BROOK TROUT 



known and most attractive of all, the radiant brook 

 trout of New England, with its spangles of crimson, 

 blue, and orange, its mottled upper fins and vermicu- 

 lated back, its crimson pectoral fins edged with black 

 and white, its varying weights, its gameness on the 

 hook and off it, its bravery in the ring, and its all-round 

 vigor and beauty — all of which give to it an individu- 

 ality which has made it conspicuous in song and story 

 since the day of its advent. The Messenger Brothers, 

 of Boston, once put an equal number of black bass 

 and trout of different sizes in a large aquarium to dis- 

 cover the survival of the fittest, giving no food, but 

 leaving them to prey on each other ; and in spite of 

 all the sharp spines and protecting scale armor of the 

 bass, the trout had equal honors ! Out of two even 

 dozen four of each survived. 



As long ago as 1 748, the Russian naturalist, George 

 Stellar, made known the salmonidse of the Pacific 

 coast. In 1804, Lewis and Clark, American explorers, 

 added some Rocky Mountain species. In 1855, Dr. 

 Suckley, of the Pacific Railway Survey, gave a list of 

 seventeen peculiar to the waters of Washington and 

 Oregon. " Hallock's Gazetteer " enumerated and de- 

 scribed some twenty or more recognized species in 

 1877 ; at which date ichthyology was hardly out of 

 kindergarten. Since then, immense strides have been 

 made in the pursuit of this science, chiefly under the 

 tutelage of the inimitable United States Fish Commis- 

 sion, with its manifold equipments ; so that it has been 



