Miscellaneous Suggestions. 345 



Some there doubtless are, though their number is daily 

 diminishing, who still question the existence of brook 

 trout of the size said to inhabit those waters; but they 

 are invariably those who have never seen them in the 

 water, or fresh from it. It is not surprising that one 

 who regards a two-pound brook trout as a very monster 

 should stare with incredulity when specimens of ten and 

 eleven pounds are spoken of, more especially if he be fa- 

 miliar with the wide discrepancy usual between the esti- 

 mated and the actual weight of these fish. If he really 

 knows anything about the subject, and has seen many 

 such statements as one which fell under my notice a 

 couple of years ago that a trout eighteen inches long 

 had been caught in the head-waters of a certain river, 

 which weighed five and a half pounds after it w T as dressed 

 his faith must indeed be quite crushed, and unable to 

 answer the most trifling call upon it. 



There really is a fearful amount of lying honest, not 

 mendacious lying about the weight of trout. Let me 

 urge upon the beginner to provide himself with a spring- 

 balance at the very outset, and to train his eye and his 

 tongue by the graduations upon it. However these 

 things may be, the fact remains unchanged, and it cer- 

 tainly is a fact, that genuine brook trout of ten and even 

 eleven pounds weight have been, and may be taken in 

 the Rangely Lakes the very same species of trout which 

 inhabit the mountain streams of New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania ; but it is also true that trout of over nine pounds 

 weight are quite rarely caught. 



On the 30th of September, 1884, one of the Maine Fish 

 Commissioners netted from a pool on Rangely Stream 

 nine trout, in the following order and of the following 

 respective weights in pounds : 1^, 3, 4-J-, 5^, 6, 7, 7, 7-j, 



