BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 221 



I will now leave the chronological order of events, and take up in 

 succession the various subjects connected with the carrying on of this 

 station which seem to present themselves most prominently, and will 

 speak first of its advantages of location. 



ADVANTAGES OF LOCATION. 



There are several tributaries of the Sacramento in California that tins 

 salmon formerly ascended for the purpose of depositing their spawn. 

 With three exceptions, all of these rivers, as, for instance, the Feather 

 River, the Yuba, the American Fork, have long ago been completely 

 ruined as spawning grounds, in consequence of the immense deposit of 

 mud in them, caused by the hydraulic mining operations on these rivers. 

 Not a salmon ever enters these streams now. Except possibly at a 

 time of very high water, these streams are so thick with mud that it 

 would kill any fish attempting to ascend them. The three exceptions 

 mentioned are the Pit Eiver, the Little Sacramento, and the McCloud, 

 which is really a tributary of the Pit Eiver. Now of these three rivers, the 

 Pit above its confluence with the McCloud becomes too warm for salmon 

 in the summer, and the Little Sacramento is rapidly losing its salmon 

 owing to mining operations which have been carried on there during 

 the last few years. It will consequently be seen that the McCloud re- 

 mains the only stream tributary to the Sacramento that furnishes good 

 spawning grounds for the Sacramento salmon. Up this river the great 

 body of the Sacramento Eiver salmon go to spawn, and on this river, 2 

 miles from its mouth, is built the salmon-breeding station of the TJnited 

 States Fish Commission. 



Advantageous as this situation is for its abundance of salmon, it 

 would be of little use as a distributing point for the eggs if it had no 

 convenient lines of communication with the rest of the world ; but fortu- 

 nately the California and Oregon stage route — the only direct through 

 road but one in the country, connecting Oregon and California — follows 

 the north bank of the McCloud for a short distance, and it is just where 

 the stage road coming south touches the river that the salmon-breed- 

 ing station is built. It was a most happy combination of circumstances 

 that this through line happened to strike the point where, of all others, 

 the California salmon could be most abundantly obtained. The conse- 

 quence is that we have had, during our whole ten years there, a daily 

 mail north and south and all the incidental advantages, which are very 

 great, of living on the great thoroughfare between the two States. 



Besides these advantages just mentioned, this station has another, 

 which, though of a negative character, is nevertheless indispensable to its 

 existence. It is that the geological formations of the river do not in- 

 dicate the presence of gold-bearing ground on its banks. This has saved 

 the river from the miners and still protects it, and it is the only thing 

 that does protect it 5 for had gold been found in any abundance on the 

 river, the McCloud would have gone the way of its fellows, the Yuba, the 



