I-ISIIERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 1 89 



inshore, trolling with a light fly-rod and fine tackle, either with a Skinner's fluted 

 spoon, No. 1, or a small smelt on single hook, will sometimes yield superb sport, as 

 the game qualities of the white trout are estimated to be double those of the fontinalis. 

 The most exhilarating amusement to be had with this charr, after the first hot June 

 days, is in trolling from a sailboat with a greenheart tarpon rod, 300 feet of copper 

 wire of the smallest calibre on a heavy tarpon reel, and attached to this a six-foot 

 braided leader with a Buell's spinner, or a live minnow on a stiff' gang. The weight 

 of the wire sinks the bait to the requisite depth. When the sailboat is running across 

 the wind at the maximum of her speed, the sensation experienced by the strike of a 

 four or five-pound fish bankrupts all description. A strong line under such a tension 

 would part on the instant ; but the ductility of the wire averts this accident, and the 

 man at the reel end of the rod experiences a characteristic " give," quickly followed by 

 the dead-weight strain of the frenzied salmonoid. To land a fish thus struck implies 

 much greater patience and skill than a successful battle, under similar circumstances, 

 with a five-ounce six-strip and delicate tackle. The pleasure is largely concentrated 

 in the strike, and the perception of a big fish "fast." The watchfulness and labor 

 involved in the subsequent struggle border closely on the confines of pain. The ductile 

 wire is an essentially different means from a taut silk line. The fish holds the coign of 

 vantage ; when he stands back and with bulldog pertinacity wrenches savagely at the 

 pliable metal — when he rises to the surface in a despairing leap for his life — the angler 

 is at his mercy. But, brother of the sleave-silk and tinsel, when at last you gaze 

 upon your captive lying asphyxiated on the surface, a synthesis of qualities that make 

 a perfect fish — when you disengage him from the meshes of the net, and place his icy 

 figure in your outstretched palms, and watch the tropasolin glow of his awakening loves 

 soften into cream tints, and the cream tints pale into the pearl of moonstone, as the 

 muscles of respiration grow feebler and more irregular in their contraction — you will 

 experience a peculiar thrill that the capture neither of ouananiche, nor foiitinalis, nor 

 namayciish can ever excite. It is this after-glow of pleasure, this delight of contem- 

 plation and speculation, of which the scientific angler never wearies, that lends a charm 

 all its own to the pursuit of the Alpine trout. 



Finally there can be no doubt as to the economic value of the American saibling. 

 It is one of the most prolific of our salmonoids, the female averaging i,200 eggs to 

 the pound, and casting spawn when only two ounces in weight. It is also a singularly 

 rapid grower where smelt food abounds. The extreme weight proved to have been 

 attained is about twelve pounds, although accounts exist of much larger specimens 

 weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds. As a rule, the greater the altitude, the 

 smaller the fish, but the more intense their coloration. In some of the higher Swiss 

 lakes, the saibling run eight or nine to the pound. This charr is exceptionally hardy 



