198 
' FOREST AND STREAM 
£isll §uUtH[e. 
REPORT OF 
FISH 
THE NEW YORK 
COMMISSIONERS. 
STATE 
T HE seventh annual report of this commission is vol- 
uminous in the detail of description of the work 
accomplished during 1874, and lias also the additional at- 
traction of being profusely Illustrated. The operations 
connected with shad hatching have been conducted with 
the usual success. No less than 5,149,000 eggs were im- 
pregnated, and a little over 5,000,000 young shad were 
turned into the Hudson River. It is gratifying to know 
that the yield of this fish is steadily increasing, and that 
larger hauls were made last year than have been known for 
many years before. The netting, however, is carried on to 
such an extent that the fish must run the gauntlet of a 
thousand foes before reaching the spawning grounds, and' 
the commissioners strongly urge the passage of a law pro- 
hibiting fishing from Saturday night until Monday morn- 
ing, os has been done iu an adjoining State. In conse- 
quence of the restriction of pound fishing in the Eastern 
States the catches have largely increased; in fact, one haul 
in the Connecticut River, in which 90,000,000 young shad 
have been hatched and turued loose, produced 3,050 fish, 
the largest haul made at any time during the present cen- 
tury, while the entire yield was u9 large as any since 1811. 
Wise legislation might produce similar results on the Hud- 
son, where the fierce competition renders every one alert to 
get his share of fish and encourages fishing on Sunday. 
Eel wieru are productive of great damage to young shad as 
well as to young fish of every description; the Oswego 
river would be equal to the Potomac for black bass were it 
not for them. 
Fish culture is a matter in which the entire country has 
a common interest. Our lakes and water courses are of 
such magnificent extent that many of them touch several 
Stutes, aud only the smaller ponds and streams are included 
within a solitary jurisdiction. Selfishness, therefore in 
the undertaking of restocking such waters is as impossible 
as it is unwise. Our own interests, extending, as they do 
to lakes Erie, Ontario, and Champlain, as well as the Hud- 
son River, in the waters of which New Jersey is also in- 
terested, are still not exclusive, aud when fish are wanted 
by the boards of our sister States for any reasonable ex- 
periments they are freely furnished. The interest in the 
problems to be settled by such investigation is common 
and as apt to benefit ourselves as our neighbors. 
Every year's investigation goes to confirm the opinion that 
shad never wander far from the mouths of the rivers where 
they are bred, but return to them to spawn. In the year 
1871 the commissioners deposited 300,000 young shad in 
the Hudson River above the Troy dam. Last Spring shad 
were more abundant just below the dam than they had 
been for years. These were evidently the same fish that 
had been placed above, and were striving to get back 
to what they supposed was the locality of their birth 
All migratory fish strive to get back to the spot where 
they were hatched. Instinct tells them that that is a 
good place lor spawning, as they are living witnesses 
Hence the rivers which are protected aud cultivated will 
yield abundantly, while those which are neglected and 
overfished will become barren and depleted. This is a 
stimulus to fish culture everywhere. Although sufficient 
time has not elapsed for a full fruition, the success attend- 
ing the slocking of inland waters with bass has been very 
marked. The one condition necessary to success being 'he 
eeleciion of the proper fish for the water in which they are 
to be placed, the commissioners have been for years'pub- 
lishiug in their reports the characteristics of waters adapted 
to cei tarn kinds of fish; yet people are continually erring 
in this respect. As black bass cannot be propagated like 
the trout or salmon, and as all attempts to take spawn from 
them have proved failures, the mode of introducing them 
is to transport fish from one to three years old and from 
three to twelve inches iu length, from well stocked ponds 
to i he localities where they are desired. Fish of this size 
are more numerous aud bear transportation much better 
than others. They are not moved without difficulty es- 
pecially in hot weather, but with judicious handling no se- 
rious loss need occur. It has been the practice heretofore 
to distribute the different varieties of bass during cold 
weather, but it is now thought better to do this in Surr mer 
The fish do not bile freely until after the spawning in 
June, aud us they do not usually reach their new homes 
until July, or later, there is no fry from them until the sec- 
ond year Next Summer great efforts will be made to ex- 
tend this brauch ol fish culture, and it is to be hoped that 
in a few years all the waste aud now worthless waters of 
the State will be stocked with this hardy game fish Al- 
ready are being heard good accounts of what had beeu 
previously accomplished. Many ponds and lakes which 
were lately bare ol fish are commencing to yield fairly A 
person can now gel a day's fishing where lor years past it 
was impossible to catch anything. The improvement will 
go on fuller and faster in precise ratio with ihe rapidity of 
exhaustion, which so soon extinguished all fish life in such 
localities The numbers will increase and the fishing will 
become better daily, to remain permanently improved if 
decent care is taken not to destroy it again. 
