438 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



out vessels, as well as the wages of seamen, have considerably 

 increased. Furthermore, the disaster of last fall to the arc- 

 tic fleet, which destroyed all but seven out of the forty ves- 

 sels fishing there, has been a serious drawback to success, es- 

 pecially in view of the fact that the remaining seven were 

 obliged to leave in the busiest season to carry the shipwrecked 

 crews to Honolulu. Thus there were brought in only 3070 

 barrels of oil and 27,981 pounds of whalebone, against 57,285 

 barrels of oil and 756,550 pounds of whalebone obtained by 

 the fleet in the previous year. 



The decline in this business is shown by the fact that while 

 in 1852 the arctic fleet consisted of 278 vessels, in 1871 there 

 were but 40 vessels, seven of which only, as already stated, 

 escaped destruction. The whaling fleet of Hudson's Bay 

 and Cumberland Inlet consisted of nine vessels, while there 

 were scattering vessels in other parts of the ocean. The to- 

 tal catch of the year was about 41,000 barrels of sperm-oil, 

 76,000 of whale-oil, and 594,811 pounds of whalebone. In all 

 there were 223 vessels engaged in the fishery, of which 144 

 belonged to New Bedford. It is estimated that only about 

 132 vessels will be employed in 1872. American Chemist, 

 June, 1872,476. 



TREATMENT OF YOUNG SALMON. 



The inexpediency of keeping young salmon for some time 

 after the yolk-bag is absorbed, and then letting them out in a 

 body, is shown by the experiments of Professor A.D. Hager, 

 when Commissioner of Fisheries for the State of Vermont. In 

 December, 1869, this gentleman received 50,000 salmon eggs, 

 and succeeded in hatching fully four fifths of the entire num- 

 ber. After the yolk-bag was absorbed they were fed for 

 about a month, and then placed in certain streams in Ver- 

 mont. They were very active and healthy in the hatching- 

 boxes, and bade fair, when transferred to their proper abode, 

 to answer the objects for which they were reared. They were 

 placed in such localities as seemed most likely to secure them 

 against attacks from other fishes ; but it was found that, 

 very shortly after they were planted, fish of all kinds, even 

 the cyprinidae, gathered from all quarters and fed voraciously 

 upon them. A single dace of two inches in length was tak- 

 en, in two minutes after the salmon were introduced, with 

 four of them in its stomach. 



