Ainericdii Fislt erics iSuclcti/ 113 



Mr. Titeoinl): jMr. Worth has ex])Uiiiied pretty fully ahout 

 the iiu'thods of catchinii' tlie tish down there. Tliey are caught 

 by people as much for sport as a commercial industry. These 

 men go out in ])oats at night with bow nets and dip nets; go 

 along the bottom and scoop up the fish. ^Er. Worth, in his ef- 

 forts to get males and females together, has established seven 

 telephone stations and if he catches a female at one station and 

 another station has a male he tries to bring them together by 

 tele])hone. (Great laughter and a])i)lause,) It is not a ques- 

 tion of i)enning a lot of fish. 



Mr. Worth: "^I'lu' boatmen have co-0})erate(l with us in this 

 matter, but before we had telephones we lost some eggs. There 

 have never been any seasons in the last five or six years but what 

 we c-ould have got twt'uty, thirty or forty, l)ut we never got more 

 than fourtt'en. The first tish was taken there about five years 

 ago. It was a twenty pouiul stri])ed l)ass from which we got 

 over •^,(H)(),()()() eggs on tlie l)asis of ;55.()()() to a (piart. Those 

 are accurate figures and of course it does not take many tish 

 to make an enormous output. 



^fr. Titcond): I don't know 1)ut what T ought to revert to 

 that sahnon (|uestion for a minute. Wdu-n 1 stated that on the 

 Penobscot river, tlie maintenance of a commercial fishery is 

 entirely dependent upon artificial propagation, I referred to a 

 condition whicli does not exist, as I understand it, anywhere 

 else in the country. We propagte fisli all over the country, 

 but w'v also rely on natural reproduction. In many instances 

 a. mei'e brood stock of a certain species of fish ])ut into a lake i& 

 all that is necessary; nature takes its course and the lake be- 

 comes well stocked, but if we should discontinue this artificial 

 propagation on the Penobscot river the couniiercial fishery for 

 salmon would become extinct in a few years, because we have 

 very little evidence, if any, at present, that any of these salmon 

 reach the spawning ground. Now our method of obtaining eggs 

 there is by the purchase of salmon from the commercial fisher- 

 men. These salmon are caught in weirs as they ascend the riv- 

 er in June or July. This year w^e pay in the neighborhood of 

 $3.75 for every salmon we buy, both male and female. It is 

 an expensive proposition, and the cost of operating a hatchery 



