226 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



having procured several hundred poles. These the choppers packed on 

 their shoulders to the nearest point on the stage-road, whence they were 

 brought to camp by the mule-teams returning from Oregon. I contin- 

 ued sending to this spot for poles until they reported the stock ex- 

 hausted. We then scoured the woods in the immediate neighborhood 

 of the camp and gathered in all the scattering ones that could be found 

 until these were gone. There were still many more needed, which were 

 obtained from various quarters and packed into camp on the shoulders 

 of the men employed. 



" The poles having been secured, the fence which was to form the dam 

 was constructed on shore in sections, which when completed were taken 

 to the bridge and dropped into the water at an angle of perhaps thirty 

 degrees with the perpendicular of the bridge. The upper side of each 

 section being now firmly spiked to the timbers of the bridge, the current 

 striking it at the angle mentioned forced the bottom of the fence very 

 tightly against the river-bed. All the sections being thus placed, rocks 

 were then piled up around the bottom of the fence and thrust into any 

 crevices which the salmon might get through; and this work having 

 been extended entirely across the river, the bridge and dam were rendered 

 complete. 



"About four o'clock in the afternoon, a few days after, the passage of 

 the salmon was obstructed, and before the corrals were made, it was 

 announced that the salmon were making their first assault upon the dam. 

 The whole camp collected on the bridge to witness the attack. It was 

 a sight never to be forgotten. For several rods below the bridge the sal- 

 mon formed one black, writhing mass of life. Piled together, one above 

 another, they charged in solid columns against the bridge and dam, 

 which trembled and shook continually under their blows. Not daunted 

 by their repeated failures, they led attack after attack upon the fence, 

 one column succeeding as another fell b.tck. Encouraged by their num- 

 ber, and urged on by their irrepressible instinct, they entirely disre- 

 garded the observers on the bridge, and struggled at their very best to 

 pass the unwonted obstruction. Finding the fence impassable, many 

 fell back a little and tried to jump the bridge. This several succeeded in 

 doing, sometimes violently striking the men on the bridge in their leaps, 

 and sometimes actually jumping between their feet. For an hour and 

 a half this fierce assault continued, when, exhausted by their efforts and 

 discouraged by many failures, they fell back to the deep hole just below 

 the rapids, arrested, for the first time since the McCloud formed its chan- 

 nel, in their progress up the river. The Indians, who were watching 

 their movements, were wild with excitement over this scene, which, even 

 after a residence of centuries on the river, was new to them." 



We had no difficulty after this in obtaining all the salmon that were 

 wanted. The subsequent season, having made the dam or fence a lit- 

 tle closer and higher, so that no salmon whatever could get by, we took 

 8,000,000 eggs, and in 1878 we took 14,000,000, and could have taken 



