REPORT OF STATE FISH COMMISSIONERS, ETC. 



929 



"Dr. French reports having seen one at Davenport that would weigh, 

 two and three-fonrths pounds. 



" George Brown caught two in Wapsic that would weigh one and as 

 half pounds each. 



" Mrs. n. Ruble has in her pond at North McGregor a number of 

 Penobscot salmon, three years old, some individuals of which will, it is 

 estimated, weigh ten pounds. They have never been out of the pond 

 they are now in, and, notwithstanding their confinement in fresh water, 

 are jierfectly healthy and hearty, and as fine a sight as it is possible to 

 conceive of." (New Hampshire fish commissioners' report, 1878, p. 31.) 



"As the salmon did not loiter, but passed quickly over, it is fair to 

 conclude that hundreds passed up unnoticed ; and this conclusion is con- 

 firmed by well-authenticated reports of the large number seen at Man- 

 chester as well as all along the Pemigewasset. 



"Mr. Tomkinson, of Livermore Falls, counted twenty ascending the 

 rapids in about two hours. Indeed, so common a thing was it to see 

 them scaling the falls, that the White Mountain stage frequently stopped 

 on the bridge to allow the passengers to see them. Mr. White, of Bos- 

 ton, who spent the summer at the Profile House, reports having seen, in 

 one pool, thirteen large salmon from 2 J to 3 feet long. 



"The report shows that forty-seven salmon were found in the fish- way 

 during an examination of thirty minutes a day for twenty-eight days. 

 If we assume the running time at twelve hours a day, the total number 

 that passed over would be in this proportion, 47 by 24=1,128 salmon, 

 to which must be added a certain number that passed over in October. 

 Taking the weights as roughly estimated, we may say that about one in 

 seven were rather small fish, of about eight pounds ; one in seven were 

 large fish, of fifteen pounds or more -, and the great majority, or five in 

 seven, were medium salmon, of ten or twelve pounds. 



" The following table will show the dates at which the batches of 

 parrs were put in the river and their respective ages up to the spring of 

 1877: 



Put in the river. 



Spring 1872, 16,000 parrs . 

 Spring 1873, 185,000 parrs . 

 Spring 1875, 230,000 parrs . 

 Spring 1876, 400,000 parrs . 



1873, spring. 



1 year old.. 



1874, spring. ' 1875, spring. 



2 years old. 

 1 year old . 



3 years old. 

 2 years old. 



1876, spring. 



4 years old . . 

 3 years old . . 

 1 year old. .. 



1877, spring. 



5 years old. 

 4 years old. 

 2 years old. 

 1 year old. 



" The few salmon of fifteen to eighteen pounds that ran up may have 

 been of the batch of 1872 ; the smallest, of six and eight pounds (includ- 

 ing those of the October run) may have been late or under-fed fish. 

 Evidently the bulk of the salmon were of the plant of 1873, because the 

 sixteen thousand parrs put in the year previous could not by any calcu- 

 lation have furnished one-fifth of the adult salmon that returned in 1877.'^ 

 59 F 



