REPORT OF STATE BOARD OP FISH COMMISSIONERS. 17 



Each trough has screens and covers to protect the eggs from the light. 

 One hundred and fifty wire hatching baskets were made and painted 

 with asphalt varnish. It seemed to be an endless task to get this large 

 hatchery finished. We worked every day in the week, and most of the 

 nights until ten and eleven o'clock, painting the troughs, making the 

 baskets, covers, etc., and fixing up the living-room. This work con- 

 tinued long after the first lot of eggs were received. 



This hatchery is well equipped and is also one of the largest in the 

 country. It has a third larger capacity than the United States Salmon 

 Hatchery on the McCloud River, where fourteen million salmon eggs 

 have been eyed at one time. 



Before shipping the eggs, Mr. George B. Williams, Superintendent of 

 the station at Baird, where the United States Salmon Hatchery is 

 located, sent word notifying us of the date of shipment. The salmon 

 eggs are hauled to Smithson, on the Sacramento River, where one of our 

 men meets them with ice to be put in the packages to keep them cool. 

 The State Fish Commission pays all expenses incurred on the shipment 

 of eggs from the McCloud River to Sisson. The United States Fish 

 Commission generously donates the eggs, eyed and packed, ready for 

 shipment, from the Government Hatchery on the McCloud River. 



We received at the Sisson Hatchery, from the September run, 1888, 

 about eight hundred thousand salmon eggs, instead of the three or four 

 million which were expected to be taken during that month. This 

 caused a great surprise and disappointment, for ten years ago during 

 the same month twelve million eggs were easily taken. This shows 

 what havoc the fishermen with their nets are making in the lower 

 Sacramento River. 



This year, 1888, the United States Fish Commission renewed their 

 operations on the McCloud River, that station having been abandoned 

 during the previous five years. The eight hundred thousand eggs 

 received from them were hatched out at Sisson, and kept till old enough 

 to be planted, and during the month of December were distributed in 

 branches of the Sacramento River, the West Fork, Salloway Creek, Big 

 Spring Creek, Cold Creek, and in the main Sacramento below the 

 eighteenth crossing. 



The Government Station on the McCloud River did so poorly in the 

 August and September run that they continued their efforts for the taking 

 of more spawn during October and November. This had been unusual 

 in former years, because they got all they required in the first run. Usu- 

 ally the McCloud River rises in volume during the fall rains, which makes 

 it very difficult for the men to keep their traps in the river (as, for 

 instance, during last year, 1889, when everything was swept away). 



We received at the Sisson Hatchery from the October and Novem- 

 ber run, 1888, about two million two hundred thousand salmon eggs. 

 The eggs arrived during the last of December and part of January, 

 1889. These were hatched out in fine condition, and kept till old 

 enough to ship, and were distributed, in March and April, in the same 

 streams as those of the September run; and, also, doAvn the Sacramento 

 River as far as Big Castle Creek. In shipping these fish down the river 

 the Southern Pacific Railroad Company very generously loaned us the 

 use of a hand car, and gave the right of way on their road. Without 

 this accommodation it would have been almost impossible to have dis- 

 tributed the fish properly. With the good water at the Sisson Hatchery, 

 2' 



