7-NOTES ON THE FRESH-WATER FISHES OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, 
MAINE. 
By W. C. KENDALL. 
The following notes are the result of a brief invevStigation of several lakes and 
fresh-water streams iii Washington County, Me., conducted principally in October, 
1803, with the assistance of Mr. B. L. Hardin. The collections made do not fully 
represent the fish fauna of the region, as the time spent in the field was very limited, 
the areas examined comparatively circumscribed, and tlie facilities for collecting 
necessarily imperfect. The work can therefore only be regarded as the initial step 
toward more thorough and extended operations in the future. 
A i^art of this region has long been well known to sportsmen on account of the 
excellent opportunities it affords tbr both hunting and fishing, especially about the 
Grand Lakes. In some localities fishing is still carried on as an industry, in a small 
Avay, while in others, wdiere this business was once conducted, it has been abandoned. 
Alewives are caught in Dennys Elver, and three salmon weirs are located in the salt- 
water portion of the same stream. Pickerel fishing affords emx>loyment in winter for 
a few fishermen on Schoodic Elver and Tomah Stream. In the loAver lakes of tlie 
Grand Lake system a few white men and Indians make a business of fishing for white 
perch and iiickerel. Whitefish are caught in considerable numbers in ‘Hhe thoiough- 
fare” at the upper end of western Grand Lake. The trout and landlocked salmon in 
Grand Lake and Grand Lake Stream afford unsurpassed angling. The salmon fishery 
of St. Croix Eiver, once very important, has been almost entirely abandoned, though 
of late years it has shown slight improvement. The smaller fishes, though seemingly 
uninteresting from any other than a natural-history standpoint, are of considerable 
indirect economic importance. Those of the sucker and minnow families form not only 
a conspicuous item in the food supply of the more important fishes, but in turn they 
feed upon their eggs and young, thus helping to maintain the balance of nature by 
preventing an undue increase of either. 
In this connection we may refer to the pickerel, the so-called enemy of nearly all 
other fishes, succumbing only to the blahk bass, and depending mainly upon the young 
of other fishes and frogs for its food, though young pickerel subsist to a great extent 
upon insects. If, through their own greed or by other means, their food supply is 
withdrawn, iiickerel gradually degenerate in size and ultimately practically disappear. 
Many instances in support of this fact have been made known. Pickerel and black 
bass are certainly voracious and destructive fishes, but the writer questions whether 
they have not to some extent been unjustly accused. It is doubtful if trout ever 
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