BULLETIN OP THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 343 



same gronnds with the large fish. Sebec salmon, apparently mature, 

 having lost the red spots and dark bars, may be taken on the same day, 

 all the way from 8 inches up to 2 feet in length, but of Schoodic salmon, 

 as taken at Grand Lake Stream, I have never seen a mature tish Avhich 

 was less than 12 inches long, very few are less than 15, atid never one 

 that had lost bars and red spots was less than 11 ; and these small fish, 

 as well as the smaller ones with bars and spots (8 or 9 inches long), are 

 rarely found with the larger fish. 



D. — Grand Lake Stream. — This is the headquarters of the variety 

 of the Schoodic Lakes. That is, to no other stream do so many salmon 

 resort to spawn; and in no other lake do so many find their home as in 

 Grand Lake. After the prevailing backwoods sj'stem of nomenclature, 

 the stream that flows out of Grand Lake is called Grand Lake Stream. 

 Here, as in many other instances that I know of, the salmon move down 

 from the lake into its outlet at the spawning season instead of up into 

 the tributaries. It follows that the young fish, instead of dropping 

 down with the current as young sea salmon do, are in the habit of as- 

 cending their native streams till they reach deep water above. 



Grand Lake is one of the finest sheets of water in Maine, with clean, 

 wooded shores, and very clear water. Grand Lake Stream is a bright, 

 dancing stream, 3 miles long, with quick water almost every rod, and 

 abundant spawning grounds. 



E.— The breeding- operations. — For eight years we have been 

 conducting almost the entire business of spawning for the fish. Our 

 traps span the stream at the outlet of the lake. Ko fish now get past 

 us except hj accident. With fine-meshed nets we build a series of in- 

 closures. Those which the fish first enter are on the principle of a weir 

 or pound, and few fish ever get out against our will. Thej' come in 

 mostly by night. Every morning we count our catch and sort them, 

 taking spawn from all that are ready. The earliest fish begin to spawn 

 in the stream before the end of October; we begin to take eggs a few 

 days later, from the 4th to the 8th of November. Many of the females 

 have to be kept some days before they are ripe. (Not so with the Penob- 

 scot fish— sea salmon — which are generallj all ripe together, and some 

 days earlier than the Schoodic.) The yield averages 1,600 eggs i)er 

 female. We commonly catch four females to three males. The males 

 come in earlier in the season. The first run is nearly all males ; the 

 last, nearly all females. The ripe fish continue to come in until Novem- 

 ber 20; sometimes not all are manipulated till December, Often there 

 is severely cold weather during the spawning season. We operate 

 under cover of a roof. Sometimes ice shuts us off" from communication 

 with the lake ; but if not, we take the fish we have manipulated in cars 

 and tow them 1 or 2 miles up the lake, where they are set free. One- 

 fourth of the spawn taken is hatched here and the fry let loose in Grand 

 Lake, to avoid exhausting the supply. There has been no falling off as 

 yet. The fry are planted along the shore scatteringly where there are 

 loose, rough rocks for them to hide under. 



