92 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



specimens, and we could not therefore trace the record of the 

 individual salmon, but the wire remained and proved beyond 

 question that these salmon were marked and released in Nov- 

 ember, 1873, as none others had up to this time been marked in 

 the same manner, and none at all marked in 1874. They had 

 thus been absent eighteen or nineteen months, and had (we can- 

 not doubt) passed the intervening months, including the summer 

 of 1874, mainly on their feeding grounds in the sea. The ex- 

 periment was repeated in 1875 and in 1880, with platinum tags, 

 which proved durable. 



In 1875 there were marked and released in tide water, at 

 Bucksport, 357 salmon. In the spring of 1876 a considerable 

 number of these were taken in the river ; but without exception 

 they were, as in 1874, all poor. In 1877 three specimens 

 were recovered, all in good condition and of larger size than 

 when released. The first. No. 1019, was caught on Cape Gel- 

 lison in April. This was a female fish ; before spawning it 

 weighed twenty-one pounds six ounces, and at time of release 

 sixteen pounds. When retaken, seventeen months later, it 

 weighed thirty-three and a half pounds. The second individual. 

 No. 1,010, was also a female ; weighed before spawning eighteen 

 pounds two ounces, after spawning thirteen pounds eight 

 ounces, and on recapture in Lincolnville, nineteen months later 

 thirty pounds eight ounces. The third individual was also a 

 female ; weighed twenty pounds seven ounces before spawning 

 fifteen pounds on release, and twenty-six pcninds on recapture 

 in Lincolnville, nineteen months later. The results of this sec- 

 ond experiment supported the conclusions drawn from those of 

 the first in every particular. 



The salmon marked in 1880, numbering 252, were released in 

 the fresh waters of Eastern river, a small branch of the Pen- 

 obscot. The distance from the point of liberation to tide-water 

 was two miles, and the only impediment a dam over which thev 

 could easily go down in tlie spring, or at any high water when 

 the river was not very low, but which during the winter must 

 have constituted a serious impediment. There is reason for 

 thinking that tlie larger part of these salmon remained above 

 the dam until tlie spring Hoods. A small reward was offered 



