FOREST AND STREAM. 



43 



hn and Miver 



GAME FISH IN SEASON IN SEPTEMBER. 



Bluefish, {Temnodoii saltator.) Striped Bass, {Lcibrax lineatm.) 



Land-locked Salmon, (nalmo Gloveri. Black Bass, (Centrarchns fasciatvs. 

 Trout, {Sal/no fontinalte.) Maskinonge. 



With tlie advent of autumn the Salmon family pass off 

 the stage as tisli m season, ana with local exceptions, 

 are preparing for their work of propagation. Nevertheless the 

 legal limit in the Lower Provinces for salmon and trout is 

 the 15th September, and for trout in the State of New 

 York, the same date. In many States the close season does 

 not begin until October. 



Black bass fishing is now in its prime. The range of this fish 

 and the number of places in which to take it, have been much 

 extended by the efforts of the Fishery Commissions of 

 several States, although some of the Commissioners seem 

 to have a prejudice against its universal introduction. This 

 is one of the gamiest fish in our waters, and hj some ang- 

 lers is preferred to the trout on fine tackle. For ourselves 

 we give the bass preference over the rather sluggish speck- 

 led trout that are taken in ponds and lakes. Lake 

 Simcoe, Belleville, Nipissing, and indeed the whole extent 

 of the Province of Ontario, afford supurb black bass fish- 

 ing. The St. Lawrence river through the Thousand Islands, 

 the lower tier- of the Adirondack lakes, the great lakes of 

 Western New York, and especially the lakes of Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota, are favorite resorts of this fine fish. He 

 takes a fly readily, and is greedy for " spoon victuals." The 

 usual method of capture is to troll with a spoon, but by it 

 one-half of the pleasure which the fly affords is lost. A. 

 medium sized spoon is needed, and if a fly be used a mix- 

 ture of red and white feathers on a salmon hook will kill 

 most every time. Brownish flies are used of several pat- 

 terns, but a mixture of gaudy colors seem always requi- 

 site. An economical and killing "fly" can be made from the 

 nethermost part of an old flannel shirt. 



The striped bass of the ocean, like his namesake, is in full 

 season now, and from this time on all through September 

 and into October, the sport will be at its height. 



During the past six weeks heavy scores have been made 

 along the eastern shore. The Squidnoket Club, from June 

 20th to August 6th, footed up a total of 1,800 pounds with 

 a 56-pounder for their heaviest trophy. The run was 

 from thirteen pounds upward. 



At "No Man's Land," near Martha's Vineyard, the 

 Ashing has been poor thus far inconsequence of a wreck 

 having gone ashore there on a clay bottom. She obsti- 

 nately refuses to go to pieces, and the swash of the waves 

 alternately upon her staunch old sides, and upon the bot- 

 tom, beclouds the water with a milky hue that keeps the 

 fish away. 



At Gay Head, if the wind is southeasterly, so that it blows 

 from Guttyhunk, the Ashing is also spoiled by this same 

 washing of the white clay bottom ; but there are one or two 

 points along shore known to old fishermen only, where good 

 sport can be had when the wind is from the northward. 

 The lighthouse keeper at Gay Head is always glad to en- 

 tertain anglers. 



Niantic, near New Loudon, was iormeny a remarkable 

 ground for bass fishing, as much as 10,000 pounds of fish 

 having been taken there in a single season with the line. The 

 Niantic river, two-and-a-half miles long, connects the bay 

 with a lake which receives the waters of several fine trout 

 streams, so that the river and bay form a natural breeding 

 and spawning ground for bass. A number of elegant villas 

 line the river and sea-beach. There are two hotels, one at 

 Block Point on the East Lyme side, and the other on the 

 opposite side of the river at Bloody Point, Niantic Bay is 

 three miles wide, and has a depth of three fathoms. In 

 the channel below the railroad bridge, it is five fathoms, 

 and here is the place to throw for bass. Striped Bass have 

 been biting freely for the past two weeks about the islands 

 and grassy shallows of Hell Gate and Harlem River. 



Philadelphians have got to trolling for bluefish by steam. 

