me f Mericar TRANSACTIONS iological Medical rials ( OF THE- AMERICAN Fish Gulturists Association. SPECIAL MEETING Heep at THe Cextessiar Exaisities, Putaperrita. th Toren t SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING. February 14th and 15th, 1877. New Fork: JOHN Mo DAVIS, PRINTER, 40 FUL PON STREET. 1877.- bis ay sot (any ry Ni sal Wiel Way Ty wie wy CSiers —_ OFFICERS, 484/-8: Rost RA BB. ROOSEVELT, - . : PRESIDEN Nitto Surk City. GEO. SHEPHERD PAGE, - : Vick-PRESIDENT. New Jurk City. BMGs XE GOBLACKFORD. - - : TREASURER. Ven dork Cit. BARNET PIIELIPS, : - - 2) SECRETARY Brooklyn, NOY. » Ears LIVE COMB Free: My §. Pe, - - . - Keaston, Pa. Pee. AA EER. - - Honcove Falls, NY. Vata. KENT: . - - - Baltimore Mi. Wat welt TER, -- - - Oferta Canada. SLT GREEN, - . - Rochester, NY. 5 al SPECIAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY. The meeting was called to order by the President at 11:30 o'clock, A. M., in the Judges’ Hall, Centennial Buildings, Phila- delphia, Pa., and an Address was delivered on “The Advance of American Fish Culture.” Following the Address of the President, Mr. Barrett Phillips read a paper on “ The Exhibition of Fish Preparations at the Centennial, and kindred topics.” Mr. Milner gave an account of what had been done in the way of collecting specimens of fish for the Smithsonian Institute, which were on exhibition in the Government Building. Col. Lyman of Massachusetts spoke of what that state was doing in the way of fish culture, following which a discus- sion followed on Fish-Ways, engaged in by Mr. Reeder and Worrall of Pennsylvania, Lyman of Massachusetts, and others. Following the discussion, Mr. Banks moved that a recess of one hour be taken by the Society, which was adopted. On re-assembling in the afternoon, the Secretary read letters from Geo. Shepard Page, Mr. Coup of the New York Aquarium, and others. Mr. Brower offered a paper on Fish-Ways which was read. Mr. Ward of New York City offered this Society, through W. C. Coup, the free use of rooms at the New York Aquarium for the purpose of holding meetings of the Society, which, on motion, was accepted. 4 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. Mr. Mather spoke of what was being done at the Aquarium in New York, following which a discussion on Black Bass was engaged in by all present. Mr. Stone spoke of sending eggs of the Salmon successfully to New Zealand and Sandwich Islands. The President invited all the members present to a dinner of the Association, at Lafayette Restaurant, when the Society adjourned to meet again at 11 o'clock to-morrow, SECOND DAY'S MEELING: The meeting was called to order by the President. The Society listened to remarks from John O. Warder of North Bend, Ohio. Mr. Milner spoke on Nomenclature. Mr. Mather spoke of the Grayling, followed by remarks from C. J. Worrall on Fish-Ways, which was engaged in by the mem- bers present. Dr. Robinson of Virginia, spoke of what his state was doing in the way of propagating fish. Mr. Banks proposed the following named gentlemen as members of the Association: Dr. C. A. Kingsbury, rr1g Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Dr He CG: Yarrow, Washington). (C: Greene Smith, Peterboro, N.Y. Charles Hutchinson, Utica, N.Y. Which, on vote of this Society, were duly elected members. This Association, on motion of Seth Green, adjourned seve dre. MC. EDMUNDS. Saveane WEDNESDAY SAE TING: The Sixth Annual Meeting of the Association convened at the N. Y. Aquarium, New York City, February 14th, 1577. The Spectal Mecting of the Sacicty. 5 meeting was called toorder by the President, Robt. Bo Roosevelt, at 2.0'clock, pM. After the reading of the President's Address, Mr. Milner of Washington, D. C., read a paper on * Protective Legislation.” A discussion followed, in which Mr. Betteman, Superintendent of Fisheries in the Netherkonds, spoke of the great advantage gained in protective legislation with proper police force in Holland, Mr. Tileston moved the election of WoC. Coupasan honorary member of this Society, which was unanimously cGerried. Mr. Wilmot of Canada had on exhibition a stuffed specimen of the Salmon Wilmott, or Ontario Salmon, which was bred from artificial propagation. — He also exphiined his process of breed- ing, and the advance made by him since beginning tn the work. The President: appointed is Committee on Nomination of Officers for the year, Messrs. Green, Tileston, and Evarts. Messrs. Milner and Wilmot discussed the question of the Salme Fentinalis and Sea Vrouw. or Sadae Canadents, claiming the two fish to be identical. Concurred in by Seth Green and Mr. Blackford. Prof. Baird spoke of the inception of the scheme to introduce California Salmon, and what had been done the past season through Mr Milner and Mr. Stone. Ele spoke of results attained in the cultivation of the European Carpand Pench. Mr. Milner spoke of the Shad hatching in specthe numbers the prast ScCuLSOn. The committee on nominations reported : For President—Rorreke Bo Roostseit. New York City. For Viece-President—Grokar So Pane. dle. For Treasurer—hverxnt Go Bivekrokn, deo For Seerctary—Biagsarit Protirs, Brooklyn, NOY. Executive Committee Th Jo Rirork, Easton, Pact Frew. 6 Fish Culturists' Assectation. Matuer, New York City; ALEX. Kent, Baltimore, Md.; W. F. WircuHer, Ottawa P. O.; Sern Greex, Rochester, N. Y.; which, on motion of Mr. Stone, were duly elected officers of the Association for the year ensuing. Mr. Livingston Stone spoke of the California Salmon—their growth and propagation, and their shipment to New Zealand, etc. A discussion followed on the propagation of Salmon in salt water, by Messrs. Baird and Wilmot. On motion of Mr. Blackford the Society adjourned, to meet again at 11 o'clock to-morrow. THURSDAY'S MEETING (February 15th, 1877.) The Society met pursuant to adjournment. A paper was read by Mr. Mather on Fish Culture in the New York Aquaria. Mr. Wilmot spoke of a new theory in the practice of impreg- nating fish eggs, claiming that impregnation was instantaneous. A discussion followed by Messrs. Green, Milner, Mather, Stone, and Wilmot, in which no concurrent opinion was entertained by the disputants. Mr. Phillips read a paper on Edible Fish of foreign countries, in which he compared our fish with those of other nations, extending the variety of edible fish in this country beyond the conception of our most noted connoisseurs in fish diet. Mr. Waldheim spoke of fish culture in his country. He thought the mode of preparing fish for market in America was better than the European way; that our way of freezing was much better than their way of salting and pickling. Mr. Hall spoke of the Adirondack region, and what the Legis- lature should do to protect fish in that locality. Mr. Phillips moved that Sekizawa Alkelkio of Japan be made an honorary member of this Association. Cavvved. Special SMeching of the Sects 7 ~ Mr. Wilmot read a letter trom Mr Witeher, extending bis good wishes to the Society, The report of the Treasurer was read and adopted The Secretary read letters trom AL PL Rockwood of Salt Lake, Utah, and trom Mr. Redding of Californi:. Mr. Milner moved that the Associttion organize sections tot CSSAVS and discussions on fish Lopies betore the Association, and that a committee of three be appointed by the President to report such organization to the Society. -lidepled The President appointed as the Committee, Messrs. Milner, Blackford, and Phillips. The Committee reported that four sections be adopted, viz: 1 A Section of Methods in Fish Culture and Apysratus. 2. A Section on Fishery Laws and Fish-Ways. 3. A Section on Natural EHlistory and Aquaria. 4. A Section on Fisheries. That the President appotnt three members to each section, with power to add to their namber, and when all members present lhive united with a section, that section shall then elect its chairman. That certain hours of each session of the Society, in the future, be voted to certain sections for the reading of essays and discussions in their special branches, snd after cach section has occupied their time, the meeting be given up te veneral discussion, Report of the Committee adopted. The President appointed as Committee on the sections mamed: Srerion « Mr S. Green, Mr. B. B. Porter, - Wethods in Fish Culture, ete. Mr. S. Wilmot. | Srcnens, Sir. ©. 5. Evycrts. Mr. lL. Stone, - Fishery Lawes and Fish - Wars Mr. TO B Ferguson \ $ Fish Culturists’ Assectation. SECHON Ss) Alc. gw: Milner, Mir te Mather, - Virtural frsterv, ete. Mr-C. He Hallock: \ SeCriox4. Sir EVG Blackford, Mr. B. Phillips, espe’ Mr. M. C. Edmunds. Mr. Hallock offered the following resolution: Whereas, Virough the influence of the American Fish Culturists’ Association, attention was first) directed to the necessity of establishing an American Aquarium for the collec- tion and study of American fish; and Whereas, Through the earnest effort of individual members, and the active and substantial co-operation of Messrs. Coup, Reiche, Blackford, Mather, and others, the present: creditable Aquarium, as we now find it, was established; and Whereas, By fortuitous circumstances, the present session of this Association has been held at the Aquarium buildings as above, be it therefore Resolved, That there is no place so suitable for the annual meetings of this Association as the Aquarium, offering, as it does, unusual opportunity for study and comparison of speci- mens and species, and therefore, that hereafter the sessions of this body be held at the Aquarium, as not only advantageous to itself, but as a proper recognition of the enterprise and efforts of the gentlemen who have established and now superintend it. Resolved, That the Aquarium be recommended to the public as well worthy of its patronage. The resolution was adopted unanimously. Messrs. Mather and Porter spoke of carrying live fish in snow. Moved, That the thanks of this Society be tendered to W. F. Witcher for his interest in its behalf. Carrred. Dr. Edmunds offered the following resolution: Spectal Mecting of the Secretly. 9 Resolved, That the President appoint two members of this Association to prepare for our next meeting suitable memorials on the death of Bo FL Bowles and W. FB. Parker. The President appointed as said committee Mr. Edmunds and Mr. Stone. Moved, Vhat the Society purchase, through its Treasurer and Executive Committee, a book-case, to be placed in the Aquarium rooms, in which to keep reports and donations to the Society. Adopted. On motion of Mr. Phillips the Society adjourned to meet in annual session on the second Wednesday in February, 1878. Ma.C. EDMIDN DS, Secretary. CENTENNIAL MEETING. CENTENNIAL GROUNDS, PHILADELPHIA, Friday, October 6th, 1876. A special session of the American Fish Culturists’ Associa- tion was held in Judges’ Hall, Centennial Exhibition Grounds. Among those present participating in the meeting were the following persons: Prof. Spencer F. Batrp, U. S. Fish Commissioner; Rosert B. Rooseve.t, President of American Fish Culturists’ Associa- tion; M. E. Epmunps, Weston, Vt.; T. B. Fercuson, Baltimore | Md.; A. A. ANDERSON, Bloomsbury, N. J.; | SerH GREEN, Rochester, N. ¥.; Frep. Matuer, Honeoye Falls, N. ¥.; HL EL Tuomas, Randolph, N. Y.; T. C. Baxks, New York; J. Bremer, Pennsylvania; A. Bert Mactcoimsen, Jr., New York; Livincston Strong, California; E. G. Brackrorp, New York; Wittiam Gorpsmitu, Vermont; SeEKIzAWA ALKELKIO, Imperial Japanese Commissioner. Hon. R. B. Roosevelt, President of the Association, delivered the opening address. GENTLEMEN: Some fifteen or more years ago [ wrote a book upon the Sporting Fishes of North America, and in it devoted some attention to the matter of fish culture. At that time but little was known upon the subject, the investigations of Gehin and Reiny had but lately been given to the world. Ainsworth was not known to the public, and Seth Green, although working away on his own account, had yet made no sign. The only American work on the subject was the pamphlet of Dr. Garlick. Centennial Mecting. in However, as 1s the case with most of the great inventions, human attention was directed to the same subject much in the same direction at the same time in widely-separated sections of the world. Reiny, Green, and Ainsworth were practically at the same point, and had not Reiny sueceeded when he did, the others would not have been much tater. In my own writings, which were intended to bring the importance of the subject to general consideration, and which contained all that was known at the time, now that | look at them from our present advanced stand- point, I find many errors that deeper investigation has disclosed. Among these short-comings, however, there is one sentence which this meeting makes so conspicuously prophetic, that I quote it as contirmation of the reasonableness of our convictions in the past, and the encouragement that our present higher anticipations may yet be fully realized: “Our first farmers chopped down the forest and shade trees, took crop after crop of the same kind from the land, exhausted the soil and made bare the country ; they hunted and fished, destroying first the wild animals, then the birds, and finally the fish. till in many places these ceased utterly from off the face of the earth, and then, when they had finished their work, that race of gentlemen moved West to renew the same course of destruction. After them came the restorers; they manured the lund, left. it fallow, put in practice the rotation of crops, planted shade and fruit trees, discovered that birds were useful in destroying insects and worms, and passed laws to protect them where they were not utterly extinct, as with the pinnated grouse of Pennsylvania and Long Island, and will, I prediet, cre long, restock the streams, rivers, and ponds with the best fish that once inhabited them.” When fish culture was first attempted in this country, our fisheries of all kinds had deteriorated, till in many places they were on the point of extinction, and in’ facet, had been . 12 Fish Culturtsts’ Assoctatton. destroyed in some instances, as with the salmon fisheries in Lake Ontario, and the northern portion of the State of New York. The Middle and Eastern States had been the first to suffer; in New England the salmon had diminished greatly in the once prolific streams of Maine, and had disappeared from the Connecticut River; shad, alewives, and herring, were growing scarcer yearly, while the cod fisheries had been driven from our coasts to the banks of New Foundland. In the Hudson River the shad fisheries were being abandoned at many stations. In the Delaware the yicld has been enormously reduced, and destruction was impending over the James and other more southerly rivers. Smaller streams in some localities had been left utterly bare of fish, and everywhere the most delicate and attractive species ; the brook-trout had diminished to little more than a memory of the past. The time had arrived when, if our fish supply was to be saved at all, it had to be looked after. The first attempts at fish culture in this country were mét with ridicule and opposition, but nothing could deter the enthusiasts who had taken it in charge. The shrewdest of these perceived it not merely an immense benefit to the country at large, but a source of private profit. Trout breeding was commenced as a commercial enterprise, and discoveries were soon made which placed America at the very head of fish culture. Seth Green, at his private establishment at Caledonia, discovered the principle of dry impregnation, but as he kept the process a secret, it was not generally known till it was re-discovered abroad and came back to us from Russia. He next invented his shad hatching-box, which has been so universally employed since. Ainsworth substituted screens for troughs in trout hatching, and Holton improved on the idea in his box with the water rising from below instead of falling from above—an invention specially adapted to the breeding of white-fish. ATI Centennial Meeting. 13 sorts of fish were tried, from the bony fish of our coast to the pork livers of the West, and innumerable matters of detail were changed for the better, while many doubtful questions were settled. In Europe, all that had been effected up to that time—and there has not been much advance since—was the cultivation of trout and salmon, and the building of salmon-passes. The latter has been of vast importance to them; and with no other aid than proper legislation has restored many rivers which had been ruined by artificial obstructions, and greatly iniproved the yield of others where there had always been natural obstructions. The vield of any river, other things being equal, is dependent upon the extent of the spawning-ground, and the more that can be enlarged the greater will be the supply. It often happens that a single fall bars the salmon from the upper waters, and when this is overcome, hundreds of miles may be added to the range of the fish. Our rivers are probably more generally obstructed by artificial dams than those of Europe, so much that in some States—I may instance that of New York—little attention has been devoted to the erection of fish-passes. In the New England States, however, much energy, skill, and ingenuity has been displayed in giving salmon, shad, and herring an easy and convenient method of overcoming obstructions which man or nature had placed in their way. Good has already resulted, but greater benefit is to be expected when time shall have accustomed the fish to their new habitat. One incidental benefit has been derived from this work: the inhabitants along the banks of the inland streams are beginning to understand their rights, and appreciate the damage and wrong which were done them when an impassible barrier was placed between them and a supply of food which had hitherto, unsought, presented itself at their very doors. I find it exceedingly dificult to obtain reliable statistics 14 Fish Culturists' Association. of the extent of the domestic yield of fish. The cod and mackerel of the northern fisheries, which are imported, are recorded in the returns of the Custom-houses, but the produce of our shore and stream fisheries, and even of our great lakes, remains a matter of guesswork instead of calculation. Nevertheless, any one familar with the subject, who knows something of the diminution in the past, and has seen the improvement here and there effected by fish-ways in the present, can positively assert that the destruction of fish by mill-dams amounts yearly to many millions of dollars. We pay Canada alone a million annually for the privilege of eating salmon which once abounded in our waters, and thousands of miles of shore fisheries have been cut off in our land by dams. That these obstructions can be over- come is being made clearer year by year; there have been mistakes in construction, errors of Opinion as to the habits and capacities of different species of the migratory fishes, but fish- ladders are now constructed which meet all requisites, and which not only salmon, but shad, herring, and alewives, have ascended, although shad are exceedingly timid, and not to be tempted where their distrust is aroused. As conspicuous instances of the effect of opening additional spawning-ground, may be men- tioned the Damariscotta River, in Maine, to the upper waters of which alewives were admitted in 1806, and which has vielded millions yearly since. And in Ireland, the river Corrib, in which a fish-pass was erected in 1853, the yield of salmon being thereby increased from sixteen hundred to over twenty thousand. Many other instances could be presented, but these are enough to prove that similar results may be anticipated from our later efforts. In America, advance has been made not alone in the mechan- ical appliances of Fish Culture, but in the varieties of species to which it has been adapted. Abroad, as I have said, attention was paid mainly to the salmon, which was the most valuable species, Centennial Meeting. 15 and to the trout. Since then, attempts have been made to hit hi carp, but no fish having the eggs enveloped in a gelatinous substance has been managed as successfully as those whose egys are free. With us we hatch trout, salmon, land-locked salmon, salmon-trout, grayling, whitefish, while with shad enormous results have been obtained. [tis nothing unusual for individual states to hatch millions of cach of these varieties, while of shad as many as fifty millions have been produced at a single station. In practical results [ believe that our efforts will compare favorably with those of any country, many lakes and streams which had been depleted by overtishing and disregard of reasonable protection, have been restored to productiveness, better varieties of fish have been substituted in localities occupied by worthless or coarser ones, the prices of fish-food had been conspicuously reduced, while in many instances fisheries which were being abandoned have been made once more remunerative to their owners. Although all the hopes of the enthusiasts in fish culture have not been realized, this is a fair showing for the past. The most serious ditheulty encountered has been the need of proper legislation. The cel-weirs still stand in most of our streams, destroying, along with the cels they legitimately cap- ture, amass of young try of valuable species which often have been laboriously bred to stock these streams; dams are still being erected, unseasonable fishing is still allowed, and scarcely an effort has been made to limit the ruinous effects of pound- nets—those most destructive of fishing appliances. We need legislation, and can only obtain it by instructing the people and explaining its necessity and the advantages it will confer upon the entire country, In addition to the varieties mentioned, successful attempts have been made with other kinds. The alewife, striped-bass, and sturgeon have been manipulated and will soon be included ’ 16 Fish Culturists’ Association. in our permanent list; and the oyster fisheries, while receiving careful supervision from the Commissioners in several states, have become in private hands vastly profitable. Many most interesting experiments have been made; sea fishes have been confined in fresh waters, fresh-water fishes allowed to visit the ocean, shad have been carried to Michigan and to the head waters of the Mississippi River, and even to the Pacific coast where they had heretofore no existence. Black bass have been brought East and neutralized in the lakes and ponds of New England and the Middle States; while salmon, trout, and white- fish have been distributed throughout the great West. California salmon have been placed in the Delaware and the Hudson, and white-fish sent to California. Already nineteen states of the Union, one Territory, and the United States, have appointed Fishery Commissioners, who have displayed great enthusiasm and commendable energy ; and attention is being paid to fish culture in all the more advanced portions of our country which nature has peculiarly adapted to it. In America are to be found the largest lakes, constituting almost inland seas, the longest rivers, the greatest net-work of streams, and the most remarkable variety of water in the world; while to fill these with food we have species of fish the most productive and the best suited to artificial manipulation. The shad produces its eight or ten thousand eggs to each pound of weight; the black bass guards its young from danger till they can protect themselves, and the California salmon will endure a warmth of temperature which would destroy the salmon of Canada and Europe. Of water we have all sorts—clear, confined, turbulent, stagnant, extended, and limited; the purling brook, the stately river, the vast lake, varying in temperature at all degrees, from the hot springs of the West, to the mountain trout-stream and the icy spring—even underground ponds and streams inhabited by eveless fish. There Centennial Meeting. 17 is to be found also every kind of bottom and spawning-ground and abundant food. It has been shown by the able and scientific labors of the United States Commissioner, Mr. Baird, that there need be no fear of scarcity of fish food either in the ocean or in our great lakes, and that beth waters contain much of the same sort. We have only to take advantage of these opportunities. “This is the national centennial; fish culture has existed only a few years; what will be its condition at its centennial the mest enthusiastic can hardly conceive. Wei have passed through doubt and uncertainty > errors were inevitable. .