104 THE scnooDics. 



to spawn. At that time, he is positive that the fish I speak 

 of was not known in our waters ; soon after the dam was 

 built, which eflfectually prevented the ascent of the salmon, 

 these luhite trout made their appearance in the lower lakes 

 of the chain, and, as in the case with the St. Croix trout or 

 salmon, they congregated in large numbers at the foot of the 

 lake on the breaking up of the ice in the spring. They were 

 then very large, often reaching four or five pounds, and a 

 small one was seldom seen ; but now the large fish have be- 

 come rare, while the whole chain of lakes abounds in vast 

 numbers of smaller fish of the same species, seldom exceeding 

 a pound in weight, and often caught as small as a half or 

 even a quarter of a pound. They have increased just in pro- 

 portion as the speckled trout have decreased, until, at present, 

 the latter are becoming very scarce, where formerly they 

 abounded in great numbers. 



" The supposition of hybridity scarcely ofiers a probable 

 solution of these enigmas ; for, in botli these fish the only 

 possible solution is that they are hybrids between the salmon 

 and the trout. Now, we know that trout will devour sal- 

 mon ova, and salmon devour trout ova. But suppose this 

 difficulty overcome, and that, by some perversion of instinct, 

 a hybrid were produced by a female salmon and a male trout, 

 or by a male salmon and a female trout ; as both these fish 

 visit the sea, it is hard to suppose their mixed progeny would 

 be averse to it. If specimens of the Sebago and St. Croix 

 trout were compared together and with the true salmon, I 

 think a naturalist would be enabled to arrive at a decided 

 opinion." 



Since the foregoing was written, Mr. Venning, with the 

 assistance of Mr. C. G. Atkins, Fishery Commissioner of 

 Maine, has succeeded in opening the tiams on the St. Croix 

 Eiver, and providing fish-ways, over which fish, including the 

 true salmon, have passed up stream in great numbers. This 

 intricate problem of tlie land-locked salmon is therefore likely 

 to be satisfactorily solved at no distant day. 



