KEPORT OF STATE FISH COMMISSIONERS, ETC. 939 



" 1 am happy thus to open a comnQunication with yourself as one of 

 the commissioners of New Jersey, and shall take pleasure in acting with 

 you in the promotion of the common work of stocking our rivers with 

 useful food-fish. 



Yours, truly, 



"Spencer F. Baird, 

 " United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. 

 "To E. J. Anderson, 



" Commissioner of Fisheries^ State of New Jersey.^' 



During the shad season, which closed below Trenton June 10, and 

 above Trenton June 15, 1878, a number of salmon were taken by shad 

 fishermen at different points on the Delaware. It has been impossible 

 to procure information of all that were taken, but a sufficient number 

 were reported to warrant the assertion that from fifty to one hundred 

 were taken before June 10. All of those reported to the commissioners 

 were larger fish than any of those taken in the preceding year, and 

 ranged in weight from 12 to 29 pounds, only two or three weighing less 

 than 15 pounds. After the shad season closed and the nets were taken 

 from the water, there was nothing to interrupt the progress of the 

 salmon from the sea to the headwaters of the stream, and doubtless 

 many passed up and deposited their eggs, since the commissioners are 

 informed of a number of large ones having been seen at different points 

 in the river between Trenton and Port Jervis. 



In the Raritan River, one large fish was taken near Few Brunswick 

 in the summer of 1878; but none have been reported as yet from the 

 Passaic and Hackensack Rivers. 



The facts above stated concerning the presence of salmon in the Dela- 

 ware were deemed to go far toward demonstrating the success of the 

 efforts to convert that river into a salmon stream. (Report of the 

 commissioners of fisheries of the State of New Jersey, 1878, pp. 15, 

 16, 17.) 



New Jersey makes a very favorable report of the general progress of 

 fish culture. Shad are increasing in numbers, and very greatly in size 

 and quality; and salmon have made their appearance in the Delaware, 

 as mentioned by the Maryland commissioners, nine haying been taken 

 this year, though their report does not say whether they were Penobscot 

 or California salmon, both of which have been planted. Two were taken 

 at Newcastle in May ; two at Riverton in May ; one between Borden- 

 town and Trenton in May ; two at the Delaware Water Gap in October; 

 one in October at Carpenter's Point, the extreme northwest corner of 

 New Jersey, and one in the Bushkill in November. The fisherman 

 who took the two at the Gap was ignorant of the species till informed 

 by Mr. A. A. Anderson. The taking of the five last mentioned, in the 

 fall, and so far up stream, some sixty or one hundred miles above tide, 

 shows that they were seeking spawning-grounds at the headwaters of 

 the river, andj if of the California variety, except the last, at the usual 



