FOREST AND STREAM, 



m 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 

 FISHERIES OF THE STATE OF MAINE 

 FOR 1870. 



"E are in receipt of the ninth annual report of the 

 Maine Commissioners which recites in detail their 

 operations for the past year. The demands made upon 

 them for surveys and plans for fishways by wealthy corpo- 

 rations and mill-owners, the continued and never ceasing 

 application for black bass, land-locked salmon, and sea 

 salmon, to stock rivers and ponds, the requests for infor- 

 mation, instruction, and advice, have occupied all of their 

 time, and show no signs of diminution. Observation 

 during the past year would indicate that salmon do not 

 return every year to spawn, from the fact that certain 

 fishes that were marked at Bucksport two years since, after 

 being spawned, (stripped?) and then turned back into the 

 Penobscot, did not again make their appearance until this 

 year, when they were again caught in the weirs; and the 

 hitherto prevailing opinion among ichthyologists that sal- 

 mon returned to the ocean soon after spawning,to recuperate, 

 would seemingly be contradicted by their having caught 

 several marked fishes at Veazie, some twenty-five miles 

 above Bucksport, the Spring after they were turned loose 

 at the latter place. Mr. Lewis Lazell, of this city, also 

 informed them that the rivermen of Canada were unani- 

 mous in the statement that the spawning fish stayed in the 

 river the whole Winter, and did not go down until the 

 breaking up of the ice in the Spring. 



There were this year distributed in the waters of Maine 

 some 700,000 salmon fry. From the United States there 

 were received, through Mr. Livingston Stone, 100,000 eggs 

 of the California salmon {Salmo quinnaf), from these were 

 hatched 30; 000 healthy young fry. These eggs were a free 

 gift from the TJ. S. Fishery Commissioner. 



Of the quota of Penobscot salmon from the Bucksport 

 Works, 30,000 were put into the Seboors river at and near 

 Howland; 15,000 in the Penobscot at the mouth of the 

 Madaccunk stream; 5,000 in Salmon stream four miles 

 from Med way; 45,000 in the Mattawamkeag river at Ban- 

 croft; 45,000 at Danforth; 84,000 at Kingman. Two hun- 

 dred thousand salmon eggs Were sent to the Sebec Hatch- 

 iDg Works. Of these, 45,000 were turned into Salmon 

 stream, a tributary of the Piscataquis river; 35,000 into 

 Skip Pond stream, the connecting stream of Ship Pond 

 and Sebec lake; 25,000 in Wilson stream, a tributary of 

 Bebec lake; 5,000 into Bear brook; 5,000 into Salmon brook, 

 a tributary of Sebec river; and 5,000 into Beaver Bank 

 cove. Fifty thousand eggs were sent respectively to Ma- 

 chias and Dobsis to be hatched and turned into the streams 

 at ft ose places. Fifty thousand salmon eggs were hatched 

 at Disfield and turned into the Androscoggin river at that 

 place. Fifty thousand were hatched at Norway, intended 

 for the Presumpscot river. Ten thousand were distributed 

 in Bear brook, Harrison. The balance were turned into 

 Crooked river at Byfleld Bridge. Two hundred thousand 

 salmon eggs from Bucksport were hatched and distributed 

 in the Penmaquan river and tributaries. 



The correspondence which has appeared in these columns 

 at various times relative to the land-locked salmon and its 

 various cognomens and habitat is reproduced, and the Com- 

 missioners repeat from their report of last year the re- 

 marks^of Prof. Agassiz on the same subject, that whether 

 known as the Salmo gloveri, the winninish, or by any other 

 name, the land-locked salmon, whether of Sebago, Sebec, 

 or St. Croix, is a distinct species. The Commissioners 

 here explain, for the information of the public, that the 

 State of Maine, through her Commissioners of Fisheries, 

 can have no traffic in her fishes. Permits to take spawn 

 at proper seasons will be freely given, upon the condition 

 that the parent fish is returned to the water alive after 

 being used, and that they hatch and return to the same 

 waters twenty-five per cent, of the spawn taken from them. 

 The Commissioners last year purchased 14,000 ova of the 

 Sebago salmon. One of the fish from whom these eggs 

 were taken weighed 17 pounds. A small hatching house 

 na3 been erected for the experimental hatching of these 

 fish, which, if successful, will be continued on a larger 

 scale, A small stock of these fishes have been distributed 

 w Ship Pond stream , Two thousand of the Sebago sal- 

 mon fry were turned into "Weld pond, Franklin County; 

 ie remainder into Rangely and Mooselucmaguntic lakes. 

