10 



migratory instinct should control but about half the young fish in the 

 year in which they were hatched, other than that Providence, while 

 apparently not caring for the individual, makes stringent laws for the 

 preservation of the species. 



The i^reservation of our salmon fisheries is a subject of great impor- 

 tance. Salmon were formerly as abundant in the rivers of New Eng- 

 land as they are now in California and Oregon; but traps, v/eirs, pounds, 

 seines, gill nets, and the erection of dams without fish ladders, at last 

 nearly exterminated them. Now these States are making appropria- 

 tions for the artificial hatching of these fish, and the rivers are being 

 successfully restocked. 



So much more is known of the habits of the salmon than formerly, 

 that it is not difficult to determine what may be done to increase the 

 number offish, and at the same time increase the quantity that may be 

 caught. The men who pursue the business of fishing for salmon, appre- 

 ciate the necessity for their preservation and acknowledge the propriety 

 of laws requiring a "close time," as well as laws against poxinds and 

 w^eirs, and laws regulating the size of gill nets. We believe the time 

 has arrived when the present and future interests of California require 

 careful and just legislation. We would, therefore, recommend that a 

 standing committee be appointed in both Houses of the Legislature on 

 coast and inland fisheries. These committees could visit the fishermen, 

 and, after learning their views, so amend the j^resent laAV and frame new 

 laws as to protect legitimate fishing, and at the same time provide for 

 an increase of fish in the future. 



TROUT. 



This fish is found in nearly all of the streams that discharge into the 

 Pa-cific ocean from the Coast JrJange of mountains and in the greater 

 number of the mountain streams of the Sierra Nevada. They vary 

 greatl}' in size and appearance in different waters and at different seasons, 

 but so far no variety is exactly similar to any of the brook trout of the 

 New England States. The large brown and silver trout of Lake Tahoe 

 and the Truckee Elver are pronounced by Mr. Seth Green — who is con- 

 sidered to be an authority in such matters — not to be trout, but species 

 of the jsebago or land-locked salmon. These fish make annual migra- 

 tions from Lake Tahoe to the brackish waters of Pyramid Lake. Many 

 of the fishermen of Tahoe insist that the so-called silver trout does not 

 leave the lake, but as they are occasionally caught in the river, it is 

 probable they also migrate, but j)erhaps at an earlier or later season. 

 The habits of the trout are similar to those of the salmon. It seeks a 

 bed of gravel or coarse sand in clear running water, near the head of a 

 stream, bui'rows a nest .and covers its eggs. Lithe streams of the Coast 

 Eange of mountains the trout spawns in November and December; in 

 the streams of the Sierra Nevada in March and April. Trout will also 

 spawn and the eggs will hatch in lakes which are supplied by springs 

 that rise in the bottoms. In this case they will deposit their eggs among 

 the gravel where the spring rises, the motion of the water from the 

 spring having the same effect in bringing the eggs to maturitj^ as the 

 water in a running brook. It has been observed that there are no trout 

 in our mountain streams above large falls. The trout will migrate from 

 one part of a stream to another. If there were ever trout above these 

 falls they would pass below them in their migrations, and the falls pre- 

 vent their return. In many places a very little work would create a 



