88 
REPORT OF BOARD OF FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONERS. 
dam of the Siskiyou Electric Power Company, four miles from Yreka, 
Siskiyou County, as the place was favorable for a good take of eggs 
whenever there was a normal flow of water in the river, but, like all 
streams, when there is a flood it makes it difficult to operate a trap. 
The object of this station was to secure eggs from wild fish to improve 
the stock of fish in the ponds, both in the Eastern States and at Sisson 
Hatchery. On account of the season being late and the stream unusu¬ 
ally high, only a small lot were taken. Three hundred and seven thou¬ 
sand of the eggs were sent to Eastern hatcheries by the Federal Bureau 
of Fisheries. In the spring of 1908 Shovel Creek Station of the Cali¬ 
fornia Fish Commission, an auxiliary of the Sisson Hatchery since 
1890, was opened for the purpose of collecting rainbow trout eggs. 
This station had not been in operation for several years, as we had as 
many eggs from the ponds as our time and funds would allow us to 
collect and distribute. But with the prospects of a distributing car that 
the last legislature had provided for, we determined to increase our 
output by operating Shovel Creek Station. 
We collected 1,350,000 rainbow eggs. Ten per cent of these were 
hatched at Shovel Creek Station and distributed in the creek above the 
hatchery. This was done to keep up the supply of fish in this, one 
of the finest streams for large spawning fish on the coast. Two hundred 
and fifty thousand eggs were sent to Germany at the request of the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries, and the remainder, 965,000, less the 
loss in eyeing, were shipped to Sisson. We again operated on the 
Shasta river in the winter and spring of 1908, and collected 836,000 
eggs. The percentage of fertilization was small, owing to certain con¬ 
ditions that could not be avoided at the time. The Bureau of Fisheries 
took their share, 300,000, and shipped them to their different hatch¬ 
eries on this coast and in the East. Since the distributing car was 
put in use this summer the fry have been held longer, and consequently 
they were larger than usual this season. During the latter part of the 
shipping season the fry averaged from 2 \ to 3-| inches in length. This 
is as large as they can be successfully handled. The car greatly facili¬ 
tated the work. It carried the fish in better condition than the old 
way of using dippers and cans, and allowed us to distribute a great 
many more fish than could have been done under the old system. 
We can now increase our pond system and distribute more fry each 
season, so that every section of the State can be supplied. The pond 
fish have thrived and furnished the hatcheries with good eggs, cheaper 
than they could be collected from wild fish. By getting the eggs from 
the pond fish, we are insured of a never-failing supply of eggs without 
