\MERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS Volume lk 1884 R tk TRANSACTIONS ——OF LHE— AMERICAN HSn-GULTURAL ASSOUIATION ] HIRTEENTH ANNUAL Meetine. Held x af + thes Dational # IF)useum, # In # Washington, « b.«E. May 13TH AND 14TH, 1884. New York. 1884. Reprinted with the permission of the American Fisheries Society JOHNSON REPRINT CORPORATION JOHNSON REPRINT CoMPANY LIMITED 111 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10003 Berkeley Square House, London, W. 1 OFFICERS: 46382500, Hon. THEODORE LYMAN, - - PRESIDENT, Cot. MARSHALL McDONALD, inte VICE-PRESIDENT. EUGENE G. BLACKFORD, = = Tews iene RY EDWARD EARLE, ~ CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. FRED MATHER, : = = RECORDING SECRETARY. (; DEC 2 1966 4145666 yf 4 4 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. JAMES BENKARD, = ~ - New York. GEORGE SHEPARD PAGE. - - Stanley, N. J. BARNED) PHILLIPS: - - - | Brooklyn, N. Y. G. BROWN GOODE, , : Washington, D. C. Dr. W. M. HUDSON, - - - Hartford, Conn. CHARLES.G. ATRINS; - - Bucksport, Me. S. G. WORTH, - - - - Raleigh, N.C. Reprinted from a copy in the collections of The New York Public Library First reprinting, 1965, Johnson Reprint Corporation Printed in the United States of America GIN Sylhet halal LCN OF THE American Fish-Cultural Association, WITH ALL ITS AMENDMENTS AND CHANGES FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO ITS LAST MEETING IN 1883. COMPILED BY FRED MATHER. Original Constitution, as adopted at the first annual meeting, New York, December 2oth, 1870. From the first report of pro- ceedings, 1372; pp. 3, .4- ARTICLE [.—Name anpb OBJECTs. The name of this Society shall be “‘ The American Fish Cul- turists’ Association.” Its objects shall be to promote the cause of fish-culture; to gather and diffuse information bearing upon its practical success; the interchange of friendly feeling and in- tercourse among the members of the Association; the uniting and encouraging of the individual interests of fish-culturists. ARTICLE IJ.—MeEmBERs. All fish-culturists shall, upon a two-thirds vote of the Society, and a payment of three dollars, be considered members of the Association, after signing the Constitution. The Commission- ers of the various States shall be honorary members of the As- sociation, ex-officio. ARTICLE III.—Orricers. The officers of the Association shall be a President, a Secre- tary, and a Treasurer, and shall be elected annually by a majority vote. Vacancies occurring during the year may be filled by the President. iv CONSTITUTION OF THE ARTICLE IV.—MEETINGS. The regular meetings of the Association shall be held once a year, the time and place being decided upon at the previous meeting. ARTICLE V.—CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION. The Constitution of the Society may be amended, altered, or repealed by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting. AMENDMENTS. First AMENDMENT. [Meetzng at Albany, February 7th, 1872.| “On motion of Mr. Livingston Stone, the Constitution was amend- ed by striking out the word ‘and’ after the word ‘Secretary’ in Arti- cle III., and inserting after the word ‘Treasurer’ the words ‘and an Executive Committee of three members.’” First Report, page Jo. SECOND AMENDMENT. [Meetzng at New Vork, February 10th, 1874.| “On motion of Mr. F. Mather the Constitution was so amended that the list of officers should include a Vice-President.” Third Report, page 3. THIRD AMENDMENT. [Meeting at New York, February oth, 1874.| “On motion of Mr. Stone, all those who had paid five dollars and signed the Constitution, were made members of the Association with- out further action.” Third Report, page 4. FouRTH AMENDMENT. [february 11th, 1874.] “Mr. H. J. Reeder moved that the Constitution be amended by striking out the last paragraph of Article II., relating to honorary members. Carried.” Third Report, page 5. FIFTH AMENDMENT. “Mr. Page moved that the Executive Committee consist of five. Carried.” Third Report, page 5. SIXTH AMENDMENT. [February 11th, 1874.] “Mr. George S. Page moved to amend Article IJ. by striking out the words ‘all fish-culturists,’ and inserting the words ‘any person.’ Carried.” Third Report, page 5. FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. Vi SEVENTH AMENDMENT. [february 9th, 1875.| “Mr. Page moved that Article II]. be amended by making the annual dues three dollars. Carried.” Fourth Report, page 4. EIGHTH AMENDMENT. |February 28¢h, 1878.| “The Secretary (Mr. B. Phillips) proposed the following amendments to the Constitution : “ First: That the name of The American Fish-Culturists’ Associa- tion be changed, and that of The American Fish-Cultural Association be adopted. Carried.” Second: “ That the number of the Executive Committee be increas- ed from three to seven members. Carried.”” Seventh Report, page 76. [A foot note at the end of the proceedings says: “In changing the name of the Association from Fish-Culturists’ to Fish-Cultural, the Secretary proposed that in the Constitution, after the final word ‘ Fish- Culturists’’ the following be added: ‘and the treatment of all questions regarding fish, of a scientific and economic character. This change and addition to the Constitution was adopted.” Report of seventh annual meeting, February 27th, 28th, 1878; page 118.} NINTH AMENDMENT. [February 26th, 1879.| “Mr. Phillips moved for an amendment to Article III. of the Consti- tution, so as to include a Recording Secretary.” Carried. Eighth an- nual meeting, page 50. RESOLUTION. |JVZarch 30th, 1880.| Mr. Phillips offered the following: “That in case members do not pay their fees, and are delinquent for two years, they shall be notified by the Treasurer, and if the amount due is not paid within a month, that they be, without further notice, dropped from the roll of member- ship.” Carried. Ninth annual meeting, page 34. TENTH AMENDMENT. [March 30¢h, 1881.| Mr. Mather proposed to amend the Constitution to permit honorary members to be elected by a two-thirds vote, the same to be added to the Constitution asa part of Article II., relative to members, and to read as follows: “ Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote of the So- ciety, be considered as an honorary member of the Society. Tenth annual meeting, page 3. vl CONSTIUTION OF THE ELEVENTH AMENDMENT. [Afrd/ 3rd, 1882.] Mr. Evarts moved to amend the section relating to the election of officers by making those which are largely honorary, as the President and Vice-President, vacant after one year, and those holding them in- eligible for the same office until after an interval of one year. Adopt- ed. Eleventh annual meeting, page 4. CONSTITUTION, As AMENDED UP TO AND INCLUDING THE TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING IN 1883. ARTICLE I.—Name anp OBJECcYTs. The name of this Society shall be ‘The American Fish-Cul- tural Association.” Its objects shall be to promote the cause of fish-culture; to gather and diffuse information bearing upon its practical success; the interchange of friendly feeling and inter- course among the members of the Association; the uniting and encouraging of the individual interests of fish-culturists; anid the treatment of all questions regarding fish, of a scientific and economic character. ARTICLE II.—MeEmpers. Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote anda payment of three dollars, become a member of this Association. In case that members do not pay their fees and are delinquent for two years, they shall be notified by the Treasurer, and if the amount due is not paid within a month, they shall be, without further notice, dropped from the roll of membership. Any person may be made an honorary member upon a two-thirds vote of the members present at a regular meeting. ARTICLE III.—OFrricers. The officers of the Association shall bea President anda Vice- President, who shall be ineligible for electionto the same offices FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. Vii until a year after the expiration of their terms, a Corresponding Secretary, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and an Execu- tive Committee of seven, which, with the officers: before named, shall decide upon the place of meeting and transact such other business as may be necessary when the Association is not in session.* ARTICLE IV.—MEEt1NGs. The regular meetings of the Association shall be held once a year, the time and place being decided upon at the previous meeting.t ARTICLE V.—CHANGING THE CONSTITUTION. The Constitution of the Society. may be amended, altered, or repealed, by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular meeting. [The revised Constitution may be found in reports 1879, page 61, and 1880, page 66. All honorary members were abolished in the third report, page 5, and the Constitution was amended to allow of the appointment of such members at the tenth annual meeting (page 3). The “Order of Business” adopted by the Association will be found in the reports for 1877, page 7; 1878, pages 3 and 116; 1879, page 51; 1882, page 4.| * This is not the exact wording of the Constitution, but it is the spirit of it. The original Constitution does not mention an Executive Committee. One is provided for in an amend- ment in the first report, page 10, and is afterward increased from three to five, (Third Report, page 5), and again to seven (Seventh Report, page 76). It has been the custom for the Presi- dent, Vice-President, Secretaries and Treasurer to be members, ex offczo, of the Executive Committee, and such a law may have been passed. If so, I have missed it. F.M. + In the published reports there is no record of any date of meeting, so fixed. The first re- ference to such mode of appointing dates of meeting will be found at the close of the fifth an- nual meeting of the Association in New York, February 8th, 1876 (Fifth Report, page 7). The second reference to this clause will be found in the report of the special meeeting of the Asso- ciation in Philadelphia, February 14th and rsth, 1877, page 9. The third date of meeting ap- pointed is left indefinite as to the days, but indicates February, 1879 (Report of Seventh Annual Meeting, February 27th and 28th, 1878, page 118). In the proceedings of the eighth meeting, February 2sth and 26th, 1879, it will be seen that (page 60) ‘‘the meeting adjourned to meet again in March or April, 1880, at the call of the Executive Committee.’’ In the proceedings of the ninth annual meeting, page 65, these words occur: ‘‘ the meeting then adjourned to next year, the date to be fixed at some future time by the Executive Committee.’’ The report of the tenth annual meeting merely says: ‘‘The meetiag adjourned.’”’ The eleventh report does not mention the adjournment, while the last one, June 7th, 1883, page 76, says: ‘‘The meeting then adjourned.’’ This appears to me to sanction the appointing of the time and place of meet- ings by the Executive Committee. Fe MM. PINE Se PAGE Address. of. Hion:, E.G: LAPIAM 5 pcrnctah et. eee hee ie 7a Address of. Hon. THEODORE,LV MAN j25,-:05- shies gin Gee 72 Address of, HoneS: Ss. CO ccngiun woien Sete ss ee eee gI Black Bass in Maine, GEORGE SHEPARD PAGE..... ...... 57 Changing Name‘ot ASSOCIation 2: 5a. 05.25. > eee baer e 230 Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value of Fish, etc., W.O. ATWATER. AOS Pre. E: Scat odin dokote: stecdraus w aisles ole 171 Comparative Bveelience ‘Gi Food Fishes, Dr. JAMES A. PRENSA Te 5.25. diag oe peel gett, cyatenie tapes eaeReN ate ING. Constitution and Amendments, FRED MATHER........... ili to vii Fish and Fishing at Point Barrow, Alaska, JOHN MURDOCH PEE Fish-Culture, Notes pertaining to, JAMES ANNIN, Jr....... 109 Fish Embryos and the survival of, JOHN A. RYDER....... 195 Fresh and Salt Water Hatching at Cold Spring Harbor, FRED «MATHER Yeh OS ke Ties ARES Yee bind Milner! oe ey 6 Gill-Nets for Codfish, Results of Introducing, Capt. J. W. COLGING Au bvs ody hes sdaing seen de nes, te Meloemsaaes 212 Legislation for Protection of Ocean fisheries: EUGENE G. BLACKFORD «, ....ch23chas thee Sree at Ale BAS, 60 Letters. g25 eecwes Hie senna ee eee 123, 124,22 Lobsters, Notes on the Decrease of, RICHARD RATHBUN... 201 Land-Locked Salmon, Notes on, CHARLES G. ATKINS ..... 40 Members, ‘Corresponding... s...2/2y- jut, sieaetert sesne a Mae sera cae oe 239, 240 Members, N@W 5 ops gine res ys oa ee ee otter eats aott oe Oe Ae 6 Natural Causes Influencing the Movements of Fish in Rivers; MARSHALL, MGDONAED 47.4205 ecenne oe 164 Oyster Industries of the World, G. BROWNE GOODE....... 146 Oyster Industry, Present and Future Prospects of, Lieut. PRANCIS*WAINSLOW UW .pSaiNeiec), ett. mt Syatsisent yor | tht 3 148 Oihicersiior KS4—-Cbysas nyostlvas shiners Bieagaeer teas: sree aime peweaies oveariare Tis ZO Resolutions... :. 5... Di piers RRR a td Ial Reid ot Pio Neier ease det aA i 220, 2am River Excursion Fe). S228 US Wiehe oso ciy 8 Weer ett cee 230 Salmon, Propagation of in Columbia River Basin, LIVING- STON STON ESS. (AL: Sv Wek ne iinet alee 21 Salt as a Destroyer of Fish Fungus, Prof. H. J. RICE:...... 15 Shell Fisheries of Connecticut, Dr. WILLIAM M. HuDSON.. 12 Sponge Fisheries of Florida, JOSEPH? WILECOX wht) ao. 224. 67 Striped: Bass; Propagation: of (SiGWORTHs a6: utr Sets 209 White Fishes of North America, PARE TONE, DEAN ML. DIM Sor cate te os 32 Thirteenth Annual Meeting ORL R EE: AMERICAN FISH-CULTURAL ASSOGIATON, Nc otal heme Be wee The opening session of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the American Fish-Cultural Asssociation was held on the morning of May 13th, in the lecture room of the United States National Museum, Washington, D. C. Among those present at the open- ing session were Mr. James Benkard, President of the Associa- tion; Mr. Eugene G. Blackford, Treasurer; Mr. Fred Mather, Recording Secretary; Messrs. Francis Endicott, G. Brown Goode, Marshall McDonald and Chas. B. Evarts, of the Execu- tive Committee, and Messrs. George Daniels, Commissioner of Fisheries, Toledo, Ohio; Livingston Stone, Geo. Shepard Page, Dr. C. A. Kingsbury, Dr. J. C. Parker, Frank N. Clark, Charles G. Atkins, W. O. Atwater, H. J. Rice, and others. The Corre- sponding Secretary, Mr. Barnet Phillips, was unfortunately pre- vented from attending. The President in calling the meeting to order, remarked that the interest taken in the subject of Fish-Culture was plainly evidenced by the presence of so many distinguished men of science. The Association was indebted to the United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, for having suggested Washington as the place where the Association should meet this year. The minutes of the last annual meeting were then read by the Recording Secretary, Mr. Mather, after which the Treasurer, 6 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. Mr. Eugene G. Blackford, reported upon the financial state of the treasury of the Association. The following gentlemen were at different times proposed for membership in the Association and were elected: Charles G. Atkins, Bucksport, Me.; Tarleton H. Bean, Washington, D. C.; Prof. A. S: Bickmore, New York; Dr. H. H. Carey, Atlanta; Ga. A. Nelson Cheney, Glens Falls, N. Y.; Frank N. Clark. Northville, Mich.; J. W. Collins, Washington, D. C.; W. V. Cox, Washington, D. C.; Hon. Thomas Donaldson, Philadelphia, Pa.; R. E. Earll, Wash- ington, D. C.; H. W. Elliott, Washington, D. C.; W. E. Garrett, New York; A. A. Hayes, Washington, D. C.; Dr. J. A. Henshall, Cynthiana, Ky.; George S. Hobbs, Washington, D.C.; E. S. Hutchinson, Wash- ington, D. C.; A. J. Kellogg, Detroit, Mich.; Hon. E. G. Lapham, M.C., New York; W. L. May, Fremont, Neb.; Hon. H. P. McGown, New York; Dr. J. C. Parker, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Hon. R. G. Pike, Middle- town, Conn.; Richard Rathbun, Washington, D. C.; Hon. Ossian Ray, M. C., New Hampshire; Prof. J. A. Ryder, Washington, D. C.; Carl W. Schuermann, Washington, D. C.; Col. James Stevenson, Washing- ton, D.C.; Joseph Willcox, Media, Pa.; Lieut. Francis Winslow, U.S. N.; S: G..Worth, Raleigh, N.:C: FRESH AND SALT-WATER HATCHING AT COLD SPRING HARBOR. BY FRED MATHER. The new station of the New York Fish Commission, designed for hatching both salt and fresh water fishes, is situated on the north side of Long Island, thirty-two miles east of New York city by railroad. The harbor was formerly a whaling station, and many old buildings connected with that industry still remain there unoccupied. The line between the counties of Suffolk and Queens runs through the center of the harbor, and while the village and post-office is in the former county, the hatcheries are in the latter. There are two points of especial excellence in the site which will at once commend it, and these are the THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 7 elevation of the springs, one of which is fully fifty feet above the hatchery, and the proximity to salt water, which at half tide is only two hundred yards away. The work at the station was begun on January rst, 1883, by the joint operations of the United States and the New York Fishery Commissioners, and has been continued by both commissions since. The grounds were given, rent free, by Mr. John D. Jones and his brothers Townsend, Samuel and Edward, and the upper spring by Dr. O. L. Jones, and in addition to this, Mr. Townsend Jones has given stone from the Connecticut quarries to build a sea wall to hold the tide at all times. Two old buildings have been fitted up as hatcheries, and the work done in the short space of time will bear close inspection and comparison with older establishments. Maps of the grounds will be found in the last report of the New York Fish Commissioners by those who care to know more of the station. In the fresh water department the present capacity of the house has been nearly taxed by the hatching of 500,000 salmon, 10,000 landlocked salmon, 38,000 rainbow trout, 50,000 European trout and 1,000,000 whitefish. The fact that the European trout were in five different lots, which will be enumerated further on, rendered it necessary to place them in separate troughs, even though as small a lot as 2,000, taken from one English stream, were kept separate in a trough which could just as well have accommodated 30,000. The whitefish table will hatch 4,000,000 as well as 1,000,000, so that at present we can say that the capac- ity of the hatcheries is 800,000 salmon and 4,000,000: whitefish, or 1,000,000 salmon and the whitefish. This can be increased, if necessary. TROUT. Our native brook trout were formerly plenty in the ponds on this place, but owing to a lack of protection, they were very few when the land was leased to the Fish Commission; about fifty fish being the extent of their number. Eggs of the rainbow trout have been received from three different places, viz: Direct from the U. S. hatchery, at Baird, Shasta County, California; from the U. S. station at Northville, Mich., and from the New York station at Caledonia: They have grown well, but are a 8 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. fish that I have never fancied much, and am in greater doubts as to their value since reading the last report of the New York Fish Commission, which says: “A good deal is to be learned yet respecting temperature and other local conditions affecting fish. Till the past year not enough had been done in stocking with rainbow trout to war- rant a judgment of their ultimate success in the waters on the Atlantic side. Their time of spawning occurring at a different season from that of the native brook trout, it would not seem to be policy to plant them in waters inhabited by that fish. The protective seasons would need to be different, and inhabiting the same waters one kind might be taken often when the other was fished for, and thus unintended violations would be liable to occur. An obstacle to their ready success in our waters presents itself in the circumstance that at the season the fry are ready to plant, all other fish are greedily feeding, and conse- quently a considerable share of the fry are liable to be nipped in the bud. This, however, may be avoided by providing places where the fry