50 KENDALL: NEW ENGLAND SALMONS. 



It is manifestly true, as evidenced by many examples and experiments, that many and 

 probably the majority of the salmon do return to the river in which they were hatched. 

 There are many instances of rivers, both in Europe and North America, where the 

 salmon of one differ in size, appearance, or otherwise from those of another. Indeed, 

 there are claims that different tributaries of the same rivers have runs of salmon dis- 

 tinguishable from each other. In North America certain Canadian rivers are noted for 

 having much larger salmon than occur in others, and it has been a long standing beUef 

 that the sahnon of the South West Branch of the Miramichi differ in size from those of 

 the North West Branch. 



I am inclined to the opinion that originally the salmon rivers necessarily were fre- 

 quented by salmon, the majority of which in one river differed more or less from those of 

 another. This view is supported by historical data and known facts concerning other 

 anadromous fishes. There is evidence that such was the case in certain Maine rivers, 

 once upon a time, but in some of those streams in which the conditions have not other- 

 wise been disturbed, if there are any, the original races have disappeared for various 

 reasons, one of which is that they have been supplanted by transfer of salmon from other 

 waters. 



(Kendall, 1895, p. 49) Mr. Benjamin Lincoln of Dennysville, Maine, years ago (1893) 

 stated to the writer that in the early history of the town, salmon were plentiful in 

 Dennys River, but were smaller and of a different shape than at present, having more 

 of a 'mackerel shape,' and not going beyond 12 pounds in weight. In 1845 the ascent of 

 the river by salmon was shut off by a dam, which having been destroyed by fire in 1858, 

 permitted the fish to again ascend the river which they did to some extent. In 1874, 

 Mr. Lincoln began the planting of young salmon in the river, a work which he continued 

 until 1890, obtaining his eggs from the United States Fish Commission. These eggs 

 were from Penobscot salmon. The old run of 'mackerel-shaped' sahnon had disappeared 

 and a larger and proportionally deeper fish, true Penobscot salmon, attaining as great a 

 weight as 33 pounds, had taken their place. Furthermore, intensive fishing and reduc- 

 tion in number of breeding salmon tend to reduction in the size of the fish. 



Extensive marking experiments in Great Britain and Norway have definitely proved 

 that, while many salmon return to their native rivers, some wander afar, and do not 

 return. This pertains not so much to the first return of salmon from the sea as to fish 

 marked as adult fish and liberated. Dahl remarks that in Norway, of 1000 smolts marked 

 by him after the Scottish method, there were no recaptures in the rivers where they 

 were marked, although several were taken at various distant localities in the sea. 



Jordan and Evermann (1902, p. 148) say: 'It is the prevailing impression that the 

 salmon have some special instinct which leads them to return to spawn on the same 

 spawning grounds where they were originally hatched. We fail to find any evidence of 

 this in the case of the Pacific Coast salmon, and we do not beheve it to be true. It seems 

 more probable that the young salmon hatched in any river mostly remain in the ocean 

 within a radius of 20, 30, or 40 miles of its mouth. These, in their movements about in 

 the ocean, may come into contact with the cold waters of their parent river, or perhaps 



