American Fisheries Society 73 



ciated with him for twenty years perhaps may furnish an 

 excuse for my speaking in his behalf without other prepara- 

 tion than those twenty years of famihar intercourse and 

 knowledge of his work. 



Mr. Atkins was one of the two first commissioners of the 

 State of Maine appointed in 1867, and he brought from 

 Canada, in 1870, the first salmon eggs artificially hatched 

 in Maine. There were 8,000 of these for which he paid 

 forty dollars in gold per thousand, and he brought them 

 home in a trunk. Although the result of this experiment 

 was limited as to the total number of fish produced, they 

 were of excellent quality, over 7,000 young fish being 

 carried to the planting time the following winter. Later 

 he made the first attempt to take salmon eggs in the United 

 States, buying live adults of the fishermen in June and 

 July, and impounding them in several places. The in- 

 closure in Alamoosook Lake at the mouth of Craig Brook 

 proved to be well adapted to the purpose, and the salmon 

 there confined yielded 70,000 eggs, of whicli Mr. Atkins suc- 

 ceeded in fecundating 96 per cent, using the dry method of 

 applying the milt — the first time that method was ever used 

 in America. Craig Brook is the place where Mr. Atkins has 

 since had such great success in salmon culture, although he 

 at first moved from there to a brook in Bucksport where 

 he carried on operations for several years. 



During that time he organized an association of com- 

 missions of the States of Maine, Massachussetts, New 

 Hampshire, and Connecticut, for the purpose of propa- 

 gating Atlantic and land-locked salmon. When the United 

 States Fish Commission was established Professor Baird 

 joined this association, each of the commissions contributing 

 to the fund for carrying on the work and sharing in the out- 

 put. As Maine commissioner, Mr. Atkins was the author of 

 the first five reports — 1867-1871 — which cover a wide field. 

 He entered the service of the United States Commission in 

 1872. and as we all know contributed many important 

 articles to its early reports. 



