and the Maritime Provinces. 317 



I can see no very noteworthy difference in their appearance when in 

 the same condition. Of course the fresh-run fish from the sea is brighter 

 and more silvery, but after he has been in fresh water a few weeks it is 

 difficult to distinguish the difference between the two. When on their 

 spawning beds in October, the large Sebago salmon and the Penobscot fish 

 resemble each other so closely that I am unable to distinguish one from 

 the other. The Sebago fish also runs pretty well up to the size of the 

 other. The average of the Sebago salmon that came into our weir one 

 year on Crooked river was nearly nine pounds. Of the four original habi- 

 tats of these salmon, Sebago contained the largest fish, they attaining 

 sometimes twenty pounds' weight and over. Those of Green lake came 

 next, being somewhat smaller. In Sebec and Grand lakes the fish were 

 considerably below the others in size, very few being taken above six 

 pounds in weight. The size of these fish apparently depends on the feed 

 and water. The same disparity in size seems to extend to the new lakes 

 where we have introduced them, some producing large, others small fish. 

 The larger are always in lakes (not necessarily of large area) containing 

 deep water, with plenty of fresh-water smelts, which are the favorite food 

 of the salmon. We now have in Maine a hundred or more lakes stocked 

 with the landlocked salmon ; in many of them they are caught in consider- 

 able numbers. In some of them their growth has been phenomenal, they 

 attaining a weight of over twelve pounds in six years, while in some others 

 none are taken of over five pounds' weight. 



I am satisfied that fine large fish cannot be raised without plenty of 

 fresh-water smelts for food. We make it a point to stock every lake with 

 smelts where we plant a colony of salmon. Rangeley and Moosehead con- 

 tained no smelts until within the last two years. Since their appearance 

 the salmon have increased in size and fatness in a very marked degree. 



I am inclined to think there is no very material difference, except in 

 size, in the general characteristics of the landlocked salmon, whether it 

 occurs in Maine or Canada, although I have never seen the salmon from the 

 Grand Discharge of the Lake St. John. I am often asked why the Sebago 

 salmon will not take the fly — I think they will just as well as any others, 

 under the same conditions — I have taken them with the fly in trolling in 

 the lake, also in casting in the Presumpscot river in the quick water below 

 the lake. 



Sebago is a very deep lake, with few, if any, shoals. Neither salmon 

 nor trout can be caught with fly successfully in deep water. Place them 

 in shoal water or in rapids like the Grand Discharge of the St. John, and 

 I believe they would take the fly the same as do the others. In fact, I 

 think they all have the same characteristics wherever they are found, and 

 with the same surroundings will acquire the same habits and conditions. 

 I also believe that the increase of size of salmon or trout, introduced into 



