FOREST AND STREAM. 



397 



\en and Miver 



FISH IN SEASON IN JANUARY. 



pompano. 

 Snapper. 

 Grouper . 

 Rockiish. 



SOUTHERN WATERS. 



Trout, (Black Bass.) 



Drum, (two species.) 



Kingfish. 



Striped Bass, Rockiish. 



Sheepshead. 

 Tailorfish. 

 Sea Bass. 



CANADIAN FISHING SPORT vs. SLAUGH- 

 TER. 



Edttor Forest and Stream: — 



Pressure of office business has prevented me from sooner noticing a 

 courageous paragraph in Forest and Stream of 30th October last, rela- 

 tive to trout fishing at Nepigon river. Canadians and Americans alike 

 should feel thankful for the outspoken information which it contains. 

 Accept my thanks. It is our interest to know of and your interest to 

 publish such abuses. We spend public money and maintain officials to 

 protect and improve our angling streams. We welcome to them those 

 m-ighbors who appreciate our outlay and respect our fishery laws. But 

 we might be compelled to restrict or withhold this freedom, if their man- 

 ner of exercisingit should become onerous to ourselves or injurious to 

 others*. If, therefore, any American anglers admitted to these privileges 

 commit wasteful excesses, such as that described, it is the true interests 

 of others to avert universal discredit and obviate general exclusion by 

 exposing them. 



The cases of Mr. Avery and others of like character, are now under in- 

 vestigation, and the particulars received from the local fishery officers 

 will be duly published in our own reports. 



It has been for several seasons past the habit of strangers visiting trout 

 streams on the north shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, on angling 

 excursions, either to pickle down their catch of speckled trout, or to 

 bury or burn them about the camping places. The former practice, 

 though apparently objectionable, admits of qualifying circumstances; 

 the latter is simply inexcusable. Both may, but do not necessarily in- 

 dicate a disposition at variance with the instincts of a genuine sports- 

 man. 



Although some may think it only a sporting conceit, it is with many 

 a cherished principle to kill no game that cannot be used or saved. 

 When myself tempted by nature to wantonly destroy wild animals, or 

 prompted by rivalry to slaughter game according to the arithmetic, I con- 

 fess that resistance is difficult. But there is a noble satisfaction in the 

 active, self-denial imposed without any reference to the humanities. It is 

 eusy enough to perceive practical difficulty in which an angler would be 

 placed who catches more fish than he can dispose of at once, unless he 

 be left at liberty to pickle or otherwise preserve them. Certainly if a 

 fisherman cannot utilize them on the spot, or deport them for use else- 

 where, he ought on no account to catch them at all. They are not ver 

 niin. There can be no doubt about the gratification of consuming at 

 home and distributing among friends the fruits of our sporting skill or 

 opportunities. And it must be allowable to provide for thus imparting 

 to others the secondary delight of our own enjoyment. How shall the 

 liberty be kept within reasonable bounds? That's the question. It 

 seems after all to rest with the generous discretion and good taste of 

 sportsmen. If they could content themselves with moderate sport and 

 eschew the competitive fashion of hunting and fishing merely to excel in 

 weight and numbers, I think that such an example would soon 

 win adherents, and discourage a prevalent system of genteel 

 poaching, such as amongst ignorant barbarians would be stigmatized as 

 destructive, and thought deserving of penal correction. Probably the 

 initiatory step is that of exposing* those, insatiable destroyers who shoot 

 and fish to gratify a momentary and vain selfishness, or to satisfy an ig- 

 noble desire for notoriety. But the wretched barbarism of men who 

 not only destroy excessive quantities, but abandon them to waste, can- 

 not well be shamed by exposure. The only remedy in similar instances, 

 so far -is concerns Canadian waters, seems to lie in a discriminate exclu- 

 sion. In another letter I will explain how this can be accomplished. 



Candor impels me to own that United States citizenship cannot claim 

 a monopoly of sportsmen of the Nepigon type. I have in mj mind's eye 

 at the present moment two other notable and very recent examples of 

 the salt and offal class of sportsmen— a Canadian "Honorable*' and a 

 British "Baronet." The former gentleman as a guest on the Resti- 

 gonche river, last summer, killed and salted down— body, bones and ail- 

 presumably for the Toronto market— about 21 barrels of salmon The 

 latter gentleman, also a guest at the River Saguenay, last autumn, 

 amused himself by killing quantities of different kinds of fish with an 

 amateur trap net, and left most of them to rot. 



Are these examples from such distant places as Lake Superior, Chaleur 

 jiay and the Saguenay calculated to commend the interests of the sport- 

 ing fraternity to the sympathy of the general public, either in Canada or 

 the United States? If not, then the perpetrators should be discounten 

 anced and exposed with unsparing impartiality. W. F. Whitchkr. 



