474 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISn COMMISSION. 



the former favors the development of water plants and small aquatic 

 animals. Trout are very numerous in clear mountain streams, flowing 

 rapidly over their rocky beds, because they like the character of the 

 water; but they remain small, and do not get very fat; while slowly- 

 flowing rivers, having muddy bottoms, but fed by many gravelly brooks, 

 where the fish can retire for spawning, produce the largest, fleshiest, and 

 best-flavored trout, which fetch the highest price in the market. It is a 

 very general, but nevertheless erroneous, notion that trout only live in 

 water which is clear and transparent as crystal; on the contrary, they 

 seem not in the least disturbed by the water being muddy, and, as we 

 have seen, a muddy bottom even favors their growth. In Norway, which 

 is famous for its delicate trout, they flourish most in rivers and brooks 

 with muddy bottoms, provided suitable spawning-brooks are within easy 

 reach. If there are in a body of water many stagnant places where 

 aquatic plants grow in profusion, and hollow banks with entangled roots 

 of trees and similar hiding places, the trout will flourish, even if the water 

 does not flow very freely. Thus the river Leith, in Scotland, for example, 

 is so shallow in many places during the summer that one can almost walk 

 from bank to bank without wetting his feet; but it possesses a series 

 of stagnant puddles extending for miles, which harbor an abundance 

 of very large and delicately-flavored trout. 



It is likewise an erroneous idea that trout require very cold mountain 

 water; they are, on the contrary, very well able to stand warm water, 

 such as is found in the plains during the hot season. It has been ob- 

 served in Germany that trout streams reached a temperature of 21, and 

 even 26, degrees Reaumur, without in the least injuring the fish. A 

 warm temperature of the water is even beneficial to trout, as it in- 

 creases their food very considerably, which is an important item, con- 

 sidering their voracity. It is well, however, for trout streams flowing 

 through a plain to have here and there along their banks bushes and 

 shade trees, for during the heat of the day trout love to stay in such 

 shady places, as under the overhanging branches and among the roots 

 they find an ainple supply of food, principally insects, which generally 

 live on the leaves and are thrown into the water by the wind. 



Trout-culture is made comparatively easy by the circumstance that 

 no other fish stays as steadily in one place without ever going far from 

 it as the trout. Any person who lives near a stream, and is in the least 

 observant, will be able to indicate the exact place of sojourn of this or 

 that particularly striking individual trout. Apart from the spawning 

 season the trout live permanently in a body of water extending fre- 

 quently not more than 50 to 100 feet, which enables the proprietors of 

 small bodies of water to use them advantageously for trout-culture. 

 When trout are well taken care of they prefer to stay within narrowly- 

 confined limits; they learn to know man, approach him without fear, 

 and even jump out of the water to get some food which is held out to 

 them, in which case, however, one has to be careful not to get hurt by 

 their sharp teeth. 



