BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 351 



lOS.-SABilTIOi'V IIV TlIK UVUSOIV KIVER. 



By A. N. CIIEIVEY. 



Ever siuce the beginning of artificial fisli-ciiltarc there has been con- 

 siderable discussion as t3 whether the Hudson ever was a natural sal- 

 mon river, where the salmon regularly came from the sea for the pur- 

 pose of spawning, and several attemi)ts have been made to make its 

 headwaters a si^awning-ground for salmon at the present. When Henry 

 Hudson, in 1609, sailed up the river he reported a " goodly store of sal- 

 mon"; but with the exception of this statement, there is now no evi- 

 dence that salmon ever ascended this river, and the few occasional 

 fish that have been found were probably stragglers from the Connecti- 

 cut. In fact, it must have been as impossible three centuries ago for 

 salmon to reach the headwaters of the Hudson for the purpose of spawn- 

 ing as it is now — perhaps more so, owing to the absence of modern fish- 

 ways. Cohoes Falls, near the mouth of the Mohawk, and Baker's Falls, 

 at the great bend of the Hudson just below Glens Falls, must have 

 kept the fish away from their suitable breeding-grounds. It is possible, 

 of course, that salmon may have spawned in some of the small tribu- 

 taries, or in the river itself below Baker's Falls ; for it is stated on good 

 authority that salmon spawn in the Eestigouche Eiver, of Canada, 

 within a few miles of tide-water, and some instances are related of their 

 spawning in brackish water at the head of the tide; but this is not at 

 all likely, nor would such spawning sufiice to keep the river stocked. 



It is well known that salmon, in order to reach suitable spawning- 

 grounds, will ascend falls of surprising height and surmount obstacles 

 that would turn back any other fish. Some time ago the authorities in 

 Norway caused some experiments to be made to ascertain the limit of 

 the leaping powers of salmon. It was found that some fish jumped 

 over a vertical barrier of 16 feet, while the average jump was 12 feet. 



Between 1873 and 1876 the New York fish commission planted 156,000 

 California salmon fry {Salmo quinnat) in the headwaters of the Hudson, 

 and nearly 100,000 on Long Island. Few, if any, of these fish were ever 

 afterwards heard from ; and it is supposed that the water of the rivers 

 of the Atlantic coast south of 41 degrees of latitude is too warm for this 

 species from the Pacific slope. In 1880 the State of Vermont made a 

 small plant of Atlantic salmon fry {Salmo solar) in the Battenkill, which 

 flows from Vermont into the Hudson north of Troy, and this planting- 

 may account for the salmon taken in the Hudson in 1884. Natural ob- 

 structions, however, prevent these salmon from returning to the place 

 where they were planted. 



It was determined by the U. S. Fish Commission a few years ago, 

 when the obstacles that had previously stood in the way of the ascent 



