REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF FISH COMMISSIONERS 43 



ished and less than a dozen were liberated; but in the past year three 

 or four specimens have been taken in Eel River, ranging as high as 

 twenty pounds in weight, indicating the adaptability of the fish to 

 those waters. We hope to make a larger plant in that county this fall, 

 as we successfully liberated two years ago eighty fish ranging from five 

 to eight inches long, in a brackish lake at Crescent City, Del Norte 

 County. It is yet too early to determine the result of that experiment, 

 but we confidently believe, owing to the favorable conditions, that a 

 good account will be rendered. In the interior rivers striped bass have 

 been taken in the Scramento as far north as Kennett. In the Feather 

 River, east of Oroville, specimens from twelve to fourteen pounds in 

 weight have been captured with hook and line. In the San Joaquin 

 and its tributaries, the Tuolumne, Stanislaus, and Merced, they 

 continuing to show a decided increase. 



THE GRAYLING. 



In the last report, covering the biennial period of 1903 and 1904, 

 mention was made of the grayling ( Thymallus montanus), the first ship- 

 ment of eggs having been donated through the courtesy of Hon. George 

 M. Bowers, of the U. 8. Bureau of Fisheries, from the Federal hatchery 

 at Bozeman, Montana. Owing to lack of attention en route, the eggs 

 reached our Sisson station in a weakened condition, but from that ship- 

 ment we were able to raise and liberate some 7,000 fry. Like all new 

 varieties of fishes experience was necessary to determine the best methods 

 to feed and rear them. The eggs in the first place are very small and 

 exceedingly delicate. After the sac was absorbed and the time arrived 

 to furnish food for the young fish, a new problem was presented. After 

 a great deal of experimental work, our superintendent, W. H. Shebley 

 of Sisson Hatchery, finally discovered a method of feeding that has 

 produced excellent results. We found, however, that they flourished 

 best in a wild place, where they could find their own food, consequently 

 in a remote section of our grounds we had constructed an artificial lake, 

 which was fed by water taken from Spring Creek, and which abounds in 

 natural food. We now have specimens of grayling ten inches long. 



In 1905 another shipment of grayling eggs was donated to us from the 

 Bozeman station, but apparently they met with no attention at all en 

 route. As a result every egg was dead when the shipment reached 

 Sisson. This, therefore, proved a total loss, but in 1906 Mr. Bowers 

 again had a shipment of 200,000 eggs sent to us, which arrived in very 

 good order. Of the fry resulting therefrom we have made several plants 

 in the Tahoe region, in the high Sierras, and also in suitable waters in 

 Siskiyou County. We are looking hopefully forward to the permanent 

 establishment of these beautiful fishes in this State. They have a wide 