can be free from the presence of predatory enemies till they are able to look after their own safety. “From the circumstance that they have not been readily found always in the second year, where the plants have been made, it has been surmised that they are a migratory fish—working their own way, as soon as they attain any considerable growth, down stream toward the ocean. Their disappearance, however, may be accounted for by the other cause stated. Further experi- ments will be necessary to solve all the problems connected with their establishment in the Eastern waters; but the prom- ise continues to be that they will prove themselves a fish of great value in stocking large streams whose temperature is too high for brook trout.” An editorial note in Forest AND STREAM of May Ist, written by myself, says of the rainbow trout: “We would call attention to the paragraph in our notice of the report of the New York Fish Commission concerning these fish. It is beginning to be learned that they are migratory, and do not remain in brooks. We have never been much in favor of this fish, because we have known, what is not popularly known, THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 9 that the fish is strongly suspected to be a salmon. There is no difference that an ichthyologist can find between the Salmo tridea and the salmon known as ‘steelhead,’ ‘hardhead,’ and ‘salmon trout’ on the Pacific coast, the Se/mo gairdnert. Although this is the case, and the species zrzdea is a doubtful one, yet it has been thought best not to combine them for the present. We have been waiting and watching the habits of this alleged trout with great interest in order to learn if its habits might not*show it to be in some respect different from the steelhead. The evidence of the Commission tend to show that it isa migratory fish, and if so it may escape to sea and be lost, as the other California salmon was. We believe that Mr. Roosevelt has not seen the rainbows which he planted in streams emptying into the Great South Bay, Long Island, since they were yearlings.” If this fish has to be confined by screens to prevent its migrat- ing and perhaps entirely disappearing, as the quinnat salmon did, then it will be useless in our open brooks. The promise of the rainbow trout was that in it we had a quick growing fish, which was not as sensitive to warm water as our own /fontinalts, a desideratum which now promises to be filled by the brook trout of Europe, Sa/mo fario. I would here call the attention of the Association to some specimens of this fish, which jumped out of the ponds last October, when they were six months old. They are, as yeu see, full six inches long, and are plump, hand- some and finely formed. The eggs from which they came were sent to me as a personal present last year by Herr von Behr, President of the Deutschen Fischerei Verein, one of the most earnest and enthusiastic fish-culturists in the world. Two varieties were sent, one from the deep waters where they grow large, as in our Maine lakes, and the other from the swift mount- ain streams of the Upper Rhine, where they are smaller. This year he has repeated his gift by sending some to the United States Fish Commission, in my care, and some to Mr. E. G. Blackford, Commissioner for New York. Last year, when the fish were sent to me personally, I gave some of them to Mr. F. N. Clark, Superintendent of the U. S. station at Northville, Mich., and to Mr. M. A. Green, of the New York station at Caledonia, Both report them as doing well. Io FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. This year I repeated these divisions of the German eggs, and also received ten thousand eggs of the same species from Mr, R. B. Marston, editor of the F/zshing .Gazette, London. Five thousand of these were labelled “our best trout,’ 3,000 were from the Itchen, and 2,000 from the Wye. Both last year and this season the large German trout hatched well, but have died freely before taking food, while the small variety has thrived and been distributed to waters not named in this article. The large English trout have done splendidly and will be kept at the station for breeders. This European brook trout has, as you may see, a larger scale than ours, and to my eye is a more beautiful fish than our own trout. It is a fish that from its habit in Europe should live in the Hudson from North Creek, or above, down to Troy. In Europe it is found plentiful in the south of England, while the charrs, of which our so-called trout is one, are only found in the deep cool lakes of the North. I believe that we have the necessary conditions of the Atlantic coast to successfully acclimatize this fish, and I have always been skeptical about habituating the Sa/monide of the short streams of the Pacific coast, with their snow-fed* waters in mid- summer, to our longer and warmer rivers, and this skepticism has increased since I have suspected the so-called rainbow trout to be identical with the steelhead salmon, S. gairdnert, which is a migratory fish. WHITEFISH. The great surface exposure of the reservoir at this station is favorable to the late hatching of the whitefish. The temperature of the water in the hatchery for the month beginning Feb- ruary 23rd, and ending March 23rd, varied from 34 degrees to 48 degrees, the mean being 38%. Shipments of whitefish were made this year to Great Pond near Riverhead, Long Island, on February 15th, and to Lake Ronkonkoma on March roth. This is as late as the fish are hatched in the cold lakes, and the young will find food when planted in March. THE, SALT WATER WORK. The cold weather caused us to suspend out-door work before THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. II the completion of the great tidal reservoir, but we were enabled to hold the water as high as half tide and to begin work. The hot air engine worked very well, and we hatched the eggs of the little tomcod (Microgadus tomcodus), locally known as “‘frost- fish” in the fall of the year, and as tomcod in the spring. I sent some of these eggsto Prof. T. J. Ryder, at the Central Hatching Station of the United States Fish Commission, and he hatched them in artificial sea water. The spawning season of this fish is in November and December, and they had finished spawning be- fore our engine was in position, but we gathered the eggs from the seaweed, to which they are attached, in bunches the size of a hen’s egg, and are easily obtained by the oystermen when raking for oysters. We also obtained several millions codfish eggs from the cars at Fulton Market, but none of them were good. They showed the shrunken vitellus which gives both them and shad eggs a “speckled” appearance, which indicates that there is no possi- bility of impregnating such an egg. In every case the parent fish had been brought in the well of a fishing smack, and after being dipped out had been thrown into the floating car along- side, falling from four to six feet, usually on the abdomen. This, in my opinion, is more than the delicate cod egg can stand. The membrane, or shell, covering the egg of the codfish, is so delicate that a light touch of the finger, when the egg is on any hard substance, will burst it like a soap bubble, while a trout’s egg will bear the hardest squeeze that can be given be- tween the finger andthumb. It is possible that the eggs will have to be obtained from the fishing grounds and be taken when the fish are first hauled in, although they may possibly be found to be good after the smacks arrive and before'the fish are put in the cars. POSSIBILITIES OF THE STATION. In addition to the salt-water fishes mentioned, it is possible to hatch many other species. The density of the water varies from 1.018 to 1.022, sea water being 1.028 and distilled water 1. The temperature of the water in the hatching jars has, during the months of January, February and March, varied from 33 to 12 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 48 degrees Fahr., the mean being 423. The water is clear and pure, and everything seems to be favorable for doing much good work. Spanish mackerel and other valuable fishes may be attempted, while in the opinion of Prof. H. J. Rice, the situation is most favorable for oyster-culture. The harbor is part of the celebrated Oyster Bay, and oysters and clams are usually abundant and excellent. The past year, however, has not been a good one for either of these products, but the difficulty, what- ever may have been the cause, is probably a temporary one, It is to be hoped that the State of New York will adopt some such system as Connecticut has, and which is now in good working order and giving general satisfaction, and in addition, begin experiments looking to the production of seed oysters At a comparatively small expense these experiments can be conducted on the grounds at Cold Spring Harbor, where the machinery for pumping salt water is now in position, and where the situation is favorable for making such ponds as may be necessary. The experiments of the gentlemen who have devoted their time to the impregnation of the eggs of the oyster, have proved that thev can be fertilized and hatched in laboratories, and there seems to be no obstacle to the work being carried on, in a suit- able location, on a larger scale. Mr. Matuer added: There has been much discussion in re- gard to this early hatching of the white-fish. At Caledonia and Northville, for instance, the young fish are put Out so soon that some fish-culturists claim that there are no crustaceans hatched at that time for them to feed on. That is a question I cannot go into here, but I will state that at Cold Spring Harbor we can hatch out the fish much later. Tue PresiDENT: I would say that my experience with Cali- fornia trout has been somewhat different. The original eggs sent from the Smithsonian Institution were hatched out by us at the South Side Sportman’s Club of Long Island, four years ago, in the month of April. This last winter we had fry out in Jan- uary. Probably the locality is a point to be considered in this connection. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 13 Mr. Biackrorpb: I would like to hear Professor Ryder ex- press his views in regard to the eggs of the cod-fish. Prof. Ryprr: My experience with cod-fish eggs, both at Ful- ton Market and at Wood’s Holl, has been quite considerable. Our greatest success in handling these eggs has been in com- paratively salt water, as Colonel McDonald can testify. The eggs taken at Wood’s Holl were from fish that had been kept under the same conditions as those in Fulton Market. At the former place the eggs would float as they should normally, but at Fulton Market they had no tendency to float as did the eggs from the more northern locality. I also observed that in most cases the eggs had an abnormal appearance. The vitellus was disorganized, and the vitelline matter and germinal material were pulled out of shape. The germinal disc was formed, but defectively; in many instances, after formation, it had been broken into irregular fragments, which were certainly not characteristic of normal segmentation. What the cause was I cannot say, but I believe that the confinement of parent female fishes of any species would have a tendency to interfere with the fertility of the ova. That has been the experience at Havre de Grace with the shad, and I should not be surprised if the confinement of female cod in the wells of the fishing smacks and the cars, would not tend to cause the eggs which were mature, and still contained in the ovaries, to become, to a cer- tain extent, disorganized, and therefore incapable of fertiliza- tion. My conclusions have been formed deliberately, although the data have been very imperfect. There was this important difference between the eggs taken at Wood’s Holl and Fulton Market. The latter exhibited a decided tendency to sink, which in our Wood’s Holl experiment we always associated with a condition indicating that such eggs would never hatch. We invariably noticed this to be thé case, and concluded to accept it as prima-facie evidence that whenever a cod egg went to the bottom, that was the last of it, so far as its capacity for develop- ment was concerned. Mr. Maruer: I have observed that the cod-fish eggs which I have taken at Fulton Market, New York, hada tendency to sink, as just stated by Professor Ryder. When I removed them from 14 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. the pan into a jar, the same thing occurred, and you could see the upper line of the eggs ahout half way up the jar. When placed in the McDonald hatching jars, they acted like white- fish eggs, except that they were a little lighter. The moment the circulation of the water stopped, they all sank to the bottom. I confess to having been somewhat skeptical about “ floating eggs” of cod-fish, although I understand from Professor Ryder and Colonel McDonald, that at Gloucester the eggs actually floated on the surface, resembling in appearance a honey-comb, and that they were so buoyant that a portion of the egg would literally stand out of the water. I attributed the failure to impregnate the eggs taken at Fulton Market, to the shock which the fish suffers by being thrown into the cars from the fishing smacks. They are cast from the deck to the surface of the water, a distance of from four to six feet, and usually strike on their bellies. The cod egg is exceedingly delicate, and breaks like a soap-bubble at a touch. Col. McDonatp: The fish from which the eggs at Wood’s Holl were taken, were, as faras 1 know, handled very carefully, being transferred from the smack to the car with as little violence as possible. But may not the difference in the results of the obser- vations made at Wood’s Holl and Fulton Market, be explained by a difference in the density of the water at the two places? Of course the buoyancy of the cod egg depends upon the dens- ity of the water in which it is placed. Now at Wood’s Holl, where the water opens out to the ocean, it surely must be much more dense than at New York harbor, and the effect of this difference upon the eggs is clearly proved by the fact that those eggs which floated at Wood’s Holl sank at New York. In regard to the eggs taken at New York, they were sent on in hermétically sealed jars to Washington, where on arrival they were found to be impregnated anda small proportion develop- ing. They were then put into salt water artificially prepared, (5 oz. of salt to the gallon of water). Development went on, I think, for fifteen or sixteen days until the embryo was moving and the heart beating, and yet after all we did not succeed in hatching them. Up to that time their development, I believe, THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 15 was normal. The embryological investigations were carried on by Professor Ryder, who perhaps will add a few words. Prof. RypER: You do not mean to say that all the eggs taken were fertile, but that the greater portion of them were. There were large quantities thet I know would come to nothing. The vitellus had turned to a brownish hue, and the germinal disc was disorganized. SALT AS AN AGENT FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FISH FUNGUS. BY PROF. H. J. RICE. There are very few persons who have ever had anything to do with the artificial rearing of fish; especially if the rearing is carried on in comparatively quiet and warm water; or who have ever had very much to do with fish in aquaria, but have been more or less exercised over the decorations and ravages of that very insidious and annoying. vegetable parasite, com- monly known as fish fungus, although it occurs, indeed, on many other objects than eggs and fishes. Many means have been employed for its destruction, and innumerable efforts made to dislodge it from the tanks where it had obtained a firm foot- hold. Asphalt, tar, salycilic acid, salt and various other simple or compound agents of destruction have been employed, and while each and all of them have been pronounced beneficial, yet most of them are difficult to apply, and after being applied much -care is necessary in order that the agent shall not be the means of doing that which they were employed to prevent; that is, cause the death of the eggs or fish experimented with. Of all the agents thus far employed for the purpose of destroying this fungus, or saprolegnia, common salt is, taking everything into consideration, probably the most useful, since it can always be easily obtained and quickly manipulated. But it is always well to bear in mind that with whatever agent the work is carried on, T€ FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. the agent will perform its part only when associated with vigi- lance, persistence and zeal on the part of the operator. Having had occasion, during the past season, to make certain experiments in the direction of dislodging and exterminating this undesirable form of vegetation, which had secured too firm a hold in certain tanks and upon certain animals and fishes in the laboratory at Fulton Market, New York, I determined to try the effect of the continued use of a strong solution of salt, and to note carefully the results. The work was thus merely supple- mental to what has already been done in this direction, and, so far as it goes, corroborative of such previous efforts. The animals upon which I experimented, personally, were goldfish of the Japanese variety, black bass and specimens of Wecturus later- alis, or the mud puppy. I also induced Mr. Geo. Ricardo, fish warden of Bergen County, N. J., to undertake some experiments as to the efficacy of salt in destroying the fungus which col- lects so plentifully upon the trays and bunches of eggs in the smelt hatching operations. The experiments with the goldfish were begun during the month of January, and continued several months. The specimens operated upon were from a lot brought over from Japan and China in December by Capt. Jones, of the steamer Oxfordshire, and placed immediately upon their arrival in tanks of running water at the stand of Commissioner E. G. Blackford in Fulton Market. The fish had been very severely handled during their ocean voyage, many of them having large numbers of the scales knocked from their sides, evidently from being thrown against the sides of their vessel as the steamer struggled in the rolling waves. From this cause, and undoubtedly also from the fact that the water into which they were placed was too cold for their warmth-loving constitution, they commenced to die, one by one, within a day or two of their landing on our shores. Those that died first were hardly more than still before the velvet-like plush of the saprolegnia spotted their bodies or fins, or in some cases, literally enveloped them ina robe of white. Soon not only the dead, but the living were similarly decorated, and it became evident very quickly that if something was not done the sapro- legnia would, before long, claim them all its victims, although it THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 17 is hardly more than justice, perhaps to state that the fungus in all probability was in these cases, whatever it may be in the other cases, a secondary rather than a primal cause of death. While death was thus making sad havoc in the ranks of these beautiful fishes which were kept in the running Croton water down-stairs, those which I had taken, very soon after their arrival up-stairs into the laboratory and placed in a small aquarium of moderately warm water, were getting along nicely and were not troubled at all with the fungus. I then requested that four or five of these specimens affected with the fungus should be taken from the tank and sent up to me to be treated with a salt bath. I prepared the bath by placing three or four handsful of coarse salt in a small quantity of water, and then heated it over the fire until the salt was all dissolved. Cold water was then added until the whole was a temperture of about 60 degrees, when the fish were taken very gently out and placed in their new location. At first the change was not apparently agreeable, as they darted about in a furious manner, but some became quiet