260 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



of fish in a few minutes at almost any time or place. Pan- 

 cake Jack, a trapper of Au Sable, who was with me, took 

 pleasure in the spoon, and could take a dozen or two in a 

 half-mile row at any hour of the day. We made no effort 

 in>any other one of the lakes, but from appearances there 

 was not one that was not well stocked, and from a report 

 which reached us from the Indians the two larger contain 

 mascalonge. Now, these lakes were only about twenty 

 miles from the railroad, but ours was doubtless the first 

 visit ever made to them by a party bent purely upon sport. 

 Other visitors will, of course, follow, but it is scarcely 

 probable that in this magnificent piscatorial region the 

 catch will ever exceed the natural increase. Pickerel may 

 be found in all the lakes having open outlets and inlets, 

 but never in the land-locked. These are taken altogether 

 with the spoon, and from my stand point the spoon is suit- 

 able to pickerel fishing only. I see no more sport in 

 taking a foolish bass with the spoon than there is in shoot- 

 ing a beef. 



But of all the fish in Michigan the grayling is most 

 sought for. There are few persons who visit that country 

 that do not long to catch a grayling, but there are many 

 whose longing is never gratified. Of the streams in which 

 the grayling may be found I actually know nothing, save 

 the Au Sable; but I think I do know just where the angler 

 must go to get them in that stream. Those who would 

 take the fish must stop off at Crawford or Grayling, the 

 county seat of Crawford county, located at the crossing of 

 the railroad over the Au Sable. The Manistee may be 

 reached at a distance of seven miles to the west, and there 

 is good fishing ground. The fisherman can take his choice, 

 wagon over to the Manistee and wagon back, or iioat down 

 the Au Sable and wagon back. If he chooses the latter he 

 must run down some twelve or fifteen miles, and from 

 thence down as the crow flies, a distance of fifteen or 

 twenty miles (but as-the river runs forty or fifty), he will 

 find the grayling in the greatest abundance. The water is 

 very swift and he must be careful or he will pass over the 

 ground more rapidly than he wishes There is always a 

 hope of something better beyond that lures the angler, as 

 well as others on, and lest he beware, the swift water and 

 that beckoning hope will have carried him over before he 

 is aware of it. 



The grayling, taken all in all, is a strange fish. It is the 

 most voracious of fishes and the most abstemious; it is the 

 shyest biter and the most reckless; it is one thing to-day 

 and another to-morrow; in the morning it will take nothing 

 but the brown hackle, and at noon it leaps only for a living 

 red-winged grasshopper, while in the evening perhaps it 

 sees the white-winged moth that so neatly conceals the 

 hook, but sees no other thing. It is a fish of seasons, 

 days, hours, whims and caprices. In the spriog it will 

 take a bit of venison or even of fat pork, and there is no 

 time that it will not occasionally nibble at a worm. Some- 

 times it will never take a minnow, and sometimes it will 

 take nothing at all. In only one thing is it certain. If it 

 leaps for your fly and misses, it is sure to leap again and 

 again, two, three, and even four times. Isaac Walton 

 says the English grayling will come at the fly "above 

 twenty times," but while this Michigan congener is not 

 that importunate he is still famous for his returning to the 

 charge. 



The Au Sable, within the limits I have indicated, is well 

 stocked with the grayling. Within that limit the south 

 and north branches discharge their waters into the main 

 stream, and for several miles up these tributaries they may 

 found . As we float along over the clear waters grayling 

 may be seen in favorable spots lining the bottom for quite 

 a space. Sometimes they appear to be packed in like cob- 

 ble stones, and they will lie quietly while the boat passes 

 over. In such places none will be seen leaping; for fly or 

 moth, and it is useless to expect either a rise in such a 

 place or a bite at the most tempting bait. When they 

 feed they scatter and lie around the rocks and rapids. 



The grayling is really a most beautiful fish, and when 

 with its superb fins set it comes fluttering into a boat at 

 the end of a line. I think it is the finest appearing fish I 

 ever saw. It does not seem to possess the strength of 

 many otherfisb, but there is a certain delicate touch of 

 gaminess about.it that can easily be felt if not described, 

 and when once felt will never be forgotten. 



