STONE ON THE SACRAMENTO SALMON. 175 



on all sides. This open space was filled with hay to weaken the force 

 of coucassious and to equalize the temperature inside. The cover of 

 the crate was then put on, and I took thejn twenty-two miles down the 

 stage-road to Eedding, and thence one hundred and seventy miles by 

 rail to Sacramento City, wliere, after unpacking tlie boxes and moisten- 

 ing the moss very thoroughly with cold water, I repacked the boxes in 

 the crate, and ship])ed them East, in care of Wells, Fargo & Co., by way 

 of the Pacific Ivailroad. 



I packed two tin boxes of eggs, also, and inclosed them in pails of 

 saAvdust, with the expectation of hanging up the pails in the car, and so 

 avoid in some degree the jolting of the trains ; bnt on examining the 

 car, and considering the number of changes of car between here and the 

 Athintic, I concluded that it was more dangerous to hang them np than 

 to have thou rest on the floor of the car. Aecordingly, all the packages 

 of eggs were carried like anj* other merchandise, on the floor of the 

 express-car. 



Permit me to add that, during the fall, I traveled the whole length 

 of the Sacramento Eiver, from its sources around Mount Shasta to its 

 outlet at the bay of San Francisco, and also ascended the McCloud 

 Piver as far as it is accessible, which is about twenty miles, and col- 

 lected quite a complete series of specimens of the Salmomdce of the Sac- 

 ramento and McCloud Eivers, a catalogue of which I transmit here- 

 with. The specimens and accompanying drawings have been forwarded 

 to you, at the Smithsonian Institution. 



B— THE SALMONIDJ]] OF THE SACEAMBNTO ElYEE. 



11. — THE SACRAMENTO RIVER. 



In order to make what follows more clear, permit me to describe 

 briefly the conrse of the Sacramento Eiver. 



The Sacramento Eiver proper has its sources in Mount Shasta, and 

 in the Siskiyou Mountains to the west of Mount Shasta, about four 

 hundred miles by the river channel from its outlet into the ocean at 

 San Francisco. A few miles below Mount Shasta, on Shasta Butte, as 

 it is called in California, the smaller sonrces form a clear, rocky, and 

 swift-running stream, about a hnndred or a hundred and fifty feet 

 across, and so deep that it can just be waded with high rubber boots at 

 its shallowest parts. Its temperature is here very low, and probably 

 does not average over 50^ F. the year round. From this point, for 

 nearly eighty miles, it falls at the rate of thirty-seven feet to the mile, 

 running nearly due south, and retains its character of a clear and cold 

 stream all the way. Down to this point it is known as the " Little Sac- 

 ramento," and receives the waters of many small streams, but no large 

 ones till it reaches its junction with Pitt Eiver. At this stage of its 

 course it has swollen to three times its original volume, and with the 

 addition of the contents of Pitt Eiver makes a stream six times the bulk 



