FOREST AND STREAM, 
725 
JfirJf jUttlfarq. 
THE CENTRAL FISH CULTURAL ASSO¬ 
CIATION. 
V _* _ 
W E publish herewith the first paper read before the 
Central Fish Cultural Association at Chicago, 
October 3d. The essay was by Mr. George H. Jerome, 
and 1 was entitled 
‘ 1 SOMETHING ABOUT OUR FARM," 
The farm was limited by the author on the north by the 
Red River of the North, on the east by the Niagara, oh the 
south by the Gulf, and on the west by the summits of 
the great stony ridge. After referring at some length to 
the pluck and industry of the Western farmer, and to 
the duties which devolved upon him in rescuing the 
country from a wilderness, the author said, on the sub¬ 
ject of an appropriation, that it is well known that within 
the limits of the Western fish farm there are several 
lakes — quite a considerable chain of them, and the links 
composing this chain are full and broad. In the figura- 
tive veanacular of the day they are styled inland seas. 
They arc too deep and too vast to bo the property or 
under the control of any single State. They form a 
portion of the boundary of eight large and populous 
States. No State presumes to exercise jurisdiction over 
any one of them. They are the property of the nation. 
They are of national value and importance, and are 
clearly of the national jurisdiction. 
Also equally well is it known that there coursesthrough 
the fish-farm of the West a very considerable river. Its 
sources approach very near to the regions of perpetual 
frost, while its mouth is fringed with the orange grave 
and the palm. Its arms stretch east and west, enfolding 
two-thirds of all the territory of the Union. Twenty of 
the largest of the States and four great Territories are 
watered by its floods and enriched by it. In the turgid 
period of our national jubilee days it has been, entitled 
“ The Patriarch of Streams,” The designation is neither 
inapt nor undeserved. The great river recks not either 
Stats lines, or, indeed, whole sections of States, but 
sweeps on, unvexed and unobstructed, to the sea. No 
State has been so presumptuous as to lay claim to it, or to 
any portion of it, save alone Mississippi. But notwith¬ 
standing this modest little claim, the better and the 
exclusive title is in the national Union, Mississippi and 
other of the chivalrous States having lacked the pre¬ 
science to make the reservation when they signed the 
great compact. So, if ueeding law, the great republic 
is the rightful law-giver. If, needing protection and 
guardianship, the nation is the appointed guardian and 
the invincible protector. Such, at all events, is the ap¬ 
plied logic of history, and it is now quite too late to seok 
a reversal of currents. 
Equally well, too, is it known that these lakes and this 
river, with its far outlying tributaries, have been through 
all the earlier periods of the republic’s history most valu¬ 
able sources of food supply, In no mean or diminutive 
sense have they been the nation’s granary, from which 
have been bestowed with liberal hand to that army of 
the early settlers their needed means of support, while 
they were making ready with such haste as they might 
for the coining of the cereal yellow harvests, ‘indeed, 
their value to the early pioneers and settlers, bushwhack¬ 
ing their way to the term incognita, of their dreams, is 
almost outside the limit of computation. And to that great 
host of then- followers who have paved, so to speak, the 
track of empire, they have proved sources of reliance and 
indispensible aids to their achievements. Tn the work of 
settlement, national expansion and growth, it is unde¬ 
niably true that the lake and the rivor supply has been a 
largo factor—a factor that has not had to be clothed or 
fed, and asking no dividends—it has in large degroe con¬ 
tributed to those grand realizations iu which every West¬ 
ern man claims a share, and of which each is so justly 
proud. 
It is well known that these lakes and this river are in 
a largo degree unfruitful and barren, a3 contrasted with 
their old-time fish supplies. Of the causes which have 
conspired to produce this lamentable condition of things, 
it is not now material to inquire. The mending pro¬ 
cesses, of whatever character they may be, whether of 
penal statutes or appropriations, or both, should ha 
brought into requisition at once. The lakes and the great 
livers are a part of the Western farm. Said the 
speaker!— 
“ I say we men of the West—fisli-boys, if you choose to 
have it—are the very fellows to take this matter in 
charge — a duty which shall resolve itself into a pleasure, 
and, performed, will result in advantage to ourselves and 
profit to the country we love. So, then, let us move 
abreast in this thing, for it is by a united effort that we 
may hope to gain audience with those who vote the 
supplies and hold the keys of the exchequer. Let us not 
place ourselves in the attitude of mendicants, for the 
fish-men of the West are not in the alms-asking business ; 
nor will we go in any bullying or bulldozing role or spirit, 
for we hope to be thought gentlemen; but let us go as 
citizens of a common country, law-abiding and true, and 
ask civilly, earnestly, of the powers that be that these 
great inland seas, and this, the Father of Rivers, receive 
at then - hands a national recognition, and are voted a be¬ 
coming dowry. 
