FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 355 



no weeds or grass, no shrimp and very little insect life — a few very small minnows, 

 but millions of smelt. The water, sand and rocks are precisely similar to the 

 natural waters they came from, only they were introduced to an entirely new meal 

 in the smelt and they have made of it a continual thanksgiving feast. It has 

 apparently made of them a new fish so far as we can at present judge. We may yet 

 be disappointed. I have never allowed much fishing, desiring to give the fish more 

 opportunity to increase, but every time we have tried them for the last two years 

 we have taken enough for a meal for our family on fly and troll and minnow. I 

 have taken some of nearly four pounds weight. I caught seven there recently, six 

 of them full of eggs. I kept only one, a male, for a friend of mine to take back to 

 New York with him. We shook three or four smelt out of him. They are good 

 strong fighters and are a beautiful fish to see come out of the water for your fly." 



Other data about this mysterious fish may be mentioned as follows : In the early 

 part of June, 1900, while the writer was a guest of the St. Bernard Club on Lake 

 Saccacomi, one of its members, Mr. Chas. F. Burhans of Warrensburgh, N. Y., 

 brought in a red trout of about one-half pound in weight which he had just taken on 

 a fly while casting for speckled trout. This specimen was sent to Washington and 

 pronounced to be identical with the S. aiireoliis as well as a specimen caught about 

 two weeks later upon a troll in the same lake. I think Mr. Burhans is the only 

 fisherman who has taken the red trout at Saccacomi with a fly in its native waters, 

 he having secured one the year before I was with him. I know of only three red 

 trout having been taken from Lake Saccacomi by legitimate fishing. The habitants 

 report taking them through the ice from the spawning beds in past years. I find 

 their testimony almost as delusive as the fish itself. In the three Red Lakes many 

 sportsmen have fished for them by the various legitimate methods, without success. 

 In experiments of this nature and also by fishing with nets and set lines for speci- 

 mens and for purposes of propagation, I deduce the following as to their habits : 



They are a cold water fish like the 6'. nauiayciish. In early spring they come in 

 shore and remain near the surface for a short time and during this period will occa- 

 sionally take a troll. They are not abundant and could not be expected to be 

 plentiful in the three Red Lakes, not only because of the perch in the two lower lakes 

 but also because the habitant fishes for them in close season. In fact, it is practi- 

 cally the only time when they do fish for them. I cannot understand why there 

 should not be a great many of them in Saccacomi, a protected lake, but if numerous 

 in this lake they are not in evidence when the angler is there. Perhaps if the fish 

 were more abundant they would prove ready biters at a troll. When hooked they 

 are great fighters, but it is the fight of resistance and when they surrender no further 

 attempts to escape are noticeable. Mr. Burhans informs me that those which he 



