TRANSMISSION OF- SALMON EGGS TO AUSTRALIA, ETC. 899 



as tliey have decreased in other States, in consequence of the disregard 

 of wise enactments made for their preservation and increase. Ordinarily, 

 salmon should reach their spawning grounds on the McCloud and Little 

 Sacramento by the 20th of August. As will be seen by the statistics 

 heretofore stated, the catch was never so great as during the past fishing 

 season. At the commencement of the close season, 1st August, the river 

 was tilled with fish, yet they were not permitted to reach their spawning 

 places. Mr. Myron Green, the deputy in charge of the United States 

 tish-hatching establishment on the McCloud, reported, 15th September, 

 that there were ten salmon in the McCloud in 1876 to one in 1877. Up 

 to that time but 5,000,000 eggs had been taken, while nearly 10,000,000 

 had been taken in a corresponding j)eriod in 1876. The fish were, in the 

 Lower Sacramento, more numerous than ever before, but they were 

 caught, canned, salted, and smoked, in defiance of the law. It is esti- 

 mated that the " canneries " took 50,000 after the 1st of August, and 

 that there were salted and smoked on the banks of the sloughs and other 

 by-places at least 100,000 more. If this is to continue, the government 

 hatching-works will have to be removed to the Columbia, and we will 

 be compelled to import eggs from some other State, even to keep vq) a 

 j)artial supply of salmon in the Sacramento Eiver. 



23. In addition to making the penalties more severe for violations of 



the law, we would recommend that the law be so amended that it shall 



be made a misdemeanor to fish for salmon with nets or traps between 



sunset on Saturday and sunrise on Monday of each week. This would 



give the salmon the freedom of the river one day in the week, do no 



injury to the fisherman, and go far towards continuing the supply in our 



rivers. 



WHITEFISH {Coregonus alba). 



24. In January last we received from the United States Fish Commis- 

 sioner a donation of 300,000 eggs of the whitefish. These were success- 

 fully hatched under the superintendence of Mr. J. G. Woodbury, at the 

 State hatching-house at Berkeley, and the young fish were distributed 

 as follows : 75,000 in Donner Lake ; 50,000 in Sereno and other lakes 

 near the Summit, in Placer County ; and 175,000 in Lake Tahoe. In- 

 eluding 25,000 placed in Clear Lake in 1873, and 25,000 in Tulare Lake 

 in 1875, there have been planted in the waters of this State 350,000 of 

 these valuable food-fish. We believe they have lived in Clear Lake, 

 also in Tulare. It was reported in a Lake County paper that a white- 

 fish was taken in Clear Lake on 10th April, 1876, which measured a foot 

 in length. We have no positive information that they have found a con- 

 genial home in Tulare Lake, but have heard reports that a few have 

 been seen. As these fish can only be taken with a net, and as these are 

 rarely used on these lakes, their waters will have an opportunity to be- 

 come fully stocked before they are extensively fished. There can hardly 

 be any doubt but they will succeed in Tahoe and other lakes near the 

 summit of the Sierra — the climate, water, and food being not dissimilar 



