36* EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



climatatioTi, Paris,' from Cliicago to Kew York, and forwarded by the 

 French Transatlantic steamer, arriving in unsatisfactory condition. 



It is proposed to renew the shipments of eggs of California salmon to 

 Europe in 1878, when, it is hoped, the experience gained will be avail- 

 able in securing their safe delivery at their destination. 



The Atlantic Salmon {Sahno salar). 



The Bucl^sport., Maine, Station.— The cessation for the past year or two 

 of operations at Bucksport looking towards securing eggs of the At- 

 lantic salmon, has already been explained, on the ground of a desire to 

 ascertain by the first experiment whether it would be possible to restore 

 this fish to depleted waters, and to introduce them into streams where 

 they had not previously occurred. No very positive results were pre- 

 sented in the early part of the year 1877, up to the time when it would 

 be necessary to make proper provision for securing the parent fish. If, 

 however, the salmon returns in any positive numbers to the waters which 

 have been the subject of experiment hitherto, eiforts will be made, with 

 a suitable appropriation from Congress, to renew the work in 1878, on as 

 large a scale as may be practicable. 



Besults obtained for lahor of previous years. — It is, however, a fact, 

 that in November of 1877, a mature female salmon was taken in the 

 Delaware River, in the vicinity of Trenton, and presented by Mr. H. J. 

 Eeeder, one of the fish commissioners of Pennsylvania, to the United 

 States Fish Commission. It is now on exhibition in the National Mu- 

 seum in the case devoted to the display of the results of artificial fish 

 propagation. Mr. Eeeder, in sending the specimen referred to, remarks 

 that numerous rumors in regard to the occurrence of this fish in that 

 river had previously come to his notice, and that the more authentic 

 one was in regard to a salmon taken in a shad seine in the Delaware, 

 and eaten as the first caught there. A second specimen was said to 

 have been taken at Lambertsville, and another at Carpenter's Point, 

 near Port Jervis, caught in a fish-basket, and weighing 8J pounds. 

 Other cases were heard of, but in less detail. 



Mr. Eeeder is of the opinion that the salmon recently taken in the 

 Bushkill could not have been the i)rogeny of the spawning of 1871, as 

 those were hatched in the Hudson Eiver and brought, ten thousand in 

 number, to the Delaware, nearly all dying on the way. About one 

 thousand were placed in the water in a weak and greatly enfeebled con- 

 dition, and there is no reason to believe that any of them survived. 



In 1872 the State commissioners hatched out a number of eggs in a 

 spring run, near the Bushkill, and about 10,000 young fish were planted 

 in that stream. In 1873, about 25,000 werq hatched on the banks of the 

 Delaware and turned directly into the river itself. Mr. Eeeder thinks 

 that those placed in the Delaware could not have gone into the Bush- 

 kill, and that consequently the hatching of 1872 must be consluered as 

 the starting point of the specimen captured. 



