FISHERIES OF SACRAMENTO AND COLUMBIA RIVERS. 823 



poniul can. At the begiuning of the season in April, 1875, prices had 

 dropped to $4.80 a case, or 10 cents a can, which did not pay expenses, 

 the cost being on an average, $5 a case. In consequence the canneries 

 in 1875 did not open at all at first, but a little hiter prices went up again 

 to $5.90, which gave a margin of profit, and the canneries began oper- 

 ations. 



Prices have averaged between $5.20 and $5.40 a case this year, which 

 has enabled the canning establishments to make a moderate profit ; but 

 the business is not as it has been in past years, when the larger can- 

 neries cleared from $30,000 to $70,000 in a season. 



Besides the fish that were canned on the Columbia last year, (1874,) 

 there were about 250,000 salted and barreled. The salted salmon bring 

 from $7 to $8 per barrel of 200 pounds in San Francisco. A consider- 

 able number of salmon are, of course, consumed fresh, but owing to the 

 very limited market for them at home, and the impracticability of export- 

 ing them fresh, the quantity so used is in comparison exceedingly small. 

 (See answers to questions relative to food fishes ©f the United States 

 pages 4-44.) 



In concluding these notes on the Columbia Kiver, I will say that in 

 pursuance of my instructions to look up a suitable point for hatching the 

 Columbia River salmon artificially, I made careful inquiries and at last 

 found a place which appears to be in every way suited to the purpose. 

 It is at Klackamas Falls, about 25 miles up the Klackamas Kiver, 

 where both the Salmo quinnat and the Salmo truncatns can be captured 

 at their respective spawning seasons in vast quantities. Should the 

 United States Fish Commission ever decide to carry on salmon hatch- 

 ing operations on the Columbia, I think it can be done here with distin- 

 guished success. 



