FOREST AND STREAM 



a check to it. After running about thirty yards seaward it 

 turned for the shore. In the meantime F. had hauled in his 

 fish hand over hand, which proved to he an eight-pound 

 bass, which he slapped over the side without ceremony, and 

 then took the gaff unci secured my bass, which was a five- 

 poutider. Just as he did this S. hooked one. 



O. — " There seems to be a school of them around the boat." 



P. — " Tes, they generally run that way — get out your line 

 and keep the school." Which I did, and directly fastened a 

 heavy one which got away after a short run, but I soon had 

 another fast, which I saved— about seven pounds. We got 

 four more before the school left, which seemed to be caused 

 by the appearance of a shark, which took B.'s bait, and after 

 some play, bit off the lino and escaped. 



P. — "I see more of the brutes coming, and we had better 

 be off, no more fun here." 



We turned round the point of the bank, and after going a 

 mile up the other river, entered the mouth of a wide, deep 

 creek coming from the West. 



S.— " What is there here r" 



P. — " This is a good creek for bass, sheepshead and snap- 

 pers, or would be if them Smyrna fellows would leave it alone. 

 I see two of their boats up the creek now. We'll try under 

 this bank for a snapper." 



We anchored close to the bank in the channel, and baiting 

 with mullet, cast up the creek by P.'s direction, as far as pos- 

 sible. I soon felt something at my hook, which 1 could not 

 catch, but which kept taking off my bait. 



P. — " Them is small snappers, they are hard to hook, but 

 we'll hitch a big one directly, There's one !" and he hauled 

 in a red- sided brilliant fish, shaped something like a black 

 bass, of about five pounds weight, which came in reluctantly, 

 and snapped its teeth viciously when in the boat. 



P. — " That's a fine snapper ; one of that size will make 

 your reel hum!" 



S. — " And I have got one— that is if he don't get under the 

 bank. There, what shall I do now, he is under that quay 

 with my line ?" There was nothing to do but to break the 

 line, the fish being too strong to be hauled out of his hole. 



Just then I hooked a snapper ol about two pounds, which I 

 was able to keep away from ihe bank and kill in open water. 

 Then 1 got one of four pounds, and S. found himself fust to 

 another, which he saved after a hard fight; this was a five- 

 pounder. After this the snappers declined our offers, and 

 afLer taking luuch we proceeded up the creek and fished at 

 the mouth of a slough for bass. Presently I found my hook 

 fast to the bottom, as I thought, but, after pidling on it, it 

 moved slowly away. I tried to check the fish, but it was too 

 strong and increased its speed. 



P. — "Ah! Mr. C, you've got a stingray, and a big one." 

 Some fifty yards of line were taken out, when the fish stopped. 

 I tried to recover my line, when the creature rose to the sur- 

 face and thrashed about with his whip-like tail. After many 

 runs back aud forth it went to the bottom, and there it stuck. 

 We got up the anchor and put the boat over the fish ; then P. 

 stirred up the brute with an oar. He started at once and ran 

 oil' toward the inlet, and, taking out my whole line of 100 

 yards, it parted near the hook. "And a good riddance," 

 said P. ; " but that 'ray gave you plenty of sport." " More 

 like hard work than sport," said 1. " Why, what's the odds 

 between bass and stingray, as long as you have the fun of 

 playing them. Now, here's a big shark come after that 'ray ; 

 he thought the 'ray was in trouble and he could get a bite out 

 of it ; very fond of a 'ray is a shark. Well, we might as well 

 go, for that shark will scare all the bass." 



