and the Maritime Provinces. 219 



and proper protection, there is no reason why it should not be restored in 

 a few years as a first-class salmon river. 



Artificial propagation has done a great deal for the Penobscot. Up to 

 about thirteen years ago it was not known that the salmon in the Penobscot 

 river would rise to a fly. During the early summer of 1885, salmon were 

 quite abundant below the water-works dam at Bangor, and Mr. F. W. Ayer 

 of that city had the honor, as far as known, of killing the first salmon ever 

 taken on a fly from its waters. He followed up fly-fishing then for some 

 years afterwards, and met with grand success. In the year 1886 many other 

 salmon fishermen were attracted to the Penobscot from distant parts of the 

 country, and that year the writer made his first visit, and spent about a 

 week there, killing five fish, the smallest of which weighed nine pounds, 

 and the largest twenty-one pounds, and returned home feeling well pleased 

 at having discovered that there was at least one accessible river in the 

 United States on which salmon could be killed with a fly. 



The Penobscot river affords a great privilege, and I am afraid one 

 that is not always appreciated as it should be by many of those who enjoy 

 it, for Uncle Sam's water is free to all comers, which makes the salmon 

 fishing there comparatively inexpensive. 



I have followed up salmon fishing every year since, and have not 

 missed a season on the Penobscot, making the twelfth annual visit in 1897. 

 The best score was fifteen fresh-river fish, the next twelve, then eight, then 

 six, and down to a single fish a season, as last year. The combined scores 

 of all the fly-fishermen on the river probably never exceeded 200 fish in 

 any one season, and the largest individual score was about thirty fish, 

 killed by Mr. F. W. Ayer. Of late years less than seventy-five fish have 

 fallen to the rod-fishermen, all told. This steady decline is attributed to 

 the increase of weirs on the river and the abolishment of the weekly close 

 time, which is maintained on all known salmon rivers but this one. Few 

 salmon apparently get past the nets, and the supply appears to be kept up 

 almost entirely by artificial propagation. 



If the fish commissioners of Maine should for any reason abandon 

 their efforts in supplying this river with salmon fry or parr, it is generally 

 believed that the Penobscot would in a few years cease to be a salmon-pro- 

 ducing river, and then we should not have a single stream in the United 

 States from which salmon could be taken with a fly. . It is to be hoped, 

 however, that the conditions described will not be realized in the future. 



An earnest effort is being made to stock the Hudson river with salmon. 

 Mr. A. N. Cheney, the eminent fish culturist of New York State, takes an 

 active interest in the work, which all hope will eventually prove a gratifying 

 success. Efforts have also been made for several years to restock the 

 Delaware river with salmon, and apparently with some degree of success, 

 but neither of these streams can yet be classed as salmon rivers. An 



