REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. *10 



States Commission and tliosc of tlio, rospectivc State commissionx. It 

 is very giaiilying to note the rapidly increasing interest in tlie whole 

 business of fish protection and fish propagation shown by the citizens 

 of the United States and culminating in the measures taken by national 

 and State legislatures for fostering whatever looks towards the increase 

 of the fish supply. At the time when the United States Commission 

 was authorized by Congress and organized, the only State fish commis- 

 sions were those of Alabama, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachu- \ 

 setts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, lihode 

 Island, and Vermont, eleven in all, and of these a small number oidy 

 were provided with funds and power to enforce legislation taking definite 

 action in regard to the increase of a supply. The list now amounts to 

 twenty-six, all provided with intelligent and able commissioners, for the 

 most part with appropriations sufficient to enable them to survey the 

 ground and take the i)roper steps towards future action. Quite a num- 

 ber of these have their own hatching-houses, in which are hatched out 

 not only the local species, but also such eggs as may be supplied by the 

 United States Commission, especially of the Eastern salmon, the land 

 locked salmon, and the California salmon. 



As already remarked, these State commissions, in the aggTCgate, 

 accomi^lish a very great deal towards the protection and restoration of 

 their fisheries respectively, and especially in the way of distributing 

 trout and black bass in their local waters. Eoth of these are fish wiih 

 which the United States Commission have nothing to do, as they come 

 more particularly within the province of the State organizations. 



The states bordering on the great lakes have also accomplished a still 

 greater woik in the hatching out and introduction of the young of white- 

 fish and lake trout, the former b3ing by far the most important species 

 of the-lakes, and one for the multiplication of which, on a large scale, 

 every effort should be made. 



The hearty co-operation of these State commissions with that of the 

 United States is a subject of especial gratification, there being, so far as 

 I can learn, no jealousy whatever, but all working harmoniously towards 

 a common end. This co-operation of the State commissions with that of 

 the United States is exhibited in two ways, direct and indirect. The 

 former is shown in the work of the propagation of the Salmo salar, or the 

 salmon of Maine, which has been carried on at Bucksport, on the Penob- 

 scot Eiver, by the United States, aided by an appropriation of money 

 by the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, each receiving its share 

 of eggs in proportion to its investment of $500. The State of Maine has, 

 I believe, made no actual appropriation, but is concerned as requiring 

 by law the introduction into its own waters of one-fourth of all the fish 

 hatched out by foreign co-operation within its borders. 



A similar arrangement has been made with Massachusetts and Con- 

 necticut in the propagation of the land-locked salmon, both at Sebec, 

 in 1873 and 1874, and at Grand Lake Stream, for several years up to the 

 present. 



