REPORT OF THE FISIT AND GAME COMMISSION. 73 



Fish Commission, and the remainder were hatched and distributed in 

 the local streams and in Lake Almanor. 



Reports were received that a good run of rainbow trout ascended 

 Rice Creek, a tributar}^ of the North Fork of the Feather River above 

 Lake Almanor. After making an examination of the stream and 

 gathering data from the local residents we have decided to establish 

 an egg station there this fall, so as to have it ready for next spring's 

 work. 



We have located a site for a small hatchery and egg station at 

 Domingo Springs. Domingo Springs is on the main road leading 

 from Chester to Red Bluff, and is one-half mile from Rice Creek 

 Falls, w^here we have selected a site for a trap and retaining tanks for 

 our egg collecting station. The water from Domingo Springs gushes 

 from the lava rocks at the foot of a cliff near the road. There is about 

 300 inches of water in the springs, an ample supply for a fair-sized 

 hatchery, should it ever be necessary to operate one in that section on 

 a large scale. We have a permit from the United States Forestry 

 Department for the hatchery site at Domingo Springs, as well as for 

 the trap and tank site on Rice Creek. 



Next season we will operate a trap in Rice Creek to determine the 

 number of eggs that can be collected and if our efforts are successful 

 we will make this a permanent egg collecting station and establish a 

 small hatchery at Domingo Springs to supply the district west and 

 north from Lake Almanor, as well as to keep up the supply of trout in 

 the lake. 



Burney Creek Station. 



In the si)riiig of 1915 we secured a lease on a piece of land at the 

 mouth of Burney Creek, a tributary of Pit River, Shasta County, for 

 the purpose of collecting rainbow trout eggs. A rack was placed 

 across the stream and the necessary live cars and pens were made to 

 hold the fish that we expected would enter the creek. A tent and a 

 few troughs under it, with our hatching equipment, was set up and 

 operations were begun with the intention of collecting and eyeing eggs 

 preparatory to shipment to Sisson. 



It was originally planned to eye the eggs and hatch them in the old 

 Hat Creek Hatchery, seven miles from Burney Creek, if a sufficient 

 number were taken ; but early in May an eruption of Mount Lassen 

 sent a tremendous flood of mud, water and sand down the Hat Creek 

 Valley, destroying all the fish in the stream from its source to its con- 

 fluence with the Pit River. This was one of the most serious destruc- 

 tions of fish life in recent years in California. Hat Creek rises in the 

 southeastern part of Shasta County in a lake at the foot of Mount 

 Lassen, at an altitude of 7300 feet above sea level. It flows northerly 



