380 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



He is, therefore, much sought after, taking, perhaps, in public favor 

 the lead of all fresh-water species. 



The natural range of the land-locked salmon in the United States is 

 very much restricted. Leaving out of the question the salmon formerly 

 frequenting the rivers tributary to the great lakes, Ontario and Cham- 

 plain, the extent of whose migration is a matter of doubt, we find them 

 only in four limited districts, all in the state of Maine, namely, the Pre- 

 sumpscot Eiver in Cumberland and Oxford Counties, the Sebec (a trib- 

 utary of the Penobscot) in Piscataquis County, the Union Kiver, in Han- 

 cock County, and the Saint Croix, in Washington County. There are 

 some minor differences between the fish of these several districts, of 

 which, perhaps, that of size is the most notable. The Sebago and Union 

 Eiver fish are much larger on the average than those of the Sebec and 

 Saint Croix. The Sebago salmon average at the spawning season 4 or 5 

 pounds weight for the males and a pound less for the female, while speci- 

 mens of 12 and 14 pounds weight are not rare, and there is even on 

 record one of 17£ pounds. The Union River fish are about the same 

 size. The Saint Croix fish vary in the matter of weight in different 

 parts of their range, but the average weight of either sex at Grand 

 Lake Stream is a little less than three pounds. Specimens of over 6 

 pounds are rare, and none are on record of over 10 pounds. 



Attempts have been made to collect eggs of land-locked Salmon in 

 each of the four districts mentioned above, but it is found that in the 

 Saint Croix district alone, and there only in the single locality of Grand 

 Lake Stream, are they sufficiently abundant to yield a large stock of 

 eggs. In 1873 the Commissioners of Fisheries of the United States, 

 and of Massachusetts and Connecticut, founded an establishment at 

 Sebec Lake, but after two years of effort it was found that the supply 

 of fish was too small, and they determined to transfer the work to Grand 

 Lake Stream. 



The land-locked salmon of the Saint Croix, though originally well 

 distributed through the lakes tributary to that river and still inhabit- 

 ing a great many of them, finds in some a much more congenial home 

 than in others, and Grand Lake, on the west branch, or Schoodic Eiver, 

 is of all these waters their favorite abode. This body of water is of 

 irregular shape, about 12 miles in length and 4 in extreme breadth, fed 

 almost wholly by short streams that form the outlets of other lakes, 

 and from this cause as well as from the fact that it drains a gravelly 

 country and is girt with clean, rocky shores, it is one of the purest of 

 the lakes of Maine. Its greatest depth is believed to be a little over 

 100 feet. Its outlet is Grand Lake Stream, a shallow, rapid, gravelly 

 stream, about 3 miles long, to which the salmon resort in October and 

 November to deposit their eggs. Comparatively few of the salmon of 

 this lake resort to the stream tributary to it. 



Of necessity the operations with land-locked salmon are conducted 

 in a very different manner from those with migratory salmon. Being 



