REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 35 



pushed entirely beyond the season of the great run of salmon. " Give 

 them an inch and they will take an ell," if they can get it. 



It is of the utmost importance that the close season should be placed 

 back again to the month of August. If more salmon do not reach the 

 McCloud River during the month of September than have arrived there 

 during the past two years, serious consequences will happen to the 

 salmon industry of California. 



By changing the close season for salmon back again to the month of 

 August, it can easily be determined if the run of salmon has lessened 

 during the past ten years. 



If as many salmon do not arrive there during August and September 

 as did ten years ago, or if an insufficient number got up during that 

 period from which to secure the number of eggs necessary for artificial 

 reproduction, then it will be imperative to include part or the whole 

 month of September in the close season, in addition to the month of 

 August. 



I see no reason why this change should have been made in the close 

 season, unless it may have been to accommodate the canneries and fish- 

 ermen on the lower Sacramento in securing greater catches of salmon. 



If there is any accommodation to be done in the matter, it should be 

 towards the salmon which are trying their best to reproduce themselves 

 in the effort that their kind may not be diminished, and not to those 

 who are doing their best to destroy the salmon for the future that they 

 may fill their pockets to-day, and " kill the goose that lays the golden 

 egg." 



Can it be possible that the people of this State will allow a great 

 resource of food supply, which Nature has planted in our rivers, to be 

 endangered by the remorseless destruction going on in the eifort to catch 

 every salmon that attempts to go up to the spawning grounds? 



The following valuable communication has been received from Mr. 



Geo. B. Williams, Jr., and I take great pleasure in submitting it to the 



consideration of your honorable Board, as it so strongly represents the 



facts of the case: 



Baird, Cal., July 8, 1890. 

 Mr. J. G. Woodbury, San Francisco: 



Dear Mr. Woodbury: Yours of the fifth at hand. Two years of experience in charge 

 of this station on the McCloud has convinced me that unless some action is taken by the 

 Legislature and those interested in the propagation of salmon as a food fish, to include 

 the month of August as well as that of September in the close season, not manj^ years 

 will elapse when this valuable food fish will become almost extinct. 



On account of the high water we are liable to have at this point during the spring and 

 late fall runs, it is impracticable to secure and spawn by artificial methods trie parent 

 fish ; but the August run comes at a time when it can be handled successfully. In order 

 to allow this run to reach the headwaters of the Sacramento River and its tributaries, the 

 months of Aiigust and September should be reserved to allow a free passage of salmon. 



I draw my conclusions from the fact that in previous years, when there was no fishing 

 with seines in the Sacramento to speak of, thousands of salmon collected here during the 

 latter part of August and during the month of September, and we found no difficulty in 

 securing all the eggs we could handle, fourteen million ova having been taken inone 

 season. From the "August run in 1888 but one million five hundred and sixty-eight 

 thousand six hundred eggs were secured, and in 1889 one million one hundred and five 

 thousand were taken. In 1888 the season's take was increased to five million five hun- 

 dred and four thousand six hundred, by securing ova from the late run in October and 

 November. But this was something unusual, and could not have been accomplishecl 

 had it not been that the rains did not set in until December of that year. An attempt 

 was made in 1889 to take the late run, but rains in October caused the McCloud to become 

 very high, and racks and dams were washed out, allowing the parent fish to ascend tlie 

 river and small creeks above the station. 



It is very hard to decide how long it takes the salmon to reach their spawning grounds 

 after they leave the seining grounds of the lower Sacramento, biit as near as we can tell, 

 from two to three weeks. 



