38* REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



total number obtained was 2,159,000, tlie number distributed being about 

 1,400,000. The remainder were batched out and restored to the water 

 of Grand Lake Stream. The eggs for the most part reached their des- 

 tination in good condition, and were successfully hatched out. The 

 table accompanying Mr. Atkins's report shows the precise location of the 

 planting of the entire lot. In addition to the distribution of land-locked 

 salmon made to various portions of the United States, 25,000 were sent 

 to the Deutsche Fisherei-Verein in Germany aiul 55,000 to the Societe 

 d' Acclimation in Paris. Unfortunately, both lots were apparently so far 

 advanced in development that it was impossible to retard their hatching 

 until their arrival at their destination, and consequently all perished. 



Lal^e Ontario Station. — It is well known that not many years ago sal- 

 mon abounded in Lake Ontario, and that there were many important 

 fisheries for them both on the Canadian and American shores. Of late 

 years they have been exterminated on the American side, and were nearly 

 extinct on the Canadian at the time when Mr. Samuel Wilmot began his 

 celebrated experiments at Newcastle. These fish were in the habit of 

 entering the short rivers, tributaries of the lake, at the proper season, 

 for the purpose of spawning, and after remaining a short time returned 

 to the lake. It was formerly supposed that all these fish came up in 

 the spring from the ocean, by way of the Saint Lawrence Elver, return- 

 ing in the autumn or winter. But Mr. Wilmot quite reasonably insisted 

 that they never left the waters of Lake Ontario, and were in every re- 

 spect to be considered as land locked salmon, corresponding to those of 

 Sebago Pond and various other ponds along the coast of Maine, as also 

 in similar localities in ISTova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec. 



Mr. Wilmot, from a single pair of breeding fish, occurring in a small 

 stream, on which his hatching establishment is placed, and not more 

 than a few feet across, now counts breeding fish by thousands. But the 

 somewhat remarkable fact is developed that with aU this certain increase 

 in number but little impression has been made upon fish as an article for 

 market purjioses, it being found impossible to take them at the proper 

 season. Mr. Wilmot's plan is now to place salmon in the Avaters of the 

 north shore and in the interior^ in the hope that in the future desirable 

 river fisheries may be established. No increase in the number of salmon 

 has been noted in the Upper Saint Lawrence, the fish being still taken, 

 • however, in considerable numbers in the lower part of the river. I have 

 not been able to ascertain whether any are obtained as high up as Mont- 

 real and between that and the outlet of the lake. 



Mr. Wilmot having very kindly offered to the United States Fish 

 Commission 5,000 imi)reguated eggs from his hatching establishment at 

 Newcastle, they were placed at the command of the New York fish 

 commission, by which they were turned over, to the New York Aquarium, 

 g,nd there hatched out. By the instructions of Mr. Eoosevelt, 4,500 of 

 these yoimg fish were placed in Otsego Lake, at Cooperstown, in June, 

 1877. As this lake constitutes the headwaters of the Susquehanna Eiver, 



