REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF PISH COMMISSIONERS. O 



APPROPRIATIONS. 



The last Legislature appropriated $20,000, one half of which was to be 

 used for support in each of the forty-first and forty-second fiscal years. 

 The expenditures made will be found in the proper place herein. The 

 sum of $2,000 was appropriated for the purchase and importation of cer- 

 tain game birds into the State. The Board has so far been unable to 

 obtain most of the species named in the Act, but hopes yet to secure them. 

 Some quantities of Chinese quail and Oregon pheasants have been pur- 

 chased and distributed in accessible localities. These quail have propa- 

 gated already fairly well, and supplies can soon be had from them for 

 other localities, as required. The $2,000 appropriated for the prosecu- 

 tion of violators of the fish laws has been expended, and was insufficient 

 to defray the costs of prosecutions. 



The Oregon pheasants can only be had by sending agents there to buy ' 

 them in person, and they cannot be had at less than about $15 per 

 pair. So far only forty pairs have been secured. The cost of the Chinese ' 

 quail is about $20 per hundred. We have obtained about one thousand 

 three hundred so far. These have been distributed pretty widely through- 

 out the State. The amount so far drawn from the appropriations for 

 game birds is $1,500, of which up to this time the sum of $1,020 has been 

 expended. 



COUNTY GOVERNMENT BILL. 



Section 38 of the Act of March 16, 1889, amending the County Govern- 

 ment Act, authorizing the Boards of Supervisors to fix the size of fish 

 net meshes, should be repealed. If one county has one law, and another 

 county another one, it renders it impossible for violators of the law to 

 be punished, and the law thereby becomes inoperative. One county has 

 already fixed the size of meshes for fishing at four inches, instead of the 

 seven and one half inches prescribed by the statutes. 



If the Legislature should agree with the recommendations of the 

 Superintendent of Hatcheries for the creation of more hatcheries, the 

 appropriation he asks for, or more, may be necessary. We recommend 

 an appropriation of $10,000 for patrol purposes. If illegal fishing is to 

 be prohibited, men enough to patrol the rivers must be had; otherwise, 

 illegal fishing will go on as usual with impunity. 



FOOD FISHES. 



In its proper place herein will be found an interesting and instructive 

 paper on the food fishes of this State from the pen of Dr. C. H. Eigen- 

 mann, who is regarded as authority upon that subject; also, a letter from 

 Dr. H. W. Harkness, President of the California Academy of Sciences. 



WIRE SCREENS FOR IRRIGATION DITCHES. 



The millions upon millions of fish, large and small, that pass into the 

 open heads of irrigating ditches, only to die when the water becomes 

 exhausted, will decimate the fish supply faster than it can be restored 

 from all the hatcheries in the State, in those localities where irrigation 

 is largely in use. This has rendered necessary in some of the States 

 the enactment of laws requiring the use of close-meshed wire screens at 



