A Sportsman 455 



kitchen entrance, fancied she heard the plaintive call 

 of the seal at the kitchen door, but being of a supersti- 

 tious cast, and believing the call was from the banshee 

 or bad spirit, covered her head beneath the bed clothes. 

 In the morning the emaciated body of the lifeless seal 

 was found at the kitchen door. The story may be 

 authentic or not, but I do not consider its truthfulness 

 to have been impossible. 



The vegetable growth in the water, kelp, etc., and 

 currents were familiar to the seal, and sight would have 

 been of little aid to it compared with following the 

 perceptions of its other senses. 



Some naturalists have expressed the belief that fishes 

 find their way to their spawning rivers or desired 

 localities in a direct course by the pointing of instinct, 

 and that alone. This conclusion does not seem to be 

 well evidenced or satisfactory. 



But the mysterious fish of the lakes is the blue-back 

 trout (Salmo oquassa), entirely distinct from the Salmo 

 salvelinus, with which it has no affiiliation, being, 

 strictly speaking, an arctic trout, which in some pecul- 

 iar manner has found its way to the Rangeley waters, 

 as well as to a few other northern lakes. As ordinarily 

 taken they weigh about five to the pound, the maxi- 

 mum being near half a pound. The fish is quite dis- 

 tinctly a trout, with fine coloring and red spots. It has 

 in contradistinction to the square tail of the Salmo 

 family a swallow tail, and a blue back and exceedingly 

 small teeth. The fish is long and slim for its weight, 

 and for food purposes inferior, though claimed by 

 many to be equal to the ordinary trout, but to my 

 taste soft and muddy. One might fish the Rangeley 

 for years and never encounter one or suspect its pres- 



