FOREST AND STREAM. 



?:-'|1 



he made the rush down towards me. I knew lie was m ak- 

 in o- good time by the noise, so I went slightly to the lee 

 ana* about fifty yards forward to meet him. He came up 

 to within fifteen yards of me, when I fired for his neck 

 bone. Going up to the spot, there lay a handsome five- 

 year old (but with small horns) dead enough. Bad work 

 for Sunday; but consider the temptation, and besides, the 

 work of hauling that fellow out atoned for it. 



I have called two others up in this month, but lost them 

 both by my carelessness. One morning I saw a fine buck 

 standing on my camp road, within two hundred yards of 

 the camp, but my gun was where I could not reach it 

 without starting him, so I had to watch him out of sight. 

 Yet I would not change my old hunting grounds in Cum- 

 berland, N. S., for this one, as I consider they are much 



I use only a Purdey top lever, double barrel shot gun, 

 No. 12, and for timber shooting it is superior to any rifle, 

 owing 'to the quickness with which you can take aim. I 

 knocked the big fellow's brains out with a round ball at 

 sixty-five yards; also, last Winter, shot one through the 

 heart at one hundred and five yards. Elk. 



Cumberland, K &, Oct. 25th, 1875. 



V 



Massachusetts Anglers' Association.— A very in- 

 teresting meeting of the association was held on Wednes- 

 day evening, 3d inst. at their rooms in Boston, President 

 Ordway in the chair. Several new names were presented 

 for membership, and some of the most prominent gentle- 

 men in the State were admitted. Benj. P. Ware, Esq., ad- 

 dressed tbe members on the subject of deep sea fishing, 

 trawling, &c, showing by figures what a great amount of 

 devastation was constantly going on on our coasts by such 

 means, and also that he had not changed his opinion since 

 bis last address to the association, but his convictions had 

 been strengtkend by letters received from fishermen at 

 Marblehead, Gloucester, Provincetown and other places 

 that the wholesale practice of trawling must be legislated 

 upon by getting wholesome laws passed. Walter M. 

 Brackett, Esq. , gave a pleasing and instructive epitome of 

 his Summer trip in Canada and Maine, and the meeting 

 was one of great interest to all. 



*».»<$» — 



Black Bass for New Jersey. — The Hamilton (N. J.) 

 Item, records the arrival of two hundred black bass for the 

 lake near that place. They were furnished to the New Jersey 

 Game Protective Society by Mr. M. P. Pierce, of Ninonah, 

 N. J., who is making the supply of this fish for stocking 

 purposes, a business. The demand on him is so great that 

 he employs over thirty men and boys, fishing for bass on 

 the Upper Delaware, and cannot fill his orders. 



A , -*♦«» 



Fish Culture in Virginia. — We have repeatedly spo- 

 ken of the laudable efforts now being made to propagate 

 good fish throughout Virginia, and to instruct at educa- 

 tional institutes and otherwise, the people of the State in 

 the science of aquaculture. Of these efforts our valued 

 correspondent, John Williamson, writes: — 



"Dr. Grahm Elzey paid us a visit about the time ^of our county fair, 

 and we tried the bass on Goose Creek with but slight success— six or 

 seven fish in all. He is evidently the right man in the right place, col- 

 lecting information about the denizens of all our streams, and making 

 arrangements for stocking our waters with suitable fish. He is person- 

 ally acquainted with our best rivers, being a native of this section (the 

 east), educated at Lexington, in the middle of the State, and now resid- 

 ing in Blacksbnrg, in the southwestern part of the Old Dominion. Some 

 large bass were exhibited at the county ?air. The trout hatched last 

 year were not shown for want of water, and because their owner was 

 sick. Some of them are gro ^ing finely, although they haye not been 

 fed, and are in a contracted area. 1 ' 



«a.»4» 



FISH CULTURE IN CANADA. 



T Newcastle, a short distance from Toronto, is located 

 the building in which fish culture operations are 

 heing carried on by Mr. S. Wilmot, on behalf of the Do- 

 minion government. Wilmot Creek, on which the build- 

 ing is located, forms a natural inlet of the sheltered bend 

 of the lake between Bond Head and Darlfogton. The 

 stream flows over a gravelly bed through the major portion 

 of the distance from its fountain head, ten miles away, and 

 from this fact, and the purity and rapidity of the waters, 

 it is admirably adapted for the formation of spawning 

 beds. In early times it was famous for salmon, as indeed 

 were many of the neighboring streams. Only a few strag- 

 glers remained when, in 1866, Mr. Wilmot entered upon 

 his self-appointed task of replenishing the stream by arti- 

 ficial methods of breeding. His efforts have been crowned 

 with success. Salmon may now be seen by hundreds in the 

 creek. 



