NATURALIZATION OF FISHES. 193 



Franklin Sawyer, Esq., of Portland. These old fish are 

 seldom caught with the hook ; and of those taken in the 

 spring and summer, when they are in season, the average 

 weight would be less than indicated by the above. 



" These fish are said to be about as plenty as they were 

 ten years ago. But it is strange that they can maintain 

 their numbers against such persecution as follows them. 

 The spear is very fatal. In Bear brook nearly all the 

 breeding males are destroyed before the females are ready 

 to spawn. In 1858 a law was passed for their protection, 

 which would enable them to recruit their numbers were it 

 enforced. 



" We consider this variety worthy of being propagated 

 and disseminated through the state."* 



THE SEA TROUT (Salmo Canadensis of Hamilton 

 Smith). From all my researches the only scientific ac- 

 count given of this fish is by the present writer. *j~ 

 Hamilton Smith, though he named it, scarcely refers to 

 its specific characteristics. It is decidedly distinct from 

 the varieties of S. fontinalis which migrate to and from 



* Mr. Nathan Cummings, of Portland, Maine, has communi- 

 cated to the Massachusetts Fish Commissioners the following con- 

 cerning the agility of the young of this fish : 



" The young are very agile. Some of them, bred artificially by 

 Mr. Robinson, at Meredith, N. H., were put, when quite small, in 

 a tank, into which, from a height of nine inches, fell a stream of 

 water flowing through a one and a half inch hole ; whereupon the 

 lively parrs leaped up the stream, g,nd into the upper tank, like 

 harlequin going through a clock-face." 



f See American Anglers' Book, page 238. 

 17 N 



