14 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
results attained, apparently at varying periods subsequent to the 
marking. 
All sorts of marks were employed. The favorite was the removal 
of the adipose fin, the experimenters appearing to be of the opinion 
that the fish would miss this the least of any. However, the entire 
or partial removal of nearly every fin was practiced by some one or 
other of the many experimenters. Sometimes a V or a U was 
punched out of the tail or the gill cover, and in one or two instances 
a tag was employed. 
In time these marking experiments became so numerous, and so 
imperfect a record was kept of them by any central authority, that 
frequently it was impossible to tell, when an apparently marked 
specimen was obtained, where and when it was marked, and as a 
result but little dependence could have been placed upon them even 
had there been no other factors conspiring to vitiate their value. 
Fishermen are continually finding in their nets salmon which they 
feel sure have been marked by some hatchery. Scores of times in 
the course of his various investigations of the fisheries of this coast 
the writer has been told of or shown specimens which the fishermen 
thought had been marked. Many of these marks were on the side of 
the fish and represented an M or W, depending upon the angle from 
which viewed, and it was impossible, generally, to convince the fisher- 
men that this mark was caused by the twine of his gill net pressing 
on the side of the fish. The obvious fact that a fish could not survive 
when in the fry stage the infliction of such a mark did not occur to 
them. 
Frequently the scars left by the suctorial organs of the lamprey 
have been mistakenly supposed to be hatchery marks. This scar 
resembles very closely a date stamp on a canceled letter. 
One of the most interesting cases of salmon marking, and one 
which drives home the necessity for accepting reports of returns from 
such markings with extreme caution, is that of Ff. M. Chamberlain, 
then naturalist of the Bureau of Fisheries steamer Albatross, on the 
Naha Stream in Alaska. 
In August, 1903, 1,600 red salmon fry, reared for the purpose from 
the 1902 eggs, at the Fortmann hatchery of the Alaska Packers 
Association, near Loring, Alaska, were marked by Mr. Chamberlain 
by excising both ventrals with fine curved scissors. The fry were 
released in the Naha River as soon as marked, at which time they 
were about three months old. 
In 1906 between 50 and 100 adult reds with ventral fins missing 
were reported by the superintendent of the hatchery at Yes Bay, 
which is located on the northern side of Behm Canal (Naha being on 
the southern side) and some 15 miles farther up the canal than the 
mouth of Naha Stream. Some of these also had the adipose removed, 
this mark having also been used on some of the fry. At the Fort- 
mann hatchery, where they were marked, only two of these fish were 
obtained in 1906. 
From then on until 1912, a period of 94 years, the return of a 
number of these supposedly marked fish is noted each year at the 
two hatcheries in question, the number reported in the latter year 
being larger than in some of the intervening years. In 1912 Mr. 
Chamberlain himself pointed out the impossibility of these all being 
from the fry he had marked and no further attention was paid to them. 
