110 GILPIN ON THE GASPEREAUX. 



In countless hordes they sweep through lonely still waters, the 

 home of the trout, cool and pellucid enough to tempt a weary way 

 wanderer, but on and on his irresistible instinct drives him. A 

 natural dam, some two or three feet elevation, and over which the 

 waters fall with a perpendicular rush, now arrests his progress. 

 He throws himself (no doubt with a ^dgorous sweep of tail) dii'ectly 

 at it. That about two and a half to three feet is his utmost range, 

 the many failures he makes before he drops into the pool above 

 attest. 



He has now gained his lake, often a very small one in the heart 

 of the forest, and perhaps six hundred feet elevation from high 

 water mark. And now commences his brief courtship, for, unlike 

 the lordly salmon who dallies until November, our fish has but 

 little time for delay. Camping on the lake-side of a moonlight 

 night, you hear a swash in the water. "Wliat fish is that?" you 

 ask your Indian ; " Gaspereaux," is his answer. The trout-fisher 

 by day sees the surface of the lake rufiled by a hundred fins, then 

 the trout break all around him. "See the Gaspereaux hunting the 

 trout," he says. But these are only his harmless gambols, coloured 

 by the resistless instinct of reproduction. He has even been known 

 to rise at a fly, and to take a bait on these waters. Although the 

 salmon and trout are often seen spawning, I never met any one 

 who has seen the Gaspereaux in the act. So I suppose he spawns 

 in deep water, as we know he loves the deep lakes with clear 

 sandy margins. 



As hatching is a much shorter process than with the salmonidae, 

 there seems to be less need of a current of aerated water constantly 

 floating over the eggs, and thus the deep still waters of the lake 

 may be chosen. No doubt the moment spawning is over, his instinct 

 teaches him to return to salt water; but there seems some difficulty 

 in determining the exact time. This must be measured by the 

 power of either parent fish to retain the spa\^'n within theu* bodies. 

 Some observers put it at twenty-one days, in which time, from 

 leaving the sea, the Gaspereaux has spawned and commenced his 

 return, allowing that he has met Avith no obstruction. On the other 

 hand, sportsmen assure me that they have met them during July 

 on the lakes, and others, whose powers of observation I cannot 

 doubt, have seen them passing down in August. But they all 



