VI.-REPORT OF OPERATIONS DURING 1872 AT THE UNITED 

 STATES SALMON-HATCHING ESTABLISHMENT ON THE 

 M'CLOUD RIVER, AND ON THE CALIFORNIA SALMONIDiE 

 GENERALLY; WITH A LIST OF SPECIMENS COLLECTED. 



By Livingston Stone. 



A— INTRODUCTOEY REMARKS. 



1. — THE SALMON-HATCHING ESTABLISHMENT ON THE M'CLOUD EIVER. 



San Francisco, California, December 9, 1872. 



Sir : I heg leave to report as follows : 



lu pursiiauce of your instnictious received in July last, to proceed 

 without delay to the Pacific coast, and make arrangements for obtaining 

 a supply of salmon eggs, I left Boston on the 1st day of August, for San 

 Francisco, with this object. As I was directed in your subsequent letters 

 to obtain , if possible, the eggs of the Sacramen to River salmon , I set myself 

 at work at once to ascertain the time and place of the spawning of these 

 lish, but, singular as it seems, I could find no one in San Francisco who was 

 able to say either where or when the salmon of the Sacramento spawned. 

 Those best informed in regard to fishing matters, advised me to locate 

 at Rio Vista, the chief salmon-fishing ground of the Sacramento. This 

 seemed practicable at first, but, on examination, the water at Rio Vista 

 was found to be wholly unsuitable, and this place was given up. For- 

 tunately, a short time after, I was introduced, through the kindness of 

 Hon. B. B. Redding, a member of the board of California commission- 

 ers of fisheries, to Mr. Montague, the chief engineer of the Pacific Rail- 

 road, who showed me the Pacific Railroad surveys of the upper waters 

 of the Sacramento, and pointed out a place on the map, near the junc- 

 tion of the McCloud and Pit Rivers, where he assured me he had seen 

 Indians spearing salmon in the fall on their spawning-beds. This point 

 is one hundred and eighty-five miles north of Sacramento City. Fol- 

 lowing this clew, I proceeded to Red Bluff, the northernmost railway sta- 

 tion of the California and Oregon Railroad, situated fifty miles from the 

 McCloud River. From inquiries made here, I became so well convinced 

 that the salmon were then spawning on the McCloud River, that as soon 

 as supplies and men could be got ready I took the California and Oregon 

 stage for Pit River ferry, two miles from the mouth of the McCloud. 

 We arrived here at daylight on the 30th of August. Leaving the stage 

 at this point we followed up the left bank of Pit River on foot, to the 

 mouth of the McCloud, aiul continued thence up the McCloud RiVer. At 

 a distance of about two miles above the mouth of the river, we came 

 upon several camps of Indians with hundreds of freshly caught salmon 

 drying on the bushes. Salmon could also be seen in the river in such 



