River, near its mouth. A station for gathering Steelhead spawn has also 

 been established there, thus maintaining and increasing the supply of this 

 truly royal game fish. 



In Humboldt Bay many varieties of edible fish are caught throughout 

 the year. Among these are rockcod, flounders, smelt, herring, perch, tom- 

 cod, Alaska pickerel, and sea-trout, and, at certain seasons, salmon. In 

 the ocean outside the bay are caught rockcod, halibut, sea-bass, hake, and 

 occasionally the true cod and the salmon. 



With the first rains of the fall comes the run of salmon on Eel River, 

 Mad River, and the Klamath, and then the harvest of the net fishermen 

 begins. About two and one-half million pounds of fresh salmon are shipped 

 to San Francisco each year, while an additional half million pounds are 

 salted and shipped in barrels and tierces, either to San Francisco or Port- 

 land. The unwillingness of the people of Humboldt to admit Chinese 

 labor prevents the operation of a cannery on lower Eel River, as the owners 

 claim they cannot compete with canneries elsewhere on the coast without 

 making use of cheap Asiatic labor. But the people of Humboldt prefer 

 to go without the cannery rather than to give a foothold for the Mongolian. 



Of crabs, from twenty thousand to thirty thousand dozen are annually 

 shipped to the San Francisco market. 



Altogether, the salmon, crabs, and other fish and shellfish shipped from 

 the county return to the fishermen a yearly revenue of from $100,000 to 

 $200,000, varying greatly in different years according to the conditions 

 of the market, the run of fish, etc. 



The fish markets of Eureka are at all times supplied with an abundance 

 of fine food fishes from the bay and the ocean. Rockcod, halibut, perch, 

 flounders, and salmon being the principal varieties; these, with crabs and 

 clams, enable the Eurekan to pursue a "fish diet" to any extent desired. 



THE ABALONE 



H. A. GBEKNE 



THIS univalve is comparatively unknown except through its gorgeous 

 shell, used for jewelry and inlaid work and valued when either pol- 

 ished or in its natural state. 

 It is a vegetarian, living solely upon sea mosses and weeds. It 

 is strictly a home body, for unless some unusual accident befalls, 

 its life is spent within a radius of a few feet, and there is evidence that 

 many never move from the spot where they were born. 



Abalones are only found in rocky places, in the clearest sea water, at 

 a depth from low tide to beyond a hundred and fifty feet. In size they 

 are found in perfect form varying from a pinhead to thirty-four inches in 

 circumference. As a reproducer it is hard to conceive that the abalone 

 has any equal, since the female lays millions of eggs every year. 



The abalone pearl, now much sought for and rapidly increasing in 

 value, is found in perfect form in the animals' intestines. The nucleus of 

 the pearl is believed to be a foreign atom having found lodgment in the 

 digestive organs, while some think it is from a parasite. It is conclusive 

 that these "pearl seeds" are troublesome, and the animals afflicted by 

 their presence seem to be unable to get rid of the irritating particles, so 

 they commence coating the thing with pearl matter. Pearls are found in 

 but few abalones, sometimes several being found in the same one. 



On the California coast there are five distinct varieties of the abalone. 

 The black is found distributed along the whole coast. The red is rarely 

 found outside of the limits of Monterey County and a portion of San Luis 

 Obispo County, southward from which locality the green abalone thrives. 



The black has from five to nine open holes, the red from two to five 

 large ones, the green, the Japanese, and the Australian (called the pea- 