“We ask nothing for the thousands of lakes that lie 
scattered all over this vast domain, or for the streams that 
murmur on every hand. These we are taking a good care 
of, and propose to continue our care of them, and solicit 
for them no aid from the central government. But as 
for the inland seas and the great river we do ask aid, and 
we believe it to be within the province and the duty of 
the Government to extend it. The granting of aid for 
such purpose is no new principle, nor does it lack for 
precedent. For many years a fund has been appro¬ 
priated, and wisely, too, to help on the modem methods 
of fish-culture, in the hope and expectation of restoring 
the food supply of our lakes and rivers. But of this fund 
very little has found its way to the great lakes and to 
the waters of the broad valley. Nearly all of it has been 
spent in tide-water. 
“ Now, we want some of this money out West, or else 
a fund or appropriation, separate and independent of 
the salt-water one. We do not mean to be very particular 
or nice about it, so that we get the fund, and tha t it 
inures to to our use and behoof. It is the fund wo are 
after, and it boots little in what way or by what route it 
comes, so that it be forthcoming, and I can see no impro¬ 
priety in urging tbis matter upon the approaching Con¬ 
gress. I cannot, for the life of me, see why, year after 
year, the East should be provided with a very liberal fund 
for fish-farming needs and purposes, while the great 
West* gets little or nothing for its unwatched lakes and 
rivers. If fish-farming or fish-husbandry is to he recog¬ 
nized as a national industry, aided and promoted by the 
money-bags of the Government — and such seems to he 
the fact—why, then, the West, as imperatively as any 
section, needs help, and should be a sharer in the remem¬ 
brance of the Government, and in its schedule of ap¬ 
propriations there should be found an item reasonably 
adequate for the compassing of those great ends and pur¬ 
poses which I have, in my brief paper but dimly out¬ 
lined, but which, for tlieir full consummation, the West¬ 
ern fish-farmer does, and will ever, most earnestly toil 
and pray.” 
Salmon Eggs*from the Vaciyig—U nited States Fish¬ 
ery, Baird, Shasta County, Cal., Oct. 4th . — We have been 
packing, loading and sending off salmon eggs for three 
days. They are taken in teams to our nearest railroad 
point—Redding. I send them from there to Chicago iu 
an ice car, and from Chicago they are forwarded to their 
various destinations by express. 
We took 7,000,000 eggs this year, of which upwards of 
4,000,000 were used for distribution, the balance being 
left here to be batched for the Sacramento River. The 
ice car containing the eggs for distribution leaves Red¬ 
ding Monday morning, Oct. 6th, and is due to arrive at 
Chicago Saturday, Oct. ilth. 
■ASSIGNMENT or CALIFORNIA SALMON. 
State. Commissioner. No.Earn. To be sent to. 
Iowa.B.F.Shaw. 80,000 B. F.Slmvv, Arianiosa,ta. 
Kansas.B. B. Long- . 100,000 D.B.Long,Ellsworth,Kan. 
Maryland.500,000 T.B.Ferguson,Balto.,Md. 
Minnesota.K. O. Sweeny—400,000 B.O.Sweony,St.Paul,Minn 
Nebraska.W. L. May. 50,000 W.L. May, Fremont, Neb. 
Nebraska. 50,000 H.S.Kaley.KedClnuil.Nob 
Nebraska.100,000 I.d.Romaiu.S.Bend.Neb. 
Now Jersey ...E. J. Anderson.. 500,000 Mrs.J.H.Slaek.Bl'sb’g.NJ. 
North Oar'liuu.L, L. Polk.350,000 S.G. Wurth. M’rjfaut’n,.VO 
Ohio.E. D. Potter.200,000 E. I). Potter, Toledo, 0. 
Pennsylvania J at. DufTey.200,000 .Tas. Duffy, Marietta, Pa. 
PODtisylvauia.100,000 Seth Weeks, Corry, Pa. 
Utah.A. P, RookwoodlOQ.OOO A.P.Roelrwo'd.S.L’keCity 
Vlrginia.M. MoDonald... .300,000 M,McDonald,Lex’tou.Va. 
Virginia.M. McDonald... .200,000 W.F.Pa.ge,Wythev'lle.Va. 
West Virginia. H. B. Miller . 150,000 O.S.Whito,Romney,W.Va. 
