76 FISHES AND PISITINO IN SUNAPEE LAKE. 



A few instances of dead fish that had evidently been in the brook 

 were noted. They were spent, and their stomachs contained smelt 

 eggs besides insects. This fact indicates that the death, even at 

 spawning time, perhaps could not be ascribed to weakness from 

 starvation, especially when the dead and dying fish that had not 

 entered the brook were found to contain some food. 



The dead and dying fish picked up on the beaches were more 

 numerous during the spring and fall than in the summer. This may 

 be due to the fact that smelts reside mostly in deep water during the 

 warmer months, and though they die in those months they would be 

 quickly snapped up by trout and salmon. It may indicate that in 

 the fall, as the water becomes cooler, the fish approach the surface 

 and perhaps the shore, as indicated by the presence of insects in the 

 stomachs of those examined. 



The presence of dead smelts along the beaches could not be con- 

 nected with any sudden change of temperature, although they usually 

 and most abundantly appeared during or shortly after strong winds. 

 The latter probably accounts only for their being washed up, although 

 possibly smelts swimming in shallow water might be washed up and 

 thus killed by the heavy seas raised by the strong winds. But this 

 would not account for those found when there had been no strong 

 winds. Intestinal parasites were found in many but not all of the 

 October smelts examined, but this partial freedom from parasites 

 seems to eliminate them as a factor in the mortality. 



Therefore, the cause of death of so many smelts throughout the 

 season is as yet unsolved. After all, those found dead on the shores 

 or floating at the surface are few compared with the multitudes that 

 live in the lake, and it is perhaps quite natural that there should be 

 deaths due to obscure causes, as among higher animals. 



Efforts were made night and day to ascertain if there were any pecu- 

 liar habits or movements connected with the spawning. The follow- 

 ing is a detailed account of the observations made : 



The first observations were made on the night of April 15, 1910, 

 when smelts were found making their way some distance above the 

 mouth of the brook at the outer edge of the beach. After reaching the 

 head of the channel they seemed to have some hesitation about 

 entering the dead water above, swimming back for a short distance 

 several times before going in. But this action may have been due 

 wholly or in part to the lantern or the writer standing near the place. 

 Whenever startled by anyone approaching the brook they would run 

 down a short distance, but when "dipped" at with nets they strove 

 to get upstream even in the face of much splashing of the water with 

 the feet while standing m the brook. 



During the day of April 16, in one pool the smelts occupied an eddy 

 between two currents, circling about in the eddy, but not heading in 



