1G4 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



decaying sail lofts ami oil-houses were crowded then; that the 

 long hues of time-worn Spiles supported wharves that ouee 

 groaned beneath a weight of oily merchandise, j that the town, 

 owning nc"* scarcely a dozen coasters, then fitted out a hun- 

 dred whalers. Every other niaa you meet has been an officer 

 OD board awha^r; every old one has been either a shipowner 

 or a follower of Cio sea. Quaint sea terms and phrases greet 

 your ears at every turn,- and at the "House of Lords" or 

 " Captain's Room" (club rooms) thrilling tales of adventures 

 on the deep and in foreign lands are daily told by the partici- 

 pants. Names familiar to the mercantile world of long ago— 

 Macy, Gardner, Coffin, Startracfc— state at you from over the 

 doors of the little shops scattered through the town. 



We climbed into beach wagons and drove through the snnd 

 to the south side of the island.. Skeleton hulls, their ribs 

 rising spectrally from the waves, arc scattered along the 

 heath, moss-covered timbers rise and fall in the suri', ropes 

 and cordage, with seaweed clinging to them, are driven 

 ashore by every gale, and evidence of the. might and mystery 

 of the ocean are constantly before the visitor. 



The fishing village of Sinseonsett serves also as the summer 

 resort of the island aristocracy ■ it crowns the top of a cliff of 

 yellow sand, with a beach stretching from its base to the sea, 

 301) feet away. This distance, however, did not. prevent the 

 li.iin reaching it some years ago and tumbling a row of 

 cottages into the surf. 



■^.Wandering among these tiny cottages, and through the 

 narrow", grassy lanes of the little village, one can easily 

 imagine himself to be a Gulliver on his travels, with the days 

 of the Lilliputs come hack again, and instinctively feels as- 

 tonished to see full-grown men and women entering the minia- 

 ture doorways or playing croquet on the green lawus in front. 

 A day was spent refitting and another in exploration, so it 

 was not until the morning" of the third day after our arrival 

 that we once more rounded Brant Point and stood away for the 

 fishing grounds, hugging the shoals and "drailiug" for blue- 

 fish on our way. 



The drail is made by running half a pound of lead or more 

 around the shank of a cod hook, moulding it into something 

 resembling the form of a fish. For boat fishing or trolling 

 this has a few inches of eel skin drawn over it &,nd fastened to 

 the line above, its lower end just clearing the point of the 

 "hook. For heaving and hauling from shore, the drail is made 

 heavier and sharper at either end. When used the line is 

 grasped a fathom from the drail, which is then swung several 

 times around the head before throwing to give, it impetus. 

 The coil of line is held ifi the fisherman's left hand, with the 

 shore-end made fast to a slake in the sand or the fisherman's 

 leg. This latter mode is not a very safe one, however, as a 

 fifty pound bass at the end of a stout line might succeed in 

 ducking the fisherman, if nothing worse came of it; and bass' 

 are often caught while heaving for bluefish. 



We hauled in the blue beauties hand over hand, and in a 

 couple of hours caught -enough for our purposes and then 

 beat up against a stiff northerly breeze to the shark grounds 

 off Great Point. We anchored in about eight fathoms of 

 water, with a rapid tide and lively sea, and as one of the pre- 

 liminaries, emptied overboard the bloody water from the fish 

 barrels. This of course runs clown with the tide, and the 

 sharks scenting it follow up like hounds until they reach the 

 boat. 



The tackle used in taking these fish consists of a long, three- 

 quarter inch line, to which is attached a fathom of chain to 

 prevent them from biting it off, as they will often do without 

 this precaution; and to this, in turn, is fastened a quarter- 

 inch hook, eighteen inches loug and eight inches across the 

 bend. This, baited with bluefish, is flung overboard, and 

 allowed to sink as deep as the tideway will allow, and the 

 boat end of the line made fast to something solid. 



We waited perhaps an hour, when our skipper, who a mo- 

 ment before was dozing in the stern, made a frantic leap in 

 the ah. and failing to stop his line from running rapidly over- 

 board, called lustily for help. Three of us laid hold with 

 him. and slowly, hand over hand, hauled in. Now we could 

 see the shark's white belly flashing as he turned on his side in 

 his involuntary ascent, and then with a gurgling roar he 

 broke water close to us. Now, he would attack the boat, his 

 jaws snapping together like bear traps, and leaving number- 

 less teeth sticking in her sides : then he would roll himself 

 over and over, biting savagely at the iron chain, but soon 

 we hauled him close aboard, when our pilot by repeated 

 blows with a club soon laid him stiff alongside. 



