Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1892 — How a Trout Swings. [ARTICLE]

How a Trout Swings.

We sat an hour or more a few evenings ago on the east bank of the Beaverkill at Rockland, , says the ' American Angler, and watched the trout of that celebrated river passing over the dam, which i; nearly thfee feet' high, with about a four-inch volume of water pouring over it. The trout ranged in size from ten to eighteen inches, and during the time wo sat there at least twenty mahaged to gee over. i n many instances a first attempt failed, owing, however, more to an apparent want of judgment, or perhaps experience, then from lack of r physical ability in the fish to accomplish the feat 4 the smaller fish, as a rule, jailed to get over in the first effort. But a few of the larger fish made a clean jump into the smooth water above the apron of the dam. Most of them passed perpendicularly up the falling waters, and with apparent ease. These fish were enabled to swim straight up this downpour of the waters by the great muscular power they possessed ; there was no trick, no sleight of hand about it—it was mere strength of body, which is evidently centered in the peduncle or tail and the tail fin. They actually sculled Their Bodies up this comparatively dense mass of water. The query naturally arises: If a teninch trout can swim up such a fall what is the capacity of a salmon forty inches under similar conditions? What we saw the trout do has never before, so far as we know, been placed upon record, and it establishes a fact from which greater swimming power should be assigned to the salmondae than has been given them. by previous observers.