13 



they had been accustomed to furnish in former years. Our Commis- 

 sion has sent out from the Shelby hatchery and distributed, between 

 the twenty-first of May, 1883, and the first of January, 1884, over 

 95,000 trout. 



In December, 1883, there were placed 600,000 young salmon in the 

 McCloud River by the United States Fish Commission, at the expense 

 of $600 to the State of California. 



On April 13, 1884, the California Commissioners planted ever 200 

 carp in the lakes of Yolo County, and on April 25 placed a number 

 in China Slough, Sacramento County. 



The present Commissioners of the State of California have been 

 unable to place new varieties of fish in the waters of the State, from 

 the fact, mainly, that the United States Commission has not been able 

 to furnish the much desired and needed supply. The United States 

 Commissioner, Hon. Spencer F. Baird, in making annual distribution 

 of fish, up to the year 1883, favored California with its proportion. 

 To him and to his associates the people of this State owe their thanks 

 for the successful stocking of our watercourses and bays with shad, 

 catfish, carp, black bass, striped bass, whitefish, etc. 



We most earnestly hope that, in the coming years, we may be favored 

 by the United States Fish Commission with a supply of the different 

 varieties of eastern fish. 



VIOLATIONS OF LAWS. 



The fish laws have been violated to a great extent on the upper 

 rivers, bjr unprincipled men, who have established fisheries from 

 Fremont to Redding, on the Sacramento River. The great damage 

 that has been done by these up-river fishermen has been occasioned 

 by the continued drawing of seines upon the gravel bars, not only in 

 the taking of the fish ready to deposit spawn, but also in destroying 

 the ova already deposited upon the gravel bars, these bars being the 

 natural spawning grounds of the salmon. In the opinion of the 

 Commissioners, the State should set apart that section of the river 

 from Jacinto to the McCloud and Pit Rivers as breeding grounds, so 

 that no net or seine could be legally used in that portion of the river. 

 If a law of that character is not passed and enforced, the salmon 

 interest of this State will be of short duration, as the parties using 

 seines on the spawning grounds do more towards annihilating the 

 salmon than all the gill-net fishermen, as the gill nets are nearly of a 

 uniform size of mesh, and only take matured fish, while the seines 

 take all sizes, from one half pound up. 



In the opinion of the Commission, it would be wise for the Legisla- 

 ture to enact such laws as will control excessive and prohibit destruc- 

 tive modes of fishing, such as Chinese bag nets, Chinese trout lines, 

 etc., as they are destructive to the young of all kinds of fish. 



The Commission would advise that a law be passed to prohibit the 

 use of any weir, pound, bag net, China trout line, set nets, and all 

 other contrivances, in the public waters of this State, with the excep- 

 tion of the fyke nets, and providing that the wings thereof do not 

 extend more than twenty-five feet in the stream from the bank or 

 shore; also, to enact such laws as will prohibit the Indians from 

 taking any kind of fish by any other method than was in use by them 

 prior to 1850. 



