392 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



the waters, and a consideration of the oyster-beds, lobsters, 

 etc. According to Mr. Whitcher, the product of the fisheries 

 generally was less than that in 1874, this being especially 

 true of the salmon and lobster. The total value of the produc- 

 tion for 1875 was $10,347,886 ; the value of the exports during 

 the fiscal year was |134,753. Notwithstanding this decrease, 

 the Commissioner expresses himself as satisfied with the re- 

 sult, the fishing population having enjoyed prosperity, with 

 a good prospect of increased yields in the future. According 

 to the re2)ort, the Dominion government has now in oper- 

 ation seven establishments for the artificial propagation of 

 fish. In addition to those at Newcastle, Gaspe, Restigouche, 

 and Miramichi, three others have been erected; at Sandwich 

 on the Detroit River, at Tadousac on the Saguenay, and at 

 Bedford on the Sackville River, not far from Halifax. The 

 total number of young salmon distributed from the hatching 

 of 1874 was 1,700,000, and a much larger number is hoped 

 for hereafter. 



EEPORT OF THE FISH COMMISSIONERS OF MAINE. 



The Fish Commissioners of Maine have published their re- 

 port for 1875, being their ninth annual report, and, as might 

 have been expected, much space is occupied therein by the 

 subject of the salmon and land-locked salmon, in regard to 

 which they have made the usual progress by means of the 

 hatching establishments at Bucksport, Grand Lake Stream, 

 and elsewhere. They refer to the remarkable scarcity of salm- 

 on on the coast during the year 1875, a condition prevailing 

 both in the United States and throuo-liout the British Prov- 

 inces, and they suggest that the much greater abundance dur- 

 ing the year before indicates something similar to what we see 

 in certain fruit crops, which usually show a regular period 

 of abundance and scarcity in successive years. They say 

 that very possibly the salmon have a two years' period of 

 return to their native waters for the purpose of spawning, 

 instead of one a suggestion heretofore made by good ob- 

 servers. 



Of the fry of the salmon, 700,000 were distributed, 100,000 

 being those of the California species. The growing interest 

 in the land-locked salmon has also been responded to by the 

 Maine Commissioners. During the past year many eggs 



