308 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
and the mouths of streams early in the season, say in May and June?” Then he 
answers the question himself, saying: “Smelt. These toothsome little fish form 
the favorite food of the salmon. They run up into the mouths of streams to spawn 
and are followed thither by the landlocks as well as big brook trout.” Farther on, 
speaking of the smelt fry, which, he said, on July 1 were one-half to five-eighths inch 
long, he said they were just right to feed young salmon and trout in the hatching 
troughs and that the wild trout also helped themselves to the same delicate food. 
Writing of the smelt of Lake St. Johns, Canada, Chambers (1903) said: 
They are a favorite article of diet with the ouananiche, which, it has been suggested, might 
attain a larger size if a superior variety of smelts was planted in the lake for their benefit. 
The following table shows a few of the many detailed notes made by the present 
writer upon the stomach contents of some of the landlocked salmon caught by him in 
Sebago Lake, Me. 
Salmon 
Smelts found in stomach 
Date 
Weight, 
pounds 
Length, 
inches 
Number 
Length, 
inches 
Remarts 
Apr. 23, 1903 
19.3 
6 
2, 3, 3J4 5 
Wi-m 
The other two were nearly digested. 
June 25, 1907 
5H 
2 
14 
July 24, 1907 
Many. 
Many. 
12 
Young and 1 adult. 
Young. 
July 25, 1907 
2 
July 26, 1907 
8 
4M>4 
16 
Numerous. 
Adult small smelts. 
Aug. 23, 1907 
7 
27 
26 
3^-4^ 
July 15/ 1909 
2 
Many. 
Some. 
Young smelts among other things. 
Two comparatively fresh and others partly 
digested. 
Partly digested. 
Each. 
July 16| 1909 
4^-5 
4^-5 
514 
5)4 
July 20, 1909 
4 
2 
May 15, 1910 . 
2 M 
5 
May 16,' 1910. 
1 
Disgorged. 
Partly digested. 
Do. 
July 15, 1910.. 
VA 
16 
4 
July 16', 1910 
17 
4 
4 
Sep't. 18, 1910 
1 
Few. 
Do. 
Sept. 20, 1910 
12 
Few. 
Do. 
Sept. 26, 1910 
1234 
15 
Few. 
Do. 
May 13, 1916 
Several. 
434 
2-214 
Do. 
May 29, 1916 
Small. 
Small. 
Several. 
Do. 
May 31, 1916 
14 
Several. 
Young. 
BROOK TROUT (SALVELINUS FONTINALIS) 
In connection with landlocked salmon, two mentions were made of brook trout 
as smelt eaters. Mead (1883) said it was a “taking” bait for “red spot,” and Bean 
stated that wild trout fed upon young smelts. 
A correspondent of Maine Woods, writing from Mooselucmaguntic Lake, Me., 
on May 24, 1907, cited an instance of a 3-pound trout that contained 37 whole smelts, 
and he did not know how many more. He affirmed that it was a true smelt story, 
for he put them on the wharf and the boys counted them. 
At Sunapee Lake, N. H., on August 12, 1910, the present writer caught a trout, 
a pound or so in weight, which was gorged with young smelts. 
LAKE TROUT (CRISTIVOMER NAMAYCUSH) 
A Leith Adams (1873) wrote: 
The smelt is a favorite prey of the great spotted lake trout, which, with the brook trout, pur- 
sues them during winter, the former chasing the sculls to the influent waters, whilst the latter 
follows them up stream. 
