XXI.—REPORT OF OPERATIONS AT THE UNITED STATES SAL- 
MON-HATCHING STATION ON THE M’CLOUD RIVER, CALI- 
FORNIA, DURING THE SEASON OF 1880. 
By LivinGston STONE. 
CHARLESTOWN, N. H., December 31, 1880. 
Prof. SPENCER F. BAIRD, 
United States Commissioner : 
Str: I beg leave to report as follows: I reached the McCloud River 
this year on the 22d of June and found everything at the salmon fishery 
in as good condition as could be expected after eight months exposure 
to the heat and cold, rains, snows, and droughts of a California mount- 
ain climate. The country looked beautifully, owing to the late spring 
rains. The McCloud River was still 18 inches above the usual summer 
level, and the water was unusually cold for the season, being only 53° 
against 57° of last year at the same time. 
The salmon were more abundant than ever, the river seeming to be 
full of them. As an illustration of their abundance I mention the fact 
that on the 21st of July, before the rack or any obstruction had been 
put in the river, we caught 150 salmon at one haul of a very small net. 
The piers of the last year’s bridge remained in position in the river, 
though in a somewhat damaged condition. The current wheel and the 
flat-boats on which it rests had been drawn inshore during the high 
water by Mr. James A. Richardson, who had charge of the salmon- 
hatching station through the winter. The wheel and boats had sustained 
very little damage. 
Our first labors this season consisted in doing the necessary white- 
washing and painting, in caulking and pitching the flat-boats, and in 
putting the wheel in thorough repair. We next proceeded to build 
the usual rack and bridge across the McCloud River. My instructions 
being to take five or six million salmon this year, I did not hurry to get 
the bridge in as early as usual. For the last two or three years the 
river has been bridged by the 4th of July. This year I did not close 
up the river to the salmon till the 1st of August. 
Another change in regard to the bridge and rack this year consisted 
in using stakes split out from old-growth fir instead of the small round 
pine poles used hitherto. Poles are getting so scarce now in the vicinity 
of the fishery that we have had to go several miles for them the last 
two or three years, which was of course a great disadvantage. Being 
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