208 DOMESTICATED TROUT. 



been equalled only in their longevity by the human 

 race before the flood. Why should the trout be so 

 short-lived ? 



Mr. Lancaster, of Oxford, in a memoir published 

 last year, says that fish have great tenacity of life, 

 and mentions a carp that reached the age of 150 

 years, and a pike, 19 feet long, that lived in a fish- 

 pond in Germany 267 years.* He says whales are 

 believed to live one or two centuries. 



The size to which brook trout may grow is very un- 

 certain, and waien we come to the question of the size 

 of those that have been actually caught we are on 

 mythical ground. The trouble is, as Green mentions, 

 that many of the " fish stories " which are told are so 

 incredible t that they throw discredit on even well-au- 

 thenticated cases. J I am fortunate enough, however, 

 through the kindness of George Shepard Page, Presi- 

 dent of the Oquossoc Angling Association, and B. F. 

 Bowles, Esq., a member of the same Association, to 

 cite three instances of unquestionable authenticity, of 



with gold rings in their fins, and other kinds of labels, on which 

 were found dates that proved conclusively that one hundred years 

 had elapsed since the inscription was made. — Joe Smith, Ahit. 

 His. Mass. Fishes, p. 57^ 



* The greatest wonder about such a fish, if he were in this 

 country, would be that he had escaped the poachers so long. 



t A famous fish-story teller once said that he cut a hole 

 through the ice at Lake Erie, not more than two inches across, 

 with his pocket-knife, and presently pulled out a mascalonge 

 that weighed a hundred pounds. On being asked how he drew 

 so large a fish through so small a hole, he replied that he had 

 not thought of that. 



X Trout Culture, p. 45. 



