440 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



forty-five varieties of fresh and salt water fish : a portion of which 

 together with their habits, I intend to describe, and will commence 

 with that most highly prized by sportsmen, the Trout. 



The Trout {Salmo Fario) is the only fish that comes in and goes 

 out of season with the deer; he grows rapidly, and dies early after 

 reaching his full growth. The female spawns in October, at a differ- 

 ent time from nearly all other fish, after which both male and female 

 are lean, weak, and unwholesome eating, and, if examined closely, 

 will be found covered with a species of clove-shaped insects, 

 which appears to suck their substance from them; and they con- 

 tinue sick until warm weather, when they rub the insects off on 

 the gravel, and immediately grow strong. The female is the best 

 for the table. She may be known by her small head and deep 

 body. Fish are always in season when their heads are so small 

 as to be disproportioned to the size of their body. The trout is 

 less oily and rich than the salmon ; the female is much brighter 

 and more beautiful than the male; they swim rapidly, and often 

 leap, like the salmon, to a great height, when ascending streams. 

 "When I first stocked my trout-pond, I placed fifteen hundred in 

 it, and was accustomed to feed them with angle- worms, rose bugs, 

 crickets, grasshoppers, &c., which they attacked with great vora- 

 city, to the amusement of those looking on. They grew nuich 

 more rapidly in ponds than in their native streams, from the fact 

 that they are better fed and not compelled to exercise. Trout 

 are the only fi^h known to me that possess a voice, which is per- 

 ceived by pressing them, when they emit a murmuring sound, and 

 tremble all over. 



The Carp {Cyprinus Carpio). — Of this delicious fish I have a 

 great abundance; having obtained my original stock from Captain 

 Robinson, of Newburgh, fourteen years since. They breed twice 

 each year, producing about forty thousand each time, and grow 

 to the length of fifteen inches. I have seen them on the Ivinks 

 of Lake Corao, in Italy, weighing one hundred and seventy-five 

 pounds. I feed them with brea<l, and sometimes Indian meal. 

 They come up in great numbers at the ringing of a bell, and will 

 eat out of my hand, and permit me to stir them around without 



