REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 19 



[JJnder date of February 1, 1892.] 



We drove along the coast of San Mateo County, and spent several 

 days in the vicinity. The waters were full of Steel-heads, but none are 

 being killed contrary to the law, so far as we could find out. The stories 

 one gets from San Gregorio and Pescadero are without number, but we 

 could not get any evidence to su])stantiate any one of them; though we 

 visited and talked with all of the people in the vicinity for two days, 

 few of them knew our business. * * * 



Deputy Lindsey, of Belmont, has been of great service to the Com- 

 mission, in my opinion, by having posted Bulletins Nos. 1-3 throughout 

 his district. All the people in the coast country seem to be posted upon 

 the Steel-head, and are very shy of killing them. We found no founda- 

 tion for any of the deer stories, and believe them to be without fact. 



[Under date of February 29, 1892.] 



This endless patrol of the markets goes on each day, and it is very 

 necessary, but it is almost always without results. Since I have been 

 in the employ of the Fish Commission the markets of the city of San 

 Francisco have been visited every day by some one of the deputies in 

 your employ, and the patrol of these markets I consider to be very 

 complete. In this way we have destroyed the market for illegally 

 caught game or tish. * * * 



The almost entire absence of public sentiment for the enforcement of 

 the fish laws in such places as Glen Ellen, Napa, and other well-known 

 localities is most marked, so that the local aid the Commission may 

 expect in these places is but slight. 



[Under date of May 6, 1892.] 



On April 15th, accompanied by Deputies Babcock and Koppitz, I went 

 to the Sacramento River to make the annual spring examination and col- 

 lect licenses. On the way up we overhauled and arrested eight Chinese 

 fishermen for catching the young fish with set nets. We took the men 

 to San Rafael, and resumed the trip, visiting Vallejo, Martinez, Benicia, 

 Antioch, Collinsville, Rio Vista, and Sacramento, besides all the islands 

 and sloughs on the way up the river. 



On April 22d we arrested a Greek for fishing with a 5-inch-mesh net. 

 He plead guilty at Martinez, and paid a fine of $50. 



On April 26th we arrested four men below Rio Vista for having their 

 nets more than one third across the width of the river. The local senti- 

 ment is strongly against the law, and a conviction is doubtful. 



We finished the trip and returned to the city on May 5th. We col- 

 lected some two hundred and ten licenses, a report of which is made to 

 the Board by Deputy Koppitz. The spring run of salmon is light. The 

 canneries are not open on the river, and the prospects of their opening 

 is poor. The necessity of the close season in the spring, of at least one 

 month, seems to me very necessary if the salmon are to be preserved to 

 the waters of the Sacramento River. The number of boats engaged in the 

 fishing grows less each year, and the men engaged in the business have 

 a hard struggle for existence. The Saturday and Sunday close season 

 is well observed, but does the salmon run but little good, as it is not 

 long enough to let the fish pass up that part of Suisun Bay and the 

 river covered by the fatal seines. A close season in April and Septem- 



