748 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



August 10, 110° J August 11, llOOj August 12, 112o,- August 13, 106°; 

 August 14, 102O. 



I will also call attention liere to tlie striking contrast between the 

 temperature of the air and that of the water. On the 11th of August 

 the air in the sun was 134°, and the water was 60°, consequently when 

 our men went into the water to work on that and similar days, they ex- 

 perienced a change of temperature of 74°. This is very trying to the 

 health, and some who have worked here in the water have suffered 

 very severely from the effects of it. 



Boily water. — About the 10th of August we noticed that the river 

 water was beginning to be turbid, and to look in color like the Missouri 

 at Omaha. This created no alarm, because we had often noticed, after 

 very hot days, that the McCloud water was turbid, the cause being that 

 the unusual heat melts an unusual amount of snow on Mount Shasta, 

 which swells the smaller streams at the head of the river and roils the 

 water. The turbidness of the water, however, continued for several 

 days and increased every day till, on the 15th of August, the water 

 was so muddy that one could not see more than 18 inches below the 

 surface. Then we began to think that there might be some other cause 

 for it than melting snows, and horrible visions of Chinamen mining at 

 the head waters of the McCloud arose in our minds. Every other good 

 salmon- spawning river in California has been spoiled or nearly spoiled 

 for the salmon by mining operations, and to think of the McCloud, the 

 last hope of the Sacramento salmon being ruined in the same way was 

 intolerable. The universal sentiment at the fishery was that if our sus- 

 picions were true, " the Chinese must go," and it would not have been 

 difficult to find men enough to carry the decree into execution. 



On Saturday, August 17, 1 decided if the water did not become clearer 

 to send an exj)edition uj) the river to ascertain the cause of its turbid- 

 ness. On Monday, however, it began to get a little clearer, and con- 

 tinued to grow clearer till the 24th of August, when it was about as 

 clear as usual. In the mean time I discovered the cause of the turbid- 

 ness, which proved to be a very peculiar one at the same time that it 

 entirely relieved the Chinamen from our very unjust suspicions. We 

 discovered that when there is an unusual amount of melting snow on 

 Mount Shasta, the water seeks a new channel through what is generally 

 in summer a dry gulch. This gulch, called Mud Creek, is comjiosed of 

 fine, white, ashy earth, and when the melting snows on Shasta overflow 

 into it, they carry vast quantities of whitish mud into the McCloud. 

 This is what made the river so roily ; and the reason that it continued 

 roily so much longer than usual was because there was more snow than 

 usual on Shasta, and the heat for a week was very excessive. 



TJw salmon. — The salmon, as before remarked, were found to be ex- 

 tremely abundant below the dam, and as soon as it was finished they 

 gathered there in vast numbers. Indeed they were more numerous 

 than I have ever known them to be before at that time, ^dz, the first half 



