m 



FOREST AM) STREAM. 



Sb1\ §tt1tw!e. 



This Jonrnal is the Official Organ of the Fish ( nihil- 

 ists' Association. 



FLASHES FROM THE "BLUELIGHT" 



FOUBTH WEEK. 



TWO weeks must be covered in this letter to bring my 

 letters up to date; they have been busy ones; late 

 hours in the laboratory have been necessary 1 6 enable the 

 naturalists to classify and preeeiTe the immense qunntity 

 Of material that the Bluelight's dredging and trawling has, 

 in eleven trips, brought in. Nearly ("-cry day has been 

 utilized, for the weather has been fine and our time is grow- 

 ing short. Our investigations have covered considerable 

 ground; extending our field of research by degrees, from 

 six hour trips, we now count them of from twelve to thirty- 

 six hours' duration. To the westward as far as Saybrook, 

 and in the brackish mouth of the Connecticut, to the east- 

 ward some way beyond Watch Hill, and to the southward, 

 we have worked 'in Gardiner's Bay. Pecdnic Bay, and 

 Block Island Koads, and along the northern coast of Long 

 Island, and the deep waters of the Race, have been well 

 overhauled. As in previous weeks, many additions have 

 been made to the known fauna of southern Hew England. 



Our champion haul took place on the Slat lilt, about 

 three miles to flic southward of Watch Hill, w here, in 

 eighteen fathoms, we struck cold water, and our trawl 

 came up so heavily loaded that it cost us all of our inge- 

 nuity to bring it safely on board. Over twelve hundred 

 pounds of creatures were torn from their retreats— hardly 

 a peck of dirt, but our deck was covered with skates, 

 flounders, sponges, shell fish, and countless minor varieties: 

 skates predominated. Among the flounders were one or 

 two of a rare variety. 



Two bushels of the "Peeten" (scallopl were included in 

 the haul, and were eagerly bucketed. To say nothing of 

 their value, in a scientific point of view, their very pretty 

 shells were in demand for collection, and their contents for 

 the table, as when nicely prepared we found them decided- 

 ly good, the meat white" and firm, and with a slight gout 

 of parsnips. We rated tiicm as ahead of clams, i hough 

 not up to oysters. 



An interesting discovery was made in connection with 

 the Pectenz. This is a little fish, the lump sucker (Liparis 

 Linneutu.H), which is rare, and all that have ever been 

 found have been from north of Cape Cod, their limit ex- 

 tending, I believe, even to the Arctic waters. Last year in 

 Casco Bay, Professor Putnam found one or two attached 

 by their suckers to the roots of the laminaria. We found 

 numbers of this little fish, living at their ease, within the 

 shell of the Peeten, and swimming about in Ore liquor of 

 the shell fish. They were each about three fourths of an 

 inch in length, with large heads and tapering tails, some- 

 what like an ordinary river bullhead. Un the belly of each 

 there is a round disk, which constitutes an apparatus by 

 which he clings to roots, etc., when free, swimming. We 

 found, also, in the Peeten shells, little crabs {Pinoffteree), 

 very like those found in the oyster, and in some of them 

 the whole family of three creatures were living in appa- 

 rent peace together. 



The warm water oi Peconic Bay furnished plenty of ma- 

 terial, but nothing, I believe, thai could not be expected 

 to be found in that locality. With the temperature of the 

 water reaching 71° and 72 , no northern fauna nor algae 

 were to be expected, and none were found, although I 

 believe that one or two species of the latter were added to 

 the known list of the productions of the New England 

 coast. Off the Connecticut River we brought up but little 

 animal life — a few very young skates and a shell fish or 

 two. But I think it very likely that our trawl did not 

 reach the bottom, and instead slid along, supported more 

 or less by the immense laminaria, of which it brought up 

 some magnificent specimens. Professor Eaton collected 



its and fruits, to transmit to 

 a distinguished naturalist there. 

 ally assigned the fish investiga- 



1'rofcssor Goods, not many very 

 B been received. A fine specimen 

 AjtlanOca) was brought in by a 



some very fine ones, 

 Europe, in exchange 

 In the department s 



tious, under the chare 



important acquisition: 



of the conger eel [Oo 



smack from Block Island, and a very rare hake of the 



Cropthayriii species was captured in our trawl at Gardner's 



Bay. Of this latter fish, but three or four have ever been 



captured. 



The experiment of artificially impregnating the eggs of 

 the sea bass has been twice repeated, the last time witli 

 some show of success, as on the second day after a number 

 were found under the microscope to be thoroughly seg- 

 mented, but unfortunately a larger proportion had died, 

 and it is probable that their death and decay will destroy 

 the healthy ones, as they are so fine that it is impossible to 

 separate them. 



