REPORT OF COMMISSIOIsER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. *13 



it is a matter of coiuparative indifiference where the fish are captured, 

 so that they are deveU)ped aud made available for the needs of the 

 country. At whatever poiut taken, they will find a market wherever there 

 is tlie greatest demand for theai, aud the country at large be benefited. 



The mutual relations of the States were considered to refer more espe- 

 cially to the question of the protection of the fish iutroduced either by 

 themselves or by the United States Commission, a system of forbear- 

 ance and harmonious action being necessary in order that all may be 

 l)roperly benefited. This is especially necessary where a river runs 

 successively through two or more States, as the Connecticut. What- 

 ever be the amount of effort or expenditure in regard to the propaga- 

 tion of fish made by the States on the upper tributaries of that river, 

 all might be entirely neutralized by a neglect on the part of the State 

 of Connecticut to prevent such a practice of fishing as to season and 

 extent, as would cut off more or less completely the ascent of the fish 

 above her territorial limits. 



Another subject of consideration by the convention was the hybrid- 

 izing of fish, with a view of removing the instinct of migration, and by 

 the atrophy of the sexual apparatus, allowing a more rapid accession of 

 flesh and of fat, as is the case with hybrids and. castrated domestic 

 animals. 



The convention adjourued, after a harmonious session, to meet, sub- 

 ject to the call of the United States Commissioner, at Chicago, in Octo- 

 ber, 18 r7. 



The necessity of aid to the State Fish-hatching establishment is shown 

 by the fact that, as a general princiiile, the expense to any one or even 

 two States involved in the erection of a suitable hatching establish- 

 ment for salmon, and in obtaining their eggs, as well as the difficulty 

 of finding outside their own limits a legitimate and proper scene of 

 operations is an effectual obstacle : and even were it possible to over- 

 come this difficulty, the funds would all be exhausted in the pro- 

 duction of the eggs, leaving nothing for their subsequent hatching out 

 and ultimate distribution. By the present method the entire cost is 

 borne by the appropriation for the United States Commission, and the 

 eggs are supplied as far as possible in such numbers as may be asked 

 for by the several State commissioners, who meet the cost of their trans- 

 portation from the hatching-station, their development, and their sub- 

 sequent introduction into the waters, the result being a harmony of 

 action and concurrent working toward a common end. 



In some instances States more particularly interested have contributed 

 to the cost of obtaining the eggs, for which they received a pro rata 

 return from the United States Commission. Thus, Massachusetts, Con- 

 necticut, and Maine have assisted in the production of the salmon eggs 

 in the last-mentioned State, while the State of California furnished a 

 liberal appropriation toward the expense of operations in the Sacra- 

 mento Eiver. 



