12 



mento before there was any marked decrease by over-fishing. It is 

 not disputed that the sahnon were more numerous in the Sacramento 

 before their spawning grounds on the American, Yuba, Feather, and 

 other rivers had been destroyed by mining. After the fisli were 

 destroyed in these tributaries, the supply of the State had to come 

 from the other tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, on 

 which there was no mining, and these latter streams furnished the 

 normal supply. Before these became exhausted, the natural increase 

 was supplemented by artificial hatching. 



In this connection a fact, of much i)ractical as well as scien- 

 tific importance, may be stated as showing the advantages in 

 numbers to be obtained by artificial hatching in comparison 

 with the increase by natural methods. In eighteen hundred 

 and seventy-six, Mr. Myron Green, foreman for Mr. Livingston 

 Stone, United States Deputy Fish Commissioner, at the McCloud 

 River, having observed in the river a favorite gravel bed where 

 many salmon were depositing their eggs, carefully dug up the 

 gravel and several thousand eggs. He separated the eggs from the 

 gravel and placed the former, after counting them, in the hatching 

 boxes. After twenty-four hours he found large numbers of these 

 eggs turning white, showing that the milt had failed to come in con- 

 tact with the eggs. After throwing out all the eggs found not to be 

 fecund, there were left eight per cent, of the whole number gathered, 

 which were found to be fertile. When the eggs arid milt are arti- 

 ficially brought in contact out of the water, it would be carelessness 

 or inexperience that would prevent ninety-five per cent, of the eggs 

 from being fertilized. 



The following tables will show the numbers and weight of salmon 

 transported on the railroads and steamboats from the Sacramento 

 and San Joaquin Rivers to the Cities of San Francisco and Stockton, 

 from points on the river below the Cities of Sacramento and Stock- 

 ton, from November first, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, to 

 August first, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, and from Novem- 

 ber first, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, to August first, eigiit- 

 een hundred and seventy-seven. They do not include the catch of 

 the fisheries at Tehama or near the mouth of the Feather River, nor 

 do they include the fish taken on the upper waters of the Sacra- 

 mento and San Joaquin, nor the salmon brought to market by fish- 

 ermen in their own boats; therefore, to the totals should be added 

 at least twenty-five per cent, to show an approximation of the actual 

 catch : 



