REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP FISH AND FISHERIES. 51 



Clackamas Station, Orkuon (Waldo F. Hubbard, Superintendent). 



The hatchery is located on the Clackamas Piver, 4 miles from its 

 junction with the Willamette, about 12 miles from Portland and about 

 5 miles from the Willamette Falls at Oregon City. The station is 

 reached by driving from Portland. 



The salmon stripped at the station belong to the spring run of quin- 

 nat iuto the Columbia. They are intercepted by a rack, below which 

 the fish are detained until they are ready to spawn. The success of the 

 work depends upon the free passage of the salmon through the river 

 below the rack, but this was interfered with by dams and numerous nets 

 so that in the fall of 1893 the number of fish below the rack was very 

 small in comparison with the number detained several years earlier. 



About 4 miles below the hatchery and 1 mile from the mouth of the 

 Clackamas is a sawmill dam about 7 feet high, with no adequate means 

 for the ascent of the fish. The net fishing below the dam is of itself 

 sufficient to prevent the salmon from ascending the stream and unless 

 prohibited or greatly restricted the station may have to be abandoned. 



On July 5 the building of a rack across the Clackamas Piver at the 

 station for the purpose of preventing the salmon from going any farther 

 up the stream was begun, and finished August 3. August 28 a trap 

 for catching spawning salmon was built near the rack. Near the sta- 

 tion is a deep pool in the river where the salmon collect until ready to 

 spawn. Above this pool is a riffle where the rack and trap are situ- 

 ated, and the salmon that go there are taken in the trap. Below the 

 pool is another riffle where some of the salmon spawn, and these are 

 caught with a net. 



On September 10 two ripe female salmon were taken, from which 

 7,000 eggs were obtained, and from that date to October fishing was 

 carried on daily. On account of the high water in the Clackamas dur- 

 ing the season, the highest known for seventeen years, the work in the 

 catching of adult fish was not as satisfactory as expected. 



The whole number of eggs taken during the season was 277,000. Of 

 these, 40,000 were sent, October 13, to the World's Fair at Chicago by 

 one of the cars of the Commission and reached there with a loss of 

 only 92. The eggs at the station began hatching November 1 and the 

 fry liberated in the Clackamas December 25; between which date and 

 January 26, 1894, 213,000 young fish were deposited in the Clackamas. 

 About 10 per cent of the eggs at the station were lost in hatching. 



On December 11, 1893, in accordance with instructions received from 

 the Commissioner, the superintendent left the station to locate a site 

 for a State hatchery at or near Knowles Creek, a tributary of the 

 Siuslaw. A suitable location was found where a good supply of water 

 can be taken by gravity into the hatching house. The building of the 

 hatching house was let by contract, and work on it is now completed. 

 Arrangements have been made to begin work there preparatory to 

 taking salmon eggs the first part of July, 1894. 



