XIII.-MISCELLA^S^EOUS XOTES AXD CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO 



SALMON AND TROUT. 



A— ON THE SALMOif IN MAINE. 



Denntsville, Me., August 3, 1872. 

 Dear Sir : When you were here, I did not have time to give any 

 intelligent information concerning the salmon, its habits, &c. I am 

 sorry I do not have the positive l^nowledge which wonld be of most ser- 

 vice to you, but, in place of that, will give you some indirect, some 

 circumstantial evidence which may serve some purpose. 



I have been surprised at seeing how late the deposition of the spawn 

 is now considered to take place, and I am not ready to believe that under 

 normal conditions, at least on this river, it is anywhere near so late. I 

 myself have never seen their operations. 



My notion has been that the large early salmon deposited their spawn 

 as soon as they reached the proper places. Certainly, many of them 

 seem to be as forward as the alewives, who hardly get above the dam 

 before commencing, the most forward of them, to leave their eggs; for 

 small alewives are ready to return at so early a period that they must 

 have begun growing in May, These get to be about as long as one's finger 

 when they come down the river, and schools of them, probably from 

 later and later deposits, keep coming down till after the river freezes, 

 and two years ago masses of them got entrapped in the " anchor-ice" in 

 Meddybemps Lake, and were then washed ashore and perished in wind- 

 rows on the beach. 



Now, some few things as to the salmon. Years ago they could be 

 caught by the boat-load. They were too numerous to escape the same 

 observation which the alewives attracted. I never heard of anybody 

 who knew, or supposed, or suspected anything to the contrary of their 

 coming down the river and going right off to sea as quick as they be- 

 came large enough to swarm, there to remain and get their living, where 

 alone a living was to be had, till they became large enough to return 

 (some two or three years) and leave their own fry, which would corre- 

 spond, perhaps, to the later alewife-fry. If young salmon (other than 

 the little fry hurrying off to sea) were caught, or were in the river— that 

 is, if they hung around and went up stream the nest season, and the 

 next, I cannot but think we should have found it out, some of us. My 

 eyes were certainly sharp enough to know a trout when I saw it— and I 

 caught any amount of them— and to be safe from confounding it with 

 a young salmon ; and if blind, I should have found out the difference 

 by the taste. 



S, Mis. 74 24 



