[5] A FOREIGN REVIEW OF AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 481 
essentially of a temporary character. Some of the establishments are 
specially devoted to various experiments in pisciculture, such as the arti- 
ficial propagation of the shad, of the codfish, the herring, and some 
other fish. But there are, besides, some permanent establishments, 
nearly all of which are each devoted to one special kind of fish, producing 
the embryonated eggs or the young fish needed for stocking the waters. 
Four of these establishments are of special importance; these are the 
one at Bucksport, Me., for common salmon; the one on the McCloud 
River, California, for California salmon; Grand Lake Stream, Maine, for 
lake salmon, called “land locked salmon”; and Northville, Mich., for 
fish of the Coregonus species. 
The first of these establishments is in charge of Mr. Charles G. Atkins, 
formerly Commissioner of Fisheries of the State of Maine, who has made 
the raising of salmon the subject of special studies. We are indebted to 
him for treatises and observations of great practical utility, of which we 
Shall have occasion to speak below. The establishment, located on the 
Penobscot River,” is entirely constructed of wood, with double walls, 
the space between being filled with sawdust, which shelters the interior 
equally well from the heat and cold. The large incubating room, 23 
meters long and 9 meters broad, is occupied by 40 long wooden troughs, 
placed parallel with each other and lengthwise of the room, in groups 
of four, and furnished with wire frames for receiving the eggs to be 
hatched ; 4,500 liters of water every 24 hours feed these troughs. This 
hatching establishment annually produces 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 of em- 
bryonated eggs, and hatches 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 young fish. 
Two interesting facts must be mentioned respecting the Bucksport es- 
tablishment, viz, (1) the application of the so-called “dry method,” which 
its director, Mr. Atkins, has applied from the very beginning to artificial 
fecundation; (2) the system of “ parking” salmon, also practiced by the 
director, so as to insure, at the proper time, a sufficient quantity of eggs 
and milt. 
According to Mr. James W. Milner," an assistant in the Fish Com- 
mission, a note on pisciculture in Russia, published in 1870 in the Bul- 
letin dela Société Wacclimatation” had at the time drawn the attention of 
American pisciculturists to the happy results obtained by Mr. Vrassky 
with his method of fecundation, which consists in placing the eggs dry 
in a vessel, and moistening them with milt diluted in water. This is 
the so-called ‘‘Russian” method. Mr. Atkins conceived the idea of 
pushing the application of this system still farther by moistening the 
dry eggs with undiluted milt, and adding the water afterwards. The 
10This establishment is not maintained entirely at the expense of the Federal Gov- 
ernment; several States generally subscribe a certain sum for the annual expenditure, 
and receive a number of. embryonated eggs proportioned to the sum subscribed by 
them. 
uJ. W. MILNER: The progress of Fish-culture in the United States. 
PAUL VE@LKEL: L’établissement de Nikolsk pour Véducation des poissons de luxe. 
Bulletin 1870, p. 508. 
S. Mis. 29——31 
