RANGELEY LAKES, MAINE: FISHES, ANGLING, AND FISH CULTURE. 505 



and deep pools, winds its way over a sandy bottom. Most of the shoals bear a growth 

 of water plants, mostly of pond weed. Below the meadow for a long distance, probably 

 all of the way to the meadow near the mouth, the brook flows through a narrow bottom 

 land, on each side of which are steep hills. This bottom is a close growth of alders and 

 other small trees entangled with clematis vines and bedstraw. In this locality the 

 brook varies also from shoals to broad deep pools, usually with sandy, but sometimes 

 with clay, bottom. 



If it were not for the alders bent down and growing horizontally across the brook 

 with consequent jams of debris, there is usually water enough to afford canoe passage 

 to the mouth of the brook. An occasional fallen tree also obstructs, but such obstruc- 

 tion is more easily surmountable than long areas of low-lying alders. As previously 

 stated, the lower end of the brook flows through a bog such as is commonly designated 

 as a heath, especially at its upper end, but decidedly meadowlike farther do\vn. The 

 brook bottom is entirely sandy until the mouth is reached and with shoals and deep 

 pools, some of which are 30 feet across, deepest on the long curve and often a sand spit 

 on the short one. 



FISH FAUNA OF THE RANGELEY LAKES. 



The recorded fish fauna of the Rangeley Basin is a limited one, at present consist- 

 ing of only 19 species, of which 13 are native — if the eel can be called native — the 

 other 6 having been introduced, and there is no certainty that one of these has become 

 established. 



In their geographical faunal relations, in a few instances, these waters are peculiar, 

 and this fact was noted many years ago. In 1862, C. H. Jackson " said: 



These Androscoggin Lakes generally afford grander scenery than any others in the State. Their 

 waters afford several kinds of fishes not found elsewhere, and wild animals are common in the forests 

 adjacent, so that there are fine places of resort among them for the student of natural history. The 

 Salmo oquassa Girard, or blueback trout, an uncommon variety of dace, and a red-sided sucker are pecul- 

 iar to these waters. The togue and pickerel are not found here. 



At a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History,'' October 5, 1864, F. W. 

 Putnam remarked that until the present season he had thought that the Great Lakes 

 fauna had extended to the larger lakes of Maine, but from his exploration of the Richard- 

 son chain he was now convinced that such was not the case, as there were but 3 or 4 of 

 the 14 species of the Richardson Lakes which were of the same species as those of Lakes 

 Champlain and Superior. The absence of the perch, bream, shiner, pout, pickerel, 

 and the cyprinodonts in the Richardson Lakes was a marked characteristic of that 

 fauna, distinguishing it from that of the Great Lakes. And in speaking of the Sebago 

 Lake fauna he went on to say that there was also a Lota and a species of Salmo not found 

 in the Richardson Lakes. 



In continuation of the discussion. Dr. Pickering stated that he had passed the 

 summer on the Androscoggin River, 25 miles from Lake Umbagog, the lowest of the 

 Richardson Lakes, and that he had found the chub abundant and the pickerel not rare. 

 Perch had been taken there for the first time during that season. Mr. Putnam 

 remarked in response that the fishes of the Androscoggin River were different from those 

 of the lakes at its headwaters, and that but few species passed from the river to the 



« Second Annual Report upon the Natural History and Geolog>' of the State of Maine, 1862, part n. p. 327,328. 

 & Pioceedings, Boston Society of Natural History, x (1864-1866), 1866, p. 64. 