and were taken out after an immersion of about one minute and returned to fresh water; but not to the same from whence they had been taken. In the course of half an hour or an hour the fungus began to loosen from the body in quite large patches, showing that the connection of the hyphe, or rootlets, with the skin had been destroyed, and the next morning I picked out quite a large number of these dis- carded fungus flakes which the fish had thrown off into the water during the night. In orderto make sure that the hyphe should be entirely destroyed, and not leave relics from whence new crops might be generated, I gave each fish two additional baths of the strong salt water, and until they were moved from their aquarium and injured at a later period, I found no traces of fungus on any of them. It is true that in some of the cases experimented upon, the salt water did not cure the fish, but the salt water certainly killed the fungus, and undoubtedly if the fishes had not been very much debilitated before the bath was given them, their lives might have been prolonged as in the case of some of the others. The black bass which was experimented with, was literally loaded with a fluffy plating of fungus when 18 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. it was first placed in the bath. It acted much in the same man- ner as did the goldfish, except that from its size and strength it produced a much greater commotion in the water. It was left in the bath about ten minutes and then replaced in the tank from whence it had been taken. The next morning the entire surface of the body looked as if a card had passed over it and had raked the fungus out into long filaments and strings and streamers ready to be pulled off with scarcely an effort. Two days after a second bath was administered, but while still more of the fungus was loosened, the parasite had evidently been too long at work, the hyphez had penetrated too deeply and drawn for too longa time upon the tissues of the flesh for it to recover, and in two days more it ceased to move. The next animals to be experimented with were nine speci- mens of the mud puppy, or Wecturus lateralis. These had all been more or less injured about the mouth with the hook in their capture, and two or three had their tails badly mutilated. Some of them were very much matted with the fungus when they arrived, while others were only slightly attacked. They were all placed in the bath and the fungus was loosened or killed upon all of them, but the salt water had the effect, in the cases of those severely injured, of aggravating the injury, and by increasing the rawness of the wounds, prepared the field for a new crop of the fungus, since the water was full of the sapro- legnia spores, ready, and indeed anxious to continue the old condition of affairs whenever opportunity offered. In such cases the new crop of fungus sprang up with a rankness and a velocity which was truly surprising, and if [ had not known that the salt water would kill the fungus, I should have been inclined to think that in these cases salt water acted as a fertil- izer for the hyphe. I am inclined however to think that the true condition of affairs was that the salt water killed a part of the hyphz, and at the same time rendered the wounded surfaces much more suitable localities than ever they were before, for the growth of the fungus, and then when the animals were replaced in the fresh water, the spores, which were there in countless numbers, finding suitable territory in which to develop, took root, and, together with the rem- THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 19 nants of the old hyphz, grew with wonderful rapidity. At any rate I succeeded in destroying the fungus only on those animals which were not badly wounded. The rest died. In the spring of 1877, while engaged in studying the embry- ology of the smelt at New Brunswick, N. J., under the auspices of the Maryland Fish Commission, I found that one of the most serious drawbacks in the manipulation of the jars in which the eggs were placed, was the collection and growth of the saprolegnia upon the trays and upon the eggs, especially whenever the eggs were much massed together, as they often were in clusters of the size of a large walnut or larger. Withthe arrangements which we then had, we could not try the effect of salt upon this growth of fungus, but in my report to the Commission I expressed my opinion in favor of testing the salt-water bath, as soon as ar- rangements for its use could be made. An opportunity to test this method with the smelt eggs did not occur until this spring, when in talking with Mr. Ricardo, who was then engaged in manipulating smelt spawn upon the Hackensack, I suggested that he should try the effect of immers- ing the small eggs in strong salt water, particularly such of them as had any fungus attached to them. The method employ- ed by Mr. Ricardo in attaching the smelt spawn, which is similar to that employed by Mr. C. G. Atkins in Maine, some years ago, that is by taking blades of sedge or water grass and dipping them into the pans of milted spawn, prevents to a great extent, if not entirely, the massing together of the eggs, since the rough surface of the blades allow only a single layer at most to adhere to the surface; the result is a pretty even distribution of the eggs over the blades, and not much change for the attach- ment of the fungus, except on the dead eggs and the dead por- tions of the grass. Still there always is a greater or less amount of fungus present, and vary much in proportion to the greater or less flow of water over the eggs. Acting upon my suggestion, Mr. Ricardo prepared some salt water, strong enough, as he said “to bear up a potato,” and placed some of the egg-bearing grass blades in it. He took those blades which had considerable fungus upon them, and after leaving the blades in the water for fifteen or twenty minutes, he took 20 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. them out and found that the fungus had been killed so com- pletely that it could be stripped from off the eggs like a slough, leaving the eggs nearly, if not quite as clean as when first taken. From that time on until the eggs hatched out, which was, I believe, a period of about two weeks, he gave them a bath every day or every other day, and no more fungus ap- peared, and only about five per cent. of the whole number failed to hatch. Every experiment which he tried seemed to show the advantage of the salt bath in the destruction of the fungus, and that little or no harm resulted to the embryo fish. In order to test the effect of continued immersion upon the embryo, he placed some ova in the salt water and kept them there for forty- eight hours. At this time they were a’: in good condition, and it was not until they had been kept constantly immersed for from sixty to seventy hours that the embryos were unfavorably affected. Short immersions seem to have very little effect upon either the embryo or the adult fish, and, while there is a point beyond which we cannot safely go in our experiments with either the one or the other, yet of the two the embryo seems to be able to stand a longer immersion than the adult, especially than these species which are not anadromous. Short and moderately fre- quent immersions, then, will in all probability accomplish what is desired, so far as the destruction of the fungus is concerned. This, at least, seems to have been the case in my experiments, but it is much better, in every case where it is practicable to do so, to give this salt bath as soon as any fungus is discovered and before the hyphz have penetrated very deeply into the tissues, for it seems to be beyond question that the saprolegnia is one of these parasites that causes tissue destruction, as I have seen in numerous instances the gradual extension of the velvety car- peting of hyphz branches, from some minute wound on one side of the body of an animal, until the entire body was girdled. By taking the animal in hand early, and, in case there is no seri- ous wound to be aggravated by the salt, by using a strong solu- tion and using it for a short time ard often, it seems to me that salt may be a valuable agent in the hands of those who wish to rid their aquaria or their hatcheries of what is often an intoler- THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 21 able pest. And above all must it be borne in mind, that when water is used that comes from rivers and lakes, like the Croton water of New York city, no matter how clear of fungus they may get their tanks or aquaria, the spores are in the water, and any wounds in the fishes, or decaying or dead matter which may at any time afterward get into the water, offer fertile fields for renewed growths, which can only be disposed of by a new resort to the salt wash. THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF SALMON IN THE COLUMBIA RIVER BASIN.* BY LIVINGSTON STONE. Every one has heard of the immense quantities of salmon that are annually canned on the Columbia river. It is not necessary to go into details. The general facts known to all prove that an enormous number of salmon have been accustomed to ascend the Columbia river every year, and it is probably safe to say that the Columbia has been the most productive salmon river in the world. This is one side of the subject. The other side is this: Such enormous quantities of salmon taken from a river must ulti- mately endanger the productiveness of it. The situation is not, however, quite as bad as it looks, for it seems at first sight as if the stock of a salmon river would be diminished in proportion to the number of salmon taken out of it, but this is not wholly true, for a compensating element of great weight comes in to disturb the calculation. Nature, perhaps more aptly speaking, Providence, in the case of fish, as well as numberless other creatures, produces great quantities of seed that nature does not utilize or need. It looks like a vast store that has been pro- vided for nature, to hold in reserve against the time when the *The salmon referred to in this paper is the Oxcorhynchus chouika, the spring salmon of the Columbia, the chinook salmon, quinnat salmon, the common salmon of the Sacramento river. 22 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. increased population of the earth should need it and the sagac- ity of man should utilize it. At all events nature has never utilized this reserve, and man finds it already here to meet his wants. If this were not so, if there were no reserved stock of seed pro- vided beyond what nature uses every year, or to apply the hypothesis to the subject before us, if the salmon produced no more eggs every year than what are needed to keep the places of the parent fish filled, then it would be time that a river’s stock of salmon would diminish just in proportion to the number of sal- mon or salmon eggs taken out of it. As it is, the parent salmon in a state of nature, probably produce three thousand times as many eggs as would be needed if all became full-grown repro- ductive fish. The calculation isa very simple one. For instance, the quantity of salmon in any specified river, before they were molested at all by man, unquestionably remained constant from year to year. Making allowance, of course, for exceptional years, the average of any one decade has been, without doubt, about the same as that of the previous or next succeeding decade. It follows, of course, that evey pair of full-grown fish have pro- duced during their lives just two, or their own number of full- grown fish of the next generation, in order to keep the whole river supply good from year to year. If they produced more uniformly, the salmon in the river would increase till the river would ultimately become full of fish; if less, the stock for the reverse reason would be ultimately exhausted. Now, as one pair of salmon produces yearly, say six thousand eggs, it follows that there are deposited each year three thou- sand times as many eggs as would be needed, supposing that every egg became a full grown, reproducing parent. 1 should add that this computation is based on the supposition that all the parent salmon die after spawning and never reproduce again. This is true of the bulk of the Pacific coast salmon. If any do live to get back to the ocean after spawning and repro. duce again, it increases the ratio of the number of eggs deposit- ed to the number of salmon that reach maturity. The value to food-requiring man, of this reserve seed stock, THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 23 becomes particularly apparent when we consider the effect of the fishing of a salmon river. The first thousand fish taken out of the river, though it deprives the river of three million eggs, nakes no perceptible difference with the future supply, because there are so many eggs left that this abstracted quantity, great as it isabsolutely, is relatively insignificant—the number of eggs left being so vastly greater. The first hundred thousand salmon taken from the river makes no difference, partly because there are so many eggs left, and partly because one of nature’s compensations comes in by mak- ing the struggle for existence among the diminished number so much easier, that the eggs that are left go as far toward replen- ising the river’s stock as the larger number did under the less favorable conditions of a comparatively over-crowded river. So great is the reserve stock of seed originally provided, and so effective are the compensations of nature, that even the first million of parent salmon taken from a great river like the Col- umbia seems to make no difference in the annual run of salmon up the river. We might go further, perhaps, and say that the first two mill- ions would make no difference, but we need not take the trouble to prove this, for it would not help to illustrate the point if we did; the point being that if the annual catch goes on increasing, the limit will ultimately be reached when the number of eggs in the fish that are left will not be enough, even with the help of nature’s compensating agencies, to keep’ up the river’s stock. I need hardly remind a body of fish-culturists and Commis- sioners that when this limit is passed, the decrease of the fish pro- ceeds ata rapidly accelerated rate. It is burning the candle at both ends, for while the diminished stock of the river keeps diminishing from an inadequate supply of seed, the destructive capacity of the engines of capture are constantly increased to offset the poorer fishing that results. Then begins a geometrical ratio of yearly decrease which is startling, and of which the end is complete extinction. Some intelligent people thought that the limit just mentioned had nearly been reached in the Columbia several years ago. Many more persons think it has now. Still, the resources of 24 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. the great Columbia are so wonderful that, although upwards of two thousand million eggs are annually abstracted from the river, there seems to be a doubt remaining yet whether the eggs that are left are not sufficient to keep up the stock. However, if the fish-eating world does not go backward, the danger limit will soon be passed, if it has not been already, and it is none too soon to consider the question of taking measures to guard against the danger by artificial propagation, What has been done in the Sacramento in this direction is well known. I take the liberty to quote from an article bearing on the subject, by Mr. C. A. Smiley, of the United States Census Bureau. Mr. Smiley, after mentioning some of the difficulties of fish-culture says: “T will close with citing one of the most remarkable of the successes thus far attained. The salmon canneries of the Sacramento river an- nually increased in number until by 1870 the entire run of salmon was being caught and utilized. The greatest natural capacity of the river under these circumstances may be considered to have been reached in 1875, when the yield to the canneries was 5,096.781 pounds. “The first possible fruits of fish-culture were in 1876, when the young of 1873 may be supposed to have returned. “The United States hatchery was established in the latter year at Baird, Shasta County, California, and a half a million young released in 1873 and again in 1874. “In 1875 the number was increased to 850,000, in 1876 to 1,500,000, and during each of the years 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, two million young fry were placed in this river. From an annual catch of 5,000,000 pounds the river has come up to the annual catch of over 9,500,000 pounds, which figure has been maintained during the past four years. “The figures were: Pounds, 1G 201 ON AREA ROTC fs CCD Be to blo PEO Pe OARS Farr 10,837,000 I GoKoN Oe, MTT ME TNS Mes De Ine hs ceie ero eters Omer ee 9,600,000 MOGLE ccs sxe acas cosas as cosas ec tep Sve esses. Sy one anes 9,605,000 WOO ioe ak sala aw 2s spree rena Sten ee eeeceg mae Cones eae 9,586,000 “Allowing the three years which it takes for salmon to come to maturity and enter the river for spawning purposes, the increase in yield to the canneries for ten years has been almost exactly propor- tionate to the increase in the disposition of fry. Taken into con- sideration the cost of hatching 2,000,000 salmon annually, and the value of the increase of 4,500,000 pounds, it will be seen,” Mr. Smiley THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 25 concludes, “that there is a very large per cent. of profit in artificial fish-culture, when conducted under circumstances as favorable as these.” What man has done man may do, and what has been done in the Sacramento can be duplicated in the Columbia, and in as much larger proportion as the Columbia is larger than the Sacra- mento. An effort was made in 1877 to hatch salmon on the Clackamus river, a tributary of the Columbia. This location seemed to combine every advantage for the hatching of salmon on a large scale. The river heads, as you are aware, in the perennial snows of Mt. Hood, and the coldness of its snow-fed waters is very attractive to the ascending salmon. Just above its mouth, on the Wilhamette, into which it empties, are the impassable falls of Oregon City, which prevent the sal- mon from going up the Wilhamette any further, and naturally turns them back into the Clackamus, if they missed that river in the first place. Then, if necessary, the Clackamus can be so obstructed that every salmon coming up can be stopped in front of the fishery. The river is a favorite resort of the salmon, as it must necessarily be, with its cold, clear, and swift running water; and before canning on the Columbia began, the Clacka- mus was famous for its hundreds of thousands of magnificent spring salmon that used to swarm up its channel to spawn. But the establishment of the stationcame too late. Already— this was in 1877—there were fifteen or twenty canneries on the Columbia below the mouth of the Wilhamette, and with their thousand miles, or nearly, of drift nets waylaying the ascending fish, the main river became so depleted of parent salmon, that those that reached the Clackamus in 1877, were but a sorry frag- ment of the immense shoals that originally came up the stream to spawn. It was too late. Had the station been established twelve years before, twenty million eggs of the best variety of salmon in the Columbia river could have been taken there every year. The time has now gone by for that, and only a few million eggs can be taken in a season on the Clackamus, until some legisla- 26 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. tion allows a larger proportion of the parent salmon to reach the river. This station was partly destroyed by a hurricane a few years ago, and has been abandoned for the present. Unfortunately the same objection which applies to the Clack- amus river asa hatching station, for producing young salmon on a large scale, viz., the enormous yearly catch of salmon on the Columbia below the Clackamus, also applies to all other good locations in the Columbia river basin, or rather