BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 239 



Fishery Association in what an incomparable manner our friend, Fred. 

 Mather, has packed all these fish-eggs? 



I shall now proceed to give some details relative to the introduction of 

 different kinds of fish, for all of which I am under deep obligation to 

 Professor Baird. 



I. First of all he sent, in October, 1877, eggs of the California salmon. 

 The United States and Canada have on their Atlantic coasts a salmon 

 which is identical with our Rhine salmon, Sahno salar. Nevertheless 

 millions of eggs of the Sahno quinnat have, at the suggestion of Professor 

 Baird, been gathered and hatched at the Sacramento River, in California. 

 These fish ascend the rivers of the Pacific coast, even as far as the last 

 branches of their mountain tributaries. This salmon is highly prized 

 in America, on account of its greater vitality and more rapid growth 

 than is possessed by the salmon of the Atlantic coast, and attempts 

 have been made to introduce it in all those rivers of the Eastern States 

 which, on account of the warm temperature of their water, do not agree 

 with the Salmo salar. This is not the place to enter fully on the 

 important subject of the conditions of existence of fish as regards the 

 degree of temperature of the water. For the case in hand, it may suf- 

 fice to state that the California salmon can, in the streams of its own 

 country, stand a degree of warmth in the water which would be fatal 

 to our Rhine salmon. 



The first batch of California salmon eggs* arrived about the same time 

 that an important aid was given to the German Fishery Association by an 

 annual grant from the imperial treasury. As soon as this grant had 

 been secured, it became our duty to give some attention to South Ger- 

 many, especially the Danube and its tributaries. It was a tempting 

 thought to introduce into this great river, which possesses no migratory 

 salmon, California salmon, and thus to bring the vast fish food of the 

 Black Sea to the beautiful Danube country changed to delicious salmon. 

 The journey which the salmon would have to make, as far as Sigina- 

 ringen, would not be much longer than that of the California salmon in 

 its home, not to mention the numerous tributaries of the Danube. If 

 the Lower Danube is, during summer, as " hot as hell," as we are told, 

 the California streams, where they flow into the sea, are certainly not 

 much cooler. As the Rhine salmon is not suited to the Danube, it was 

 worth while to attempt the introduction of the California salmon. 



Some five years ago, about 350,000 or 400,000 young California salmon 

 were placed in the Danube and its tributaries from Sigmaringen to 

 Hungary. Quite recently a well developed California salmon has been 

 caught in the river Isar. So far, however, we have not heard that any 

 salmon returniug from the Black Sea has been caught; nor is this to 

 be expected for the present, as this would require from four to five 

 years, as during the first years when these attempts were made there 

 were but few fish at our disposal, and as very probably the strange 



* See detailed account in circulars 1877, p. 200. 



