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'•'Under your appointment, and in accordance with your instructions, 

 I proceeded to that point on the Truckee River where it crosses our 

 State line on its way to Pyramid Lake, in the State of Nevada. From 

 thence I followed it up to its head, in Lake Tahoe. I also examined the 

 California part of that lake; also Bonner Lake and Donner Creek; but 

 from want of sufficient time could only make inquiries about the Little 

 Truckee and its sources, Webber Lake, and Lake Independence, though 

 prior to my appointment I had visited them all for health and pleasure. 



" During this official visit I heard and saw so much that requires the 

 most strino'ent lee-islatiou in both States that I scarce know where to com- 

 mence my report. But as a preliminary I suggest that carefully drawn 

 laws, precisely similar in all respects, except the mere verbiage that is 

 necessary to designate which State enacted them, be passed by each State, 

 and that, if such a law is not unconstitutional, each Act shall authorize 

 the officers of the other State, armed with a proper writ from it, and 

 any citizen of the other State who has seen the offense committed Avithin 

 its borders, to cross the line and make the necessary arrest, and without 

 further ceremony take the prisoners back for trial. This seems arbi- 

 trary, but if it can be constitutionally made a law it will be found to be 

 one of the greatest safeguards to the joint fisheries. 



"Trout commence running up the Truckee, from Nevada, with the 

 first sufficient rise of the river. The date of this, as also that of their 

 return, is of course variable. They retire towards Pyramid Lake as the 

 water recedes in the Summer or Fall. 



"From the obstructions hitherto placed in this river and the various 

 means used to entrap the fish before they reach the shallow, gravelly 

 streams, together with the wholesale waste of them and the criminal 

 destruction of their spawn, I believe that in a very few years the great 

 lakes of both States will be entirely without brown trout, and certain, 

 very few silver ones, unless the two State Governments concur in some 

 such law as that above suggested. But to roiurn to my starting point — 

 the Truckee at the boundary line. 



" The first mill and dam (all the mills on this river are for sawing 

 lumber) on the Truckee in California, is that of Pray & Bragg. At 

 present it is little or no obstruction to the free run of the fish, and its 

 owners have agreed that if it becomes one they will either open the 

 dam itself or construct proper fi.sh ways and ladders. 



" The Boca Mill Company comes next. Mr. Doane, the resident part- 

 ner, is about as enthusiastic on the subject of letting the trout have a 

 clear passage to and fro between the lake and streams of this State and 

 those of Nevada, as the members of your body themselves. At this 

 dam there are two good fish ways — one on a plan recommended by your- 

 selves, and the other built upon a design which Mr. Doane and the other 

 members of the company think sujjerior to it. 



" The dam of the Marysville Company follows, then that of the Geissen- 

 doffer Mill Company, then in succession two others known as Proctor's. 

 Neither one of these four is an impediment now. The piills have been 

 removed, the sluiceways are open, and the dams themselves are all so 

 dilapidated that the fish can pass through either of them. 



"Succeeding the upper Proctor mill come five dams belonging to the 

 Truckee Lumber Company. Four of these are mere dams to catch 

 water when the river is low. They cause no hindrance whatever. The 

 other one has an excellent and very efficient passageway, but a log got 

 entangled in it and carried off a portion of the crossbars or resting 

 places. The owners said that the necessary repairfi should be made 



