206 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 15, 



cured fish, however, are from Dr. Konig, our work hay- | 

 ing extended, as yet, only to fresh fish. 



This table will help us to a very fair idea of the com- 

 parative composition of some of our more common ani- 

 mal foods. The percentages refer to the fresh sub- 

 stance, except as when especially stated as "dried," 

 " smoked," etc. In the meats and fish the bones are ex- 

 cluded, the calculations referring only to the edible por- 

 tions. The "extractive matters" are essentially the carbo- 

 hydrates, which in the fish are of little moment, and 

 omitted in both tables. These must not be confounded 

 ■with the "extract" referred to above, which includes 

 nitrogenous and mineral substances also. 



Looking down the first column we see that while me- 

 dium beef contains 72 per cent, of water, milk contains 

 87* per cent. Roughly speaking, beefsteak is about three- 

 fourths, and milk seven-eighths, water. A pound of 

 beefsteak would thus contain four ounces of solids, and, 

 if we asume a pint of milk to wei?h a pound, a quart 

 would contain four ounces of solids also ; that is, a pound 

 of steak and a quart of milk contain about the same 

 weight of actual nutrients. But wa know that for or- 

 dinary use the pound of beefsteak is worth more for food 

 than the quart of milk. The reason is simple. The solids 

 of the lean steak are nearly all albuminoid, while those 

 of the milk consist largely of fats and milk sugar, a carbo- 

 hydrate. 



The figures in the table are, I think, worth looking 

 through with some care. Remembering that those for 

 meat and fish apply to only the edible portion, let me call 

 your attention, first, to the varying proportions of albu- 

 minoids and fats in the second and third columns. On the 

 whole you will notice that the fish average about the 

 same percentages of albuminoids as the meats, but have 

 rather less fats. 



RELATIVE NUTRITIVE VALUES OF THE ANIMAL FOODS. 



The figures in the last column are intended to show 

 how the foods compare in nutritive value, "medium 

 beef " being taken as the standard, They are computed 

 by ascribing certain values to the albuminoids and fats 

 and taking the sum in each case for the value of that par- 

 ticular food. The ratio here adopted, which assumes one 

 pound of albuminoids to be equal to three pounds of fats, 

 is that assumed by prominent German chemists. Taking 

 medium beef at 100, the same weight of milk comes to 

 23.8 ; butter, 124 ; mutton, medium, 86.6 ; fat pork, 116 ; 

 smoked beef, 146, and so on. The different samples of 

 fish run from flounders, 65 ; cod, 68 ; shad, 99 ; whitefish, 

 103, to salmon, 104, while dried cod leads the list at 

 846. 



These figures differ widely from the market values. 

 But we pay for our foods according, not to their value 

 for nourishing our bodies, but to their agreeableness to 

 our palates. 



CHEAP VERSUS DEAR FOOD, 



Taking the samples of fish at their retail prices in the 

 Middletown markets, the total edible solids in striped 

 bass came to about $2.30 per pound, while in the Connec- 

 ticut River salmon, whose price — thanks to our Fish Com- 

 mission — was very low, we bought nutritive material at 

 forty-four cents per pound. The cost of the nutritive 

 material in one sample of halibut was fifty-seven cents, 

 and in the other $1.15 per pound, though both were 

 bought in the same place at the same price, fifteen cents 

 per pound, gross weight. 



It makes very little difference to the man with five 

 thousand dollars a year whether he pays twenty-five 

 cents or five dollars a pound for the albuminoids of his 

 food, but it doeB make a difference to the housewife, 

 whose family must live on five hundred dollars a year. 

 And a little definite knowledge of this sort will be of ma- 

 terial help to her in furnishing her table economically. 



The cookbooks and newspapers have occasionally some- 

 thing to say upon these points, but their statements are 

 apt to be as vague and wild as in the lack of authorita- 

 tive information they might be expected to be. 



Of course the nutritive valuations above given are only 

 approximate, since they are made with very imperfect 

 knowledge of either the digestibility of the foods or the 

 influence of palatibility and other factors upon their nu- 

 tritive value, and also because they are based upon very 

 few analyses. But it is certain that we need to know 

 more about these things, and that such investigations, as 

 I have been telling you about, may help us toward that 

 knowledge. 



