744 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [12] 



Very few fish have got into the canal this season. Less than a dozen 

 have thus far been seen there. 



November 10. — We got our seine (264 feet long) into the water at 10£ 

 a. m., and it took till past three to get it hauled in. We took in all 

 534 fish, 269 males and 265 females. How these fish came there is un- 

 known, but it is possible that the most of them were lying in this pool 

 when the nets were put in place above and below them. This might be 

 made a receptacle for early caught fish hereafter. 



November 12. — To-day we finished the first overhauling of our main 

 pound, containing all the salmon caught prior to November 7. There 

 were found to be 1,298 salmon, of which 639 were males and 659 females, 

 of which latter 231 only were ripe. 



We have now had in hand and entered on the record all the fish 

 caught up to this date, and find them to be 807 females and 807 males. 

 Compared with our fishing record this shows a deficit of 262 males and 

 99 females, and one whose sex was unknown ; total, 362. That is to 

 say, our fishing record shows 362 fish taken into our inclosures more 

 than were found therein. Either some have escaped from us, or, as ap- 

 pears more probable, have stolen under the chains that weight down 

 our nets from the main pound to the one from whicli the fish are dipped, 

 and thus been dipped up and counted a second time. Such deficits 

 occur every year. 



The catch in the trap below the dam has come to a close, apparently 

 by the whole of the fish below the dam being caught up. The net above 

 the dam was put in place October 21, since which time no fish have 

 been able to descend the stream past that point. Hence we have the 

 data for a rough estimate of the number of salmon that descended before 

 that time. Of such fish there were captured 287, of which 168 were 

 males and 119 females. These had been congregated in the deep pool 

 below the dam. If we estimate 50 per cent, of this number to have 

 descended the stream still farther, we have a total of 430 salmon that 

 descended into the stream before October 21 ; allow 100 per cent, and 

 we have a total of 574, which I think is quite up to the possibilities of 

 the case. 



November 13. — We have now handled 1,622 salmon, of which 807 were 

 males and 815 were females. Of the females only 282 have been found 

 gravid and ripe, and these have yielded 339,400 eggs, or 1,205 eggs 

 each. This is an uncommonly heavy yield for Schoodic salmon, indi- 

 cating what our record of measurement shows, that within a few years 

 the fish have increased in size. 



November 15. — The fish in our main pound are very restive — that is, a 

 part of them are. A few are evidently spawning. I find ten nests 

 under way in this inclosure, but don't think many eggs have been laid. 

 I therefore decide to begin overhauling the main pound again today. 



Weather remarkably mild and favorable. Last week the lower lakes 

 were frozen so that the steamer could not come up from Princeton. On 



