REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XXIX 



betweeu the United States and tbe State of Ciilifornia, through her com- 

 uiissioners, Messrs. Throckmorton, Reddii)g, and Farwell. 



The car, in charge of Livingston Stone, assistant United States com- 

 missioner, was ingeniously and very completelj- fitted up in every detail of 

 necessity and convenience required for the successful transfer of fishes, 

 obsters, and oysters. It contained in a^ll nearlj^ 300,000 fishes, repre- 

 senting the following species : The tautog, {Taiitoga onitis ;) the black 

 bass, {Micropterus salmoides ;) the rock-fish or striped bass, {Roccus linea- 

 tus;) the perch, {Perca flavescens ;) the wall-eyed pike, [titizostedion ameri- 

 cana ;) the brook-trout, (ISalmofontinalis;) the bull-head, [Amiurus atra- 

 nws;)the cat-fish, {Ictelurus ccerulesce^is ;) the eel, {Anguilla hostoni- 

 eiisis ;) besides miuuows, {Cyprinida',) to serve as food for the lai^ger 

 individuals en route. One hundred and seventy lobsters and a barrel 

 of seed-oysters were also in the car. 



To accommodate these, one very large tank, and ten smaller ones, be- 

 sides hogsheads, barrels, and tin cans, were required. 



A large amount of ice, and reserves of sea and fresh water, were pro- 

 vided, as well as supplies of food and apparatus for aerating water and 

 regulating temperature. Sleeping and feeding accommodations for 

 attendants were arranged within the car. 



By the accident, the car was thrown into the Elkhorn River, and the 

 fishes had an opportunity of escape from the tanks. It is not likely that 

 the lobsters, oysters, or the tautogs were able to sustain life in the fresh 

 waters of the river for any great length of time. The rock-fish and the 

 shad are anadromous fishes, sj)endiug a portion of each year in fresh 

 waters, and both have proved their ability to sustain life in fresh waters 

 through several years. The other species are fresh-water fishes, and 

 some of them will be valuable acquisitions to the system of waters where 

 fate has consigned them. 



A full account of this expedition and of the accident which inter- 

 rupted it so suddenly, and from which Mr. Stone and his companions 

 barely escaped with their lives, will be found in the body of the report. 



Mr. Stone, having lost the first installment of shad, was directed to 

 return to Albany for the purpose of taking an additional supply ; and 

 he again started on the 25th of June, with about 40,000 fish, accom- 

 panied as far as Omaha by Mr. Welsher. I am happy to state that they 

 experienced scarcely any mortality on the way, and after placing 5,000 fish 

 in the Jordan River, a tributary of the Great Salt Lake, on the 30th of 

 June, he deposited 35,000 in the Sacramento on July 2, in the presence 

 of the California commissioners, and to their very great satisfaction. 

 This number of young fish in the Sacramento River, to be increased, I 

 hope, hereafter, will very probably result in supplying that stream with 

 this useful food-fish, and will furnish a point of departure from which 

 to stock the Columbia and other more northern rivers, as contemplated 

 by act of Congress, Experience has shown that it will be impossible 

 to take young shad from the east over a greater distance than the Pacific 



