16 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
Lake Tahoe trout fry belonging to the Oregon State Fish Commis- 
sion were held, fed, and at length liberated in Crater Creek. : 
The hatching of shad on a minor scale has been continued in the 
Columbia basin. During the early part of the fiscal year 317,445 
eggs on hand July 1 were hatched and the fry were liberated on the 
spawning grounds in the Willamette River. Near the close of the 
year shad-ege collections were again made, and by the last of June 
nearly 3,000,000 fry had been hatched and planted. 
The chinook-ege collections in the California field were about 
7,000,000 behind those of the previous year, the shortage being due 
partly to failure to obtain eggs on the McCloud River and partly to 
unfavorable water stages during the spawning season at both the 
Mill Creek and the Battle Creek stations. The streams on which 
these stations are located were so low during the first part of the 
season that the fish could not ascend, and the heavy rains occurring 
later resulted in floods which damaged the racks and put an end to 
the work by allowing all fish held below them to escape. 
At the Baird station shortage of funds made it impossible to install 
the racks in the McCloud River at the usual time during the spring, 
and before their completion in July the major portion of the run of 
salmon had passed upstream. The egg collections at the two auxil- 
iary stations referred to aggregated only 26,747,000, but the shortage 
as compared with last year was largely overcome by the unexpected 
success attained at the Hornbrook substation, where 16,460,000 
chinook eggs were secured from the Klamath River besides eggs of 
the silver salmon to the number of 2,823,000. While the facilities 
at Hornbrook had only recently been enlarged, the hatching capacity 
of the station is still far too small to permit of the handling of such 
numbers. It was, therefore, arranged to have the State fishery 
authorities develop the surplus eggs at the Sisson hatchery and return 
the fry by means of the State fish car for liberation on the spawning 
erounds in the Klamath River. All of the silver-salmon eggs were 
atched at the point of collection and the fry were returned to the 
river without feeding. 
The salmon output from the Battle Creek and Mill Creek stations 
consisted of 9,505,000 fry and 12,373,224 fingerlings. Attempts were 
made in April to collect eggs of the rainbow trout in Cottonwood 
Creek, a tributary of the ite ath but for some unknown reason the 
usual run of fish in this stream failed to make its appearance and 
only 26,640 eggs were obtained. These were transferred to the Baird 
station to be hatched, and the fry were utilized in supplying Cali- 
fornia applicants. 
PROPAGATION OF MIGRATORY FISHES OF ATLANTIC STREAMS. 
This branch of the fish-cultural work is addressed to the shad, 
Atlantic salmon, striped bass, white perch, and yellow perch. 
Contrary to the experience of recent years, the shad season on the 
Potomac River was comparatively successful from the viewpoint of 
artificial propagation as well as in financial returns to the commercial 
fishermen, whose catch was estimated to be fully 50 per cent greater 
than in any previous year since 1896. The fish appeared on the 
spawning grounds in plentiful numbers shortly after the middle of 
April, but for about 15 days thereafter the water temperatures were 
