1006 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



advice and implements will be very welcome to me before the end of 

 February, 1877, since at that time I must make the statement, in which 

 I should like to exhibit your communications and what you send. Mr. 

 Bancroft Davis has the great kindness to allow his banker to discharge 

 immediately my debt for the implements, and that they may be for- 

 warded to him here. 



I need not say that I hold myself in readiness to do any service in 

 return on the part of Germany. 



With the utmost respect, I am, your obedient servant, 



VON BEHR. 

 (Address, Schmoldow Bei Greifswald, Prussia.) 

 Professor Baird, 



United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, 



Washington. 



January 24, 1877. 



Dear Sir : I am indebted to Mr. J. Bancroft Davis for your interest- 

 ing communication of the 7th instant, in which you ask for certain in- 

 formation in regard to the operations of the United States Fish Commis- 

 sion. In reply thereto I beg to inclose, in the first place, a letter written 

 by Mr. James W. Milner, the assistant commissioner, who is especially 

 charged with the field-work of the commission. I also send you by mail 

 some pamphlets, which contain, in part, the data asked for by you. I 

 will transmit through the State Department the larger volumes referred 

 to in Mr. Milner's article. 



I think we have succeeded in solving the problem of the inexpensive 

 hatching of certain fish on a large scale. 



The fact that 10,000,000 eggs of Coregonus albus can be batched in one 

 establishment is only paralleled by the ability of the United States sal- 

 mon establishment on the McCloud River to hatch at one time 15,000,000 

 of the eggs of the California salmon. 



Before proceeding further in my response, I would mention that the 

 California salmon is a fish which promises a brilliant future to the world, 

 from its rapid growth and its ability to resist extreme heat and cold. 

 A salmon that is not materially inconvenienced by water having a tem- 

 perature of 80 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit is somewhat of an acquisition, 

 as it can be introduced into waters where Salmo salar would perish very 

 quickly. In many instances, where in our ponds in the Eastern States 

 we have had the young of both species together, a sudden rise of tempera- 

 ture has destroyed at once all the S. salar, leaving the S. quinnat in ex- 

 cellent health. 



In an accompanying memorandum I give you the successive appro- 

 priations made by the United States for the purpose of fish culture. 

 You will please observe, however, the distinction between the appropri- 

 ation for inquiry and that for propagation. 



By inquiry is meant the investigations in regard to the statistics of 



