Fish CuUurists' Association. 25 



whether, from the change from salt to entirely fresh water being prema- 

 ture or too sudden, or from the effects of confinement, the normal and 

 healthful development of the eggs and milt might not be prevented. 



The inquiry naturall}'' arises, why select a site for operations where all 

 these impediments are to be encountered? Why not go to the head- 

 Vi^aters of the river where salmon go to spawn of their own accord, and 

 where the}' are found at the breeding season with spawn and milt matured 

 under natural conditions ? 



These questions received due consideration in the beginning. The 

 headwaters of the Penobscot were examined, and the probabilities of 

 success in the collection of salmon spawn there were carefully weighed. 

 The principal fisheries of the Penobscot are in the tidal portions of the 

 river and bay, and here it seems probable that the majority of the salmon 

 that seek to ascend the river are caught. The remainder is still further 

 reduced by the fisheries at the dams above Bangor, and after passing Old- 

 town the}' scatter far and wide in nearly all the tributaries. Though 

 salmon are caught at several places on the main river and the Matta- 

 gamon, it is quite doubtful whether two hundred could be collected at 

 any one point. The remoteness of their principal resorts from railroads, 

 and indeed good roads of any kind was another serious objection to a 

 location on the headwaters of the river. 



The first experiment was therefore tried at Orland, a few miles east 

 of the present location in Bucksport. It is unnecessary for me to detail 

 the many mishaps and mistakes and final success of the first trial. It is 

 enough to state that though in various ways the hundred and ten salmon 

 purchased were, before the spawning season arrived, in one way and 

 another reduced to the small number of eighteen, those that remained 

 suffered in no perceptible degi-ee from the unnatural usage to which they 

 had been subjected, and that the excessive mortality among the parent 

 salmon was found to be fairly attributable to causes whose operation 

 could be prevented. 



Only about 70,000 eggs were obtained, but the success in fecundation 

 was flattering, being at the rate of ninety-six per cent. ; and the sub- 

 sequent development and hatching of the eggs were all that could be 

 desired. As the parent fish had been kept in ordinary pond water in an 

 enclosure which in midsummer was only fifty feet square and less than 

 four feet deep, the healthy state of the eggs is to me a convincing proof 

 that no evil result need be anticipated from the confinement itself, and 

 that ordinary pond water is aycII adapted to sustain them. 



In 1872 the site of operations was removed to Spoftbrd's Pond in 

 Bucksport, and the present extensive works undertaken. This is a 

 shallow, muddy pond, of about sixty acres in the summer, but spreading 



