TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. FI 
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ally. Among the most valuable of these are the smelt, the strip- 
ed bass, the tom-cod and the alewife. The smelt is already 
established in fresh water in Vermont, New Hampshire and 
New York. The Vermont Fish Commissioners say that smelt 
have been fully established in every lake into which they have 
been placed and heard from, and it is a curious fact that the peo- 
ple have not found out what a truly excellent fish this is for the 
table, its insignificant size seeming to fully protect it, save from 
an occasional fisherman who has taken them for daz#t. This use 
of smelts would cause smelt-fishers to raise their eyebrows and 
examine the man who did such a thing in their presence ; but 
the rural angler will get over that in time, which will educate 
him that the little smelt has other uses and a higher value. The 
report truly says of the smelt: “ When they come to be established 
wherever there is a fit lodgment for them, that event alone will 
fully pay for all the expenses incurred since the formation of 
the Commission.” 
In New York it has been established so long that the memory 
of man runneth not to the contrary, and in the Adirondacks the 
guides call it “frostfish” and salt it down. It is found in some 
of the Fulton chain of lakes and not in others, a very interesting 
account of which will be found in Forest and Stream some 
time during the coming month (April), from the pen of Mr. E. R. 
Wilson. They are locally known as frostfish in that region. Mr. 
Wilson says: “Some time ago I observed in your columns an 
inquiry relative to the finding of smelts or “frostfish” in fresh 
water. The so-called frostfish is found in several lakes of the 
Fulton chain, in the ‘John Brown’s Tract.’ Most visitors to 
that region have annually wondered at the sight of the old wood- 
en weirs or ‘picket lines’ set up in the inlets. These fish run up 
the shoal inlets between those lakes in October, or about the 
period of the advent of frost—whence the peculiar title—at which 
time they are taken and salted down in considerable numbers 
by the guides for home use, and occasionally sent to the adjoin- 
ing settlements. The fish is a regular habitant of Second, Fourth 
and Eighth lakes of the Fulton chain, and also Racquette Lake 
—all deep waters. They seem to stick to the deeper lakes, except 
in the spawning season, and are a favorite dainty for the salmon 
