ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 233 



7. — OPERATIONS IN 1871-'72. 



In March, 1871, the Coimecticut commissioners bought 10,000 eggs 

 of Ontario salmon at Xewcastle. They reached the liatchino-house 

 of the Poquonnoc Company March 11, -and on opening them 7,000 

 were found to be spoiled through defective packing. Another lot was 

 immediately sent to make up the deficiency, and from both shipments 

 6,000 fish were hatched, and placed in the Housatonic, Farmington, 

 Shetucket, and Quinnebaug Kivers. 



The first attempt to stock with salmon any of the rivers south of the 

 Connecticut was made in 1871, by Mr. Thaddeus Norris and some other 

 gentlemen, who purchased 11,000 eggs at Mr. Wilmot's establishment, 

 and hatched them out for the Delaware. An accident reduced the num- 

 ber of fry to 2,000, and these were placed in the Bushkill, a tributary of 

 the Delaware. In 1872 the same gentlemen got 12,000 eggs from Mr- 

 Wilmot, and hatched 11,000 of them at a spring within a mile of the 

 Bushkill. 



The State of Eliode Island made its first attempt at the restoration 

 of salmon in 1872, by the introduction of 9,000 eggs from Mr. Wilmot's 

 establishment. They were placed in the hatching-troughs at Ponegan- 

 set February 11, and hatched in March. The young were placed in the 

 Pawtuxet River. 



B— SALMON-BREEDING ON THE PENOBSCOT. 



1. — PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 



Though it was well known that the salmon-fishery of the Penobscot was 

 better preserved than that of any other river on the Atlantic slope of the 

 United States, and the project of obtaining thence a supply of eggs for the 

 stocking of other rivers had occurred to me earlier, it was not until 1870 

 that the project received serious consideration. The earlier attempts at 

 the collection of salmon-spawn for New England rivers had very naturally 

 been made in the rivers of New Brunswick, where the abundance of salmon 

 and the ease with which they were caught on their spawning-grounds 

 seemed to promise sure and speedy success. Various causes, already suf- 

 ficiently set forth in the detailed accounts given above of the several ex- 

 peditions to the Miramichi, rendered the operations there less successful 

 than had been anticipated. The purchase of salmon-eggs at the establish- 

 ment of tiie Canadian government in Ontario required an expenditure 

 greater than appeared to be warranted by the circumstances in which 

 the fishery-commissioners found themselves placed, and, besides, there 

 was some doubt whether the Ontario salmon would readily adapt them 

 selves to our rivers and the sea into which they empty. The necessity 

 of having a more abundant supply of eggs, at the cost of collection, was 

 forcing itself upon the minds of the commissioners of all the States 

 interested in the collection of salmon. 



