172 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The Indian trap consists of a fence of stakes or bnslies, built out into the 

 river, at a fall or rapid, in the form of a letter Y, having the angle down 

 stream, and a basket-trap at the augle. This method proved perfectly 

 worthless, as of course it must, for catching healthy fish, as this con- 

 trivance catches onl}^ the exhausted fish that are going down the river, 

 and none of the good fish that ure coming up. 



The second method of usiug a stake-net did not work on account of 

 the volume and force of the river-current. I set the stake-net so as to 

 just reverse tlie form of the Indian trap, that is, so that it formed a letter 

 V with the angle up stream, and a trap or pound in the angle. As it 

 happened, it \Vas too late for such a net to be eflective. because the 

 salmon were all going down at that time, and none, or at most a very 

 few, were coming up ; but even if the salmon had been coming up, this 

 contrivance would not have answered here as a permanency, because 

 the velocit^^ and volume of water in the McCloud are such as would 

 ultimately tear any such net away, in any place where it could otherwise 

 be set to advantage. 



The third method, of sweeping with a seine, worked to perfection. In 

 some of the holes, and especially in one large hole near which it is pro- 

 posed to place the hatching-works next year, any number of parent 

 salmon can be caught in the proper season. The only objection to haul- 

 ing a seine in these places is, that as the boat taking out the seine turns 

 to come ashore again, it is drawn near the brink of the rapids, over which 

 it would be dangerous to go in the night. This is an objection, however, 

 which skill and nerve can always overcome. 



7. — TAKING THE EGGS. 



When we fished where the corral or inclosnre for the breeding salmon 

 was situated, the salmon were taken carefully from the net as soon as 

 it was hauled ashore, and placed in the corral, and kept there till the 

 last haul was made, just before daylight. The eggsw^ere then taken 

 from tiie fish and impregnated, so that by the time the last haul was 

 finished, and the net hung up to dry, the eggs were ready to be washed 

 and placed in the hatching-troughs. This was all very simple, but 

 when we hauled the seine at other points, where there was no place to 

 confine the salmon, it vras quite difierent. At these places, as soon as a 

 spawning-fish was hauled to the shore, I took and impregnated the eggs 

 at once, on the beach where we were, and kept the eggs in pails of water 

 during the night, till we had got through seining. It took four men to 

 strip a fish on these occasions; one to hold the head, one to hold the tail of 

 the fish, and a third to take the eggs, while afourth held a pitch-pine torch 

 for light. On the darkest nights the scene on the river bank was ex- 

 ceedingly wild and picturesque. Behind us was the tall, deep shadow 

 of Persephone Mountain, and before us at our feet ran the gleaming, 

 rapid current of the McCloud, while the camp-fii^e threw an unsteady 

 light upon the forest, mountain, and river, suddenly cut oil' by the dense 



