FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 61 



Quackenbos states (loc. cit.) that in the two foUowmg years, 1882 

 and 1883, a sufficient number were taken to excite comment. In 

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

 sioner of New Hampshu'e, had his attention called to the fish, acci- 

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

 He wrote to Dr. Quackenbos: "I can show you an acre of these 

 trout, hundreds of which wQl weigh from 3 to 8 pounds each. I 

 could never have believed such a sight possible in New Hampshire." 



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

 were planted specimens were taken weigliing 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." 



Taking mto consideration the probable abundance of food in the 

 form of smelts, it would not be surprising that m 6 years the fish might 

 attain 6 pounds or more in weight, allowmg an average increase of 1 

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

 under favorable conditions. But w^hen the abundance of predaceous 

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

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

 of tune 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 landlocked 

 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 m other New Hampshire, Maine, and 

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

 planted and where they could not gain access from their native waters 

 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 prove that the Sunapee 

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

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

 account for its presence m 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 ? 



