1902 - 3 . j Mr Wm. Murray on Salmon in American Rivers. 481 
of millions of fry. One very remarkable event is, however, 
said to have happened upon this river. Out of 5000 yearlings 
marked in 1896 before being liberated by the removal of the 
adipose fin, it is stated that not less than 450 fish, weighing in the 
aggregate 10,000 lbs., have been recaptured in the second, third, 
and fourth years following their release. Of course this manner 
of marking is not considered trustworthy in this country, but the 
difficulty of distinguishing such small fish in any other manner is 
considerable. It would be well if this experiment could be carried 
out with much larger quantities of fry. If a million or more fry 
were marked each year upon the Columbia, the results might be 
very valuable in more ways than one. The present experiment, 
combined with the uncertitude of the method of marking adopted, 
does not seem to the writer to justify any assumptions. 
As for the main result of the American system of salmon ad- 
ministration, relying as it does chiefly upon artificial propagation, 
it would appear from the three tables printed above that salmon 
culture has in no case been successful in maintaining the yield of 
a river unless aided by an open and protected river system and 
due netting restrictions. Of the three rivers discussed, the Sacra- 
mento has the best record, and here there seems to have been an 
earlier or more consistent effort to enforce protective laws than upon 
either the Penobscot or the Columbia. But the yield of the Sacra- 
mento is still below its former figures, whereas another Pacific stream, 
the Fraser, upon which satisfactory protective measures were taken 
as early as 1878, has multiplied its catch manyfold. On the other 
hand, the disastrous effect of obstructions is well shown by the 
history of salmon culture on the east coast of America. Here 
salmon were once as plentiful as ever they were on the Thames in 
Queen Elizabeth’s days. By the middle of the sixties they had 
threatened to disappear, and as a remedy State and Federal 
Governments adopted the hatching box. Salmon were bought in 
Canada, and between 1866 and 1892 some 22,000,000 fry were 
liberated in the waters of New England alone, while many millions 
have since been freed there. The results of these plantations of 
fry have been very unfortunate. In former times salmon were 
present in at least nineteen of the streams of Maine, but in 1880 
they were found in but eight of the rivers of this State. Now 
