18 REPORT OP statp: board of fish commissioners. 



wards his store and barns were burned down, and he said that he then 

 resigned from the Commission. 



[Under date of January 11, 1892.] 



I have to report tliat on January 4th I went to Cazadero, taking- 

 Deputy Babcock with me. We remained there over night. Tuesday 

 morning we went to Duncan's Mills by train, and from there walked to 

 the mouth of Russian River, some six miles. We were dressed as hunters 

 and were accompanied by two dogs. About one mile from the mouth of 

 the river we found a set net placed in the stream; it was fastened at one 

 end to a stake, the other end being anchored in the stream some sixty 

 yards from the shore. We remained in sight of this net for some two 

 hours, when we saw two men come from a cabin near the net, get into a 

 l)oat and take up the net. We were within four hundred yards of them 

 at the time, and could plainly see what they did; they caught two salmon. 

 After they had replaced the net in the water again we arrested them, 

 taking them to Duncan's Mills on foot, and from there to Guerneville by 

 wagon. We arrived there at 5 p. m. and took them before Justice Bartley, 

 and preferred the charge against them of using a set net. They pleaded 

 not guilty and demanded a jury, and the trial was set for the following 

 Thursday. They were placed in the hands of the Constable. That 

 evening at about 7 o'clock, the hotel at which we stopped was sur- 

 rounded by a howling mob of men and boys, who blew fish horns and 

 gave many other evidences of their disapproval of our actions; the dis- 

 turbance was brought even into the public sitting-room of the hotel in 

 which we were. We were told by a number of men about the place that 

 we could never convict the men or any person or persons in that neigh- 

 ))orhood of illegal fishing; that it was too general, and public sentiment 

 was opposed to the law. Wednesday evening Assistant Prosecuting 

 Attorney Luppo, of Sonoma County, came from Santa Rosa to take up 

 our case. He informed us that he thought we had made a mistake in 

 preferring the charges in Guerneville, as conviction there was almost 

 impossible, but that our case was so very strong he hoped we might 

 do so. 



The trial came off Thursday. The jury was composed of middle-aged 

 men. One of the defendants admitted, on cross-examination, that he 

 fastened the net at 5:30 a. m. Tuesday to a post which was securely driven 

 into the bank of the river, and that while the net was so fastened they 

 caught two salmon. The other defendant claimed that he did not know 

 whether the net was fastened to the stake or not while they were fish- 

 ing. The Justice, at the written suggestion of the prosecuting attorney, 

 instructed the jury to the effect that if they found from the evidence that 

 either of the defendants fastened or assisted to fasten either end of the 

 net to any stationary object, it is constituted a set net, and they must 

 find the defendants guilty, etc. The jury was only out of the room some 

 ten minutes, when they returned a verdict of not guilty. From the 

 court-room to the hotel, and from the hotel to the station, we were fol- 

 lowed by a howling mob of thirty or forty men and boys. It was a 

 most insulting demonstration. Attorney Luppo and Superintendent 

 Korberly of the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad, who came 

 away with us on the train, denounced the affair as being the most dis- 

 graceful of anything they had ever witnessed, and they did not believe 

 such a demonstration could take place in any American town. 



