92 THE RIVER AND LAKE FISHERIES 



either ignorant or regardless of the national value of fisheries ; when, but a 

 few years since, we were in a state of extreme agitation and excitement, 

 and on the point of rushing into hostilities with the most powerful maritime 

 nation on earth, for the assertion of certain questionable rights of fishery — 

 rights, in fact, according to the opinions of some o'ur most able and respon- 

 sible statesmen, which were, as per se, entirely untenable — on the coasts 

 and within the bays of a neighbouring foreign Province. 



And yet, were we as ignorant thereof as the most benighted of savages, 

 we could not be more utterly regardless of the mine of wealth, richer, surer, 

 and far more cheaply obtained than the boasted gold of California, neglected 

 at our very doors, in every river mouth from the Delaware to St. Croix, 

 along our whole eastern Atlantic seaboard, which might, with a minimum 

 of legislative aid and protection, and the exertion of the smallest portion of 

 common sense, self-restraint, and foresight, on the part of our maritime and 

 rural population, afford cheap and delicious food to hungry thousands, and 

 a large source of national wealth, as a material for export, and stimulant to 

 commercial enterprise. Within the memory of man the Connecticut river 

 swarmed with salmon; and it is stated, in the Hartford Courant, that "it 

 is well known that individuals, coming in from the country for a load of 

 shad, could not purchase any unless they would consent to take so many 

 salmon off the hands of the fishermen. They were often sold as low as two 

 coppers the pound." ■ 



" The cause of the destruction of the salmon was not," continues this 

 writer, " so much the numbers caught by the fishermen, as the. obstructions 

 which the dam at Enfield placed in the way of the descent of the young 

 fish to the salt water. A resident at Enfield, when a boy, distinctly remem- 

 bers seeing, in a very dry summer, when the water hardly flowed over that 

 dam, thousands of very young salmon, on the upper side, prevented from 

 going down, all of which died there in a short time." 



It is, however, the stoppage of the ascent of the breeding fish, not that of 

 the descent of the young fry, which is fatal to the race. The salmon can be, 

 and has been, successfully introduced into inland lakes of fresh water, 

 having no communication with the sea ; nor is the exclusion of the young 

 fish from salt water fatal to its life, although it prevents its growth, 

 deteriorates the quality of its flesh, and, probably, deprives it of the powers 

 of reproduction. 



Inasmuch, however, as the salmon cannot propagate its species except in 

 rapid, highly aerated, fresh, spring waters, if the parent fish are debarred 

 of access to the upper tributaries of the rivers, in which alone their eggs 

 can be brought to maturity, the breed must, of course, become extinct . 

 and, again, inasmuch as the salmon invariably returns to breed in the river 

 wherein itself was bred, even if the obstacles to the ascent of the fish were 

 removed, unless the waters should be re-stocked, no salmon would ascend 

 them, the way being lost, or a traditionary instinct of the existence of 

 obstacles descending among them from generation to generation. 



This fact is evident, from the circumstance that, although sea-salmon 



