8 FISH CULTURE. 



the river or the river itself, above Holyoke, with any sea 

 going fish.* 



It will be seen from the foregoing considerations that 

 if the Legislature desires the restocking of any of its 

 rivers with migratory fish, it will be necessary to open to 

 them the channels of migration ; and of course it is for 

 them to say how this shall be done. Wherever there is a 

 fall to be surmounted, a fall too high at present for fish to 

 scale, ladders must be provided. It would seem, — and 

 this has appeared to be the view taken of it by those 

 legislatures which have taken the matter in hand, — that 

 where the obstacles are natural obstacles, the State should 

 be at the expense of building fish-ways, but that where 

 the obstacles are artificial, those constructing them should 

 be obliged to construct the fish-ways; and, therefore, I 

 have respectfully to suggest that this Legislature will 

 direct that wherever there are dams, or other artificial 

 obstructions to the passage of migratory fish, the builders 

 of such dam or obstructions shall build the necessary fish- 

 ways, when called upon by the fish commissioners to do 

 it, and that the necessary appropriations be made for 

 constructing such fish-ways over natural obstructions in 

 such streams, ©pen to the sea, as the commissioners may 

 select for stocking with shad or salmon. 



In regard to stocking ponds and lakes and streams 

 which are non-navigable, it will be necessary for the judi- 



* I was asked, on the occasion of the delivery of this address, how it 

 was known that salmon and other fishes always return to the streams in 

 which they were hatched. It was finally determined in this way: ,; At 

 some of the hatching establishments, like that at Btromontfield, a number 

 of the young salmon ready to go down to the sea were marked in various 

 ways — some by cutting off the little fin on the back, some by inserting 

 little gold or silver rings into their fins. Those having these marks 

 returned in diminished numbers (for only a certain proportion of all 

 turned loose escaped destruction from various causes) to the streams in 

 which they were hatched, and none were ever caught with these marks in 

 any other stream. 



