2U 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



#4 $>nlhuLt. 



This Journal Is the Oflicial Organ of the Fish Cnltnr- 

 ists' Association. 



WHITEF1SH BREEDING, 



THE experiments of Mr. Nelson W. Clark, of Clarks- 

 ton, Mich., liiive resulted in proving that this inhabi- 

 tant of the deeper lakes and rivers cm lie successfully pro- 

 pagated artificially* In 1809, lie attempted to hatch out 

 5li,«)0U eggs, widen are spawned in the Fall, and as near as 

 can be ascertained, remain in shallow water around the 

 margins of lakes, under the ice all winter. Mr. Clark's ex- 

 periment was tried with spring water, as usual in hatching 

 trout's eggs. Out of the whole lot he hatched only 1,500, 

 and these soon died. The temperature of the hatching 

 house was from 40° to 48°. He became convinced that 

 spring water would not do for whitefish. Their eggs 

 naturally hatch out in April succeeding t he deposition of 

 the spawn, lie therefore fixed a pond in which to place 

 eggs, mid which could be allowed to freeze over and remain 

 so all Winter, thus keeping the water so cool that incuba- 

 tion would be more gradual. lie succeeded in hatching 

 the greater number of the eggs, but the young fish died 

 when fed with any food (artificial) that he could procure. 

 The next year he succeeded in hatching fifty per cent, of 

 the spawn, about April 1st, four and a half months after 

 taking the eggs. The young fry were immediately put 

 into ilie Detroit River and into three small lakes in Oak- 

 land county. The next season he took 1,000,000 eggs, of 

 which he hatched 60 per cent. ; 210,000 eggs in a forward 

 slate of incubation were shipped successfully to California. 



Mr. Clark is certain that he can succeed every time if he 

 can keep the water, iu which are the eggs, covered with 

 ice until April 1st. ; and he is equally certain that the eggs 

 of the salmon, salmon trout and brook trout should be 

 hatched in running spring water. Their eggs hatch about. 

 February 1st, and "the young have an umbilical sac attached 

 to them, from which they derive all their substance for 

 about fifty days. Until this sac is absorbed they require 

 no artificial food, and after feeding them a few days they 

 can be turned out iu a pound to take care of themselves. 

 But the whitefish when first hatched have no yolk sac left, 

 and for some reason or other artificial food kills them every 

 time. They must therefore be retarded from hatching 

 until Spring so that they can be immediately turned out. 



None of the fish put into the lakes in Oakland county in 

 1878, had been seen until Nov. 17th of last year, when they 

 were found in apparently countless numbers in one of these 

 lakes. A single boat load of fishermen took 250 in an hour 

 with spears— 400 or 500 being takeu a few days afterwards 

 in the same place. These were all whitefish of fair size 

 fox the table. 



The Detroit Tribune, from which wc gather the above, 

 says that Mr. Clark had iu December List over 1,800,000 

 eggs iu his hatching boxes at Clarkston, expecting to get 

 .500,000 young fish therefrom. 



Mr. Clark is much to be cowmeuueu tm i.to j.c^oirci- 

 unce in his attempts to re-stock our fresh water lakes with 

 a fish which is so staple au article of commerce. The 

 whitefish {(Joretjouux albas) is one of the salmon family, and 

 is the principal fish caught for export in the waters of Lake 

 Erie, Detroit River, and the straits at the lower ends of 

 Lakes Michigan and Superior. Owing to the constant de- 

 mand lor this fish, it has been so relentlessly hunted thai 

 the average yearly catch has fallen off nearly one-half. It 

 is to be hoped that Mr. Clark's success may induce the 

 general artificial propagation of one of our great sources of 



animal foodi 



■+•+- — 



BLACK BASS. 



^ New Hope, Perm., November 10th, 137). 



