The collection is in the hands of a fisherman of experience, who receives the salmon as they are brought in, counts and examines them, adjudges their weight, and dispatches them in cars to the inclosure at Dead Brook.  The cars are made out of the common fishing boats of the district, called dories, by providing them with grated openings, to allow of a free circulation of water in transit, and covering them with netting above to prevent the fish from escaping over the sides.  The car is ballasted so that it will be mostly submerged.  Ten to fifteen salmon are placed in a single car, and from one to four cars are taken in tow by a boat with two to four oarsmen.

From the collecting headquarters to Orland village, a distance of about 5 miles, the route is in brackish water, and the tow is favored by the flood tide.  At Orland is a dam which is surmounted by means of a lock, and thence, two miles further to Dead Brook, the route is through the tide less fresh water of Narramissic River.  The sudden change from salt to fresh water does not appear to trouble the fish except when the weather is very hot and the fresh water is much the warmest.  The cars are towed directly into the inclosure, where the fish are at once liberated.

The inclosure is formed by placing two substantial barriers of woodwork across the stream 2,200 feet apart.  The lower barrier is provided with gates which swing open to admit boats.  Within the inclosure the water is from 3 to 8 feet deep, the current very gentle, the bottom partly muddy, partly gravelly, supporting a dense growth of aquatic vegetation.  The brook has two clean lakes at its source, and its water is purer than that of ordinary brooks.

The collection of salmon usually continues from the first ten days of June until the beginning of July.  During the early weeks of their imprisonment the salmon are extremely active, swimming about and leaping often into the air.  After that they become very quiet, lying in the deepest holes and rarely showing themselves.  Early in October they begin to renew their activity, evidently excited by the reproductive functions.  Preparations are now made for catching them by constructing traps at the upper barrier.  If the brook is in ordinary volume, these means suffice to take nearly all, but a few linger in the deeper pools and must be swept out with seines.  About October 25 the taking of spawn begins.  After that date the fish are almost always ripe when they first come to hand, and in three weeks the work of spawning is substantially finished.

Although the salmon are taken from the fisherman without any attempt to distinguish between males and females, it is always found at the spawning season that the females are in excess, the average of four seasons being about 34 males to 66 females.  This is a favorable circumstance, since the milt of a single male is fully equal to the impregnation of the ova of many females.