FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 
1C5 
all of the scow but a strip about 18 inches wide on each side and 2 feet 
wide at each end.” * The average value of a scow is estimated at $250. 
Apparatus and methods of capture . — Gill nets are exclusively used in 
the salmon fishery. Wilcox states that the salmon nets now in use on 
the lower Sacramento range in length from 150 to 300 fathoms and in 
depth from 4 to 5 fathoms, or 40 to 45 meshes of 8 to 8| inches each. 
He places the value at from $200 to $400. There seems to have been a 
decided change in the depth of this apparatus in the past 10 years. 
Jordan and Gilbert found the nets used in 1879 to be “from 200 to 300 
fathoms long, from G to 9 fathoms deep, and with an average mesh of 
8| inches.” They place the value at $300. Nets of this size are operated 
only in the bays and lower sections of the rivers, where most of the 
catch is obtained. In the vicinity of Sacramento City, the upper limits 
of the fishery, nets are much smaller, ranging from 75 to 100 fathoms 
in length, and usually having only a 7J-inch mesh. From Rio Yista to 
Carlinville the nets are from 150 to 250 fathoms in length ; and between 
the latter place and Benicia they vary from 200 to 300 fathoms. The 
nets are all handmade by the fishermen during the dull season; they 
usually last about 2 years. Some of the men, however, prefer to en- 
gage in some other pursuit at that time and pay the net-makers for 
knitting and hanging their gear. 
Jordan and Gilbert, in the same article, make the following reference 
to the method of fishing : 
Fishing is always done on the ebb tide, whether it be day or night. Two men 
always work together. They go out to their fishing grounds, which are chosen chiefly 
by clear channel, and the net is placed in the water, one man working the boat and 
the other paying out the net. Everything is governed by laws which the fishermen 
have made for themselves. Each of the two men has his own part in the work. It 
is always the same one who rows, while the other manages the net. The two then 
rest in their boat, boat and net floating down together until they have gone far 
enough, when the net is taken out and the fish removed. The distance they float, of 
course, varies with the grounds and the seasons. 
According to a law among fishermen, a second net is not to be placed in the water 
until the first one has floated down a certain distance, and although the fish are all 
caught running up the stream the second, third, and even fourth net frequently 
catches more than the first. They generally begin fishing at about half ebb tide. 
In spring, wben the water is muddy, the day fishing is generally as- 
good as at night. Later in the season, when the river is comparatively 
clear, the best results are obtained at night, particularly when there is 
no moon. A State law prohibits net fishing between sunrise on Satur- 
day and sunset on Sunday, in addition to total cessation during Sep- 
tember. The laws are said to be often violated, notwithstanding the 
patrol of the river by the State fish commissioners. 
Shad are taken incidentally in the salmon nets. 
*The Salmon Fishing aud Canning Interests of the Pacific Coast, by David Starr 
Jordan and Charles H. Gilbert, volume I, section v, of Report upon the Fisheries and 
Fishery Industries of the United States, p. 732. 