what were originally good locations. Twenty years ago there were scores of places on the affluents of the Columbia where ten to twenty million salmon eggs could have been obtained annually, because such an enormous quantity of salmon ran up the Columbia that they swarmed in thousands into each of these spawning streams to deposit their eggs. Now that every season as the salmon come up to spawn, hundreds of thousands of them, I might almost say millions, are caught for canning, there are not enough left to distribute them- selves in very great numbers in each of their thousand spawning- beds up the river, and it will never again, in my opinion, be very easy to find more than one or two places in the Columbia river basin, where twenty million salmon eggs can be annually ob- tained, unless some legislation protects the salmon on their up- ward journey, or artificial hatching, simultaneously carried on at various independent localities, increases the number of sal- mon in the river. I have made three explorations of the Columbia river for the purpose of finding a good place for getting salmon eggs ona large scale; (the last time under the direction of the United States Commissioner of Fisheries). Following the Columbia, except around the Great Bend, all the way from the Rocky Mountain divide, where you can step across it (here called Deer Lodge river), to the bar as its mouth where it is fifteen miles across, and I am convinced that the salmon do not now come up to any one of their famous original spawning grounds in such quantities as to make it an easy thing to get twenty or even ten million eggs a year from any of them. I must except some places (notably the foot of Shoshone Falls THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 27 in Idaho) on the tributaries of the Snake river, now difficult of access, where it is possible, perhaps, if the attempt is made soon enough, to obtain sufficient spawners for large operations in hatching. I will also except the mouth of the Little Spokane river in Washington Territory, where there isa most excellent location for a hatching station, and where perhaps ten million eggs a year could be collected, if the statements made about the number of salmon that come up the river are at all true. These statements have not been substanstiated yet for want of opportunity, and all we can say is that thousands and thousands of breeding salmon used to frequent this natural and favorite spawning ground, and perhaps the canners leave enough now in the Columbia to still make the Little Spokane a good collecting place for their eggs. As my report to Prof. Baird recommends this point as a favorable location for a hatching station, a description of some of its advantages may not be out of place here, and the first I will mention is its accessibility. Eight miles from the mouth of the river, over a remarkably hard and level road, is the town of Spokane Falls, a new, but thriving and promising settlement of, perhaps, 3,000 inhabitants. This town is situated on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and isin daily communication with the rest of the world by mail, tele- graph and railroad, the railroad being one of the great trans- continental thoroughfares of the country. These general facts alone are sufficient to show the accessi- bility of the location without the necessity of mentioning details. The water supply at the mouth of the Little Spokane for hatching the eggs is practically unlimited. As there is a strong current in,the river, and as the water dces not rise till after the spawning season and hatching season are over, the water can be safely raised from the river: itself by a current wheel, as at the McCloud river station, and this being the case, any required quantity of water can be brought to the hatching house ata small expense. The location is also favorable for obtaining water conveniently. The river does not ever rise more thana few feet, and consequently the hatching house can be erected not very far above the low water mark. A small current wheel will, 28 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. therefore, be sufficient to raise the water to the hatching house, and the adjacent land is so favorable for building on, that the wheel can be placed very near the hatching house, which will render unnecessary the construction of a long flume from the wheel to the hatching house As the river does not rise till the hatching season is over, the wheel need not be protected from drift wood, nor arranged with reference to the rising and fall- ing of the water. These are great conveniences, and on the whole it may be said that the water supply may be safely depended upon in every respect. The location is also remarkably favorable as to availa- bility. Fortunately, the adjacent country is still in its primitive state. When I visited the place in July, 1883, many Indians were encamped on the river bottoms; but I saw no white men. It is true some claims near the river have been taken up by white men, but they are not valuable, and could be bought without much expense. It is, therefore, very probably that the site of a salmon building station could be obtained without much cost; and as there are very few settlers up the river, and no towns or villages, no objection would probably be raised to collecting the parent salmon during spawning season by means of a dam across the river. The Little Spokane, is also of such a character that it would be an easy matter to capture the breeding fish. Indeed, I think a seining ground could be arranged, so that nearly all the spawn- ing fish that come up to the river could be caught; and further- more, it being close to the main Spokane river it would not be dificult to run two seining grounds, one on each side, which would undoubtedly somewhat increase the yearly catch of breeders. It would be a very easy matter to build a dam or salmon rack across the river to keep the breeders on, or near the seining ground. Indeed the frail structure that we saw the Indians suc- cessfully erecting across the river, shows how easy it would be for white men, with their superior appliances, to put a salmon rack across the river, such as would be required to answer the purpose of a breeding station. There being no drought or freshet on the river during the season’s operations at the station. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 29 and, indeed, no material change at all in the river, a very simple and readily-constructed dam would be perfectly safe. Thisisa great advantage, as it often proves a very difficult matter in a river subject to freshets in the hatching season, to put in an obstruction that is perfectly safe. And last, but not least, the maximum rise of the river during the year is so inconsiderable, that there will never be any dan- ger of the hatching house and other buildings being washed away, even if they are placed, as it is desirable that they should be, close to the river. Besides possessing the essential qualification just enumerated for a salmon breeding station, the Spokane location has many convenient features about it to recommend it. In the first place, it is in a good timber country, where lumber can be easily and inexpensively obtained for building. Then the roads in all directions are hard and good, even during the rainy season, which is a merit which can be fully appreciated only by those who have lived in other parts of the Pacific coast, where the roads become practically impassable during the rainy season, on account of the great depth of the mud. The ground is also almost level from the mouth of the Little Spokane to the town of Spokane Falls, which would make communication with the town, and freighting to and from the breeding station, very easy. The climate is also a great recommendation to this place. It is never very cold nor very hot, but the temperature is quite even, and consequently very favorable for work of any kind. By glancing over what has just been said about the mouth of the Little Spokane, it will be seen that it is known to be in all essential points an unusually favorable location for a salmon breeding station. If it should prove to be capable of furnishing an abundance of breeders, I should not hesitate to reeommend it emphatically as one of the best situations to be found any- where for taking and distributing salmon eggs. If, however, it should fail to supply the required quantity of spawning salmon, I do not know where we could look for any one place on the Columbia river, or its north fork, which, by itself, would be adequate and satisfactory, and I think we should be reduced to 30 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. the necessity of going further from the railroad, or erecting two or three separate stations at different points. Before closing, allow me to mention a fact which may possi- bly be as much of a surprise to many of you as it wasto me. It is that there are no salmon in the whole of that portion of the North or Clark’s Fork of the Columbia, which flows through Western Montana and Idaho, including that magnificent body of water, Lake Pend d’Oreille in Northern Idaho. This fork of the Columbia known as it flows westward under the various names of Deer Lodge river, Hellgate river and Missoula river, has a length of about three hundred miles before it reaches the falls of Senniacwateen, just below the outlet of Lake Pend d’Oreille, where it is believed the ascending salmon are. finally stopped from going any further, and in the long stretch of river above this point clear to the Rocky Mountains no salmon whatever are found. I was not aware of this fact, and when we had crossed the continental divide, which was accomplished then in a wretched mud wagon (called by court- esy a stage), and had descended the western slope of the Rocky Mountain range far enough for the Deer Lodge brook to have become a respectable river, [ expected to find salmon very abundant, but to my great surprise the people there were as un- familiar with salmon in their natural haunts as the people of this city are, and were nearly as far from them. I found that there were three principal obstructions which kept the salmon from ascending the river. The first one from the ocean is Kettle Falls, in Washington Territory, on the main Columbia, 711 miles from its mouth. These falls are about twenty-five feet in height at low water, but they are not wholly impassable, for on the east side they are broken into a series of cascades, through which the salmon can and do get above the falls at certain stages of the water, and possibly at all times. Forty-two miles above Kettle Falls, the Pend d’Oreille river (Clark’s Fork of the Columbia from Lake Pend d’Oreille to the main river is called Pend d’Oreille river) empties into the main Columbia. Near its mouth, at a distance variously stated from a few rods to twenty miles, is another fall which is undoubtedly a serious obstruction to the salmon. This fall (it being on the THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 31 Great Bend, I did not see it myself) is said to be ten or fifteen feet in height. I heard of salmon being caught all the way up to the falls of the Senniacwateen—so the salmon are obviously not all stopped at the falls of the Pend d’Oreille, though probably not a very large proportion get by them. About one hundred and fifty miles above these nearly impass- able falls, and not far below the outlet of Pend d’Oreille lake are the falls of the Senniacwateen, which, though not over eight or ten feet in height, probably head off the comparatively few salmon that reach them and mark the highest point, the w/t#ma thule of the upward migration of the salmon of Clark’s Fork of the Columbia. I mention these facts, partly because when I was in Idaho and Montana, there was a strong feeling among some of the residents on Clark’s Fork in favor of opening a way for the ascending salmon through the obstructions just mention- ed, and allowing them to come up into Idaho and Montana, which they would undoubtedly do if they could, although it is nearly twelve hundred miles from the mouth of the Columbia to Deer Lodge City. I will merely add in this connection that a movement has been started for obtaining the intervention of the territories interest- ed, and if possible of the United States, for the purpose of open- ing a passage for the salmon through the formidable obstruc- tions at the mouth of the Pend d’Oreille river, but in my opinion these falls will be found to lie in British territory, and the undertaking mentioned will require the co-operation also of the Dominion government. I need hardly say in conclusion, that in my judgment the sooner we get about this work of hatching salmon on the Col- umbia the better. We have waited too long already. The great opportunities of twenty years ago are all gone, and every year makes the matter worse. Mills are going up, settlements are forming, railroads are being built in this trans-Rocky Mountain region with surprising rapidity—all accelerating the decrease of the salmon—and ina short time we may be glad to even get opportunities that we scorn now. A great industry as well as an immense food sup- ply is at stake, and something ought to be done very soon. 32 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. THE WHITE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA. BY TARLETON H. BEAN, M.D., M.S. Curaior of the Depariment of Fishes in the United States National Museum. The white-fishes, properly so-called, all belong to the genus Coregonus, which, however, admits of division into several minor groups, based chiefly upon the character of the mouth and the form of the body. We have, in North America, twelve recog- nizable species, one of which is now apparently for the first time distinguished by name. These species are usually of wide distribution, and subject to great variation with age and sur- roundings, making it difficult for the student to sharply define them by the use of characters which are generally believed to have specific value. An attempt is made, on a subsequent page, to set forth the relations of these twelve species by calling atten- tion to the peculiarities which seem to be most important and least subject to variation. The form of the mouth, the structure of the gill-rakers, the size of the species, and, in some cases, the length of the fin-bases, appear to serve the purposes of classifi- cation best; but it is difficult to apply any fixed formule of defi- nition and little to be wondered at that most of our common forms have been described over and over again since they were originally introduced into the literature. I have placed along with the white-fishes that magnificent species, the finest of all the fishes closely related to Coregonus, the Inconnu of the McKenzie and Yukon regions. This well-flav- ored species grows to four feet in length and is known to have reached fifty pounds in weight. From an examination of the Russian Stenodus leucichthys, 1am inclined to think that the Amer- ican /uconnu is identical with the species of Giildenstadt, and, if so, the range of the species is much more extensive than we have supposed. It may be, also, that several of the Alaskan species of Coregonus will prove to be identical with Siberian forms; but we are unable to state anything definite about this at present. The white-fishes are among the most important, economically, of all fishes. I need refer only to the fisheries of our great lakes THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. as to verify this statement. In the northern regions of America, also, they constitute one of the chief sources of food supply. These fishes possess many natural advantages over other inhabi- tants of the waters—they do not prey upon one another and their movements are not checked by dams and similar obstruc- tions. They yield vast numbers of eggs, whichare readily de- veloped artificially, and it has recently been demonstrated that the young fry can be reared in confinement. All of the species but two have excellent food qualities and they exist in great abundance. We may well protect and cultivate these fishes whose importance and possibilities can scarcely be overesti- mated. NorTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF COREGONUS. A. Lower jaw included; gill-rakers about thirty or fewer, moderately long, or short and thick. . a. Gill-rakers moderately long; maxilla } head, or more. 6. Tongue with teeth; gill-rakers 23 ..... labradoricus. 66. Tongue toothless, or nearly so. c. Nape arched and thick; gill-rakers 26-29. clupezformis. cc. Nape arched and much compressed; gill-rakers 26 . . . ne/- sonez?. aa. Gill-rakers short; maxilla } head (4 in wzl/zamsonzz.) ad. Mouth inferior. e. Body elongate; maxilla about + head; gill-rakers 17... guadrilateralzs. ee. Body oblong; maxilla about } head; gill-rakers 23 .. we/- leamsoniz. dd. Mouth not inferior; jaws nearly equal; maxilla about + head; gill-rakers 22 . . Lennzcottz7. AA. Lower jaw projecting, or jaws subequal; gill-rakers more than 30, long and slender. jf. Body deep; scales little convex behind; gill-rakers 48...... tullibee. ff. Body oblong or elongate; scales strongly convex behind. g. Eye moderate (} to $ length of head). A. Dorsal base longer than post-orbital part of head; gill- RACKS 3Oseiea < Sas lauretta@. Ah. Dorsal base shorter than post-orbital part of head. z.. Teeth on premaxillaries and tongue; gill-rakers 39-44... . Nig Epinnes. 34 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. zz. Premaxillary and tongue toothless; gill-rakers 46-52... arted?, gy. Eye large (? to $ length of head); size small. k. Anal rays 10; gill-rakers 55 . . Aoyz. kk, Anal rays 14; gill-rakers 45 . . merkz subsp. 1. Stenodus mackenzié Rich. Inconnu. Luciotrutta Mackenzii Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., vi., 1866, p. 164. Mackenzie’s River and its tributaries; Yukon river, Alaska. A food-fish of great value; the largest of the white-fishes. Growing to four feet in length, and reaching 50 pounds in weight. ‘It is full of spawn from September to Janu- ary, when it disappears.’—Dall. 2. Coregonus labradoricus Rich. Lake Whiting. Great Lake Region; lakes of the Adirondacks, of mountains of New England and north-eastward, preferring clear, cold lakes. It is abundant in cold, clear lakes, and in Labrador the species frequently reaches the length of eighteen inches, but in New England the average size is somewhat belowthis. This species may be regarded as certainly nearly related to the com- mon white-fish, C. clupetformis, from which it differs chiefly in its somewhat more decided lingual dentition and its slenderer body. It seems besides never to reach so large a size as the typical great lake form. It would seem that the size of the species increases somewhat in the northern portion of its habitat. This species has been erroneously placed in a group characterized by numerous long and slender gill-rakers; asa matter of fact the gill-rakers are not more numerous in this species than in ze¢d- liamsonti and kenicottit. The oldest name for this species is the one here employed, but the New England form has since been described by Prescott in the American Journal of Science and Arts, 1851, under the name of Coregonus eohantontensts. 3. Coregonus clupetformis (Mitch). Milner. Commonwhite-fish. Great lakes. British America. This is the most important of all the white-fishes; it has been extensively reared by artificial methods and dis- tributed as widely as New Zealand. The Otsego lake form is said to be the most southerly in the United States, but wellZamson7 occurs in rivers of Utah. