EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. LV 



nobscot, and other streams of Maine. The work of restocking the origi- 

 nal haunts with this fish was commenced in 18G0, by the State of New 

 Hampshire, and followed subsequently by several of the Kew England 

 States, and in 1872 with the very important co-operation of the United 

 States Fish Commission, which of late years has borne the chief expenses 

 of the outlay. 



What, now, has been the result, and especially in the Connecticut River, 

 which formerly abounded in large numbers of the salmon, and which 

 has been the prmcipal scene of operations "? Young salmon in greater 

 or less numbers have been introduced by the States of Massachusetts, 

 Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire, beginning in 1867, but not 

 in any considerable quantity, until supplemented and strengthened by 

 the United States Commission in 1873, which from that time took the 

 lead in the x)roduction. 



Great incredulity had been manifested by most persons as to any prac- 

 tical result from artificial i)ropagation, and, as year after year passed 

 without bringiug the expected run of salmon into the Connecticut, sneers 

 and jokes at the expense of the United States and State commissions 

 multiplied. The occurrence, however, of one or two large salmon in the 

 Connecticut in 187G, and of a dozen in 1877, interfered with this skep- 

 ticism, which was changed into enthusiastic appreciation by the appear- 

 ance in 1878 of large numbers of fine, fat salmon, such as have not been 

 seen in the river for many years. No less than 500 fish, each of from 

 ten to twenty pounds in weight, were captured at the mouth of the 

 river, and sold in the New York market for the most part, at prices 

 ranging from 75 cents to a dollar per pound. This, in all probability, 

 did not represent anything like the number of fish that entered the river, 

 but merely those that were taken in the shad-nets, apparently very im- 

 perfectly and ill-adapted to the capture of so heavy a fish. Increasingly 

 larger and larger yields may be expected in the future, at least up to 

 1880 ; their continuance beyond that time may depend upon the legis- 

 lation of the States through a part of which the Connecticut river 

 flows.* 



The California salmon has great advantage over the ordinary species 

 in much greater hardiness and capacity for existence in waters warmer 

 by many degrees than those to which the eastern salmon is habituated. 

 It has been introduced by millions in the tributaries of the Mississippi, 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean. It has been transported 

 to Australia, New Zealand, and the Sandwich Islands, to Germany, 

 France, and the Netherlands, where the eggs have been thankfidly re- 

 ceived, hatched out with perfect success, and successfully i^lanted. 

 Wherever taken it has been looked upon as one of the most important 

 subjects of fish-culture. Without any exception, the distribution of the 



* The experience in the Merrimac and the Delaware Rivers, and to a like degree on 

 the Susquehanna is miich the same as that mentioned for the Connecticut. Specimens 

 of Bahnon from all these rivers are preserved in the National Museum. 



