112 Salmonidz 
farthest south, in the head-waters of the Chattahoochee, 
Savannah, Catawba, and French Broad, rarely pass the dimen- 
sions of fingerlings. The largest specimens are recorded from 
the sea along the Canadian coast. These frequently reach a 
weight of ten pounds; and from their marine and migratory 
habits, they have been regarded as forming a distinct variety 
(Salvelinus fontinalis immaculatus), but this form is merely 
a sea-run brook-trout. The largest fresh-water specimens rarely 
exceed seven pounds in weight. Some unusually large brook- 
trout have been taken in the Rangeley Lakes, the largest known 
to me having a reputed weight of eleven pounds. The brook- 
trout is the favorite game-fish of American waters, preéminent 
in wariness, in beauty, and in delicacy of flesh. It inhabits all 
clear and cold waters within its range, the large lakes and the 
smallest ponds, the tiniest brooks and the largest rivers; and 
when it can do so without soiling its aristocratic gills on the way, 
it descends to the sea and grows large and fat on the animals of 
the ocean. Although a bold biter it is a wary fish, and it often 
requires much skill to capture it. It can be caught, too, with 
artificial or natural flies, minnows, crickets, worms, grasshoppers, 
grubs, the spawn of other fish, or even the eyes or cut pieces of 
other trout. It spawns in the fall, from September to late in 
November. It begins to reproduce at the age of two years, 
then having a length of about six inches. In spring-time the 
trout delight in rapids and swiftly running water; and in the 
hot months of midsummer they resort to deep, cool, and shaded 
pools. Later, at the approach of the spawning season, they 
gather around the mouths of cool, gravelly brooks, whither they 
resort to make their beds.* 
The trout are rapidly disappearing from our streams through 
the agency of the manufacturer and the summer boarder. In 
the words of an excellent angler, the late Myron W. Reed of 
Denver: “This is the last generation of trout-fishers. The 
children will not be able to find any. Already there are well- 
trodden paths by every stream in Maine, in New York, and in 
Michigan. I know of but one river in North America by the 
side of which you will find no paper collar or other evidence of 
civilization. It is the Nameless River. Not that trout will 
* Hallock. 
