California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



UiocicitUuvc. 



FISH. 



And What the Fish Commissioners 

 Have Done to Stock our Waters. 



ROM the 36-page pamphlet which 

 the biermial report of the Cali- 

 uia Fishery Commission, we glean 

 5^d^ the following information of great oon- 

 ^il) sequence to ichthyopbagists : 



In 1874 the Commissioners telegraphod to 

 Livingston Stone to prepare another aquar- 

 inm car to take the place of the one destroyed 

 by the breaking of a railroad bridge over the 

 Elkhorn river in Nebraska. He was also in- 

 structed with reference to the varieties of fish 

 to be brought across the uuntineut. He ar- 

 rived June 12, 1874, having succeeded in 

 transporting safely seventy-three full-grown 

 spawning black bass from Lake Champlain, 

 which were placed in Napa Creek; twelve 

 small black bass from St. Joseph's river, 

 Michigan, which were placed in Napa aad 

 .Mameda creeks; sixteen full-grown glass- 

 eyed perch from Messisquoi river, Vermont, 

 which were placed in the Sacramento river; 

 seventy-four cattish, which were placed in the 

 San Joaquin river, near Stockton; seventy 

 horn pouts, from Lake Champlain, which 

 were deposited in lakes at Sutterville, Sacra- 

 mento county; three hundred small Eastern 

 salmon, obtained from the Penobscot river, 

 Maine, were placed in the Sacramento river, 

 near Rtading; four full-grown rock-bass from 

 the Missisquoi river, which were deposited in 

 Napa Creek. Of salt-water tish there arrived 

 twenty-three tautogs, or black tish, which 

 were deposited in the Bay of San Francisco. 

 Of the one hundred and fifty full-grown lob- 

 sters, with which Mr. Stone started, only 

 three lived through the journey. The de- 

 tails '- f Mr. Stone's experiments in gathering 

 and transporting these ditierent varieties of 

 fish are appended to the report, and form a 

 valuable contribution to the new science of 

 fish culture. 



THE IMPORT.iTIONS. 



Of the new varieties of fish thus introduced 

 into the waters of California, the Commis- 

 sioners are convinced that the greater number 

 have found congenial homes and have spawn- 

 ed. During the present season black bass 

 have been caught in Napa Creek, and large 

 numbers of the young have beon seen. The 

 catfish placed in the San Joaquin river have 

 grown rapidly and spawned. 'The hornpouts, 

 a species of small catfish, which were placed 

 in the lakes near Sacramento, have increased 

 so abundantly that nearly one thousand have 

 been caught. None of the Eastern salmon 

 have been seen since they were placed in the 

 Sacramento river. Without doubt they have 

 gone to the ocean, not to return till the 

 Spring of 1876. The report maintains that 

 this experiment in the importation of new 

 varieties of fish is so great a success that the 

 people of the State are already amply repaid 

 for the small amount expended in the under- 

 taking. 



WHITE FISH. 



From the Eastern States the Commissioners 

 received twenty thousand white fish eggs 

 from Lake Champlain, and lirsides they pur- 

 chased in New Hampshire sixty thousand 

 eggs of the Eastern brook trout. The twenty- 

 five thousand white fish eggs received from 

 the Government in 1873 were successfully 

 hatched and placed in that body of water. 

 Inasmuch as Clear Lake seemed to be well 

 Flocked with these fish, the Commissiouers 

 thought it advisable to place the last donation 

 in Tulare Lake. The Regents of tin' Univer- 

 sity pirmitted the erection of a small hatching 

 hriuse (.11 the banks of the stream at Berkeley, 

 where, under the supervision of J. G. Wood- 

 bury, these eggs were successfully hatched. 



SALMON. 



The largest establishment in the world for 



the hatching of salmon eggs is that belonging 

 to the United States, on the McCloud liver, 

 in Shasta county, under the superintendence 

 of Livingston Stone. At this point from six 

 to ten million of yonng salmon are hatched 

 each year and distributed to the Fish Coni- 

 missiorers of the various States having rivers 

 suitable for their growth and increase. In 

 1873 California received from that source half 

 a million fish, which were turned into the 

 Sacramento river. The Government works 

 at this ijoint are so extensive, and conducted 

 with such economy, that it is found that the 

 total cost of hatching one thousand fish from 

 the egg is but one dollar. On this subject 

 the report says: We have thought it to be of 

 so much public importance to increase this 

 valuable variety of fish in its native waters, 

 that during the past year we considered it ad- 

 visable to expend $1,000 in the hatching of 

 one million more fish, to be placed in the 

 Sacramento river. We therefore applied $1,- 

 000 of our appropriation to this purpose, and 

 the fish have been successfully turneil loose. 

 Our appropriation being about exhausted, we 

 will this year pay for the hatching of but a 

 half a million more fish. 



SEA LIONS AND SEALS. 



For many years the sea lions and seals 

 which inhabit the clift's near the entrance to 

 the Bay of San Francisco, have been preserved 

 by special enactment, and penalties imposed 

 on any person who should kill or disturb 

 them. 'The result is, that they are in-obably 

 now a hundred times as numerous as they 

 were ten years since, and are to be found 

 there in thousands. When it is considered 

 that they weigh from two to five hundred 

 p>ounds each, and that they each consume at 

 least from ten to twenty pounds of fish daily, 

 it will be readily seen that the quantity caught 

 at the entrance of the harbor and in the Bay 

 of San Francisco by fishermen, is small in j 

 proportion to that consumed by these animals. | 

 If allowed to increase at the same rate for a ' 

 few more years, it will be difficut for either 

 .shad or salmon to escape them while entering 1 

 our bay. The fishermen at Vallejo and Rio 

 Vista report that they find many of the sal- ' 

 mon to have been torn by the teeth of these 

 animals. They appear now to have no use- , 

 ful purpose other than to gratify the curiosity 

 of strangers, and we believe it would be well 

 if the law which now protects them was re- 

 pealed and nine-tenths of them allowed to be 

 shot, that their iiil might be utilized in the 

 lubrication of machinery. We would recom- 

 mend that this law be repealed, and, if ne- 

 cessary, again re-enacted after nine-tenths of 

 them had been destroyed. 



