Fish Culturists' Association. 13 



United States salmon breeding camp is situated, rises in Mt. Shasta and 

 flows through deep and rocky canons for nearlj' seventy miles to where it 

 empties into the Pit river, a tributary of the Sacramento. At our fishing 

 grounds it averages from forty to fifty j-ards in width. It is a rapid, 

 foaming stream, and is considered one of the most, if not the most, 

 beautiful of the rivers in California. Wherever it is known it is famed 

 for its bright sparkling waters, the loveliness of its verdure-covered 

 banks, and its wild and magnificent scenery. It is formed by the melt- 

 ing snows of Mount Shasta, is clear as crj'stal, and even under the 

 scorching atmosphere of a California summer, at noon, always seems 

 icily cold to the taste and touch. Opposite our camp, steep pinnacled 

 rocks of gi-ay limestone rise nearly- 2,000 feet almost perpendicularly 

 from the further edge of the river. In all other directions are hills and 

 bluffs of various "heights, covered with live oaks, manzinita bushes and 

 other California vegetation. 



Along the banks of this sparkling river the diftereut points of our 

 salmon breeding camp were strung at various intervals. Our house, where 

 we lived and ate and slept, and which formed the central point of the camp, 

 was a plain wooden structure of one story and twent3--eight feet in length, 

 fronting the river. It consisted of a living room, with several bunks for 

 beds, a kitchen and an office, each room opening on the river side out on 

 a broad piazza, which almost projected over the water's edge. About 

 sixt}' rods above the house was the mouth of the abandoned ditch. Fift}- 

 rods further down or ten rods above the house, was an Indian rancherie, 

 where some of the Indians lived who worked for us. Just below 

 the rancherie were two small tents occupied by some of our 

 party or by Indians working for us. Then "came the house itself. 

 Just below the house was a large tent, sixty by thirty feet, enclos- 

 ing and covering the hatching works. Next came the flume which 

 brought the water from the wheel ; then a pond for confining the parent 

 salmon ; then the wheel itself, always moving night and day, with a 

 heavy creaking motion, and lifting its eight buckets of water at each 

 revolution. Below the wheel, and about twentj^ rods further down the 

 river bank, was a brush camp belonging to two of our fishermen, two 

 corrals for salmon, and the lower fishing gi-ounds, which terminated our 

 settlement in that direction. On the other side of the river we had 

 nothing but a fishing gTOund and corral, which were just opposite the 

 hatching house. Behind our dwelling was an Indian cemeter}-, and just 

 above the cemetery was our American flag floating at the peak of a fifty 

 feet staff. The whole camp as it could be seen in one view from the hills 

 on the opposite bank, formed a very prett}" and interesting picture. 



