Fisli Culture in Inland Waters 217 



waters. In early times the trout were killed in their spawning beds, 

 caught through the ice, and netted in the lake. Necessarily such in- 

 tensive procedure resulted in depletion. The very first step to re- 

 populate the lake was not by propagation and planting of trout, but 

 by the introduction of landlocked salmon. One year later small- 

 mouth blackbass were introduced. Two years after the first plant 

 of the latter fish smelt were planted. So far as the salmon were con- 

 cerned this was a wise provision. In the State Fish Commissioner's 

 reports no reference is made to planting of trout in this lake until 

 twelve years after the planting of the first landlocked salmon, but up 

 to that time over 16,000 salmon had been planted. But in the subse- 

 quent 30 years, over 1,000,000 young trout, and over 700,000 land- 

 locked salmon were planted. 



Up to about 1895 salmon were reported to be abundant and large, 

 but in the following ten years they greatly declined in number and fell 

 ofif somewhat in average size. In 1904 the chinook or king salmon 

 of Columbia River was introduced and some were planted nearly 

 every subsequent year. The first catch of this species was made two 

 years later. They were caught each year subsequently in increasing 

 numbers, and it was estimated that in 1910 from 400 to 500 were 

 caught — ranging from a little over 2 to nearly 17 pounds. Large 

 catches were reported in 1912 and 1913, but later they began to fall 

 off in the number of fish taken, so that in 1917 the situation was as 

 follows, — to quote the former State Fish Culturist of New York, 

 who said a former New Hampshire Commissioner thus wrote him : 

 "Fishing all gone to hell, not a salmon this spring; the chinooks 

 were good for a time, but do not reproduce and have all been caught 

 out. They have dumped lots of fish in the lake, but they seem to do 

 us no good." 



In this lake the decline of landlocked salmon was attributable to 

 lack of suitable spawning places, and failure to plant more fish for a 

 number of years. 



Concerning the chinook salmon in Sunapee Lake, the present writer 

 once had occasion to state that to his mind at least, a permanent self- 

 sustaining stock of chinook salmon in that lake was unattainable, and, 

 unless the existing stock was self-sustaining, it was a waste of time, 

 money and fish to continue planting it, for the day would surely come 

 when the supply of eggs from the west must fail; that if this fish 

 has been maintained in the lake in the number then present, the dis- 

 appearance of the fishes upon which it feeds must be hastened, and 

 when the chinook stock also was gone, the lake would be worse ofit 

 than ever before, and there would be some who would call for recom- 

 mendations as to how to improve the fishing (Kendall, '13). 



A letter recently received (July, 1922) from the Commissioner of 

 New Hampshire says : " Chinook salmon have had their ups and 

 downs in Sunapee, as in most lakes in the East. We have had several 

 seasons at dififerent times when the fishing was excellent and great 

 numbers were taken. It was possible to estimate their age with con- 

 siderable accuracy as in the dififerent years the catches were practi- 



