Part I

not needy ; an umbilical sac three times the bulk of its body is provided. Apparently exhausted by its late efforts, and weighed down with its bag of provisions, it lies on it, or rests on its side, or stands on its head ; any posi- tion suits it; its eyes, unless closely inspected, the only part visible. Its body three-eightfos of an inch long, and not E 66 AMERICAN FISH CULTUKE. larger than a "wiggle tail" in a barrel of stale rain-water. Poor helpless pigmy ! will it ever rise to the angler's fly, a monster of four pounds, aftd give him a half-hour's hard fight, or smash his tackle ? Not one chance in a hundred if born in some pebbly brush-covered rill. How many such would its own father or mother, a foot long, devour at a single meal? five hundred? yes a thousand! If such was not the law of nature, trout would be as thick in our streams as mosquitoes or midges sometimes are in the air above them. They would be dirt cheap in our markets they would be a nuisance. Therefore, He who made nature's laws is all wise. Shall we thwart these laws or violate them ? Did we do so when we made a Newton pippin of the crab apple of the forest? or produced the cabbage, that grows tons to the acre, from a trifling plant found on the sea-shore ? In a week or two, the troutlings begin to move about, then to flit through the mimic brook in the hatching-trough as you cast your shadow over it, and, true to instinct, stick their heads under pebbles, or hide under the fall made below the strip at the head of the nest. They become more agile as the sac is absorbed, and at last, when the whole stock of pabulum is exhausted, they begin to seek their own living, darting through the water after micro- scopic insects, groping in the gravel for larvae ; or rising at some minute gnat, or at atoms of blood or curdled milk or yolk of egg, that are fed to them. As soon as the first brood appears in a trough, a fine wire cloth "screen should be placed across the lower end. When TROUT BREEDING. 67 they begin to move about, wire screens should also be placed across every fourth or fifth nest, to confine them in apartments, so that they may not be over-crowded in any one part of the trough. The water should also be deepened, by placing additional strips an inch wide on top of those where the screens are placed; and an additional supply, but not enough to wash them in numbers against the screens, should be let on. If there are too many in one apartment, a portion may be removed into another where there are not so many, by lifting them out with the little net already described. Some of the fry, as I have before remarked, will be puny, and others large and vigorous ab ova. The latter, when two months or ten weeks old, will not hesitate in their efforts to swallow those that are just hatched out, and will generally succeed in doing so. Therefore, if a month or two should elapse in planting the whole length of a trough with eggs, it is necessary to protect the late from the early comers. When the fry become lively, the bottom of the trough can be cleansed by washing the gravel, commencing above and stirring it in each successive nest towards the lower end. The young fish will move out of the way and resume their places as the water becomes clear. Treatment of the Fry. When the sac has nearly disap- peared, a little food should be offered to the fry at intervals of two or three days; when they begin to take it readily it should be supplied to them twice every day. They will 68 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. rise with avidity for the particles that float, and seize those that are carried along beneath the surface. This is a critical time with the fry, and some, perhaps many, will die from no ascertainable cause. Great care should be taken that they are not washed by the current in numbers against the screens, as many are too weak to disengage themselves, the stream pressing them against the wire cloth until they die. It would be well, therefore, to place something in each nest to make an eddy for those that re- quire still water, or have two short bulkheads, as -pictured in plan of the nursery. Four or five different kinds of food have been recommended. Liver or lean meat boiled hard and grated ; the yolks of eggs boiled hard and reduced almost to a powder ; raw liver chopped fine with a long sharp knife ; fresh or coagulated blood ; fresh shad or herring roe, raw or boiled ; thick milk or bonny-clabber, and curds. The best way of feeding bonny-clabber, is to dip out two or three spoonfuls from the pan in which it has thickened, into the small net used for transferring the fry from one apartment to another. The net is held in the water, and the clabber, by breaking and stirring with a spoon, is reduced to fine particles, while the whey is carried oft" by the current. By shaking the net and canting it, the atoms float out and are borne along mostly on top, when the fry will rise eagerly at them, and also take those beneath the surface, as well as the particles that after awhile sink to the bottom. This is the lightest, and, I think, the most suitable thing for fry when they first begin to feed. Curd, which may be fed to them a few weeks or a month later, TROUT BREEDING. 69 should be made from milk which has turned in the pan ; it is not so hard, but lighter and more digestible than that made over the fire. I have fed fifty thousand fry with curd for more than two months, the time occupied at each feeding, not exceeding a half-hour. For feeding so large a number two or three quart bowls should be provided, and a lump of curd as large as one's forefinger dropped into each, half-full of water. The curd in each bowl is then triturated successively, and the milky water poured off after the particles settle to the bottom. Two or three tri- turations reduce it to atoms sufiiciently small. In feeding it to the fry, the rim of the bowl is placed beneath the surface ; the influx of the water suspends and whirls the light particles around, when the bowl is canted and a por- tion distributed in different parts of each nest. Four lumps of curd each as large as one's forefinger, fed in this way, suf- fices for forty thousand fry when they commence feeding ; as they grow, the quantity should be gradually increased ; but double this quantity is enough as long as they remain in the hatching-troughs. When they are let into the nursery the quantity may be again increased, but not enough to foul the bottom. An hour or two after feeding, if the gravel is stirred lightly, the particles of food that have settled to the bottom are set adrift, when the fish will take it again. If too much of this food is given it will make a mouldy covering over the gravel, and emit an unpleasant odor. As often as this occurs, the gravel in the troughs should be washed as already directed. A strip four or five inches wide should now be placed 70 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. above the wire screen at the end of each trough, as the fry will leap over the top if it is only an inch or so above the surface, and thus make their escape. When, from their numbers and size, the hatching-troughs become too small to accommodate them all comfortably, they may be lifted out with the small net and placed below. It is well, also, to keep the bed of gravel at the top of each trough an inch or two above the surface, as they have a disposition to wriggle over, if it is even the eighth of an inch in depth, and run up the little jet from the supply-trough, then into the filterer, and even into the supply-pipe. Concerning their disposition to escape from the nursery, Mr. Ainsworth in- formed me he once missed many of his fry, and found them in a pond where he kept his large fish. After many days' search for the place of exit, he found that one of the plauks had a hole the size of a quill in it, eaten by a wood- worm before it was placed there ; through this, an earth-worm which had found it, made its way, and then through a bank of clay five or six feet to the large pond ; the fry had escaped along this narrow channel. I had a like experi- ence at the establishment which I started in Warren county, New Jersey ; many thousand of the fry escaping through a crack in the mason-work, not more than wide enough to thrust the blade of a stout breakfast-knife in. These little matters of experience I jot down to show the necessity of having the sides and ends of the nursery of sound plank, and of providing against every chance of escape. A month or six weeks after the fry commence feeding, TROUT BREEDING. 71 they will grow to a size which will cause the troughs to be overcrowded. When this occurs, those in the lower nests, being the older, should be lifted out as I have already advised. After those in the upper nests have been feeding for three weeks or a month, the screen at the lower end of the trough may be removed^ and as many as are inclined, or all of them, should be allowed to run down into the nur- sery, or, as some call it, the " rearing-trough." It will be observed by the plan -that a nursery is provided for each pair of hatching-troughs, and that the width of the latter scarcely exceeds that of the two troughs. The reason for this is that the fry may be the more easily fed, and that they are more under control than if a single nursery the whole width of the hatching-house was used for four or six troughs. I have found the latter hard to keep clean ; much of the food thrown into it is not eaten, and it remains only to foul the bottom; besides, it has no current and little eddies, which the fry are so partial to. The feed- ing in the nurseries is the same as in the troughs. After all the eggs in the house have hatched out, the curtains to the windows should be removed so as to admit the light, and the windows and doors left open when the weather is fine. Part of the roof on each side over the nursery should be put on in sections, say three planks of a foot wide forming a slab. Two of these slabs on each side are enough. Each slab may be removed, or may turn on hinges to admit the sun. Young trout delight sometimes in basking in the sunshine, on shallows where the water does not cover the gravel to more than the depth of an 72 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. inch, and such contrivance (which I adopted at my place in Warren county, New Jersey) will meet the case. A Transportation of Fry. large number of young fish A may be transported in a few cubic feet of water. short time after they commence feeding, I have no doubt that a thousand or fifteen hundred might be sent off in twenty gallons, if care is taken to renew the water, as I have re- A marked on transporting adult fish. hundred might be taken in a jar holding a gallon, if the water is kept cool and aerated. On one of the plates of the Massachusetts Fish Commissioners' Report for 1867, is figured a tank a-fourth wider at the bottom than at the top, with a pump inside for oxygenating the water. It is an excellent contrivance for conveying either young or old fish. Care should be taken that the vessel in which the fry are carried is free A from any strong taint. new red-cedar bucket for in- stance might prove fatal to them.* According to the system of rotation in occupying the ponds as already given, pond No. 1 will be vacated by the latter part of summer. The fry should then be admitted from the nursery, care being taken that none remain behind. If any should linger they will become attenuated and ill- favored from lack of food, and may, if they survive, be hungry devourers of the fry next season. I this day (May 28th 1868) noted a great disparity in the size of the fry in Mr. Comfort's troughs and nursery, the largest being at least four times the size of the smallest. Mr. C. assured me he has seen within a few days, the larger endeavor to swallow their smaller brethren of the same brood, and supposes they have succeeded in their efforts in some instances. TROUT BREEDING. 