346 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[DrokmbbeS,1880. 



T]een liro\ight aiound, and is now happily convalescent. His 

 palieuce under lii^ siittVrinss was, I believe, above all praise, 

 and be took .Mr. farringtuu's hot baths with all the compla- 

 cency of a Jlajor Punaeiinis." 



GovKRSMEST PrBticATioss. — TliB Natural History Editor 

 desires to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of the following 

 works : From the Interior Department, Professor J. A. Al- 

 len's "Monograph of North American Pinuepeds:" from llic 

 War DepartraenI, Part 11. of Professor E. D Cope's "Re- 

 port on Extinct Vertebrates Discovered in New :\Iexico dm- 

 ingl874, by the U. S. Geological Surveys West of the 100th 

 3leridiau." 



_. , case of 



Thus it was that 

 the little 



e vicinity 

 nel of the 



^m md §it'tr fishing* 



FISHING ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. 



Brolk\-ille, Ont., Nov. 13, 1880. 



A FEW words about fishing, for "recreation," m the St. 

 Lawrence may not be out of the way, now that fishing 

 in that respect may be considered as a thing of the past for 

 this season. 



In general, it will be conceded by all who fTequent our 

 heautiful water that the quantity of rish has greatly increased 

 since our fishery laws have been enacted, especially black 

 bass and maskenonge have augmented since 1875 wonder- 

 fully in numbers and also in size. It is natm-al tliat now and 

 then an unlucky sportsman will say everv'thing to the con- 

 iraiy, but a steadv observer will agree with me. Certain lo- 

 calities are alwavs "fished out," but that is even local and 

 detracts little from the immeuse extent of fishing grouuds, 

 which are composed of the innumerable Iwys. channels, shoals 

 and inlets of the river lietween Kingston and Brockville. 1 

 have observed that since 1875 black bass are caught on 

 erounrts where, in 1872. not one could be found. I ascribe 

 Vhis not merely to the direct effect of the law preventing net- 

 ting and unlawful fishing, prolcctiug fish in spa\\'ning season, 

 etc., but also to the fact that the pul.ilic mind ha.s_ been edu- 

 cated to a more civilized view of these matters. I have fre- 

 quently seen, and as late as 1874. bushels of small black ))ass, 

 rock Imss and sunflsh lying hi heai)s on the rocky sliore of 

 island, blackened and decaying in ihe sim; onh 

 tbi.- kind has come to mv knowledge since. Th 

 ilir pou,li,--r emptied bis nets and t'lok not evei 

 Irouhle to throw the small fry liack into the water 



The " Brock group " of islands, in the itnmedia 



of Brockville, iire divided by the navigable cha: 



river, and offer, in .shoals and small channels, favorite feed- 

 ino- grouuds for black bass, maskenonge and the unavoidable 

 jjiSe. At the head of this group, where the river is three 

 miles wide and suddenly tVweed into small channels, themas- 

 kenouae, our " monster" of the deep," lies in wait for his prey 

 behind a rocky ledge, under the current which rushes over 

 it, his head up stream, ready to dart at any unfortunate mem- 

 lier of the finny tribe whichlhe current may bring down into 

 deeper water. " Now and then you can .see him disperse a 

 school of silvers cisco and behold the water foam from the 

 pow^erfid stroke which has carried him to the sm-face after 

 his victim. Here, every summer, quite a number of maske- 

 nonge are caught, and I'have preserved the head of one, taken 

 last Octolier, weia-hint: forty pounds. 



We.sl of these islands, and up the river, a lake-like expanse 

 of water meets our eyes, until the Amherst group is reached. 

 Large shoals on both sides of the river give miles of good 

 trolling ground, and especially tlie shoals on tlie foot of the 

 Amherst groupof islands harbor blass bass of g.iodly size in 

 ,7ulv. These shoals, as well as the islands, can easily be 

 n-aohed hv stopi.ing irom the little steamboats running be- 

 tween Ale-vanilria Tin- and Ogdeusbiu-g at Allen's Landing. 

 Below 'li ■ -'r..--.^ ■]■" li^-iit-house, on the "American 

 siii,,/- ;, I !i ^i ream to below Oak Point, 



isasiiC' ' .vliich have given us many a 



day's bapv', -=pjrL-^-''i i^^'-l '-"'fk. . 



After uiidiUe of July the phantom minnow is most effi- 

 cient, and irolliner, even when usmg flies, is most practiced. 

