CALIFORNIA PISH AND GAME. 67 



was continued until November, only 1,200,000 eggs were collected. The 

 spawning beds that a few years before had been covered with thousands 

 of spawning fish were now deserted. In 1887 W. H. Shebley was 

 appointed superintendent of the Hat Creek station, to succeed J. V. 

 Shebley, who resigned from the commission to engage in private busi- 

 ness. The take of eggs the second year was less than that of the first. 

 Every effort was made to procure sufficient eggs to justify the commis- 

 sion's operating the plant, but only 500,000 were taken. 



In the spring of 1888 Superintendent W. II. Shebley recomnu'iuled 

 to the Board of Fish Commissioners and to Governor Waterman that 

 the Hat Creek Hatchery be either abandoned or closed down for a num- 

 ber of years, and that a station be established lower down the river at 

 a place where the salmon eggs could be collected and shipped to a hatch- 

 ery along the line of the railroad. It was demonstrated beyond any 

 doubt, during the two seasons that Hat Creek station was operated, 

 that the spawning salmon did not reach Hat Creek, nor the Pit River 

 near its confluence with Hat Creek, in numbers sufficient to justify the 

 expense of operating the station any longer. In former years a large 

 run of salmon ascended Pit River as far as the falls below the town 

 of Fall River Mills, and also into Hat Creek ; but owing to the dimin- 

 ishing number of salmon in the Sacramento River and its tributaries, 

 the fish that ascended the river found ample spawning beds lower down, 

 near the confluence of the Pit, the Sacramento and the McCloud rivers. 

 The board, acting on this recommendation, ordered the hatchery closed 

 and began looking for another site. 



MOUNT SHASTA HATCHERY, 



In August, 1888, Mr. J. G. Woodbury was appointed superintendent 

 of hatcheries of the California Fish Commission. He immediately 

 began to look for a suitable location for a large hatchery along the line 

 of the railroad, at the headwaters of the Sacramento River. After 

 making a thorough examination and a study of the conditions of the 

 different streams, it was decided to locate the hatchery on Spring Creek, 

 near the town of Sisson, on the property of Mr. J. H. Sisson. Spring 

 Creek has its source in a large spring about a mile from the hatchery ; 

 the water is pure and cold and its temperature does not vary to great 

 extremes. The good judgment shown by Mr. Woodbury and Dr. 

 Stone in selecting this location has been proved by the successful work 

 done at Sisson during the ensuing years. 



The first hatchery on this site was built in the fall of 1888. It was 

 a plain wooden structure 40 by 60 feet, containing 44 troughs, and 

 was hurriedly constructed to accommodate the eggs that were being 

 collected by the United States commission at Baird from the fall run 

 of salmon in the McCloud River; for the federal commission had 

 resumed operations on the McCloud River, after having closed 

 the station for five years. An agreement had been entered into whereby 

 the United States commission and the California commission Avere to 

 divide the work of propagating salmon in California; the former was 

 to collect and prepare the eggs for shipment, the latter to hatch and 

 distribute them. 



