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REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS. 



8I680N, Cal, October 1,1906. 

 To the Honorable the Bonni of Fish Commissioners of the State of California. 



I .km i.kmkx : I herewith submit a report of the operations of Sisson Hatchery for the 

 years 1905-1906. 



Since my report of two years ago, we have improved the method of handling the 

 spawning fish, increased the capacity of the hatcheries, and enlarged the pond system. 

 The large number of Qninnat salmon eggs collected at the United States egg-collecting 

 stations at Baird, Battle Creek, and Mill Creek, during the fall and winter of 1904-05— 

 brief mention of which is made in the appendix of your biennial report for 1903-1904 

 — compelled us to erect a battery of salmon-hatching troughs. It was built on a sloping 

 piece of ground lying below our main line of ponds. This work was begun in the latter 

 part of November, 1904, and rushed as fast as possible so as to have it in readiness for 

 the large number of salmon eggs that were being collected by Captain Lambson, Super- 

 intendent of the Bureau of Fisheries stations, located at Baird on the McCloud Paver 





SUPERINTENDENT'S COTTAGE, SISSON HATCHERY. 



and at Battle Creek and Mill Creek. As the time was too short to put up even a tem- 

 porary building, the battery was put up in the open, and the troughs fitted with wooden 

 covers to keep out the frost and the snow. We made 250 salmon egg-hatching baskets 

 and borrowed 300 from the Bureau of Fisheries; these, with the 750 belonging to this 

 station, enabled us to successfully hatch the 87,000,000 salmon eggs that we received 

 that seaton. As the hatch of 1903-04 (58,000,000 salmon eggs) at this station was the 

 largest hatch of salmon eggs on record at one station at one time, we again kept our 

 record good, ai d the 87,000,000 hatched during the season of 1904-05 again placed us at 

 the head of the list. Although the open battery gave us good results so far as hatch- 

 ing the eggs and rearing the fry were concerned, it was very hard on the men, who were 

 exposed both night and day to the inclemency of the weather during the greater part 

 of the time the eggs w T ere hatching. At this altitude (3,500 feet) in mid-winter the 

 climate is rigorous— cold, north wind, sleet, and snow for several days at a time are com- 



