EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XIX 



ants commenced taking, the spawn, securing about 1,560,000 eggs. These 

 were brought forward in the hatching-house at Bucksport until Febru- 

 ary. During that month and March they were distributed to other 

 hatching-houses in different parts of the country in order there to be 

 fully developed. 



. The experiment in regard to the Buckspbrt salmon-hatching establish- 

 ment was initiated in Kew York on the 17th of April, 1872, by an 

 agreement of several parties to contribute funds to a given amount, 

 the division of the spawn to be made in the same ratio. The subscrip- 

 tions were as follows : 



E. M. Stilwell and H. O. Stanley, jr., for the State of Maine $500 



E. A. Brackett, for the State of Massachusetts 1, 000 



I. H. Barden, for the State of Rhode Island 400 



W. M. Hudson, for the State of Connecticut 1, 000 



W. Clift, for Poquonnoc Fish Company . , 300 



These gentleman kindly consenting, I supplied, from the funds at my 

 disposal, the means to greatly enlarge the scale of operations, and 

 received a i^ro rata share of the eggs. The full history of the entire 

 enterprise connected with the taking of the eggs in 1872, and their 

 distribution in 1873, will be found in Mr. Atkins's report, beginning 

 page 226 of the present volume.* 



11. — PROPAGATION OF THE RHINE SALMON IN 1872. 



The possible contingency of failure in Mr. Atkins's experiment 

 induced me to look to other sources for an additional supply of eggs ; 

 but I was unable to make any arrangement in America for that purpose. 

 In consequence of the scarcity of fish, it was impossible to organize 

 upon other salmon-rivers of Maine the experiment that Mr. Atkins bad 

 begun on the Penobscot ; and the regulations of the Dominion authori- 

 ties in regard to gravid salmon and their eggs are such as to preclude 

 the idea of looking across the borders for assistance. 



The Canadian government has, it is true, a hatching-establishment 

 at Newcastle, on the north side of Lake Ontario, near Toronto, and 

 has occasionall3' allowed a surplus, left after it has supi^lied its own 

 wants, to be sold to parties in the United States. The charge, however, 

 being $40 a thousand, (in gold,) was considered excessive, and the only 

 alternative left was to look to Europe, where the streams emptying into 

 the North Atlantic abound in precisely the same species. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, and after much consideration, I decided to obtain what I 

 wanted from the Rhine, the fish of that river being famous for their 

 excellence and size. I accordingly applied to the secretary of the 

 Deutsche Fischer ei-Verein at Berlin, inquiring whether any eggs could 

 be procured from the government fish-breeding establishment at 

 Hiiningen. Ik) my gratification, I was informed that, on the represen- 



*0u the Salmon of Eastern North America and its Artificial Culture, p. 226. 



