SALMON HATCHING ON m'cLOUD RIVER, CALIFORNIA, 1878. 749 



of July. This abundance of salmon continued through the season. At 

 first they were very small, smaller than we have ever known them to 

 be before, but about the 13tli of August a new run came up of very 

 large fish. This run with the earlier run of small ones made the river 

 swarm with salmon. " I have never seen anything like it anywhere, not 

 even on the tributaries of the Columbia. On the afternoon of the 15th 

 of August there was a space in the river below the rack about 50 feet 

 wide aud 80 feet long where, if a person could have balanced himself, 

 he could actually have walked anywhere on the backs of the salmon, 

 they were so thick. I have often heard "travelers make this remark 

 about salmon in small streams, so I know that it is not an uncommon 

 thing in streams below a certain size, but to see salmon as thick as this 

 in a river of so great volume as the McCloud must, I think, be a rare 

 sight. About this time I kept a patrol on the bridge every moment, 

 night and day, aud this precaution, though an expensive one, was well 

 rewarded, for this vast number of salmon continually striking the bridge 

 with sledge-hammer blows wei^e sure, in the course of time, to displace 

 something aud effect a passage through to the upper side, and when one 

 did succeed in getting through, the others would follow with surprising 

 rapidity one after another, like a flock of sheep going through a break 

 in a fence. If they were not watched a hundred or even a thousand 

 could easily slip through unobserved, but by the aid of the patrol, who 

 was always provided with material for repairing the dam, a breach tv^as 

 discovered as soon as it was made, and was repaired as soon as it was 

 discovered. This swarm of salmon just alluded to remained at the 

 bridge and kept up the attack at one point or another for three days, 

 and then fell back to the jjools below, where, with occasional renewals of 

 their attacks, they remained until they were caught in the seine. 



The sjiaicning season. — The spawning season began the 20th of 

 August, with the taking of 30,000 eggs from seven fish. Every haul of 

 the net brought an enormous quantity of salmon. Without our trying 

 to capture many, the net would frequently bring in a thousand at a haul. 

 We found very few rii^e fish, however, until the 28th of August, when 

 the spawning season set in in good earnest, and from this date to the 

 last day of taking eggs the yield was very large and remarkably regular. 



This leads me to say that the most extraordinary feature about the 

 fishing season this year was that the salmon in the river did not seem 

 to be diminished any by our constant seining. We made enormous 

 hauls with the net every day, spawned a large number of salmon, and 

 gave a large number to the Indians for their winter supply, but always 

 the next day the spawning salmon seemed to be as thick as ever. This 

 abundance of the salmon was a daily surprise to us. Every day we 

 were regularly, though agreeably, disappointed. It was three weeks 

 before we made any impression on the spawners in the river. At last, 

 about the 15th of September, the females with spawn began to fall off a 

 little, but only a little. We had enough eggs by this time, however, and 



