72 FISH CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
a NR 
trout, as I have frequently caught the latter all through the sum- 
mer, both by trolling and deep fishing, which, on opening, al- 
most invariably contained the remnants of frostfish. Early in 
1862 a party of us camped at the head of Fourth Lake and set 
buoys for salmon trout. The suckérs had not commenced to 
run, and we had no bait, so sent backto Arnold’s for a net, which 
we set out well in the lake, off the mouth of the inlet. On haul- 
ing it the next morning we found the ‘net proceeds’ comprised 
suckers and (tell it not, for we let them go), speckled trout, 
with some twenty frostfish. After baiting the buoys we found 
that the ‘lakers’ bit best at the latter. The guides claim to pre- 
fer the fresh frostfish as an article of diet to any trout that swims. 
They run remarkably uniform in weight, say about one pound, 
and are somewhat slim in proportion to length, with bright 
white scales, and flesh of firm texture and light color. They 
have a long nose, and are evidently a bottom fish. The guides 
say that the young, when hatched, immediately head for deep 
water, and reappear only to spawn when fully grown. 
“There is a physical oddity in the topographical distribution of 
this fish. Eighth Lake is entirely disconnected from Fourth 
Lake, or any others on the chain, and Racquette has a long land 
barrier from any waters known to contain this finny denizen. A 
veteran visitant to the Nothern Wilds, Mr. L. H. Redfield, of 
Syracuse, advances the theory that fish spawn are transported 
over long distances by being entangled in the feet of wild fowl, 
and also that mature fish are carried over intervening land 
‘through the agency of water spouts. Without the aid of some 
similar hypothesis, it would.seem difficult to account for the 
presence of finny population in certain localities. I once stum- 
bled upon a little bowl of a lake in that section, away up close 
to the crest of a mountain, swarming with trout and the course 
of its only outlet, a mile or two long, would have broken the 
neck of an Alpine goat to descend, and his very heart to look at 
the cataract descent. There are two lakes near the mouth of the 
Moose River, severally known as “Indian” and “Squaw” lakes, 
separated by high falls impassable for fish, while the lower pond 
literally teems with trout, yet my companion trappers and guides 
