470 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[JtTLT 15, 1880, 



right. But to our muttons, or, rather, revenouz les 

 poissena. 



I stated in one of my articles that the striped bass (R. 

 diysops) was often found of the weight of sbc pounds. I 

 caught, one hi the Missouri River, twenty-live miles be- 

 low St. Louis, that weighed nine pounds. I stated these 

 facts in my article, and Dr. Henshall must have read it. 

 They are (.'aught in the Green River, in Kentucky, the 

 Doctor's own State, weighing five pounds. I must infer 

 from these (lain that the Doctor, like Herbert, " who 

 never saw a black bass," must have never seen a fresh 

 water striped bass. Fish are amazingly deceitful Crea- 

 tures. I've seen a wary old trout come up to my roach, 

 smell it, and back away gracefully ; and, indeed, with a 

 line look of scorn on his upturned nose. No man shall 

 6Vei Bay Of me that I endeavored to mislead the readers 

 FOREST ami Stream, or, that 1 made a mendacious state- 

 ment wilfully and knowingly. I have tried to do my 

 duly with all the light that is in me ; if I have failed, the 

 fault lies not in good intentions; though Byron says 

 that a certain place, unmentionable to ears polite, is 

 paved with bricks made out of good intentions. How- 

 that may he. no gentleman has ever yet disputed my 

 bare word. In calculating the purity of a river, the 

 scum and foam cannot affect the general result. 



Dr. Henshall writes with discriminating severity about 

 mingling the names " rock bass," "grass bass," " calico 

 bass," etc., etc., in one chaotic mass. He is right. A 

 rock bass is the "red-eye" of Kentucky, the goggle-eye 

 of the Western States and the rock bass of the North. 

 He is a true bass, notwithstanding his thick, short anat- 

 omy. And he is something of a fish, too. Under favorable 

 conditions, I have caught them with a minnow, with 

 bhtee strands o'f C silk, a light bamboo rod and No. 9 

 salmon trout hook, when they would prove to be game 

 and plucky to the last ; those' weighing two pounds giv- 

 ing fully as much trouble to capture as black bass of 

 the same weight. The " raw mouth " perch in Southern 

 waters is his congener. They are caught in mill ponds, 

 weighing tour pounds. The greatest of all writers, Shakes- 

 peare, has said : " What's in a. name? a rose by any other 

 name would smell just as sweet." Doubtless, too, a fish 

 by any other name would eat just as well. But doubts 

 of a strong inclination toward the beautiful as well as 

 Itus, incline us to the belief that if we can unite the utile 

 earn dake it is our duty to do that, otherwise the hard 

 practical view must obtain. It seems a matter of little 

 moment whether we call our southern fish jl/. salmoides, 

 or M. pallidas, or trout : but, as the time has purely 

 come in our natural history that we must be accurate in 

 our nomenclature, we beg to state our belief that our fish 

 ought to be called "green bass." Different in anatomical 



structure, different in bus, different in times and modeof 

 feeding, our green basB are not black bass, but an en- 

 tirely different fish. 



From close observation, I should say that we have at 

 least four varieties of the Southern "fish, while I never 

 saw but two kinds of bass, the black and yellow, These, 

 indeed, differ in different streams ; being long, slender 

 and elegant in larva, in some streams, as short, thick 

 and inelegant in others. In some they will not touch 

 crawfish, While jn. others it is the only bait with which 

 you can catch them, 1 know streams in which the 

 coin mon angle worm is most killing ; again, in others, 

 the fly is the! most certain lure. 



Hear the conclusion. Misled by a similarity of mouth, 

 and, to some extent, form, many well meaning but mis- 

 taken persons call our green bass black bass. Many 

 Southerners call them trout, and trout they will be with 

 them until the end of time. Mark my words. We 

 have no black bass in the South, and no rock bass. We 

 have the green bass, the speckled perch, the true perch 

 (ivil-iiii). jack, raw mouth perch, and, 1 beg to retract, in 

 otie stream that empties into Flint River, the rock bass. 

 This is the list of our game fish, and we positively have 

 no more in fresh water. More anon. Yours fraternally, 



St. Clair. 



Our correspondent refuses to be convinced against 

 what he conceives to be the evidence of his senses, but 

 we fear that the advocates of the "green bass" are 

 championing a hopeless cause, for the ichtbyological ex- 

 perts of the city are against them. 



CANADIAN SALMON ANGLING. 



New York, July 12th. 

 Editor Forest and Stream ;— 



>)( For the information of any of your readers who may 

 be contemplating a trip to the salmon rivers of Canada, I 

 would say that a friend in St. John writes me that sal- 

 mon anglers are having a tedious time waiting for the 

 arrival of fish; that some of the lessees of the Nepis- 

 siguit have let t that river tired out and unsuccessful, and 

 that the New York club are having no better success on 

 their new purchase of fishing grounds on the Metapedia 

 and Restigouohe. 