\ new science was being born into the world, and mistakes were unques- tionably accompanying it, but the clear light is visible at fast. We now know where we are, and although an endless vista lies before us, we are enabled to tread it with firm and intelligent steps. The vast boon te the people promised by this discovery oft abundant tish and cheap tood is now assured. There need be no fear for the future, and ino much less than a hundred vears the waters of America will teem with food for the poor and hungry, which all may come and take. | Applause. | Mr. Baksers Puttirs of Brooklyn, NOY addressed the meeting in detail upon the objects of interest observed by him in Grroup Vo, embracing exhibits ot fish, methods of fish culture, appliances for fish catching, ete. I feel somewhat thutered by the call vou have made on me to deseribe some of the objects Eomay have seen in Group Vo must dechkire my abilitw te dose except in the most cursory way, If our twe days session were to extend over two months, perhaps by constant talking TPoright: accomplish this obypect. All Lean hope te dois te ran over ina desultery and perhaps unsatisiietery: oeinner the character ot the aren, with its Various ramiibeations tute: branches or classes 18 Fish Culturitsts’ Assoctation. Now, when committees, juries, or experts are brought together for matters. practical, scientific, ecclesiastical, or com- mercial, the best general work or result is brought about if each man is allowed to follow his own bent. In fact, men, by their own natural impulses, slide into peculiar grooves. So, in a body of men acting together, one person has the brains and does the tammking, another has the legs and does the wadking ; and I assure you that individuals so blessed have ample scope for pedestrianism in this exhibition, while another who has the mouth does the talking. I would like to draw here your attention to this fact. In this enormous icthye show, IT am inclined to think that the mouth was comparatively useless—at least in what is sometimes regarded as its noblest function. The mouths having to do with Group V., [ suppose, have talked but sparingly, and for the best of reasons. It was because the mouths of the judges of Group V. were fv//—not of poetic sentiment nor of dry scientific names, but full of fish. You may depend upon it that there was a great deal of steady tasting. If it is permitted to man, in his ordinary experience, to taste a good deal, at this exhibition the most extraordinary opportu- nities were allowed him. [f we run through the ordinary alphabet of tastes, calling for instance A the savor of salted cod, or B the flavor of smoked herring, it must have required quite the perfection of gustatory grammar to understand squid in its original ink-sauce, coming from Spain, or to construe or digest dried skark-fins from China. Certain combinations may no doubt have been pleasant to the judges, though [ am inclined to think that occasionally their impressions might have’ been painful. Of course [do not mean to say that the judges of Group V. were martyrs in the cause. but as icthvophagists, eating ploddingly and conscientiously through the fish of twenty-seven countries, in a continuous kind of repast, extending over a Centennial Mecting. a) couple of months, their task, | taney, was by no means a light one, I have here a list of the fish products derived from the various seas, rivers, and lakes of the world, which have been tasted, It is, in fact, an edible fish-chart : Counrkiks.—Austria, Argentine Republic, Baltama, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, China, Chili, Cape of Good Hlope, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Netherlands, N. 5. Wales, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey, Tasmania, United States, British Columbia. Fish.—Anchovies, Bream, Barbel, Cavear, Carp, Cray-tish, Clams, Cod, Cockle, Cusk, Eels, Conger-vels, Flounders, Hake, Haddock, Halibut, Herring, Lamprey, Lanquet, Ling, Lobster, Mackerel, Mullet, Mussel, Menhaden, Ox-fish, Oyster, Oola- chans, Pilchard, Pike, Pollock, Rouget, Roach, Sea-Snails, Sardines, Salmon, Shad, Shark, Skate, Sprat, Squid, Sole, Sword- fish, Sturgeon, Shrimp, Turtle, Turbot, Tunny, White-fish Whiting,—fifty fish, and further supplemented by unknown fish. Now it must be remembered that in a great number of cases the same fish was prepared by different exhibitors in’ various countries in many strange ways. For instance, take eels. They came from Comancho, the famous eelery of Ttaly, and from Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Russia, and the United States. Of Salmon there were 29 exhibits. This latter fact: showing, I suppose, that the Whitefish, Salmon, or the family of the Salmonide, feed more human beings than any other fish! I suppose, then, that at times the judges might have been both palled and appalled with all this richness; but Iam pleased to state they still live, two of them here present, and the news has reached them that the gentlemen from Norway, Mr. Joak Andersen, has arrived at his home in Aalesund in the best of health. With this slight and, I trust, impressive introduction, 20 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. I cannot presume to give you anything more than the lightec idea of Group V., which treated principally of fish, the products derived from them, with the apparatus used in catching them. For more particular information as to the divisions of the group, I would direct your attention to Mr. G. Brown Goode's most careful classification of the collection to illustrate the animal resources of the United States. Group V. was split up into nine classes, beginning with No. 641, and ending with No. 649. No. 640 was * Marine animals, seals, cetaceans, and specimens living in aquaria, or stuffed, salted, or otherwise preserved.” | must here refer you to the wonderful display made by the Smithsonian Institution in the Government Building. It can be safely stated that before this Centennial year there has never been brought together so magnificent a collection. Its thorough- ness and practical usefulness quite manifest, and allow me to explain how. As we are not quite well posted in Chinese fish, it became the duty of a person attached to the group to endeavor to find out what fish China used principally as food. Thanks to Mr. Knight, the Chinese Commissioner, the person) whose business it was to grope into the Chinese fish darkness, was provided with an intelligent Chinese interpreter, and he was backed up by a learned Chinaman, undoubtedly a savant, because this latter person was to write a book or maybe deliver only speeches on the Exhibition in Chinese for the benefit of Chinamen. [| think rather an unprofitable evening was spent between this American person and the Chinamen, though it was not uninteresting. But China fish was a closed book. It was apparent that in China there must be twenty different names for the same fish, in which peculiarity they do not differ from our own people. At last a happy thought struck the person who wanted “to know, vou Know.” Next day he took his two Chinamen among the plaster casts of tish in the Goverment Centenmial Mecting. 21 Building, and no end of useful information was readily obtain- able. Both Chinamen fairly gushed and pointed right and left at fish they were at home with, and opened their eyes in wonder at such nondescripts as were strange to them. In fact, this collection of plaster casts of fish, supplemented by the photo- graphs, is like a Kindergarten, where object-teaching is made intelligible to the largest children, scientific or otherwise. I must recall here, too, the very complete collections of fish pre- served in alcohol, coming from Sweden and Norway, which may be found in Agricultural ELall. } Of class 641, “ Fishes Living or Preserved.”—If I cannot refer with pride to the aquaria, which, for very good reasons, were not as extensive or as well filled as Mr. Mather would have wished, oras Mr. Mather’s great acquaintance with this subject deserved, ithas taught us this lesson: That aquaria, like menageries or zoological collections, require special facilities, and must be constructed solely for the purposes intended. 1 can, however, point to the refrigerators stocked by Mr. Eugene G. Blacktord of New York, as one of the prominent features of Group V., the worthy Treasurer of our Association having poured out there during the whole of the Exhibition the entire riches almost of the United States in edible fish. At the present moment | believe there are no less than 180 inthe refrigerators. The high character of the award, which [I understand the judges have accorded him, may, I believe, be considered as a merited compli- ment to the American Fish Culturists’ Association. No. 642, “ Pickled Fish and Parts of Fish,” [ have already alluded to. If I was merely to endeavor to describe them in these two days’ sessions, hardly more could be done than to open, figuratively, the innumerable cans, jars, casks, tubs, or barrels, which contain them. To recount how they looked, tasted, or smelled, might be but to offer you a Barmecidian feast. Some 22 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. of them, in imagination, might make your mouths water; some, if actually experimented upon, might have quite a contrary effect. I trust as to the crucial test, for “the proof of the pudding is the eating of it,” that the gentlemen here present will have ample opportunity of forming their own opinion at the dinner to be given to-day at the Lafayette restaurant. I may sav that since there are curious wines which connoisseurs admire, so are there curious fish. [I am led to suppose that in making their awards as to preparations of fish as food, the judges very wisely did not confine themselves to any pent-up Utica of taste. White bait at Greenwich is good, and, undoubt- edly, seal meat at Omenack, in Greenland, is excellent. If preparations of fish from Sweden, Norway, or from Spain or Portugal, did not suit American palates, such might have been admirably adapted to the wants of more northern or southern climes. De gusttbus non est disputandum, 1 suppose, was taken in its broadest latitude. Now, there were those Chinese shark-fins, certainly not savory as to smell, still we have the assurance from the Chinese Commissioner, that made into a soup with barley, shark-fins are unequalled as stock. I think, too, shark eating in the United States has a representative here who has declared that portions of a young shark are excellent as food. Of class 643, “ Crustaceans, Echinodeons, etc.,” the samples were numerous. Of class 644, “* Mollusks, Oysters, Clams, etc.” there were innumerable specimens. In class 646, which includes ising-glass and sounds, some very beautiful preparations may be seen in Agricultural Hall and in the Brewers’ Hall—American ising-glass from the hake being used to a large extent to clear our lager beer—the superb specimens of ising-glass exhibited by Russia, all worthy of notice. In class 647 are “Instruments of Fishing ;" the biggest show the world has ever seen is full of them. From the huge drag-net used by the Dutchman on his Centenmal Mecting. 23 broad-breasted lugger as he thrashes through the ugly North Sea and sweeps up the turbot, to the delicate silken net, the plaything of the Japanese lady, all were found at the Exhibition. These nets alone were a study. In Norway and Sweden a curious example may be found of usages now in vogue which have descended from the stone and bone age, or from prehistoric times. For here may be scen nets weighted with stones, cach one with a hole drilled patiently through it, and nets held below the water by means of split sheep-bones. If, however, such primitive methods still exist in northern countries, perhaps duc to the poverty of the fishermen, still in Sweden and Norway engines for the capture of fish may be seen admirably con- structed. If there be nets thoated with the core of their fir-cones, they use, too, hollow spheres of «lass. In trawls, such as serve for catching cod and haddock, certain systems of arranging the hooks, and methods of carrying the tine, are worthy of being copied by our Gloucester and Nantucket fishermen. In both the coarser and finer fishing-lines—tackle for business or pleasure—the exhibitions were superb. Dilettanti fishermen in the United States would be hard to please had they to look bevond the contents of the cases in the Government Building, or in Agricultural or in Main Pall As te reds, such delicate con- ceptions, so light, vet so strong and chastic, one could hardly imagine could be constructed. Ino reels. made im the mest Ingenious manner, ne end of talent and ingenuity has been lavished. In fact mt looks as if a fisherman was naturally inventive. Perhaps when trout de met rise, he broods over some ideal reel, and his dreams tind actual shape. In class 648, * Fish Culture” a subject more particularly within the scope of this Association, the exhibition was a tatriv @ood eue. Their sim- plicity of form, and = comsequent cheapness of construction, prevents ino ao measure such an exhibition from having the . 24 Fish Culturtsts’ Assectation. startling claims to attention as a Fresnel lighthouse might call for. Excellent varieties of hatching apparatus may be seen in the Government Building, with the various utensils used in the transportation of fish, some of the latter being indeed historically famous. The collection of models of Fish-Ways are wonder- fully complete, and may afford one ample means of study and comparison. [ would call your attention to the charming miniature fish hatching-house in the Maryland State Building, planned by the Fish Commissioner from Maryland, and also to the process of hatching California salmon, now actually going on in the same building. I should endeavor, betore concluding this exceedingly rapid and necessarily imperfect sketch of Group V., to give some deductions in regard to its general character. [ must declare, then, that as faras the actual fishing or catching goes, we have in America very little, if anything, to learn. Our nets, lines hooks, and apparatus, generally, are exceedingly well made and of the best material. As to the ingenuity displayed, the best proof of the excellence of the apparatus is to be found in the diminishing quantity of the fish. Without our being then the least pretentious, we are to be taught but very little trom abroad as to how fish are caught in the cheapest and most expeditious way. Here and there, occasionally, some things seemed to be novel, as derived from another country, but a more careful study of such devices showed that the methods had been employed in the United States, and either given up or amended. In fact, the United States is sending fishing material abroad, Where it finds an increasing demand, due to its cheapness and excellence. Asto “Fish as Food "—class 642—other deductions, T think, could be made, and perhaps not as tlattering. Certain methods of preparing cod, haddock, and ling, emploved in Cratenmal Meeting. - “Ve Norway, where fish are dried and cured without salt, present the greatest advantages. Inthe same bulk or weight vou have all food. Perhaps the climate of Norway would allow the fish to be prepared in this peculiar way, which would mot be possible in the United States or in Canada. That the fish dry-cured were excellent, and will stand over-heated weather is quite mianitest, as may be scen by going to the very fine Norwegian exhibit in Agricultural Hall Both Spain and Portugal put up erade tish ef the cheaper varieties in admirable wavs. worthy of imi- tation. As to the finer preparations of fish, such as Sweden and Norway send into the Northern markets, and are called ded/rca- fessen, We have ever so much te learn from them. —P need not call your attention to the admirable French preparations of fish, which excel those of any other country ; tor French sardines, like French bonnets, go all over the world. As te our own canned preparations, they are excellent. ino their way, but they are wanting invaricty. They are monotonous. Tt may be said that what we put up meets the demand, but there is no doubt that if we got out of the stereotyped forms of preparation, such as are represented by canned salmen, and tried our hand at other things or methods, our suceess would be greater, We have innumerable fish on our coast, new newleeted. which ought te be cared for and which, if properly srranged., would tind cager purchasers all over the world. Of course an opening has been made in this direction, and our American canners are puiting up good preparations in oil, which even tind a market as far off as Russia. Nevertheless we are still somewhat wanting in the art and deheacy of the thing, Our method of canning salmon, the natural one. ts entirely original, and has assumed marvellous proportions. [t ts on the Pactlie side that this immense fish harvest is garnered, and Tomiay state from careful statistics thet ‘ 26 fish Culturtsts’ Association. the Columbia River alone yields more salmon, four times over, than does the whole of England, Scotland, Ireland, or Wales. Fearing to tax your patience, [ shall now close, repeating that no one ina casual way, without careful study, could imagine the vast number of objects included within this group, and what a tund of information and instruction is to be found in it. This grand exhibition, then, in its widest sense, being founded on the broad and great principle of the exchange of thought, that fractional portion represented of Group Vo may have been of great advantage to other countries in affording them ample opportunities to study our methods of fish capture, while in exchange we may take from them many approved ways of pre- paring fish food. As to fish culture, there are so many distinguished gentlemen here present, men whose reputations are Known all over the world, that it would be worse than presumptuous on my part to speak abouta work of which they are scientifically and practically the great masters, only T think that they will agree with me in coming to this conclusion, that in fish culture we in the United States and in Canada have performed greater feats and have arrived at broader, larger, and, above all, more usetul results than in the Old World. Tf fish culture was discovered in Europe, it isherethat fish culture has taken its most practical development. Prof. Jawes W. Mirxer, Assistant United States Fish Com- missioner, in special charge of the work for Shad) Hatching, reported as follows : Mr. CratruMan: The collections of the United States National Museum in the Government Building of the International Exhibition, or, as our countrymen have chosen to term it, “Centennial Exhibition,” relating to the fisheries, are arranged under the following classifications : Srorion AL AwNiwats Benericive ok INpektous ro Mas, IV. : Vi. VIL. VILL. IV. BE DB an. NIIL. Crateumal Mecting. Pinnepedia: Seals, ete. Sirentia: Sea Cows (manatees, ete). Cete: Whales, porpoises, dolphins. Testudinata: Tortoises, turtles, ete Fishes: (kishes proper.) Elasmobranchiates : Sharks and rays. Marsipobranchiates > Lamprevs, lags. Leptocardians : Amphioxus or haneelet. Arthropods: Crustaceans (eritbs, ete). Worms: Annelids, scolecids. Mollusks: Cuttlefishes, chums, oysters, snails, ete, Radiates : Stur-fishes, polyps, ete. Protogoans and toruniniters. Secrion Bo Meraxs or Pturstrr anp Carrure. Hand implements > clubs, Knives, axes, spears, ete. Implements for seizure of object: SCOUDS, poaff-hooks, tongs, cle. Missiles: spears, harpoons, bows and arrows, firearms. Baited hooks: angling tackle. Nets: entangling nets, surrounding nets. Traps : fish-pounds weires and traps. Apparatus for wholesale destruction: polsons, tor- pedoes. Hunting animals: Cormorants. Decovs: lures, ete. Pursuit — its method and appliances: camp outhit, sboat, live baits, personal equipments. Fish Culturitsts Assoctation. ty 4 Section CC.) Merxuops oF PREPARATION, I. Preparation and preservation of food: living, freez- ing, drying, canning, and pickling. Il. Manufacture of textile fabrics from whalebone.* If. Preparation of the skin and its appendages: sturgeon skins, skins of cetaceans (porpoises, etc.). IV. Preparation of the hard tissues: fish-scale work, preparation of whalebone, preparation of tortoise- shell, preparation of nacre, preparation of coral. V. Preparation of oils and gelatines: whale-oils, fish-oils, and tsing-glass. VIL Preparation of drugs and chemical products : murex- ides, tflake-white from fish-scales. VIL. Preparation of fertilizers: fish fertilizers. VIEL. Preparation of limes: from shells. IX. Preparation of the animal for scientific uses: wet preparations, skeletons, models, stutfed specimens, photographs, drawings, and colored sketches. Secrion DL - Axniwat PrRopvers AND THEIR -\PPLICATIONS I. Foods: fresh, dried, and smoked, salted, canned, and pickled, gelating ; baits and food for other animals. II. Clothing: leather of porpoise skins, sturgeons, furs of seals, textile fabrics of whalebone. I. Materials emploved in the arts and manufactures : baleen, tortotse-shell, seales, pearl, shells, coral, leather, gechitine and ising-glass, flexible materials from mullusks, sponges, oils and fats, coloring materials, Chemical products, and agents emploved in arts and medicines : fertilizers, limes. * The classification employed was scientific, and miade the natural history system its basis. In uppls ing it to the teherie< in our reference to the stibyeet owe shall embrace everything pertaining to the fisheries as the tern i- ordinarily used. tneludine the whites. seals, turtles, corals, ete. Centennial Mecting, 24 SWEOTION Ps > VPROTECHION AND CPRTCRE OF CSEeOL ANISALS. I. Investigation: methods of United States Fish Com- IMASSIOM, HL. Protection : preservittion of fish, care of whiatles, seals, fish, ete., In aquarki cnemics of useful animals. Hl. Propagation: mink culture. terrapin culture, frog culture, fish culture, leceheulture, and oyster culture, The objects disphived ander this chissification in- eluded: specimens of natural history representing seals, whiules, turtles : food fishes that are in general use us food, and such as would not ordinarily be deemed edible; animals which prey upon fishes; and davertebrates which comstitute the food of man and oof fishes: stur-lishes, corals, and sponges ; Implements of capture, including an almost ex- haustive series under cach division of this section: nets of all deseriptions; boats used in tishing ; . toggling Geokle and traps. FISth PRLCVRATIONS AN1) PRONE CTS. Under the class of maturab history there are five series of stuffed specimens, colored: plaster casts. and photographs. The feet that aleeholte specimens are unattractive and rather unsightly, induced Prof. Baird. seme vears age, te employ in Welding fishes and ciantmats an expert who dad athrgdined seme saeeess in the collection situated in the Crystal Palace, London. The color sketches aire first miaide from fresh) speci- mens; the mould is alse made trom tresh specimens, and atter- wards the east is made. Nn aecomplished colorist paints the east from the color sketch. and they are then neathy mounted Ina trame wath bhuek-wielnot mouldings. The List at casts ineludes about three hoadred SPyere les, repre- sented: by some five dummdred: casts Prom: the same origina 30 Fish Culturists’ Association. specimens a negative was taken, from which usually several prints were made. These are also neatly framed, and now number some seven hundred. The fishes from which these representations were made were collected on the Atlantic coast, principally by the United States Fish Commission at different stations—Eastport, Portland, Me.. Noank, Conn., and Wood Hole, Mass. The collections from the great lakes and the Ohio River were by myself, under the direction of the United States Fish Commissioner; and those from the Pacific coast principally by Mr. Livingston Stone, who has charge of the propagating interests of the United States on the Pacific slope. Very many specimens have also been received from the numerous correspondents of the United States Fish Commissioner. The fish products and preparations were largely procured under the direction of Mr. E. G. Blackford of New York city. The implements and boats were obtained directly by Prof. Baird through correspondence with a very large number of people in all parts of the United States. The excellent system and method in the arrangement of the collections is due to Mr. G. Brown Goode of the Smithsonian Institution. In the latter class, Section E., the more important articles to which attention may be called as having a tendency to improved methods in the culture of fishes, may be mentioned the new tray-hatching apparatus, the basket-hatching apparatus for eges in) bulk, floating boxes, models of fish-ways and Quark, The presiding officer having invited reports upon the fish interests of their respective localities from the representatives of this and other States, to be made by members present, Prof. B. Lymanot Massachusetts, responded. Contommal Mectiag. 