FISHES A.ND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 61 



(^iiackonbos states (loc-. cit.) that iii the two foUowiiijj; years, 18S2 

 and 1883, a suiliciont iminbor wore taken to excite comment. In 

 October, 1885, Col. Elliott Ilodge, then State fish and game commis- 

 sioner of New Hampshire, had his attention called to the fish, acci- 

 dentally discovered in vast numbers on a "mid-lake rocky shoal." 

 lie wrote to Dr. Qiiackenbos: "I can show you an acre of these 

 trout, hundreds of whicli will weigh from 3 to 8 pounds eacli. I 

 could never have believed such a sight possible m New IIami)shire." 



Thus it appears that three years after the first lot of bhiebacks 

 were planted specimens were taken weighing 2 and 3 pounds and 

 still more and larger ones in the next few years. In five or six years 

 at most they occurred m prodigious numbers, "hundreds of which 

 would weigh from 3 to 6 pounds each." 



Takmg into consideration the probable abundance of food in the 

 form of smelts, it would not be surprismg that in 6 years the fish might 

 attain C pounds or more in weight, allowing an average increase of 1 

 pound to the year, which is a stated estimate for the common trout 

 under favorable conditions. But when the abundance of predaceous 

 fishes like the common trout, landlocked salmon, perch, and others, 

 are taken mto consideration, it might be doubted that in that length 

 of time such a multiplication of the species would result from such 

 a small plant as 7,000, even under the most favorable of other condi- 

 tions, especially when the extinction of the blueback in the Rangeley 

 Lakes, as has been pointed out, is doubtless due to lanfllocked 

 salmon. 



The Rangeley blueback has been planted in various other lakes of 

 Mame and New Hampshire where the conditions were apparently 

 fully as favorable for it as Sunapee Lake, and none has since been 

 reported. This, however, does not prove that Sunapee is not an 

 exception, but is collateral evidence. Furthermore, the same white 

 trout has been discovered in other New Hampshire, Maine, and 

 Vermont waters where no red, white, or blue trout has ever been 

 planted and w4iere they could not gain access from their native w' aters 

 save through the instrumentality of man; and it is not impossible 

 that it may yet be found in waters where it is not at present recognized. 

 The later discoveries just referred to do not ])rove that the Sunapee 

 white trout did not result from the blueback introduction, but are 

 evidence to the contrary, showing that there is no necessity to 

 account for its presence in Sunapee Lake by man's intervention. 

 There is no record of the introduction of any other fish than the blue- 

 back which could possibly account for its presence. It has been 

 absolutely proved that none of the products of European saibling 

 eggs ever reached Sunapee Lake. If not a blueback or a saibling, 

 and not indigenous, where did it come from ? 



