REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. Ixi 



mous dimiuutioa in the uuiiiber of the alewives, and the decadeuce of the 

 iu-shore cod-fishery, is certainly very remarkable. It is probable, also, 

 that the mackerel-fisheries have suffered in the same way, as these fish 

 find in the young menhaden and alewives au attractive bait. 



The same remarks as to the agency of the alewife in attracting the 

 deep-sea fishes to the shores, and especially near the mouths of rivers, 

 apply in a proportional degree to the shad and salmon. » 



As indicated in a previous page, the usual method of multiplying the 

 alewife consists in transferring the mature and spawning fish alive to 

 the waters which are to be stocked. There they spawn in the spring,- 

 and with the young return in autumn to the sea. They will thrive in 

 tlie brackish ponds along the coast, in rivers, and in small lakes ; 

 unlike the shad, preferring the quiet bodies of water rather than run- 

 ning streams. Little or nothing of any magnitude has been done in the 

 way of artificial impregnation and hatching of their eggs, although a 

 matter of no special difficulty. 



There seems to be a difference of opinion as to the age at which 

 alewives first return from the sea, some fixing it at two and others at 

 three or more years. Capt. Treat, of Eastport, however, many years ago 

 transported several hundred pairs of breeding-fish to a small sheet of 

 water, known as Keene's Pond, situated some five or six miles from Eob- 

 binstou. Me., and having its outlet into the Calais River just below 

 lied Beach. The level of the lake is several hundred feet above that of 

 the river, and the outlet is very precipitous,* consisting of several falls 

 entirely impassable to fish from below. ISTo alewives had ever been 

 known in this pond at the time of their introduction by Captain Treat. 

 The young fish were seen in the pond in the course of the summer in 

 myriads, all of them disiippearing, however, after a heavy rain in the 

 autumn, which swelled the waters to produce a sufficient discharge. 

 Due examination was made for successive j^ears, but not until the ex- 

 piration of the fourth were they seen, when the outlet was observed to 

 be almost choked up by a solid mass of alewives, struggling to make 

 their way back again to the place of their birth. 



3. — The salmoti of Unrope and N'ew England fSalmo salarj. 



Among the fish, the multiplication or artificial increase of which has 

 most occupied the attention of governments, the salmon {Salmo salar) 

 is pre-eminent. The species is believed to be the same on the Atlantic 

 shores of both Am^-ica and Europe. It is true that the aggregate of 

 effort in reference to the increase of trout, both in America and Europe, 

 may be greater ; but certainly the smaller species of the Salmonidw are 

 very much inferior in actual commercial value to the true salmon. An 

 account of the measures taken to multiply this fish in America, includ- 

 ing the various methods of hatching, &c., will be found summarized iu 

 Mr. Milner's article, and in those of Messrs. Stone and Atkins. 