3" Prof, Lywax of Massactuscatts said - Me. CHaewas: Fo do mot Kmonr that 7 have amy meqoount to make that would Ike of special imterest. 7 amaw saw dha it feas given me great pleasure to see sacl aum cxdimaoxrdlimaurw «ler tcom ars thie come welch thas iheem meported aypomm ibs our avomthw Socne- tare, Mr. Phillips So thar as dhe commpauramtiwielly small Saute «of Massachusetts is Comeenmed, 7 would saw that we are moar, as we hawe: heem thor mam Weaurs, LNW to greta titdh-weaw chat woul caunrw ghiad omen wa tbigr damm. We thawe tad a jpaurtitall smocess, umd thogae te Ihe mone completely successfull 1 mmcmitiom this more paurticu- kauri thowr tlhe jpuunpose ot Caulilimer dhe aunbemiibom wal gretmitlkemmem there prexemd to hits subject, itm lhe theoge haut wie dikew gro ho their hommes iim wrikdkellw—seypaurauterd! ppaurits oxi Che Commie, Dhew amas thre lherd to mettre wypoam iit, paurticuilaurily tinore cot haem asthe liiwie mecaur sthrawdl- Sores, amd maw aiid iad thurovwiimer mewr light wyprom dhe moxorsit etfherc— time way of gettimg shad omer aa tie dam. Whe diithoullty «sf Comrse—aund itt is ab WEIN great oame—likess itm tlhe Laactt cibeaut dlhec sthrandl arsuallily imlalbit streams somewhat wide aod somewhat deep. im saving “somewhat,” To omeam te speak of streams occupaed bry thenm ars commpaured witth streams ecouprked tbw che sallamem aumdi thier ttish. Whe @omsxequiemee ibs thew aune wen lhodh ho emer tmiles a Shallow or maunroay Stream of water: aumd te imdice them to emer inesomt mut tbe fhradl, OD chvimik, to am aunramgcumemt simmilbur tho Mhrat of a weir, bye witich thew amaw the tked fino dhe ummauim Ibodds of @ Shream iimto a ylkace that gonowes goradhuralllly maone maunnony., canal aut last their mores stnike agnuimst the descemdime stream finea dhe fish-waw itselliti. So far as 7 Amon, dhe tact ihas appeared that when dhey are omoe im the fish-waw there is we mroulblhke alboaut their gine omer They have qome omer im comiderable quan- tities at Iolwelke, amd also to at oemtaim mumiber at Lawmemne, laut thee tromaiblhe ts deo eret them iimto the Ihomtowm «xt thre fish-wraw. 52 Fish Culturitsts Assoctation. EEE Another subject, and one which I hope will attract general attention among our fish culturists, is that of obtaining informa- tion upon which to base the passage of proper laws concerning the regulation of our tide-water fisheries, if vou choose to call them such. You know very well, Mr. Chairman, that when we attempt to make any laws for the protection of those of the fishes that seem to need protection, we are always met by an immense mass of sworn testimony from) the owners of pounds, and others interested in that branch of industry, to show that these pounds are not destructive, and do not tend to lessen the number of fish. The only way to come at the truth of the matter would seem to be to cause a series of observations to be made. This has been done to a very great extent already by the admirable investiga- tions of the United States Commission, under Prof. Baird, and the previous investigations by the Massachusetts Commission. But we still lack a large amount of specific information. When we shall have secured the information upon which we can show how many fish may be tiken without diminishing the annual crop, and when we know the facts as to the migrations of each fish, then we shall be prepared to go before a legislature and show that more have been taken than should have been taken, in view of what should have been left for seed for the next year. When you put your petition in that form, you can get a law passed that will be a satisfactory one, but, until you do that, you cannot get such a law. These are two subjects which have much interested us in Massachusetts, and they are those which must Interest all the States—the inland States. to a greater or less extent, as well as the others. I have ventured to call the attention of my col- leagues to these points, so that we may, with the least possible delay, acquire all the information which will enable us to Ceatenmal Meeting. we oP accomplish these very desirable ends; for T think that, if we can establish the law of supply and demand, of inerease and of decrease of our estuary fishes, each species for itself, we shall accomplish the greatest result that has ever been accomplished in fish culture. Of that Lo have no doubt. It has never been done in Europe. The great investigation which was undertaken in England in regard to the fisheries of that kingdom, had upon the Board appointed for that purpose no less a man than Mr. Iluxley, and had also Mr. Shaw Lefevre, a well-known Member of Parliament, and a gentleman of high attainments, and their report was published in very voluminous form. And vet [ say it boldly when [ say that the French were quite right when they declared that the information thus acquired was utterly worthless, one way or the other, The manner in which it was acquired made it utterly worthless. The gentlemen appointed to make the investigation went to the different sea-port towns of the United Kingdom, and they there took the testimony of the fishermen. Now, the fishermen are divided into two opposite parties—what we call “the crawlers,” or drag-net men, and the hook-and-line men, and cach hated the other. The consequence was that “the crawlers” swore up and down in one direction, and the hook-and-line men in the other, the testimony of cither side being thus made utterly valueless. Their bread depended on their method of fishing, the support of their wives and families depended on it; and the consequence was that each party swore to its own notions on the subject. Now, if, instead of pursuing that method of investigation, we could go and look for ourselves, as Prof. Baird has already done for himself, and as bas been done in other directions to a limited extent, | say we would obtain a mass of intormation in regard to our Coast fisheries greater than has been obtained in any way heretofore. 34 Fish Culturtsts’ Assoctation. Hlon. HL. J. Reeper, Fish Commissioner of Pennsylvania, said: Mr. CHAIRMAN and GENTLEMEN: To must ask vou to excuse me from making any remarks in reference to this subject to-day, as Tam suffering from a severe indisposition, and it ts only at the sacrifice of my personal comfort and convenience that bam able to be here at all. T want simply to make one remark in connection with the subject that was touched upon by Prof. Lyman in speaking of Fish-Wavs. The difficulty is in perfecting a fish-way which will successfully carry shad over a high dam, We in Pennsylvania claim that we have succeeded in building a fish-way which is successtul in affording a means of transit: tor shad overa low dam. We have not succeeded to it very great ex - tent with respect toa high dam, nor do T believe that any fish-way would ever succeed to a very great extent unless the very propo- sition suggested by Prof. Lyman were adopted, namely sa means of leading the shad into the fish-way by an arrangement of the weir, We have discussed the matter in our Commission very thoroughly. We have never tried the experiment, for the reason that it is an exceedingly expensive operation. We have never had the opportunity of testing the Pennsylvania weir until this year, when the dam, in which it was erected, was repaired in those parts in which breaks had been made by the spring floods, and jee carried down by the torrents. | This vear the shad passed above our dam and most certainly have gone through the fish- way to the number of five thousand: that is, we know of tive thousand shad that were caught this vear above the Columbia dam, im which our fish-way was ereeted. “The sipposithon ts that not more than twenty per cent. of the entire shad that etfeeted a transit over our dam, by means of the fish-wav. were caneht by the fishermen. We are warranted conse puenthy in Geducting, Centenmal Meeting. 35 from the amount of fish caught, the fact that the munmber of fish that passed over the diam, using the fish-wavy as a means of passage, Was in the neighborhood of twenty or thirty thousand. The extreme timiditv of the shad is one of the dithteulties with Which any person undertiking the erection of a tish-wiay bias te contend, And PE believe that that is the seuree of ditheutty with regard to all our fish-wavs, that the shad are afraid te attempt the ascent. The descent tn our tish-wav. by reason of its very great length—one hundred and twenty teet—-is seo slight, and the current therefore so show, that men fave been Kiowa te pole a canoe up the descent tor some distiunce. Col. Jvumes Workate of Pennsvivantia gave some information in regard to the fish-wiaws of that Stue Phe stated that the different inventions of tsh-waws were already, in his opinion, suffietento in number for the aecomnmockithon of the vartous lish speeres, and that these inventions did been supplied in meuny rivers of this country. Phaving been connected with the werk of coustruction of the dam at Columbia, Penusvivania, fe felt cat liberty te state seame ot the results that have tellowed trom the completion of that work, thoush, as vet. these results were mot fully proven NS stated by the gentleman whe hist) spoke | Mr. Reeder], the aseent to the fish-wiav is se ecluacal hice ba wr. Gano can be poled upp at withent diticutty. the water thot mes bing In Hatt greater rate et speed than eight or nine miles von bovr, One of the great troubles is te cet the sctoe-Hshermen away trea the tromt ot the tish-waws. as they catch a Lire proportion ot all the fish that come through. AN gaamberof stiad daave been ecb further up the Susqueliinma abewe the dar. thus showing that the tish had gone through the fish-ewavs. The speaker then referred te the Tiberiulity of the Loewishiture of Penusvinania in providing tor improvements. sueh cis Columbia Pham. intended! to 36 Fish Culturtsts’ Assectation. . secure requisite facilities for the introduction of shad, black bass, and other fish. Elis remarks are given more fully, upon a repetition of them, in the report for the succeeding day. At two o'clock the meeting took a recess till afternoon. The presiding officer submitted a number of letters from absent members unable to leave home. A letter was received from Mr. George E. Ward, on behalf of W. C. Coup, offering the Association the use of rooms at Mr. Coup’s new Aquarium at Thirty-fifth street and Broadway, New York city, extending to the Association the free use of a room in the Aquarium building, for the holding of meetings, the establishment of a library, or other purposes desired by this body. The President remarked that the idea suggested by this offer scemed to him to be a good one, and commended it to the Association. On motion, the thanks of the Association were ordered to be returned to Mr. Coup tor his generous offer, and the invitation was accepted. The presiding officer introduced the subject of the stocking of rivers and other streams with black bass, the adaptation of this fish to still water and the strong currents of rivers, and called upon Mr. Seth Green, as a representative of the Empire State, to respond. Mr. Seru Greex, Superintendent of the New York State Fisheries, in response, spoke of the success which had attended the efforts of the Commissioners of the State of New York in stocking the waters of that State. Asan illustration, Mr. Green cited Lake Canandaigua, where, in i871. the steck of salmon- it is trout was small but where. at this time, since re-stocking, no unusual thing to make a catch of fifteen or twenty in a day. Centenmal Meeting. 37 Like success has attended the efforts of the Commissioners in other directions. In conclusion, the speaker called the attention of his hearers to the importance, In stecking rivers, of making the number of fish correspond as nearly as possible with the ameunt of food te be had by them. The lied sought te carry out this idea, and commended it as one essential te suceess in opera- tiens tn fish culture. Mr. FeepenickK Mariuek remarked that in his opinion the black bass, by reason of its predatery tnstinets, would prove an injury te the shad when placed in the sume stream with that fish Mr th. J. Rerork of Pennsylvania argued that by a proper use of the methods of artificial propagsition in shad. me case for apprehension existed because of the introduction of betss inte: the same streams with them. Mr. Seren Green expressed the belief that the black bass weuld do ne damage whatever, and was unwilling te comecde that it would prove in any way injurious te the stad Mr M,C. Eowenps gave bis opinion that it tmd been found that small streams were net the preper places for the propags- tieen of Usbsiek bass. Mr. Livinesrex Sroxe of California (in charge of the fish- prepricaiting interests of the United States on the Pacific slope) ealled attention te the fact that a car-load of salmen-eges had recently been sent trom that State te Eastern rivers. The number aggregated four million of eggs. The larger pertion of these were distributed te the varieus State Commisstoners at Chicage. The meeting adjourned until the next day. Saturday, at ro octock, A M. 28 Fish Culturtsts’ Association. At 5 o'clock, p. M.. the members of the Association, with their invited guests, partook of a dinner of a novel character. The menu comprised some sixty-five varieties of fish, served in all styles. The fish had been procured from nearly every country of the globe, including England, France, Norway, Chili, Turkey, Sweden, Cape of Good Hope, Australia, New Zealand, Russia. etc. Among the guests present were the Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, and the Commissioners from England, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Russia, Brazil, China, and Japan. SECONTY DAYS PROGEEDIMAGS. GES TESSINI GROGNDS HI aD RiGee Saturday, October 7th, 1876. Hon. R. B. Roosrevenr presided. Dr. Warpber of Ohio, being called upon by the Chair, said : Having had the honor to serve as a member of the Fish Com- mission of Ohio, and Knowing something of its operations, I would say that the Commission of that State is a live one, and is following the lead of Pennsvivania in the advancement of fish culture. T hope, sir, that all the other States will emulate the efforts. initiated by the States on the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, as no branch of agriculture, in my opinion, promises so much forthe food of man as does Pisciculture. In Ohio, the efforts of the State Commission, in the hatching-houses, has been attended with very considerable success. The hatching of the eges of various species in the waters of the State Is going on. The recent introduction of salinon from the Pacific coast has been attended with remarkable success, and the experiments that have been made with salt-water salmonin the fresh waters of the State have been most pronounced in their results. [It has been Crutenmtal Mectine. 39 shown that that fish, which only seeks the salt water at certain periods, may be propagated with success im fresh waters. Whether the results of vears of training in fresh water will produce the salmon that come to us direct from the sea is a question which remains yet to be tested. Among the objects prominentiy held in view in the State from which T come, one of the first has been the reproduction of the whitefish, and the adoption of such means as will have a tendency to prevent its destruction by the fishermen in Lake Erie. This is the great fish of Lake Erie. The first of the species ever taken in the waters of the State was caught with a hook near Sandusky. In making these statements TL speak, of Course, upon the best information that could be obtained. The efforts that have been made to acquire reliable information were largely made among the fishermen, but this class could only answer as to a part of the matters concerning which information was desired. These men, Whe are interested in the business only so tar as the profits of their catches are concerned, can be depended upon for certain facts, but, when applicd to, were utterly ignorant of other equally essential and mere tapertant facts. It has been left to scientific men to develop the peculiar circumstances under which the eggs of the whitetish can be treated must successfully fora beneficial result. It has been found that the fish spawn late in the Fall, near the shore; and the trouble has been to protect: them from = destruction by the lines and nets of the fishermen, They are in danger of being cut off through care- lessness, and artificial means have been reserted to and put in operation for the protection of the fish and its voung. The speaker added that visitors to the lakes sometimes noticed a difference in the Naver of the whitetish, and the explanation of this was that in the summer months the fist are not in the a2 40 Fish Culturists’ Assectation. condition that Is acquired by them when they approach the shore later in the season. The presiding officer, upon the conclusion of the remarks of Dr. Wakper, invited further discussion upon topics incident to fish culture, and suggested, as one appropriate subject, the peculiarities of black bass, particularly as to its alleged preda- tory instiicts. Mr. FREDERICK Maruer objected to black bass, as he believed that they were disposed to prey upon other fish. Dr. Warper of Ohio noticed the disappearance of the mias- kinonge and pike in Lake Erie. At points where at one time there were caught pike weighing from. fifty. to) seventy-five pounds, there are now but few left, and those few are quite small. Dr. James W. Mitner of Washington, D.C... remarked : In reference to the pike family, /secaée, the Common names of the various species are habitually confused. The pike of the great lakes and West are often called pickerel. In lake Ere the wall-eved pike, Luctoperca Amertcana, pickerel > while they were far removed, in their zoological relations, from the true pickerel, Avex reticulatus, found only on the eastern side of the Alleghanies. The lake-pike is of the same genus, but are an entirely and well-marked seperate species. The muskellunge is also separate from cither of these. Other species are Known. These three are to be distingushed as follows : the pickerel, Exsex reticulatus, is distinguished by having scales over the entire cheek and operculum, and being marked on the body by reticu- lated, brown lines like the meshes of a net. The Like-pike, /ser estor ov FE. luctns. Was the cheek covered with scales, but the lower portion of the operculum and the sub-operculium: is naked: the Centenmal Meeting. 41 coloring pattern isa series of oval, white or chocolate spots on wogreenish wround, The muskellunge, /oe. velilier, las the lower portion of cheek and operculum and the sub-opercutum naked, and has oval, bhick spots on a dusky, greenish ground, These characters are strongly marked, aod a slight eximination stffices to determine the species. Mr. Mather then gave some interesting remarks on the vraviing. Fle regarded the gravling as certainty being much easier to propagate than the trout, but he did mot think it as wood a tood-tish Ele held that when itcame to a question of the table, no fresh-water fish was equi as an edible, te tish of the salt-water varieties, The graviling ts a gaimev, Inndsame fish, and imakes his ome in the same Kind of streams in which the trout is te be tound. Tt affords much sport to the angler, and in certain pertions of the trout-lishing country is one of the delights of trout-Hshing, giving him the same delighttial surroundings that fave made that sport sa populur The could not tell what was the lowest temperiture it which the erayviing would thrive, but it lived and didi well in his ponds at Honevone Falls. and: also at Caledonia, NOY Those whieh he brovwghe from Michigan three vears age were within two weeks of their spa whing-time when brought from there, but they had never spawned vet. The only eges which he had procured and hatched had been taken fromthe fish to their native waters. Tle will friteh them in the New York ANqiuarbun during the goming Winter or next spring, Col. Jus Workart of Ponnsyivaaias a imember ot the ish Cormmissten of thea State, mauude a0 farther statement of the results of dias observations aod practical expertenee upon these iinprovements in fisheways, parthouborly as te the one at Co: Jumbia, Penn 6 The salmen tomily, hie stared. had ter vears gone Za 42 Fish Culturists’ Association. up to their accustomed haunts over the dams and through the ways, but the shad are still afraid of the fish-vways, and timid about ascending them. The shad is an exceedingly timid fish. It has been said of it that it is afraid of its own shadow, and possibly it may have derived its name from that fact. How- ever, in the course of time, as they become accustomed to the fish-ways, they may lose their timidity in that respect. They had built a fish-way here in Pennsylvania at Columbia. It is 105 by 60 feet. It has been built with an inclination that does not cause the water to run faster than at a rate of eight miles an hour. and for myself the working of the Commission was confined to endeavoring to ascertain whether the fish on the coast of the United States had decreased, and if they had, what was the cause ; and if the cause could be found, what was the remedy. During that same year, 1871, the Fish Culturists’ Association had its first or second meeting, and resolutions were presented appointing a committee to proceed to Washington during the coming session, and to memorialize Congress on the subject of natural action in the propagation and distribution of fish. That committee discharged Stxth Annual Meeting. 