Blue fish are still scarce. About a hundred were taken 

 in one of the pounds hist week, but those who went troll- 

 ing for them the next day, on the strength of the news, 

 came home disappointed. I am assured, though, that 

 "they will be here yet." I hope so. The fact is, that there 

 is no good fishing iu this immediate vicinity. A tew sea 

 bass, black fish, and flounders, can be caught on the reefs, 

 and mackerel when they will bite, but the chances of a pay- 

 ing result are not great enough to compensate fot tin- day's 

 work. Lobsters are plentiful, and larger than those we 

 eot last year in .Maine, but still liner ones are occasionally 

 brought" in from Halifax. The magnificent climate, 

 though, with which Noank is blessed— never hot, nor cold, 

 nor chilly — more than compensates us for the loss of our 

 sport, aud our invalids, for we have them, are rapidly 

 yielding to Us influence, and are getting readj lo 

 with the doctors. 



The sloop Arabella left here on Monday for Gardner's 

 Bay, and on Wednesday she returned with an odoriferous 

 load of "bony fish" (menhaden). She had about 20(1,000, 

 seined in Gardner's Bay. She went over to Mason's is] 

 and, where there is an oil factory, owned by a Mr. Chap- 

 man, and shortly after 1 paid them a visit, and found the 

 fish being rapidly transformed into oil aud manure. From 

 the wharf at which the vessel lies, an inclined railway, on 

 which travels a box on wheels, reaches to the upper story 

 of the mill. The box full tallies 4,000, and a pair of oxen 

 furnish the steam to drag them up, where they are first 

 emptied into great troughs and boiled tor about fifteen 

 minutes, then, with pitchforks, transferred to 111 



which were not unlike very old fashioned cheese presses, 

 the weight being hung on to the Jong arm of a lever. From 

 the press a dal'li fluid, four fifths water at first, but richer 

 in oil as the pressure continues, flows through troughs to 

 receptacles in the open air, where, being separated from 

 the water, the oil is left to bleach and purify through the 

 action of sunlight and showers. The refuse "scrap" is 

 sold for manure. The quantity of oil from the fish varies 

 with the season. In the spring tbej- are lean and poor, and 

 one to two gallons per thousand is obtained. Mow the fish 

 weigh a pound or more each, and furnish about five gallons 

 to the thousand; in the fall they will give perhaps fifteen. 

 It seems almost like killing the golden egged goose to work 

 them up in the spring, when the oil from a thousand fish 

 together will bring but thirty-six to seventy-two cents, for 

 the price per gallon is the former figure. The oil is in de- 

 maud to mix with linseed oil, to which, although a fish oil. 

 it assimilates. The mill lias the capacity to work up about 

 fifty thousand fish per day. With a little new fashioned 

 machinery, and the introduction of steam for power aud 

 boiling the fish, four limes the work could be effected at 

 less expense — which, however, would be hard on preser- 

 vation of fish. 



On the 30th we ran over to Gardner's Bay. and made a 

 number of hauls in it. We found there the United States 

 ship Constellation, the practice ship of the midshipmen 

 from the Naval Academy, aud after seeing the midshipmen 

 "furl sails" in good style the first classmen were permitted 

 by Captain Breese to come on board and take a little trip 

 with us, aud see for themselves how dredging was per- 

 formed. No great addition was made to our stock of 

 valuables, but a good deal of interest was exhibited in the 

 combative propensities of hermit crabs, and a "Noank 

 Naiad" which came up iu the trawl furnished considerable 

 amusement. 



Among our microscopic curiosities for this week we have 



added to the col- 

 lection some speci- 

 mens of the tad- 

 pole, from which 

 the human race has 

 developed ! One of 

 the professors 

 tacks my name of I 

 "tadpole, "and says 

 that it is an a.tcid- ' 

