624 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



again be successfully restocked. With the iutro.lactioa of fish-ways, 

 this difficulty could, of course, be overcome. 



You are next introduced to the Lamoille River, whicli I regard as 

 the most fav^ored region in Vermont iu which to begin the experiment of 

 restocking with salmon. It is a more rapid stream than the Wiuooski • 

 has more dams situated on it, yet no high perpendicular fall. Although 

 it has many cataracts and cascades, yet not being abrupt, and the dams 

 and falls being low, they could be easily surmounted by the salmou with- 

 out the aid of fish-ways. The bed of the river being gravelly and the 

 water clear and cold, I think it affords unsurpassed advantage for the 

 introduction of salmon. It will doubtless be the stream upon which 

 operations will first be commenced. 



The Missisquoi River, the last of the large rivers on the east side 

 of the lake, empties itself iuto Missisquoi Bay at Swanton, Vt. This 

 river is partly a Canadian river, taking its rise in the southeastern 

 to^wnships of the Lower Canadas, and flows southerly into the State of 

 Vermont^ and then in a westerly direction to the lake. This stream was 

 once a great salmon-stream, like the others mentioned; and in an early 

 day the salmon ascended the river nearly fifteen miles, to what is now 

 called Highgate Falls. Over these falls no accounts are had of 

 salmon passing, and I question very much their ability to do so, as the 

 fall of water is somewhat perpendicular, and from 18 to 20 feet in height. 

 There is only one dam between the mouth of the river and Highgate 

 Falls, over which an easy fish- way might be constructed. 



From the mouth of the river to Highgate Falls, several small streams 

 debouch into the river, wherein the salmon would find suitable spawning- 

 ground. This river is only second in importance to the Lamoille as a 

 salmou-stream. 



The next streams visited were the Saranac and Salmon Rivers, on the 

 west side of the lake, in the State of New York. The Saranac River, 

 which empties itself into the lake at Plattsburgh, is one of the finest 

 rivers, comparatively speaking, in the whole Lake Champlaiu Valley for 

 salmon, but, unfortunately, full of high impassable dams,* which, in con- 

 nection with the shallowness of the water below them, render fish-ways 

 iu a measure impracticable. Twenty miles up this river, at Russia, are 

 situated the Great Falls of the Saranac. These are a succession of falls, 

 some of which have a xjerpendicular height of 35 feet. Large stories 

 are told of the abundance of salmou inhabiting this stream at an early 

 day, and I have no doubt that they were all true from what I saw of 

 it. Mr. Fouquet, the proprietor of the Fonquet Hotel at Plattsburgh, 

 informed me that his grandfather related the fact that he had seen 

 immense schools of salmon making iuto the mouth of this river in his 

 day, in such abuudance as to completely fill the river, rendering their 

 capture by the cart-load an easy matter. The last salmon known to have 

 been caught upon this stream was in the spring of 1824. 



* See Sarauac River Fisheries— People vs. Piatt, 17th New York Law Reports. John- 

 son, 1819. 