We went up the creek a mile, and then turned north into 

 another, which led into a labyrinth of sea islands and creeks, 

 the islands low and covered with salt grass and mangroves. 

 i J , anchored the boat in a deep hole, where ho said if we got a 

 bass it would be a big one. We fished about half an hour 

 without anything showing itself ; then I felt a heavy surge at 

 rny bait, and found myself fast to a big fish. It ran off thirty 

 yards without a check, then turned and made for the boat, 

 faster than I could peel in my line. When within a few yards 

 of the boat the fish took another ran, and showed a tail about 

 a foot wide above the surface. After I had been playing him 

 about twenty minutes S. hooked another big one, and there 

 we fought those fish, I at the bow and S. at the stern, for 

 twenty minutes rnore,[When my Pass turned over and gave up 

 the battle. P. gaffed and brought him into the boat, the 

 largest bass I had ever taken. S. secured his in about half an 

 hour or so, and the pair made a great show when we got 

 back to the landing. Mine weighed thirty pounds, and my 

 companion's twenty-nine, and we had taken in all nearly 201) 

 pounds of fish. S. C. C. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod, and Gun. 

 THE PIPE STONE QUARRY. 



i NOTICE in No. 11, current volume of your paper, a com- 

 munication over the signature of "M. Gore," entitled 

 "The Great Red Pipe Stone," and being in possession of a 

 copy of " Illustrations of the Manners, Customs and Condi- 

 tion of the North American Indians," written by George Cat- 

 lin, and published many years ago in London, and from which 

 the legends aud traditions set forth in the paper referred to 

 arc boldly taken without acknowledgment, and acting upon 

 the presumption that many of your readers have never seen 

 this rare work, I give below an acconnt of Mr. Catlin's trip to 

 the Red Pipe Stone Quarry, and the dangers and difficulties 

 he encountered on his way : 



" On our way to this place my English companion (Robert 

 S. Wood.) and myself were arrested by a rascally band of the 

 Sioux and held in durance oj'fe for having dared to approach 

 the sacred fountain of the pipe! While we had halted at the 

 trading hut of Le Blanc, at a place called Traverse des Sioux, 

 on the St. Peter's River, aud about 150 miles from the Red 

 Pipe, a murky cloud of dark-visaged warriors and braves 

 commenced gathering around the house, closing and cramming 

 all its avenues, when one began his agitated and insulting 

 harangue to us, as follows : 



" 'My friends, I am not a chief, but the son of a chief. I 

 am the son of my father— be is a chief— and when he is gone 

 away it is my duty to speak for him; he is not here, but what 

 I say is the talk of his mouth. We have been told that you 

 ara going to the Red Pipe Htone Quarry. We come now to 

 ask lor what purpose you arc going, and what business you 

 have to e;o there.' (How! how! was vociferated by all of 

 them, thereby approving what was said, giving assent by the 

 ieir word for yes.) 



" 'Brothers, I am a brave, but not a chief. My arrow 

 stands in the top of the leaping-rock .' All can see it, and all 

 know that Te-o kun-hko's foot has been there.' ('How ! how I) 

 ' Brothers, we look at you and we see that you are che-mo-ke- 



mon captains (white men officers) ; we know that you have 

 been sent by your Government to see what that place is 

 worth, and wo think the while people want to buy it.' ( How! 

 howl) 



" ' Brothers, we have seen always that the white people, 

 when they see anything in our country that they want, send 

 officers to value it, and then, if they can't buy it, they will 

 get it some other way. ' (How ! how ! ) 



" 'Brothers, I speak strong, my heart is strong, and I 

 speak fast. This red pipe was given to the red men by the 

 Great Spirit— it is a part of our flesh, and therefore is great 

 medicine.' (How! how!) 



" ' Brothers, we know that the whites are like a great 

 cloud that rises in the east and will cover the whole country. 

 We know that they will have all our lands ; but if they ever 

 get our Red Pipe Quarry they will have to pay very dear for 

 it.' (How! how! howl) 



" ' Brothers, we know that no white man has ever been to 

 the Pipe Stone Quarry, and our chiefs have often decided in 

 council that no white man shall ever go to it.' (How ! how I) 



" ' Brothers, you have heard what I have to say, and you 

 can go no further, but you must turn about and go back.' 

