Is 
California Salmon — (, Salmo guinnat.) 
We have in our previous reports given the reasons which 
induced us to devote ourselves assiduously to the establishment 
of this most valuable fish in Maryland waters. 
The distribution of fish obtained from the eggs presented 
by the U. S. Commissioner in the fall of 1878 was not com- 
pleted on the first of January, and therefore not detailed in 
our report of that date. In accordance with our understand- 
ing with the U. S. Commissioner, we sent some of the salmon 
hatched for him at the Druid Hill Hatching-House to southern 
waters. These transfers were in charge of the men in the 
employ of the Maryland Commission, but the expenses were 
paid by the U. S. Commission. The details of this distribu- 
tion will be found in the subsequent table. 
The remaining young fish, amounting in all to 62,236, were 
disposed of in the early portion of the year. These were con- 
siderably larger than those usually sent out from the hatching- 
house, as they had been fed for a considerable time. In this 
manner, by depositing the fish not only as soon as the um- 
bilical sac is absorbed, but by keeping and feeding them 
some time before they are deposited in the stream for which 
they are intended, and after they have attained considerable 
size, we have endeavored to insure the survival of a sufficient 
number to make their presence felt when they returned as 
adults from the sea. 
The total distribution of California salmon in Maryland 
waters during the year 1879 amounted to 315,236, making an 
aggregate deposit of 2,532,140 young fish in the rivers of Ma- 
ryland since the organization of the Commission. Experience 
has shown that the salmon do not attain their growth or re- 
turn from the ocean for the purpose of spawning before the 
fourth or fifth year. We have therefore not looked for any 
results from these deposits up to this time, but we should com- 
mence to receive the benefits of their return in the course of 
the next year or so. Should these experiments prove suc- 
cessful, this fish, which enters so largely into the productive 
value of the rivers flowing into the Pacific, will be a most val- 
