The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-10-13
SALMON HATcHING ON THE STU
sLAw RIVER.

Special to the Astorian.
Florence. october 10-At the request
Of Congressman Hermann the United
States commissioner Of fish and fisher
les lately directed Prof. s. T. Meek and
A. B. Alexander to visit the salmon
Matching station near the head Of tide
on the SiusIaw river, and to determine
as far as possible the advisability OF
operating IT, These gentlemen made
their visit abou the middle Of Septem-
Der. They found the building which
was built by the state some four years
ago in good condition. and fairly well
supplied with apparatus needed for the
Matching Of salmon eggs. The only diff
ficulty which presented itself was the
securing Of eggs. It was quite evident
that they could not be secured in suffi-
cient numbers from fishes taken at
spawning time near the head Of the
tide.
The United States commission had
tried this method some two years ago
and demonstrated that 1t was not prac-
ticable. The only plan which seemed
worth considering was to get the Chin
ooks from a seine operated about fif-
teen miles below the hatchery, put them
in large fir boxes. float them TO the sta
tIon on food tide, and retain them in
the boxes until ripe. The Chinooks are
timid FISH. and apparently abhor cap
Itiyity. and there was much doubt as tC
whether they could be retained in the
live boxes until ripe. Mr.. Lewis f
Bean, whose parents donated the
ground for the hatchery, tried this ex-
pertinent on a small scale last year, and
met with success. The firms of Meyer
& Kyle, and Elmore & Sanborn, now
operating canneries on the river, took
much interest in this experiment and
gave it great deal of personal atten-
ton; so confident were these men that
fishes could be gotten and retained the
required length of time in the live boxes
that liiSS o4lFlSu ~ utndNe luS ASn II
the commission would give the method
a fair trial. The entire proposition
seemed so encouraging to the commits
sion that Prof. Meek was asked to re-
turn to the Siuslaw, carry on the exper-
iment. and make a careful study Of II
in all its phases. At the present time
about two hundred Chinook salmon
have been safely fioated in four live
boxes to the head of the tide and are
doing very we'll Other boxes are being
built. and other Chinooks and silver
sides will be secured in the same way.
Messrs Christensen & Peterson, who
operate the seine have offered material
assistance in securing more fishes, and
there is now an excellent prospect that
upwards of a million Chinook eggs will
be secured for the hatchery this year be-
sides a large number of silver salmon
eggs.
The fishermen along the river are
very much pleased at the prospect of
having the hatchery operated and show
their interest by offering such assist
ance as they are able to render To
the liberality of Meyer & Kyle, and FL
more s. Sanborn the success of this
years work will be largely due
The Chinook run this year has been
fairly good, but it is about over, The
big run Of silverside salmon" has not
yet entered the river, although it has
been daily expected for the past ten
days. The fishermen are somewhat
grieved over the fact that this run,
though apparently later each season, is
very much later this season than usual.
The present indications are that a large
portion of the silversides salmon run
will not enter the river until after No
1st. This will be great hard
ship on the fishermen, as the fishing
season is their only harvest. 1t is es-
pecially hard on the Siuslaw fishermen
from the fact that this river is not IA
vored with a spring run of Chinooks
10 oAN NshSA NOoSN AlNSASs NAliSu nave
their sources in the snow capped peaks
Of the Cascades.
The run of silversides in the Siuslaw
river is larger and of more Importance
than that of the Chinooks, and judg-
ing from the run in the past years and
from the present situation the larger
part of the big run will be in the
river during November and after the
fishing season has closed.