434 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



In conclusion, I would state that I consider this attempt at trans- 

 porting the spawn and planting the young of the Salmo quinnat in our 

 eastern waters a perfect success. With the exception of lot No. 1, which 

 were literally cooked by the high temperature to which they were ex- 

 posed, fully 75 per cent, were hatched and reared, a proportion rarely 

 exceeded, if the truth be told, by our most successful fish-culturists, 

 with spawn of their own impregnation. From experiments with various 

 kinds of fishes, I would place their relative vitality as follows: 



1st. Salmo quinnat. 



2d. Salmo cov finis. 

 1 3d. Salmo salar. 



4th. Salmo fontinalis. 



I might state that the number of fishes on hand was at first very 

 much underestimated. As an example ; one trough, containing 24 square 

 feet of surface, was supposed to contain about 20,000 fishes. When 

 placed in cans for transportation, the number was found to be more 

 than double the estimate. 



The method of counting was as follows : Fifty fishes were repeatedly 

 counted and placed in a very small gauze net until the eye was familiar 

 with their aggregate bulk ; netfuls were then taken and counted ; this 

 was repeated until the number taken could be accurately estimated ; in 

 fact, it is believed that the total is rather below than above the true 

 number. 



All of which is respectfully submitted. 



Prof. S. F. Baird, 



United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. 



B— HATCHING AND DISTRIBUTION OF CALIFORNIA SAL- 

 MON IN TRIBUTARIES OF GREAT SALT LAKE. 



By A. P. Rockwood, Superintendent of Fisheries in Utah Territory. 



Sir : I have this day received communication from Mr. Webber, 

 superintendent of your fish-ponds in Charlestown, N. H., dated Novem- 

 ber 19, 1873. He purports to write at the request of Professor Baird, 

 asking statistics in regard to salmon-eggs forwarded me from Cali- 

 fornia. I received them at the junction of the Utah Central and Cen- 

 tral Pacific Railways, on the 12th of October ; placed them in my hatch- 

 ing-troughs the same evening ; they were, generally, in good order. I 

 found about twelve hundred bad eggs out of the forty thousand. Each 

 day, for three weeks, the eggs were examined, and the bad ones thrown 

 out, which amounted to .about seventy-five per day on an average ; on 

 the third day I found two dead and the first fish hatched ; on the seventh 

 day several more were hatched ; at the expiration of twenty days most 

 of the hatching was through with. My hatching-troughs were only cal- 

 culated for 30,000 ; the putting-in of 40,000 covered the" nests so thick 

 that the bottom could not be seen. 