73 CHAPTER IV. TROUT BREEDING GENERAL REMARKS, FOOD FOR ADULTS, PROFITS AND STATISTICS. Food of adult Trout. Curd, liver, maggots. Maggot-factory. Allowance of food for a given number. Natural food. Stall feeding and its advantages. Trout culture a branch of farming. Facilities possessed by farmers. Will fish culture pay 1 Instances of its being profitable. Estimate of cost of feeding on curd. Proposed trout breeding at Ingham Spring. Growth of trout. Description of Huningue, and M. de Galbert's establishment, in France. Heidelberg. Fish cultural enterprise in Switzerland. Trout culture in the United States. Notice of Mr. Ainsworth's establishment. Description of Seth Green's. Food for the Fish in the Ponds. Trout are carnivorous and can hardly be driven to eat vegetable food. I have known them in winter to linger around the entrance of a spring branch where kitchen pots and pans were scraped ; attracted no doubt by the small portion of animal mixed with the vegetable food, which the brook carried into the pond. When the weather became warm enough, however, to bring flies on the water and to set the minnows in motion, the mouth of the branch was deserted. The nearest ap proach to purely animal food is curd, and on this, with whatever fresh animal offal may come from the kitchen, the farmer or one who grows trout for his own use must chiefly depend. If sea-fish or liver can be obtained in quantities 7 74 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. at moderate rates, it is the cheapest strictly animal food for a large number of fish. When trout are raised in ponds of the dimensions I have given, it is evident that little or no dependence is to be placed on natural feed, such as flies and their larvae. Hence, the necessity of providing curds, or liver and lungs of animals at prices that will not cause too great an expenditure for the value of the crop. I have found that the curd from the milk of one cow which gave fourteen quarts, would feed bountifully a thousand or twelve hundred trout, averaging five-eighths or three-quarters of a pound ; the smallest being seven inches long, and the largest from two to three pounds in weight. The food should be chopped or crumbled to the size of peas. In feeding, a good plan is to have a piece of timber extending over the pond ; the person giving the food standing on it, thus familiarizes the fish with their presence. They soon become acquainted with sounds or objects on the bank which indicate an approaching meal. The sight of a person with a basin or crock, or the sound of the chopping hatchet, causes a great commotion in the finny community; when a handful is thrown in, heads, tails, and bodies immerge in an upward shower. When they are fed from the cross-timber, they soon become so tame as to take the food from one's fingers with risk to the feeder, however, of receiving some severe scratches or bites from their sharp teeth. The larvae of the common green fly, known as maggots, are hatched in putrid flesh or animal offal from May to TROUT BREEDING. 75 December, and are more nutritious as well as more natural food, than any I have mentioned. It is true, that many persons would be disgusted at the idea of eating so beautiful and delicious a fish as a trout, fed on maggots. Does it ever occur to us what a hog eats, when we have sausages or broiled ham for breakfast? or what trout feed on in their natural haunts ? An inventory of a trout's stomach, I have often found, would exhibit rather a heterogeneous assortment, not omitting a few green caterpillars, and numberless maggots hatched from the eggs of such flies as deposit them for incubation in waters that are natural homes for trout. If these diminutive larvae give growth and flavor to trout in wild streams, what would the plump offspring of green flies do, if fed to them in stock ponds ? I have found them to be taken with as much gusto as green turtle was taken by London aldermen in olden times, and they no doubt produce the same aldermanic proportions. From my own experience, I would say that ten pounds of beef's liver produces more than that weight of maggots. If boxes are provided, with bottoms of woven wire sufficiently open to allow the larvae to drop through when shaken, and sliding board bottoms to detain them as they are hatched out, these boxes may be kept as worm-producers in some out-of-the-way place, and taken to the pond and shaken, after removing the sliding bottom. Seth Green finds the head of a beef productive in this way, dipping it in the water and shaking the larvae off" to his fish, and setting it away in a box to produce more. An -old friend, who takes an interest in all that pertains to trout-breeding, discourses 76 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. on this wise, on maggots as trout food : "The City of Lon- don contains about three and a half millions of people ; its citizens are great egg-eaters, consuming more than a million daily. To supply this demand in part, egg-producing com- munities have grown up on the opposite side of the British A Channel, in France and Belgium. man, or a family, may own a thousand or more hens ; little or no vegetable food is given to them, but they are fed on maggots, which stimu- late the laying of eggs. This food is obtained in great quantity by digging trenches or pits three or four feet wide and as many deep. The bottom of the pit is strewed with fresh horse manure, and into it is thrown all manner of animal offal ; a dead cat or dog, or any animal that has died naturally, is eagerly sought after. The maggots, which are produced in great numbers, are raked out and fed to the hens." As the matter of food is one of importance to those who intend breeding trout in large numbers, an experiment of this kind is well worth the trial. In ponds of large area, much natural food is found on aquatic weeds and other plants. The long green silk-like growth, as fine as human hair, which we observe in some waters, and generally in the spring of the year, we find filled with little red coiled up worms; young periwinkles and snails abound on certain weeds. The larvae of flies are also found on weeds, as well as on decaying brush and logs. Minnows, and the small fry of harmless and worthless species, can also be grown as trout food. It follows, then, that when fish have more range, less food is required to be given them. But in such ponds they are less under control, and TROUT BREEDING. 77 resort must be had to the net, or the uncertain hook and line in taking them. Besides, if such ponds are overstocked there is a lack of food. In such as I have recommended, it is provided for them. In the former they are at pasture, in the latter, stall fed, under control, and ready for market when wanted. Fish Culture a branch of Farming. In the beginning of this chapter I have alluded to the facilities which most farmers have for hatching trout spawn. Taking them as a class, they are far more favorably situated and circumstanced for the whole routine of breeding and growing trout than persons of any other occupation. As regards the first requisite, most of them have springs of more or less volume and of the proper temperature on their premises, and generally near their dwellings. Labor with them is cheap, and much can be done at different seasons of the year without interfering with their ordinary farm work, or hiring extra help. The employment of horses, carts, wagons, and men, which they keep of necessity, would, therefore, cause no expenditure, and fill up their leisure time. The little mechanism necessary, could be done by any one of them having an eye for a straight line, and an aptness with square, mallet, chisel, saw, hammer, and jack-plane. The only outlay would be for lumber, and trout or spawn to commence with. Four men, with a span of horses, a plough, roadscraper, shovels, and hoes, would excavate and construct ponds of the size I have described, if the ground is not over s-tony, in less than ten days. If the farmer has no mechanical skill, a country carpenter, with the assistance of two 7 78 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. farm hands, would put up a large hatching-house in a week. The time between corn planting and the first ploughing, might be put in to advantage. After hay and oat harvest, another turn at the ponds might be taken, and the lull after the crops are in would suffice to finish them. Winter, in which the farmer has but little to do, would be pleasantly and profitably employed in attending to the hatching. Pie would have a certain supply of fish food from curds, and an occasional one from the animals he would kill. Using milk does not rob the butter jar or the pig pen, as it can be turned into curd after skimming, and the whey can go A to the slop barrel. friend in an adjoining county keeps forty cows to supply milk dealers in town. He has embarked in trout breeding, and says if his hopes are realized, and the matter of food should require it. he will make butter instead of selling milk, and turn all the latter, after skimming, into curds. Farmers, taking them as a body, are slow in receiving a new idea or adopting new theories. Wheat and corn, which they know all about, are pretty certain, although they require much labor, and some outlay in their production. But here is a branch of industry which can be grafted on, aquaeculture an adjunct to agriculture. It can be made as much of an accessary as keeping bees or poultry, and with no more labor. Trout are much less mischievous than the latter, they do not invade the garden or a newly sown or planted field, and can always be found within their circum- scribed bounds. " But," says the farmer, "folks will steal my trout," a town or manufacturing village within a short TROUT BREEDING. 79 distance suggesting the fear. This is true ; but they may also steal your poultry or your pigs, and what is crime in one case is crime in the other, and there is a penalty for both. " Well, but a fellow who would not rob a pig-pen or a hen roost will rob a fish-pond ; he wouldn't think that so much harm." Wouldn't he! Only keep a sharp lookout after the one as you would after the other, and let the cul- prit take the consequences, and an example of the punish- ment of one fish thief would have a wonderful effect through the neighborhood, and even through the county. The question asked by many is, will fish culture pay '( It will certainly pay in stocking barren rivers, as was de- monstrated at Holyoke last summer, when forty millions of young shad were hatched out. But will breeding and raising trout for market pay ? In answering this question, I will give a brief summary of what has been done, and then endeavor to show what can be done. A few years since, Seth Green, after seeing what Ste- phen H. Ainsworth was doing, and learning whatever he could from his little fish cultural establishment, bought an old saw-mill site on Caledonia creek, for two thousand dollars, The creek abounded in trout, and by erecting divisions, and barriers to their escape in the old forebay and raceway, he soon had an abundant supply of breeding fish. He had scarcely commenced artificial propagation, when a partner was admitted by paying down six thousand dollars for a half interest ; the place, which was bought for two thousand, being valued at twelve thousand. From what I can learn, his profits in 1866 were about a thousand dollars, 80 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. in 1867 five thousand. This year he sells three hundred thousand spawn at from eight to ten dollars per thousand j and two hundred thousand young fry at from thirty to forty dollars per thousand ; the sales amounting perhaps to ten thousand dollars from spawn and small fry, to say nothing of the larger trout which he sells from his ponds. Mr. Ainsworth experimented in fish culture for recrea- tion, with a desire to diffuse a knowledge of the art, and to introduce it as a new industry, and does not follow it for any profit it affords. Still, with his small supply of an inch of variable water, he assures me he could have sold five hundred dollars worth of spawn and small fry every year, if he had applied himself with that object. He has generally refused to sell spawn, unless the object of promo- ting fish culture induced him. So his sales have varied from a hundred to five hundred dollars per annum. In the mean time, in a quiet way, he has stocked streams and ponds without remuneration. From his largest pond, which contains about fifteen hundred trout of various sizes, he has this spring taken two or three messes every week enough for his family, and a dozen men who are employed in his nurseries. He takes them all (from three-quarters When to a pound and a half), with the artificial fly. feed- ing them, they are so tame that they will allow a lady, who is his neighbor, to lift them from the water, and appear to like to be fondled. I have just returned (May 20th) from a fishing excursion, where I met him by appointment, and he gave me these items verbally. In the town of Spring Water (I Dhink, in Ontario TROUT BREEDING. 