 < >ne of them who returned from Providence to Philadel- 

 phia last week in one of the Clyde steamships, tells us 

 that they trolled for bluefish and bonita along the Long- 

 Island and Jersey coasts while the steamer was under 

 full headway. Owing to the extra resistance the hooks 

 were often torn from the fishes' mouths; but enough were 

 caught to bountifully supply the table. Shade of Wal- 

 ton, defend us from such innovations! 



There are no less than eleven islands in Alexandria. Bay 

 (St. Lawrence river) occupied by private villas. The finest 

 of these island cottages is that of Hon. E. K. Hart *of Al- 

 bion. It is a Swiss cottage, sixty by seventy feet, with a 

 tower rising eighty-five feet above the level of the river, 

 and cost about twelve thousand dollars. 



The Germantown Telegraph says that the Pennsylvania 

 Fish Commisioners will not erect more than one of the 

 four flshways in the Susquehanna and tributaries this sea- 

 son, and even this one (in the Columbia dam) may be re- 

 sisted by the Reading Railroad Company who are lessees of 

 the Susquehanna Canal Company. The Railway Company 

 may interpose objections to the erection of fishways in the 

 Columbia dam, but that cannot hinder the work going on, 

 and is probably intended as a basis for damages from the 

 Canal Company, should the said ways prove injurious. 



The stocking of the Vermont waters with salmon prom- 

 ises to be a success. Several small ones placed in the 

 Wihooski River have grown two or three inches since last 

 summer. 



Rules for Fishermen.— The following excellent rules 

 are attributed to Rev. Henry Ward Beecher : — 



First— Find out if there is any fish in the river to which you are going ; 

 if so, get some one who knows the water to show you where the lish lie ; 

 and when he shows them to you don't you show yourself to them. 



Second— Don't imagine if the fish does not dart away that he has not 

 seen you ; on the contrary, he is very likely devoting his whole attention 

 to you, and preparing to start the moment danger is imminent. 



Third— If you are fishing with a fly, and you pass it neatly three, tunes 

 over him, and he refuses it, you need not wait any longer ; he has Keen 

 your line of invitation and does not intend to come . 



Fourth— If you are above a fish when you hook him, get below him as 

 soon as you can, for if you pull him one instant against the stream, and 

 he is a heavy fish, he will break his hold. 



Fifth — Never throw a long line when a short one will answer. 



Sixth— Never mind what is said about "playing your fish till he is 

 tired ;" put him in your basket as soon as you can. 



Seventh— Remember that everything depends upon the way you begin 

 vour acquaintance. If you can prevail on a fish to go down the stream a 

 little way with you, you will afterward have no difficulty in persuading 

 him to let you have the pleasure of seeing him to dinner. 



To these excellent maxims I beg leave to add one of Mr. Stoddart's, 

 especially intended for bachelors, young and old : " Never fall in, love with 

 a -woman by the waterside; there* are situations in which every wortym 

 looks an angel." 



Paul Smith, St. Regis Lake, Adirondacks, has this sum- 

 mer added billiard and bath rooms t«> his other -recent 

 "modern improvements.'' Ex-Governor Fenton and the 

 Vice Consul for Italy are among his guests. The house is 

 chock full and rooms at a premium. The fishing in the Adi- 

 dirondacks has been better this year than ever before. We 

 regret to say that an unusual quantity of deer have been 

 killed. We shall give these deer slayers "goss"whenwe 

 are appointed Grand Forester of the new York State Park. 



A correspondent who has just returned from Moosehead 

 Lake, in Maine, says the most desirable way of reaching 

 the lake is to purchase an excursion ticket at the office in 

 Boston via the Eastern railroad to Portland, thence by 

 Maine Central to Dexter, and thence by stage thirty-six 

 miles to Lake, and return — cost $15. June and September 

 are the best months for fishing the lake, but the adjacent 

 ponds whose outlets empty into the Moosehead, are the 

 best in July and August. Spencer Pond is a good ground. 

 The largest speckled trout caught weighed four pounds. 

 The brown hackle with red body and the scarlet ibis 

 seemed the most killing flies to use. A guidtj and canoe 

 cost three dollars per day, and a sail boat three dollars 

 per day, to be procured at Greenville, foot of the lake. 

 Frank Vaugh is reccomended as a guide. 



Urt and the jBrmm. 