65 its purpose, and an appropriation was made for the propagation and placed under my charge as Commissioner to disburse. Feeling my ignorance of the theory and practice of fish culture, Knowing a little about fishes themselves as to their zoolovical Characteristics, but nothing about the meade of multi- plying them, | considered it my duty and pleasure te counsel with the Fish Culturists’ Association and the Commissioners of the States present; and TP spoke to them and asked them what | > should better do, in what way the best measures could be taken to increase the fish supply of the country, Two propositions were mide > one that a certain portion of the appropriation should be expended in assisting the enterprise of obtaining the exys of stlmon trom Mame, and the other that we should send some ene out te Calitornia tor the purpose of obtaining eyes from their fish, as it was Known that egys could be had there tore readily and in larger mumbers than in the East. Both of these suggestions were adopted. Mr. Atkins, then at werk on the Penobscot River, was requested to enlarge his fisheries to enable us to cover the ground we desired, which was to be dene out of the funds at my disposal; and Mr Stene, now present with us, went out to California te organize the California salmon enter- prise > and beginning ona small scale at first, with 2,000 eggs, the capacity of the establishment: lias inereasecd in comsequence of his admirable management of it, until mow it is capable of furnishing at least 15,co0o,coo eyes every vear, which more than equals in the aggregate that ot all the European salmen- producing establishments together. Jo presume it will be agreeable to the meeting te hear semething of the general operations of the United States Com- nission with regard te its measures tor fish propagation. and | Will proceed to sketch briethy what thew are.and will then refer veu to Mr. Milner, whe has the shad departinent more especially 66 fish Culturtsts’ Association. under his control, and to Mr. Stone to tell you about the opera- tions in California. [I will state that the United States Com- mission have always endeavored to carry out the principle of doing nothing on its part that the States should be or are willing todo; and while it takes charge of.the rivers and large bodies of water that belongs to the several States, it leaves to the States themselves the care of fostering the fishers’ interests in the rivers which belong exclusively within their jurisdiction. Therefore, with regard to such fish as the California salmon, it was considered best to confine the operations of the United States Commission almost entirely to the gathering of the eggs, and to distributing those eggs to the said Commissioners in such quantities as should be called for, they being charged for the payment of packing and expressage merely on what they took. During these years the operations with regard to the California salmon have therefore been constituted on about the same scale as at present, the appropriation being about equal to the demand, and sufficient to pay for the distribution to such States as had no Commissioners. A certain number of eggs were brought to the East, and part to the establishment at Northfield, at Michigan, anda part to the Central Park, from which they were distributed toa very large number of rivers. There are comparatively few principal streams which we have left unsupplied with these fish. The operations with regard to shad for the last year were much more limited than before, as the appropriation available for the purpose was not passed until early in May, when it was too late for the southern rivers, as in previous vears the eggs were furnished to the Commissioners of the States, or shipped to other parts. Nothing was done this year with regard to the Bucksport salmon. [It was considered undesirable to breed land- locked salmon. We have rather preferred to wait and see the result of the operations with regard to the land-locked salmon, Savth Annual Mevting. 67 The operations with regard to the land-locked salmon were carried on ona kurger seale than before, but owing to some peculiar condition of the water or the tempenriture, a much souiller number was obtained. Lb think about goo.coo cys were all that were obtained by the parties jointly interested—the United States Commissioner, the Commission of Mirssachusetts, cme one of Connecticut—a division having been made of the exes between these three parties. Another enterprise, which promises well forthe future of the fish culture of the country, froma supply ot toad fishes, is thet with reward to the carp. The carp is a fish not very well Known to this country, but occupies a prominent place in Europe as at stock-lish. Tt can be cultivated in any barn-vird tank. Tt can be cultivated intubs. “They can do as the Clfinese do, raise them in large tubs, teeding them with vegetable substances, with a satisfactory result. “There are avariety of carp Known to fanciers in Europe : one variety without any seates at all, which obvintes the necessity of sealing them tor cooking > another variety hits a row oof seales. “Phere are several varieties of carp fully provided with seales. | There are two distinet species: one of which, by its multiplication: in Europe. das thrown a great deal of cliscredit pen the other. One of these fishes is long and unpalatable, but very lurgely cultivated. The truce carp. cul- tivated in’ Germany, is a different tish, and has certain merits that commend it to the attention of fish culturists. I] have made several efforts to obtain ao suflicient supply of these carp, bat, unfortunately, twice owing to the storms and the exacerbation, they have been lost on ship-board by the swashing around of the fish inthe tank and other causes. 1 have a few, brought in by a date importation, which are in’ charge of Mr. Ferguson in Baltimore. Another fish, of which we have a small number te sturt with, 68 Frsh- Culturtsts’ Assectation is the tench, a special variety of the European tench, which has many qualifications for a desirable fish. One is extreme ordjhood, and the other its ability to resist the desiccation of the ponds. It can be cultivated in any mud-puddle, and when it begius to dry up the fish buries itself in the dust, and the surface may become perfectly hard, so that you can drive a wagon over it: and if you want a fish you can take it out with a spade: yet when a rain comes the fish will wiggle their way out, and there they are. It grows with great rapidity and to a large size, not unfrequently weighing ten, twenty, thirty, and even tofty pounds. Both the carp and the tench make flesh a great deal more rapidly than any fish we cultivate. They are vegetable eaters, and that is one great advantage over the trout, the black bass. and other fish which are cultivated in limited enclosures. Give to them a certain quantity of plants—rice, Canada wheat, Wwater-cresses, and the like—and they will find in them all the sustenance they require. If vou wish still to feed them, throw in lettuce, cabbage, or other vegetable offal, which they will cat very readily. The vilue, therefore, of the carp is very. great. 1 -mever tasted it, but E lave the statements of those familiar with its merits; they admit that it is not as good as salmon or mackerel, but they can be raised by anybody, and they are especially adapted to the warm parts of. the United) States. The eneat want isa fish that can be brought into the mill-ponds and warm strenms of water of the Southern and Gulf States, where the trout cannot be introduced. The warmer the water the better the carp thrives, and the best results in carp culture in Europe have been in ponds connected with low pressure steam-engines, where the water Is at a temperature of go’ to 1o°",” and in those ponds the carp grow with abnormal rapidity. [have been told that ina single vear they have been known to make over four Savth Annual Mecting. 69 pounds in weight. The carp is also a very hardy fish. You can easily transport it. To have heard of cases where carp have been kept five days out of water in damp moss. This is an advantage in favor of distributing them. [therefore hope. as a result of the new experiments now being made in Central Germany, the results of which are to be expected here in April next, to be able in a few vears to supply breeding-carp in a great many parts of the country, and perhaps in ten years it may be as common here as in Europe. Mr. Wuemor: Do you say that the carp is well adapted for mill-ponds ? Prof. Baiko: Any sluggish, stagnant water. It does not thrive in spring-water, Mr. Wimor: Would it suit the disposition of gentlemen who have ponds and small streams? Are they not desirous of combining fish well adapted for food, and at the same time having gamey qualities as faras sporting is concerned 7? Would they consent to introduce a fish from which they could derive no advantage themselves, except from their marketable value, when they are a very inferior fish for the market, being inferior to trout. Prof. Baikp: Our great object is to increase the amount of animal food in the country, and it is purely a matter of cookery to make it palatable. Tf we can introduce a fish that asks no favor in the way of food, and that will furnish, as [ am credit- ably informed, 1.200 pounds annually to the acre, that Is a great deal better fish to have than many that we now have. Mr. Witmor: That is, by giving them additional food ? Prof. Baikp : Without feeding them atall Tam told that it is not an uncommon thing for the ponds in Germany to furnish annually four hundred carp to the acre, each carp weighing . 7O Fish Culturtsts’ Assoctation. three or four pounds, which sell for about a quarter of a dollar in the German markets, without the slightest difficulty. Mr. Witmor: Do they live upon one another ? Prof. Barry: No, sir; they live together like a flock, of sheep. Mr. Witmor: Tcannot conceive how this large carp can grow in ponds merely from the vegetation they will find. Prof. BatkDb: The more the carp lives upon the vegetation, the faster it grows. There is one gentleman in Austria who has 26,000 acres in carp ponds, and it Constitutes an clement in a very large fortune to him. A Menper: [snot the vegetation in the Southern States more luxuriant ? Prof. Batrn= Wes. sin: its: IN VG SION tO! AC DINNER: The President introduced Mr. Coup, who thanked the mem- bers for the honor conferred upon him by electing him as an honorary member of the Association, and invited them to a dinner this evening at 8 o'clock at the Gilsey House. SHAD FISHERIES. The President called upon Prof. Milner to give a further statement with regard to the United States Commission. Prof. Mitxer: There is very litthe more to be said bevond what Prof. Baird has stated. When the shad culture commenced we were associated with Mr. Ferguson in Maryland. Instead of getting our entire supply of eggs from one fishery, we were able to get them froma large number; but the shad do not seem to have the disposition to come up the streams unless the tempe- rature is as high as 68° or 6g* and from the want of rain the streams have been very low. We succeeded in obtaining Sixth Annual Meeting. 7! about Goo,coo eyys trom the Potomac. Later, Mr. Ferguson established a station in the vicinity of Phivre de Grice, where there were hatched about three or four million. Again, in the Connecticut, at Llolvoke, we had bad weather in that direction. The temperature got to be very high an July, so that the water of the Connecticut reached the temperature of S6° which is entirely too warm for any success with shad. The egys died in the boxes, but the work began again cond was carried on until August sth. The distribution was mot near as extensive as it would have been if we could have wot the supply of tish- eggs that we needed. There were altogether seventy-two or seventy-three applications trom members of Congress, governors of States, and citizens from all parts of the country : and we made about thirty-one or thirty-two shipments of shad. The Most extreme southern point was in Louisiana: the mest vortherly point was in Connecticut; and western, we went to the Des Moines River, where the success of the shad fishery has become thoroughly established. Uhe first shipment made there was made under the auspices of the California Commission, by Seth Green, in i871, Sinee then the United States has made twe shipments, and every vearwe have taken more and more of those shad. There ts ne mistake about the identity of the fish, because specimens tniwe been preserved and earctolly exsimined. Mr. Witter: Phave any of vour researches extended as far as the Bay ot Fundy. with reward te shad ? Prot. Mitxek: Ne. they Inewe net Mr. Wier: It is the intention of the Canadian Govern- ment te previ eoshad in that: seetion of the COUNLEY, but the Inhabitants sav that the shad de mot breed there at all. and only come there tor breeding purposes. bowish te get information before we commence operitions. Prof, Marsters My Kaowledge extemds only as far as the ’ ty Fish Culturists Association. ~~ Androscoggin. I know they are taking the spawn there, and while there, in 1874, we did not obtain any quantity of eggs. Still we got a great many fishes, and they are said to have been found in the St. Lawrence. Mr. Wirmor: If we can produce large numbers of shad in that section, it will be equally beneficial to some portions of the United States. Prof. Mitxer: It requires a very large catch to make any success in getting eggs, because the per cent. of ripe fishes to fertilize is very small in a catch. In three or four hundred shad you will perhaps not find more than two or three or four spawners. Mr. Witmor: Is not that because they have not gone sufficiently far up the river ? Prof. Minxer: It was so in the Connecticut, where they had got to the end of their course. Mr. Wirmor: What period of time will the shad-spawning season Cover ? Prof. Mixer: It differs on different rivers. Onthe St. John, in Florida, and in the Savannah River, it is in February: the Washington markets have had their supply from Savannah for two weeks past; in March shad begin to run into the Potomac, and in May and June they are spawning; in the Hludson the season is still later, usually closing about the rst of July: the iSth or 20th of July it begins in the Connecticut, and extends up to August; so that the farther you go north the later the season Is. Stvth Annual Meeting. ~! “se ELECTION OF OFFICERS. The Committee on Nominations reported the following as the officers of the Association for the ensuing veur: Presttent—R. Bo Roosreverr. ltee-Prestdent—Greokck Supevaky Pavce. Treasurer —EUGENK G. BLACKFORD. Seorctayv—BAkNEL Putas. fvccutice Committe, J. Reeorek, PReperick Mavtiikr, ALEXANDER Wircnern, Seru GREEN. The above officers were accordingly elected. CALIFORNIA SALMON, Mr. Livingsron Sroxe said: Before saving anything with regard to the California salmon, I would say, with regard to the shad which Mr. Milner men- tioned as having been sent to California, that there is no doubt that some of them have been caught there fully grown, TF have seen two of them myself, preserved in alcohol, and there is no question about it that they are the shad of the Eastern States. Besides those two there are a great many more, and [have no doubt that hundreds of shad have been caught in California of which we have heard nothing. With regard to the California salmon we are gaining a little every vear and getting things upon a better basis. When I first went out there, in i572, F suceeeded in sending East 30,000 eges. Year before last we took there nearly 9,000,000. In all, we have taken about 25,000,000 eggs from California salmon ; most of which have been sent East. but a part of which we have returned to the head-waters of the Sacramento. Those 25,000,000 salmon have cost one dollar a thousand, in gold, up 74 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. to this time. . After this we can get them a great deal cheaper, probably for seventy-five cents or half a dollar a thousand. — I think that for 85,000 we can get 10,000,000 eggs and pack them for shipment. There is one feature that may. be worth mentioning. We have in our operations this year sent California eggs to New Zealand. It has been considered quite impossible to get the salmon eggs safely across the equator, and get them introduced into New Zealand waters; but this vear we sent five lots of $0,000 each, 400,000 e¥vgs, to New enltatel and every lot, without exception, arrived in capital order. We sent 8,000 to Welling- ton, and we have sent them to many other points. [It seems to me that California salmon-eggs must be very hardy, considering what they have to go through. In the first place, we have to pack the eggs on a warm day, because the salmon spawn in warm weather. Then, after being packed, they are taken twenty> two miles over a rough road under a blazing sun. The day | came away the thermometer stood at ro4? in the shade and 125° in the sun. After they get to the railroad terminus, they are taken three hundred miles to San Francisco, and there they stay two nights And a day, and then are carried to the steamer, and then are carried by the steamer seventy-six miles, most of which is through the tropics and across the equator, and at the end of that distance are taken out: and [ think it ts perfectly surprising that the eggs of any fish whatever can be carried so far under such unfavorable circumstances and come out alive. In this instance they have succeeded well. There is one more feature in this year’s operations, and that is shipping the eggs across the continent ina refrigerator car, They have before been sent by express, and although they have come in pretty good order, it has been very expensive. This year the eggs were all put in one car, the surplus room in which Strath Annual Mecting. 75 was filled with ice, and this car was taken to Chicago without being unpacked ; and there they were tuken out of the ice, and the consequence was that they were all tiuken out in good order. Besides this, this method has saved the United States Fish Commission about $700, and saved the consignees alwout $700— saving to the various fish commissions about $1,400. When [I first started there [| found it necessary to put the hatching-troughs close to the water's edge, in order to get fall enough from the river to get hatching-water, and con- sequently every fall we had to tear up all the hatching-troughs, and the next spring to put them all down again. — List year FE put up a ‘permanent hatching-house, quite a solid) struc- ture, above the high-water mark, and put in a large current- wheel, which pumps the water up from the river and takes it through atlume ; and in this way [hope to save the trouble and ‘txpense of tearing down the troughs every fall and putting them up every spring. Prof. Baiko: One word with regard to the California salmon. In 1875 Mr. Stone was authorized to give a small number of the eggs to the New Zealand colonies, and that lot of eggs was divided into two, one part of which hatched out Yery satisfactorily, but the other failed. In 1876 that experiment was renewed in New Zealand. Lo have heard from all those consignments now, and im every case .success has been triumphant—not less than 75 to go per cent. of the eggs have been turned into healthy, vigorous fish. This is a great triumph for our California salmon, in view of the fact that so many pounds sterling had been expended in trying to introduce the Scotch salmon. They had succeeded in introducing the carp and the tench, but the salmon they had not succeeded with. All the experiments in Australia, and those in New Zealand, had failed. ' 76 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. This vear I have had applications from all the colonies of Australia, and all in New Zealand, and from Chili, and other places, for eggs, which I hope to furnish, they paying all the necessary expenses attending it. Of course it would not be proper to use the money of the. United States in presenting those eggs to foreign nations; but the capacity of the salmon is so great that, after meeting the calls of the State Commissioners, there are millions which we can dispose of in this way in the interest of humanity, to be distributed all over the world. Mr. Witmor: Prof. Baird hes said that the Bucksport experiment had been abandoned on account of its expense. | hope that is not to be the end. [should feel inclined to give you some experiments [ was engaged in last year with regard to the new mode of retaining fish in salt water. The eggs matured equally well in salt water as in fresh. Of course it is well understood that for many years back, in fact for centuries, naturalists have held that there was a necessity for salmon to go to fresh water to mature their eggs. Last season T was under the impression that the eggs of the salmon would mature if kept in salt water as well as in fresh, and, in order to illustrate that, I instructed one of my assistants to retain in the salt-water pond a few parent salmon, while IE put the rest in fresh-water ponds ; and he did so, and took the egyes from them at the same time. There was no perceptible difference noticed in the hatching of the eggs from those fish last vear. That being sufficient for me to go upon, this season [ retained fifty or sixty salmon in the salt-water pond. The eggs matured just as well as those of the fish in the fresh water. They were manipulated, and showed as much vitality and life as those in the fresh water. They were hatched in fresh water, but the fish were kept in the salt-water cove. Therefore, to a certain extent, the expense of the Bucks- port establishment might be saved. PT think there the fish are Sixth Annual Mecting. 77 taken from the salt water and taken to the fresh water, and kept there at a double expense. Prof. Batko: The establishment is sall kept there, ready to be opened whenever the Commission require, We have thought it best to intermit for a time the experiment there, in order to see if what we did actually made any impression. Mr. Witmer: The salmon very seldom die in salt’ water, whereas in fresh water there is a fungous growth upon them, from which many of them die. Prof. Barko: There is very littl trouble in) Bucksport from that cause. The pond is very large, and they remain healthy, Adjourned until rt o'clock to-morrow, New York, February 15, 0877. The Convention met atrial MM, pursuant to adjournment, and was called to order by the President. The first business in order was the reading of a report by Mr. Mather, at the close of which the President announced that remarks from the members were now tn order. Mr. Stone: Mr. President, now that there seems to be a lull in the proceedings, PT would like to ask our friend, Mr. Wilmot, to vive an account of his method of tinpregnating the eggs of salmon. To believe he has adopted a method which, as far ats I have heard, is entirely new. and Po should like to hear some- thing about it, and Po think other members of the Association would alse. Mr. Witwer: Mr. President. ino a private conversation a Moment ago with my esteemed friend at my left, Mr Stone, the subject arose in regard to the matter of impregnating ceys, and Tasked Mr. Stone how he did it. Tle said he did it in the usttal wav. mamely soatter mixing the milt with the egé&s, they =e Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. ~~ e were allowed to remain a certain number of minutes, and then were taken and distributed upon the trays. [ replied to him, “I have adopted a new plan this year, and [ have found it to answer admirably, and infinitely better than the one I have practiced hitherto.” I formerly practiced the same system that I allude to, namely, taking the eggs from the fish and putting the milt upon them, and then allowing them to remain twenty or thirty minutes. The system [ have adopted this year, I think, will be conclusive in itself as showing the benefit that we have derived from it and the amount of labor saved. The system that I have adopted is this: we take the female fish out of the water and strip her as rapidly as possible ; perhaps two or three fish are taken out one after the other, so that in some instances we will have nearly a gallon of eggs—a half of a gallon any way, or three-fourths of a gallon—in one vessel. We then take the male fish and begin stripping him in a like manner to get the milt. An attendant is standing immediately alongside of the other gentleman who is manipulating. Ele has a measure which is calculated to hold a thousand or two thousand, as the case may be, and he stands immediately alongside and dips these eggs out as rapidly as possible and puts them on the breeding- tray, and the breeding-tray is put in the hatching-trough. In that way T have impregnated a larger number of eggs by far than I have in the last seven years in which [ have been engaged in this work. It is simple in itself, and so different from what has hitherto been practiced, that I thought it advisable to mention it here, because it is so much better than any other system IT know of. The question may arise, * How is it possible that these eggs become impregnated 7” My impression is that impregnation is instantaneous under all circumstances; it Is instantaneous or else not at all; therefore when the eggs are taken from the Srvth Annual Mecting. 