436 Reminiscences of 



In December and January there is a notable scarcity 

 of live bait, and in February and March they are very 

 difficult to find, although I have sought for them in doz- 

 ens of places, both in deep water and shallow, and those 

 places where I have taken any in the late months were 

 in the vicinity of springs, and hardly any to be obtained, 

 excepting in the early hours of the morning and those 

 preceding sundown. I have frequenth^ had to go 

 out fifteen or twenty miles in the adjoining country 

 and fetch them from spring holes. Yet the trout 

 caught are seldom empty of small fry or chubs, and it 

 is quite likely that the trout root them out to a con- 

 siderable extent from the mud; and that trout do root 

 in the mud a good deal is indicated by the earth and 

 often lumps of clay found in their stomachs. I have 

 caught large trout often with a small handful of clay 

 balls in their stomachs, which have remained after 

 the probable exudation of loose earthy matter. The 

 parasites attached to trout fins, so noticeable in the 

 winter and early spring, and which soon disappear 

 in open water, indicate their earth-frequenting. While 

 in December and early January the trout are compara- 

 tively plentiful in a few feet of water below the ice, they 

 are mostly off in from 15 to 40 feet of water afterward, 

 but I have seldom found them below 50 feet. In winter 

 they are mostly at the bottom or within i or 2 feet of it. 

 In this season the contents of their stomachs are quite 

 miscellaneous — ^glutinous ground feed, chubs, varieties 

 of small fry, rarely blue-backs, and suckers. 



The results in freezing I have so far obtained are as 

 follows, relating especially to trout: 



That trout may be frozen solid without destroying 

 life. 



