THE HUDSON RIVER AS A SALMON STREAM. 
By A. NELSON CHENEY, 
State Fish-Cu/turist, New York Fisheries, Game, and Forest Commission. 
During the past twenty five years to my personal knowledge, and probably for a 
longer period, there have appeared in various publications, from time to time, articles 
describing the Hudson River as an original salmon stream. Some have merely made 
the broad statement that the river once contained Sahno salar , and others in more 
explicit language have described the great quantities of salmon that once inhabited 
the stream, and deplored the fact that they had become extinct in the river. Almost 
without exception the sole foundation for the statement that the Hudson was once a 
natural salmon river rests upon an extract from the log of Henry Hudson, of the 
Halfmoon , who records that in 1609 he saw a “great store of salmons in the river” 
which now bears his name. 
Within the past fifteen years a gentleman wrote to a newspaper published iu a 
city on the bank of the Hudson declaring that his grandfather formerly caught large 
numbers of salmon in the Hudson, and for this reason it was a proper water to be 
restocked with the king of fresh- water fishes. 
That old, old story, which originated in England or Scotland one or two hundred 
years ago, that apprentices and servants provided, when indentured to their masters, 
that they should not be required to eat sain. on oftener than twice a week, has been 
transplanted to the banks of the Connecticut and has even been applied to the 
Hudson and its alleged salmon. 
Nevertheless I maintain, and will show in this paper — as I believe, conclusively — 
that the Hudson was not originally a salmon stream, and that no salmon were ever 
found in it except possibly an estray from the Connecticut, until planted by the United 
States Fish Commission and the Fisheries Commission of the State of New York. 
As to Hudson’s declaration, or to be exact the declaration of Robert Juet, the 
master’s mate of the Halfmoon, for he it was who wrote the journal — under date of 
September 3, 1609, he writes: “So wee weighed and went in and rode in five fathoms, 
oze ground, and saw many Salmons, and Mullets and Rays very great. The hight is 
40 degrees 30 minutes.” 
Under date of the 15th : “ Wee ran up into the river, twentie leagues, passing by 
high mountains. Wee had a very good depth as thirteene fathoms, and great store 
of salmons in the river.” A boat was sent out and with a net “ten great mullets of a 
foot and a half long apiece, and a ray as great as four men could hale into the ship” 
were taken. 
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