THE ATLANTIC SALMON. 533 



traditions and the current of universal testimony by actual observers or 

 participants of the incidents, there was no hesitation in receiving the 

 statements as authentic and true. I have heard the account from several 

 of these individuals that when they immigrated many streams were so 

 thronged by the salmon that it was unsafe at particular seasons to ride 

 a spirited horse into them, for the reason that the fish were so abundant 

 and bold that they would fearlessly approach the horse and strike him 

 with great force by the powerful muscular action of their bodies. It 

 was often represented that it was a common pastime, as well as a most 

 desirable means of obtaining food at that time, to drive a team into 

 some of the shallow tributaries of the river, and from the wagon spear 

 the salmon with pitchforks, and thus obtain in a few minutes all the fish 

 needed for consumption. Many of the salmon taken in this primitive 

 method would reach twenty pounds in weight. 



Among the various persons from whom I have received interesting 

 information in aid of my inquiries, I am particularly indebted to Silas 

 Arnold, esq., of Eeeseville, for seveial facts which were communicated 

 to him by his father, Hon. Elisha Arnold. This gentleman was one of 

 the earliest prominent settlers, and subsequently attained high social 

 and political standing in the district. Among these incidents, Mr. 

 Arnold recalls the following circumstauce, which coming from so intel- 

 ligent and reliable an authority amply corroborates the almost incredible 

 traditions of the former copious prevalence of the salmon in these waters. 

 About the year 1800, or possibly a year or two previous, at any rate 

 it was at so early a period in the occupation of the country that the path- 

 way through the woods, leading from the residence of Judge Arnold, 

 situated near the center of the present town of Peru, to Plattsburgh, 

 was marked by a series of blazed trees. As he was proceeding to the 

 latter place, in fording the Little An Sable, a small shallow stream, near 

 itsmouth, the passage of his wagon was largely impeded by the throng of 

 salmon which was in the stream, and he readily caught and threw upon 

 the bank all he wished to take. 



Mr. Arnold has called my attention to a familiar fact, which is ob- 

 served among all gregarious fishes, and is peculiarly characteristic of the 

 salmon family, and tends to relieve the marvelous tales of the early 

 exuberance in the Champlain region of the salmon from their incredible 

 aspect. He says that they ascended the streams in shoals, or schools, 

 which intermitted in their progress, and that the flow of the fishes was 

 not constant or continuous as might be inferred by the language of the 

 traditions ; that when encountered in the vast masses so often described, 

 they were passing a particular locality, consolidated in one of these 

 shoals, or schools. 



Mr. Oscar F. Sheldon, formerly of Willsborough, Essex County, com- 

 municated to me a record, which he deems perfectly authentic, of five 

 hundred salmon being taken in a single afternoon early in the present 

 century, from the river Bouquet. The Bouquet is a tributary of Lake 



