368 Trout-Fishing in the Rangeley Lakes. 



tical value. For instance, in reply to queries as to the probable age 

 of the mammoth trout found in the Rangeley Lakes, Professor 

 Agassiz emphatically declared that "no man living knew whether 

 these six and eight pounders were ten or two hundred years old." 

 To get some light upon this question, Mr. Page conceived an 

 ingenious device, which he at once proceeded to put in execution. 

 Platinum wire was obtained, cut into one and a half inch lengths, 

 flattened at one end, and various numbers were stamped on the 

 surface, from % to 4, also the numbers 70, 71, 72, to denote the 

 year. As trout were captured they were weighed, one of these tags 

 was passed through the skin just under the adipose fin and securely 

 twisted, and then the fish was liberated. In the course of the two or 

 three years named a large number of these trout were thus labeled. 

 Of course, the chances that any of them would be caught seemed 

 infinitesimally small, yet in 1873 one of them reported, In June of 

 that year, Mr. Thomas Moran, the artist, captured a fine, vigorous 

 trout weighing 2]/^. lbs. Upon taking him from the landing-net, the 

 platinum tag flashed in the sunlight. Upon examination, the mark, 

 " yi — 71," was discovered, thus establishing the curious fact that 

 this particular fish had gained 1 % lbs. in two years. 



The entire influence of the association has uniformly been thrown 

 in favor of a rigorous enactment of the laws protecting the trout in 

 the spawning season and regulating the mode of capture. More 

 than this, it has taken the most active measures in the direction 

 of increasing the supply of fish in the waters to which it has access. 

 Land-locked salmon have been introduced (this is one of the very 

 few species which co-exist with the trout), and a large number of 

 the young of the sea salmon ( Salmo salar) have also been put into 

 the lakes. Last season, several land-locked salmon two years of age, 

 and weighing half a pound, were captured. This year those of this 

 same growth will probably have reached a pound, and in the course 

 of two or three years these fish, which some anglers regard as even 

 more "gamey" than the trout, must become very abundant. 



Some of the earliest and most successful efforts in trout culture 

 are connected with the annals of Rangeley. In October, 1867, Mr. 

 Page transported two live trout — one a male weighing ten pounds, 

 the other a female weighing eight and a half — from Rangeley to his 

 home in Stanley, N. J., a distance of nearly five hundred miles. An 