79 female fish, and the fluid put upon them, the sooner you lay them down in that state upon the travs and do not disturb them afterwards the better itis for the egys. That is the system I have pursued, and | think if vou will adept it vou will tind it superior to anything vet practiced. TF have found it se. In laving down some four or five million egys this vear that is the system | have practiced; and [TE have sent word to the various establishments over which T have control, telling them to do the same thing. Some did not do that way, some did. Those who carried out the plan TP have now laid down have succeeded better than those who did not. With regard te my own establishment, | have carried that out to the very letter, and out of a million and a half or a million and three-fourths eggs | don't think that [ have lost one per cent. up to the present time. That is my success. [think it is the duty of those engaged in fish-breeding to give as much knowledge as they possibly can to their fellow fish-breeders upon this important question, and I think, under the circumstances, that you will find that the system that [ have practiced this year will be very satisfactory and productive of a great deal of good in the science of fish culture, Mr. Buackrorp: Mr. Mowat stated that he had kept the milt of the male salmon several days and then used it successfully. I don't recollect the number of days in detail. Perhaps that might interest the gentlemen here present. Mr. Wiiwor: Several experiments of that kind have been tried by my assistants in the lower Provinces. In some cases the milt has been carried a long distance—in one case [ think two or three hundred miles in small vials. The vials were put in cold water and conveved to the hatching-house where they had an abundance of female fish but no males. [ have not vet heard the result : it has net been reported to me, and | fancy from So Fish Culturtsts’ Association. not having received a report of it that it is not satisfactory, because, generally, when things are very satisfactory, my assist- ants are in the habit of sending information to me immediately, but up to the present time T have not received any report from them. Elowever, as we are speaking upon this subject, | will give you,an experiment that T have tried myself. P have carried the milt of a male salmon-trout about forty miles. T carried it in a bottle, and [ have put it upon the ova, and [| produced a hybrid or cross-breed fish from that mixture: so that, to a certain extent, itis true that vou can carry the milt as a matter of-fact. IT would not advise it in all cases, for Tthink that the sooner the application is made the better. Mr. Epwenps: The theory in regard to the instantaneous impregnation we have verified in the statement of Dr. Hastings of Hartford. He claims that he put the egg of a fish under a microscope and the milt was put on to the egg, and he said the cell-structure changed so suddenly that he could not tell when it took place—that it was perfectly instantancous. ~The whole cell-structure of the egg changed. Mr. Marieer: f have seen tt in the shad, but TE did not tind it instantaneous under the microscope. T found it took perhaps eight or ten minutes before vou could see the first line drawn through the egg—the first subdiviston, As vou are all aware, it subdivides into two, and then into four, and the lines keep crossing tn that manner, and T think it was fully from eight to ten minutes before we could see this change in the shad-ege, and the development of the shad-ege goes on so much more rapidly than the salmon that P should think the salmon would take considerable time in order to see it. The shad hatches quickly ; the whole fish is formed and ready to hatch in from three to four davs, and the same amount of development will take the salmon fifty to sixty days, or more. Sith Aannal Meeting. Si Mr. Witwer: Tf our friend had stated that he experimented in this way upon a striped bass, we would awe been oiach more likely te believe bis theory. Ele says itis dene in stripes. one stripe made and then the rest. Tam under the impression that it iS instantaneous; that the moment the impreenating tuid enters it is instantaneous. fis not in parts, and they coming together afterwards and forming a body, but itis instuntaneots. Mr. Mainek: It mav be instantaneous, but bo meant, to get any result that vou could sce. You can tell an impregnated egy long before the fish is perfectly formed, as every one of vou are aware: but with a trout-ege it will take some diavs—perkipes eight or ten—and then vou have got to tukew lithe viel and hold it up in order to see those dines. Tt is the dines that vou see that gives vou the idea whether the egg is impregnated or mot, and it is se with the shad before vou can even see itor be aware of it. Mr. Witwer: Pdo not mean to sav that certain ports do met come together for the purpose of forming the volk-sac, but I mean to say the substanee which gives vitality and lite ts of thet minute form, and gives life instantaneously. That) is the argument LE heold. Mr. Mirxek: Von Baird, the Russian embrvologist, whe hues within a few weeks died, in making studies of the cugs of fishes, found that on one side of the eee was an orifice which he termed ao vuerepra, and he, under the microscepe, in impreg- nating exes, saw the sArrmwatesed enter the waicrepra Now whit the physiological action is nobody Knows, but the process, so. far as that is concerned, has been followed. They have seen the ermatewva enter the orifice in the egy. The next stage seems to be, the egy is so constructed that it is formed ino concentric spheres. There is the inner volk, the vted/as, having around it a coat, and then outside of that is the outer coat or shell. . After 82 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. the egg is impregnated, the water enters the mcropia, swelling the egg, and spreads the outer shell—extending it. The inner sphere remains the same, the water entering between the two coats extends the outer shell and enlarges the egy. So far as the mere conception is concerned, that is, as far as they have been able to observe, all that they know about it. This action caking place is subsequent. [I should imagine that in fishes like the shad, which hatch in three days, that the whole development process would begin earlier, and of course it goes through much more rapidly ; while in a salmon, in water of from 32° to 35°, it would hatch out in about five months. Mr. Witmor: Then the inference to be drawn is that this spermatozoa enters the womb, and then the formation that goes on in the egg is the collection of the fatty substance to feed the living object that has gone into the egg. Prof. Miuxer: That is what we do not Know. That is assuming all the physiological action. Mr. Epuunxps: Don't you believe that impregnation in the natural process, ina running brook or in a race, must be almost instantaneous where it is naturally deposited ? Mr. Green: Yes, I believe that it is. It strikes “ere [illus- trating], and keeps striking, and by-and-by it goes in Mere, and that is instantaneous, but it is not until you get it there. That fellow has got to find that place. Mr. Epwunps: You think it is liable to accident ? Mr. Green: It is liable to accident, of course. Here is a ball floating in the water, or in the air, or what not, filled with all these little animalcules crawling all over it, and they might not light right on to that hole, or strike right into that hole, at one time. TI believe that impregnation is caused by one of those little insects getting into the channel and seeking the proper Stuth Annual Mectineg. $3 place, and when it is there it is nourished and fed and grows, and that is the animal. The same with this. Mr. Eywexps: In one sense you do not claim that as really accidental, and in another sense it miy miss. Mr. Green : Twenty-five per cent. used to be allowed for impregnation of eyes. The reason was that there was so much water init that the animaleules were not thick enough. They were not thick cnough in it to find a hole in the egy. When we came to thicken it up, as PE did four or five vears ago—and | didn't tell Mr. Stone of it cither for four or five vears after- wards—my cyys impregnated then. Mr. Witmer: Friend Green says there is no advantage in this process. [ have forgetten the great advantage that there is in this speedy mode of laying down the egy after it receives the impregnating fluid. fn omy establishment we will manipulate one hundred salmon at one time, take a hundred salmon out of the water as rapidly as we can and manipulate them. [f the old system wis pursued we would require perhaps fifty tin pans or vessels to lay these eggs in for thirty minutes. We would have to have the whole building strung with a lot of tin pans with these cygs to carry out your system of twenty or thirty minutes : whereas, in this system we gain a great deal because we only use one or twe pans, and as soon asene is full we dip them out and put them on the breeding-troughs immediately. Mr. Gktex: Your tray is standing in the water when vou put them on ? Mr. Wiwer: No, it is not. Mr. Gakten: That is net my experience. We have a trough With an ineh of water in it, bam speaking of our hatching- house. We take the spawn, and as soon as we have taken whit Wwe want inone pan we set that in the trough in the water. It remains there until we get all through taking spawn. .\t that 84 Fish Culturtsts’ Association time those that were taken first are ready to put in the hatching apparatus, and I really do not see any advantage unless it is where you have them by the bushel. Mr. Witmor: It is the speediest way by all means to do, and I think if you try it once you will be a convert. Tur Presipent: Do you pour them right into the trays dry ? Mr. Greex : No; my version is that you cannot handle them too carefully, and that there would be a great many less spawn killed provided they had a little thin shell on them that you could see when they were killed—when they broke. A salmon’s spawn will stand more than any other, and whitefish and shad less than any of them. [think that to pour any of them into a dry tray that you would have a good deal of picking to do in the course of ten or twelve days. Mr. Witmor: We laid down several millions of eggs this year, and that is the system we pursued. Mr. MatruHer: Just as soon as this little animalcule, or spermatozoa, enters the egg, if the theory is correct that the egg immediately closes, how then can we account for the production of double fish? We have two perfect fish often in one egg, joined on one side, and sometimes with two heads. The ques- tion is whether more than one of those entered in order to accomplish that. Mr. Green: There is such athing as two of anything getting into a hole at the same time. Prof. Mixer: Multiplying the number of sfermatosea that enter the eggs would not have anything to do with making twins. That relates entirely to the double volk or to the two germ-spots, perhaps, in the egg. In all the elementary works on anatomy they give illustrations of the egg of the squirrel after impregnation, and in a number of instances there were as many asia dozen spermatosea that had entered the outer coating and Savth Annual Meeting. S ‘a were found fastened upon the inner sphere. Two spermattesea entering an egy would not make a double fish or Siamese twins, as we see frequently, but the egy must have been a double-volk egy, or with two germ spots more likely. Mr. Green: There is a great deal of force in that—in its being a double-volk egg. A double-volk egy would deo it, and that T should think would be the natural cause. Mr. Evarrs: This discussion seems to have been brought about by the difference of the two things that are spoken of. Mr. Wilmot spoke of the impregnation of the egg, and Mr. Mather of the growth of the sermatesea atter it got into the egg. [mpregnation, physically, through all animal life, must be instantaneous. The amount of spermatesea that are in semen is sufficient, so that the first one that finds the egg will get there as quick as he can, The number is so great that they do not stop a great while to find it, and the first one that gets there gets in. That is instantaneous throughout physical life. Mr. Eomenps: Mr. Green's idea in regard to the age of the animal is well understood by physiologists, that where an undue amount of sexual intercourse has taken place with any animal in early life they very soon become untit for use. It is well Known among horsemen and farmers that a horse that is used too much when he is two or three years old, will be spoiled for impregnation ; and so also with the bovine family ; and it may be that itis due to the cutting off of a portion of the spermatocea that he speaks of. Mr. Stone: | would liketo ask Dr. Edmunds if Dr. Llastings, whom he referred to, has published any of his observations. Mr. Epmuenxps: No: it was in a casual conversation that I had with him in regard to the matter, and it is well known that the cell-structure in an ege changes almost instantaneously after the passing in of the spermatozoa. 86 Fish Culturists Assectation. Mr. Sroxe: How is that known?) Who are the authorities ? Mr. Epmunps: T only state myself, from the personal con- versation with Dr. Hastings, in which he said that the cell- structure was so suddenly changed that it was impossible for him to distinguish when it occurred, and he considered natural impregnation as the same, that it was instantancous ino the running streams, and that the sfermatovoa tound a foramen in the ege and entered it instantaneously ; that there was no doubt about it at all. Mr. Witmor: Prof. Agassiz investigated the speedy mode by which a whitetish-ege becomes impregnated. Efe savs it is almost instantaneous, and he says almost immediately after- wards it begins to grow. almost instantaneously ; and he gives vou a description of that almost every hour afterwards until several days have gone by. So I think these scientific men have indorsed the theory which we have laid down, that it ts instantaneous. The immense quantities of spermatosea that are taken from one male fish are almost innumerable, and the moment they get where the egg is one of them enters, and that is Instantancous- Mr. Green: Teclaim that it takes time to do anything, and if it takes time, it is not instantaneous. Efe gets in as quick as he can, there is no doubt of that, but it is not instantaneous ¢ it takes him a little time to get in. Mr. Pritiirs: TE wish to ask Prof. Milner if he has not made microscopic examinations of eggs immediately after impreg- nation ? Prof. Mixer: PE have made none that Tecan refer to. T have watched the development, but it is a critical thing to do, and unless a person has had considerable training as a student in embryology, they do not know precisely what they see. Tn using a microscope it takes a certain amount of time to get Saath Annual Meeting. 87 familiar with it, and te Know peosttively what vou see. T have heard professional microscepists remark that trequently ; and embryology requires the same critical, trained eve to follow the processes. The work that Mr. Wilmot speaks of gives illustra- tions of the condition of the eeu, and it shows the sewmentation and vives the whole process. Mr. Stexe: EP think it is perfectly well established that the results of impregnation—the first furrowing or seementation of the eyg—is very slow and cradual TP think there-is mo doubt about that. The results of the impregnation are slow and gradual, and in a salmen-ceg the very first furrowing only tikes place after twenty-four hours >and if PL anderstand Dr. ldounds rightly when he speaks of this tnstantancous change which takes place at the time of impregnation, he means something that is different from the sewmentation, or the furrowing, or any of the results of impregnation. Tle speaks of the instantincous change in the cell-structure of the eee. Mr. Eomenxos: Yes, sir. Mr. SroXe: And that is the thing that TE would like to get at. Mk. Eowenps: Ttis a thing that T have never experimented with, but it ts well established. Mr. Evakrs: That) instantaneous change, [ should say, probably, judging from the impregnation, would be the closing of the orifice through which the sfermeatecea had entered the egg, and it would Keep any other sfermeatesea from entering. Mr. Pris: Mr. President and Gentlemen: It is from rather a high and scientific standpoint that vou have been speaking, and perhaps the matter which [ would like to bring to vour attention may net be as lofty, but still it is one which interests me exceedingly. The discussion which has just been had is very interesting to society, and so far as it tends in one way or the other to determine how long milt can be carried, 88 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. therefore it is exceedingly interesting to me. Would it not be possible, at the next meeting of this Association, for such a scientific subject to be more thoroughly studied in this Aquarium ? Would it be possible for you, Mr. Mather, to examine carefully the action of milt upon eggs, and by carefully watching it to determine how the increase is formed ? Mr. Maruer: It might, if we had the spawning-fish here, buy there are very few here in the Aquarium that will spawn. We intend to do everything we can do in that way. I hope this coming season to take some eggs of some salt-water fish that have never been taken, and if I carry out that intention | may do something of that kind. I have done very little microscopic work, and that that I referred to awhile ago as watching was done by a very fine worker, Dr. Shafer of Washington, who is well known in microscopic work ; it was with him that [ observed these things and learned many things about impregnation. I have done but very little of it myself. I am studying it, and I hope to arrive at some results by-and-by. Mr. Puittires then read an article upon the Centennial, and upon the value of different kinds of fish as food, as follows: GENTLEMEN: There are certain topics which are everlasting. Being everlasting, they are monstrously tiresome. When an endeavor is made to explain such topics with any degree of amplitude, they may be listened to for the moment with some amount of attention, but it is very doubtful whether much immediate effect ts produced. We get around the long explana- tions of things which are self-evident by inventing certain brief, pithy sentences, which we call proverbs. We say “time ts money,” which has been often twisted into an idea of this kind, “that time or credit is money.” Another well-known saw. is “aeaste not, want not.” No man ever did take these few words Sixth Annual Mecting. 89 exactly to himself, but deems them applicable entirely to some one else. Advance this idea of waste more particularly in regard to fish, and the generality of people will say: “Ob! of course it is quite true. That is to say, we have not the least doubt but that it may really happen some day or other, this want you speak about, but what business is it of ours? When the trouble comes this man is talking about we shall not be here, you know. It will regard the men who are to live and eat some fifty or a hundred years after us. That is their look-out, you see, and not ours.” What struck me then most particularly at the Centennial Ex- hibition—something which pervaded me all the time, which was always the most prominent—was this idea of American waste. [ mean the immense quantity of good fish, intended by the Almighty for food, which was despised and thrown away by us in this country. [ must confess that my own studies have been for the last few years more particularly directed towards the preparation of fish as food, and at the Centennial an opportunity was allowed me of comparing the preparations of our own coun- try with those of other sections of the world. One thing which Was apparent was the meagre list of our own fish preparations. Mind you, I do not mean as to quantity. When we think that the Columbia River alone furnishes fully three times more canned salmon than the whole catch of salmon in England, Scot- land, Ireland, or Wales, we can say nothing as to quantity. Bat quantity is net always quality. What [ took the liberty of sugyesting, in a brief paper read by me in Philadelphia some months age, | have to repeat now, and that is that in our fish preparations we are monotonous. When we have said cod, mackerel, herrings, shad, salmon, and whitefish, we have entirely exhausted our list of fish preparations. We scem from custom or habit to be pent up within certain limits. Now I do not 90 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. mean to advance the idea that these preparations are not excellent of their kind, but they always run somehow in one particular groove. We stick to one or two kinds of fish, and refuse to go beyond them. Talk about prejudices ! There cannot be found any people who, in a piscatory view, have such a narrow horizon as our- selves. Now let me give an example of what I mean, derived from some absolute facts which were apparent at the Cen- tennial. Little Portugal exhibited no less than SIXty prep- arations, derived from twenty fish, while America was repre- sented by fish derived from only ten kinds. Now I will cite our own. We used clams, cod, eels, herrings, lobster, men- haden, mackerel, salmon, oysters, and turtle. Now Portugal gave us bream, cockels, eels, herrings, lampreys, mackerel, mullet, mussels, pilchards, sardines, anchovies, salmon, shad, sprats, soles, sword-fish, squid, salmon-turbot, and tunny—some twenty-one kinds of fish, not counting some half-dozen others— the names of which so far untranslatable—we are awaiting the identification of from Portuguese icthvologists. Now remem- ber, too, that from the warm seas which bathe Southern Europe the Gaddidz are not found in the list. Now, referring again to what I had to say in Philadelphia before the Convention then, which I must repeat again to-day, it is this, that although as to the implements of fishing, such as our lines, nets, traps, hooks, we can be taught nothing from the Old World: as far as their preparation of fish-food goes, we have everything to learn. [ again insist, then, that we have in this country an avalanche of fish-food, admirable of its kind, which we disregard. [I do not refer even as much to the fish which might be prepared for future use, but to fresh sea-fish, to be con- sumed at once. Now, for example, who ever in this country thinks of eating a skate or a ray. Sometimes you will finda Nov Annual Mectirg yt magnificent skate hanging trom the hooks at Mr. Blackford’s establishment in’ Fulton) Market, and people look at it as a curiosity. The idea of cating it never enters their mind. And pray, Why is it not eaten? The very stupid answer is) viven, “ Because it looks so funny.” See its long til and its ugly fice.” Funny! Some of you lave undoubtedly seen in the Aquarium below these skates thying, as it were, like birds, with undulating swoops of their wings, through the water. Is there anything ngly about them, then?) Compare a skate with a lobster—is there much difference as to looks? Butin all these things Inuwidsome is that handsome does. Apart, then, from the appearance of the fish, did any of you ever cata fillet of skate? Of course I do not think vou could do much with the tal, but TP assure vou, that when properly cooked, a fillet of skate is about the mest delicate fish-mersel vou can cat. Here is, then, the best of food, which we despise. Our tisher- men catch them, and with an impreeation throw them back again into the water, And why?) Because there is a stupid prejudice against them. But somehow or other vou do eat them and vou enjoy them, when you know nothing atall about them. There is more than one first-class restaurant in New York where a skilful French cook prepares skate with skill, and vou cat it under the name of turbot, and vou think it delictous. Now there is the sea-robin—the Prrewetus Carelinus. Cateh anybody eating that! And why?) Because he is mottled red and black, and has large pectoral fins like wings. Some two years ago Twas fishing off Sandy Hook in a vacht, with a dedettant crew; that is to say, they were very particular as to what they eat. A chowder was a sive gua nen, but no blue fish would rise ; but we caught sea-robbins in quantity. Some one suggested converting the sea-robbins into chowder, which was done in secret, and a better fish for chowder purposes never was eaten. Q2 fish Culturists Associatien. Now of large and injportant fish there is the ling and the cusk. Both are admirable tish. Mr. Blacktord tells me that some years age he had a standing order for a fresh cusk on every Friday from one of the noblest: few-irants in New York. [ean tell you, too, of another fish which T declare to you to be better than almost any other fish in the market, and that is the Parcphippus Quadratus, or moon-tish. Always referring to our worthy Treasurer, | have his account for it, that some three vears ago he divided up a barrel-full among the numerous New York hotels. Mr. Blackford gave the moon-tish away. Next day every hotel sent an order tor moon-tish, and mow they are in demand. Now there is the red-grouper, coming from Florida. There is some stupid spite taken against this really exceilent fish which is quite the equal ot the bass. Some MEUES, sto tt