Ill -THE SALMON FISHERIES OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 



By Livingston Stone. 



San Francisco, Cal., December 31, 1875. 



Sm : I beg leave to report as follows : 



In pursuance of instructions received from you from Washington, I 

 left San Francisco for the Columbia Eiver on the 1st day of May, 1875, 

 and arrived at Portland, Oreg., on the Gth day of the same mouth. 

 From this point I made various excursions up the Willamette and up 

 and down the Columbia from the ocean to Cclilo, 210 miles from the 

 mouth of the river, giving special attention to the natural history of the 

 salmon and the business of the river canneries, besides looking up a 

 favorable point for the artificial propagation of salmon. 



In regard to the natural history of the salmon I was able to gather 

 quite a large number of facts, but could make only very little certain 

 progress, in the limited time that I had to spend on the Columbia, to- 

 ward determining the number and characteristics of the many varieties 

 of salmon which frequent the river. 



The facts which I collected in regard to the natural history of the 

 salmon, together with the other results of my investigations, will be 

 found in the course of the following report. 



LIVINGSTON STONE. 



Prof. Spencer F. Baird, 



United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. 



A— THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 



The Columbia, as is generally known, is the most productive salmon 

 river of the world. Its vast tributaries, extending over many degrees 

 of latitude and longitude, furnish immense spawning-grounds for tiie 

 accommodation of the parent fish, while the broad and deep channel of 

 the main stream for hundreds of miles affords a magnificent highway, 

 free of obstruction, for their easy ascent of the river. 



These advantages the salmon have availed themselves of in an extraor- 

 dinary degree, and they pour through the mouth of the Columbia and 

 up its current in an abundance unknown to any other river in the in- 

 habited portions of the globe. 



51 801 



