fatal to the race. The salmon can be, and has beer, successfully introduced into inland lakes of fresh water, having no communication with the sea; nor is the exclusion of the young fish from salt water fatal to its life, although it prevents its growth, deteriorates the quality of its flesh, and, probably, deprives it of the powers of reproduction.

Inasmuch, however, as the salmon cannot propagate its species except in rapid, highly aërated, fresh, spring waters, if the parent fish are debarred of access to the upper tributaries of the rivers, in which alone their eggs can be brought to maturity, the breed must, of course, become extinct; and, again, inasmuch as the salmon invariably returns to breed in the river wherein itself was bred, even if the obstacles to the ascent of the fish were removed, unless the waters should be restocked, no salmon would ascend them, the way being lost, or a traditionary instinct of the existence of obstacles descending among them from generation to generation.

This fact is evident, from the circumstance that, although sea-salmon abound in Lake Ontario, and run freely up the Credit, and other Canadian streams on the north, as well as up the Salmon River on the south side of the lake, none are ever known to enter the Niagara, doubtless in consequence of the bar interposed to their progress by the Falls of Niagara, which must be known to the successive shoals which arrive at its mouth.

Gradually, the salmon has receded eastward and eastward still, until it is already becoming rare in the Kennebeck, decreasing in the Penobscot, and in gradual but rapid progress of extinction in all the waters of the United States.

Even in the British Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, wherein the salmon fisheries are of vast importance the exports alone, apart from the home consumption, which is enormous, amounting to the annual value of several hundred thousands of pounds sterlingsuch is the reckless destruction of the fish on their spawning beds, at seasons of the year when the flesh is valueless as food, and such are the increasing obstacles to their propagation and increase, that protective enactments are loudly called for, in order to prevent the anni

hilation of the fish-especially by Mr. Moses H. Perley, H. M. Emigration Officer, who has been largely employed by the Provincial Government in the investigation of this subject, and who has not only devoted much time and attention to the subject, but has thrown much valuable light on it, by his researches.

We understand that the Natural History Society of New Jersey are prepared to make, to the three States of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, an offer to restock the Hudson, Passaic, Raritan and Delaware rivers, with salmon fry; provided the legislatures will jointly, or severally, pass such laws for the preservation of the fish, until they shall become fully established in those waters, and forever during spawning season, including the removal of all obstacles to their free ingression and retrogression to and from the salt water as shall be deemed sufficient; the society asking no privilege, or remuneration, beyond the actual expenses of providing and transporting the fry.

Mr. W. H. Herbert produces the following indisputable argument, from statistical facts well established, to prove the effect of protective enactments in re-creating fisheries, in rivers where they were rapidly dying out.

"With reference to the preservation of salmon," he says, quoting from Mr. Perley's Report on the Fisheries of the Gulf of St. Lawrence," the Inspectors of the Irish Fisheries reported to the Board as follows:

"In illustration of the benefits of a steady perseverance in a proper system, we may allude to the Foyle-a noble river in the North of Ireland, washing the walls of Londonderry

where the produce has been raised from an average of forty-three tons previous to 1823, to a steady produce of nearly two hundred tons, including the stake weirs, in the estuary, and very nearly to three hundred tons, as we believe, in the year 1842. The inspectors also mention the case of the small river of Newport, County Mayo, which was formerly exempt from clove season.' In three years, after the Parliamentary Regulations were introduced and enforced, the produce of this river was raised from half a ton, or, at the utmost, a ton every season, to eight tons of salmon, and three tons of white trout, for the season ending the third year, with every prospect of further increase.'

He also points to the fact, that by the enactment of certain prohibitory laws, as to the taking of the fish at undue seasons, and the erection of insuperable obtacles to the ingress of the breeding

fish, and the regress of the smolts, as the young fry are technically termed on their descent to the sea, the supervisors of the County of Oswego have succeeded in reëstablishing this noble fish in the waters of the Salmon River, and its tributaries, to the great advantage of the circumjacent regions.