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 35 This is the common white-fish, and is the object of the most important of the fisheries of the great lake region. We have the typical form of this species from Lake Champlain to the east- ward, and from Manitoba to the westward. The range of this species has also been greatly extended by artificial introduction. The maximum weight of the species is said to be twenty-two pounds, but the average weight will perhaps scarcely reach ten pounds. The reported occurrence of this species in the Yukon river, Alaska, is apparently unwarranted, a re-examination of our Alaskan material showing that the supposed C. clupetformis of the Yukon is really C. kentcott?t, a species which grows to even a larger size than C. clupetformis, but which is really not very closely related to that species. It is worthy of mention that the voung of C. clupetformis have a much greater number of scales in the lateral line than the adult, some examples of which are here exhibited showing as many as ninety scales while the average number in the adult is but sev- enty-five. The following additional information about the white-fish has been extracted from the published writings of Mr. J. W. Milner: The fishes are not evenly distributed throughout the lake, but range in large colonies and run near the shore at different points, while the majority of localities may be destitute of fish. The statistics of nine principal fish-markets on the lakes show the proportion of lake-herring handled to be one-sixth, while the low rates herring command in the markets would pro- duce only about one-thirtieth of the amount realized from. the whole quantity of fish handled. This shows the small value of the herring to the fishermen, in the herring localities. In the whole product of the lakes it would be of much less con- sequence. The white-fish is found in all depths in more or less abun. dance, not only in the spawning season, but at all times. Young white-fish seek the surface, and they are strong and vigorous from the time they leave the egg. In their early life, therefore, they are not much preyed upon by voracious fishes, and the swarms of cyprinoids and Chirostoma (?) which are abundant at 36 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. the surface at the same time, form a large part of the food of such predaceous species as do come to the surface. 4. Coregonus nelsontzz Bean. Hump-back white-fish. Bean, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., VII., 1884, p. 48. Known from Alaska only, occurring from the Bristol Bay region northward to the extremity of the territory. This species which was until recently undescribed, has long been known from Alaska, but it has been confounded with a Siberian species, C. syrok, from which it is really very different. The Russian name of the species is “Koraéat.”’ The Tinneh tribes of the Yukon call it “Aolokiih.”” Mr. Dall, in the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1870, p. 386, speaks of it as a common species characterized by the strongly arched back and broad tail. He says it is rather bony and inferior in flavor, and that it is generally used for dog food, except in times of scarcity. This species is related to C. clupetformts and C. labradoricus, From clupetformis it may readily be distinguished by its greatly arched and much compressed back. The body is oblong and compressed; the head is one-fifth as long as the fish without the caudal; the maxilla extends to the front margin of the eye and is about one-fourth as long as the head; the gill-rakers are only moderately long, the longest a little more than one-half lemgth of eye, and their number is about twenty-six. The greatest height of the body is a little more than one-fourth of the total length in the typical example, which is about fourteen and one- half inches long to caudal base. The adipose fin is large and scaled for nearly half its height. The ventrals area little nearer the tip of the snout than to the root of the caudal. They are about as long as the head without the snout; D. 12; A. 12; scales 10—88—10. The type of the species is No. 29,903, taken at Nul- ato, Alaska, by Mr. E. W. Nelson, to whom the species is dedi- cated in recognition of his important zoological researches in that territory. 5. Coregonus guadrilateral’s Richardson. Round white fish. (?) Krug (Russian). Shad Waiter; Round-fish. Lakes of New England Upper Great lakes; Slave Lake; Kodiak; Yukon River; rivers of Arctic North America. (Gunther). THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. By C. quadrilateralis is apparently the most widely distributed of all the white-fishes and naturally is subject to much variation. In the Yukon river region the form of the head is somewhat dif- ferent from that of the ordinary eastern type, and, strangely enough, this variation of the head is repeated in some of the Maine lakes. The appearance of this species on the Island of Kodiak which is separated from the mainland of Alaska by a wide and deep ocean channel is one of the most interesting of recent discoveries in the ichthyology of Alaska. C. guadrilateralts is a small and slender species, seldom exceeding fifteen inches in length, but its quality is excellent. It is noteworthy that this species has a smaller number of gill-rakers than any other spe- cies of the North American white-fishes. Prescott, in the jour- nal already referred to, redescribed this white fish under the name Coregonus nove-anglea. 6. Coregonus williamsoniz, Girard. Rocky Mountain white-fish ; Chief Mountain white-fish. Coregonus couestz, Milner. Rept. U.S.Comm. Fish. for 1872— 1873 (1874), p. 88. Clear streams and lakes fromthe Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, northward to Oregon; found also in tributaries of the Sas- katchewan and of the upper Missouri. Recently received from Mill Creek, Oregon, whence it was sent by Col. I. R. Moores. This isan abundant and valuable food-fish. The size of Coregonus williamsonit is small, about equal to that of C. guadrilateralis, which it closely resembles; it has, usvally, a larger maxilla and less elongate body, and the number of gill- rakers is somewhat larger. The Chief Mountain white-fish (C. couestt, Milner) is now known to be identical with Coregonus wt- liamsonit. 7. Coregonus kennicottz?. Milner. Broad white-fish. Known in Alaska from the Kuskoquim basin to Meade river in the extreme northern part of the territory. This is the A/uksun of the Russians, a name transferred from a Siberian species of similar appearance. The broad white-fish reaches the weight of thirty pouuds, ranking next in size to the Inconnu only. It has a short head, remarkably small, subequal jaws, and its body is very thick. It is a food-fish of great excel- 38 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. lence. Dall states that it is abundant in both winter and summer, spawning in September in the small streams falling into the Yukon. 8. Coregonus tullébee Rich. Tullibee. Great lakes and northward into British America. This singular and handsome species is said to grow toa length of eighteen inches. Its body is deeper than in any of the other white-fishes, and the scales are deep but very narrow, giving the fish a unique and unmistakable appearance. Richardson had a specimen from Pine Island lake, in north latitude 54 degrees. 9. Coregonus laurette. Bean. (?) Morskod ciga (Russian). Kuskoquim region, and northward to Point Barrow, Alaska. This species is not large, rarely exceeding three pounds in weight, but it is a very important source of food wherever it occurs. It resembles the lake herring, C. artedi?, somewhat, but has fewer gill-rakers and a much longer dorsal base. In the Yukon it ts particularly abundant and is one of the best-flavored of the Coregoni, becoming the staple article of food in winter, according to Mr. Dall. 10. Coregonus nigripinnis (Gill) Jor. Blue-fin; Black-fin. Lake Michigan, in deep water; deep lakes of Wisconsin, known from the vicinity of Madison, Wisconsin, whence it has been sent by Fish Commissioner Welch. This species is locally abundant, as, for example, in Grand Traverse bay. Milner reported as follows concerning it: Core- gonus nigripinnis is most abundant in seventy or more fathoms and is seldom taken in the fishing season, even in as great a depth as fifty fathoms. At Grand Haven, Mich., where a line of steam- ers keeps the harbor open throughout the winter, the fishermen take the black-fin in quantities within thirty or forty fathoms in the month of December. The black-fin grows to eighteen inches in length, surpassing C. artedi in size and differing from it, also, in having evident teeth on premaxillaries and tongue. 11. Coregonus arted? Le Sueur. Lake herring; Cisco; Michigan herring. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 39 Great lakes and northeastward to Labrador, the eye becoming larger and certain other characters varying to the north- eastward. This species has considerable commercial impor- tance. 12. Coregonus artedz, var. sisco Jordan Cisco. Small lakes of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana. A form of the preceding modified by residence in small, deep lakes. 13. Coregonus hoy (Gill) Jordan. Lake moon-eye; Cisco (Lake Michigan); Smelt (Western New York). Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario, in deep water; lakes of West- ern New York, where it sometimes dies mysteriously in great numbers. 14. Coregonus merk¢z Gunther, subsp. Vulatosk? ciga (Russian). Known from Yukon river and Hotham Inlet, Alaska. A small species, thin and bony, rarely exceeding a half pound in weight; little used as food in Alaska. It differs from typical merkzz in several particulars. 15. Coregonus lavaretus L. Marzne. Great lakes of Switzerland, Tyrol, Pomerania, Mecklenberg, and Sweden. This fine, large species, the type of the genus Coregonus, comes into the series containing our common white: fish (C. clupetformis). It has about thirty gill-rakers of moderate length, and the lower jaw is included. In sizeandin extent of distribution as well as in amount of variation, as expressed by the numerous synonymes of the name /avaretus, the two bear a strong resemblance to each other. The marzne in its adult condition is readily distinguish- ed at sight by its numerous and rather deep scales; but I suspect that it will be difficult to separate the young of the two, espe- cially since we have common white-fish from Lake Superior with as many as ninety scales, the usual number in some of the variations of Zavaretus. Four hundred and nine were placed April 14th, 1877, in Lake Gardner, Otsego Co., Michigan. The history of the marzne since its introduction into America by the U. S. Fish Commis- sioner is not known to me. 40 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. NOTES ON LAND-LOCKED SALMON. BY CHARLES G. ATKINS. NOMENCLATURE AND RANGE. The term “land-locked salmon,” though it may be, and prob- ably is, a misnomer so far as it implies any forcible detention of sea-going salmon in fresh water, has come to be generally ac- cepted as applicable to all those salmon of Eastern North Amer- ica and of Europe that pass their entire lives in fresh water: They are all, according to the most recent conclusions of our American ichthyologists, members of the great species, Sa/mo salar, the common river salmon of the tributaries of the North Atlantic. In America they are found in a number of restricted localities, of which, besides several in the Canadian provinces, there are four in the State of Maine; namely: rst, the waters of the Saint Croix; 2nd, of one branch of Union river, Hancock County; 3rd, of Sebec River, a tributary of the Penobscot; and 4th, of Lake Sebago and tributaries, in Cumberland County. The results of some inquiries that I have made relative to the salmon of Lakes Champlain and Ontario indicate that these, also, should be added to the list, though I believe that the salmen of Lake Champlain are now extinct. I have little knowledge of the salmon of any of these localities but those in the State of Maine, and their descendants in other States, and any general remarks | may have occasion to make, must be understood as applying especially to them. A COMPARISON WITH ANADROMOUS SALMON. To the anatomy of the land-locked salmon I have given none but the most superficial attention, and am not able to say wheth- er there exist any distinguishing marks by which they mav be unerringly separated from the normal Sa/mo salar, or from each other. The general impression made upon the fish-culturist who views them in their separate haunts is that the external dif- ference of form and color are sufficient to enable him easily to separate those of the several districts should they be presented in a promiscuous heap, but I confess that I should not dare to THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 41 indicate the points of difference; and granted that the impression of dissimilarity is correct, it still remains in doubt whether when bred in other waters, either variety will retain its peculiarities. However, when we came to place the land-locked salmon of either district by the side of the normal form of Sa/mo salar, and to include in our survey other than anatomical features, there are not wanting data for an interesting comparison. In the first place, we find a general resemblance in form and color. The young fry are so closely alike that the eye fails to separate them if mixed together. As they grow we find further that the reproductive functions of the males are in both forms active at a very early stage. while yet in what is known as the parr-stage, marked externally by the presence of bright red spots and dark transverse bars or “ finger-marks”’ upon the sides; and at Grand lake stream may be observed several other stages of growth closely resembling those of the migratory salmon. The adults have identical habits in the spawning season, and the same remarkable external changes take place in the adult males at that season of the year,—the deepening of the body, the lengthening of the head, the curving of the jaws, the growth of the wonderful hooked bony process on the tip of the lower jaw, the assumption of brighter colors— though these changes are generally not quite so marked in the land-locked as in the anadromous varieties. The color of the flesh is also the same, and there is a similarity, though not an identity of flavor. On the other hand, we find certain well marked differences. Some things favor the theory of an arrested development. For instance, the dark bars on the sides, which are very prominent marks in the young fish, but entirely disappear in the adult mi- gratory salmon, are always retained on the inner skin of the land-locked fish and may be found by stripping the skin off. I have also observed among the Sebago fish, some cases of a reten- tion of the external bars in at least one individual thirteen inches long; whereas, normally they become invisible from without when the fish is about eight inches long. As might be expected, the inferior size of the land-locked salmon: is accompanied by a lower rate of fecundity, but this NO FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. fe would not lead us to expect the individual eggs of the smaller fish to be of a larger size. This is, however, the actual fact, the difference being quite noticeable, and amounting to say twenty per cent. in weight. Among the migratory salmon of the Pe- nobscot, ovarian, disease is very rare; but with the land-locked salmon of the Schoodic lakes it is very common. In 1883, by careful observation we learned that 18 per cent. of the female fish were affected with some disease of the ovaries, resulting in defects of the eggs which were apparent to the eye,—in some instances involving the entire litter, but in general a very small number of eggs. This phenomenon was observed before artifi- cial breeding began at Grand lake stream, and does not appear to be influenced thereby. The habits of the two forms of salmon afford the strongest contrasts. The anadromous salmon has its home in the sea, and there, exclusively, are its feeding grounds; it visits the fresh water only for the purpose of breeding, and during its stay there abstains from food and constantly falls away in flesh. Its young on attaining the age of one or two years and a weight of two or three ounces, descends to the sea to complete its growth. The land-locked salmon never visits the sea except accidentally, and makes its home in the fresh water lakes. It has its feeding grounds in the lakes and rivers, and instead of fasting six months or a year at a time, curbs its ravenous appetite for but a few weeks at the spawning season. My observations on the date of spawning lead to the conclu- sion that it is a week later with the land-locked than with the anadromous salmon. In approaching the spawning ground, the land-locked salmon move either up into an affluent stream or down into an effluent stream, being governed, so far as I can see, by the peculiar circumstances of each case. There are not want- ing some indications that they prefer an effluent, but I think that the phenomena admits of a different explanation. The young fry in most instances move up the stream to gain the lake which is to be their future home, but in some instances quite the reverse. It does not appear that in any of these phenomena we have un- covered any essential difference in habits and instincts, but when the sea salmon attains the age for the seaward migration, an in- THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 43 stinct begins to govern his actions to which the land-locked is forever a stranger. Of less theoretical but more practical importance is a compar- ison of size. The average of adult Penobscot salmon is about thirteen pounds, though there are some fluctuations from year to year—the mean for a season being sometimes above sixteen pounds, and sometimes below twelve pounds. If we excluded the Ontario and Champlain salmon, we know of no land-locked salmon in America that average half as large. The Sebago fish are the largest; a score of thirteen taken with hook in the Sou- go river in 1880 averages five pounds, and this is probably about the usual size, though individuals of great weight are sometimes taken. The above score contained one weighing 1034 lbs. One thirty anda half inches long and weighing 15% lbs. was taken with hook in May, 1883. One found stranded and dead in Rogers brook in Bridgton in 1883, was thirty inches long and weighed twenty-five pounds. The Reed’s pond salmon are next to those of Sebago in size,—indeed, possibly, are fully equal. The salmon of the Sebec region vary much in the differ- ent waters of the system, as do also those of the St. Croix, but the average growth may be taken to be about the same as at Grand lake stream, where some hundreds were measured in the autumn of 1883, with the result that the mean weight of the males was 3.2 lbs., and of the females 3 lbs., while the salmon taken in May and June are perhaps a quarter of a pound lighter AN AUGMENTATION OF MEAN SIZE. In connection with this part of my subject I have some very interesting statements to present, with reference to a dreaded change in the mean size of the Grand lake salmon. A Philadelphia sportsman who fished at Grand lake stream nearly thirty years ago, furnished Mr. Thaddeus Norris memo- randa from which the following averages may be deduced. In June, 1856, the average weight of 634 salmon was 1.38 lbs.; in June, 1857, the average of 432 salmon was 1.49 lbs.; in the same month of 1858, the average of 575 salmon was 1.42 lbs. In May, 1865, Hon. Harvey Jewell with one companion took 379 salmon weighing 502 lbs., and averaging 1.33 lbs., and remarks that 44 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. this was the average weight of those taken by other parties in each of the years 1864 and 1865. In 1867, I personally visited the fishing ground and know that the size of the fish had not materially changed since 1858. The maximum was then believed to be four or five pounds, but the capture of so large specimens was extremely rare. The autumn weight may have been a little above that of June, (which corre- sponds to a length of 16% inches) but did not exceed 1% lbs. In 1875-6, the average weight of some hundreds of males taken at the spawning season was 1.6 lbs. and 1.8 Ibs respectively, and of the females 1.9 lbs. each year. In 1878, the males averaged 2.3 lbs. and the females 2.2 lbs. In 1882, the males and females weighed respectively 3.1 and 3.08 pounds; in 1883, 3.2 and 3.0 pounds. There has been a