ION AND DISTRIBUTION OF SCIIOODIC SALMON EGGS.819 

 COLLECT 



. ,m the lake to tlie neigliboring tannery. These measures 



^ ^ '^ J fish ijractically within control, though some had already 



. wn the stream below our fishing-ground. There were many 



. .'en about the dam as early as the first week in October, and 



.hi they were seen lying in groups above the nets. The first 



s found October 24, and by the beginning of November a good 



, , could be counted on the ground accessible to the fish. The 



' oned fish did not, however, make any attempt at spawning until 



, . later. 



, le first eggs were taken October 31, but few fish were ripe at that 



. ' i, the females taken the following night, 51 in number, affording but 



ripe specimens. On the 5th of November the work of taking spawn 



IS begun in earnest, and continued almost daily up to the 24th, when 



lat part of the work was brought to a close. From the beginning it 



vas the common practice to examine each morning the fish caught during 



the night, and take eggs from all that were ready, ijlacing the unripe 



in the general enclosure, which was overhauled only once a week. At 



first, and indeed until the middle of November, about half the female 



fish were unripe when they first came to hand, and up to the very last 



day there were still some that were not quite ready to yield their eggs. 



This is in marked contrast to my former experience with the sea-going 



salmon at Bucksport, where, after the 1st day of November, an unripe 



fish was rarely found. 



As usual the male fish were earlier on the ground. Up to the 6th of 

 November, when, for the first time, the entire stock had been examined, 

 59 per cent, of the fish were males, while of the entire catch for the season 

 they constituted only 43 per cent. The proportion of males in 1875 was 

 40 per cent., and in 1876 only 27 per cent. Of the whole number of fish 

 taken all were mature males and females except barely thre« specimens 

 whose sex was not ascertained, their reproductive organs not being 

 sufficiently developed ; these were a little smaller than the gravid 

 females, which they much resembled (being, however, much slenderer), 

 and very likely were simi)ly strays from a large brood in the lake not 

 yet arrived at adult age. 



By reference to the tabulated statement of the fishing (Table I) it wdU be 

 seen that, for the most part, the fish ran much plentier in the early than 

 the late part of the night. This predominance of the evening catch was 

 most marked during the period of the heaviest run of fish, the first ten 

 days of November. During the day their downward movements were 

 almost entirely suspended except on one or two days, especially at the 

 time when at the height of their rim, for instance on the 10th of Novem- 

 ber, when 111 fish came in before 4 p. m. 



The influence of the weather was not very marked. So far as our 

 observations go they indicate a slight preference of the fish to run into 

 our enclosures in clear weather rather than cloudy, and without regard 

 to the moon or the force of the winds. Of the five nights when the mom- 



