330 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



all reach the sea at the same time. In some cases, as at Eastport, they 

 arrive iu September, and if these specimens came from the Deuuy's 

 they may have left it in the summer. In the East Maohias they are 

 seen at the head of tide-water iu the winter, and they reach the mouth 

 of the Penobscot in the spring. In the latter river the parr observed on 

 its upper waters in considerable numbers late in July were uniformly 

 about six inches long, (this is only an estimate made from memory by 

 the observers,) and can hardly have been less than fourteen months 

 old, and it is 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 hatched. But this theory cannot be confidently ad- 

 vanced on the strength of the disconnected phenomena thus far observed. 



6. — THE GRILSE. 



In the next stage of growth, that of grilse, there appears to be a 

 marked difference between the habits of our salmon and those of more 

 northern salmon. In the rivers of Canada, in general, grilse occur in 

 great numbers, coming in from sea at a later date than the adults, but 

 ascending like them to the upper waters, mingling freely with them, rising 

 to the same fly, and caught in the same weirs. The mesh of the nets is 

 limited by law to a minimum size of 5 inches in extenso, and this being 

 too small to hold grilse few of the latter are taken in the nets. To this 

 circumstance it is in part owing that by the time the fish have reached 

 those portions of the rivers suitable for angling, there is commonly, if 

 it be late enough in the season, a great preponderence of grilse, so that 

 more of the latter than of the former are taken by the angler.* 



In Nova Scotia t many grilse are taken in'the Shubenacadie Kiver, from 

 August to late iu the fall. On the Miramichi, in New Brunswick, grilse 

 make their appearance about July 1, and from the middle of that mouth 

 till the end of August they constitute the main body of the salmon en- 

 tering the river. Their weight is on the average about three pounds.f 



Some sportsmen report the grilse caught to exceed the adults in the 

 ratio of five to oue.§ In the month of August in the Nepissiguit, Resti- 

 gouche, and Saint John, of Gaspe, grilse exceed the adults in the ratio 

 of three to one. i| They run into the Nepissiguit mostly between July 25 

 and September 1. Their scarcity during the early part of the angling 

 season, or say previous to July 20, is attested by numerous fishing 

 scores.^ A series of scores of salmou-fishing in the Godbout Eiver, on 

 the north shore of the Saint Lawrence, shows that previous to July 15 



* Letter of W. H. Venning, esq. 

 t Letter of Dr. J. B. Gilpin. 



I Statement of E. M. Stilwell. 



§1 Statement of N. Cummings, esq 



II Statement of W. M. Brackett. 



H Mr. Norris found no grilse "in the angling season" in the Restigoncho and Grand 

 Cascapediac, but at what date he closed his fishing I do not know. 