The past season there was by all odds a greater rainfall 

 in Michigan than I ever knew before, and while there was 

 but a light rise in the river, yet the water was perceptibly 

 warmer than the year previous, and I presume warmer 

 than for many years before. The effect was apparent upon 

 the fish. While the grayling was a capital table fish this 

 year it was plainly not so good as the year before when I 

 ate my first ones, and I fancied that I could poceive that 

 they had lost something of their game quality. 



D. D. Banta. 



S^h ^itn\$. 



i 



The Winter Drift Toward Florida. — The St. Augus- 

 tine Press is pleased to note the arrival there of winter 

 guests. It says that on the 18th instant forty passengers 

 arrived via St. John's Railway. Among them we notice 

 the arrival of Dr. E. M. Alba, wife and son, of Williams- 

 port, Pa. ; Capt. E. E. Vaill, with a number of his hotel 

 assistants, including Mr. Myrack, the steward, and his pi- 

 oneer porter, "Ben," also arrived on the above day, and 

 Mr. Hale and family, of Watch Hill, R. I. He is the pro- 

 prietor of the largest and principal hotel of that summer 

 resort, and is now here to make arrangements for the 

 speedy opening of the Florida House, which will be con- 

 ducted by Mr. Hale this season. H. Ammidown, Esq., 

 and family, and Mr. H. P. Ammidown, Mr. James Burt, 

 and Mr, J. W. Allen were among the arrivals. 



CHINESE PISCICULTURE AND METHOD 

 OF TRANSPORTING LIVING FISH. 



* * < ( (~\ VER the whole of the enormous Empire 

 y)( x_-J of China, every ounce of the vast ag- 



gregate of their sewerage is utilized. Even the detritus of 

 Macao, Hong Kon^, and other European settlements, is 

 purchased and transported by night to the mainland, in 

 large boats and sampans. There is no waste surface here; 

 the steepest hill and mountain side are brought under cul- 

 tivation, and by terracing and the application of this best 

 of manures, are made to yield bountifully. Chinese wheat 

 yields one hundred and twenty-five fold the sowing. The 



Province of Ho-nam is but one vast and beautiful garden; 

 and "Flowery Kingdom" is not, as we suppose, only a 

 fond, fanciful epithet— dictated by Chinese vanity— but a 

 literal truth. 



Here are towns where we have only settlements; cities 

 where we have but hamlets; villages where we have but 

 the virgin forest; in a word, Londons, Parises. and New 

 Yorks, as thick as sfcond-rate towns are wth us; no such 

 thing as any considerable tract of land not equally as 



densely populated as are average square miles of our oldest 

 States. And yet, nowhere, do we find anything like a 

 sewerage system in our acceptance of the term. Most 

 emphatically, with the Chinese, is "dirt only matter in 

 the wrong place." This axiom, which we are but just 

 beginning in a dim way to comprehend, they have under- 

 stood, and practically applied since over three thousand 



years ago; and it is by this that the prolific soil of this 

 great, great-grandfather among nations, is kept as vigor- 

 ous and youthful as when "the stars sang together, and all 

 the sons of God shouted for joy." 



Hence all their rivers, streams and brooklets, ran spark- 

 ling to the sea, throwing off no putrescent gases, no mias- 

 matic exhalation, but glide as pure and pellucid as the 

 dew that falls upon the eyelids of night, wakening her into 

 morning. As a consequence they swarm from mouth to 

 source with countless varieties of wholesome food-fish, 



which are at once the sustenance and luxury of millions 

 the staple of a vast internal trade, and also of an immense 

 exchange of living fish — diverse species peculiar to the 

 many climates contained within the boundaries of the 

 enormous empire, its sea coast and interior. For piscicul- 

 ture is self -suggesting, so to speak; a spontaneous out- 

 growth (under the conditions that result from this purify- 

 ing system of sewerage) from agriculture, with which 

 indeed, it is almost so co-evil in Chinese history. Conse- 

 quently, no other nation has carried the art to such perfec- 

 tion, or to anything comparable in extent, for here every 

 agriculturist is also a pisciculturist — a thorough one, too— 

 who utilizes all water within his proprietorship; even to 

 the irrigating ditch before his door, which is also his high- 

 way to market through its ultimate connection with the 

 rivers, or that vast canal system for which his country is 

 famous. Sea -fish are carried far inland, while inland fish 

 are tranf erred to the coast — "all alive, oh"; carried over 

 thousands of miles of rivers, canals or lakes, by means of 

 the simplest, most inexpensive, and yet most effective con- 

 trivance I have ever seen. 