Editor Forest and Stream.— 



T(te Delaware River is well stocked with black bays. A large number 

 have been taken here this season, some weighing four pounds— two 

 pounds unite plenty. There lias been a great demand for them Irnm New 

 Jersey for stocking purposes, and I have known boys with a hook to 

 catch as many as 01 in a day. A car is kept in the river, where each buy 

 deposits lib) day's work. They are quite plenty in the canal, having es- 

 caped through the feeder, and when the water is drawn oir many could 

 be taken for stocking ponds that would otherwise perish. As all the 

 ehad interest here is opposed to tbcm they receive very little protectiou. 

 I f?ave them a tow trials, and found they readily took auy large gaudy fly, 

 but the boys bait with minnow; and wasp gruiis, J . B. T. 

 ■».» 



X THE. CALIFORNIA FISH CULTURE. 



The following letter from Mr. Livingston Stone's head- 

 quarters on the McCloud River, California, has been hand- 

 ed to us by Mr. Conklin, the artist of the Commission. It 

 records the close of the season's operations: 



McCi.oud Kiver, Cat, November 8th, 187J. 

 My Dear Cohkxin: 



Mr. Stone went East night before last-or at least left the camp at that 

 time. Mr. Williams, Dick, and Ureen have gone into camp on Soda 

 Creek, to try their luck at mining. Waldo and Anderson will join them 

 in about two weeks, us noon as 1 get through heic. We have had very 

 stormy weather ever since the eclipse of the union. One night the water 

 came down in sheets, aud raised the river about two feet and carried 

 away part of the darn, lam putting about 8t».,0(K) young Blilmon in the 

 JVIeCloud Kiver Tortile .State uf California. I have already put iu 600,000 

 ami 'he rest in boxes iu the river, and will damptheui at the end of two 

 weeks. 



Those boxes last put tip, that you helped paint, have worked finely. 

 They have a Cavity as smooth as glass, and have never leaked a drop. 

 With my experience this year with asplialtuni lam better pleased than 

 ever. The trays— the deep ones—have given perfect satisfaction; Ihey 

 have worked to a charm. I have already tukeu up the troughs in the 

 tent, and also the paddles jfroui off Hie wheel, aud will Told the tent as 

 Boon as the ruin lets up so that it will get dry. Our camp is very quiet 

 i , it, ] ,\ ,i lo ., i, ii, Lien and myself left, aud but very Tew In- 

 dians come around now. Tours, very truly, J. O. Woodbuhv. 



PENNSYLVANIA FISH CULTURE. 



Lancaster, November 18th, 1ST!. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



I had Ihe honor lo assist in organizing an association iu Lancaster 

 county for the protection of fish and game, which is now at work stock- 

 ing the streams withblack bass as fast as they can get the fish. We are 

 overcoming local piejudice, and gradually educating onr community up 

 to the proper standard on (the subject, and those who will not be thus 

 educated by argument and moral suasion, we intend to punish, when- 



ever caught Violating the game laws. Iu this work the influence of your 

 paper is rendering valuable assistance. The increase of its circulation is 

 greatly to be desired. 



Perhaps it may be of interest for you to know that we have had excel- 

 lent black bass fishing this Fall in the Susquehanna, between Columbia 

 and Harrlsburg, and rrom that, place to the mouth or the Juniata, large 

 numbers having been taken with the hook and line daily during the sea- 

 son; and all the increase of a smalt number of flab placed in the stream 

 five years ago iit Harrisburg, and near the Juniata, as 1 understand, 

 with prohibition for several years. Respectfully youra, 



Simon P. Ebv. 



LIMING PONDS. 



Rochester. Nov. so 1871. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



If yon lime a pond to kill obnoxious fish you not oi.ly kill all the fish 

 but yon kill all the feed that is in the pond." and when you put the. trout 

 back in the pond there will not be any feed for them, and ihey will die. 

 It takes a great, many years for a pond to get stocked with insects so that 

 it will support many tront. Fish Ihrive according to the feed they have, 

 the same as any other animal. It is a mistaken idea that many people 

 have, that lisli can live on water; they can't, any more than man can live 

 on air. Yours, Setij Green. 



