228 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OP^ FISH AND FISHERIES. 

 4. — OPERATIOIStS IN 1868. 



This year Mr. Livingston Stone, under the patronage of the States of 

 IMassachnsetts and New Hampshire, establislied a salmon-breeding estab- 

 lishment on the northwest branch of the Miramichi Eiver, eight miles 

 above Newcastle, on the farm of Mr. Joseph Goodfellow. A hatching- 

 house, 100 feet by 27, was built, and a pond with an area of about an 

 acre. A large spring and a spring-brook supplied them with water. The 

 Canadian department of marine and fisheries granted a permit to carry 

 on the enterprise, including t!ie privilege of taking the fish and spawn 

 at the breeding season, under certain conditions, the main one being 

 that half of the eggs obtained should be hatched out on the Miramichi 

 and the young fish turned into its waters at the proper time. In Sep- 

 tember Mr. Stone, through his emi)loyes, began the work of catching the 

 parent fish. A stake-net was set in the river, and the salmon caught in 

 it each day were placed in the pond. Owing to a misunderstanding of 

 some sort, this work was interrupted by the local fishery officers, who 

 seized successively seven or eight nets. For this reason a sufficient 

 number of salmon were not caught, although it appears that on two 

 occasions, between September 27 and October 4, one hundi-ed salmon 

 were taken in the nets in a single night. Tlie collection of salmon con- 

 tinued until October 15. At this date the taking of spawn from fish in 

 the i)ond began. On the loth, 16th, and 17th twenty-eight females 

 were stripped, yielding 226,500 eggs. After this there were stripped, 

 from among the salmon already impounded, eighteen females, and from 

 the river two more were taken, ripe and full, after the 20th of October. 

 Thus the whole number of females stripped was forty-eight, and the 

 yield of eggs was 443,900.* 



These were all deposited in the hatching-house, and there remained 

 until the appearance of the eye-spots. The loss meanwhile, from all 

 causes, amounted to 87,900. The remainder, 356,000 eggs, were divided 

 into two equal portions ; one was left in the troughs to hatch, and the 

 other packed up and transported to New Hampshire. After Mr. Stone's 

 departure with the transported eggs, the establishment was left in 

 charge of Mr. Joseph R. Goodfellow, the owner of the farm on which it 

 was situated. According to Mr. Stone's figures, there were 178,000 eggs 

 left there. From the best information at my command it appears that 

 they all came to naught. Late in July, 1869, the establishment was 

 visited by Mr. Samuel Wilmot, the superintendent of the salmon- 

 breeding establishment at Newcastle, Ontario, who found the young 

 fry still in the troughs. He states that they did not exceed 10,000 

 in number, and that they were in a very unhealthy condition. t I 

 infer that this was all that remained out of the whole lot of eggs. A 

 few days later Mr. Goodfellow turned out all the young salmon remain- 



* Domesticated Tront, by Livinj;ston Stone, A. M., p. 300. 



t Anuiuil Report of the Deitaituieut of Marine aud Fislaeries, [Canada,] for tbe year 

 ending 30tb June, 1869, p, 107. 



