188 AMERICAN FISH CULTURE. 



they now inhabit; nor is the flesh of any of them com- 

 parable to that of the true salmon, the land-locked salmon, 

 or the brook trout. The last report of the Maine Fish 

 Commissioners contains the following remarks on their 

 habits : 



" Late in October they resort to shoal water, and spawn 

 on rocks and ledges. They come suddenly, finish the 

 operation in a few nights, and immediately retire to deep 

 water. It has been noticed that the females come to the 

 spawning-grounds first. The first night of their appearance 

 nearly all will be females, and at the last nearly all males. 

 They are accompanied and followed by a motley throng, 

 composed of nearly all kinds of fishes in the lake, eels and 

 hornpouts predominating. Probably few of the eggs 

 escape them." 



THE SCHOODIO TROUT, or more properly salmon (. 

 jftoverf), and the Sebago salmon ($. Sebago}, I am in- 

 clined to believe are identical. Both are doubtless land- 

 locked salmon, having lost the instinct of migration to sea 

 many, many generations back. It is likely that at some 

 remote period natural obstructions prevented their migra- 

 tions to the ocean, and the habit of reproducing in fresh 

 waters without going to sea to recuperate was forced upon 

 them and became an instinct. These modified salmon 

 (if I may so call them) are now permanent in Sebago and 

 Schoodic lakes, although there appears to be no obstruction 

 to the marine migrations of the latter. These fish could 

 probably be naturalized in the snialler lakes of New Eng- 

 land and New York. In the Umbagog region they would, 



