96 



Appendices to Thirty-sixth Annual Report 



fluctuations, about 10,000 fish. The prima facie case is here pretty 

 strong. 



The U.S.A. and Canada are conspicuous in the large development of 

 hatching to meet the constant drain upon the fish stock, and resort is had 

 to artificial hatching, as a Government proposition, for this purpose, rather 

 than to any great restriction upon the catching power. The magnitude of 

 the operations may be understood if I quote from the 1904 Report of the 

 Bureau. In that year there were distributed from 49 stations and sub- 

 stations for hatching, 1,269,343,025 eggs, fry, fingerlings, yearlings, and 

 adults. Some 35 species were treated, including some sea fish. The 

 figures for the Quinnat salmon of the Pacific Coast are 75,217,354 eggs 

 and 35,006,988 fry. The figures for the Atlantic salmon are small beside 

 such outputs, being 25,500 eggs and 2,566,716 fry. One notices also that 

 the statistics as to hatching are the first matters reported upon in the 

 volume. It is right to state also that one gathers from the references to 

 this or that species that if, for some reason or other, success does not 

 follow a well sustained trial in a particular locality, further attempts with 

 that species in that locality are suspended. 



In the Merrimac river, north of Boston, success is also claimed for arti- 

 ficial hatching, as also in the river Hudson, but in the latter no real com- 

 mercial fishery has ever been established, and it may very well be that other 

 factors come in to stultify operations, and that artificial hatching or natural 

 hatching are powerless to compete against pollutions and obstructions as in the 

 more humble case of the river Forth to which I have already made reference. 



I do not wish to deal specially with the very great hatching operations 

 carried on in connection with the Pacific Coast rivers of America and Canada. 

 The species handled differ from ours, and the habits of the fry in their 

 descent to the sea are, in many cases, quite distinct. Also, a very complete 

 digest of the subject was presented in evidence to the Royal Commission on 

 Salmon Fisheries in 1901, by Mr. W. Murray, the upshot of whose 

 evidence was to show that the reports concerning these Fraser and Sacra- 

 mento operations were by no means sufficient to establish a case in favour 

 of artificial hatching, and that the successful cases were really those con- 

 nected with the hatching of trout in the Lake Superior district, or the 

 treatment of other purely inland species. 



One may refer, however, to the case of the Rhine. About the middle 

 of last century the salmon fisheries of that river were regarded as on the 

 point of extinction, and artificial hatching operations were taken up by 

 Germany. These operations have been steadily carried on, though for 

 obvious reasons one is not in a position to state what may have been done 

 in the matter of output of fry in recent years. It may be taken as certain, 

 however, that Germany does not continue hatching for the benefit of 

 Holland, and it appears that Dutch fishermen can now sell from thirty to 

 forty thousand salmon annually, and every one appears to be satisfied that 

 this is chiefly the result of Germany's hatching. 



We may also recall the recently reported success in the introduction of 

 the Quinnat salmon to New Zealand, though this is qualified by the recol- 

 lection of the failure in the case of the Atlantic salmon. It is noticeable 

 also that from the first the hatching of trout in New Zealand has been a 

 success, and that the descendants of the small brown trout introduced from 

 England have become huge sea trout, a proof, if such were further needed, 

 that there is but one species of trout. 



Then we must remember also that the attempt made by America, and 

 lasting some 10 or 12 years, to introduce Quinnat salmon to the eastern sea 

 board failed, though recently, according to Dr. Kendall, who is said to 

 know more about hatching in the State of Maine than any one else, a rather 