From these arguments, Mr. Herbert infers that, by the extension of similar provisions to any waters wherein salmon have formerly existed, but are now extinct, coupled with measures considerately undertaken for repeopling the breeding streams, about their head waters, with young fry, all and every one of our eastern Atlantic rivers might be rendered equally prolific with those noble salmon rivers, the St. John, the Miramichi, the Restigonche, the Nepisiquit, and others flowing into the bays of Chaleurs and Gaspé, and more so than the Foyle, the Tay, the Clyde, the Forth, and other Scottish and Irish rivers, even in their improved condition.

Mr. Herbert's theory, as to the destruction of the salmon, in the first instance, which he supposes, in some measure, to have preceded the exclusion of the breeding fish from the proper waters, appears to point to the poisonous matter infused into the rivers by the bark from the saw-mills, which, in all the rivers of the cleared districts, has long passed away, and ceased to have any influence; and he assumes, as a certainty, that there are no causes now existing in the waters, at least, which he has specified, to prevent the propagation and increase of the salmon, to any given extent, if properly introduced, adequately protected, and suffered to visit its spawning places without interruption.

That the object aimed at is worthy of a trial, is not to be denied or doubted, and that, if attainable, it would be productive of great national benefit, is as certain-it being no less than the creation, or, at least, the regeneration of a new, or quasi new, branch of national industry, which would necessarily employ and produce a large capital, which would give work and wages to several thousands, probably, of hands, and, what is of yet more consequence, would furnish, in these times of high prices, scarcity of provisions, and increasing demand for food, a cheap and abundant article of nutriment for the masses.

Again, the necessary outlay, for restoring these waters, is rated at so mere a trifle, that it is unworthy of a thought-the estimated expense of stocking the rivers named, in the first instance, not exceeding a thousand or two of dollars, added to the individual outlay of a few mill-owners, in remodeling their dams, in a manner which would permit of the ingress and regress of the fish, without, in any wise, affecting the hight of the head of water, or the supply maintained by the present system.

We propose to examine, briefly, the feasibility of the scheme; the efficiency of the methods proposed--as we understand them-by the Natural History Society of the State of New Jersey; and the practicability and propriety of the extension of the aid demanded by the legislatures of the three States concerned.

And, first, we shall extract, for the information of our readers, who are unacquainted with the habits of the salmon, the following account of their operations in the reproduction of their species, in the North American waters of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where they can, in no material degree, differ from the similar habits of the same fish in our own rivers-since it is on the observation of these habits that the whole scheme and all its subordinate details are founded.

The extract is taken from a little work, of great comprehensiveness and utility, by Mr. Perley, alluded to above, entitled A Descriptive Catalogue (in part) of the Fishes of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia," published at Fredoricton, N. B., in 1852. The passage selected will be found at pages 22, 23.

"The salmon enters the rivers of Nova Scotia during the latter part of April. Those rivers of New Brunswick which fall into the Bay of Fundy, the salmon enters at the latter part of May; while it seldom enters the rivers which fall into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, until the month of June. The female salmon first enters the rivers; the male fish follows, about a month later than the female; and lastly, come the grilse, or young salmon, which continue to ascend the rivers during July and August.

Salmon swim with great rapidity, shoot up the most oblique and glancing rapids with the velocity of an arrow, and frequently leap falls 10 and 12 feet in hight. It is believed that the utmost limit of perpendicular hight which a salmon can attain in leaping, is 14 feet; but their perseverance is remarkable, for although they may fail, time after time, yet, after remaining quiescent for a few moinents to recruit their strength, they renew

their efforts, and generally succeed; but, it is said, they sometimes kill themselves by the violence of these efforts.