 On liie Canadian "side extensive shoals are found from the 

 light-house up river to Jones' Creek, where a string of five 

 islands separates a fine bay from the channel. Into this bay 

 enipiies Joues' Creek, and a more romantic and interesting 

 sont can hardly be found on the shores of the river. Before 

 enterin" upon'a description of this part of the river, which 

 trill v merits to be nriticed by the sportsman, I will return to 

 tlie abf>ve mentioned Amherst group of islands. These are 

 situated right in the middle of "'the river and nuuiber ten or 

 more sm-rouuded by numerous shoals and lai'ge extent of 

 weed'v bottom in every direction, forming the well-kBown lo- 

 cality for black bass, which are landed here in large num- 

 bers and sometimes three and more islands at a time are 

 occupied bv parties from Ogdensburg, Brockville and other 

 places, and ttieir tents by day and oainp fires at night fre^ 

 quenth at tract the attention of the passengers of the numer- 

 ous stjyimers and the solitary apoi-tsman. 



In iJie foieaoing 1 have touched upon the different feeding 

 tnonnds of Hack bass between Brockville and the Amherst 

 Tslands. Thpy comprise the shoals and channels around the 

 islands ..f the Brock group. These shoals are on both sides 

 of the river in that wide and beautiful stretch between the 

 Brock group and the Amherst islands, and lastly the large 

 urea of rocky shoals and weed beds around the Amherst 

 Islands. , , -i , , 



In [he first part of the season .and up to end of July bass 

 fishing is always L'ood in all sheltered places, in bogs and 

 around i.slands and where weed beds are near-. After the 

 disappearance of .sbad-ilies the' rocky shoals near the steep 

 Inels afford better sport. But the black bass of largest 

 I have always found near the places where tood and 

 ler for minnows collect in July and August and Uu-ge uum- 

 ,,ci= of small fish. On the rocky, open sboals it is very rare 

 to Uuul a bass of three pounds or more, whereas I base 

 caueljl them of five and more pomids near sheltered weed 

 bed's in bo.Tg and on the mouth of creeks. A lady last July 

 landed erne small-mouthod black bass of such size aa I 

 wouhl have never believed black bass could reach. Its ex- 

 ireme len^'th was tweutv-six inches, depth of body over 

 seven inches, and weicrhtk-ven pounds and two ounces. A 

 week later the same sldUful hand landed a black Ijass of over 

 tive pounds and a pickerel (pike perch; ol eight pounds 

 They were hooked with a phantom minnow of the smallest 

 size, single gut leader and light fly-rod. These fish were 

 killed in the last week of July, in a sheltered bay mside ot 

 the islands, on the Canadian side of Crossover Light-house. 

 A look on the maps of the river will show that at the Ani- 

 hersl group the river is extremely wide ; on the south side 

 ChiDDewa Bay and on the north side a large bay-like cut, 

 makmg it about five piilea -wide, hut divided by numerous 



cha 



si 

 si 

 1- 



islands. This part, from the Amherst group to the Alex- 

 andria Bay, is more known to sportsmen in general and will 

 form the subject of my next letter. V. 



,^,«,^ 



SPxVWN FISHING AT RANGELEY ONCE MORE. 



Boston, Nov, 26. 



WHjL you allow the writer of the article in your issue of 

 Nov. 4 on spawn fishing at the Rangeley Lakes to 

 say a few words called oul by two letters referring to his 

 article which have since appeared in your paper? 



His position is, that spawn fishing in September or in Octo- 

 ber out of season, by "sportsmen" who do not primarily 

 fish for propagating pm-poses ahoiii'l niit !.■ pei-Lnitted. And 

 he fully agrees -wifli his old fri. : ' f ■■: in Fred" in his 

 recommendation in vour issue o i ,; n. r.. that nothmg 

 but fly fishing should be allowed ::i.i - ;.|. iiiber 1. And 

 he further asserts that the case wliicli be referred to in his 

 previous letter was an outrageous aotion on the part of the 

 holders of a permit from the Commissionei'S in that the fish- 

 ing was not solely for propagating purposes, that tish Wrre 

 killed under the" license held from the Comuiissioners and 

 that only a small proportion of the trout so taken by the par- 

 ties referred to ever contributed to the stock of eggs which 

 were saved, that the object of the licensed persona was to 

 make a big score after the season closed and that they ac- 

 complished their object. 