cor- responding, but perhaps not equal augmentation in the size of the fish caught in May and June; seventy salmon taken in May, 1883, averaged 2.7 lbs., a little more than double the weight of Mr. Jewell’s fish of 1865. Accompanying this increase in size, we have found a corresponding improvement in the fecundity of the salmon. The eggs are no larger, but nearly twice as many are now obtained from a single fish. These figures apply only to the salmon of Grand lake stream. In other parts of the Schoodic waters the fish are of various sizes —some larger and some smaller than those described. At Dob- sis stream, in the spring of 1872, a score of Mr. Jewell’s shows that twenty-six fish taken below the dam in water communicat- ing with Pocumpus lake, averaged 1 4-10 pounds, while eighteen taken above the dam, in the waters of the Dobsis lake averaged 2 6-10 lbs. In after years this distinction was maintained and in_ deed emphasized. In the Dobsis lake in 1876, they were about as heavy as they are now in Grand lake. In West Musquash lake they are larger than in either of the above. In the lakes of the east branch of the Saint Croix (the Chepedneck lakes) they are generally larger than in any of the waters of the west branch, with the possible exception of West Musquash, and there has been known a single specimen of 10% pounds. In Pleasant lake, on the west branch, are the smallest specimens of all the Schoodic region. In February, 1883, 1] obtained thirteen THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 45 specimens said to represent fairly those that winter, through the ice, except that some very small ones had been excluded from the lot. These had the form and color of adults, but the largest of them weighed only eighteen ounces and measured only fif- teen inches in length, and from this size there was a very regu- lar descending series down to 10} inches in length and 5 ounces in weight. It is much to be regretted that we do not possess the data requisite to the discussion of the causes that have led to this diversity of size between the fish of different parts of the same lake system, or to the recent increase in the size of the Grand lake fish. RATE OF GROWTH. At Grand Lake Stream, at the spawning season, we have found six distinct classes of salmon, distinguished mainly by size, as follows: First class. This is equivalent to the ‘‘parr” or “pink” stage of anadromous salmon. It is characterized by the presence of dark transverse bars and brilliant red spots on the sides. In size they are very uniform. Of nineteen of them captured October 15th, the smallest was 2 9-t6 inches long, the largest 3% inches long, and the average 3% inches. Their weight was not ascer- tained but must be about 2-10 ounce. They have thus far been observed only on the gravelly shallows of the stream. They were present before artificial breeding began, and undoubtedly represent a normal stage of growth. Parr of about the same size are also found in the stream at the beginning of summer, and occasionally in great numbers. Such was notably the case in 1882, and also, though not to an equal extent, in 1883. Mr. Mun- son, our foreman, who is very careful and exact in his state- ments, reported that in June, 1882, at the time when the driving of logs through the gates was in progress, there were great num- bers of these little fish below the dam. While the gates were open and the stream full of water, they were little inclined to bite, but when the gates were closed and the water fell they eagerly pursued any line, crowding each other and leaping out of the water after an approaching fly or other bait. Meeting 46 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. one day a young fellow crossing the dam with a long string of these little fish that would more than fill a peck measure, Mun- son took out his rule and measured about half a dozen of them, and found them to vary little from three inches in length. These young fish were taken that season in numbers that threatened to seriously affect the abundance of the adults, and upon petition, the legislature at its next session forbade their capture. The occurrence of parr of the same or nearly the same size in the fall as in the spring, is a noteworthy and at first a puzzling cir- cumstance. Spawning takes place but once a year, that is beyond question. Do the young fry grow unequally, part of them attaining in six months the same size that others do in a year, or is there a lapse of six months in their lives without any con- siderable growth? I think the first supposition is not admissible, because we have never met with the intermediate sizes that must have been present. It seems possible, therefore, that their growth is almost wholly accomplished in the warm season and is nearly suspended in the winter. Second class. Seven to eight inches in length and weighing three to four ounces; bars and red spots still plainly visible, and nearly as distinct as in the first class. They yield a copious supply of milt, and a few of them are found commonly on the spawn- ing beds, attending or seeking to attend the female salmon in the act of spawning. They occur at the same time, though not commonly in company with the smaller fish of class one, both in fall and spring. Third class. A little larger than class two, measuring about ten inches, and weighing seven or eight ounces. Barsand spots still visible but very faint. All males, and yielding milt cop- iously. Observed occasionally in October and November. This form approaches closely the “smolt” of the river salmon. Fourth class. About thirteen inches in lengthand one pound in weight. Reproductive functions dormant, organs little devel- oped and sex unknown. They are uniform in appearance as well as size, but are not numerous and appear irregularly, rarely more than half a dozen of them ina single season. Barren in- dividuals of larger size, sometimes as large as seventeen inches in length, and thirty ounces in weight, met with rarely, and only THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 47 in autumn. Whether there is a corresponding class in May and June, I am unable to say, but judging from the weights of cap- tures shown by some scores submitted to me, ] think it quite likely. Fifth class. Adults. There is a great range in size, and doubt- less some are of advanced age and belong to an additional class, but as there seems to be an unbroken series from the smallest to the largest, I am unable to separate them, and were a separation possible and the fish classified according to age it is not unlike- ly that the different classes would be found overlapping each other in respect to size,—that is, the larger fish among those that are in their first year of adult-hood may be larger than the small- est of those that are a year older than the smallest adults on my record were. Now what conclusions are we to draw from these data? On the supposition that each of the first four classes represents a separate stage of growth, with intervals of one year in each«ase, the fifth or adult class must be, when caught in November, five years of age from the date of the deposit of the egg, or tour anda half years from the date of hatching. [have, however, some doubts as to the validity of the distinction between classes two and three, the former being equivalent to the male parr of the British salmon and the latter having not yet fully attained to the “smolt” stage, which should be distinguished by entire absence of any external bars or spots. The position and significance of class four (13 inches, barren) is also not entirely free from doubt. It is possible that such fish are of adult age, but barren from some unknown cause, and on the supposition that such is the case there will appear to be no intermediate form between the third class (that has almost reached the smolt stage) and the adults, and hence the interval of time separating these two becomes more than ever a matter of conjecture; but as we are tolerably certain that a year (from impregnation) is required to attain three inches in length, and another to attain eight inches, it is hardly reasonable therefore to suppose that the growth from eight inches to the adult stage would be accomplished in a single year. My conclusion is that the following is the most probable 48 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. outline of the life of the salmon of Grand lake; taking the time of impregnation as a starting point, the embryos hatch at six months of age, attain a length of three inches at one year; of eight inches at two years; of thirteen inches at three or four years; and of complete maturity (fifteen inches or more in length) at four or five years. Specimens twenty inches or more in length and weighing three pounds or upwards, I am inclined to regard as fish on their second visit to the spawning grounds, and on the assumption (of which there is, however, no direct proof) that they are like the anadromous salmon, biennial spawners—such fish are six or seven years old. Whether the same rate of growth prevails among the land- locked salmon in their other native haunts, there are no data to determine, but it is very probable that the entire period of growth is about the same, and accordingly that, in the case of the larger salmon of the Sebago the rate is greater. GROWTH IN NEW HOMES. When introduced to new haunts they have often grown to an unwonted size and sometimes at an accelerated rate. I will cite some instances: In Saipsic lake, Connecticut, in May, 1881, was captured a specimen twenty-two inches long and weighing 3 lbs., 14 oz. This was the growth from Schoodic fry, the first of which were planted in 1874. If this specimen was from the first planting it had grown toan unusual size for Schoodic fish. September 23rd, 1881, another specimen was taken in the same lake, weighing 6 lbs., 2.0z. One of 6 lbs., 8 oz. was reported to have been taken about the same time from one of the Twin lakes in Salisbury. In Shrewsbury pond, near Rutland, Vermont, specimens have been taken, I am told by Dr. C. H. Barber, weighing 6% lbs. One party caught twenty-three in one day, the smallest of which weighed 1% lbs., and the largest 6% lbs. This lake is one mile long, one-half mile wide and 160 feet deep. Woodhull lake, Herkimer County, N. Y., was stocked with fry of Schoodic salmon, in the summer of 1879. In the spring of 1881, soon after the disappearance of the ice, several specimens THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 49 were taken, one of which weighed nearly a pound. In the win- ter of 1882, a number of specimens were taken by fishing through the ice, and some of them were eighteen inches long, probably weighing two or three pounds. In the fall of 1882, a specimen weighing over four pounds was taken in the stream below the lake—this fish was thus four years old from impregnation, and had attained a size double that calculated for a Schoodic salmon of that age in Grand lake. In the Rangely lakes in Maine, about fifty domesticated Schoo- dic salmon about two years of age, were introduced from breed- ing ponds in Alna; fry of Sebago salmon were introduced as follows: 2,000 in 1874; 5,000 in 1875; 3,000 in 1877; 18,000 in 1877. In 1877 a single specimen weighing five pounds was cap- tured. As to further results I will quote Mr. Stanley’s letter to the Forest and Stream, October 26th, 1882: “I am happy to state that the salmon put in an appearance inthe Rangely stream this fall in considerable numbers and for the first time. Some of them were very large. I saw five of them in a pool which I estimated would run from four to ten pounds each. Over forty were taken last June in the Rangely lake alone, of from 2% to 4% lbs. each. They have also been taken in the lakes below. For the short time that has elapsed since they were introduced, and the small number of eggs, the success has been remarkable.” As it is im- possible to determine absolutely whether these captures came from the early planting of Schoodic fish, or the later planting of Sebago fish, nor yet their age, we can only remark that the size attained is very satisfactory, and from the numbers captured and seen, it is quite evident that the species is established as an in- habitant of the Rangely lakes. Another instance from the same State may be adduced in the case of the Weld pond, which I will give in Mr. Stanley’s lan- guage: “The most reliable information I have in regard to growth of land-locked salmon or the time it takes to reach a certain size is what I get from the Weld pond in Franklin County. This pond is about five miles long and two miles wide; is fed by numer- ous large brooks which take their rise back in the wilderness among the mountains, to which the trout and salmon (the former 50 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. are plenty) have free access to their head waters. Also the out- let of the pond, Webb’s river, about the size of the Presumpscot, is a rapid stream, five miles after it leaves the pond, with clean, gravelly bottom, and unobstructed by dams. This pond is fam- ous for its trout and pickerel—the angler catching about as many brook trout as pickerel. It is plentifully stocked with smelts and minnows. * * * * [give you the number and dates of the plantings below: 1875, 2,000 Sebago salmon. 1876, 3,000 ri v 1877, 10,000 % a The first 2,000 were put into the Bowley brook; the other two lots were turned into the river, with the exception of perhaps about 2,000 more, which were put into the above brook. A friend of mine who is reliable, told me he saw weighed one that was caught in this brook that tipped the scales at eleven pounds, Last fall they came into the brook and river also in considerable numbers, and of large size, some, undoubtedly, of ten or twelve pounds. Last summer the small salmon six to eight inches long were quite plenty in this brook, also some in the river. Parties fishing for brook trout, would in half a day’s fishing catch fifteen or twenty of these little salmon, which, however, they put back. None have been taken in any of the streams except the river and Bowley brook, and the pond. Quite a number have been taken fishing through the ice this spring, but none over three and a half pounds. Quite remarkable results have been observed in some of the waters of New Hampshire. I will quote Commissioner E. B. Hodge. Under date of April 25th, 1885, he writes as follows: “Tn regard to the Schoodic salmon in this State, | am happy to state that they are doing well, and good reports are being received from various parts of the State. In some waters their growth has been remarkable, particularly in Squam lake. The first plant was made in this lake by Col. S. Webber, in 1877. In June, 1880, a land-locked salmon was taken in the outlet of the lake that weighed 6% pounds, and one was killed by going through a mill-wheel that measured twenty-seven THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 51 inches; weight not taken, as it was decomposed when found. In November of 1883, six years after the lake was stocked, two sal- mon were speared on their spawning beds at the outlet, one of them weighed ten pounds, and the other fifteen pounds. “In Lake Sunapee their growth has been greater than in Squam. First stocked in 1880, by Commissioner A. H. Powers. The largest fish taken in 1883, weighed 7% pounds., and one re- ported to weigh 8%. Several of five and six pounds were taken during the season, and the large ones all got away. The figures I have given you are all from reliable persons and are authentic. Even in small ponds I have seen fish that weighed 2% pounds, when two years and two months of age. I could give you many other instances where large land-locked salmon have been reported to have been taken, but the above is enough to show that they are a success in this State, and to warrant the commissioners in following up the planting of them in such waters as are adapted to them.”’ Under date of April 28th, 1884, Mr. Hodge writes further: “Since my letter to you of last week, there has been taken at the outlet of Squam lake, a land-locked salmon twenty-eight inches in length, and weighing nine pounds. This fish was measured and weighed in presence of several reliable persons.” REQUIREMENTS OF LANDLOCKED SALMON. It is to be regretted that there are no adequate data at hand from which to discuss the question of the requirements of Schoo- dic salmon. We ought to know definitely the size and depth of all the lakes that they naturally inhabit; the quality of the water; its temperature at surface and bottom during the heated term; the quantity and variety of food afforded; what enemies they have successfully combatted, and to what ones they have suc- cumbed; the character and extent of their spawning grounds, etc. The data at hand will enable us to lay down only general rules, which will, nevertheless, it is hoped, be of some service in directing future effort. It does not appear that the matter of area is important. Land- locked salmon appear to thrive as well, other things being con- 52 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION, sidered, and attain as large size in lakes of a few hundred acres area as in those covering thousands of acres. For instance, the largest salmon of the Grand lake region are found in West Mus- quash lake, whose area is less than a thousand acres; and among new localities we may instance Shrewsbury lake, in Vermont, only one mile long and one-half mile wide, where such signal success has attended the introduction of these fish. The depth of water is apparently a more important matter. I think the rule will hold good that large fish of the salmon family generally inhabit deep lakes. Of the native haunts of the land- locked salmon, the deepest is Lake Sebago, where 410 feet of water have been found, and in this region we find the largest land-locked salmon in Maine; it must, however, be noted, as a possible exception to our rule, that the salmon of Long pond, a tributary of Lake Sebago of much smaller size, and, it is suppos- ed, much shallower water, are not much, if any, inferior to those of Sebago itself, and have actually furnished the largest individ- uals on record. West Musquash lake, which produces the larg- est salmon of that region, is known to be in some places over 130 feet deep, while Grand lake is not known to be over 115 feet. Shrewsbury lake in Vermont, is 160 feet deep. I am not, however, prepared to say that there can be no suc- cess in lakes of moderate depth. It is known that land-locked salmon were once abundant at Princeton, at the outlet of the lower lakes of the Schoodic chain. They must have inhabited Lewy’s, Long or Big lakes, all of which are in general, shallow, and in which there is good reason to believe, though by no means certain, that a depth of more than sixty feet cannot anywhere be found, As to temperature, I am only able to say that the phenomena observed indicate that on the approach of hot weather the sal- mon forsake the streams and surface waters, and retire to the depths, where it is always comparatively cool. It is likely that they will not permanently thrive in waters where they are com- pelled to endure through the summer a surface temperature, or say upwards of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Very likely this limit will have to be moved a few degrees up or down, when data are obtained. The latitude in which nature has placed these fish, THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 53 indicates roughly the climatological conditions required. It is not likely that they will thrive much further south than their natural range, unless in elevated, and therefore cool regions. As regards qualities of water other than temperature, I do not think land-locked salmon are specially fastidious. Muddy water is undoubtedly objectionable, but among their native haunts are many lakes whose water is strongly colored with peaty and earth- en solutions. Gravelly shores and bottom are not essential, except on the breeding grounds, which must be ample to insure a great degree of success. A good sized brook, abounding in gravelly rapids, will meet the requirements. Whether it should be an inlet or an outlet may be properly brought in question. It seems to me well proven, that these fish are endowed with instincts of locality that impel them to deposit their eggs in their native streams, to the extent of selecting one among several streams connected with the same lake. On no other supposition can we explain certain pnenomena at Grand lake. Junior stream, at the head of the lake, is a fine, gravelly stream, offering excellent locations for spawning beds, and more easily accessible from the lake than is Grand lake stream, and was formerly much resorted to by the salmon. Of late, however, it is almost entirely deserted, not- withstanding the salmon are abundant in the lake, and thousands of them yearly resort to Grand lake stream at the other extreme of the lake. Whether this instinct will interfere with the use of fry from Grand lake eggs for the stocking of waters whose only spawning grounds lie in their affluents is a question deserving consideration, but which we shall doubtless have to leave to the solution of experience. It is interesting to note that in many of the lakes where they have been introduced we hear of them first in the outlets. Such is the case at Woodhull lake in New York, and at Squam lake in New Hampshire. Some of the new inhab- itants have made themselves known by running down into mill- wheels. At Woodhull lake, “from appearances,” writes Gen. R. U. Sherman, “the whole stock went out of Woodhull dam through the open gates, and gathered in the stredm below to spawn.”’ The question of enemies must be regarded as one of the first 54 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. importance. I am inclined to attribute the disappearance of land-locked salmon in recent times from some of their old haunts in different parts of the Schoodic lakes, to the attacks of pickerel which were introduced from the Penobscot waters. I think it is capable of demonstration that in each instance where this has occurred the existing conditions were more favorable to the growth of pickerel than of land-locked salmon. A case in point is that of Junior stream mentioned above. The lower course of this stream is a broad, weedy, semi-stagnant piece of water, full of aquatic weeds, a most admirable place for the reproduction and growth of pickerel, which could here lie in wait for the young parr,and down whose capacious throats the entire brood may have slipped. The presence of pickerel is not, however, necessa- rily fatal. If the conditionsare sufficiently favorable the salmon will maintain themselves, as at Grand lake stream. In general any lake in which trout maintain themselves against pickerel may be considered suitable for land-locked salmon. It is quite possible that in some cases the salmon will succeed where trout have yielded to their foes, but there is nothing in experience to warrant the expectation. The growth attained in some of the instances cited above, lead to the hope that introduced to conditions more favorable than those of their native haunts, they will become permanently in- creased in size and in importance. It is not too much to hope that in suitable tributaries of some of the great lakes, especially those of Lakes Superior, Michigan and Huron, they may even become what they have never yet been in their original homes in Maine, the objects of pursuit of an industrial fishery. Prof. Goopre: Mr. President, I am sure we have all listened with great interest to the paper read by Mr. Atkins. It certain- ly is a magazine of new facts concerning the land-locked salmon. I should like to take advantage of the presence of Mr. Atkins to ask one or two questions. The land-locked salmon is, I sup- pose, univerSally admitted to be a descendent, through modifica- tion in habit, of the sea-running salmon. (To Mr. Atkins) Have you in your studies of this fish been enabled to judge how long THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 55 it has been since the land-locking took place; or, rather, when the oldest and most recent land-lockings occurred? I would also ask whether, in your opinion, the land-locking has produced an hereditary tendency in the fish to remain in the head waters of streams, so that if obstructions are removed, fish descended from land-locked fish will also be likely to remain in the head waters. I would also ask in the special interest of the fish-culturists of England, who at the present time are doing a great deal of work in the way of hybridizing various species and races of salmon- idz, etc., whether our land-locked salmon could not be trans- ported to England and crossed with the large brook trout or the char? It would be a great advantage, for they would thus se- cure a heavier and better fish than the trout which they now have; and, moreover, a fish which would be likely to remain in the head waters of the streams. Such is the theory of certain English experts, but it occurs to me that their theory is without very good foundation. If Mr. Atkins can throw any light on any of these questions, we shall all, I think, be greatly inter- ested. Mr. Arxins: I do not think we have any evidence that the land-locking of the species under consideration has occurred during recent geological periods. There is nothing at present to prevent any of these salmon from going out to sea from any of those waters where they are now found. There are obstruc- tions to their coming back, if they once went to the sea, and these same obstructions would hinder the sea salmon having ac- cess to the upper waters where the land-locked salmon now live. It is possible that at some very remote period there were obsta- cles which prevented their descending to the sea. I think it possible, also, that the change in their habits and instincts oc- curred gradually. The male salmon will live in fresh water until their reproductive organs are developed, which occurs at an early stage of their existence. I do not know that it has been proved (excepting in the case of some other species than Salmo salar) that salmon can be kept from making migrations to the sea until the eggs of the female become pretty well devel- oped; but I think it possible that such proof may be furnished. One salmon may have stayed over the proper time—perhaps 56 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. from compulsion—perhaps from some natural weakness of in- stinct—and she may have developed eggs without going to salt- water, and her descendants may have inherited the tendency to remain in fresh water. That is, of course, mere speculation, without any observation to base it upon, excepting the absence of obstructions at the present time. That the lack of instinct to migrate seawards is hereditary, is unquestionably true. The salmon have an opportunity to go to sea, and do sometimes run down as far as the mouths of weirs, but apparently not with the intention of going to sea. As to the hybridization suggested, I have never seen any evidence of its occurrence naturally among the salmon or any other species of fish. I have had no experi- ence in the matter of artificially breeding hybrids, but the gen- eral testimony from those who have attempted to raise them, is that they grow well and probably make good fish. The PREsIDENT: Isa great depth of water necessary to the welfare of the fish? I ask this because I have noticed that on Long Island in some small ponds they never came to anything. Mr. Arkins: I think that probably the depth of water is the most important point to be considered. They will not thrive if compelled to sustain a high temperature of water. They must in the heated season be allowed to go into deep water where they can keep cool. Prof. Goope: Mr. Atkins, have you ever seen any indications of hybridization under natural conditions between sea salmon and land-locked salmon? Mr. Arkins: I never had an opportunity to observe anything of that kind. I have taken only four or five anadromous salmon in company with land-locked salmon. In Grand lake stream we have on several occasions taken sea salmon that ascended to the lake, and came to the same ground as the land-locked salmon for the purpose of spawning. Two of the above four or five were mated—male and female, and the others we took and made use of without waiting to see what the action of the fish would have been if left alone. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Sy BEACK BASS, WN? MAINE BY GEORGE SHEPARD PAGE, It is often difficult to determine the exact date, or obtain re- Jiable information as to the original introduction of a new species of food fish into a river or lake, and particularly to ascertain the facts relative to the stocking of the water of a State for the first time. This is important, not only that the agents in the work shall be placed on record, but chiefly that we may know defin- itely the time required to disseminate fish over a large territory in such numbers that the people can rely upon them for food and sport. Experience with the black bass in Maine is one of the most pertinent and effective illustrations of the value of such labor. In August, 1869, accompanied by four friends, I left New York by Hudson river afternoon steamer for Newburgh. Arriving there about 7 P.M., my transportation box was conveyed to the small private pond of Mr. Walter Brown. At daylight the next morning we literally surrounded the pond and began casting the fly. In an hour, thirty-five small-mouthed bass were placed in the box, and at 7 a.m. the steamer Mary Powell started with us forthe metropolis, Arriving there at 11 A.M., the box con- taining forty gallons of water and thirty-five bass from one-quar- ter pound toa pound weight, was taken to the dock of the Fall River line, anda stream of croton water turned on until 5 P.M. Arrangements were made with the night watchman to work the air pump at intervals. Arriving in Boston an express wagon con- veyed the box to the Eastern Railroad, and during the journey at intervals of fifteen minutes I erated the water by the use of the air pump. At 3 P.M. the train reached Monmouth, in Maine, about fifty miles northeast of Portland. Very near the station is Coch- newagn pond. {1 selected twelve bass and quickly transferred them to the pond. The train moved on, and a few minutes later arrived at Winthrop. A wagon was hired and the box taken to East Winthrop, four miles distant, and twenty-one bass were liberated at the head water of the famous Cobosseecontee pond, the largest of a chain of lakes thirty miles in length. Placing 58 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. the remaining pair of bass in a three-gallon pail, I started by team for Phillips, Franklin County, forty miles away. On the route one of them died. The remarkable vitality of the bass 1s exhibited in a strong light in view of the mode of capture, long and difficult transportation and mid-summer temperature. The following October, Mr. Charles G. Atkins, then Commis- sioner of Fisheries of Maine, procuring my transportation box, took thirty-nine bass from Mr. Brown’s pond, which he placed in Duck pond, near Portland, Me. So far as I know these sev- enty-four were the first and only black bass deposited in Maine waters. Fourteen years have elapsed, mark the gratifying re- sults: The report of Hon. Henry O. Stanley, Commissioner of Fisheries for Maine for 1881, contains the following: “The black Bass, owing to its very game qualities, continues to be a favorite fish with anglers, and applications for introduction are received beyond the powers of the commissioners to gratify. It should never be introduced into any waters where there are trout, or from whence it can gain access to trout streams. For ponds, whose stock of trout has been exhausted by poachers, who mur- der the fish in their spawning beds, and where only yellow perch, bream and pickerel are left, it is invaluable. Trip pond, in Mi- not, Gardiner’s pond, in Wiscasset, Gun Point Ice Company pond, in Harpswell, Hosmer pond, in Rockport, Keazer’s Heald and Cushman ponds, in Lovell, and Little Pushaw, in Corinth, have all been stocked with bass this past year.” Messrs. E. M. Stillwell and Hon. H. O. Stanley, in the report for 1883, report as follows: “The black bass is still growing in popular favor. We have had more orders this year for stocking ponds than in our power to fill. The great success met with at Pushaw lake; the number and size of the fish taken, some turn- ing the scales at four and one-half pounds, tend to popularize fish protection and fish planting; the increase in the product of fish, the result of the suppression of netting, all tended to pro- duce a great and beneficial change in the public mind, giving firm and even enthusiastic support, where hitherto we have been met by active opposition. Newport and Glenborn can now boast of two of the most beautiful and productive lakes in the State, destined in the future to become popular places of summer re- THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 59 sort for devotees of boating and angling, and where pretty cot- tage residences may be built for family homes at but trifling cost, and where easy access to telegraph and railroad would render their occupants scarcely conscious of absence from city comforts. Cobosseecontee, Snow and Belgrade lakes are places of marked beauty and healthfulness, easy of access and where facilities for boating and angling are unsurpassed. Homes for hundreds whose lives are dependent upon country air and exercise can be made in cottage and tent, while the expense of the more fash" ionable places of resort bars them from all but those of large means. We often wonder that our city residents do not appre- ciate at how small a cost a pretty summer cottage can be built upon the shore of any of these beautiful lakes, abounding in fish, with health and exercise, and freedom from all the cares of city lite.” In a letter dated Dixfield, Me., April 27th, 1884, Mr. Stanley writes: “ Yours of the 24th received. With regard to black bass, I know we have them here in great abundance, the number of ponds we have stocked (all pickerel ponds) I think will reach to the hundreds. Wherever you put half a dozen, they are sure to take and will be heard from in two orthree years. I havetaken bass of two and one-half pounds in a pond that had only been stocked two years, and with young fry, so they could not be over two and one-half years old. There has been a great demand for them in our State, and in many ponds there is good bass fishing where there was none whatever before. I think they are a fish that cannot be thinned out by fishing with hook and line. I have met with the best success with the fly, from dusk till ten at night, fishing close in shore in very shoal water, have caught large fish when it was so dark I could not tell, casting from a boat, whether my fly struck on shore or in the water, and only knew J struck a fish by feeling the tug or hearing the splash. The Winthrop ponds, Cobosseecontee, one of the ponds you stocked, Lake Maranocook and in all that chain of lakes, is good. I have taken in one afternoon in Cobosseecontee, sixty pounds of from two to three and a half pounds each. There is also fine fishing in Belgrade ponds, Pushaw pond, Bangor, and in scores of others. I mention these as they are easy of access 60 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. by rail, and good accommodation can be had at hotels and farm houses, and at low rates. Also pleasant places to camp. The inhabitants are always glad to welcome sportsmen and visitors, and accommodate them with boats and information at low rates. I think the black bass are a great benefit to Maine.” IS LEGISLATION NECESSARY FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE OCEAN FISHERIES? BY EUGENE G. BLACKFORD. Commissioner of Fisheries, State of New York. One of the questions that frequently perplexes the mind of the fish-culturist and the legislator is, how to protect in the best manner the valuable food fisheries of the sea coast and ocean. On the one hand, there are the market fishermen, who use sail- ing vessels, and work either in the deep outside waters, or with net and hook, gather their prey along the shores and in the bays of our coast. This industry gives employment to over 85,000 men, and a capital of over $30,000,000. On the other hand we have the large fleet of steamers that pa- trol the ocean catching the menhaden, and from them manufac- ture oil and fertilizers. An occupation involving nearly $3,000,- ooo, and giving employment to over 2,000 men. ‘These facts give some idea of the magnitude of the interests involved, and of the importance of the question under discussion. Kor the last five years a large number of the former class of fishermen have claimed that the steamers seriously affected their business, stating that many kinds of fish that were formerly abundant, are now scarce, and that, unless laws are passed, pro- hibiting the menhaden steamers from fishing within three miles of the shore, or in some way restricting their operations, many kinds of the valuable fishes will be exterminated or driven from our shores. In pursuance of this idea, they have petitioned both State and National legislatures to that effect. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 61 The question has been largely discussed by the press, the State and National Fish Commissions, and in the United States Sen- ate. The latter has appointed a Committee on Fisheries, with Hon. E. G. Lapham as chairman. This committee has for the past two years taken the testimony of all classes of fishermen, and obtained the views and theories of fish-culturists and ichthy- ologists. And, in addition to this, we have the valuable inform- ation and statistics gathered with great care by Prof. S. F. Baird, the eminent Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries of the United States. It has been my privilege to assist in obtaining information on the subject for the Senate Committee, the United States Fish Commission, and the New York State Fishery Commission, and I have read with great interest all of the evidence that has been taken by them bearing on this subject. And now, in discussing the question as to the advisability of any legislation to protect the ocean or sea fisheries, it is best to look over the facts which have thus far been brought out and see what would be the best way to provide for the continuance of the abundant supply that we now enjoy. The first thing that we want to ascertain is whether what we know as salt-water fish, are scarcer now than in former times, and I would say here, that the absence of statistics covering any considerable space of time, makes an answer to this question somewhat difficult, but, thanks to the New York Fishmongers’ Association, and to the Boston Fish Bureau, a beginning has been made to supply this hiatus, and it is hoped that the Nation- al Government will very soon take definite measures for the pur pose of getting, annually, correct statistics of the amount of fish caught in the waters and on the coast of the United States. Hav- ing been a dealer in fresh fish in Fulton Market, New York, for the past seventeen years, I have had the opportunity of noticing during this period, the varying supply of various kinds of fish, and I beg leave to submit my views as to the scarcity or plenti- fulness of some of these various species. First and most important of all our fishes is the cod. I believe that there has been no considerable diminution in quantity in the last decade, judging from the quantity brought to market and 62 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION, the prices obtained; and assome indication of the range of price, I may say that during the year 1883, cod sold as low as one dol- lar per hundred weight. In some years there has been a percep- tible decrease in the catch, but it has been followed by such enormous catches that the markets have been glutted. The sta- tistics of the Boston Fish Bureau show the catch of the New England fleet to be: for 1881, 775,027 quintals; for 1882, 898,904 quintals; for 1883, 1,061,698 quintals, showing an absolute in- crease in two years of nearly 300,000 quintals. Surely these figures need not occasion any alarm or fear that codfish cakes will be beyond the reach of the most impecunious fish-culturist- Next, and hardly second in importance, is the bluefish. It is a matter of historical record that these fish disappeared entirely from our coast in the year 1764, and did not make their appear- ance again for several years, and then they were taken in vast numbers. Suppose such a disappearance should take place this summer. How quickly the fishermen would appeal to the legis- latures to abolish the menhaden steamers, and the angler would cry out for the destruction of the pound and trap nets. Each would probably claim that the scarcity was owing to these instru- mentalities. This one instance of the bluefish in 1764, should lead us to be careful and conservative in regard to legislation, and to carefully consider whether there are not some great natu- ral laws that determine the appearance and disappearance of fish on our coast, rather than attribute it to the comparatively puny efforts of man to affect the supply. But let us turn to the question as to their present apparent scarcity or plentifulness. During the year 1882, bluefish were scarcer than they had been for some years, and the wholesale price did not go below five cents. This scarcity was particularly noticeable on the New Jersey coast. But the season of 1883 was unusually productive, and bluefish sold as low as two and a half cents per pound, and, had it not been for the large quan- tities that were taken out of the market and stored in refrigera- tors for winter use, the price would have declined to one cent per pound. It would seem to be a fair inference that the bluefish needs no protection at present. