BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 371 



bus) . Young fish Lave been raised from these eggs, and are carefully nursed 

 in ponds. As all kinds of salmon are voracious fish of prey, and as the 

 above-mentioned American salmon are no better in this respect than 

 those of Germany, the economical result of these experiments, even if 

 successful, which so far cannot be said of any of them, cannot be con- 

 sidered as very great. 



As regards the results of the placing in open waters of the young fry of 

 salmon and of other fish of this kind, as well as of Coregonus, there are, 

 with the exception of a few trout brooks of which it can be proved that 

 after tbe placing in them of young fry there was a temporary increase of 

 trout, no data to show that the number of fish have actually increased iu 

 the waters stocked. The salmon fisheries iu the Weser and the Elbe seem 

 to have improved somewhat; but this may easily be explained by the 

 fact that in Germany, since 1874, the salmon is strictly protected during 

 the spawning season. It is true that Max von dem Borne has spoken 

 of numerous successes, but his assertions have frequently been clothed 

 in very indefinite terms, and are often emphatically contradicted by 

 other authors, and are consequently open to severe criticism. This ap- 

 plies, for instance, to his statement that the number of salmon in tbe 

 Bhine and iu the Oder had increased considerably after they had begun 

 to place annually large quantities of young salmon fry in these rivers 

 and their tributaries. As regards the Bhine he bases his assertion 

 principally on some data relative to the quantities of salmon brought 

 to the market of the Kraliugsche Veer in Holland during the years 1870- 

 1880, communicated by firm of Ten Houten & De Baadt. It is said that 

 the number of salmon received at the above place was 21,687 in 1870, 

 and 41,736 in 1880. It should be observed, however, (I), that the num- 

 mer of salmon was largest in 1873 and 1874, when the association began 

 its activity, viz, 58*384 and 77,070 respectively, and that it gradually 

 decreased to 38,914 in 1879, and to 41, 736 in 1880; (2), that the supply of 

 one kind of fisb in a market, which is not the only one where such fish 

 are sold, depends on so many different circumstances, that an increase 

 or decrease of this supply cannot, even with any degree of probability, 

 be considered as an indication of the greater or less success of the fish- 

 eries. It must also be taken into consideration that all along the upper 

 Bhine, especially in the neighborhood of Basle, there are heard numer- 

 ous and loud complaints that the salmon fisheries in this part of the 

 Bhine have decreased. As regards the lower Bhine, similar complaints 

 have been published in the journals, for instance from the neighborhood 

 of Wesel. In the Deutsche Fischerei-Zeitung, ISTo. 28, 1881, p. 230, L. 

 Prenger & Son say in a letter from Wesel, with regard to the salmon 

 fisheries in the Bhine : " People both on the Upper and Lower Bhine com- 

 plain in the most piteous manner of the poor fisheries;" and in the same 

 journal, No. 42, 1882, October 17, \i. 336, it says literally in a communi- 

 cation from Basle : " The result of the salmon fisheries at our fishing- sta- 

 tions during the last four years is not more than 10 per cent, of the results 



