1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 1-15 



aug-ler iii a day, but it is never caught except iu one particular 

 locality. It spawns in the lake on a fine gravel beach, in three 

 feet of water, and does not enter the inlets. Nothing but smelts 

 are ever found in its stomach. Flood's Pond contains neither 

 perch nor bass. 



Since, then, by reason of dams on the outlets, no fishes of 

 marine ancestry could, within the last fifty years, have gained 

 access either to Dan Hole or Flood's Pond without artificial 

 help, since land-loclied salmon only have been planted in these 

 l^onds, and that quite recently ; and since there seems to be 

 trustworthy evidence of the existence of this so-called silver 

 trout in each body of water for at least half a century, it is fair 

 to conclude that the Salvelinus Alpinus Aureolus is a native of 

 two Maine drainage basins, and, therefore, is aboriginal to New 

 England, an American representative of the European saibliug, 

 red charr, or ombre chevalier. 



But this does not prove its aboriginal it}' to Sunapee Lake, 

 New Hampshire, although, all circumstances considered, 

 it renders such aboriginality highly probable, inasmuch as no 

 data exist to establish a plant of this variet}' at any time in 

 Sunaj^ee Lake, and no German saibliug eggs were brought to 

 New Hampshire before January, 1881. The fact that the fry 

 from the eggs sent to Plymouth in that year were placed in 

 Newfound Lake, a body of water apparently in every way 

 adapted to the nature of the saibliug, but have never been 

 heard from, is further significant here. It may prove that the 

 foreign fish cannot find the necessary conditions in the New 

 Hampshire lakes. The failure of the farmers at Sunapee to 

 distinguish between the large brook trout and the saibliug (if 

 the latter fish was a native) is in contrast with the positive 

 knowledge of a difference at Dan Hole and Flood's Ponds. Its 

 explanation may be sought in the habits of the Sunapee saibliug 

 as already described ; or in the ignorance of the few who in old 

 times may ever have seen it, and who cared for nothing beyond 

 the fact that it was good to eat. 



Ford's Pond in Warren, and Silver Lake in Madison, New 

 Hampshire, are associated with traditions of tbe fall spearing 

 on their spawning beds of large high-colored trout, which are 

 believed, from reports as to their habits and appearance, to 

 have belonged to this same species. These two ponds, then, may 

 represent a traditional habitat. The waters of Silver Lake 

 find their way into the Saco ; I was unable to learn whether 

 Ford's Pond discharges into the Connecticut, or through Baker's 

 River into the Merrimac. 



Trausactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. May 18, 18S»3. 



