738 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 
“There has been a vast decrease in the returns of the fyke-nets during the last twenty years. 
In 1852 and 1853 they used to catch 700 or 800 pounds a day in one fyke-net. An average of 250 
pounds a day for one net at Sacramento City was usually expected in those times. The present 
catch of 75 pounds a day in twenty nets certainly presents an alarming contrast. The fyke-net 
fishing is conducted wholly by white men, I believe, the Chinese fishermen being ruled out by 
force of public sentiment. The fyke-nets are usually visited early in the morning of each day, 
and the catch is sent down to San Francisco by the noon boat. The fyke-net fishing begins in 
November and is continued till May. The best fishing is when a rise in the water drives the fish 
inshore, where the fyke-nets are placed. During the summer months the water is warmer, the 
fish are poor, and the fishing is discontinued. 
“On the 27th of February, 1873, I went the rounds of Mr. Ingersoll’s set of fyke-nets with 
him. We visited twenty nets, but as some of them had not been examined for over twenty-four 
hours, the yield was supposed to be equivalent to one day’s fishing for thirty nets. The nets had 
four hoops each and 14-foot wings. We took out about 120 pounds of fish in all. Hardheads were 
the most numerous, and the Sacramento pike next. Mr. Ingersoll said that perch used to rank 
second in abundance in fyke-net fishing, the average for thirty nets being 200 or 300 pounds a day, 
but the perch were quite insignificant in numbers on this day. We found in the nets seven small 
viviparous perch aud two small sturgeon. I learned also that mink, beaver, and otters are some- 
times caught in the nets. In 1872 Mr. Ingersoll caught 8 minks, 2 beavers, and 1 otter in his 
fyke-nets. 
“ SWEEP-SEINE FISHING.—The sweep-seine fishing is given over to the Chinese, who are not 
allowed by public sentiment to engage in either of the other two kinds of fishing just described, 
but what they are not permitted to do by the prohibited methods they make ample amends for by 
their own methods. They are, I should say, the most industrious and persistent fishermen on the 
river. They fish all the year round. They use fine mesh-nets, with which they sweep every part 
of the river, especially the partially-stagnant fresh-water lagoons, or sloughs, as they are called 
in California, where the fish collect in myriads to spawn. With these nets they catch vast quan- 
tities of fish of all sizes, and so destructive has their fishing been on the Sacramento, that all the 
fish of that river except salmon are disappearing with unexampled rapidity. 
“Tt is owing to this kind of fishing that the returns of the fyke-nets have diminished so alarm- 
ingly the last few years. The Chinese have been at it for seven or eight years, and if they keep 
on three or four years more at this rate, the small fish of the Sacramento will be practically 
exterminated. I had no means of ascertaining with any exactness how many Chinese fishermen 
there were on the river, but there are a large number, and Mr. Ingersoll said that they were 
increasing every year. The most of their fresh fish they send to the San Francisco Chinese 
markets as soon as caught, but they also dry a great quantity of them on bars and floors prepared 
for the purpose. These are both eaten by themselves and sent»packed in barrels to the Chinese 
quarter in San Francisco. While at Rio Nita in February, .1873, I visited a Chinese fishing-station 
on the Sacramento River. It was located about 80 rods above the Rio Nita steamboat-landing, 
and consisted of a nest of Chinese fishing-boats numbering seven small boats and three large ones. 
There was also on the shore, just across the road, two old tamble-down buildings with drying-bars 
and floors near by in the open air, where some of the fishermen lived and attended to the drying 
of the fish. The small boats were small, flat bottomed dories, square at the stern, sharp at the 
bow, about 15 feet long, and strongly built. : 
“The large boats were also strongly built, but narrow and pointed at both ends, and con- 
structed in the Chinese fashion. Two of the three large boats had one mast, and the other one 
