Trout-Fishing in the Rangeley Lakes. 367 



HEAD OF TROUT. 



lately introduced, they contain no other fish besides the trout and the 

 smaller fish upon which he feeds. Of the latter, there are three 

 varieties, — the chub, the sucker, and the minnow, or " red-fin," as 

 they are locally termed. All these exist in countless numbers in 

 the streams and at the outlets of these streams into the lake. There 

 is still a fourth variety, called by the natives the "blue-back" 

 trout, the Salmo Oquossa (so named because it is peculiar to 

 these waters), which is also generally supposed to furnish food to 

 the monarchs of the lake. They come in an immense army, 

 actually filling the streams here and there with a dense, strug- 

 gling mass, which the natives capture by the bushel and by the 

 barrel in nets, buckets, and pails ; even scooping them out by hand 

 and throwing them on the bank. They are salted down and pre- 

 served in the same way as mackerel are cured. These blue-back 

 trout have never been found more than nine inches in length, nor 

 less than six inches. In flavor, they are quite as rich and delicate 

 when cooked as the brook-trout. After spawning, they return to the 

 lake just as suddenly as they appeared; and, notwithstanding. the 

 numbers in which they are captured during their brief stay in the 

 stream, they do not diminish in multitude year after year. It is 

 inferred that their regular haunts must be in the deepest waters of 

 the lake, since their capture by the enticements and appliances which 

 prove irresistible to the speckled trout is almost unknown. 



Numerous experiments and continued observations, made under 

 the auspices of some of the practical pisciculturists belonging to the 

 association, have developed results full of interest and of much prac- 



