REPORT OF STATE FISH COMMISSIONERS, ETC. 937 



caught last year, but this year, I presume, there has been taken tons of 

 them in the river within eight miles each way of this place. It does not 

 seem possible that the fish put in here could have produced as many 

 fish as there seems to be in the river. There seems to be no end to the 

 bass. 1 have only been out once this year, and then a gentleman and 

 myself caught 35, several of which would weigh at least two pounds each. 



There have several been caught that weighed as high as three pounds 

 and over. 



As to the trout in the small streams, I cannot tell what they will come 

 to yet, as it has not been long enough yet. 

 Yours, respectfully, 



BARNEY M. STEBBINS. 



(Tenth annual report New York fishery commissioners, 1877, p. 47.) 



Atlantic salmon. 



"Peekskill, K Y., March 11, 1878. 



" I wish to mention the capture of a salmon, a true Salmo salar, in 

 the Hudson, about two miles north of our village. It was taken on the 

 flats this morning, near the mouth of Snake Hole Creek, just below 

 lona Island, in an ordinary seine, while its captors were hauling for 

 perch and other small fish. It measured 33 inches in length and 

 weighed but 8J pounds, being in very poor condition, and presenting 

 the appearance of having recently spawned. Small fish of this species 

 have been taken through the ice during the past winter in T-nets, but 

 nothing approached this in size. I regret my inability to forward you 

 the fish, but it was disjDosed of before I saw it. Am I justified in sup- 

 posing it to be one of the fry introduced into the upper part of our 

 rivers a few years since*?" 



This confirms the observations of Mr. Atkins, that the salmon which 

 spawn in the fall and winter of each year return to the salt water the 

 year following, and again return to the fresh water the next year ; so 

 that while one stock of spawners will ascend the rivers in the even 

 years, as in 1874, 1876, 1878, «&c., another body of fish comes up in 1875, 

 1877, 1879, &c. (New Hampshire fish commission report, 1878, p. 29.) 



Shad. — Forest and Stream says : '' Syracuse papers of the 10th instant 

 are congratulating Mr. Seth G-reen upon accumulating evidence of his 

 success in cultivating shad in Lake Ontario. Very recently a fine male 

 shad, weighing five and a half pounds, was caught in a gill-net, six or 

 seven miles out in Lake Ontario, off Port Ontario, at the mouth of Sal- 

 mon River. The fish is the largest of its kind yet caught in the lakes, 

 and is one of those placed in its waters by Mr. Green in the year 1872. 

 The attempt to introduce this fish in fresh water was an exi)eriment. It 

 is now no longer in the list of experiments, but a matter of certainty. 

 The fish have been caught at various points on the lake ever since the 

 fry were put in, and appear to grow as rapidly and possess all the quali- 

 ties of the shad that are caught from salt water. (New Hampshire fish 

 commission report, 1878, p. 29.) 



