XXX REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



New York market with the other captures. The greatest success was, 

 however, experienced in the Connecticut, where the catch from the be- 

 ginuin<? to the end of the season is considered as amounting to not less 

 than 600 individuals, varying in size from 9 to 20 jDounds, most of them 

 finding a market in New York. A great deal of enthusiasm was excited 

 in the early part of the season by these captures, and the fish first taken 

 were sold readily for a dollar per pound, and even more. 



One of the earliest catches in the Connecticut was on the 4th of May, 

 when a fish weighing 11 i^ounds was sent to Benjamin West, of New 

 York, from Saybrook. On the 10th of May Mr. S. B. Miller reported a 

 salmon taken in a seine near the west end of Long Island. Two were 

 taken eight miles from the mouth of the Connecticut on the i)revious 

 day, and on the same day 12 other salmon were received in New York 

 from the Connecticut, one weighing 19 pounds, and all selling for from 

 85 cents to $1 per pound. Mr. James A. Bill, fish commissioner of Con- 

 necticut, on the 14th day of May informed me that within his knowledge 

 80 fish had been taken up to that time in the Connecticut Eiver between 

 its mouth and Windsor, these varying from 8^ to 18 pounds in weight. 

 From 6 to 12 were captured daily. 



It is known that in addition to what were caught by the fishermen in 

 the Connecticut many others entered it, as shown by the holes made in 

 the gill-nets. These holes were at first supposed to be caused by stur- 

 geons, but it was subsequently ascertained that they were due to large 

 salmon that could not be held by the thin twine. 



There were no authentic cases of the occurrence of salmon in the Hud- 

 son during the year. This is easily explicable from the fact that no young 

 were introduced by the commissioners of the State, they being unwilling 

 to take any steps in this direction until the proper means for their pro- 

 tection, as well as that of the shad, against the gill and stake nets should 

 be passed by the legislature. A very few planted by private enterprise 

 yielded no positive result, although several rumors of caiJtures were 

 given in the newspai>ers. 



The case was very different in regard to the Delaware Eiver, in which 

 quite a number of deposits were made, partly by the fish commissions 

 of the State and of the United States, and partly by individuals. The 

 earliest introduction of salmon in this river was made in 1871 by Mr. 

 Thaddeus Norris at the expense of some public-spirited citizens of Phila- 

 delphia, the eggs having been hatched out on the Hudson Eiver, and 

 the young transported to the Delaware. Only about 2,000 survived the 

 journey. In 1872 12,000 eggs were purchased of Mr. Wilmot, at New- 

 castle, Ontario, and hatched out near Easton, Pa., with a loss of only 

 ten per cent. The young were placed in the Bushkill, a tributary of the 

 Delaware, near Easton. 



The next lot of salmon planted in the Delaware consisted of 5,000 fry, 

 the sole product of 750,000 eggs received from Germany by the United 

 States Fish Commission, in the winter of 1872-'73. 



