IX.-ON THE SALMON OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, AND 

 ITS ARTIFICAL CULTURE. 



By Charles G. Atkins. 



A.— SALMON-CULTURE FROM IMPORTED SPAWN. 



1. — THE APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSIONERS, AND THEIR PRELIMINARY 



WORK. 



The exteuded efforts now making in tbe United States to restore 

 and improv^e the river and inland fisheries had their origin in New 

 Hampshire in 1864. The late Hon. Henry A. Bellows, of Concord, 

 secured the adoption, by the legislature of that year, of resolutions pro- 

 viding for the appointment of commissioners to investigate the question 

 of restoring the migratory fishes to the Merrimac and Connecticut Rivers, 

 and requesting the States bordering on those rivers to pursue the same 

 investigation. New Hampshire appointed H. A. Bellows and W. A. 

 Sanborn. The other States responded favorably ; Massachusetts ap- 

 pointing, in 1SG5, Theodore Lyman and Alfred A. Reed; Vermont, in the 

 fall of the same year, appointing Albert D. Hager and Charles Barrett; 

 Connecticut, in 18G6, appointing F. W. Russell and Henry C. Robinson. 

 The principal impediments in the way of the ascent of the rivers in 

 question by fish lying in Massachusetts, the burden of the investiga- 

 tion naturally fell upon her commissioners, who thoroughly examined 

 the subject in all its bearings, and in their report discussed in a lucid 

 manner the habits and wants of the fish, the character of the 

 impediments, and the means of overcoming them; and pronounced the 

 project feasible. The commissioners of the other States made similar 

 reports, and the several legislatures continued the commissions, giving 

 them authority to institute measures for the realization of the project. 

 A year later the State of Maine appointed commissioners for a similar 

 purpose, and more recently the same action was taken in New York, 

 Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Michigan. The powers and duties of 

 tlie commissioners in the States that led the movement have been some, i 

 what enlarged, but the main purpose of their first appointment, the 

 restoration of migratory fishes, such as shad, salmon and alewives, to 

 the rivers they formerly frequented has been steadily kept in view. 



From the beginning the commissioners found serious difficulties in 

 the way; not only were lofty dams to be furnished with ways whereby 

 great shoals of fish could and would surmount them, but in many cases, 