— * — 



The second marked event of the opening of the fall 

 season, m matters dramatic, is the production of Mid- 

 summer Night's Dream at the Grand Opera House. This 

 play has often been pronounced beyond the capabilities of 

 the stage to adequately meet the requirements of scenery 

 and acting. We now have at the Grand Opera a marked 

 attempt to realize the ideal Derations of " fairy land," and 

 from a scenic point of view, it is a great success — just such 

 a kind of success, that fills Niblo's Garden with admirers 

 of the Black Crook; but those theatrical people, who are 

 only charmed with the surface, at the Grand Opera House 

 find the inspired language of Shakspeare, instead of the 

 maudlin stuff of the Crook, and they are dissatisfied. 

 There is no use to disguise the fact that an attempt lias 

 been made in the revival of this play to attract an audience 

 try the presumed splendor of scenery, the text being merely 

 used as a reason for " gorgeous transformations" and "fairy 

 dells.'' The acting indeed is so subordinated to meretri- 

 cious display, that it becomes merely a "gap" to give the 

 scene shifters time to play their more important part, and 

 Fox of Humpty Dumpty fame, the thoughtless press con- 

 gratulates, as the great source of the intellectual interest 

 of the performance. 



Theatricals have certainly a downward tendency and 

 they seemingly begin to reach the bottom, when Shaks- 

 peare is absolutely smuggled before a New York audience 

 and attempted to be forced down unwilling throats, just as 

 nauseous medicine is made palatable by the thick coating 

 of the crystalized juice of the sugar cane. 



But the manager had one resource entirely in his power, 

 viz., the reason for producing in perfection Mendelssohn's 

 incomparable musie. But here again the want oi faith in 

 the modern theatrical manager in anything intrinsically ex- 

 cellent, comes in, and we are denied the only intellectual 

 luxury that Mr. Daly could give us in perfection. It is 

 certainly to be deplored that the entire managerial taste and 

 capital should be directed with such prodigality on that 

 which alone appeals to the senses through the eye, to such 

 an extent indeed, that Jfche intellect is even denied the charm 

 of sweet music set in accord by an inspired mind. Men- 

 delssohn's music dazzles the imagination of the listening 

 world far more than the varied brilliancy of gas lighted can- 

 vas however gorgeous. Had some of the prodigal waste 

 of money expended upon this pageant been appropriated 

 to training and paying a skillful orchestra, capable of 

 discoursing correctly his most wonderful music, and with 

 something of the passion, finesse, and playfulness intended 

 by that master mind, then Midsummer Night's Dream would 

 have offered an attraction that alone would have sufficed 

 to draw thousands of our music loving public. 



Our Teutonic population is so immense, that it con- 

 stitutes New York the third largest German city in the 

 world, and our German friends crowd in with avidity, at 

 every opportunity of hearing the compositions of favorites, 

 provided the performers are properly drilled to give an ef- 

 fective rendering. Now there is a witchery and charm 

 pervading the entire work of Mendelssohn's so rich in 

 thought, so wealthy in detail, that in combination with the 

 poetry and action, the enchantment would have been com- 

 plete and the success assured — and there might have been a 



run of many weeks and a realization of money made upon 

 a legitimate representation of the highest and most intel- 

 lectual dramatic performances. Instead of this— we have 

 a failure— denied, but neverless announced in the fact, thai 

 the Midsummer Night's Dream is soon to be withdrawn for 

 a newer and " more startling novelty of the Wandering 

 Jew." 



We hope the execrable taste that suggested the introduc- 

 tion of "California music" in place of Mendelsshon's to 

 adorn Shakspeare, will soon cease its baleful influence in a 

 city that should dictate, not receive, laws that control refine- 

 ment and good taste. 



—On Monday evening last the Lydia Thompson troupe com 

 menced their fall engagement at the Olympic. The same 

 evening the Opera Bouffe was presented at the Broadway, 

 the piece selected being "La Fille de Madame Angot," the 

 principal character by Mile. Aimee. 



— Salvini and Rainoute with their troupe are expected 

 shortly; they were to sail the last week of August and ap- 

 pear at the Academy on the 15th proximo. 



— The well known prima donna Mmc. Van Zandt will 

 play in St. Petersburg this week. 



