FOREST AND STEEAM. 



115 



those cotningfromWinnepiseogee.as compared with those, from 

 the lakes of Maine, not many miles distant. I had a long 

 conversation with Commissioner Stilwnll, of Maine, at the 

 meeting of the. N. E. Fish Opm, on Wednesday last, in Bos- 

 ton, and he agrees with me entirely, and I know that the 

 Monadnock trout, which Livingston Stone, had a few years 

 sinceat his Cold Spring hatching ponds, were not to be dis- 

 tinguished from the brook trout in the same pond, except by 

 a lighter shade of color. I thinK that when Prof. Baird and 

 Jordan come to examine this fish more closely that they will 

 agree that it is merely the brook trout modified by residence 

 for generations under peculiar conditions. In fact this is all 

 my point, that there are not, nearly so many distinct varieties 

 of the salmo family as has been supposed ; but that local cir- 

 cumstances have so modified the appearances of the same 

 species in different waters, and procuring different food, that 

 they have been supposed to be different varieties. This, how- 

 ever, 1 stick to, that the trout of Monadnock Lake is in no 

 sense the same as his cousins of Winnepiseogec, inasmuch as 

 he has the red spots of fontinaUs, which the Winnepiseogec 

 fish is destitute of. Yours truly, Sam'l. Wbbbee. 



Since putting the foregoing into type, we have received the 

 following very timely and gratifying letter from Prof. D. B. 

 Jordan, whom all our ichthyologists will thank : 

 ty Irvikoion, Indiana, March 3, 1879. 



Editob Fobest and Stbbam • 



In regard to the trout of lakes Monadi "tck and Winnepiseo- 

 gee, I think that Messrs. Webber and M ssenger are right in 

 saying that the trout of the former lake is the fontinaUs, and 

 that of the latter lake is 8. confinis or Grin vomer namayemli, 

 which is the same thing. 



The specimen from Monadnock Lake, referred to by Prof. 

 Baird as belonging to the group of lake trout, probably close- 

 ly related to what Dr. Prescott calls Salmo symmetries (Kept. 

 TJ. B. Com. Fish and Fisheries, 1872-8, 373;, were afterward 

 sent to me for fuller identification, Professor Baird having only 

 given them a cursory examination, and supposed them, from 

 their pale color, to be young lake trout. On examination, 

 they prove to be brook trout" (3. fonlinalii), ttilienng from 

 the ordinary fontinaUs only in their pale color. As Mr. 

 Webber truly remarks, they are only ' ' a bleached variety of 

 B. fontinaUs." 



the Winnipiseogee trout, called by Dr. Prescott S. sym- 

 metrica, is a wholly different tisb, belonging even to a differ- 

 ent genus; for none of these small-Scaled trout are true Salmo. 

 This Salmo symmetrica is simply a local race of the much- 

 named lake trout, which has been called by different writers 

 Salmo tomam the lakes of Maine, Salmo ttymin'lrica in New 

 Hampshire, Salmo pallidus in Vermont, Salmo adarandaeus 

 and Salmo eonfinu in New York, Salmo awMiyxtinus in 

 Michigan, and Salmo namacmh in Canada. The latter name 

 —of Indian origin— is much the oldest, and must be used ; 

 and the species should be called Salmo namayouh, or, more 

 correctly, Oriatioomer namaycvsli. The real distinctions be- 

 tween these kindB of trout are given in my Manual of Verte- 

 brates, pp. 350, etc., and more fully in a paper on the fishes of 

 the Glacfcmas River, in proceedings of the l'. 8. National 

 Museum. The Winnipiseogee trout are therefore simply or- 

 dinary lake trout in favorable waters, and the Monadnock 

 trout are brook trout, for some reason curiously pale and 

 bleached. The names symmetrica, tomu, eonfinis, and adar- 

 ondacus are simply useless and troublesome synonyms of a 

 iish already too much named ; but, like all such, they die 

 slowly. D. 8. Jordan. 