The inclosed slip from the Albany Evening Journal, 

 from Mr. Dawson, out? of the disappointed, shows an 

 equally disappointing experience for the anglers on the 

 Upper St. Lawrence salmon streams, and goes to confirm 

 whatl have previously said, viz.: that while one man 

 may one year leave home about the 5th of June, reach a 

 salmon stream, remain there a week, make a good score, 

 and be back at his occupation in two weeks, at a cost of 

 $150 for traveling expenses, the chances are that in nine 

 years out of ten he will either have to leave the river 

 w it it out killing salmon, or wait from two to five weeks 

 at a cost of tbnc or tour times $151), to say nothing of 

 cost of rods, flies and other appurtenances. Many years' 

 experience has shown me that nothing is more irregular 

 than the arrival of salmon in Canadian rivers. One year 

 parties waited on the Nepissiguit from the middle of 

 June to the 1st of August. All fishing seasons for anad- 

 romous fish are "tmsartin." 



1 write on this subject because two or three friends of 

 mine (with JlBO each, hardly gotten and scrimped out of 

 small salaries) wore crazy to have me lend theniniy sal- 

 mon rods and gear in the beginning of this season, so 

 thai they might waste their money and scanty two weeks 

 of vacation in a trip to Canada for salmon. They are 

 now glad that I dissuaded them from going, unless they 

 could get away for at least a month. 



1 have noticed that an early year for salmon is often 

 followed by several late years. No woman ib more fickle 

 than salmon in some of their habits, 



I was glad to see in the Herald the other day an edi- 

 torial remonstrating against, and ridiculing the habit of 

 some calling themselves anglers of taking trout only 

 three to five inches long, [believe that a law limiting 

 the size of trout, '.'had in possession dead," to let us say 

 six inches, would be no more "impracticable" (as you 

 call it) than are the game laws generally. Something 

 must be done to stop this wholesale infanticide, or there 

 will soon be no trout even for the present generation. 

 Artificial culture will not make up for the slaughter; it 

 will only stimulate the greerl of these pot fishermen (if 

 pot fishermen will please excuse my slandering their 

 comparatively honorable designation) to greater boasts of 

 catching 200 to 300 infant trouclings a day ; and some of 

 them printing their detestable exploits. Why in Ver- 

 mont a man proudly showed me seventy-five of these 

 poor little fingerlings, which didn't weigh three pounds 

 m all. I told him he ought to be tried for child murder. 

 Put the hand of the law, as well as the scorn of ;ill de- 

 cent anglers, on such fellows. Manhattan. 



Mr. Dawson's letter is as follows : — 



"Quebec, July 8th— The salmon drought continues. 

 And this is saying that one of the most important factors 

 in the trade of the Provinces is seriously affected. The 

 salmon season (commercially) opens about the middle of 

 May— the catch gradually increasing from that time on 

 to the close of June, and then rapidly falling oil' to the 

 1st of August, when the netting season is practically 

 over. Although there is a run of small fish (from half 

 to two-thirds the average weight) during the last fort- 

 night of August and the first week in September, but 

 few are netted. This year the season opened inauspi- 

 ciously. During the first fortnight, and down to the 15th 

 of June, the catch did not reach one-twentieth of that 

 of last year at any one of the most prolific stations. The 

 count at Tadousac, up to that time, was only twenty 

 fish, against 500 last year, and very nearly this propor- 

 tion was returned from Campbelltown, Dalhousie, Mira- 

 michi, etc.. and from several of the most famous points 

 on the north shore. But this early deficiency was ex- 

 pected to he made up later, and the fishermen continued 

 to draw their seines hopefully, but to no improvement tip 

 to the 7th inst., when the nets at several points were 

 taken up in despair, 



"In conversing with dealers at Quebec to-day, I gath- 

 ered a few facts which may be of interest, as showing 

 the extent of the famine. One small dealer received and 

 shipped more fish the first four r?ays in June last year 

 than during the entire month this year, and A. Fraser & 

 Co., the largest dealers in the Province, report a like de- 

 ficiency — then- receipts and shipments falling off from 

 millions of poundB to thousands. This firm have been in 

 business for sixteen years, and really instituted a new era 

 in the trade. Up to that time fresh salmon found their 

 way to only a very few places in the States, No iv they 

 are Bent to almost every considerable town as far West as 

 St. Louis and Chicago. During the season the amount of 

 fish shipped to the States reaches into the millions of 

 pounds, and is really one of the most important and 

 profitable articles of "Provincial traffic. Lastyear Messrs. 

 Fraser & Co. sold their fish, packed in ice, tor from five 

 • to eight cents a pound, at Quebec and Montreal. This 

 year the price has at^ no time been below twenty cents, 

 and the quotation will be twenty-live cents hereafter. 