"In New Brunswick, the salmon seldom deposits its spawn until the middle of October. Mr. Price has observed the salmon in the Miramichi, in the act of spawning, as late as the 20th of November. The fish that have spawned, generally return to the sea before the rivers become ice-bound in December; but many remain in the fresh water all winter, and go down to the sea at the breaking up of the ice in spring.

"On one occasion, in the month of December, Mr. Price states that he saw fifteen large salmon, caught with a spear, through a hole cut in the ice which covered a creek above Boiestown.

"Before entering the rivers, they live awhile in the brackish water of the tide-ways, as they do also when they ascend to the sea, to render the change from one to the other less abrupt, and to rid themselves of certain parasitical animals, which attach to them, when they remain long either in fresh water, or in salt, as the case may be.

"The spawn is not deposited until the water is greatly below its summer temperature. Professor Agassiz stated personally to the writer, that 42° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, or 10° above the freezing point, was the temperature at which salmon usually cast their ova. It is absolutely necessary, that the water should be aerated, or highly supplied with oxygen; hence the salmon resort to shallow, pure water, and swiftly running streams, the rapidity and frequent falls in which impart purity and vitality, by mingling their waters with the atmosphere.

"A series of interesting and carefully conducted experiments, in Great Britain, have within a few years led to a much more accurate knowledge of the habits of the salmon than was before possessed, and corrected many erroneous impressions. It has been found, that the eggs of the salmon are hatched in 114 days, when the temperature of the water is at 36-in 101 days when it is at 43°—and in 90 days when it is at 45°. At the end of two months, the young fish attain the length of an inch and a quarter; at the age of six months, it has grown to the length of three inches and a quarter.

In this state the young salmon fry are called parrs, and are readily known by their silvery scales, and by their having perpendicular bars of a dusky gray colour, crossing the lateral line. In this state, the fry remain a whole year in the fresh water, not going down to the sea until the second spring after being hatched. As they readily take both fly and bait, great numbers are often destroyed in mere wantonness; and it is desirable all colonists should know, that the destruction of these fry (which, from their dark cross-bars and small red spots like the young of trout, are supposed not to be the young of salmon) will inevitably destroy the run of salmon in any river, and tend, with other causes, to the extirpation of this magnificent fish. When parrs are taken in angling, they should, if uninjured, be immediately returned to the stream, and every true sportsman will carefully do so.

"The growth of the parr is very slow, but, when it has attained the length of seven inches, a complete change takes place in its color. The dark cross-bars disappear, as also the small red spots, and the fish assumes a brilliant silvery appearance. It then bears the outward semblance of what it really is, a young salmon, and is termed a salmon-smolt.

"As soon as this change has taken place, the smolt evinces the most anxious desire to visit the sea; and it is alleged, that if it is prevented doing so, by any insuperable obstacle, it will throw itself on the bank and perish. Up to this time, the growth of the young salmon has been very slow, but, on reaching the sea, it is exceedingly rapid; a smolt of six or seven ounces in weight, after two or three months absence in the sea, will return as a grilse of four or five pounds weight; this has been proved beyond all dispute. Smolts have been taken by hundreds, marked with numbered tickets of zinc attached to their dorsal fins, then set at liberty, and recaptured in the autumn of the same year, as grilse, varying from two to eight pounds in weight. These have been released with the labels unremoved, and have been seen in the spring of the third year, returning to the sea, with weight not increased; in the succeeding autumn, they have been once more taken, as full grown fish, from 16 to 25 pounds weight.

"The miscroscopical researches of Dr. Knox have shown that the food of the salmon, previous to its quitting the salt water, consists of the eggs of echinodermata and crustacea, this rich aliment giving the color and flavor for which its flesh is so highly prized. This is sustained by the observations of Professor Agassiz, who states, that the most beautiful salmon trout are found in waters which abound in crustacea, direct experiments having shown, to his satisfaction, that the intensity of the red color of their flesh depends upon the quantity of gammarine which they have devoured."

