EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. Ixxix 



as Uuited States Commissioner of Fisli aud Fisheries, so far as salmon 

 were coucerued, were directed to securing a large supply, first of Salmo 

 salar, or the Atlantic salmon, from the establishment of Mr. Atkins, 

 at Bucksport, and from the river Rhine, in Germany ; and, second, of 

 the California salmon {Salmo quinnat F) from the Sacramento River, 

 through Mr. Livingston Stone, the details of which efforts it is unneces- 

 sary to repeat here. 



In the accompanying report by Mr. Atkins (page 226) will be found 

 the history of his experiments, with much practical information in regard 

 to the habits and peculiarities of the fish. A similar article in reference 

 to the California salmon, by Mr. Stone, is given on page 168. 



The labors of 1873 will, it is hoped, be conducted on a much larger 

 scale, aud I trust that enough eggs of the Sacramento salmon may be 

 procured to make a satisfactory beginning of the experiment. I am 

 quite well satisfied that it is to this species that we are to look for a 

 supply for such rivers as the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, 

 James, and perhaps others still farther south, as well as for the waters 

 of the Mississippi Valley. Eastern salmon, on the other hand, will 

 perhaps be best adapted to the rivers of New England and to the great 

 lakes; although it is proposed to intro<luce both kinds into such local- 

 ities as the means at my command will permit. There is nothing to 

 prevent the two species living together in the same stream, especially in 

 view of the fact that it is only the young fry, for the first year or two, 

 which require food in the fresh water, the great mass of the material of 

 growth being derived from the sea. Their periods of migration, too, are 

 entirely distinct; the western species entering the rivers early in winter, 

 and spawning at the headwaters as early as August ; while the eastern 

 salmon, coming in several months later, does not spawn until October 

 or the beginning of November. Should no change take place in the 

 habits of either kind, the salmon season would be very much longer 

 than otherwise, and salmon could be had, perhaps, over a period of from 

 eight to eleven months, instead of three or four, as at present. 



The great advantage of the Sacramento fish is to be found in its 

 ability to sustain itself in a much higher temperature than that endura- 

 ble by the Atlantic-coast salmon. Thus, while the eastern is said to be 

 driven back to sea, in Germany at least, by a temperature of 65°, (60° 

 being the maximum of preference,) the Sacramento fish occupies a river 

 flowing through one of the hottest regions of North America, where 

 in the season of 1872 Mr. Stone found the prevailing temperature dur- 

 ing the whole season of the salmon-spawning to be from 100° to 115° in 

 the shade, and almost unendurable. It is true that the river-water at 

 the United States hatching establishment is cooled by the melting ice 

 and snow from Mount Shasta, but lower down the Sacramento, where 

 the salmon formerly spawned in great numbers, aud do still to some 

 extent, the temperature in the river reached 75° F., and even more during 

 the summer. 