Wits only the very poorest whe would look at our flounder. ft was called a mud-fish. To-day, in some respect, the despised tlounder is getting into use, and thanks to French cooks, vou eat it dis- guised as fillet de sole, There are sectional dislikes, too, which are CULTLOUS. Now Boston and Nantucket delight in) sword-tish: which is a sweet and excellent fish, much superior to halibut ; but in New York no one will eat it. TP could cite innumerable cases of this character where a fish onty to be apprectited should be tasted. The other day, when visiting this Aquarium with an ftalian lady, she noticed the sea-urchins. As she wis a person quite celebrated for her artistte testes, PE pommted out to her the sea-urchins, indicating their beauty. Eler impressicns of their prettiness was onty secondary to her appreciation of their excellence as fued.. “Ah, she said, in Italy sce. thank Sse urchins delicious as food. Wit. is it possible that in this country you do not know of this delightful truitof the sea? And vou call vourselves an intelligent people without pregudices 1” One thing is very certain, that it would be wise on our part Sarath Annual Mectens. o3 te look im every way towards the augmentation of our food supplies. Qur national birder should be tiereased, and tt can be done by a better appreciation of the bounties showered down Upon us. Now [To by ne means am desirous of seconding the ideas advanced somewhat at random by some enthusiastic admirers of fish-ftood, who say, "Give us a greater abundance of sea-produce, and we shall speedily record a fall in the prices of beef and mutton.” Tf sucha lowertng in the price of beet was possible, it might of course be desirable. But beet in quantity is good, andsois fish. T think that in this country, as in England, the following paragraph, taken from a leading London journal, is quite pertinent: in some respects to the situation “The present demand for fish, even with the great: organiza- tion which now exists for its supply. can only be partially met; ner can fish-food ever become so abundant as materially to affeet: the prices of our other supplies. At certain times throughout the vear, when markets become glitted with the commoner kinds of fish, the price falls so as te be almest nominal; but what is remarkable on the occasion of such ehuts is, that however Large the supply may be, it can readily be disposed of. By the aid of the telegraph, coupled with quick railway transit, such arrmingements may now be made for the disposal of the hiurgest supplies of fish as could not be entered upon fifty vears age. when the produce of the deep was asserted te be much more plentitul than it is at present” There is this difference, however. Whereas in England their stock of fish is augmented by many varieties of fish, we restrict ourselves in this country to but few kinds. Englishmen and Scotchmen, ctich and poor eat fish we would turn up our Noses al. Among some new products whieh PE noticed at the Cen- tennial, there was one. of American origin, which excited ‘the 94 Fish Culturtsts’ Assectatros. particular attention of the Judges. [It was an advance made in the proper directton—an admirable attempt to stop the fearful waste of fish-food. A gentleman in Maine had succeeded mm utilizing as food, in its most concentrated way, the much- despised menhaden. A- product had been made by him which in every respect resembled Liebig’s extract of meat. it was of good taste and color, and without anv fishy oder Dissolved in water it was like a dw//on made of beef. Pere was a valuabic substance, useful to man, giving muscle and brain—something worth dollars and cents—which heretofore had been thrown erent ad antag ef this tish-extruct was > away ; for one of the that in its preparation it did net preclude the extraction of the oil, nor the conversion of what was [eft of the fish inte manure. As the action of this Society is peculiarly comservative In its character, as it tends to the preservation of fish, P have theught that these ideas of mine, hastiiv put tegether, might give oppor tunity for thought. No country under God's heaven has se much good fish-food furnished it, and in no other land de FE think it is so wasted. If rich men with long purses only care toe place salmon, trout, or pompano on their tables, there are many modest boards, where barely a scant meal is furnished, where vanety of tish-toad and plenty of it might be had if we were net shaves te very false and stupid ideas. It is not possible that even the present degree of plenty IT speak of im regard to fish can abwaws last. When in fittw vears to come New York will rival London as te population, when there are more mouths to feed and fess to pat im thems, the de-sson of “waste mot. want mot 7 will be better timadersteecd lo think even Th we were more fethwomumiverous, cmd cat of niore Varieties of fish both derived) feo finesda cand salt water. Srvth Annual Meetings. 95 the advantages fish culturists would derive from this would) be very great. We should not then devote our entire attention and appetites toa few classes of fish. The supply might then keep nearer to the demand. There would be more breathing-time, as it were, allowed for the fish, whieh this Association ts directing its attention to—those fish which, by means of artiticie propagation, we trust to fill our streams with. Pn tact just mow, from our tendeney te waste, we are very much like children, cating our cake and wanting it all the time. Tor Prestorse s In that connection, gentlemen, might call your attention to the fact that some of vou perhaps are mot aware of, although LE see some gentlemen around me whe probably can wo back in their recollection as far as Eoin: but in my early days sucha thing as eating a seft-claum was unknewn, Nobody ever ate asoft-clam at ail | They called it a piss-clium. Now we all know it is infinitely better than anv ether clam, and ranks both in quality and price with the oyster. Mr. Biuxekrorp: They are $2 a hundred forextra large ones. Tur Preesipexst : When d was a bow they were utterly worth- less; ne one touched them at all exeept some few colored gentlemen on Long Island. They seem te be the piencers in such things ; they cat horse-toot cribs. whieh me white min his eaten vet that T kiew of, We have with usa representative trom the other side of the water, a country that ts celebrated througherut: Europe as prob ably being the most productive of salmon ef aay there, equalling almest, it met fully equalling, our own streams—the country of Norway. Pwould be very happy i Mir Waldheim would fiver us witha secant et the tishertes of that coumntey, Mr. Watt: Mer President. Tam met stecustemed: to tise the benelish Lineiawee. and i will be dithtontt fer me teexplun my themehts, brat Powill tev as best Tocca In reward te the 90 Fish Culturists’ Assectation. question introduced by Mr. Phillips, I should think that we in Norway have some experience in it, because we have for over a thousand vears had such fish, and we still have the same way of putting them up for the trade. We dry them as dry as wood, and we prepare them for the most distant countries as wood_ The codfish ts prepared in the northern part of the country in three ways. The oldest way is to dry them in the wind ; another way is to salt them, and the third way is to pickle them; but this oldest one is not the best one, because the climate is mot suitable for drving the cod. Then I should say the best way to furnish the market with fish was to try and send the fish as fresh as possible, and then instead of putting it up tm several ways, to try and get it only in one way—fresh in ice. [| have sent let- ters home about this matter, having seen Mr. Blackford’s establishment, and [ think he ts on the right way; and the American trade in fish is better than the European, because they send the fish fresh to their customers, and leave them the choice to put the fish on the table just in the way they want it. If we send our stock-fish, or dried codfish, to Italy and to China and to South America, they have to dissolve it to make tt soft in different ways—by means of ashes and water, by means of soda and all such things; and T guess this process may disturb some particles of food in it. In the mean while, if they had the fish fresh they would prefer it, and would have the whole fish more equal to the best kind of food. But, on the other hand, this pickling of fish and salting of fish ts still necessary, because it it often, especially in our country, very difficult to have it fresh, and there is no other way to send it to the market than te salt itor pickle it. The reason why the Americans use so few kinds of fish, Ethink, is, in the first place. that they have so many that they use from choice only the best ones, and that in the next plice the customers do not Know what to eat. They have NSavth Annual Meeting 97 to learn to eat fish as they do other things. “They, for instance, in some parts of Norway do not know to cat mackerel They are afraid of mackerel, because they say the bhick stripe along. side of the back is meat of the voung creature, and they are afraid of that. Others do not eat eels because they are a kind of snake. But in the last vear there has been a large alteration in that, and people all over Norway eat mackerel: they have learned to do it. Lthink if the American people would learn to eat all kinds of tish that are here in America, the fish trade would be larger, and the benefit very large also, because, as the Americans say, fish makes brains. We Norwegians say brains miatke fish, because to get these fish we have te use brains. But I think the question about that is a real business question, and the first one isto teach the people how to eat fish; and if any business man has customers that know how to eat the several kinds of fish, he also will know how to get the fish from the fishermen. In short, my opinion about the question is this, that we in Norway have learned that the best way to get customers for fish is to deliver the fish as plain as possible, without any preparation; and if you could send it fresh in ice | think we would prefer that to any other way, leaving to the customers and the eaters how to pickle them or how to cook them. The Presipenr: Betore you sit down, will vou be kind enough to tell us the condition of the fisheries in your streams now, and whether anything has been done to keep them up ? Mr. Waturia: In Norway they have been very anxious to know the reason why the herring-fisheries are lost now, after having been going | do not know how many hundred years. The cod-fisheries, so far as our history goes, have been kept on in the northern part more than a thousand years, and there is no decrease or increase in it to be mentioned. Some vears we catch 20,000,000, in other vears we catch 30,000,000, and, I oS Fish Culturtsts’ Assectation. think, in no year below 25,000,000, if we take all the dead. fish. The herring-fishery has been very small in some years; just now in five or six vears it has failed on the western part—whiat we call Springnelt—but at the same time we get a heavy catch on the northern part of the country, and of a little larger size. We call that the large herring. The difference between now and then is that the List vear | think they caught 200,000 barrels, and some vears ago they caught over 1,000,000 barrels in the Whole. Because they do uot Know the reason, they do not know how to have any remedy for getting the fishery back again ; and they have no haw about the herring-fishery, except the size of the seines or the meshes in the seines, that they do not get toe small fish: but they have the liberty to put their seines and nets Wherever they want. They have a special police for these fisheries, both for the cod-tisheries and the herring-fisheries, but itis only to keep order, to stop the fishermen from going out When the weather is too rough, and to keep justice when there comes up any trouble. We have had some maps about the fisheries to show in which channel the herring is going into the country, thinking that if we could find the channel, and there find anvthing that would hinder them from coming in, we could have that removed, but, as far as TP know, they find nothing. They found the herring in the depths of the ocean. They come to the coast to spawn, and then go out again; but the reason why they do net come now nobody can tell, Some say that the herring belongs to the deep-water fish, and only comes in to spawn. Others say that they belong to the coast-fish, and extend only a short distance from the coast, but the Tas acknowledgment about this matter ts that the herring belongs to the ocean-fish. There was an expedition List sammer which had in charge to Investigate the whole ocean from Norway to Teelind, to get Sivth Annual Meeting. 99 information about the temperature and the salt and a good lot of other things ; andone of them, who had a different opinion about it from other people in Norway, found out that as far as the vessel went to Iecland they could find herring ; and on the other hand, that not many miles off the coast they found no cod. Before that expedition everybody thought that the cod was to be found all over the ocean, and that they would not find the herring but a couple of miles off the coast. The principal question about the fish is how to take care of the fisheries, but the question has no real importance to us because we do not know the reason why the fish do not come. Upon the mackerel fisheries we have no Jaws at all. They can catch mackerel when they want to and can bring them to the market whenever they want to, and they have no control of the trade. They have not, as here in America, three sizes of mackerel. They have no marks on them at all. They generally send them fresh to the market in the country, and send them in ice to England. The fishery laws in Norway are only in regard to the fresh-water fishery, but the fresh-water fishery is very inferior to our salt- water fishery, and not worth mentioning at all; but the fishery- laws about fresh-water fish are very particular, and nearly every year there is some alteration in them. There is a certain time by law to put nets in the sea, and at the same time we have a special law for every part of Norway. When we in our legislation have a law, it means a law forthe whole country ; but in this law about fresh-water fisheries, they have a paragraph allowing one section of the country to alter it for their own use, in regard to the localities there and according to the opinion of the popula- lation in that locality ; and after having had meetings about it, they fix a certain time: for instance, two days in the week they cannot by law catch fish in some parts, and in other parts of the country they have fixed a certain size of the meshes, etc. But 100 Fish Culturists Assoctation. this only belongs to the coast where the salmon-trout is going up and down the river. Inthe inner part of the lakes they have no laws, but there each owner of a farm which touches the lake has a right as far as not only the shore, but out inthe lake. For instance, if the limits of the farm go in “zs direction [illustrat- ing], and here ts a- lake. he owns the lake as far as these limits go, and it anybody catches tish here they have to pay him for it, and the laws only have that in view. There is another thing I would mention. They have a superintendent for the tresh- water fisheries, and he is to give his advice to all who want it about hatching ; but they have no official connected with any public hatching-establishment, and if they want any spawn or any milt they have nobody to ask for it. They are in regard to that very inferior; they have nothing at “allo ~ Fhe7nese ine portant part of his business is only to look out for not disturb- ine the fisheries in the lakes. le is more of a policeman than a business man for giving advice in the trade. The PRESiDENT : I desire to introduce to the Association Mr. Thomas J. Hall, who bas taken an active interest in the protec- tion of the Adirondack fishing and sporting ino that section of the country. Mr. Hare: Mr. President and Gentlemen: -owas invited to be present here to-day by Prot. Mather, and PT accepted the invitation with a great deal of pleasure, Knowing, of course, as I did. that I should meet the sctentifie gentlemen of this country who are interested in the propagation of fish, and Toean assure them that there are none who have taken a deeper interest in it than [ lnive doue 1 have been a frequent Visiter forthe last twenty-five vears in the Adirondacks in this State, Some two vears ago Powas up there in the spring of the ver, and my attention wats drawn to the fact of ao band —l might almost call them, of gentlemen, as they called themselves Savth Annual Mecting. 101 spertsnen—coming trom Saratoga, Sandy ELill Glenn's Falls, ete. Poamet them up at one of the head-sources of the North River, when we were camping there together, and TE found they had been in the habit of going up there tor vears past, and thet they took out some twenty odd thousand pounds of trout and sulted them. TF then conceived the idea why would it mot be advisable to attempt to preserve certain portions of that district. Localled upon the superintendent whe had charge of the Adirondack Tron and Steel Works, who owned the property, and with him we formed a small claboof ten or twelve gentle- men te preserve especially those ponds, the Preston Ponds, cousisting of three ponds, good-sized sheets of water, and some 500 fectof land around. This vear we have enlarged the extent of our Chib very greatly, taking in townships 45, 46. and 47. of Essex county, containing as it) does about ose acres. This property belongs entirely to the Tron and Steel Comypsuny. tt comtains almost the entire head-sources of our North River, consisting of Lake Plenderson, Lake Sandford, Newcomb bake, Preston Pond, Lake Colden, Mud Pond, Boreas Ponds, Lake Calamity. and others. No doubt vou gentlemen are all aware that the fish that we have had in that seetion of the country have been very limited, consisting only of the trout, the lake- salmon, piokerel, perch, and ao tew oof the other ordinary tishes, and anti we ourseives: pliced them tn those waters last year, We had nota bhiek bass of amy description. nor ind we any of the salmron atoallh.o AS soon as we concluded te preserve: this large tract, Peommenced a correspondence with Prot. Baird in regard to trving: te procure certain fish te introduce inte those lakes, and through his Kindness tie tis presented te the Clab ubeut 5.coo at the California salmon. whieh be desired us pur- tieuharky te tutroduce mite Laake Pbenderson. which is ome of the largest Sheets of water we have. Perhitps seme of voutwhe 102 Fish Culturtsts Assectatien have visited this section know that Like: it is some two miles long, and perhaps a mile wide, and very deep, in some places, I believe, over 500 feet in depth, and very recky. Prof. Mather has also presented the Club with the eggs of the salmon to introduce into Lake Henderson to see if we can propagate those fish. Although TP can give vou no facts in regard to the propa- gation of fish, [ can assure the members and gentlemen here that we are going into this, we hope, in rather a scientific way_ We intend this coming season to establish a hatching-house at what are called the Upper Adirondack Works, a deserted village containing a number of deserted houses. We intend to turn one of those houses into a hatching-house. We have now three keepers there, and with those keepers we intend, if possible, to preserve that section. and to introduce all the game fish, as far as possible, that we can. I was requested by the members of the Club to state to the gentlemen here that, of course, all the privileges of fishing or hunting upon that section will have to emanate from the Club itself, but if any of the gentlemen at anv time during the fishing season desire to visit any portion of that section we should be very happy indeed to extend them a cordial Invitation, sivime them the necessary ticket: and ne doubt during the season they would meet some of us up there, and we should alwars be glad to extend them the right hand of fellowship in the good work that is going on I would particularly like to ask, Mr. President, through vou, any of the gentlemen a question in reference to, 1 might say, the dving out of fish. In Preston Pond. some twenty-five rears age, When |commenced going wo there. it was 4 commen practice with me te take fish that would weigh a pound and a half or twe pounds, and To have taken them that would weigh as histh as three pounds. the ordinary river trout: Tat in the lam five vears Navth Ananal Mecting 1a} iis an uncemmen thing te cateh a trout that would weigh oa pound. Powould dike te ask whether the cause of that lies been from ain excessive auneant oof fishing in the bake and net giving the fish cin opportunity to wrow. or whether it comes from their constantly breeding within themselves : and whether thet detertorates the tish sutoall. 