States Commission and those of the respective State commissions. It is very gratifying to note the rapidly increasing interest in the whole business of fish protection and fish propagation shown by the citizens of the United States and culminating in the measures taken by national and State legislatures for fostering whatever looks towards the increase of the fish supply. At the time when the United States Commission was authorized by Congress and organized, the only State fish commissions were those of Alabama, California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont, eleven in all, and of these a small number only were provided with funds and power to enforce legislation taking definite action in regard to the increase of a supply. The list now amounts to twenty-six, all provided with intelligent and able commissioners, for the most part with appropriations sufficient to enable them to survey the ground and take the proper steps towards future action. Quite a number of these have their own hatching-houses, in which are hatched out not only the local species, but also such eggs as may be supplied by the United States Commission, especially of the Eastern salmon, the land locked salmon, and the California salmon.

As already remarked, these State commissions, in the aggregate, accomplish a very great deal towards the protection and restoration of their fisheries respectively, and especially in the way of distributing trout and black bass in their local waters. Both of these are fish with which the United States Commission have nothing to do, as they come more particularly within the province of the State organizations.

The states bordering on the great lakes have also accomplished a still greater work in the hatching out and introduction of the young of whitefish and lake trout, the former being by far the most important species of the lakes, and one for the multiplication of which, on a large scale, every effort should be made.

The hearty co-operation of these.State commissions with that of the United States is a subject of especial gratification, there being, so far as I can learn, no jealousy whatever, but all working harmoniously towards a common end. This co-operation of the State commissions with that of the United States is exhibited in two ways, direct and indirect. The former is shown in the work of the propagation of the Salmo salar, or the salmon of Maine, which has been carried on at Bucksport, on the Penobscot River, by the United States, aided by an appropriation of money by the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts, each receiving its share of eggs in proportion to its investment of $500. The State of Maine has, I believe, made no actual appropriation, but is concerned as requiring by law the introduction into its own waters of one-fourth of all the fish hatched out by foreign co-operation within its borders.

A similar arrangement has been made with Massachusetts and Connecticut in the propagation of the land-locked salmon, both at Sebec, in 1873 and 1874, and at Grand Lake Stream, for several years up to the present.

The State of California has also assisted in the propagation of the Cali fornia salmon by appropriations made for the most part by public spirited citizens in sums of one or two thousand dollars, in order that the supply, especially intended for the Sacramento, might be increased in proportion, and hatched out at the United States establishment on the McCloud.

The organization of a new establishment on the Clackamas, a tributary of the Columbia River, will be referred to hereafter. All the expense of preparing the building, dam, and apparatus was met by voluntary contributions from the canners on the river, although the actual work was superintended by officers of the United States Fish Commission detailed for that purpose.

The State of Maryland, too, by its fish commission, has also for several years carried on its operations of shad-hatching in connection with the United States Fish Commission, Mr. T. B. Ferguson, the accomplished head of that commission, having placed at the command of the United States Commission the important apparatus devised by him for hatching out eggs, and aided in its practical manipulation. He is also the head of the establishment in Baltimore where the eggs of the California and land-locked salmon have been hatched for distribution by the United States Commission to such points in the Southern States as were without proper facilities for the work.

The indirect aid rendered by State commissions in the planting of fish is also of very great importance.

The present production of the eggs of the California salmon is on so enormous a scale that it would be impossible for the United States Fish Commission, even with a considerably larger appropriation, to undertake the business of hatching them out, or of placing them in the waters of the several States. It is also impossible for the officers of the commission to have a proper appreciation of the character of these waters, which will alone permit a judicious planting. Very great aid is therefore experienced in the general work by the present arrangement of forwarding the eggs of the salmon, of the various species, California, land-locked, and Eastern, to the State commissioners, who receive and hatch them out and personally superintend their introduction into appropriate waters, at the same time making a report of their action in the matter. In many cases, too, the commissioners of one State will agree to receive and hatch out eggs for the waters of an adjacent State which has no hatching-house.

The messengers of the Fish Commission also frequently deliver their young shad to the State commissioners, who take charge of them and see that they are properly deposited, a selection of points being made by correspondence with these officers.

APPLICATIONS FOR FISH.

The applications for the services of the United States Fish Commission, in supplying eggs or the young of fish, may be arranged under two

classes, domestic and foreign, both increasing very rapidly from year to year. All requests of this kind are entered on proper blanks, giving the date of application, the character of fish desired, name of applicant, member of Congress or other person through whom the request is conveyed, the region or spot to be supplied, instructions as to route, railroad or otherwise, by which they are to be shipped; all being information necessary to a proper response.

It is, of course, impossible to meet every call, and a selection of recipients is sometimes necessary, the object being to diffuse the benefits of the commission over the greatest possible extent of country. Accordingly, if an application comes from a locality near the mouth of or low down a current or stream, the actual planting is made at the headwaters of the river, so that the entire stream will receive the benefit. This policy is based on the fact that an anadromous fish, introduced at a given point in a river, is not likely to ascend above that point, on its return from the ocean.

