TKANSMISSION OF SALMON EGGS TO AUSTRALIA, ETC. 897 



business, the criminal acts are beyond observation, except by exi)ress 

 intention, as the fish are caught chiefly in the night, and the salteries 

 are usually situated away from XJublic highways and thoroughfares." 



19. We have expended a part of the appropriation in prosecuting of- 

 fenders against the law, but the field is so large and the profit so great 

 that but little good has been accomplished. The more fish hatched and 

 placed in the river the more numerous the fishermen, and the greater, 

 apparently, the desire to make a profit from a violation of the law. As 

 has been stated, unless the fish are allowed, in their season, to reach 

 their spawning grounds, the rivers will be exhausted. Until the fisher- 

 men realize that the object of the law in creating a close season is the 

 perpetuation and increase of the numbers of fish the law will continue 

 to be violated. We see no remedy at present except, hereafter, to de- 

 vote a larger portion of the appropriation in preventing illegal fishing 

 and in prosecuting offenders against the law. This will require the use 

 of a part of the appropriation which should be devoted to increasing the 

 number of fish placed in the river. If it is expected that the commis- 

 sion shall employ special means to enforce an observance of the law, and* 

 also employ attorneys to prosecute offenders, it is necessary that the ap- 

 propriation should be increased. It is not now sufticient for these pur- 

 poses, and also for the hatching of any large quantity of salmon with, 

 which to keep pace with the increased fishing and the increasing num- 

 bers of sea- lions. We have consulted with many of the fishermen, and 

 they admit that the law creating a close season should be obeyed, pro- 

 vided all be made to obey it. It is but proper to say, however, that 

 they at the same time urge that the close season for salmon (August 1 

 to November 1) is too long a period. In correspondence with one of 

 these men, who has made a business of fishing for salmon on the Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin for many years past, as to the necessity for an 

 observance of the law, he says: "I do not wish to be known as urging 

 the enforcement of the law, or as a special informer against any party 

 who has violated it. My reasons for this reservation affect alike my own 

 peace and safety and that of many persons whom I know have no worse 

 intention than to earn a living and obey the law, provided that others 

 less honest are prevented from violating it with impunity. Your idea 

 of a i^atrol boat, or boats with officers, is the correct one, and I firmly 

 believe that if by this or other means the prohibition were strictly main- 

 tained from Benicia upward, wherever there are i^ractical fishing grounds, 

 during the period of one month at the right time, that the perpetuation 

 of salmon in our rivers would be abundantly secured. Between the 10th 

 of August and 1st of October more than 90 per cent, of the seed run 

 passes, and has not fidled to pass during twenty years of my observa- 

 tion. If the whole of the seed run is not wanted for seed, they ought 

 not to be so used, for the fish is just as good food then as at any other 

 time, only the wastage is something more, the spawn beiug larger. On 

 the Columbia Eiver I understand that the fall run is almost or quite 

 57 F 



