22 REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



River where they spawn during the fall. This is the result of our obser- 

 vations and data gathered from the residents and deputies who have 

 lived in that vicinity for years. If such proves to be the facts, the 

 only way to save the remainder of this run of fish is to establish an 

 egg collecting station near the Kerckhoff powerhouse, collect the eggs, 

 and transfer them by truck to Powerhouse No. 1, a distance of about 

 seven miles, and there hatch and rear the fry in ponds. The fry 

 should then be held until the following spring, or it may be necessary 

 to hold them in the ponds for 16 months, until the following spring 

 after they are hatched, and then release them in the river during flood 

 periods before the large canals are opened for the season's operations. 



If the water is turned in the large canals before the fry are ready to 

 be released or the water is not turned off from the large canals during 

 the winter and early spring, the fry would have to be transported by 

 truck down the river to where they could be distributed below the canal 

 systems. All this work should be forced on the power companies. They 

 construct impassable obstructions in our rivers and streams in the 

 shape of dams and diverting tunnels and canals without regard to the 

 enormous destruction of the runs of commercial fishes. The Legislature 

 should enact laws at once, compelling the power and irrigation com- 

 panies to erect hatcheries and pond rearing systems, when in the judg- 

 ment of the Fish and Game Commission it is deemed necessary to do so, 

 and to furnish the funds to the state for the maintenance of these 

 hatcheries. 



There has been no effort on the part of some of the power companies 

 and irrigation districts to repair any of the damage that they are doing 

 in destroying a valuable source of food supply for the people. While 

 they are developing properties that are essential to the development 

 and growth of the state, they should at least be compelled to maintain 

 the run of commercial fishes that they destroy in so doing, when it can 

 be done easily and at a nominal cost. 



Some of the corporations have cooperated with us to the very fullest 

 extent possible in this work, but others have consistently opposed or 

 evaded our efforts to conserve our commercial fishes. 



The commercial fish interests should wake up to the fact that their 

 valuable business is being destroyed to create another industry, and 

 everyone should assist the Fish and Game Commission in saving this 

 important food supply before it is too late, 



MOUNT SHASTA HATCHERY. 

 During the biennial period there were distributed from the Mount 

 Shasta Hatchery a total of 14,948,000 trout fry. A small portion of 

 these fish were distributed in local streams from the hatchery, but the 



