346 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



might be produced which would lose all instinctive desire to migrate, 

 and adopt the lake instead of the ocean as its habitat. 



In reality, these inland waters are as the sea to this fish, for it ascends 

 the tributary rivers to spawn, returning to the lake again, as the salar 

 returns to the sea. But if this salmon has sprung from the sea-salmon, 

 why do we not find it in the lakes of England, the lochs of Scotland, 

 and the loughs of Ireland, where the salmon has had unrestricted 

 access from time immemorial 1 



This certainly is a difficult question to answer with satisfaction, since 

 we find the same variety of salmon in the lakes near Katrineberg in 

 Sweden, where great numbers are captured annually. It is said that it 

 is bred in the lakes there, and cannot have access to the sea on account 

 of cataracts, and that it is small and inferior in flavor. When Lloyd 

 first described it, the British naturalists denied the story, and maintained 

 that the Scandinavian ichthyologists were at fault when they spoke of 

 the fish as identical with the true migrating salmon. It must be ad- 

 mitted that it is somewhat strange that this variety is to be found only 

 in the lakes of Maine and Scandinavia. 



The naturalist will ask the question, Has not the lake-salmon appeared 

 since the erection of dams, and, being thus confined and prevented 

 egress to the sea, has it not degenerated into the present variety °? 



The evidence is very conclusive that this fish existed from the earliest 

 times in all the lakes where it is found to-day, and long before the 

 advent of the European on our coasts. The Indians speak of it in their 

 early traditions. The term "land-locked" as applied to it is inappro- 

 priate, since the erection of the dams does not prevent the fish from 

 passing to sea during the spring and winter floods. And the term 

 ''dwarfed salmon" is erroneous, since individuals have been caught in 

 Sebago Lake of eighteen to twenty pounds weight, and in Keed's Lake 

 of ten to twelve pounds weight ; yet, strange to say, in the great lakes 

 of the Saint Croix it never weighs more than four and a half pounds, 

 and is a little smaller in Sebec Lake. 



Here arises a new difficulty : Why should there be such a great dis- 

 crepancy in the weight of these fish (the smallest coming from the 

 largest lakes) if they are of the same family "? In reply, we will ask 

 in return. Why does the migrating salmon of certain rivers average 

 larger than that of others, when there are no physical peculiarities, no 

 difference observed in the respective depth, temperature, or extent of 

 lake-basins to distinguish between them ? Small rivers sometimes pro- 

 duce larger fish than rivers of ftiuch greater volume and length. 



There are some queer exemplifications of this anomaly. Humboldt 

 was astonished to find the crocod les in Lake Valencia to be very 

 diminutive, while the same species grew to an enormous size in the 

 adjoining rivers. Scarcity of food will prevent the full development of 

 any animal ; but this hardly explains the difference in the sea-salmon, 

 for it obtains its weight, after passing the age of the smoult, by feeding 



