88 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



by Mr. H. F. Moore, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Mr. W. O. 

 Kendall and Mr. B. L. Hardin, of the Fish Commission. This party con- 

 tinued its inquiries into November, making observations also respecting 

 the fresh- water fishes in the upper St. Croix River. 



By the end of July the members of the Commission had begun the 

 examination of the St. Croix and St. John river basins, which are 

 contiguous to Maine on the one side and to New Brunswick and Quebec 

 on the other. Attention was first paid to the St. Croix River, including 

 the main stream and its two branch systems, together with the inter- 

 esting chain of lakes which constitute the most conspicuous features 

 of the latter. An important part of this investigation was the survey, 

 by the steamer Fish Hawlc, under Lieut. Robert Piatt, IT. S. N., of the 

 extensive beds of sawdust which encumber the upper tidal channel of 

 the river from near the "Ledge" to the Calais-St. Stephen bridge. 



The St. John River was next taken up, and all important places along 

 its course were visited from the Bay of Fundy at its mouth to the St. 

 Francis River in the upper part of the main valley. Examinations were 

 also made of the Aroostook and Meduxnikeag rivers, the two most im- 

 portant western tributaries of the lower basin lying chiefly in the State 

 of Maine and formerly resorted to by many salmon. This species is the 

 principal one of international concern in both the St. John and St. Croix 

 rivers, in which its numbers have been greatly reduced through the 

 building of dams and the polluting and obstructing influences of factory 

 refuse, although excessive fishing may also have been partly responsible 

 for this result. 



After completing the work on the Maine border Dr. Wakeham and 

 Mr. Ratkbun proceeded to the upper part of the St. Lawrence River, 

 where they began the examination of the basin of the Great Lakes, 

 their investigations extending westward along the northern sides of 

 Lake Ontario and Lake Erie as far as the Detroit River, where the 

 season's field work was completed about the middle of October. 



During November sessions of the Commission were held at Glouces- 

 ter, Mass., Portland and Eastport, Me., where the testimony of many 

 mackerel and other fishermen was obtained and recorded stenograph - 

 ically. Dr. Hugh M. Smith was present at Gloucester and took part in 

 the examinations. 



In the spring of 1894 arrangements were completed for a thorough 

 study, during the succeeding summer and fall, of the natural history 

 of the fishes and the methods and statistics of the fisheries throughout 

 the boundary waters of the chain of the Great Lakes and adjacent 

 regions. The statistical inquiries were to be under the direction of Dr. 

 Hugh M. Smith, the natural-history topics and the relations of the 

 fishes to the different methods of capture employed being assigned to 

 several parties, as follows: Lakes Ontario, Champlain, and Memphre- 

 magog, and the upper St. Lawrence River to B. W. Evermann and 

 R. R. Gurley, of the Fisli Commission Barton A. Bean, of the National 

 Museum, and R. H. Hinckley, of Bowdoin College; Lake Erie and Lake 