An accompanying table will show the number of calls, and the proportion of the demand for the different species. By this it will be seen that the carp is rapidly becoming the favorite, as its culture is more within the reach of individuals than that of the salmon or shad.*

It is customary for the Commission to request that all applications for fish be made through some member of Congress, who can vouch for the standing of the applicant and the character of the locality to be supplied. It is, of course, impossible for any one resident in Washington to know the persons asking for fish, whether they are responsible parties, and whether they want them for the benefit of the community or for some merely personal end.

The demand from foreign countries for eggs or young fish is also increasing very rapidly and has been met as far as practicable, without affecting the interests of the United States. In most cases, especially that of the California salmon, the only limit to the home applications is, in the first place, the amount of the Congressional appropriation for it, and second, the extent to which the State commissions or clubs devoted to the stocking of particular waters can meet the expense of hatching out the eggs when received, and of introducing them into the waters. For several years past a much larger demand might have been easily met.

The following are the different species applied for in 1877:

When, therefore, requests are received from foreign governments the stipulation made of paying the actual cost is cheerfully complied with by them, and a graceful act of international comity is thereby made practicable.

It will not be forgotten by those who have read the reports of the Commission from the beginning that before the home establishments for procuring the eggs of salmon were in operation, the German Government presented 250,000 eggs of the Rhine salmon to the United States, and sent them over in charge of a special messenger. Those that survived were hatched out at the establishment of Dr. Slack, at Bloomsbury, N. J., and introduced into the Delaware River, where some of them are believed to have returned as mature fish to their original starting point.

A portion of the correspondence with foreign governments on this subject will be found in the Appendix under the respective heads of distribution of fish, and the amount of service rendered in reply to applications.

The applications, for the most part, were for California salmon and whitefish from the different provinces of New Zealand, from Australia, Ecuador, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. All have been responded to excepting that from Ecuador, which has no waters suitable for any of the fish included in the operations of the United States Com. mission.

Apart from direct applications for the fish, numerous requests are on file for help in other ways. I have already referred to the co-operation of the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Maryland, &c., in the way of joint work in the production of shad, salmon, and the like, and have given the details to a sufficient extent.

A noteworthy instance is shown in connection with the operations for the propagation of salmon at the Clackamas fishery on the Columbia, where an association of canners combined to furnish the sum of $27,000 with which to start a hatching-station in order to maintain the supply. At their urgent request I detailed Mr. Livingston Stone, superintendent of the McCloud River hatchery, to start this establishment by furnishing plans of a hatching-house, dams, &c., and supervising their construction. This was done in the summer of 1877, and a thorough organization was effected, from which it is hoped the yield of salmon on the Columbia River will be continued at its present average. A further account of the enterprise will be found in a subsequent part of the report.

The great success of the methods adopted by the United States Commission for the hatching of fish and of securing the ready return of the fish from the sea to their spawning-grounds, by means of artificial fishways, has induced a large correspondence with foreign establishments, especially with the Deutsche Fisherei-Verein of Germany, the great organization which has in charge the interests of all the German fisheries and composed of some of the most eminent specialists in Germany, and having its headquarters at Berlin. Application was received in the

autumn of 1876 from Mr. J. Bancroft Davis, at that time minister of the United States to the German Empire, requesting that models of certain apparatus be furnished at the expense of the Verein. This was promptly attended to under the supervision of Mr. James W. Milner, and the articles forwarded gave great satisfaction.

A similar application was received from the Japanese Government, to include models, not only of hatching apparatus, but of fishways, to be applied to the waters of that country; and a full series of models, a reproduction of those exhibited at Philadelphia at the Centennial, was accordingly made and presented to the Government of Japan in return for the very valuable donation of the whole of its fishery exhibit at the Centennial.

Mr. A. Eisendecher, of Valdivia, Chili, applied for a statement of probable expenses of placing California salmon and other fishes in the waters of Southern Chili; the United States consul in Ecuador also sought similar information for that country.

Applications have also been received from parties in British Columbia for information as to the best mode of utilizing the refuse and waste of the salmon-canning establishments. Several firms engaged in the canning of lobsters in New Brunswick embraced the occasion of the presence of the Fish Commission at Halifax to call attention to certain difficulties in the preservation of lobsters in cans, some establishments being unable at certain seasons of the year to prevent the entire decomposition of the canned meat, in spite of all precautions. Information in response to this query has been furnished as far as it was at the command of the Commission.

As already explained in earlier reports, the United States Fish Commission endeavors to occupy ground not covered by State commissions or by private enterprise; and whatever species are fully cared for by other organizations are not treated by the United States Commission.

Two favorite fish in the United States, the trout and the black bass, are propagated by hundreds of establishments throughout the country, both State and private, which attend fully to them. They are, however, available only for local waters, private fish ponds, or streams, and there would be a manifest impropriety on the part of the United States Fish Commission in catering to the interest of a few individuals. Both species are of comparatively little account in the food production of the nation, and it is only those who can afford to devote an abundance of leisure to their capture, or those whose means enable them to purchase at a high price, who are benefited by their cultivation. Of course, if the question were as to the introduction of some new variety of these fish that should have some special qualification, and which could only be brought to the notice of the people by the United States Commission, the argument would be very different.

As already explained, the only species that have received special at