11 



outlet. It contains an abundance of food. This experiment will 

 demonstrate how large the Sacramento salmon will grow, with plenty 

 of food, when confined entirely to fresh water. 



Since the organization of the Commission, we have caused to be 

 hatched and placed in the streams of this State eight million three 

 hundred and fifty thousand young salmon. These include one 

 million paid for in eighteen hundred and seventy-five, and presented 

 by ex-Governor Leland Stanford. As the salmon is our most import- 

 ant food fish, we deemed it of the greatest importance to keep up the 

 supplj^ The numbers of fishermen are yearly increasing, as are also 

 the numbers of persons wlio are consuming the fish. As railroad 

 facilities are increased, and reach new points, the market becomes 

 extended. The sea lions and seals at the outlet of the bay, being 

 preserved and protected by law, are also increasing. They now num- 

 ber thousands, and as each requires from ten to thirty pounds of fish 

 daily, it was a serious question whether we could keep up the supply 

 by the addition of two and a half million artificially hatched each 

 year. Since our last report, a salmon " cannery " has been estab- 

 lished on the Sacramento, at Collinsville, and another opposite the 

 City of Sacramento. This Collinsville canning establishment reports 

 as having canned this year eight thousand five hundred and forty- 

 two cases, of four dozen cans in a case, equivalent to thirty-four 

 thousand one hundred and sixty-eight fish, weighing five hundred 

 and forty-six thousand six hundred and eighty-eight pounds. 



Under the enlightened superintendence of Professor Spencer F. 

 Baird, United States Fish Commissioner, the Sacramento_ salmon is 

 being widely distributed to streams throughout the United States. 

 The government establishment on the McCloud River annually 

 hatches from six to ten million eggs. These are distributed to all 

 States having appropriate waters, whose Legislatures have appointed 

 Fish Commissioners. From this source the State of California has 

 received, as a donation, a half million fish each year since eighteen 

 hundred and seventy-four. In addition, we have expended a large 

 part of our appropriation annually, in payment for the hatching of 

 one or two million young fish, which, through the kindness of Pro- 

 fessor Baird, have been furnished at the actual cost of hatching. 

 The introduction of more than eight million young salmon into the 

 headwaters of the Sacramento, since the organization of the Com- 

 mission, in addition to the natural increase, has had the effect to 

 keep up the supply, and reduce the local market price of these fish. 

 It is reported that the " cannery " at Collinsville has purchased all 

 the salmon it could consume during the past season at from twenty- 

 five to forty cents each. 



Over-fishing, the absence of any close season, and no effort at arti- 

 ficial increase, has at last had an effect on the salmon of the Colum- 

 bia River, in Oregon, and complaint is made that this river, once 

 thought inexhaustible, has begun to fail in its accustomed supply. 

 This decrease has been so marked during the season that the " can- 

 ners" have been compelled to pay from thirty to fifty cents each for 

 salmon. In the absence of legislation, the canning compani3s on 

 this river have subscribed twenty thousand dollars, which have been 

 placed under the control of Mr. Livingston Stone, Deputy United 

 States Fish Commissioner, to be expended in artificial hatching, and 

 restocking that stream. Fortunately, intelligent legislation in Cali- 

 fornia made provision for continuing the supply of fish in the Sacra- 