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 63 The fresh mackerel is another important factor in the food supply of the people. It has attracted a great deal of the atten- tion of fish economists, and it is one of the fishes in regard to which, through the statistics of the Boston Fish Bureau, we can speak somewhat intelligently. In 1825, the New England catch was 260,000 bbls; in 1826, 160,000 bbls.; in 1827, 200,000 bbls.; in 1828, 240,000 bbls., and in 1831, the largest quantity on record was taken, amounting to 390,000 bbls. After this wonderful catch the number steadily declined until the year 1840, during which season only 55,000 bbls. were taken. In 1851, there was another wonderful catch of 330,000 bbls.; in 1859, only 100,000 bbls.; in 1863, 310,000 bbls ; in 1868, 180,000 bbls.; in 1870, 320,000 bbls.; 1877, 110,000 bbls.; in 1880, 245,000 bbls.; in 1881 and 1882, the number is the same—260,000 bbls.; in 1883, 160,000 bbls. These figures, cover- ing a period of fifty-eight years, would seem to indicate that their plentifulness or scarcity is not governed materially by the purse seines of the Gloucester fleet. In my own experience in the New York markets I have seen just such fluctuations in the quantities brought to that city, and whenever there occurs a bad season the fishermen and others interested, talk of the probability of the mackerel being all caught up, and of the necessity of some protection for the mack- erel fisheries. The opening of the present season has been a remarkable one. The first vessel arrived March 24th, and the mackerel were so small that the captain refused to take off his hatches to show the fish, and insisted on selling them “unsight unseen,” and he was fortunate enough to find a purchaser on those terms, at two and a half cents each. There were something like 100,000 fish in the load, and they were so small that it took five of them to weigha pound. The firm that bought them succeeded in selling a few hundred at four cents each, and then the price rapidly declined, until the larger portion of the cargo was sold at 50cents per roo. About that time the unfortunate buyer called my attention to the fact that it was a great shame that such small mackerel were caught, and that Congress ought to pass a law to prohibit such a wicked waste. 64 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. The first load of mackerel was followed by several loads with fish a very little larger in size, but about the 2oth of April a new school made its appearance, the average weight of the fish being about one pound each, and at least 1,500,000 of this size have, up to the present time, been marketed, and a large portion of them have been sold as low as two cents each. The porgy, or, as it is sometimes called, the scup, is another important fish that furnishes abundant and cheap food, and about which considerable controversy has been had during the past few years, between the net men on one side and the hook and line men on the other, the latter claiming that the pounds and traps of the former were exterminating these fish, and efforts were put forth to have laws enacted that should restrict or abol- ish pound and trap fishing. But nothing came of such endeav- ors. This was in 1871, and fishing has been carried on in the same manner ever since, and in the New York market last week porgies sold as low as 75 cents per barrel, or about one-half a cent per pound. I might continue on through the list of food fishes, and occupy your time, and possibly your attention, but I think I have said enough on this branch of the question. Now, Jet us consider the menhaden fisheries, against which is brought the charge that they are prosecuted to such an extent, by both sail and steam vessels, that they have materially decreas- ed the numbers of menhaden, and seriously impaired the catch of food fishes. You will find, by referring to the reports of the United States Menhaden Oil & Guano Association, that in 1875, with 283 sailing vessels, and 25 steamers, 492,878,000 fish were taken, that in 1881, with 286 sailing vessels, and 73 steamers, 454,192,000 fish were caught, and in 1882, with 83 steamers, and 212 sailing vessels, only 346,638,000 were caught, and last year, 1883, with 136 sail and 69 steamers, there was the enormous catch of 613,461,000 fish. These figures, taken in connection with the statements that have been made to me by captains of merchant vessels and fishing smacks, that during the fall of 1883, they sail- ed through miles of menhaden, would warrant the belief that this fish is very far from being exterminated, and that, with them as with the food fishes that are taken for market, there are seasons THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 65 of great abundance, and seasons of scarcity, and that up to the present time, these seasons have not been affected, either one way or the other, by human agency. Another significant fact is, that during the early part of the menhaden season of 1883, and up to nearly its close, the fishing was so poor and unprofitable, that the fishermen themselves be- gan to think they had ‘‘killed the goose that laid the golden egg,” when all at once the fish appeared in countless numbers; and in a few days they had taken enough to turn what had pro- mised to be a most disastrous season into one of large profit to all concerned. Now, having presented these facts to you ina crude and dis- jointed form, permit me to say in closing, that although what are known as the hook and line fishermen, almost without excep- tion, testify (and I believe truly) that they find their occupation and means of living seriously impaired, vet, from my experience and observation in the markets, I believe the facts to be that, with the exception of striped bass and lobsters, all kinds of sea food fishes are as abundant now as they were fifteen years ago, and, believing this, I am forced to the conviction that any legis- lation looking to the restriction of the fishing by the menhaden fishermen is unnecessary, and that any laws prohibiting pound and trap net fishing would cut off a large proportion of abundant and cheap food for the people, and nothing would be gained. But I do hope that Congress will take some action that will provide for the collection of statistics as to the quantities of fish taken, so that in future, when questions affecting these vast industries come before them, they will then be able to frame legislation that will protect the fisheries, and not oppress the fishermen. Mr. Enpicott: I would like to ask Mr. Blackford to state whether in his opinion the pollution of the waters b¥ gases and oils has a detrimental effect upon the fisheries. Mr. Buiackrorp: That is a question which, I believe, received some attention at the last meeting of the Association in the Cooper Institute, New York. On that occasion some action was taken, which looked towards a petition for legislation to 66 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. prevent the pollution of the water. 1 think it was admitted by all that it had been a source of great detriment to the fishing in our bays, and especially in New York harbor. I will quote from the Report of the Association for 1883, page 75: “ Mr. BENKARD: I would like to bring up the subject of the pollution of our waters, which brings many of our fish-cultural efforts to nought. I would respectfully offer the following: ‘Whereas, It is the sense of this Association that the contin- ual and increasing pollution of the waters of New York bay from the refuse of certain factories, threatens eventually to kill or drive away all fish, shellfish and bivalves natural to said waters: ‘“‘ Therefore, Be it resolved that this Association beg to call the immediate attention of the Fish Commissioners of the States of New York and New Jersey, also of the members of their legis- latures, to this impending calamity.” I seconded that resolution and made a few remarks to the effect that a great many fish, which had formerly been abun- dant in the bay, were no longer to be found there. Striped bass, and particularly lobsters, had been driven out entirely. These latter used to be taken abundantly on the Jersey flats. Shrimps, too, which were very numerous and formed food for larger fish, were almost exterminated, and what few remained were tainted with a flavor of kerosene. Oysters and clams have been killed by thousands in the vicinity of Rockaway. The water has been so polluted by the factories of Barren Island as to render a num-. ber of oyster beds, that used to be considered valuable, of no importance whatever. I think, though I am not certain, that the New Jersey legislature has taken some action, and I am of the decided opinion that if our Association moved in the matter, leg- islation could be brought about which would be able to control this matter at least in our own State of New York. THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 67 THE FLORIDA SPONGE FISHERY. BY JOSEPH WILLCOX. Mr. PresipENT: Professor Goode has asked me to say some- thing about the resources of the coast of Florida, and I see that Iam set down on the programme fora paper on the sponge fishery. Ido not feel able to give an exhaustive paper on the sponge fishery, and not having expected to have been called upon until to-morrow, I am not well prepared, but I will do the best I can: The geological formation of Florida, at least in the central and western portions, is lime-stone overlaid with sand. This limestone is tertiary; and judging from the fossils that have been collected by several, myself included, it is referred to the Oligo- cene age by Prof. Heilprin, of Philadelphia. The west coast at one time, not very remote, undoubtedly extended farther into the sea than it does at present. The rocky surface, under the water, not having been eroded to a great extent, now forms great shoals along the coast from Cedar Keys nearly to Tampa Bay. I know nothing of the coast north of Cedar Keys, but south of that place these shoals extend into the gulf many miles, interfering materially with the navigation of even small boats. North of Tampa bay, for the distance of about thirty or forty miles, there is a series of long, narrow, low islands, two or three miles from the mainland, very similar to those on the coast of New Jersey. They enclose a shallow bay, the northern portion of which is called Clearwater harbor. The same features may be seen south of Tampa bay, forming for a distance of about thirty miles, Sarasota bay. Still farther south, enclosed in the same manner, is the large expanse of water called Charlotte harbor. The same condition still exists farther south, but I have not seen them. The shoals on the west coast of Florida are admirably adapted for the existence of great varieties and quantities of forms of life suited for food of fish, which exist there in corresponding abundance. The enemies of these fish also occur there in vast quantities. Presuming that all the living productions of the sea, of com- 68 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. mercial importance, might be classed within the legitimate pro- vince of the American Fish Cultural Association, I will relate some matters connected with the marine resources of the west coast of Florida, at the request of Mr. Goode. A large portion of the gulf coast of Florida consists of shoal water, the bottom being limestome rock, which is usually cov- ered with mud, a few inches deep. Upon the bottom many spe- cies of sea weed grow in great abundance, affording both food and shelter to a vast amount of animal life, such as molluscs; worms, crabs, and other crustaceans and fish. The annual consumption of the latter especially, from natural causes alone, is very great, as vast numbers of aquatic birds may be seen there, attracted by the abundance of animal food existing in the shoal water. The most numerous of these birds are cormorants, which live chiefly upon fish; though I have sometimes found shell fish in their stomachs. Being gregarious, they habitually roost at night in large’colonies; selecting one or two islands for that purpose, from among a large cluster, without any apparent reason for such preference; and they do not abandon them unless greatly disturbed by man. I think two or three thousand cormorants would be a moderate estimate for the number resorting to one of those islands; and I considera half pound of fish for each, per day, within the limits of their consumption, as they are very voracious. I have frequently examined their stomachs, which were always found to be well supplied with fish. Near the mouth of Crystal river I have lately seen four of those island rookeries, and I believe the cormorants in that vicinity consume more than five, thousand pounds of fish daily. In addition to the cormorants great numbers of herons of several species resort to the same islands, presumably consider- ing that there is increased safety in great numbers. These birds are also great consumers of fish. While cruising lately along the coast between Cedar Keys and Punta Rassa, I hurriedly collected some specimens of sponges for the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Phila- delphia. Many of them were collected while living, in shoal THIRTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 69 water in the bays. At low tide they could be seen spouting out water vigorously. When approached they became alarmed, and ceased spouting water; and when they were touched, they closed the orifices through which the water escaped, manifesting a sur- prising amount of activity of life. Though I collected more than fifty species of sponges, none of them possessed any commercial value. When I witnessed the great extent of the bays on the west coast of Florida, and saw on the bottom so many specimens of sponges, and so many species, I was forcibly impressed with the idea that these waters were capable of future possibilities of great commercial importance. If sponges of no market value can thrive there in abundance, there are reasonable grounds to expect that some of the desirable species may also grow there by cultivation. I was informed that the sponge crop in Florida is rapidly diminishing, and that their value is now much greater than in former times. If they can be cultivated artificially, a great industry might be established on that coast in the sponge trade, which does not appear to be capable of much extension in any other manner. It way be asserted that if valuable sponges could exist in the bays of Florida, they would be found there now. We should not be unmindful that, as a general rule, ani- mals have a wonderful faculty for accommodating themselves to changed conditions in their life; not only when produced by the agency of man, but often by natural causes; or by voluntary al- tered conditions. I will give a few illustrations. We often find that oysters thrive well when transplanted upon new grounds, even where they do not subsequently multiply well, the condi- tions for spawning not being suitable. I once saw a dog, in Nova Scotia, that refused to eat fresh meat which I offered to him. His master told me that he (the dog) never saw meat while he was young, and would not eat it. He ate fish only; chiefly dried codfish. The sheephead fish, on the west coast of Florida, inhabit the fresh water streams in great abundance. There is practically little animal food there suitable to their tastes, such as molluscs and crustaceans, for eating which their mouths are specially adapted. So they accommodate themselves to their circum- stances, and eat grass. Except in the rapid channels, the bottoms 7° FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION, of the rivers are covered with aquatic grass, every leaf and stem of which supports a growth of mosslike conferve. The sheep- head live upon this conferve almost exclusively. I sent the contents of the stomach of one of these fish to Prof. Leidy, who said that in addition to the conferve, he found multitudes of diatoms. In the case of the sheephead, the changed condition in their food is voluntary as, in the gulf of Mexico, into which they could go at any hour, abundance of molluscs and crustaceans may be seen in every handful of sea-weed taken from the bot- tom. It is a surprising fact that many species of fish live in the fresh water in Florida, which inhabit salt water exclusively in the North. The sheephead, which are considered deep-water fish in the North, habitually feed with their dorsal fins out of the wat- er, while in the fresh water rivers in Florida. Mr. Witicox added: I lately witnessed the manner in which the saw-fish use their saws, while in Clearwater harbor. Sever- al young saw-fish, not more than two and a half feet long, were observed in the water where it was only a few inches deep. When they saw me they ceased swimming, and remained on the bottom, where, by a gentle motion of their fins, they were nearly obscured by the sand which settled upon them. Imagining them- selves secure, while thus covered, they permitted me to approach near enough to spear one. The wounded fish immediately ele- vated its head out of the water, thrusting the saw back, and moved it about, seeking foran enemy. Having felt the handle of wood, the saw-fish at once pulled its saw against it, using much force, and repeating the operation rapidly, always pulling, never pushing. It thus cut gashes in the handle. Two other saw-fishes performed the same operation when speared. None of them permitted an approach until it had partly concealed it- self in L 4 " y a a 5 ee, a, 7 * ahah Taal caurosD jogotel Le A i Pee ist ee a | KIO? WS ATR Weis SM eros ‘ sae ¢ : ha idd I iw i \. ‘ Rt Mae) Eee ee AW f Wore 3 i . Hoy Wor if aytoay sat j ee ae ee “ ha! } a ow Reread 4 ; 1 Ae eG F wht nneyes ‘'T eslud ) ‘ y agi Has i yates BY Tithe i } “ ey wy 4 i Att WO Ctey Fin it PwrOLeSi yeti. j ' 4 ' é ) ib " ve i w, ‘ 4 AN we. kK fi 4.3 3 e \ j * t sees? Ue TTS Siig) ; R An ; <> ‘ is ® ‘ A ? y 4 ‘ He es 5 : ae ws Ppa : ey wry Prise lfy) tue oe 3 Mo tem VE MeL ‘ ( 4 i ue +) bat eury } fue { ‘it ( { ad Bee T LO y un * < of, OF - / 4 we 4 a Neer" Wyo Ts iy i ) i : 4 P V7 f iH ‘ fi ' i by oY cal S00 & : : x, ° i ) * j { + 1 ’ ,! t { , i . 4 < ’ b SH American Fisheries E 1 Society ES pc ee Transactions ? 18&4 Biological] & Medica] Serials PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY