OS, 



28 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



and the southeast coast of Sweden, as the iron hooks used in those 

 localities and taken from salmon caught in Finnish waters prove con- 

 clusively. Since it is well known that the salmon as a rule return, for the 

 purpose of spawning, to the rivers which they left as young fry, we are 

 justified in supposing that the largely increased number of salmon and 

 young salmon which during recent years have visited the coasts of Born- 

 holm, Pomerauia, and Prussia, are principally, and perhaps exclusively, 

 fish which have been hatched in the salmon rivers of Finland and Northern 

 Sweden. It is only about twelve or fourteen years that the salmon have 

 been protected in the Finnish rivers, and during this period the salmon- 

 fisheries in the Southern Baltic have increased aud improved to a very 

 noticeable degree. But if Finland (and also Sweden) is to enjoy, to a 

 greater degree than has hitherto been the case, the fruits of protecting 

 the salmon in the rivers of Finland during the spawning period, the 

 catching of young salmon near Bornholm and on the coasts of North 

 Germany ought to be stopped as soon as possible. This object would 

 be greatly furthered if some international arrangement on this snbject 

 could be arrived at between all the Baltic States. 



By marking salmon it has been found in England and Scotland that 

 the various kinds of salmon during their stay in the sea prefer to visit 

 certain portions of the coast in order to seek their food. Thus, accord- 

 ing to Frank Buckland, the coast of Norfolk, especially near Yarmouth, 

 is said to be the favorite place of the bull-trout [Sahno eriox], which is 

 found in large numbers in some of the English and Scotch rivers. David 

 Milne-Home, who possesses the most thorough knowledge of every- 

 thing relating to the salmon-fisheries in Scotland, and more especially in 

 the river Tweed, states, as an instance of how soon a fish of the salmon 

 kind can change its feeding-ground, that a bull trout which, on March 

 29, 1852, had been marked in the Tweed with a silver thread bearing 

 an inscription, was caught near Yarmouth on April 2, of the same year, 

 after having traveled almost 300 miles in four days. Another fish was 

 marked in the Tweed on March 10, 1880, and was caught near Yar- 

 mouth on May 5, 1880, after a journey of fifty-five days. As the 

 salmon {Sahno salar), according to the experience gained in Scotland, is 

 said, during its visits to the sea in seeking food, to prefer places where 

 there is a sandy bottom, and as on the German coast between Memel and 

 Rugen, near Bornholm, and on the southeastern coast of Sweden, the 

 bottom of the sea is sandy, and as all the other conditions for a success- 

 ful production of salmon food are found there, the cause of the regular 

 visits of our salmon to these coasts must be found in these circumstances. 

 The regular migrations which the salmon undertake in spring to the 

 rivers emptying into the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland are 

 made exclusively for the purpose of spawning. 



Helsingfors, Finland, Eussia, February 6, 1884. 



