SALMON HATCHING ON m'cLOUD lilVER, CALIFORNIA, 1877. 799 



My third aud chief reason for having a military guard on the reserva- 

 tion was to avoid a collision between the Leschinsky party and my 

 own; not that I thought that we were not strong enough to overpower 

 the opposing party, if necessary, but I wanted to avoid this very neces- 

 sity, and in case of trouble, instead of engaging in a personal quarrel, 

 to throw the burden of defending the rights and property of the United 

 States upon those whose business it was to render such defense. 



On the IGth of August the soldiers arrived, a lieutenant and four 

 men; and from that time our breeding salmon were not molested. On 

 the 1st of October the United States marshal removed Mr. Leschinsky 

 and son from the reservation. 



Tbis matter was hardly set right before another difficulty, quite as 

 serious, presented itself. When the time came, about the 1st of Sep- 

 tember, for our large run of salmon to appear in the McUloud, we were 

 very much disappointed and not a little alarmed to find that the salmon 

 came in extremely small numbers, although, owing to the supply of 

 young salmon which we put in the river three years ago, there was an 

 unusually large number running in the Sacramento. At first we could 

 not understand it. The mystery was soon solved, however, by the dis- 

 covery that parties engaged in the business of canning salmon on the 

 Sacramento were continuing to fish illegally beyond the close time as- 

 signed by the law of the State. As this fishing is done with great num- 

 bers of drift-nets at a time, about every salmon on the river of any con- 

 siderable size is caught ; and, in consequence of this, only a few strag- 

 glers which escaped the nets of the canners had reached the McOIoud 

 hatching station. Here was real cause for alarm ; for if this illegal 

 fishing were not stopped immediately, nearly all the spawning salmon 

 for the season would be intercepted at the oanneries, and very few 

 would reach the McCloud River to furnish eggs for the hatching estab- 

 lishment. In this emergency the California Fish Commissioners came 

 to the rescue, and with their characteristic energy and resolution stopped 

 the illegal fishing, and i^ushed the suit against the canners with so much 

 vigor that in less than six weeks they were tried, convicted, and fined 

 to the amount of nearly a thousand dollars. 



It was too late, however, for us to retrieve our losses at the fishery. 

 The salmon that we should have had to yield our annual harvest of 

 eggs were already in the tin cans of the law-breaking cannery men, 

 and we had to make the best of the comparatively few breeders which 

 succeeded in reaching the McCloud. At this juncture, the first rack 

 which was built across the river, under a misapprehension, and which 

 had been looked upon as a useless expenditure, played a most service- 

 able part ; for, as has been mentioned, this rack closed up the river the 

 11th of July, which is much earlier than the river is usually obstructed. 

 The consequence was that quite a large number of salmon collected be- 

 low this rack before the regular rack was put across, and formed a re- 

 serve of which we now very gladly availed ourselves, and without which 



