488 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [12] 
West.” After a journey of almost 4,500 miles the eggs arrive in the 
Eastern States, where they are distributed in accordance with the 
demands made by the various State commissions. Those destined 
for Europe are sent to New York, where, under the care of Mr. Fred. 
Mather, assistant of the U. S. Fish Commission, they receive, before 
being shipped, a new, special packing according to the method invented 
by that skillful pisciculturist. They are placed in thin layers on a sort 
of rectangular tray formed of light wooden frames, over which a kind of 
cotton fabric is extended. These frames are thick enough to allow of a 
number of them being placed one above the other without crushing or 
pressing the eggs. A solid box incloses the whole, leaving at the top, 
and sometimes also at the sides, an empty space sufficiently large to 
hold the ice needed for keeping the temperature low and retarding the 
embryonic evolution. Thanks to this ingenious arrangement, and by 
taking the precaution to have the ice renewed as soon as it is melted, 
eggs could safely be sent longer distances than across the Atlantic. 
In spite of the very large and constantly increasing number of eggs 
annually distributed, this number is still insufficient to supply the 
steadily increasing deniada for them, which is caused by a growing ree- 
ognition of the merits of the Galitonnis salmon.” 
Of all the salmonoids this one is certainly best adapted to artificia] 
propagation. When properly packed and kept at a sufficiently low 
temperature, eggs may be transported with hardly any loss. The loss in 
the hatching apparatus during the period of incubation is generally very 
small. As regards the young fish they are exceedingly vigorous and 
STOW rapidly, and the mortality which takes off so many young fish of 
other kinds is hardly noticed among them. Every one who has raised 
them has been struck with the robustness and vigor of these young fish, 
and particularly with their excellent appetite, all of which are very 
favorable symptoms in young fish. When grown these fish easily adapt 
themselves to the most varied conditions of life. They ascend the Sac- 
ramento when the waters of this river have become muddy from fre- 
quent rains and the washing of minerals. In July and August they 
enter the San Joaquin River in large numbers, and ascend that stream 
a distance of 150 kilometers, thus traversing the hottest valley in Cali- 
fornia, where the temperature of the air, rarely lower than 26° C. at 
noon, often rises to 40° C. The temperature of the water of the river 
varies from 28° C,. at the surface to 27° C. at the bottom. Leaving 
the hot and turbid waters of the San Joaquin, these fish full of vigor 
will enter, for the purpose of spawning, the tributaries of that river, the 
Merced, the Stanislaus, &¢., which are principally fed by the melting 
snow among the mountains. 
The total number of eggs gathered and distributed up to date is about 80,000,000. 
In order not to exhaust the McCloud River by thus constantly drawing upon the 
products of its spawning places, the establishment annually hatches from 1,000,000 
to 1,500,000 eggs to supply the river with young fish, which is therefore always full 
of salmon, though possibly not to the same degree as in former times. 
