12 



acclimated in our waters; after that, the}' may be bred artificiallj', and 

 distributed to any extent. 



It is probable, or at least possible, that ten thousand shad may return 

 to our waters this coming- Spring, and forty thousand more in eighteen 

 hundred and seventy six. If such should be the case, and they are 

 properly protected by legislation, it will be no difficult or cosily matter 

 to breed from them a million of young fish, which, in three j'ears more, 

 will stock the entire coast, and give us shad as plenty as we now have 

 smelts. But, to arrive at this, we require some stronger legislation, 

 whi(-h will absolute!}- prevent the talking for food of the new shad as 

 the}- come in; we require them all foi- breeding. 



If it shall be the pleasure of the Legislature to continue to aid this 

 Comniission, it is our intention, this next coming year, to renew our 

 effort to bring across the continent the food fishes of the East, and with 

 the experience which we have had, and the additional knowledge which 

 we have gained, we have hopes of not only repairing our loss of last 

 year, but largely to improve upon that ttfort. We regret to say that 

 our loss was large. We had embarked in it all the remaining funds of 

 the Commission; but no human foresight could have predicted it, or 

 guarded against it; and we can only say that it is worth all that it has cost 

 to know the fact that an aquarium of living fish, eels, and lobsters, pro- 

 vided with both fresh and salt water, can be brought from the Atlantic to 

 within one day's travel of the Pacific, in good order and in healthy con- 

 dition. 



Since our last report, the Commissioners have given somewhat of their 

 attention to placing in some of the streams and lakes different kinds of 

 native and other fish,.although they have not been able to do so much as 

 they would desire to do were the means at their command. There is no 

 cheap way of doing this work; everything pertaining to it requires dis- 

 patch and care. We are handling a delicate and perishable material, 

 under circumstances in which the painstaking and expense of the most 

 careful preparations may, in a moment of neglect or accident, be lost 

 entirely. Consequently, we have refrained from any expensive experi- 

 ments, and confined ourselves to the infoduction of food fishes fully 

 known to be profitable in other States, and the dissemination of such 

 domestic fish as can be easily and cheaply transferred from one part of 

 the State to another. In this way, we have, during the past season, placed 

 some ten thousand Lake Tahoe trout in the South Yuba Elver. Trout 

 from the mountain lakes have been placed in the North Fork of the 

 Amcr.c'un liiver. We have purchased from the breeders of Tahoe trout, 

 also, six thousand trout, which have been placed in Lal^e Merced. We 

 liave also purchased two thousand Eastern red speckled trout (salmo 

 fontuifiUs),\vhivl\ we placed in the Isorth Fork of the American River, 

 near the Summit. Two thousand of the same, and six thousand Tahoe 

 trout, we have placed in the headwaters of Alameda Creek, and two 

 thousand more Eastern speckled trout in San Andreas Eeservoir, near 

 this city. 



The Commission feels greatly encouraged in its efforts to preserve 

 and increase the fish of California, by the general interest taken by the 

 people in this very interesting suiiject. On all occasions we have had 

 the most ready aid, and in many cases gratuitous services from those 

 with whom the operations of the Commissioners have brought them in 

 contact, and we would respecti'ully suggest that we believe that the 

 people are now willing to incur a moderate expenditure in order to have 

 this work continued. This Commission does not believe that any large 



