Report of Fish Commissioners. 
471 
land-locked or sebac salmon, of which we hatched three thousand 
five hundred and thirty, or 91-j per cent. These we divided among 
the fish-breeders of the State, exacting of them a promise that should 
they be successful in breeding them, they would give the State the 
preference in the sale of their progeny. We thought by doing this 
that the State would get a start in them sooner than to trust so few 
in a lake. In this fish, we, in common with other fish commis¬ 
sioners, as well as fish-culturists, have a great deal of confidence. 
As a game and table fish, it is no way inferior to the sea-going sal¬ 
mon, and unlike it, is not an experiment in introducing them into 
our lakes, as their home is in the fresh-water lakes of the State of 
Main, that in no material respect differs from ours. 
There is now a great demand in all the northern States for this 
fish to stock their lakes with. This, with the limited preparations 
heretofore for taking the spawn, has made them difficult to obtain, 
but as the United States Commisioners, as well as private individ¬ 
uals, are making preparations for taking larger quantities, we hope 
to be able, this year, to get enough to make an impression on one 
or more of our lakes. For those that are not posted, it might be 
well to say that this is the true salmon, that from some cause, has 
lost its instinct or desire to go to salt water, and this, together with 
the fact that they all spend a part of their lives in fresh water, en¬ 
courages us to think that any of the salmon can live and grow in 
our fresh-water lakes. 
We likewise have hopes in stocking our rivers with salmon and 
shad. Those put in the tributaries of the Mississippi would go to 
the Gulf of Mexico, as the streams would not likely suit them after 
the second year, but when nature moved them to propagate, they 
would return to the fresh, pure water, as they can breed in no other; 
and it is a fact well known to those who have studied their habits, 
that fish always return to deposit their spawn where they were 
hatched, or as near there as they can get. As to the distance, both 
shad and salmon are known to make longer journeys, but the ex¬ 
periment is in course of elucidation in a number of other States, as 
well as our own, and we do not propose to make further efforts in 
this direction until we know the result of those already made. So 
far, everything is encouraging, and the cost to Wisconsin has been 
very trifling. 
The fish, native to our waters, is what the Commissioners wish 
