REPOET OF STATE FISH COMMISSIONERS, ETC. 927 



the water. They were recognized by an intelligent bystander and their 

 distinctive marks pointed out, when all parties immediately took a deep 

 interest in protecting them. One man, in fishing for suckers in the 

 Kenduskeag, with coarse line and baited hook sunk on the bottom, 

 caught sixteen young salmon in two hours, and carefully returned them 

 to the water again. The Bangor Commercial says : ' On visiting his 

 weir yesterday in Marsh Eiver, Mr. Eeuben Hopkins found one hundred 

 and forty young salmon in it, varying from 8 inches to 1 foot. He 

 turned them all loose in the river. We learn that these young salmon 

 are found in all the weirs in the river in large numbers.' 



"The salmon fishery of the Penobscot is estimated to be the largest for 

 many years, so much beyond the x>roduct of years past as to leave no 

 doubt in the minds of the most incredulous that the work of restoration 

 by planting and protection is an entire and unmistakable success. Many 

 of the salmon were of very large size. 



" Of one of the large fishes the following paragraph, cut from the Bel- 

 fast Journal, will be read with interest, as conveying some important 

 facts in relation to their growth and habits : ' In our issue of May 3, 

 we made mention of a very large salmon caught at Cajie Jellison, Stock- 

 ton, by Josiah Parsons, and purchased by Frank Collins, of this city. 

 The fish measured 50 inches in length and weighed thirty-three and one- 

 half pounds. Attached to the fish was a metallic tag, numbered 1019, 

 indicating that it was one liberated from theBucksport breeding works. 

 The tag was forwarded to Mr. Atkins, the superintendent of the works, 

 who keeps a record of all fish used for spawning pur^joses and then lib- 

 erated. We now chronicle the record of the fish as learned from a letter 

 from Mr. Atkins to Mr. Collins. He writes that the salmon was Kbera- 

 ted at Bucksport, November 10, 1875. It was a female fish, 39^ inches 

 in length, and yielded five pounds and six ounces of spawn, or about 

 16,000 eggs. After si)awning it weighed sixteen pounds. He judges 

 that in the preceding May (1875) the fish weighed twenty-five pounds; 

 thus the fish in two years had grown nearly an additional foot in length 

 and eight and a half pounds in weight. One important fact in the habits 

 of the salmon has been demonstrated by the use of these tags, and that 

 is that the fish, after it becomes large, does not visit the river every 

 year, as was formerly supposed, but only every second year. Those 

 liberated in the Penobscot in 1873 were caught again in 1875, and those 

 let loose in 1875 are now being caught. One dollar premium is paid for 

 every tag thus found. Among others of the large fish, one was taken 

 at Veazie, by Mr. Albert Spencer, weighing 38 pounds. The salmon 

 presented by our worthy mayor. Dr. A. C. Hamlin, to Mayor Prince, of 

 Boston, and which was captured at Sandy Point on the Penobscot, was 

 said to have weighed forty pounds when first taken. A very good run 

 of salmon has visited the St. Croix the last year. ' (New Hampshire 

 fish commission report for 1878, pp. 25, 26, 27.) 



"In 1873 some thousands of young salmon were turned loose by us in 