Shark fishing . cannot be called sport ; butchery is a more 

 proper name to apply!. Sword fishing is dangerous, and con- 

 sequently-exciting. " Shark fishing lacks one iota of danger, 

 and the putting forth of sufficient strength to haul one to the 

 surface, and then to beat his head to a jelly, can hardly be ex- 

 citing. The sand shark is most frequently taken here, 

 although the blue dog or man eater, shovel-nose, haunner- 

 liead and river shark are also sometimes caught. The fisher- 

 man try the oil from thsir livers by letting them stand m the 

 sun • sell the jaws to visitors and the bodies to farmers for 

 manure. I forgot to mention the dogfish, another of the 

 family, although much inferior in size to the others, rarely 

 exceeding three feet in length. They are caught for their oil, 

 and the livers are also "sun-tried." They are fierce biters, two 

 men often taking nearly a thousand per day. A hook with- 

 out a barb is used, as they arc ugly customers to handle, being 

 armed with a spike near the tail, and which they do not hesi- 

 tate to slrike into ally one foolish enough to handle them. 



1 will not mention the smaller fish we caught, nor speak of 

 the clam-bakes, the hops, nor the moonlight sails in the 

 harbor, but when our time was up— when fate with relentless 

 linger pointed northward, and we laid the White Cloud's 

 course for the mainland— not a man among us, from the cap- 

 tain to cook, that did not leave, with sincere regret, the hos- 

 pitable shores and teeming waters of Nantucket. 



_ _-4^— 



— Prof Thomas Taylor, of the Department of Agriculture, 

 who wns sent some time ago by Commissioner Le Due to New 

 Jersey to investigate the disease known as "rot," or "scald," 

 that has for the past season so seriously affected the cranberry 

 interests of that section, has just, returned, and is preparing a 

 long report on the subject, to be submitted to the Commis- 

 sioner lie has visited plantations in many parts of the Slate, 

 JnCd the condition of the fruit on every variety of soil 

 and under almost every kind of culture, and gathered such 

 valuable information in relation to the health and successful 

 cultivation of the plant as he thinks will be of incalculable 

 benefit to the cranberry -rowers of the country. The tacts 

 observed arc considered by Mr. Taylor as warranting the Con- 

 clusion that the disease is due less to direct solar heat than to 

 other causes, and he believes that on suitable soils the culture 

 of Ihc cranberry may be Successfully carried on much further 



fiunth'ihan ii uas heretofore beta thought practicable, ,. 



4S$l §tMwft. 



PRIORITY OF FISH BREEDING IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



■> 



The subjoined correspondence we cheei fully publish, with 

 the hope that Dr. Garlick may receive all the credit which 

 he seems to deserve as the pioneer in American fish culture. 

 Further comment is unnecessary, as the merits of the case are 

 set forth with sufficient clearness iu the letters themselves: 

 Cleveland, Sept. 12, 1877. 



Editors FoiuiST and Stream — Gentlemen : — We consider 

 here that Prof. Baird in his report of 1872 and '78 did great 

 injustice to Dr. Garlick iu regard to the priority of fish cul- 

 ture in America, and see thai he has not seen fit in his report 

 of 1874 and '75 to mention the subject in anyway, as it was 

 supposed lie would do. The doctor is consequently much exer- 

 cised over it. The old doctor has been an invalid for many 

 years, and is now confined to the house and almost constantly 

 to his bed. We sincerely hope, thou, for his sake, you will 

 publish the enclosed articles from him and Judge Patter, and 

 so give him rest. 



Tours respectfully, lb:. E. SlERLmQ. 



nu. gakuck's i.etteb to prof, haiud, 



Bedford, Cuyahoga Co.,0., Supl: 10, 1S77. 

