X.-OPERATIONS ON THE McCLOUD RIVER IN SALMON BREED- 

 ING, IN 1875. 



By Livingston Stonk. 



A.— PREPAEATION. 



" On the 16th of June I arrived at the McCloud River and found pre- 

 parations already progressing. The shallow trays were changed to deep 

 ones, and the troughs remodeled, so that the capacity of the hatching- 

 apparatus reached a maximum limit of about 12,000,000 eggs. On the 

 8th day of August the river was virtually closed to the salmon, although 

 there were still a few places where by great exertion a few smaller ones 

 succeeded in getting by. On the 12th of August the obstruction of 

 the river was complete. After this the salmon collected in great quan- 

 tities in the river below the bridge, and, as it happened last year, occa- 

 sionally made raids upon the bridge in. vast numbers. 



The bridge and dam having been completed, we proceeded to erect a 

 flume from the wheel to the hatching apparatus and to place the filter- 

 ing-tank and the troughs for the eggs. Several new hatching-troughs 

 were builtj the trays and all the wood-work were covered with a, fresh 

 coating of asphaltum. A large double corral was built at the fishery 

 for receiving the parent salmon from the seine, and things were made 

 ready generally for the approach of the spawning-season. 



B.— THE SALMON-EGGS. 



1. — TAKING SPAWN. 



Some of the salmon which were caught the first week of August had 

 eggs so nearly ripe that it was generally predicted that the spawning- 

 season would begin earlier than usual. But so regular is the course of 

 nature in this particular that I felt quite confident that this season 

 would be no exception to the common rule, in accordance with which 

 the McCloud River salmon at this point begin to spawn about the 1st 

 of September. My expectations were verified as the month of Septem- 

 ber approached, and the first ripe eggs which we obtained in any con- 

 siderable quantity were taken on the 2d day of September. The salmon 

 were at this time collected in vast quantities below the dam. There 

 were so many that in a space of twenty yards wide by a hundred long I 

 have counted one hundred salmon jumping out of the water within the 

 space of a minute. When one reflects that this is at the rate of six 



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