92 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[September 1 1881. 



dIso introduced the brook trout into the stream at Castalia 

 and, according to the estimate of Judge Potter, that is to-day 

 the best-Mocked trout stream in America. If this be so, then 

 the Buckeye State will take the first premium for producing 

 trout as well as Presidents. The stream at Castalia, with its 

 precious contents, is owned by a party of wealthy and intel- 

 ligent gentlemen in Cleveland. It will gi*e the writer great 

 pleasure some day to accompany one of them to Castalia just 

 for the purpose of testing the truthfulness of the statement 

 made by Judge Potter. 



Experiments arc now in progress at the Toledo hatchery 

 for producing shad, California salmon, eels, black and white 

 bass and other species. Who can estimate the blessings yet 

 in store for fishermen and the lovers of fish that had their 

 origin in the brain and heart of the "King Fisher of the 

 Northwest ?" 



FISHING IN LAKE CIIAMPLAIN. 



SWANTON, Vt., Aug. 'J2. 



I DO not recollect having seen any report of the fishing in 

 this looalitj- in your journal, and as your readers should 

 be apprised of the excellent sport to be found here, a few 

 lines may be welcome. Saturday last, a party of three took 

 seventy pounds of black bass and r. ck bass in one day's 

 fishing. To-day the same party took fifty pounds. The fish 

 run about two pounds each, although Mr. George Snyder, 

 one of your neighbors, caught one to-day weighing four 

 pounds. Mr. Fred Newman also captured a large sized bass, 

 so you see that your part of the city contains some good fish- 

 ermen. Many larger fish were lost by the vigor of i lie game. 

 Double-gut snells were snapped five times, and, as the fish 

 were nearly landed each time, it is no fisherman's exaggera- 

 tion to say that these lost monsters (pickerel) weighed from 

 live, to seven pounds. One big fellow carried off a large- 

 sized salmon hook in his snout, and twice afterwards broke 

 the water wiilita a hundred feet of the boat, tossing his 

 head wiih frantic clTorts to get rid of his artificial ornament. 



Large-sized perch, weighing from one to two pounds, are 

 contemptuously tossed back into the lake, while very fine 

 su ifish nndrock bass are in like manner consigned to perdi- 

 tion. I have seen half a bushel of excellent panfisb, which 

 in Fub on Market I would gladly buy for a treat— no mean 

 dish your golden "pupkin seed" makes — fed to the hogs. 

 The bait now used is worms and grasshoppers, but minnows 

 will insure your culling monsters from the "vasty deep." 

 Trolling takes a few with the spoon. Strong tackle is re- 

 quired, large-sized hooks' with four-ply gut snells and lead- 

 ers, or perhaps a gimp snell and strong leaders. Of course, if 

 you prefer a light outfit and wish to play your fish for a day 

 or two, come rigged out with a cobweb ; but, after having 

 your tackle smashed in pieces a few times, you will have a 

 change come over the spirit of your dream. 



A new hotel has just been opened here, the " Champlain," 

 Mr. Boynton proprietor, and guests will be surprised with 

 finding gas, electric bells, etc., fine bills of fare and good 

 beds nt tight dollars per week. The Central Vermont Kad- 

 road leaves you at the door of the house, or you can come 

 via Albany, Lake George and Lake Champlain to Platts- 

 burg and across by boat. J. II. H. 



INDIANA AWAI\EK(S ! 



TIIE law'essness of Indiana poachers is a matter well 

 known outside the State, Last spring a prominent gen- 

 tleman of that State wrote us as follows : 



"That you may comprehend the siluation in Indiana, I 

 will state that we have some feeble laws unexecuted for the 

 protection aud preservation of fish. We have for our pop- 

 ulation the children of the pioneers, whose ideas of freedom 

 were limited by 'the right to fish when, where and bow they 

 please, aud cut a 'coon or bee tree on any r man's land.' To 

 these add the heterogenous ruass of emigrants from every land 

 with communistic thoughts fairly developed, and the whole 

 mass thorougly demoralized by catering politicians in a piv- 

 otal state." 



Recently a Spartan band has arisen in Indianopolis, who 

 declare that the use of dynamite must be slopped. They 

 have formed an association, and the following has been cir- 

 culated on postal curds : 



"Indianoi'ous, Aug. 20, 1881. 



