87 



whatever it may be, and leave him for tlie flies to blow, and very soon 

 you have the desired food. Carbolic acid will destroy the odor. 



Throng-h tlie flrst winter they should have cold springs to run into 

 sufficiently large to contain quite a large school of tlieui, as they are 

 inclined to collect into large schools through the winter, and seek 

 water that does not freeze. 



I hardly think it best to confine them very long in small ponds 

 when one or two months old. As soon as they begin to feed they 

 might be let loose into quite large ponds in which grows the water- 

 cress, upon which they are said to feed quite voraciously ; yet, I am 

 inclined to think they do not feed so much upon the water-cress as 

 upon the larvte which inhabit it. I have examined the water-cress 

 where trout and young salmon have lived the past summer, and I find 

 it hardly touched. Still, I did see some evidence of its having been 

 nibbled by the salmon and trout, but not to such an extent as to war- 

 rant any one in concluding that they lived entirely on water-cress. 

 I notice that small larv^ do accumulate upon the water-cress, and that 

 trout and salmon look healthy when they are allowed to run among it, 

 and that they get quite a portion of their food ofl:' this plant. 



Water without the least perceptible current is best for them to run 

 in after the absorption of the sac, and the bottom should invariably 

 be of gravel. If the bottom is anywise inclined to be muddy, the 

 screens get clogged, and the water rises, falling over the edges of your 

 pond, creating a current which carries over the salmon fry, and they 

 get lost. 



They cannot withstand the least perceptible current. After the 

 absorption of the umbilical sack, all eftbrts they make in feeding are 

 in the very stillest water. Your screen is loaded with young salmon 

 the moment a current of water is created so as to be perceptible ; 

 hence the importance of seeing to this matter early. 



It now remains for me to speak of these results that have attended 

 this enterprise in America ; which, I nnist say, are nothing at 

 all commensurate with the labor bestowed upon them. Of the first 

 salmon fry introduced to the Merrimac river, N. H., no returns 

 have been realized. The salmon have been seen and caus^ht 

 going to sea, yet none have returned. Salmon were caught, however, 

 this spring at Holyoke, and at Saybrook, the mouth of the Connecti- 

 cut river, showing that the salmon fry introduced to the river in 1869 

 were attempting to return. Those in the Merrimac have never 

 returned, owing to the inefficient fishways at Lawrence and Lowell. 

 Mr. Stone informed me that a grilse was caught in the Connecticut 