 ian, aud that the 

 appearance of ver- 

 tebra; in the tail is 

 caused by cells, 

 etc. ; but they at- 

 tack so many rea- 

 sonable and popu- 

 lar views of things, 

 and insist upon our 

 calling by such ab- 

 surd names things 

 with which we have 

 been on friendly 

 terms all of our 

 lives, that I don't 

 always feel inclined 

 to yield. I can ad- 

 mit that a clam may 

 be a ••».//" urina- 

 ria," or that a little 



stagger through life 



in the character of 

 a Ktrongi/loceittrolun 

 drbbachieims; but I 

 do think that the 

 little fellow, with 

 whose portrait I 

 furnish you, looks 

 more like a tadpole 

 than he does like a 

 eynihea earnea; but 

 such is his scientific 

 cognomen, and he 

 is odd and mysteri- V 

 ous enough in his \ 

 habits to merit, per- 

 haps, an extra nam- 

 ins. These eamea, 

 and all of the 

 groups to which 

 they belong, while 

 in comparative in- 

 The principal point of 



r 



■■\i 



fancy develop 

 their ovaries a sim- 

 ple egg. While 

 still within the pa- 

 rent, this egg pro- 

 duces a tadpole- 

 shaped larva?, like 

 the one figured, 

 which is scarcely 

 visible to the naked 

 eye. This crea- 

 ture is born alive, 

 and for a short 

 time swims freely 

 about by means of 

 its tail, which is 

 provided with a 

 broad fin. After a 

 time they attach 

 themselves to some 

 object, as a stone 

 or shell, and de- 

 velop into the 

 peach-colored and 

 peach-shaped ani- 

 mal known as I he 

 sea peach, which is 

 found rooted to the 

 bottom. Others be- 

 come the sea pota- 

 toes, sea apples. 

 etc., all so named 

 from their resem- 

 blance to the fruit 

 of the same names, 

 and which were de- 

 scribed in the ar- 

 t i e 1 e ''Do w n 

 Among the Mollus- 

 ca," in one of the 

 F o r e s t a jij D 

 Stokam numbers 

 of last fall. In 

 this state, except to 

 the natural isr., they 



show but slight, ap- 

 pearance of being 

 animals, and would 

 beyond doubt be 

 considered as of 

 the vegetable king- 

 dom by a casual 

 observer, 

 teres! about this uwidUni, to the 



naturalist, lies in the central axis or chord of the tail; tli 

 in the larval form is composed of a series of cells, which 

 resemble closely the aspect of the back bone in the em- 

 bryo of all of the vertebrates, man included. A German 

 naturalist, Kowalensky, first called attention to this sin- 

 gular fact, and the subject was deemed worthy by Agassiz 

 of an extensive and elaborate article, published, 1 believe, 

 in the 'Atlantic Monthly" at about the date of the death 

 of that givtl inn-alM Considerable excitement was 

 produced by a comparison drawn by Kowalensky between 

 the larva oi u, ,/ .. and the simplest known form of 



the vertebrate, the lancekt. The resemblance was so close 

 and startling as to excite astonishment. Whether these 

 resemblances will justify the conclusion of many Darwin- 

 ians that the iixridwu is really an ancestral form of "the fishes, 

 and of all the vertebrates," is a question that cannot be 

 hastily decided, I have suggested that we turn our little 

 ancestor over to Goode to "'hatch in one of his hatching 

 boxes, with the idea that perhaps by bringing.the lights of 

 science to assist Nature we may eventually run him up a 

 hit higher in the scale and make a sure thing of it. 



Since I gave you a list of our party we have had addi- 

 tions— Dr. Joseph Liidv, of Philadelphia; Dr. J. B. Hold- 

 er, of the Central Park Museum; Mr. Colt, of Hartford, 

 and Professor Putnam, of Salem; but we have lost one of 

 our most congenial associates, Mr. G, Saltonstali, of Har- 

 vard, who has started on an investigating lour among the 

 ■'-''■ '■■'<'■" j'-'iitiiudis in northern Maine. Professor S. I. Smith 

 has arrived, and has taken our young fiddler crabs untier 

 his charge; but in spite of his almost maternal solicitude 

 they have all died. His microscope reveals that, small as 

 they were — no bigger than a pin's point— they had become 

 fairly covered with parasites* which had destroyed them. 

 Smith proposes to introduce tolas next family a ■ ;■ itlt 

 Crustacea of the shrimp family, which likes parasites, and 



"CrSTBtA Carnea.— a.«.,Orillces. *., Branchim, a. Chord. 'J., Fin. 



from its superior size— about an eighth of an inch long- 

 will be able to protect the colony. 



One of our late arrivals found a new route to Noank, by 

 which he contrived to enjoy the scenery of three States", 

 and travel from seven A. M till five P."M., taking a car- 

 riage for the last few miles, when by direct railroad com- 

 munication he might have come via New London in two 

 hours. He will furnish a chart if desired. Piseco. 



♦*• 



WASTtxg Seed Conx. — A correspondent who recently 

 visited Lake Ontario calls our attention to the great waste 

 of shad there. He writes-.— "Between Honey Island and 

 the Jefferson county shore is a large pound net, and in ad- 

 dition to large hauls of hike fish the owners raise every 

 morning about two hundred of the young shad which have 

 hatched from the eggs that Beth Green placed in the lake 

 near Rochester two year- ago. The young fish are about 

 six inches long, and r eannot discover any difference be- 

 tween them and the North River shad. I saw the net 

 raised three times, but each time the fishermen took no 

 pains to return the young fish, but shovelled them into 

 their boats to die." 



■«■ " » 



— About 80,000 young shad were received at Elkhart, 

 Indiana, a few days ago, by express, through Frank M. 

