58 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



ber was liatcbed ou account of tlic United States Fish Coniniissioii by 

 Mr. Fraulc ^\ Clark, of Northville, Mieli., and by Mr. Ferguson, at Bal- 

 timore. These were distributed to such of the Southern and Western 

 States as were without arrangements of their own for prosecuting the 

 work. 



Nothing was done with the eastern salmon ; but the t^ivorable re- 

 sults of the work initiated five or six years ago, in restoring this fish in 

 large numbers to the Merrimack and the Connecticut, and in i)lanting 

 them in the Delaware and the Susquehanna, will probably induce the 

 renewal of the station at Bucksport, Mahie, during the coming year. 



The operations connected with secuiing eggs of the land-locked sal- 

 mon at Grand Lake Stream were entirely successful, although not so 

 many were obtained as hist year. These are now in process of incuba- 

 tion, and will shortly be distributed. 



Congress appropriated a sum of money for tlie purpose of fitting up 

 the two lakes in the vicinity of the Monument in the city of Washing- 

 ton for the culture of European carp, a considerable number of the 

 best varieties having been obtained in 1877, and deposited with the kind 

 liermission of the Park Commissioners in the ponds of Druid Hill Park, 

 in Baltimore. When the Monument lot ponds were in proper condition 

 a portion of the fish were transferred from Baltimore to their new 

 quarters, where it is hoped they will find a congenial home. A distri- 

 bution of the young will probably be made in the course of 1879, enough, 

 it is hoped, to meet a part, at least, of the demand which has already 

 sprung up for supplying fish-ponds throughout the country. 



The most important progress in practical fish culture has been made 

 by the United States Fish Commission during the year, in the applica- 

 tion of its methods to the production of the sea-fishes. Experiments 

 were instituted at Gloucester, in Massachusetts, in reference to cod, the 

 siiawning season of which takes place in the winter. The establishment 

 w^as properly fitted up and, after varying results, the proper method of 

 developing them was ascertained. Many millions of the young fish were 

 hatched out and deposited in the waters, and about 20,000 sent on to 

 Washington for exhibition to members of Congress, and others interested 

 in the experiment. Nothing has yet been done Avith mackerel, but' it is 

 believed that the arrangements prepared for the cod will be equally 

 ef&cient for that fish, as also, jwobably, for the halibut, while many other 

 species, such as the tautog, sea-bass, and scup, can be treated in the same 

 way. 



The im]iortauce of this new departure of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission cannot be overestimated, as it gives us the means of improving, 

 at small expense, the sea fisheries of our coast, and also furnishes the 

 opportunity of establishing them at points where they do not at present 

 exist. Thus, by carrying the young cod from Massachusetts and plant- 

 ing them on the coast of New Jersey or Maryland, of Virginia or North 

 Carolina, there is every assurance that, in accordance with the univer- 



