March 2, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
269 
Since 1873 when experiments with the chinook 
salmon began, twenty-two million fry, finger- 
lings and yearlings have been distributed by the 
Government. Of this vast number, not twenty- 
two have been recorded as caught in Atlantic 
waters until after Lake Sunapee, N. H., was 
selected in 1904 for further trial. Here the 
chinook salmon has found conditions favorable 
to its growth. The fish were planted as fry. In 
1908, six-pound specimens were taken; in 1909, 
200 of much larger size were captured with hook 
and line; and in 1910, the catch amounted to 500. 
The largest fish taken in 1911 weighed twenty 
pounds, and I have the pleasure of showing you 
to-night this specimen, handsomely mounted. 
Whether the stocking of Lake Sunapee with 
this salmon will prove successful, depends upon 
the breeding of salmon in the lake or their cap¬ 
ture in sufficient numbers by the United States 
fish culturists to afford eggs for hatching and 
so maintain the stock. 
It is held by some that they interfere with the 
native trout, which have been noticed to de¬ 
crease in numbers after the introduction of 
landlocked salmon, specifically in the Rangeley 
Lakes. But at Sunapee the case is different. 
Here the brook trout and the landlocked salmon 
have been growing fewer for years, but the 
aureolus is caught in as large numbers as usual, 
both by anglers and fish culturists. More than 
700 breeders were corraled last autumn in the 
Government tanks. Whereas, it is true that the 
chinook salmon are predaceous and greedily de¬ 
vour other fish without regard to family ties, 
trout two pounds in weight having been found 
in their stomachs. They in common with the 
other salmonids subsist largely on the land¬ 
locked smelts which swarm in immense schools 
in the lake. The fishing results at Sunapee dur¬ 
ing the past three years have certainly demon¬ 
strated the fact that chinook salmon, black bass, 
saibling, ouananiche and other Salmonidce that 
have been planted can live and increase in the 
same waters where the conditions are favorable 
—to wit; where the water is deep and cold, and 
the bottoms are sandy or gravelly, provided 
there be abundance of smelt food. What the 
Chinooks are going to do when acclimated in 
fresh water lakes awaits revelation. Will they 
die after spawning, as they have done in France 
in all the experiments of the Societe d’Acclima- 
tation, or will the new environment change their 
habits and the laws of their nature? The lake 
is their ocean, but in the case of Sunapee there 
are no rivers for them to ascend, only shallow 
brooks that will not cover their dorsal fins. 
In the headwaters of these brooks some of the 
fry have been distributed. But their natural 
carelessness as to personal safety makes them 
an easy capture for the spotted trout. Last 
■August I took seven salmon each two inches in 
length from a brook trout seven inches long. 
and three from another trout of five inches. In 
contrast to this helplessness, note the skill in 
eluding pursuit evinced by the baby brook trout 
and silverlings in the same streams. Here it 
is amusing to watch the little fry hiding behind 
sticks and gravel from the keen-eyed larger 
trout and minnows, or darting about with an 
air of security over the clean bottom in water 
too shallow for their enemies to penetrate. 
Most of the fry and fingerling chinooks (150,- 
000 have been planted in Sunapee in the last four 
years) are placed in the open lake and have 
fallen prey to the predatory fishes of strange 
waters. So it takes thousands of planted young 
to produce one fish big enough to catch. 
Some anglers are not enthusiastic over the 
ehinook as a desirable acquisition to Eastern fish 
life. Others, including my friend the Massa¬ 
chusetts commissioner of fisheries, present here 
to-night, do not regard their introduction into 
Sunapee as a mistake. Influenced by the suc¬ 
cess attending the planting of chinook salmon 
in this lake, the United States Bureau of Fish¬ 
eries in 1910 stocked Lake Champlain with fin- 
gerlings, and Superintendent Walters, of the 
Cold Spring Hatchery, distributed several thou¬ 
sand fingerlings in the lakes of Southern New 
York, where it is believed they will become natu¬ 
ralized. They have also been landlocked in New¬ 
found Lake, N. H. But the preferable fish is 
the steelhead trout of the Pacific slope, which 
has been successfully introduced into Lake 
Superior, where the United States Bureau of 
Fisheries has been taking eggs for several years. 
As a table fish, the chinook salmon is unex¬ 
celled. As a game fish, it is inferior to the 
landlocked salmon, seldom leaping from the 
water and lacking fighting energy; although in 
the bays and inlets of the west coast it displays 
game qualities that are unrivaled. John C. 
Klein, of the New York Times, recounted to me 
a few days ago his struggle off the mouth of the 
Columbia River with a sixty-pound fish that re¬ 
peatedly leaped from the sea, fought wickedly, 
and tried his nerve to the utmost, while a ninety- 
pound salmon was reeled in by sheer force 
against dead weight. That the chinooks will 
attain any such size in Sunapee is not expected. 
All fish, however, grow to e.xtreme size in this 
lake. Brook trout have reached the ten-pound 
limit; the aureolus or saibling, 8; the landlocked 
salmon, 19 to 22; and the brown trout, planted 
by the speaker in an entering stream in 1897, 14 
pounds. The goods are here for your inspection. 
So far no attempt at spawning has been made 
by the strangers in our lake. Where they are 
congregated in October and November, no one 
has discovered. It is probable that they become 
more or less sluggish, if not dormant, and do 
not move about and feed as much during the 
winter months as is indicated by the lines of 
growth on the scales. 
There can be no doubt as to the economic 
value of the chinook salmon. 
THE QUINNAT OR CHINOOK SALMON OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER. 