He further asserts that he can prove what he has stated, 

 and that Mr. Commissioner Smith, in his letter in your issue 

 of the 28th inst., did not state all the faels, because, as the 

 writer believes, he was ignorant of them, and that when Mr, 

 Smith said the only perrnits were held by Messrs. Kimball 

 and Stanley he either did not know or fi.rg'jt to state that 

 other parties fished miinterruyiiedly in his presence dtiring 

 the fii-st five days in October, and it" is to their conduct only 

 that the undwsigued referred in his previous letter, well 

 knowing that neither Mr. Stanley nor Mr. Kimball would 

 abuse their privileges. 



Having attained his object in calling inil 'lie an eiii ion to the 

 subject the undersigned will continue to diseuNf the question 

 privately when he receives a reply to a letter lately written 

 to Mr. Smith persouallyi in which all the facts are stated for 

 his information. Pajk Plat. 



FISHES, NAMES GET MIXED 



l\ 



]\IoNTHE.\i, Canada. 



DURING several seasfms in diftV-rent parts of Quebec I 

 have taken generally ^\ith a spoon what 1 consider as 

 three different varieties of "lake troiu. First is a trout nearly 

 black in color and called ti-uftr n-rrf by the "habitants" run- 

 ning to large sizes, not so thick ami elninky as the gniy 

 trout, and not so pretty a fish. Alrhongh 1 hud not the iwo 

 flsh to compare I think the ej'cs of the "lilaek iiont" larger 

 than those of the gray. The spots and marking's \-er\- indis- 

 tinct and the lal<Tal "line not marked; fin? black; v\ith red 

 edges: belly nearly lilaek; irides yellowish brown: lleshfof 

 all I got) wliite, "and 1 am told by the "habitants" this is 

 always the case. 



Then there is the gray trout, lake trout, or salmon trout of 

 the Ottawa waters, and the "Tuladi" of Lake Metapediac 

 ana Metis lakes and vieinitv. Are these latter tlie same 

 fish? Hookup I l;.lk.ek's -Mia/etteLr" and find that tlicy 

 are "mixed." I have a>ked Mr. 'Whiteaves, mentioned in 

 the "Gazetteer," and he ain give no more information on the 

 snbjt-ct than ordinary mortals, so 1 turn to you. What are 

 Ihe^e fish ? 



Again, 1 find in the "Gazetteer" " pondpickerel, doree 

 (Can:Mla), JiM-r nllnilatms:' 'I'hc writer first insidts our 

 dore by pulling him into the |jike fainily. and Itlien .says 

 "he is "so smalfand bony that he is hardly worth cooking 

 when caught." Now I want the author to " take it all back," 

 for the following reasons : 



First, the dore is not a pike at all, but a perch, and only 

 second to the black bass in that faniih-. Again, he is not 

 small and bony. I have taken tlicm myself of five pounds 

 weight, and kiiow of one Ijeing killed fn Lake Kosseau in 

 Muskoka that turned the scaliTat ton pounds. Doubtle.ss I 

 could collect more instances of even larger fish being talien. 

 His flesh is delicioas. The nearest fish in the "Gazetteer" is 

 the "Pike perch, glass-eyed pike, wliite salmon, etc., and SU- 

 toKtcdi'iii aiiitn'-ytnu. Girard :" but one fish is much darker 

 above and a briidit yellow below, as his name implies^ 

 "g-ildetl" 



That .skilled fisherman, the ex-secretary of the F. and G. 

 P. C. of P. Q., at the last "blow out" given by the club 

 called him Uwioperea C(HUtdmn!i,mA some of the mem- 

 bers were down on him for so doing. 



Thirdly, let me ask wliat the ditTerouce between a pike 

 and mas'kinonge is? I have a.sked Mr. W.. and he .said 

 the first was dark with light maikings and the latter had 

 the reverse. The habitants s:iy a ma.skinonge is striped ; 

 "Gazetteer" says, "The northern pike, first described liy 

 AEa.ssiz, is sometimes confounded with this tisli, but maybe 

 easily deteetetl, as it has the lower i:nv tilled with teeth, 

 whereas the anterior half of the n i 'i m. ■ ;- oiothless," 



