NATURE 



429 



THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 1879 



THE UNITED STATES FISHERIES 



United States Commission 0/ Fish and Fisheries— Report 

 of the Commissioner for 1875-76. (Washington : 

 Government Printing Office, 1878.) 



THE series of volumes now being issued by Mr. 

 Spencer Baird, Fishery Commissioner of the United 

 States, of which the foxurth has just reached us, is in every 

 way remarkable. As a much required contribution to our 

 scanty knowledge of fishery economy and the natural his- 

 tory of American food fishes, it presents a mass of very 

 valuable information ; the details incidental to the propa- 

 gation of carp and salmon are particularly interesting, not 

 only because they show the gigantic scale on which these 

 things are done on the other side of the Atlantic, but 

 also because of what they teach as to the mode of doing 

 them. The historic and economic sketches of the fish 

 and fisheries of various other nations are likewise full of 

 interest, Mr. Baird having allowed nothing to escape 

 which he thinks will illustrate his subject or render testi- 

 mony to the value of the work in which he is engaged. 



The contents of the present volume, if not so varied 

 as those of some of its predecessors — over 750 of its 

 pages being devoted to a historical account of the Ameri- 

 can whale fishery — are certainly not less interesting. 

 There is a report on the fisheries of Chicago and vicinity, 

 which, we are told, yield annually about 12,000,000 lbs. 

 weight of fish ; there is also an article on the condition of 

 the salmon fisheries of the Columbia River, from which 

 we have recently been receiving enormous consignments 

 of canned salmon ; the present volume likewise contains 

 notes on the fishes of the Delaware, together with an 

 abundant supply of information regarding the propaga- 

 tion of various of the minor food fishes of America. 



We are not in the least surprised to learn that a 

 diminution of the supplies of Columbia River salmon 

 {Salmo guinnat) has taken place. These fish, consequent 

 on being free to all who choose to capture them, have given 

 constant employment to about fifteen "canneries" during 

 ten or twelve years, each of which, if we strike an average, 

 will turn out a million pounds weight of fish per annum. 

 There are various kinds of salmon in the Columbia 

 River, but there seems to be some confusion regarding 

 their proper identification; that we have mentioned is 

 the one which is captured for the canneries. It will 

 probably be found on further investigation that one or 

 two of the so-called varieties are simply the same fish in 

 different stages, as in the case of Salmo salar and the 

 " grilse ; " fish of all sizes being, we are told, found 

 together in the Columbia and its tributaries. It is rather 

 singular that no very large salmon are found in that 

 great stream. Mr. Livingstone Stone who reports to 

 the Commission on the subject, says that the largest 

 salmon he ever saw had a girth of 31 inches, and was 

 35 inches in length and weighed 65^ lbs. One which 

 was said to have weighed 83 lbs. was reported to Mr. 

 Stone by a fisherman who saw it. The average weight 

 of the Columbia salmon {Salmo quinnat) is from 22 

 to 23lbs. whole, but when dressed for market only about 

 I7lbs. The ratio of salmon growth has never been 

 Vol. XIX. — No. 489 



accurately determined. Some large salmon {Salmo 

 salar) are captured in the salmon streams of Scotland, 

 but the age of such fish cannot be set down with any 

 certainty. In a report made by Mr. Stone given in a 

 previous volume of Mr. Spencer Baird's reports (1872-73) 

 regarding the Sacramento salmon, it is mentioned as 

 a "theory" that salmon are full-grown at the age of 

 about three years. We commend this question of 

 salmon growth to the farther notice of Mr. Commissioner 

 Baird. In the United Kingdom the evidence obtained 

 on this point has hitherto been of the most contradictory 

 nature. Our own opinion is that salmon are never '• full 

 grown," or rather that as long as they are alive they 

 continue, under proper conditions of food and living 

 room, to increase in weight and size. After much 

 weighing of evidence we recently came to the conclusion 

 that a fish which we handled in August last (1878), 

 and which weighed 54 lbs., was at least nine or per- 

 haps ten years old. From some inquiries which we 

 are making, we hope to be provided with sufficient data 

 for a settlement of the question during next fishing 

 season. Returning for a moment to Salmo guin.naf, 

 the following notice of the periods and strength of its 

 migration may be useful for comparison with the habits 

 of Salmo salar : — " The salmon make their first appear- 

 ance in February, though in very small numbers ; the 

 main body arrives in May, June, and especially in July, 

 when the run is enormous. The May salmon are largest. 

 Perhaps the most correct view to take of the running of 

 the salmon is to consider all the salmon as included in 

 one run, beginning in February, increasing in May and 

 June, and culminating in July, though they might also be 

 legitimately divided into three runs, the first or meagre 

 run coming in February, March, and April, the second 

 or full run in May and June, and the third or maximum 

 nm in July. After July they diminish very rapidly, and 

 soon almost entirely disappear from the river." 



It is at present being considered, we believe, whether 

 or not it will be necessary to resort to " pisciculture " on 

 the Columbia river. Would it not be better to limit for 

 a time the spoliation of the water ? At present no check 

 whatever is placed on the fishery, and each "cannery" 

 captures and tins all the salmon that it can find, and 

 with each establishment working up a million pounds' 

 weight per annum, the complete exhaustion of the supply 

 is only a work of time, as has been demonstrated in our 

 own rivers. 



The artificial, hatching of salmon is conducted in the 

 United States on quite a gigantic scale. A table is given 

 in the report of " operations on the McCloud river in 

 1876," from which we learn that on one day, Sept. 4, over 

 a million salmon eggs were obtained by a process of arti- 

 ficial spawning. During the years 1874-75 and 1876, the 

 number of ova taken for despatch to different river= was 

 21,877,300. In 1875, 8,629,300 eggs were secured, which, 

 at the British rate of a thousand eggs for each pound of 

 salmon weight, represents the handling of a large number 

 of fish. The cost of collecting the spawn is about four 

 shillings per thousand. The eggs taken in the McCloud 

 river are widely distributed, some being sent to Canada 

 and a portion to New Zealand. 



Much valuable information is given in the present series 

 of reports on the best modes of salmon hatching, and the 



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