8 



only require to have made clear to them the fact that the construction 

 of tish ways doi'S not interfere with their business, while it adds to the 

 public i;ood, to induce them to place fish ways over their dams. 



SALMON. 



The salmon is the most important visitor to our rivers. It has appro- 

 priately been called the "king of fish." The richness of its flesli, its 

 large size, the certainty of its annual i^eturn fi-om the ocean, the rapidity 

 with which, under favorable conditions, it is multiplied, ail render it an 

 important article of human food. It has probably been the chief source 

 of subsistence to more people than any other fish. The question as to 

 whether the number of salmon is gradually decreasing in the Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin Rivers seems difficult to be answered. Some of 

 the, fishermen contend that it is, and others point to the catch of 

 eighteen hundred and seventy in proof that it is not. There are no fish 

 weirs to trap them, and but few dams on the ti'ibutaries of th^se streams 

 to prevent them from reaching their spawning beds. The weight of 

 testimony is on the side of those who believe the quantity to be 

 decreasing; and the most intelligent of the fishermen arc so firmly con- 

 vinced of the fact that they ask that a law be jjjvssed and enforced to 

 prevent, for a certain period, the catching of fish while they are filled 

 with ripe spaw^n. But there is no concurrence as to when this " close 

 time " should be. The fishermen in one part of the river say it should 

 be at one time, and the fishermen in other parts say it should be at 

 others. When the great army is passing by Rio Vista, it would be, in the ^ 

 opinion of the fishermen of Rio Vista, a proper season for a close time 

 at Sacramento and Tehama; and W'hen this army has reached Sacra- 

 mento, it would, in the opinion of the Sacramento fishermen, be a proper 

 season for a close time at Rio Vista and Tehama. What would be just 

 to all the fishermen, and give the next generation a chance to eat this 

 delicious food, would be to prohibit, by strict law, rigidly enforced, the 

 catching of salmon by any jjroccss during twenty-four hours each w^eek; 

 say, from midnight of Saturday to midnight of Sunday. Probably the 

 most serious cause for the decrease of salmon in our rivers arises from 

 mining. It is the most serious, becaitse it cainiot be remedied. 

 Formerly salmon were plenty and largely caught by the Indians in 

 Feather River, in the Yuba, and in the American; but of late j'eurs they 

 have ceased to visit these rivers. It is not because the waters of these 

 rivers are muddj^ All migratory fish that seek rivers iji wdiich to 

 deposit their spawn, do so in the season when the freshets cause the 

 Avater to be muddy. They will jDass through muddy water, if beyond 

 they find clear water and clean gravelly bottoms. The gravel beds that 

 formerly existed in these streams are now covered wnth a deposit of 

 mud, Avashed down from the mines; and on this the eggs of the salmon 

 will not hatch. Neither wnll the eggs of the salmon or trout hatch in 

 water containing any considerable quantity of sediment. A small 

 quantity of the finest sediment deposited on the egg prevents it from 

 hatohina;. 



Salmon, after the second year from being hatched, pass the greater 

 part of the time in the ocean; they there find their principal food. 

 While in fresh water their growth is slow, in salt w^ater they increase 

 in size and weight with great rapidit . They can only breed m shallow 

 streams of cool, fresh water, such as they find in the tributaries of our 

 rivers descending from the mountains. To such places they annually 



