1004 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHEEIES. [4] . 



gether. This we have occasion to notice very often on our fishing 

 grounds, because before setting the lines at any particular spot we 

 "salt" the ground for two or three days before, by freely strewing bait 

 about the place where the lines are to be set. When the trout first 

 come up and see the bait — usually salmon eggs — scattered about so 

 lavishly, in such an unusual place, they seem to suspect at once that 

 there is something wrong about it, and they knock the eggs about vig- 

 orously with their tails and watch the bait very cautiously and sus- 

 piciously, and it often happens that they will repeat this a day or two 

 before they will decide to swallow this unexpected but tempting foodj 

 and Mr. Green assures me that, unless the trout had had their sus- 

 picions set at rest by this false and harmless bait, they sometimes could 

 not be persuaded, except with difficulty, to take the real bait in which 

 is concealed the fatal hook. 



Much is said about the red-banded trout of these mountain regions, 

 as if they were a distinct variety of trout from the others 5 and one often 

 hears sportsmen inquire whether they can catch the red-banded trout 

 at a specified place, as if they thought that the trout with the red band 

 were not only different, but much better than the other trout. This is 

 a mistake. The red band is not a mark of a better variety or a differ- 

 ent variety, nor, as far as I have been able to learn, a sign of anything 

 in particular except age. It is a badge of maturity and that is all. It 

 is not found on trout less than a year old, but I think I am authorized 

 to say that it is constant or nearly so in very old trout. At all events, 

 the absence of the band is not known to be a sign of anything except 

 youth, for, if you catch a middle-aged trout with the red band, you may 

 catch another feeding by the side of it, of the same variety, age, sex, 

 and of the same size, which does not have the red band. Neither does 

 the band, nor the absence of the band, appear to be a mark of any special 

 season with the fish, for at all seasons of the year, in the spawning sea- 

 son and out of the spawning season, when prime and when not prime, 

 you will find trout with the red band and trout without it side by side 

 and looking otherwise just alike, and this is true of all ages and of both 

 sexes, except, as just remarked, with trout less than a year old, which 

 never have the red band, and with very old trout, which I think always 

 have it. Perhaps it is also safe to say that the older the trout the more 

 likely it is to have the red band and the more pronounced it is likely to 

 be. I may add here that very old trout have other distinguishing marks. 

 Their heads and shoulders are very large compared with the rest of their 

 bodies. Their bodies are not symmetrical, like those of younger fish, 

 but seem to taper almost steadily from the shoulders to the caudal fin. 

 Their mouths will open much wider than those of young trout, and their 

 tails, when stretched, will be less forked ; indeed, in very old trout their 

 tails are almost perfectly square, as it is called, by which is meant that 

 the outline of the caudal fin is at the posterior end, when stretched 



