946 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AKD FISnERIES. 



McCloud Eiver, r.ent by the United States Fish Coniinission last year, 

 and intended for Xew Zealand, having been left in Australia for want 

 of sufficient ice to take them to their destination, openeil in good order, 

 were hatched out by the Australians, and the young salmon placed suc- 

 cessfully in tlie Australian rivers. New Zealand applied for a few hun- 

 dred thousand this year, but will probably want next year nearly as 

 many millions. The Sandwich Islands have begun with 30,000 eggs, 

 but will, without doubt, increase their application in future to hundreds 

 of thousands. No eggs have yet been sent to South America, but the 

 government of Chili has expressed a desire for some, and as soon as the 

 political disturbances there admit of moving in this direction a large 

 number of salmon-eggs will probably be wanted for Chili. To illustrate 

 the changes that have taken place in the last few years in the world's 

 supply cf salmon-eggs, I will mention the striking fact that five years 

 ago the United States paid the Canadians $40 a thousand, in gold, for 

 salmon-eggs, and now the United States Fish Commission is sending 

 salmon-eggs from California to the British colonies of the Pacific for 50 

 cents a thousand, being a reduction of price in the ratio of 80 to 1. 



G— THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW STATIONS. 



Salmon-breeding on the Pacific coast has, up to this time, been con- 

 fined to the McCloud River station, in Shasta County, California, but it 

 is quite possible that the United States Fish Commission will be required 

 to enlarge its sjthere of usefulness on this coast and establish branch 

 stations for salmon-breeding both on the San Joaquin Eiver and the 

 Columbia River. A station on the San Joaquin seems to be called for, 

 because we now know from actual observations that the San Joaquin 

 salmon, in ascending the river to spawn, go through water having a very 

 high temperature compared with all other known salmon-rivers in the 

 world, 'i his has led to the very reasonable supposition that San Joaquin 

 salmon may be made to flourish in the Atlantic rivers of the Southern 

 States, which have hitherto contained no fish of the salmon family. 

 The mere possibility of such an important result being attainable seems 

 to make it worth while to operate on the San Joaquin River in obtaining 

 salmon-ova, at least long enough to stock some of the Southern Atlantic 

 rivers, and fairly test the question whether this variety of salmon can be 

 made to live and thrive there. I would strongly recommend that the 

 attempt be made as soon as circumstances permit. 



On the Columbia River, a salmon-breeding station is called for to 

 enable the river to sustain the enormous draughts which are made upon 

 its salmon-supply by the canneries established on that river. It is esti- 

 mated that 40,00t),000 pounds of salmon were canned or cured on the 

 Columbia this season (1876). It will, indeed, be a wonderful river if it 

 can stand an annual draught on its resources of this magnitude. The 

 general anticipation is that the river, prolific as it is in salmon, will not 

 be equal to the occasion, and that artificial propagation must be resorted 



