212 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
This year the station graduated from its experimental stage, and from this time 
forward was recognized as a permanent station of the Fish Commission. 
The next year, 1875, and the subsecpient years previous to 1883, the main features 
of the work of the station having been settled, operations were conducted on the same 
lines as in 1874, the chief desiderata now being to increase the efficiency of the station 
and to reduce the i^ro rata expense of procuring and distributing the eggs. 
The story of the happenings at the station consequently now become less inter- 
esting, but a few important events may be worth mentioning. 
The prominent feature of the season of 1875 was the abundance of spawning salmon 
in the McCloud. They were so thick in the river in July that we counted a hundred 
salmon jumping out of the water in the space of a minute, making 6,000 to be actually 
seen in the air in an hour. ISTearly 9,000,000 eggs were taken, and there were more 
to be had for the taking. The following statistics may be interesting; 
There were iu bulk almost 100 bushels of salmon eggs. To mature these eggs 1,200,000,000 foot- 
pounds of water were pumped from the river by the wheel-pump. It took 160 bushels of moss from 
Mount Shasta and over 800 yards of mosquito-bar to hatch the eggs. When packed, they filled 158 
boxes 2 feet square by 6 inches deep. It took 79 crates, containing 2 boxes each, to hold the eggs. The 
whole lot of eggs sent east weighed, when packed, 20,000 pounds, and the express charges paid Wells, 
Fargo & Co. were about $3,000. 
It was in this year (December 9, 1875) that 280 acres of land on the McCloud, 
including the station of the United States Fish Commission, were set aside by Presi- 
dent Grant as a government reservation. 
The first consignment of salmon eggs was sent across the equator to Australia and 
New Zealand this year. This was a very trying trip for salmon eggs, which can not 
survive a temperature of over 70° or 75° F., and which would hatch out in 10 days’ 
journey at 60° F. The journey to Australia, however, was very successful, and, con- 
sent having been obtained to place the eggs in the ship’s ice room during the voyage 
from San Francisco to Auckland, the eggs arrived in Australia in fine order. 
Some salmon eggs were hatched at the station this year and the young fish planted 
in ti’ibutaries of the Sacramento. 
Among the events of 1876 at the station, the building of the hatehing-house should 
be mentioned, because previous to this year the hatching-troughs had all been under 
a huge tent. This year the tent was dispensed with, and a large and very substantial 
hatching-house was erected. Much progress had been made also iu spawning the 
salmon and in iiacking the eggs for shipment, as is shown by the facts that 1,000,000 
salmon eggs were taken in a single day, September 4, and that we succeeded in jiack- 
iug, for a long journey, 400,000 eggs iu IJ hours. 
As an illustration of the effect upon the salmon-ova market of the operations of 
the United States Fish Commission in taking salmon eggs, I will mention the striking- 
fact that five years ago the United States paid the Canadians $40 per 1,000, in gold, 
for salmon eggs, and now the United States Fish Commission is sending salmon eggs 
from California to the British Colonies of the Pacific for 50 cents per 1,000, being 
a reduction of price in the ratio of 80 to 1.” ^ 
In 1876 the practice was inaugurated of shipifing the eggs for eastern consignees 
all together in a private ice car as far as Chicago, and distributing them from there 
to their various destinations by exj)ress. 
’ United States Fish Commissioner’s Report 1875-76, page 943. 
