174 American Fisheries Society 



tends each female, fertilizing the eggs after they are laid 

 and meanwhile chasing away all intruding fishes. The 

 embryos begin their development at once and continue 

 all winter, hatching for the most part in April. 



The first spawning of a Penobscot salmon is apparently 

 at the age of four years and a half* She then returns 

 leisurely to the sea, generally reaching it the next spring 

 or early summer, in a very emaciated condition, in conse- 

 quence of total abstinence from food during the whole 

 period of her stay in fresh water. She now resumes feed- 

 ing and rapidly recovers condition, and, after a full year 

 in the sea, is ready to ascend the river again to spawn a 

 second time. In a few cases it doubtless happens that the 

 fish makes a third visit to the river, thus laying three lots 

 of eggs during her life. The facts pertaining to the re- 

 turn of the salmon for a second spawning were ascer- 

 tained by experiments at Bucksport and Orland between 

 1872 and 1880, when a total of over 1,200 salmon of both 

 sexes were marked on their release after spawning. The 

 mark was in the form of a small aluminum tag attached 

 by a fine platinum wire to the rear margin of the main 

 dorsal fin, each tag stamped with a number which re- 

 ferred to a record showing the date of marking, the sex 

 of the fish, its length and weight, and, if a female, the 

 quantity of eggs yielded. The fishes bearing these tags 

 were released in November in tide-water and doubtless 

 in nearly all cases soon went out to sea. A year from the 

 next spring and summer a few of them were recovered 

 through the salmon fishermen of the Penobscot, with the 

 tags still in place, when in every instance, it was found 

 that the fish had fully recovered from the emaciated con- 

 dition in which it had been dismissed, and had made an 

 increase in weight and length over the condition when 

 first handled. Out of the 1,200 marked, nearly 40 were 

 recovered. This is a small percentage and it is entirely 

 probable that far more than that number survived and 

 returned without the tags, and possibly in some cases the 

 tags escaped notice by the fishermen. Indeed, it may be 

 regarded as remarkable that, with the fish almost con- 



