July 22, 1880.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



491 



gation of certain kinds of fish, with the description and 

 habits of such kinds as arc- the most suitable for piscicul- 

 ture, by Theodntus Garlick, M. D., Vice-President of 

 Cleveland Academy of Natural Science, giving the au- 



thor's first 

 the Cleveland Academy of Natl 

 tions for the most StRJOeSaful iin 

 kinds of fish as are herein desci 

 Brown, publisher, Ohio Farmer I 

 Stone, Liviiujnloii, — Domeati 

 Breed and Grow them, by Li 

 States Deputy Fish Commissi. 

 United States salmon breedin: 

 coast, etc, etc. " Purr 

 guttis." Ausonius, idyl T 



i paper read before 

 raj Science ; also direo- 

 les of angling for such 

 bed. Cleveland: Tho. 



sated Trout ; How to 

 ingfiton Stone, United 



station on the Pacific 

 que Salare stellalus tergora 

 th. " Make assurance doubly. 

 sure." Macbeth, Act IV., Scene 1, Third edition, re- 

 vised and enlarged. Charleatown, N. II. For sale at the 

 CoM Spril 1 g Trou t Ponds. 1S77. 



Atkins, Charles G — United States Fish Commission. 

 Cheap Fixtures for the Hatching of Salmon, by Charles. 

 G. Atkins, Assistant United States fish Commission. 

 Washington ; Government Printing Office. 1870. 



Wilson, Sir Samuel.- The California Salmon, with an 



account of its Introduction into Victoria, by Sir Samuel 



Wilson, member of the Legislative Council of Victoria. 



ie: Sands & Medougall. printers, Collins street, 



West, 1878, 



Reports of the Commissioners of Fisheries of the State 

 of Maine, ItoXIilflStr <-■ <°™ u,-t.„:„ a 



Reports of tt 



of Massachusetts (185-1 to 



Reports of the Fish Com 

 necticnt (1875 to iSSo'i, ine 



Reports of the Couimiss 

 of New York (1869 to 187B 



Reports of the Oommiss 

 of Maryland (1870 



Specifications to 

 Hawk, 1370. 



era of the Inland Fisheries 

 aioners of the State of Oon- 



rs of Fisheries of the State 

 elusive, 



r of Fisheries of the State 

 1880), inclusive. 



g the screw steamer Fish 



fin 



and Stream and Rod and Gun — Thir- 

 teen volumes of F"KKST AND STREAM AND ROD AND Gus, 



a . wceldv paper by '*Forestand Stream Publishing Com- 

 pany," New York City. 



iSTS, Baird, Spender F, — Forty-second Congress, sec- 

 ond session ; Senate : Mis. Doc. No. til ; United States 

 Commission of Pish and Fisheries. Parti. Report on 

 the condition of the sea fisheries of tho south coast of 

 New England in 1871 and 187'.', by Spencer P. Baird, 

 Commissioner ; with supplementary papers. Washing- 

 ton: Government Printing Office. 1873. (8vo., pp. 

 xlvii., 852, plates xxxviii, with 38 leaves explanatory to 

 plates, two maps.) 



1871. Baird, Spencer F. — United States Commission 

 vi d Fisheries. Part II. Report of the Commis- 

 sioner for 1872 and 1873. A. — Inquiry into the decrease 



of the Eooi 

 in the wat 

 papers. 

 L874. iSvi. 

 1876. B 

 of Fish and Fisher 

 niissic 

 decre; 



— The propagation of food fishes 

 ted States; with supplementary 

 Government Printing Office. 

 , plates xxxvii, four maps.) 

 F, — United States Co mmi ssion 

 Part III. Report of the Com- 

 1873-4 and 1874-5. A.— Inquiry into the 

 f the food fishes. B,— The pn ip iga Ewn" of food 



fishes in the waters of the United 

 Government Printing Office. 15 

 1878. Baird, Spencer F.— Unil 

 of Fish and Fisheries. Part IV. 

 sioner for 1875-76. A.— Inquiry i 

 food fishes, B.— The propagatic 



igton ; 



;, I Slates Commission 



Report of the Oommis- 



ato the decrease of the 



of food fishes in the 



Washington : Government 



, 50, 1020, six plates, 



i the official catalogue of 



award as follows : — 



■atiT. Hiiusenblaae und Flsch- 



svaters of the United Stat 

 Printing Office. 1878. 8 

 (Hist, of Whale Fishery.) 



1879. Baird, Spencer F.— United States Commission 

 of Fish and Fisheries. PartT, Report of the Commis- 

 sioner for 1877. A.— Inquiry into the decrease of food 

 fishes. B.— The propagation of food fishes m the wafers 

 of the United States. Washington : Government Print- 

 ing Office. 1879. (8vo.. pp. 48. 072.) 



