FISHES AND FISIIINC IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 51 



Sunapeo Tintil 1882, wlioii a small IdI was })lacocl in the brook or lake 

 at Xowbury-. Tho next report is that covering 1883 and 1884, in 

 which the iii-st mention of tho trout of Smia])oo Lake is made as 

 follows : 



The drought for tlie past two years has been very severe for tlie many trout streams 

 of the State. Some of them have been nearly dry. * * * 



Upon examination of the waters of Sunapee Lake, it was thought that a h\rge num- 

 ber of brook trout spawn could be taken from the brook which enters the hike at 

 Cass Landing in New London, where f(^r many years they have ascended in large 

 numbers during the spawning season. Uundreds have been taken with nets and 

 clubs. So many had been destroyed that the commission was requested by citizens 

 residing near the lake to protect it in order to increase trout fishing in those waters. 



Dr. J. D. Quackenbush [sic], the owner of the land through which this brook runs, 

 desiring its protection, has leased the brook and adjoining land to the State for a 

 term of years at the nominal rent of $1 a year. By permission of the governor and 

 council, a small hatching house has been erected on this brook but a short distance 

 from the lake of sufficient capacity to hatch half a million of spawn annually. The 

 cost of the house is about $270. 



On account of the extremely low water caused by the large amount of water taken 

 through Sugar River the past summer and fall for manufacturing purposes, drawing 

 the water several feet below the usual low-water mark (in September it was lower than 

 ever known before), the trout could not get into the brook, much to the disappoint- 

 ment of the commission, who had made arrangements to take a large number of spawn. 

 Several large trout were taken in the lake near the inlet in shoal water. They yielded 

 15, 00 J eggs, which were successfully hatched and placed in the lake. * * * 



Again, in the report for 1885 the following appears: 

 In the house at Sunapee Lake are 65,000 brook-trout eggs. Many more would have 

 been obtained there had it not been for the loss of many fish killed by thieves and 

 poachers. Fortunately three of them were caught one night in the very act, and 

 were fined $100 and costs each. It seems almost incredible that intelligent men, 

 knowing the object of the work that was being done, would have placed themselves 

 in 80 humiliating a position merely for the sake of a few pounds of fish unfit for food 

 at that season. For years it has been the practice of these men, and their fathers 

 before them, not only to kill every trout that came into the brooks in the fall, but 

 to line the shores of the lake -svith gill nets, thereby destroying large numbers of trout 

 as they came into the shoal water for the purpose of spawning; and they wonder why 

 the fish have decreased. I only wonder that there is a trout left in the lake. 



This body of water, with proper care, can be made one of the finest trout lakes in 

 New England. The trout are very large, 5 or 6 pound fish not being rare, and some 

 have been taken weighing 9 pounds, and the large ones all get away, at least so say 

 the fishermen, and while it is an easy matter to add to our food fishes by the intro- 

 duction of new varieties and increase our native fish by artificial propagation, when 

 we come to our wild game it is another question. 



In the report for 1886 it is stated that at Sunapee Lake the com- 

 mission succeeded in securing enough adult trout to yie\d 100,000 

 eggs, the trout being returned to the lake after the spawning season. 



Again in the report for 1887 reference is made to tho former poach- 

 ing and the difFicuIty oncountorod with poachers in tho operation of 

 the hatchorv, which was finisliod hito in tho fall of 1SS4. The M- 



