60 FISHING WITH THE FLY. 



the object of its mission, the deposit and impregnation 

 of the spawn, is accomplished. In proof of this I will 

 state that during the last days of our stay on the 

 stream, and notably in fish taken fifteen or twenty miles 

 from tide water, it was not infrequent that we caught 

 trout as gorgeous and brilliant in color as the male 

 brook trout at the spawning season. "Whether this 

 change of color is attributable to the character of the 

 water in which it "lives, moves, and has its being," to 

 the food it eats, or other causes, it is impossible to say. 

 I often caught from the same or adjacent pools, trout 

 fresh from the sea and dull in color, and those showing 

 in a greater or less degree the brilliancy of the moun- 

 tain brook trout. Of course they differ widely in ap- 

 pearance, and therefore it is not surprising that the 

 " Indians all say," as expressed by Mr. Macdonough, 

 " that the contrast between the markings of the two 

 kinds of fish forbids the idea of their identity." 



As mentioned by Mr. Macdonough the sea-trout have 

 their "haunts at the lower end of pools" [and upper 

 end he might have added with truth], " behind rocks, 

 among roots," in short, in the same parts of a stream 

 that an experienced angler expects to find and does find 

 the brook trout. 



The sea trout will take the same bait, rise at the same 

 fly, and rest at the same hours of the day, as brook trout. 

 The flies that I ordered, made from samples furnished 

 by Mr. Macdonough, who had had some years' experience 

 on the stream before I accompanied him, were much 



