dent announced that the subjects intended to be considered 
would be taken up under f 3ur heads, as follows: Section 1 , 
Methods in Fish Culture, etc., Mr. S. Green, Mr. B. B. Por- 
ter, Mr. 8. Wilmot. Section 2, Fishery Lgws and Fish-Ways 
Mr. 0. B. Evarts, Mr. L. Stone, Mr. T. B. Ferguson. Section 
3, Natural History, etc., Mr. J. W. Milner, Mr. F. Mather 
Mr. C. Hallock. Section 4, Fisheries, Mr. E. G Black- 
ford, Mr/B. Phillips, Mr. M. C. Edmunds. In the absence 
of Mr. B. B. Porter, who was in California, the Secretary 
read a paper on trout culture, written by Mr. Porter. This 
paper led to a lively discussion, Mr. Seth Green stating that 
the average of fish raised by new and improved processes was 
much larger than the result of Mr. Porter’s experience gave. 
“ How to Pack Salmon Eggs,” by Livingston Stone, was then 
read. A recess having been taken, some discussion took 
pluce as to the method known as the “ Russian Method of 
Impregnation,” and priority of discovery was claimed for Mr. 
Seth Green. Mr. F. Mather then explained, in response to 
Mr. Livingston Stone’s paper, the difficulties encountered by 
him in transplanting salmon eggs to Europe. Telegrams 
were received during the afternoon accounting for the absence 
of Messrs. Wliitcher and Wilmot, the Canadian Fish Com- 
missioners, there being a heavy freshet on the rivers of the 
Dominion, which threatened to carry away the hatching es- 
tablishments. Prof. G. Brown Goode read a paper on the 
migration of fish in opposition to certain theories advanced by 
Mr. Hinde. Mr. H.’s views have been presented to the 
Halifax Fishery Commission, and have perhaps somewhat 
influenced the decision adverse to American interests. Mr. 
F. Mather followed with an interesting paper on feeding fish 
in conflnememt. Prof. Spencer F. Baird then addressed the 
convention at length on the necessity of perfecting some plan 
for arriving at the quantity of sea and fresh water fish, more 
especially the former, caught on our shores. The 0. S. Com- 
missioner declared that this country was at a disadvantage be- 
cause such a classification had not been made. And at the 
late fishery convention held in the Provinces, that as the Ca- 
nadians bad such tables of the catch of fish, and the U. S. 
had not any, we had been placed very much in disadvantage 
The Commissioner urged that the Association should use their 
best efforts to have at least the fish trade of New York cor- 
rectly estimated. The President, Mr. Roosevelt, in a spirited 
speech invited the co-operation of the wholesale fish dealers 
in New York to this end. Mr. Coup, of the Aquarium, where 
the meeting had been held last year, tendered an invitation to 
the members of the Association, which was accepted with 
thanks. A nomination committee having been formed the 
meeting adjourned to assemble next next day at 10J o’clock. 
Second Day— (Meeting of Feb. 28). 
With a larger attendance than the day before, at 11 o’clock 
the President opened the meeting. The Secretary proposed 
the following changes in the constitution: That the title of 
the Association be changed from Fish Culturists to Fish Cul- 
tural, and that seven members be made an executive commit- 
tee in lieu of three. These amendments were adopted. On 
the report of the nominating committee the following officers 
were elected for the ensuing year: Robert B. Roosevelt 
President ; George Shepherd Page, Vice-President ; Barnet 
Phillips, Secretary ; Eugene G. Blackford, Treasurer : Ex- 
ecutive Committee— H. J. Reeder, F. Muther, J. W. Milner 
W. F. Wliitcher, Seth Green and H. D. McGovern. These 
officers are the same as last year, with the additions made to 
the executive committee. The same gentlemen for the four 
sections who were chosen for 1878 were selected to report at 
the ensuing meeting in 1879. Mr. Eugene G. Blackford, the 
Treasurer of the Association, read an exceeding interesting 
and practical paper entitled “ The Peculiar Features of the 
Fish Market,” treating of shad, trout and salmon. Mr. Black- 
ford strongly advocated the passage of a law to give the shad 
and other fish a chance of escape for only a single day in the 
week during the open season. Mr. Campbell, Mr. Green and 
many others advocated this as a legislative measure. Prof. 
Milner read a paper on shad hatching, bringing before the 
meeting the new method of shad hatching invented by Mr. T. 
