TRANSMISSION OF SALMON EGGS TO AUSTRALIA, ETC. 893 



is the life of the matter. The regularity, multitudes, and urgency of the 

 seed run, the consequent ease and certainty of the catch, the fine 

 weather for work, all present a weighty temptation to both catcher and 

 canner." The object of a close season is, that some of the fish may be 

 permitted to reach the headwaters to spawn. If they are not allowed 

 to do so the race will soon be extinct. Cupidity and desire for imme- 

 diate profit should not be permitted to influence legislation with the ul- 

 timate result of the extinction of the last fish. The interest of the pub- 

 lic is that the fi^h be continued in the river. A change in the law that 

 will omit August and September from the close season cannot but result 

 in material and permanent injury. 



TEMPERATURE OF AIR AND WATER. 



16. The following statistics will be found of much importance. They 

 exhibit the temperature of the water and air at two stations, each on 

 the Sacramento and San Joaquin Eivers, taken for three years during 

 the months the great army of salmon are passing up to their spawning- 

 grounds. They will show conclusively that the Sacramento salmon lives 

 for weeks, if not months, in water much warmer than any other fish of 

 the same family. They also show the strong ijrobability that these fish 

 may be successfully introduced into rivers ui still lower latitudes than 

 those of which they are native — without doubt into the waters that flow 

 into the Gulf of Mexico, and with many i^rospects of success into the 

 rivers of Europe emptying into the Mediterranean. 



