REPORT ON THE PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF 



FOOD-FISHES. 



By W. DE C. Ravenel, Assistant in Charge, 



PROPAGATION OF FOOD-FISHES. 



Fish-cultural work was conducted on the same general lines as in 

 the past, but the results far exceeded those of any previous year. 

 The total number of fish distributed was 1,164,336,754, an increase of 

 about 100,000,000 over the output of the preceding year. 



On the Pacific coast special attention was paid to the collection and 

 hatching of quinnat-salmon eggs on the Sacramento River, in the 

 Columbia River Basin in Washington and Oregon, and on the Rogue 

 River. Owing to the excessive drought prevailing in California 

 during the summer of 1899, the water was so low in Battle Creek that 

 but few salmon ascended the stream, and the majority deposited their 

 eggs on sand bars in the Sacramento. As a result only 1,600,000 eggs 

 were taken at this point, where 20,000,000 were taken the previous 

 year and 48,000,000 two years before. 



At Baird station, on the McCloud River, a tributary of the Sacra- 

 mento, where egg collections are made from both the summer and fall 

 runs, the work was affected by the same cause. From the first run 

 6,228,260 were collected, and from the fall run 186,800, making in all 

 6,415,060. This w^as very discouraging, as over 16,000,000 had been 

 taken the previous year with poorer facilities. The eggs were all 

 hatched in California and the fry liberated in the Sacramento River 

 and tributaries and in Eel River. 



In the Columbia River Basin stations were operated on the Little 

 White Salmon River in Washington and on the Clackamas River in 

 .Oregon; and though the run of salmon in the Columbia River was 

 poor, 10,385,000 eggs were obtained on the Little White Salmon and 

 2,014,900 on the Clackamas, which resulted in the liberation of 

 10,997,947 fry in this region. Several hundred thousand of these 

 were retained in Clackamas until they were from 4 to 6 inches long 

 before being liberated. 



On the Rogue River 4,364,800 quinnat-salmon eggs, 200,000 silver- 

 salmon eggs, and 530,000 steelhead-trout eggs were collected. Of 

 the quinnat-salmon eggs 1,800,000 were transferred to Wedderburn, 

 Oreg. ; the fry resulting were not planted until they were from 3 to 5 

 inches in length. They were fed on canned salmon, principally the 

 backs of heads and the tails, which are of no commercial value. The 



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