Our infant pisciculture of the West already promises a 

 growth and expansion that must soon yield a product of 

 such bulk and consideration as will render cheap and 

 ready distribution a grand desideratum; and I therefore 

 pause here to give a more detailed account of the exceed- 

 ingly simple, but all effective means by which it is secured 

 among the Foh-kee. 



Two tubs— any size from a butt to a bucket, according 

 to requirements— are so placed that the bottom of one over- 

 laps the top of tli e under, being partly supported thereby, 

 and partly by a trestle. Each contains a fish, and each is 

 nearly two-thirds filled with water. This water never re- 

 quires change, being constantly aerated by means of a con- 

 trivance which might be whittled out in five minutes by 

 any school-boy with a jack-knife. Nearthe base of the 

 upper tub a short section of bamboo of large diameter is 

 inserted. Into this another, one size smaller, is introduced, 

 first having had the surface of its inserting end gouged or 

 fluted, so as to form channels on all sides for the egress of 

 thin streams of water when fixed into its intended posi- 

 tion. Into this is placed another still smaller, and fluted 

 in the same manner; this in turn receives another, that still 

 another, and so on, until sometimes six or eight joints are 

 used, when the last one is plugged up. The result is, that 

 the water rushes out at all these joints, and along these 

 many "flutes," until, striking against the "butt" left where 

 each channel ends, it is thrown off and up, in broad thin 

 flanges, eventually falling back in a rattling shower of 

 thoroughly aerated drops into the tub beneath. When 

 this becomes over full (which occurs about every two 

 hours with the larger ones) the surplus is returned to the 

 upper tub by means of a hand pump, and in some cases 

 through a basket hung upon the spout, though I have gen- 

 erally seen the coolies traveling in charge using a basket 

 without the pumps. This "straining," however, does not 

 seem indispensable, the jointed tubes being amply suffi- 

 cient for thorough aeration; it is perhaps more for the sake 

 of clearing the water from the impurities constantly accu- 

 mulating from the atmosphere. Two attendants are suffi- 

 cient to look after a dozen of these aquaria in the rough. 

 At night they relieve each other every four hours — "watch 

 and watch," as the seaman's phrase is. But little obvious 

 modification and improvement upon the idea embodied 

 herein, will pertorm this purpose for which it is designed 

 in all the perfection possible to things human." 



N. W . Beckwith. 

 .***. 



Caledonia Hatching House— California Trout, Blue 

 Backed Trout and Grayling. — Seth Green, Esq , informs us 

 that there are now in the State ponds at Caledonia, some 

 yearling hybrids — a cross between the brook trout and the 

 California salmon. They do not look like either of the 

 parent fish, but look more like the salmon. He says:— 



"We have some two-year old grayling of our own hatch- 

 ing. Some of them are eight inches long. They live in a 

 pond with some two-year old California brook trout, and 

 with two-year old blue backed trout from Maine. They 

 all agree very well. The California brook trout are a much 

 more shy fish than our native trout. They are not as tame, 

 but they are a much hardier fish, and are a great deal 

 more easily raised, and I think would do well in many of 

 our streams in this State. The blue-backed trout do not 

 do well, and I do not think much of them as a fish to stock 



our lakes with." 



— ■•*-#• — 



Salmon Breeding in Gaspe. — The Department of 

 Marine and Fisheries has a salmon breeding establishment 

 on the North Arm, at Gaspi Basin, under the superintend- 

 ance of Mr. Philip Vibert, Jr., who we hear has been very 

 successful in his collection of salmon ova, having no less 

 than 900,000 safely housed, no less than 600,000 more 

 than have yet been secured in any previous year. It is to 

 be hoped the ultimate result will be equally successful. 

 ^t^*- — ■ 



—The Aquarium at the corner of Broadway and Thirty- 

 fifth street, is being made more attractive each week by the 

 addition of new specimens of marine plants and creatures; 

 and with the delightful surroundings of flowers and music 

 really affords one of the most charming resorts in the city 

 taking rank with Gilmore's Garden in everything but size. 

 Those who visit it for the first time wonder why they have 

 so long delayed, and having once entered, repeatedly go 

 again. __^ 



—Several of the lakes among the Adirondack mountains, 

 including Blue Mountain lake, will be stocked with salmon 

 trout this fall. 



—A large number of black bass have been placed in the 

 upper portion of the Alleghany river by the Pennsyl- 

 vania Fish Commission. 



