REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 33 



were caught and spawned, and the numbers supplemented by eyed eggs 

 sent from the United States Hatchery on the McCloud River, a plant of 

 two millions could thus easily be deposited in Pitt River and Hat Creek, 

 which would be good nursery grounds for these fine fish to increase their 

 numbers on the fishing grounds of the lower Sacramento River. 



THE CLOSE SEASON FOR SALMON. 



To prevent any depletion of our rivers, while the present great draft 

 upon their fish supply is going on, to meet the demands of the canneries 

 and the local markets, it is necessary that a sufficiently large number of 

 young salmon should be hatched out naturally as well as artificially. 

 It will be impossible to keep up the supply of salmon from artificial 

 hatching alone for this reason, that the nursery grounds, which are 

 accessible to distribution of the young salmon that are hatched arti- 

 ficially, are not extensive enough to meet and fully supply this great 

 demand. We must have the aid of the salmon of the spring run to sup- 

 plement our efforts, by stocking the highest mountain streams. The 

 young salmon should be placed upon a great extent of nursery grounds 

 for food and protection, to keep up the supply of mature salmon to 

 return from their stall feeding in the ocean. 



In order that this may be successfully accomplished, it is essential 

 that the close season for salmon should be sufficiently long to give a free 

 highway to enough breeders to ascend to the extreme headwaters of the 

 salmon-breeding rivers to deposit their spawn over a large extent of 

 nursery grounds beyond where teams can go to distribute cheaply the 

 young fish from artificial hatching. 



There are two great runs of salmon up the Sacramento River: one in 

 March, April, and May, and another in August and September; but 

 salmon are caught in considerable numbers during every month in the 

 year. 



RUN OF MARCH, APRIL, AND MAY. 



It is very essential that a close season of two or three weeks in the 

 month of April be enforced, in order to give a clear road for the passage 

 of a part of the cream of the great run of the salmon in March, April, 

 and May. It is the salmon from this run which reach the upper waters 

 of our rivers, where they are almost inaccessible to man. Especially is 

 this the case on the McCloud River. Above the United States Salmon 

 Hatchery, which is about two miles from the confluence of the McCloud 

 with the Pitt River, there are only four white men and but few Indians; 

 and above the last white man on the river, eight miles beyond the 

 United States Hatchery, for some sixty miles, till you reach " Horseshoe 

 Bend," there is scarcely a soul to be found, when the spring run of sal- 

 mon go up, to " molest or make them afraid" when passing through this 

 long reach of the best salmon-breeding river in the world. 



It is a fact well known to fish culturists that the winter and spring 

 run of salmon, during the high, cold waters, go to the extreme head- 

 waters of the rivers if no obstructions prevent, into the highest mount- 

 ains. 



They are in the very best condition when they start on their long 

 journeys. Nature has implanted in them the instinct to begin their 

 journey while the spawn is yet small, that it may not become full grown 



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