Map showing the op. ration, of the United States Fish 

 ...,,,11 from |s,7i to L879, and the location of all 

 stations of the United States and State Fish Commis- 

 sions, and the dales of establishment of the various State 

 Commissions. 



K Isinglass from Fish Skins.— Gloucester, Mans,, July 

 19th.— Editor Forest and Stream. .—I notice you have 

 our company as manufacturers of isinglass and glue from 

 fish bladders. That is a mistake. The stock we use is 

 the skin of salt fish. The fish is put up for market, m 

 boxes, with the skins taken off, also bones taken out. 

 The skins were of very little value before my invention. 

 John S. Rogers. 



Our report was taken frpi 

 awards, which designates th 



■ i:.i. I; mu,,i:,s .v. nine Co., Glou 

 Leiui nebst Fabrikaten dareiis." 



As will be seen elsewhere, the medals will not be 

 ready before October, and it would be well, therefore, 

 for our correspondent to write to the Fischerei-Verein at 

 Berlin, to have the report of the award corrected. 



The Raweleys.— Hartford, Conn.. July llth.—l 

 found the Rangeley Lakes (July 1st) very quiet ; most of 

 the anglers gone and very little fishing, although I was 

 told that the month of June was as good as any they had 

 seen for many years, the fish being more numerous, but 

 smaller. The water was very low, but I was surprised a1 

 the number of camps which had sprung up since I wrote 

 the "Rangeley Lake Trout Tales" for the Forest and 

 Stream in 1874. I left Mt. Kineo House June 28th, and 

 the lly-fishing was excellent. My wife took a trout of 3j 

 pounds, and a ladv cousin who was with me took one ol 

 24 pounds. I saw snow in the White Mountains, and 

 missed those sweltering days in June. If I can afford 

 the time this autumn, I want to go to Maine and pass 

 from Moosehead Lake over to Churchill Lake, and then 

 by way of Spider and Mausungun lakes and river to the 

 Aroostook River, coming out at Caribou. Maine, and 

 thence into New Brunswick. My brother-in-law, Col. 

 Gofr, was the first person to '-bore" through that region 

 last yeax, and beaver, cariboo and moose abound, tho law 

 on the latter being off Oct. 1st, the first time in three 

 years, T. S. S. 



I 



J>*» mtd §ivei[ ^isfiing. 



Trout, Snlmn fnntlnaMs. Masknloujre, 



Salmon, Salmu mhir. Piko or Plot 



Salmon Trout. Satin" ron/iids. Yellow Pen 

 Litnrl-loi'ked Salmon, Salmo 



Qlnveri. 



SALT WATER. 

 Sea Boss, Centmprixti? atrarim. I Blnefi=h. p,,i,i!''.,« 



li, , psbead, Arauwwrgus pmha- Spanish Mackerel, 



Btrlped Uie.s, Roam linnmtu*. I Cei ;, I (1 Iwm . i jot 



\Xhnt'V>-reh,M<ifnnr,„m,:rica,e:i. Botiilo, s,,,r..|,, /v,V 

 Wealtflah, Ctinowion rcoalfe. I King-ash, A/Viiitiofn 



— i Address all communications to " Forest and Stream 

 Publishing Company, NexoYork." 



THE LATE APPEARANCE OF CANADA SALMON. 



Newport, R. I., July 16th. 

 Editor Forest and Stream : — 



An explanation has been asked of me by a number of 

 persons of the tardy appearance of salmon in the rivers 

 of Canada and Nova Scotia ; and, not feeling able to an- 

 swer satisfactorily, I referred the problem to Prof. H. Y. 

 Hind, Windsor, Nova Scotia, a gentleman who is perhaps 

 the best fitted of any in America to write on the physical 

 agencies affecting tho movements of migratory fish in 

 the North Atlantic Oceaji. 



I have much pleasure in inclosing herewith his reply, 

 the publication of which in Forest and Stream will, I 

 think, be of much interest to its readers. 



Spencer F. Baird, 

 Commissioner. 



Windsor, Nova Scotia, July llth. 

 Dv.x-r Prof. Baird :— 



Li reply to your letter of inquiry of the 29th of June, 

 I send some brief notes I have made on the subject. 



The question you have proposed respecting the cause 

 of the fate appearance of salmon in certain rivers empty- 

 ing into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, this year, is one of 

 great practical interest, not merely to anglers, but 

 in the study of the artificial propagation of the salmon, 

 and the probable causes which have led to but inconsid- 

 erable returns from very great outlay. 



I shall give you a brief resume of the ideas which have 

 occurred tome on this subject, which is subordinate to 

 the far more interesting inquiry respecting salmon propa- 

 gation. 



