68 With Rod and Gun in New England 



tor of the Aquarium of the Trocadero in Paris, published in the 1896 

 Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. In that pamphlet is an 

 account of the raising of the California salmon, Salmo quinnat, in fresh 

 water ; its repeated reproduction without going to the sea, and what is 

 remarkable is the fact that the spawning is as ample as it was at the 

 beginning. The Doctor further says that this salmon is susceptible of 

 culture in ponds ; in fact, his numerous experiments prove that it thrives in 

 them remarkably well. 



" Now here is a sea-going salmon losing its anadromous habits entirely, 

 just as our Atlantic salmon has lost its, as in the examples of the so-called 

 landlocked salmon of New England and Canada. 



" I have noticed, however, that unless an abundance of food is obtain- 

 able the species degenerates in a marked degree. In the sixties I used to 

 fish a good deal on the Grand Lake stream for the 'landlocks,' and they 

 were small fish, averaging not over two pounds in weight, but they have 

 steadily increased in size, for wherever the smelt has been introduced the 

 fresh-water salmon have increased in weight. The Maine Commissioners 

 have wisely adopted the policy of placing the smelt in waters which they 

 have stocked with salmon, and there is no reason why, by-and-by, we may 

 not take fresh-water salmon as large as the Atlantic fish ; in fact, a salmon 

 was taken in the Rangeley lake last spring that weighed thirteen and one- 

 half pounds, and many others nearly as large have been killed, and accord- 

 ing to the Report of the Maine Commissioners a few have been taken at 

 Raymond which would tip the scales at twenty pounds."* 



" The Maine Commissioners have done grand work for the game and 

 fish of that State," said the Judge, " and all sportsmen should give them 

 proper credit for it." 



" Yes," added the Doctor, " and they, with others working on the 

 same lines, have solved one of the great problems of food supply that have 

 long been studied by economists, and with no small degree of anxiety. 

 Our rivers and lakes had become depleted by reckless overfishing, and 

 even the ocean had ceased to yield its crops in the abundance that it 

 formerly afforded." 



* I cannot refrain from quoting from the 1896 Report of the Maine 

 Commissioners, the following. — E. A. S. 



" The landlocked salmon have thrived and multiplied wonderfully in 

 many new lakes and ponds where they have been introduced within the 

 last ten years. In some of these, so much so, that we have been able to 

 procure a goodly number of eggs from these fish. They grow very fast, 

 and, in good waters with plenty of feed, very large — in some cases attain- 

 ing a growth of twelve pounds in six years. We believe they are to be the 

 coming and favorite inland fish in Maine. 



" They are now caught more or less, and increasing year by year, in 

 nearly all our large lakes and ponds. There are hundreds of ponds in 