 To I'rof. ,S'. >'. Baird, As&ietdnl fteoretaryof tke Smithsonian Institution, 

 and Unitfid States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries: 



Sir— I must continue to protest against the statements made by you 

 hi tUe Reports on Fisheries for is7i> and 1S73, attributing to Dr. Bachman 

 priority in iisli breeding in the United States. In this papier l have no 

 now proofs to offer, winch yon have not already had and long before 

 those reports were rau.de. On page 636 of your reports for 1S72 and 

 1S73, you say that " an account was lirst given by Dr. Garlick in the 

 Ohio farmer of the methods employed by himself mid Dr. Aekley, 

 within two or three years after beginning their experiments." Wiry you 

 persist in repeating those statements in the face of such proofs is be- 

 yond my comprehension. As soon as I saw Dr. Baohman's claims as 

 put forth by him in December, 1S55, andJanuary, 1S5G, in the Southern 

 Cultivator, I made a counter statement in the Ohio Farmer, published at 

 Cleveland more than twenty years since. These statements were pub- 

 lished in my book on llsli culture in 1S57. 



I now briefly recapitulate what has transpired since 1S53, hoping that 

 the time will come when you will regret the continued injustice done to 

 Dr. Aekley and myself by your partiality for a deceased friend. If this 

 correction cannot be affected on the ground of justice and evidence, 

 nothing ia left but to continue to defend the memory of Dr. Aekley and 

 my own rights by scattering as widely as possible the proofs contradict- 

 ing your official statements-. 



In IS53 the subject of flsh culture was brought before the people of 

 the United States, in a letter from Paris then published in the National 

 Intelligencer at Washington. It was in substance the Report of Milne 

 Miivards upon the experiments of Gehatfand Reny in the streams of the 

 Vosges in France. When we saw this article Dr. Aekley and myself 

 went into the worx enthusiastically, made artificial pools in the vicinity 

 of Cleveland, spent several thousand dollars, produced brook trout 

 which we exhibited at two of the Ohio State Fairs, gave descriptions of 

 the process in the Cleveland papers, and before the Cleveland Academy 

 of Natural Sciences. Our first artificial fecundation of trout 'was on 

 the 2lith of November, 1S58, which were hatched and alive on the 2-lth 

 of January, 186*. My articles on Fran Culture which were published in 

 the Ohio Farmer ax Cleveland were commenced in 1S54 and extended 

 into 1S55. On the 7th of February, 1S5-1, 1 read a paper on the subject 

 before the Cleveland Academy exhibiting the fish, which -article was 

 published in the March number of the Annals of Soience at Cleveland, 

 edited by Prof. Hamilton Smith, now of Ilobart College, New York. 



Dr. Bachman has claimed that, he read a paper on the same subject 

 before the Zoological Society of London in 1838, bnt of which ihe follow- 

 ing letter from yourself shows there is not the slightest proof. Your 

 letter is now before me, and the following is a verbatim copy of it : 



"No. 700 Smithsonian institution, \ 

 Washington, D. C, May 23, 1857. ) 



" My near Sir—1 have carefully looked over the proceedings of Zo- 

 ological Society from 1888 to 1810 inclusive, and find nothing whatever 

 relating to lish breeding. 



"Any references you may wish to have made I will attend to with 

 pleasure. Yours truly, [Signed] Si'encuh F. Baibo. 



" Dr. T. Gakcick, Cleveland." 



Allow me here to ask two or three cniestions. Do you think that, if 

 such a paper had been read before that Society, it would have been 

 omitted in the published proceedings V What next? More than two 

 years after we had produced the fish, made the most pnbhc exhibitions 

 of them, and published tin; results as widely as possible, Dr. liachman 

 comes forward with a claim cutting tinder every tiling done, not only iu 

 this country lint by ' iehan and Keuy in France. 



In JSSS-6 lie claims that in 1804, one year before I was bom and at the 

 age of fourteen, he made successful experiments somewhere in New 

 York, not only iu artificially fecundating the ova of living but of dead 

 Jink, ihc living product of which had such remarkable vigor that in nine 

 months they were large enough for him lo make a meal on them. It 

 appears to me, with much deference to your powers of discrimination, 

 that it requires a large stock of both charity and credulity to accept 

 such a claim. 



It must be accepted entire or not at all. Die claims in his paper read 

 at Columbia, that the ova of porch which he fecundated were dried for 

 ten days, and from these diled ova he batched young and living perch. 

 He also claims that he impregnated the ova of dedd tlsh, which Is an im- 

 possibility. 



But if this difficulty could be got over, it is a rule of the scientific 

 world that priority belongs to the discoverer who n rat makes publication. 

 Any-other rule would place It lu the power of pretenders to lay claim 

 to anything and everything i>y falsifying dates. No record evidence 

 can bo found to sustain Dr. Bach man's cluim of priority in this country. 