I do not think that the unusual abundance of Green- 

 land ice, or of local ice, has had much to do with the 

 late appearance of schools of salmon in our rivers. In 

 1875 the Gulf of St. Lawrence was so choked with ice in 

 May that several mail steamers bound to Quebec were 

 caught and entangled in it for many days and even 

 weeks. Yet that year was not a late year for salmon, 

 although it was a poor year in some localities. 



Every river appears to have its own schools of fish, 

 which visit it in succession, some for breeding, others 

 for sanitary purposes. 



But they come at times which are determined by her- 

 editary habit formed through ages of acclimatization 

 and adaptation to the conditions of die river and the sea 

 into which it empties. All the schools of mature fish 

 which ascend the river or play about its mouth are not 

 spawning schools, for there are good grounds for the be- 

 lief that at a certain age and under certain conditions 

 the salmon becomes a biennial spawner. 



The spawning school which ascends in July or August 

 to spawn in October or November, is probably destined 

 in many cases to become the first spring school which 

 enters the river the next succeeding spring for sanitary 

 purposes, remains for a short time, and descends to the 

 sea again without spawning, it being an off year to them. 



Should anything happen to these spawning schools 

 which come" in July or August, so that they become 

 greatly diminished, then the next years' spring schools, 

 which they would have become, will be much dimin- 

 ished also, and a year must elapse before the early spring 

 school returns in "force. 



Such an event appears to have oocurred during No- 

 vember and December 1870. apart from the destruction 

 occasioned by the rod and the net. This was the unu- 

 sual cold of those months in the fall of 1879, the 

 mean temperature in some parts of the Maritime 

 Provinces falling five degrees below the mean of the 

 same months in the preceding year. 



At Manitoba tho difference, amounted to 30° Fahr, 

 At Fredericton, N. B., the mean of December, 1879, was 

 B° .00 below the mean of 1878. At St. John's. N. B., it 

 was 5° .4 lower than December, 1878, At Sydney, N. S., 

 it was 5° .35 lower in December, 1879, than during the 

 same month in the preceding year. The consequence of 

 this remarkable and sudden reduction of temperature 

 was tho early and sudden closing of the rivers. The 

 spawning instinct, or desire, as hereafter explained, was 

 retarded by the cold, and numbers of the fish became 

 land-locked, descending to the sea as slinks or kelts in the 

 early spring, but incapable of so far resuscitating them- 

 selves as to return for sanitary purposes, or, in some 

 cases, for spawning purposes, as early spring schools, 

 which they would have done had they descended in No- 

 vember or" December instead of April, when the rivers 

 broke up. 



Now, with regard to those fish which have not arrived 

 at the age, or been subjected to the conditions which 

 compel them to produce fat instead of developing ova, 

 and become biennial spawners, the cold of November 

 and December, 1879, put back the desire or instinct in the 

 fish to spawn, although their ova might be fully devel- 

 oped, and they retained their spawn perhaps a month or 

 six weeks longer than usual in the manner hereafter de- 

 scribed. 



Those that escaped to the sea after this late spawning, 

 and continued to develop ova instead of putting on fat, 

 would not have their ova sufficiently matured early in 

 June of the present year to induce them to leave the sea, 

 and they migrated long after their usual time. 



A very curious illustration of the effect of extreme 

 and prolonged cold occurred in the early spring of 1879, 

 in the well-known salmon river Tyne. in the 'north of 

 England, The fish there, which usually spawn, in De- 

 cember, and were never before known to spawn in Febru- 

 ary, were concealed from view from the 1st of December, 

 1878, to the 20th of February, 1879, by a snow stbnti and 

 prolonged cold of unusual duration. When the river 

 broke up, large numbers of salmon were observed spawn- 

 ing in the third week of February. Such an occurrence 

 was never before known, and, indeed, it is quite uncom- 

 mon for salmon to spawn even in January in the Tyne. 



The hook on the lower jaw of the male salmon has 

 much to do with the spawning of the female, and plays 

 an important part in that operation ; a description of 

 which I have not seen published. 



I think you will find that the ovaries in the salmon are 

 Separated from the oviduct by a delicate membrane : in 

 fact, a hymen. The purpose of the hook on the lower 

 jaw of the male is to break this hymen. When the fe- 

 male is ready to spawn, and not" before, she suddenly 

 turns on her side, and the male, always jrj attendance, 

 instantly seizes her just below the pectoral tins, and w ith 

 a sharp grip and pressure of the blunt hook on his lower 

 jaw he fractures the membrane which separates the ova- 

 ries from the oviduct. The female resumes her normal 

 position, and the operation of spawning soon after com- 

 mences. The effect of the pressure of the hook on the 

 side of the female is like what would be prod need on a, 

 non-elastic sac distended with water— tha sac would yield 

 at the weakest place. In the female salmon this weakest 

 place is the membrane separating the ovaries from the 

 oviduct. Pressure with the hand, or even through hand- 

 ling of the fish, necessarily produces the same result 

 the ovaries are distended. The presence of this mem" 

 brane gives to the female the power to retain the ova as 

 long as she chooses, or until her instincts show her that 

 the conditions for exuding the ova are suitable ; then she 

 lies upon her side, and the hook of the lower jaw of the 

 male serves the purpose it was designed to fulfill. 



