REPORT OF STATE FISH COMMISSIONERS, ETC. 931 



to give a free passage to the large salmon, thus allowiug them to ascend 

 the river nearly to the Profile House, as stated in the report of the 

 Massachusetts commissioners. 



Mr. Tompkinson's letter is interesting as giving positive details of his 

 observations, and from it we quote as follows : 



"The first of our seeing the salmon go up through the Livermore 

 Falls was in the early part of July, 1877, when our attention was called 

 by Mr. Hodge to see if we could see auy salmon going up the falls. 

 The first day we saw seven, at four different times during the day, 

 stopping only about ten to twenty minutes each time. This was the 

 first day we began to look for them. We reported the same to every 

 one that came along. Almost every day afterward, for about six or 

 seven weeks, there were salmon seen. The largest number in one day 

 (seen by my brother) was twenty. I myself saw five go up in forty-five 

 minutes. We never lost much time in watching for them, as we could 

 not afford to lose any time, for we have so much work on hand. I saw 

 eleven on another day in about two hours. On another day my brother 

 saw seventeen in about two hours. We never stopped a whole day to 

 watch at one time, but state what we have seen. The above were seen 

 about the 20th of July. The largest one my brother saw was nearly 3 

 feet long, and he was within 8 feet of it when he saw it. * * * 

 " Yours, most truly, 



"J.E.TOMKINSON." 



We must now go back a little in our dates to connect the thread of 

 our story. Early in June we were notified by Mr. Brackett, of the Mas- 

 sachusetts fish commission, that salmon were passing up the fish- way at 

 Lawrence. 



The dam at Lowell had recently been rebuilt, discarding the old fish- 

 way, but running the north end of the dam on to a gently-sloping ledge 

 in such a manner that it only needed to take off one flash-board to leave 

 an easy passage 10 feet wide, with 12 or 16 inches depth of water, over 

 a fall of about the same height, and the fish found no difficulty in passing 

 it ; so that on the 13th of June we were notified by Mr. Kidder, the keeper 

 of the gates and locks of the Amoskeag Company at Manchester, that 

 he had secured for us the first salmon seen at Amoskeag Falls for thirty 

 years. We had requested Mr. Kidder to look out for the first fish that 

 came up and let us know, and he had done so literally. The fish was a 

 male, apparently of four years of age, two feet four inches in length and 

 a half inch in depth, and weighed eight pounds and five ounces. 



Mr. Kidder unintentionally transgressed the law in .his anxiety to 

 l)lease the commissioners, but his fine was settled by his many friends 

 in. Manchester, and the salmon that followed were allowed to pass "free 

 of toll." Within a week from the capture of this first one a report was 

 brought us by Conductor Colby, of the Concord Railroad, of a large 

 salmon having been seen at the mouth of Martin's Brook, four miles 