"Dear Sir: You have probably Been by the newspapers 

 that a society has been lately formed for the protection of 

 fish. This is not an 'Angling Club,' but has for its object, 

 (Enforcing the law prohibiting the use of dynamite, etc., in 

 the destruction of fish.' At the present rate of this warfare, 

 but a few weeks will see the creeks and streams of Indiana 

 entirely su-ippi d of fish. We want the names of prominent 

 men who will assist us in this fight, and therefore ask you to 

 join this 80citty. The initiation fee is only $1. Please give 

 or send in your name to any of the following persons: Alex. 

 C. Jameson, Piesidetit; Geo. F. McGinnis, Vice-President; 

 W. C. Phillips, Secretary: F. T. Holliday, Treasurer; John 

 A. French, Jos. A. Moore, W. n. Ross, Bryant Elliot', Ig- 

 natius Brown." 



The new Association can count on Fokkst asm Stkeam bs 

 being on their side first, last and all the time. Success to 

 t hem. 



"ALBANY BEEF." 



THE sturgeon was a favorite with the Dutch settlers of the 

 State of New York, especially wiih those who made 

 their homes on Ihe upper Hudson. So common was it that 

 it was known as " Albany beef." We have recently printed 

 some notes on its beirg smoked and sold as halibut on 

 the great lakes, and also a communication from an Alba- 

 nian claiming the sturgeon to be superior to the latter fish. 

 In this connection we republish the following from the Hud- 

 sun Register: 



"The smoked flesh of the sturgeon is a favorite article of 

 fond in the towns along Ihe Hudson Ttivrr, and when it is 

 Well prepared and has not become slale, it is a very nuiri- 

 tious aud palatable edible. In former years the catch of 

 s'urgeon in the Hudson River was amply sufficient to supply 

 all demands for the beef at low prices. Within the past few 

 years, however, Ihe fish have become senrce and shy and 

 have to be brought to Albany, where Ihe principal smoking 

 establishments are, from Ihe Kennebec lliver, in Maine; 

 from the St. John's, in Folridi, and from the gnat lakes. At 

 Albany the* fish coal from live to eight cents a pound. It 



shrinks considerably before it. is 8 feed and, therefore, the 



beef is wholesaled at fifteen cents per pound, at which price 

 there is only a moderate profit made, The stores retail it at 



about eighteen cents. The sales of one firm in Albany aver- 

 age over 1,000 pounds per week and have, reached as hi- J' BS 

 4,5'JO pounds one week this reason. In Ibis city Pliillip 

 Kavanagh has an establishment for dressing aid curing stur- 

 geon. He is unable to meet the demand for I ho hi i f, Large 

 numbers of sturgeon are receive I dally, coming principally 

 from Hyde Park. The quantity ot flab sold it) this city 

 alone is immense, the price being the same as at Albany, 

 The trade is reported to be constantly on the increase in this 

 city and along the upper Hudson, even at the prices named." 



GnTtne ra Black Bass.— While camping <a year aaoj on 

 Brooklyn Point, Crooked Lake, near Petosky, Michigan, 1 

 had the pleasure of taking a great many large black bass dur- 

 ing my stay of two months in that delightful retreat. II was 

 not until I had assisted largely in eating that excellent fish 

 that I discovered I had more lhan 1 bargained for, as it nl'icr- 

 ward proved that a bass entirely free from grubs was a nota- 

 ble exception. Of course the inhabitants of that wild region, 

 acting as guides for a living, have to furnish so many transient 

 amateurs with fish for their friends at home that they never 

 eat them themselves, and consequently ''don't know notion' 

 'bout grubs in bass" around thete, whatever they may tell 

 you about grubs in bass of other lakes. 



By skinning the fish instead of scaling it \ht grubs are ex- 

 posed in the thick semi-transparent, flesh, like so many grains 

 of boiled rice stuck into farina jelly. The process ot 1 skiu- 

 ning is very easy, by cutting down ll, e buck of the fish on 

 each side of the dorsal fin. "This harmless grub should not 

 be confounded with the wriggling, wiry worm found in 

 knots and large colonies in the intestines of other fish, such 

 as for instance the sunfish, late in the summer in muddy 

 lakes. D. B. 



Nor YurTc, Augusts!, 1881. 



