46 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
CALIFORNIA. 
From 1891 to the close of the fiscal year just past the fresh-water 
fishes of California have been made the subject of investigation for the 
Fish Commission by Prof. Charles H. Gilbert, of Leland Stanford Junior 
University, during such times as his college duties would permit. A 
report upon these researches has been deferred until further obser- 
vations can be made, but the field work so far accomplished may be 
summarized as follows: 
During the fiscal year 1891-92, the inquiries related to the streams 
which, draining the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the 
western slope of the Mount Hamilton Range, enter the southern arm 
of San Francisco Bay, and those which drain the western slope of 
the Santa Cruz Mountains and enter the sea between San Francisco 
and Santa Cruz. These two sets of streams were found to have very 
different fauns, the former containing, in addition to the fishes of 
general distribution in California, many of the peculiar forms of the 
Sacramento Basin, such as Hysterocarpus traski, Archoplites inter- 
ruptus, Orthodon microlepidotus, Lavinia exilicauda, and Pogonichthys 
macrolepidotus, which are wholly excluded from the streams draining 
the western slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The latter have only 
species of general distribution, like the sucker (Catostomus occiden- 
talis), trout (Salmo gairdneri), sticklebacks (Gasterosteus microcephalus), 
sculpins (Cottus asper), and occasionally a minnow. 
Within the past year further examinations were made in the same 
region, and, in addition, the Pajaro River was studied from its mouth, 
in Monterey Bay, to the source of its principal tributary, the San 
Benito River. Los Gatos Creek, Fresno County, was also visited, but 
was found to be without fishes. This will probably prove true of all 
other streams entering the San Joaquin Valley from the west, as they 
are likely to be without running water during part of the hot, dry 
summer, 
MISCELLANEOUS INQUIRIES. 
MACKEREL INVESTIGATIONS. 
The act of Congress passed in 1886, which virtually prohibited the 
spring mackerel vessel fishery prior to June 1 of each year during a 
term of five years, ceased to be operative after 1892. In order to 
determine, so far as possible, if any immediate benefits had resulted 
from this series of close seasons, and also to obtain information for the 
use of the Joint Fishery Commission between Great Britain and the 
United States, the schooner Grampus, Capt. A. C. Adams in command, 
was detailed to follow the progress of that fishery throughout its entire 
course in the spring of 1893. Sailing from Woods Hole at an early 
date, Captain Adams was directed to conduct a detailed series of physi- 
cal observations on the way south until the body of mackerel had been 
