30 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



ing troughs were overturned earlier in the season by the support on 

 which they stood breaking through the floor. No loss occurred, but 

 had the hatchery been filled with eggs or fry, as would have been the 

 case in a normal season, either of these incidents could not have failed 

 to result in a large loss of stock. The trestle, constructed primarily 

 to carry the new pipe for water supply, is built to accommodate a 

 tramcar, thus making available for the convenient use of the station 

 a large amount of timber suitable for fuel and also for lumber. 

 Other imjDortant work accomplished by the station employees, with 

 material alread}^ on hand and without additional expense, was the 

 replacing of 1,600 feet of plank walk about the station grounds, com- 

 pleting new foundation for the superintendent's residence, construct- 

 ing 1,320 feet of tramway from the hatchery to the boathouse on the 

 lake shore, and equipping it with 12-pound iron rails. This com- 

 pletes the tramway, extending from tidewater to the hatchery, over 

 which all supplies reach the station. 



From the stations in the Washington field, not including Quinault, 

 the total output for the year amounted to 29,956,700 eggs, fry, and 

 fingerlings, these figures including 125,000 eyed steelhead-salmon eggs 

 supplied to applicants. While this output was somewhat below the 

 previous season's, the falling off is attributable to a series of untoward 

 circumstances rather than to a decrease in the run of salmon, and a 

 gratifying increase in the yield of sockeye and silver-salmon eggs is 

 to be recorded. 



On July 21, 1919, all the buildings and equipment at the Baker 

 Lake station were destroyed by fire. As immediate action was neces- 

 sary to safeguard the eggs available from the sockeye salmon already 

 entrapped there, funds intended for use in other fields were diverted 

 for this more important purpose. As a consequence operations had 

 to be discontinued for the year at Darrington, Day Creek, and Illabot 

 Creek, at each of which points traps, flumes, and other equipment 

 had suffered damage from floods and ice during the winter, and 

 funds were not available for making repairs. 



Low water in Grandy Creek and Skagit River during the spawn- 

 ing season of the humpback and chinook salmons curtailed egg 

 collections for the Birdsview station. The run of humpbacks was 

 light, but chinooks were in evidence in the river, though beyond the 

 reach of traps or seines and unable to attain the spawning grounds 

 in the tributaries. The number of eggs taken was 74,000 of hump- 

 backs and 54,000 of chinooks. Conditions were better during the 

 silver-salmon run, and 2,198,000 eggs were secured. This stock was 

 augmented by the transfer of 2,418,000 eggs from the Baker Lake 

 collections. Steelhead-salmon eggs to the number of 255,000 also 

 were taken at Birdsview. 



The largest run of sockeye salmon recorded during the past 10 

 years occurred at the Baker Lake station. The first fish entered 

 the trap at the lake outlet on July 1, and the run continued until 

 August, during Avhich period 7,800 fish Avere taken and transferred 

 to the retaining inclosure for ripening. At spawning time 3,835 of 

 the number on hand — about 49 per cent — were females, which 

 yielded 11,150,000 eggs of good quality. Approximately 200 of the 

 female brood fish escaped from the retaining inclosure during a 

 sudden rise in the lake, the racks at either end of the inclosure 



