524 



BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



The young salmon, after it is able to swim and feed, whenever possible, like the 

 young of the sea salmon and the common trout, enters small brooks tributary to the 

 spawning stream in the vicinity of the breeding place, and always little salmon a few 

 inches in length occur on the rips and in shallow eddies and pools of the breeding stream, 

 which suggests that, other conditions being favorable, such places should be selected 

 in which to plant young fish, whether fry or fingerlings, rather than to place them 

 directly in the lake. 



The records of plants are very incomplete and otherwise unsatisfactory. There 

 are no available records of the number planted by private clubs and angling associa- 

 tions. The State reports often lack some element of a complete record. Very often 

 the number is not given. It is very difficult to assign the plants of some of the 

 reports to the proper years. The later State reports, published every two years, usually 

 give the records for one year only — that of the report. Sometimes it is difficult to 

 know which pond is meant, in that the records for ponds are very incomplete, a num- 

 ber of ponds in the State bearing the same name. 



From the viewpoint of recent years it seems somewhat astonishing that, though 

 the larger lakes were stocked with the salmon, some of the smaller ponds were not left 

 to the trout. Instead, however, almost every little pond in the region has received 

 some landlocked salmon. The earlier introductions were usually fry, and in later 

 years the majority were fingerlings, with some yearlings. 



Plants of Salmo sebago in the Rangeley Lakes. 



1875 5,000 



1876 3, 000 



1877 18,000 



1881 18, 750 



1883 198, 000 



1884 iS3>°oo 



189s C) 



1896 C) 



1897 4, 800 



1907 136, 000 



1908 176, 000 



1909 184,937 



1910 60,137 



19" 124,500 



1912 (") 



1913 82, 000 



1914 37.500 



1096 4, 000 



1899 2, 000 



1900 65, 000 



1901 3. 014 



1902 14, 500 



1903 12, 000 



1904 234,015 



1905 900 



1906 24, 000 



Increase in numbers and rate of growth. — It has always been assumed that, 

 other things being equal, the rate of growth, as well as the size attained, by any fish de- 

 pended upon its food supply. Atkins said (loc. cit.) that when introduced into new haunts 

 the salmon has often grown to an unwonted size and sometimes at an accelerated rate. 

 The records show that at the Rangeley l^akes salmon of considerable size were not 

 taken in large numbers until after the introduction of smelts, although large individuals 

 were occasionally caught. The food supply must have been mainly the fishes already 

 occurring there and to a great extent, no doubt, the little blueback, which rapidly 

 disappeared as the salmon increased in numbers. The smelt was introduced too late 

 to save them. From the year following the introduction of smelts there was a pro- 

 gressive, though fluctuating, increase in numbers of salmon but no great variation in 

 the average weight. The average weight, as shown by the records, however, decreases 

 to some extent as the number caught increases. 



Forest and Stream, July 22, 1875, contained the following notice: 

 A lady caught at the mouth of the Rangeley River a landlocked salmon weighing a half a pound, 

 the first ever captured in this vicinity, and probably the first returns of tlie salmon fry put in at Ken- 

 nebago Rapids by the Maine Fish Commission in the spring of 1873.* 



o No records. 



^ Referred to under sea salmon. 



