328 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



to sea and is seen no more until it returns to the river of its birth, 

 weighing several i^onnds, say from two to six, when it receives the name 

 of " grilse." It requires another journey to the sea and another season 

 of feeding to produce the adult salmon. After each visit to the rivers 

 for the purpose of spawning, the adult salmon returns to sea in an emaci- 

 ated condition, when it is termed a " kelt." 



3. — THE EGQ STAGE. 



The eggs of s:almon'are, in the rivers of Maine, deposited in October 

 and I^ovember, in water whose temperature, through the winter and 

 spring, cannot be much above 33° Fahrenheit, and does not rise materi- 

 ally until the snow is melted from the ground and the ice from the lakes. 

 In the interior of the country, about the headwaters of the Penobscot 

 and other large rivers, the ice in the lakes does not disappear until May, 

 and I am confident that the general hatching of salmon-eggs cannot 

 occur earlier. 



4. — THE PARK. 



Of the infancy of salmon in our rivers very little has been observed. 

 The specimens of parr and smolts that had come into the hands of 

 naturalists previous to last summer may almost be counted on oue\s 

 fingers. On the Penny's River, when salmon were abundant, a good 

 many parr and smolts (parr 4 to 10 inches long) were caught on hooks 

 by the boys at Dennysville, but, the number of adult fish having de- 

 clined, the young fell off in a corresponding degree. Young salmon 

 (parr or smolts) have also been taken in Little Falls Stream, in Ed- 

 mun.ds, and parr in the East Machias. In Alna, in June, 1869, a parr 

 was taken in the Sheepscot River, and, being confined in a trout-pond, 

 it was, in December following, 6J inches long, and still retained vermil- 

 ion spots on the sides, and dark transverse bars only a little less dis- 

 tinct than the spots. In the Penobscot River specimens of parr are 

 occasionally met with. The State commissioners, in the course of a 

 tour of inspection on the upper Penobscot, from July 22 to 28, 1873, 

 found them rising to the fly in almost every pool from the mouth of the 

 Mattagamon to Grand Falls, the upper limit of the ascent of salmon. 

 At Medway, where the Mattagamon joins the Penobscot, they found the 

 people catching them very commonly when fishing for trout.* Mr. 

 Stilwell remarked that they seemed as plenty as he ever knew them on 

 the Miramichi in the course of several seasons of fly-fishing. These 

 fish were about six inches long, and retained the transverse bars and 

 brilliant vermilion spots of the parr. 



The salmon rivers on the west side of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence 

 abound with parr. They take the large salmon-fly intended for the 

 adult to such an extent as to be often a nuisance to the angler.t Mr. 



* Seventh Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries, of tlie State of Maine, p. 5. 

 t Statement of Jos. Carr, E. M. Stilwell, W. M. Brackett, and others. 