[Mr. Green has spoken iu behalf of our correspondent 

 who asked us last week about the proper mode of clearing 

 a pond of pickerel, in order to substitute trout, and we ad- 

 vise that his advice be followed, by all means; nevertheless, 

 we have seen trout ponds limed repeatedly, including that 

 of W. H, Furman, Esq., at Maspcth. Perhaps, in the 

 latter case, the absence of natural food was not felt, as the 

 trout with which the pond was replenished, were fed by 

 hand with liver, gentles, and the like. — Ed.] 

 -»■* • 



A correspondent of an exchange says: — A year ago having 

 more young trout than my pond would accommodate, I 

 put a i'ew thousand into a barren stream near by. They 

 were then about one inch long. I took my rod and a cou- 

 ple of my little, boys and went to the branch, and iu less 

 than an hour caught thirty — all we wanted — and might 

 have caught, hundreds, as we could see them in schools of 

 fifty or a "hundred in a place for a mile up and down the 

 brook. They were about seven inches long, or what 

 would be cal'lcd a nice catch. As this same thing can be 

 done by every brook of pure water cither hard or soft in 

 the Stale, I submit if it would not pay the owners of brooks 

 to stock them, if in nothing else, in furnishing one more 

 attraction for the farm, if not for themselves, for the boys; 

 for recreation is as necessary to them as meat aud bread, 

 and if they can't find it on tite farm, the}' will hunt it in the 

 village. Many of us can recollect how attractive the brook 

 on our father's or neighbor's farm was, and how its wily 

 denizens taxed and developed ouryouug skill and ingenuity 

 in their capture. 



■»♦*. 



The Canadian Sportsman says: At Port Dalhousie and 

 other points along the shores of Lake Ontario, the shad 

 fishery has become an established and lucrative business. 

 Observe the record: A few years ago there was not a shad 

 in Lake Ontario. But the State of New York has an intel- 

 ligent n»d tntorpri -'."p- hnanl (if fish commissioners," liber- 

 ally sustained by the State Government. This board or 

 fish commissioners conceived the bold idea that the shad 

 could live throughout the year in fresh water, and after rd- 

 ingly hatched and set free "in Lake Ontario some hundred 

 thousand of the spawn of that species. The result is that 

 millions of that delicious fish swarm in the waters of Lake 

 Ontario, and have become the basis of a new system of 

 fisheries. 



Batumi !§isiorg, 



NOTES ON THE ALEWIFE, {Ahna tyrnnnus.) 



IN the days of my boyhood I had a very good opportu- 

 nity to study the habits of the alewife. Living near 

 a large lake, into which the shad and alewife came tit their 

 appointed seasons for casting their spawn, I was induced 

 almost imperceptibly, as it were, to become a student of 

 the habits of this fish. Little did I then think how great 

 a space in the vacuum of humanity was this poor despised 

 little ftlewtfe-deslinedto fill. 



In Ihe course of my observations, I found the alow ives 

 were generally the companions of the shad, from the 

 reason of its similarily of habits, and of breeding in brack- 

 ish and waters of little depth. It is found far up in places 

 where the shad cannot go. Many of the shad have discon- 

 tinued visiting their old places of resort, and are not often 

 seen iu the places formerly frequented by them. Years 

 ago it was not au uncommon spectacle to behold hundreds 

 of shad on the Mystic and its tributaries. Now not a sin- 

 gle Shad is to be found, and very few of Ihe alewives are 

 caught outside of Mystic Lake, where once they were nu- 

 merous. Alewives are much more abundant in the Middle 

 and Southern States, for the reason that there are fewer 

 obstructions and mill dams iu their progress up the 

 streams. You will now find ulewives iu what are called 

 v shad streams. But one fact I have learned, that when 

 once the shad or alewives are stopped in their progress up 

 stream they grow less in numbers every year, until they 

 leave the stream altogether. In New England almost all 

 streams are dammed, aud as a consequence few fish are to 

 be seen where once they were numerous. 



