Atkins. — The Atlayitic Salmon 175 



stantly in motion for so many months, and the tag swing- 

 ing back and forth, the fine wires did not cut their way 

 out from the margin of the fin in all cases. 



The culture of this species of salmon now conducted at* 

 the Craig Brook station has for its prime object the main- 

 tenance of the species in the Penobscot river, which alone 

 furnishes the material on which the work is based. The 

 first step is the collection of breeding adults, which has 

 thus far been done on their first appearance in the river 

 when bound for their spawning grounds. In the lower 

 part of the river and about its mouth a large number of 

 weirs are each year built of stakes, brush and netting 

 for the capture of salmon and alewives. Arrangements 

 are made with a large number of weir fishermen to save 

 their salmon alive, for which purpose they are supplied 

 with soft nets, boxes and cars. For cars, common fish- 

 ing dories are used; openings in their sides permitting 

 the free ingress and egress of water when they are in 

 motion, gratings at the openings and a cover of netting 

 preventing the escape of the fish. Once a day near low 

 water a motor boat traverses the fishing district and 

 tows all the cars containing salmon up Orland river to 

 a point in a fresh water tributary, Dead Brook, where 

 there is constructed an enclosure occupying the entire 

 stream for about a third of a mile in length, the width 

 averaging about two rods and the depth ranging from 

 four to twelve feet. Here the salmon are placed with 

 free range through the enclosure. The collection is be- 

 gun about May 20 and generally closed some time in 

 June, several hundred salmon — sometimes more than a 

 thousand — being collected. No food is offered them, and it 

 is not believed that they would accept any if offered. 

 There seems no doubt that it is their habit to abstain 

 from food wholly during their stay in fresh water. Early 

 in the history of this work more than a hundred stom- 

 achs taken at random from those cut up in the Bucksport 

 markets, were saved and submitted to examination by 

 experts in Washington, who could find nothing in any 

 of them that appeared to be food or the remnants of food. 



