REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. *31 



by tlic Coiinnission, and distributcMl to {ii)pro])iiat(i waters, -wliel-e, it is 

 lioped, their presence will be indicated at the i)roper time. 



Station on the Conneclicnt River. — The old station, on the Connecticut 

 Eiver, at^onth Iladley Falls, became the scene of the labors of the 

 Connnission after closing on the Susquehanna, the furniture and other 

 equipment being loaded on a freight-car and taken directly through to 

 their destination. A house in the vicinity of the lishery w:is hired foi- the 

 accommodtition of the party, and the first fishing conimenced on the 

 night of the 2Ctli of June. The operations were continued here until 

 the 4th of August, eggs being taken nearly every night, the entire num- 

 ber amounting to something over three millions. 



As this station was within the jurisdiction of the State of Massachu- 

 setts, it was necessary to obtain permission from its commissioners to 

 carry on operations, which was obligingly granted on the condition that 

 they might nominate some one to be present during the season, to see 

 that the regulations of the State were fully carried out. Mr. Charles G. 

 Atkins was selected for this work, and had the superintendence of a 

 certain portion, under the general direction of Mr. Milner, who had 

 charge of the whole. 



Here floating boxes were used entirely, and some of the difficulties 

 referred to on a previous page, were experienced, esi)ecially in the inter- 

 ference of a raft of logs floating down the river over the spawning- 

 ground. 



For the purpose of studying the physiological condition of the eggs 

 and young Avhile in the hatching-boxes, the services of Mr. H. J. Eice 

 of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, were secured. This gentle- 

 man had been employed i^reviously at Ha^Te de Grace during the opera- 

 tions of the United States Fish Commission, and an a(;count of his 

 results has already been published in the general report of the Maryland 

 Fish Commission. Mr. Atkins, too, made a great many interesting ob- 

 servations in regard to the hatching of eggs, &c. 



The number of eggs procurable at South Hadley Falls not being so great 

 as desired, Mr. Frank i^. Clark was sent to Windsor Locks in Connecticut, 

 to a station where it was said spawning shad were to be obtained in 

 abundance, but the season was so far advanced that he did not consider 

 it expedient to commence any work there. There is good reason to 

 believe, however, that it will repay the effort if undertaken at the proper 

 time. 



A detailed statement, by IMr. Milner, of the shad-hatching operations 

 during the year will be found in the Appendix, including an account of 

 the precise disposition made of the fish from the several stations. 

 The Pacific Salmon. 



The Columbia Elver or Clackamas Station. — xV remarkable deficiency 

 in the yield of salmon in the Clackamas Eiver in 187G aroused the per- 

 sons employed in the canning trade on the river to use all practicable 

 measures of relief. A company, entitled the Oregon and Washington 