 Seven thousand were turned into Mattanacook pond in 

 Lincoln. The Commissioners state that the great size and 

 cellence of flavor of the salmo gloveri have led to a pro- 

 Position to substitute it for introduction into New England 



rsin place of pushing any further the experiment of 

 restoring the sea salmon. But it must be borne m mind 

 wuu the sea salmon is an anadromous fish and does not 

 teed when it comes into our fresh water streams. The 

 8 «^o gloveri is a large feeder, as is also the trout, the white 

 foW- ne P! ckerel » etc. The presence of anadromous 

 ,,;;; "} our nv ers to breed, not only does not infringe 



Si * 1G SUpply of the food of our native fis hes, but 

 aige y increases it. There is, there can be, no substitute 

 "i oui rivers for our anadromous fishes. 

 ba« ye f r ? ? ince several P on ds were stocked with black 

 thTn * . year man y other P° nds have b een stocked, 

 no,P r^ 1SS T ers takin S tne flsh themselves for the pur- 

 vomit, nf I S } de ? m the bass more destructive to the 

 the Hi otner fishes than the trout, and much less so than 



krgSy onflies P6rCk ' f ° r h ° th the tr ° Ut and buss feed 



back e trmT fl hn SS L? K erS - \ hil ? ifc **P<>rtant that the blue- 

 stocked Stw^ be + 1Gt + rod nced into all ponds that are 

 wHttett with either trout or fresh water salmon, Its fe- 



cundity is remarkable. They have been introduced into 

 various waters as follows: Weld pond, 2,000; Wilton 

 pond, 1,500; Songolook,500; Bear brook, (Long Pond, Har- 

 rison), 1,000; Whitney pond, Canton, 1,000. 



Petitions having been received asking for fishways to be 

 constructed over the dams on the Narragaugus river, orders 

 will be served upon the parties interested to erect five fish- 

 ways before the Autumn of 1876. Three very ingenious 

 fishways, with an arrangement by which a stated amount 

 of water is always admitted, without regard to the water 

 in the stream, have been constructed by Dr. Everleth, of 

 Waldoboro, on the Medomac. Two new ones are required 

 at Warren, which it is hoped will be erected before Spring. 

 The fishway on the Presumpscot was finished last Spring, 

 and two have been built at Saccarappa; four others on the 

 Presumpscot will be completed by May. Fishways are 

 petitioned for from different parts of the State faster than 

 the Commissioners can find time to attend to them, in con- 

 nection with the pressure of the large amount of other 

 work, that the enthusiasm of the people in the restoration 

 of fish, their ponds and streams, has precipitated upon 

 them . The desired fishway over the dam on the Kennebec 

 at Augusta has not yet been built, although an order had 

 been served upon the agent of the A. 'and W. Sprague 

 Manufacturing Company to build the Brackett fishway, 

 according to certain plans and specifications, before the 

 1st of September, 1875. No attention, however, has been 

 paid to the order, and the dam at Augusta still remains 

 without any passage for fish. 



The Commissioners call for additional legislation relat- 

 ing to the taking and breeding of fish, as well as the en- 

 forcement of our fish laws when infractions are committed; 

 and the report concludes with a letter from Mr. Chas. Q. 

 Atkins relative to the work at Bucksport and Grand Lake 

 stream establishments, and an abstract of the laws relating 

 to game and fish. 



The Commissioners are to be complimented, not only 

 on the success of their efforts to increase the supplv of 

 food fishes, but upon the energy and discrimination which 

 they have brought to bear upon their work. 



i> -»•♦ 



Fishways.— Seth Green, Esq., has sent us a model of a 

 fishway for inspection, which he thinks will serve its pur- 

 pose if the dam be not too high. It is simply a sluiceway 

 of wood or stone, cut through the dam; or rather the fish- 

 way should be constructed first, and the dam then built 

 over it. We copy the description in Mr. Green's words:— 



"The water forced through the hole would make a gentle 

 current through the passage, and the question is, can the 

 fish force themselves through the hole? I know they can 

 in a four feet dam. The passageway must be all under 

 water, so that when the water passes through the hole 

 that it strikes solid water, the fish will have an easy pas- 

 sage to the hole, and will make a run and go through. 

 The upper end of sluice should be covered with plank two 

 or four inches thick and should be four feet long, and the 

 width of the plank according to the depth of the water. 

