REPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXXV 



of salmon, white-fish, aud other useful food-fishes, into the waters of 

 the United States, to which they are best adapted," for the fiscal 

 year of 1872-'73, with a supplementary appropriation of 810,000 for the 

 same year, having special reference to the i^ropagatiou of shad. A 

 further appropriation of $17,500 was subsequently made for the same 

 object during the fiscal year of 1873-74. This action on the part of the 

 United States was the natural culmination of what had already been 

 done by many of the States, accelerated by the action of the American 

 Fish Guitarists' Association. (See page xvi.) 



At an early lieriod the subject of protecting the fishes, if not, 

 indeed, of their actual multiplication, was brought before the legisla- 

 tures of certain States, and various laws were enacted, and commis- 

 sioners appointed to attend to their enforcement. In many instances 

 their efforts were restricted to preventing injurious, unseasonable, aud 

 excessive fishing ; but in others they were also instructed to take such 

 measures as lay in their power to increase the supply. This has already 

 been done to a greater or less extent in the States of Maine, Xew Hamp- 

 shire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 

 Kew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alp^baraa, Ohio, Michigan, Utah, 

 and California, as well as in the Dominion of Canada ; and as year by year 

 the number of States taking action in this matter and extending oper- 

 ations therein is increasing, there is little doubt that before long 

 nearly all the members of the Union will have fish commissioners duly 

 appointed and qualified to act in reference to this important branch of 

 our internal resources. 



A list of the States which to the present time have appointed com- 

 missioners, with the names of the ofiicers themselves, will be found in 

 the accompanying appendix, and also a bibliography of the reports pub- 

 lished by them. While, however, the action of the commissioners of 

 the several States has reference to restricted localities, aud to intro- 

 ducing new varieties, or increasing the supply in ponds, small lakes, and 

 streams, they have not been disinterested enough to take charge of 

 waters which constitute State boundaries, or where the benefits are likely 

 to be shared, if not entirely reaped, by citizens of other States. For 

 this reason some of the more important rivers, and the entire system of 

 the great lakes, the best subjects for the experiment, have been entirely 

 neglected; and as these constitute the common waters of the United 

 States, it was thought desirable for Congress to take charge of them, 

 and to do whatever was possible within a moderate cost to increase the 

 supply of food to be derived from them. Thus, it was impossible to 

 S3care State action, in stocking the Mississippi with the anadromous 

 fishes, or those that run up from the ocean to .the headwaters of 

 the streams to spawn, the shad for instance, which it is believed 

 can be made as abundant in that river and its tributaries as it now 

 is in any other waters. Wherever the young fish may be introduced, 

 after reaching a certain size they will descend to the Gulf of Mexico, 

 returning in the course of three or four years, if permitted, to the spot 



