32 
KENDALL: NEW ENGLAND CHARRS. 
feed and the variety of Infusoria which are so plentiful in the lakes. Mr. Whitney, in a letter 
to the same paper in 1900, explained that “ground feed” of the lakes is an important element 
with all fish, composed of “insectivorous varieties and largely of viscous matter, which settles i 
profusely.” ^ 
The stomachs of the Rainbow Lake specimens of Bluebacks, 7s to 9 inches long, were full j 
of insect larvae of various kinds and a large number of Entomostraca. ! 
In a letter to Col. Fred Mather, published in Forest and Stream of May 5, 1887, Commis-; 
sioner Stanley wrote: “They are a very hardy fish and tenacious of life, nearly as much so as 
the eel or bullhead. I have frequently seen them alive in the morning, when they have lain on 
the shore all night.” 
J. Parker WTiitney {1. c.) wrote: “They are much more tenacious of life than the ordinary 
trout. I have had them out of water an hour, and apparently lifeless, and resuscitated them by 
putting them in water again, and a number will live in a barrel of water without change for ' 
weeks, which w'ould be fatal to the ordinary trout.” In his 1900 letter (L c.), Mr. Whitney 
reiterates this assertion. 
Capture. 
George Shepard Page, in 1874, (1. c.) wrote: “Notwithstanding the great number of anglers! 
who have frequented the ‘Rangeleys’ during the recent years, fishing all portions of the lake^ 
with all manner of bait on the surface and down in the deep, no one has ever caught a blueback. 
They have never been at the surface. Among the settlers the ‘ blueback mystery ’ has been an 
annual subject of discussion at the husking, quilting and fishing parties, and the country store, 
for over forty years. They never take a fly or bait. I state this as a fact, notwithstanding the 
possibility of contradiction by as good an authority as our worthy president of the American 
Fish Culturist Association and my esteemed friend, that expert angler, Hon. Rob’t. B. Roose- 
velt. When last we met at Rangeley, some four years ago, Mr. R. awaited with deep interest 
the advent of the bluebacks. They came at the appointed day in millions. Our friend had 
caught nearly every species of fish that swims in salt or fresh water, and he insisted that these ' 
beauties could be tempted by the gaudy fly. So day after day he stood on the apron of the old 
dam and fairly exhausted the treasures of his famous fly book. I shall never forget his over- i 
I 
flowing enthusiasm and boundless joy as he entered camp, bearing a single blueback attached 
to a diminutive fly hook. He loudly declared ‘the beauty bit,’ but we who had watched the 
angler casting the trio of sharp baited lures among the swimming thousands in the pool, wondered 
that such exquisite skill in casting had not resulted in hooking out three at a time.” 
Mr. E. S. Merrill, 1874, (1. c.) said that his party did take a few with bait in Rangeley j 
Stream. The Maine Commissioners’ Report for 1874 says: “They are rarely seen but in the 
spawning season. Now and then in deep fishing with bait in the lake one is caught, but rarely 
