71 



ninety six feet in height, they may not have got there 

 and they certainly never got back. / They had attained 

 a length of about six inches and were a beautiful fish, 

 bright, lively, quick, and of fine game qualities, for 

 their size. If they were retained in fresh water by 

 proper screens, and if the supply fiom California were 

 to be relied upon as permanent, they would be suitable 

 for stocking private preserves and would furnish excel- 

 lent sport. They will probablj' not attain their full size 

 in confinement, not over a few pounds, and those that 

 have been turned loose in the waters of our State and 

 left to their own free wills have disappeared never to be 

 seen again. They may .come back and we hope they 

 will, but as salmon were never indigenous to the Hud- 

 son river or any river South of it on the Atlantic coast, 

 there is no certainty of their adapting themselves to 

 their new quarters and furnishing us with breeding fish 

 on our coast. 



It is alleged that the salmon of California all die after 

 breeding. This, if true, is most unusual and unnatural, 

 and does not accord with their great abundance in the 

 Columbia, the McCIoud and the other rivers of the 

 Pacific coast. A portion of them undoubtedly do so, 

 as their journey trom the sea is a long and exhausting 

 one, but many others no doubt escape observation and 

 lingering along, gradually recovering from the labors of 

 parturition, straggle back at all seasons of the year to the 

 ocean their home of health, food and recovery. It is hard- 

 ly to be supposed that the operations of the United States 

 Commission in collecting the egg& of the California sal- 

 mon can be long continued. Either the McCloud river 

 will be exhausted by the excessive drain upon it or the 

 Commission will be satisfied with the results of the 

 experiment. It was probably not intended to establish 