It follows from this that there is always a certain reltr- 

 tion between the development of the hook on the lower 

 jaw of the male and the period of the year during which 

 the females spawn. Hence it would he incompatible to 

 propagate salmon in a river by bringing a female from a 

 stream where salmon spawn in September and pairing 

 her with a male born in a river where the fish spawn in 

 December. The hook of the future male would not be 

 sufficiently developed to serve its purpose, and the female 

 would be ready to spawn lief ore the male. 



The difference between the spawning habits of salmon 

 in rivers quite close to one another is so remarkable that 

 the force of this adjustment of hereditary habit by a 

 proper selection of fish is easily seen, The Severn, for 

 instance, in the southwest of England, is one of the ear 

 liest spawning rivers known. September is by no means 

 an uncommon date for spawning there; whereas, the 

 river Wye, flowing into the same estuary, is a late spawn- 

 ing rivei-. In the Derwont, whose waters lie some fifty 

 miles to the northeast of the Severn, the largest fish, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Bucklaud, run up in September and Octo- 

 ber, whereas the spawning fish come up from December 

 to February. In the Sackville River, emptying into Bed- 

 ford Basin near Halifax, Nova Scotia, the salmon come 

 directly from the sea into the river to spawn hi the fall 

 of the yean 



IntheMedway, a hundred miles to the. west, salmon may 

 always be taken" with a fly in February and March when- 

 ever the river is sufficiently open, even should much ice 

 be floating; and while the fall fish are aseending.it 

 often happens that the spent fish of the previous year 

 are descending in great numbers. They lane remained 

 in the lakes during the winter months. 



The development of the hook in the male varies very 

 materially in point of time in different rivers, hence ft 

 would not be acting in accordance with natural laws to 

 attempt to propagate salmon by taking a male from an 

 early spawning river and a female from a late spawning 

 river. Until we know more about the conditions which 

 govern the development of the hook, it is reasonable to 

 assume that the male and female fish resulting from the 

 cross would have different hereditary periods of develop- 

 ment, which would be unfavorable to the continued pro- 

 duction of the species. Again, if a river be naturally a 

 late river, there must be some excellent reason why it is 

 so, and it would not be showing a proper regard for'natu 

 ral laws to attempt to people such a, late river with sal- 

 mon ova taken from fish whose home was originally an 

 early river. Experience, acting through ages,lias deter- 

 mined the relations ol salmon to the rivers thev inhabit* 

 and hi order to succeed artificially it seems to me that we 

 must imitate, as closely as possible, the results of that 

 experience. But I am not aware that this method of rea- 

 soning has been applied to the propagation of the salmon 

 either in Canada or the I luted .Stales. 



So far the chief results in our salmon rivers have been 

 obtained by protecting existing fish, clearing the rivers 

 of windfalls and jams, protecting the natural spawning 

 grounds and giving the fish in the estuaries a chance to 

 ascend, by regulating the area covered by nets. This is 

 certainly the surest way to repeople our' rivers' When 

 artificial propagation is attempted, it seems reasonable to 

 suppose that the experience of the native fish, which 

 shows itself in the form of an hereditary habit.' should 

 be our guide in the selection of lish from which we 

 seek to breed and repeople any particular stream. Where 

 no such guides can be found, late spawning males and 

 females, and early spawning males and females should be 

 rigorously selected, and not taken promiscuously. 



Henrv Yowle HfiEK 



Prof, Baird, United States Commissioner of Fisheries. 



California TROWV. — Wellsvilh', N. Y,, July 14th,— la 

 June, 1879, we. put into the Genesee River, in this vicin- 

 ity, a few thousand California trout fry, given us by 

 Seth Green, of the State Hatchery. ' y 



Last evening several of these California* were caught 

 in the river, while fishing for our native trout ; three of 

 them that wore badly hooked were saved, and are now 

 ■'lying in stale "on ice. The three saved measure re- 

 spectively. 7. 7J and ?| inches, the longest weighs 

 three ounces A larger one was caught and put back 

 that measured 9 inches m length. The party catching 

 these told me that they take a hook as " business like' - 

 as our native Salmo fontinalis. C A F 



