EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. *ol 



by tlie Commissiou, and distributed to appropriate waters, wliere, it is 

 lioped, their presence will be indicated at the proper time. 



Station on the Connecticut River. — The old station, on the Connecticut 

 Eiver, at South Iladley Falls, became the scene of the labors of the 

 Commission after closings on the Susquehanna, the furniture and other 

 equi])ment being loaded on a freight-car and taken directly through to 

 their destination. A house in the vicinity of the fishery was hired for the 

 accommodation of the party, and the first fishing commenced on the 

 night of the 20th of June. The operations were continued here until 

 the 4th of August, eggs being taken nearly every night, the entire num- 

 ber ainounting to something over tliree millions. 



As this station was within the jurisdiction of the State of Massachu- 

 setts, it was necessary to obtain permission from its commissioners to 

 carry on operations, which was obligingly granted on the condition that 

 they might nominate some one to be present during the season, to see 

 that the regulations of the State were fully carried out. Mr. Charles Ct. 

 Atkins was selected for this work, and had the superintendence of ai 

 certain portion, under the general direction of Mr. Milner, who had 

 charge of the whole. 



Here floating boxes were used entirely, and some of tlie difficulties 

 referred to on a previous page, were experienced, especially in the inter- 

 ference of a raft of logs floating down the river over the spawniug- 

 ground. 



For the purpose of studying the physiological condition of the eggs 

 and young while in the hatching-boxes, the ser^ices of Mr. H. J. Rice 

 of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, were secured. This gentle- 

 man had been employed jjreviously at Havre de Grace during the opera- 

 tions of the United States Fish Commissiou, and an account of his 

 results has already been published in the general report of the ]\Iarykind 

 Fish Commission. Mr. Atkins, too, made a great many interesting ob- 

 servations in regard to the hatching of eggs, &c. 



The number of eggs procurable at South Hadley Falls not being so great 

 as desired, Mr. Frank N. Clark was sent to Windsor Locks in Connecticut, 

 to a station where it was said spawning shad were to be obtained in 

 abundance, but the season was so far advanced that he did not consider 

 it expedient to commence any work there. There is good reason to 

 believe, however, that it will repay the efibrt if undertaken at the proper 

 time. 



A detailed statement, by Mr. Milner, of the shad-hatching operations 

 during the year will be found in the Appendix, including an account of 

 the precise disposition made of the fish from the several stations. 



The Pacific Salmon. 



TJic Columbia River or Claclcamas Station. — A remarkable deficiency 

 in the yield of salmon in the Clackamas Eiver in 1870 aroused the per- 

 sons employed in the canning trade on the river to use all pracjticable 

 measures of relief. A company, entitled the Oregon and Washington 



