1 



248 KEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [12] 



current-wheels, hydraulic rams, siphons, and about all of the more 

 common appliances for raising water to a higher level have been re- 

 sorted to, in order to utilize what was otherwise a good breeding spot 

 with plenty of water for the fish to live in. This fact shows how desJf- '] 

 able it is to have a breeding place where the hatching water comes! 

 naturally to the eggs and involves no expense in obtaining it. 



The salmon-breeding works that were put up in Oregon, on the 

 Clackamas Eiver, in 1877, for the purpose of hatching Columbia Eiver 

 salmon, furnish a singular illustration of this. The spot selected for 

 this station seemed to be favorably situated for the work, particularly 

 in regard to the water supply for the eggs, for just behind the site of the; 

 hatching house was a large stream of water called Clear Creek, which 

 furnished an unlimited supply of good water at a suitable height to be 

 introduced into the hatching house. Wheu, however, we came to un- 

 dertake to dam up the creek for the purpose of taking water from it, it 

 was found that the bed of the creek was quicksand to an indefinite 

 depth, and that neither hard-pan nor bed-rock could be reached. Con 

 seq^uently, after various persistent but fruitless attempts to find a secure 

 place across the creek for a dam, the creek as a water supply for hatch 

 ing had to be given up. Water for the purpose was afterwards ob- 

 tained the same year by other means, but only with considerable diffi- 

 culty and at a large expense j and when the company which built the 

 establishment concluded the next season to risk the experiment of dam- 

 ming up Clear Creek, the first large freshet carried away the dam and 

 left the salmon eggs in the hatching house without water, which resulted 

 in a serious loss. 



5. Availability of location. — It would seem at first sight as if 

 any favorable location for a salmon-breeding station would be available, 

 but this.is far from being the fact. For instance, some falls might ba 

 found in a good salmon river where every facility could be afforded 

 for taking and hatching eggs, but if these falls belonged to some one who 

 had taken up a claim there, the site could not be secured perhaps, ex- 

 cept at an enormous price or an enormous rental, which would prac- 

 tically place it out of reach. Or, perhaps, a good place could be found 

 on a river which was considerably settled above the proposed site of 

 the fishery. This would also make it unavailable, because the upper 

 settlers would in all probability never allow a dam to be put across the 

 lower portion of the river to obstruct the ascent of the salmon, and with 

 out such obstruction no great quantity of salmon could be taken any 

 where in the United States at least, unless it might be at the foot of 

 some falls or natural obstruction. 



If we needed an example to illustrate the absence of this condition 

 we might find it at the crossing of the Deschutes Eiver, where the falls 

 which stop the salmon and where the land adjacent, are owned by a set 

 tier and held by him at a very high figure ; or on the Little Sacramento, 

 in California, where many salmon eggs could be taken and hatched if 



