and a small set of hatching-troughs, resting on the ground, 

 without a roof over them, constituted the McCloud Eiver salmon-breed- 

 ing station of the United States in 1872, the first year of its history. 

 Three white men, including the writer, with the help of one or two In- 

 dians, did all the work. Our one room answered the purpose of office, 

 kitchen, dining-room, and bed-room for all of us. Thirty thousand sal- 

 mon eggs, matured for shipment, which afterwards dwindled down to 

 9,003 living ones at the end of their overland journey, constituted the 

 results of the season's work. We even actually suffered, at times, for 

 want of means. More than once my remittances from Washington being 

 unexpectedly delayed, we were obliged to sell part of our clothing and 

 some of the cooking utensils to obtain money for our immediate neces- 

 sities. Our force was so small that we were repeatedly in danger of 

 being robbed and murdered, and it often became necessary for the same 

 man to work all day and two-thirds of the night to complete the day's 

 work. From these small beginnings and straitened circumstances 

 sprung the McCloud Eiver salmon-breeding station, which a few years 

 afterwards employed forty or fifty men, and distributed in one season 

 nearly 14,000,000 salmon eggs, which went not only to various parts of 

 the United States, but to several foreign countries, of which New Zea- 

 land was the most remote. 



The results of the season's work, however, small as they were, were 

 enough. They were sufficient to establish the important facts that 

 salmon eggs could be procured in California, could be matured for ship- 

 ment, and, w T hat was more gratifying than all, could be sent alive across 

 the North American Continent. 



To settle the points just mentioned was a matter of no small conse- 

 quence. Every one of them was regarded as extremely doubtful before 

 the expedition set out, while at the same time every one of them was 

 absolutely indispensable to success. The whole project, indeed, of get- 

 ting salmon eggs on a large scale on the Pacific coast, and transport- 

 ing them alive to the Atlantic coast, had been looked upon with great 

 distrust. It was considered very doubtful whether the California salmon 

 eggs could be procured in large quantities. It was considered doubtful 

 whether, under the changed conditions of the Pacific slope, salmon eggs 