Before closing I ought perhaps to refer briefly to the 

 very widespread but unfounded notion, that fish is par- 

 ticularly valuable for train food, because of its large 

 contents of phosphorus. Suffice it to say, that there is no 

 evidence as yet (though we hope to have more data be- 

 fore long) to prove that the flesh of fish is especially 

 richer in phosphorus than other meats, and that, even if 

 it were so, there is no proof that it would be on that ac- 

 count more valuable for brain food. The questions of the 

 nourishment of the brain and the sources of intellectual 

 energy, are too abstruse for speedy solution in the pres- 

 ent condition of our knowledge. 



In conclusion I have to say, that I should be very sorry 

 to be understood as implying that the facts I have given 

 you exhaust, or even begin to cover the subject we h; 

 been considering. They are only the very feeble and .„ 

 perfect beginnings of a kind of investigation, which, if 

 sufficiently encouraged and rightly carried on, may here- 

 after bring knowledge of the greatest value. And, let 

 me add, that while scientific research does so much to 

 promote our material welfare, its highest value is in what 

 it does for the culture of our minds. 



water, he discovered a great quantity of young salmon j 

 many of them were deposited two feet deep in the gravel. 

 Alter making tho discovery, Ml", Campbell devised apian 

 rocure a large quantity of the young salmon by using 

 wire tacked to strips of wood. One man would place 

 the wire sieve below the spawning beds, and one man, 

 vith a shovel, would scoop up the gravel, when the young 

 lalrnon would wash down against the screen, and in that 

 way he caught about thirteen thousand, which he has 

 put into his ponds. The young salmon are more than 

 one. inch long. Occasionally he would find a half dozen 

 or more that were dead, owing, I suppose, to the com- 

 pactness of the gravel, so they could not extricate them- 

 selves. The salmon spawn in the Sacramento River in 

 September. Hence, they have lain there ever since. Mr, 

 Campbell informs me that he. has seen young salmon in 

 his ditch, which is led from the river, for the last six 

 weeks. The Sacramento River is very low, and has been 

 during the winter, which, I suppose, accounts for the 

 young salmon still remaining in the spawning-beds. 



Mr. Campbell proposes to try an experiment with the 

 young salmon by confining them in his ponds. He tells 

 me that they are very lively, and take their feed with a 

 relish. 



I think, from my own observations for more than 

 twenty years, that the most ef the young salmon go to 

 the ocean during the spring freshets. However, there 

 are a great many that remain during the summer, but 

 leave in the fall. I have caught a great many during the 

 months of July and August, angling for trout. I am, 

 ery truly, Washington Bailey, 



Charlestown, N. H., April 5th, 

 Prof. Spencer I. Baird, United States Commissioner 



Fish and Fisheries. 



Dear Sir: Yours of March 30th, inclosing Mr. Bailey's 

 letter about young salmon being found in gravel, is re- 

 ceived. 



I have long been aware of this habit, which young sal- 

 monidaj have of living in the gravel beds of streams. In 

 fact, they are born there, and, I suppose, remain there 

 for safety. They have surprising muscular power for 

 their size, as you well know, and can work their way 

 through any compact gravel with great facility. It is 

 my opinion that when they arc persecuted by larger fish 

 in the river above them, they live and travel long dis- 

 tances, like the Christians in the catacombs, through the 

 honeycombed ground below their enemies, which they 

 find far more easily traversed than is generally supposed. 

 In some instances, of course, they get imprisoned and 

 crushed to death, but I am certain that it is a very tight 

 place that they can't get out of. In some other instances, 

 as they are always heading up streams in the gravel, they 

 get into tight places, having no outlet at the upper end, 

 where they starve because they have no room to turu 

 around and get back again. They are very fearless, how- 

 ever, about venturing into a bank of gravel, and I have 

 often known young trout to work their way through an 

 embankment that you would suppose no living creature 

 could get through, 



Mr. Bailey is undoubtedly mistaken in thinking that 

 the salmon fry go to the ocean with the spring freshets. 

 True to the habits of the salmon, they go up stream with 

 a rush of water, and not down stream, very likely avail- 



ig themselves of the opportunity which the freshet, 

 gives them of passing unnoticed bv their enemies from 

 their gravelly fastnesses to their summer retreats. At all 

 events, it is certain that they could not do this in low 

 water with the least chance of safety, for the trout are 

 all the time watching over the gravel beds like cats at a 

 mouse hole. Very truly yours, 



Livingstone Stone. 



