62 SALMONID^. 



and record such facts as daily occur under their eyes^ renders it 

 very difficult to obtain such information as might assist one in 

 coming to any conclusion. 



So far as I can judge, however, this difference does not occur 

 on this part of the continent at least ; nor do I believe that the 

 Salmon are earlier in their appearance in the St. Lawrence, 

 which flows through the largest chain of fresh-water lakes in 

 the world, than the St. John's, or the Penobscot, which lie 

 farther to the south, and have no lakes of any magnitude on 

 their waters. It must be mentioned, however, here, that all 

 these rivers are equally swollen by melting snows; and that, 

 being frozen solidly till late in the spring, the period of their 

 opening naturally connects itself with the appearance of the 

 fish. 



The Connecticut River, which has no large lake on its course, 

 and is the southernmost of all the rivers which have furnished 

 Salmon for many years past, has ceased to be a Salmon river ; 

 or some facts might have been ascertained thi-ough observation 

 of its waters. The Kennebec also, though formerly an unri- 

 valled Salmon river, is becoming yearly less productive of this 

 fine fish. I am inclined to think, however, that it is the earliest 

 Salmon river on this side of the American continent ; with the 

 Arctic rivers I have of course nothing to do ; and of the rivers 

 or natural productions of California, Oregon, and the Pacific 

 coast, we shall know nothing on which reliance can be placed, 

 until the gold-hunting hordes ai'e replaced by a stationary and 

 organised population. 



The mouth of the Kennebec is about one degree to the south- 

 ward and westward of the Penobscot, and flows out of a large 



