RANGELEY LAKES, MAINE: FISHES, ANGLING, AND FISH CULTURE. 535 



Another correspondent" of the same paper wrote that the bluebacks had not that 

 year appeared in wonted numbers at the Upper Dam, but that they had been observed 

 in large numbers at the mouth and well up in Sawmill Brook, a narrow rocky stream. 



Regarding the run of bluebacks in Sawmill Brook in the fall of 1887, Oscar Cutting, 

 a guide of the region, was referred to in Forest and Stream, December, 1887, as reporting 

 that the stream was lined with them for some distance up the brook and that so intent 

 were they upon reaching their breeding grounds that the fish were piled up in the shallow 

 water in the little pools and eddies. 



Capt. F. C. Barker (loc. cit.), writing regarding their disappearance from below 

 Upper Dam and appearance in Sawmill Brook, said that the disappearance was plainly 

 due to the fact that the water in the lake below was so high that it backed up over the 

 rips where they usually spawned, "rendering the whole line of rips as quiet as a mill- 

 pond." Capt. Barker expressed the view, also, that the large numbers occurring that 

 year in Sawmill Brook were attributable to this cause, but he thought more or less of 

 them had always spawned there. 



The previously mentioned characteristics were also referred to in the reports for 

 1875 and 1878. In American Angler, April 14, 1873, Mr. Rich wrote that they ran up 

 the brook at night and back in the morning. Forest and Stream, November 26, 1874, 

 said that on the loth of October, or within three days of that date, the outlets of Gull 

 and Dodge Ponds, both emptying into Rangeley Lake at points 6 miles apart, and the 

 outlet of Rangeley Lake, 6 miles from Dodge Pond, were thronged by myriads of these 

 exquisite little fish. The waters of the streams were said to be actually filled with a 

 crowding, springing multitude, gathering like smelts and alewives to deposit their spawn. 

 It was stated that they did not make spawning bed as drd salmon and trout, but 

 deposited their eggs in all parts of the stream, remaining about 10 days, when they 

 returned to the lake, to be seen no more until the loth of October the following year. 



In the same paper for December, 1874, Elmer Merrill wrote that five or six years 

 previously he had spent the month of October in this region and for the first time saw the 

 blueback trout of which he had heard. He said that the fish came up Rangeley Stream 

 from Cupsuptic and Mooselucmaguntic Lakes to the pool below the dam, where they 

 were observed in myriads, the water being literally black with them, and from under 

 every stone, slab, or log in the stream scores would shoot out when disturbed. He said 

 also that the same conditions obtained in the streams emptying into Rangeley Lake. 



In a letter to Fred Mather, published in Forest and Stream, May 5, 1887, Com- 

 missioner Stanley wrote that the bluebacks were very hardy fish and nearly as tenacious 

 of life as the eel or bullhead. He stated that he had frequently seen them alive in the 

 morning after they had lain on the shore all night. 



Regarding the same matter, J. Parker Whitney'' wrote that they were much more 

 tenacious of life than the brook trout and that he had had them out of water an hour, 

 apparently lifeless, and resuscitated them by putting them in water again. He said 

 that a number would live in a barrel of water without change for weeks, which treatment 

 would be fatal to the ordinary trout. 



Food. — The only mention of the food of the blueback is the statement of J. Parker 

 Whitney (loc. cit.), who said that their teeth were very fine and numerous and that they 



• Forest and Stream, Dec. is, 18S7, p. 408. 



& Forest and Stream, Oct., 1896, and Report of Inland Fish and Game Commission of Maine for the year 1896. 



