BliftCiT 18, 1880.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



127 



I Atlantic Labrador coast is an interesting question, which 

 may be noticed subsequent! y. 



DIRECTION OF MOVEMENTS IN THE SEA. 

 In describing 1 

 the south coasto 

 Atlantic coast '" 



toward the Herd 



ern Labrador. 



pearance, and is 



true sea-trout, which ha 



moots I sball commence with 

 tdlanct, then turn to the east 

 Land progress i nut Westerly 

 ■I. or I'ern Bay. on the North- 



kj aalar ceases to put in an ap- 



S 'mo, invmaaulatus, or tlie 



its home in these northern 



d beauty I have 



waters, and where it attain: 



never seen approached in the Gull' of St. I,:i.wrence. 



District of Fortune Bay {south c<></*f i.-Tho rule in 

 this district is that sa.lrnon are always bakes moving 

 toward the •■■■■ 31 . IT, BS it were, out of the' Lay. Prevail- 

 ing winds aire otitis the tidal currents sometimes change 

 the die. ,•<•;,.,, lie, ILL are pursuing. 



Placentiit Bay {.SOUth COttst).— The large fish are always 

 taken moving to the southwest, or out ol' the bay, The 

 large salmon here are now never taken but off headlands 

 or situations confronting the open . c 



Cancegtian Bay, Trinity Bay.— On the northern as 

 well as on the southern side of these bays it is alleged 



fcra sal d are always, as a, rule, taken as if coming 



from i in; west, or, as in the other bays already mention- 

 ed, as if going out of the bay. 



Fiencli Share (so-called), Gape John, to Quirpon Bay. 

 —Salmon are generally caught on this stretch ..I'caM 

 OS if coming from the" south, or out of the bays. Gen- 

 erally it may be said that the salmon taken in nets on 

 exposed portions of the coast are almost always caught 

 as if moving out of the bays. Of course, this rule does 

 not hold good at the extremities of the deep hays, for 

 there [he tidal movements are guided by the configura- 

 tion of the land. 



In studying these and similar observations, which show 

 e - lirily in the movements of the salmon. 

 «re must give attention 60 three leading features: First, 

 to the winter homes of the salmon ; see' md, to the sup- 

 posed habit of biennial spawning ; third, to the relation 

 which most of the movements of all kinds of fish bear to 

 tidal currents. 



The supposed habit of biennial spawning gives us two 

 classes to deal with : those which crane on the coasts to 

 seek spa wiling rivers, and those which follow their food, 

 and occasionally seek fresh water for sanitary purposes. 

 such as freeing themselves from external and internal 

 parasites, It is unnecessary for (lie purposes of the 

 present outline sketch to enter into any discussion re- 

 specting the biennial spawning habit. But it is advisable 

 to glance at the winter homes of the salmon and ihe life 

 of the sea in deep waters where winter fishing has long 

 been carried on, and by its results has enabled us to be- 

 come indirectly familiar with the teeming submarine 

 valleys and floor of the ocean, a thousand feet below the 

 surface, on the south coast of the island of Newfound- 

 land. 



WINTER HOMES OF PISH. 



The south coast of Newfoundland descends like a 

 sloping wall, or in abrupt ten-aces, in many places to 

 depths of 1.200 feel and even 1.000 feet. The sea there, 

 close to the shore line, furnishes us with a wonderful 

 Spectacle of fish life. Every winter, including October 

 to April, upward of h'U.OuO.OOO to 50,000,000 pounds 

 weight of codfish are lifted from a depth ranging from 

 '.an to K'iiiO feet and brought to the surface. If we trans- 

 plant Ourselves in imagination to the floor of the ocean, 

 one. two and three miles from the bleak wall of rocks 

 which form the ocean front of the south coast, we may 

 see upreared before us a jagged or terraced slope, with 

 many deep-cur md.-ms or valleys, rising to an altitude of 

 l.tioti to 3,000 feet, and of this huge escarpment five- 

 sixths lie bjejow the surface of the sea, These serrated 

 slopes, and the sea floor from which they rise, are the 

 winter homes of innumerable lisb. The large cod are at 

 the bottom with vast schools of young herring and cap- 

 lin, for these are sometimes found in their stomachs 

 when caught. The breeding herring OOCUpy the higher 

 slopes and lie closer inshore. They are found in a zone 

 v liieb extend? from 00 fathoms or 300 feet up to the sur- 

 face at the edge of, and under, the ice which covers the 

 indents or fiords. The adult, or full-grown salmon t con- 

 jecture are also roving about the deeper slopes and bot- 

 tom, for they rise with and follow Ihe eapliu to higher 

 levels in the Spring, and are taken with these fish in 

 their stomachs. But they soon become satiated with 

 such abundant food, and the caplin, as they near the sur- 

 face and approach the shores in June, are followed by 

 ihe sec, ud run of the smaller or younger salmon which 

 are called by the fishermen " the caplin school." because 

 they approach the sbures simultaneously with the caplin. 



