160 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



"2. 1 doubt if the rainbow is as destructive to small 

 fish as either the brown trout (fario) or our own fon- 

 tinalis. This doubt has two foundations. In confine- 

 ment it has shown no disposition to eat smaller fish if 

 other food was plenty, and its comparatively small 

 mouth bars it from taking some fish that a fario or a 

 fontinalis could easily stow away. 



"3. Yes ; it rises to the fly well. I stocked the upper 

 of three millponds at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, 

 with rainbows, and when fly fishing below the second 

 dam two years later I took a number of rainbows. Mr. 

 Livington Stone, for years in charge of the breeding 

 station at Baird, Cal., where the fish is native, says 

 they rise well to the fly. 



"4. This may be a matter of suitable water. My own 

 experience has been mostly with confined fish. In its 

 native rivers, of course, it has been true and faithful, 

 but in our eastern rivers there are different conditions. 

 The fish has remained in some Adirondack lakes and 

 grown large ; but whether it has bred there and 'estab- 

 lished itself I cannot say. This is 'the benefit of the 

 doubt.' 



"5. This is a question of taste, de gustibus, etc. The 

 rainbow is a good table fish ; but it is a trout, and I can't 

 compare it to salmon any more than I can compare a 

 saddle of Southdown mutton to a beefsteak. The rain- 

 bow trout is hardly as good a table fish, me judice, as 

 the brown trout, or our 'brook trout,' and any one of 

 the three beats salmon as a steady diet in camp, for 

 salmon is so rich that it soon cloys. This is merely an 

 individual opinion, but it is what you asked for. 



"Having gone over the questions in their order, I feel 

 inclined to say more. I have seen the articles in 'Land 

 and Water' of March 26, by yourself, Mr. Charles S. 