1 would like te Kavow that. beeause we have been consulting somewhat about putting int new stock, and have muther hesitated doing it because the fish that we have in there ts what we eall the silver-trout.. Seldous, Woever, will vou find what | would call a red-bellicd trout, bet they are at long, slim trout, pertcethy silvery on their belly 2 cud we were under the impression that i we mixed aay other trout, not knowing what they were. we might injure the tish that we have in there > and PE would like to have any information given me upon that pomt, for if it is advisible to cross the breed, Mr. Green, whe lias just stepped out, has Kindly otlered to give us from 20,000 te 25,000 fish this spring, to be taken up cond putin there, Lam much obliged to vou, gentlemen, Mr. Pritiies: Mr President, Po owish the approval of the Association as to the nemination of an benerary member, When in Philadelphia we were signally indebted to a papanese fora great deal of courtesy and information in regard to fish in Japan. This person, whe was ene of the Tmperial Commission- ers, had his attention directed towards tish culture, and lie became inavery shert time very theroughty informed on these subjects, procured all the books. studied all the apparitus, aod inan inealculably short period became in teeta clever theoreti- eal fish cuiturist. Tle studied the idea with the intention of taking ittte Japan. TP think he would appreciate very much the compliment paid him if we were te make him one of our honorary members. The name of the Commissioner is) Mr. Sekizawa Alkelkio. LT have ne doubt that in time some very of Fish Culturtsts Assectatton. useful information could be had from that country in regard to the fish there. L therefore have the honor of presenting the name of Mr. Sekizawa Alkelkio as a person fitting to become an honorary member of this Association. The motion being seconded, the question was put by the President, and carried. Mr. Witmor: Phave neglected up to this time conveying to this Association the compliments of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries of Canada, and of the Commissioner. [have received a letter touching upon the subject, and T think it my duty to read to you a portion of it, which shows the interest they take in this Association. [do so inorder to show the deep interest that has been expressed at all times by the Canadian Government in regard to the fisheries, and by the officials of that Government in aiding this Association : ~ Referring to the circular notices of the Sixth Annual Meet- ing of the American Fish Culturists’ Association, to take place at the New York Aquarium on the ryth and sth instant, fam desired by the Minister to: say he regrets very much that, owing to the Canadian Parliament being now in session, it will be impossible for me to attend, but he desires me to authorize * % * your attendance. Please be good cnough to convey my most cordial respects to the fellow-members of the Association 2 and in mentioning to them my own regret at being thus obliged to forego the pleasure and profit of attending these meetings; do net omit to assure them of the warm interest | feel in all of their proceedings. Sea Sa rm WN fh al 1 Bae “= Commisstoner ef Fishertes I read this to vou to show the continued interest and good feeling which our Minister of Marine and Fisheries, and our Commissioner as well, take in this Association. The Preasurer’s report was then read and adopted, 7) Sivth Annual Mertiig iz Prof. Misek offered a resolution prowrding 9 6 Dine otal zation of sections, which was relerred te a committee at three Mr. Enwe sos read letters trom David PL Rockbind. Salt: Lethe City, Utah, and BoB. Redding, San Preinetseo. Coliternis Mr. Tivtiee ks LP styppose the gentlemen care all tatigaed: and tired of a continuous session, and would like to we. but DP have gota litthe matter that Pweould like to present, following up this ideaas to the variety of fish-tood. and in relation te fish eultare During a residence in Canada of some vears, Poused to be vers fomdof fishing tor sea-trout, because bP thought they were mere gamey than other fish, and FP deveted naturally some little thie to cxamining their habits. Pb broweht the sabyeet up tere a vear or two age, perhaps oftener than TE should. as te the identities tion of the sea-trout, more particularly because | theouche it wats somuch more valuable than what bam plesased te call the sedi Jontinalis, VL thought if it was a distinet species, and its Tnabits should be carefully studied, it would enter very largely inte the notice of fish culturists, and they would pay mere attention to its propagation, because the time will come when it will stecre the fate of other fish, and be run out and extinguished 1 suppose there is an impression prevailing generally thet thas lish was the same—the sedme fentinales, and what Tb suppose might be called the va/me Covardenses, and TL bave seme spes mens here that would like te show. That tellow in the par there ts what Tocall aovedme Canadeoss. Wis a specimen ot the trout caught tna particular river in Canada, They average tour or five pounds. This poor fellow eve has dest: his color sid shape > he has been in contact with alcohol, and taded out. tt ts very miutural with men, as with fish, if they come in contact with aleohol tog much, they change in that respeet. Bat perlirps the characteristics of this fish are sufficiently marked te make it 106 Fish Culturtsts Assectation. appear different from the other, although T must say that when they came to me fresh, I could scarcely determine the difference between those river-fish, which are caught only at) certain seasons, and those yonder, which are the brook-trout which have gone down into the salt water, and have been taken in salt water. Now in regard to my opinion : those who are Canadians know that the advent of the sea-trout is looked for by fishermen, with some interest; that in the middle of June the fish come up the rivers where we are fishing for the ordinary brook-trout— where we take salmon sometimes—and that they are so different in their appearance and in their shape and quality that they are very much preferred by the fishermen as commercial fish. When in drawing the seines the other fish are tuken with these, those fish are thrown out as insipid and valueless for market, while these fish are carefully preserved and sent) away by hundreds of barrels and salted. [ maintain, from the fact that in this Nouvelle River, where these fish run—thev are large, uniformly large—that it would indicate that they are a species peculiar to that river, precisely as there are certain: salmon peculiar to certain rivers, as salmon-men all Know, from the facet of their running occupying a period of only six weeks, after which they would disappear: and that would serve to indicate a dissimilarity of habits between that and the other fish. [do not care much for the color. There are a great many children of one family that have a different shade in their color, Another point: Tam very rambling, Mr. President. and not much given to consecutiveness. At the mouth of the Saguenay River, early in the season of these fish, in June, vou will find on the bar outside, five miles from the shore, the tshermen there expect to find the fish then, and subsequently they work themselves up ten or fifteen miles, where there is another bar, and they are found there. Hlaving been caught awhile, they disappear, Srath Annual Meeting. 107 which would seem to indicate also that they were a seed-tish, secking, as the salmon does, a certain river, or parts of the river, for spawning. Now if that be the fact. and the fish are preferable in quality to the sadme featinalss, it is certainty worth the attention of the fish culturists that they may be induced to cultivate these fish equally with those inland fresh-water trout, In all the rivers and streams having aceess to the salt water containing brook-trout, FE find that those river and brook trout will vo to the salt water for change of dict and tor better nmour- ishment, but [do not think that it follows from that that they are identical with the sea-trout. The point TP owint to make is simply this, that if they are better than the brook-trout, we ought to pay more attention to their preservation. Mr. Hattock offered a resolution thanking the proprictors of the New York Aquarium. Mr. Buxckrorko: In scconding the motion, Mr President, | feel that I ought to saya litthe more than is expressed in the resolution : that, as the resolution expresses tt. this Assochition had the honor of first calling attention to the meeessity of an Aquarium in New York city, and it was hoped that a public enterprise might be started which would be a tree, public resort, somewhere tn the neighborhood of Central Park > but as the time Was net propitious fer such an establishment, our trrened, Mr. Coup. resolved to start an enterprise on his awn respeotst bilitv. While, ot course. he seeks te mmtke the Aquecriai remunerative te himself as an investment, vet in doing that he has manifested seo omuch public spirit, and se much liberty towords educating the people ot Chis city up tea proper cppre- clation of the studv oof tethvelows and oof ish culture. that I think we ought te take otfieiiul aetion om this cescluttem, came recommend the Aquariim te the hearty suppert ot the peyple 108 Fish Culturtsts Assoctation of New York and vicinity, and that they should give it every encouragement in their power. Mr. Coup has very kindly placed these rooms at our disposal for this, our annual meeting, and given usa free entrance to his magnificent Aquarium, and entertained us so magnificently last night, that I feel we cannot make the resolution too strong in recognition of his kindness and his public spirit. Mr. Cove: 1 think you are altogether too complimentary, Mr. Blackford. I am already under obligations to yourself and others, as | acknowledged last night. Of course in the begin- ning of the Aquarium we knew that there were a great many difficulties to overcome, and in fact we found more than we had at first anticipated. A great portion of the material had to be brought from the other side, and the collections have been far more expensive than we had at first anticipated. However, I ‘have had several flattering letters, and among the rest one from Mr. Lloyd, who is the originator of the Aquarium in London, saving, that from our catalogue it compares Very favorably with that of the English Aquarium. In fact we have a great many specimens here that they have not been able to procure there yet. Of course they have some that we have not. The expense of building the Aquarium here was, of Course, very great, and I am glad to say the public seem to appreciate It since its opening ; and if we had had ordinarily good luck in our collec- tion, it would have been certainly an established success at the present time. T hope it will be now, and that we can succeed in keeping the collections alive that have been brought, ata very great eXpense, so far. TP want again to acknowledge my indebt- edness to vou, gentlemen, for your assistance, and TP hope vou will have vour annual meetings in this reom if the Aquarium does succeed, and we intend to use every effort to Keep it asa first-class institution. Stvth Annual Mectras 109 The resolution offered by Mr Tlallock was uosanimeusty adopted. Tue Prestoene: There is an advantage about the Aquarium that Mr. Coup might not regard precisely as an advantage from his stand-point, but itis so te the public at large. and that is the very fact of the changing character of it. The fish do die off more rapidly than Po wish they did, for his sake: at the same time, so farias the public are concerned—and that isa matter that ought to be brought to their attention—it is comtinually changing. The fish that are on exhibition here are replaced by others, new ones obtained continually > amd To heave been sur- prised, coming here as To hiave, to see whit a vast variety of fish have been presented here from: time to time, some ot them net living very long, and they being replaced by others of ditterent kinds, and so showing a great number ot species and varteties of fish: and it is a matter that the public do not tally under- stand, | think, that the exhibition is one that is continually changing and continually presenting novelties that are interest- ing. Mr. Witwor: Tean, in a most happy way to myself, indorse the sentiments that have been expressed in regard to this Aquarium. Seo far as Tam persomiully concerned, Po must: say that [have received a vast amount of information, and DT only regret that L cannot stay here a week or ten days that Pmight sit Opposite these aquaria and watch the working of the fish, and by that means, Tain satisfied, | should obtain much intormias- tion that [odo not now possess. Prot Coup may rely upon one thing, and that is that when TE return to my countrymen, and Tam in conversation with any person whe is coming to the City of New York, TE shall tell them by all means to visit Prot. Coup’s Aquarium, and they will receive a vast amount of information 110 fish Culturists Assectattien. by doing so. L think Prof. Coup is entitled to everything that is in the resolution, because he has done a vast amount of good, not only to the City of New York, but to the whole continent, in getting up this Aquarium. - think he is entitled to all the thanks and to all the culogium vou can give him for having started this: and although it may have been, in the first phice, of a private nature, vet it ts doing a vast amount of public good. On motion of Mr. Phillips it was voted that when the Con- vention adjourn, they adjourn te meet at the Aquarium on the second Wednesday of February, 1875. Mr. Marurve: | wishto sava few words with reference to the Lransportition of fish. We have in the tanks now some half a dozen whitefish which were brought from the Detroit River. The whitetish has been regarded as one of those tshes that it is impossible to transport any great distance. | never attempted it before, but T know of many others that have. To was up on the river a short time age, and we got some. Thinking that it would be impossible, under ordinary circumstinces, to transport them and get them here, | managed it in this manner: My assistant, whom - left there, P instructed to fill cans with snow— alter the proper amount of Water was put in—to put in the snow so thick as te chill them. and partly stupi'y them, and the snow would also act as a sert of cushton by which the scales would be kept trom rubbing off: and they have been brought here successtully. Lb wish to make the process Known for the benefit of future transporters of whitefish. Mr. Porter: TP have frequently carried trout tn snow, and [ think it is a good way to carry them A fisherman with snow can carry trout almost any distance > whereas, if vou have ice ever so fine, vou cannot carry them. T have never lost any scarcely when TP carred them in snow, Stvth Anunal Merting. tit Mr. Phavti: TE Datm net trespassing tee mich pen the tine of the gentlemen, | wish to say that there las been seme informa: tion given me sinee PE ohave been sitting here in regard te the specimens of trout that we hiave bere upon the table bw Mr. Wilmot, and TP think it might be interesting te the gentlemen, and bE know it would be so to myself. if Miro Wiltmot would state the facts that he las in reference to it. Mr. Hivtice a: Eo beg Mero Wilmot’. pardon ter mot asking him to sav something upon the sabjeet Mr. Witwer: fo am almost beyinning te tec! that f liave Monepolized too much of the tine of this meeting > buat P come from Canada, and P have come tor the purpose of qaining tnfer- mation, and, if possible, giving some Tb know very well the mecting is far advanced, and many gentlemen desirtous of going home, but at the same time bthink Ho anvthing can be learned we shoule endeavor lu yet Possession ol all tbrcat Wwe possibly Cah Sh. Pam onet prepared to savy that Pam going to give any Knowledge In referenee to this fish. but the eeuticommin Who tatrodmeed at upon the table said) he thought it should be cultivated “In an artificial way, and Powill state thet we are engaged in that way now. The establishment on the Sagimaw River has a large number of sea-trout ove now hatehing out T have been in the habit of catching these fish very numercusty every vear, and though Po have come in collision in niny instances with gwen- tlemen whe have different: ideas on the subject of these fish, vet Tam of the opinton.that this fish, er the sedme Canadeusts as it is termed by Mr. Pballock, isone and the same as the speckled- trout, or salme fentiaads. Valways had that beliet. He says they are only caught for about six weeks incertain places. That can be easily accounted tor, There is but a short period of time in which the leases are given by our Government to the salmon- fishermen. They come up these rivers with actly, and are there 112 Fish Culturtsts’ Assectation. but a short time; and during that short time, in many instances, is the very period when this fish is migrating from the sea to pass up the river for the purpose of depositing its eggs. He says they are prized more than other trout on account of their fine qualities. That is so; salmon fishermen prefer to take them for their food, but it is to be accounted for in this way, that they come directly from the sea from their feeding-grounds, and they are fat and in fine condition ; and when they get up to where the salmon fisheries are they are in the best possible condition they could be. After three or four weeks they are not so delicate. These fish pass by and disappear and are not heard from for some time. It is because they pass by the river where these salmon fisheries are and pass to the upper branches where the salmon fishermen do not go. They go there and deposit their eggs and then return to the sea and put on fatness again for another migration another vear. The color of all these tish in the sea, the salmonoid family, is different from what it is in fresh water. He isa bright, brilliant tish when he comes from the sea, and he gets darker as he goes up the river ; and when the month of November comes around he is a black, dirty, uncouth looking fish. So it is with this specimen ; when that fish came from the sea he was a bright, beautiful fish. As he passed up the stream he began to get discolored and get to be black. Therefore, the opinion that exists among gentlemen who go fishing upon our rivers in Canada in regard to that fish, is not altogether the correct one, from the fact that they do not sce him only in a certain season when he is ina prime condition, Now there is a fish upon the wall which was caught in proper season, If that fish were caught in October or Novem- ber, instead of being caucht in July. as that was, no person in this room, [ think, who had been engaged in fishing all his life- time, but would say it was a distinetly different fish altogether. NSivth Annual Moerting. 113 IT have specimens in my cabinet now, in Canada, where they are put side by side, and gentlemen will look at them and say they are not the same fish at all The change is so wondertul and great that it is almost impossible for any man te believe it unless he has seen the fish during the whole period of the vear. They become transformed in shape. The male would become black as ink almost, and would lewe a projection an its lower jaw of an inch or an inch and a half long: therefore many people, whe are not cognizant of the nature of the fish, say, dt cannet be the same kind of a fish that TP eaught in June base” It is the same way with all our fish that are migratory. The migratory fish all change wondertully in there appearance and in their nature. Vhat fish, therefore. ino my estituation, is a salme fontinalts, or a sea-trout, if vou choose. or a sala Cand- densis. VL have caught them, buodreds and liindreds, along the sea-coust, and Pohave canght them again away up in the sind tributaries, perhaps roo er iso miles up the river. and they are just as different as vou could possibly imagine two fish te be, but vet Tam satistied they are the identical tish. But tn order to more tully peove this question, Pinstracted: my assistant te gather a large number of ovaof sea-trout. and he bas collected 300,000 or 400.000, wnd the bist report E heard trom him wars threat they were gust being hatehed oat LT have alse brought some te Ontario, and Tam going te put them inte some of the Lukes of Ontario, My theory ts. when thew are hatched out they will become what is catled the speckled-trout there > and, on the contrary, tho owe take the eyus of our speekled-trout in the mountiins, and hateh them and turn them: inte the sea he will become that same fish, because de his a Lorgwer area cond: mere fowl Tf vow take at stream in the counter that ts frequented by these Litthe trout tive or sin tnehes Tong. and we te werk and ~ . coustruet aodium covering twe oor three aeres. ima few vears 114 Fish Culturists’ Asseciation. afterwards vou will have trout weighing two or three pounds in that pond. It is because there is a larger body of water, and a larger amount of food than in the little stream of water. It is a matter of food altogether that produces the difference in size, and it is a matter of temperature of water to a great extent that gives the fish the variety of hues that we have present at certain seasens of the vear. Therefore [ feel it my duty— although, perhaps, my views do not coincide with my esteemed friend, Mr. Hallock, but I always feel it my duty to express my opinion or belief quite independent of whether it affects others or not—I do candidly believe, and I think the gentlemen of this Association almost generally indorse this opinion, that I express in regard to the sea-trout. I go so far as to believe that all the different kinds of salmen-trout—those that we catch in our great inland seas, salmon-trout weighing fifty, sixty, or seventy pounds, sometimes caught in Lake Hluron and Lake Superior—were originally the salmon of the sea, and by some yoleanic eruption and upheaval of the earth they have been at some very remote date thrown up by these eruptions into some of the lakes that were formed by the eruption inland, where they could not get out again, and they became transformed, after many years, to the different fishes that we now have frequenting these lakes. We know them all to be of the salmonoid family. And so it is, vou can change any of the salmonoid family at your pleasure, if yeu will only devote sufficient time ta carry out the experiment. Now that fish) vender: its) father or grandfather or great-grandfather came from the sea, but Tam contident that Ze never went te the sea. We had in’ Lake Huron, and a portion of the Georgian Bay, salmon which were planted there, the eggs of which were hatched in my establish- ment, and put inte the rivers running into Lake Huron, Some fish have been caught there the last vear which the fishermen Sevth Ananal Merctime. nS Were not acquainted with, We never could get specimens of them because the people take little interest in the matter, but from the descriptions that have been given to me Pam confident those are the same fish as that one new upon the wall And if you can do that in one instance vou can de it in’ another. Therefore | hold that the sea-trout, the sa/me fentrmeles, and the little speckled-trout, are one and the same thing. Mr. Hattock: | have no doubt the ventlemen here will all be very much obliged to Mr. Wilmot for the information which he has given, and [ am very glad to know that Mr. Wilmot speaks from facts, on investigation, and that what he has advanced has been based upon experiments; and while | de not wish at all to appear pedantic in oppesition to a gentleman who has made this a study, | would like to state two facts to substantiate my opinion. These sea-trout are caught all down through the Se. Lawrence River and down the coast of Nowa Scotia, and Ido not Know that [ have ever seen what I call sea- trout caught outside of the maritime provinces. Plow is it that we do not wait in the waters of Long Island and in the waters of Cape Cod, as they do in Canada, for the coming of these sea- trout? Another point: | have gone upon the Nova Seotia rivers. Those rivers are all short, generally they do net run mere than three or four miles, sometimes they will run fifteen, and then they get to be brooklets. [ have been there fishing, and generally at the mouths of brooks that run inte those rivers Lhave fished and caught what are called the sa/me fontinalis— similar exactly to these mountain trout—dark mottled salmon, bright crimson, and blue spets upen them distinct cnough—but the general hue of the fish was. as Mr. Wilmot expressed it, dark : but that was early inthe season. The Indians would say, * Now this is small fry, we will wait mow for awhile and we will see the sea-trout come in, and then we will lave some sport” I 116 Fish Culturtsts Assoctation. have been fishing two weeks and caught these brook-trout every day, and then I would catch sea-trout. I have been fishing all the time and caught the same kind of fish, and up comes another kind as different as a black sheep is from a white one. I have continued fishing, and caught no more of these bright fish, but caught the dark ones until the fall. That, in my mind, seems to establish the fact that this fish is distinct and separate from the other. Mr. Wirmot: May I ask you whether the fish that you were catching at the mouth of these little streams were not invariably small fish ? Mr. Hatrtock: They would weigh from a pound to a pound and a half. Mr. Witmot: The others would weigh three or four pounds ? Mr’ MiarkocK:> Wes, sir: Mr. Witmor: But a large majority that vou caught at the mouths of these streams were small ones ? Mr. Harrock: I will stand corrected, and never rise again on this floor if Mr. Wilmot will tell me why those fish don't come together. Mr. Witmor: It is upon the same principle precisely that little children do not want to associate with men. These little fish can get all the food they want for their sustenance at the outlets of these little streams, and when they begin to get larger the requirements of their nature demand a larger supply of food, and they drop down the river until they get to the larger bodies where they get a larger amount of food, but they are compelled to return to the streams by instinct, to produce their young. Nature teaches them to go to their breeding-grounds. They pass by these little fish on their route upwards to the branches of the river, while these little fish as they grow larger NSovth Annual Meeting, m7 carry out the same routine, namely, cot down to the larger bodies of water to weta hirger amount of teood Mr. Ebavtnock : Why do not these same habits and conditions apply to these different streams on Long Isband ? Mr. Witwer: Teannot tell vou, The Prestoenn : They do. bo can confirm Mr Wilmet in that. It is a matter which presented itsell to my mind, and I wrote a book on the subject some twelve or fourteen vears age It is the same opinion that) Mr. Wilmot: tiis expressed here. You ask why do not all the trout go tothe sea? Simply becuuse they do not want to. Seme are migratory in their netions and some are not. Eo have a pond on long Island, and some of my trout go to the sea and a great many do not. - live a fish-way, and every trout can leave my pond and go to the seas but they deo not do it. Some do. Last vear there were as beautiful sea- trout caught below my pond as anywhere on Long Isha. re Mr. Uvtioek : Those fish were caught in salt water ? The Presipenr: Yes, sirg We used te cateh trout on the north side, in the salt water where they were coming right in from the salt water, bright, beautiful trout. but mot quite se handsome as the sea-trout. - liave followed the sea-trout right upthe river, You speak of the Saginaw River, catching them at the mouth > and vou catch them later when they have moved up; and vou go away up inthe hiead-waters and find them there. The first time Ewent with Mr, Witcher, which was a great many years age, L visited the Nouvelle River and the sea-trout were very abundant. We struck the sea-trout at the mouth of thet river, and we took them along up with us. and we found tooa mixture of the sea-trout and the other trout: we found them in all conditions, changing from one tothe other, We would go te a pool and catch the brilliant, bright sea-trout, and in the same pool we would eatch the older tish that were darker, and 118 Fish Culturtsts’ Assoctation. then we would take the dark ones that had evidently not gone to the sea at all. We would see in one day a tremendous school of fish come up in one of those pools, a school larger than would cross this entire room, solid, and they would pass around this pool making up their minds whether they would go up or not. We would see them pass in front of our camp, go up, go around, go back, go up. IT would cast over them once ina while and raise one; and they would staya day or two, and they would make up their minds to go up, and they were gone. Another thing confirms Mr. Wilmot’s views concerning their visiting the larger lakes. I do not know whether he has investigated the upper part of Canada, the western part of Canada adjoining Lake Superior. I have spent some time there; TI took in Lake Superior and Detroit, and there were some sea-trout ; you could lay them alongside of one another—a trout that had never seen salt water—a magnificent, great sea-trout, and as brilliant as anything you ever saw, and as brilliant as any ever taken in the St. Lawrence River. We would take them right in the great lake where you could not see across, precisely the same thing as I have taken in the Nouvelle River and in the Saginaw and St. Lawrence. J followed those up in the same way. There was more rapid change of color there because the water is rather dark, flowing from swamps, ete. f caught trout there so dark that they were almost black. You look at them and at first vou would say, * Phat never can be a trout ; itis a black fish of some kind.” L have taken below Carman’s Point sea-trout that were exceedingly brilliant, and more so than anywhere else on Long Island, and I have observed the same thing tn relation to these trout. Mr. Wirmor: When my friend Hallock visits our Provinces, T hope he will go up the Dartmouth River, which ts leased by a gentleman living in Boston. All the distance he can go up will Sivth Annual Meeting. 