81 county), New York, a few years since, a farmer owning the sources of a fine spring brook, made three dams on the stream at small expense, and sold the property, which cost him two or three thousand dollars, for ten thousand. So wonderfully had the trout increased by natural propagation in a few years, that the place, otherwise of little value, commanded this price for its fish. On Long Island, near the city of New York, a person cultivates trout and allows anglers to fish his pond at a price per day. His income from this source is about twenty-five hundred dollars per annum, so I am informed. The amount of his sales from young fish for stocking the ponds of gentlemen, who keep these preserves for fly fishing, I am not aware of. An advertisement in the New York Tribune, reads: "10,000 Live Trout. Ponds on Long Island, or near New York City, stocked with live Brook Trout of one year's growth. Address Wm. Nichol Islip, New York." I would say that trout of one year generally command from ten to twelve dollars per hundred, and are in demand amongst New Yorkers owning ponds on Long Island. Mr. Ainsworth, in a letter to the Vermont Fish Commis- sioners, gives an estimate of the profits which may be de- rived from hatching and growing trout on a large scale. As his figures have connection with the description of the ponds, and both would occupy several pages, I must omit them ; his showing is, that large profits will accrue from it. The following is an estimate of my own, based on my experience in feeding curds. The number of trout is the F 82 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. same as those intended to be raised in the ponds of my friend Comfort, described on a preceding page, using round numbers. FOOD CURD FOR ONE YEAR. Pond No. 1 Pond No. 2 1'ond No. 3 10,000 yearling, 3 quarts per day. 8,000 two year old, 6 " "" 7,000 three year old, 12 " "" X = X = 21 4c. per quart 84c. 365 $306.60 Attendant's wages ' 400.00 ANNUAL SALES AFTER THE THIRD YEAR. 7000 trout from pond No. 3, 1 Ib. each, 7000 Ibs. 75c. per lb., $5250.00 Sales of small fry, 3,000 yearlings 10c., 300.00 3,000 three or four months old 5c., 150.00 50,000 eggs, $8 per 1000, 400 00 Deduct food and attendance as above, 6100.00 706.00 $5393.40 An intelligent lad of fourteen, under the direction of an experienced person, can manage hatching-house and ponds, and not occupy more than half of his time. Such a lad can generally be found amongst the sons or lads employed by a farmer. In addition to the curd, the offal of the kitchen, and livers and lungs of animals killed on the farm, as I have before said, can be used to hasten the growth. The foreman of a tannery near Lehigh Gap, on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, last summer sold to a fish dealer a number of large trout, which he had kept in a rapidly growing condition by feeding them on the fleshings of hides. I give these few instances of fish culture paying, as they have come under my observation, or as they have been TROUT BREEDING. 83 told to me by others, and this is all I can do, as it is yet a branch of industry, which I might say, is " in embryo ;" but I am so well convinced of the profitableness of a large and well-organized system, that I am about engaging in it again, with Mr. A. J. Beaumont, near New Hope, Bucks county, Penna. Mr. Beaumont has a spring on his property known as the Ingham Spring, which flows about, or over, three thousand gallons per minute. I have alluded to it in a note at the bottom of a preceding page. He has ample room and favorable ground for the ponds, and I do not think it at all unlikely with such advantages, that twenty- five or thirty thousand trout, averaging a pound, can be taken from the third, or it may be a fourth pond, after the enterprise has been in operation three or four years. Of course, the question of food is the most important. In this connection, I would remark, that Mr. Ainsworth told me a few days ago, that he kept an account of the expense of feeding his fifteen hundred fish on beef's liver for one year, and that the amount so expended was only seven dollars and a half. But in his neighborhood, he can buy He a beefs liver for ten cents. fed his trout two livers per week as a general rule, chopping up a quart or so for each meal, but in --extremely warm weather and in winter he gave it to them but sparingly. Growth of Trout. I have already said, or intimated, that trout kept in ponds will average a pound, when a few months over three years old, if well fed. I am confident from my own experience, that the allowance of curd just given, for the different ages, will produce that weight. 84 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. Still, they are like pigs in more respects than in greediness in their disposition to eat offal, for their increase in flesh will A be in proportion to the amount of food given. respect- able old gentleman, who, I think, would not " fib," tells me he has had them of four pounds, when as many years old ; but they had the run of the spring-house, receiving many a spoonful of cream thrown to them in removing moats, much curd, many worms which his boys fed to them, and the whole population of many a big catterpillar's nest cut from a limb in his orchard; as well as young wasps and hornets. Per contra to this, a trout will live in the bottom of a well, or in a spring, without being fed, for years, and show no growth. In stocking my ponds in New Jersey, several of my trout received unmistakable marks, which they never got rid of; two of these, which were not over eight or nine inches long, and not over five or six ounces in weight, grew, on the amount of curd already mentioned, to thirteen inches in length before they had been in their adopted home a year. They were very stout, and doubt- less weighed a pound. Here the weight was more than doubled in a year. Mr. Ainsworth stocked a pond near West Bloomfield, New York, with fry as soon as the um- bilical sac was absorbed, and three yeart after caught them, weighing two pounds. In stocking a pond for angling, on Long Island, a friend of the writer bought yearling trout not over five inches long; the following spring, say in twelve months, they were about eleven inches long, weigh- ing a full half-pound ; in twelve months more, they had grown to average fourteen ounces, some of them weighed TROUT BREEDING. 85 more than a pound. As a fish increases in size, its pro- A pensity for further growth also increases. young salmon at a year, or sometimes even at two years old, does not weigh three ounces ; it goesto sea and frequently returns in six weeks, or at least the following summer, a fish from three to eight pounds. The abundant and nutritious food obtained at sea causes this wonderful growth ; if it is pre- vented from going to sea, it does not grow to more than twelve inches, or three-quarters of a pound, in a year from the time it weighs three ounces. Thus an abundance of food causes a rapid growth. The enemies of larger trout in stock ponds, are fish- hawks and night-herons. Water-frogs, snakes, and ducks, may also be destructive to the fry when first turned out of the nursery. In a confined space, the water-snake first A muddies the water, and then finds its victim. duck also A has the same cunning. frog, in solemn silence, waits for their approach to shallow water amongst grass or weeds, and pounces upon them. The little king-fisher may also capture some. But the foe which it is the most difficult to protect the fish from, is the species of heron alluded to. Though not numerous, these wading birds, when they have found a feeding place so well stocked, may come for many successive evenings, and prey upon the trout. Other ene- mies are more easily provided against. Huningue. The following description of this celebrated establishment, where fish culture, it might be said, was inaugurated, is from Bertram's " Harvest of the Seas." " The series of buildings erected at Huningue, aie 86 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. admirably adapted to the purpose for which they were designed. The group forms a square, the entrance portion of which two lodges is devoted to the corps de garde, and the centre has been laid out as a kind of shrubbery, and is relieved with two little ponds containing fish. The whole establishment, ponds and buildings, occupies a space of eighty acres. The suite of buildings comprise at the side, two great hatching-galleries, 60 metres in length, and 9 metres broad, containing a plentiful supply of tanks and egg-boxes ; and in the back of the square are the library, laboratory, and the residence of the officers. Having minutely inspected the whole apparatus, I particularly admired the aptitude by which the means to a certain end had been carried out. The egg-boxes are raised in pyramids, the water flowing from the one on the top, into those immediately below. The grand agent in the hatching of fish-eggs being water, I was naturally enough rather particular in making inquiry into the water-supplies of Huningue, and these I found are very ample ; they are derived from three sources the springs on the private grounds of the establishment, the Rhine, and the Augraben stream. The water of the higher springs is directed towards the building through an underground conduit, while those rising at a lower level are used only in small basins and trenches, for the experiments in rearing fish outside. Being uncovered, however, they are easily frozen, and besides, are frequently muddy and troubled. As a general rule, fish are not bred at Huningue, the chief business accomplished there, being the collection and distribution of TROUT BREEDING. 87 their eggs ; but frhere is a large supply of tanks or troughs, for the purpose of experimenting with such fish as may be kept in the place. The waters of the Rhine being at a higher level than the springs, can be employed in the appareils and basins. The waters of the Augraben stream which cross the ground, are of little use. Nearly dry in summer, rapid and muddy after rain, they have only hitherto served to supply some small exterior basins. Of course, different qualities of water are quite necessary for the success of experiments in acclimatization carried on so zealously at this establishment. Some fish delight in a clear running stream, while others prefer to pass their life in sluggish and fat waters. The engineering of the different water-supplies, all of them at different levels, has been effectually accomplished by M. Coomes, the engineer of this department of the^ Rhine, who, in conjunction with Professor Coste, planned the buildings at Huningue ; indeed the machinery of all kinds is as nearly as possible, perfect. " The course of business at Huningue is as follows : The eggs are brought chiefly from Switzerland and Germany, and embrace those of the various kinds of trout, the Danube and Rhine salmon, and the tender ombre chevalier.