210 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
of providing a suitable place of conflnement ; but what was our surprise and disappointment when, 
on examining the box a few days later, we found the salmon all dead. The close confinement had 
really prevented them from injuring themselves as before by jumping, but at the same time had acted 
so unfavorably in other ways as to cause their death. 
The prospect now looked very discouraging. We could catch salmon enough for our purpose, 
but we could not keep them alive. They were, in fact, dying as fast as we caught them. It now 
occurred to us that an open pond, suijplied by a good stream of river water, would obviate the diffi- 
culties presented, as the fish, having nothing but dry land to jump onto, would give up jumping 
and remain quiet. I accordingly put on a force of Indians at once, and in a few days had a pond of 
considerable size ready, and supplied by a stream of water taken j'rom the Hume which conveyed the 
river water from the wheel to the hatching-house. A large number of salmon were then put in here, 
and we felt decidedly encouraged. But now a new difficulty presented itself, viz, the fish would not 
ripen in the pond. Whether it was that the roiling of the pond by their juovements when frightened 
prevented the eggs and milt from maturing, or whether the friction produced by their incessant 
jumping in the river is one of the necessary conditions of their ripening, I do not know, but it is 
certain that neither eggs nor milt matured in the pond, and I think we did not take a single ripe egg 
or any first-rate milt from one of the fish there confined. My next move was to build a close board floor 
over the staked iuclosures in the river, almost touching the surface of the water. This prevented the 
fish from wearing themselves out by jumping and did not seem to interfere with their ripening, but 
it did not keep them wholly from dying. At last I became convinced, and am still of the opinion, that 
the Sacramento spawning salmon can not be kept alive in any inclosure on a small scale. There 
seemed now to be but one alternative left, and that was to let those die that were confined, and to 
keep on fishing and select such fish as we could use as we went along. This we did, and fortunately 
there were so many fish running in the river that we were able, even after this, to obtain enough to 
furnish the requisite supply of eggs. 
Two million salmon eggs were taken this season on the McCloud, most of which were 
shipped across the continent. It was not a large number, but, as in 1872, it demon- 
strated two important facts: one was the certainty that large numbers of eggs could 
be obtained here, the other that a large percentage of the eggs could be shii)ped 
across the continent alive and in good condition. Previous to the operations of this 
year it was not known positively that great quantities of salmon eggs could be pro- 
cured on this coast, nor was it by any means thoroughly established that most of the 
eggs could make the journey across the continent safely. When this season was over? 
however, it was known that an immense number of salmon eggs could be obtained on 
this coast, and also that a great majority of them could be sent alive to the Atlantic. 
I will now quote from the report of the United States Fish Commissioner for 
1873-74, relative to some of the difficulties encountered and the means employed: 
In tbe season of 1872 1 used water for hatching from a spring brook which emptied into the McCloud 
a short distance above tbe site of our present camp, and which had its source about a mile to the west 
of the river. This brook gave us no end of trouble, on account of its unsuitableness to its purj^ose. Its 
average flow in the morning was a little over 1,000 gallons an hour, but at night, after a very hot day, 
it woiBd shrink to 250 gallons. It would also heat up some days to a very dangerous temperature; 
then, again, the hogs, which here run in the woods in a semi-wfild state, would w, allow in it and make 
it so roily that all attempts to filter it clean wore fruitless; and last, but not least, there was present 
in the water all the time a vegetable growth, resembling our eastern Con ferva, yet somewhat dissimilar 
to it, that no device of ours could cleanse the water of. It seemed to be ubiquitous, and gave a great 
deal of trouble. 
These combined disadvantages of the water supply of 1872 decided me to abandon it this season 
and to look elsewhere for water. But here a new difficulty arose. There was no other spring or brook 
of any magnitude witbin several miles. To go that distance to locate would either destroy our stage 
communication or take irs away from the river. There was but one alternative left, and that was 
to take the water supply from the McCloud. To accomplish this, a ditch was commenced about 50 
