(1.5) 



structions from Prof. Baird. His idea has been that this salmon 

 will ascend our warm Southern streams, and the eggs coming 

 from the general fund cost us nothing but express charges. 

 Last season over two hundred and thirty thousand were turned 

 loose in our waters and although this season one crate of 52,500 

 were almost a total loss from over-heating while en route, the 

 rest turned out in a most gratifying manner and we released 

 upwards of 300,000. In the hatching ponds at Swannanoa 

 Gap I have eight of those hatched last fall, and many were seen 

 last summer in the streams in which they had been released. 

 They are six inches long and much more active than the moun- 

 tain trout. I am reliably informed that a few of this same 

 variety placed into Dr. D. W. C. Benbow's pond, near Greens- 

 boro, in the fall winter of 1875, measured at two years of age 

 7iineteen inches in length. At that time they had been in fresh 

 Avater six months longer than nature provides, and demt nstrated 

 their power to live even in as warm water as our midland streams 

 afford. 



On reference to the report of the Commissioner of Fisheries 

 of California, of 1877, it will be found that this species has been 

 converted into a fresh water fish when effectually cut off from 

 the lower waters, but I am rather inclined to believe it would 

 do so in our waters in pure, clear mountain streams only. Thus 

 changed they attained a weight of as much as ten pounds. As 

 before stated the California salmon attains naturally an average 

 weight of twenty pounds. The larger ones attain forty, sixty 

 and sometimes seventy pounds. The young remain in fresh water 

 about eighteen months and then pass down to the sea. Here 

 they remain till grown when they return in the fall months to 

 spawn. A large number have been seen in Atlantic rivers al- 

 ready, and if their introduction proves a complete success we 

 will have at our doors the finest fish in the world. Why it shall 

 not live here I cannot see. Full three fourths of the plants, 

 cereals, vegetables and grasses on which man and other animals 

 live are imported. There is a vast revenue derived from salmon 

 on rivers where they have not been recklessly destroyed. The 

 salmon of the Columbia river, Oregon, arc yet abundant and 

 furnished a few seasons back in amounts, canned, thirteen mil- 



