276 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



distribute annually in the Saint Oroix a goodly number of young salmon, 

 wliich, together Avith the contributions of the Maine commissioners, 

 will soon make this fish again abundant. Alewiv< s are very abundant, 

 and apparently increasing every year. Shad that were once plenty 

 have entirely disappeared. I very much wish that the river could be re- 

 stocked with this valuable fish ; possibly you could kindly assist us in this. 

 Landlocked salmon (here so called) are, I think, nearly or quite as plenty 

 at Grand Lake Stream as they were ten years ago ; this, I think, is almost 

 entirely due to the hatchery under the charge of Mr. Atkins; the tan- 

 nery at the head of the stream having entirely destroyed their natural 

 spawning beds, the deposit of hair and other refuse being in some 

 places inches deep. The twenty-five per cent, of all fish hatched, which 

 are honestly returned to our river, is, I think, each year more than we 

 would get by the natural process, under present circumstances, in ten 

 years. 



FEANK TODD. 



Saint Stephen, N. B., Dominion of Canada. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, 



U. 8. Commissioner Fish and Fisheries : 



Sir : I think it has been clearly demonstrated in this Dominion that, 

 by artificial propagation and a fair amount of protection, all natural 

 salmon rivers may be kept thoroughly stocked with this fish, and 

 riv^ers that have been depleted, through any cause, brought back to 

 their former excellence. 



I would instance the river Eestigouche in sui^port of the above state- 

 ment. 



This river, which emjities into the Bay of Chaleur, is now, and always 

 has been, the foremost salmon river in New Brunswick, both as to size 

 and number of fish. It has not a dam or obstruction to the free pas- 

 sage of fish from its mouth to its source, yet up to 1868 and 1869 the num- 

 bers of salmon had constantly decreased. This, no doubt, was occa- 

 sioned by excessive netting at the mouth, and spearing the fish during 

 the summer in the pools; natural production was not able to keep pace 

 with this waste. In the year 1868 the number of salmon was so small 

 that the total catch hy anglers was only 20 salmon, and the commer- 

 cial yield only 37,000 pounds. 



At about this date, the first salmon hatchery of the Dominion was built 

 upon this river and a better system of protection inaugurated; every 

 year since some hundreds of thousands of young salmon have been 

 hatched and i)laced in these waters, and the result has been, that in 1878 

 one angler alone (out of hundreds that were fishing the river) in sixteen 

 days killed by his own rod eighty salmon, seventy-five of which aver- 

 aged over twenty-six pounds each; while at the same time the numbers 

 that were being taken by the net fishermen below, for commercial pur- 

 poses, were beyond precedent, amounting in that one division alone 



