11 



who have natural ponds on their farms, or who have surplus water 

 from wind-mills and have made artificial ponds, have stocked them 

 with this excellent fish. The produce of the few fish of this species, 

 imiDorted in 1874, now annually furnishes a large and valuable sup- 

 ply of fish food to people in the interior of the State. The value of 

 all the fish of this species, now caught annually and consumed as 

 food, would more than equal the annual appropriation made by the 

 State and placed at the disposal of the Fish Commissioners. This 

 variety of catfish has valuable characteristics which admirably fit it 

 for wide distribution and for self-preservation in the struggle for 

 existence. The female makes a round nest in the bottom of a pond 

 in which she deposits usually from 3,000 to 5,000 eggs. These are 

 fecundated by the male who then leaves them to the care of the 

 female. The mother remains over them fanning them with her fins, 

 probably to keep them oxyginated with fresh currents of water, as 

 well as to prevent them being smothered by sediment. She remains 

 in constant attendance, driving away every fish that approaches her 

 nest. In from six to ten days the young make their appearance. 

 Her care does not cease with the birth of the young fish. She now 

 swims about them in a circle, keeping them together until all are 

 hatched. When all the young fish are fitted to swim she leads them 

 off to find food, still keeping them in a body by circling about them 

 and driving back wanderers, as a trained shepherd dog drives in a 

 wandering sheep ; she will at the same time fight any other fish that 

 comes near her charge. In another week or ten days they are pre- 

 pared to search for their own food, when they gradually disperse. 

 Since our last report we have distributed 39,000 of these fish to public 

 waters to stock rivers, ponds, and reservoirs in the Counties of Butte, 

 San Joaquin, Yuba, Sonoma, Ventura, San Diego, Sacramento, Placer, 

 El Dorado, Alameda, Colusa, Yolo, Sutter, Nevada, Stanislaus, Tuo- 

 lumne, Modoc, Los Angeles, Mono, Solano, Mendocino, and Lassen. 



LAND-LOCKED SALMON (SALMO SEBAGO?). 



In January, 1878, through the kindness of Professor Spencer F. 

 Baird, United States Fish Commissioner, we received from the United 

 States hatching-house of Grand Lake Stream, Maine, 50,000 eggs of 

 the land-locked salmon. This fish is found in a few lakes in the 

 northern part of the State of Maine. In structure they are the same 

 as the Atlantic salmon (salmo solar). They have probably been 

 derived from the Atlantic salmon, which, by some natural cause at 

 a remote period, were prevented from returning to the ocean. Their 

 descendants, finding sufiicient food in these lakes, have lost the 

 instinct which compelled their ancestors to return to the ocean, and 

 they are now fitted to live continuously and breed in fresh water 

 streams and lakes. As was stated in our last report, the California 

 salmon {quinnat) has the same characteristics, and readily adapts 

 itself to a life in fresh water. The reservoir of the Spring Valley 

 Water Company, supplying San Francisco with water, and known as 

 San Andreas and Pilarcitos, are well stocked with salmon, the pro- 

 duct of those prevented from returning to the ocean by the construc- 

 tions of the dams. Lake Chabot, the reservoir from which the City 

 of Oakland is supplied with water, is also well stocked by the same 

 means, and from young salmon placed therein. In the winter of 

 1875-6 a large number of young salmon were placed in the Truckee 



