ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS AETIFICIAL CULTURE. 227 



and as regards saltnon in most cases, the fisbes themselves were want- 

 ing, having been utterly exterminated, and not to be had again without 

 bringing a new stock from abroad. Xor would it do to bring adnlt 

 salmon and place them in the rivers to be restocked, for they could not 

 be relied upon to remain and breed there. If, however, tlie salmon 

 should be reared there from infancy they would return when grown to 

 lay their eggs in the same streams. To get the young fish the most 

 feasible mode was to bring the spawn and hatch them. One of the very 

 first things the commissioners did, therefore, was to cast about them for 

 a supply of spawn. 



2. — OPERATIONS IN 1866.. 



In the fall of 18G6 the commissioners of fisheries of the State of ISfew 

 Hampshire dispatched Dr. W. W. Fletcher, of Concord, to New Bruns- 

 wick, to obtain salmon spawn for use in stocking the Merriinac River. 

 He obtained permission from the government of the province to take 

 salmon for his purpose at the spawning season on th(», Miramichi Eiver, 

 and succeeded in taking with the spear salmon enough to yield about 

 70,000 eggs. Great uncertainty existing as to the best mode of packing- 

 eggs for transportation. Dr. Fletcher packed his in several modes. Some 

 fifteen or twenty thousand were packed in moss in champagne-baskets, 

 and these alone were transported to New Hampshire in safety. A small 

 part of them, two or three hundred, were hatched in a spring near Con. 

 cord, where their development could be observed, and 90 per cent, of 

 them hatched. The remainder of the lot was planted at once in arti- 

 ficia]ly-i)repared beds in suitable gravelly rapids in the Pemigewassett 

 Eiver, a tributary of the Merrimac, where they were left to take their 

 chances of hatching. The following autumn Dr. Fletcher discovered 

 several young salmon (parrs) in that vicinity, a satisfactory proof that a 

 certain degree of success attended the hatching of the eggs. 



3. — OPERATIONS IN 1807. 



This year Dr. Fletcher was again dispatched by the New Hampshire 

 commissioners to the Miramichi River, and obtained again about 70,000 

 salmon-eggs, nearly all of which were transported in safety to New 

 Hampshire. About half of these were placed in charge of Livingston 

 Stone, of Charkstown, N, H., to be hatched out for the benefit of the 

 Connecticut Eiver; the other half were sent to Eobinson and Hoyt, at 

 Meredith, N. H., to be hatched out for the Merrimac. About 5,000 were 

 hatched in each place,*! the remainder failing by reason of non-fecunda- 

 tion.* Of the fry hatched at Charlestowu nearly all were lost during the 

 hot days of July, 1808.* Of those hatched at Meredith but very few 

 were lost, anj,l the following spring they were turned into the Pemige- 

 wassett, a few miles above Livermore Falls.t 



* Report of the [Massachusetts] Comiiiissioiiers of Fisheries for the year ending 

 JaiHiiiiy I, 1869. 



t Letter of Robinson & Hoyt. 



