242 AMERICAN GAME FISHES. 



the hidden realms of Neptune. But I am not yet through 

 with the prosaic part of my tale, and must fain detain you 

 longer, oh patient follower of these lines, while I sketch for 

 you, cur rente calamo, some facts 'tis well to know, before we 

 go a-fishing. And first, to quote from kindly Seth Green, of 

 fragrant memory: 



"There are no fish which require a more uniform temperature 

 of weather, and when they cannot have access in the warm 

 summer months to the deep water where the temperature is 

 the same the year around, where it is not affected by any 

 of the changes of the atmosphere in either winter or summer, 

 death will ensue from suffocation. 



"Many times in fishing for Salmon Trout in summer, when 

 I have hooked a Trout in the deep water, he would come for 

 a distance without much struggling, but as he neared the sur- 

 face where the temperature began to affect him, he began to 

 suffocate, and his struggling greatly increased." 



Cheney says: "The Lake Trout inhabits only lakes con- 

 taining deep, cold, clear water, and they are the first of all 

 the Salmons to succumb in waters of high temperature. Seth 

 Green made an experiment to determine this question, using 

 California and Kennebec Salmon, California Trout, Gray- 

 ling, Brook Trout, and Lake Trout. The/ Lake Trout died 

 first, and before the mercury reached seventy-four degrees; 

 the Brook Trout next, and then death ensued in the follow- 

 ing order: the Grayling, the California Trout, the Kennebec 

 Salmon, and, last, the California Salmon." 



This characteristic of the Lake Trout will account for the 

 fact that in all save the Great Lakes, fishing for him is either 

 confined to a limited time in spring and fall, when the sur- 

 face water is very cold, or else the tackle that is used must be 

 such as will take him at a depth of from forty to eighty feet, 

 whereby the element of sport is largely eliminated from the 

 act of fishing. 



The time of spawning of the Lake Trout is in the middle 



