CONSERVATION AND ITS MEANING 



597 



uncontrolled fishing to spawning is an instance of the need of wise 

 legislation. Salmon and other food fish of similar habits, such as the 

 sturgeon, are in much danger of extermination because of this rela- 

 tionship. 



A further danger to fish is the pollution of streams. Thus the 

 salmon have not only been depleted by overfishing and wasteful 

 methods of fishing, but 

 have been "discouraged" 

 from ascending such 

 streams as the Connecti- 

 cut River by the great 

 quantities of polhition 

 present. It is reported 

 that the salmon formerly 

 ran up this river in such 

 quantities that the 

 farmers used to back their 

 wagons to the edge of the 

 stream and take them 

 out by the wagon load 

 for food and fertilizer. 

 A somewhat similar story 

 may be told of Lake 

 Champlain. At the time 

 of the Revolution, salmon 

 used to run up from the 

 St. Lawrence River into the lake and would then spawn in its 

 tributary streams. Early maps of this region published in 1776 and 

 1779 indicate the location of "salmon fisheries" and records from the 

 diary of the settlers run as follows : 



"Sunday, Aug. 26, 1789. The water raised and Salmon run plentifully 

 for the first. 

 Monday, Oct. 8, 1789. 365 Sahnon taken." 



The salmon industry in this region declined so in the next half century 

 that we find "only straggling individuals are met with in Lake Cham- 

 plain." 1 Nothing remains but the memory — or controversy — over 

 when, and by whom, the last salmon was seen or caught in the lake. 



I From Thompson's Vermont. Published 1842. Quoted in Supplement to the 19th Annual 

 Report of the N. Y. State Conservation Department, 1929. A Biological Survey of the Champlain 

 Watershed. 1930. 



ICn .liiKiii Kodak 



Salmon leaping falls. Proper lishways should 

 be constructed where dams interfere with fish 

 migration. 