 More than two years elapsed after our experiments wore made in puh- 

 i. Jul exhibited to the Academy, and uouriy two years alter myself 

 and Dr. Aekley had published (he result* of these experiments, before 

 the learned Doctor placed himself on record anywhere. 



TnKoilAWSOAItl.lCK. 



LETTEK FIt"M .IUDGE E. D. POTTER TO DE. T. GAKL10K, 



Toledo, Mayo. 1816. 

 Dr. T. Gaucick: 



Dear Sir— I see in a Into Youngsiown, O., paper a communication in 

 whi.-n it is slated that. 1 was Identified with yen iu 1SS8 and 1854 in your 

 expciiiiHiil m artilieliil fish culture. Now, it is not exactly fair, after 

 the attempt of Dr. Bachman to rob you Of ihc inciUot hatch Lug arti- 

 ficially the first II sh so produced in America, to divide the remaining 

 honors with me or anybody else. I disclaim any merit in your experi- 

 ments, save an earnest desire foi ul'>llcci ■ 



was •,, close observer of your pio esses. I was a gre.it deal of the line 



during ihc ycais ISS3, AS54 and lf5S, lu Cleveland, aUd agOou d 



the time a guest in yout' house, where t -ame a very interested 



looker-on in your new enterprise. We spent many days and nights to- 

 gether ia procuring and fecundating the spawn of the speckled trout. 

 I was a witness to your complete success in producing from these eggs 

 large numbers of speckled trout. 



During these yr-aTS no claim had been put into experiments prior lo 

 yours. I was surprised when I saw the article of Dr. Bachmau in the 

 Southern Cultivator in the fall of 1665, two years after your experiments 

 had been published in tin- Oftio Parmer, which lie. must certainly have 

 seen, making the extraordinary claim of having spawned and fecun- 

 dated the eggs of the speckled trout iu August, 185*, from which he 

 produced the young fry officii, Iisli. I have all my lire been a close ob- 

 server of the habits of the speckled trout, and it is known to c erj 



familiar with the subject that speckled trout never get luto their spawn- 

 ing beds till after the frosts of September and October, and not many 

 Spawn before the month of NOVehlber, Their eggs are. never mufiue 

 in August. The extrusion of eggs from the parent trout in Angus) 