The Canaries Fisheries, — ^1 tfew Field for Massachusetts 

 Fisftermeri.—Thu Journal of the Society of Arts of Jan. 17 

 announces the interesting and important discovery of appar- 

 ently exhaustless supplies of fish in the waters off the Canary 

 Islands. These fish are said to be about one-fourth codfish of 

 great size and the remainder various and unknown to our 

 fishermen. As the best season is from October to the end of 

 March, this new find offers a tempting field for a resort of 

 hardy fishermen from the severity of the season off our own 

 frosty coasts ; and with theif great experience andekil!, with 

 arts and tackle Unknown to the rude resources of those lati- 

 tudes, the catch must, in all probability, be exceptional, see- 

 ing that, even with the imperfect means at the command of 

 the natives of the Canaries, one fisherman, by the statement 

 of Mr. Berthelot, now takes as many fish in one day as 

 twenty-six men in Newfoundland. This will beg 

 to American fishermen, who are reported to have made a poor 

 catch the present season, and who are liable to be plundered 

 by the savage natives of Newfoundland when they make a 

 good one. 



It is asserted that the fish are in general inferior in quality 

 to those of Scotland or British North America, but the imper- 

 fect and careless manner of curing them may account for "this 

 assertion. M. Berthelot, late French consul, in his work 

 draws a comparison with the fisheries of Newfoundland. 

 After elaborate numerical calculations derived from practical 

 results, be comes to the conclusion that the quantity of fish- 

 caught by one man in the Canarie3 is equal to that caught by 

 twenty-six men m Newfoundland. All evidence tends to 

 show "that the quantity caught is very great, and that the sup- 

 ply is inexhaustible. And yet neither the i.ative fishermen 

 nor the commercial community of the islands have en- 

 deavored to turn this immense field of wealth to any advan- 

 tage, being satisfied thus far with confining their operations 

 almost exclusively to the supply of the local consumption . 

 The largest fish banks are said to be from the island of 

 Fuerteventura to Oabo Blanco. The vessels fish down to the 

 latter point, and the larger ones sometimes go very near to 

 Cape do Verd. 



The class of vessels employed in this occupation, formerly 

 topsail, are now fore-and-aft schooners, varying in size from 

 twenty -five to fifty tons; they carry crews of from eighteen 

 and twenty to thirty and forty men and boys, and are pro- 

 vided with two, three or four boats. No nets are used, the 

 fish being c.ught with hooks. Besides the different kinds of 

 hooks aud lines, they also carry rods or poles of from five to six 

 feet in length, to the end of which is attached some six feet of 

 line trimmed with several strong, rough-made hooks at a cer- 

 tain distance from each other. These are trailed along the 

 surfacp of the water, a means of capture which h 

 fills the vessels rapidly. Tne total number of vessels compos- 

 posing the fishing fleet, in these islands is reckoned al twenty, 

 of which fourteen belong to Grand Canary, the rest to Paluia, 

 Fuerteventura and Lianzarote. 



According to the owner of one of these fishing schooners, one 

 of those now under contract with a French company, four 

 boats, under favorable circumstances, could deliver in less 

 than two days more fresh fish than the steamer could carry. 

 Ordinarily speaking a boat of forty tons might be loaded in 

 three days. Other estimates give the catch per r 

 diem at from fifteen to thirty quiutals of 900 pounds each. 



But there arc days in which fifty quintals have been taken, 

 and others again when not eveu ten quintals have been 

 caught. Cases arc numerous of a vessel of thirty tons or so 

 filling up in two days, when they happen to come on a bank 

 where the fish has been drawn or scared from other banks in 

 large shoals. 



The fishing ground may be considered as lying between the 

 southern 'part of the island of Grand Canary and the same 

 latitude on the African coast, or from about 15 degs. to 33 

 degs. or 33 degs. north latitude along the northwest, coast of 

 Africa. The annual quautity caught is estimated al from 

 5000 to 8000 tons ; the salting is done on board the vessels. It 

 must not he supposed that codfish is the sole fish comprised 

 in these fisheries; it does not bear a larger proportion than 

 one-quarter or one third, according to the season, of the total. 

 — Boston Transcript. 



RANGELEY LAKES TROUT. 



EpiTOlt Forest and Stream : 



Seeing an article in your last paper on the " Big Trout of 

 Rangeley," in which some figures were given as to Mr. Stan- 

 ley's catch there last fall, I thought it might be interesting to 

 your many readers to have an entire list of that wonderful 

 catch, for I doubt if it can be beat. The memorandum I give 

 below is taken from page 13, Commissioners' Report for 1878: 



THOUT TAKEN AT OUTLET OI-' HANUKLF.V LAKR. 



