operations were discontinued, and the only foreign source of supply
thereafter remaining open to the states was found in the breeding
establishments under control of the Canadian Government, and even these
were practically closed by the high price at which the eggs were
valued.

In 1870 it had become clear that to a continuation of efforts it was
essential that a new supply of salmon ova should be discovered.
Attention was now directed to the Penobscot River in the state of
Maine, which, though very unproductive compared with Canadian rivers,
might yet, perhaps, be made to yield the requisite quantity of spawn.

A preliminary examination of the river brought out the following facts:
The Penobscot is about 225 miles in length. The upper half of its
course and nearly all of its principal tributaries lie in an
uninhabited wilderness, and in this district are the breeding grounds
of the salmon. The fisheries, however, are all on the lower part of the
river and in the estuary into which it empties, Penobscot Bay. There
was no means of knowing how great a proportion of the salmon entering
this river succeeded in passing safely the traps and nets set to
intercept them, but supposing half of them to escape capture there
would still be but about 6,000 fish of both sexes scattered through the
hundreds of miles of rivers and streams forming the headwaters of the
Penobscot.

It was very doubtful whether they would be congregated about any one
spot in sufficient numbers to supply a breeding station, and it would
be impracticable to occupy any widely extended part of the river, on
account of the difficulties of communication. At the mouth of the
river, on the other hand, the supply of adult salmon could be found