NATURALIZATION OF FISHES. 185 



trout are estimated to have been sent from the Umbagog 

 region to Boston last fall. Another cause for the decline 

 of trout streams is the relentless manner in which these 

 fish are pursued with hook and line. Fish of all sizes, 

 from the length of one's finger upwards, are strung or 

 basketed by country bait-fisher or city angler with his flies. 

 The poor ambition possessing each, that he may boast of the 

 numbers of trout he has exterminated, without regard to 

 size j for with such the fingerling counts one, as does the 

 fish that runs one's line off the reel. With this state of 

 semi-barbarism existing and it appears almost impossible 

 to ameliorate it it is evident that naturalization and arti- 

 ficial propagation must be resorted to in more thickly set- 

 tled parts of the country, if we wish to prevent these 

 beautiful fish from becoming almost as rare in our streams 

 as salmon now are. 



I have alluded in the introduction to this article, to the 

 stocking of the upper parts of streams with this fish, and 

 could cite instances in which they have been quietly intro- 

 duced into others, where, after a few years, those who 

 transplanted them were rewarded with good fishing, until 

 the knowledge of such fact caused the brook to be over- 

 fished. 



The Cuttyhunk Club, an association of anglers who 

 have established themselves on the island bearing that 

 name, are about introducing brook trout into a fine fresh 

 water pond on their grounds. In a letter, bearing date 

 April 25th, a member of -the club says: " We have not 

 got along far enough at Cuttyhunk to give any decided 

 16* 



