19 



the mouth of the Mokelumne) unless especial means are taken to pre- 

 vent it. The Three-mile Slough, leading from one river to the other, 

 around the head of Sherman Island, is also fine fishing ground, and 

 more retired from public observation than any other. Many of the 

 fishermen started off" with their tanks, etc., the very day the ' can- 

 nery ' was reported to have stopped. Many of them are energetic, 

 restless men, and the idea of doing something sly or contrary to law 

 gives zest to their labor. Right here where I write a few boards have 

 been thrown up shed-fashion by a party I need not now name. You 

 may well believe salted salmon will be under it if some stranger does 

 not prevent it. You may rest assured that the people who reside 

 here will not be known as the initial instruments in punishing any- 

 one for the violation of the salmon laws, although there are many 

 who feel it ought to be respected. No doubt, public feeling and prac- 

 tice will occupy about the same status at Collinsville and wherever 

 salmon fishing is a business. As I wrote to you the other day, now 

 (August) is the time to protect the salmon. In review of long expe- 

 rience and observation I opine that of all the salmon passing in the 

 months of August, September and October, more than ninety per 

 cent, pass between August tenth and October first. The seed run is 

 always on time, not being like the spring run, accelerated or retarded 

 by the differing moods of the river, caused by the winter and spring 

 rains. If during the last named period (August tenth to October first) 

 the law were rigidly enforced, you would find seed enough for home 

 use and a good part of all creation beside. Indeed,' I think that one 

 month out of the thickest of them, say August twentieth to September 

 twentieth, would be quite sufficient, and therein I differ with you in 

 opinion, no doubt. But you have not, perhaps, observed in person, as 

 I have, the multitudes and urgency of the run at that time ; and this 

 is almostt^uniform — it has not varied in time ten days in twenty 

 years. Now, during the period of four or six weeks, the State, in 

 view of the magnitude of the producing interest involved, ought 

 surely to provide beyond peradventure for the enforcement of the 

 law. The^statute names the taking or possession of salmon a crime, 

 but in the public mind this crime is only an illegal act. You cannot 

 force sentiment by act of the Legislature. The absence of sentiment 

 excuses the citizens' apathy, and between ignorance and cupiditj^ the 

 salmon will suffer unless special agents of the State do for the public 

 what the public have not yet quite learned they ought to do for 

 themselves. Strangers are the best agents for this business. Citizens 

 living in a fishing neighborhood do not feel like subjecting them- 

 selves to the enmity and revenge of a rough class by complaint. 

 x\nd, again, in this salting business, the criminal acts are beyond 

 observation, except by express intention, as the fish are caught chiefly 

 in the night, and the salteries are usually situated away from public 

 highways and thoroughfares." 



We have expended a part of the appropriation in prosecuting 

 offenders against the law, but the field is so large and the profit so 

 great, that but little good has been accomplished. The more fish 

 hatched and placed in the river, the more numerous the fishermen, 

 and the greater, apparently, the desire to make a profit from a viola- 

 tion of the law. As has been stated, unless the fish are allowed, in 

 their season, to reach their spawning grounds, the rivers will be 

 exhausted Until the fishermen realize that the object of the law in 

 creating a close season is the perpetuation and increase of the num- 