Notes from MoossHEAn.— From a private letter from 

 Mr. T. Sedgwick Steele we extract the following notes about, 

 Moosehead Lake. The (late was Aug. 1(5 : 



" Have been much interested in Mr, Fay's article, ' Moose- 

 head Lake to the Main St. John's River,' and am com paling 

 cxperinces with Mr. Fay. The fi.-hing here has been very 

 fine indeed, even up to the 15th of July, fifteen days beyond 

 its usual time, but is in its usual poor state to-day and will 

 not amount to much until Sept. 1. However., trout can be 

 had with hard work and going off alone quietly with your 

 guide to some inland lake or stream. I have "landed some 

 two and two-and a-half pounders since I came, but in sridi- 

 tion to my family there are six others to entertain, and these 

 ' quiet nooks ' can not accommodate so largo a party. 



"The ' boiled shirts,' I regret to say, are more numerous 

 at this hotel, the Mt. Kiueo llou-e, this season than i -ver lie- 

 fore, which makes us patrons of the flannel feel a little out 

 of place, and before long we old sportsmen will have (like 

 the darkey) to ' take to Ihe woods.' 



" That trip of Mr. Fay's is very easy and accessible to even 

 ladies. My brother-in-law, wife aid iwo children went 

 through it three years ago, and now that there is a ' jumper ' 

 or sled on the Umbazooktts and Mud Pond carries it requires 

 little exeition." 



A Hungry Turtle — Vicksburg, Miss. — Speaking 1 luriles, 

 my brother and a companion were fishing in a, small creek in 

 an adjoining county. They had stuck "their poles into ihe 

 bank, and were discussing a lunch a short distance off, when 

 perceiving a bite on one of the lines F. approached and drew 

 it up. A good-sized turtle came to the surface on the hook, 

 and then letting go sank to ihe bottom. He soon t. iok hold 

 again, and was again drawn up. This time IT. had * pisto) 

 in his hand, and sent a bullet through Ihe turtles back, where- 

 upon it let go the hook and sank, leaving stains of blood on 

 the water. An hour or two later they were fishing near each 

 other some two hundred yards further up the stream, when 

 F. having a "bite" again drew a lurlle to the surface, which, 

 however, also let go, but in making off it caught one of its 

 feet on the other hook some yards away, and was safely 

 landed. To F's astonishment he found it tribe the same tur- 

 tle he had shot some two'hours before and a couple of hund- 

 red yards down stream, the bul'ct having gone through its 

 body, and its entrails were protruding through the bole in the 

 lower shell. Yet it come back for more halt. That beats 

 Douglass Jerold, who cracked a joke on his death bed. — 

 "Makooner." 



A Menhaden War Threatened— Barnegat, N. ,!., Aug. 

 S8.— For the past two years our people, in Monmouth coun- 

 ty, have complained that the menhaden fishers, will, iheit 

 purse nets, are ruining our fisheries by taking the menhaden 

 in such quantities that few are left for our valuable food 

 fishes to feed upon. When they sight a 'school offish (hey 

 follow it until they have caught the last one anil our food 

 fLkes are decreasing, either starved or driven to seek food on 

 some coast where the pestilent and persistent menhaden fish- 

 er, with his all-cap. uring pound net is unknown. Men who 

 claim to know sav that Ihe loss to our people in rood fish 

 amounts to one million of dollars annually and petitions are 

 now be ntr circulated asking the State Legislature to pass a 

 law -prohibiting the wholes-tie catching of menhaden along 

 our coast. Thousands of signatures have been obtained a' d 

 the question will enter into politics in our fall campaign. X. 



Unwholesome Fish at Billingsgate.— We learn from 

 Land and Water l hat during Ihe month of July the fishjieters 

 appointed by the Fishmongers' Company seized at. Billings- 

 gate market, and on board boats lying ofT that place, 93 tons 

 JScwt. of fish as unfit for human food. Of these 54 tons 

 18 ewt. came by land, and 38 tons 17 cwt. by water. Nine- 

 teen tons were shellfish. The single fish numbered 99,937, 

 and include 8 catfish, 10 cod, 18 crayfish, 500 eels, 120 con- 

 ger eels, 500 dabs, 81,51)0 haddocks, a, 300 lobsters, TOO mack- 

 erel, 4,832 plaice, 030 skate, 73 pairs of soles, 1 sstOTgi on 

 turbot and 8,450 whiting. There were also 10 biurets oi 

 crabs, and 12 of pickled herrings. 3 boxes of herrings. IG8 

 bags of mussels, 4 of oysters, 36 of periwinkles aud 100 of 

 whelks, 2 kits of pilchards aud I of prawns, 1,G18 gallons of 

 shrimps and 55 quarts of whitebait. 



