46 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



CALIFORNIA. 



From 1891 to the close of the fiscal year just past the fresh- water 

 fishes of California have been made the subject of iuvestigatiou for the 

 Fish Commission by Prof. Charles TI. Cxilbert, of Leland Stanford Junior 

 University, during such times as his college duties would permit. A 

 report upon these researches has been deferred until further obser- 

 vations can be made, but the field work so far accomplished may be 

 suninuirized as follows: 



During the fiscal year 1891-92, the inquiries related to the streams 

 which, draining the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the 

 western slope of the Mount Hamilton Eange, enter the southern arm 

 of San Francisco Bay, and those which drain the western slope of 

 the Santa Cruz Mountains and enter the sea between San Francisco 

 and Santa Cruz. These two sets of streams were found to have very 

 difterent faunjis, the former containing, in addition to the fishes of 

 general distribution in California, many of the x)eculiar forms of the 

 Sacramento Basin, such as Eysterocarpus traski, ArchopUtes inter- 

 ruptus, Orthodon microlepidotus, Lavinia exilicauda, and Po(/onichthys 

 macrolepidotus, which are wholly excluded from the streams draining 

 the western slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The latter have only 

 species of general distribution, like the sucker [Catosfomus occiden- 

 talis), trout {Salmo gairdneri), sticklebacks {Gasterostem microcephalus), 

 sculpins {Cottus asper), and occasionally a minnow. 



Within the past year further examinations were made in the same 

 region, and, in addition, the Pajaro Eiver was studied from its mouth, 

 in Monterey Bay, to the source of its principal tributary, the San 

 Benito Eiver. Los Gatos Creek, Fresno County, was also visited, but 

 w^as found to be without fishes. This will probably prove true of all 

 other streams entering the San Joaquin Valley from the west, as they 

 are likely to be without running water during part of the hot, dry 

 summer. 



MISCELLANEOUS INQUIRIES. 

 MACKEREL INVESTIGATIONS. 



The act of Congress passed in 188G, which virtually prohibited the 

 spring mackerel vessel fishery prior to June 1 of each year during a 

 term of five years, ceased to be operative after 1892. In order to 

 deternune, so ftir as possible, if any immediate benefits had resulted 

 from this series of close seasons, and also to obtain information for the 

 use of the Joint Fishery Commission between Great Britain and the 

 United States, the schooner Grampm, Capt. A. C. Adams in command, 

 was detailed to follow the progress of that fisliery throughout its entire 

 course in the spring of 1893. Sailing from Woods Hole at an early 

 date, Captain Adams was directed to conduct a detailed series of physi- 

 cal observations on the way south until the body of mackerel had been 