187S. 



Oct. 2 U-trout, (average i% pounds) largest 10 pounds. 



" 3 * " " 6« " " 7tf " 



>' i IS '• " 5 " " h 



" 6 IT " '■ i% " " 9 " 



" T Ill " " S '• " 7 



8 8.... .1 •' •• JW •' •• 9 



■■ 9 5 5 " " S " 



TROUT TAKEN AT LH'I-EB DAM, BlCHAKnSON LAKES. 



1STS. 



Sept. 32 Illroutlncar, (iv'g3!,£ pounds) largest pounds. 



" 23 6 •' •' 3J* " " 7 



■' 21.... S " " i% " " « " 



" 25 5 " " 3« - " BH " 



" M is " >' :»i " •' iy, •' 



■■■>■< k ■• *■ ay, i' " a 



■' 29 t •• " 4*{ " " 6 



" 80 9 " " 5 " " I 



O.-t. 1 S " '-3 H " 5?i I'. 



■' 1 n •• " 3 " " 6 



" 3 ? " " 60-7 '• " 10 



•• r, 7 •• ■• iy, ■• " 6 " 



" 7 6 " " 4« •' " 9% " 



P 10 6 •' - " " 8 



It will be noticed that the largest average of any one day's 

 catch was that at the Upper Dam for Oct, 3, when the entire 

 catch averaged the enormous weight of six and five-sevenths 

 pounds each. The largest average of trout taken at Rangeley 

 Outlet was 5| lbs. each, but as there were only four fish 

 against seven at the Upper Dam, it would really be less than 

 that. But taking the figures as they stand, there is a differ- 

 ence in favor of the fish taken at the' Upper Dam of a pound 

 and a quarter to a fish. As there has been some dispu'es 

 among Rangeley fishermen as to what particular part of the 

 lake region furnishes the largest fish, this statement may go 

 some w'ay toward settling it, as it is perfectly reliable. 



Those of your readers who may wish to tackle some of the 

 large fish at the Upper Dam will be glad to learn that the 

 Maine legislature have repealed the law of last year, when the 

 close season commenced Sept. 21. This year they will have 

 the entire month of September to practice with their flies As 

 some of these rabid fish society men seem to take the change 

 in the law from Sept. 31 to Oct. 1 as a personal grievance, I 

 would state that last fall I had quite a talk with Mr. Stanley. 

 He came in through Andover, and crossed the Richardson 

 Lakes to the Upper Dam, and I wetit up on the steamer with 

 him. He told me that there was not the least objection in 

 keeping the fishing open till Oct. 1, and thought that was the 

 proper time for the close season to commence. This opinion 

 coming from one of the Fish Commissioners of the State ought 

 to have some weight. 



Besides the hatching houses at Berna and Rangeley Outlet, 

 there will be one at the Upper Dam next fall, as quite a sum 

 of money has already been raised toward the enterprise, and 

 more is promised. As the ice on the Rangeley and Richard- 

 son Lakes has been quite poor this winter it will probably go 

 out earl}', and give a long season for spring fishing, which can 

 commence legally the 1st of May. Tne steamers on the lakes 

 commenced running last year the second week in May, and 

 it is probable that they may begin to run about the same time 

 this year. Charles A. J. Fabbae. 



Jamaica Plain, March 3, 1879. 



Effects of Moonlight. — Here is another bit of testimony 

 in favor of the moonlight argument : 



Kendall, McKean Oo., Pa. 

 Epitob Forest and Stream : 



(A la last week's issue of your valuable paper I noticed several articles 

 iu relation to tae effects of moonshine aponmen and tab. I sailed from 

 Falrbuven, llass., in the year 1SB7, for a three years' cruise In the At- 

 lantic and Indian Queans on the wtiallng brig Abbott Laurence, Captain 

 Marstoo, 



Once upoa a time I was careless enough, while in the Indian Ocean, 

 to sleep on tie tore natch, the moon shining very brightly at the time. 

