PROPAGATION OF SALMON ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 
211 
rods above the new hatching-house site and was continued for 200 feet, when it was abandoned, the 
obstacles in the way of its successful i)rosecution making it practically useless. 
We were now left without any water supply whatever. There were salmon in abundance at our 
very feet, but no water to hatch the eggs with. In this emergency the idea of raising water from the 
river itself by a wheel was suggested and immediately put into practice. From this time till it was 
finished, the wheel was the central object of interest at the camp. So much depended upon it and its 
successful working, and the project was so novel and unprecedented, that the x'rogress of the work on 
it was watched with the greatest solicitude, and at last, when it was completed and actually revolved 
and lifted its 6,000 gallons of water an hour higher than our heads and xioured it down the flume into 
the hatching-troughs, our relief and enthusiasm were unbounded. I celebrated the occasion by raising 
at sunset a large American flag over the cainx). 
The next year, 1874, the problems of procuring the salmon eggs and sending them 
to the Atlantic having been solved, the question on hand was how to obtain as many 
eggs as tlie conditions rendered possible. The solution of this question was very 
nearly reached this year, 5,000,000 eggs being secured. 
The principal events of this year at the station were the introduction throughout 
the whole hatching-house of the deep trays with the Williamson troughs, and the 
building of a salmon-proof rack entirely across McCloud River, just opposite the 
station, in order to hold tlie breeding salmon in the vicinity of the seining-ground 
by iireventing them from going any farther up the river, their instinct, of course, 
keeping them from going down the river. Both these devices worked admirably. 
1 will quote from the Commissioner’s report for 1872-73: 
The deex> trays answered their xmrpose to perfection. The water, entering from the bottom and 
finding its exit from above the eggs, necessarily permeated all of them continually. It also kex^t the 
eggs suspended to a certain degree in the water, so that the underlying tiers were x^artly relieved of 
the weight of those above them. At first we placed the eggs in these trays 8 layers deex^, but as the 
season progressed the deep trays worked so well that the layers were increased to 12, and, so far as 
could be learned, without detriment to the eggs. 
I am free to say that this combination of deep wire-netting trays with the Williamson x^lan of 
hatching-troughs is the best apparatus for maturing salmon eggs that I have yet seen. It is simple, 
compact, and effective. By means of it we hatched 18,000 eggs to the suxierficial foot of hatching- 
troughs without the least difficulty; so that in one length of our hatohing-trouglis of 80 feet we 
matured 1,500,000 salmon eggs. 
The rack just mentioued made the best kind of inclosure for the breeding salmon, 
enabling us to dispense with all the pens and pounds, etc., which caused so much 
trouble and disappointment the previous year. 
The report continues : 
When the salmon had made an unsuccessful assault upon the dam, they fell back into the hole at 
the foot of the rapids, which formed the lower fishing-ground. Here they werexiractically in as secure 
confinement as if they had been caught and placed in a pound, for the dam xjreveuted them from going 
upstream, and their irrepressible instinct to ascend the river prevented them from going down. Every 
foot of this hole was swex)t by the seine. No better corral or inolosure for confining the fish could be 
constructed. Here they had their natural habitat and surroundings, the whole volume of McCloud 
River for a water-sux^ply, and nothing whatever to prevent them from keeping healthy and in first-rate 
condition. It was the best xiossible kind of a xmund for them. Last year they lashed themselves to 
pieces trying to escape from their artificial pens. This year they kept as fresh and well as could be 
wished. They accumulated in this hole by thousands. When any were wanted, it was only neces- 
sary to extend the net around them and haul them in. Once or twice no less than 15,000 pounds of 
salmon must have been inclosed in the net. They formed a solid mass, reaching several yards from 
the shore, and filling the net 2 or 3 feet deep. If I should say 20,000 pounds, I do not think it would 
be exaggerating. 
