990 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



rivers, but at this season they are of inferior quality. The third run is 

 of smaller-sized fish, in the month of October, just before the winter sets 

 in. There are no salmon in the rivers during the winter months from 

 November to March, at which season they are caught in the sea. 



The young fish hatch out in October, after sixty days' immersion, when 

 the water has an average temperature of 48<^ to 50^ F., but after forty- 

 eight days' with an average temperature of 58° to 60<^. 



It has not been ascertained where the young fish spend the winter 

 months. It is an important fact that in ascending to the breeding-place 

 the gravid fish must frequently i^ass through river water having a tem- 

 perature of over 76<^. 



The average size of the fall-grown salmon in the Sacramento River 

 and its tributaries is about 20 pounds weight, but fish weighing from 40 

 pounds to 50 pounds are not uncommon. It is a large, handsome fish, with 

 silvery scales, and a deeper body and less delicate look than tbe salmon 

 of Europe, but in quality as food they are quite equal to it. When in 

 prime order their flesh is firm, sweet, rich, juicy, and high-colored. As a 

 game fish they are active and powerful, and are freely caught with hook 

 and line in salt and brackish water. In fresh water the best bait is salmon 

 roe, but they also give good sport with the artificial fly. The climate 

 of the upper tributaries of the Sacramento Eiver, where the best salmon- 

 fishing in California is found, closely approaches to that of the Xew Zea- 

 land mountain valleys. The winters are mild, a very little snow falling 

 occasionally with the rains. The days in summer and autumn are hot, 

 but the nights are cool, there being a great range of temperature in the 

 twenty-four hours. Thus, in September (corresponding to March in New 

 Zealand) the thermometer has been known to rise from 55° at sunrise 

 to 100° at noon. 



The foregoing observations indicate the Salmo quinnat to be well 

 adapted for thriving in the seas and rivers of New Zealand, and the 

 success which has attended the recent shipment of ova shows that a few 

 large importations would, in the course of a few years, thoroughly stock 

 €ur waters, and introduce a lasting and remunerative industry, as it is 

 from this species that the chief supply of preserved salmon is now manu- 

 factured. The consumption of this article in New Zealand and the Aus- 

 tralian colonies in one year, as shown by the import returns for 1875, 

 was very large, the New Zealand share having a value of £10,000. The 

 business of canning on the Pacific coast has now reached enormous 

 dimensions. In 1875, 10,000,000 pounds of canned fish was prepared for 

 exportation, and last year seventeen cannaries were at work, though 

 not fully emi^loyed, owing, however, to a deficient supply of fish, and not 

 to any falling ofi" in the demand. 



2. Whitefish. 



The species of whitefish, the ova of which are now being imported, is 

 the Coregonns albus, the most valuable of a large number of species of 