The Starfish as a Comestible.— Editor 

 Stream: I note the remarks mule udder i he ai 

 on my receipe for a bis.me of slat fish in your l' 

 18. No tiue Icbthycptn.gisi sin old . ondi mn ih 

 lil he has tasted a tiisque made from it. In mj 

 starfish, properly cooktd, far surpasses the eiah 

 in delicacy of liavor and should be edict the king of shelb 

 , fish. They may " smell to heaven " while being dissected, 



but there is nothing disagreeable about, them after blanching 

 in hot water a few "minuks — Tnos. J. Murray, Steward of 

 Glen Island. 



Bass Lark, Vt.— Montreal, Quebec, Aug. 24.— Mr. W. 

 I,. Wattless, ot lids city; Mr. H. Caseau, of Sheldon, Vt., the 

 writer and his Son, spent several days last week camping fit 

 Bass Lake, FraritttB, Vt. We made a fair catch of bass, the 

 largest weighed 5 l lbs. Master Barnby used a 7oz. green- 

 heart rod, and killed several bass that weighed over four 

 pounds each. It gave, us old fellows more pleasure to see 

 biro hitched to a large bass than to take it ourselves. — Stan- 



STBAD. 



lir.AiK Bass in the SusriUEHANNA — Wyalusing, Pa., Aug. 

 2(1. — In this part of Pennsylvania, living, as we do, on the 

 banks of the Susquehanna, we have ample fishing grounds. 

 The water being low on account of the drought, the size of 

 the " catch " Of black bass has increased and the quantity di- 

 minished. Some are caught weighing four pounds. Once 

 in a while fishirmen will catch wall-eyed pike weighing from 

 four to ten pounds.— On the Wing. 



EfitfRORY for Rons— Flemington, N. J , Aug. 23. — I would 

 like to know the proper time to cut hickory to make fish 

 roils from — spring, summer or fall of tbeyear ? Do you want 

 small saplings or from large timber, and "what kind of hick- 

 ory '.' There arc several kinc's, I believe. I have noticed in 

 some book, speaking of brown hickory — what is meant by 

 lha.t : J By answering the above questions you wHl greatly 

 oblige— L. F. 



ove he 



and 



Si 



h un- 

 it the 

 lisle r 



JUisliculhtre. 



THE McCLOUD B1VEE HATCHERY. 



f\ 8. FrSHWST, Baihd, Shasta Co., Col., Aug. 18. 

 Editor Forexi a„d Stream : 



1 inclose herewith an extract from nrv next report on the Mc- 

 Olond liivcr hatching stations, concerning the destruction of tha 

 salmon hatching station Inst winter. Tin- rebuilding of the Fishery 

 ~pect to begin to take salmon 



.J,;.;; 



j St. 



Up to the Slat Of December, ISsn. the ruin fall on the McCloud 

 River had not been unusually large. Indeed there had been more 

 Lhan Ihe customary number of fair days until the 18th of Decem- 

 ber when it began to rain, aud rained eleven days in succession, 

 the river rising on the 25th eight feet and two inches above its sum- 

 mer level. This was nothing extraordinary, however, and nofoars 

 or even misgivings were entertained of anv disaster from floods (o 

 the fishery buildings, they being built from eighteen to nineteen 



There was a dense fog over the McCloud Elver the last two days 



-i 1 : l...r. h'tl :i... r. n. m.d '-'.ben theXev.- Year opened the river 



had fallen bad, to within a foot and a ha!f of Us usual level. 



The month of January, however, was attended by a rain fall 

 wholly unprecedented in Northern California since it's settlement 

 by white men. Forty- seven inches of water fell at Shasta City 

 diiring this month, and in the mountains where the Fishery is sit- 

 uated the fail must have heen mnch greater. On the 27th 'of Jan. 

 the McCloud rosetwehe and one-half feet, but the water had be. c 

 higher than, that in previous vears, aud still no one supposed that 

 I be building!. w ere in danger. Again the river fell, but this time 

 the fall was succeeded by the greatest rise of water ever known on 

 this river before, either by white men or Indians now- hving. 



