BROOK TROUT. 
83 
some days and occasions exhibit an eager recklessness, and all fearless and bent on destruction. 
It was a cold, blustering, gusty day, with occasional sleet, late in September, when I had to go 
back frequently to a fire on the shore to thaw out my benumbed hands. At intervals the water 
boiled about me with swirling breaks, and visible currents of pursuing fish. My first cast, a 
short one, scarcely 10 feet away, responded with a 5-pounder in an instant, and I begrudged the 
time it required to bring him to net. Another and another rose in succession to my fly, which 
scarcely flecked the very ripple caps ere it was taken. No under surface draw seemed required 
for my first few fish, and I screamed with delight at each strike. My third was an 8| pounder, 
and the largest of the day, and the smallest was 3 lbs., and my total catch, 10 fish, which weighed 
57 lbs.” 
Habitat. 
In the spring of the year the trout begin to scatter and often may be found at almost any 
point in the lake, their location being controlled by their food supply to a great extent. But as 
the hot weather approaches they become more and more restricted in their movements until 
finally they resort to cool waters of “deep” holes or cold in-flowing brooks. Again in the fall 
they congregate on shoals, or at the mouths of streams which they ascend to spawn. After 
spawning they gradually work back into the lake and are found about the mouths of streams or 
wherever food may be found. It is this latter rundown fish that has been mentioned pre- 
viously by a correspondent as constituting one of his supposed distinct races. 
In an article published in Forest and Stream, November 24, 1900, Mr. J. P. Whitney said 
that in December and early January the trout are comparatively plentiful in a few feet of water 
below the ice, and that afterwards they are mostly in from 15 to 40 feet. 
Brooks possessing suitable conditions are occupied throughout the year and sometimes 
year after year, at least in some portions of it. While streams tributary to lakes afford nurseries 
from which the lake receives an annual supply, many trout, continuing small, reach maturity 
and pass their whole existence in the brooks. 
Migratory Movements. 
Trout are not subject to extended migrations and in the far inland waters, excepting their 
movements for breeding or seasonal accommodation, they are rather localized in their habits. 
Near the coast, however, when possible, they often enter the sea and in certain localities there 
seems to be a race of almost permanent marine trout, entering fresh water at more or less regular 
periods. In New England such fish are locally known as “salters.” 
One of the previously mentioned Rangeley Lake observers, in a communication to a sports- 
men’s journal, wrote: “Trout are not migratory in their habits, although in exceptional in- 
