18 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OP 1 FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



and the care they received from the attendants, Mr. James A. Richard- 

 son and Mr. E. W. Hunt, I venture to say that no fish were ever hatched 

 out with a less percentage of loss. 



In the fall of 1888 a contract was made with Mr. Livingston Stone, at 

 the United States Hatchery on the McCloud River, to hatch out from the 

 eyed eggs which the United States Fish Commission donated to the 

 California Fish Commission, five hundred thousand young salmon at 

 75 cents per thousand, and distribute them in the McCloud River. 



The United States Fish Commission also very generously hatched out 

 and planted in the McCloud River the same season one million young 

 salmon at its own expense; and, also, in 1889 the United States Com- 

 mission planted eighty-four thousand young salmon in the McCloud 

 River. More would have been planted there that year by the United 

 States Commission, if the floods had not washed out the traps and thus 

 prevented the taking of any more breeding salmon. 



Mr. J. H. Sisson generously gave two lots in the addition to the town 

 of Sisson, each thirty feet by one hundred and forty feet, for the use of 

 the hatchery, for $1 a year with the free use of the water; and, also, he 

 signed a bond to give the Fish Commission permission to remove the 

 buildings, or else buy the land at the market price, with a perpetual free 

 use of all the water from Big Springs Creek which the hatchery should 

 need. These lots should belong to the Fish Commission, with one or 

 two more of the adjoining lots on the south included. 



Mr. Dunn, the Controller, claims that under the present law the Fish 

 Commission has no right to purchase land for its hatcheries. I would 

 suggest that your honorable Board petition the next Legislature for a law 

 to be passed granting the Fish Commission the right to purchase land 

 for its hatcheries when a desirable locality has been fixed upon. 



If the hatcheries do any good in maintaining the normal supply of 

 food fish by restocking the streams, and if it is advisable to operate the 

 hatcheries for a few years, it is equally important to maintain them for 

 all time. The State consequently should own and operate its own 

 hatcheries as a permanent institution. 



As soon as the young salmon were all distributed (April, 1889), the 

 hatchery was closed at Sisson for the season of 1888-9. 



LAKE TAHOE. 



Operations were now immediately begun at Lake Tahoe. The fisher- 

 men said that the month of May was too late a date on which to take 

 spawn at Taylor Creek, which was considered the best place for getting 

 the most spawn. But we managed by careful seining to get about one 

 hundred and fifty thousand trout eggs here, which were put into the old 

 private hatchery at Tahoe City. Taylor Creek is at the upper end of 

 the lake, about twenty miles from the hatchery. Work was then begun 

 on traps to be put in the creeks near their mouths. We had to wait for 

 the lumber to be sawed out at Truckee and hauled over what was, at 

 that time, a bad road. This dela}^ed us somewhat, but as soon as possi- 

 ble we had traps in Meek's, Phipps', Blackwood, and Ward Creeks. 

 Trout run up these creeks later than they do in Taylor Creek, for the 

 reason that these streams are fed by melting snow water which is cold 

 and often roily, while Taylor Creek has its source in Fallen Leaf Lake, 

 which modifies the temperature of the small streams running into it. 