 must necessarily have been a fruitless abortion. The improbability of 

 Dr. Bachman's account, is rendered still more apparently his assertion 

 that the next autumn he ate aline trout breakfast, from these young 

 tlsh. They could not have heen more tluvu seven or eight months old, 

 and less than an inch and a half long, weighing not more than the six- 

 teenth of an ounce each before they were dressed, and a fiuu breakfast 

 would have required at least live hundred of these fishes. Dr. Bachman 

 says he fecundated the ova takeu from the caporal and from brook 

 trout that had been dead several hours. He also says that he fecun- 

 dated the ova taken from the perch, and after dry lug them tor ten flays, 

 hatched young perch from them. You may an well look for or 

 from a fecuudated Egyptian iuumnn , as for young iisli from perch eggs 

 that had been dried ten days. I have fecundated the eggs taken from 

 a fish that had been dead a few, say three, hours, but it was done with 

 the mill from the living male. Whether the fecundation can be accom- 

 plished by using the milt from the male that has been dead any number 



of i is. I cannot say, never having made the experiment; but tno 



taws of physiology do not favor such a presumption. The egg tafcen 

 front a dead bird, when ready to lay. I have hatched, but the fecunda- 

 tion took place prim- to the death of the bird. I have tried the drying 

 process without success. Eeason would teach us lliat such an experi- 

 ment would be fruitless. My experiment was with while lish eggs that 

 were dried but forty-eight hours: not one even showed any signs of 

 life; 1 failed to restore the transparency of the egg; and these we.c 

 takeu from a parcel nineiy-llve percent, of which I hatched with the 

 ordinary process. Dr. Itacluutin must have been more fortunate than 

 most experimenters if he succeeded in haiehJug the peri a at ail, for 

 the adhesiveness of those eggs, as well as those ol the wall-eyed pil.e, 

 render their hatching next to impossibility. Most, if not. all, expert- 

 meutswith there two and their congeners, Have proved fruitless, it 

 must be borne In mind that Dr. Bachman wrote his article more than 

 lifly years alter making the experiments he speaks of. He was an old 

 man. He may have eaten trout for his breakfast In the next autumn 

 after experimenting with Ids eggs, but they were not trout Irom Ids 

 spawning— and so with his dried eggs; the fishes he found were ndt 

 from them. I have long fcnOwll Dr. Itadiman's reputation as a Chris- 

 tian gentleman and scholar, and should be loth to believe that he won d 

 deliberately make an assertion which he did not believe to be true, ft 

 is more charitable to believe that he was mistaken iu the identity of his 

 progeny from his trout and caporal eggs, ami his dried porch's eggs, 

 than to conclude he deliberately stated what was not true— and this 



view of the case would lie more consonant With the tltlth of Sci 



than a blind, implicit reliance upon the statement of tests, which si . ;i 

 look upon as exceedingly improbable. Hut you need no vindication 



from me; you are fully capable, as shown by your pnl Ion oft 



tablishing your priority in this enterprise, audi only write i his to dis- 

 claim any share in the honor of" inaugurating in the United stales a 

 science which is working such wonders in the production of cheap food. 

 and to congratulate the country that you did. not place your light under 

 a bushel fur fifty yeais or more. 



Very truly, JSjieui' Ii. PuCTBR. 



Salmon is i.t-e Lakes.- The amount of work rlorfe by the 

 State fish commissioners in stocking our lakes-will) fish during 

 the past three years Ls probably not appreciated byoae-hajf tjio 

 people of Minnesota. And yet, the work has beta done 

 large scale, considering the newness of the enterprise antl the 

 foundation laid for a generous harvest at no distant day. 



The general government gives the fish spawn to any Stale 

 making application for it. Three years ago it gave to Minne- 

 sota su.tiod eggs of flic California salmon— a Diagniflcent fish 

 weighing in fresh water, when grown, from 30 to 30 pounds, 

 and in salt water from 40 to 50 pounds, fifty-one thousand 

 eggs were saved from ihis donation and distributed in differ- 

 ent, lakes about 1 ho Slate. The second vear our donation was 

 20,000 eggs, nearly all of which were hatched and distributed 

 Last, year the State got 30Q,000 eggs, 95 percent, of which 

 hatched and were mostly distributed- -there being only about 

 30,000 young fry on hand at pre 



These lish are doing just as well as they possibly eould. 

 The two year olds are now 12 and M inches long, and will 

 soon be large enough to be game on a hook. Inlowathfcy 



have, been in the business longer and have four year olds lh.,1, 

 are 29 inches long and weigh from nine lo eleven pounds 

 I-fcieefior: will breed this I'Ul being ?ipw full of 333s, | "i; ; . 

 gcv:>-T.riienf has about T-igh'y men u the Pai ill coast ; 

 in taking spawn, and Minnesota will soon come in tor another 



Sainton are lovers of deep Water, while pickerel prefer that 

 more shallow ; hence if is thought that but few of the fry 1ms 

 been eaten by these voracious inhabitants of our lakes. At four 

 years of age they arc fully able to make a breakfast out of 

 pickerel, and will then become rnaslers of the situation ; wdiilc 

 sportsmen will find them jus! about as big even then, as tliev 

 will care to lift Into a bout on the cud of a hue. The S 

 largely indebted to Dr. Day, of St, Paul, and to the present 

 fish commissioners, Messrs. Golchfir, Sweeny and Uurt, for 

 the progress already made— indeed WC may say that hail ii, not 

 been for their efforts and a few others, there "would not have 

 been a sahnon in our watets, even though Ihe e,, ; 



was nothing.— -St. Paul Pioneer JPrm, Sept. 10. 

 ♦•♦ 



Nbw Jeusev,— Fish Warden Weller, of Warren county 



and his men iiave removed thirly-Jive wing walls from lb,' 

 Delaware, eleven from the Peqncst and five Irom the Paulina 

 Kill. These walls contain Shoots, to which are attached wire 

 fyksf; an ippar.itus for taking hsh, m viulaticn cf the hw 

 lie has shipped this season to Oomnrissloners Anderson and 



Shotwell 3,00.0 black bass, for Stocking purposes, am | . 

 thousand more will be shipped before the- season cloaee, 



m* * «>■ ■ 



Salmon Hatciuno on tiik Culdmhia River.— "Wi 

 obliged to defer a valued and in 1 cresting article [roni 1. 

 st, ai Stone, Esq.', describing his operations) at the h;,i 

 house on the Clackamas river, a tributary of tht 

 it Will appeal ne-.l week. 