 Clark, of Clarkston, Michigan, by order of Professor Spen- 

 cer F. Baird, of Washington, superintendent offish and 

 fisheries. The fish were let loose in the St. .Toe River. 



♦•♦■ 



— Six inch shad, the same that were set at liberty a year 

 ago, in the creek at Ashtabula, Ohio, arc now frequently 

 hooked from the water by anglers. 



-*~»- 



FISH WAYS. 



"\ >"ew Yoek, August f,th, 1874. 



Editor Fobest and Stkeam:— 



m tia- itage nfpise.icultnre.lt seems tome that tbe fish-ladder qnestion 

 lias become very important, now that so many streams have been stocked 

 with anadromousfish. I think that every one who may have been in 

 other countries or seen successful examples of fishways, shonld dissemi- 

 nate the knowledge gained through the public press. I. therefore, would 

 like to say that there is a salmon ladder on the Tete-a-gouche Itiver, 

 near Battmrsl, New Brunswick, which is a complete success. This 

 stream had been obstructed by a mill-dam about. 30 feet high, for twenty 

 years or more, and salmon had almost ceased to frequent the seamy two 

 or three miles of lower river left them; a few did continue to run up 

 from tide water this short distance, to the fool of the dam. The flshwyy 

 (now about four years old. costing about $-.20v, and constructed of heavy 

 Beams and plank) sloping at about an angle of 45° into the pool below 

 the dam, is about i) feet wide. 4 feet deep, and the descent of water i« 

 broken, as usual, by barriers, thus: — 



On the apron of the dam, at the head of this fish ladder, is a reception 

 house, ten feet square, six feet deep, high enough to admit a man, and 

 with a sliding barrel gate at the entrance and another at the upper end. 

 The water is let into the fisuway only at night, and on each morning, af- 

 ter counting the fish which may have, ascended during the darkness, the 

 miller lifts the gate and the salmon pop on up Stream Owing to the 

 smallness of the river above, the inhabitant- were, at llrst. able to kill 

 in ii i i . newcomers; and so no salmon are allowed to inn up until 

 the September floods, which raise the upp.-i ■-■'■ . .; poolaso that 



the llsh cannot be easily got at. Several hundred had passed npiu ISrJ 

 when I last saw this ladder. 



The plan of detaining the flsh until the autumn floods, in the short 

 Si tune "■!"'■■ the dam, xhen thei i an lie so coal y ; ' tooted by the lo- 

 cal guardian, instead of scattering them for lift v nuTes up river to be 

 killed by the settles, in every pool w here low water in summer may have 

 caused them to congregate, is a (read one, for small rivers especially. 



Now, Mr. Editor, thU is Bus blstorj a rmVj one nn cessfn ■- > 

 There arc othere In Canada, What has- become of those which. 1 am 

 told, there was an appropriation made by the Legislature for the Troy 

 and other dams? They will be needed for the California salmon which 

 were put Into the Hudson this wring, as soon as they can be completed, 

 judging by the slow progress of everything connected with our Fishery 

 Commissioners, except shad hatching and the bull-pout distribution. 

 Yours, lUjil! 



tmnl Mistow. 



THE MICHIGAN GRAYLING. 



THE London Field, in its issue of July 18th, gives a 

 most faithful reproduction of the Michigan grayling, 

 (Thywedliin tricolor,) as engraved by us last June. Descaul- 

 ing on the appearance of the fish, the writer remarks: — 



"The fish shows some qualifications which are very 

 distinct from our grayling. The eye is much full ;r, rounder 

 and more prominent; in the British grayling this is lozenge- 

 shaped and sloping buck, a peculiarity which the artist 

 could hardly tail to remark. The dorsal fin, though large 

 in our grayling, is very large in the Michigan one. The 

 anal fin. "too, is much more extended and lengthy, and the 

 ventral fins longer and more lance-head shaped. The 

 , only extend to half way along the dorsal (in, 

 whereas in oui's they run the whole length of the fish; and 

 the description of the colors shows them to be more bril- 

 liant, varied and marked. In fact there is very i it 

 that the .Michigan grayling is not our grayling. But there 

 is another grayling which it may claim a much elosei re- 

 latiimship io, "and that is the so-called Arctic grayling first 

 discovered by Back in 1820." 



Jackson Gillluinks, Esq., of Carlisle, England, to whom 

 wc sent a proof of the grayling, writes us, (see Forest ahd 

 SrtiU'.r ri i July Oth, ) "I have compared your wood cut 

 with Varrell, and other standard works, and find that your 

 fish is somewhat slenderer than his, and has a larger fin in 

 proportion, but not at all so different, as to justify me in 

 pronouncing them to be distinct varieties." 



The Fiskl, with its usual thorough acquaintance with 

 such subjects, is inclined to give the liahitat of the grayling 



