AMBEICAN CHAEES (BEOOK-TEOUT) 



the -wind at the maximum of her speed, the sensation experienced by 

 the strike of a four-or five-pound fish bankrupts all description. A strong 

 hne under such a tension would part at the instant ; but the ductility of the 

 wire averts this accident, and the man at the reel end of the rod experiences 

 a characteristic ' give,' quickly followed by the dead-weight strain of the 

 frenzied Salmonoid. To land a fish thjis struck implies much greater 

 patience and skUl than a successful battle, under similar circumstances 

 with a five-ounce six-strip and delicate tackle. The pleasure is largely 

 concentrated in the strike, and the perception of a big fish ' fast.' The 

 watchfulness and labour involved in the subsequent struggle border 

 closely on the confines of pain. The ductile wire is an essentially different 

 means from a taut sUk line. The fish holds the coign of vantage ; when 

 he stands back and with buU-dog pertinacity wrenches savagely at the 

 phable metal — ^when he rises to the surface in a despairing leap for his 

 life — the angler is at his mercy. But, brother of the sleave-silk and 

 tinsel, when at last you gaze upon your captive lying asphyxiated on the 

 surface, a synthesis of qualities that make a perfect fish — ^when you disen- 

 gage him from the meshes of the net, and place his icy figure in your 

 outstretched palms, and watch the tropaeoHn glow of his awakening tones 

 soften into cream tints, and the cream tints pale into the pearl of the 

 moonstone, as the muscles of respiration grow feebler and more irregular 

 in their contraction — ^you wiU experience a peculiar thrill that the capture 

 neither of ouananiche, nor fontinalis, nor namaycush can ever excite. 

 It is this after-glow of pleasure, this delight of contemplation and specula- 

 tion, of which the scientific angler never wearies, that lends a charm 

 all its own to the pursuit of the Alpine trout.' 



This author, who has made a study of this trout, thus de- 

 scribes its nuptial tints : 



' As the October pairing time approaches, the Sunapee fish becomes 

 illuminated with the flushes of maturing passion. The steel-green mantle 

 of the back and shoulders now seem to dissolve into a veil of amethyst, 

 through which the daffodil spot of mid-summer gleam out in points of 

 flame, while below the lateral fine all is dazzling orange. The fins catch 

 the hue of adjacent parts, and pectoral, ventral, anal, and lower lobe of 

 caudal, are marked with a lustrous white band. 



' It is a unique experience to watch this American saibhng spawning 

 on the Sunapee shallows. Here in all the magnificence of their nuptial 

 decoration flash schools of painted beauties, circling in proud sweeps 

 about the submerged boulders they would select as the scenes of their 

 loves — ^the poetry of an epithalamium in every motion — ^in one direction, 

 uncovering to the simbeams in amorous leaps their golden-tinctured sides, 



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