B. Ferguson. This brought forward a discussion, in which 
Mr. Seth Green advocated the hatching box named after him 
as having a priority of mention. Mr. Roosevelt, the Presi- 
dent, then presented a paper on eels, which was followed by 
statistical memoranda giving the number of pounds of fish of 
various kinds caught in the United States, prepared by Profs. 
Goode. Two thousand one hundred and eighty-eight vessels, 
with a tonnage of 80,000 tons, are employed in the United 
States. A resolution was offered and carried thanking Profs. 
Milner and Goode for the valuable character of the papers 
offered by them, and also a resolution expressing the thanks 
of the Association to the Fishmongers Association for the 
use of their rooms, and “that in the absence of authoritative 
provision for the purpose, the Fishmonger's Association be 
earnestly requested to take such steps as may assist in the 
publication of an annual report of such fi-ffi or marine products 
used for food as may pass through their hands. " The meeting 
then adjourned until the regular day in Feb., 1879. 
A Request Know the United States Commissioner of Fisn 
and Fisheries. — It frequently happens that this journal has 
reports sent to it, or gleaus from the press, notices of fish, such 
48 s * ln d and salmon, purporting to have been caught in waters 
°f the United States, where such fish had never been found 
before. We have always paid great attention to suoh an- 
nouncements, trusting to be able to be among the first to 
determine what &he dab were, and to make more widely known 
FOREST AND STRE AM. 
the labors and successes of our Fish Commissioners. Lately 
o take a case in point, a paragraph, taken from a Western 
paper, contained the statement that salmon had been captured 
in quantity m the Mississippi River. We immediately tele- 
graphed and wrote to Memphis in regard to this salmon, but 
nave not as yet been in receipt of any reliable information. It 
is exactly for just such cases of well-known fish found in out 
of the way places, that the Honorable Spencer F. Baird the 
U. 8. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, has sent to us a 
communication, which we trust will bo widely read. 
'1 he country at large derives so much advantage from the 
labors of the Smithsonian Institution, that we have no reason 
to suppose that the general public will not make a lieurly re- 
sponse to Professor Baird’s request ; 
Editor Forest and Stbbam and Rod and Gun- 
natipn* V H„rfnff ,f everal noli “? i'i the Western and Southern 
r pr i eS T t spriug ’ of the capture of adult fish, 
and fmfmon Sw and . salmou among others -shad at Vicksburg 
by the Uffited & h ^ e8UD1 - e(l10 bave been 'bose planted 
y the United States Fish Commission in previous years. 
cccas . ,0 “ l ° ,nvoke the a8s i"tance of your widely 
’. in requesting information on this subject 
from all who may have it at their command, as it is very 
rn.h^Pd f ?, l0 'T up the bistory of the fish that we have in- 
troduced, and to know exactly the dates and places of their 
occurrence the size to which they bave attained, etc. It is 
especially desirable to know the period during which the fish 
are taken at any one station, how they were captured— in wliat 
number and of what weight. I shall be especially thankful 
also, tor a good average specimen from each locality where 
observed, to be transmuted by express, either packed in ice 
or preserved in alcohol, and addressed to the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, Vtashmgton. 
For shipment in icc each fish should be wrapped in cotton 
cloth and packed in a box, with ice of about the size of the 
fist, and about an equal quantity of sawdust. 
. Spenobr F. Baird, Commissioner. 
WcwlungUm, March 4, 1878. 
Woodward’s Aquarium and FisnCuLruRE in Califo rnia. 
—A correspondent, who was a fish culturi6t, describes a model 
aquarium in San Francisco, which will not be rejprded with 
less interest because it has already been mentioned in our 
columns : 
San Franoisoo, Cal. , Feb. 5, 1878. 
