170 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aftul 1. 1880, 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



NT> Aquatic Spouts, Vn actioai. Natural 

 'ube, the protectiotf (i i ' g-am b, pbeserva- 

 tiiin of Forests, and the Inculcation in Men and Women of 

 A Healthy Im'iiiussT in Out-Door Kecrkation and Studtt : 



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NEW YORK, THUE8DAY, APRIL 1, 1880. 



To Correspondents. 



All communications whatever, i n tended for publication, must be 



iccompanieu with real name of the ' auty of good 



faith and be addressed to Foi I BAM Publishing Com- 



pany. Names will not be published if objection be made. Anony- 

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Secretaries of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us wtih 

 brief notes of their movements and transactions. 



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8S~ Trade supplied by American News Company. 



Removal.— On or before May 1st the Forest and 

 Stream will remove into its new offices in the Times 

 building. Nos. 39 and 41 Park Row. 



— We have received a copy of the constitution of the 

 Long Island Sportsmen's Association, the preamble of 

 which sets forth the objects of the organization to be 

 "to secure the propagation and protection of fish, ga 

 and birds by the recommendation and enforcement of 

 judicious laws prohibiting the killing and sale of game 

 and fish during improper seasons, and their wanton de- 

 struction by unsportsmanlike means ; also to foster gen- 

 uine social spirit and unison of action among the several 

 clubs of Long Island and their members, and encourage 

 skill in the use of the rod and gun." 



On two points the ne >v association has taken a most 

 commendable stand. One point is the mutilation of pig- 

 eons in trap shooting, concerning which the sportsmen 

 of Long Island say : — 



This association denounces the mutilation of birds as unsports- 

 manlike and barbarous, unworthy of gentlemen and calculated 

 to bring trap shooting unjustly into disrepute. 



And we pledge ourselves to do everything in our power a 

 association and as individuals to prevent such practice and pun- 

 ish its perpetrators* 



The other movement, which seems to us to be judicious 

 ami likely to result in good, is the invitation extended to 

 the farmers of Long Island, who may be in sympathy 

 with the objects of the association, to become honorary 

 members at the body. This is in direct sympathy with 

 the course which, we advocated some weeks ago of sec 

 ing the cooperation and friendship of the proprietors of 

 farm lands. A mutual understanding of their mutual 

 interests by farmers and sportsmen will result in more 

 efficient game preservation than we can ever hope to 

 attain by piling up laws on the subject. The Long Island 

 Sportsmen's Association has a arobd field before it. 

 Rightly fulfilling its mission it may stand as a worthy 

 model for all oilier organizations of like aim. It has an 

 excellent constitution ; we hope that it may live up to the 

 principles therein. Now, as a further step m the right 

 direction, let the delegates who go from Long Island to 

 the State Convention next June infuse their spirit into 

 the other clubs which they meet there. 



— Paymaster L. G. Billings, who wenroutlin the Irish 

 relief ship Ccmstelktfion, last Sunday, is well known 

 among the sportsmen of Brooklyn and vicinity as an 



expert shot, and the owner of some very handsome 



setters. 



—Read the advei'viseoioL-. This will save m 

 age, work and paper,, now consumed in writing for in- 

 formation there given. 



THE ANGLER'S ANNIVERSARY. 



THE old definition of fishing— •' A rod, with a string 

 and worm tit one end of it, and a fool at the other '' 

 — has an unpleasant indorsement from the Legislature 

 in the fixing by law of April 1st as the beginning of 

 the open season for trout-fishing in this State : especially 

 does the most earnest and devoted lover of angling feel 

 the apparent truth of the definition when he awakes 

 on the 1st of April to find the ground covered with 

 snow. No man will acknowledge, even to himself, that 

 he is a fool ; but some of us are free to admit that we 

 do sometimes look like fools. And, on the first of last 

 April, when we were trudging along a country road 

 on Long Island, with trout-basket slung to our side, 

 and rod in hand, we did feel, that the urchins who 

 met us and asked us where we were going, and how 

 the skating was, etc., etc., had altogether too much 

 reason for their jeers than was pleasant. 



The past winter (is it past?) has been so open that 

 there will be an unusual number of trout, and they 

 will be fat. There having been so little ice, it has not 

 been possible for that most destructive of ah poaching 

 — fishing through the ice — to be carried on at all. The 

 unusually high temperature has also prevented solid 

 freezing of brooks, and thus there has been no destruc- 

 tion of spawners, or eggs, or young fish, or infusoria. 

