176 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



which it possessed just below Mount Shasta. It is still a clear river; 

 but soou after passing this point it becomes roily, and continues to 

 grow more and more so to its mouth. Above the mouth of Pit River it 

 flows through a deep canon, with high hills or mountains on both 

 banks ; but a short distance below the mouth of Pit River it enters a 

 more level country, and from thence to the bay of San Francisco it 

 moves slowly, widening every league, through a level country with 

 broad sweeps of prairie on either side, now famous all over the world 

 as the wonderfully productive region of the Sacramento Valley. 



About a hundred and fifty miles below the mouth of Pit River it 

 receives the muddy waters of the Feather Riv^er, and twenty miles far- 

 ther down, at Sacramento City, the still muddier waters of the Ameri- 

 can Fork. From here to San Francisco the Sacramento River is navi- 

 gable for large vessels and steamers; but receives no other extensive 

 tributaries except the San Joaquin, which empties into it at Rio Vista, 

 forty miles below Sacramento. 



It will be seen by the above description that the Sacramento River 

 has bnt four large tributaries, the San Joaquin, the American Fork, the 

 Feather River, and Pit River. AVith the San Joaquin we have nothing 

 to do in this report, as it may be regarded as almost an independent 

 river, and has not come Avithin the scope of the present investigation. 

 I will only say in regard to this river that it is much warmer than the 

 Sacramento, but is frequented some\vhat by salmon, especially in the 

 fall, which are killed in considerable quantities on some of its tributaries. 



The American Fork was formerly a prolific salmon river, but the min- 

 ing operations on its banks have rendered it so mnddy that the salmon 

 have abandoned it altogether, and none ascend it now. Precisely the 

 same thing is to be said of Feather River. The salmon come up in some 

 numbers to spawn in the smallel' streams between the American and Pit 

 Rivers, bnt the retnrns from these s[)awning-gronnds are probably small. 

 The salmon come np Pit River in great numbers in the spring, but I 

 am informed that they all leave Pit River for the colder waters of the 

 McCh)ud River in the latter part of June or the first part of July. It is 

 probable that they ascend the upper waters of the Pit Kiver also to a 

 limited extent at this time, bnt I could obtain no positive information 

 on tins point. Above the mouth of Pit River the salmon ascend the 

 Sacramento, now called the Little Sacramento, in great numbers, and 

 make the clear waters of this stream the priucii)al spawnijig-ground of 

 the salmon of the Great Sacramento River, with one exception. This 

 exception is the McClond River. 



12. — THE M'CLOUD river. 



This river, wliich is the great spawning rendezvous of the Sacramento 

 salmo]), deserves special notice both on this account, and because it is 

 on this river that the United States salmon breeding station has been 

 located. The McCloud River heads in Mount Shasta and in the southern 