*

It must now be stated, that it has been fully and satisfactorily established that young fish can be propagated, artificially, in any quantities, by either of the two methods. The one is by taking the breeding fishes alive, male and female, previous to their depositing their spawn, in the gravel shoals of their native river-beds; and compelling the female fish, first by a gentle pressure of the hands on her sides, to deposit her ova on a layer of gravel, in a box suitably prepared for the purpose, covered with a wire grating and provided with suitable apertures, similarly guarded at one extremity, to admit the influx and efflux of spring water, from a source of proper temperature, without which the ova cannot be matured.

This done, the male fish is, by a simi

spring water, which can readily be transmitted by marine steamers to New York and thence by rail to the localities where they should be emancipated.

The feeding streams of the Passaic, Raritan, Delaware, and Hudson, have, we are informed, been carefully explored and investigated by several gentlemen; and waters have been found, abounding in trout, communicating with these rivers, without the interruption of any impassable natural falls, admirably calculated for fish nurseries, and requiring only a modification of the dams, to enable them at once to become the spawning places and abodes of countless myriads of fry.

Into these streams, being the Second and Third rivers, as they are termed, for the Passaic, the Black river for the Raritan, the Request and Muscanetcong for the Delaware, and the Walkill and Esopuskill for the Hudson, they propose to turn out sufficient numbers of fry, fully to insure the stocking of the rivers, provided the States will furnish the actual cost of the purchase and transportation of the fish-making no demands for their own time, labor and trave-land grant the protection which they conceive to be necessary, and without the concession of which, it is understood, that they will not stir in the business.

With regard to the feasibility of this scheme according to the premises, there cannot be a question. It has been proved, in other countries. that waters can be as easily stocked with fish as parks with game, or pastures with cattle; and in view of the fact, that these rivers did once, beyond denial, abound in salmon, there can be no doubt, in any unprejudiced mind, that they can be made to produce them again, in undiminished numbers. Nor is it to be disputed, that the method proposed by these gentlemen is simple, reasonable, and well calculated to produce the desired end; while it is presumed that the character and qualifications of the persons engaged in the project may be taken as a sufficient guarantee for the plan being well carried out in its details.

There remain to be considered, the conditions on which they offer to restock the rivers, and the practicability and propriety of the according of those conditions by the legislatures of the States concerned.

The conditions, we learn, are as follow:

1. An absolute prohibition to kill or take salmon in any of the rivers named, or in the bays, estuaries, channels, or sea-ways into which they flow, for the space of five years, under the penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every such offense, the whole to go to

the informer.

The term of five years is selected, as giving an opportunity to the fish to breed three times previous to the capture of any.

The large amount of the penalty, and its disposition, are assumed to be neces sary, in order to induce neighbors, and fishermen, to inform one against the other--the ordinary small fine, exacted in the usual game laws, having been found utterly inoperative to procure the rendition of informations.

2. The prohibition, under the same penalties, of taking trout, in the same waters and their tributaries, for the same term of years.

This clause is adopted on account of the difficulty of distinguishing between trout and the young salmon fry, which, unless thus protected, would be liable to destruction, as their congeners the brook trout.

3. The prohibition, under the same penalties, forever, of taking salmon between the months of October and April, in any of the waters named, or their tributaries, or on their spawning beds, or on, or within half a mile of, above or below, any fish-weir, dam, or run-way, over which the fish may pass, at any season of the year.

4. The prohibition, under the same penalties, of the erection of any stake weirs, or permanent nets, extending from either shore, above one-third of the width of the stream, or intercepting the main channel or current of the river.

5. The absence of any clause, providing that persons shall not be held answerable in penalties for violating the said prohibitions-on their own ground. Such exception having been found invariably and totally to prevent and nullify the operation of all protective laws, and to preclude all benefit arising from them.

6th, and lastly, a statute compelling all mill-owners, proprietors of dams, weirs, or the like, to erect, within a certain number of months after the