Being very prolific, we hope this fish will remain in our 

 rivers until some saving legislation shall be had for their 

 protection. Something must be done, or farewell to the 

 shad ami alewife fisheries, of which old Massachusetts was 

 once so proud. The early run of alewives are very fine, 

 and generally quite fat, being often from one fool to six- 

 teen inches in length, and weighing about six ounces. 

 They make their appearance early in Spring, and remain 

 with us only a sufficient time to spawn, when they return 

 to the sea. In June they are all gone. The fry remain 

 attached to twigs in the water, where they are hatched up 

 to November, sometimes to December, and then they go to 

 sea. I hare seen thousands of these young fish around 



the shores one day, aud the next not one was to be seen. 



The alewife will take bait, but the general method of 

 taking them is by means of the net. In all narrow streams 

 they are taken in seines. Many ways are resorted to to 

 cure them, but smoking and pickling are the usual meth- 

 ods. Some of the streams near Boston yield upwards of 

 1,500 barrels of alewives per year, and such streams rent 

 for from six to nine hundred dollars per annum. 



Olltpod Quiix. 

 ••**- 



THE "BLUE BACK" TROUT OF RANGE- 

 LEY, MAINE. 



No. 10 Wabbex Street, New York. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



I presume few of 'your many readers ever heard of this singular mem- 

 ber of the eatmo family, mid a less number had the privilege of seeing a 

 specimen. The receipt of two boxes of these fish from Hon. II. O. 

 Stanley, one of the Commissioners of Fisheries of the State of Maine, is 

 the main incentive to this communication. 



On the 10th or October— or within three davs of that date— the outlets 

 of Gull Pond and llndge Pond, both emptying into Hangcley Lake at 

 points six miles apart, and the outlet of Kaugely Lake, six miles from 

 Dodge Pond, arc thronged by myriads of this exquisite fish. The waters 

 of the stream are actually tilled with thfs crowding, springing multitude, 

 gathering, as do the smelts and alewives, to deposit their spawn. They 

 do not niuke a "spawning bed,' 1 like the salmon and trout, but deposit 

 their eggs in all parts of ttie stream, remaining about, ten days, when 

 they return to the lake, and are never seen until the 10th or October the 

 following year. This is a literal fact. Notwithstanding the great num- 

 ber of anglers who have frequented the "Uam<cley" during recent years, 

 fishing all portions of the lake with all manner of bait, on the surface 

 and down in the deep, no one has ever caught a bine back. They have 

 never been seen at the surface. Among the settlers the "blue back mys- 

 tery" has been an annual subject of discussion at the husking, quilting, 

 and fishing parties, and in the country store, for over forty years. 



The variation between the bine back and the brook tront. is plainly no- 

 ticed, even by a novice. The former are more Blender, have no bright 

 Vermillion spots; the ventral, anal, aud pectoral fins are a bright scarlet, 

 without the black and white lines so conspicuous in the other. The 

 tail is more forked. As their popular name indicatos, they are very 

 dark. But the most singular fact of all is the uniformity of size. They 

 are never less than seven nor more than nine inches iu length, weighing 

 from three to four ounces. They never take fly or bait. I state this as a 

 /act, notwithstanding Ihe possibility of contradiction by as good an au- 

 thority as our worthy President of the American Fish Cnlturists' Asso- 

 ciation.and my esteemed friend, that expert angler, Hon. Robt B. Roose- 

 velt. When last we met at R.ugeluv, some four years ugo.Mr. It. awaited 

 with deep interest the advent of the blue backs. They came at the ap 

 pointed day in millions. Our friend had caught nearly every species or 

 fish that swims iu salt, or freshwater, and he insisted that these beauties 

 could be tempted by the gaudy lly. So day after day he stood on the 

 apron or the old dam and fairly exhausted the treasures of bis famous 

 fly-book. I shall never forget his overflowing enthusiasm and boundless 

 joy as he entered camp, bearing a situjU Utte. back attached to a diminu- 

 tive fly hook. He loudly declared "the beauty bit," but we who had 

 watched the angler casting the trio of sharp baited lures among the 

 swimming thousands in the pool, wondered that such exquisite skill in 

 casting had not resulted in hooking out three at a 'time. 



