142 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MaK. 13 



either as a descendant of some of the Salmouoidoe introduced 

 into Sunapee in 1867 and succeeding years by the Fish Com- 

 missioners, or as a cross between one of these forms and the 

 native brook trout. In no other way could they account for its 

 sudden appearance in large and steadily increasing numbers. 



A theory of descent from blue-backs imported from Maine in 

 1879 by Commissioners "Webber and Powers as a food suj^ply 

 for the larger Salmonida, was soon set aside on the ground that 

 the little trout of the Rangeleys rarely exceeds one-quarter 

 IDOund in weight, and could not possibly, even if supplied with 

 an abundance of appropriate food and exposed to the tonic 

 effects of a favorable change of waters, ever attain the alder- 

 manic proportions of the Sunapee charr. Moreover, Dr. Bean, 

 in a scholarly paper, published in the American Angler and the 

 Forest and Stream, February, 1888, called attention to six essen- 

 tial i^oints of difference between the Sunapee trout and the 

 blue-back, thus effectually disposing of the argument. 



The theory of natural hybridism found few supporters among 

 ichthyologists, and no introduction of charr other than the 

 Jisingeley Sal velinus fontinalis and Salvelinus Oqnassa could be 

 proved, as none had been officially reported. From the first, 

 Colonel Hodge, believing in the existence of a similar charr in 

 the Province of Quebec, championed the theory of aboriginality, 

 ingeniously combating every objection made to it : — 



I. That so conspicuous a food-fish could not for one hundred 

 years have escaped the notice of anglers, poachers, and 

 scientists alike, by showing how the habits of the white trout 

 protected it from observation and persecution, it being rarely 

 seen except late in October on mid-lake reefs, that is, at a time 

 of year when angling was out of season, and in localities 

 dangerous or impossible of access in the old-style unseaworthy 

 flat-bottoms during the autumnal wind storms. The secluded 

 habits of the European charrs explain in like manner the 

 obscurity which has so long involved the life history of those 

 fishes. Colonel Hodge further claims that ordinary fishermen 

 knew no difference between the white and the brook trout, a 

 thing not to be wondered at when such authorities as Garman 

 and Bean failed at first to separate the forms. 



II. The more serious objection that no cause can be shown 

 why the white trout, if a native, should suddenly increase in 

 the lake, so as to attract the attention of hundreds of observers, 

 and be taken literally by the ton, Commissioner Hodge meets 

 with the following clever theory : Before the introduction of 

 black bass, about twenty-five years ago, yellow perch swarmed 

 in the lake, and there being then no smelt food, subsisted 



