39 



American idea seems to be utterly devoid of selfish consideration, 

 bieiiig as it is for all the peojile, and for their continued prosperity. 1 

 conceive of no higher ambition for any man or set of men than the 

 ultimate restocking our streams with the migratory sea fish, more 

 especially the salmon. It at once gives all classes the advantages of 

 cheap and desirable food. And, gentlemen, are we not commanded 

 '* to feed the hungry," and how better can this great duty be per- 

 formed than by hiboring to restock our lakes and rivers with fish of 

 all kinds ? To this end let us labor and eventually perpetuate a bles- 

 sing. 



LAND-LOCKED SALMON. 



A paper read before the American Fish Culturists' Association, at its first aunnal 

 meeting, held at Albany, February 7th and 8th, 1873, by B. F. Bowles. 



Mr. President and Oentleinen of the Aonerican Fish Ctdturists' 

 Association. — The task you have assigned to me is one that I hardly 

 feel competent to discharge, and I doubt if I am able to do it satisfac- 

 torily to you. But it is a task I undertake co7i amove, for there 

 is no member of the finny tribe I am acquainted with that I 

 regard with so much admiration and delight as the land-locked 

 salmon. I have no idea that I shall be able to tell you anything new 

 about this noble fish, but as it has been an object of study and inquiry 

 with me for several years, and as I have cultivated its personal 

 acquaintance on certain angling excursions to that degree that I may 

 say a strong tie has existed between us, greatly to my pleasure if not 

 to his, I hope, at least, to invest old facts with some new interest. 



The fresh-water salmon, which is now generally recognized by the 

 name of the land-locked salmon, is known to exist only in the waters 

 of North America and Scandinavia. On this continent it inhabits 

 five different lake S3'stems of Maine, which, if I am correctly informed, 

 are these : Sebago Lake, both branches of the Schoodic Lakes, Sebec 

 Lake and Reed's Lake. A very small variety inhabits a lake called 

 Loch Lomond, near St. John's, New Brimswick, which are known in 

 that vicinity as " white trout." The origin of land-locked salmon is 

 still an unsolved problem among the naturalists. Some hold that it 

 is the progeny of sea-salmon, and dwarfed by being prevented from 

 making its annual migration to the sea, and therefore compelled to 

 seek its nourishment in fresh water only. From this plausible theory 

 the name is derived. And this name is generally believed to have 

 been bestowed upon this fish by Prof. Agassiz, but I am not able to 

 learn if this is the fact, or if it was imported from Europe, where the 



