DESCRIPTION, CLASSIFICATION, AND 



habit of anadromy. So universal was the belief that 

 it was mainly a sea fish, whose presence in fresh water 

 was only for the reproduction of its species ! 



Even as late as 1883, so excellent an authority upon 

 the salmon as Mr. Charles G. Atkins, of Maine, was ap- 

 parently of the belief that the migratory fish was the 

 normal type of Salmo solar. He strenuously, however, 

 upheld the fact that there are no specific differences 

 between 8. solar and the salmon of the Schoodic 

 Lakes, as the following extracts will show, taken from 

 a paper prepared by him for the London Exhibition 

 of 1883, at the request of Professor S. F. Baird : 



" The salmon of the Schoodic Lakes belongs to the group termed 

 landlocked salmon, whose distinguishing trait is the absence of 

 the habit of migrating to the sea. It has been regarded by natu- 

 ralists until recently as a distinct species from the sea-going salmon 

 (Salmo salar), but the most recent researches of American ichthyolo- 

 gists have led to the conclusion that there are no specific differences 

 between the two. 



"Doubtless the absence of the migratory instinct is at the bottom 

 of most of the variations from the normal type of Salmo salar which 

 the landlocked salmon exhibits. The Jakes afford a far poorer 

 feeding-ground than the sea; hence, perhaps, the diminutive size 

 and leaner flesh of the landlocked salmon. Its lower tone of color, 

 less permanent sexual marks, and greater liability to ovarian 

 disease, as well as different habits of feeding, may perhaps be 

 referable to the same general causes. There are some other pecu- 

 liarities which are not so easily explained. For instance, the eggs 

 of the landlocked salmon are very considerably larger than those 

 of the sea-salmon, and the same is true of the very young fry. 



"My observations on the young of the Sebago landlocked salmon 

 lead me to think that their growth is more rapid than that of the 

 anadromous salmon, for, among other things, I have seen specimens 

 more than a foot long still bearing plainly on their sides dark, 

 transverse bands characteristic of young salmon. But this may be 

 explained in another way. It may be that the landlocked fish sim- 



