CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 45 



other than the yolk sac which is attached to them. The young fish remain in the 

 river from one to two years before leaving for the ocean. It has been observed in 

 Scotland, where the artificial breeding of salmon was first largely practiced, that 

 of a given quantity of eggs hatched in one season, about one-half the young fish 

 would leave for the ocean the same year, while the other half would remain until 

 the following season. This has been found to be the unvarying rule. No reason 

 has been assigned why this migratory instinct should control but about half the 

 young fish in the year in which they were hatched, other than that Providence, while 

 apparently not caring for the individual, makes stringent laws for the preservation 

 of the species. 



The preservation of our salmon fisheries is a subject of great importance. 

 Salmon were formerly as abundant in the rivers of New England as they are now 

 in California and Oregon : but traps, weirs, ponds, seines, gill nets, and the erection 

 of darns without fish ladders, at last nearly exterminated them. Now these sta 

 are making appropriations for the artificial hatching of these fish, and the rivers are 

 being successfully restocked. 



So much more is known of the habits of the salmon than formerly, that it is 

 not difficult to determine what may be done to increase the number of fish, and at 

 the sum time increase the quantity that may be caught. The men who pursue the 

 business of fishing for salmon, appreciate the necessity for their preservation and 

 acknowledge the propriety of laws requiring a "close time," as well as laws against 

 pounds and weirs, and laws regulating the size of gill nets. We believe the time 

 has arrived when the present and future interests of California require careful and 

 just legislation. We would, therefore, recommend that a standing committee be 

 appointed in both houses of the Legislature on coast and inland fisheries. These 

 committees could visit the fishermen, and, after learning their views, so amend the 

 ent law and frame new laws as to protect legitimate fishing, and at the same 

 time provide for an increase of fish in the future. 



TEOUT 



This fish is found in nearly all of the streams that discharge into the Pacific 

 Ocean from the Coasl Range of mountains and in the greater number of the mountain 



streams of the Sierra Nevada. They vary greatly in size und appearance in different 

 waters and at different seasons, but so far no variety is exactly similar to any of 

 the brook trout of the New England state-. The large brown and silver troul of 

 Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River are pronounced by Mr. Seth Green — who is con- 

 sidered to be an authority in such matters — not to be trout, but species of the sebago 

 or land-locked salmon. These fish make annual migrations from Lake Tahoe to the 

 brackish waters of Pyramid Lake. Many of the fishermen of Tahoe insist that the 

 so-called silver trout does not leave the lake, but as they are occasionally caught in 

 the river, it is probably they also migrate, but perhaps at an earlier or later season. 

 The habits of the trout are similar to those of the salmon. It seeks a bed of gravel 

 or coarse sand in clear running water, near the head of a stream, burrows a nest 

 and covers its eggs. In the streams of the ('oast Range of mountains the trout 

 spawns in November and December; in the streams of the Sierra Nevada in March 

 and April. Trout will also spawn and the eggs will hatch in lakes which are sup- 

 plied by springs that rise in the bottoms. In this case they will deposit their eggs 

 among the gravel where the spring rises, the motion of the water from the spring 

 having the same effect in bringing the eggs to maturity as the water. It has been 

 observed that there are no trout in our mountain streams above large falls. The 

 trout will migrate from one part of a stream to another. If there were ever trout 

 above these falls they would pass below them in their migrations, and the falls 

 prevent their return. In many places a very little work would create a passage for 

 the fish, which would have the effect of greatly increasing the numbers of this most 

 delicious species. The reports of our assistants, from which we have largely copied, 

 will show how rapid has been the destruction of the trout in this State. It is to be 

 hoped that the dissemination of intelligence as to the construction of fish ladders 

 and the enforcement of the law against trapping and illegal fishing, as well as the 



