The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1872-11-28
Written for the journal.
Salmon Breeding on the Penobscot.

We're bought alive from the fishermen, and
placed in Great Pond, about mile from Bucks
Port village. Here they We're allowed to re-
main until The spawning season, when they
were caught and their eggs taken and placed in
hatch'ng troughs. This operation is now COM
rlritd and million and halt of eggs now lie
~ tllr troughs developing into salmon
The readers Of the journal will doubtless De
interested in brief account OF the affair from
ills original conception to its successful exccu-
ton.
For several years the Commissioners of Fish
elie% of this State have been trying, with the
small means placed at their disposal by the
Legislature, TO do something practical in the
work OF restocking the exhausted salmon rivers
Of the State, but owing to the difficulty of OBJ
tanning young salmon or salmon pawn, their
progress has been necessarily slow. 1t is well
known that if salmon be reared from infancy to
ont or two Years of age in any river and then
allowed TO 90 to sea- they will when grown re-
turn TO the same river to lay their eggs. To
stock a river with salmon, therefore, it is only
necessary to put into it Il sufficient number OF
eggs or Young fish and await their growth and
return from the sea. But whence could the
eggs be obtaineds Several importations of them
have been made from New Brunswick. The
Commissioner Of Fisheries once barganed for
twenty thousand salmon eggs from the Mira
michi river, at S15 per thousand. but owing to
ies-which We're so common with these
eniPrpl ises as to be the rule.-onlv eight hun
drei were received. On another occasion he
bought eight thousand eggs at the Canadian
Governments Establishment near Newcastle
~ the Province Of Ontario, at the rate Of $40,
@oId, per thousand, paving for what may have
been the prodnct OF Il single fish, S362.-and he
brought them I'LL home in his trunk. AT this
I"lle progress toward the restocking of our rivers
With salmon would be slow.
In ISL, Mr., Atkins, then commissioner Of
fisheries, undertook. with the corporations Of
Massachusetts and Connecticut, the experiment
OF obtaining salmon eggs from the Penobscot
hy contning salmon caught in the summer, in
fresh water, where they could be taken out and
deprived of their spawn at the proper time
owing TO ignorance of the wants of the salmon
unavoidable because the experiment was 50
novel, the most of the fish bought were lost,
bnt enough were saved to yield in November
10000 good egg.
This result was encouraging, and the same
PARTIES united in Il repetition Of the experiment
on larger scale at Buciisport this year. with
the aid of the United States COMM ssioner of
Fisheries, who contributes about half the funds
ami will control proportional amount of the
egg> obtained.
Last june and July SIX hundred salmon were
bought from the fishermen owning salmon
Wcir> near Bucksport, lowed in boats prepared
for the purpose to The latter place. and hauled
IN tanks filled with water to Great Pond. Some
were lost by injuries received on the wav but
i j. supposed that over 800 remain alive. OF
these, between 300 and 400 have been caught
and the females, being a majority of the whole
have yielded the large number of 900, 900 eggs.
Nomore are expected this year, since the Spawn
iug season is now past. and those salmon not
already caught have doubtless laid their eggs in
the pond. which will therefore send out in due
season large number of young salmon into
The Penobscot.
The greater part of the fish were caught at
the outlet of the pond as they came out into the
brook in obedience to 4 natural instinct which
NJ 4t'N liflil W seen II tCt LOT Inc deposition OIL
their eggs in moving water They We're then
driven into pens and sorted over and as fast as
convenient the eggs We're pressed out of the
Females. formulated by the application of milt
from the male fish, and placed in moving water
in the hachng house. The number of eggs
obtained from each female is from 1000 to 49,
600 or more. In size they are nearly quarter
5,t inc Il t1,,,i,
monty beautiful pink, sometimes pale and
sometimes approaching salmon color. When
ripe they are loose in the abdomen OF the fish
and run out, by the application of external
pressure, sometimes rs freely as shot from 4 |
pouch and sometimes with more difficulty. as
If voluntarily retained by the fish. They are |
received in common lin pans, and before any |
wafer touches them male fish is taken in |
hand and his mlt pressed into the same dish. |
they are now whisked around over the bottom |
Of lhe pan until the milf has touched every egg, |
when water is poured over them. and after |
standing half an hour more or less, they are |
carried to the Matching house and poured into |
the hatchng trays.
The hatching house is plain wooden build
ag seventy feet long and twenty-eight wide,
The most of the space on its floor is occupied |
10y fifteen wooden troughs, each sixty feet long.
one foot wide and six inches deep. Water from
the brook is led into these troughs. and runs
through them in Il constant gentle stream. In
The tronghs stand trays, like oblong Sicyes of |
coarse wre-tloth bottoms. and wooden frames
and on those trays lay the eggs Already those
taken earliest, from Oct. 2sth to Nov. 9TH, have
advanced so lUr in development that it has been
tiscertaned that in all except a few small lots
drN Oted 10 experiments, 9S ga per cent. are
iermd, and. accidents aside. will in due course
ot time become salmon. Probably a like ratio
Of lecund eggs will prevail through the whole,
and such success in that part of the work is re-
lis supposed that the eggs will be in condi-
llon for shipment early as February, and
then the greater part will be packed up in moss
and sent away. The eggs belonging to the State
Of Maine will be devoted to the Androscoggin,
Penobscot, and Saint Croix Rivers, and those
destined for the two latter rivers will be hatch
ed out where they lie at Bucksport.
TO appreciate the magnitude of the re-
suit of the seasons work it is necessary to
W
kind. All the salmon eggs brought INTO the |
United States, or handled in the country, since |
first efforts at salmon-breeding do not probably |
amount, in the aggregate, to more than one |
quarter now in the troughs at Bucksport. The |
cost per thousand, Notwithstanding the large |
outlay for buildings and apparatus, which are |
good for many years service, is less than one |
third the lowest price at which salmon eggs |
have ever been offered for sale in this country. |
The Old salmon were not killed, nor, indeed, |
injured, by the operation of taking their spawn.
They are all to be marked before they are al |
lowed to go to sea- in such IA manner that if |
ever caught again they will be recognized. |
Several doubtful points in their history NAV. it |
is hoped. be thus cleared up. We wish, for in.
stance, to know how often thew breed, and what
is their rate of growth. About two hundred
have already been marked by putting a rubber
band around the tail, and attaching to if, bv
means of gold, silver or platinum wire, a small
metal tag, stamped with number-from I'D |