"Another theory is that the salmon of each river, as they arrive at its mouth after descending from its headwaters, go out to sea sufficiently far to find the conditions of temperature and food which suit them, and there they remain, separate from the salmon of other rivers, until it is time for them to return to fresh water. Considering the certainty with which the salmon of any particular river return again to the stream of their birth, the latter theory seems the more tenable of the two."
Another object of this paper is to solicit correspondence from fishermen, especially those engaged in the coast and offshore fisheries, concerning the circumstances of the capture of salmon in their nets, and to bring to their attention the opportunity they will thus have of increasing the knowledge of the movements of the salmon, of aiding in the determination of the results of fishcultural operations, and of ultimately if not immediately benefiting themselves by supplying information that will conduce to the most effective application of artificial methods.
To this end it is the intention to send the paper to fishermen engaged in the mackerel, menhaden, and other sea fisheries, and to operators of pound nets, traps, and other shore appliances, with the hope that instances of the capture of salmon may be communicated to this Commission and notes on the size, condition, movements, etc., of the fish be furnished.
To aid in the identification of the salmon when caught by fishermen who have not previously met with the fish, a figure is presented.
In this connection mention may be made of the chinook or quinnat salmon of the Pacific coast (Oncorhynchus chouicha), fry of which have been extensively planted in eastern waters by the U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Up to and including the year 1880, about 12,000,000 fry were deposited in rivers and other waters tributary to the Atlantic. While a few relatively large examples have been taken, this office has no information to show that the attempts to acclimate this species on the Atlantic coast have as yet been successful. In 1891 a few thousand yearling salmon were placed in New York waters tributary to the sea. The possibility of the survival and growth of some of these and of the large early colonies prompts this reference to the matter and suggests the publication of the accompanying figure of the species, to afford a basis for distinguishing the two kinds of salmon, which closely resemble each other. To further aid in the identification of the two species the following key has been prepared:
| Rays in anal fin, 9; scales between gill opening and base of tail, 120; branchiostegals (false gill openings), 11 | ATLANTIC SALMON |
| Rays in anal fin, 16; scales between gill opening and base of tail, 150; branchiostegals, (false gill openings) 15 to 19 | PACIFIC SALMON |
Numerous instances might be cited of the taking of salmon in the waters of the Atlantic coast in recent years. Their occurrence in the traps and pound nets is in fact so common that it would hardly be entitled to notice at this time were it not for the circumstance that in regions in which salmon were already known there has been a decided increase in the number observed outside the rivers, and that the fish is now being taken in localities in which it was not previously found.
Instances of the capture of salmon in the coast waters of Maine are naturally numerous, and without significance so far as the purposes of the present paper are concerned. The existence of two important salmon rivers, the Kennebec and the Penobscot, affords an easy explanation of the presence of salmon on the shores of either side of the mouths of those streams. In the report of the U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries for 1873-73 Mr. Charles G. Atkins, now superintendent of the salmon-rearing establishment at East Orland, Me., and an authoritative writer on the Atlantic salmon, contributes some notes on its occurrence in the sea adjacent to Penobscot Bay and at Richmond Island, near Portland. These cases, however, have little bearing on the subject in hand, as Mr. Atkins suggests in a recent letter.
A special inquiry, personally conducted on Matinicus, Monhegan, and other islands lying far off the Maine coast, and special researches there made with appropriate apparatus, would doubtless disclose many interesting facts regarding the salmon of a practical and scientific nature. A few apparently unrecorded notes concerning the fish among islands off the island of Mount Desert may be given, which are probably indicative of what may be expected in other sections.
Mr. W. I. Mayo, who has fished herring brush-weirs at the Cranberry Isles for many years, and is a life-long fisherman in that section, communicates the intelligence that salmon were first observed about those islands in 1888. On June 17 a salmon, weighing 20 pounds, was taken in a herring weir, and on June 19 another, weighing 19 pounds, was caught. On July 14 of the same year 6 salmon, weighing 4 to 6 pounds apiece, were secured, but were liberated on account of their size. During the four years intervening between 1888 and 1893 none was taken around these islands, but in June of the latter year they reappeared. On June 11 a salmon weighing 15 pounds was taken in a weir, and on various occasions during that month a number weighing 12 to 15 pounds each were caught by boat fishermen on trawl lines fished for cod.