[5] WORK AT COLD SPRING HARBOR. 133 



BROWN TROUT (SALMO FARIO). 



Eaiiy iu 1883 the eggs of this species wpie sent to me as a persoual 

 present by Herr von Belir, president of the Deutsche Fischerei- Vereiu, 

 one of the most earnest and enthusiastic tish-culturists in the world. 

 Two varieties were sent, one from the deep waters where they grow 

 large, as iu our Maine lakes, and the other from the swift mountain 

 streams of the Ui)per Ehine, where they are smaller. In 1881 he re- 

 peited his gift by sending some to the U. S. Fish Commissioji, in 

 my care, and some to Mr. E. G. Blackford, commissioner for l^ew 

 York. In 1883, when the fish were sent to me personally, I gave some 

 of them to Mr. F. N. Clark, superintendent of the United States station 

 at Xorthville, Mich., and to Mr. M. A. Green, of the New York station 

 at Caledonia. Both report them as doing well. In 1884 a lot of 10,000 

 was presented to the New York fishery commission by Mr. E. B. Mars- 

 tt)n, editor of the London Fishing Gazette. Of the eggs from Germany 

 the first year the large variety did not hatch as well as the small kind, 

 most of them hatching head first, and both died freely before taking- 

 food. The second year they did better and many were distributed to 

 New York waters. The English fish did better at first, but many died 

 during the first three months. At the meeting of the American Fish- 

 cultural Association, in May, 1884, I exhibited some of the large Ger- 

 man trout which died in October, 1883, when about six months old, and 

 they were fully six inches long and plump. 



These specimens jumped out of the wooden rearing ponds, whose 

 vertical walls project over a foot above the surface of the water. This 

 fish seems to be given to this form of suicide, and it was only when their 

 numbers had been severely thinned by it that we learned that they 

 seemed prompted to it every time they were disturbed, either by put- 

 ting iu a net to catch specimens to show to visitors or at night by some 

 animal swimming in the pond. In November, 1884, when they were a 

 year and a half old, we removed them to a large breeding pond, and 

 the next morning the ground was covered with them, although this 

 pond had banks a foot higher than the rearing ponds. At ]iresent not 

 over fifty are left, and learning their habits has been expensive. I had 

 no intimation of this habit from any of my European correspondents, 

 and the fish diflers in this respect from our own trout, which readily 

 accepts capture and transfer. 



This European brook trout has a larger scale than ours, and to my 

 eye is a more beautiful fish than our own trout. It is a fish that from 

 its habit in Europe should live in the Hudson from North Creek, or 

 above, dowi^ to Troy. In Europe it is abundant in the south of En- 

 gland, while the chars, of which our so-called trout is one, are only found 

 in the deep, cool lakes of the north. I believe that we have the neces- 

 sary conditions on the Atlantic coast to acclimatize successfully this 

 fish. Herr von Behr has promised to send another shipment of eggs. 