I have before me the head of ;. i ' m ighod twelve 



pounds, a pike such as the auiler _ •>■- •'•< . ■ ile-scribe. The 

 head is nine inches long from the lower jaw (longest) to the 

 gill, from the end of the lower jaw for a distance of one and 

 three-quarter iuches the teeth are, even dry as it is now, i:iu 

 one-twentieth of an inch long, and from this point back on 

 each side are six or seven teeth from one-quarter to nearly 

 one-half an inch long. The upper jaw has three terrible 

 banks of teeth in the roof of the mouth. I have taken a good 

 many pike in a eood nianv walers, and all identical with this, 

 and iKive to confess, to niv sliame, that I never saw a mask- 

 iuomi-e, |-'erha[is you ean tell me v. hat rtiftevenee there is 

 btlwii n it and the despised pike that has ,sooften appeared at 

 my table or sulistitute for stich in camp ? Wasau. 



Only four "trouts" are now recognized by naturalists as 



li , ,. i.sippi River. These are brook trout, 



liack trout, S. oguMsa ; the lake, or 



^;i!i ,,- I. y.w-'i/i ; and the .siscowet, S. m'mmet. 



The tuladi, S. tomo., is now included in the third. 



The color is not enough to found species upon in ichthy- 

 ology, and this is the great mistake of anglers in general. It 

 goes for very little because it is not constant. There is a pos- 

 sibility that you have ]ioVti fantinaliH and nmnuyounh, but the 

 former is subject to great variation in color, from white, 

 through amber and pink, with green back, to almost black 

 and in the case ol the large ones going to salt "water the spots 

 often become invisible. 



ghl in what he says about 

 ■rtheru catlisli. Il is really 

 good fishes when properly 



The "dore'; is not of the pike i,Esox) family, but is the 

 pike perch (pickerel in parts of Canada,) SUs/MeCIiimi of 

 Rafinesque, whose nuine has been restored to replace tliat of 

 LwiupfrrM of Cuvier for the same flsh. As the Emx reticulii- 

 tus is a. " pickerel " in New York it wasanatiu'al error to 

 give this nanie to another fish called "pickerel" in Canada. 



Often the body of the inaskinonge is plain olive. In 

 some cases it has large dnik uval siiots, and in others il as- 

 sumes the appearance of faint lines. Color, as we have said, 

 is nearly notliiiig in fishes. The best waj- to distinguish tlie 

 maskiuonge, E. nobilwr, from the great pike, E. hi«iit», is 

 that the former has the lower half of the cheek and opercle 

 bare, while the latter has the cheek scaly and opercle bare. 

 The smaller, E. relMilatm, has, inaddilionto tlie net- work on 

 its sides, from which it is nanied. both check and opercle 

 scaly. 



THE CATFISH. 



Bedford. O., Nov. Id, 1880. 

 Editor Eoresi and Ulrmm : 



DR. E. STERLING is q 

 the edible qualities of 

 one of the very best of our 

 served up. 



The late Prof. J. P. Kortlaud, whom nobody knew but to 

 love and respect, gave me a sound lecturing because I did not 

 say more good words about this fish in the lirst edition of my 

 book. He also gave me the following metuod of preparing 

 and cooking this fish : " Never take otf rlie skin, but scrape 

 it with a knife, pouring over il hot water, repeating tlie 

 opei-atiou until the skin is as white as a piece of bleached 

 linen ; then remove the gills and intestines, leaving the head 

 on, and stuff it as you would a goose or duck, adding to the 

 stuffing, for a ten or twelve pound fish, a little garlic (not 

 Garlick), in quantity about as much as one-fourth of the size 

 of a nutmeg, chopping the clove of garlic fine, and disti'ibul- 

 iiig it through the sluffliig, then sew up the flsh tightly and 

 hold in IhiiHiiff water by the tail for ten seconds, no longer; 

 then lay it on its belly"in a baking pan, and bake il slowly 

 for four horns if you are not too himgry to wait SO long, but 

 if vou are throe hours wW] answer." Hut do not forget the 

 garlie, and y.iU will ever after hanker Ivr baked catflsb. 

 Tiy it, and if you cauoot get a calli,>h take .^ome utlier large 

 fl.sh and serve it u|i iu the .same manner. Care should be 

 taken not to put in too much garlic in the stuffing, nol 

 enough to dve it a distinct odor of it." 



