RANGELEY LAKES, MAINE: PISHES, ANGLING, AND PISH CULTURE- 513 



convey pebbles to the heap. He was seen to make 1 5 or 20 trips to a gravel place on the opposite side of 

 the brook and later, with pebbles from it, return to the nest, a distance of 6 or 8 feet. Sometimes he 

 would have one stone and sometimes several small ones and rarely a mouthful of very fine gravel, and 

 once a stick 3 or 4 inches long was brought and laid on the heap. There was then observed several times 

 a sudden gathering of a number of supposed females from the immediate neighborhood, comprising all 

 of the chubs within 5 or 6 feet or more, and a simultaneous rush for the nest, where only a confused 

 mass of struggling fish could be distinguished, some of which turned over so that the gleam of the belly 

 could be seen. The old male was always there. 



The following communication, entitled "Stone luggers," appeared in Forest and 

 Stream, June 23, 1881, page 410: 



During a recent visit to the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence I observed what I had never 

 seen before, and something unfamiliar to most anglers. On the south shore of beautiful Round Island 

 two moxuids were discovered by a friend of mine situated, say, 10 feet from the water line and in about 



3 feet depth of water. They were built of pebbles in the form of a pyramid. One must have comprised 

 a bushel or more of small stones; the other was not so large. By patient watching the fact was dis- 

 covered that these mounds were made by chubs, which could be seen carrying the pebbles in their 

 mouths from near the water line to the hillocks. They worked incessantly and perseveringly, seeming 

 unconscious of the presence of spectators. If driven away by dropping a stone upon them, they would 

 quickly return and resume operations, always in nearly the same place, going over the same line to the 

 same place to find the small stones. 



The writer then asks for information regarding the purposes of the mound, etc. 

 After commenting upon the uncertainty of the identity of the fish, the Forest and 

 Stream expressed a wish that it had a specimen. In the issue of the same paper of 

 December 22, 1881, p. 412, a note entitled "Mound-Building Fishes" stated that a 

 specimen had been sent to Prof. G. Brown Goode for identification and he had decided 

 that it was S. hullaris. 



In the Geographical Journal, July, 1897, Dr. Robert Bell, in a paper on exploration 

 to the south of Hudson Bay, said that : 



Chubs are called "awadose" (stone carriers) by the Indians from their habit of collecting gravel 

 and stones, weighing from less than i ounce to about a pound, and depositing them in a heap in the bottom 

 of a river as a suitable spot for hatching their eggs, which are placed in their singular nest. This is 

 done in the spring. A larger or smaller number of fishes, whose bodies would weigh from a pound to 3 or 



4 pounds, work together to build the nest, the size of which will depend upon the number of workers. 

 They pick up the stones with their mouths and bring them to the heap, one at a time, from far and near. 

 These nests are made in tolerably shallow water where there is a moderate current, which favors the 

 hatching of the ova. Their form is generally conical, and they contain on an average a cartload of gravel 

 and stones, but they vary from a wheelbarrow load up to 4 or 5 tons. The fact that the stones weigh 

 fully one-third less under water than in the air helps to account for their ability to carry the larger ones, 

 which may be seen in hundreds of these heaps. 



In the American Naturalist for May, 1907, Dr. Alfred W. G. Wilson writes about 

 these chub nests with several photographic illustrations, but stated that while the 

 Indians and others maintain that the chub does the work he had been able to find no 

 one who has seen the fish at work. But one would infer that Dr. Bell or some of his 

 informants had seen the fish at work, as he stated definitely that they work several 

 together and carried the stones in their mouths. 



In Maine Woods, June 26, 1908, in an article on the chub, the writer stated that on 

 several occasions he had seen chubs at work on such nests, but to the best advantage in 

 June, 1907, at Whites Bridge, Sebago Lake. When standing on the bridge at some 

 height above the water, everytliing on the bottom could be seen plainly. He watched 



