238 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
INTRODUCTION 
This report is based upon collections made in El Salvador during the last 
half of January and the first half of February, 1924, by Fred J. Foster, superin- 
tendent of the United States Bureau of Fisheries station at Neosho, Mo., and 
the writer. This visit to El Salvador was made in response to a request of the 
Government of that country to the Government of the United States for the services 
of one or more specialists to examine principally the fresh waters to determine 
the status of the fisheries and to study their needs. The United States Commis- 
sioner of Fisheries thereupon detailed Mr. Foster and the author to proceed to El 
Salvador for that purpose. A report embodying the economic phase of these 
studies has been prepared by Mr. Foster and the author; it is sufficient to state 
here that fish are very scarce in most fresh waters and that the quantity taken 
annually appears to be very small. Two brief collecting trips were made to salt 
water, and there, too, fish appeared to be rather scarce. It is well understood, 
however, that the abundance of fish in salt water usually varies greatly with the 
season, and the results obtained from the two short visits made are not sufficient 
to form the basis for any conclusions. 
The scarcity of fresh-water fishes may be due mainly to the absence in the 
past of measures of protection, and in certain waters probably to the liberation, 
through earth disturbances, of poisonous gases. Fishing has been carried on at 
all seasons of the year, and such destructive methods as the use of dynamite and 
plant poisons appear to have been used frequently. Fishes of nearly all sizes are 
taken and marketed. Individuals 75 millimeters in length, belonging to species 
that reach a length of 300 miUimeters and more, are taken and sold in the markets. 
Even the top minnows (Poeciliid^, locally known as "chimbolas") are sold both 
in the fresh and dried state. 
El Salvador is the smallest of the Central American Republics, having an area 
of 34,126 square kilometers, or about equal in size to the State of New Jersey, 
and it is the only one of these republics which is wholly within the Pacific drainage 
and which does not also border on the Atlantic Ocean. The climate, of course, is 
tropical, but the country is largely mountainous, and a considerable variation in 
temperature, according to altitude, exists. This country, like most tropical coun- 
tries, has a wet and a dry season. The wet season extends from about May to 
November, and the dry season occupies the balance of the year. The wet season 
is referred to by the inhabitants as winter and the dry season as summer. 
The Republic, from an agricultural standpoint, is rich, and, exclusive of Haiti, 
it is said to be the most densely populated country of the Western Hemisphere. 
The great mass of the people are Indians, who live a simple life, have little, and 
whose wants seem to be satisfied easily. Spanish, the State language, is spoken 
everywhere. 
El Salvador, although small, is well supplied with fresh-water lakes and streams. 
The Rio Lempa, a comparatively large stream, lies mostly within its borders. 
Lake Guija, with an area of 300 square kilometers, lies on its border, partly in El 
Salvador and partly in Guatemala. It appears to be quite rough a large part of 
the time, and plant growths were found only in protected coves. Soundings taken 