Some details as to the whereabouts of the profound 

 depths close to the shore line to which I have referred 

 mav bo aceeptible, for in relation to the lish life, they stts- 

 tamthey lie e no parallel in any part of the cold water 

 ? , ,rle : in this side of the Atlantic, They have their rep- 

 resentatives Off other coast lines in the form of abrupt 

 sandy slopes, but these are from 50 to 100 miles from 

 land.' 



Bate D'espoir leads out of Hermitage Bay and the en- 

 trance to it is BJ miles broad, with a depth exceeding 

 eisor 1, 0-h feet. Close to the coast on either 

 side there is more than 100 fathoms of water. It is a 

 partly submerged fiord, and has man) kindred records of 

 former ice action on the bold front of the south coast 

 In Belle Bay. which lies within the well-known Fortune 

 Bay, 1,000 feet will not touch the bottom in many places, 

 and but. as it were, a few rods from land. Towards the 

 heal of PlacentiuBay wo find on the Admiralty charts 

 146 fathoms marked within two miles of the land, and 

 all along this ooast three or four miles out, there is pro- 

 foundly deep water. A mile and a half from Cape La 

 Hunch takes a line 050 fed, long to reach the bottom. 

 Near to the Burgoo Islands 1,000 feet will not suffice. In 

 La Poile Bay we may halt with a line 700 feet long, but 

 near Sagona Island we must take 1,000 feet and more to 

 touch the bottom with our bait. Along this southern 

 coast of Newfoundland, fishing operations are conducted 

 in the winter months, from October to April, and in 

 order to form some conception of their magnitude in 

 times past, we may turn to an official report published 

 some years ago by the Newfoundland Government, 

 From, tliis report we glean that the actual catchers of cod- 

 ec Ray and Point May then numbered 

 about 2,000 souls. During the winter they caught 145,- 



000 quintals of fish. This quantity, at 113 pounds to the 

 quintal, would represent 16,240.000 pounds of cured fish, 

 or more than 50,000,000 of fresh codfish lifted from the 

 sea by 3.000 men during the winter months, fishing with 

 hues 'and from boats. The entire fleet of Gloucester, 

 Mass., did not bring into port a greater weight of all 

 kinds of fish during the whole of 1879. In addition to 

 the codfish there are the winter herring, the breeding 

 fish, lying close inshore, of which 50,000 barrels were 

 caught. 



It is from these profound and populous depths, where 

 cod, young herring, caplin, and probably launce range, 

 with an innumerable multitude of sub-arctic fishes, and 

 an infinite host of the lower forms of life, all fed directly 

 or indirectly by the unfailing Labrador current, that the 

 full-grown silver-sided salmon rises in the spring to pur- 

 sue his food along the islands, headlands, promontories 

 and wall-like escarpments of the south coast of New- 

 foundland. On the east Atlantic coast of the Island and 

 the Labrador coast these features are reproduced in various 

 localities on a less grand seale, and in many parts the 

 Steep escarpments arc replaced by gentle slopes which 

 lead, within from five to fifty miles from the land, to pro- 

 found depths. That the fish life in theso depths on the 

 eastern coast is vastly abundant during the winter season 

 we know from the fact that from time immemorial the 

 seas there have supported, every winter, such a surprising 

 number of harp-seals that an "annual average slaughter 

 for half a century of upward of 300,000 of these animals 

 has not produce'd a very sensible impression on their 

 numbers, although it lias changed, by experience of 

 danger, their habit of trimming the shores of the bays. 

 When we consider that the harp-seal feeds largely on fish 

 during the winter, although in summer it lives chiefly on 

 crustaceans (shrimps, etc.), Ave can form an idea of the 

 vast quantifies of fish food these animals must consume 

 during the five months they are on the coasts. They 

 tiring numberless cod and flatfish on to the ice, and it 

 would be an interesting fact to know the general size of 

 the lish they catch, so that a positive proof might be ob- 

 tained that the smaller sized cod winter in a shallower 

 zone than the average full-grown fish of forty or fifty 

 pounds in weight. 