 When I awoke one eye was nearly blind from the exposute, and it was a 

 long time before I fully recovered. This I know to have been occas- 

 ioned by tu* moon's rays, from the fact that during the day I conld see 

 as well as ever, bat when the night came on I was partially blind. The 

 tieusation at night was very unpleasant. Your Florida correspondent 

 would do well to ask whalers wao have sailed in the southern seas a 

 few questions before writing of that which only displays ignorance on 

 his part. 



Still another case. We had a foremast hand from Lisbon who wis 

 led away one evening from the wheel, because he could not ste«i 

 the lirue, first watch, 7 9. He also was al) right during daylight. This 

 ] know, as 1 to k his place at the whee— he beiug one of our watch 



I have a log book of my experience and uun prove my sta 

 ofHuers auo crew of the good brig A bbatt La m - 



Wishing you a long life of happiness here and one eternally In the 

 world to come I remain yours, D. S. Cofbland, 



Pastor al e. Dimrpri. 



Mr. Editor ,' In the month of July, in the year 183—, one 

 day while engaged in conversation with friends in the office 

 of our village hotel, soou after my return from a tropical 

 bat period when I had scarcely passed my majority, 

 a Tattle-headed itinerant, whose pious beat was up and down 

 Cape Cod, entered the office of the hotel, and, after approach- 

 ing the bar and partaking of a bumper of the juice of the 

 grain, turned to me, and'said he . " Young man. without op- 

 position there is no information, aud don't- you forget it ,"and 

 f never have forgotten it, and 1 firmly believe it was on that 

 day the siang phrase " Don't you forget it " was coined by the 



said itinerant. Abiding the itinerant's injunctions, I trust you 

 will not consider me pugnacious for indulging in comments 

 on certain articles, on which of late there hts been a profu- 

 sion of pros and cons in your, to me, almost Indispensable 

 journal. 



Firstly, experience has taught me that moonlight on man 

 and fish, and, for aught I know, on mice, is a phenomenon 

 unmistakable, and therefore name circumstances. While 

 cruising in the Caribbean Sea we frequently secured fresh 

 fish, such as albicores and skipjacks. On one particular oc- 

 casion, during a ttopical full moon, the glaring and silvery 

 brilliancy of which I have never witnessed save in the tropics, 

 near nightfall I caught a skipjack, and with great care dressed 

 and took out his back bone aud spread him open with skewers 

 and placed him on top of the round-house to dry off for a morn- 

 ing's breakfast. Iu the morning behold the old story in which 

 I had never taken stock ! That the moon would spoil fish 

 was demonstrated as a fact. My fish was literally covered 

 with a greenish-yellow slime of a decided sickening appear- 

 ance, and on further examination the fish was fonnd to be ab- 

 solutely rotten. During the same cruise in the same waters 

 several sailors were moon-stricken, the effects being semi- 

 paralysis accompanied by blindness and frightful distorted 

 countenances, the malady lasting them for several days. 



C. L. 



THE IRISH WOLF HOUND 



THE following int .'resting letter regarding this possible ex- 

 tinct breed of dogs is printed in the Irish Sportuman. 

 Some time since, our late contemporary, the Country, printed 

 a very interesting letter from Mrs. John C. Fremont, regarding 

 a pair of dogs of this breed which were at one time at one of 

 the frontier forts, and efforts were made, but without success, 

 to trace them, or their descendents. Should the race still be 

 in existence, and through the efforts of the Irish Kennel Club 

 be resuscitated (so to speak), that body will have earned the 

 gratitude of all lovers of the dog. The letter is as follows : 



As the Irish Kennel Club purpose to hold their second ex- 

 hibition in April next, I am anxious to bring the subject of 

 the Irish Wolfhound before your readers, to obtain their in- 

 formation and cooperation, with the subject of taking 

 measures to have a class formed for these dogs at the forth- 

 coming show. It is a fact that there has been a generally-re- 

 ceived impression amongst modern writers that this noble 

 breed of dog is entirely extinct. That the breed in its "ori- 

 ginal integrity" has apparently disappeared cannot be dis- 

 puted, yet there is equally little doubt that so much of the 

 true breed is forthcoming, both in the race still known in Ire- 

 land as the Irish Wolfhound (to be met with, however, in one 

 or two places only) and in our modern Deerhound, as to allow 

 of the complete recovery of the breed in its pristine grandeur. 

