BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 21 
7.-BKOWN TROUT IN AMERICA. 
By FRED MATHER. 
In July, 1886, Mr. Amsden, a banker, of Rochester, H. Y., sent to 
Mr. E. G. Blackford, of Fulton Market, a brown trout which weighed, 
on its receipt by Mr. Blackford, 3 pounds. It was taken in Allen’s 
Creek, Monroe County, Hew York, a tributary of the Genesee River, 
which receives the famous Caledonia Creek, on which the hatchery of 
the Hew York fish commission at Mumford is placed. This fish must 
have been one which was hatched at the Hew York station in March, 
1883, from eggs sent there by me. These eggs were the first which 
were received in America, and came to me as a personal present from 
my friend, Mr. von Behr, president of the Deutscher Fischerei-Verein, 
whose headquarters are in Berlin, and consequently the fish was about 
three years and three months old. 
At the time that these eggs were sent from Germany Mr. von Behr 
advised me that there were two kinds of them, not species, nor even 
varieties, but merely from different waters. One kind, the larger eggs, 
were from trout inhabiting deep lakes, while the smaller kind were from 
the mountain streams. These kinds are probably analogous in respect 
of size to the fontinalis of the Rangeley Lakes of Maine and those of our 
other eastern American waters, as near as I understand the case. I 
sent to the Caledonia station eggs of both kinds, and this fish, which 
was taken in Allen’s Creek, is probably one that escaped from the 
hatchery, unless a plant had been made in the creek. 
In the ponds now under my charge at this place, we reserved some 
of these first importations, but lost the greater portion of them from 
various causes. The station was then new and the waters were infested 
with eels, which have since been kept down as far as possible, and, 
while we raised several thousand to be a year old, we lost the most of 
these by their jumping from the pond they were confined in, an event 
which has been previously recorded in the publications of the Fish 
Commission. Of the few that were left there was one which was some- 
what larger than its fellows, and iiroved to be a male fish, and was named 
“Herr von Behr,” in honor of my German friend. In October, 1886, 
when it was three and a half years old, we took it from the pond and 
placed it in an aquarium in the hatchery, which had a good flow of run- 
ning water, in order to show it to the Hew York fish commissioners, who 
were expected theMext day. In the morning the fish was dead, and it 
now reposes in alcohol, where its size can be admired by visitors. „ Its 
weight was 3J pounds plump, or at the rate of 1 pound a year. 
Mr. James Annin, jr., proprietor of the trout ponds at Caledonia, 
H. Y., writes that the growth of the brown trout in his ponds is greater 
than that of the native brook trout. 
