EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 59 



At Quilcene station the collections of all species except humpback 

 were larger than last year, a noticeable increase being in steelheads, 

 which numbered 420,000 as against 45,000 in the previous year. 

 Good success was attained in hatching, the fry losses were normal, and 

 all young were fed and planted as advanced fry or fingerlings. Two 

 million humpback eggs from Afognak station, Alaska, hatched well, 

 and the young were reared to fingerhng size before liberation. 



A power machine for grinding fish food was installed at Birds view 

 and a motor truck was acquired, and both appliances effected import- 

 ant economies in time and labor. The shore of Grandy Creek was 

 protected by a plank wall for arresting erosion and to prevent the 

 flooding of the station grounds. At Illabot and Day Creeks the 

 battery shelters were inclosed with rough-board siding for the 

 exclusion of snow and wind, and at the former a heating coil was 

 installed, its hot-water discharge entering the hatchery supply 

 flume, with the object of preventing freezing and water stoppage. 

 At Sultan the open end of the hatchery was boarded in, 11 new 

 trouglis and fittings were added, and an earth rearing-pond was 

 constructed. 



The Quinault, Wash., substation is located on one of the most 

 important blueback-salmon streams in the United States at the 

 present time, but it is unquestionably bein^ heavily overfished. 

 Wliile the close season is always compUed with, it consists of only 

 one day each week, and as fishing operations are conducted for a 

 chstance of several miles up the river, it is believed the fish entering 

 the streams at the beginning of a closed period do not pass beyond 

 the last traps before fisliing is again resumed. The run of four years 

 ago was extremely small and was in part responsible for the di- 

 minished numbers entering the past season. Wnile there is no way 

 of definitely determining the number of fish reaching Quinault Lake 

 in the course of a season, a very close estimate may be arrived at by 

 basing it on the number taken by the Indians at the mouth of the 

 river. This during the past year indicated one of the poorest season's 

 on record in the region. The run to the upper waters was 10 days late 

 owing to low water. Many fish that collected in deep holes, apparently 

 waiting for a rise, were taken by seining, and most of them being 

 rme, they were stripped where caught. The spawning season began 

 November 10, and the total egg collections amounted to 13,395,000. 

 Hatching was delayed a month by cold weather and snow in the 

 mountains. A part of the young had to be released in the sac stage 

 owing to lack of trough room. About 50,000 were held per trough 

 until the sac was absorbed, when they were liberated down to 6,000 

 and these held for fingerhng production. Dead eggs were removed 

 by salt solution, and with such effectiveness that the care of the eggs 

 required the time of only two men. 



About 45,000 blueback fingerlings brought over from last year 

 were the product of eggs from Alaska. Of these 42,502, by actual 

 count, were marked by the removal of the adipose and left ventral 

 fins, and hberated in August and September. The losses from mark- 

 ing were shght. 



Blueback-salmon fingerlings were observed in Quinault Lake in 

 much larger numbers than in the previous two years, many thousand 

 bein^ seen feeding in schools near the surface in May and June. 

 Incidental to blueback fishing, there were collected 235,000 chinook 



