302 BRITISH FISHERIES 



next to the salmon, the most abundant fish in 

 the rivers of the Pacific slope, and became cheaper 

 than on the Atlantic side. When first taken, its 

 price was $1.20 per pound,^ but after a time this 

 fell to about 2 cents in many places. In 1892 

 the catch of this fish, which, however, was not 

 the sole object of a fishery, was 700,000 lbs. 

 These results were held to be highly gratifying, 

 and encouraged the Americans to develop the 

 system of fish-culture to the extent at present 

 represented by their official reports.^ 



At the present time, then, fish-culture is 

 extensively practised on the other side of the 

 Atlantic. According to the last report of the 

 Commissioner, there were hatched in 1902 

 1,495,543,374 fish eggs, all the resulting fry of 

 which were distributed throughout the rivers and 

 fishing grounds of the United States by means of 

 the very complete system of transport developed 

 by the Fish Commission. Of this enormous 

 number of fish fry, the majority consisted of 

 fresh-water species, and were principally salmon, 

 trout, bass, etc. About fifteen millions were 

 game fish, but all the rest belonged to species 

 forming the object of the commercial fisheries. 

 The principal salt-water species dealt with were : — 



1 One suspects, however, that this was a " fancy price.'' 



^ See Commissioner's Report, U.S. Fish Commission, for 1893 



(1895), p. 72, for an account of the results of shad culture and 



acclimatisation. 



