C98 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



of September the quota for California was filled. I set aside for the 

 State this year 2,300,000 eggs. The State receives this allotment in the 

 form of eggs and hatches the eggs at the State's expense, placing the 

 newly-hatched salmon in the tributaries of the main Sacramento to keep 

 up the stock of that river. 



It may not be out of place to add here that since the artificial hatch- 

 ing has been carried on at this place the salmon in the Sacramento have 

 immensely increased ; so much so that, although the canneries have in- 

 creased and the sea-lions and the fishermen also, the salmon have, never- 

 theless, made a steady gain in numbers ; or, to use the words of Hon. 

 B. B. Bedding, the secretary of the California fish commission, u the 

 commission has, with the aid of the artificial hatching of salmon, beaten 

 the sea-lions, the canneries, and the fishermen combined." 



After all the eggs are taken for the State, the next thing is to take 

 eggs for the ice-car which conveys the eastern consignments from Bed- 

 ding, Cal., to Chicago, Bl. Bi order to fill this car and not to be obliged 

 to use eggs that are too far advanced nor those which are not sufficiently 

 advanced, it is necessary to take them within a limited number of days, 

 otherwise one of the two evils just mentioned must be encountered, and 

 either one would be fatal to the successful transportation of the eggs 

 across the continent. In order to facilitate this, we rested from taking 

 eggs on the 9th of September, and on the 10th we began taking for the 

 car-load. On the night of the 17th of September we had six million eggs 

 in the large hatching-house. The eggs in the large hatching-house ma- 

 ture in about nineteen days. Besides the main hatching-house there is 

 a smaller one, where the water supply is so much warmer that the eggs 

 mature in eleven days, or a week earlier than in the other house. On 

 the 18th of September, therefore, we stopped taking eggs again, and re- 

 commenced taking from the supplementary hatching-house on the 21st 

 and continued till the night of the 24th. These eggs, maturing about 

 the same time as the main lot, furnished sufficient of the right age for 

 shipment in the ice-car, and gave us a total in round numbers of seven 

 million eggs. 



MATURING AND PACKING THE EGGS. 



Nothing new was introduced this year into the usual method of hatch- 

 ing the eggs, though somewhat more care was exercised in taking the 

 eggs, which resulted in a better impregnation and a consequently 

 smaller loss in bringing the eggs forward for shipment. 



The packing of the eggs was also conducted as usual. Last year and 

 the year before some apprehension was felt lest the supply of packing 

 moss, which is only found in one locality, near Mount Shasta, might in 

 time be exhausted. Our apprehensions were entirely put at rest this 

 year by finding that a new growth had come on where we first gathered 

 the moss seven years ago, which shows that it is growing as fast as it 



