THE COMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES = 427 
the danger of the loss of the fishes which supply sport to 
the angler; depopulated trout streams, and the vanished 
salmon of the Maine rivers, furnished a terrible example 
which could not be ignored. Seth Green and others had 
already inaugurated the hatching of spawn and stocking 
private preserves and some public streams with trout 
which could be raised from the spawn and kept safe from 
the dangers which beset the young fry under natural 
conditions, until they were old enough to look out for 
their own safety. 
The Association was successful in urging the addition 
to the functions of the Commission (in 1872) the task 
of establishing hatcheries, especially for the fresh water 
fishes. To this Baird afterward added similar facilities 
for the marine forms, a quite new departure. This added 
work had magnificent results. The inshore cod-fishery 
of New England was measurably restored. The shad 
was transferred successfully to the Pacific coast, where 
it has so greatly flourished as to become a market staple. 
Salmon eggs were transported overseas to New Zealand; 
and the rate of destruction of the Potomac fisheries was 
checked. On the Pacific Coast the almost exhausted 
salmon fisheries of the more southern districts were re- 
populated by the establishment of hatcheries. 
The less favorable side of the matter lay in the fact 
that a hatchery meant the expenditure of Government 
money, and the demand for one from Congressional dis- 
tricts where the waters were suitable only for carp and 
catfish was as vociferous as if they were the normal 
habitat of trout and bass. The only marked failure of 
the operations of the Commission was in the attempt to 
transfer to the depleted Eastern rivers the salmon of the 
Pacific Coast. Many millions of young salmon were 