THE STATE APPROPRIATION. 



The Commissioners believe that if the Leg- 

 islature, instead of giving them a mere pit- 

 tance of $2,. 500 a year, were to make an ap- 

 propriation of $6,000 or $10,000 a year, so 

 many salmon could be hatched and deposited 

 in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers 

 that after three years the fish would be so 

 numerous that they would compel the erection 

 of extensive canning establishments on those 

 rivers, as there are now on the Columbia. In 

 conclusion the Commissioners say ; The ob- 

 servations we have made upon the food fish 

 of our rivei-s, and the statistics we have gath- 

 ered from various sources for the information 

 of those who are interested in the science of 

 fish culture, have involved a large amount of 

 labor, which, on the part of your Commis- 

 sioners, has been altogether gratuitous. A 

 liberal appropriation by the Legislature will 

 enable us to extend our operations and carry 

 out to completion the objects for which this 

 Commission was created. We feel that the 

 work we are engaged in, and in the iiromo- 

 tion of which we are willing to devote our 

 time and labor in the future, is deserving of 

 a more liberal support from the State than it 

 has hitherto received. 



eminent fish-culturist, established his fii-st 



salmon-breeding camp on the McCloud river, 

 away in the north of California. The pictur- 

 esque river so swamed with salmon that from 

 his tent-door he could see them jumping "at 

 the rate of a thousand an hour!" His inten- 

 tion was to erect a hatching-house and then 

 forward the eggs to the Northern, Middle and 

 Eastern States. At first the Indians were 

 troublesome and showed their dislike of the 

 intention in several unpleasant ways; but 

 finding that they lost nothing and gained 

 much by the establishment, they in time be- 

 came Mr. Stone's most valuable assistants. 

 The upshot of his venture was that on the 

 26th of August, 1873, he took from the cap- 

 tured fish twenty-three thousand eggs: and by 

 the 22d of September he had secured more 

 than two millions. Of this number, we learn 

 from the last or seventh annual report of the 

 operations of the Commissioners of Fisheries 

 for 1874, over a million and a quarter reached 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michi- 

 gan, New- Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine 

 and Utah alive. The consignees were the 

 Fish Commifsioners of those States, to the 

 rivers of which they were in due time trans- 

 ferred. The mode of packing the spawn was 

 to place them in moss contained in boxes two 

 feet square by a foot in depth, the covers were 

 firmly screwed down, and so they were sent 

 off on their perilous journey of three thous- 

 and miles. 



In addition to the Commissiouers of Fish- 

 eries, there has been established in New York 

 a very important body entitled the "American 

 Fish Culturists' Association." The object of 

 the Association is, by the transportation of 

 ova, to advance the fish interests of the vari- 

 ous States. To California this has meant the 

 gain to her waters of the shad (which stand 

 at the head of the herring family) and the 

 lobster; whilst from California nearly all the 

 other States of the Union have been supplied 

 with a market dainty at a reasonable price, 

 the salmon, to wit: From our teeming rivers 

 the waters of the other States have been 

 stocked with the ova of this splendid fish, and 

 now there is not a city on the Atlantic board 

 but has its season of fresh California salmon. 



California Piscicultoue.- 

 Summer of 1873 Mr. Living 



-Early 

 ;toii Stc 



the 

 the 



Fish foe the Centennial. — Since the ap- 

 propriation by Sweden of $100,000 for the 

 sole purpose of exhibiting the fish of its wa- 

 ters at the Centennial, the zeal of the Ignited 

 States Commissioners in that direction, in the 

 interest of their own country, has gi-eatly in- 

 creased. Professor Bayard, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institute, is at present engaged at 

 Wood's Hole. Mass., in making an exact 

 counteriDart in plaster of Paris of every spe- 

 cies of fish that swims contiguous to the 

 United States. A mould of the fish is first 

 taken, afterward the copy is painted directly 

 from the originals. Mr. Eugene Blackford 

 has at present at Fulton Market three speci- 

 mens of this work, which were sent him as a 

 compliment by Prof. Bainl. who has received 

 from Mr. Blackford 300 diflerent species of 

 fish for the advancement of science, at the 

 Institute which he represents. — American 

 Grocer. 



A BUSINESS man's advertisement, in his own 

 language, over his own signature, and for 

 which he is plainly responsible, is in the na- 

 ture of an oilicial document, and receives 

 more considerate attention than a putt' in ths 

 local cohimii, ami is both more valuable and 

 respectable. There is an air about the re- 

 sponsible advertisement which says: " I want 

 to trade, and \\ill give you a fair bargain." 

 The putt' insinuates that there is no responsi- 

 bility ill the ma'ter. 



A TRHK journalist aspires to uplift his neigh- 

 bors, to encourage the ]uirsuit of good and 

 to check all that inclines in an opposite direc- 

 tion; and the natural disposition to evil is so 

 strongly developed in man, that ordinarily lie 

 finds himself engaged in hostilities in which 

 there is but little lull. 



