Ixxii REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



Much ingenuity has been expended in the discussion of the question 

 whether these are or are not the true salmon. They appear to present 

 trifling peculiarities ; but so far no difterence of any special value has 

 been noted. They take the fly with the utmost eagerness, and there is 

 no fish that affords better sport, especially in localities where they 

 abound. To Dr. A. C. Hamlin, of Bangor, we owe a very interesting 

 article upon this fish, published in Lippincott's Magazine for May, 1869, 

 and reproduced on page 338. This gentleman is of the opinion, after a 

 careful investigation, that the variety is really of modern origin, having 

 been developed only since the erection of mill-dams on the streams 

 mentioned. He thinks he has evidence that forty or fifty years ago> 

 or possibly one hundred, no such kind of fish was known in these 

 streams, and that it was only after the erection of the dams, making 

 the passage of fish from below impossible, when the young fish were 

 penned into the upper waters and rendered averse to the experiment 

 of going down over them, that the so-called land-locked salmon was 

 met with. This conclusion is, however, stoutly contested by other 

 authors, as by Dr. A. Leith Adams. The laud-locked salmon, however, 

 whether a distinct species or a variety of the true salmon, is one of very 

 great value for stocking our small lakes ; and another season it is pro- 

 loosed, should Congress authorize it, to attempt operations on a large 

 scale in securing these eggs and placing the young fish in the more 

 western waters. 



The fish are taken readil}^ with the fly throughout the greater part of 

 the year, at least from early spring until late in the autumn, with the 

 exception of a short interval in the hotter weather of midsummer. 



Many persons maintain that the salmon of Lake Ontario is really land- 

 locked ; that is, it does not spend an3^ portion of its life in the ocean. 

 This, however, is a question which cannot be determined by our present 

 data. 



G. — The sea-trout [Salmo immaculatus f). 



Another fish which has been suggested for introduction into the waters 

 of the United States is the sea-trout {Salmo immaculatus ?). This is very 

 common in the waters of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and also in those of 

 the Atlantic coast in ZSTova Scotia. It runs up in the spring into brackish 

 waters in great numbers for the purpose of spawning. It is very abun- 

 dant in Newfoundland and on the coast of Labrador, where immense 

 numbers are caught and sent to the Boston market. As yet we know 

 very little of its natural history; but there seems no reason to doubt 

 that it would answer admirably for the streams on the coast of Maine* 

 As a fresh fish it is of delicious flavor, although very inferior to the 

 salmon when salted. 



7. — The l('J:e-irout {SaJmo namaycnslif). 



This fish, very characteristic of all the great lakes of the Northern 

 States, and occurring in one variety or another in smaller bodies of water 