* Peo- ple are appointed to capture gravid fish of these various kinds, and having done so, to communicate with the authorities at Huningue, who at once send an expert to deprive the fishes of their spawn and bring it to the breeding or store boxes, when it is carefully tended and daily * An exceedingly fine species of large lake charr, one of the genus salmo. 88 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. watched till it is ready to be despatched to some district in want of it." After describing the manipulation of fish to procure the ova, and discussing the probabilities of exhausting the streams of Germany and Switzerland by receiving such large supplies of fish-eggs from them, this writer continues : " It would scarcely pay to breed the commoner fishes of the rivers, as carp, pike, and perch. The commonest fish bred at Huningue is the fera* whilst the most expensive is the beautiful ombre chevalier, the eggs of which cost about a penny each before they are in the water as fish. The general calculation, however, appertaining to the operations carried on at Huningue, gives twelve living fish for a penny. The fera is very prolific, yielding its eggs in thousands; it is called the herring of the lakes, and the young, when first born, are so small as scarcely to be perceptible .... I inquired particularly as to the Danube salmon, but found that it was very difficult to hatch, especially at first, great numbers of the eggs, as many sometimes as 60 or 70 per cent., being destroyed ; but now the manipulators are getting better acquainted with the modus operand!, and it is expected, by and by, that the assistants at Huningue will be as successful with this fish as they are with all others. . . ." " Up to the season of 1863-64, the 'total number of fresh- water fish-eggs distributed from Huningue, was far above 110.000.000, and nearly half of these were of the finer kinds of fish; there being no less than 41,000,000 of the A species of Coregonus, similar to our small Whitefish. TROUT BREEDING. 89 eggs of salmon and trout. Subjoined is a tabular statement of the fish-eggs collected and distributed at Huningue for the season of 18612. Species. 90 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. pagating trout artificially. When hatched and of suitable size they are turned into Lake Neufchatel and the streams emptying into it. At the time of our visit to his establishment, he was greatly enlarging and improving his ponds, hatching-boxes, &c. The result of his experiments had satisfied the people of his canton, that the project of stocking the lake (a body of water twenty-eight miles long, and seven miles wide), was a feasible one, and would richly pay for the expense incurred in rearing the young fry and turning them into the waters, notwithstanding the people of the cantons of Freyburg and Vaud, that joined upon the lake, would also get a considerable share of the mature fish. " When we witnessed the outlay of money to fit up the hatching establishment at Prof. Vouga's, and realized that it was done by a people numbering less than 80,000 persons, and in a territory of less than three hundred square miles, we could but contrast that people with those of New England." The first experiment in fish culture in this country, from all I can learn, was made by Dr. Garlick and a friend, at Cleveland, Ohio. Owing to the death of one of them, the enterprise was abandoned after a season or two. Mr. Kel- logg of Hartford, Conn., Mr. Pell of Esopus, and Mr. Ains- worth of West Bloomfield, New York, commenced a few years later. Following these, came Seth Green of Mum- ford, New York ; Mr. Vail, of Long Island; the writer, near Asbury, New Jersey ; Rev. Livingston Stone, Charlestown, N. H. ; Benjamin Kilburne, Littleton, N. H. ; D. G. TROUT BREEDING. 91 Bridgman, Bellows Falls, Vt. ; J. S. Robinson, Meredith, N. H. j Judge Tilden, Lockport, N. Y. ; P. H. Christie, Clove, Dutchess county, N. Y. ; Jeremiah Comfort, near Spring Mills, Montgomery county, Pa., and others. Mr. Ainsworth commenced nine years ago, with a diminutive supply of water collected from a dozen or so of small springs in his nursery of fruit trees. Leading these through glazed tiles underground to a reservoir, he obtained scarcely water enough to fill a hole an inch in diameter, and that, of exceedingly variable temperature ; in winter, only a few degrees above freezing point, and in summer, quite warm. Mr. A.'s mind is particularly constituted for experiment and analysis ; with this imperfect supply of water, he has unweariedly pursued his object of making fish cul- ture a branch of national industry, and may be considered the father of the science in this country. The following notice, taken from the Rochester Democrat of May, 1862, shows what progress he had made at that time, and gives a tolerably accurate account of his little establishment. " An Attraction in the Country Visit to a Trout Pond. We were not aware, until a few days since, that within twenty miles of this city there is a trout-pond in which sport hundreds of the speckled beauties, fed every day by the generous and enterprising proprietor with as much regularity and care, as he feeds his horses and cattle. Having been posted upon the subject, and, moreover, having been summoned by a polite but pressing invitation, we took a drive on Wednesday, in company with Louis Chapin, Esq., to the village of West Bloomfield, and with- 92 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. out delay reported ourselves to the Hon. Stephen H. Ains- worth, whom we found at his hospitable mansion, in the quiet and pleasant village aforesaid. Mr. Ainsworth is by no means a novice in anything pertaining to the tastes or the wants of the disciples of Isaac Walton. Hence, while appreciating the anxiety of his visitors to hasten to his trout-pond, he was thoughtful enough to feed his guests before he did his fishes, and we can testify that he does both with a liberality which always characterizes the largehearted man. And while waiting a few moments for the coming demonstration of hospitality, there was just time to look at a small part o"f Mr. Ainsworth's horticultural department. He has over one hundred varieties of grapes among them, the choicest to be procured anywhere pears, peaches, and all other fruits grown in this region, in the greatest variety and profusion. And we are pleased to know, that within a few years, his industry and enterprise have been generously rewarded, by returns which constitute a fortune, which we hope he and his amiable family may long enjoy. " The inner man refreshed, it was quick work to prepare for a visit to the trout-pond, situated a short distance from Mr. Ainsworth's residence. Besides the usual food for the trout, Mr. Ainsworth produced a fly and a bait rod, reels and lines, with permission to do what he had scarcely before done for himself take enough trout for a generous mess. The pond covers something oter sixty rods of ground, and is filled by conducting the water from thirteen different springs in tile laid under ground, and brought into TROUT BREEDING. 93 pools a short distance above the pond. From thence it flows over a prepared bed of gravel to the pond. Perhaps one man in a million might have thought that a fish-pond, and above all, a place for speckled trout, could have been made in the spot where this is located. The water is fourteen feet deep in the main pond, and this depth has been secured by excavation the original depression being very slight, although the spot was swampy and of little value. As a means of saving every drop of the small supply of water, two parallel walls have been built around the pond, sunk into the blue clay, and the space between them grouted, so that not a drop is wasted except by solar evaporation. At the bottom, large stones are placed in positions to afford hiding-places for the trout whenever they choose to retire from the hot sun. In this respect, Mr. Ainsworth has studied the habits of his finny stock, and as far as he could, compensated them for removing them from their native streams in Victor, Springwater, and other places, where they were captured. The walls around the pond are carried to the height it is intended the water shall reach, and then a sufficient quantity of earth placed over them to sustain shade trees, a large number of which are in a thrifty condition. The water comes into and passes from the pond through fine sieves, through which nothing but the water can pass. " Inside of the parallel walls there is a slope wall, and from the top the ground recedes in all directions, so that no surface water is washed into the pond. In places where it is likely to stand too long it is carried off by tiling. 94 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. Altogether, it is a perfect gem. Nothing has been neglected, and those who have the facilities, the good taste, and the enterprise to follow Mr. Ainsworth's example, would be greatly aided by paying him a visit. He will, we run no risk in assuming, take great pleasure in giving them the benefit of his experience. " It is, so far as we are advised, an unsettled matter how many fish can live in a given quantity of water. Mr. Ainsworth has placed nearly eleven hundred trout in his pond, and some additions have been made by the process of artificial fecundation; and this process he will continue to follow until his pond is sufficiently stocked. If it were possible to protect all the spawn deposited by the small number of trout now left in our streams, we should quickly see them restocked to their full capacity. But it is known that even under the most favorable circumstances, only a few of the eggs hatch, and of those which do, much of the product is devoured by snakes, water-fowl, and the larger fish. It would be a very easy matter to resort to artificial fecundation, by which an immense quantity of the most beautiful and delicate fish known in American waters could be raised. " But to the sport.' Both bait and fly were taken the instant they touched the water, and had a hundred hooks been upon each line, each one would have had its victim. They were of various sizes when put into the pond two years ago. Those of three years, are now plump pounders. A majority are of three-fourths and half a pound. Mr. Ainsworth knows their ages as well as he does those of his TROUT BREEDING. 95 oolts and cattle. In swift running water, however, they do not grow as rapidly they are longer and less plump. There are a few two and three pounders, but here as in other waters, these seldom honor the angler's hook with a nibble. Of course we could not think of following up the sport for only a few minutes just long enough to try the game of the ten noble fellows which were seen in the show window of the Arcade House yesterday. And they were game. Every one of them made the rod bend and tremble. The females were invariably returned to the water. But more exciting sport remained. The food for their evening repast was now dealt out by spoonfuls at a time, and the moment it struck the water, dozens of great fellows darted for it. They knocked against one another under the water and above the water, and a person standing close to the edge would, in five minutes, be well ' spattered' from head to feet. The ' whipping' had made them a little more shy than usual, but they will feed from the hand of their owner, and leap from the water when shown their food upon a spoon ! <$ Mr. Ainsworth is a public benefactor in what he has done. While constructing and filling a pond, at a large expenditure, for his own amusement and gratification, he has demonstrated the fact that, under circumstances more favorable as regards water and places for making ponds, immense quantities of the most delicious food can be raised at almost a nominal cost. When this country becomes as populous as France, such advantages as we possess for the propagation of fish will be appreciated and improved. 