1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 1-13 



largely on the eggs and fry of the lake-spawning charr. At the 

 spring hatching-time these perch held carnival among the help- 

 less alevins, almost efiecting, by their periodic ravages, the 

 extermination of the white trout. But as the black bass 

 increased in number, they fell upon the i:)erch in turn, until the 

 lake was virtually rid of this voracious pest. Thus the trout, 

 which had been reduced to the verge of annihilation, had a 

 chance to increase. The black bass did not interfere with it 

 for two reasons : 



I. Both bass and trout have an abundance of easily caught 

 and tasteful food in the land-locked smelts, which have multi- 

 plied since their introduction until now they literally school in 

 millions. 



II. Bass and trout are not found in the same sections of water 

 at the same time, the trout keeping in a temperature of 42° to 

 45° (on the surface in May, 60 feet below in July and August); 

 the bass preferring 65° to 70^ in summer, and hibernating in 

 winter and during the spring hatching time of trout. Thus 

 freed from persecution, the saibling has increased, until it is 

 now present in myriads. This is the most ingenious of all the 

 explanations that have been advanced. It is based on facts 

 throughout, and is difficult of overthrow, especially when 

 coupled with a theory of the writer's, that after the introduction 

 of smelts, about twenty years ago, the saibling, if native, learned 

 so far to change their habits as to rise from the depths and 

 follow this food fish to the shores during May and June, thus 

 increasing the chances of discovery. Wherever the smelt 

 schools, there the saibling will be found. An axiom of the 

 Suuapee fisherman is : " Hold the smelts and you will hold 

 the trout," so the smelts are baited in certain localities during 

 the fishing season. 



This theory of Colonel Hodge encounters but a single 

 objection, viz. : If the perch and saibling have been fellows in 

 the Sunapee basin since its excavation during the Glacial Epoch, 

 why was not the process of extermination completed centu- 

 ries ago ? 



It must have been in the case of other lakes on the same 

 primeval water shed, unless we are prepared to admit that an 

 anadromous fish became land-locked in one inland lake alone, 

 while avoiding other bodies of water much more accessible 

 and equally compatible. Geology proves that Sunapee once 

 discharged its waters through Newbury summit, and thus was 

 tributary to the Merriraac. Hence it is fair to assume that 

 when these trout migrated, following like man and the larger 

 mammalia, but through watery channels, the retreating ice- 



