II \MITS OF Tlir. SALMON. {\:\ 



sheet of water, Moosfliead Lake, which ahouiuls in the eoninion 

 Lake Trout, •jrowin*; to a very hir;;e size, tlie Salino Conjinis ot' 

 Dekay. I presume that the triu* Sahnon no lonj^er has the 

 power of making; his way u[) to the head-waters of this 

 beautiful and limpid stream, in eonscqucncc of the numerous 

 and lotty dams which bar its course ; hut of this 1 am not 

 certain. 



The Sahnon enters our rivers, then, rarely before tlie middle 

 of May, ajul is taken in tlie estuaries so late as the end of .lulv ; 

 and durinj; the early i)art of tlic season, nearly, indeed, until 

 the latter date, does not ascend far above tide-water, generally 

 ^'oiufj up with the flood, and rctnrnin<; with the ebb. At this 

 time they are taken by thousands in stake-nets, on the Penobscot 

 and other eastern rivers, and sent thence, packed in ice, to the 

 markets of all the larger cities of the I nited States. 



At the time of their first entering the fresh water, when they 

 are in the highest possible condition, in the greatest perfection 

 of flesh and flavoin*, and at the height of external beaiity, they 

 are of a rich transparent bluish-black, varied with greenish 

 reflections along the back, these colours gradually dying away 

 as they approach and pass the lateral line, below which the belly 

 is of the most beautiful glistening silvery whiteness. The dorsal, 

 camlal, and pectoral fins are dusky black, the small fatty second 

 dorsal tin bluish-black, the ventral fins white on the outer side, 

 but Honiewhat darker within, and the anal tin silvery white, like 

 the liclly. 



There are generally a few dark sjwts dispersed along the 

 body about the lateral line; and in the female fish these are 

 more nimicrons and ronspieuous than m the nuiles. 



