ATKINS THE SALMON AND ITS ARTIFICIAL CULTURE. 289 



D— LOCAL HISTORY OF SALMON AXD SALMON-FISHIXG 

 m NEW ENGLAND EIVERS. 



1. — GENERAL OBSERVATIONS'. 



The sea-going salmon of eastern North America, Salmo salar, Liuu., is 

 native to nearly every riv£r tributary to the Atlantic north of the Hiid- 

 gon. If we apply the term " river" only to streams of fresh water of sufti- 

 cient size to afford fall-grown salmon ample room to move and lie in 

 during the summer drought, we shall find that the only exceptions to the 

 former universal prevalence of the species within the district named 

 are those rivers that do not contain suitable breeding-grounds, or whose 

 breeding-grounds are inaccessible to salmon by reason of the interven- 

 tion of impassable falls between them and the sea. 



In all rivers frequented by them they are found successively in all 

 parts from the mouths upward,their migrations extending nearly to the 

 head-waters both of the main rivers and their tributaries, always with 

 tiie same limitations mentioned above as to the presence of breeding- 

 grounds and their accessibility. To this statement, however, there ap- 

 pears to be one important exception in the case of the Saint Lawrence. 

 Such evidence as I have been able to gather relating to the migration 

 of salmon in this river tends to the conclusion that few, if any, ascend 

 it so far as Lake Ontario, and that the salmon inhabiting tliat lake and 

 its tributaries make the lake their sea and the limit of their downward 

 migrations.* Though extensive salmon-fisheries are carried on on both 

 sides of the Saint Lawrence below Quebec, the capture of a salmon in 

 that part of the river above Montreal appears to be a rare event. In 

 the lower tributaries of that river the migrations of salmon are precisely 

 similar to those observed in rivers emptying dii'ectly into the sea, and 

 extend to all accessible upper waters where suitable places for the de- 

 posit of their eggs are to be found. 



The researches of which the results are embodied in the following notes 

 did not extend to any rivers beyond the limits of the United States. It 

 will be seen that nearly every river, from the eastern border to the Housa- 

 tonic, is known to have been formerly frequented by salmon, and it is not 

 unlikely that the list would be increased by the addition of quite a number 

 of minor streams were the history of the latter known. Of the twenty- 

 eight salmon rivers mentioned below, lying wholly or in part in the United 

 States, there are barely eight where salmon are now regular visitors. These 

 are the Saint Johns, Saint Croix, Denny's, Little Falls, (a small stream 

 in Edmunds, Me.,) East Machias, Wescongus, Penobscot, and Kenne- 

 bec. They are sufficiently numerous to support a regular fishery in the 



* There is also some doubt about tbe migration of the salmon formerly inhabiting 

 Lake Champlain and its tributaries. Further research is required on both tJiese 

 j)oints. 



S. Mis. 71 19 