A very large number of the eggs of salraon'tr out have 
been distributed to the cure of private persons, relieving 
the labors of the employees ut the State hutching house 
and extending the knowledge of practical fish culture. Mr. 
Monroe A. Green has invented a carrying package for the 
impregnated eggs which is less expensive and a great im- 
provement on me old method, particularly where great 
quantities of eggs are to be shipped at one time The 
number of young fish sent out has also been large, amount- 
ing to 6-7,01)./ winiefish and 181,000 salmon trout. These 
operations are beginning to show practical results. As an 
example, it is said that in Cayuga Lake, which was stocked 
nil salmon trout in 1870, the fishing is excellent; pre- 
viously it was miserable. 
i'° r , k ha3 8ecured 300 - 000 c gS 9 of the California 
Siau-h ,rm her qU ° ta ° l lhu3e im P yrl ed tfie United 
non* wt T? UtrS ' wli,ch have beeu distributed in va- 
nemediolm ,? *?, e tlsh ' UIllike the Hal mo solar, are ex- 
SSiture of wJter ? UB ’ aa lljey can e,ldure “ Uglier tern- 
txac urn, in th™, P ‘ l ' VU ul u u,ffereu l reason, and are less 
exacting in the circumstances uecessary to their well being 
Ol course the undertaking is uu experiment, hut the con 
dilious on the whole arc lavorahle, uud if successful the 
results will be of great benefit. One of Brewer'Sproved 
Chute and fishways has been placed m the upper aqSeduot 
in the town of Niskayunaj Bchenectaday county, and gives 
great satisfaction. The inventor and contractor of the 
work, in the presence of at least twenty gentlemen, with a 
round scoop net, thirteen inches in diameter, took out at 
one haul two fish two-thirds of the way up the ascent, aud 
numbers of others were also taken out. 
Experiments with the grayling have beeu confined to 
hatching the impregnated eggs brought by Seth Green 
from the Au Suble in 1874, and in watching the habits of 
the young fish which were procured at the same time. Of 
these fish there are now ninety living, in charge of Mr. 
Collins at Caledonia, who deserves much credit for the 
successful manner in which he has brought this experiment 
to an issue and settled the principal doubts as to the hatch- 
ing of this new variety of fish. Of the value of the dis- 
covery only the future can determine, but some excellent 
results may follow. Theso are the first and only grayling 
ever hatched artificially. 
That slippery customer, the eel, has also engaged the 
attention of the commissioners, and they think him worthy 
of more attention than has been hitherto paid him. He 
is certainly indefatigable in overcoming obstacles, and not 
at all particular as to his diet. Regarding the vexed ques- 
tion as to his propagation they say the question as to how 
eels were propagated was one which had puzzled naturalists 
for years. The organs are now supposed to be a long, 
beautiful membrane, the swimming bladder, and by tbe 
side of it a series of very delicate fringes, something like 
tbe fringes of an old fashioned shirt people used to wear. 
Examined under a microscope it is found that tbe fringe 
consists of little globules, which would eventually become 
CKgs. The eels do not go down to 9pawn until October or 
November, and the young return in Spring and Summer. 
They descend in the floods and deposit these very minute 
eggs in the soft mud, and also in the muddy, sandy places. 
These little fellows will stay in the brackish waters of the 
estuury till the months of May and June, and up they al- 
ways go as regularly as clock work. Another extraordi- 
nary fuct is that an eel has a heart in its tail— a caudal 
heart, which, when the eel is dying, and not before, ex- 
hibits a pulsation of ninety-five to the minute. By the aid 
of a microscope the pulsation can be seen quite distinctly. 
That little heart also exists in the tadpole and several other 
varieties of fish. It has been suggested, but not clearly 
established, that eels have both generative organs in each 
individual, and thus breed without pairing. This being an 
exception to nature’s almost universal polity, must be more 
clearly proved before it can be positively accepted. 
Fioni the 5,000 eggs of the blue backed trout, purchased 
iu Maine, about 4,000 are now being hatched, with the 
probability that enough mature fish will be procured to en- 
able the commissioners to introduce them into one or more 
of our lakes. If their presence causes the ordinary brook 
trout to grow to the size of the famous fish of the Umba- 
gog, the Rangeley aud Richardson lakes, they will be ex- 
ceedingly valuable in some of the larger waters of New 
York. Their fecundity is remarkable, and much benefit 
may be expected from their introduction as human food if 
they increase with us as rapidly as they do in Maine. 