96 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. Until then, we can only hope to see here and there a liberal and public-spirited citizen like Mr. Ainsworth set the example. We " will only add, that an evening pleasantly spent in the family of our friend, a refreshing sleep, an early break- fast, and a ride of twenty miles, ended this delightful ex- cursion to the country." The following extract from an article on fish culture, which appeared in the New York Tribune, in January 1866, is from the pen of Mr. Ainsworth, and will give the reader a general idea of Seth Green's establishment and Caledonia creek. " The most prolific stream for trout that I have ever seen, or of which I have ever heard or read, are the Caledonia Springs, and brook from them. This celebrated trout brook rises from the rocks in the village of Caledonia, Livingston county, New York. Its whole length is but one mile, when it unites with Allen's creek, one of the tribu- taries of the Grenesee, in the village of Muniford. The stream falls about 50 feet from the springs to its junction with Allen's creek. The 'country is all thickly settled, and one of the richest and best farming towns in the state. The surface of the land is quite level, with banks but little above the surface of the water. " The stream in places is very rapid, and in others has quite a gentle current, of a mile or more per hour. The springs, as now situated, cover about six acres, being dammed slightly for milling purposes. They afford about 80 barrels of water per second, and make a creek from TROUT BREEDING. 97 three to four rods wide, and from 18 inches to 6 feet deep, according to the current. The bottom is covered with small white shells and gravel. The water is clear, pure, and perfectly transparent, so that any object can be seen for three or four rods very distinctly. It is tinctured with lime and sulphur. Its temperature at the springs is 48 the whole year round, but down the creek, three-quarters of a mile, it rises in the hottest days in the summer to 58 by night, but it is down in the morning to 52. In winter it settles at times to 43, but generally keeps up to 45 or 46. The temperature of the water to Allen's creek is very even the year round, but very cold in summer, and quite warm in the winter, never freezing in the coldest weather. The water through the whole length of the creek, as well as every stone, stick, weed, and blade of grass, is alive, and literally covered with numerous insects and larvae of flies, summer and winter, so that the trout, however numerous they are, easily obtain all the food they want all times of the year. " There is but very little surface water that makes into the creek, hence the volume of the water is very even, and seldom roily. The first settlers of the country found the creek literally filled with trout of great size and beauty, and it has remained so to this day, notwithstanding it has been almost constantly fished, night as well as day, from that time to this. The largest and- finest trout are taken in the evening with a large artificial white or gray miller. Dark nights, the banks of the creek in spring and summer are often lined with fishermen, when they reel in the 9 G 98 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. speckled beauties, hand over hand, and often carry them off by back loads. In this way they sometimes take them that weigh four pounds each. The most ordinary pupil of Isaac Walton can take them in the evening, when in the mood of rising, with the right miller, and with a small piece of angle worm on the point of the hook, to induce them to hold on to the hook till the novice can make his twitch to hook them. But in the day-time none can succeed but the expert. The water is so clear, and they are so shy and so well educated, that it requires a 50 or 60 foot line, a fine 10 foot leader, and very small flies, or hackles, and those must be cast upon the water so gently and life-like, to induce them to rise and take the fly, and when they do take it they discover the deception, and spit it out so quick that but very few are ever able to so cast the fly and to jerk quick enough to hook them. The fishermen among the oldest inhabitants tell me that at the least calculation there are 4000 pounds of trout taken from the creek yearly, and yet they compute the number of trout to-day at 1000 to each rod of the stream, or 320,000 in the creek> of all sizes, from four or five pounds down to five inches in length. On the 18th of this month I took 110 fine trout in about three hours, with the fly, from the creek, and put them into one of Mr. Green's ponds. The day was clear, and the water so clear and transparent that I had to fish with a 60-foot line, which took the most of the time to get the line out to this length and to reel in the trout against the strong current after being hooked. " The next day I took 85 splendid fellows from one TROUT BREEDING. 99 place, hardly moving from my tracks. These facts show how plenty they were, and how ready they are to take the fly in winter. These trout were as fat, active, and gamey as ever I saw them in any other stream in May or June. " Seth Green, Esq., the celebrated marksman and fly- thrower of Rochester, bought this creek a year ago last fall, for the purpose of growing trout artificially as well as naturally on an extensive scale. He has since prepared ponds, races, hatching-house and hatching-boxes, and troughs for 3,000,000 of spawn, which he expects to fill during the spawning season, which is, with him, from the 1st of November to the 1st of April. Last winter his two best months for spawn were January and February, and he expects they will be this year. , " He has one pond, only 75 feet long, 12 feet wide and 5 feet deep, that has 9000 trout in it from 9 inches to 20 inches long, that will weigh from a quarter of a pound to three pounds each, all as fat as seals and as beautiful as trout can possibly be, all caught with the fly, by his own hand, since he bought the creek, and all can be seen now, any day, at one view, by any person who will take the trouble to call on him. Only think what a sight 9000 such trout all in the eye at once ! What a gigantic and magnificent aquarium ! " I am certain that this is the largest and finest exhibi- tion of trout in America, and, probably, in the whole world. This alone would well pay a journey of any lover of Walton from any part of the country to see. But this is not all. He has another pond, right by the side of this, 100 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 30 by 50 feet, which contains 20,000 beautiful trout, mostly one and two years old, from six to nine inches long, all taken by his own skill, as above. He has still another pond, filled with last spring's fry, from three to five inches long. " It seems incredible at first thought that such a vast number of large trout could live in so small a space, but it is all accounted for and made plain, when one learns that the water in the ponds is changed every minute through the day by the large current constantly pouring in upon them of this cold, pure spring water. " Some of the trout produced 6000 spawn each, and from that down to 200, according to size. Last year Mr. Green hatched as high as 98 per cent, in some instances in others, about 80 per cent. This year he expects to hatch nearly all, as he has become master of the business, and knows the right time to take the spawn to insure perfect impregnation. I could see the young trout in almost every egg that had been taken fifteen days, with the naked eye, so that I know his success is perfect so far. With this continued success he will very soon be able to stock all the private streams and ponds in the country with spawn and young trout, as well as to furnish tons yearly for the table of this, the most delicious and costly of all the finny tribe." The culture of trout I have conceived to be of so much importance, that I have gone much into detail in every thing bearing upon the subject. It may perhaps be tiresome to a portion of my readers, but my excuse is, that it TROUT BREEDING. 101 is in these details, which are so necessary to success, that most of the essays on trout culture are deficient. As I have already remarked, it is an industry which is yet in its infancy, and although I have given all the directions which have arisen from Mr. Ainsworth's and my own experience, and much that I have learned of Seth Green, there will still be additional discoveries in the minutiae of the art, as progress is made in it. I deem it a branch of industry that should claim the attention of our national government. If the agricultural bureau has no discretionary power to foster it, special legis- lation should be directed to it, and appropriations made for the purpose of experiments, and its promotion. 102 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. CHAPTER V. CULTURE OF THE SALMON. The Salmon. Its instincts. Difference in appearance and size of those belonging to different rivers. Their former abundance and cause of decline in numbers. Their growth and adolescence. Migrations. Time of ova hatching in European and American rivers. Growth of the fry, with illustrations. Early fecundity of the males. Attempts at artificial propagation in the United States. Their naturalization. Fishways, with illustrations. Salmon breeding. At Stormontfield. On the Dee. On the Galway. On the Doohulla. At Ballisodare. In Australia. Salmon statistics. AN intimate knowledge of the instinctive habits of this fish is required in repopulating rivers from which it has been expelled, or naturalizing it in others. The most important instinct in this connection is, that it is anadromous, acquiring its wonderful growth and excellent flavor at sea and visiting its native rivers for the purpose of reproducing its species. This it will unerringly do if no insurmountable barrier opposes it, nor stop short of the pebbly shallow where it emerged from the egg. Many of them will go beyond, as was shown by their ascending the fishway at Lowell on the Merrimack last summer, and as I have witnessed by observing their attempts to ascend impassable * This term is applicable to the shad, salmon, alewife, and other fishes that enter fresh waters to spawn. I use it to distinguish these from the migratory genera that live entirely in salt water. CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 103 my falls, in salmon-fishing excursions. To this infallible instinct* it is owing that Mr. Ashworth has restored the Galway, in Ireland, to more than the fecundity of its palmiest days ; that Mr. Cooper has established valuable salmon fisheries on the Ballisodare and its tributaries ; that the Doohulla, a little stream ten or twelve feet in width, has been made a highway for salmon which now spawn in the feeders of the lake that discharge through it; that there is a large increase in the numbers of salmon in Scot- tish rivers ; and on this instinct, with the aid of fishways and fish culture, the New England states now depend for restocking their salmonless streams. If an impassable dam prevent salmon from going as high as their native spawn- ing-ground and no favorable place be found below, or in a tributary entering below, they will desert the river for some other. Thus a few stray salmon driven off by such obstruction or by some natural enemy may enter some other than their native stream, as they have been known to enter the Delaware. Even those that went up the fishway at Lowell (if there are no spawning-grounds below on the Merrimack), may have been natives of some other river. * " The Earl of Dunmore caught on his property in the Isle of Harris, in the Hebrides, some twenty or thirty salmon ; these he marked and carried alive in his yacht to the opposite side of the island, where they were all turned into a lake. In the course of the same season in which they were transported, it was ascertained that some of these very fish had come back again, all the way home, a circuit of forty miles at least, through the pathless waters of the great Atlantic, passing several rivers in their journey, up which they might have gone had they not preferred their native stream." 