We are now in a position to consider the movements 

 of salmon in the sea as far as regards the largo schools of 

 adult fish which are first taken at the headlands during 

 the earliest visible runs in the spring, Tho schools come 

 inshore from deep water with and against the rising tide, 

 and begin to feed without any special regard for river 

 estuaries or fresh water, for they strike and coast about 

 small islands and bold promontories stretching far into 

 the ocean and destitute of rivers, just as frequently as 

 lev ;,i; ihe headlands which guard the estuaries. They 

 pursue a course in shallow water parallel to the shore 

 line and against the tide ; they go out to sea again just 





b'l> 



0- -..;<^c/ J 



CltAtlT SHOWING MOVEMENTS OP FEEDING 11SH. 



as the tide begins to turn, and when in deep water they 

 turn round and swim against the ebb tide. At the turn 

 of the ebb they approach the shore again and pursue their 

 course as before, against the ilood, going out to sea at 

 the turn. Their movements, as will presently be shown, 

 are in the form of a series of loops or ellipses along the 

 coast, the straight fine connecting these loops being in 

 deep water. Let us take, by way of illustration, the 

 movement of the first schools' of salmon in Trinity Bay, 

 on the east coast. Here they are taken i a nets on both the 

 north aud south sides of the bay, as if going out toward 

 the ripen sea. They are. in fact", caught moving eastward 

 against the rising tide. At the turn of the tide they pass 

 into deep water, and, veering round, swim against the 

 ebb until the tide begins to rise again ; they then ap- 

 proach the shore a second time, but their journey in deep 

 water has brought them further up the bay, and as they 

 coast against the flood, following the indentations of the 

 coast line, they do not cover nearly so much ground in a 

 straight line as during their direct course in deep water 

 against the ebb. By repeating this movement, and by 

 passing in deep water through double or mi ire of the dis- 

 tance they lose on the coast,' they make their way to the 

 head of the bay. which in Trinity is reached about ten 

 days after they strike the headlands at the entrance. In 

 thecaseof cddy-llcod fides on the coast the movements 

 ai-e reversed, as well as when, winds alter the direction, of 

 the flood. If these movements of the feeding fish be 

 plotted they will form a continuous line parallel to the 

 coast, with loops in it at irregular intervals. The loops 

 represent the movements of the lish toward and on the 

 cast, the straight parts in deep water the progress up 

 the bay or along a coast line. I am persuaded that many 

 fish, not excluding the mackerel and schools of young 

 cod, approach the coast and feed in a similar manner, 

 coming in with the flood and going out to sea with the 

 ebb tide. 



The first schools of salmon whoso movements in the sea 

 have been described are composed of the largest adult 

 fish, but whether they are all breeding fish or all fish of 

 an off-spawning year, or mixed schools of old adults, can 

 only be determined by further inquiry; but I think that 

 in general it will be found that they include both classes, 

 which separate when they reach the mouths of rivers 

 they desire to ascend. The next schools, which follow a 

 fortnight or three weeks later, are composed of youug 

 adult salmon and grilse. These appear to pursue the 

 same method of appoaching the coast as the large fish, 

 make for the estuaries and mouths of rivers, 

 ascending them when not barred by nets, as is unfortu- 

 nately the case to a large extent in Newfoundland. Be- 

 fore attempting further to describe the movements of 

 salmon in the sea it will be necessary to glance at the 

 spawning process and the hatching of tho egg, which may 

 well serve for a future communication. 



Henry Youle Hind. 

 Windsor, Nova Scotia, Feb, 11th, 1880. 



|i?# mid i$ivet[ fishing, 

 — * — 



I-ISH IN SEASON IN MARCH. 



soittii Em 

 Pompnno, TracMnntus(-tiiTUnu.s. 

 Drum (two species). Family 



Scimnti fre. 

 Kineflsh, Menttctrru nt bul wu& 

 Se.il Bass, Sciomops oieliatui. 

 Sheepshead, Archmargm proba- 



toceplmlws. 



Snapper, Lulk, 



<r, ISpincphelpiumioritU. 



Bass, or KuekilBh, Rne- 



■'i ' i i'. t-imatomm Itatrix. 

 Hack Bass, MicropUrux almoU 



tie*. M. palMus. 

 Bblaekform. 



GAME AND FISH DIRECTORY. 



In sending reports for the Fohest anu Stream Directory ol 

 Game una Fish Resorts, our correspondents aro requested to giya 

 the following particulars, with such other information as they 

 may fleem of value: State, Town, bounty! means of access; Hotel 

 and oilier accommodations; Game and Its Season; Fish and Its 

 Season ; Boats, Guides, etc.; Name of person to address. 