 (Row ! how! how !) 



" ' Brothers, you see that the sweat runs from my face, for 

 I am troubled.' ' 



"About twenty of them spoke in turn, and we were doomed 

 to sit nearly the whole afternoon without being allowed to 

 Bpeak a word in our behalf until they all got through. We 

 were compelled to keep our stats like culprits and hold our 

 tongues tdl all had brandished their fists in our faces and 

 vented all the threats and invective which could 

 Indian malice, grounded on the presumption that we had 

 come to trespass on their dearest privilege— their religion. 

 Their superstition was sensibly touched, for we were persist- 

 ing in the most peremptory terms in the determination to 

 visit this, their greatest medicine (mystery) place. • This, red 

 stone was a part of their Mesh ; it would be sacrilegious for 

 white men to touch or take it away ; a hole would be made in 

 their .flesh, and the blood could never be made to stop run- 

 ning.' My companion and myself were here in a fix, one that 

 demanded the use of every euergy akout us. In this emer- 

 gency we mutually agreed to go forward, even if it should be 

 at the hazard of our lives. We heard what they had to say 

 and then made our own speeches, and at length had our horses 

 brought, which we mounted and rode off without further mo- 

 lestation. The rock on which I sit to write is the summit of 

 a precipice thirty feet high, extending tw T o miles in length, 

 and much of the way polished, as if a liquid glazing had been 

 poured over its surface. Not far from us, in the solid rock, 

 are the deep impressed 'footsteps of the Great Spirit (in the 

 form of a track of a large bird), where he formerly' stood 

 when the blood of the buffaloes that he was devouring ran 

 into the rocks and turned them red.' 



"At a few yards from us leaps a beautiful little stream from 

 the top of the" precipice into a deep basin below. Here, amid 

 rocks of the loveliest hues, but wildest contour, is seen the 

 poor Indian performing ablution ; and at a little distance be- 

 yond on the plains, at the base of five huge granite boulders, 

 he is humbly propitiating the guardian spirits of the place by 

 sacrifices of tobacco, entreating for permission to take away a 

 small piece of the red stone for a pipe, farther along, and 

 over an extended plain, are seen, like gopher hills, their exca- 

 vations, ancient and recent, and on the surface of the rocks 

 various mai'ks aud their sculptured hieroglyphics — their 

 wakons, totems aud medicines. 



" The Medicine (or leaping) Ruck is a part of the precipice 

 which has become severed from the main part, staudiug about 

 seven or eight feet from the wall, just equal iu height, and 

 about seven feet in diameter. It stands like an immense 

 column of thirty-five feet high, and highly polished on the 

 top and sides. It requires a daring effort to leap on to its top 

 from the main wall and back again, and many a heart has 

 sighed for the honor of the feat without daring to make the at- 

 tempt ; some few have tried it with success, and left their ar- 

 rows standing in its crevice, several of which are seen there 

 at this time ; others have leaped the chasm and fallen from 

 the slippery surface on which they could not hold, and suf- 

 fered instant death on the scraggy rocks below. Every young 

 u ambitions to perform this feat, and those who have 

 successfully done it are allowed to boast of it all their lives. 



" The position of the Pipe Stone Quarry is in a direction 

 nearly west from the Pall of St. Anthony, at a distance of 

 three hundred miles, on the summit of the dividing ridge be- 

 tween the St. Peters and the Missouri rivers, being about 

 equi-distant from either. This dividing ridge is denominated 

 by the French the ' Coteau des Prairies,' and the ' Pipe 

 Stone Quarry' is situated near its southern extremity, and 

 consequently not exactly on its highest elevation, as its gen- 

 eral course is north and south, and its southern extremity 

 terminates in a gradual slope. * * * * * * The full 

 extent and true character of these vast prairies are but im- 

 perfectly understood by tho world yet, who will agree with 

 me that they are a subject truly sublime for contemplation 

 when 1 assure them that a coach and four might be driven 

 with ease (with the exception of rivers and ravines, which are 

 in many places impassable) over unceasing fields of green 

 from the Pall of St. Anthony to Lord Selkirk's establishment 

 on the Red River at the North; from that to the mouth of 

 the I'ellow Stone on the Missouri ; thence to the Platte to 

 the Arkansas and Bed rivers of the South, and through 

 Texas to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of more than three 

 thousand miles." 