During the spawning season no less than one hundred 

 and ten spawning beds can be seen within a distance of 

 half a mile, and^each bed representing the work of from 

 war to six salmon. To prevent the destruction of the eggs 

 thus deposited, it is proposed to erect a small building for 

 receiving the fish at a point lower down on the stream. 

 Such salmon as pass up the stream to the breeding houses 

 enter the reception house on account of the main stream 

 being blocked. They are there distributed into compart- 

 ments according to sex, and remain until they become ma- 

 ture, when they are removed to the breeding room. Half 

 a dozen fsh are placed in a box through which a constant 

 stream of fresh water passes. The operator then takes a 

 female, and by gently pressing the abdomen the eggs flow 

 from the vent into a'receptacle. This fish is immediately 

 liberated through a small aperture in the corner of the 

 building, and passes down into a pond below. A male fish 

 is next operated on in a similar manner, the melt being 

 deposited in the same receptacle, which is shaken, and im- 

 pregnation is the result. The eggs are then measured out, 

 so as to place four thousand on each tray, which is a small 

 wooden frame-work, covered on the bottom side with fine 

 wire cloth or perforated zinc. These trays are laid in 

 troughs, through which there is a constant flow of water, 



through filtering screens, fed from a water tight tank. 

 Here the eggs lie unmolested until April, when they will 

 hatch: Seven hundred thousand eggs are now undergoing 

 the process of incubation in this establishment. 



In this process the accidents attendant upon the natural 

 mode of propagation are avoided. The ova is a choice 

 tidbit for other fish; immense quantities are destroyed by 

 the ice which forms to the bed of the creek in Winter, and 

 the swift stream where the salmon loves to form its bed 

 carries away many more. All these dangers being avoided 

 in the artificial process, Mr. Wilmot succeeds in hatching 

 from seventy to eighty per cent, of the eggs, while by the 

 natural mode it would not exceed four or five per cent. 

 Each fish, as it leaves the building after being stripped, is 

 marked, a puncture being made in the tail— one for each 

 year— and salmon have visited the establishment with three 

 perforations in their tails. The article in the Toronto 

 Globe, from which we gather this information, states that 

 the one thousand salmon which have ascended the Wilmot 

 stream within the past two weeks were all reared at the 

 establishment, none being found in the adjacent streams 

 except when placed thero. 



One of the ponds connected with the establishment con- 

 tains upwards of five hundred fish, ranging from four to 

 sixteen pounds in weight. These do not, however, repre- 

 sent the largest class which enter the stream, for, by rea- 

 son of the shallow water, they remain below the breeding 

 house and deposit their eggs in the main stream. Many of 

 the fish to be seen in the creek and pond are, like old sol- 

 diers, covered with wounds and scars. These were re- 

 ceived in their labors when forming breeding beds, by 

 which the whole channel has been changed. T K efish, 

 when they desire to spawn, turn up the gravel with their 

 noses at a point where the water is swiftest, and by writh- 

 ing their bodies, aided by the current, they scoop out large 

 holes, into which they drop their ova. Large and heavy 

 stones are thus displaced, the eggs being deposited as they 

 are turned over. Many fish have lost large portions of 

 their noses in these efforts, and injured their sides. 



The eggs now deposited in the government breeding es- 

 tablishment will hatch in April, when the young fisbrwill 

 be distributed in different streams throughout the Domin- 

 ion, though not as liberally as in former years, the eggs 

 having acquired a commercial value. In past years the 

 United States government has been a large purchaser at 

 the rate of $40 per thousand, but the present policy of the 

 Canadians is to retain the eggs for their own rivers. And 

 indeed, it is questionable whether our government, with the 

 bountiful supply obtained this year from California, would 

 care to be a purchaser. A portion of these California eggs 

 were presented to the Dominion Fisheries Department by 

 Prof. Baird, and are now in the breeding house far ad- 

 vanced in incubation, the embryo fry being readily seen in 

 all of them. This is the second attempt to hatch the Cali- 

 fornia salmon at this establishment, that of last year hav- 

 ing been entirely successful, although it is claimed that 

 the Canadian fish are superior in richness and delicacy. 