 The fact is well known to Mastiff breeders, that until within 

 the last 30 or 40 years, Mastiffs, as a pure race, had become 

 almost extinct, yet now we have them in a form equal, if not 

 superior, to what it was of yore. Why should not such 

 measures be taken to reeover the more auciont and certainly 

 equally noble race of lri h Wolf-hounds ? It may be argued 

 that the services of such a dog being no longer required for 

 sport, his existence is no longer to be desired ; but such an 

 argument dues not bear consideration for a moment, for how 

 many thousauds of dogs are there bred for which no work 

 is provided— for instance, Mastiffs, Pugs, St. Bernards, etc. , 

 besides, there is no doubt this breed would be well suited to 

 the requirements of our colonies. That we have in the Deer- 

 hound the modern representative of the old Irish dog ia 

 patent, and though the Deerhound is of less stature, less 

 robust, and of slimmer form, the main characteristics of the 

 original breed remain. It is a matter of history that the Irish - 

 Wolfhound is of very ancient origin, and was well known to 

 and highly prized by the Romans, whdst it is remarkable, 

 that although we have accounts of almost all the noticeable 

 breeds, including the Irish Wolfhound, there is no allusion to 

 any such dog as the Deerhound, save in writings of a com- 

 paratively recent date. 



It may be safely assumed from evidence that the Wolf- 

 hound was of considerably greater stature than any known 

 race of dogs existing at the present day, and the following is 

 the nearest approach which we have to a standard of points : — 



General Appearance and Form. — That of a very tall, heavy 

 Scotch Deerhound, much more massive and majestic looking, 

 active, and tolerably fast, but somewhat less so than the 

 present breed of Deerhotihd ; the neck thick in comparison to 

 his form, very muscular, and rather long. Shape of head. — 

 Very long, but not too narrow, coming to a comparative 

 point ; nose not too small, and head gradually getting broader 

 from the same evenly up to the back of the skull ; much 

 broader between the ears than that of the present Deerhound. 

 Coat. — Rough and hard all over body, tad, and legs, and of 

 good length; hair on headlong, and rather softer than that 

 on body ; that under the jaws to be long and wiry, also that 

 over eyes. Color. —Black, gray, brindle, red, and fawn, 

 though white and pani-colored dogs were common aud even 

 preferred in olden times. Shape and Size of Bars.— Small in 

 proporlion to size of head, and half erect, resembling those of 

 the best Deerhound. If the dog is of light color a dark ear is 

 to be preferred. 



Dogs, Bitches. 



Probable height at shoulder .. 32 In. to 35 iu. 23 ia to 30 in. 



utrtu at cucst 33 in. to 44 In. 82 in. to 34 In. 



Round forearm 10 in. to 12m. s In. to 9)4Jn 



l sb ■' : of mad 12J4 in. to l-i In. 10;; in. to lljfin. 



r tu! length si m.toluoln. 7o In. to So m. 



Weight in lbs lOO Ib.touoib. no lb.tollO lb. 



It has been ascertained beyond all doubt that there are 

 some few specimens of the breed sill in England and Ireland 

 that have well-founded pretensions to be considered Irish 

 Wolfhounds, i had a letter lately from Captain G. A. 

 Graham, of D.iisley, Gloucestershire, an experienced breeder 

 of these dogs, i Ld a recognized authority on the subject — to 

 WhOfJQ 1 am indebted for my information— in which he states 

 that the breed was kept some few years ago at Killane, 

 ThomhStown, County Killkenny; that he had dogs from 

 there, and his blood went there; also a Mr. Mahoney had the 

 breed ten or twelve years ago, and Mr. Baker, of Ballylal.tin 

 Castle, County Kilkenny, had the correct strain, whilst we all 

 know that Major-General il'Causland exhibited a fair speci- 

 men at the Earlsfort Terrace dog show last August. 



if the whereabouts of any of these dogs mentioned by Cap- 

 tain Graham could be found it would, I fancy, be easy 

 enough to induce their owners to exhibit them, when we 

 should arrive at the true type, and, I trust, bring about the 