Nothing but a wholesome- fear of tho waste-ba9ket induces 



me to close this article (already too long), and I will only add 



chemical analysis of this wonderful stone.*' Tho calumet 



made Rom the red stone has been familiar to nearly all the 



Indian tribes that ever inhabited this Continent, and are of 



two different kinds: the fumes from one herald unrelenting 



r ar, and the smoke from tho other encircles the Olive-branch 



of Peace. A. L. Rose. 



VMoar/o, Mv, 20, WlU. 



"naStiltvuin'i A mefcan Journal of Science, Vol. xxxvli, p. 394, ap- 



larsaeUemloFUAaaijsJ tti< c« pipe atone, Irfonght by- George 

 iuln from tlie Gateau flea Prairies in 1838, submitted to in 

 1 Boston, one of oar best mineralogists aud chemists : 



vimtei SJ 



S§k §ttlta^ 



iW it •' oj lna-j . . .- '•■■'■ 



Peroxide of iron M 



Oxide of manganese Il1 ' 



L -ibs (probably magnesia).. 



For Forest and /Stream and Bod and Gun. 

 IS IT HERRING SPAWN? 



Washington, D. O., Feb. 1, 1879. 



Mb. Editob: I am much interested in tho communication 

 of your correspondent, Mr. Philip Vibert, of Qaspe, in re- 

 gard to the spawning of herring in the Bay Chaletir. I would, 

 however, Like to be assured that this spawn was actually de- 

 rived from that fish, It is a well-known fact that herring 

 spawn in tho spring in the Gulf of St. Lawrence aud about 

 Newfoundland ; but this act is exercised in the summer (as 

 late as the middle of July to the middle of September, or a 

 little later) in the Bay of Pundy ; still later and later as you 

 proceed southward, October being the season on the coast of 

 Massachusetts, and December, and even January, in the vi- 

 cinity of Nantucket and Neman's Land. 



The question is, however, whether the spawn spoken of ns 

 washed upon the beach is really that of the herring. In the 

 first place, the eggs of the herring adhere to anything they 

 touch after sinking to tho bottom, sticking with extreme 

 tenacity to objects at the bottom. I have repeatedly brought 

 them up by the dredge from two to ton fathoms in depth ad- 

 hering to pebbles, sea-weed, shells, etc., and I can hardly 

 imagine their being separated so as to form wind-rows, as sug- 

 gested. If tho egg is of the size of a small pea it certainly 

 cannot be that of the herring, as the dimensions of the egg of 

 that fish, as is well known^ are considerably smaller than 

 those of the shad. 



It is not at all improbable that theso eggs belong to some 

 species of Oothis, or sculpin, which have large eggs and 

 which Bpawn in immense quantities. Precisely similar 

 masses of their eggs are thrown upon the shores of New 

 England, especially in the vicinity of Wood's Hole, which 

 being hatched out under my direction have proved to belong 

 to several distinct species of that animal. It would be a mat- 

 ter of extreme interest to have some of these eggs in different 

 stages of development of tho young, and still more, to have 

 some of the young fish that have emerged from them ; and 

 if Mr. Vibert will kindly send a bottle of them, preserved in 

 alcohol, to the Smithsonian Institution iu Washington, I will 

 take great pleasure in havinga critical investigation prosecuted 

 and a report made of the result. 



Very truly yours, Spender P. Bated. 