 These circumstances combine to insure plenty of fish 

 tw.,->ears hence, and fat fish this year. The preserva- 

 tion of spawn and infusoria insure good fishing two 

 years hence ; and the preservation of spawners and 

 young fish insure fat fish litis year. 



But we think the fish will be harder to take this 

 year than usual. First, because a warm winter gener- 

 ally means a late and cold spring. Unless the first of 

 April is warm and fine, the fish will be loath to come 

 to the surface to take the fly. By using good-sized, 

 rather bright flies and letting them sink a few inches 

 trout may be induced to take hold, that would never 

 take otherwise, The second circumstance that will 

 work against a full creel is the very fact of the 

 warm weather we have had during the late winter. 

 The trout will not be so hungry; they have had fat- 

 more feed than usual, and the angler need not expect 

 to find them ravenous. 



The number of anglers who will cast a fly on the 

 fish this season will be greater this year than ever be- 

 fore, The crowd of (them that wo see replenishing 

 their stock of tackle at the best shops indicate the 

 pleasant fact that the lovers of this fine sport have 

 participated in the profits of the present boom. The 

 sales of the larger fishing tackle establishments show 

 that .not only more people are buying than ever be- 

 fore, but that the demand for the best goods is alto- 

 gether unprecedented. No doubt the same thing is 

 true of smaller stores, 



IS THERE A SAFE BOILER? 



THE increasing frequency of boiler explosions, and 

 the loss of life and property which is invariably 

 coupled with them, is a subject which deserves more at- 

 tention from our busy inventors and the owners of mill 

 property, and certainly those who expose life and limb 

 to these dreadful sources of power. The latest horror is 

 thatwhieh occurred in Frankl'ord, Intl., by which the 

 entire staff of employes of a flax mill were killed while 

 in the act of warming themselves. The details of this 

 frightful accident are almost too shocking to read. The 

 widowed mothers and fatherless children thrown help- 

 lessly on to the charities of the public is a part of the 

 sad story, which accords well with the rest of the whole- 

 sale devastation, and the utter demolition of the mill 

 finished well the record of death, suffering and loss. 



Now it is about time this sort of thing were stopped, and 

 some means taken to prevent such frightful occurrences. 

 We have had enough of such dreadful details of suffering 

 and loss. Where are our boasted brain-workers, whose 

 labors have given a world-wide reputation to our coun- 

 try? Where is the humanity of our moneyed men, 

 whose factories of various sorts cover the land, and whose 

 operative^ form the bone and muscle of our manufac- 

 turing and commercial industries? Why do these men 

 found an extensive plant, and place therein a boiler which 

 at any moment may blow the whole structure to atoms, 

 scattering wide death and destruction '( Although there is 

 a mystery affecting the causes of boiler explosions, si ill 

 enough is known concerning them which ought at once 

 to condemn thai class Of boilers (comprising three fourths 

 of those in use) which contain a large amount of wi 

 heated to such a degree that when the shell ruptures, 

 which it is always liable to do from a number of causes, 

 the water in it changes its condition into steam instanta- 

 neously, and with immense force. When a boiler is new 

 it may be tested to far above the steam pressure it is ex- 

 pected to cany ; but sufficient allowance for the weak- 

 ening of the shell by age, rust, action of the fire, undue 

 Strains arising in m imperfect settings, had construction, 

 is attendance, is not provided for. Let this sub- 

 ject be well ventilated. Let the inventors and manufac- 

 turers of so-called safety boilers prove that their produc- 



tions are really safe, and that iliey will work as economi- 

 cally as those in more general use, and their universal 

 adoption is assured with like benefit to the builders and 

 the public safety. With such a boiler a new held would 

 also open to yachtsmen devoted to the mechanics of an 

 engine. There are eight characteristics a I toiler for popular 

 marine use must conform to for successful competition 

 with the death-dealing traps of the day. They are ; Ab- 

 solute safety against anything but local failure at the 

 worst ; light weight ; small space ; economy in first cost ; 

 repairs and attendance ; the highest efficiency in evapo- 

 ration ; capability of using salt or fresh water, and burn- 

 ing effectually various kinds of fuel ; long life. Where is 

 there a boiler any man could "run," and no man could 

 blow up if he tried? 



THE AMERICAN FISH CULTURAL AS- 

 SOCIATION. 



