TWENTY-EIGHTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 31 



Some sportsmen's clubs, assisted by the supervisors of tlie counties, 

 have established resting pools at the end of the auto roads where the fry 

 are deposited and given a few days' rest before being carried by pack 

 animal to the more inaccessible lakes and streams in the higher alti- 

 tudes. The Fresno County Sportsman's Club and the Madera Rod and 

 Gun Club have built a number of these resting pools in the mountainous 

 districts where they are making their distribution of fry ancl have 

 obtained excellent results. This is very commendable work as it gives 

 the fry a chance to recuperate before continuing the long journey to 

 the lakes and streams that are not accessible hy trucks or wagons and 

 have to be reached by pack animals. These resting pools are of great 

 benefit if the fry are not held in them too long. A great many persons 

 have advocated the holding of trout fry until late in the fall in ponds 

 and nurseries along the streams where they desire to have the fish 

 distributed, believing that if the trout fry are held until they are a 

 larger size than when received from the hatcheries, better results could 

 be obtained. Our experience has led us to believe that this is not a 

 fact ; and Avhen trout are confined in ponds or nurseries they generally 

 bect)me large, fat and domesticated, lose their wild instinct of natural 

 preservation that they have when first taken from the hatchery and 

 a greater number of them will be destroyed by natui;al enemies, if 

 held until late in the fall or the following spring, than if liberated 

 as soon as they are swimming up and in condition to plant directly 

 from the hatchery. 



There are probably some places where larger trout might be of 

 benefit when planted than those taken from the hatchery, but these 

 places are very remote and in general trout planting, our experience 

 has demonstrated to us, the sooner the trout fry are planted, the better 

 the results. 



TROUT DISTRIBUTION. 



The total distribution of trout fry from the different hatcheries in 

 the state for the biennial period 1922-1924 was 56,527,105, consisting of 

 the following species : 



Rainbow _- 21,G9G,3<>5 



Loch Leven 10.876,3.50 



Steelhearl 1,3,011,:]00 



Eastern Brook 5,106,550 



Large Lake 2.11!).!).10 



Black Spotted 810,090 



Brown Trout 2,564. H.jO 



Cutthroat 255.950 



Mackinaw 80,000 



Total .56..".27,ln.-) 



On the date this report is being written. July, 1924, we have approxi- 

 mately 28,000,000 trout fry that will be disti-ibuted as a result of this 



season's operations. 



SALMON. 



To maintain even a fair supply of chinook, or king, salmon in the 

 Sacramento River, Klamath River and Monterey Bay regions, as well 

 as Eel River and ocean areas fed hy this stream, becomes a greater 

 problem each year. With the cutting otf of natural spawning grounds 

 by high dams in the tributaries of the Sacramento River and the 

 depletion of Eel River by the excessive fishing of a few years ago, the 



