BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 373 



SKETCH OF THE PENOBSCOT SALMON-BREEDING ESTABLISH- 

 MENT. 



By CHARLES G. ATKINS. 



[Written by request of Prof. S. F. Baird, for the London Exhibition, 1883.] 



The rivers of the United States tributary to the Atlantic, north of 

 the Hudson, were, in their natural state, the resorts of the migratory 

 salmon, Salmo salar, and most of them continued to support important 

 fisheries for this species down to recent times. The occupation of the 

 country by Europeans introduced a new set of antagonistic forces which 

 began even in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to operate 

 against the natural increase and maintenance of the salmon and other 

 migratory fishes. In many localities the closing of smaller streams by 

 dams, and the pursuit of the fish with nets and other implements, had. 

 already begun to tell on their number ; but it was not until the present 

 century that the industrial activities of the country began to seize upon 

 the water power of the larger ri vers and to interrupt in them by lofty dams 

 the ascent of salmon to their principal spwning grounds. These forces 

 were rapid in their operations, aided as they were by a greatly augmented 

 demand for food from a rapidly increasing population. In 18G5 the sal- 

 mon fisheries were extinct in all but five or six of the thirty rivers 

 known to have been originally inhabited by them. In many of these 

 rivers the last salmon had been taken, and in others the occurrence of 

 individual specimens was extremely rare. Among the exhausted rivers 

 may be mentioned the Connecticut, 380 miles long ; the Merrimack, 180 

 miles long ; the Saco, 120 miles long ; the Androscoggin, 220 miles long; 

 and some twenty smaller rivers. There still survived salmon fisheries in 

 the following rivers, namely, the Penobscot, the Kennebec, the Denny's, 

 the East Machias, the Saint Croix, and the Aroostook, a tributary of 

 the Saint John. The most productive of these was the Penobscot, 

 yielding 5,000 to 10,000 salmon yearly. The Kennebec occasionally 

 yielded 1,200 in a year, but generally much less. The other rivers were 

 still less productive. 



The movement for the re-establishment of these fisheries originated 

 in action of the legislature of New Hampshire, seconded by that of the 

 neighboring state of Massachusetts, having in view primarily the fish- 

 eries of the Merrimack and Connecticut Rivers. The course of the 

 Merrimack lies wholly within the states of New Hampshire and Massa- 

 chusetts ; that of the Connecticut lies partly in the state of Connecticut, 

 and many of its tributaries are in the state of Vermont. These two 

 states were therefore early interested in the project, and their action soon 

 led to similar exertions on the part of Rhode Island and Maine. Within 

 the borders of the six states mentioned, collectively known as " New 



