142 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



Knowing that the character given to our brown trout by this gentleman was 

 perfectly true I confess that I have now and then wondered that so little is said 

 in the American sportsmen's papers about the fish after ten years' trial. The 

 last report I heard was not quite so favorable as it might -have been and I 

 sincerely hope that our trout is not going to prove such a disappointment in 

 America as the American brook trout has proved in England — at any rate from the 

 point of view of the angler. Millions of fry and yearlings of 5. fontinalis have been 

 put into English rivers and I know of no single instance where the attempt to 

 stock a river or stream with them has been successful. After a time, not much 

 more than a year as a rule, they disappear. I have seen a long stretch of a trout 

 stream alive with thousands of healthy two year and three year old fontinalis one 

 season, and the next there was not one to be seen, and yet they do well in both this 

 country and in Germany when kept in trout breeding ponds, and so our fish breeders 

 keep on breeding them and selling them. I suspect the real secret of their non-success 

 in our rivers is that they find the water in the summer months is too warm for them. 

 S. fontinalis is a char; we have no native char in our rivers though we have in many 

 of our lakes, and this fact seems clearly to point to the natural unsuitability of our rivers 

 for char of any kind. For this reason I have not much faith in the rainbow trout for 

 English rivers, although so much has been said in praise of them that our fish breeders 

 are unable to supply the demand. I should like to know how the rainbow trout has 

 succeeded in the streams in the State of New York. I see from the Superintendent's 

 report, already quoted, that 14,500 fry of rainbow trout were placed in streams within 

 the State of New York as long ago as 1885. I notice that Mr. Frank N. Clark in his 

 report of operations at the Northville and Alpena (Mich.) stations for tne season of 

 1885-6, recommends the discontinuance of the propagation of rainbow trout at the 

 Northville station on account of the meagre and unsatisfactory results obtained. " It 

 would seem," he says, " that the species will not acclimatize to the waters of this 

 station notwithstanding the special effort that has been made for a number of years 

 to bring about this result." Of the brown trout he spoke much more hopefully, "the 

 stock fish of this species in the Northville ponds show a better and more uniform 

 growth than our brook trout and promise exceedingly well." 



To attempt to stock American streams which are already well stocked with native 

 brook trout seems to be unnecessary if not unwise. But the advance of civilization 

 and the alterations in the natural condition of the country consequent on it, appear to 

 be as inimical to the native trout as to the native Indian. If this is so, then it seems 

 unwise to attempt to restock such streams with 5. fontinalis. The natural conditions 

 under which he once flourished in them are no longer the same. 



