108 American Fisheries Society 



they were carefully covered and set by the kitchen fire. The 

 third day they reached their destination and were placed in 

 Mr. Hosselkus' hatchery, where they commenced to hatch 

 almost immediately. The resulting fry were held in troughs 

 and fed until the first of May, when they were planted in the 

 lake as no. 1 fingerlings. 



With the cold mountain water at Leadville we rarely 

 hatched our brook trout in less than six months. This was 

 advisable because the mountain streams were not ready to 

 receive fish until June or July. 



Early in October, 1907, seventeen months later, on Mr. 

 Hosselkus' invitation, I visited the lake. The trout were 

 just commencing to come into the shallow water. The first 

 evening I tried to amuse myself with fly fishing. The catch 

 at each cast was limited only by the number of hooks. Re- 

 leasing two and three fish after each cast soon grew monoto- 

 nous, and I gave it up, voting it butchery rather than sport. 



Air. Hosselkus had meanwhile set two small gill-nets in 

 deep water with a view of catching some large rainbows, the 

 remnant of a small plant made several years earlier. None 

 being taken then or thereafter, he concluded they had either 

 been caught or had died during the previous winter. The 

 nets, however, were literally full the next morning of ten- 

 inch brook trout, which averaged one-half pound dressed. 

 The females were full of spawn, almost ready for extrusion. 

 The latter part of the month and the first half of November, 

 Mr. Hosselkus filled his own hatchery, shipped large quanti- 

 ties to the Denver hatchery of the Colorado Commission, 

 besides sending upwards of three millions to the Leadville 

 hatchery to be eyed on shares. Owing to insufficient help 

 and inadequate facilities the full amount of spawn available 

 could not be taken, though the harvest exceeded ten millions ! 

 Is it not truly incredible? 



The factor then which has prevented the threatened 

 annihilation of the trout in the inter-mountain country- 

 has been the multiplication of these mountain reservoirs, 

 and not alone through the number of fish actually propa- 