Sitad Spawning in October.— We have received from Pro- 

 fessor Spencer F. Baird the following note of shad spawning 

 in October. He is desirous of ascertaining whether, and to 

 what extent, the facts therein contained coincide with the ob- 

 servations of other fishermen. We hope to hear from any of 

 our readers who may have any information to give upon the 

 subject. The letter is as follows : 



Satrrook, Conn., Jan. 29, 1879. 



Prof. Spencer F. Baird— Dear Sir : I am an old fisher- 

 man, having been engaged in that business on the salt water 

 and on the great lakes of tho West for many years, and last 

 fall found something new iu relation to common river shad. 

 I wrote to Mr. Wm. M. Hudson, Chairman of the Board of 

 Fish Commissioners of this State, but he could not explain or 

 account for it, and that is my excuse for writing to you. 1 

 am not a scientist, as you will readily see, but having forty- 

 five years experience in shad fishing and twenty years on the 

 lakes, I know something of the habits of fish and am inter- 

 ested in anything new about them. I set some nets in Octo- 

 ber last along the shore of Long Island Sound near the mouth 

 of the Connecticut River for the purpose of catching striped 

 bass. I at once began to catch shad, full grown shad, some 

 of them just ready to spawn. On the morning of October 20 

 I took out of one net twenty or more. Some would spawn in 

 two weeks, and all along from that time, I should judge, to 

 five or six. They seemed to be bound in the river for that 

 purpose. This is new to us here. Never knew spring fish to 

 spawn in the fall or fall fish to spawn in the spring. Do you 

 think artificial propagation has had anything to do with ill' 

 Will you please give me your opinion and oblige 



Yours respectfully, Frederick 1£ieti.and. 



tt Wihoonstn— Madhon, Jan. 20.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 At the present time there is a bill pending before the Legisla- 

 ture of this State to make an appropriation for the construc- 

 tion of a State fish-hatching house to be located in Milwaukee. 

 The latter city proposes to give to the State the site and water 

 free o: charge. The water used, at the city water rates, ex- 

 ceeds in value $1,000 per annum. This is a liberal offer on 

 the part of Milwaukee. The Stale Pish Commissioners report 

 that this additional hatchery is needed. The hatching of 

 whitefish is the leading feature of their work, and must ever 

 remain so. Large numbere of the plant of two weeks ago are 

 now found on beds heretofore barren. Whitefish and lake 

 trout can only be hatched successfully in the cold waters of 

 the lakes : the water of our inland springs is of too high a 

 temperature to hatch these varieties. At the hatchery located 

 near this city very encouraging work has been done. 



RoVEB. 



Com. Welsh proposes to stock the AshlandBay with 20,000 

 California salmon. 



—It is generally believed that Setb Green's book on Trout 

 Culture is out of print, but we believe a number of copies can 

 still be had by writing to the author at Rochester, N. Y. 



Amebian Fien in France. — A Fovefyn Compliment To 

 Fral Mnther— "VVd have receives the following letter from 

 the Secretary of the ' : iation," of Paris, 



whidh will be read by iish eulturisU with much interest. All 

 iiiLiatnlale Mr. Mather upon the compliment 

 paid him, which, we need not say, has been fully earned by 

 ii ;■■■ . .mi i devotion to the charges with which he has 

 been intrusted, combined with that practical knowledge of 

 his business which can alone ensure success: 

 Emton'FrtitE 



Tnnfia - it»s I > ■ ■ 



' ■ in. to :■ ...'.ii i.. ... ii oentlj awarded among me 



'"■ French Aecliinat iz-. 1 leu Society. 

 l' i mil u: |m mm , .i .... i, ', < meons. 



r Inw, itiduert, O'.il.Mir a ft pi IB ■ J 'id not a gold 



■ ... ratus, suitable for the tram-'pori of Urli ova; btjtnevor 

 has that apparatus been employed for transporting Salmo qtdnnat ova, 



