REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. » 



amounting to $3,035. Next on the list is the record of 109 arrests for 

 violation of the quail law, for which the sum of $2,344 was paid. For 

 transgressing the fish laws, the greatest number of arrests and the larg- 

 ^est amount paid in tines were for violation of tlie laws relating to 

 striped bass, showing a . total of 69 arrests and $1,340 paid in fines. 

 The next in importance were the arrests and fines paid for violation of 

 the salmon law, there being 15 arrests and a total of $1,040 paid in 

 fines. This is a less amount than was collected during the two preced- 

 ing years; but the minimum penalty of $200 for violation of the salmon 

 law (the cases being triable in the Superior Court, where convic- 

 tions are almost certain) and the rendering of an important decision 

 by our Supreme Court, sustaining the salmon law {People vs. Pdvl 

 Haagen, May 20, 1908), had their effect. In other words, fishermen 

 realize that tampering with the salmon law is a dangerous and costly 

 experiment. 



While the same numlier of arrests for violation of the duck law were 

 made in the past two years as in the two preceding ones, it will be 

 noticed that there was $170 less paid in fines. The market dealers and 

 commission houses having organized themselves into transportation com- 

 panies, which have a legal right to handle more than fiftyducks, it was 

 extremely diflEicult to obtain evidence to convict; besides, many of them 

 are corporations, and owing to a defect in the Code of Civil Procedure, 

 which renders the prosecution of a corporation for a misdemeanor 

 almost impossible, our efforts in that direction have been seriously 

 handicapped. 



In addition to cases which were brought regvilarly into court, there 

 have been examined hundreds of complaints, some of which were not 

 made in good faith, and others in which sufficient evidence could not 

 be obtained to warrant a prosecution. 



Our deputies also made many seizures of fish and game in transit — 

 fish that were under weight or that had been taken in violation of law; 

 prohibited game offered for sale or shipped contrary to law, and because 

 of violation of the bag limit. In many cases convictions followed the 

 seizure. In others we were unable to locate the shippers, who resorted 

 to fictitious names. Their punishment was effected by confiscating the 

 shipments, which meant a loss of time, labor, material, and goods. 

 More than 13,617 pounds of striped bass, 24,000 pounds of salmon, 1,200 

 pounds of steelhead, 1,290 pounds of sturgeon, 260 dozen abalones, and 

 600 pounds of trout were seized as evidence against violators of the 

 fish laws. 



More than 1,500 California deer hides that were ottered for sale, or 

 cached awaiting a favorable opportunity to ship, have been seized by 

 our deputies. Some were in transit as baggage, being packed in trunks; 

 -others were in dry-goods boxes, marked " household goods," and con- 