 No single fact coidd show more conclusively the great 

 deficiency of tho season. 



"In a long conversation with Mr. Fraser, 1 found him, 

 like the rest of us, quite at sea in regard to the probable 

 cause or causes of this unparalleled deficiency. With 

 others, he thinks that the unusual quantity of ice in the 

 Gulf may have had something to do withit. He believes, 

 however, that the unusual number of sharks that have 

 shown themselves in the vicinity of the best fishing 

 grounds have had their influence. He thinks so from 

 the fact that many of the fish taken in the seines ap- 

 pear to have been bitten. If the sharks do not destroy 

 the salmon they may frighten them back into deep 

 water, and thus prevent them from passing into th 

 rivers. Porpoises have also shown themselves in unusu- 

 ally large numbers, and may also have had their influ- 

 ence in keeping the fish back from their natural haunts. 

 But these are mere conjectures, and the mystery is ren- 

 dered all the more mysterious from the tact that while 

 the salmon are thus scarce codfish are more abundant 

 than for many years. Why should not the same causes 

 operate upon both fish alike is a question which will open 

 a wide door for discussion. It is a serious problem how 

 far this non-appearance of salmon on their usual spawn- 

 ing grounds wili affect the future supply. It is barely 

 possible that the late run will be larger than usual. 



"Of course salmon anglers are quite as much disap- 

 pointed as the net fishers. So far as I know they have 

 had but very poor success thus far, with no cheerful 

 prospect during the fortnight which yet remains of the 

 season, All who are interested in the general subject 

 of fish and fishing will be cuiious to watch the outcome 

 of this unparalleled barrenness of the usually prolific 

 waters of the famous Gulf." 



Canada — Montreal, July 9th. — At the present time 

 there is good fly-fishing for bass in the Richelieu River 

 near St. Johns, Quebec. The best grounds are in the rapid 

 waters below the eel weirs. Some four pounders have 

 lately been taken there. The owner of the weirs, Peter 

 Thuotte, or Duvalle, is a good guide for those waters. 



Are all bull frogs young duck destroy ers ? Last evening 

 my boatman, Thuotte, observed a young black duck snug- 

 gling in the water among the reeds, and went to its as- 

 sistance and found that a large toll frog had siezed it by 

 the head, and held on until Thuotte took them both out 

 of the water and killed the, frog. Among my catch last 

 evening waB a 1^ pound Bucker, who rose to" the surface 

 of the water and took the fly. Stanstkad. 



Godbout Salmon Angling. — Qodbout River, Province 

 Quebec, June 21th. — It may be interesting to some of 

 your readers to know what sportsmen are doing in this 

 locality in the way of salmon fishing. So far the result 

 has been anything but satisfactory for a stream of such 

 renown as tho "Godbout." 



There seems to be a scarcity of salmon along the whole 

 of the North shore of the St. Lawrence, as even the net- 

 fishermen have not been doing much up to date. The 

 season haB also been much later than usual, and instead 

 of getting salmon here about the 7th of June, as we gen- 

 erally do, the first fish killed was on the ,15th, and for 



more than a week after the fishing continued poor. 

 With the last spring tides, however, they began to run in 

 and prospects are brighter, and possibly I may have some 

 good scores to send in July. 



1 give you below a statement of two weeks' fishing, by 

 two rods, as also weight of heaviest fish caught by each. 

 To make up for the want in number, the fish so far are 

 larger than in former years and have averaged several 

 pounds more. 



Rod No, 1. — Mr. John Manual, of Ottawa. Number of 

 fish, 45 ; total weight, 714 pounds; largest fish, 29 

 pounds; smallest fish, 8 pounds. 



Rod No. 2. — Mr. David Law, Montreal, Number of 

 fish, 23 ; total weight, 371 pounds ; largest fish, 30 

 pounds; smallestfish, 8 pounds. 



Total catch, 67 fish ; weight, 1,085 pounds : average 

 weight, 16 pounds. Nap. A. Comeau. 

 ♦ 



Thundeb Bat Trout.— Prince Arthurs Landing, 

 Ont., June 21st. — I inclose you a pencil outline of a gen- 

 uine brook trout caught, unfortunately for sportsmen, in 

 a net in Thunder Bay this A.M. Weight and size marked 

 on paper. G. T. M. 



The fish measured 2&|in. in length, 12iin. in .girth, and 

 weighed 4 lbs., 15 J oz, 



Vermont — Belvidere Corners, June 3(\lh. — I have been 

 here several days, trout-fishing in the streams running 

 into the " Bog," and can report good success. This town 

 it beautifully situated among the mountains, and a veri- 

 table paradise for bear hunters. Mr. Curtis Brown, one 

 of the most prominent men here, is a successful hunter, 

 and has scored his lull four dozen black bears, and ex- 

 pects to add several more to that number soon. 



