FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



195 



although thf next morning the temperature had sunk to sixty-seven degrees, the trout 

 was dead, but the minnow had not suffered. A parr of the sahnon, about fiiur inches 

 long, was similarly treated, the water in half an hour being raised from sixty degrees 

 to seventy degrees, and now it tried to escape. The water was raised to eighty 

 degrees and it became torpid and convulsed ; at eighty-four degrees it seemed to 

 have died. A char of about the same size iiad the water gradually raised to eighty 

 degrees, when it appears to have succumbed. The trout trieil to escape by leaping out 

 of the water, while the char kept to the bottom with its head downwards, as if seeking 

 for a cooler locality. 



The common brook trout of this country {foH/iiia/is), is a char, and untloubtedly 

 acts as did the European char in the experiment, by seeking cooler water downwards 

 in a poiul when the surface water be- 

 comes warm, ami searching out spring 

 holes in streams, so the\- may be left 

 to their own devices to find the coldest 

 water [irovided in any stream or pond 

 in which the)- are planted; but unless 

 the stream or pond contains the cool 

 water for them to find, /. c, below 

 seventy degrees, and si.xt)'-five degrees 

 would be better, it is useless to attempt 

 to propagate brook trout in it. There 

 are other conditions which operate 

 against the maintenance of trout in a 

 stream. The fish must ha\e gra\el in 

 which to make their spawning beds. 

 Even with gravel but a small percent- 

 age of eggs deposited naturally are 

 hatched, but if deposited in the soft 



bottom, they may be lost entirely. During the past season I examined a trout pond 

 at the request of a committee of gentlemen who had stocked it, and found there was 

 very little gravel where springs boil from the bottom, and trout had been in the habit 

 of spawning, and that little had been covered by vegetable growth. I suggested that 

 .spawning beds be provided by hauling gravel on the ice in winter, spreading it over 

 the places where the springs came from the bottom, and when the ice melted the gravel 

 would settle evenly over the vegetable growth and pro\-ide the onl\- thing which 

 appeared to be needed to make the pond suitable for the propagation of trout, for the 

 water was pure and cool, and there was an abundance of fish food. Streams that are 



POSITION OF THE HAND IN STRIPPING A FEMALE TROUT. 