Of course every one who visits San Francisco goes to see 
Woodward’s Gardens, an establishment that cannot have an 
equal in the U. S., except on this coast. The aquarium 
amused me more than any other department. It is not as 
large as the ;New York aquarium, but is a perfect gem as fur 
as it goes, and produces a feeling as you pass the cave-like 
entrance of going beneath the waters of the deep to admire 
the inhabitants thereof in their own home. It is this impres- 
ston, caused by the manuer in which the aquarium is con- 
structed, that makes it more enjoyable to visitors than it could 
possibly be if it were iu an ordinary building. There was 
one taok of very fine specimens of the vegetable-eating carp, 
which on one or two occasions have brought as high as one 
dollar per pound in market. Six clollurs “was offered for u 
shad of four pounds weight a day or two since, I think the 
first ever offered in market on this coast. That shad would 
never have brought as much had he been kept at home. The 
otlar day I visited the State hatching-house of California 
with Fish Commissioner H. G. Parker and wife, of Carsoo, 
Nevada, which at present is located about three miles from 
Sau Leandro, Alameda Co. I believe this is not intended as a 
permanent locatiou. Probably no State has taken more in- 
terest in the propagation of fish for stocking its waters than 
California, when commissioners are the right men in the 
right place. At the present lime they have in their lmtching- 
house about thirty thousand whitefish. All these were saved 
of a shipment of 300,000 from Michigan— 200.000 for Cali- 
fornia and 100,000 for the State of Nevada. They have fifty 
thousand land-locked saimon from Maine, and 125.000 brook 
trout eggs and fish from the Eastern States. There were 
three or tour thousand McCloud River trout five months old 
that would measure from two to eight inclicslong, all from the 
same lot of eggs. There were a few carp, six months old, 
that would weigh a pound apiece, and some not so large ; they 
vary in size, but not so much as the trout do. The Sports- 
man’s Club of California have 200,000 McCloud River salmon, 
three months old. for the purpose of stocking Lake Merced. 
Prof. J. G. Woodbury, Superintendent of the State hatching- 
house, has charge of them, assisted by Mr. Fitzpatrick, who 
informed me that the rats were fishing them out ruther lively, 
which, by the way, puts me in mind of a rat that once infested 
my hatching-house, and by careful watching I learned his 
method. He sat upon his haunches on the edge of a receiving 
box full of fry about an inch long ; by reaching down with 
one paw he would stir the water and the fish would collect at 
the spot there, then by a dexterous movement with both paws 
he would catch one and quietly eat him, then go through the 
same operaliou again. A trap placed at his fishing-post soon 
relieved me of this poacher. Yours truly, B. B. Porter. 
a large class of non-scientiflc readers. Considerable matter of 
popular interest has been introduced, and this matter is, much 
° it, entirely now. Besides the paper already mentioned, the 
pamphlet contains two short articles by Dr. Coues ; one of 
uiem on Consolidation in the Hoofs of the Virginia Deer, and 
lished inTwTa?"*** ° f 8olid ' Hoofed U ° B ®- “PP^ently estab- 
of^tTauthor U M A Tw° VA Bo °™— ’ Through the kindness 
favoL luR M f Uh6W Jouu8 ’ F ’ L - S- ™ have been 
Scotia (6W/a/ a °rf Py °i b ‘ 8 Ll81 ot lbo Mollusca of Nova 
bcotia (Gcji/iafopodu and Tunicata not included). This list 
ich is corrected to 1877, represents the present state of our 
.knowledge on this subject, and is thus of great vahie to the 
working conchologist. The Forest and Stream has often 
been indebted to Mr. Jones for interesting informal ion relating 
IT rf °v « ’ ftnd we bave j“«t received from him, at 
Hahfax, N 8., the following note, for which he has our 
thanks. Mr. Jones writes : 
“ Having received the contents of the craw of « 
Mountiun golden-eye (Bturphala islandica, Bd.) for identifies 
Bc T rd Oil P i0 - President of the Nova Si an 
I?™ ■ f ° f , Nrtluml s r ciencfa . «i" ( l thinking that the result 
may interest some of your readers, I beg to state tlmt tbe 
whoie consisted of littoral mulluscs, as follows • SjfotXl 
palliaUi, Gd., 221 specimens, Hdult and young : l„ tenebresa 
Gd 2 specimens, young; Purpuralapillun, Lam., 3 speci- 
mens, young; Lactuw vincta , Gd., 1 specimen. P 
In a Duck’s Gizzard.— We have received from a corres- 
pondent in Ohio something which, at first sight, looks like a 
piece of abraded crystal, but on examination by a lapidary 
it has been found to be a bit of glass. Its weight iH 3 3-iti 
carats. All the sharp corners of the glass had been round- 
ed off. It is a question whether this attrition is duo to the 
sand in which the piece of glass might have been found or to 
the action of the duck's gizzard. The gizzard of a bird is 
endowed with wonderful muscular power, a D d the gastric 
juices may have worked on the silicate. It is quite a well 
known fact that spurious antiques are manufactured by tnkiug 
a newly-made carnelian, having figures engraved on it, and 
then making a turkey swallow it. In this way that peculiar 
look of age— that fine minute point polish, which early in- 
cised Greek gems possess, is produced. As to the presence of 
the glass where the wild ducks are found, that is easy enough 
to-be understood. There was some thirsty sportsmau in that 
neighborhood, who, when his flask was empty, broke it. 
