BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 207 



seal pups taken from the womb of the mother, and swimming as soon 

 as put in the water. 



I could get plenty of other reliable persons to testify to the fact of 

 the seal pups being plenty in June and July at Cape Flattery, and that 

 they can swim as soon as born. Enough, however, has been given to 

 substantiate that fact, but what remains to be shown is where these fur- 

 seal pups are born. The very short time I was at Neah Bay was not 

 sufficient to ascertain from personal knowledge or observation. I should 

 have remained there through the season, or till the first of July, and 

 have made frequent excursions on the sealing schooners in order to 

 enable me to examine fully the question. 



The supposition of Mr. Elliott, that all the fur seals of the North 

 Pacific go to the Pribloff Islands, is of the same kind of popular assump- 

 tion that all wild geese go north to breed in the Polar seas ; and yet 

 Colonel Goss, the great ornithologist of Kansas, found the nests and 

 eggs of the wild geese in Wyoming Territory, and Mr. Elliott may ascer- 

 tain, if he will, that all the fur seals in the Pacific Ocean north of the 

 Equator do not visit the Pribloff Islands. 



I do not consider this report other than as a preliminary brief, to be 

 followed up and further investigated as occasion may offer. The only 

 point I consider definitely settled is that the pups of the fur seal at 

 Cape Flattery swim as soon as born, or even when taken alive from the 

 womb of the mother seal; and in that respect they essentially differ in 

 their habits from the fur seals of Alaska. This question regarding the 

 natural history of the fur seals of Southern California is one of interest, 

 and I hope it may be fully and thoroughly discussed. 



Port Townsend, Wash., April 29, 1883. 



S2.-REPRODUCTI01V OF CALIFORNIA SALMON IIV THE AQUARIUM 



OF TROCADERO. 



By Messrs. BAVERET-WATTEL and BARTET. 



On the 25th of October, 1878, the aquarium of Trocadero received 

 from the National Society of Acclimation 1,000 eggs of the California 

 salmon (Oncorhynchus quinnat), being a portion of a consignment made 

 by Prof. Spencer F. Baird, Commissioner of Fisheries of the United 

 States. These eggs, which were already at an advanced stage of de- 

 velopment, hatched very soon. The fry were very vigorous, and their 

 growth was quite rapid, at least from the period (January 1, 1879) at 

 which the aquarium was transferred to the municipal administration 

 and intrusted to the care of a superintendent of roads and plantations 



* Sur la reproduction du saumon de Calif ornie, a Vaquarlum du Trocadero; par MM. 

 Raveret-Wattel el Bartet. In Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des Seances de VAcade'mie des 

 Sciences. Tome XCVI, No. 12 (19 Mars, 1883). Paris, 1883, pp. 796-797.— Translated 

 by Marshall McDonald. 



