898 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



worthless. Not so on the Sacramento. Well, we may be proud of our 

 liver ; it is the paradise of the salmon, and they seem determined to 

 resist the devils — who also seem determined to drive them out — better 

 than could be expected ; but they will need help in the future. The 

 nets for taking them are being multiplied and improved. The fishing 

 grounds are better known than formerly. Such obstructions as snags 

 in the river bottom are less common — many of them having been broken 

 off or taken up by the nets and put out of the waj', or covered by sedi- 

 ment, so that a wider and longer sweep may be taken by the drifting 

 net. Altogether, the salmon is sure to be exterminated, fight he ever 

 so persistently, unless we help him. Surely the State can afford to guard 

 him effectually one month in the year. The cupidity of the fish specu- 

 lator, who only cares for the greatest number of cases he can pack and 

 ship, should not be allowed to influence the statement of that time. Let 

 it be somewhere between the 10th of August and the 1st of October. 

 By the way, it seems to me that at the extreme upper waters, on the 

 spawning grounds, the fish should be protected during thek" entire stay, 

 excepting as needed solely for the purpose of artificial hatching. But 

 of this you are a better judge than I can be." 



20. While not agreeing with this intelligent fisherman as to the pro- 

 priety of shortening the close season, we fully concur as to the absolute 

 necessity of a patrol to prevent unlawful fishing while the salmon are 

 passing up to their spawning grounds. We also concur in his sugges- 

 tion that the salmon should be protected on their breeding beds. The 

 most important spawning ground left in this State is the McCloud Kiver, 

 in Shasta County. Its banks are mainly composed of lava and lime- 

 stone, and, so far as known, they contain no mines. By some inadvert- 

 ence or intentional mauii^ulation, this county was exempted from the 

 law creating a close season for salmon, and the fish are persistently taken 

 in this county for market while in the act of reproduction on their 

 spawning beds. We respectfully urge that Shasta County be reincor- 

 porated in the law, and that no salmon be allowed to be taken there 

 during the close season except for purposes of artificial propagation. 



21. The Chinese and others continue to use nets of a mesh much finer 

 than is allowed by law, and the young of all kinds of salt-water fish that 

 spawn in the bays and estuaries are persistently caught, dried, and 

 shipped to China. The records of the custom-house show that there 

 were shii)ped to China, from San Francisco, during the year ending 1st 

 July, 1877, dried fish and dried shell-fish valued at $293,971. 



22. We have caused several arrests to be made for violations of this 

 law, but it is impossible for the commissioners to act as local police on 

 all parts of the bay and rivers, and we see no remedy except in increas- 

 ing the penalties for violations of the law, involving even, if necessary, 

 the destruction of the nets, when used out of season. Unless in some 

 way the wise provisions of the statute are compelled to be observed, we 

 can see no reason why our present abundance of fish will not decrease, 