— A new training school for music is to be established 

 in London, in connection with the Boyal Albert Hall and 

 under the auspices of the Society of Arts. Three hundred 

 scholarships are to be founded, affording gratuitous instruc- 

 tion and free maintenance for students. It will be well 

 when some of those charlatans, advertising their so-called 

 conservatories here, will be supplanted by some such in 

 stitution, that will bear more resemblence to the real thing 

 than the name. 



— The Grand Opera House advertises the Wandering- 

 Jew, (a new version), to succeed the present Shakspearean 

 pot jjoarr/'. 



— Mr. Finlay Finlayson, the popular baritone has just 

 finished a simple little operetta for four voices without 

 chorus, entitled "Mistress and Man." The plot by the 

 same gentleman is comic, and music melodious, after the 

 style of Balfe. A small orchestra places the work within 

 the reach of small places, and any concert troupe can give 

 it for an evening's entertainment. 



—It is decided that the question of English opera is to 

 be tried again in New York, with Miss Clara Louise Kel- 

 logg as prima donna, Mrs. Moulton's name has been men 

 tionedin connection with Santley's. We shall give more 

 information in our next number, as soon as something defi- 

 nite is permitted to be known. 



—It is understood thai Mmc. Maskill will arrive front 

 England shortly, as a rival in dramatic readings to Mis 

 Scott Siddons. 



Strange Effct of Tepj!OR ox Axts.-Iii a late num- 

 ber of Nature there is an interesting letter from a Mr. 

 J. D. Hague, of San Francisco, addressed to Charles Dar- 

 win, on the subject of ants, and the terror they are seized 

 with on perceiving dead ants on their tracks. Mr. Darwin 

 says ; 



"Mr. Mogii-ridgc tried this experiment with some ants at 

 Mentone with similar effeets. I therefore sent the letter to 

 Mr. Hague, and asked him to observe whether his ants 

 were alarmed by the smell left by the finger, or were really 

 terrified by the' sight of their dead and dying comrades. 

 The ease appears curious, us I believe no one has ever ob- 

 served an invertebrate animal realizing danger by seeing the 

 corpses of a fellow species. It is indeed very doubtful 

 whether the higher animals can draw any such' inferences 

 from the sight ;£but I. believe that every one who has had 

 experience in trapping animals is convinced that those who 

 have never been caught learn that a trap is dangerous by 

 seeing others caught," 



-*•♦— 



The Kwitchpak, or Yukon River, has its source far up 

 in British America and up in the Rocky Mountains, and 

 runs for hundreds of miles in British America, and then 

 enters Russian America (Alaska), its course from the source 

 to the centre of Russian America being Northwest, and en- 

 ters into Bchring's Sea at about North latitude sixty-three 

 degrees. 



History tells us that the width of this great river will 

 average one mile for the distance of 1,800 miles in length, 

 though in some places it is Ave miles in width. History 

 further tells us that it is navigable for 1,800 miles, though a 

 boat could not make more than one trip a year, as the river 

 is open but three or four months of the year. In length 

 and volume of water it is exceeded only by the Amazon, the 

 Mississippi, and, perhaps, the La Plata, It exceeds the Nile, 

 the Ganges, the Volga, the Amoor, and has affluents to 

 which the Rhone and the Rhine are but brooks. The fish- 

 eries on the Amazon of the North are said to be the best in 

 the world. Moose, reindeer, and hares abound on this great 

 river. It costs the natives there but little exertion to po-r 

 cure their food. 



W. H. Hollister, the wealthy stock raiser of Monterey 

 County , Cal. , left Ohio for the Golden State twenty years 

 ago, driving with him eight hundred sheep. His neighbors 

 thought he was insane to enter upon such a foolhardy un- 

 der-taking ; but lie persisted, and after being a year upon the 

 road and enduring all manner of hardships he finally reach- 

 ed California with three hundred sheep remaining out of his 

 original flock. By care and good management each one of 

 these three hundred sheep yielded $1,000 before it died, or a 

 total of $800,000. This sum has since been increased to 

 13,000,000, his estimated wealth at. present . 



—The Calcutta Times of India, states that a Cobra twenty 

 one feet long was killed by some Englishmen lately on the 

 Padueuttah hills. The snake had the day before swallowed 

 a native child. 



