260 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



which Sir James Maitland had carried out his 

 operations with regard to fish culture. He 

 dwelt upon this point the more because, since 

 the time — some forty years ago — when M. 

 Coste first popularized the notion of fish cul- 

 ture, the idea became prevalent that you only 

 had to carry out artificial impregnation, or 

 the collection of spat in the case of Oysters, 

 and the thing was done. He need not say 

 what disappointment those who first experi- 

 mented in the matter of Oyster culture were 

 destined to undergo ; that was a matter 

 recorded not only in the minds but the pockets 

 of a large number of persons. The same 

 considerations applied to all forms of fish 

 culture, and unless those who undertook it 

 were prepared to work at it with that happy 

 combination of science and practice which was 

 exemplified in the case of Sir James Maitland, 

 disappointment would await their efforts, as it 

 had those of many persons who had attempted 

 the same process. For himself, he did not 

 take very rosy views of the value of protection 

 pure and simple for sea fisheries, but perhaps 

 he was all the more inclined to attach especial 

 value to thoroughly well considered and 

 scientific fish culture. He was inclined to 

 think that it was in this direction we must 

 look, and not to measures of inefficient pro- 

 tection, for the ultimate preservation of our 

 fisheries. This was not the time to discuss 

 the point, but he gathered from Mr. Wil mot's 

 remarks that there was some extremely 

 wicked person who had been saying that pro- 

 tection was of uo use in Salmon fisheries ; 

 that people should be allowed to destroy 

 anything and everything they liked ; but 

 anybody who heard the remarks he had ven- 

 tured to offer at the first Conference would be 

 aware that he, at any rate, was not one of 

 those wicked persons. No one had insisted 

 more strenuously than he had done on the 

 absolute necessity for the most careful protec- 

 tion for those sea fisheries in which protection 

 could be shown to be efficient, and if any one 

 were prepared to show that measures of 

 protection as efficient as those which ■ were 

 adopted in the Salmon fisheries, and which 

 must ie enforced unless the Salmon fishes 

 were to be destroyed, would be equally efficient 

 in the case of any of the sea fisheries, by all 

 means let them be adopted, and no one would 

 be a stronger advocate for protection than he 

 should be ; but, until it was made clear that 

 the regulations were efficient, that you were 

 really doing something for the fishery, and not 



burdening the fishermen with useless and 

 vexatious regulations, it would be better to 

 leave the question of protecting sea fisheries 

 alone. 



Professor G. Brown Goode (U.S. Commis- 

 sioner) said he should be pleased to give a few 

 figures illustrating what fish culture could do. 

 Professor Baird (U.S. Commissioner) informed 

 him that the Sacramento River, California, 

 was, owing to the large number of canneries 

 there, to a large extent depleted of its Salmon ; 

 but by the establishment of a hatchery there 

 he had turned out something like sixty-seven 

 millions of eggs or young fry of the Californian 

 Salmon in the past eight or nine years, one- 

 fourth of which were put into the Sacramento 

 River, and it was now much more productive 

 than ever before. On the Clacamass, in 

 Oregon, a similar experiment was tried some 

 years ago with a like result. These experi- 

 ments had clearly shown that the Salmon 

 industry of the Pacific Coast, which was now 

 producing fish to the value of something like 

 three million dollars a day, was thoroughly 

 under the control of fish culture. He might 

 also take the case of the Connecticut, in the 

 last century, which was one of the most pro- 

 ductive rivers ; but by the construction of a 

 great dam, 60 miles above its mouth, the 

 Salmon were cut off from the spawning 

 ground, and for very nearly ninety years not 

 a Salmon was seen. In 1866, or thereabouts, 

 the Commissioners of Connecticut began to 

 plant Salmon in this river, and four years 

 afterwards they began to appear. In the first 

 year 500 fine Salmon, of 15 lbs. to 20 lbs. each, 

 were taken ; in the following year almost an 

 equal number. Since that the Commissioners 

 of the States have discontinued Salmon cul- 

 ture in that river, the supply has again fallen 

 off, and the river might now be considered 

 practically deprived Of its Salmon again. He 

 simply wished to add a word in confirmation 

 of what Sir James Maitland had said concern- 

 ing American Bass. Although he did not 

 like to say anything against a fish which was 

 a countryman of his own, he thought it was a 

 fish which interested only the private indivi- 

 duals who were able and willing to feed him, 

 and were willing to pay any sum for the 

 gratification they found in angling. So far as 

 fish with which public fish culturists should 

 deal, the Black Bass had no claims whatever, 

 unless they put him into the same stream with 

 Pike, and let them fight it out together. 



(TO EE CONTINUED.) 