During the year Mr. Setli Green made a most interesting 
and valuable discovery regarding tbe striped bass. While 
engaged iu hatching shad iu the Southern rivers he caught, 
a number of them iu the seine, and found them to be in 
spawning condition. He proceeded at once to extract the 
spawn, experiencing no trouble in the operation and taking 
it as easily as he could that of shad. It was treated pre- 
cisely like the latter, being, after thorough impregnation, 
deposited in the ordinary shad boxes. Contrary to the ex- 
pectation of most fish culturists, the ova were found to be 
entirely free from the mucous or gelatinous envelope which 
exists with most of the pcrcidw, and always surrounds the 
eggs of the black bass, pike, perch, Oswego bass, and so 
forth. Fully 500,000 eggs were found in females, of fair 
size, and of these there hatched as large a percentage as 
with shad. At the end of eight days the fry made their 
appearance, and were at once turued loose in the river to 
shift for themselves. 
A large portion of the report is devoted to the discussion 
of pound nets and other deleterious modes of fishing, more 
particularly os regards the former, iu the waters of Great 
South Bay. As we propose to give this portion of the re- 
port separate consideration, we make no further mention 
of it here. 
The commissioners propose hereafter to devote a portion 
of their attention to the propagation of brook trout, an 
undertaking which hitherto has not been attempted at the 
public charge; the result of which, it is hoped, will be the 
stocking of hundreds if not thousands of streams, and ex- 
tend the benefit of the commission to districts which 
hitherto have been deprived of them. The appendix con- 
tains voluminous statistics regarding the distribution of 
fish and eggs. 
SALMON CULTURE IN CANADA. 
From the appendices just issued to the report— for 1874 
—of the Fisheries branch of the Marine and Fisheries De- 
partment we learn that there are now five new ealmon 
breeding establishments, situated respectively at Newcas- 
tle, Ontario; on the Resligouche River, between the Prov- 
inces of Quebec and New Brunswick; on the Miramichi 
River, in New Brunswick; at Gaspe, Quebec, and at Ta- 
dousac, Quebec. At Tadousac operations commenced in 
the Summer of 1874, when a building formerly used as a 
mill was obtaiued, well suited for the purpose; from two 
to three millions of eggs can be accommodated upon its 
floors, and Mr. Wilmot is sanguine that next (the current) 
year fully " three millions of young salmon may be hatchea 
there and distributed in the upper waters of the Sagueuay." 
Unfortunately, the care of their foster parent cannot he ex- 
tended to the youthful salmon after leaving the shelter of 
the paternal roof, and but a very moderate percentage — 
such are the dangers of juvenile flsh life— will ever reach 
to a period of maturity. 
The establishment at Gaspe is up the Dartmouth River, 
in a small brook which empties itself some two or three 
miles lower down into the main stream. The building is 
well furnished with all the necessary appliances for the ac- 
commodation of 2,000,000 of salmon ova, or even a larger 
number. At the time of Mr. Wilmot’s visit there were 
200,000 eggs hatching, all appearing healthy. But from a 
difficulty iu obtaining spawn, owing to the refusul of the 
lessees of the surrounding stream to allow the salmon to 
he taken for tbe purpose, the supply at Gaspe has been 
more limited than was anticipated, but this will he recti- 
fied by the importation of spawn from a distance. 
At Restigouche " the breeding and hatching apparatus 
are well adapted and systematically arranged. In Octo- 
ber last the Superintendent, Mr. John Mowat, fishery offi- 
cer of the division, had 880,000 eggs hatching, aud ex- 
pected nearly the whole to turn out well. The 'eggs had 
been furnished by 110 female salmon, or an average of 
8,000 from each flsh. 
The establishment at Miramichi is the most exteusive in 
the Dominion. It consists of a building two stories high, 
the upper used for the residence of the officer iu charge' 
aud the lower for flsh hatching. The work of the season 
began with the capture— with nets— of 350 salmon, of which 
300 were "manipulated," the balance managing to escape 
or to secrete themselves. Of the 800 that were spawned 
200 were females, which yielded 1,500,000 eggs, or an aver- 
age of 7,500 per fish. It is expected that the percentage of 
young salmon from this supply will be very large. 
The report alludes lastly to the operation uuder Mr. 
