250 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Virginia rainbow trout from California had been established in the hatchery stream 

 by planting fingerliug fish after plantings of fry of this species of fish had failed, and 

 he desired to try a like experiment with the salmon also from the Pacific coast. I 

 selected several streams in Vermont, tributary to the Batteukill River, which in turn 

 flows into the Hudson. The streams were free from everything injurious to young 

 salmon and there were no natural or artificial obstructions in them. Later, I went to 

 Vermont with one of the United States Fish Commission cars and planted several 

 thousand yearling (California) salmon in the streams selected for the purpose. Not 

 one of them has ever been heard of since they went down to the sea. 



The experiment of stocking the Hudson with Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) was 

 begun in 1882, at which time 225,000 fry were planted in small streams tributary to 

 the head of the river about 260 miles above Sandy Hook. Nothing was heard from 

 this plant until 1886, or four years after, when adult fish returned to the river 

 weighing from 9 to 16 pounds, and ascended to Troy, where they were stopped by the 

 State dam. Every year since, with one exception, plants of salmon fry or yearlings 

 have been made in the river, and every year adult fish have been captured in the 

 lower river by the nets of fishermen. 



One thing has been proven to my satisfaction beyond peradventure by these 

 experiments. The young of the Salmo salar when planted in the Hudson do not go 

 to the sea until they are two years old, and they return from the sea when they are 

 four years old. If I should make this statement before a European audience I would 

 be accused of rank heresy, and possibly right here in Tampa delegates to the National 

 Fisheries Congress will desire to know what proof I have of this assertion. I planted 

 salmon fry in a trout stream tributary to the Hudson which had never contained 

 salmon, and it was two years before they arrived at the smolt stage and took their 

 departure for the sea in silvery livery. Selecting another stream I made a like plant, 

 and it was two years before the parr put on the smolt dress and turning their tails to 

 the sea drifted down with the current. During the past fourteen years I have planted 

 salar fry in various streams, and always, when in a new stream where they could be 

 watched tbat no mistake would be made, they have remained for two years before 

 going to sea. 



Since the first plant of salar fry a total of 3,486,000 have been planted in the 

 Hudson River, this number including 12,000 yearlings. All the eggs were furnished 

 by the United States Fish Commission and came from the Peuobscot River in Maine. 

 For a number of years after the initial plant the United States paid all the expenses 

 of hatching and distributing the young fish, but later the Government furnished the 

 eggs and the Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission of New York hatched and 

 planted the fish at the expense of the State. 



It is of record that in one year over 300 adult salmon, from 10 to 38 pounds each, 

 were taken in nets in the Lower Hudson, every fish taken contrary to law. It is true 

 that some salmon taken in nets are released by the fisherman, but the high price 

 offered for Hudson River salmon in the New York markets sorely tempts a fisherman 

 to kill such salmon as may be taken in his net, instead of releasing them uninjured, as 

 the law directs. Fishways have been erected in the Hudson by the State at Troy, 

 Mechanicsville, and Thomsons Mills, but other fishways must be built before the river 

 is open to the fish from the sea to the pure water of the upper river where the salmon 

 would naturally go to find spawning-grounds. The Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk is 