Ottawa, Canada, 16th January. 1874. 



— We are fortunate in having upon our list of contribu- 

 tors such worthy and intelligent co-adjutors as Messrs. 

 Whitcher and Venning, the Canadian Inspectors of fish- 

 eries, letters from both of whom, and from the latter 

 frequently, have appeared in the columns of this jour- 

 nal. We appreciate the sympathetic tastes and commu- 

 nity of interests which draw such gentlemen as these to 

 our side, but we especially value cooperation from over 

 the border with our own efforts here, because it is only 

 by an earnest and strong pull both together that we can 

 hope to correct abuses, instruct the unlearned in this new 

 dispensation, and re-populate our forests and streams. The 

 popular mind is sufficiently alive to the importance of 

 these great interests to lend a willing aid, if it Le only di- 

 rected aright, and we know that letters of such practical 

 men as we have named, with Baird, Green, Norris, 

 Mather, Stone, Atkins, Stillwell, and others, such as we 

 publish from week to week, must have great weight in 

 moulding that popular mind, and so utilizing popular 

 force as to make it available in working out the grand re- 

 sult desired. It is no ungenerous and invidious reflection 

 upon Canadians or Americans, that even the idea of a "dis- 

 criminate exclusion" has suggested itself to Government 

 officials as the surest, best and quickest remedy for existing 

 evils. 



It may be mortifying to the pride of men conscious of 

 wrong doing to be debarred from the privileges of the 

 streams; but it will not wound them half so much as to be 

 caught in the offence by auchby when the public shall be- 

 come educated to an intelligent understanding of the true 

 and abstract nature of the offense. We believe that op- 

 position and hostility to game and fishery laws lies in 

 great part in ignorant misapprehension of their intent and 

 application; but where mere cupidity is the incentive to 

 violation, punishment ought not to be condoned. If Mr. 



vVhitcher can, as he promises, demonstrate what remedy 

 will be effectual, he will accomplish something worthy of 

 gratitude. We shall await his supplementary letter with 

 curiosity. 



—The catch of herring on the northeast coast of France 

 is exceedingly abundant this year. During the first week 

 of January an enormous quantity of herring were placed on 

 the Dieppe market, the number of fish in a single day tax- 

 ing the energies of the fishermen to bring to the land. The 

 oldest fishermen declare that the yield of herring has been 

 greater at the present season than at any preceding period. 



—A private letter states thatthe veteran angler, Thad.Nor- 

 ris, Esq., is presently to start a large fishing tackle and rod 

 factory at Philadelphia. His rods are very highly prized 

 by many anglers, though different persons have their fa- 

 vorite makers. 



—Herrings are reported to be plenty at Grand Menan. 

 Cod, pollock and haddock are alao said to be more numer- 

 ous there than they have been for the last forty years. 

 American vessels are taking large quantities of fish. One 

 of them caught a full load in ten days, having caught 18,- 

 000 pounds in one day.— Gape Ann Advertiser. 



— Col. Nicholas Pike, late U. S. Consul at Mauritius, 

 mentions having caught an eel there which measured 

 twelve feet three inches in length, and fourteen and a 

 half inches around the largest part of the head. 

 \S Preparing Salmon on the Columbia River. — Along a 

 part of the Columbia river (below Kalama), are the "sal- 

 mon factories," whence come the Oregon salmon, which, 

 put up in tin cans, are now to be bought not only in our 

 Eastern States, but all over the worldT The fish are caught 

 in weirs, in gill nets, as shad are caught on the Hudson, 

 and this is the only part of the labor performed by white 

 men. The fishermen carry the salmon in boats to the fac- 

 tory — usually a large frame building erected on piles over 

 the water — and here they fall into the hands of Chinese, 

 who get for their labor a dollar a day and their food. 



The salmon are flung upon a stage, where they lie in 

 heaps of a thousand at a time, a surprising sight to an 

 Eastern person, for in such a pile you may see fish weigh- 

 ing from thirty to sixty pounds. The work of preparing 

 them for the cans is conducted with exact method and 

 great cleanliness, water being abundant. One Chinaman 

 seizes a fish and cuts off his head ; the next slashes off the 

 fins and disembowels the fish; it then falls into a large vat, 

 where the blood soaks out — a salmon bleeds like a bull — 

 and after soaking and repeated washing in different 

 vats, it falls at last into the hands of one of a gang of 

 Chinese whose business it is, with heavy knives, to chop 

 the fish into chunks of suitable size for the tins. These 

 pieces are plunged into brine, and presently stuffed into 

 the cans, it being the object to fill each can as full as possi- 

 ble with fish, the bone being excluded. The top, which 

 has a small hole pierced in it, is then, soldered on, and five 

 hundred tins set on a form are lowered into a huge kettle 

 of boiling water, where they remain until the heat has ex- 

 pelled all the air. Then a Chinaman neatly drops a little 

 solder over each pin-hole, and afer another boiling, the 

 object of which is, I believe, to make sure that the cans 

 are hermetically sealed, the process is complete, and the 

 salmon are read} r to take a journey longer and more re- 

 markable even than that which their progenitors took 

 when seized with the curious rage of spawning, they as- 

 cended the Columbia, to deposit their eggs in its head 

 waters, near the centre of the continent. 