104 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. In seeking the mouths of their native streams, the salmon of two or more rivers may pass a point in bay or estuary where a net extends from the shore, and the catch may embrace a portion of each. When this occurs, as it frequently does on the Bay of Chaleurs, one of the habitans, who may be standing by, can easily point out the fish of each river : this, he will say, belongs to the Ristigouche, and that to the Nipissiguit. The difference is as clear to him, as the dissimilarity between a Durham and an Alderney cow would be to one of our farmers. There is a peculiarity in the formation and general appearance of the salmon of a river which is transmitted to their progeny; therefore, if we are successful, as we will no doubt be, in introducing the salmon in our waters, the fish of the Con- necticut, in the course of some generations, will differ from those of the Delaware. Those of one river may be short and thick-set, while those of the other may be long of body and twice the average size of the former. Salmon at one time, north of the Hudson, were not ex- clusively for the opulent, they were as much or more the food of the poor, because they were cheap. Even now, when in season, on the coast and in the rivers of the British Provinces they can be bought for four or five cents a pound; and the angler from the States, as he takes his hook from the mouth of a pretty ten-pounder, on a stream of the Bay of Chaleurs or the north shore of the St. Law- rence, turns the fish over with the toe of his boot and men- tally says : " Well, it is only worth fifty cents, now that I have landed it." He would give five, or even ten dollars, CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 105 if he could lay it, bright and silvery as it is, on the table of some friend at home. Hendrick Hudson, when he sailed up the river that bears his name, wrote in his journal : " Many salmon, mullets,* and rays very great." When he got beyond the Highlands he wrote again, " Great stores of salmon in the river." Alas ! where are they now, or those that swarmed in the lakes and streams of New York which connect with the St. Lawrence ? But it is useless now to rail at internal improvements, chartered companies, and enterprising indi- viduals who have been instrumental in banishing them; our object, at present, is to induce them to return. Salmon commence to make in towards the rivers from which they migrated at rather a later period than shad. Of course those of a more southern latitude are earlier comers. On the Bay of Fundy, for instance, at St. John, N. B., some are taken in May, in June they are abundant. If they are introduced in the Hudson and Connecticut they might, doubtless, be taken in Long Island Sound and in the lower bay in April. They continue to come in schools and ascend the rivers all summer, the earlier comers being the earlier spawners, while the late spawners frequently remain in the river all winter, and go to sea in the spring. The latter, as has been ascertained in Scotland, may not spawn the ensuing fall, a period of two years expiring before they reproduce. From the information gained in the British Provinces, I am of opinion that there is only one, and that an annual, migration of the same fish to and * Most likely shad. 106 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. from sea on this side of the Atlantic. This is necessarily the case, as most of the rivers are rigidly closed with ice for some months, and many of them for half of the year. On the coast of Great Britain, where the rivers are always open, their migrations occur nearly every month ; still there is a throng time when the greater number enter fresh waters. Sinolts and grilse have frequently been marked and have gone to sea and returned in six or eight weeks. In Ireland there are fresh run fish in January and fair fly- fishing in February. In the rivers of the British Provinces north of us there is also what may be termed a throng time. This is generally when the first schools come in. In some rivers they are found at the lower rapids within a week (earlier or later) of the middle of June, and in others, even of the same latitude or district of country, somewhat later. There are different "runs" up to the middle of September; the schools being influenced by easterly storms to enter the bay, and by a rise in the river to ascend. Unlike the shad, which are deterred or driven back by a freshet, salmon seem to delight in a heavy rise, after which, there is always good fishing as the water clears. When a school of salmon, coming from sea, reaches a bay or the mouth of a river entering the sea, some weeks are occupied in working up towards the head of tide,* the fish in the mean while undergoing a change of system which fits them for their habitation in fresh water. Dur- * As the season advances the time so occupied grows shorter, until only a few days are spent in tide-water. CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 107 ing this time they feed on smelts, sparlings, and other small fish as well as Crustacea. After entering fresh water no food is to be found in their stomachs ; notwithstanding, they will rise occasionally at a natural or artificial fly, and will sometimes take a worm bait. In their journey upwards they generally linger on the way, at the foot of many a rapid or just above, until they reach their native spawning- grounds, or go beyond. They lose the silvery brightness which they bring from sea, and continue to grow darker and A fall off as the summer advances. fish that was a twenty- pounder, when fresh run, in three weeks will be one of seventeen pounds, and so on to the time of spawning, when they have lost half of their weight and are scarcely fit for food. If their native water is some inconsiderable brook, which is frequently the case, they will wait for a rise, or wriggle over shallows scarcely the depth of their bodies. The canoemen who have attended me on my fishing excursions, have told me that at spawning time they can be cap- tured with almost any kind of a net; no doubt persons whose object it is to hatch the ova in the States could then procure it in any quantity. The spawn of the salmon, as all experiments have shown, can be hatched by artificial appliances as easily as the ova of our brook trout, the term of incubation being somewhat longer in water of the same temperature. I have no doubt that in spring water, uniformly at 50, the time would not exceed fifty or sixty days. In Scotland it has extended to 130 days, and in the almost Arctic winters of the British Provinces it is likely that six months or more is 108 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. required. The short time which, under favorable circum- New stances, would be requisite in artificial incubation in England and in the Middle States, where the salmon could be naturalized, would produce the fry in winter, and give them such a start that nearly all would probably reach the smolt state and go to sea the second summer. In my remarks in the " American Anglers' Book," on the time required to hatch out salmon ova in Canadian rivers, I have alluded to the fact that many of them, where the water is shallow enough, and where it affords the requisites for a spawning-bed, freezes to the bottom ; and have inferred from this that the eggs do not (at least not all of them) lose their vitality. In proof of this theory, it is stated in the London " Fisherman's Magazine" that sal- mon ova had been kept in ice ninety days, and that half of these frozen eggs were afterwards hatched out. When the young salmon frees itself from the shell r it is about three-fourths of an inch long, and has the same um- bilical sac which we observe in the fry of brook trout. This it carries for about six weeks; during this time it refuses all food. As soon, however, as this sac is absorbed,, its predacious instinct is observed, rising eagerly at the smallest insect or atom, and seizing animalculae beneath the surface. In pisciculture the food of the fry is much the same as those of the trout; I therefore refer the reader to the directions for feeding the young of that fish. Although the incubation of salmon ova is similar to that of the trout in breeding them artificially, the manipulation of the fish is different on account of the large size and vigor CULTULE OF THE SALMON. 109 of the salmon, requiring two and sometimes three persons to perform the operation. If the fish is held pendent by the head, the ova-, if mature, will distend the lower portion of the abdomen, and some of it flow without pressure; and this, from all we can learn, is the position in which the sal- mon is generally held when it is being operated on. Mr. Francis, however, gives an illustration of holding one somewhat horizontally, with the vent beneath the water of the basin, and raising the head and tail slightly, as is done with the trout in this country in extruding its eggs. In manipulation, Messrs. Martin and Gillone, on the river Dee, use a box about three feet and a half long, seven inches in breadth, and of corresponding depth. It is filled with water, and the eggs are pressed out of the fish in the position in which it swims. The young of the salmon, as long as it retains what are known as the finger-marks on its sides, is called a parr. When these marks are no longer visible, and it assumes a silvery coat, it is a smolt, and is sufficiently advanced for its first migration to sea. On its return, which may be after six or eight weeks, or not until the following summer, it is a grilse, its average weight being about four pounds. After its second visit to its marine feeding-grounds, it is a salmon, weighing from eight to fifteen pounds. Immediately after spawning it is called a Jcelt, or a blade fisk ; the latter appellation is given to a fish that has spawned and remains in the river for any length of time, which generally occurs in the winter months. 