_ Stanstead. 



Tim Pond. — Following is a note from Eustis, Maine, 

 June 21st, addressed to Mr. J. Warren Tuck of this city, 

 who first make known to our readers the attractions of 

 Tim Pond. We fear that the fishing there w ill not last 

 many seasons if 300 fish in five hours is to be the approved 

 catch : — 



I am having some company now ; have twelve men 

 from Sabattis, near Lewiston. Dr. Hill has i. 

 rived, but is coming as soon as he ca 

 A party of four— Dr. Hill's friends f. 

 here a week ago. They caught on tl 

 300 good-sized trout. They went 

 Evidently the Forest and Stream 

 class of people, as shown by the rest 

 that in many ways valuable paper, 

 have not yet been crowded, and Tim i 

 of trout as an English pudding is of plums, 

 pear to bite better than they did last y 

 known game in the woods so plenty. 

 seen wild deer on their wav from my h 

 I now have a buckboard path from the 

 I also have a nice saddle horse for tl: 

 M. W, Mead has recently repaired 



feelii 



-left 



)1US, 



jood. 



is r.ad by the right 

 ft of my notice in 

 But my four cabins 

 seems as full 

 and they ap- 

 1 have never 

 Every party has 

 'Use to Tim Pond. 

 touse to the pond ; 

 3B6 in ill health, 

 .■furnished the 



hotel at Kingfield, where you called last summer. He 

 and his wife know how to keep a neat, clean, home-like 

 hotel. The table is well-furnished with the fresh, sweet 

 products of the country and the viands of the Boston 

 market. It is a first-class place Cor you or any one to 

 leave your family while at Tim Pond hunting and fish- 

 ing. Clark's stage runs daily from Farmington to King- 

 field on arrival of trains, and Clark will send parties of 

 any size by private teams to my farm house. 



Kennedy Smith. 



Was He Mixed? — Camp Kenebago, Indian Rock. June 

 21th.— Editor Forest and Stream :— I svas very much sur- 

 prised on reading my FOBBST and Stream this morning 

 to find the article dated Little Boys Falls, JJagall 

 River, and signed K. C. Now if K. C. has an idea of 

 giving the Parmachenee Lake another "puff" I should 

 advise him to take the trip he pretends to have taken, 

 and see if he cannot get a better idea of the "lay of the 

 land," for it is plain to be seen by- any one acquainted 

 with the country that K. C. never was there. 1 have 

 been on the Magalloway River, between lakes UmbagOg 

 and Parmachenee. quite a number of times— by boat, on 

 snow shoes and on skates— and it is news to me that the 

 Metallock ponds lav several miles to the east of the river. 

 The first Metallock, as it is called, surely is on the wrest 

 side, in full view of the river, and the upper is on (be 

 east side, nine miles above the lower, but instead of being 

 sevoral miles from the river it is not over ten rods, hid- 

 den from sight by a high bank. When K. 0. gets to Joe 

 Danforth's carry, as he calls it, he gets entirely lost, as 

 John Danforth's camp ("Camp Cariboo") is a strong live 

 miles from this place ; and if you have an idea of raising 

 Johnny by shooting I should advise you not to trust to 

 small arms, but to take a cannon along with you. This 

 carry was formerly owned and run in connection with 

 the Lindsey Pond Camp by Spoil' Flint. This year Mi. 

 George Lewis is the proprietor. The camp is half a nolo 

 from the river landing and two miles and a half from 

 the lake. The carry team is still kept there, and 1 sup- 

 pose the shooting arrangement brings it there just the 

 same as it did before K. C. was there, though Lb 

 part of it is a sled. Danforth's man, Mr. Bragg, makes 

 trips to Indian Rock once a week. He was here, and 

 also Mr. Ficket, Danforth's cook, when my paper was re- 

 ceived, and I read the article to them. They we 

 much surprised, and said they were very sure that they 

 knew every man who had been to the lake thi- 

 and they were sure that the guide (Amasa Ward) K. C. 

 says was with him had not been there. Gamp Cariboo 

 is within two miles of Little. Boys Falls, and in going to 

 them from the lake you have to pass within one-fourth 

 of a mile of it. B. and F. report the travel to the lake 

 light this spring, and the fishing good, and as for nets 

 being used they say it is no such thing, li K. C. should 

 have an idea of giving the Parmachenee region another 

 "going over" about being overrun with fishermen and 

 Betters, he had better read the article written by Geo. A. 

 Fay, and published in FOREST AND STREAM last whiter. 

 He would get some ideas there that would he for hi i ad- 

 vantage. F, C. Barker. 



*St. Lawrence Bass Fishing, —New York, July villi.— 

 I have frequently been puzzlad to know where to spend 

 the summer, and, at the same time, have the pie 



