700 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



handling the fish, drawing the seine, picking over tlie eggs, and similar 

 work. If we could not have the Indians ix> help us, it would be very 

 difficult to supply their place. 



THE PRESENCE OF SOLDIERS AT THE FISHERY'. 



We pass naturally from the Indians to the soldiers, although this year . 

 the soldiers were not needed to protect us from the Indians. T^cy were, 

 however, needed, and, indeed, a military guard is needed here every 

 year on general principles. It is not so mnch what the soldiers do when 

 they are here that makes them valuable, as it is their presence on the 

 premises. 



Their mere presence is a great help, because it prevents trespasses from 

 being committed, and, on the principle that a remedy that prevents dis- 

 ease is worth more than the remedy which cures the disease, it is an 

 excellent thing to have soldiers on the reservation. For instance, it 

 was habitual with the Indians to kill the spawning salmon before the 

 soldiers arrived, and not only this, but a corner post of the reservation 

 was twice torn up this spring by white men and thrown away. An In- 

 dian's horse was shot on the reservation, and one settler drew a shot- 

 gun on another in a quarrel, which might have terminated fatally. A 

 settler also attempted to build a fence within the reservation, and the 

 timber on the reservation was cut indiscriminately by outsiders before 

 the soldiers came. ^Nothing of this sort has occurred since the arrival 

 of the military guard, and would never have happened at all had the 

 guard been here at the time these trespasses were committed. 



I take this opportunity to acknowledge the courtesy of General Mc- 

 Dowell in sending the guard to the Fishery Reservation immediately 

 upon my application for it. 



Allow me to say in this connection that the Fishery Reservation ought 

 to be extended at the earliest possible moment. Settlers are beginning 

 to come to the McCloud River. They take up a claim, burn the Indian 

 rancheries, shoot their horses, plow up their graveyards, and drive the 

 Indians back into the hills, the ultimate result of which must be ap- 

 proximate starvation. 



Besides this, miners may at any time roil the river above the fiishery 

 by their mining operations, and thus ruin almost the last and only 

 spawning-ground of the Sacramento salmon. Fishermen may come in 

 with their nets below the fishery, and by capturing the spawning sal- 

 mon wholly destroy the usefulness of the United States salmon-hatch- 

 ing station at this place. 



These considerations make it highly desirable that the reservation be 

 extended at least far enough up the river to include the trout-breeding 

 station, which has just been established four miles above the salmon 

 fishery. 