NEW FACTS REGARDING CALIFORNIA SALMON. 



^ Through the courtesy of Prof. Spencer F. Baird, we 

 have received the following interesting correspondence, 

 ■which details certain facts regarding the habits of the 

 California salmon, not generally known :— 



Lower Soda Springs, Shasta Co., Cal,, March 21. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Baird, United States Commissioner 



Fish and Fisheries. 



Dear Sir : Since my last lei ter to you, Mr. Geo. Camp- 

 bell has made, by accident, what we' consider a wonder- 

 ful discovery in the way of young salmon. 



Mr. Campbell has a fish-pond stocked with trout, and 

 he was engaged hauling gravel from the Sacramento 

 River to put into his runway for his trout to deposit their 

 gpawn in, In shoveling up the gravel in the shallow 



gm Hnd givet[ S^ tin Q' 



FlSH IN SEASON IN APRIX. 



GAME AND FISH DIRECTORY. 



In sending- reports for the Fohest and Stream Directory of 

 Gurue and Fish Resorts, our correspondenta are reo. nested to give 

 the following- pavtioulars, with such other information as they 

 may deem of value : State, Town, County ; moans of access ; Hotel 

 and other accommodations; Game and its Season ; Fish and its 

 season : Boats, Guides, etc.; Name of person to address. 



some very large trout caught in this pond. They were 

 caught in fifteen feet of water, fishing with worms from 

 the dam. Large trout are often seen there, but few 

 taken. A very large one, said to he four feet long, was 

 seen, but would not bite; also a very largo one was 

 hooked, but got away. G. F. W. 



New Jersey— Newark, April 12th.— The Essex Fishing 

 Club have elected the following officers : President, Abra- 

 ham Johnson ; Vice-President, Wm. H. Lyle ; Secretary, 

 John H. Huege' ; Treasurer, David Thompson : Captain, 

 Wm. II. Cleveland. Meetings of the club will be held 

 semi-monthly at their rooms, 326 Bank street. 



A Bund Tomcod.— John McKay, of Cai'mansvillo, N. 

 Y., while fishing for bass off the old Bennett dock, at 

 Fort Washington, last week, caught a little torueod. On 

 examination the fish was discovered to have no eyes. 

 Yesterdav it was dissected by a number of scientific ex- 

 perts, who failed to find any trace whatever of optical 

 organs, ^ 



A Patriotic Sportsman.— Eagles Nest, March ZOth.— 

 Editor Forest ami Stream :— " I hope I don't intrude," 

 but I do want to say a word to native sportsmeu about 

 native industries. Tlivri ere people who behsve r; Ertick. 

 and scarcely any animal, is first class without it is im- 

 ported. I am not one of that class. I have an American 

 shotgun, two American rifles and three American fly- 

 rods, and 1 defv anyone to produce better of foreign 

 make. I havea By-book fairly stocked with American 

 flies (made by Abbey & Imbrie ; Couroy, Bisset & Mal- 

 leson), and have just ordered another fly-rod and a lull 

 summer stock of flies from Charles F. Orvis. So you see 

 it is deeds as well as words with me. Why should not 

 we, whose woods and waters cannot iu all the world be 

 excelled for game, fowl and fish, and whose annals give 

 proof of sportsmen second to none in the wide, wide 

 world, be able to supply those sportsmen with all the ma- 

 terial for use and wear in the field, forest and stream V 

 Why can we not raise as good stock as we can import ? 

 I say we can, and as a full-blooded native, counting over 

 two centuries back, I mean to stand by native industry 

 as long as I draw sight over a gun-barrel or handle a rod. 

 Yours, in the faith of Walton and woodcraft, 



Ned Buntline. 



Fishing in Ireland. — The Killarney correspondence 

 of the London Field has the following account of an 

 lush method of fishing, which our Correspondent feu-got 

 to mention in his entertaining sketch last week: "This 

 gentleman has a novel way of lauding his fish, which 

 your readers may not find uninteresting. A gait he dis- 

 penses with altogether, the substitute being a well- 

 uained spaniel, which at a signal from his master 

 plunges into the water, and never fails to hind his salmon 



much less time and a great deal more security than 

 ins master could with his gaff, having sometimes to dive 

 to the very bottom of the pool before being able to se- 

 cure his prey." ^^^_^___^^___ 



^— Mr. Geo. E. Call is credited with the capture of a 

 four and a half pound trout in the Nissequague River, 

 Long Island, last Thursday. The fish measured twenty- 

 one inches. ^ 



Black Bass Fishing in West Virginia.— The Green- 

 brier River, West Virginia, has been stocked with black 

 bass, and will afford magnificent sport in the coming 

 season. They can be taken at Greenbrier, Roncevertc 

 and Talcolt, reached via the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail- 

 road ; also at New River Falls. 



