XXIX. -REPORT OF OPERATIONS AT THE SALMON-BREEDING 

 STATION OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION ON THE 

 M'CLOUD RIVER, CALIFORNIA, DURING THE SEASON OF 1882. 



By Livingston Stone. 



Some apprehensions were felt at the close of the last season lest there 

 should be a recurrence of the high water which proved so disastrous to 

 this station last year. It is true the buildings are all above the danger 

 mark of the rising water, but, nevertheless, such high water as occurred 

 here in the winter of 1880-'81 would do a good deal of damage to roads 

 and trails and ilumes, even if the buildings were left uninjured. As it 

 happened, however, the rise in the river was very slight, and no injury 

 whatever resulted to anything connected with the station. 



It was my expectation to return to the McCloud River as early as 

 June, but Congress not making the necessary appropriations until 

 August, I did not arrive there till the first of September. In the mean- 

 time Congress had voted to extend the appropriation of the previous 

 year for twenty days, or till July 20. On the strength of this supple- 

 mentary appropriation, I had been authorized to have such preparatory 

 work done as was necessary for putting things in readiness for the sea- 

 son's campaign. This enabled us to labor on the wheel and bridge, and 

 when the appropriation was finally made, the work was so far along that 

 our preparations for taking eggs were easily finished by the time the 

 spawning season was fairly inaugurated. 



When I arrived at the fishery, everything in the hatching-house was 

 in readiness to receive the eggs, the seining ground was cleared, the 

 spawning shanty built, the McCloud Eiver bridged over and fenced 

 against the salmon, and our great 32-foot current wheel in place and 

 raising its 20,000 gallons of water per hour into the hatching-troughs. 

 The credit of keeping the fishery property in such good condition during 

 my absence is due to Mr. Eobert Eadclifi', whom I had left in charge the 

 previous October, and the credit of conducting the preparatory work for 

 the season's operations so thoroughly is due to Mr. George B. Williams, 

 jr., who took the management of the work on the 1st of July. 



On the 2d of September we made a trial haul of salmon to ascertain 

 what condition they were in. We caught twenty-five ripe females, and 

 I decided to begin taking eggs the next day. The next day we began 

 collecting eggs, and continued at it, Sundays excepted, until September 

 25, at which time we had over 4,000,000 in the hatching-house. 



My instructions directed me to take three or four million eggs only, 

 and to give them, when taken, to the California fish commission, to be 

 hatched out by them for the benefit of the Sacramento Eiver. 



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