34 
KENDALL: NEW ENGLAND CHARRS. 
Mr. Rich stated that the settlers prepared those caught on the spawning beds in the fall 
for their use as food in the following winter and summer. Some were cured by salting, others 
by drying and still others by smoking. Some dressed them, others cured them whole. He 
wrote: “It is proverbial of certain families that they lived oh bluebacks and crossbills,” and 
that the crossbill, a small bird, was cured whole. 
Quality as food . — Girard (1853) said: “The flesh of this fish is highly flavored, and more 
delicate than that of the brook trouts in Europe and America. It resembles that of S. umbla, 
of the Swiss Lakes, both in the peculiarity of its habits and its delicacy. Salmo umbla is a lake 
trout, an inhabitant of the deep, making its appearance near shores in January and February 
to spawn, and never ascending the brooks or rivers, tributaries of these lakes.” 
Mr. E. S. Merrill in the article which has already been quoted, said: “We ate them several 
times, and found them a nice pan fish — juicy, tender and delicate, but from my little experience 
I would not give up the brook trout for them.” 
The Commissioners’ Report for 1874 says regarding it: “As a table fish we can not speak 
advisedly, never having eaten it except when taken on the spawning bed. To us they are not 
palatable, but as much so as the trout under the same circumstances.” In the Report for 1875, 
however, the statement is made that it is an excellent table fish, “most persons deeming it equal 
in flavor to the brook trout.” 
The Maine Fish Commissioners’ Report for 1878 said that they were much esteemed as a 
fine pan fish. 
A correspondent of Forest and Stream of December 15, 1887, wrote that some captured 
all that they cared for and tried them cooked, but were not generally pleased with the fla,vor, 
though they selected the males for the purpose. 
In Forest and Stream of November 24, 1900, Mr. Whitney said: “For food purposes it is 
inferior, though claimed by many to equal the ordinary trout, but to my taste it is soft and 
muddy.” 
Protection. 
From the foregoing it has been seen that the principal importance attached to the Blueback 
was its abundance and consequent availability as a food supply to early settlers. Later it found 
its way into the markets, or rather some shrewd “settler ” having been prohibited from marketing 
the Common Trout, apparently saw a way of “ turning an honest penny” by supplying the 
market with trout when the protected fish was forbidden. 
The first protective law for trout was enacted in 1869, Chapter 20, Section 18: “There 
shall be a yearly close time for landlocked salmon, trout and togue, during the months of Octo- 
ber, November and December, January and February, during which none of the fish mentioned 
above shall be taken or killed in any manner, under a penalty of not more than thirty or less 
