550 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



waters? Why are not the trout as large in Moosehead and other Maine lakes?" Then 

 he proceeds to answer the questions himself: "Cut open the maw of one of the great 

 trout and the question is answered. There you will find minnows in several stages of 

 digestion, from the one just gulped down to only the backbone of the first one eaten. 

 It is the feed. MilHons of the chubs, Cyprinidse, are there for trout to eat. It is prob- 

 able that these numerous Cyprinidse are increasing faster than the trout. " 



The foregoing explanation to the effect that the food is the main cause of the size 

 attained is doubtless true, but the inference that an unusual abundance of food in the 

 Rangeley Lakes resulted in fish larger than elsewhere in Maine was not well founded. 

 In some other Maine waters — Moosehead, for instance — such food as he mentioned is 

 fully as abundant, with some additional species. Still other lakes are even better sup- 

 plied. The probabihties are, too, that trout fully as large as those of Rangeley are 

 taken or at least occur in other Maine waters, although the Rangeleys still hold the cup 

 for the record fish. In Square Lake not many years ago a trout of lo pounds was caught, 

 and the writer has personal knowledge of one of over 1 1 pounds taken not long ago in 

 Belgrade Lake. 



The fact is that the Rangeleys have been before the public for a longer time and the 

 records of big fish have been made public. Less famous waters have doubtless afforded 

 local fishermen at least as large fish as ever were authentically recorded from the Range- 

 leys, but public attention has not been called to them. 



However, it is, as the correspondent said, due in great part to the food. But com- 

 bined with plenty of available food must be room in which to grow. For some reason 

 or other there seems to be a necessity for range. A trout will not attain a very large 

 size in restricted quarters, no matter how much food it has. 



The large size attained by the Rangeley trout naturally aroused interest regarding 

 the age of the large fish, and there is a tradition that when Prof. Agassiz was asked how 

 old the big Rangeley trout probably were he replied that no man living could tell; they 

 might be lo or 200 years old. 



Forest and Stream, November i, 1877, describes an experiment undertaken by 

 George Shepard Page, president of the Oquossoc Club, directed toward learning some- 

 thing of the rate of growth of trout in Rangeley Lakes. Platinum wire was cut into 1J/2- 

 inch lengths, flattened at one end, and various numbers stamped thereon from yi to 4, 

 also the numbers 70, 71, 72, etc., to denote the year. As trout were captured they were 

 weighed, one of these tags passed through the skin just under the adipose fin, securely 

 twisted, then the fish liberated. In the course of two or three of the years named a 

 large number of these trout were labeled. In June, 1873, one of them was reported; a 

 trout weighing 2% pounds was caught and found to bear a tag marked "}4-7i," show- 

 ing that this particular fish hadgained 1^ pounds in two years. No further notice of the 

 results of this tagging appears to have been pubhshed. 



As previously stated, trout grow faster and larger in the larger bodies of water 

 when food is plentiful than in smaller or more circumscribed places. Given plenty of 

 room and plenty of food, it is a question to what size a trout might not attain. There 

 are at least two natural conditions aside from those of environment just mentioned that 

 probably affect trout. There is, doubtless, a natural size limit beyond which the trout 

 could not go if it hved to be 200 years old. But even if there were no size limit, the 

 species doubtless has a more or less definite life tenure that would in any case limit its 

 growth. 



