172 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
INVESTIGATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO THE SELECTION OF A SITE FOR A 
SALMON HATCHERY IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON. 
Every stream and every point visited was considered with regard to its fitness 
for salmon hatching purposes. The majority of the places are, however, not suited 
at all to such ends, and only such locations as seem to possess most or all the required 
physical and biological conditions need be treated in detail in this report. 
LOM'ER COLUMBIA. 
There are several reasons why a salmon hatchery would be better located on some 
tributary of the Lower Columbia rather than the Upper Columbia or the Snake. The 
supply of salmon would be more certain and the condition of the salmon better. SO' 
far as is known to us, salmon which enter the Columbia in the spring pass by the 
mouths of the lower tributaries and press on higher np the stream. It is probably 
these fish which arrive in the Upper Snake in the vicinity of Glen’s Ferry and Salmon 
Falls ill the latter iiart of August and in September. All observers on the Ujiper 
Snake agree that they arrive at this time and spawn from September 1 on to October 
or November. The fish of the fall run enter the Columbia a short time only before 
they are ready to spawn. So far as we now know, the most of these turn directly into 
streams near the mouth of tlie river and spawn a short time after their entrance into 
the Columbia. 
A second point in favor of such a location for a hatchery would be, perhaps, that 
the young fish when turned into the stream would stand a better chance of reaching 
salt water than they would if they had the whole course of the river to traverse, during 
which time they are exposed to the attacks of all their fresh-water enemies. 
A third point in favor of such a location is the accessibility of various points in 
Washington along the lower course of the Columbia. 
Two streams were selected for examination, the Yakima River and the Cowlitz. 
Both of these rise in the high mountain region of southwestern Washington-, and 
receive their waters largely from the snows of Mould* Rauier, Mount Adams, and 
Mount St. Helen. They run through regions very difierent in their physical charac- 
teristics and in their climate. The Yakima lies to the east of the Cascade range and 
runs down through a dry valley covered with sagebrush and devoid of trees, except 
along the immediate vicinity of the stream itself. The summer season is very hot and 
the winter correspondingly cold. So far as the character of the stream itself is con- 
cerned, it seems admirably adapted for a hatchery. At North Yakima the stream is 
perfectly clear, flows rapidly in an open valley over gravel and sand, and had a tem- 
perature of 64° August 23. It receives an important tributary, the Natchess, 1 
mile above the town. At its mouth this stream is about 75 feet wide with an average 
depth of 2 feet, and with a current of feet per second. The temperature was 57^° 
at 9:30 a. in. Were other conditions favorable, no better stream could be found for a 
hatchery than the Natchess. 
While salmon used to ascend tlie Yakima and its tributaries in large numbers, 
they have greatly fallen off of late years. It is noAV v'ery doubtful whether a hatchery 
located at any point on this stream could depend for spawn on the fish which ascend 