119 be with a canoe, twelve miles. There is a matural fall, an impassable barrier. Ele will find at the foot of that fall little speckled-trout an inch or two inches long, and he will find them running from that up to three and four pounds in weight; and if he goes about three vards below this deep pool, he will some morning see these sea-trout—the bright, brilliant ones— coming up, and he will catch them very readily. Then go up to the deep pool under the rock, and he will catch all these kinds, one with red tins, another with black : and if he Stays there as late as October or November, all these bright ones will become bhack-sided and red-finned. They cannot) get out. They all come up from the sea. The litthe ones lie off of the little streams, but in their migration they all congregate in this stream, and when October comes they drop down to the rapids below to lay their cxgs. Mr. Hateock: TP would like to say, if To have formed wrong conclusions, it has been net from lack of observation and opportunity, for TP have fished every part of the waters that Mr. Roosevelt speaks of and that Mr. Wilmot speaks of in the lower Provinces, Lake Superior, ete. Lam quite aware that the color of trout changes with the water, that swampy water produces dark color, and erce rerse. Mr. Witwer: Tf my triend, Mr. Piallock, could give me any data for the foundation of his arguments which would in any Wav upset the views which To entertain, of course Lo should gladly receive theni, because my object is to seek information : but, from the experience To ohave have had in regard te this matter, it must be conclusive that they are one and the same thing, and Pam corroborated by our esteemed President. Mr. Pivakes: This ts really a revival of the old question that was settled back ten. twelve, thirteen, or fourteen, vears ago, A - - . ¢ - number of the fishermen that used to go up into the waters of 120 Fish Culturists’ Assectation Maine to fish, and up to the waters of the St. Lawrence, and up those rivers that come into it, had a good many discussions on the subject of whether these larger trout, that were caught in the lakes of Maine, and trout coming from the salt water, the sea-trout, were the sa/me fentinalis. Some of them, able men, some of them men of mind, men of discretion, men that could observe, maintained that they were not the same fish, that they were entirely different fish from the se/me foutinalts > so that the matter was put into the hands of Prof. Agassiz to determine, and he maintained that they were one and the same fish, whether they went to the salt water or the fresh-water seas. Mr. Wiuwor: But there is one thing that [ would recom- mend to all gentlemen about stocking their ponds, and that is to get a stock of eggs from the largest trout they can get, because on the well-known principle that Hke begets like, you are more apt to have a large class of fish from breeding from large fish than from breeding from small ones. Prof. Mitxer, from the Committee appointed ino regard to forming sections, presented a report, Which was adopted. Mr. Evaris: In order to return the courtesy of our cousins over the line—Mr. Wilmot appearing here himself, and Mr. Witcher having sent his comptiments—[ move that we, as a body, return these compliments through Mr. Wilmot to Mr. Witcher. The Prestpene: Mr Witcher is known to many of us and toy myself, personally, very well, and there has nobody been more active, nobody exhibits more cnergy, nobody exhibits more interest in the subject that we all have at heart than he ; and the results that he has achieved bear the highest testimony to his capacity. Mr. Wilmot we all know, and we can almost repeat the same Linguage in regard to him. Ele has originated many new suggestions in the matter of fish culture, has been Savth Annual Mecting. 121 very successful himself, has been present at many of our micet- ings, and has always been a welcome addition, The motion offered by Mr. Evarts was adopted. Mr. Witmwor: Lin behalf of Mr. Witcher and myself I return you sincere thanks for the compliment vou have paid us in expressing those handsome sentiments in regard to ourselves. I thank you cordially for the manner in which vou lave ten- dered it. Mr. Marner: If there is no subject under discussion now | should like to call the attention of the Society to an item that I saw In a newspaper about a week age, perhaps, but which | have unfortunately lost, and cannot even tell what paper it was in. It was to the effect that certain parties in the vicinity of Miwk- inaw were about to place the first seal there, for the purpose of breeding, and if any gentleman wants to know what effect that will have upon the fisheries of that place, he can very easily see by observing the habits of the seal in the Aquarium. [tis not what the seal eats so much as it is what he destroys. You can feed them all they will cat, which is an enormous quantity of fish, and then if they can get live fish they will play with them as kittens will kill mice. They are very quick in the water, and they will catch fish and come up and toss them from one to another, and then go down and catch another and kill it, and for every pound they actually cat they will kill owenty in play ; and if there is such a movement on foot, | think this Association ought to enter a protest against it in some wity. Mr. Epwenxvs: We have recently seen seals in Lake Cham- plain, and the question was whether they had been carried there from some menagerie, or escaped from two different gentlemen who have some inthe state; and [ have from correspondence with parties in Montreal learned that they are being caught in 122 Fish Culturtsts’ clssectatien. the St. Lawrence, and that they come up the Richelieu into Lake Champlain, net in great abundance, however. Mr. Witmer: This matter brings up another that is closely connected with it. The object of Mr. Mather is that we should by some means protest against the introduction of an animal that would be injurious to the fishing interests of the country. That can be carried out in another way, so far as fish are con- cerned. Lam inclined to think that many of us are inclined to satisfy our faney in introducing fish which are injurious. On the Detroit River, which is frequented almost wholly by white- fish, and where fishing has been carried on from time imme- morial almost on an extended scale, it has of late vears been very much diminished. The Government of Canada, now aided by that of the State of Michigan, have erected upon the east shore of the river ao large whitelish breeding-establishment. The breeding of whitefish, of course, ceases about the rst of April: that is, they generally hatch out about that time, and they are turned out, and the building, of course, would then go into disuse until the season again approaches in October or November for laving down the eggs. “The fishermen—tishermen are generally greedy and very selfish—said, “ Now, since you put this establishment up here, we want you to go to work and breed another kind of fish and put them into the Detroit River.” They made an application to our Government that I should send my assistant and my employees to Dake Tluron, and there collect large quantites of the eggs of what we term the pickerel, one of the most voracious and destructive fish that we have in our waters. The Government referred the matter to me, and asked my opinion. LT reported adversely to it, and said : “Tthink vou will be doing a great injustice to the fishermen themselves if vou introduce into the same waters the bitterest and the most rapactous cnemy of the whitefish. [ft would be, in Sith Annual Mectiineg 12 ~~ my estimation, just like putting tate the same told the wolt cod the lamb. Whitelish are most tamocent ta their mature, mot fish of prey, not prediaccous tnauny way, snd to pout pickerel inte the same streams, with an immense mrouth aod teeth. and jaws indicative of predaccous and rapictous habits, P think would be doing a very great wrong; therclore, if we were to satistv the wish and the greed of these fishermen, we would perhaps turn out millions of this same kind of fish tute the sane waters Where we are breeding whitelish” Tain pleased te state that the Gaovernment did not acknowledge the petithon that was sent in; that they togk the adviee of mysclt and did not do se. Therefore, as the subject has been brought up by Mr Mather that we should not put in animals that are destructive of fish, the same argument holds good that vou should net put ig fish that are destructive of other fish Greentlemen are too desirous of introducing some new thing or some new kind of fish inte the waters. As another illustration, the St. Jelm River was formerly a magnificent river for salmon, but ot Late wears has become almost depleted of them, sand it ts said te lave resulted partly from the fact of American gentlemen having, a number of vears age, put inte one of the branches of it. pickerel The consequence is that the young of the salmon are destroved by this predactous fish Se TP think it should be just as much a study with vou to prevent, if possible, the introduction of voracious and predacious fish which are mot as food fish for food Lthink the whims of individuals should not be carried out that way. One man omay think it is a nice thing to have wolves, and he may want te breed wolves. Tsay the law should protest against it, In Canada we de not allow ao man to breed a wolf, We contend that in order to carry out aquaculture, as we do agriculture, he should endeavor to preserve the better kinds of fish. I only make these remarks to show in my humble war 124 Fish Culturists’ Assoctation. my interest, and to prevent, if possible, the introduction of the horrid fishes, if [may so speak, among the better and innocent kind. The Presipenr: Mr. Blackford has given a great deal of attention to the results of all our efforts ; that is, the quantity of fish that come into the market. [I believe he is not thoroughly prepared with accurate statistics, being a good deal pressed by the necessities of this meeting, the weight of which fell very largely upon him, but [ think he can give us in a rough way what will be interesting to us. Mr. Brackrorp: Mr. President, it was intimated to me previous to the meeting that it would be the pleasure of the Association to hear some facts In connection with the marketing of fish, but as the President says To was pressed with the necessities of this meeting just at that time, and had to devote my time to other matters, T thought Po might say a few words, however, in reference to the supply of the various kinds of choice fish in our market, and T will speak first of the pompano. In the latter part of 1876 we received large quantities of pompano from Pensacola. They were shipped here by express in such quantities that the price which had) previous to that time been from one to two dollars a pound, dropped right down to twenty-five or thirty cents. 9 Ina few months after that we received liurge consignments of pompano from Baltimore that were caught in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay. They were caught in such quantities that the market became olutted with them there and they were shipped all over the country, a large portion of them to New York, and the price deciitned to ten cents per pound, Now the pompano is really worth more money, mn comparison with other fish, than that: and the low price may be attributed to the rgnorance of the people, generally, of the merits of the pompang. Probably there area number of Sarvth Annual Mecting. t2 “we gentlemen here now who really have never tasted a pomypxine If people. generally, in New York knew the merits of the pom- pane the price would hold up fully te twenty-five cents a pound. Speaking of quantities, they would probably not exceed 1,000 to 1,500 4 day for several days; and Lowill sugevest right here to our esteemed Commissioner, Mr Ferguson, as he is from that locality, that if a litthe inquiry is made inte the habits of the pompane and the manner of catching them, thus bringing them inte public notice, Lthink it would have a marked etfeect on the business. Our friend, Mr. Wilmot, was) speaking of the salmen, Probably the tnereased supply of salmon in’ New York during 1876 was more marked than at any tome within my recollection, owing to the extension of the inter-colontal milway system, se that To think there is a branch conning trom Montreal down through the Restigouche region. and soon down te St. Jolin’s, alse taking in Bathurst The opening of this resad im 1876 epencd anew territory for fresh salmon for the market. and [ was called upon by Mr Mowat, from the department of Mr Wilmot, whe. on behalt of the fishermen there. wished te market thetr fresh salmon, And, by the wav. while speaking of that d made seme inquiries as te the production of the rover — tornd that some ten vears age the salmen were very scarce in the Restigeche River, but owing te the efforts made by the Canadian Commission in hatching and protecting the salmon and te their preteetive Laws, the iaerease bad been weondertal : so mach se, that the preduetion of the estuary fish ademe aireunts te tron 250,090 J+ 509.000 proms, TE tlemk Phiis chees et take in the production et the tishertes in the vietmity of Boathaerst Mr) War xten - Vheat is simply the reported quoantittes Phere isa bareee coment besiches Mr Bie kien: Eno the latter partoof Pune hirge quantifies 126 Fish Culturtsts’ Assoctation. of salmon were shipped to New York from Bathurst, and the price declined until the retail price in the New York market was ten cents per pound. Only think of it, salmon, one of the choicest fish we have! [| had the curiosity to inquire of Mr. Mowat to what he attributed mostly this great increase, whether to fish hatching, or the protective laws, which was entitled to the most credit, and he answered unhesitatingly, “1 think that it was the protective laws that were entitled to the greatest share of credit ; that although fish hatching and propagating supplied to a great degree the waste.” Yet the protective laws, he thought, were more efficacious in increasing the supply. I speak of that here because I think that in New York, if the laws were more stringent in regard to our shad, we should find a very much more marked increase in the siipply. The increase of shad in the market has not been so great as we had reason to expect from the vast quantity of eggs that are hatched and turned loose, but owing to the persistent fishing of the waters all the time, Sundays included, the fish have no chance to get up the river, but, with one day’s rest: for the fish, it would probably greatly increase the supply. The terrapin has had some attention paid to it, in regard to seeing whether it should be cultivated, and the supply increased in our waters, through the enterprise of a dealer in our market, Mr. Benjamin West. He established a pen on the New Jersey shore, in the vicinity of Long Branch, in which, during the summer months, when terrapin are not im season here—folks do not call for them, they are not marketable—large quantities are shipped to New York from Texas and the Southern States; so that the price, which in the terrapin season is usually from S12 to S15 a dozen, in the summer time iIs,.as low as $2 50 and 83. They purchase a large quantity of terrapin during the summer, and place them in these pens and feed Sath Aanual Mecvting 12 bal them, and carry them over through the winter months, and put them upon the market, but their suceess in caring for the terrapin has not been very marked, owing to some reason or other, not understanding fully the kind of food that they require, the terrapin does not possess the delicate tHhaveor which the genuine diamond-back “Chesapeake” las. The general criticism ts that they are fishy. That is perhaps owing to the amount of fish that is fed to them, and not having their natural food. These terrapin were tound te hiv their eves quite plen- tifully, From these egys the voung were hatched out in the sand, and they made their escape to the sea through the interstices of the pen. PE think, perliaps, ina few vears we shall have quite an inerease from this cause in the nuniber of terrapin caught in this vietity. Mr. Eowenps introduced a resolution in memory of the death of members of the A\ssoctition. On motion of Mr. Mature it was ordered that the Asse- ciation purchase a book-case to Keep the records, books, and papers, in, to be placed in the reading-room of the Aquarium building. On motion of Mr. Pritts the Convention adjourned. CONSTITUTION. ARTICLE L—NamMe axnp Orseers, The name oof this Society shall be The American Fish Culturists’ Association.” Its objects shall be to promote the ease oof Fish Culture: to gather and ditfuse information bear- Inge pen its practical sucess ¢ the interchange of friendly fecling and intercourse amone the members of the Association ; the uniting and encouraging of the individual interests of Fish Culturists. ARTICLE T1—Memnebers. Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote of the Society, and a opavimnent of three dollars. be considered a member of the Association, after signing the Constitution, The annual dues hall be 83.00. ARTICLE [1h —Orticers, Phe officers of the Assoctation shall be a President, a Vice- President, a Secretary, a Treasurer and Exccutive Committee of three members, and shall be clected annually by a miagjority of votes: vacancies occurring during the vear may be filled by the President. ARTICLE T¥.——MEERIANCS: The rewular meetings of the Association shall be held once aovear, the time and place being decided upon at the previous meeting AR TICEE. -V..—CuAsNO ISG THE fost iri The Constiution of the Society may be amended, altered, or repealed, by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any recithur meeting. MEMBERS OF THE American fish {| ulturists [ssociation. qu 7-4 paperne es Ambler, Andrew S., Danbury, Conn, Anderson, A. AL, Bloomsbury, Nod Baird, Spencer PL. U.S. Commissioner of Fish amd Figheries, Washington, DOC. Betteman, C. G2. Greenville, N. J. Blackford, Eo Go. New York City. jorrdansan, ER Gy. Boyer, Bo Frank, Reading, Pa. Bradley, Richards, Brattleboro, Va Brewer, J, D2. Muncey, Pa. Srideman, J. D., Bellows Palls. V¢. Sureces, Arnold, West Meriden. Conn Bush, John T.. Nineara Falls, Cand. Chandler, F. J.. Alstead, No EL Chrysler, Gilford Wo, Kinderhook, N.Y. Chrysler, Mo HEL, Kinderhook, N.Y. Clift, William, Mystic Bridze. Conn, Colburn, Charles S.. Pittsford. Vt. Collins, AJ S., Caledonia. No Y- Coup, WLC. New York City. Crocker, A. Bo. Norway, Maine. Edinunds, Mo C2. Weston. Vie Evarts, Chartes B. Windsor, Vt. Farnham, ©. PL Milton, N.Y, Farrar, Benjamin, St. Louis, Mo. Ferstson, T. Bo. Annapolis, Mal. Gill. Theodore. Washington, D.C. Good, G@. Brown, Washington, D.C. Fish Culturtsts’ Assoctation. Green, Seth, Rochester, N.Y. Hallock, Charles, New York City. Hessel, Rudolph, Offenburg, Germany. Heywood, Levi, Gardner, Mass. Holley, W. P. Katonah, N.Y. Hooper, H. HL. Charleston, N. TH. Hunt, J. Daggett, Summit, N. J. Hunt, N. W., 70 Lee Avenuc, Williamsburg, L. [. Hunt, Luther B. Huntington, Dr.. Watertown, N.Y. Hutchinson, Chas., Utica, N.Y. Jerome, George H., Niles, Mich. Jewett, George, Fitchburg, Mass. Kent, Alexander, Baltimore, Md. Kingsbury, ©. A. Dr, L119 Walnut St., Philadelphia. Lamberton, Alexander B., Rochester. N.Y. Ledyard, L W., Cazenovia, N.Y. Lees, Edward M., Westport, Conn. Lowrey, G. P., Tarrytown, N.Y. Lyman, Theodore. Macinnis, Arthur, Stanhope, Pa. Maleomson, A. Bell. Jr. New York City. Mann, J. Fo. Lewiston, Pa. Mather, Fred. N.Y. Milner, James W., Washington, D.C. McGovern, TL D2, Brooklyn, N.Y. Neidlinger, Phil., New York City. Newell, W. TE. San Franciseo. Cal Pave, George S.. New York City. Parker, Wilbur FL. Meriden, Conn. Paxton, BE. Bo, Detroit, Mich. Phillips, B.. Brooklyn, N.Y. Porter. Bo B.. Colorado, Price, Rodiman Mo. N..T. Redding. BL Bo, San Francisco, Cal. Redding, George HL. Stamford, Conn Reeder, rhe | = Kaston, Pi. Members. Richmond, W. EL Seranton. Pa, Robinson, Ro FB. Rockford, A. PL, Salt Lake City, Utah Roosevelt, Robert Bo Ton, New York City Saltus, Nicholas, New York City. Shultz, Theodore, New York City, Smith, Greene, Pelerboro, Va. Sprout, AL D.. Muneev, Pa. Merling. E., Cleveland. Ohio. Stone, Livingston, Charleston, N. 2, Stoughton, EO Wo. Windsor Vt. Tass, Henry, Philadelphia, Pa. Thomas, TE TL. Randolph, NOY. Tileston, W. Mo. New York City. Van Cleve, Joseph, Newark, NJ. Van Wyek, J. To. New York City Ward, George E.. New York City. Whiteher, Wo FL. Ottawa. Ontario. Canada Whitcomb, To. Springtield, Vt. Whitin, Edward, Whitinsville, Mass Wilmot, Samuel, Neweasthe, Ontario. Crus Worrall, James, Horristurech. Pa. Dr. Yarrow, IE ©), US AL. Washington. 2D a> &ee™, - ao ¥ eo » ™ oF as "> -— Pet. ae ae weet” iu 4 elt b's Ay ie “¥ ‘ | bu za 1 ated ws re oe 4 rane Biers nee: Pa poi FP ll eae rel Dwi ee bard Ea cal se ae é aw 4 ie oe sel ae Nhdyit whine WS nag hell Sparepd aldol — Fhe s, ‘ “a oe pawl leo 7 a * ulfeod "i 1 an Oe wel ee elo a ihe od eg | z "ine" — — ar ‘ ——. . ebas |) ee F PP Seatiidath!y | aa eee v4 ae - = , , a ae eer ‘ << - r - = - ten i. | ti «pe natt ye = ; S.) ie ei “i. i. * - ae oe eng TE) pares Sen oe, Se z = a5 -L y ay agi ce a ly ie ‘7 niq>ak eens / Pos " < 7 es Ae Cit'tim?) Se (ae sae : ne eer es ~— i = ot =" va ais rs a 4 : oath woe oe vi da ¢ ' - a. ae - Ds) ae he tale ; \/ oer = owed ae 1% 4 ur i . aa N ‘i ee Vw yA are i ry BS 38, OW of! ' ke ‘an 7 A oF 7 , at ad Z ae r = ¢, : - @e ' . 4 SH American Fisheries L Society A5 Transactions 1877 B iological & Medical Serials PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY