78 TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING 



quarters of an inch, but usually they are smaller. Trout also 

 eat newts or salamanders as well as snails, both the spiral and 

 the ramshorn. Insect larvjie will be apt to breed in the ponds 

 without being especially introduced. The gammarus is greatly 

 over-rated as a trout food. A few are eaten, but not in the 

 proportion that is usually thought. My searching of stomachs 

 of wild trout under two inches long showed, under the micro- 

 scope, that Cyclops and Daphnia, two minute forms, barely 

 visible to the naked eye, were the most plentiful. 



"On Wilmurt Lake, situated on toj) of a mountain in Her- 

 kimer county, N. Y., where no fish but brook trout live. I 

 opened the stomachs of 247 trout that had been dressed for the 

 table. No microscope was at hand and there was much that 

 could not be identified. From what was distinguishable a 

 rough estimate was made. It was: Insects and their larvse, SO 

 per cent; newts, 15; gammarus, 5. 



"At Meacham Lake, Northern Adirondaeks, the result from 

 138 stomachs was: Insects and larvpe, 00; newts, 5; gam- 

 marus, 5; fish, 30. Therefore, I feel warranted in ranking the 

 gammarus low in the list of trout foods. Still, it has a value. 

 Trout of a pound weight seldom eat it." 



Since the book was written I have examined but few trout 

 stomachs, but hope to continue the investigation. I am now 

 in the northwestern county of Wisconsin, on the famous Brule 

 River, where trout once swarmed, and a few are left; the 

 aquatic fauna seems to be scant in species, although numerous 

 in individuals, but I have been too busy to study it. The gam- 

 marus is reported to be found here, but I have not met it. 



DISCUSSION OF MR. MATHER'S PAPER. 



Mr. Clark: Mr. President, I do not agree wholly with Fred 

 Mather. However, I shall not fill the book with any discus- 

 sion in o]»])osition to Mr. Mather, because he is not here; gen- 

 erally when he is we have a time, but I think the gammarus 

 is a valuable food for trout, and I think that I can prove it 

 right in Northville. I gave a little statement last year in 

 regard to five thousand brook trout fry that were put in our 

 spi'ing pond, and the gammarus is the principal food of the 

 spring. The trout lived four months without any artificial 

 food. All the food they had was the life that was in the water, 

 and the gammarus was the princiiial thing. They were put in 

 the spring pond the first of June and in October they were 

 taken out. And they actually counted thirty-six hundred and 

 a little over of as nice, healthv trout as I ever saw. 