Wisoonslu.N. K. Fairbank.300,1X10 N. If. Fail-bank, Genova 
Lake, Wls. 
Franco Aoq. Society.100,000 
Holland... . ,100,000 Zor. Society, Amsterdam, 
Canada.100,000 S.Wilmot, Newo’stle, Out. 
Goraiuny D. Fischerio Veneire. .100,000 
New York....,E, G. Blackford. 50,000 E. G.BlaekfordJO Fulton 
Market, New York. 
New South Wales. 50,000 J. Stewart, Sydney. 
Total.4,159,000 
Livingston Stone. 
The National Fish Commission. —Prof. Spencer F. 
Baird the other day gave to a Washington reporter the 
following summary of the work of the United States Fish 
Commission at Gloucester 
The Commission have been carrying on the work of 
investigating the fisheries of the coast, ascertaining their 
character, productiveness of the present as compared 
with previous years, and endeavoring to calculate what 
the future is going to be; also, studying locations along 
the coast with reference to tho establshinent of stations 
for tho artificial production of codfish, mackerel, and hal¬ 
ibut, tlie three great staples of American fisheries. The 
work has not closed as yet. We occupied ail last winter 
at Gloucester, on Cape Ann, in experimenting in artificial 
hatching of codfish, and met with great success. Ten or 
twelve million were hatched and turned into the water at 
Gloucester Harbor, which is now filled with young fish, 
the result of that experiment. Great results are anticipa¬ 
ted from the systematic efforts in the direction of propag¬ 
ating tho three kinds of fish named, and it is hoped that 
very valuable and extensive shore-fisheries can be devel¬ 
oped and materially effect the future of American fisheries 
in relation to those of British America. Among the spec¬ 
ial results of the work of tho commission has been the 
discovery of a nowjfood fish of great economical value. 
It is a fish of a species allied to the English sole, to which 
it is considered by New York epicures as greatly superior. 
The largest individuals measure three feet in length, 
and weigh up to five pounds. It has been called the ‘ pole- 
flounder,’ or Qlyptocephalus eynoglossus. The pole-floun¬ 
der will find a, market corresponding to the turbot in 
Europe, in fishing for which many thousand vessels are 
occupied, 
Another special point is the temperature of the ocean 
at different depths and latitudes, with the purpose of es¬ 
tablishing the relations between this condition and the 
presence and absence of certain food fishes. A most re¬ 
markable phenomina of times of previous years has been 
the entire absence from the waters north of Long Island 
and Vineyard Sounds of the menhaden or porgy. This 
fish, as is well known, occurs on the coast of tho United 
States during the summer season, in countless myriads, 
especially in mid-summer along the coast of Maine, where 
some fifty steamers are engaged, usually for several 
months, in oatching them by seine or purse-nets, and 
taking them to factories, where they are converted into 
oil and guano. During the memory of man no failure of 
this fish to reach the coast of Maine during the summer 
season is on record, and yet, during the present year the 
entire fleet returned to winter quarters in Southern New- 
England and Long Island Sound without oapturing a 
single fish. 
It is more than probable that this remarkable state of 
things was caused by the cold currents coming down 
from the Labrador coast, and this is a supposition that is 
to some extent at least verified or substantiated by the 
observations of the Fish Commission. The variation in 
the numbers of mackerel on the Eastern coast is probably 
due to the same cause, so it becomes a matter of great 
importance to ascertain the la\V3 or normal temperature 
of the ocean at the different depths, so as to have some 
means of anticipating, determining or estimating the prob¬ 
ably abundance of these fish (menhaden and mackerel,) 
in sufficient season to warrant or prevent expenditures in 
ipecial efforts in then’ pursuit. 
The commission is provided with various apparatus 
for capturing marine animals and plants, and, besides se¬ 
curing representative series for the National Museum, 
has also collected during the summer, as in previous years 
large numbers of duplicate specimens for the principal 
educational institutions in the United States. These 
when properly inden tilled and labeled will he distributed 
to such institutions as are prepared to take necessary steps 
for perm ament care and exhibition. 
^ninral r §istorth 
Migratory Quail.— Where axe the migratory quail? 
We have heard no note from them for some time. Who 
knows anything of the newly naturalized birds? Tho 
census is to he taken in 1880. 
