272 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Whatever may be their stay in the brackish water outside the delta, 

 when once inside the river their j)rogress upstream appears to be quite 

 rapid and continuous, if one may judge from the experience of the gill- 

 netters, especially in connection with the weekly close time, which per- 

 mits the rate of movement to be roughly measured. These observations 

 relate to the main part of the river, and more particularly to that 

 Ijortion where commercial fishing" is carried ou, but the movement 

 doubtless continues at much the same rate until the fish are in the 

 neighborhood of their spawning-grounds. 



The depth at which they swim while ascending the lower part of the 

 river, where, its volume is greatest and where the water is sometimes 

 deep, is said to vary with the conditions. When the water is very 

 muddy the fish are expected to keep nearer the surface than when it is 

 more or less clear, and as the former condition prevails during practi- 

 cally the entire sockeye season, the depth of about 50 meshes adopted 

 for the drift nets has been found to be as great as can both profitably 

 and conveniently be used. In deep parts of the river more fish are 

 taken at the sides than in midstream, and the same is true during times 

 of Hood. In shallow sections and during low water they spread out 

 more widely, becoming more generally distributed or finding their way 

 where the contour of the bottom affords the depths preferred. 



PROPAGATION. 



The sockeye and quinnat are understood to have substantially the 

 same spawning season, which, in the Fraser River, is mainly from the 

 middle of September to the middle or latter part of October, although 

 beginning, in some seasons at least, a little earlier and continuing to a 

 somewhat later date. It is supposed that the season is about uniform 

 in all parts of the system, although nothing positive is known about 

 the dates in the upper waters. 



According to the late Thomas Mowat, for some time fishery inspector 

 for British Columbia, the sockeye, as a rule, spawn in the small creeks 

 that flow into the lakes and larger rivers, very few depositing their eggs 

 in heavy, rapid streams, as the quinnat do. This is essentially in keep- 

 ing with observations made elsewhere. At Karluk, Alaska, Dr. Bean 

 found this species spawning in the main lake and in the short and rapid 

 streams connecting each of its arms with smaller lakes. The spawning- 

 grounds at the headwaters of the Columbia River, in Idaho, which have 

 been carefully studied by Professor Evermann, occur only in streams 

 tributary to the lakes or in the lakes themselves. 



In 1884 the Canadian Government began the propagation of salmon 

 on the Fraser River, at the solicitation of local canners and fishermen, 

 who suggested a system of license fees and of taxes on the prepared 

 products as a means of obtaining revenue for the purpose. The hatch- 

 ery was established in tbe neighborhood of New Westminster, being 

 completed in time to lay in a stock of that season's eggs, and was 

 retained at the original site until about 181)4, when it was removed to a 



