290 
Things We Don’t Know About Salmon 
RECENT communication to Forest and 
Stream I stated that although the season 
for fly fishing for salmon on the rivers of 
the Maritime Provinces opened February I, it 
apparently does not have much significance so 
far as the streams of Quebec and New Bruns¬ 
wick are concerned, for the reason that the fish 
do not, probably, enter them so early in the 
season. 
The language I used was such that the infer- 
ence might naturally be drawn that we have 
information which shows that the early run of 
the fish is confined to the rivers of southwestern 
Nova Scotia, but such information is not, so 
far as I am aware, possessed by anyone, although 
I have been unable to discover any record of 
such movement it very possibly may occur; no 
one can assert whether or not fish run into all 
the rivers of the lower provinces as early as 
they do those of Nova Scotia; who can say 
they do not enter the Penobscot in February 
and even in January? Why shouldn t they? 
Surely Canadian rivers and that glorious one of 
Maine have no greater frigidity than those of 
Norway and Scotland, and we know that the 
salmon are running up those rivers in January 
almost as freely as they do later in the season. 
Someone has stated. I cannot now say whom, 
that salmon are probably running up or down 
Canadian rivers in every month of the year; 
while this is no doubt purely conjecture, I 
should not like to say it is not true. In fact, 
there is verv much vet to be learned about the 
1 novemen'ts of our noble game fish, and I pen 
these lines for Forest and Stream in the hope 
that they will draw out new facts from observ¬ 
ers which should permanently be put on record. 
I was once informed that the salmon which 
frequented one of the Quebec rivers abandoned 
its early summer ascent in consequence of the 
persistent netting which encompassed it and 
relinquished the ascent of the stream until late 
in the season after the nets had been removed. 
Now, to attribute to the salmon an intelligence 
great enough to change its habits in order to 
evade the nets and traps is going too far, for 
no one can imagine that any degree of reason¬ 
ing that it might possibly possess would enable 
it to overcome the great natural instinct to as¬ 
cend the river at its regular period. 
I had my doubts in relation to this matter 
and in consequence wrote an expert friend, ask¬ 
ing his opinion concerning it, believing him to 
be possessed of information if anyone was. His 
reply was: 
“I think you were misinformed about the 
Quebec river into which the fish did not enter 
until the nets were lifted on the coast; I never 
heard of it before, and do not now believe it. In 
all our rivers (N. B.) there is a late run of sal¬ 
mon, and no doubt it is the same with the Que- 
