SUCKLEY MONOGRATH OF THE GEXUS SALMO. 155 



quaiuted, and were unanimously pronounced better than brook-trout — 

 better tliau true salmon — the finest fish in the world. 



"The average weight is eight or ten pounds." This is an extract 

 from the iSTew York Fauna of Dr. DeKay. Now I venture to assert that 

 Dr. DeKay never wet a line in the waters of Hamilton County, and that 

 "the propensity to exaggeration in everything in relation to aquatic 

 animals," induced his informant to make the above statement. I boldly 

 assert that the average weight of lake-trout is not four pounds. 



"An eiglit or ten pound fish is considered an unusually heavy fish. I 

 will give you my experience. In May, 1848, I spent eleven days in 

 Hamilton County, in company with a friend, and that friend an old 

 Hamilton Cauuty troller. We faithfully fished in Lake Pleasant, Round 

 Lake, and the far-famed Louis Lake. We killed about two hundred 

 pounds weight of fish. I killed one of sixteen j)ouuds, one of nine 

 pouuds and a quarter, and two of five pouuds each. My friend did not 

 kill a single fish hea\ier than three pounds and three-quarters; neither 

 did I, save those just mentioned; and I would, and do say, that our fish 

 did not average three pounds, the great majority being two-poimders. 

 At the same time two friends fished Piseco Lake and liackett Lake; the 

 heaviest fish killed by them was eleven ponuds; and I do not believe 

 that they took another of greater weight than four pounds; at all events 

 we beat them all to smash in weight and number. So much for the 

 average weight. The wholesale assertion on your 118th page that they 

 never rise to the fly should be qnalifled. It is not correct that they 

 'never rise to the fly.' They frequently do. The nine-pouud-and-a- 

 quarter lake-trout above referred to was killed by me with an artificial 

 fly. The facts are these: Ou the 28th of May, 1848, I was fishing on 

 Louis Lake. I was nsing a trolling-rod aud a small trout-rod, casting 

 with one and trolling with the other. Upon mj' trolling-leader I had 

 two flies, and when my oarsman was in the act of pvdling round a pro- 

 jecting elbow of wood, I reeled up to avoid contact with a fallen tree, 

 and, just as my first fly trailed on the surface of the water, the fish broke 

 or rather dashed at it. I struck him instantly, and away he went with 

 so much velocity that I had hard work to kee^) my line from overrunning, 

 not having a click-reel. I fortunately thumbed the reel, and passed my 

 trout-rod to the oarsman, and then had fair play ; and I assure you I 

 never had hold of a fish of the same size that showed more game, power, 

 or endurance. He never sulked for an instant; and the only ditiereuce 

 which I could discover in his modes of action from a salmon was that, 

 after being struck, he did not show himself or leap. Had I hooked this 

 fish with my light rod I would not have killed him under an hour ; and, 

 indeed, as it was, he was not 'half gone' when Cowles, my guide, put 

 the gaff into him. This fish rose in about 8 feet water, and took me 

 twenty-five minutes to kill him. I never worked harder in my life to 

 secure a fish, for you may imagine that I was anxious to seciu'e a lake- 

 trout hooked as I have described. 



