CIV REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ing season was completed additional troughs were constructed and 

 placed out of doors for the accommodation of the fry. The eggs com- 

 menced hatching in November, and the first plant of fry was made on 

 December 18. Plants continued from this time until January 29, when 

 the last were liberated in Little White Salmon Eiver, which is one of 

 the best natural spawning-grounds of the quinnat salmon. The total 

 number of fry planted was 7,391,000. After all had been disposed of 

 the station was closed, and the watchman Avas employed for the balance 

 of the year iu constructing a road from the station to the county road. 



SiusLAW River Station, Oregon (L. E. Bean in charge). 



At the urgent request of the Kepresentatives of the State of Oregon, 

 and with the understanding that the canners and fishermen on Siuslaw 

 Eiver would cooperate with the U. S. Fish Commission, arrangements 

 were again made to open the hatchery near Mapleton, Oreg., the owner 

 having tendered its use free of cost. 



In August Mr. L. E. Bean was placed in charge, and arrangements 

 were made for collecting salmon down the river and transferring them 

 in live-boxes to the hatchery, to be held until ready to spawn. A rack 

 was placed across the north fork and another on the main river, IJ 

 miles above the station, at the head of tide water. Orates were also 

 constructed for transferring the fish: they were 18 feet long, 9 feet wide, 

 and 6 feet deep, and so made as to exclude light, sufficient space being 

 left between the planks below the surface of the water to admit of the 

 free circulation of water. 



A collection of 100 salmon obtained from the seine of Capt. William 

 Kyle were transferred to the boxes, but half of them were lost imme- 

 diately after being placed in the live-boxes, and the balance died in 

 transit, though the utmost care was exercised in handling them. This 

 method was then abandoned and collections were made by means of 

 gill nets and a trap fished below the rack, the trap being made of two 

 old seines. A few fish were caught in this way while the water was 

 muddy, but as soon as it became clear they avoided the traps. The 

 majority were taken in gill nets set in the evening and fished from time 

 to time during the night in the deep holes below the rack. Two nets 

 were used, one of which was 30 fathoms long, 7-inch mesh, and the 

 other 20 fathoms long, 9-inch mesh. On the night of October 21, 63 

 chinoolcs were taken in the two nets. The majority of those taken in 

 the 9-inch mesh were injured and died in a short time; the others were 

 held until the close of the season with comparatively small loss. 



At the close of operations there were 117 ripe females and 97 males 

 in the live-boxes. These yielded 544,275 eggs, of which 104,000 died 

 in incubation. They were placed in the hatchery as soon as fertilized, 

 and hatched during the month of .lannary. The 440,275 fry resulting 

 from them were liberated at suitable i)oints in Spring Creek and the 

 Siuslaw Eiver during the latter piirt of February and the first of 

 March. 



