OPERATIONS ON THE m'cLOUD RIVER IN 1876. 937 



Fortified, however, by the President's action in the matter, I proceeded 

 to fish on the fishery-ground as usual, to which Mr. Leschinsky yickled 

 a reluctant compliance, owing to our superior numbers. I was advised 

 to proceed farther and to stop him from fishing within the limits of the 

 reservation, that being now set aside for the exclusive use of the United 

 States. I did not, however, attempt to do this, because that would en- 

 able Mr. Leschinsky to bring a personal action against myself and a claim 

 for damages, wiiich was the very thing he wanted to do. This continued 

 for some time, until one evening, when the men went down to fish with- 

 out me, Mr. Leschinsky told them they could not fish there, and sent them 

 all back again empty-handed. The next evening, taking a sufficient 

 force with me to carry out my purpose, I fished there again, and made 

 known my determination to continue fishing through the season, which 

 resolution 1 was enabled to carry out, as before, by virtue of superior 

 numbers. 



The afifair now took the following shape: Mr. Leschinsky could not 

 prevent me from fishing there because he was not strong enough, and I 

 would not prevent him from fishing there because that wocild lead to a 

 troublesome suit at law. So we both continued to draw^ our seines over 

 the same fishing-ground, neither interfering with the other, and every- 

 thing going on very quietly till our dam for obstructing the ascent of the 

 parent salmon was finished and our supply of both for the spawning 

 season began to collect below. Then a new phase of the matter pre- 

 sented itself; and it was this : If Mr. Leschinsky continued to fish, as he 

 actually did, he would obviously catch out all our spawning salmon and 

 we could get no salmon-eggs, and the whole season's work would end in 

 a failure. The spawning season was very near at hand — indeed it was 

 within a week of it — and still as fast as our salmon collected below the 

 dam Mr. Leschinsky caught them out and salted them down or sold them 

 in Shasta. It was now painfully evident that a crisis must be forced or 

 the United States Fish Commission would get very few salmon-eggs on 

 the McCloud this season. I^Tot knowing exactly w^hat to do, I rode over 

 to the nearest point where a copy of the State laws could be found to 

 consu'lt the statute. To my surprise and great gratification I found in 

 the statute a clause making it illegal to extend a seine more than one- 

 third across any river in the State at any time. Of course this disposed 

 of Mr. Leschinsky's case at once. He not only could not reach our 

 spawning salmon now without violating the law, but he had actually in- 

 curred a penalty every time he had made a regular haul of the seine all 

 summer. 



He was now left no alternative but to stop fishing, which he did imme- 

 diately, and we had no more trouble in collecting and catching the parent 

 salmon which were to furnish the season's supply of salmon-eggs. 



The controversy as to the fishing-rights and the title to the land re- 

 mains just where it was in the summer. The documents bearing upon it 

 may be found appended to this report. The United States Fish Com- 



