Fish Cnhitre in Inland Waters 219 



, " experiment " was successful Canadian salmon would be placed in 

 other lakes in Maine. 



Sebago Lake is one of the four original landlocked salmon lakes, 

 in. which formerly the fish attained the largest size of any waters. 

 The State maintains a hatchery on one of the affluents of the lake, and 

 collects the landlocked salmon eggs from fish taken in that stream. 

 Why, then, was it deemed necessary to resort to Canadian sea salmon 

 in order to maintain good fishing in the lake? One of the reasons 

 is that the Sebago salmon have for years been a source of supply for 

 eggs with which to stock other waters, even small ponds in various 

 parts of the State. If even the fish planted in small ponds had been 

 restored to Sebago Lake, the effect upon the stock would have been 

 appreciable. There is scarcely a lake or pond in Maine into which 

 landlocked salmon have not been introduced. Landlocked salmon 

 have been shipped promiscuousl}- over the country, to the Pacific 

 Coast, Europe and the South Pacific, and the " experiments " have 

 so reduced the stock at Grand Lake Stream and Green Lake (both 

 original salmon lakes) that now not enough eggs can be obtained 

 there to maintain a stock and meet the demands for distribution. 

 For additional eggs it has been necessary to draw upon the fish of 

 artificially stocked lakes, and they are becoming reduced, if reports 

 are true. 



Titcomb remarks that in Lake George, New York (Titcomb, 

 '22, p. 77), the experience with landlocked salmon is as fol- 

 lows : " In response to a public demand, landlocked salmon have 

 been planted annually in the lake; 15,000 or 20,000 and sometimes 

 more have been put in the lake or in the tributary streams for a long 

 period of years. Reports indicate that the results have been unsatis- 

 factory, an average of about ten mature salmon being caught from 

 the lake each year." 



It would appear that here is an example of long continued "experi- 

 ment " with the usual results. Apparently no effort has been made to 

 ascertain if Lake George is suited in every way to the salmon ; 

 whether there are suitable spawning beds and plenty of suitable food 

 for all ages of fish from the time they are planted until they attain 

 maturity. These are some of the conditions that should be first ascer- 

 tained before further attempts to stock the lake with salmon are 

 made, whether the salmon to be planted are fry, yearlings or older. 



The conditions to which reference has been made are not restricted 

 to any one state. They are nationwide, and it may be added world- 

 wide in some respects. To a great extent all are in the old groove of 

 error. The wonder is that only a few of the more intelligent have 

 recognized the error and have made any effort to profit by past mis- 

 takes, and that the majority are ever ready and willing to subordinate 

 reason to personal expediency or selfish ends. Man has ever been 

 an insensate, irrational, time-serving destroyer. Many of our fish 

 and game and conservation officials have had the public interest at 

 heart, but have been handicapped by the political factor, which, con- 

 trolled by more or less powerful individual and organized interests, 

 was, and still is, a factor tending to instability. 



