208 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STA.TES FISH COMMISSION. 
in the winter; in California the salmon spawn in the summer ; and finally, most of the hatching work 
is done in California before the Atlantic fish begin to spawn. 
I tried three ways of capturing the parent salmon; first, by the Indian trap; second, by a stake 
net and pound; third, by a sweej) seine. The Indian trap consists of a fence of stakes or bushes 
built out into the river at a fall or rapid in the form of a letter V, having the angle downstream, 
and a basket trajr at the angle. This method proved perfectly worthless, as of course it must, for 
catching healthy fish, as this contrivance catches only the exhausted fish that axe going down the 
river and none of the good fish that .are coming up. 
The second method of using a stake net did not work, on account of the volume and force of 
the river current. I set the stake net so as to just reverse the form of the Indian trap ; that is, so that 
it formed the letter V with the angle upstream, and a trap or pound in the angle. As it happened, it 
was too late for such a net to be effective, Itecause the salmon were all going down at that time, and 
none, or at most a very few, were coming up; but even if the salmon had been coming up, this 
contrivance would not have answered here as a permanency, because the velocity and volume of 
water in the McCloud are such as would ultimately tear any such net away in any place where it could 
otherwise be set to advantage. 
The third method, of sweeping with a seine, worked to perfection. In some of the holes, and 
especially in one large hole near which it is projiosed to ])lace the hatching works next year, any number 
of parent salmon can be caught in the proper season. The only objection to hauling a seine in these 
places is that as the boat taking out the seine turns to come ashore again it is drawn near the brink 
of the rapids, over which it would be dangerous to go in the night. This is an objection, however, 
which skill and nerve can always overcome. 
On the darkest nights the scene on the river bank was exceedingly wild and picturesque. Behind 
us was the tall, dark shadow of Persephone Mountain, and before us at our feet ran the gleaming rapid 
current of the McCloud, Avhile the camp fire, threw an unsteady light upon the forest, mountain, and 
river, suddenly cut off liy the dense darkness beyond. The flaming pitch-pine torches stuck into the 
saudy beach at intervals of 20 feet to guide the boatmen, the dusky forms of a half-dozen Indians 
coiled around the fire, or stoically watching the fishing, the net, the fishing boat, and the struggling 
fish added to the effect, and made a picture which, especially when the woods were set on fire to 
attract the salmon, was one of surpassing interest. It was quite impressive, in the midst of these 
surroundings, to reflect that we were beyonil the white man’s boundary, in the home of the Indian, 
where the bear, the panther, the deer, and the Indian had lived for centuries undisturbed. 
As will be seen by the foregoing, Baird station of the United States Fish Com- 
mission was founded in August, 1872. It was known as McCloud Eiver station until 
1878, when the wi iter, having succeeded in getting a post-office established on the river, 
named the post-office “Baird,” after the distinguished first Fish Commissioner of the 
United States, £Ion. Spencer F. Baird, since which time the station has been called 
Baird station. 
The first plant on McCloud Eiver was a very modest affair. It consisted of a rough- 
board, one-room cabin, 10 by 14 feet, and 24 hatching-troughs in the open air, each 
covered, of course, but with no roof over them. The results of the first year were 
modest enougli, too. The whole net product of the season’s operations was only 30,000 
salmon eggs, costing over $100 i^er 1,000, and when these were shipped across the 
continent to their destination in New Jersey 24,000 were lost in transit, leaving only 
6,000 good eggs to be hatched and iilanted in the tributaries of the Atlantic. Never- 
theless, two imiiortant facts were established by the experiment, compared with the 
value of which the cost of the enterprise was trifling. The experiment established 
the fact that salmon eggs could be obtained in future from the Pacific Coast, and 
probably in large quantities, and also the fact, most important of all at that time, that 
salmon eggs could be shipped alive across the continent. The last fact was the more 
valuable, because up to that time salmon eggs had never beeii subjected to a long- 
journey by rail, and serious doubts had been often expressed by experts as to the 
possibility of getting salmon eggs alive from the Pacific to the Atlantic. 