In alate'numberof FoitK.sr and Stkeam. Dr. E. Sterling 

 stales thai he lias eaushi the black bass at the Satdt Ste 

 Marie, which \va:. a L'te-at stuprise to me. I have fished at 

 that p'.aee at ditferent times for a-s much as .six niotllhs 

 altogether, with minnows and flies, for large troul. I have 

 fished there in the months of June', July. August and Sop- 

 teniber. and on two occasions I fished there for four weel^, 

 and on two or more times that pi 

 D. Potter, of Toledo, fished v\ith 

 caught or heard of a black bass be: 

 I do not make this statement as t . . _^ 

 says in his communication, but it is strange that I never 

 caught any there, nor did I ever before hoar of any being 

 taken there. ^ T. (i\Til.uiK. 



Ar S vtir.E also has something to say about this subject in a 

 letter on another page, in which he establishes the valuable 

 fact that the ciitfish is more northern in its range than it hntt 

 usually been credited. 



glcrs, Judge B. 

 le. and neither Of us ever 

 ig eaugiil or seen there. 

 uhting what Dr. Sterling 



The Mascalonge— OT*!to«(?, O.—l will send you a pho- 

 tograph ol a female msiskalonge f&vj' nobiliL'r. Cuvier), that 

 weighed fifty-four p'ounds :ind was taken in the Jlaumee Riv- 

 er, near Toledo, O.. by Judge Emory 1). Potter, of the Ohio 

 Fish Comrnkssion. Tiic east of this "fish is now in the Kirt- 

 laud Soeietv of Natural Seieuees here. 1 speared a fish of 

 this kind in the .spring of 1842 near the Hoiies Point cluh- 

 he'r-'e, 'in '^■ni'hisky Piiver, wliich weighed eighty pounds. I 

 LT, ', niip J-'renelunan," and lie too'k it lO Sau- 



1 ' nislied Willi a silver iKilf-dollar for it. This 



fi:-k I i'i.,i-.:i;:'ndalsoa "I'uinel LEOuUert " anion- his kind, 

 .nduskv I: ' ' ■ n. tish in 



The wate 



those days, now none ai 



fingeiiing (comp:irati vel 



Ihe market. 1 have at :•: 



male of this fish, whiek 



thirty jiounds and the I 



which Ihcsc moidds ■'.veo: i _; 



City, Mich., twelve years ago, i 



doubt if the like are to be found in that vicinity now. " 



I E. STBIJT.TN6. J[. D. 



I Ol a ii.aie and fc- 



I'he former weighed 



luds. The fish from 



eiit to me from Bay 



id cost me §15. I very much 



A Fish Pakasite — New York, Ifnv. 20. — While fishing 

 in Westchester creek on the 3d of this month I caught 

 a tomcod to whicli was attached a peculiar parasite, 

 three of wliich I send you in alcohol with this. They 

 were fastened to various parts of the fisli liy the 

 ronl. which you will notice at one end, being lirmly 

 illaclied to the flesh, and ihe sucker itassing "through 

 I lie skin, allowing them to wave around v^iili the aeiii.u of 

 the water. When removed from the fish the sucker, or duct, 

 or whatever it may be, was filled with blood, aa also the 

 pouch to which it conducted, wliich seemed to form the 

 body, but tlie feelers were white, The skin immediately 

 around where the blood duct en' ,, ' ', "li was red and 

 inflamed. The fish itself was ii ■ n :ind remark- 



ably gamy for a toiniiiy wiien i; na.site seemed 



to be very tough, so niuch so th.'ii ;, ---...,.. without injury 

 a sufflcieiit strain to detach the root from the Jlesh. They 

 have lieen inspect oil liy several old tomcoders who " never 

 see the like afore,'' at the same time you may be perfectly 

 familiar with them. Please inform me through your columns 

 what they are. Will you at the same time tell me whether 

 it is lawful to set pomtd nets hi the Weslchester creek, as I 

 saw one running out from the shore of Pierre Lordlard's 

 estate. The net had a very small nicsh. small enopgh to 

 entrap a quarter pound bass. This may in part account for 

 the scarcity of bass in the Harlem River aiid the Big and Little 

 Gale- " Shado. 



The parasite is T^eiii&mema radiata, Steenstrup and Luet- 

 keu. It is figured in Rep. TJ. S. Fish Commi8.sion, 18T1-3, 

 PI. A^IL, fig. 30, and recorded by Prof. E. A. Terrill in 

 same, page 578. as found in Vineyard Sound. The net ia 

 unlawfuL 



