30 KENDALL: NEW ENGLAND SALMONS. 



could have originated in the St. John River of New Brunswick or in some Nova Scotia 

 stream. But it is difficult to believe that the fish caught on the coast of Delaware, New 

 Jersey and other places south of Cape Cod ranged so far, although it is not beyond the 

 bounds of possibility. It should be remembered, however, that most of these fish were 

 caught 40 years ago, more or less, when fish cultural efforts were made to stock the 

 Delaware, Hudson, Connecticut, Merrimack and other rivers, and there were occasional 

 appearances of salmon in the streams where the young salmon were planted, notably 

 the Hudson. 



In the writer's possession is a young salmon, 229 millimeters (sHghtly over nine 

 inches) long, with red spots on its side, taken at Bayside, New Jersey, in tide water 

 May 1, 1899. There can be little doubt that the fish came from the Delaware River, 

 where it probably had been planted by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, as the 

 United States Fish Commission had delivered some thousands of Atlantic salmon eggs 

 to the state hatchery at AUentown in both 1898 and 1899. 



Young Salmon in the Sea. 



The second stage of the salmon's life begins with the departure of the smolt for the 

 sea. From the beginning to the end of its existence in the river it has been comparatively 

 easy of observation, but after leaving the river it has been more or less 'shrouded in 

 mystery.' 



Calderwood (1930, p. 16-17) says, 'The descending salmon smolt when it gets into the 

 tide goes straight out with the ebb, and does not return the same year.' 



Atkins wrote (1874, p. 335) that Uttle is known of the movements of salmon during 

 the growth from smolt to grilse and from grilse to adult. He remarked that it could be 

 safely said that they were feeding; but of the location of the feeding grounds and the 

 nature of their food scarcely anything was known. He said that at their disappearance 

 and at their reappearance their stomachs were alike empty of food, except in rare 

 instances. 



According to Dahl, mackerel fishermen took three young salmon measuring respec- 

 tively 6J^, 15^ and 17 inches off the coast of Norway, and he himself by means of a 

 smaU-meshed fish trap set in Trondhjem Fjord, took a few small salmon measuring 

 17^ to 273^2 inches. Dahl also reports that after exhaustive search in European museums 

 for young salmon, he found in Bergen University two examples, 93^ and 11 inches long, 

 which, he was informed, had been found among young mackerel in a Christiania fish 

 market. These occurrences indicated to him the direction which he shoiild pursue in his 

 efforts to locate young salmon at sea. He later, in two successive years during the winter, 

 spring and summer up to and including September, secured a number of salmon and 

 grilse, some of the latter being under 18 inches in length. From the attendant circum- 

 stances pertaining to these captures his conclusions were that the young salmon, after 

 leaving the river and fjords, pass to the open sea and frequent the natural habitats of 

 young mackerel and herring. 



