98 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTER XVn. 



Otheb "Work of the Commission. 



Besides the efforts made by the Pennsylvania Pish Commissioners 

 for the restoration of the shad-fishingr industries in the rivers of the 

 commonwealth, for the white fish industries of Lake Erie, for the in- 

 crease of piie-perch and for the establishment of the black bass in all 

 the suitable waters of the state, they early paid earnest attention to the 

 re-stocking of the trout streams of the state. In this endeavor they 

 have been eminently successful. As remarked in a former chapter, the 

 early output of fry was not only small, but the work of the commission 

 being but little known, there was only a slight demand for the fry. But 

 the light of the commission was not long hidden. By 1877 the output 

 of brook trout fry had reached 154,000, then considered an enormous 

 number. The following year 253,200 were distributed. From 1879 to 

 1881, inclusive, 595,600 brook trout fry were deposited in suitable waters 

 in the state, an average of 198,500 annually. In 1882, however, a great 

 leap was made and 449,200 yonug trout were liberated in the mountain 

 streams. Through various adverse circumstances, only 110,500 brook 

 trout were distributed in the next two years, but in 1885 the figures 

 were nearly repeated, 400,000 beine planted, and in 1886 it was slightly 

 exceeded, the number being 490,100. The following year another con- 

 siderable advance in the number propagated was made, and 689,000 

 speckled trout were sent out from the two hatcheries. This would have 

 been exceeded in 1888 except for a disease which attacked the fry in the 

 eastern hatchery, at Allentown, which destroyed over 400,000. As it 

 was, applications to the number of 560,500 were filled. With increased 

 facilities in the two hatching houses, in 1889 and 1890, 2,694,900 were 

 planted, and in 1891, 2,508,000. Altogether, since the work of artificial 

 propagation commenced, to and including the present year, nearly 12,- 

 000,000 brook trout fry have been hatched and distributed. The rich 

 yield of streams which a few years ago had become almost barren, and 

 the encouraging results of others which had been barren for many 

 years, are themselves indisputable evidence of the value of the work 

 done by the fish commissioners at a nominal cost to the state. 



SALMON. 



There is a tradition that at one time the Delaware was a salmon river, 

 but of this there is little or nothing on which to test its truth. It was, 

 however, the almost universal opinion, that whether the tradition was 