Migratory Quail.— Mr, Francis Bacon, of the Water¬ 
loo, N. Y., Sportsmen's Club, writes to Mr. A. Elmendorf, 
Secretary Brooklyn Gun Club, tho following intelligence 
of the migratory quail presented by the latter club to the 
former last spring :— 
So far, success has been complete—far beyond our ex¬ 
pectations. We now have at least a flock of two hundred 
strong birds, which will in time fill every thicket and field 
with a game bird which lies as close and flies as strong 
as any sportsman can desire. In their habits they are 
very like the American quail, except that they do not 
move far away from the locality where bred. We shall 
shoot none this fall, but intend trapping a few to keep 
over the winter. We shall watch them very closely now, 
so that we may know when they go south. 
Wo take great pleasure in recording the success of our 
Waterloo friends. 
THE LITERATURE OF DR. ELLIOT 
COUES. 
BY WILLIAM HOSEA BALLOU, 
T HE profound acknowledgment by European scien¬ 
tists of the eminent services of Dr. Cones in the pre¬ 
paration of a universal bibliography of bird literature has 
but recently been made known through the seoular press 
of the country. His connection with the Hayden survey, 
during which he has not only enriched its literature 
by his own contributions, but has rendered distin¬ 
guished service as secretary and naturalist of the survey, 
is particularly gratifying as adding a lustre and bril¬ 
liancy to the achievements of American scientists. 
America has been somewhat Unfortunate in being in¬ 
debted to foreign savants for the accomplishment of 
sopie of the most arduous investigations. That in many 
cases these savants have found in this country a field to 
immortalize themselves, is instanced in the labors of 
Agassiz, Lesquereux, Meek, and others. Whatever emi¬ 
nent services have been recorded of men purely Amer¬ 
ican, are gratifying as reflecting credit to our own 
institutions and people. Dr. Cones is a represent¬ 
ative of the latter class, and as such has attracted the at¬ 
tention of tho moat distinguished scientists of the Old 
World. Indeed,as is well known, a petition headed by 
such names ns Tyndall, Huxley, and Spencer, has been 
presented him inviting him, to visit England and Europe 
in the further prosecution of his studies, 
Within the last decade of year.-; ornithology has assumed 
a popularity not known to any other branch of the natural 
sciences. Its progress is largely duo to the earnest work 
of Dr. Cones. He is in fact so thoroughly identified with 
the science and that of mammals, that a sketch of his 
works just at this time is interesting, giving to quite an 
extent the history and advance of ornithology and roam- 
mology for some fifteen years. 
In 1861 Dr. Coues seems to have first commenced his 
career as an ornithologist, in the publication of “Some 
Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador,” which attracted 
attention at the time as pertaining to a region whose fauna 
was comparatively unknown. Following this pamphlet 
in the order in winch they here appear, are the titles of 
such of the remainder of his works as have been obtained. 
It is freely confessed that after careful investigation in 
many of the great libraries in the east and west by tbo 
writer, something less than one hundred of the four hun¬ 
dred titles of Dr. Coues, were all that revealed themselves.* 
Tho great majority of these works were issued in pamphlet 
form, having generally appeared in some of the current 
publications of which the American Naturalist. Proceed¬ 
ings of academies of science, and the Bulletins of the Hay¬ 
den Survey, were most prominent instances. Some, how¬ 
ever, are bound works of great magnitude and of impor¬ 
tance to American science. 
The following is a list* of hi3 works :— 
1861. Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador. 
1863. Synopsis of Oolumbidas and Podicipidse. 
1863. Notes on the same. 
1863. List of Birds of the District of Columbia, with the 
cooperation of Prentiss. 
1865. Ornithology of a Prairie Journey. 
1865. Notes on the Birds of Fort Whipple, Arizona. 
1866. From Arizona to tho Pacific. 
1866. List of Birds of Fort Whipple/Arizona. 
1866. Prodrome. 
1867. Notes on a Collection of Mammals from Arizona. 
1867. Birds of New England. 
1868. List of Palmer's Birds of Southern Arizona. 
1868. Catalogue of Birds of North America in the Es¬ 
sex Institute Musuem. 
1868. List of BirdB of New England. 
1867. The Quadrupeds of Arizona. 
1868. Synopsis of Buds of South Carolina, 
1809. Notice of a Cyclopean Pig, 
1869. Observation on the Marsh Hare. 
1870. Antero-Posterior Symmetry, with special refer¬ 
ence to the Muscles of the limbs. 
1870. Disposal of the Placenta of the Dog. 
1870. Results of Exploration in the Northwest, 
1871, Progress of American Ornithology, 
1871. Natural History of Fort Macon, N. O. 
1871. On the Myology of the Ornithorhyuchub. 
1873, The Osteology and Myology of Didolphya 
a Virgin- 
