BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 171 



water I have some suspicions, and should not dare to inclose salmon in 

 it again. 



No. 2. — After the failure of the above experiment an inclosure was 

 made in the edge of an ordinary lake by stretching a stout net on stakes. 

 This water was brown in color, and objects 4 feet beneath the surface 

 were invisible. The bottom was gravelly and devoid of vegetation. 

 The depth was 7^ feet in early summer, and about 4 feet after the 

 drought of August and September. The area inclosed was about 25 

 square rods in June, and perhaps half as much at the end of summer. 

 This inclosure was entirely successful, very few salmon dying in it 

 except those that had been attacked by disease before their introduc- 

 tion, and all the survivors were found to be in first-rate condition in 

 November. This site was not afterwards occupied, because it was incon- 

 viently located, and was exposed to the full force of violent winds sweep- 

 ing across the lake, and therefore unsafe. 



No. 3. — The inclosure in use for the confinement of the stock of breed- 

 ing fish for the four years from 1872 to 1875, inclusive, was made by 

 running a barrier across a narrow arm of a small lake (mentioned in 

 official reports as " Spofford's Pond ") near Bucksport village. This 

 body of water, about CO acres in area in the summer, receives the drain- 

 age of not more than 5 square miles of territory through several small 

 brooks, that are reduced to dry beds by an ordinar^^ drought. About a 

 quarter of the shores are marshy and the rest stony. The water is 

 highly colored by peaty matters in solution, and all objects are invisible 

 at a depth of 2 feet. The bottom is composed mostly of a fine brown 

 peaty mud of unknown depth. Aquatic vegetation of the genera Nu- 

 phar, Nymphcea, Bragenia, Potamogeton, &c., is abundant. The water 

 is nowhere more than 16 feet deep in the spring, and 11 feet in midsum- 

 mer. The porti(m inclosed is 2 feet shoaler. The inclosure occupied 

 sometimes 8 or 10 acres, and sometimes less. The barrier was from 400 

 to 600 feet long, and was formed the first year of brush ; the second and 

 third years of stake-nets, weighted down at the bottom witli chains ; and 

 the fourth year of wooden racks, 4 feet wide and long enough to reach 

 the bottom, which were pushed down side by side. The brush was 

 unsatisfiictory. There were holes in it by which the fish escaped. A 

 single net would not retain its strength through a whole season, the 

 bottom rotting away and letting the fish out, unless before the autumn 

 was far advanced its position were reversed, the stronger part that had 

 been above water being placed now at the bottom. This method was 

 therefore rather expensive and not perfectly secure. The wooden racks 

 were costly and heavy to handle, but quite secure. 



The salmon placed in this inclosure had to be carted in tanks of water 

 overland about a mile in addition to transportation in floating cars from 

 3 to 5 miles ; they were transferred suddenly from the salt water of 

 the river (about two-thirds as salt as common sea- water) into the entirely 

 fresh water of the lake. To all the supposed unfavorable circumstances 



