RANGELEY LAKES, MAINE: FISHES, ANGLING, AND FISH CULTURE. 567 



to maintain or increase the resistance through fresh supplies of enemies, in the form of 

 sahnon, for instance, an expenditure of so much more trout-cultural energy is neces- 

 sitated, to which there must be a limit. 



Most of the foregoing points have been for years mooted questions, but the efficacy 

 of artificial propagation has not often been questioned. In passing, there is one point 

 more relating to artificial propagation that should be mentioned, which is that every 

 body of water has a safety line beyond which artificial stocking becomes retroactive, 

 thus introducing subtle, intimate, and intricate additional factors of depletion involving 

 not only the artificial but the original stock. 



That originally the Rangeley Lakes abounded in trout there is no doubt. J. G. Rich, 

 in his article so often quoted in this paper, writing of the old days, stated: 



We had never then heard of pot fishers or poachers, and there had been no law enacted against the 

 taking of trout any way one choose, and we went at it by the quickest possible method. But by and by 

 parties began to come from the cities, and after years of abundance trout not only grew scarcer but became 

 more warj% and finally we got a fish law ; but it was years before the free nativesof the forest could see the 

 justice of being curtailed in their liberty of when, where, and how they should take them. 



Every brook, every stream, and every pond and lake was literally full of them. Of course there 

 were proper times to fish at certain places; for instance, at places where ample quantities could be taken 

 ^t one time none could be had at another time. I have seen the Cambridge River at tlie foot of Umbagog 

 so crowded with trout rushing up stream that you could almost walk across it on the backs of the fish (if 

 this is a fish story, it is an actual fact). And again in the fall of the year great schools would rush into 

 the mouths of rivers and coves near their spawning grounds, so as to fairly blacken the water, and they 

 werehungry. This was the "border ruffians" pork barrel, and they availed themselves of it. * * * 



At the first freezing over of the lakes and rivers, at the mouths of small brooks and around certain 

 stony banks in the lakes and near late spawning grounds, hundreds of pounds could be taken in a day, 

 and the hunters were pretty sure to improve these opportunities. Sometimes these trout lay in very 

 shallow water. Many times have I cut through the ice, and the water rushed up thick with mud, and 

 after a few moments the trout began to bite, and a regular rush began, generally of about i-pound weight, 

 interspersed with individuals that weighed 3, 4, 5, or 6 pounds, and which must have touched the ice 

 with their backs while their bellies rubbed the sand below. 



In the foregoing instance some allowance must be made for the enthusiasm that 

 usually is associated with piscatorial retrospection. Doubtless, however, it is a fair 

 illustration of the early abundance of trout in the Rangeley Lakes region, in support of 

 which there are many other authentic accounts. In those days it was the privilege of 

 but a few to avail themselves of such abundance, but, as has been previously stated, with 

 the passing of years the fame of the Rangeley Lakes for their plenteous supply of mam- 

 moth trout attracted an ever-increasing number of anglers to the region. At first it 

 appeared that few, if any, failed to secure satisfactory numbers, even if they all did not 

 capture a monster. Large quantities were annually, perhaps it may be said weekly, 

 shipped home by anglers. These, particularly the large ones, were often exhibited in 

 sportsmen's store windows and elsewhere, thus increasing the numbers to try their luck 

 at the lakes. After a while, with increase in number, it was quite natural that some 

 should be disappointed, since, as a rule, the fish are not generally distributed in a lake 

 but congregated in more or less restricted localities, and the places occupied change at 

 different seasons of the year or under certain conditions. These places constitute fhe 

 favorite fishing grounds. All new comers, as well as the old resorters, went to the same 

 places. The natural results are obvious. Fewer fish would be caught by the individual, 

 not only on account of a division of the spoils, as it were, but even if the fish were no 