Hence the glass in the duck's gizzard. We are really sorry 
that it is only glass, and wish, for our correspondent's sake, 
'hat it had been a diamond, or an aquamarine. We produce 
the letter of our correspondent : 
Attica, Ohio, Feb. 28, 1878. 
Editor Forest and Stream and Rod and Gun : 
Find enclosed a curious little stone which was taken from the gizzard 
of a red-head duck one year ago. The duck was shot oo the New 
Haven marsh in Huron County, Ohio, by myself. Please Inform me 
what sort of stone it Is. 
^ntural %}istorg< 
Herpetology of Dakota and Montana.— We have re- 
ceived, through-the courtesy of Dr. H. C. Yarrow, a valuable 
paper, entitled “Notes on the Herpetology of Dakota and 
Montana," by Drs. Elliott Coues and H. C. Yarrow. These 
notes are extracted from the bulletin of Dr. Hayden’s geologi- 
cal and geographical survey of the Territories, Vol. IV., No. 1* 
and are of special interest, as treating of a region from which 
few collections in this department of science have yet been 
brought. 
The material upon which the present article is based con- 
sists of the collections secured by Dr. Coues in 1873- '4, while 
serving as naturalist of the U. S. Northern Boundary Commis- 
sion. The list includes five Chelonians, sixteen Ophidians, 
three Lacertilians and five Amphibians. A new snake— 
Eutania radix twiningi— Coues and Yarrow, dedicated to 
Major Twining of the engineers, is described. 
The paper to which we refer is one of no little importance, 
and as it Is by no meansa purely technical essay, will interest 
Birds of the Garden and Orchard.— At a meeting of the 
Middletown (Conn.) Scientific Association, held Feb. 12, 1878, 
Mr. John H. Sage read a very interesting paper under the 
above title. Mr. Sage confined himself altogether to the con- 
sideration of those species which he had observed in his own 
orchard and garden, a small plot of ground in the most thickly 
settled part of Portland, Conn. Even in this limited area, 
however, the careful observer has been enabled to note no 
less than seventy-two species, or nearly one-third of those 
birds known to inhabit the State. 
Mr. Sage is well-known to the ornithologists of Connecticut 
as one of the most reliable observers of that State, and he has 
contributed, in connection with one other gentleman, very 
considerable additions to our knowledge of the habits of New 
Eoglund birds. 
. — - • — 
Birds Hatched in February.— The Burlington (Vt.) Free 
Pram, 1 1 tli ult., says : *’ As workmen were cutting logs for 
E. N. Colton, on the 6th of February, ou a flat piece of timber 
laud on tbe top of the mountain that divides the head waters 
of the so-called mill-brook and Lee River, they felled a spruce 
tree, and three young birds, with pin feathers just starting, 
probably about eight or ten days old, fell from their nest, some 
thirty or forty feet from the ground. They were taken and 
cared for, but their fall preved too much for them. The parent 
birds were nearly as large as tbe common blue-birds ; the 
female was of a grayish color, and the male bird had a reddish 
breast, with dark wings. The question arises, have wc migra- 
tory birds that visit us and breed and rear llieir young in 
winter.” 
They were crossbills (Loxia curvirostra) of course, and the 
occurrence of their nests in winter is nothing very surprising. 
Mr. Boardman has found them breeding in winter in the vici- 
nity of Eostport, Me. 
What are Pure Bred Elk. — Joggine Mints, N. S., Jan. 
15. — Editor Forect and Stream and Hod and Gun : In answer 
to your correspondent's query as to what I meant by “ nearly 
pure bred elk," I should say that here in Cumberland county, 
and I presume in other counties where moose resort, we have 
two different kinds of moose — the highland moose, or elk, 
and the swamp moose, or true moose ; names given them by 
the hunters, who have little or no knowledge of natural his- 
tory. They may be merely local ; I simply use the name as 
they do here. The distinction 1 have noticed here between 
the two kinds is : the former is short legged, dark skin (nearly 
black), short, fioe-shaped head, and the long black bell or dew 
i . . /.mn, t iitdI tt it In uiv iiw'IloQ lnnir . ( Iwj Imrna lm uu mnra 