THE ninth annual meeting of the American Fish 

 Cultural Association convened in the Directors' 

 rooms of the Fulton Fishmongers' Association, Tuesday 

 and Wednesday, March 30th and 31st— Mr. Robert B. 

 Roosevelt, President, in the chair. There were present 

 Mr. George Sheppard Page, Vice-President ; Mr. Eugene 

 O. Blackford, Treasurer; Mr. James Annin, Jr., Recording 

 Secretary : Mr. Barnet Phillips, Corresponding Secretary ; 

 Mr. Seth Green ; Mr. Livingston Stone, United States 

 Assistant Commissioner of Fisheries; Dr. W. M, Hudson, 

 Fish Commissioner of Connecticut : Mr. Asa French, Fish 

 Commissioner of Massachusetts ; Mr. llughD. Mi Govern, 

 Mr. S. A. Kilhuni, artist ; Mr. Theodore Morford, Dr. J. 

 P. Trimble, the entomologist ; Mr. Samuel Wilmot, the 

 oldest shad fisherman on the 1 ludson ; Mr, James Benk- 

 ard, Mr. J. S. W. Thompson, and many others, whom, 

 owing to the neglect of the meeting to call the roll, can- 

 not be named. 



The first business of the meeting was the reading by 

 Mr. Barnet Phillips of a memorial paper on Professor 

 James W. Milner, which we pubbsh to-day. Mr. Roose- 

 velt followed with a paper detailing the experiments at 

 the New York State Hatchery in crossing various species 

 offish, the successful experiments having been : Salmon 

 trout with whitefish : salmon trout with the brook trout ; 

 brook trout with fresh water herring, with California sal- 

 mon, and with the California mountain trout ; shad with 

 striped bass and with herring. 



Mr. Seth Green's report on the introduction of the Cali- 

 fornia salmon into New York State was also read by Mr. 

 Roosevelt. 



Mr. Livingston Stone's discussion of the practicability 

 of the transportation of fish was one of the most important 

 papers of the day, the author contending that the mortal- 

 ity of fish while in transit was always due to some cause 

 which it is possible to remove by added experience and 

 increased facilities. 



One of the most interesting episodes of the meeting 

 was the practical demonstration, by Mr. James Annin, 

 Jr., of the process of stripping the fish in artificial propa- 

 gation. A number of gravid trout had been provided, 

 together with the necessary tubs and pans. Mr. Annin, 

 taking the female trout, pressed out the eggs into the 

 pan, and then deposited upon them the impreg- 

 nating milt, pressed out from the male. 

 The interesting fact was here brought out that the 

 eggs of the trout are always of the color of its tlesh. 

 Upon being questioned as to how he determined the fe- 

 males from the males, Mr. Annin replied, "By general 

 appearances ; " and it was conceded by the rest of the 

 practical trout culturists present that while a man who 

 was accustomed to the fish could readily distingush the 

 sexes during the spawning season by the increased size 

 of the gravid fish, and the quicker movements of the 

 males, there was still no absolute mark which might 

 guide the novice. The old theory of the lighter color on 

 the belly was long ago exploded. 



Mr. Charles Hailock presented a very entertaining pic- 

 ture of the cod fisheries along the coast of Labrador. 

 Then followed a discussion of the spaw ing habits of the 

 land-locked salmon: the resulting opinion being that 

 these fish go to rtmning water for the purpose of spawn- 

 ing, because in running water they find a clear, gravelly 

 bottom upon which to deposit their eggs, and that if 

 such a spawning ground is to be found in a lake or con- I 

 fined body of water the fish will spaw a 



Mr. Pluilips read a paper prepared, by Mr. George Latn- 

 pheflr, detailing the number of pounds of fish annually 

 sold in the wholesale department of Fulton Market, the 

 exhibit showing, from the tables, that from March, 1878, 

 to March, 1879, of fish belonging to American waters and 

 sold in Fulton Market, 33.539,000 pounds were sold, and 

 from March. 1870, to March, 1880, 31,370.000, were sold, 

 showing an increase for the latter year of 64(5,700 pounds; 



Other papers read were : "Do Grilse Spawn';" by Mr. 

 Bottman, of the Fisheries Commission of Holland ; and 1 

 on the -'Pound-Net Fisheries," by Mr. Theodore Rein- 

 ecke, of Sandusky, O. 



Wednesday morning the Association listened to a most 

 valuable paper by Professor W. O. At water, of Wesleyan 

 University, on the nutritive properties of fi3h. This J 

 essay is the result of a very exhaustive series of chemical 



