FONTINALIS 



ler reports that lie hooked but failed to 

 bring to net. Can the conclusions be 

 avoided that large trout are old trout, 

 that trout live to great age, and that 

 after a certain point growth is very 

 slow? I am inclined to say that they 

 escape the common fate of mortals, and 

 do not die of old age. Certainly in some 

 forty years of fishing I cannot recall 

 seeing a dead or dying trout whose con- 

 dition could not be accounted for by 

 disease or injury. So great an authority 

 as Professor Agassiz said with regard 

 to the fontinalis of the Kangeley Lakes 

 that "no man living knows whether 

 these six and eight pound trout are ten 

 or two hundred years old." If age 

 claimed its annual toll could one fail 

 from time to time to see dead trout in 

 waters frequently traversed, where 

 countless thousands of the creatures 

 live? Other fish, notably carp, are 

 known to live indefinitely, and why not 

 trout ? A way of escape from this con- 



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