The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-07-04
BROOK TROUT.
BY CHARLES G.. ATKINS.

lnere are trout ana trout. NO less
than nine distinct species in twenty
eight varieties, are Known as trout
among the fishes of North America.
There are, for instance, the great lake
trout, the rainbow trout, the dolly
warden trout, the Sunapee trout and so
on; and in Europe and Asia there are
many other species. But at the head OF
them all, in beauty and quality and re-
nown, stands the speckled brook trout
of North America. This is the trout
that inha bits every cool brook in Maine,
and nearly or quite all the deep and
cool ponds and lakes. In the brooks it
is generally a diminutive creature,
weighing only a few ounces; in the
lakes it is fish of pounds, but it is the
same species in both cases, known to
the ichthyologist as Salvelinus fontina-
lis-that is, the trout Tor "charr"( of
the fountains. This name ''charr" is
one that our brook trout has escaped by
some sort of accident: for those trout
of the old world that are most closely
related to it in structure are not called
trout" at all. but ''charr:" and some
of the old world writer's, who are fussy
about names, insist that our fish should
be called only the american CHAIR
But what is in name? To us this
fayorte fish has always been a trout,
aud trout it shall remain, whether we
catch it in a little brook or in Patterns
pond or Moosehead lake; and when
anyone brings US laker from Moose
head and calls it trout we will say
"togue," better call it ''togue," and
keep the name trout" for our speck-
led friend.
A trout begins life in little round
half transparent pale yellowish egg,
about an eighth of an inch in diameter,
the shell of which is flexible and elastic
like india rubber. These eggs are de-
posted by the mother fish in autumn,
| in heaps of gravel in rapid brooks and
| left to their fate. When they have lain
there hidden for some weeks, say about
| Christmas, if we should get one out and
examine it we should find it tenanted
by minute fish, with two immense
staring black eyes, a slender body coil
ed up around the yolk, a pulsating
| heart, veins and arteries through which
courses red blood Life has begun, but
not until spring does the little fish
break the shell and begin to breathe.
Some time in May he begins to feed,
eating the tiniest water animals. When
first born he weighs perhaps a couple
Of grains. With such immense rapidity
does he grow, if conditions are favor
able, that in six months the two grains
have become one or two hundred grains,
and in three years he weighs from one
to several pounds, that is, from four to
ten thousand times the weight with
which he started in life. If we humans
grew like that we should get to weigh
| twenty tons apiece before we were old
enough to go to school.
Trout appear to be able to adapt them
selves to their environment remarkably
well, growing slowly and remaining al
ways small fish if in very close quarters,
in very small brook, for instance, and
where food is scanty, but in deep and
roomy waters, with abundant food,
growing to very large size. Perhaps it
is in the Rangeley lakes that they reach
the greatest weight The writer once
saw the catch of an afternoon fishing
party at the RangeleyS laid out side by
side on table, and there was trout
for every half pound up to eight pounds.
Larger fish than this have, however,
been caught in those waters; there are
| we'll atteSted instances of eleven pound
trout, and perhaps larger.
The brook trout is a favorite subject
of artificial propagation and rearing. A
hundred thousand have been reared at
Craig Brook this season. The Z. S.
Fish Commission distributed $500
of various ages during a single year.
In southeastern Massachusetts there
are several fsh-farms devoted to the
growing of trout for market. Spring
brooks are transformed into ponds
where many thousands of trout are fed
by hand on chopped meat, chopped fish,
ETC., on such scale that the product
marketed amounts to several tons an
nually for each farmer. The cost of the
operation would not permit of finan-
cial success were it not for the great
reputation of trout among epicures,
which warrants dealers in paying very
high prices, such as forty or fifty cents
per pound.
One thing that trout insist on is cool
water Young salmon will thrive in
water that rises often to eighty degrees
at that temperature and even suffer
when it gets up to seventy degrees.
About sixty to sixty-five degrees Fab
renheit suits them admirably, and in
lower temperatures than that they
maintain their health perfectly but
grow slower. So in rivers where they
abound they seek the mouths of cool
brooks during the hottest part of sum-
mer, and in lakes they move into the
depths, where it is at that season always
cooler than at the surface. Shallow
lakes, say thirty feet in extreme depth,
are apt to get too warm and trout sell
dom if ever inhabit such waters in any
considerable numbers.
Another essential for trout is suitable
spawning ground. The best is good
stream of clean water with gravelly
rapids. Next to this is a gravel bar or
gravelly shore in lake, but in this
case the water must be very pure.
Craig pond, in Orland, may be named
as piece of water where the latter
conditions prevail. Trout have main
tanned themselves there since time i'm
memorial by spawning on the gravelly
shores. 1t is, however, rare that they
are plenty in such waters.
Trout appear to be in all cases animal
feeders. When young they eat minute
crustacea; when little larger their
food consists almost wholly of insects,
but as soon as they are large enough to
swallow other fishes they prey on all
such as come within reach, and care
not if the victim be of their own race.