Connecticut. — Two monster trout, weighing respect- 

 ively three pounds md two pounds and fifteen and a half 

 ouaies, were caught in a Putnam pond, near the Rhode 

 Island line, April 5th, 



Connecticut — Bridgeport, Conn., April 9th. — Mr, 

 D. Sterling and myself this day brought to creel twenty 

 trout ; total weight, four and a half pounds ; time of fish- 

 ing, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last account I sent you 

 was of twelve trout from half a pound down ; total 

 weight, three pounds ; time, from 11 A.M. to 4 P.M. While 

 dressing trout yesterday we discovered several hun- 

 dreds of fine worms about an inch long and size of pins, 

 color white, in abunch, near the heart. We lm 

 many fish, but never saw anything like it before. J. US. 



f Connecticut.— Putnam.— On the 4th inst., Mr. A. F. 

 Sheldon caught three trout which weighed nine pounds, 

 t>ne ounce ; they wero as large as shad ; he en J 

 in the saw -mill" pond in East Thompson, near" Koach's 

 store. They were sent to New York by Mr. Goodhue and 

 were seen in Fulton Market. There are once in a while 



|P^ §emiei 



E^~AU communications asking advice in regard to the 

 treatment at sick dogs, should reach us before Tuesday 

 of each week to insure a reply in the issue of the f cllow- 

 Thursday. _ 



SOMETHING ABOUT BREAKERS AND DOG 

 BREAKING. 



THIRD PAPER, 



IN this country, where our shooting grounds are for 

 the most part in wild sections, and are either inter- 

 sected by unbridged streams, or the land iB portioned off 

 by sluggish ditches, which, to our cost, we find have no 

 bottom, it is absolutely necessary that both pointer 

 and Better should be broken to retrieve. Unless you 

 have taught your dog to fetch and carry at home, and 

 he has been thoroughly broken to retrieve on both laud 

 and water, you will leave many birds heboid you en- 

 tangled in the grass and thickets, and many more just 

 across some unjumpable strips of water. If there is one 

 thing more annoying than another while out shooting, 

 particularly if birds happen to be scarce, it is to make a 

 rattling good shot and then be unable to hag the bird. 

 How frequently do we sec our fellow-sportsmen in this 

 sad plight, The bird has fallen in open sight, on the far 

 side of °a wide ditch, and during the first five minutes is 

 contemplated with longing eyes. The next live minutes 

 will be spent in walking up and down the banc, m un- 

 successful attempts to wade across, and scrambling hack 

 on the hank again. Five minutes are then employed in 

 pointing the bird out to the dog; twice that time in ' 

 coaxing him to venture in a step, and intelligently request- 

 ing the dog to "Go fetch him, old fellow/' It then in- 

 variably occupies many minutes more m looking for. a 

 log Or fence rail. The time consumed ior the remaining 

 scenes in the pantomime, depends somewhat upon the 

 temperament of the sportsman. Turn where he will,, he 

 surely comes back again and again and looks at the bud. 

 In turn, the luckless brute is threatened and cajoled, 

 curtain often tails on seeing him take a flying 

 visit into the middle of H: 



If one would enjoy the perfection of a day's shooting, 

 he must allow no disturbing element to enter into his 

 sport. Dogs that are but "carelessly and imperfectly 

 broken, or half broken, are unworthy field companions, 

 as they cannot give the proper satisfaction. A dog that 

 does not retrieve, no matter how perfectly he may be 

 broken in every Other respect, is, in our mind, but a half- 

 trained animal* We are well aware that it is a mooted 

 point whether all young dogs should be allowed to re- 

 trieve on their first acquaintance the held ; 

 but we have never heard one sound reatcn advanced why 

 they should not be taught to fetch and deliver into \ our 

 band anything son you may occasionally throw for them. 

 Therefore, the next lesson to your dug should be to per- 

 fect him in seeking a ball or glove that you may throw 