Inconsequence of the peculiar habits of this singular fish, they have 

 been exempted from the provisions of the law making a close time for 

 trmitm Maine, also Willi reference to their mode of capture. I quote 

 rrom the laws of Maine, now ueioie me— cuupur ao, n r the laws of 1861), 

 section IS: "There shall be a yearly close time for land-locked salmon, 

 trout, and togue, dnring the months of October, November, December, 

 January, and February, during which none of the fish 'mentioned above 

 shall be taken or killed in auy manner, under a penalty of not more 

 than thirty or less than ten dollurs, aud a further fine of one dollar for 

 each fish so taken or killed— provided that this section shall not 

 apply to the taking of "blue back trout" in Franklin or Oxford counties." 



This exemption is properly and wisely made, as it, enables the settlers In 

 that section to supply themselves with quantities of superior fish food, 

 which, smoked and salted, adds very materially to the limited bill of rare 

 for the season. They are captured in nets by the bushel and ban-el. 

 Few find their way to market. I am quite coufldeut that the first lot of 

 these fish that ever readied New York came to me from Mr. Stanley this 

 month. I have distributed them very generally, aud request any of your 

 readers who are in possession of additional facts concerning this compar- 

 atively new and valuable species of the salmo geuus, may speidily com- 

 municate the same to your columns. 1 have been informed that the nat- 



e known to the scientific world that this was a dis- 

 eivi-d his name, tctfrno 

 Cirardin. 



Mr. Stanley succeeded in taking thirty thousand of their eggs, which 

 are now being batched at the establishment of the Ean»eley Trout 

 Hatching Association, on Bema Stream. When sufficiently devebped 

 they will be placed iu suitable public waters in Maine. A few thousand 

 can probably be purchased, if desired, for other Stales, oi -by private 

 parries. The eggs are much linger ihau a brook tome's, the fish yielding 

 from 50 to 150, instead of from 400 to 500, as in the brook trout of same 



I take this opportunity to congratulate you upon the most interesting 

 and valuable results experienced in the discussion aud elucidation of the 

 grayling question, and trust that this communication may inaugurate a 

 similar investigation of the "Blue Back Mystery." 



Geo. Siiepard Page. 



<♦•♦■ 



SOMETHING ABOUT GROUSE. 



CONFUSION OF NAMES— VARIETIES IN THE WEST. 



Of the eleven species of grouse known by n greater num- 

 ber of common names, only two are general in Illinois, 

 while a third was at one time generally distributed over the 

 northwestern counties of this State. Science lias reduced 

 the whole number of American grouse to six genera, and 

 the authorities on Ornithology have so plainly classified 

 them that no further confusion need occur as to what 

 should be considered grouse. What is known by some as 

 the quail is called a partridge iu some localities, and in 

 others the partridge is called a pheasant, and the eleven 

 different grouse arc known by eighteen different common 

 names, while the quail are only allied to the grouse genera, 

 and are really the partridge family of seven American spe- 

 cies, only one of which, the quail {Tetrno eoturiiix), or 

 "bob white," is known in Illinois or in the Eastern Lniled 

 States. . . , 



The two Illinois grouse are: First, the prairie hen, or 

 pinnated grouse, known in New York as far back as 1791 

 as the "heath hen," and now scientifically known as Cupi- 

 donia cupido. Second, the pheasant, or lulled grouse sci- 

 entifically known as Bmimu.i -umbdlui. The thud (no 

 longer an Illinois game bird), the sharp tailed grouse, 

 known in late authorities as Pediocu.Un phttm udiun. Strange 

 as it may appear, yet it is nevertheless true, these three 

 birds have been described by authors under fifteen differ- 



