ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 227 



and as regards salmon in most cases, the fislies^ themselves were want- 

 ing, having been ntterl^^ exterminated, and not to be had again without 

 bringing a new stock from abroad. Nor would it do to bring adult 

 salmon and place them in the rivers to be restocked, for they could not 

 be relied upon to remain and breed there. If, however, the salmon 

 should be reared there from infancy they would return when grown to 

 lay their eggs in the same streams. To get the young fish the most 

 feasible mode was to bring the spawn and hatch them. One of the very 

 first things the commissioners did, therefore, w'as to cast about them for 

 a supply of spawn. 



2. — OPERATIONS IN 1866. 



In the fall of 1866 the commissioners of fisheries of the State of New 

 Hampshire dispatched Dr. W. W. Fletcher, of Concord, to New Bruns- 

 wick, to obtain salmon-spawn for use in stocking the Merrimac River. 

 He obtained permission Irom the government of the province to take 

 salmon for his purpovse at the spawning season on the Miramichi River, 

 and succeeded in taking with the spear salmon enough to yield about 

 70,000 eggs. Great uucertaiuty existing as to the best mode of packing 

 eggs for transportation, Dr. Fletcher packed his in several modes. Some 

 fifteen or twenty thousand were packed in moss in champagne-baskets, 

 and these alone were transported to New Hampshire in safety. A small 

 part of them, two or three hundred, were hatched in a spring near Con. 

 cord, w here their development could be observed, and 90 per cent, of 

 them hatched. The remainder of the lot was planted at once in arti- 

 flcially.-i)repared beds in suitable gravelly rapids in the Pemigewassetfc 

 River, a tributary of the Merrimac, where they were left to take their 

 chancfes of hatching. The following autumn Dr. Fletcher discovered 

 several young salmon (parrs) in that vicinity, a satisfactory proof that a 

 certain degree of success attended the hatching of the eggs. 



3. — OPERATIONS IN 1867. 



This year Dr. Fletcher was again dispatched by the New Hampshire 

 commissioners to the Miramichi River, and obtained again about 70,000 

 salmon-eggs, nearly all of which were transported in safety to New 

 Hampshire. About half of these were i)laced in charge of Livingston 

 Stone, of Charlestown, N. H., to be hatched out for the benefit of the 

 Connecticut River; the other half were sent to Robinson and Hoyt, at 

 Meredith, N. H., to be hatched out for the Merrimac. About 5,000 were 

 hatched in each place,* t the remainder failing bj" reason of non-fecunda- 

 tion.* Of the fry hatched at Charlestown nearly all were lost during the 

 hot days of July, 1868.* Of those hatched at Meredith but very few 

 were lost, and the following spring they were turned into the Pemige- 

 wassett, a few miles above Livermore Falls.! 



'Report of the [Massachusetts] Commissioners of Fisheries for the year endiag 

 January 1, 1869. 



t Letter of Robiusoii &, Hoyt. 



