364 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Califoknia salmon reared in Wisconsin. — The first California 

 salmou put into Geneva Lake were deposited in April, 187G. There 

 were 25,000 sent to rae from the United States hatchery in Michigan. 

 Later in the season the Wisconsin commission put in 15,000 more. 

 There were about twenty taken last summer weighing from 2 to 4 

 pounds each. This summer I had heard of only four or five having 

 been taken, the largest of which weighed 3^ pounds, so that I was 

 hardly i)repared for so large a fish. He was 30 inches long, 18 round, 

 and weighed 12| pounds. It was a male fish, so of course I cannot 

 report on the development of the ovaries. The hooks in maw and jaw 

 were well developed, and as this is about the spawning season of the 

 California salmon I feel convinced that the pair were looking about 

 for a spawning idace. The flavor of the salmon was most excel- 

 lent. The meat was of a light pink color, but not as dark as the native 

 California salmou we find in the markets. In other respects it was 

 quite as good. It was taken by a boy while trolling with a spoon hook 

 near the shore, in about 15 feet of water. An hour after, Mr. William 

 Welsher, the superintendent of the hatchery and ponds, saw another 

 one, about the same size, in the locality where the first one was hooked. 

 From this circumstance I infer that they had paired and had come up 

 from the deep water to look for a spawning ground or for a way ou.t of 

 the lake. They were near the mouth of a small stream which empties 

 into the lake, and which has its source about one mile back. — X. K. Fair- 

 banks, Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, August 5, 1880. 



We have taken another California salmon in Geneva Lake, or rather 

 in the stream emptying into it. 



On Sunday, Sept. 19th, Mr. W. A. Welsher went to the brook to catch 

 some minnows for l)ait, and heard a splashing in the brook under a 

 bunch of willows. Supposing it to be a mink or musk-rat, he did not at 

 once go to the spot, but, as the commotion continued, he took an ob- 

 servation, and to his surprise discovered seven or eight large salmon. 

 He had no means of capturing them at the time, but the next day went 

 with a net and propagation-pans, expecting to take both male and 

 female fish. He only found one — a fine female weighing 8^ pounds and 

 full of ripe eggs. 



These fish were spawning, and of course were up this small brook 

 for no other i)urpose. It is a small stream, only 1 mile from the springs 

 which feed it to the lake, but has water enough for them to get up 

 without trouble, and has also a good many holes and hiding-places. — 

 Geneva Lake, Wisconsin, September 23, 18-0. 



Trout-breeding. — I commenced the first of last December to catch 

 trout from the spawning beds by fishing through the ice with a beard- 

 less hook. I got 30,348 eggs, of which I hatched 95 per cent or more. 

 I had on one screen 2,300 eggs, and I kept account of the bad ones. I 

 took out 92 bad eggs, and I think it was about the average. I have 



