FISHES AND FISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 69 



111 consideration of the experience which I have had with the American saibling, I 

 would select it in preference to any other fish if I desired a salmonoid to rear from fry 

 and obtain the best results in size and percentage matured. 



Grayling (Thymallus montanus). 



The Montana grayling originally existed only in the tributaries of 

 the Missouri River above Grand Falls. The United States Bureau 

 of Fisheries first began successful propagation of the graylmg in 1897, 

 at Bozeman, Mont., under the superintendency of Dr. James A. 

 Henshall. It was at the Bozeman station that the grayling planted 

 in Sunapee waters origmated. The habits of this grayling are 

 described by Dr. Henshall as follows : 



The Montana grayling prefers swift, clear streams of pure water, with gravelly or 

 sandy bottom. It is quite gregarious, lying in schools in the deeper pools, in plain 

 sight, and not, like the trout, concealed under bushes or overhanging banks. In 

 search of food, which consists principally of insects and their larvae, it occasionally 

 extends its range to streams strewn with bowlders and broken rocks. The fry subsist 

 on minute crustaceans, as Entomostraca, and for seizing the minute organisms is fur- 

 nished, like the lake whitefish fiy, with two sharp retrorse teeth in the upper jaw. 



The graylmg spawns on gravelly shallows, and Dr. Henshall says 

 that it will go long distances, if necessary, to find suitable spawning 

 grounds, even passing through large lakes to the inlets. 



Fig. 3.— Graylmg. 



Regarding its game and food qualities, Henshall is quoted as 

 follows : 



The Montana grayling is a most graceful and beautiful fish, whose dainty and lovely 

 proportions and exquisite coloration must be viewed fresh from its native waters to be 

 appreciated properly. As a food fish it is fully as good as the trout, and to my taste 

 better. Its flesh is firm and flaky, very white, and of a delicate flavor, as might be 

 expected. As a game fish it is the eqnal of its congener, the red-thrf)at trout, and 

 when hooked breaks water repeatedly in its efforts to escape, which the trout seldom 

 does. It takes the artificial fly eagerly, and if resisted at the first cast will rise again 

 and again from the depths of the pool, whereas the trout will seldom rise the second 

 time to the same fly without a rest. 



The United States Bureau of Fisheries reports of the distribution of 

 fishes show that the following plants of graylmg were made in Sunapee 



