16 



to what has alread}' been accomplished during our tenure of office with 

 the very limited appropriation at our command. 



The observations we have made upon the food fish of our rivers, and 

 the statistics we have gathered from various sources for the informa- 

 tion of those who are interested in the science of fish culture, have 

 involved a large amount of labor which, on the part of your Commis- 

 sioners, has been altogether gratuitous. A liberal appropriation by the 

 Legislature will enable us to extend our operations and carry out to 

 completion the objects for which this Commission was created. We feel 

 that the work we are engaged in, and in the promotion of which we are 

 willing to devote our time and labor in the future, is deserving of a 

 more liberal support from the State than it has hitherto received. 



sacramento salmon. 



United States Fish Commission, 



Department of the Pacific Coast, 

 McCloud Eiver (Shasta County, Cal.), September, 1875. 



S. E. Thro.ckmorton, Esq., Chairman of California Fish Commission, San 

 Francisco: 



Sir: I beg leave to report as follows: 



In the Summer of eighteen hundred and seventy-four, an agreement 

 was entered into between the California Fish Commission and myself, 

 with the approval of the Hon. Spencer F. Baird, United States Com- 

 missioner of Fish and Fisheries, to the eftect that, in consideration of 

 the payment of one thousand dollars by the California Commissioners, 

 towards defraying the expenses of the United States Salmon-breeding 

 establishment on the McCloud Eiver, California, one million young Sal- 

 mon should be hatched and placed in the McCloud Eiver by the United 

 States Fish Commission. 



In pursuance of this agreement, a large number of young Salmon 

 were batched on the McCloud Eiver last Fall, for the purpose above 

 mentioned, and eight hundred and fifty thousand were placed in the 

 river in fine condition, during the months of October and November, 

 and the balance — one hundred and fifty thousand — are now in process of 

 being hatched, and will be deposited in the river this Fall. 



In presenting the report of these operations in Salmon breeding, it 

 may not be out of place, perhaps, to say a few words eoucerniiig fish 

 culture in general, and the increase of Salmon in the Sacramento Eiver 

 in particular. 



The preservation or increase of any of the original sources of the 

 food supply of the human race would, from, its inlierent character, be 

 naturally a subject of universal interest. This has proved to be emi- 

 nently true of the efforts which have been made in various countries 

 with a view to the preservation and increase of the food fishes of the 

 world. The single circumstance that all the world eats fish, has com- 

 mended the culture of fish to the sympathies of almost every one, and 

 would alone sustain an interest in anything that is done to secure or 

 augment the supply. But the cultivation of fish, besides its general 

 recommendation to the world's attention, has additional and special 

 points of interest — such, for instance, as its novelty, and the very 

 peculiar character of its methods of operation. But chief among its 

 epecial claims is the promise of its vast returns. Nowhere above the 



