56 KENDALL: NEW ENGLAND SALMONS. 



When Atkins (1874) wrote his comprehensive report only those caught on a hook and 

 Une by anglers and boys had been observed. He stated that when salmon were abundant 

 in Denny's River a good many from four to ten inches long were caught on a hook and 

 line by boys at Dennysville. He wrote that in the course of an inspection tour on the 

 upper Penobscot, from July 22 to 28, 1873, the state commissioners found them rising 

 to the fly in almost every pool from the mouth of the Matagamon [East Branch] to Grand 

 Falls, which, he said, was the upper hmit of the ascent of salmon. Atkins must have been 

 mistaken concerning the Grand Falls being the upper limit of ascent, as, even after 

 modification of the falls making them still more difficult to surmount, salmon were 

 known to ascend as far as the dam at the foot of Matagamon Lake, and I myself have 

 caught parr from the dam down to Grand Falls, and in certain locaUties from Grand 

 Falls to Grindstone. 



The age at which parr as smolt descend to the sea has been variously stated. On this 

 point scarcely any observations have been made in this country. Atkins wrote that in the 

 Penobscot, smolts sbc or eight inches long were taken in some of the weirs near Bucksport 

 in May or early June, almost every year, but they were so rare that many a man had 

 followed salmon fishing for a Ufetime without seeing one. In the Miramichi, New 

 Brunswick, Livingston-Stone reported thousands going to sea in July. In Nova Scotia, 

 in the tideway of Bedford River, near HaUfax, five young salmon, sLx to eight inches long, 

 with few vermiUon spots, were taken on the 20th of May, 1865. (Some of them were 

 said to have 'spawn' in them.) At Eastport, a number of young salmon, six or eight 

 inches long, were taken in herring weirs every fall, mainly in September. They were 

 supposed to have come from Denny's River. In the East Machias River, at the head 

 of tide, young salmon are often taken in dip nets along with tomcods in December and 

 January. A single specimen from this locahty, seen by Atkins, was a smolt. Commenting 

 on the foregoing, Atkins said that the facts were quite insufficient to estabhsh the period 

 of the parr's stay in fresh water. 



To Atkins (1874, p. 330) it seemed that the smolt of different rivers did not reach 

 the sea at the same time. In some cases, as at Eastport, they appeared in September, 

 and if they came from Denny's River they may have left in the summer. The same may 

 be said of them if they originated in the St. Croix. 



In the East Machias they were found at the head of tide water in the winter, and they 

 reached the mouth of the Penobscot in the spring. In the latter river, Atkins states, the 

 parr observed on its upper waters in considerable numbers late in July were uniformly 

 about six inches long, as estimated from memory by the observers. His opinion was that 

 they could hardly have been less than 14 months old, and that it was quite reasonable to 

 suppose that they should make their appearance at the mouth of the river the next 

 spring, about two years from the time they were hatched. 



As determmed by scales, Dahl's (1918, p. 11) observations indicated that in Norway 

 the age of smolts at migration varies between two and five winters. He found that in 

 the south the smolts are generally young, but farther north the tendency for them to 

 remain longer in the river before migration was more pronounced. 



