FOURIKENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 9I 



ing autumn. Sixteen of them still retained the tags. One of 

 them was found to have lost eight ounces in weight, eight 

 others had lost from one to two pounds each; all had fallen 

 away in flesh since November. The males had faded in color ; 

 the hooks on their lower jaws were still present, but had de- 

 creased much in size. The females had regained their bright 

 silvery color to a great extent ; in their ovaries were the germs 

 of the next litter of eggs, but they were very small. No food could 

 be found in the stomachs of either sex. It was quite evident 

 from their condition that these fishes could not have been to 

 their feeding grounds during the winter. Twelve out of the 

 twenty were taken in the Penobscot above Bucksport, and nine 

 of these were taken at Veazie, twenty-five miles above Buck- 

 sport, in close proximity to the first serious obstacle they would 

 encounter in ascending the river. Salmon in their condition 

 should be bound toward the sea, and had they, as may have been 

 the case with some, reached the upper waters, it is quite impos- 

 sible that they could have become breeders the same year. That 

 all these loiterers dropped down to the sea before the first of 

 June, we may conclude from the fact that after that date no 

 more were captured. During the whole year not a single marked 

 fish was recovered or reported, that had in any degree mended 

 from the condition in which it was released the preceding 

 autumn. 



In 1875 the offer of a reward was renewed, and this time re- 

 sulted in the recovery, in May and June, of eight specimens, 

 and among our breeding fish there was found in the autumn an- 

 other whose mark had escaped observation at the time of cap- 

 ture. Of these nine (isii, iour were females, three males, and 

 two not determined. They were all of good size, weighing 

 from sixteen to twenty-four and a quarter pounds, and measur- 

 ing thirtv-four and a lialf to forty and a half inches in length, 

 and were all fat and apparently healtiiy. One of the females 

 was placed alive in our inclosure and yielded in the fall about 

 11,500 eggs. Unfortunately, the tags, supposed to have been 

 good aluminum plate, proved deficient in durable properties, be- 

 came (as we learned by direct observation) weak and brittle after 

 a sliort time in water. All of them had fallen off from these 



