40 Reminiscences of 



Maine is famous for its rivers, lakes, and ponds, 

 which cover nearly one tenth of its surface. Its 

 waters are mainly clear from excess of organic matter, 

 where fish life is conspicuous for game qualities, 

 which I have evidenced from personal experience 

 at several score of localities in that State. It is 

 not essential that trout waters should be of high 

 translucent character as ordinarily supposed, and I 

 have observed that trout waters of that character 

 are generally lacking in numbers and size of trout 

 compared with those more opaque and plentiful with 

 infusorial life. The protozoa element is the basic 

 fovmdation of fish life, and possibly of all other. 

 It consists of an endless variety of Poligastrica and 

 Rotatoria, white pulpy substances of life, which in 

 favorable waters are of pin-head size, while the bulk 

 are invisible to the naked eye. This infusorial ele- 

 ment is the primary constituent essential to young 

 fish life. The young trout or salmon, when relieved 

 of the umbilical sac, is of minute proportions, and is 

 unable to live tipon the surface ephemera or food of 

 after life, and subsists wholly upon the infusoria, as 

 do all the small fry generally designated as minnows, 

 of which there are a dozen varieties in the Rangeley 

 waters. It is also the principal food of the fresh- 

 water smelts. 



The profusion of small fish in the lakes supplying 

 the principal food of the trout and salmon accounts 

 for their number and superiority, without which they 

 would be lacking, so that in reality the ]M-iinitive 

 cause is the infusorial element. This element abounds 

 in all ponds, lakes, rivers, and even ditches where 

 decaying vegetable and animal matter exists, and in 



