706 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



gestions as to the best localities for tbe introduction of the different 

 kinds of salmon expected, and also as to the expediency of procuiing 

 certain other kinds of fish, either from abroad or our own waters, for 

 introduction into streams where they do not now occur. He also asked 

 as to the number and kinds of eggs of salmon expected to be availa- 

 ble that the different gentlemen present would receive and provide for 

 hatching and distributing them into appropriate streams. 



Dr. Edmunds, of Vermont, said he had made inquiries in regard to 

 the waters emptying into Lakes Champlain and Ontario, and found that 

 salmon were formerly plenty in them. Some of the people in the vicin- 

 ity of these waters make a distinction between tbe salmon of tbe lake and 

 what they call the Bay Chaleur salmon, which were found in all the rivers 

 up to the Oswego, but in what respect these differed from each 

 other he could not learn. Salmon have been gone from Lake Champlain 

 since 1824, where, at one time, they were exceedingly abundant. Since 

 dams have been built, they have gradually disappeared, and people 

 think the dams and sawdust killed them. The sawdust undoubtedly 

 acts injuriously by covering the spawning-beds. 



Mr. Seth Green said that salmon used to occupy the streams emp- 

 tying into Lake Ontario, except the Genesee, clear to Niagara, on both 

 sides. A good many still run up to tbe head of Lake Ontario, and up 

 Wilmot's Creek, which is only ten or twelve miles long. He did not 

 regard these as land-locked salmon, though they may never go down the 

 Saint Lawrence ; they may find the requisite food in Lake Ontario. He 

 hoped that shad would also find appropriate food in tbe lakes, as he had 

 placed some in the Genesee River in 1871, and he had seen some this 

 summer 4i and 5 inches long, and some bad been caught in Lake Ontario 

 that would weigh a quarter of a pound, and were over 8 inches long. 



Salmon placed in the rivers of New York will grow and go to sea and 

 come back as far as the first dam if not taken by pound-nets, but as 

 long as pound and trap nets are allowed we can never restock our rivers 

 Tbe salmon is strictly a shore-fish, never being caught far from the shore j 

 a pound-net will catch every fish that follows along the coast. 



The Delaware would be a good river for salmon if it were not for the 

 pounds. There are trout in tbe bead^taters of that river ; and any 

 rivers that have trout in their headwaters will be suitable for salmon. 

 Over-fishing is the cause of the scarcity of salmon and other fish in this 

 country. They must all be hatched and kept up artificially, in order to 

 have a supply in the future. . 



Until we have better fish-ways than have hitherto been made, we 

 cannot have salmon. They should be distributed when hatched into 

 small streams, so that they will have plenty of food. You will never 

 have salmon till pounds are abolished. 



Mr. Brackett. The salmon have been killed out of the waters of Mas- 

 sachusetts for the last twenty-eight years. Tbe Massachusetts commis- 

 sioners succeeded in getting a few thousand, and distributing them in 



