776 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the lake to the first pond (Brandy Pond) is not over three miles. By 

 the course of the river, which is sinuous to an extraordinary degree, the 

 distance may be twice or thrice as great. A short distance below Brandy 

 Pond the river is crossed by a dam and lock to improve the navigation, 

 which is pursued not only by freight boats, which formerly ran by canal 

 to Portland, but now only across the lake to a station of the Portland 

 and Ogdensburgh Eailroad, but also by steamers conveying i^assengers 

 as far as Bridgton, on Long Pond. Immediately below this lock the 

 Sougo receives its main affluent. Crooked Eiver, a stream that rises 

 nearly forty miles to the northward and follows a very sinuous course 

 from a country of granite hills down through sandy and gravelly inter- 

 vals. 



The Songo itself affords no spawning-ground for the salmon, almost 

 its whole sluggish course being through a low-lying country, and the 

 entire fall, except at the lock, being but a few inches. The Crooked 

 Eiver, however, is rapid through its whole course, except where here 

 and there interrupted by dams and mill-ponds. In old times, doubtless, 

 the whole length of this stream formed the breeding-grounds of the 

 salmon. At present only that portion is accessible which lies below 

 the village of Edes Falls, not exceeding, probably, six miles in length. 

 There are, however, in this short distance, many gravelly rapids where 

 the salmon spawn. 



Besides Songo Eiver there is but one other stream known to be a 

 breeding-ground for the salmon inhabiting Sebago Lake, namely, North- 

 west Eiver. Mr. Buck visited this stream in Ii^ovember and found it 

 accessible to fish for only about a mile from the lake, a mill-dam inter- 

 cepting further progress. At that time the stream was about 20 feet 

 wide and 18 inches deep, with a moderate current. 



It is also currently reported that the salmon spawn on gravelly bars 

 and beaches in the lake itself. This is not improbable, though Mr. Buck 

 explored Sandy Beach, which is singled out by report as the special 

 place for this sort of work, without finding any indications of fish hav- 

 ing resorted to it in 1878. 



Besides Sebago Lake itself, the same variety of salmon inhabit Long 

 Pond, the most considerable body of water drained by Songo Eiver, 

 eleven miles long but quite narrow, having an area of nine or ten square 

 miles. The principal breeding-ground of the Long Pond salmon is Bear 

 Brook, which comes in from the north near the village of Harrison. 

 Doubtless other streams were once frequented by them, but not in recent 

 years. 



2.— CHAEACTEEISTICS OP SEBAGO SALMOK 



First of all the Sebago salmon are distinguished from the sea-going 

 salmon on the one hand, and from the Schoodic and Sebec salmon on the 

 other, by their size. As exhibiting the result of my own observation in 

 18G7 and such researches as I was able to make at that time, I extract 