10 110 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. The figures on this and the opposite page exhibit the growth of the young salmon db ovo. No. 1 is the egg; No. 2, the fish when it casts off the shell ; No. 3, after the umbilical sac is absorbed; No. 4, the size when three months old; No. 5, when five months; No. 6, when ten or eleven months old; and No. 7, when it puts on the silvery vesture of the smolt and is ready for its first migration to sea. Figures 5, 6 and 7 represent the growth under favor- able circumstances, and of such as go to sea the second summer, when somewhat over a year old. Experiments in Scotland and Ireland have shown that only a portion of the fry become smolts the second summer, the remaining por- tion, which is about half, not arriving at that state until another year has elapsed. It was supposed at one time, by those who conducted the salmon-breeding establishment at CULTURE OF THE SALMON. Ill Stormontfield, that the latter might be the produce of parr with grilse, or either of these with the salmon, while the early immigrants were entirely the offspring of mature salmon. It was found, however, on impregnating the ova of the one with the milt of the other, that the produce of each of these minglings at the age of a year were about the same size, the largest of them, which was but five inches long, being from the ova of a salmon impregnated with the milt of a large smolt taken from the pond. Owing to the limited extent of the single pond at that time, however, the rearing of the young fish was done in such confined space (as in small ponds or boxes) as evidently stunted their growth, and the riddle, why a part of the fry become smolts when a little over a year old and the remaining part not until the following summer, is still unsolved. Those who are not conversant with the natural history of this fish will no doubt be astonished to learn that the male parr in Scottish rivers has milt sufficiently mature, at the spawning season, to impregnate the ova of a grilse or full-grown salmon. Whether this be the case on this side of the Atlantic it is difficult to say ; I am inclined to believe it is not. In European rivers the female grilse has also mature spawn at the proper season, while the female grilse in the waters of New Brunswick has not, although tne male grilse may be found with well-developed milt. In examining a dozen or more through the summer, and as late as the 1st of September, I did not find one in which the ova was in more than a rudimentary state. Whatever may be the difference between the growth or adolesence 112 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. of the salmon here, compared with Europe, the same rule holds, that the males precede the opposite sex a year in their power of reproducing. In the supplement to the second edition of the American Anglers' Book, I have alluded to a discovery made by Mr. W. F. Whitcher, that the salmon in Canada frequently express their spawn and milt simultaneously, by bodily contact, the male and female lying partially on their sides. I am also strongly impressed with the belief, from the long term of incubation required in the rivers of our eastern coast, that the fry do not come from the ova until the summer has set in or advanced somewhat, and that this retards their growth so much that none of them come to the smolt state the second year. In fishing from June until September I have taken many of the fry on my salmon flies. I have had them, in some pools, continually jumping at the knots on my casting-line; and at the en- trance of small spring brooks, when there was a good current in the river, have taken them when fishing for trout; but all had the usual finger-marks of the parr, none the silvery garb of the smolt. Nor had any of the canoe-men I have employed at different times ever seen a young salmon with the bright vesture that is significant of its intention to make its first trip to sea. The migration of smolts, therefore, must be before the rod-fishing commences, whicTi is in June or after the middle of September, when it is ov.er. If they migrate in May some of them may return as grilse in August or September, but the large schools which come into the rivers in July are doubtless those that CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 113 have remained at sea all winter. At Ballisodare, in Ire- land, marked grilse have not returned until the expiration of sixteen or seventeen months ; and the question has even been mooted whether some smolts, when they go to sea, do not remain long enough to pass through the grilse state and become salmon before they return. After all the experiments, and the close observation of the habits of salmon, there is still much uncertainty as to its growth and its migrations. What modifications may be made in series of generations by artificial hatching and raising the young fish in ponds, remains to be seen. With water for incubation at 50, and chopped liver, &c., fed to the fry, it may make a whole year's difference in producing mature salmon. In artificial culture in Scotland, the fry, as a general rule, are not turned into the river until they become smolts, being kept in ponds until that time, and thus protected from their natural enemies, which would prey upon them if turned out to shift for themselves as soon, as the umbilical sac is absorbed. In the short account of the salmon -breeding establishment of Stormontfield, given on a succeeding page, it will be seen that a pond covering an acre, and having the average depth of four feet, is deemed sufficient for the feeding and rearing of three hundred thousand young salmon. The salmon of the Danube,* which migrate to and from the Black Sea, are said to grow to double the size of those * This is doubtless the " Sal'mo hucho," described by Sir Humphrey Davy in his " Salmonia." 10* 114 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. of Northern Europe. Although their growth is much more rapid than the latter for the first year in which time they attain the weight of a pound their subsequent in- crease in size is slower. Large salmon of the Danube must therefore be fish of advanced age. The first attempt at breeding salmon artificially in the United States, as far as I have been able to ascertain, was by James B. Johnston, Esq., of New York city. Four years since he imported the ova of salmon, salmon of the A Danube, trout, and charr. part of these were hatched out at the studio buildings on Tenth street, New York, in troughs similar to those at the College of France, but the Croton water was fatal to most of them. The fry which Mr. Johnston removed to Long Island were promising in confinement, he says, " but died from preventable causes when liberated." Salmon ova which were planted in the Pemigewasset in the fall of 1866, it is thought did well, as Dr. Fletcher, of Concord, N. H., saw the fry last autumn. This gentleman, who had the matter in charge, also brought home from the Mirimichi last fall seventy thousand eggs. Half of these were placed under charge of Mr. J. S. Robinson, of Meredith, N. H., and the remaining half were put into the hatching-troughs of Rev. Livingston Stone, of Charlestown, N. H. The first fry hatched in sixty-two days from impregnation. In a letter to Mr. Ainsworth, dated February 6th 1867, Mr. Robinson says : " The hatching of the salmon ova has concluded and the result is very gratifying, as 99 per cent, have hatched and seem to be perfectly CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 115 healthy. I do not mean of all the eggs, but 99 per cent, of all the impregnated ones, which was 12 per cent, of the whole. One-half of the eggs were sent to Charlestown, N. H., and are designed for the Connecticut." There cannot be a doubt but that with experience in the manipulation of salmon, and in the transportation of ova, we shall be able to introduce them into our rivers as readily as we can trout into brooks which they have not before inhabited. The naturalization of this fish in rivers a few parallels south of those it once visited, would be an exceedingly interesting experiment. The expenditure of a few thousand dollars in this way, and strict enforcement of laws, provided for their protection, would add largely to the value of our fish product, and make salmon cheaper than beef in our markets. Let any one ride in the cars from Easton to Belvidere on the Delaware, and see its fine pools and rapids, and then explore its bounding upper waters and tributaries, and speculate as to the vast area of spawning-ground this river affords, and say if the states bordering on it, or owning the tributaries, are not closing these natural salmon nurseries against a wealth of delicate food we might enjoy. The experiment of introducing salmon even into the Sus- quehanna is well worth the trial. When the question of fishways is settled in favor of the citizens of the state, as it must ultimately be, the many noble creeks that feed it (they would be dignified by being called rivers in Europe) would afford extensive spawning-beds. The summer tem- perature of the water of these is but little above that of 116 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. some of the fine salmon rivers of New Brunswick or of California. If part of the expenditure of the agricultural bureau, which produces no immediate benefit to the country, was appropriated to building an efficient fishway around Niagara Falls, and salmon were introduced by artificial culture into the many fine rivers entering the chain of great lakes above, it is difficult to estimate the numbers that would make the Niagara river a highway. At throng time it would be like the waters below the falls of some of the Oregon rivers, where a spear thrown at random does not fail to impale a salmon. In France such a national enterprise would not be thought chimerical. Within a period of ten years, the salmon fisheries of the British Provinces had declined so much as to create fears of the gradual, but sure extinction of this fish in many rivers. By legislation, strict enforcement of laws provided for their protection, and the erection of a few fishways, this decline has not only been arrested, but the numbers of salmon so much increased, as to bring back the prices at Quebec and Montreal to the point at which they stood twenty years ago. To Mr. W. F. Whitcher, the able and vigilant head of the Fisheries Branch of the Crown Land Department, much credit is due, for his efficient agency in arresting the destruction, and re-instating most of the rivers to their former fruitfulness. The St. Lawrence at this time has eighty-seven tributaries well stocked with salmon. The summer of 1865 was favorable for the salmon fisheries of Canada and New Brunswick. The rod fishing on most CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 117 of the rivers, surpassed that of any former year. The sub- joined is from a Montreal paper : " Salmon Fishing at Goodbout Season of 1865. The following record of 22 days' salmon-fishing on the Good- We bout, has been transmitted us for publication. have to direct the attention of the editor of the Field, and the sporting community generally, to Mr. Gilmour's magnificent day's sport of 46 fish, and to ask if it has been beaten else- We where ? believe it is the largest on record : June. 118 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. Total, 478. Fish weighing gross 4665 Ibs., viz. : Noble, ; 588 Cross 1059 .... Law Gilmour 1551 1567 Total Averaging about 9| Ibs. each fish." 4665 On the Nipissiguit, the same season, the sport was excel- lent ; my best days running from nine to twelve sal- mon and a great many grilse. The score of each day was very uniform ; the largest fish 22 J Ibs. I was quite sur- feited, and left off during a good run of fish. If I had continued I would have made an extraordinary score. The last report of the Commissioners of Fisheries for the state of Maine, is a work of one hundred and twenty-seven octavo pages, and contains so much valuable information, particularly as showing the feasibility of restocking their many once abundant salmon rivers, that it should be read by all who have the matter at heart. Anglers should by all means read it. If the enterprise which now character- izes the commissioners continues, we may, in the course of five or six years, have abundant sport in the fine rivers of Maine. I have obtained from Theodore Lyman, Esq., the privilege of using the illustration of fishways, found on the opposite page. It is taken from the report of the Massachusetts Commissioners of Fisheries. The explanations on p. 120, are also from the same report. CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 119 Fig. 4. 