Report of the State Commissioners of Fisheries

[salmonoid]

I have recently discovered some late 19th century publications that the state of PA put out. They are a summary of the actions and activities of the state fish agency at the time and have proven to be an interesting read. For instance, there are records that show that brook trout fry and production was in excess of 2 million at the turn of the century (makes the discusions about "pure-breed" brookies seem even more implausible, with that much biomass of brookies being distributed").

The publications also have some nice color chromolithographs of fish, including the salmonids, and buried in the 1892 publication is the fact that the prints are done by one Sherman Denton.

My question, for any old book collectors of this series (if there are any on this board) - were there different versions of the publication for a given year? I have procured three copies of the report for 1895 (published in 1896). Two have a modest maroon/brown cover. However, the third has a leather spine and an ornate paisley cover and back, and just seems to be dressed up more. It doesn't appear to be rebound, so I'm curious if there were "executive" versions of the reports created.

 

[pcray1231]

I like these publications too. Here's one from 1914. In that year, 1,123,525 brook trout yearlings were distributed. It even splits them up by county, Potter County led with 80,700, followed in order by Lycoming, Cameron, and McKean.

It should be noted in this time the commission did not seem to control where the fish went. People merely "ordered" fish from the hatcheries and put them where they chose.

There's also lots of good info about the practices of those days, and the biological/pollution discussions.

The best thing about this publication is the discussion of navigable streams/public highways, how the commission holds them to all be open to fishing, and a complete list of them (as of 1914).

Report of the Department of Fisheries of the Commonwealth - 1914