Mr. Wilmot is about opening an institution for the 

 breeding of whitcfish at Sandwich, on Detroit River, and 

 hopes to have it in such a state of advancement as' to be 

 able to lay down many millions of eggs during this season, 

 its capacity being fifty million. At the breeding house on 

 Saguenay River a large number of salmon eggs have been 

 laid down. The establishments at Gaspe and on the Resti- 

 gouche and Miramichi rivers have not yet been reported on; 

 it is feared that on account of the freshets which have pre- 

 vailed in those districts much difficulty will have been ex- 

 perienced in procuring the eggs to stock them. A new 

 establishment has been erected this season on the Sackville 

 River, near Halifax, and has been stocked. The govern- 

 ment contemplated also erecting a similar building in 

 Prince Edward Island, but it was found impossible to erect 

 it during this season. All these establishments are under 

 the supervision of Mr. Wilmot, who, taking up this science 

 as a labor of love, has prosecuted it with commendable 

 zeal, and accomplished valuable results. The present gov- 

 ernment have entered into it. with considerable spirit, and 

 made increased grants towards improving by this artificial 

 means to supply the better classes of fish in our streams 

 and lakes. 



**$.<,+, 



CAN DEPLETED STREAMS BE 

 STOCKED? 



RE- 



</ Rochester, N. Y., Nov. 5th, 1875. 



Edttok Fobest and Stream:— 



In answer to your inquiries as to how I know our 

 depleted trout streams can be stocked again and be made a 

 success, I will explain. In the year 1871 Charles Upton, 

 a banker in this place, bought a small, played out trout 

 stream about one mile long. I put 4,000 young brook trout 

 one inch long in the stream. During the Summer of 1872 

 the creek was alive with yearling trout. In 1873 Mr. Up- 

 ton commenced fishing for them. He would go out at 3 

 P. M., after bank hours, and his take would be from 50 to 

 100 during the afternoon, and in 1874 his take would be 

 from 20 to 60 three year old trout, and in 1875 his take was 

 from 5 to 19. A good many of the 1875 take were pound 

 fish. Care should be taken in putting young trout in trout 

 streams, and to not put in any more than there is food for. 

 They feed on all kinds of small animalcules and larvae of 

 small flies. I have just returned from the lower end of 

 Lake Ontario. I have had great success in gathering sal- 

 mon trout spawn. I shall have some millions to distribute 

 next Spring. Yours, Seth Green. 



Some Rare Pishes. — Mr. Blackford recently received in 

 a box of halibut from Gloucester a fine specimen of a 

 very rare Greenland fish allied to the cod family, and 

 known as Macrurus rupestris. Its peculiarities are a very 

 large head, pointed scales like armor, and an enormous and 

 soggy-looking eye. The fish was sent to Prof. Baird, who 

 expressed himself much pleased with it, as it is the first 

 one of the species he has ever seen. At the same time an- 

 other rare fish— the American angler, or Gophius Ameri- 

 canus — was forwarded to the Smithsonian Institute. This 

 fish was seen floating on the water at Pier No. 20, and Mr. 

 Blackford, being apprized of the fact, went to the spot, 

 and hooking it in the gills, brought it ashore. 



htuml 



HOW SNAKES OBTAIN THEIR FOOD. 



A CORRESPONDENT, writing from Philadelphia, 

 states that hearing a disturbance in the grass, 

 he investigated it, and \ discovered that a snake fifteen 

 or twenty inches long had the hind legs of a large sized 

 frog in its mouth, while the frog was making desperate efforts 

 to escape. He says, "What I wish to know is, how that 

 snake intended to derive any benefit from his prisoner? It 

 would have been impossible for him to have swallowed the 

 frog whole, and he could not bite off the animal's legs." 



In the assertion that the snake could not swallow the 

 frog, our correspondent reckons without his host. A 

 snake's powers of deglutition are almost unlimited, and the 

 whole anatomy of the head and throat has reference to 

 this habit of eating their prey whole, for it is true that 

 they have no teeth with which to bite or chew their food. 

