5 2 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



a mile or more of wet, marshy land, which is so completely cov- 

 ered by large alders that it is almost impossible to penetrate 

 them. In this stream the small fry and fish of one or two years' 

 growth abound in myriads. In other words, the natural harbors 

 and hiding places for the trout in and about this lake have been 

 left undisturbed, and this is the secret of its continued wealth of 

 trout. 



2. Thirty or forty years ago a brook in Dutchess county, 

 about five miles long, was noted for the abundance and size of 

 its fish. The angler in the early spring was usualh'- rewarded 

 with a well filled creel, and from this little stream, which a 

 child could jump across, trout were often taken of from one to 

 two pounds in weight. Early in each summer the trout disap- 

 peared, only to appear again the next spring in equal numbers ; 

 near the center of this stream, it ran through a marsh, which so 

 abounded in black alders that they protected it from approach. 

 Through this marsh the stream was much broader and the water 

 deeper than elsewhere, and the bed was composed of thin, deep 

 mud, making wading impossible. Some twenty or more years agcj 

 the owner of this meadow cut down every alder, at the only 

 point where the fish had found a safe refuge, and in a few years 

 the trout, large and small, practically disappeared, and though 

 recent efforts have been made to restore and restock this stream, 

 under full protection, they have substantially failed. 



3. In one of the principal streams running through Ulster 

 and Sullivan counties, it has been my privilege to fish many 

 times during the last twenty-five years. Here were two pools 

 which always furnished rare sport, and the adjacent pools were 

 always full of fish. On one of the banks of each of these pools 

 the trees had been left standing, their roots had preserved the 

 upper portion of the bank, but below these roots the ground 

 had been washed away, so that deep hiding places were thus 

 formed for the trout. It was very seldom that one or more large 

 fish failed to rise to the fly at these points. 



Some twelve or fifteen years ago these trees were removed, 

 the stumps decayed, the bank fell in, the fish no longer had a 

 refuge, and since that time the angler has been fortunate if he 

 has raised a fingerling at or near either of these points. 



