REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 19 



as the owners built them according to plans furnished by previous Com- 

 missioners, we are unable to rectify the matter until they are destroyed. 



Many complaints have come to this office concerning the condition of 

 some of the ladders and dams in the Truckee River in the State of 

 Nevada, it being claimed that fish could not pass over them in their annual 

 run from Pyramid Lake. We have upon several occasions called the atten- 

 tion of the Nevada Commissioner to these dams, and regret to inform 

 you that the matter has not been treated in the considerate manner our 

 mutual interests in this valuable stream would seem to deserve. 



A new ladder has been constructed on the dam in the Little Truckee, 

 at Boca; and, the gates in the dam some miles above that point having 

 been removed, the fish can now pass the entire length of this valuable 

 stream. 



The conditions in the Truckee River basin were never more to the 

 satisfaction of the sportsman than at present. ' 



The law prohibiting the dumping of "shavings, slabs, 

 SAWDUST, edgings, and mill and factory refuse " into streams has been 

 rigidly enforced everywhere. In the summer of 1895 the 

 Attorney-General, at the request of your Commission, obtained an 

 injunction from the Superior Court of Sacramento County restraining 

 the Truckee Lumber Company and the State Line Mill Company from 

 dumping their mill and factory refuse into the Truckee River, since 

 which time it has been free from deleterious matter. An appeal to the 

 Supreme Court was taken by the Truckee Lumber Company in May, 

 1896. If a decision is rendered in time, it is our intention to include 

 extracts from it in the Appendix to this report, as well as from the brief 

 filed by the Attorney-General. 



The matter of the placing of screens at the heads of water 

 SCREENS. ditches has received due attention. In many cases screens 

 have been placed in ditches by order of the Board. There 

 are, however, many irrigating ditches in the State where the placing of 

 screens is considered inadvisable and unnecessary. The use of screens 

 with meshes small enough to exclude trout fry would, in many cases 

 practically shut off the water from the ditch. It is true that some of 

 these ditches carry many small fish on to the fields to die, but the total 

 value of the fish products of these streams does not equal the one thou- 

 sandth part of the value of these waters to the orchards and fields. That 

 we have in these matters exercised and carried out the intention of the 

 Legislature is not open to question. 



The importance of the work in Southern California and Humboldt 

 County has made it advisable to keep a man stationed in each of these 

 localities during certain seasons of the year. By this means the super- 

 vision of the commercial fisheries and the enforcement of the fish and 



