404 



ORDERS OF FISHES— TROUT AND SALMON 



year 1S99 are of universal interest. They are 

 as follows: 



one with a fifteen-foot rod weighing twenty 

 ounces, with a Silver Doctor at the end of five- 



Of Pacific Salmon, Alaska produced US, 622,230 pounds, worth f 6,773,876 



I California, t 

 Of Pacific Salmon, - Oregon and ■ produced 130,004,835 pounds, worth 3,504,622 



' Washington ) 



$10,278,498 



To-day the question is, shall we permit this 

 industry to go by default, and be ruined in a few- 

 years? Or shall we conserve it sensibly and 

 properly, both for ourseh'es and future genera- 

 tions? 



The Atlantic Coast Salmon. — It is now 

 necessary to call this fish the Atlantic Salmon' 

 in order to distinguish it from the Pacific species; 

 but for two centuries it held its place in litera- 

 ture as the Salmon. It once inhabited many 



Drawn by W. L. Steward. 



THE SEB.iGO SALMON. 



portions of northwestern Europe, and in some 

 it still survives. 



In North America, its natural habitat was orig- 

 inally from the mouth of the Hudson River 

 northward throughout the costal rivers of New 

 England, Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 

 Newfoundland and Labrador to Cireenland. 

 Once very abundant in the Coimecticut River, it 

 was driven out of that stream in 1798 by the 

 erection of a sixteen-foot dam in Miller's River, 

 100 miles from the sea, which cut off the fish 

 from their si)awning beds. In 1872 there were 

 twenty-eight ri\'ers in the United States whidi 

 once contained Salmon, but from twenty of them 

 that fish had totally disajjpeared. To-day the 

 nearest Atlantic Salmon are found in Maine 

 and northern New IIamp.shire, New Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia. 



As a game fish, Salmo solar is fit to rank with 

 the kings of the animal world. He who catches 

 ' Sal' mo na'tar. 



248,627,065 



foot leader, and brings it to the gaff, may well 

 call himself an angler. So far as I know, this 

 is the largest fish that rises to a fly. 



The greatest weight on record for the At- 

 lantic Salmon is 83 pounds. The maximum 

 weight of those now taken in ;\Iaine is about 25 

 pounds, and the average is about 10 pounds. 

 In 1900, the catch of the Bangor anglers in Pe- 

 nobscot Pool was 67 fish, weighing 970 pounds. 

 The largest weighed 23i pounds, and the average 

 was nearly 14-^- pounds. 



The most wonderful thing about 

 the Atlantic Salmon is its leaping 

 power, in surmounting waterfalls that 

 he in its course to its spawning 

 grounds. To a fish of this species, a 

 rock-studded cascade three hundred 

 feet long and thirty feet high, down 

 which the water plunges and tears 

 with murderous speed and violence, 

 is a fine highway, up which it gajdy 

 promenades without pause or acci- 

 dent. 

 But a waterfall, with a perpendicular drop of 

 ten or twelve feet, is a more serious proposition, 

 and requires a special effort. To clear such a 

 barrier, the Salmon makes a rush in the pool 

 below it, leaps out of the water, and if possible 

 lands on the edge of the fall. If he falls short 

 by no more than one or two feet, but strikes the 

 descending torrent squarely head on, so that he 

 is not at once swept down, it is said that by a 

 strong flirt of the tail and a wriggle of the body, 

 the gallant fish actually can force itself on up to 

 the edge of the fall, and over it into the coveted 

 waters of the upper le\-cl. 



The following graphic description of the leap 

 of the Salmon is from the pen of Dr. Robert T. 

 Morris, whose opportunities for observing and 

 photographing the scenes he describes have been 

 of the best : ' 



" It is a most impressive and inspiring sight to 

 watch the untamed Salmon on a wild river mak- 

 -' Country Life Magazine, 1903, p. 356. 



