REPOKT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXUI 



treme probability, that hereafter there may be obtained from American 

 waters all the eggs that can be properly handled, 1 think it will be un- 

 necessary to repeat the experiment. 



The entire cost of the enterprise, including the purchase of the Frei- 

 burg eggs, the freights, the traveling-expenses and salary of Mr. Hessel, 

 and every other outlay, amounted to $1,969.83, or to about $2.62^ per 

 1,000. 



The value of this donation of eggs from the German government is 

 not to be estimated by its worth in money, but is to be appreciated as 

 an evidence of kind feeling on its part toward the United" States, espe- 

 cially as there is a very great demand for salmon-eggs throughout Europe, 

 and as the supply received from Hiiningen is entirely insufficient to meet 

 the calls from Germany alone. 



12. — PROPAGATION OF THE CALIFORNIA SALMON IN 1872. 



The propriety was strongly urged, at the Boston meeting, of sending 

 some experienced fish-culturist to the west coast for the purpose of secur- 

 ing a large amount of spawn of the California salmon. This was the 

 more proper, as the resolution originally introduced into the House by 

 Mr. Eoosevelt looked especially to the securing of a supply of eggs by 

 means of hatching-houses on the Columbia River or elsewhere in the 

 West; and I felt it incumbent to carry out the intention, although the 

 law making the appropriation, as actually passed, contained no restric- 

 tion. 



Although considerable diversity of opinion exists with reference to the 

 California salmon, most of those familiar with both species consider it 

 nearly, if not quite, equal to the eastern salmon, and in some respects 

 superior to it. At any rate, it possesses the advantages ©f existing in 

 great abundance in our country, and of thriving in water, the tempera- 

 ture of which might not admit of the existence of the eastern species. 



Accordingly, at the suggestion of the meeting, Mr. Livingston Stone 

 was engaged to undertake this work, and proceeded to California as 

 soon as he could arrange his affairs for the purpose. The experiment 

 was of course uncertain, in the entire absence of any reliable informa- 

 tion bearing upon the natural history of the specifes. It was not even 

 known at what period they spawned, although Mr. Stone was assured 

 by professed experts, on his arrival in California, that this occurs late 

 in the month of September. This was thought the more probable, since 

 the other salmon usually deposits its eggs in the end of October or the 

 beginning of November. Mr. Stone left on the 1st of August, and 

 arrived in due time in California, where, at my request, he reported 

 to Mr. Throckmorton and the other fish-commissioners of the State, as 

 well as to the president of the California Fish-Culturists' Association. 

 By all of these gentlemen he was received with the utmost courtesy and 

 kindness, and every assistance was rendered him. His instru(;tious au- 

 thorized him to select any point on the Sacramento or the Columbia Kiver 



