BROOK TROUT 



enjoys ; nevertheless, they are one of the most destruc- 

 tive agents to be found in the water where trout exist. 



In the lakes referred to I found that the bullheads 

 fairly swarmed, to the exclusion of all other fish, except 

 a few big trout. They had not only destroyed the 

 trout-spawn, but had destroyed all the food of the 

 trout, and were themselves dwarfed and starved until 

 they were unfit for food. In other waters the bull- 

 heads would have sought for food, and fishing would 

 have kept them down, but men, as a rule, do not go 

 into the Adirondack Wilderness to catch bullheads, 

 and consequently all the fishing had been for trout, 

 and the bullheads had multiplied unmolested until they 

 monopolized the water to the exclusion of everything 

 else. In one little lake the bullheads were like a solid 

 Carpet of fish suspended in the water under the boat, 

 and with a piece of meat tied to a string about 2,ooo 

 were caught in a few hours, as many as seven being 

 lifted into the boat at one time. They were from three 

 to four inches long, and the largest taken was<five and 

 one-half inches long, too small to pay for dressing, even 

 had they been fat, which they were not. 



On the spawning-beds of lake trout in New Hamp- 

 shire, bullheads were found so gorged with trout-spawn 

 that they were lying helpless on their sides, and one of 

 the Commissioners who witnessed the sight told me 

 that he was firmly of the opinion that the gorging 

 would have proved fatal to some of the bullheads if 



the hatchery men had not anticipated the result. 



150 



