166 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



for even should such accept notice, comply with the law 

 and alter their dams, fish would be debarred from reaching 

 them by the neglected dams below, and there would be 

 expense and trouble for nothing. 



" In pursuing this course I have not obeyed the letter 

 of the law, but I trust to be forgiven when the circum- 

 stances are considered. 



" My surmises in respect to these companies proved to 

 be correct. None, except the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 

 pany, regularly acknowledged even to have received my 

 notification, nor have I heard from any of them since. 



" The Susquehanna Canal Company, owning the dam at 

 Columbia, however, have complied with the law in every 

 respect, as far as I was able to direct them how to do so. 



" On or about the 1st of June I met Mr. B. Andrews 

 Knight, their president, at Columbia, and conferred with 

 him on the subject, and he expressed his willingness to 

 carry out the plan, but suggested some modifications, 

 which I did not like to accept, until I could sustain my- 

 self by other authorities* on the subject, and our meeting 

 was adjourned until in July, that I might be enabled in 

 the mean time to do so. 



" I proceeded immediately to the New England States ; 

 conferred with the chairman of the Fish Committee of the 

 Legislature of Connecticut, the Hon. Mr. Avery, and pre- 

 senting credentials from your Excellency to the Governor 

 of Massachusetts, Governor Bullock, was introduced by the 

 Hon. Oliver Warner, Secretary of the Commonwealth of 



