1 66 TRANSACTIONS iSqq-'oo 



Much interest naturally centres in the Newcastle Hatchery 

 on Lake Ontario, where thirty-five years ago the work com- 

 menced. The building, enlarged and improved, is situated on a 

 small stream at the head of a small creek or marsh opening into 

 the lake near Bowman ville, and about thirty-five miles east of 

 Toronto. A sheltered and secluded valley of great sylvan 

 beauty encloses the site, but the work has always been handi- 

 capped by its distance, both from good spawning grounds, and 

 from suitable areas for planting the fry. Mr. Wilmot erected 

 the hatchery, as was natural, near to his own residence, and at a 

 time when salmon frequented Lake Ontario, and resorted to the 

 creek in question for purposes of spawning. For many years 

 salmon have been practically extinct in these waters, and the 

 hatchery failed in its original purpose of keeping up the supply 

 of Lake Ontario salmon, which Mr. Wilmot claimed to be 

 indistinguishable from the sea-going Atlantic Salmon. From 

 1868 to 1873 over a million fry were sent out from this parent 

 hatchery (an average of 200,000 per annum.) A small private 

 hatchery was also carried on during these earlier years of 

 Canadian fish-culture, by the well-known salmon fisherman and 

 merchant, the late John Holliday. Mr. Holliday was born on 

 the banks of the famous salmon river, the Scottish Tay, and 

 was stimulated, no doubt, by the salmon-culture work at Stor- 

 monthfield, in Perthshire, commenced in 1853 ^Y the proprietors 

 of the salmon fisheries on the Tay. He built a hatching establish- 

 ment on the Moisie River (north shore of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence), which has continued its operations to the present 

 time. Messrs. Brown and Co., also erected a trout hatchery at 

 Gait, Ont., and, in 1868 had no less than 10,000 parent trout 

 impounded in one of their ponds for the purpose of taking spawn 

 for hatching purposes. Other hatcheries privately conducted 

 with zeal and success might be named, such as the Credit Forks 

 Hatcherv carried on by Mr. Chas. Wilmot, 'the Silver Creek 

 establishment near Toronto and others. 



In the United States, it was not until 1871 that fish-culture 

 became a recognised department of work under the auspices of the 

 Federal government. Previous to that year individual States had 

 made attempts in this direction, indeed. New Hampshire in 1865 

 had commenced fish-hatching operations, and agents were sent to 



