60 FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 



it is transferred, the distinctive names are no longer of any use. A 

 knowledge of the conditions of the respective habitats alone becomes 

 essential to the successful results in the fish-cultural distribution of 

 the fish. 



It is therefore very desirable for fish culturists to know whether 

 the comparatively insignificant little bluebacks of Rangeley Lakes 

 transplanted into Sunapee Lake became the large, important food 

 and game fish of the latter lake. The protracted and animated dis- 

 cussions of this question in various sportsman's journals and other 

 publications never settled the question, nor can it ever be positively 

 determined. All that can be done now is to deduce approximate 

 probabilities from the known facts bearing on the matter. 



Occurrence in Sunafee Lake. — The reports of the New Hampshire 

 Fish and Game Commissioners indicate that on April 26, 1878, and 

 agam on June 13, 1879, 3,000 and 4,000 young bluebacks were, 

 respectively, planted in Sunapee Lake, surely a small number from 

 which to expect unmediate extensive results. 



According to Dr. John D. Quackenbos,*^ as far as is known the 

 first specimens of this new fish to be distinguished from the well- 

 known forms were taken in Sunapee Lake during the summer of 

 1881. '' The fish taken weighed from 2 to 3 pounds each. Dr. 



a The Sunapee Saibling: A fourth New England variety of Salvelinus. Transactions New York Acad- 

 emy of Science, vol. xn, 1893, p. 140. 



b In Forest and Stream, Dec. 18, 1890, p. 435, Dr. T. H. Bean adduces evidence that the white trout is 

 indigenous to the lake, from information furnished him by Commissioner Hodge. Commissioner Hodge 

 was an earnest advocate of the idea that it was native and the various disputants discredited this evi- 

 dence. WhUe it has not been admitted in the discussion of the trout ia this paper as positively authentic, 

 it Is in line with what has been stated regarding what usually occurs when a strange fish is discovered 

 (p. 124). Dr. Bean writes: 



" During a visit to New Hampshii-e, in October of this year, the writer first met his friend and corre- 

 spondent. Col. Elliott B. Hodge, a gentleman whose name is tlu-oughly identified with fish culture and 

 protection in the State which he loyally serves as fish and game commissioner. We were at Plymouth 

 and Sunapee Lake together, and discussed many objects of mutual interest, among them the golden trout, 

 which Col. Hodge first brought to the notice of ichthyologists and which was introduced to the general 

 public through the columns of Forest and Stream. From him I learned many interesting things relative 

 to the history and habits of the new trout, and, as they have an important bearing upon the inquiry now 

 being made into the relationship of the golden trout to the introduced saibling, I think this an opportune 

 time for making the information public. 



"Mr. PLko, who was born and brought up at Sunapee Lake, says that about 25 years ago he and his 

 father saw a great school of trout in the lake. They caught a good many of them, but never looked for 

 them again, because they supposed it to be a mere chance occurrence. 



"Mr. Nat. Lear, of Newbury, N. H., told Col. Hodge that when they were building the Concord & Clare- 

 mont Railroad, in 1872, shortly after the introduction of smelt, he and some others were catching smelt 

 at the mouth of Beech Brook one night (this brook is a tributary of Sunapee Lake), when they saw what 

 they supposed to be a large sucker and dipped it up. It proved to be a white trout of 4 pounds, and looked 

 to him, as he remembers it, just like the aureolus, which he has seen since. It was very white and silvery. 



"Mr. Moses Gould, of Bradford, N. 11., who was one of the earliest trout fishermen on the lake, and 

 fished from boyhood, claims that in 1873 he caught two large trout of this kmd in Sunapee and showed 

 them to a number of persons as a very peculiar trout. 



"About 1873 or 1874 Thomas Roach caught two trout through the ice in Sunapee, one of which weighed 

 more than 7 pounds. Up to 1871 Sunapee Lake was practically unknown as a fishing lake for trout, and 

 there were scarcely any boats on the lake. The little fishing that was done was chiefly for jnckerel. No 

 one fished in deep water for trout until their accidental discovery in great depths about 1881 or 1882. The 

 aureolus, being a very late spawner, came onto the shoals at a time when there was little or no travel across 

 the lake. 



"A Mr. Peabody stated that in 1881 or 1882 he saw a big school of suckers on the shoals south of Loon 

 Island, Sunapee Lake. Of course there is little doubt that these were golden trout." 



