PROPAGATION OF SALMON ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 
219 
this new California salmon that abouncled in warm latitudes on the Pacific Coast. 
That this did not pi'ove to be the result was a stupendous surprise and disappointment. 
The eggs hatched out beautifully. The young fry, when deposited in the fresh- water 
streams seemed to thrive equally well. Tliey grew rapidly and when the proper time 
came were observed to go down in vast numbers to the sea. What afterwards became 
of them will ]jrobably remain forever an unfathomable mystei’y. Except in very rare 
isolated instances, these ndllions of young salmon were never seen again. What 
became of them'? Where did they go'? Are any of them still alive anywhere in the 
boundless ocean'? Or are they all dead ? And if they are dead, Avhat killed them'? 
Much as this information has been desired, there lives no one who can answer these 
questions. Some have thought that they wandered off to the far North, and so became 
lost to the civilized world. Others thought that they strayed out into the ocean and 
were devoured by marine animals and larger fish. Professor Baird once jokingly 
remarked to tl'e writer that he thought they had found an underground i)assage beneath 
the continent, and had returned by it to the Pacific. One thing is certain, and that is 
that these millions of salmon have disappeared as completely from the Atlantic 
Ocean’ and its tributaries as if they had all been devoured years ago by the monsters 
of the deep. 
Eeferring to this unaccountable and disheartening fact, Hon. Marshall McDonald, 
Huited States Fish Commissioner, said, in his report for 1888 — 
These^ exiieriments [stocking Atlantic rivers with California salmon] were xiiulertaken on a scale 
unprecedented in the history of lish-cnlture. Millions of eggs were transferred to the eastern stations, 
hatched out, and the fry planted in nearly every one of the larger rivers south of the Hudson. In no 
single case did the experiment prove satisfactory, and the Commissioner was forced reluctantly to 
abandon an ex^ieriment which, reasoning from a priori considerations, gave fair promises of success, 
and which, had it succeeded, would have given us a new and valuable fishery in the Atlantic rivers. 
This, however, is only one side of the case. As soon as the requisite space of time 
had elapsed after the United States Fish Commission began to return young salmon 
fry to the Sacramento, the fishes of that river showed a great increase. New canneries 
sprang n]) every succeeding year. The market for fresh and salted salmon in San 
Francisco felt the effects of the salmon-breeding work on the McCloud. 
The following interesting statement appears in the United States Fish Commis- 
sioner’s Keport for 1882, page 840 ; 
Oue of the last ofificial acts of the late Hou. B. B. Redding, as California fish commissioner, before 
he died, was to write a letter to Professor Baird in regard to this station, in which lie stated that sev- 
eral hundred thousand dollars had been invested in canneries on the Sacramento River, and that this 
capital and these men would be ultimately thrown out of employment if the salmon hatching at this 
station should be given up. He also stated that the hatching of salmon here had increased the annual 
salmon catch on the Sacramento 5,000,000 pounds a year, and that the canneries on the river were 
dependent upon the salmon hatching of this station for their maintenance. 
‘ Per contra of the above: I have been recently informed that eggs are now being taken in France 
from quinnat-salmon breeders tliat were raised from eggs originally sent from Baird station. The 
PiUsbiirfi Dispatch, January 13, 1896, makes the following statement: 
“Calif orniasahnoHin France. — French newspapers a lew Aveeks ago contained the announcement that 
a magnificent California salmon (S. epiinnat), measuriugSl feet in length, had just been taken in apond 
in Landernau, Brittany, having been bred by the mayor of that town from spawn procured Ifom the 
Trocadero aquarium. The llesh is described as most delicious; its color is not mentioned. This was 
followed by the capture of several smaller specimens. It has also been stated that a fish of the same 
sjtecies, weighing over 12 pounds, Avas caught last April at the cily of Monterean. The editor rejoices 
that this matchless breed of salmon has now been acclimated and probably Avill soon abound in France.” 
^United States Fish Commissioner’s Reiiort, page xxxv, for 1888. 
