28 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



tlie St. John and ending with the Honsatouic* In the greater jiart 

 of these the species has been externiiuated by civilized man, and in 

 the few in which it still persists its numbers are far below the estimates 

 which the earliest records warrant us in making for those days. 



In certain lakes of Maine and northward this fish is perfectly land- 

 locked and has somewhat different habits and coloration, but no distinct 

 specific characters. Similar landlocked varieties occur in Europe. 



LIFE AND HABITS. 



Salmon eggs are deposited on coarse gravel on some rapid, generally 

 far up toward the sources of a river, late in October or early in Novem- 

 ber, when the water is perhaps about 44:° F. and the temperature is 

 falling. The egg is impregnated at the moment of its deposit, and the 

 independent life of the salmon begins to develop at once. In a few 

 weeks the embryo becomes sensitive, but the extreme cold of the water 

 retards its development to such an extent that it does not burst the 

 shell of the egg until spring. In the rivers of ISTew England it is prob- 

 able that nearly all the eggs naturally deposited hatch very late in 

 April and early in May. At this time the embryo salmon has a slender 

 half-transparent trunk, less thananiuch in length, carrying, suspended 

 beneath, an immense ovoid sac — the " yolk-sac." For about six weeks 

 after hatching it hides in crevices among stones, keeping up an inces- 

 sant fanning with its i^ectoral fins. During this period it takes no food, 

 but is supported and nourished by the yolk-sac, the substance of which 

 is gradually absorbed into the rest of the body, and not until the sac 

 has nearly disappeared does the salmon really look like a fish and begin 

 to seize and swallow food. It now puts on a mottled coat, with several 

 heavy dark bars across its sides, and bright red spots, larger and fewer 

 than those of a trout, looking therefore very unlike the adult salmon 

 but much like a young trout. In this stage it is termed, in Scotland 

 and England, a " parr," and it was formerly thought to be a wholly 

 different species from salmon. 



The parr stage lasts a year or two in British rivers, and the few 

 observations made in America indicate that it is more likely two years 

 than one in our rivers. The parr, at first but little over an inch in 

 length, is provided with good teeth and a good appetite, and beginning 

 to feed at a season of the year when the water is almost crowded with 

 small insects and other more minute creatures, it grows rapidly, prob- 

 ably increasing its weight thirty or forty times the first summer. In 

 two years it reaches the length of 6 or 8 inches, and its bright red 

 spots and dark bars have given place to a silvery coat like the adult 

 salmon. It is now termed a " smolt" and is ready to go to sea, which 

 it does with little delay, and passes out beyond the range of man's 



*The Hudson River is by some believed to have been a natural salmon river. Its 

 discoverer, llendrick Hudson, reported having observed them there, and there is 

 nothing- inherently improbable in it, but the evidence is perhaps insufficient. 



