FISHES AND FISHINti IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 75 



the fish could not be hooked. Some of the fish would come up to the 

 bait slowly, open their mouths and take it m; some would dart at it 

 quite smartly ; some would not notice it unless it were moving rapidly; 

 and some would pay no attention to it whatever. The latter were the 

 larger smelts. The stomachs of three of the larger fish caught con- 

 tained smelt eggs and several insect larvae, apparently mosquito. 



The spawning period varies from three to six weeks at Sunapee, 

 lasting on an average not over a month at most. The runs gradually 

 increase m numbers of smelts to the height or middle of the season, 

 then rapidly decrease in number of individuals. No smelts were 

 actually seen leaving the brooks untU April 18, when some were 

 reported to be drifting tail fij-st out of the mouth of King Hill Brook 

 at 8.30 p. m. It is possible that they were really an in-run that set- 

 tled back toward the lake upon the approach of the observer. On 

 April 24, well up Pike Brook, at 9.30 p. m., a good many smelts were 

 evidently running downstream head first, but at the mouth smelts 

 were streaming in in large numbers. At no other times, however, 

 were any seen actually descending the brook, although a decreasing 

 number was observed in the brook each successive day until May 1. 

 But there was plenty of time in which they could have migrated 

 unobserved. 



After the spawning period for some days, even weeks, many dead 

 and dying smelts are found at the surface and washed on the beach, 

 bearing no lesions or marks of injury. It was formerly thought that 

 perhaps it was due to the exhaustion and starvation of the spawning 

 period, which causes them to succumb to slight changes of tempera- 

 ture, or inability to obtain sufficient food soon enough to enable them 

 to recuperate. But throughout the season more or less dead of various 

 sizes and ages are found washed up on the beaches. At Sunapee 

 Lake some dead and dying adult fish, ranging in length from 3 J to 7 

 inches, were observed near the mouths of brooks during the spawning 

 season. Such fish, however, did not occur there in such large num- 

 bers as have been observed in other waters during and following the 

 spawning, and young and adults were found throughout the seasons 

 of 1910 and 1911. 



Seldom were any lesions observable and those at any time present 

 were usually a congestion about the vent, which was occasionally 

 accompanied by a growth of fungus in the same place. This condi- 

 tion was rendered insignificant as a result of the spawning function 

 alone, as a number were found in October in a like condition. That 

 the death at spawning time was only coincident was indicated by 

 the finding of several of them that were not c{uite ripe and some 

 ripe fish that had not been into the brooks ; and young or yearling fish, 

 2^ to 3 inches long, were also found at the beginning of the spawning 

 season. 