I was assured by the fishermen that the salmon do not 

 decrease in numbers or in size, yet, in this year, 1878, 

 more than two millions of pounds were put up in tin cans 

 on the Lower Columbia alone, besides fifteen or twenty 

 thousand barrels of salted salmon. — Charles Nordhoff, in 

 Harpers Magazine. 



— The following is a list of the Fishery Commissioners for 

 the several States as far as yet appointed : 



United States— S. F. Baird, 918 New York avenue, Washington, D. C, 

 Commissioner General. 



Maine— H. O. Stanley, Dixneld; E. M. Stillwell, Bangor. 



New Hampshire— Thomas E. Hatch, Keene; W. W. Fletcher, Concord; 

 W. A. Sanborn, Weirs. 



Vermont— M. C. Edmunds, Weston; M. Goldsmith, M. D.. Rutland. 



Massachusetts— T. Lyman, Brookline: E. H. Brackett, Winchester: 

 Thomas Talbot, North Billerica. 



Connecticut— W. M. Hudson, M. D., Hartford; R. C. Pike, Middle- 

 town; J. A. Bill, Lyme. 



Rhode Island— Newton Dexter, Providence; A. A. Reld, Jr., Provi- 

 dence; I. H. Barden, Scitnate. 



New York. — H. Seymour, Utiea; R. B. Roosevelt, New York- City 

 E. M. Smith, Rochester. 



New Jersey— B. P. Howell, M. D., Woodbury: J. H. Slack, M. D., 

 Bloomsbury; J. R. Shotwell, Rahway. 



Pennsylvania— J. Duffy, Marietta; H. J. Reeder, Easton; R. L. Hew- 

 tt, Holidaysburg. 



Virginia — William Ball, Mid Lothian; Asa Wall, Winchester. 



Alabama — C. S. G. Doster.Prattville; D. R. Handley, Mountain Home; 

 Robert Tyler, Montgomery. 



Michigan— Gov. J. J. Bagley, Detroit; G. H. Jerome, Niles; G. 

 Clark, Ecorse. 



California.— R.B. Redding, San Francisco; S. R. Throgmorton, Sac- 

 ramento; J. D. Farnell, Sacramento. 



The Commissioners will favor us by forwarding their 

 reports. 



Committee on the Legislation Necessary for the 

 Preservation of our Forests. — The following gentle- 

 men, members of the American Association for the ad- 

 vancement of science, met on Saturday last in this city, for 

 the purpose of organization, and to impress the necessity of 

 preserving our forests. All the names below are those of 

 gentlemen who have been prominent in measures of this 

 character, and combine the fullest practical and theoretical 

 knowledge in regard to trees, their influences on soil, and 

 the effects of forests on climate &c. 



Dr.F. B. Hough, Lowville, N. Y; Prof. Asa Gray, of 

 Cambridge; Hon. Geo. B. Emerson, of Boston; Prof. W. 

 D. Whitney, of California; Prof. W. H. Brewer, of Yale; 

 Prof. John S. Newberry, of New York; Col. Chas. Whit- 

 tlesey, of Cleveland, Ohio; Hon. L. H. Morgan, of Roches- 

 ter; Prof. Hilyard, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. 



§2dchtittg mid ^aating. 



— > 



AH communications from Secretaries and friends should be mailed not 

 later than Monday in each week. 



♦ 



HIGH WATER, FOR THE WEEK. 



DATE. j BOSTON. | NEW YORK. | CHARL'ST'N 



h. m. h. m. i h. m. 



Jan. -29 | 9 14 6 5 14 



Jan 30 I 10 10 6 5ti I 6 10 



Jan. 31 I 11 1 | 7 44 ! 7 1 



Feb. 1 I 11 43 | 8 27 I 7 43 



Feb. 2 I eve. 24 ', 9 01 8 24 



Feb. 3. I 11 I 9 IS 9 1 



Feb. 4 I 1 38 I 10 23 I 9 38 



—Gen. W. W. Sanford of St. Louis, expects his new 

 schooner to "go into commission" on the first of April. 

 She will be launched from the yard near Baltimore, about 

 that time. He contemplates a cruise to Baltimore, Fortress 

 Monroe, Washington, Richmond and perhaps further 

 South, expecting to arrive in New York about June 15th, 

 in time for the opening of the season here. He will then 

 undoubtedly be ready to try conclusions with some of our 

 fast ones here. 



