NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[Under this Department Heading queries relative to Angling, Ichthyology and Fish Culture 
will be answered. | 
An Angling Coincidence—The Rainbow Trout. 
In an article printed in August last on the 
grayling of the Au Sable river in Michigan, we 
mentioned the sturdy fight of the rainbow 
trout when on the hook, and predicted that it 
was the coming game fish, without a peer, in 
waters where it would remain and _ thrive. 
This opinion was forced upon us by an excit- 
ing incident: 
We were camping, in June last, on the left 
bank of this choice water, and within the toss 
of a stone from the tent was a deep pool. 
During the major portion of the day the sun 
glared over the entire surface of this water, 
rendering it unpleasant and difficult to fish 
with success. Just before dusk, on the first 
day of our arrival in camp, we fished this pool 
with the hope of catching a few of the large 
grayling which we could plainly see during 
the day, lying motionless, apparently in rigid 
repose save the automaticopening and closing 
of the gills with almost rhythmic cadence— 
cud-chewing, asit were. We were using our old 
4 oz. Nichols’ rod and delicate water tackle, 
which wehad found delightful gear to use, and 
especially adapted to handling these grayling, 
which seldom weighed over half a pound. 
After several ineffectual casts, our end fly, 
a coachman, was taken vigorously, and the 
fish rushed up stream with a force beyond the 
strength of our rod to retard, and we were at 
once reminded of the fierce surge of a black 
bass in running water. This impression was 
deepened when on snubbing him*to the ex- 
tent of the yielding resistance of the old 
Nichols, out the fish came into the air a couple 
of feet, and, like the black bass, shook himself 
from head to tail, his whole body, not the head 
alone. The shadows had deepened by this 
time, and we could not see the markings on 
the fish, but could plainly note his actions as 
the white flash of the water indicated his 
course and leaps, but we did not know what 
our quarry was until oneof the guides hallowed 
from the bank that we had hooked a rainbow. 
This fish jumped three times, went up stream, 
willy nilly, against a strong current, three or 
four times, then into deep water sulking, and 
then, when rod-butted heavily, dashed to- 
wards us, ran around our legs and under a big 
log on the nether side of the stream. Of 
course we had been there before, and if our 
old limbs fail us sometimes on land, they meet 
the emergencies always in a fishing water, 
and we speedily extricated ourselves from this 
delemma and brought the rainbow to creel, but 
not before several more wild rushes after it 
was brought into the deep water. This fish 
weighed two pounds, and it was the most game 
of all fishes we ever handled of that size. 
It combined all the fighting qualities of the 
trout and black bass, and, unlike the latter and 
more like the former, it did not seem to know 
when to give up, but drew its muscles almost 
into ridges to escape our grasp as we took the 
hook from its mouth. ‘This we have all ob- 
served to be the final effort of the trout, but 
never the black bass; he knows when he is 
helpless. 
We fished no more that evening, but on sev- 
eral occasions during the outing caught rain- 
bow trout, all of which showed the same fierce 
game qualities of the one caught in the gloam- 
ing. 
And now for the coincidence. 
On returning home, in theearly part of July, 
we found on our desk a letter from an old 
friend, R. M. Shurtliff, the artist, who has his 
summer home near the banks of the Au Sable 
river (mark the name), in the Adirondacks. 
This letter was dated July 1 (mark the date), 
and init he wrote: 
“The Au Sable river has a good many large 
rainbow trout. It is fortunate they were put 
in, as the natives can’t catch them often, for 
these fish don’t take to bait very well, and are 
too smart. I had a three-pounder on last 
week. He went to the bottom and I could not 
start him for five minutes. At last he wezet. 
Went with a rush up and down the pool, mak- 
ing the reel hum. I handled him very care- 
fully and got him tired out at last, so I thought, 
but just as I was about to net him, he went 
back into deep water, shot straight into the 
