[3] TROUT FISHERIES ON THE M’CLOUD RIVER, CAL. 617 
severe in these mountains to make it safe for horses unprovided with 
shelter. Many additions of various sorts were also needed in and about 
the dwelling-house, as everything was done last year almost exclusively 
with a view tomake the trout-egg season a successful one, regardless of 
personal inconveniences. Accordingly we proceeded to build a commo- 
dious stable and a woodshed, and to make additions inside of the dwell- 
ing-house in the way of closets, &e. This, with the fishing for parent 
trout to add to our stock, took till about the Ist of September, when 
Mr, Redeliff and Mr. Loren Green came to the salmon fishery to help 
take salmon eggs. 
The trout did not bite as well this year in June and July as they did 
in the same months of last year, possibly because we had taken out 
about 1,500 from this locality in the river and put them into the ponds. 
We dad some talk about building a wagon road from the salmon fish- 
ery to the trout ponds this summer, but it proved to be too expensive 
an undertaking, and was given up; but as a substitute I sent for a Bell 
telephone with wire enough to connect the trout-breeding station with 
the salmon fishery on the California and Oregon stage road, which now 
enables us at the trout ponds to hold direct communication with the out- 
side world. 
As not much is yet generally known about the natural history of the 
California trout (Salmo iridea), I will venture to present the follow- 
ing rather fragmentary notes, most of which have been furnished me 
by Myron Green, concerning the eggs, the fish, and the manner of 
catching them. The eggs of the McCloud River trout (Salmo tridea) 
are about one-fifth of an inch in diameter, twenty-five averaged-sized 
eggs, one layer deep, just covering an area of a square inch. There is 
quite a wide variation in the color of eggs, some being of a light straw 
color and others of a deep salmon red. A two-pound trout gives about 
800 eggs. 
At 54° Fahrenheit the eggs hatch in twenty-six days, and the eye 
spots show in twelve days. Seth Green’s formula, in regard to the hatch- 
ing period of the New England brook trout (Salmo fontinalis), is that. 
these eggs hatch in fifty days at 50° F., and require six days less for 
every degree’s increase in the warmth of the water. According to this 
formula the fontinalis eggs, in water at 54°, would hatch in twenty-six 
days, which happens to be precisely the time required by the eggs of 
the McCloud River trout (Salmo iridea) to hatch. 
The empty eggs of the iridea do not turn white as soon as the empty 
salmon eggs do, consequently one is more likely, in packing and ship- 
ping, to get empty eggs mixed with the impregnated ones than in pack- 
ing salmon eggs. The empty or unfertilized eggs can, however, usually 
be made to turn white by running a somewhat violent stream of water 
through the hatching troughs after the eye spots are plainly apparent 
in the rest. This will turn the empty eggs white while it will not injure 
the eggs which have fish in them. 
