34 



hatched them in Kew York city by Croton water," but they all died 

 "from preventable causes when liberated." Let this matter be as it 

 may, it was certainly a failure in the introduction of salmon into 

 American waters. Dr. Fletcher writes me : " In September, 1866, I 

 again went alone to New Brunswick for the ova of the salmon, and 

 succeeded in bringing home some twenty or twenty-five thousand 

 impregnated ova." Of these a large number were put into the 

 Merrimac river, at Woodstock and Thornton, N. H., without being 

 artificially hatched, and whether all or even any salmon fry were 

 hatched out, the doctor is unable to state, A few hundred, and the 

 remainder of this lot of eggs, the doctor hatched out artificially, at 

 Concord. He writes me : " I kept and hatched a few hundred for the 

 purpose of studying them during the period of incubation, and also 

 observing their changes and growth after hatching." Also, " I saved 

 specimens of them when hatched, fifteen days old, one month old, and 

 once a month up to a year old; and when sixteen months old I placed 

 the remainder of them, in the Pemigwassett, at Compton, by order 

 of the commissioner." These were the first salmon placed in our 

 waters that I have any knowledge of, and being placed there at sixteen 

 months old they must have been quite large smolts — almost approach- 

 ing the period when some of them were about putting on the grilse 

 character. Supposing them to have hatched out as early as February, 

 1867, the sixteen months following their birth would have made it 

 June, 1868, when they were placed in the Pemigwassett, at Compton. 

 This, the first real undertaking of the kind, was a success so far as 

 the introduction of the salmon into our waters was concerned, and if 

 any definite knowledge could be had with reference to the eggs which 

 the doctor put into the Merrimac at Woodstock and Thornton having 

 hatched, we could date their first introduction as early as March, 1867. 

 The opinion is favorably entertained that quite a considerable number 

 did hatch of those left in the waters of the Merrimac at Woodstock, 

 and that we may safely reckon the spring of 1867 as the correct date 

 of their introduction to Amxcrican waters. Be this as it may, no after 

 consideration of their return has confirmed the opinion entertained. 

 In 1867 he writes me: "I again went to New Brunswick for 

 another lot of salmon ova, and succeeded in bringing home as many as 

 I could pack in four champagne baskets, 100,000 or more." One- 

 lialf of these were distributed by the commission to Robinson & Hoyt, 

 of Meredith, N. H., and the other half to Livingston Stone, of 

 Charlestown, N. H. Only twelve per cent of this lot of eggs were 

 impregnated, and about ninety-nine per cent of the impregnated ones 



