9 



the Sacramento Eiver for the public benefit hag, however, attracted the 

 attention of some of our public-spirited and wealthy citizens, who are 

 actuated by a desire to increase the food supply of valuable fish. Ex- 

 Governor Lcland Stanford has requested your Commissioners to cause 

 to be hatched during the present season (at his expense) one million 

 Salmon, to be turned into the Sacramento Eiver; and Mr. Charles 

 Crocker has also requested your Commissioners to hatch (at his ex- 

 pense) half a million more; some hundred thousands, at his desire, have 

 been placed in Kern Eiver and in Lake Tahoe. 



There will, therefore, be placed in the waters of this State, during the 

 present season, and before this report is printed, two million of Salmon; 

 and should the State receive her usual share from the Government, 

 probably half a million more. 



We have every reason to believe that the Salmon donated by Mr. 

 Crocker to the public, and turned into Kern Eiver and Lake Tahoe, will 

 thrive and increase, and add largely to the valuable food-fish for the 

 inhabitants of those portions of the State. It seems to be pretty well 

 settled, from experiments made by the Commissioners in other States, 

 that it is not absolutely necessary for Salmon to go to the ocean; if they 

 can reach large bodies of water, containing an abundant supply of 

 food, their purpose is answered, whether the water is fresh or salt. It 

 is reported, on good authority, that the young Salmon, placed a few 

 years since in the rivers of Michigan, found sufficient food in the waters 

 of the lakes, and, during the past year, returned to the rivers in which 

 they were placed and deposited their spawn. The waters of Lake 

 Tahoe empty into Pja-amid Lake, whose waters are brackish, and 

 abundantly supplied with food. Kern Eiver empties into Kern and 

 Buena Vista Lakes, whose waters are slightly alkaline and brackish. 



It is hoped that these fish may find these waters suitable for their 

 purpose, for should the experiment be attended with success, it will add 

 materially to the wealth of the State. 



Salmon have been more plentiful in the Sacramento Eiver, during the 

 present season of eighteen hundred and seventy-five, than ever before, 

 since Americans had knowledge of the country. This is to be attri- 

 buted, first, to the " close season," under an Act of the Legislature, which 

 prohibits the catching of Salmon anywhere in the State between the 

 first of August and the first of November; and, secondly, to the quanti- 

 ties of young Salmon turned loose from the artificial hatching estab- 

 lishment, which were donated to the State by the Government of the 

 United States. Whether or not Mr. Crocker's experiment, of placing 

 Salmon in rivers having no outlet to the ocean, shall result in success, 

 it is certain that the million of Salmon, artificially hatched and turned,, 

 during the present season, into the Sacramento Eiver, at the expens-e of 

 ex-Governor Leiand Stanford, added to those hatched from the State 

 appropriation, and those donated by the United States Government, will 

 so materially increase the quantity of these fish in that river that, after 

 three years, there will be found more profitable fishing than has here- 

 tofore been known. 



We believe that if the Legislature, instead of giving to the control of 

 your Commissioners a mere pittance of two thousand five hundred doU 

 lars a year, for the purpose of the importation of new varieties of fish 

 and increasing the quantities of native fish, were to make an appropria- 

 tion of six or ten thousand dollars yearly, that so many Salmon could 



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