KEI^ORT 



California lias a scacoast extending through ten degrees of latitude, 

 and a shore line of nearly eight hundred miles. The Coast Eange of 

 mountains, which adjoins the coast line for the greater part of this dis- 

 tance, creates by its western watershed nearly one hundred streams and 

 rivers emptying into the Pacitic Ocean. These streams and rivers vary 

 from twenty to sixty miles in length. .The drainage of the western 

 slojie of the Sierra Nevada, through seven degrees of latitude, forms 

 several hundred streams, whose united waters make the Sacramento and 

 San Joaquin Elvers — the first navigable for a distance of one hundred 

 and eighty miles, and the last navigable one hundred miles from the 

 ocean. The waters from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada flow into 

 brackish and salt lakes, in the State of Nevada, having no outlet into 

 the ocean. Pyramid, the largest of these lakes, receiving the waters of 

 the Truckee Piver, is forty miles long and twenty miles wide. The 

 inland bays and fresh water lakes of California cover more than six 

 hundred and fifty square miles — an area half as large as .the State of 

 Ehode Island. 



These few statistics are given that it may be clearly understood how 

 extensive is the field over which, under the law, the Eoard is expected 

 to prevent tlie wanton destruction of fish and required to compel the 

 , owners of dams to permit the free passage of fish to their native spaAvn- 

 iug beds. When it is further understood that the members of the Board 

 neither receive nor exi:)ect comj)ensation for their services other than 

 the satisfaction of doing something towards the preservation of the fish 

 now in our waters and adding to the food sujiply of the jDeople by the 

 introduction of new varieties, it will be acknowledged that if but a 

 beginning has been made in this work, at least public attention has been 

 called to the importance of the subject. If a few men of intelligence, 

 living on the banks of each bay, river, and lake, will inform themselves , 

 of what has been done in other States and countries for the propagation 

 and preservation of fish, they will create a public opinion that will cause 

 the enactment of proper hiAvs and compel their enforcement. The result 

 will be that after a few years our river fisheries will be largely increased, 

 giving employment to a large number of men, and furnishing a cheap 

 supply of nutritious food to many more people. 