Pat. McGiehan, the celebrated yacht builder, has three 

 yachts on the stocks, all sloops. One twenty-two feet, over 

 all, for South Carolina waters. One twenty-four, over all, 

 for Lake Mahopac cruising. One forty-five feet, over all, 

 for the New York Bay. We are glad to see our Southern 

 friends taking an interest in yachting again. It looks like 

 old times. 



CONVENTION OF THE ROWING ASSOCI- 

 ATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES. 



[From our own Special Correspondent.] 



Hartford, Conn., January 23, 1874. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: — 



Wednesday, 21st instant, the Rowing Association of 

 American Colleges met at the AHyn House, in this city, to 

 decide where the regatta next summer should take place. 

 Delegates were present from the following colleges:— Am- 

 herst, G. E. Brewer, F. W. Whitridge; Bowdoin, E. Gerry, 

 Jr., G. F. Harriman; Columbia, J. K. Rees, F. L\ Shaw; 

 Cornell, J. F. Southard, J. F. Cluck; Dartmouth, W. J.' 

 Eaton, J. S. Aiken; Harvard, R. H. Dana, Jr., Wendell 

 Goodwin; Agriculturals, E. P. Chandler, J. M. Benedict; 

 Trinity, J. D. McKennon, W. Stark; Williams, J. Guns- ' 

 ter, C. B. Hubbell; Yale, R. J. Cook, C. H. Ferry. 



It was voted that this meeting take the place of the reg- 

 ular annual meeting, and Princeton, with A. Marquand and 

 D. Nicoll, and Wesleyan, with J. P. Stowe and D. Dor- 

 chester, Jr., as delegates, were regularly admitted to the 

 Association. 



Nomination of officers then took place, and resulted in 

 the election of J. H. Southard, Cornell, President; Vice 

 President, R. H. Dana, Ji., Harvard; Secretary, J. K.'Rees, 

 Columbia; Treasurer, J. Guns ter, Williams. 



A motion to change the name of the Association, and 

 call it the "Rowing Association of New England Colleges, 1 ' 

 and to admit Columbia, Cornell, and Princeton as mem- 

 bers, was made by Aiken, of Dartmouth. It was opposed 

 by Cook and Ferry, of Yale; Cluck, of Cornell; Rees, of 

 Columbia; and Gunster, of Williams. Dana, of Harvard, 

 was in favor of it. 



A resolution offered by Cluck, of Cornell, seconded by 

 Ferry, of Yale, to the following effect, was passed:— 



Ue«oked, That, the constitution be amended so as to read 

 amendment 2:— Undergraduated students of colleges, mem- 

 bers of this Association, candidates for the degreee'of A 

 B., Ph. B., or such other degree as represents a parallel or 

 similar course of study, with the exception of those .who 

 are candidates for the degree of L.L.B., or M.D. or B.D 

 shall be eligible to the regatta crews of this Association' 

 and it shall be understood that the term undergraduates 

 shall mean all students candidates for such degrees as are 

 mentioned above, with the above exception, but who shall 

 not yet have received any degree." 



Here Yale came in antagonism with Yale on this 

 question. Goodwin thought that something under- 

 hand was meant by excluding the Harvard law students 

 who were studying for a degree. Dana spoke to the same 

 effect, Ferry, of Yale, said the idea was to secure men of 

 approximately the same age. 



On a vote the yeas were:— Bowdoin, Cornell, Columbia 

 Agricultural, Trinity, Yale, Wesleyan, Princeton. Nay*— 

 Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, Williams. This finished 

 the morning session. 



In the afternoon Hubbell, of Williams, opened the de- 

 bate by moving the next regatta be held at Saratoga. Mr 

 J. P. Conkling, President of the Saratoga Rowing Associ- 

 ation, was allowed to take the floor and give his views on 

 the merits of Saratoga Lake. It must be said that Mr. 

 Conkling handled his subject in a manner which did him 

 infinite credit, and, fortified with facts and figures, he made 

 a most favorable impression. He deprecated the sectional- 

 ism of Harvard, and the bias of New England generally 

 against Saratoga. 'Tf we are frauds, scourge us through 

 every newspaper in the land," said Mr. Conkling. 



The course, shown on a plan of the lake by Mr. Conk- 

 ling, is three miles straight, narrow near the* finish and 

 visible from many points over its whole length. 



His speech was loudly cheered, and a lively discussion 

 followed it. Brewer, of Amherst, said many of his col- 

 lege were opposed to Saratoga on account of the cost 

 Rees, of Columbia, favored Sarotoga, also Hubbell, of Wil- 

 liams. Shaw, of Columbia, said the morality question was 

 settled by the promises of the Saratoga committee, and a* 

 any rate, for some colleges Saratoga would be chea^ 



