The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1885-08-08
GIANT TROUT.
Why. They Hare Disappeared from thu
Lakes and streams IT New York.

why They Hare Disappeared from the
Lakes and Streams sf Ne~ York.
Fifty years ago the largest brock
tout ever known were found in White
Lake, Sullivan County. This lake, like
most of the mountain lakes Of this
region. has no inlet. but the water coffies
up from the earth through sand of
snowy whiteness. 1t is simply an
enormous spring. covering an area of
several miles, and is nearly 100 feet in
depth. At the DEPTH Of fifty feet the
bottom is distinctly visible on n clear
day so transparent is the water. The
outlet of the lake is one Of the most
romantic streams in the State. Here,
rs late as 1850, splendid specimens Of
brock trout were occasionally captured,
but the piskerel and black bass that had
been unfortunately introduced into the
lake some years before had Utmost &C.
complished the work of destruction,
which is now complete. Up to 1S45 a
four-pound trout was not an uncommon
tribute to the skin Of the angler on
White Lake The largest trout ever
Caught In the lake of which there is any
record wits captttred i9 l643 by one
Lewis Piatt II weighed within d ffac-
ton of nine pounds. In 1s40 the late
Otto Gilpin hooked and SUD
ceeded in landing trout in the
narrows Of White Lake, which
weighed seven pounds. Charles Fenno
Holman, the unfortunate, captured q
six-potfnder on one Of his many excur-
sions to the lake: A gentleman named
Belknap. 81 Nswburg, secured the prize
of severn nd-a-half-pouud trout in
White Lake in 1912. These were cap
tured, too, after pickerel had been in
troduced into the lake. The pickerel,
or more properly speaking, the pike. i
an importation into oil the waters In
which he is found in this fegidn. Sixty
years ago an Indian came from some
where IN Canada to visit scattered
remnant Of his tribe that had remained
in Sussex County, N. j., after the
Revolution, BY the persistence and
singular skill chara6teristic Of his tribe
he carried with him a water-tight vesse
made of bark, in which he brought six
small pickerel. They were all that
were left of thirty fry with which he
had started. These six pickerel hs
turned into Culver's Pond, in SUISSE,
County, where they faPidls increased
and made the pond famous as pick
erel fishing resort. That venture of the
Indians was the beginning of the enc
of the trout dynasty in the Delaware
Valley mountain lakes Antagonist
of races among fish had not come to b,
a matter Of popular knowledge in thos,
DAYS, and when the stocking of othel
lakes with pickerel from Culyer's Pone
was begun it was done without tn,
slightest thought that the new fist
was the deadly enemy of all weaker
piscatorial families. In 1888 johnson
Brink transported number Of pickere
from Culver's pond to Big Brink Pond
in Pike County, Pa, and in time all the
charming lakes in that and the adjoining
counties were supplied with these pisca
torial cannbals. In few years tn,
people saw their mistake, for the trou
generally disappeared from the waters
but it was then too late to apply rem
edy, for the pickerel had come TO stay
and stay he has. From Brink PonC
pickerel were put in White Lake in 1885
Not satisfied with the Introduction o.
this waterwolf. John b. Findlay. then I
prominent man in Sullivan County
hired an Ind ian to fetch a number O
black bass from one of the Northern
New York lakes. and these were turned
into that magnificent home of thu
bespangled trout. With these two
ravenous marauders-the pike and thu
black bass-engaged in relentless wal
on them, the royal race of trout disap
peared before them as rapidly and com
pletely as the Montezumas passed away
before the hordes of Spain. Now anG
then. at long intervals, some lucky
angler intrudes his bait into the secure
haunt where some lone remnant of tbs
race has made his hermitage, and tn,
old recluse becomes d nine days won.
der, but the days when his sovereign
line ruled right royalty these domain,
of crystal water are but memory ant
a name. Port Jercis IN ~ Cor. N. o
| Times.