CALIFORNIA FISH AXD GAME 51 



"I am informed from a reliable source that a most wanton course of destruction 

 is practiced by the settlers along the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, which 

 will, if not arrested, be attended with vital consequences, amounting to a total 

 destruction in these waters of our salmon fisheries, which, to the State, are worth 

 millions of dollars. 



"Perch, flounders, shrimps, and herring spawn in December; smelt, in 

 August." 



From Captain Wakeman's report on the fisheries of some of the coast rivers 

 we make the following extracts : 



"In pursuance with your orders of the sixth instant, I have examined all the 

 streams from Spanishtown to Pescadero, and herein submit my report in regard to 

 their character as trout strams, their obstructions, and consequences arising there- 

 from : 



"Pilarcitos Creek — Upon which Spanishtown is located, is a dirty red stream, 

 of about two feet wide and one foot deep, and empties its waters upon the beach, 

 about half a mile below the town. There is a steam flour mill here, but no sawmill, 

 and judging from the thick, muddy water, nothing but cattish can live in it. 



"Gobt they Creek — Two miles below Spanishtown, t trout stream, 



about two feet wide and a few inches deep, and empties it* waters upon the beach. 

 There are no mills upon this stream, and only natural obstructions, such as old 

 decayed trees and their branch 



"Purissima, or Pure Water S:r.-am — Is two miles below <!obetkey Creek, and 

 i* a tine clear water trout stream, about four feet wide and a fool deep. Generally 

 at this season (February) it has a volume of about tea feet in width and five feet 

 in depth. It empties its waters upon the beach about half a mile below the Purissima 

 Hous.-. Four miles up the stream is the sawmill belonging t>> M Boyden and 



Hatch. This mill has an overshol wheel, tin- water to run it b( en from 



the stream three-fourths of a mile ml carried in a sixteen-inch flume, at the 



head of which are four little da le by throwing a short log across and tamping 



it tight with a t'ev, I sawdust. This throws all the water into the flume and 



only half tills it, which shows that this Stream is very small at the present time. 

 A siii' tor a new steam sawmill is being located {:■ further up. The sawdust 



and blocks of the redwood are thrown into u ,. which turns the water to a 



dark red, and. in some plac i inky black; in other plac ile. Thi 



poisonous, and kills the fish in half an hour after it is drank, according to the testi- 

 mony of Messrs. Boyden and Hatch th es. Cattle along this stream are 

 walking skeletons. I saw »f dead animals lying along the bank, 

 notwithstanding there is plenl e >od grass. This shi delusively the truth 

 of all the reports made to me by many of the settlers along the stream. In places 

 where the water runs fast it is quite palatable: but where it is still it becomes 

 wholly unfit for use. and not only kill h, but is dangerous to the cattle. At 

 some seasons of the year the settlers are obliged to sink holes or wells back from the 

 stream, and even then the water is impregnated with an odor only to be derived 

 from dead fish. 



"Lobetis Creek — Is a clear water trout stream, two miles from Purissima, 

 about three feet wide, and a foot deep. It empties its waters upon the beach, and 

 has no mills — nothing but natural obstruction 



-Tunis Creek — Is a clear water trout stream, of about the same volume as 

 Lobetis. It empties its waters upon the beach. Ten miles up this stream is Foment's 

 steam sawmill, not running now. owing to a lawsuit pending and an injunction 

 from the court: which last, it is to be hoped, may continue for all time, as the 

 sawdust, so fatal to the fish and injurious to the farmer, is prevented thereby from 

 being dumped into the stream. 



"San Gregoria — Is a fine clear water trout stream, four miles from Tunis, and 

 connects with the ocean about one mile below the San Gregoria House. At full 

 sea, the salmon, of from fifteen to twenty pounds, and the silver salmon, from two 

 to fifteen pounds, enter this stream during their spawning season, which is from 



