750 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONEE OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



stopped fisliing on the IStli of September, not because of auy scarcity 

 of salmon, but because we did not Avant auy more eggs. We bad in the 

 hatching-house on the evening of that day 12,240,000 sabnou eggs, ac- 

 cording to our recorded count, though without doubt over 14,000,000 in 

 reality, as our method of counting purposely leaves a large outside mar- 

 gin for emergencies. Had we continued to fish and take eggs till the 

 close of the fishing season, we could probably have taken 18,000,000 eggs, 

 and i^erhaps more. 



It is a fact worth noticing here, that the salmon were smaller this year 

 than usual, the eggs were smaller, and the number of eggs to the fish 

 was smaller. I doubt if the female salmon which we spawned averaged 

 for the season over nine or nine and a half pounds, while in pre\aous 

 years they have averaged twelve or fourteen pounds. Sometimes we 

 spawned twenty salmon in succession, of which not more than three out 

 of the twenty would vary a half a pound from seven pounds. The 

 weights of the salmon which we tagged and set free, given in the table 

 below, are a fair samj)le of the weights of the females for the whole sea- 

 son. 



TaMe showing the weight of several McCIoud Biver salmon ivhich were tagged ivith a silver 

 tag and turned loose in the river in Septeniber, 1878. 



Average weight, 7.65 pounds. 



It will be seen by the above record that twenty salmon, taken indis- 

 criminately, weighed 153 pounds, giving an average weight of 7.65 i^ounds 

 each. The small size of the salmon in the McCloud Eiver this year was 

 undoubtedly caused, in whole or in part, by the fishing at the canneries 

 on the Sacramento, where the 8-iuch meshes of the innumerable drift- 

 nets stopped all the large salmon and let all the small ones through. 

 The eggs when taken proved to be at least a third smaller than those of 

 most previous years, and the average number of eggs to the fish was 

 about 3,500, against 4,200 last year. 



I adopted a new and rather unique method this year of driving the 

 fish to the fishing-grounds. As may be readily supi)osed, the constant 

 drawing of the net over the seining-hole had the effect of frightening the 

 salmon off the ground. Of course it was necessary to get them back 

 again before they spawned, as otherwise we should have lost the eggs. 

 I have hitherto been in the habit of sending a gang of white men and 



