72 FISHES AND PISHING IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 



afford a good example of the importance to fish cuhure of accurate 

 classification. If the large smelts are specifically distinct from the 

 small ones, and wUl attain a large size wherever successfully intro- 

 duced, and the small ones, when transferred to any larger lake, or one 

 of more suitable conditions for growth, do not attam a large size, the 

 purpose of the transplantmg will decide which form to select and 

 propagate. If the fish is desired as a commercial food fish, without 

 regard to the possible consequences to other fishes, the large form 

 should be chosen. If a food supply for Salmonidse or other game and 

 food fishes is desired, the small form would be the proper one. 



It may be said, however, that further investigation may show that 

 all of these differences of sizes, feeding, and breeding are simply 

 due to the peculiar conditions of the lake in which the smelts occur, 

 and that the young of the large form planted in one body of water 

 might not attain to more than the transparent 2 or 3 inch size, 

 and the young of the latter size transplanted into another lake might 

 reach the 12 to 15 inch size. There are a few instances of smelt 

 occurrence that tend to support this. One large lake in Mame con- 

 taining the two extreme sizes of 4 to 6 inches and from 10 to 15 

 inches in length has two tributary bodies of water in which smelts 

 occur. In one, previously mentioned, a pond of an area of some- 

 thing over 1 square mile and a greatest depth of 30 or 40 feet, the 

 smelts are not over 3 inches in length, and in tlie other, a much 

 larger and deeper pond, receiving the waters of two other large 

 ponds, there are again two sizes of smelts, the larger size, however, 

 not growing as large as in the main lake. The smelts in thsse two 

 tributary waters, on the theory that the fresh-water smelts are 

 derived from the marine form and not vice versa, doubtless origmated 

 in the smelt of the main lake, which itself originated in the smelt 

 that ascended from the sea. Yet, in the absence of positive knowl- 

 edge, it is best to regard the foregoing apparent conditions and 

 attendant possibilities in the propagation and transplanting of 

 smelts. 



The only waters in New Hampshire of which there is record of 

 indigenous fresh-water smelt are Winnepesaukee and its connected 

 waters. From these waters the smelt has been successfully intro- 

 duced into various other New Hampshire lakes and ponds. It is 

 stated regarding the smelt of these original waters that this peculiar 

 condition exists: namely, while in Winnepesaukee itself the smelt 

 is seldom over 4 inches long, in the tributary smaller ponds it attains 

 a length of 6 or 7 inches or more. 



Habits.— The fresh-water smelt in the summer months affect 

 rather deep water, or cool water, which in the larger lakes varies 

 in depth from 60 to 100 feet or such a matter. It does not thrive 



