44 6 Reminiscences of 



salmon and trout before the commencement of a 

 storm, the coming event being communicated prob- 

 ably through the lateral line. This activity may be 

 the result of electric stimulus, or a provision of nature 

 in communicating by wireless telegraphy the necessity 

 of obtaining food or depth shelter before the effect 

 of combating elements. That fishes have a limited 

 memory there can be but little doubt. 



Seth Green related in his hatchery experience of a pet 

 two-pound trout in one of his hatchery pools, which, 

 being so tame as to take food from his hand, would 

 dart wildly away if approached with a fly-rod, although 

 it gave no attention to a walking-stick waved out over 

 the water. This resulted from Mr. Green's having once 

 caught the trout on a fly-rod with a barbless hook. 

 Contrary to this instance of memory I have often caught 

 trout which had but a short time before escaped by 

 the breaking off of the fly, or the leader, with the 

 evidence of the previous hooking visible from the im- 

 bedded fly and perhaps with a dangling remnant of a 

 leader. I have many times caught trout which had 

 been hooked before. 



I remember a visit a few years ago of a friend, 

 George A. Hull, who fastened to a good-sized trout, be- 

 tween four and five pounds in weight, which broke away 

 after being played for some moments when about to 

 be netted, carrying off the hook and half of his leader. 

 He estimated the trout as a somewhat heavier weight 

 than it proved to be, and came in disappointed. In 

 less than a quarter of an hour afterward I had this 

 identical trout on my fly, and brought it successfully 

 to net, verified by the indisputable evidence of the 



