SALMON HATCHING ON CLACKAMAS RIVER, OREGON, 1877. 791 



hatchiug station, the Columbia River salmon fishing has yet a great 

 career before it. 



The Clackamas Eiver is one of the great natural spawning grounds 

 of the Chenook salmon {Salmo quinnat). Probably no tributary of the 

 Columbia has abounded so profusely with salmon in past years as this 

 river. A high natural fall on the Willamette at Oregon City, just above 

 the mouth of the Clackamas, forces all the salmon of the Willamette 

 up the Clackamas, and vast hordes of them have consequently been in 

 the habit of crowding into that river to spawn. The only thing needed 

 now to make the salmon fishing of the Columbia equal to the best days 

 of its past history is to so protect the salmon that a small percentage of 

 them can ascend the Clackamas. Only a very small percentage will be 

 enough. One-half the salmon that are canned on the Columbia in a 

 single day, if we had them at the hatching station, would give us eggs 

 enough to hatch 50,000,000 young salmon. It is obvious, therefore, that 

 a very moderate restriction of the fishing will answer the purpose. I 

 am happy to say that steps have already been taken toward furnishing 

 such protection, and the Washington Territory legislature, with that 

 object in view, passed a bill last summer, the text of which is given 

 below, and which appears to be entirely satisfactory. 



The following is a full copy of the bill, which is entitled "An act regu- 

 lating salmon fisheries the waters of the Columbia Eiver": 



" Section 1. Be it enacted, &c.. That it shall not be lawful to take or 

 fish for salmon in the Columbia Eiver or its tributaries by any means 

 whatever, in any year hereafter, during the months of March, April, 

 August, and September, nor at the weekly closetimes in the months of 

 May, June, and July, that is to say, between the hours of six o'clock in 

 the afternoon of each and every Saturday, until six o'clock of the after- 

 noon of Sunday following. And any person or persons catch'ng salmon 

 in violation of the provisions of this section, or purchasing salmon so 

 unlawfully caught, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a sum of 

 not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars 

 for the first offense, and for each and every subsequent offense, upon 

 conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one thousand dollars, to 

 which may be added, at the discretion of the court, imprisonment in the 

 county jail for a term not exceeding one year. 



" Sec. 2. It shall not be lawful to fish for salmon in the said Columbia 

 Eiver or its tributaries during the said months of May, June, and July, 

 with gill-nets, the meshes of which are less than four and one-eighth 

 inches square, nor with seines whose meshes are less than three inches 

 square, nor with weir or fish-traps whose slats are less than three and 

 one half inches apart. Nothing herein contained shall prevent fishing 

 in said river or its tributaries with dip-nets, during the fishing season 

 as established and defined by section one of this act. Every trap or 

 weir shall have, in that part thereof where the fish are usually taken, an 

 opening at least three feet wide, extending from the bottom to the top 