During the first days o'f February the rain poured down in tor- 

 rents. It is said by those who saw it that it did not fall as rain 



ii falls, but it fell as if thousands of tons of water were 



drop| m d iua body from the sky at once. Mr. J. B. Campbell, « ho 

 lives on the McCloud, relates that near his house in a canyon, 



thirl feet deep, and the violence of the. current was so great that 

 trees a hundred feet long were -wept down, root, trunk and branch- 

 es, into the river. On the 3d of February the McCloud Biver began 

 to rise at the rate of a foot an hour By nine o'clock in the even- 

 ing it was sixteen feet and eight inches above its ordinary level. 

 This was within four inches of the danger mark, and two' young 

 men who were at the Fishery, Bichard D. Hubbard and Oscar 

 Fritzc, made an attempt, at the risk of their lives, to save some of 

 the most valuable movableyrooertv in the buddings. They waded 

 through the fierce current in the bliudingrain and pitchy darkness 

 and rescued many valuable things, lot the water around the house 

 was then up to their shoulders, and the unequal struggle could not 

 be. lout; maintained. These young men are entitled to great credit 

 for succeeding in rescuing what they did from the flood on that 

 frightful night, 



The. water was soon a foot above the danger mark, and the 

 but M in •■„ began to rock and totter as if nearly ready to fall. There 

 ., ;.-.:.,.. in. hope of saving them or anything in them. At half 

 past two in the morning of the 3d of February they toppled over 

 ..ai, :i : : - .-,■; ...|,. ami" were seized by the reaiatlohs current and 

 hurried down the river. 



When the day dawned nothing whatever was to be seen of the main 

 structures which composed the United States Salmon Breeding 

 Station ou the McCloud Biver. The mess-house, wheie the work- 

 men hail eaten and slept for nine successive seasons and which 

 contained the original cabin, twelve feet by fourteen feet, where 

 the pioneers of the U. S. Fish Commission on this coast lived dur- 

 ing the 'ir- 1 Beasoh of 187a ; the hatching house, which, with tha 

 tent that preceded it. had turned out TO. bun. bo n salmon eggs, the dis- 

 tribution of which had reached from New Zealand to St, Peters- 

 burg : tlie large dwelling-house, to which improvements and eon- 



eui-nc 3 had ladd . aeh year for rive years— these were all 



gone, every vestige of them, and nothing was to be seen iu the 

 direction where thev stood except the wreck of the faithful 

 wheel, which through summer suns and winter Tains has poured a 

 hundred million gallons of water over the salmon eggs in the 

 hatchery and which now lies dismantled and ruined upon the flat- 

 boats which had supported it and which were kept from escaping 

 bv two wire cables made fast to the river bank. 



'The river continued to rise the next forenoon until itreached a 



maxii i knight of i wentv-isfx feet and eight inches above its mim- 



mer level. This, of course, ifl not a very extraordinary riae for a 

 slow-moving river, but, when it is remembered that the McCloud 

 is at low watt] legeion adt aud rapids, having an 



average fall ol tot ; ■■ .- btO the mile, it will he seen at once what 



■ I ,,i. water must have been poured into this very rapid 



river in a very abort time aud with what velocity it must have 

 .ii . i.. iiave raised it twenty-six feet when its natural fall was 



.... . .pig it out of the canyon so swiftly 



bo saw this mighty volume pt water at its highest point 

 rushing through its mountain canyon with such sueti speed say 

 Unit itwas appalling, while the rear'of the torrent was so deafen- 

 ing ihat pei Bona standing side by side on the bonk could not hear 



It nmt-t be over two centuries atace the McCloud Biver rose, if 

 ever as high us it did lahf winter. There is very rrood evidence of 



h | yhere Lie-- aafiery waa located, for ju*tbo- 



biud the mes,-i-h...H..e. and exuetiy uiider where the fishery fl»8 



floats with a eood himth breeze, is an Indian graveyard where the 

 venerable chief* of the. .McCloud tribe have been taken for burial 

 for id least t\i o hunrded peal no knowing how much 



