FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 11 



little brook is faintly indicated as taking its rise in the same pond. 

 Ledge Pond is irregularly elliptical in shape, nearly four-fifths of a 

 mile in length and seven-twentieths of a mile in greatest width. It 

 contains a number of small islands and is at an elevation of 1,306 

 feet above the sea. 



A small brook entering the east side of Georges Mills Bay was 

 entirely dry on August 18, 1910. But in April it was frequented by 

 smelts and many bushels were dipped there. It is formed by two 

 branches with bottom of coarse rocks or small bowlders above a stone 

 bridge a few yards from the lake. Below the bridge the water of 

 the lake extended nearly to the bridge. The smelts were caught 

 below the bridge, as it is narrow and afforded the most favorable 

 location for dipping, and the brook above is bordered and overhung 

 with a tangle of alders and clematis vines. 



The two brooks entering Herri ck Cove seem to be fed by no per- 

 manent springs and were practically dry in the summer. It could 

 not be learned that smelts ascended either of them, and it is doubtful 

 if they do in this rather shallow cove, as the mouths of the brooks 

 are so far removed from deep water. 



King Hill Brook rises in the neighborhood of King Hill, from 

 which it takes its name, and flows eastward through meadows and 

 woodland and empties into Sunapce Lake at Soo-Nipi Park. Through- 

 out its course the beds consist of sand and rocks. Here and there 

 are deep pools with overhanging banks, long shallow expanses of 

 sandy bottom, pebbly ripples, and bowlder-strewn reaches. In the 

 lower part of its course to within a couple of hundred yards or so of 

 the lake the country is entirely wooded, mainly with white and red 

 pines with an admixture of various deciduous trees. Near the lake 

 the brook is bordered by an alder growth for a short distance, thence 

 sluggishly flows through a bushy and grassy boggy place, cleared 

 somewhat, for the distance previously mentioned. Here the brook is 

 much wider, some 40 or 50 feet, the bottom being composed of sand 

 more or less covered with silt, sticks, and dead leaves. The en- 

 trance to the lake, excepting during the high water of spring, is usu- 

 ally obstructed by the sand beach, due to the prevailing westerly 

 winds. 



This brook m the summer of 1910 was very low and in 1911 almost 

 dry until the latter part of July, when some heavy rains raised the 

 water. It is a spring-fed brook, but the springs are so few and small 

 that they do not supply sufficient water to maintain a permanent 

 flow in the brook, although there are always pools of I airly cool water 

 in which trout, minnows, and suckers congregate during the hot dry 

 summer months. WTiile the ''dead water" is never entirely dry in 

 midsummer, it becomes so heated, lying open to the sun's rays, that 

 only such fishes as endure very warm water are found in it, and only 



