534 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



for Hamilton Inlet and Sandwich Bay on the outer coast of Labrador (j: 294), and the 

 seasonal schedule is about the same as this near Nain (about 56°3o'N), where "brook 

 trout weighing up to almost two pounds are found in the sea from the time when the 

 ice goes out early in June" (Weed, 72: 130). 



On Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the return migration downstream takes place soon 

 after the spawning season has ended; i. e. in November and December, perhaps com- 

 mencing even in October (7: 140; 6: 121; 9: 26); and seemingly the seasonal schedule 

 is similar to this in the western side of Hudson Bay where Doan has observed that 

 the spent fish apparently winter in the estuaries of the large rivers and then cruise 

 along the coast (jj: 6). 



On the coast of eastern Maine, however, and to the north in general, the great 

 majority of the kelts and smolts, with the immature fish that have run up during the 

 previous summer, spend the winter in fresh water. The principal downstream move- 

 ment by the Brook Trout takes place the following spring; for example, in the Moser 

 River, Nova Scotia, the smolts move down in April and May and the kelts do so until 

 well into June when the temperature of the water has risen to 64°-65°F or i8°C {j6). 

 On the coast of western Newfoundland, as represented by the Little River Codroy, 

 the chief downstream run "begins in late April or early May, to cease around mid- 

 June,"2= although it is preceded by some movement "down the estuary as early as 

 January and February" (Weed, 72: 130). While they have been reported by P. S. Mar- 

 tin as being in salt water from November on along the north shore of Prince Edward 

 Island (as they are on Cape Cod also), they enter the sea around the middle of 

 May=^ in the southern section of Labrador; and it is not until early June when the 

 river ice opens that they are found in the sea in the vicinity of Nain, northern Labrador 

 (72: 130). Thus the annual sojourn in the marine environment (as determined by 

 tagging experiments) is usually 30-60 days on the coast of eastern Maine, with the 

 recorded maximum 106 days and the minimum 1-5 days; the average is 65 days 

 for the larger of the Moser River fish and 71 days for the smolts {j6: 263). In 

 northern Labrador they are in salt water from early June to late summer, but precise 

 dates have not been given. 



Since mature sea-running fish eat very little while they are in fresh water, the feed- 

 ing period throughout the northern part of their geographic range is thus condensed 

 within only a little more than two months out of the twelve. While they may sojourn 

 in salt water for as much as six months (November to June) in the southernmost part of 

 their range (Cape Cod), the period during which they feed actively probably is no 

 longer there than it is in Nova Scotia — perhaps not so long — for the surface temperature 

 in the bays and estuaries of Cape Cod where they winter usually continues below 40° F 

 from sometime in December until mid-April (25: figs. 4, 5 [100]), with the water 

 usually chilling to within a degree or two of the freezing point of salt water during 



25. Information based on the results of tagging, contributed by A. R. Murray, Fisheries Research Board of 

 Canada. 



26. Information from W. A. Blair, in charge of Salmon investigations for Newfoundland. 



