XXVI -CALIFORNIA SALMON IN THE NETHERLANDS. 



BY C. J. BOTTEMANNE.* 



[From "Xederlandsche StaaU-Courant" No. 245, October 18, 1830, official journal of the 

 Dutch Government, published at the Hague.] 



Mr. 0. J. Bottenvanne, of Bergen op Zoom, chief superintendent of the 

 fisheries of the Scheldt and other rivers in the south of Holland, who 

 has been commissioned by the government to superintend the experi- 

 ments in stocking some of the Dutch rivers with California salmon, has 

 made the following report on the results of his experiments during the 

 period 1878-1880: 



During the investigations relative to the different kinds of salmon in- 

 habiting our rivers, and the condition of the fisheries, which our gov- 

 ernment had made during the years 1809 and 1873, my attention was 

 directed to the circumstance that so little is heard nowadays of salmon 

 being caught which had been marked before they were set out, and that 

 it is very difficult to mark any considerable number of young salmon, 

 which, nevertheless, is necessary for furnishing the only possible proof 

 of the beneficial influence of pisciculture upon the fisheries. I conse- 

 quently arrived at the conviction that other steps must be taken to con- 

 vince not merely the general public, but especially the fishermen, that 

 pisciculture was no chimera, but a science, and a considerable industry 

 whose benefits they were principally destined to reap, and towards the 

 furtherance of which they must extend a helping hand. After mature 

 deliberation I found that the best way to reach tbis object would be to 

 put salmon of a kind not known in our country in some of our rivers 

 which contain few or no salmon. Such a river was soon found. The 

 Limberg Meuse is well known as containing but few salmon, for although 

 formerly these fish were frequent in that river, hardly any are caught there 

 now. Another great difficulty was the question as to what kind of sal- 

 mon should be selected. It must be a fish which, when caught, would 

 not leave a doubt in the mind of the fisherman who had caught it that 

 it was a salmon, and still it must differ from the common Bhine salmon. 

 The fisherman, in fact, must be able to see at once that he has caught 



* Californische zalm in Nederland. Translated by Herman Jacobson, 



709 



