SUCKLEY MONOGRAPH OF THE GEXUS SALMO. 155 



quiiiiited, and were unanimously pronounced better tlian brook-trout — 

 better than true, salmon — the finest tisli in the world. 



" Tlie average weight is eiglit or ten pounds." This is an extract 

 from the Kew York Fauna of Dr. DeKay. jSTow I venture to assert that 

 Dr. DeKay never wet a line in the waters of Hamilton County, and that 

 "the i)ropeusit3' to exaggeration in everything in relation to aquatic 

 animals," induced his informant to make the above statement. I boldly 

 assert that the average weight of hike-trout is not four pounds. 



"An eight or ten pound fish is considered an unusually heavy fish. I 

 will give you my experience. In May, 184:8, I spent eleven days in 

 Hamilton County, in company with a friend, and that friend an old 

 Hamilton County troller. We faithfully fished in Lake Pleasant, Round 

 Lake, and the far-famed Louis Lake. We killed about two hundred 

 pounds weight of fish. I killed one of sixteen pounds, one of nine 

 pounds and a quarter, and two of five pounds each. My friend did not 

 kill a single fish hea\ier than three pounds and three-quarters; neither 

 did I, save those just mentioned; and I would, and do say, that our fish 

 did not average three pounds, the great majority being two-pounders. 

 At the same time two friends fished Piseco Lake and Rackett Lake; the 

 heaviest fish killed by them was eleven pounds; and I do not believe 

 that they took another of greater weight than four pounds; at all events 

 we beat them all to smash in weight and number. So much for the 

 average weight. The wholesale assertion on your 118th page that they 

 never rise to the fiy should be qualified. It is not correct that they 

 'never rise to the fly.' They frequently do. The nine-pound-and-a- 

 quarter lake-trout above referred to was killed by me with an artificial 

 fly. The facts are these: On the liSth of .May, 1848, I was fishing on 

 Louis Lake. I was using a trolling-rod and a small trout-rod, casting 

 with one and troUiug with the other. Upon my trolling-lfader I had 

 two flies, and when my oarsman w^as in the act of pulling round a pro- 

 jecting elbow of wootl, I reeled up to avoid contact with a tallen tree, 

 and, just as my first fly trailed on the surface of the water, the fish broke 

 or rather dashed at it. I struck him instantly, and away he went with 

 so much velocity that I had hard work to keep my line from overrunning, 

 not having a click-reel. I fortunately thumbed the reel, and passed my 

 trout-rod to the oarsman, and then had fair play ; and I assure you I 

 never had hold of a fish of the same size that showed mm-e game, power, 

 or endurance. He never sulked for an instant; and the only difference 

 which I could discover in his modes of action from a salmon was that, 

 after being struck, he did not show himself or leap. Had I hooked this 

 fish with my light rod 1 would not have killed him under an hour ; and, 

 indeed, as it was, he was not 'half gone' when Cowles, my guide, puc 

 the gaif into him. This fish rose in about 8 feet water, and took me 

 twenty-five minutes to kill him. I never worked harder in my life to 

 secure a fish, for you maj^ imagine that I was anxious to seciu-e a lake- 

 trout hooked as I have described. 



