REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 119 
shows no diminution in the number of fish entering the stream, This may be 
due to either natural or artificial conditions. 
The past few years have been a period of extreme low water in the Sacramento 
and its tributaries. A table, roughly taken from official records, exhibiting the 
estimates made at Jellys Ferry, between Redbluff and Battle Creek, shows by 
months the average number of cubic feet (in thousands) discharged per second: 
Months. 1895. 1896. 1897. ° 1898. 
ae aoa ee = I | 
JANUALY, asso ose ee [eae asene 55 20 7 
| Pebruaty,.----2-5--0|-< eee 20 40 11 
fe eu Bz GX) 0 t= eee ert esl |e ee ee ee 22 21 10 | 
| VAN Or eee ee a 25 22 8 
Matyitn-=2-= : 2 28 30 14 8 
Jy oc eee pe ee 11 15 | 8 | 8 
Avis See ae gs | 9 «| 6 | 5 
ATIPUSU ose cee see ae 6 | it | 4 | 4 
September -____- = 6 6 4 | 4 
October s 2255222225 | 6 6 5 | 5 | 
November ....------ 7 10 6 | 5 | 
December ------ --- 8 20 8 6 | 
| 
This condition has allowed the salmon to find suitable spawning- grounds in the 
Sacramento lhefore they reach the site of the hatchery operations carried on by 
the U. S. Fish Commission. That this cause is active, if not wholly responsible, 
is demonstrated by observations for the Commission made by Mr. Rutter. 
The strongest support of the theory of artificial influences are the well-authen- 
ticated reports of unusual mortality among the ascending salmon. To this addi- 
tional weight is given by the well-attested fact that a remarkable diminution of 
other fishes in the river below the entrance of Spring Creek has occurred within 
the last few years. The tests demonstrate that a considerable quantity of acid 
and copper are now finding their way into the river. The conditions for a very 
great augmentation of this amount exist. Both of these substances, the latter 
eyen in very minute amounts, are inimical to fish life. 
It remains to be proved: (1) That numerous deaths of salmon do occur from an 
artificial cause within a given portion of the river. This will require resident 
observations. (2) That such deaths are due to either acid or metallic substances 
in the river. This requires complete knowledge of the strengths and combinations 
sufficient to induce death, and numerous and opportune samples of the river and 
creek water with their correct analyses. (8) That this requisite amount of these 
substances is due to artificial and not natural forces. This proof must come by 
exhibiting a greater output of the deleterious substances below the smelter than 
is derived from the drainage of the mines. There is nothing intrinsically impos- 
sible in any of these propositions, but owing to the peculiar conditions it has not 
yet been possible to establish them. Theinjury tosalmon fry, either by destroying 
them by poison or by disadvantageously controlling their migration, has not been 
touched on; nor has the problem of the deterrent effect upon the ascending fish, 
causing them to seek unsuitable tributaries or to remain on the beds in the river 
in preference to pushing into the polluted water, received any attention. 
FOOD OF CARP, BUFFALO-FISH, AND CAT-FISH. 
The month of August, 1900, was spent by Mr. M. C. Marsh on the 
Mississippi River near Bellevue, Iowa, the Illinois River at Meredosia, 
Ill., the Missouri River at Omaha, Nebr., and Maumee Bay and river 
near Toledo, Ohio, in collecting material—chiefly stomachs and intes- 
tines—bearing on the food of the carp, the buffalo-fishes and cat-fishes. 
A large amount of such material was preserved and sent to Wash- 
