4 FISH CULTURE. 



lege of catching salmon in the streams), that the value of 

 the salmon sent to the London market alone, — and this 

 makes no account of those consumed in Scotland, or sent 

 to Ireland and the great interior towns and cities of 

 England — is, reckoning the value at a price per pound 

 twenty per cent, less than that which obtains in this State, 

 for the fifteen years inclusive from 1850 to 1865, eight 

 million six hundred and eighty-nine thousand five hun- 

 dred dollars ($8,689,500). 



Now Vermont has quite a number of streams fit for 

 the production of salmon. Indeed, I am informed that 

 Scotland has not a single river equal to the Connecticut, 

 if you include its tributaries. Waiving the consideration 

 of the fact that within quite a recent period a number of 

 streams in Europe have been stocked which had never 

 before been known to have salmon in them, Vermont 

 has several important streams fit for producing salmon — 

 fit because, all unchanged in the quality and quantity of 

 water as they are now, they once produced salmon in the 

 greatest abundance. Dr. Williams, in his history of Ver- 

 mont, states that in his time they were abundant in most 

 of the large streams of Vermont. Thompson reiterates 

 the declaration. They were found in the Connecticut and 

 its tributaries in such abundance that the hired men in the 

 region of these waters were wont to make a stipulation, 

 in their contracts for service, that they should be obliged 

 to eat salmon but twice a week. 



This fish once came in great numbers into Lake Cham- 

 plain, and from it ascended all the penetrable rivers 

 emptying into this body of water. The late Mr. Foquet 

 of Plattsburg once told me that when he was a boy he 

 had often seen the salmon approaching the river at Platts- 