 If the water was one foot deep at the lower end, the plank 

 should be one foot wide. If the sluice was four feet wide 

 at the upper end, it should be twelve or fifteen feet wide 

 at the lower end. The hole in the plank should have a 

 gate so that it could be left open or shut, and should be 

 built of an oval shape. I have experimented some. I 

 send you this to set the people thinking, and perhaps some 

 one will work it out. It is more difficult to get an idea of 

 what we want than it is to work it out. If you can 

 straighten the model and set it on a table, you will get the 

 idea." 



* "***" ' 



The Holyoke Fishway.- In our issue of December 2d 

 we published a letter from Mr. E. A. Brackett, one of the 

 Commissioners of Inland Fisheries, referring to a state- 

 ment which appeared in the Rod and Gun and attributed 

 to Mr. Fred. Mather, reflecting upon the Holyoke fishway 

 and its iuventor. We are now in receipt of a communica- 

 tion from Mr. Brackett enclosing another from Mr. Mather, 

 in which the latter emphatically contradicts the statement 

 attributed to him by the Bod and Gun. He says:— 



"I feel it due to us both, that I shonld say to you, that I did not write 

 the article in question; it was originally sent to me through the Live 

 Stock Journal. 1 believe I have never heard you say anything about the 

 "way," that I rememher, but have heard more from others; in fact, I do 

 not remember to have expressed an opinion as to its merits or demerits, 

 even in private, most certainly not in public. Fbed Mather. 



—Mr. A. S. Collins, the former proprietor of the Cale- 

 donian hatching houses, is editing the Fish Column in the 

 Rochester Express. 



— — *«». _ 



Y Lifting Trout Spawn.— The disadvantage of lifting 

 trout spawn in the natural way is this: the large old trout 

 commence to run up the stream in this latitude the middle 

 of September, and in about two weeks they have done spawn- 

 ing and gone back. Next comes a smaller or younger 



class; and the last some time in November or December 



two-year-olds. Now, trout will not eat their own eggs, 

 but are sure to choose the very nests where others have 

 laid, and will eat them up and lay their own, so that it 

 happens that most of those that finally remain are a small 

 class; and if it were not for the fact that Nature's laws are 

 always compensating, trout would degenerate; but after 

 hatching they soon show a vast difference in size, as the 

 first season the large eat up the small ones; this keeps them 

 of regular size. 



1 can endorse the fact set in the Telegraph that fish, and 

 especially trout, will readily adapt themselves to Vegetable 

 diet, such as bread, Indian pudding, pancakes, &c. Curd 

 or Dutch cheese, without salt, is as good food as can be 

 obtained, and diluted with water is good enough for young 

 fry. There is no easier or surer stock to keep for a farmer, 

 or any one with a brook or spring, than brook trout. In 

 this section some have buildings one hundred or two hun- 

 dred feet long, covering their ponds or canals, so they can 

 be locked up as safe as goods in a store, and make it pay 

 largely. All trout need is pure cold water and plenty of 

 food, and they will fatten up the soonest of any animal 

 known.— A. X Binds, of Patchogue, L. J., in Germantown 

 Telegraph, 



Fish Culture in Kentucky.— A number of prominent 

 citizens will meet in convention at Frankfort, Ky., on 

 January 20th, for the protection of fish culture throughout 

 the State. Kentucky is far behind most of her sister 

 States in this most important enterprise. We expect the 

 convention to take such steps as will place this subject in 

 its proper light before the Legislature, and secure from it 

 such an appropriation as will stock the principal waters in 

 the State. At the same time we would suggest to the con- 

 vention the propriety of framing a more efficient law, one 

 that will prevent the wanton destruction of our game, and 

 punish offenders. — Live Stock Record. 

 — « »» . 



California Salmon for New Hampshire.— Fish Com- 

 missioner O. H. Noyes, of Henniker, has received 25,000 

 California salmon, which he proposes to plant in the head- 

 waters of the Merrimack. The}'- were 50 days old on the 

 1st inst. and are about 1£ inches long. Fifty thousand 

 more are to arrive soon. These salmon return to the sea 

 in from two to four years, and are said to be better adapted 

 to these waters than the Penobscot salmon. The fishway 

 over the dam at Lawrence has lately been repaired at con- 

 siderable expense, and it is hoped is now passable. 



intnl p% 



[lhl8 Department is now under the charge of a competent Naturalist, 

 indorsed by the Smithsonian Institution, and will henceforth be made a 

 special feature of this paper. All communications, notes, queries, re- 

 marks, and seasonal observations will receive careful attention.} 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF LONG 

 ISLAND. 



