2i6 Roosevelt Wild Lite Bullet in 



A good example of the disastrous ettects of indiscriminate tish 

 cultural operations is that of a small pond in ^vlaine, which was 

 originally inhabited by a species of trout found in but two or three 

 lakes elsewhere and in no other place in the State. As soon as it was 

 discovered, it received fish cultural attention. Every season these 

 fish were seined, stripped of eggs, hatched and distributed in other 

 waters, until the trout became so scarce in the pond that it was fish- 

 culturally unprofitable to operate any longer. Of all the young of this 

 fish planted in otlier waters not one has survived, for the reason that 

 no one of the lakes in which it was planted was suited to the physi- 

 ological requirements of the species. Instead of endeavoring to 

 increase and maintain this rare species in its one known favorable 

 habitat in the State, landlocked salmon, steelhead trout, Scotch sea 

 trout, and various other species were planted in the little lake, — 

 which seems strange in view of the fact that not far distant was a 

 comparatively large lake which was one of the four localities in the 

 State where landlocked salmon naturally occurred. Of all the species 

 planted in that little pond, not one now remains. 



Another extreme example of this kind ma} be cited. Sunapee 

 Lake, in New Hampshire, formerly was noted for its numerous and 

 large trout. This fact led the Commissioners to try to make it still 

 more attractive. Prior to fish cultural introductions, which began 

 with landlocked salmon in 1867, so far as records show, the list of 

 native fishes of the lake comprised an even dozen species. There 

 were bornpout, common sucker, four species of minnows and chubs, 

 two species of chars or so-called trout, eel, pickerel, sunfish and perch. 

 From 1867 to 1909, fourteen other species had been introduced ; 

 namely, landlocked salmon, blackbass, smelt, whitefish, blueback 

 trout, round whitefish. Loch Leven trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, 

 chinook salmon, grayling, silver salmon, pike, perch and lake trout, 

 although the last named was probably by accident. Of these the 

 whitefish, pike, perch, blueback trout. Loch Leven trout, rainbow 

 trout, silver salmon and grayling have never been reported, and only 

 one or two brown trout have been observed. Of the introduced 

 species only the blackbass, smelt, landlocked salmon, and chinook 

 salmon ever manifested themselves in sufficient numbers to produce 

 any appreciable eft'ect on the conditions of the lake. The pickerel 

 decreased in numbers, the perch became almost or practically extinct, 

 cyprinoids were far scarcer than in former years, and the land- 

 locked salmon had greatly decreased in number, when the chinook 

 was introduced. The second species of char or " trout " w^as not 

 discovered until 1885 or about that year. It had not been known 

 anvwhere prior to that time, but had evidently always existed in the 

 lake, although unrecognized as different from the brook trout. It 

 was subsequently described as a new species and at once became 

 famous. It was then given the usual attention by the fish culturists 

 and distributed far and wide in other waters with no positive results. 



Here was a lake, which, according to tradition, at one time 

 abounded in trout, the only known or recognized salmonids of those 



