KOUR I'KF.N IH ANNUAL MEKTINO. 89 



It is to be hoped that the oystermen will cordially co-operate 

 in the work now in progress, and that by means of judicious 

 legislation the natural beds may be preserved and protected, and 

 the industry stimulated and permanency given to it in our 

 waters. 



Fulion Market, N'e7V York. 



THE BIENNIAL SPAWNING OF SALMON. 



(The Bucksport Experiments.) 

 by charles g. atkins. 



After the organization of the establishment for the collection 

 of eggs of sea-going salmon at Bucksport, on the Penobscot 

 river, in 1872, it was one of the earliest suggestions of Pro- 

 fessor Baird that we should attempt, as occasion might offer, to 

 obtain evidence bearing on the frequency and duration of the 

 salmon's migrations and its rate of growth. 



To carry out these suggestions it seemed requisite that obser- 

 vations should be made on individual fishes at successive peri- 

 ods in their lives ; vet, whatever means should be taken to 

 secure and identifv them must, it was evident, not prevent free 

 movement in the open river to and from the sea, or interfere 

 in any way with the development of their functions or their 

 regular growth. Tliey must be distinctly and durably marked, 

 yet in such a way as to do them no injury. The cutting of 

 the fins would answer the purpose only in part, since it would 

 not afford a sufficient variety in form to enable us to distin- 

 guish a great number of individuals. Branding upon the side 

 of the fish was thouglit of and even tried, but the serious mutila- 

 tion that befel the first fish operated on, and the extreme prob- 

 ability that those marks that were so lightly impressed as to do 

 no injury to the fish would soon become illegible, or so nearly 



