THE SMELTS 
231 
In Brunswick, Me., a brook flows into “Maquoit Bay,” an estuary of Casco Bay. 
This brook flows over a ledge at high-water limit, making a waterfall that smelts can 
not surmount. Below the fall, at low water, is a long channel of virtually fresh 
water that the smelt ascend at the spawning time as far as the falls. It is probable 
that they spawn at the foot of the falls, notwithstanding the fact that on flood tide 
and during high water the water must be fairly salt. However, the smelts undoubt- 
edly spawn in fresh water, and as there is a longer period of fresh and slightly brack- 
ish water than of the salt water it may be that the salt water has no deleterious 
effect upon the eggs. As a rule, however, as previously stated, the smelts ascend to 
fresh water to spawn, and it is more than probable that the eggs would not develop 
in salt water or even strongly brackish water if at first subjected to such conditions. 
It is not impossible that smelts sometimes spawn in the tidal portions of creeks 
where conditions of bottom are suitable. As the smelt run up the brooks on ebb 
tide, the tide having left the creek with a stream of fresh water in the channel, the 
smelts coming in on the late ebb may deposit their spawn in that section, partic- 
ularly if shoals or other obstructions, impassable by smelts, are left by the receding 
water. The upper tidal portions of such creeks are subjected to salt water for a 
brief period at high tide. 
Thomas (1876) says that in the creeks of Long Island smelts were found “in 
perfect condition” from Febuary 20 to March 20. 
In 1878 the Massachuetts law provided a closed season for smelts from the 15th 
of March to the 1st of June. In that year a correspondent of Forest and Stream 
(“ Memoir” 1878), writing from Medford under date of March 23, said: 
Smelts have returned to their spawning beds at an earlier date and in larger numbers than here- 
tofore. * * * During the unusually warm weather of the first of the month they made their 
appearance in large and goodly numbers. 
The most definite records of smelt runs in Massachusetts appear in the later re- 
ports of the commissioners of fish and game of that State. The report for 1918 (p. 
141), referring to Weir River near Hingham, says: 
By March 18 the ice was gone from the salt water, but still thick in the pond. From the 19th 
to 26th the air temperature rose steadily, and on March 29 (eight days later than the previous 
year), at 12:50 A. M., twenty minutes after high tide, the first smelt of the season came up Weir 
River and remained until 2:15 A. M., thus opening the season. 
Concerning a run in the same river, the report for 1919 (p. 97) says: 
The salt-water smelt season of 1919 was an unusual one. With an open winter the fish came 
to tidewater in the rivers in January and lay there until March 1, when the run was on, earlier 
than is usually the case. * * * 
On March 6 there was a large run of fish at Weir River and Fresh River, and they were in 
perfect condition for spawn-taking. On March 10 the first spawn, about 35 quarts, was taken. 
Cold weather and low water temperature followed immediately and lasted until March 23, when 
eggs were again taken. Unfavorable conditions continued, and on April 14 part of the crew was 
sent home as the run was over, and what fish came were very few and small. * * * On April 
22 there was a good run of fish * * * . 
The first few nights of the run, it has been noticed, are the best for taking eggs, as the fish 
are full, having shot none of the spawn. After ten days a great difference can be noticed in the 
fish. They soon begin to harden, and the quanity of spawn is less. On moonlight nights the run 