The Opening of the Trout Season.— The long-looked 

 for 1st of April is new close at hand. On that day be- 

 gins the spring war on the Salmo fonlinalis in this State. 

 Anglers, who have been looking fondly at their tackle 

 during tho long close season, are now scrutinizing care- 

 fully their tools and getting ready for their cherished 

 sport. We have usually, at this season, called the atten- 

 tion of anglers to some facts in regard to the preparation 

 of their tackle, arrangement of casts, etc., and wo now 

 follow our custom ; not that we would dictate to old 

 anglers (who, sometimes, like the heathen, are "a law 

 unto themselves"), but merely with the desire to give 

 the results of our experience for the benefit " of whom it 

 may concern." 



First. The hook should be the "sproat bend," and it 

 should be the very best make of this bend. Be sure your 

 hooks are the very best that can be made. It is the poor- 

 est economy to save money here. 



Second. The size of the hook should be about two 

 numbers larger than those used later in the season. The 

 trout have not, in localities where the law is enforced, 

 been fished over for some seven months ; consequently 

 the prime necessity of small hooks is not present. Of 

 course every one knows that one should use as large a fly 

 for trout as he can without fear of scaring the fish. We 

 do not give the proper numbers of sproats to use, because 

 what would be small for some localities would be large 

 for others. Let us merely say, use two sizes larger than 

 you found most successful at the close of last season. 



Third. What flies should be used ? We think that, es- 

 pecially at this season of the year, the little jungle cock 

 " shoulders " are a great addition to almost every fly, and 

 a small spray of the crest of the golden pheasant can be 

 mixed with the tail of most ilies to great advantage. 

 The following flies (with above additions, if possible) are 

 the best for the opening day : (1) Grizzly King ; (2) Im- 

 brie ; (3) Light Corduroy ; (4) Professor ; (5) Abbey ; (6) 

 March Brown ; (7) Spider ; (8) Cooper ; (9) Brown Palmer, 

 red body ; (10) Grey Palmer, green body ; (11) Black 

 Palmer, yellow body ; (12) Scarlet Ibis. Using these flies 

 in making your casts, beginning at the end of the cast 

 nearest your line, we would advise as follows : — 



-B-Ott AN OVEK-OAST DAY. | . TOB A BRIGHT DAT. 



I Cast No. 1, 6, 7, 11. 



Cast No. 2, 2, 3, 7. 

 | Cast No. 3. 6, 11, i. 



The fourth suggestion is this : Be sure to remember 

 that, if the air is very much colder than the water, and 

 particularly if the surface of the water is broken by a 

 cold wind, the trout are much more apt to take the fly 

 just below the surface than on the surface. 



We have said nothing about bait fishing, On this point 

 we would only say : Eels and flounders are in season, and 

 the bait fisherman should take a day iu Coney Island 

 Creek, or anywhere else than iu trout waters. 



We hope to receive accounts of the triumphs and re- 

 verses of our readers. 



♦ 



Who Will Tell Hrsi?— Our correspondent, "Salmon 

 Roe," is unsatisfied with our view of tho character of an 

 alleged John A. Grindle, and insists in imputing to that 

 gentleman the unsavory fame of the dogfish, which is 

 supposed to bear his name. Doubtless, as he avers, 

 " Salmon Roe" is sincere in lus quest of information on 

 this point, but he is certainly guilty of a grave offense in 

 his statement, ''It is reasonably certain that he was a 

 lawyer," and that he must have lived in Mississippi, Illi- 

 nois, or possibly in Indiana. Every lawyer (and '■ Salmon 

 Roe" himself is one) owes it to his profession to prove 

 either that Mr. Grindle was, as Marc Antony said, an. 

 honorable man, or else that he did not belong to the bar 

 And every patriotic sentiment should impel the citizens 

 of Mississippi, Indiana and Illinois to a like consideration 

 of the fair fame of their respective States. Now who will 

 tell ua of Mr. John A. Grindle, when and where he 

 lived ? 



"Salmon Roe" writes from Jaeksonport, Arkansas, 

 March 6th :— 



In a recent editorial article in your paper you make the 

 mistake of supposing thai I inquire wdio John A. Grindle 

 was, by way of invective against the fish bearing his 

 name. ' Nothing could be more foreign to my intention. 

 I was in search of information in good faith. Besides, 

 such a feeble way of handling "cuss words" is not an 

 Arkansas failing. 



I will give you my conjectures as to Mr. Grindle, and 



Cast No. 1, 12, 1, 2. 



Cast No. 2, It), 4, 8. 

 Cast No. 3, 9, 3, S. 



