TWENTY-NINTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 37 



preA^ailed for a niiinber of years past, have also prevented salmon on the 

 upper reaches of the Sacramento River from reaching the government 

 liatcheries on Battle and Mill creeks in their usual numbers. The 

 obstruction caused by the dam of the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation 

 District has caused the greatest destruction to the Sacramento River 

 salmon run, as it not only prevents the salmon from reaching the spawn- 

 ing grounds on the Pit River and tributaries during the summer and 

 fall, but prevents the run from passing into the McCloud River, where 

 the United States Bureau of Fisheries could collect eggs for propaga- 

 tion. A small number ascends the river in the early spring before the 

 splash boards are placed on the dam and these reach the McCloud River 

 where a small number of eggs are collected in comparison with the 

 number collected and hatched years ago at Baird, the oldest Chinook 

 salmon station in the world, which has been operated by the United 

 States Fish Commission since 1872. 



Surveys have been made for an up-stream type of fishway that would 

 easily allow the salmon that reached this dam free passageway up the 

 river, but the directors of the irrigation district pei-sistently refused 

 to construct a fishway, maintaining from the start that a fishway was not 

 necessary. This has been a matter of controversy between the Fish 

 and Game Commission and the irrigation district directors. The Com- 

 mission asked for an injunction to restrain the irrigation district from 

 using the dam to obstruct the run of salmon in January, 1921, before 

 Judge McDaniels who was presiding over the Shasta County superior 

 court bench in place of the local judge who was incapacitated through 

 illness. But owing to a conflict of testimony a court decision was not 

 obtained. The court upheld the fishway law, but decided to make a 

 personal investigation during the next run of salmon before giving a 

 final decision. In the meantime, an election had been held and another 

 judge elected to take the place of the judge who was deceased. 



During 1922, the Commission commenced another action to restrain 

 the district from using the dam until an adequate fishway was built, 

 but a compromise was agreed upon between the Fish and Game Commis- 

 sion and the directors of the irrigation district, w^hereby a series of 

 experiments of different type fishways were to be carried on to deter- 

 mine whether a passageway for the salmon could be made by removing 

 certain sections of the splash boards, or if this failed, to construct a box- 

 like structure to form a pool so that the salmon could pass the dam. 



To this date, June 30, 1926, nothing has come of these experiments. 

 Plans are under way to bring this matter to a final decision and we 

 expect to have the matter settled before the salmon ascend the river 

 this fall. In the meantime, the valuable salmon run is being reduced 

 each season, because an adequate fishway has not been built. • 



The majority of the salmon eggs collected from the Klamath River 

 have been hatched at Mount Shasta Hatchery and the resulting finger- 

 ling salmon and fry distributed in the upper reaches of the Sacramento 

 River. But if we are to keep enough salmon in the Sacramento River 

 and Monterey Bay region to furnish the markets with a fair supply of 

 these fish, we must use every effort to allow all the salmon possible to 

 ascend the Klamath River. To attain this end anything that will tend 

 to reduce the number of spawning salmon from ascending to the upper 

 reaches of the river must be prohibited. The use of spears, not only in 



