370 Trout-Fishing in the Rangeley Lakes. 



About this time (1867), Mr. Seth Green's attempts to propagate 

 trout artificially had begun to attract attention, and, anticipating the 

 possibility of failure in transporting the live trout so great a distance, 

 Mr. Page, to make assurance doubly sure, had secured 30,000 trout 

 eggs which had been impregnated by the milt of the male in the 

 method now so well understood. These had been carefully packed 

 between layers of moss, and immediately upon their arrival at Stan- 

 ley were deposited in the hatching-houses. After the usual interval 

 of six weeks, Mr. Page had the gratification of seeing the newly 

 hatched trout. In due time they were fed, and when they had 

 attained a suitable size were liberated to stock the stream below the 

 hatching-houses. Thus we have the history of one of the earliest 

 and perhaps the first attempt in this country to take eggs from wild 

 fish, transport them five hundred miles, and successfully hatch them. 



The determination of the members of the Oquossoc Angling 

 Association fully to maintain the superiority of their fishing-grounds 

 is conclusively manifested by the arrangements for artificial propa- 

 gation which were made on Bema Stream, at the extreme south- 

 eastern extremity of Lake Mooselucmaguntic, under the direction 

 of Messrs. Page and L. L. Crounse. Three miles up Bema 

 Stream, at the foot of a bold mountain, there bursts out from a 

 rocky bed a series of remarkable springs, which in the spring 

 and fall furnish much of the water that flows down the rapid 

 stream to the lake. The water of these springs rarely falls below 

 45 , or rises above 49 , and is therefore peculiarly adapted to the 

 propagation of trout. The smaller trout from the lake, weighing 

 two pounds and under, make these springs and the stream in the 

 vicinity their spawning-grounds, and in the month of October they 

 crowd the waters in great numbers. Mr. Stanley, while securing 

 fish for spawn, has actually dipped up as many as six trout of an 

 average weight of a pound each at one scoop of his dip-net. As is 

 their habit, the males always come up in advance and clear off the 

 beds, and in a few days the female follows. So strong is the instinct 

 which leads them to the spawning-beds that the trout, like the sal- 

 mon, will force themselves over shallows in the stream where there 

 is not depth enough to permit them to swim. Just at the spawning- 

 beds, and over the little branch which carries the water of the springs 

 to the main stream, the gentlemen above named erected a hatching- 



