326 With Rod and Gun in New England 



the pickerel previously introduced. In some instances this was accom- 

 plished ; but after the pickerel were eaten, the bass began to deteriorate, 

 because they could not find sufficient food to sustain them. In other 

 instances, bass were placed in trout ponds where the pickerel had not 

 obtained a footing. As a result, we have some good bass ponds but many 

 ponds which have been spoiled both for trout and bass. As far as pos- 

 sible, the lakes and ponds unsuited to pickerel or bass, are being restored 

 to their natural conditions and stocked with brook trout, lake trout, or 

 landlocked salmon. Already sufficient success has attended the work of 

 the commissioners to warrant still further operations in this direction. The 

 landlocked salmon is not indigenous to Vermont, but the success of New 

 Hampshire and Maine in propagating this variety, and stocking some of 

 their waters, settles the question of its desirability for many of our lakes. 

 One qualification of this valuable game fish is the fact that it will thrive in 

 waters of a warmer temperature than will our native lake trout. It can be 

 reared in lakes which, by nature, have become changed through denudation 

 of the surrounding forests. The steel-head trout of California, though not 

 thoroughly tested in Vermont, has the same qualifications, as to tempera- 

 ture of water in which it will live, as the landlocked salmon, and this fish 

 is also being placed where the results can be watched carefully. Both of 

 these varieties of the salmonidce grow to be as large as the lake trout, and 

 are far more gamy. 



It may not be out of place here to state that the rainbow trout of 

 California is being used to stock some of the brooks of Vermont which 

 have a warmer temperature in summer than is suitable for the native 

 brook trout. The rainbow trout bears the same relation to the steel-head 

 trout as our native brook trout bears to the lake trout. All the larger 

 lakes in Vermont which are suitable for the lake trout, are annually receiv- 

 ing liberal consignments of them. The trout family receives especial 

 attention in this article, because the trout is, par excellence, the fish of the 

 interior waters of Vermont. The native trout, whether brook or lake, 

 cannot be improved upon in waters to which they are adapted. The 

 foreign varieties are only advocated for waters the nature of which has 

 changed, or for the purpose of supplanting some less desirable species of 

 fish. 



It would be an invidious distinction to pick out any particular lake 

 in Vermont as being more desirable than others, but it goes without say- 

 ing that Lake Champlain is our pride as a fishing resort. Nearly all 

 varieties of fish are sometimes " not at home," but it is seldom that the 

 fisherman on Lake Champlain returns with empty creel. If the black bass, 

 so plentiful in its waters, are not biting, the fisherman may try the wall- 

 eyed pike, pickerel, perch, or some of the still more plentiful varieties of 

 pan-fish. Both large and small varieties of pickerel are found in Lake 



