PKOPAGATION OF SALMON ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 
213 
Prof. Baird, in ids report to Congress, speaks as follows in regard to this method: 
After careful consideration, Mr. Stone advised that all the eastern shipineuts of eggs in 1876 should 
he made in hulk as far as Chicago, and that a special car should he secured and properly fitted up, in 
■^'hich the eggs should l>e placed and transferred on an express train in the care of proper messengers. 
This experiment was carried out and proved au entire success, 18 consignees in 13 States receiving 
their supplies in even better condition than usual and at less expense. 
The foreign demand for ova had increased to such an extent by 1877 that during 
that year salmon eggs were sent from the McCloud to Prussia, Germany, the Nether- 
lands, England, France, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The exiierience 
acquired in packing and shipping the eggs enabled us this year to get them to their 
destinations with very slight loss in transit. 
The Lyttleton Times, Christ Church, New Zealand, of November 14, 1877, says: 
The splendid condUioii in which the Wellington consignment of American salmon ova has arrived 
reflects great credit on those in America who had charge of the collecting and packing, which in 
several respects is au inqirovement on the English method. 
The War Depai'tment furnished the station a military guard this year, Avhich 
proved to be a very valuable acquisition. 
The hatching of a large i)ortion of the salmon eggs for the State of California 
continued during this year and subsequent years until 1884. The year 1878 was 
the year of the immense gathering of salmon in the McCloud. Eegarding this 
extraordinary appearance, my report for 1878 reads: 
I have never seen anything like it anywhere, not even on the tributaries of the Columbia. On 
the afternoon of the 15th of August there was a space in the river below the rack about 50 feet wide 
and 80 feet long, where, if a person could have balanced himself, ho could actually have walked any- 
where on the backs of the salmon, they were so thick. I have often heard travelers make this remark 
about salmon in small streams, so I know that it is not an uncommon thing in streams below a certain 
size, but to see salmon so thick as this in a river of so great volume as the McCloud must, I think, 
he a rare sight. About this time I kept a patrol on the bridge every moment, night and day, and 
this precaution, though an expensive one, was well rewarded, for this vast numljer of salmon con- 
tinually striking the bridge with sledge-hammer blows were sure, in the course of time, to displace 
something and effect a passage through to the upper side, and when one did succeed in getting 
through, the others would follow with surprising rapidity, one after another, like a flock of sheep 
going through a break in a fence. This swarm of salmon just alluded to remained at the bridge and 
kept up the attack at one point or another for three days, and then fell back to the pools below, 
where, with occasional renewals of their attacks, they remained until they were caught in the seine. 
The spawning season began the 20th of August, Avith the taking of 30,000 eggs from 7 fish. 
Every haul of the net brought an enormous quantity of salmon. AA^ithout our trying to capture 
many, the net would frequently bring in a thousand at a haul. AA^e found very few ripe fish, how- 
ever, until the 28th of August, when the siiawning season set in in good earnest, and from this date 
to the last day of taking eggs the yield was very large and remarkably regular. 
This leads mo to say that the most extraordinary feature about the fishing season this year was 
that the salmon in the river did not seem to be diminished by our constant seining. AA^e made enor- 
mous hauls with the net every day, spawned a large number of salmon, and gave a large number to 
the Indians for their winter siqiply, but always the next day the spawning salmon seemed to be as 
thick as ever. This abundance of salmon was a daily surprise to everyone. Every day we were regu- 
larly, though agreeably, disapjjointed. It was three weeks before we made any impression on the 
spawners in the river. At last, about the 15th of September, the females with spaAvn began to fall off 
a little, but only a little. AVe had enough eggs by this time, however, and stopj>ed fishing on the 18th 
of September, not because of any scarcity of salmon, but because we did not want any more eggs. AVe 
had in the hatching-house, on the evening of that day, 12,246,000 salmon eggs, according to our record 
count, though without doubt 14,000,000 in reality, as 'our method of counliug purposely left a large 
outside margin for emergencies. Had we continued to fish and take eggs till the close of the fishing 
season we could probably have taken 18,000,000 eggs, and perhaps more. 