120 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. Fig. 4. Diagram of the double Fish-stair, at Lowell, showing the arrangement of the tanks and the course of the water. The tanks are somewhat over twelve feet square and about two feet deep. The fall from each tank to the next, is one foot. With 2 feet and 4 inches of water on the dam-crest, a floating body moved down the current of this fish-stair with an average speed of less than two miles an hour, c, the dam. Fig. 5. Diagram, to show how the width of the sheet flowing into the first tank, is regulated by flashboards (6) placed on the dam (c). Fig. 6. Profile of Foster's fishway, showing the trough or pass, (d) sloping from the dam (c) to the river-bed, e, the water-line, below the dam. Fig. 7. Plan of Foster's fishway, showing the up-stream slant of the cross-bulkheads (/) and the course of the water, c, the dam. g, the flood-gate. Fig. 8. Flood-gate of Foster's fishway, seen from the face of the dam (c) ; a a, pieces of scantling, which may be removed to increase the volume of water. This fishway is particularly adapted to small streams, because it uses little water. In the absence of any experiment, there is some doubt whether shad will freely pass through so narrow an opening as this plan shows ; but alewives and salmon will. The cross-bulkheads are made as high as the sides of the pass, so that the water runs deep. Figs. 6, 7, and 8, are drawn on a scale of 20 feet to an inch. CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 121 Salmon breeding at Stormontfield* This establishment, which has been in operation about fifteen years, is situated on the Tay, about five miles, above Perth. The ponds occupy a piece of ground which slopes gently down to the river. The ground is bounded at the top by the Stormont- field mill-lade, which is led from the Tay at a point a mile higher up ; the space between the lade and the river being about five hundred feet. Within these limits the whole A of the operations are carried on. pipe from the lade discharges at a short distance the water into a bed of gravel, from which it rises through two openings into a channel supplying the hatching-boxes. These boxes are three hundred in number, and lie in twenty-five parallel rows of twelve each, at right angles to the lade, and have a considerable slope. Between each row is a narrow r oot- path for the convenience of examining the boxes, which are six feet long, eighteen inches wide, and twelve inches deep ; the division between the boxes of each row being cut down half way, so as to allow a free flow of water. The boxes are filled to within two inches of the surface of the water, first with fine, then with coarser gravel, and on the top is a layer of stones about the size of road-metal Amongst these stones the impregnated ova are placed, about a thousand in each box. Running along the foot of the rows of boxes, is a small channel which joins a lade leading to the two feeding-ponds, one occupying about a quarter and the other a full acre, the latter having been added A * condensation of a description found in the Fisherman's Maga- zine, London, with some additions from " Harvest of the Sea." 11 122 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. A within a few years. channel connects the ponds with the river, for the passage of the smolts to sea, a perforated sluice being opened at the proper time for their egress. The smolts can be detained by a sluice near the river when any of them are to be marked. The time of incubation here, is from a hundred to a hundred and thirty days. The fry remain in the hatchingboxes five or six weeks, and then find their way to the first pond, where they remain for a year, and are then turned into the second pond, that the succeeding brood of fry may occupy the first. From the second pond, when they become smolts, they are turned into the river through the channel referred to above. Marking them is done generally by clipping or notching the adipose dorsal fin. The fry are fed regularly on boiled liver grated fine, rising to the sur- face in thousands when it is thrown in. The spawning fish are taken at Almond Mouth, about three miles distant, with the common draught net, and manipulated there. When a rise in the river sufficient to interfere with taking the fish is apprehended, they can be taken some days before they are fully mature, and kept in the mill-lade mentioned at the beginning of this article; being kept within bounds by two rows of iron bars set across the lade, one row about a hundred yards from the other. Mr. Peter Marshall, the superintendent of the works, is the operator. Holding the female firmly or having her held, he brings his hand with a gentle pressure down the belly, when the ova are ejected into a pail of river water; manipulating the male in the same way, he extrudes the milt CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 123 and sets the pail aside for awhile, when the water is poured off and fresh water substituted ; after renewing it a second, and it may be a third time, the eggs are ready to be placed in the hatching-boxes. It is estimated that the female salmon has about a thousand eggs to each pound of her weight, therefore the ova from fifteen fish of twenty pounds, or twenty of fifteen pounds, or thirty of ten pounds, will give three hundred thousand eggs. When this fish factory was first established, the single pond could only be stocked alternate years, from the fact that part of the fry became smolts the second, and the remaining portion the third year. The latter of course would destroy the brood of young fish if turned into the pond from the hatching-boxes. This led to the construction of the second pond for the accommodation of the parr that remained until the third summer, so that the production of fry can be increased from three hundred thousand every alternate year, to three hundred and fifty thousand every year. From the information I can gain as to the loss of sal- mon-eggs in incubation, it is about ten per cent, in Scot- land and Ireland, and more than double of that at Hun- ingue. One of the consequences of the operations at Stormontfield, up to 1865, was an increase of ten per cent, in the number of salmon taken in the Tay, and, of course, a corresponding increase in the rental of its fisheries. It has also opened the eyes of owners and lessees of fisheries on this and other rivers, to the availa- 124 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. bility of fish culture, in restoring them to their former fecundity. Amongst those who have adopted this means, & are Messrs. Martin Gillone, lessees of the river Dee sal- mon-fisheries. Their establishment is at Tongueland, on the Dee. In 1865 they produced from ova laid down the previous autumn, over 100,000 young fish. They do not expose the ova to the weather as at Storinontfield, but occupy a room seventy feet long in a lumber store-house, connected with a biscuit bakery. It is in contemplation, by some spirited gentlemen, to end"eavor to increase the produce of the Severn, and to stock some of the other rivers of England with salmon. Even the polluted Thames is included in the number; side drains for the filth discharged into it by London, having been talked of. The Thames Angling Preservation Society have a hatching establishment, and have introduced the grayling. In the season of 1863-4 they turned out about 40,000 young fish,* 12,000 of which were salmon, the remainder common trout, sea trout, Rhine salmon, ombre chevalier, &c. The following account of Mr. Ashworth's undertaking on the Galway, is from Mr. Francis's book on Fish Culture. " Several successful undertakings in pisciculture have been carried out in Ireland. The first of any note, perhaps, was at Outerard, near Galway, in 1852. The Galway * Mr. Francis, a writer on fish culture, in a recent letter, expresses a doubt as to the smolts being able to make their exit to sea through the impure water of the Thames opposite London, and gives an unfavorable report generally, of the results of this enter- prise thus far. - CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 125 river is the channel through which Loughs Mask and Corrib, two enormous lakes containing a vast area of water, discharge themselves into the sea. The fishery of this river belongs to Mr. Ashworth. In 1852, finding the stock had been terribly reduced from a variety of causes, he established a breeding-place at Outerard, in a small tributary stream. Here twenty boxes were laid down, after the same fashion as the plan, already explained, adopted at Stormontfield. This plan, carried out by Mr. Ramsbottoni, was the model whence Stormontfield was taken. These boxes were stocked with about 40,000 ova, which in due time came to perfection. Subsequently, owing partly. to the opening of a wide Queen's-gap in the weir, Mr. Ashworth's fishery multiplied itself in value manifold, and he cast about, adding a still larger area to the field of his operations. " Lough Mask, which discharges into Lough Corrib, is separated from it by a very rugged channel, and a lofty, impassable fall ; consequently, although Lough Corrib abounded in salmon,- none had ever been seen in Lough Mask. Moreover, the many gravelly tributaries which salmon love to spawn in, rather discharged themselves into the upper part of Lough Mask, which again receives the waters of one or two smaller lakes, than into Lough Corrib; and as the capabilities of production of a fishery are bounded by the area of its spawning-beds, this proved a serious check to the further increase of productiveness in the fishery. Undaunted by difficulties, however, Mr. Ash- worth set to work, ameliorated the stream, put salinon- 11* 126 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. stairs to the impassable fall, and stocked the head waters of Lough Mask with half a million of salmon ova. These operations have been so lately completed, that we hardly know as yet what measure of success will attend them ; but I see no reason for doubting their success, and, if so, a capable area of about thirty square miles will be added to Mr. Ashworth's already valuable fishery, and in a few years' time the fishery will realize a handsome fortune. This shows what can be done by pisciculture, in its broad sense, and a little practical common sense combined." To the foregoing I would add, that from information obtained from another source, Mr. Ashworth laid down in the season of 1861-2, no less then a million and a half of ova. I would also state that Mr. Frank Buckland, a naturalist who takes much interest in fish culture in England, has, since the publication of Mr. Francis's book, examined the ground between lakes Corrib and Mask. His report is adverse to the efficiency of the fishway there used. He says that the natural outlet from the upper to the lower lake, is underground, through broken and cavernous rocks, and that the channel for the fishway is in the bed of an abandoned canal, three and a half miles long, through rocky ground full of fissures and sink-holes. That the passage, even with the improvement made by laying down a thousand feet of iron pipe, three feet in diameter, is impracticable to salmon in the spring of the year, from the force of the current ; and in summer, from the scarcity of writer. And further, that the young fish leaving Lough CULTURE OF THE SALMON. 127 Mask, would most likely do so by some of the many sub- terranean passages, and be lost in the bowels of the earth. The foregoing, in substance, is from " The Field," of Nov. 19th, 1864. Mr. Ashworth, in his prize essay on the cultivation of salmon fisheries, says, " I have lately expended 1700 in the construction of a salmon-passage and ladder, between Loughs Corrib and Mask, and through which salmon have passed in the winter of 1865, into an extensive district of new breeding-ground from which they had been previously excluded." This is the last we have of the passage alluded to. Whether the fish have passed it, in numbers, and if so, whether Mr. Buckland's prediction of the fry getting lost in the bowels of the earth has been realized, I am unable to state. I am indebted also to Mr. Francis's book, for an account of Mr. Edward J. Cooper's experiments at Ballisodare, Ireland. " This undertaking, which was really an experiment, shows how great difficulties can be overcome by perseverance, and how a fishery can be created where none has previously existed. Mr. Cooper owns two rivers, the Owenmore and the Arrow, which unite some two and a half miles from the sea and form the Ballisodare river. On these rivers are three falls ; the lowest, which is a suc- cession of falls over high ledges of rock, is within a short distance of the sea ; the next, which is a short distance above it, is called the Upper Ballisodare