Fis/ies of the Western North Atlantic 539 



fish that were released by the Division of Fisheries and Game of Massachusetts in 

 Cape Cod streams in 1 949-1 956 have shown that hatchery fish of freshwater par- 

 entage readily adopt the sea-running habit and wander as far afield as wild Salters 

 are known to do anywhere (49: 8— 11); tagging experiments have yielded similar 

 evidence for the coast of eastern Maine.'* 



Relation to Man. Sea-run Brook Trout have long been favorites with anglers, for 

 they take a brilliant artificial fly readily, put up a strong resistance, and are excellent 

 fish on the table, firm and pink-meated and of delicious flavor. Waquoit and Poponesset 

 bays, for example, on Cape Cod, with their tributary streams, were famous Brook 

 Trout waters more than a century and a quarter ago {60 : 349—351)' '^^^ anglers as early 

 as 1 851 resorted "annually during the month of June for sea trout" to the estuary 

 of the Philip River on the Northumberland Strait shore of Nova Scotia (Perley, 5X : 

 131). Brook Trout fishing, indeed, continues a favorite sport today wherever they are 

 plentiful in localities that are easily accessible and where they are not so overshadowed 

 by the Atlantic salmon that they are looked upon as a nuisance rather than as a sporting 

 asset. They are netted, also, in some numbers for local consumption wherever there are 

 enough of them to make this worthwhile. But they are not plentiful enough anywhere 

 to be of commercial importance. 



General Range. Eastern and north-central North America, in cold waters, from 

 northernmost Labrador, the southern part of Hudson Bay, and the tributaries of James 

 Bay, southward coastwise to northern New Jersey, and thence inland along the Allegheny 

 Mountains to North Carolina and northern Georgia; westward about as far as the 

 western slope of the Alleghenies in the southern part of the range; to northeastern Iowa, 

 Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, Lake Superior with its northern tributaries, and 

 to eastern Saskatchewan in the northern part; also widely and successfully introduced 

 in high altitude streams and lakes in the Rocky Mountains of the United States, 

 California, British Columbia, and southern Alaska; likewise in various localities in 

 South America, South Africa, and northern Europe. 



Occurrence of Sea-run Populations. Migratory populations formerly existed as far 

 southward as Long Island, New York, where Herbert described them as weighing 

 up to five pounds in the salt creeks (jj: 303) and where Goode again reported them 

 in 1884 (26) ; a century ago they abounded also in suitable places at the head of Buzzards 

 Bay and along the southern shores of Cape Cod in southern Massachusetts. '' But 

 native Salters have been nearly, if not completely, wiped out on Long Island by over- 

 fishing combined with intermixture with hatchery fish; although a few are still taken 

 in the salt creeks and off" their mouths along the southern and northern shores of Cape 

 Cod, it is doubtful whether any of the pure native strain still exists there, so widespread 

 and long continued has been the introduction of hatchery stock. 



Salters seem never to have been known anywhere between the northern drainage 



36. Information contributed by Charles A. Ritzi. 



37. For an interesting account of the status of the Brook Trout in the Cape Cod region early in the past century, 

 see Smith {6o: 348-394). 



