24 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



run, which is so uncertain on account of the liability to floods, which 

 makes it impossible to secure the salmon. 



The young fish from the first run of salmon eggs were compelled to be 

 kept, on account of the furious snowstorms of the past winter, till in 

 February and March, of 1890, and then distributed, the boys using snow- 

 shoes and hauling them out on handsleds. The second run was kept 

 till March and April, and was distributed, same as the first lot, in the 

 Sacramento River and its branches. Many difiiculties had to be encoun- 

 tered this year, owing to the great snowstorm. For weeks there was 

 almost continuous shoveling of snow, to keep it away from the windows 

 of the hatchery, to obtain some light to enable the attendants to see to 

 do their work. 



The young fish had to be put on short rations during the great snow 

 blockade, on account of the scarcity of meat. 



EASTERN BROOK TROUT, 



The Eastern Brook trout, with its brilliant scarlet spots, mottled green 

 back and lower fins red and fringed with white, is one of the most 

 beautiful fish in the world. It is gamey and has a delicate flavor. 



Our first Board of Fish Commissioners thought the}^ would be a valu- 

 able acquisition to our trout streams. They introduced the eggs of these 

 fish from New Hampshire in 1876; these were hatched out and dis- 

 tributed from their first hatchery on the University grounds at Berkeley. 

 They continued the introduction and hatching of these fish for several 

 years. The fish were distributed in many hundreds of thousands into 

 the streams of Alameda, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and 

 Monterey Counties; also, in the high Sierra Mountains, above the falls 

 of the Yosemite Valley, on the headwaters of the Yuba and North 

 Fork of the American River, Prosser Creek, a branch of the Truckee 

 River; also, in Cold Creek, at Sisson,a small branch of the headwaters of 

 the Sacramento River. In all these short coast streams, which become 

 warmer and diminished in volume as the summer advances, they have 

 not reproduced themselves — at least, I cannot learn that any have been 

 caught for a number of years past; but in all the high Sierra streams 

 where these trout were planted, they can now be caught quite plentifully. 

 The integrity of their characteristics in all their virgin beauty is main- 

 tained. A number of these fish were caught during the past summer in 

 Blackwood Creek, Lake Tahoe. 



About four years ago a few of these fish were planted in a small lake 

 on the mountain side back of McKinney's place, Lake Tahoe. Last 

 year Mr. McKinney told me that a number of Eastern trout had been 

 caught in that little lake, one of which weighed three pounds. He said 

 they were fierce fighters, and had a delicious flavor. Some of these 

 Eastern trout have been caught thirty miles down the river from the 

 place where they were first planted in the North Fork of the American 

 River. It seems to me very probable that the Eastern Brook trout, as 

 they become older and larger, will drop farther and farther down the 

 main stream and ascend other branches to spawn, and, thus becoming 

 acclimated, will gradually stock all the streams in the State accessible 

 from the first stream in which they were planted. From the Tahoe 

 Hatchery, Lake Tahoe: Fallen Leaf Lake and the streams which empty 

 into these lakes, the numerous small lakes on the mountain sides, the 



