888 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



of the bay, tliey go to the brackish waters, where the currents of the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin meet the tide from the ocean. After 

 entering the fresh water of the river they cease to feed. Ko food has 

 ever been found in all the tens of thousands caught in the Sacra- 

 mento. As it is of importance to obtain a knowledge of the habits 

 of the salmon while it remains at the mouths of the rivers, playing back 

 and forth between brackish and fresh water, before it makes its long and 

 perilous journey to the head of the stream, we select from our corre- 

 spondence extracts from a letter from Mr. Samuel N. Norton, of Rio 

 Vista. Mr. Norton is a practical fisherman of many years' exj^erience, 

 and the record of his close observation is of much value. He says: " I 

 will give you a synopsis of one year's trip with the salmon, showing the 

 general habits of the fish in all years while remaining in or passing 

 through that part of the Sacramento River lying between its mouths 

 and the point where the Feather River empties into it. For this pur- 

 pose the Georgian Slough, the Three-mile Slough around the head of 

 Sherman Island, the San Joaquin River between these sloughs and the 

 bay, and the Montezuma Slough leading into the northern arm of Suisun 

 Bay from the Sacramento River, are considered as mouths of the river, 

 with like functions and processes as the main trunk of the river. In- 

 deed, some of the best fishing ground, at certain seasons, is found in 

 the Montezuma, Three-mile, and San Joaquin. To commence with an 

 anachronism, the spring run begins in the fall! In November and De- 

 cember a very few small (as fishermen use the word — say twelve or 

 fourteen pounds each) bright salmon appear in the river, and if no rains 

 occur, or only slight rains, an increase in their numbers is noticed, yet 

 they are always very scarce in those months. There are never enough 

 to half supply the local demand of the San Francisco and other home 

 markets. At first, in November, we pick up occasionally on their return, 

 the last dregs of the old seed run which occurred diuing August and 

 September. These are usually male fish, very dark, ill-conditioned, 

 lank -jawed, disconsolate looking fellows, who through misfortune, in- 

 competency, or other cause — to me not more than presumable — seemed to 

 have failed in their mission up the river, or to have fallen into disgrace. 

 The last of these soon disappear. The bright ones are the avant cou- 

 riers of the great sjtring run, which thus, as I said, begins in the faU. 

 With the first heavy rains the fish that have penetrated the river recede, 

 or, as we say, back down before the thick muddy stream, retreat to tide- 

 water in the bays, and remain there reconnoitering and waiting a steady 

 river current. Now is the time for good fishing in the bay and just in 

 the mouths of the river. The fish are not very plentiful, but none being- 

 caught within the river proper, there is a great demand and great price 

 against a small area of fishing ground, where all that had before pene- 

 trated the river are now concentrated. When the river becomes steady, 

 that is, neither rising nor falling, the fish start up again, no matter how 

 high the water may be, and by the varying moods of the river in sudden 



