THE SALMON FAMILY. 79 



aristocratic gills on the way, it descends to the 

 sea and grows large and fat on the animals of the 

 ocean. Although a bold biter it is a wary fish, 

 and it often requires much skill to capture it. It 

 can be caught too with artificial or natural flies, 

 minnows, crickets, worms, grasshoppers, grubs, the 

 spawn of other fish, or even the eyes or cut pieces 

 of other trout. It spawns in the fall, from Septem- 

 ber to late in November. It begins to reproduce 

 at the age of two years, then having a length of 

 about six inches. In spring-time the trout delight 

 in rapids and swiftly running water; and in the hot 

 months of midsummer they resort to deep, cool, 

 and shaded pools. Later, at the approach of the 

 spawning season, they gather around the mouths 

 of cool, gravelly brooks whither they resort to 

 make their beds.^ 



The trout are rapidly disappearing from our 

 streams through the agency of the manufacturer 

 and the summer-boarder. In the words of an ex- 

 cellent angler. Rev. Myron W. Reed, — 



" This is the last generation of trout-fishers. The 

 children will not be able to find any. Already there are 

 well-trodden paths by every stream in Maine, in New 

 York, and in Michigan. I know of but one river in North 

 America by the side of which you will find no paper collar 

 or other evidence of civilization. It is the Nameless River. 

 Not that trout will cease to be. They will be hatched by 

 machinery and raised in ponds, and fattened on chopped 

 liver, and grow flabby and lose their spots. The trout of 

 the restaurant will not cease to be. He is no more like 

 the trout of the wild river than the fat and songless reed- 



1 Hallock. 



