368 TROUT AND ANGLING. 



points, where the sea trout are found in the great- 

 est numbers and perfection, compared to all the 

 other tide waters in the state, we proceed to men- 

 tion the two well known rivers, into which upon 

 the return of warm weather they begin to migrate, 

 called Child's and Marshpee rivers, or in other 

 words, we speak of the sea trout in fresh water. 

 The first mentioned river is shallow and will be 

 found more or less brackish according to its prox- 

 imity to the bay into which it runs ; the banks are not 

 wooded, and it receives the water of a brook that 

 takes its rise in springs and bogs at only a short 

 distance from the head of tide waters, or rather we 

 should say where the fresh water is backed by the 

 impulse of the flowing tide. As this brook is alto- 

 gether unfavorable for a mill, on account of its 

 short and sluggish character, the trout have unin- 

 terrupted access to its head waters, where they re- 

 pair in spawning time, but seem in no haste to run 

 in any great numbers at an earlier period of the 

 season, which fact is peculiar to this stream, and 

 no doubt is to be accounted for by the greater 

 abundance of good feed below. 



Occasionally this boggy brook affords good di- 

 version in its few approachable parts, but generally 

 speaking they are found collected in one or more 

 of the little shallow basins, a successive chain of 

 which forms this peculiar river. It has neither 