Wilmot’s own management, at Newcastle. At the close of 
1873 there were in the troughs some 300,000 salmon eggs, 
and a large quantity of salmon trout ova, nearly the whole 
of both species being successfully hatched. The salmon 
trout fry were turned adrift into Lake Ontario, the salmon 
being distributed in the following creeks and rivers; The 
Moira, the Trent, Graftou Creek, Barber's Creek, Duffin's 
Creek, the Rouge, and the Credit Rivers, as well as some 
rivers further westward. Salmon fry was also placed in 
the Salmon River, some forty miles below Ottawa, and iu 
the Saugeen River, “with a view to acclimatizing these 
fish to the fresh waters of Lake Huron, and others of the 
great inland seas of the West.” The annual increase in 
the numbers of the fish entering the stream has been 
steady for some time past. Many of them are too large to 
pass the shallows, and have to lay their eggs in the open 
water, whereby large numbers are lost. Only tbe smaller 
salmon, in fact, cun reach the "reception house.” Of 
these upwurd of 800 entered lust year, a register of arrivals 
each night being taken as follows: October 22, 45; 23d, 78- 
24th, 68; 25th, 66; 26th, 141; 27th, 211. The last figure 
would have been greater but for a small opening which 
fifty-two of the more knowing ones had discovered iu the 
main barrier, aud through which they passed up stream, 
where they were found next day. From those that entered 
the building 8ome 800,000 eggs were taken and placed in 
the hatching troughs. The total of salmon eggs hatching 
at the time the report refers to was, therefore, 3,440,000 
from which Mr. Wilmot predicts that 3,000,000 will this 
year be distributed in the rivers and streams of Ontario, 
Quebec, and New Brunswick, with every prospect of au 
almost unlimited increase in the present and future years. 
• ^ 1 ^ • 
Massachusetts Angler's Association.— A regular 
meeting was held in their rooms in Boston Weduesday 
evening April 28th, President Ordway in the chair. Re- 
ports were made showing the measures being taken for the 
enforcement of our laws for the protection of fish during 
close seasons, and the commendable manner in which the 
efforts of the association are seconded by General Stephen- 
son and his officers of the State Force. 
Letters from Col. Theodore Lyman and Prof. Alexander 
Agassiz, accepting the honorary memberships tendered 
them at the annual meeting, were read. 
An amendment to the constitution and by-laws was 
adopted, enabling applicants for membership from a dis- 
tance to have the signatures to their application after being 
accepted entered on the roll of membership. 
A committee of five, consisting of D. T. Curtis, Johu 
F. Mills, Walter M. Brackett, Edward Dexter, and J. C. 
King was appointed for the purpose of considering the 
expediency of obtaining the lease of some suitable pond, 
in the interest of the association, for the purpose of rais- 
ing and introducing new species aud varieties of fish and 
disseminating information relating thereto. 
Charles Hallock, Esq., of New York, editor of Forest 
and Stream, was present, aud favored the members with 
some interesting remarks, explaining the objects and com- 
posilion of the International Association for the Protection 
of Game and Fish. Mr. Hallock’s remarks were received 
with applause. 
Among a large number of the reports of Commissioners 
of the several States, which were presented, wa 9 a full set 
(6 vols., 1868 to 1873) of the Department of Marine and 
risheries of the Dominion of Canada, presented by W. F. 
\\ hitcher, Esq.,Commi8sionerof Fisheries.— Boston Journal. 
—We have received from the Canadian Marine and 
Fisheries Department a copy of the Commissioners’ an- 
nual report for 1874, which we shall find very useful for 
reference, and have frequent occasion to draw upon for the 
information of our readers. Our thanks are due for the 
attention. 
mural J fistarg . 
For Forest and Stream. 
NOM ENCLAT URE. 
New Smyrna, Fla., April 1875. 
P ROBABLY you and your readers have had enough of 
the pompauo discussion, and Professor Gill’s explana- 
tion in your paper of April 1 leaves me nothing more to 
add. As to the nurse shark of Florida, it is evidently a 
placoid or selacian, according to ,Mr. Gill’s nomenclature, 
differing from other species in its teeth, which are like 
those of a fine saw; it also has a barb or beard on the 
lower jaw, and in its habits it is sluggish. The last one 
which I saw killed, though five or six feet long, allowed 
itself to be drawn alongside the boat and gaffed, after a 
very feeble resistance, so that if not Somniosus, or a sleepy 
head, it has some right to the name. 
Mr. Gill remarks that " this is simply another example 
of the confusion which popular names may lead one into ” 
Did it ever occur to Mr. Gill that some of the modern 
naturalists are adding to this confusion by their constant 
changes of nomenclature 1 We of the old school who 
studied Slorer, De Kay, and Agassiz are constantly puzzled 
with the uew names used by the new school of naturalists, 
which, in more senses than one, are Greek to us. For in- 
stance, the black basses are named by Storer Grgstes ml- 
rnoidea and Centrarchus fasctalus. Afterward by Agassiz 
Grystes su maiden and Qi-yetes nigricans. The new school, 
which may he called the Smithsonian, alters the name of 
j U8 v and 8 P ecdeB * n one t ttn d calls it Mioraptarus achigan, 
and changes the name of the genus in the northern fortHf 
