608 IVeight and Length of Brook - Trout. 



The foregoing article by Mr. W. Hodgson Ellis, of the School 

 of Practical Science, Toronto, Canada, is here reprinted by per- 

 mission of the author and the editor of "The American Angler," 

 in which journal it was first published. 



Mr. Ellis has put to the tests of measure and weight the 

 opinions which Sir Humphrey Davy thus gives expression to 

 in his " Salmonia ; or, Days of Fly Fishing." Edit, Lond., 

 1851, p. 32. 



Poietes. — This great fish that Ornither has just caught must be nearly of the weight 

 I assigned to him. 



Halieus. — Oh, no ! he is, I think, above 5 lbs., but not 6 lbs. ; but we can form 

 a more correct opinion by measuring him, which I can easily do, the butt of my rod 

 being a measure. He measures, from nose to fork, a very little less than twenty-four 

 inches, and consequently, upon the scale which is appropriate to well-fed trout, should 

 weigh 5 lbs. 10 oz., — which, within an ounce, I doubt not, is his weight. 



Physicus. — Oh ! I see you take the mathematical law, that similar solids are to 

 each other in the triplicate ratio of one of their dimensions. 



Halieus. — You are right. 



Physicus. — But I think you are below the mark, for this appears to me to be an 

 extraordinarily thick fish. 



Halieus. — He is a well-fed fish, but in proportion not so thick as my model, which 

 was a fish of seventeen inches by nine inches, and weighed 2 lbs.; this is my standard 

 solid. We will try him. Ho! Mrs. B., bring your scales and weigh this fish. There, 

 you see, he weighs 5 lb. 10^ oz. 



The following relations I found to exist between the length and 

 weight of trout caught in the head-waters of the Androscoggin and 

 Dead Rivers in Franklin County, Maine : 



Length. Weight. Length. Weight. 



8^ inches ....}( pound. 12^ inches . . . . ^ pound. 



11 " . . . . }4 " 14 " .... 1 " 



The relations are the results of many measures and weighings, and 

 will serve to supply the length and weight of trout smaller than those 

 given in Mr. Ellis's table. 



It appears that the Lake Superior trout are stouter than those 

 of the Maine waters above named, for I have found from many 

 measures that a Maine brook-trout of one pound weight meas- 

 ures exactly fourteen inches from tip of nose to middle of end 

 of caudle fin. Mr. Ellis gives 13.17 inches for the length of a 



