16 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, 
were hatched in January; and during March and April the resulting 
fingerlings were planted in Dennys and Pembroke Rivers, at points 
2 to 4 miles above tidewater. 
In August, September, and October, 1917, many thousand hump- 
backs entered rivers in eastern Maine. A few fish were observed 
or reported in Penobscot, St. George, Medomac, St. Croix, and other 
streams, but the principal runs were in Dennys and Pembroke Rivers. 
Several representatives of the Bureau visited streams in which the 
humpbacks were reported and secured first-hand information regard- 
ing the runs. Arrangements were made to take eggs for hatching 
purposes, but the run at any given point was so short after the 
arrival of the fish-culturist that only a few thousand eggs could be 
obtained, most of the fish being spent. Net fishing at this season 
is prohibited by the local law, and a considerable number of the fish 
were able to spawn naturally, although the conditions for the passage 
of fish up some of the streams could be greatly improved by the in- 
stallation of fishways. 
At the dam in Penobscot River at Bangor 10 humpbacks were cap- 
tured between August 13 and 31. In Pembroke River, on September 
27, at a time when the salmon were present by hundreds, the State 
fish warden collected 25 specimens and placed them above the dam at 
Pembroke. In Dennys River, in the vicinity of Dennysville, during 
the week of September 29—October 6, at least 1,200 adult humpbacks 
were seen and many more fish were known to be in the deep pools 
and on the rips about 6 miles upstream from the head of tidewater. 
Many fish congregated under,some large rafts of logs in that section 
and could not be driven out, so that their number could not be esti- 
mated. On one visit of a fish-culturist from the Craig Brook hatchery 
about 50 fish were seen on the rips. Altogether, at least 2,000 fish 
were observed in Dennys River and 500 in Pembroke River. 
Some poaching on the part of the people living on the streams 
occurred, and the pickling of humpbacks on Pembroke River was 
reported, the fish having been taken with pitchforks. Some people 
at Dennysville were reported to have been made ill by eating a hump- 
back that had been picked up by a small boy as it drifted downstream 
in a moribund condition after having spawned. The superintendent 
of the Craig Brook station went among the river people and advised 
them that these fish are not suitable for food when in spawning con- 
dition and should be eaten only when taken in salt water or imme- 
diately after coming in from the sea. 
A number of specimens of humpbacks from Dennys River were 
forwarded to Washington, and one of them, weighing 64 pounds and 
22 inches in length has been on exhibition in the Secretary’s office. 
The average weight of the fish observed by the Bureau’s agents was 
about 5 pounds; the largest, a male, weighed 10 pounds 9 ounces, and 
the smallest, a female, weighed 24 pounds. Some examples, together 
with a collection of scales from others, have been examined by Dr. 
Charles H. Gilbert, the well-known authority on the Pacific salmons, 
and it is shown therefrom that the humpback in its new environment 
retains its Pacific habit of proceeding to the ocean shortly after it 
begins to swim and returning to the rivers to spawn and die when 2 
years old. 
