14 COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



season. Our streams, as a rule, are small, and years ago a portion 

 of them flowed through thickly wooded country, where the banks 

 were always moist, and in some cases swampy. At intervals along 

 the stream there were little ponds or large pools formed by artificial 

 dams which, although they did not hold a great volume of water, still 

 they helped to feed the brooks below them during the hot dry weather 

 of July and August. But to-day, how changed ! The trees are gone, 

 the dams either entirely destroyed or leaking so badly that they will 

 not hold the water from the spring floods more than a few days. 

 The slight surplus water from a heavy summer shower flows through 

 unhindered. Where the banks were thickly wooded and full of 

 moisture, to-day the brook flows through an open country where the 

 banks are dry and suck the water from the brook like a sponge. 

 Unshielded from sun and wind the water evaporates rapidly. In a 

 short time the brook is so low that there is no flow of water, and the 

 small trout is forced to take refuge in the pool. 



Here it is the victim of its natural enemies, the water snakes and 

 birds, and a new enemy that has, on account of the broken dams, been 

 able to come from ponds, in some cases miles below, and take up his 

 abode in the pool. I refer to the pickerel. I have found recently 

 twelve and fifteen inch pickerel in pools that it would have been 

 impossible for them to reach if a small dam some distance below had 

 been in repair. It is very evident that if a number of small trout 

 were forced into a pool with no chance to escape up or down stream, 

 they would exist but a short time if a twelve-inch pickerel chanced 

 to be living there. 



The mink is another enemy which has always been a factor in 

 reducing the number of trout, and of course it makes no difference 

 about the amount of water in the brook except that it has easier 

 fishing when its victim is confined to a limited space. The mink is 

 not allowed to become very plentiful as there is always a market for 

 its pelt, and this fall it was trapped more extensively than ever on 

 account of the high prices paid for its pelt. 



Another animal much more destructive to trout than the mink, 



