lO.-NOTES ON THE CAPTURE OF ATLANTIC SALMON AT SEA AND IN 
THE COASr WATERS OF THE EASTERN STATES. 
By HUGH M. SMITH, M. D-, 
Assistant in charge of Division of Statistics and Methods of the Fisheries. 
Ill carrying out its most important function — tlie maintenance and increase of the 
supply of food-lishes — the U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, in addition to 
direct efforts to increase the abundance of fishes naturally inhabiting our various 
rivers, lakes, and coast Avaters, has given considerable attention to the exiieri mental 
introdnction of fishes into regions or streams to which they were not native. The 
wonderful siTCcess which has followed the planting of shad and striped bass fry in the 
waters of the Pacific coast is well known. The results attending the recent attemiits 
of the Commission to establish a run of salmon {Salmo saJar) in some of the large riAmrs 
of the Atlantic coast have been so noteworthy in the case of the Hudson as to afford 
reasonable ground for expecting the early inauguration of a regular fishery, should 
the present rate of increase in the abundance of the fish be maintained. Similar 
striking results may also be anticipated in all the more northern streams of the east 
coast, including the Ilousatonic, Connecticut, and Merrimac, in which salmon A\'ere at 
one time found in abundance and are now taken in small numbers, if the ascent of 
the adult fish to the headwatei s for the purpose of spawning is permitted and if suffi- 
ciently extensiAm fish-cultural operations are continued. 
The primary purpose of this paper is to record some of the apparent results of 
salmon propagation in our riAmrs as shown by the occurrence of the fish at pioints on 
the coast or at sea more or less remote from the iilaces Avhere fry have been deposited. 
While an interesting and instructive compilation might be made of the instances of 
the capture of seilnion in the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna, Potomac, and other 
livers in which the fish has been acclimated, such a Aimik is not necessary in view of 
the notice Avliich has already been accorded the matter in the public press and in the 
reports of several of the State fish commissions, notably the ISlew York commission. 
So much yet remains to be learned regarding tlie lines of migration of the salmon 
to and from the rivers, its Avinter habitat, the existence of an “instinct of nativity” 
which is supposed to impel the return of the fish to the place Avhere hatched, the 
extent of the coastwise distribution of salmon originally belonging in a given river, 
and numerous other practical and scientific questions, that the iireseutation of any 
data bearing on the occurrence of the fish outside of the rivers may be regarded as 
acceptable and timely. 
In an interesting article on “Salmon at Sea,” communicated to the issue of Forest 
and Stream for February 18, 1892, Mr. A. IST. Cheney, the well-knoAvn angling expert 
and writer on fish-cultural matters, discusses the question of the whereabouts of salmon 
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