 All the bones of the skull, except those which enclose the 

 brain, are joined together loosely, so as to be capable of 

 expansion. This is particularly the case with the lower 

 jaw, the two branches of which are not united by a connec- 

 tion of bone, but by elastic ligaments; and the quadrate 

 and squamosal bones, through which the lower jaw is at- 

 tached on either side to the skull, are also slightly mov- 

 able and allow a wide separation of the mandibles from 

 each other, and from the base of the skull. All of these 

 arrangements allow of an immense distension of the throat, 

 and the muscular construction of the gullet or oesophagus 

 is such as to admit of the passage into r the stomach of any- 

 thing which can get through the gate-way of the jaws. 



The usual fare of our smaller snakes consists of frogs, 

 toads, and field mice, with the larger insects. They cap- 

 ture these animals by means of stealth, and rarely seem to 

 pursue a frog or mouse that avoids their first spring. The 

 hind legs of a frog would naturally be seized first by a 

 snake and held by the minute hooked teeth which stud the 

 roof of the mouth, all pointing backward, until the frog, 

 exhausted by its efforts, had become quiet, when the snake 

 would pour out a copious flow of saliva, and slowly, by 

 repeated efforts force the huge mouthful down his throat. 

 The tongue, which is devoid of organs of taste, helps in 

 this operation. His meal safely swallowed, the snake lies 

 quietly down to digest it, becoming almost torpid mean- 

 while. It used to be thought that serpents ate but once a 

 year, and at a particular season, but we now know better. 

 They seek food whenever hungry, except during the season 

 of hibernation. 



The strange thing about it is, that not only might the 

 snake which our correspondent saw have swallowed his 

 frog whole, but that the frog might have lived through it, 

 if liberated from his Jonah-like prison without much de- 

 lay. Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, of Cambridge, Mass., once 

 found a striped snake which had recently enjoyed a meal 

 as indicated by a large bunch near the centre of its body. 

 He teazed the snake until the reptile seemed to become 

 sick, and the "bunch" was observed to move towards the 

 head. "In a few moments more a live frog was seen try- 

 ing to get out of the snake's mouth, which, after a hard 

 trial and a good many jerks and kicks, it succeeded in do- 

 ing, and jumped off, highly delighted at making its escape." 

 And Mr. Cooke, editor of Science Gossip, tells how he saw 

 a live frog liberated from the stomach of a snake which 

 had been killed soon after swallowing it. 



With these facts before us, why should we doubt what 

 so many maintain, that young snakes are taken into the 

 throat of their mother for protection, and come forth again 

 when the danger is past. But, as Mr, Putman says, "one 

 might easily believe, that, if the old snake should take the 

 young into her throat in a moment of danger, she might 

 afterwards, on being pressed with hunger, be strongly 

 tempted to work them down a little farther and provide 

 herself with a good dinner, especially as snakes are known 

 to feed on smaller ones ." But this opens questions which 

 we cannot at present discuss. 



, ***<•* 



— A writer in the London Science Gossip relates his ex- 

 perience with a sparrow which his servant girl nursed and 

 fed until it grew to full stature. It was finally placed in 

 the garden, where it remained until another sparrow, ap- 

 parently of its own age, enticed it away to a more natural 

 condition of sparrow life; but not sb far away as that it 

 forgot its early friends, whom it frequently visited, and 

 continued to recognize with signs of affection. If the 

 nurse was in the garden, the grateful little creature would 

 fly to her, perch upon her head or shoulder, and was per- 

 fectly at home with all the household. At breakfast, din- 

 ner or supper time it did not fail to tap at the window with 

 its beak until it was opened, when it would fly to its loved 

 nurse and partake of its usual feed from her mouth. This 

 happy intercourse has been continued for three or four 

 years, during which the sparrow has raised three or four 

 broods, on which occasions food has been left for it upon 

 the window, so as to be at ail times accessible for supplies 

 to the rising generation. Once the number of its visits to 

 the food was no less than two hundred and thirty-six in 

 one day. 



— A correspondent who is about to take a long trip, 

 writes to ask whether he can preserve birds for stuffing 

 upon his return to Philadelphia. The only proper way, or 

 rather the best way, is to skin and stuff the birds day 

 by day as they are collected, after which they can be 

 mounted. But if birds and mammals are injected, by 

 means of a glass syringe, with a small quantity of carbolic 



