CALIFORNIA PISH AND. GAME. 79 



to the stations on Lake Tahoe and at Sisson ; the hatching troughs and 

 other material too heavy to transport were donated to the State of 

 Nevada, and have done some excellent service. 



HORNBROOK EGG-COLLECTING STATION. 



After a favorable report on the possibilities of taking rainbow trout 

 spawn from Cottonwood Creek, Siskiyou County, had been made by 

 W. H. Shebley, superintendent of Sisson Hatchery, in 1900, the board 

 secured permission from Mr. David Horn, who owned the land on both 

 sides of the creek, to trap the fish on his land and to make the neces- 

 sary preparations to that end by constructing a temporary egg-colleeting 

 station. Accordingly, in January, 1901, operations were commenced 

 by putting in a rack and large trap, also fitting up troughs in a tent 

 for the purpose of eyeing the eggs before shipment to Sisson. It was 

 found later, however, that the water supply taken from a spring, to be 

 used for eyeing the eggs, was alkaline in character. Therefore opera- 

 tions for collecting eggs were carried on, and as fast as taken tliey were 

 shipped direct to Sisson to be eyed and hatched. This proved to be 

 both successful and economical, as the station required then only the 

 services of one man to watch the traps, collect the spawn fish, and place 

 them in a "live-box." Notwithstanding the fact that the trap was 

 twice washed out by high water, 417,000 eggs were collected the first 

 season. This was not considered a fair test of the capacity of the 

 stream, as the storms were unusually severe and a warm rain on the 

 deep snowfall caused freshets. 



Operations were continued in the spring of 1902, and a new trap was 

 put in in February, but the first run was lost because of floods which 

 washed out the trap and allowed the fish to pass on up the stream. In 

 spite of these drawbacks, 686,000 eggs were taken by the last of May. 

 The cost of collecting the eggs being so slight, it was considered that the 

 efforts and money had been well expended and that it would be advis- 

 able to continue to operate the station. The station was operated for 

 several years by the California Fish and Game Commission and was 

 then turned over to the United States Bureau of Fisheries, which con- 

 tinued operations until 1919, when the station was again returned to 

 this department. 



A careful investigation of Cottonwood Creek with reference to the 

 collecting of rainbow trout eggs was made during the spring and early 

 summer of 1919, with the result that a lease for a new site was obtained 

 from ]Mr. i\Iarshall Horn and a permanent system of racks was installed 

 therein to trap the spawning trout as they ascend the stream. A new 

 and larger liolding-tank for the fish was also installed, and wdth the 

 new equipment it was possible to obtain 1,600,000 trout eggs in the 

 spring of 1920. 



SALMON EGG-COLLECTING EXPERIMENTS ON EEL RIVER. 



The commercial fishing at the moutli of the Eel River and the spear- 

 ing of the breeding salmon on the riffles on the upper reaches of the 

 river necessitated the propagation of salmon in larger numbers on Eel 

 River. Experimental work was carried on at an experimental station 

 on Bull Creek, one of the tributaries of the South Fork of the Eel 



