CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME, 
147 
HATCHERY NOTES. 
Viet Sisters iooy Ector. 
FRY DISTRIBUTION BEGINS. 
On June 2, Fish Distribution Car No. 
02 will leave Sisson on the first trip of 
the season. A consignment of 100,000 
quinnat salmon fry will be shipped from 
Mt. Shasta Hatchery on this trip, con- 
signed to H. E. Westbrook of Smith 
River. Delivery of the fish will be made 
at Grant’s Pass, Oregon. From that 
point the shipment will be transported 
overland in auto trucks and planted in 
Smith River, Del Norte County, near 
Crescent City. Immediately upon the 
return of the car from Grant’s Pass, the 
shipment of trout fry from Mt. Shasta 
Hatchery will be commenced. Car No. 
2 has just returned from the Southern 
Pacific car shops at Sacramento, where 
it has been fitted up with a new type of 
gas engine and air compressor. This 
distribution car, which is a converted 
Southern Pacific baggage car, operated 
under lease to this commission for the 
season of 1918, is exceptionally well 
equipped for the season’s distribution 
work, many important improvements 
having been made in the special aerating 
apparatus. 
Distribution Car No. O01 is at the 
present time in the Southern Pacific shops 
at Sacramento, where it is being recon- 
structed. An entire new steel under- 
frame was recently received from the 
East, and with extensive repairs to the 
trucks, roof and body of the car, repaint- 
ing, ete., the car will be as good as new 
when completed. The engines and aer- 
ating apparatus, too, are to be given a 
thorough overhauling before the car is 
again put on the road. ‘This work is all 
being rushed to completion, and it is 
expected that the car will be ready for 
operations by the middle or latter part 
of June. The first work undertaken by 
Car No. 01 this season will be to assist 
in the distribution of trout fry from Mt. 
Shasta Hatchery. Later on in_ the 
season it will in all probability be sent 
south to take up the distribution of fish 
in the waters of southern California from 
the Mt. Whitney Hatchery. 
TAKE OF EGGS BELOW NORMAL. 
Owing to the extreme drought this 
season the take of both rainbow and 
steelhead trout eggs was considerably 
short of our expectations. Every effort 
was made to obtain a greater number of 
trout eggs than ever before, but despite 
out utmost endeavors only between six- 
teen and seventeen millions of eggs of all 
species were obtained. On some of the 
streams where our egg-collecting stations 
are located the flow of water became so 
low during the latter part of April that 
all egg-collecting operations were discon- 
tinued before the first of May, whereas, 
in normal years, operations are carried 
on until very near the first of June. This 
condition was especially noticeable at the 
Snow Mountain Station on the Hel River, 
Mendocino County, where steelhead trout 
eges are taken. ‘The water in the river 
fell so rapidly and became so low during 
the closing days of April that it was only 
by exercising the greatest care and work- 
ing night and day that the hundreds of 
thousands of steelhead eggs being “‘eyed,”’ 
in preparation for shipment to other sta- 
tions, were saved. Other stations affected 
by the extreme drought were: Scott 
Creek Station in Santa Cruz County, the 
Klamath stations at Bogus Creek and 
Camp Creek in Siskiyou County, Al- 
manor and Domingo Springs stations in 
Plumas County, and Tallae Station, El 
Dorado County. Had it not been for the 
preparations made for obtaining a record 
take of eggs this season, fishcultural oper- 
ations for the year 1918 would undoubt- 
edly have been a failure. As a result, 
however, of our extensive operations we 
will be enabled to distribute in the waters 
of the state in the neighborhood of six- 
teen million trout fry, and this number, 
under the circumstances, will be made to 
fill all requirements. 
BROOKDALE HATCHERY. 
The distribution of trout fry from 
Brookdale Hatchery has been com- 
menced, and by the middle of June the 
streams of Santa Cruz County will have 
BURLINGAME 
PUBLIC 