THE Natural History Section of the Long Island His- 

 torical Society met at their rooms at Court and Jeral- 

 emon streets, Brooklyn, last Thursday night, Mr. E. 

 Lewis, Jr., in the chair. The meeting was held in the 

 museum of the society, and various accessions were an- 

 nounced. Among them were a bald eagle, a peregrine 

 falcon, a great blue heron, a dusky shearwater, an English 

 widgeon and several thrushes ; a large saw of the3awfish; a 

 horseshoe crab {Limulus) with two distinct tails; a fine pre- 

 paration showing the tunnels of the carpenter bee; and a 

 large number of geological and mineralogical specimens. 

 Particular attention has been paid lately to fossils from 

 Long Island deposits, but thus far the tooth of a shark 

 (Garcharodon megalodori), and some fine pieces of lignite, 

 from the clays near Huntington, have alone awarded the 

 search. These fossils prove the tertiary age of those clays. 

 In the sands overlying these clays, shells of recent species 

 (clam and oyster) are found embedded. In the unmodified 

 drift no fossil shells whatever have been found; but in the 

 stratified sands and gravels shells have been found at Lake- 

 ville, Flatbush, and several other points in digging wells, 

 at a considerable height above tide level. All the geologi- 

 cal investigations and collections made by Mr. Lewis and 

 other members fully confirm Mather's previous conclusions 

 respecting this and the Connecticut shore. Many minerals 

 have been acquired by breaking up the boulders of the 

 drift. No place affords a better chance for observing the 

 character of this glacial drift than the excavations for the 

 boulevards at Prospect Park, Brooklyn; there may be seen 

 boulders scratched, scored and polished by the ice in every- 

 way. The swamps, in many places in the island, yield 

 good examples of ferruginous conglomerates and wood, 

 the latter with the appearance of the grain well preserved. 

 The principal topic of the evening was the geological his- 

 tory of Long Island, presented by Mr. Lewis, who has re- 

 cently studied the subject with "care. It has long been 

 known that the stratified gravel and sand of the plains was 

 also to be found on the ridges and low hills. It is now 

 found that the very highest hills— Harbor Hill, 384 feet 

 high, and Wheatley Hill, 376 feet high— consist of, and 

 are topped with, this same stratified sand and gravel. This 

 proves satisfactorily that Long Island has been entirely sub- 

 merged since the glacial period. During the Champlain 

 period it was all under water. After that time it rose, and 

 is now again undergoing a process of gradual submersion 

 in common with the whole Atlantic coast from Labrador 

 to Florida. Much interesting evidence of this was brought 

 out in the discussion, showing that, on both sides of the 

 island, but particularly on the souih shore, salt-meadows 

 forests, and even cultivated lands have been flooded by the 

 sea; and in many places yet, at low tide, the stumps of 

 the trees may be seen near shore. Especially is this tree 

 of the region about Fire Island Inlet, where the whole 

 bay was once, it is well known, a fresh-water swamp The 

 Hackensack meadows between Jersey City and Newark 

 were once covered with heavy pine timber; but none would 

 grow there now. Along the whole coast heavy storms 

 every year tear up sods and pieces of sunken logs and 

 cast them ashore, showing that the bottom for some dis- 

 tance from shore was formerly a peat bog. Westward 

 from Islip, Indian shell heaps abound along the shores- 

 but eastward from that point, not one has ever been found' 

 showing that that part of the bav is of recent orio-ih and 

 that the beach where once the Indians roasted clams' has 

 since been eaten away by the sea. 



The next meeting of the Section will be held on the last 

 Thursday m January, when Dr. Raymond will read a 

 paper, illustrated by the stereopticon, upon the horseshoe 

 crab and other Crustacea. 



Hybrid Duck.— There are living in Mount Auburn 

 Cemetery, near Boston, nine individuals of different gener- 

 ations of a hybrid duck, which is a cross between a male 

 mallard and female Muskovy, or Cayuga Lake duck. This 

 hybrid is sometimes met with in a wild state also. It has 

 the reproductive powers perfectly developed, and is said to 

 transmit its peculiarities with great fidelity. 



—During a recent exploration of the Baxter Elver in 

 New Guinea, a boa-constrictor was shot 15 ft. 3 in long 

 having a protuberance in his body 14^ inches in diameter' 

 wmch, when cut open, proved to be the body of a whole 

 kangaroo only partially digested. 



