ion, where some
salmon trap fishing is done, seals were very troublesome in the early
part of the season of 1896. Mr. George Ames, who set three traps in
1896 and took about 100 salmon, had knowledge of 13 other salmon that
were destroyed by seals while in his nets. Similar instances of
relatively large numbers of salmon killed by seals might be given. With
salmon worth 20 to 50 cents a pound the loss of 10 or 12 salmon by
seals, in a total catch of 75 or 100, is a matter of importance to the
fisherman.

Evidences of results of propagation.

The opinion is now practically unanimous among the salmon fishermen of
Penobscot River and Bay that the artificial hatching of salmon by the
U.S. Fish Commission is producing beneficial results. About the same
arguments in support of their opinions are presented by all, and these
accord well in the main with the observations of other persons who have
given this matter attention:

(1) The opportunities for natural reproduction are exceedingly limited,
owing to the obstructions to the passage of the fish to their spawning
grounds in the headwaters of the Penobscot basin.

(2) The salmon that are naturally hatched are, even under the most
favorable conditions prevailing at the present time, not numerous
enough to keep up the supply of market and brood fish, with the
fatalities incident to the long residence at sea and to the passage of
immature fish down from the spawning grounds to the sea.

(3) The remarkable run in May and June, 1896, of fish of comparatively
small size that had apparently just reached maturity and the relative
scarcity of large fish that had evidently been in the river during one
or two previous seasons seemed to show a tendency toward the depletion
of the run of old fish and the substitution of a run of young,
artificially hatched fish.

(4) A feature of the salmon supply in recent years, on which the
fishermen nearly all lay considerable stress, is that the runs in
April and July, which in former years were often quite important and
remunerative, have of late been very poor, although the fish
constituting them are of large size, while the runs in May and June
have kept up, but have consisted chiefly of comparatively small fish.
In this the fishermen believe they see evidence of the work of the
hatchery, for the young salmon artificially hatched have been from eggs
of May and June fish, and the fishermen think that such young fish,
when they return t