170 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



eggs were ready to pack for shipment, but owing- to miscarriage of a 

 letter the moss which was to be delivered on the previous Tuesday did 

 not arrive until the evening of the following Tuesday. On the next 

 day, October 23, the eggs were packed and shipped to Sacramento, 

 where I placed them in charge of Wells, Fargo & Co., by whom they 

 were forwarded East on the 25th of October, 1872. 



2. — the location of the salmon-breeding station on the 



m'cloud river. 



The location which has been selected for this station seems to be the 

 best, all things considered, that could be found for obtaining and matur- 

 ing for shipment the eggs of the Sacramento River salmon. Although 

 I made a careful exploration of the whole course of the Sacramento 

 River, I found no place wliich seemed to me to possess equal advantages- 

 The mill-brook at Tehama came the nearest to it, but at Tehama the sal- 

 mon spawn so late as to throw the transportation of the eggs into De- 

 cember, when there is danger of snow-blockades on the Pacific Rail- 

 road ; the rainy season commences at Tehama while the eggs are 

 maturing, and renders the brook liable to become roiled by the rains ; 

 there is a mill on the stream, the operations of which would interfere with 

 the water-supply of the hatching-troughs; and the fact that Indians, 

 Chinese, and whites congregate there in great numbers to kill the sal- 

 mon, makes the neighborhood anything but favorable for the delicate 

 work of maturing salmon-eggs. 



Ou the other hand, at the McCloud, the spawning jieriod is such as to 

 place the transportation of the eggs at the best time, viz, in Oo(;tober 

 or November; the egs<^ will be shipped before the rainy season sets in, 

 and if it did rain, it would not disturb the water of the McCloud river, 

 which it is proposed to use in future. There is no mill nor anything 

 else on the McCloud River to interfere with the water-supply, and, lastl;> , 

 this river is wholly free from the rough neighborhoods which are found 

 on the outskirts of a town like Tehama. The Tehama brook has the one 

 advantage of being half a day's travel nearer Sacramento, but I do not 

 think this a sufficient otfset to the other advantages of the present 

 location. ' 



3. — CHANGES proposed FOR ANOTHER SEASON. 



I would recommend that next year the house and all the hatching appa- 

 ratus be moved down close to the edge of the high- water mark of the river, 

 where the seine is hauled for catching the parent salmon, and that the 

 water for hatching be taken from the river itself. This can all be done at 

 a very inconsiderable expense, and the whole thing will then be very com- 

 pact. The fishing-ground, the dwelling-house, the corral for the parent 

 salmon, and the hatching-works will all be close together, and a vast deal 

 of labor and risk arising from these departments being separated, as they 



