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FOREST AND STREAM. 



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THE TILE FISH. 



pond, and they weighed from 5 to 7bflbs. each. Three of 

 them I killed for my epicurean friends, and the remaining 

 three I rolled up in a wet bag. I started with them for 

 Brooklyn at 3 P. M., and on my way met Mr. James Ridge- 

 way, counselor at law, and Messrs. Page and McLain, of the 

 Eagle, who carefully examined them. I gave the dead ones 

 to my friends, and placed the living ones on the roof of my 

 house, with two wet bags over and beneath them. There 

 they remained all night. Next, day at 2 P. M ., I took one of 

 them to the Magic office, and there showed him still alive and 

 in good condition, but as the tender-hearted Kinsella thought 

 some of Mr. Bergh's men ought to be sent for, I made my es- 

 cape and went to New York to Messrs. Middleton & Car- 

 ma.n's tis-h establishment in Pulton Market. These gentlemen 

 were more consistent, and instead of calling on Mr. Bergh, 

 they proposed to give the carp a drink after his long journey. 

 That suited us all, and for the first time in twenty-four hours 

 Mr. Carp was in his native element, and it is needless to say 

 that he enjoyed it. 



The New York Sun noted the fact that of the fish distrib- 

 uted by the United States Commission, this was the largest 

 one yet found in our water. It turned the scales at 7%lbs. 



The. other two still remained in the wet bags in Brooklyn, and 

 at 9j30 P. M. I poured a pail of water over them. Next morn- 

 ing I took them to Chief Engineer John Y. Culyer's house on 

 the borders of Prospect Park, showed them to him and re- 

 ceived his permission to place them in one of the lakes in the 

 park, I transferred the fish to Mr. Spear, chief clerk, and he 

 drove near to the water, and gave them to an attache, who in 

 my presence deposited them alive and in good condition in 

 the. water of our beautiful Brooklyn Park. This occurred at 

 iiaiO \_. M., so that for 43}£ horn's 'the fish were out of water. 

 This is a considerably longer time for the carp to be out of 

 water than that mentioned in my previous paper. If I remain 

 fli the fishculture business, and am spared for another year I 

 will test the endurance of the carp, study its habits andreport 

 to this body at its next annual meeting. In conclusion I 

 would say, that persons owning trout ponds could do noth- 

 ing better than place a few large carp m them. For a time 

 they will become shy and hide away in some nook, but soon 

 they will become less shy than the* trout, and will actually 

 raise their heads out of water to take a piece of bread out of 

 your lingers. This season I fed my carp with stale bread, refuse 

 of the table, potato peels, etc., and I find that they do not re- 

 fuse, soft or damaged apples. In fact they eat almost any veget- 

 able or animal food, properly chopped and if possible partially 

 conked. T give you this, gentlemen, in my crude way and 

 Without embellishment in any form, using no long-tailed Latin 

 words or names, but simply "trusting in the efficacy of our 

 English tongue to convey to you my meaning. 



THE RAINBOW TROUT. 

 By James Annin, Je. 



IN bringing this subject before you. gentlemen, I know how 

 unable I am to handle it in a proper manner, and have a 

 fear that I may be considered liable to reproach for my in- 

 competency. 



Every article upon the rainbow trout that I remember to 

 Id >. i seen has been greatly inits favor and loudly in its praise. 

 1 think that something is to be said in the negative, but don't 

 wish it understood that I take decided grounds against them, 

 but think that there are a few facts and surmises worthy of 

 your attention. 



The advantages claimed tor the mountain or rainbow trout 

 are garneness, rapid growth, hardiness, adaptability to waters 

 that will hardly support the book trout, etc. Now as to their 

 game qualities, they certainty are one of our gamest fish 

 known, and arc quicker than our Eastern brook trout, requir- 

 ing all your attention after they take fly; but I have been 

 told by a gentleman who has taken in our Eastern waters 

 rainbow trout which weighed a pound each, that he thought 

 after their first two or three rushes they tired out quicker 

 than our native trout. As to their rapid growth it must be 

 conceded that they grow faster than our native brook trout. 



\i-.- iliey a hardy fish; Yes. Decidedly so. A person has no 

 trouble in raising them; they don't refuse, food, pine away 

 and die as many of the brook trout will do in confinement, 

 but tlnv will eat often and iu great quantities, and will some- 

 time take a bite oui of their neighbor, as a pond of them will 

 show to be a fait, by many marks, scars, loss of part, of a 

 tin. el.e Adaptability to waters that will hardlv support our 

 brook l rout is the best thing. I think, that can be said of 

 i lean. (<n it such waters are stocked with them, we will have 

 t lieni in their proper place, their mission will be fulfilled, and 

 people in general will then consider them a great acquisition, 

 What I consider all wrong is that they are turned into good 

 trout streams before the results can be told. We would not 

 consider it any advantage if bass or pickerel were put into 

 that good trout stream or pond. We have an endless number 

 of Streams, lakes and ponds in which thev would doubtless 

 thrive. I don't consider that it would be to the advantage 

 brook trout if the mountain trout were introduced into 

 the same stream, certainly not if it is true that the hardier 

 flrrye out the weaker. 



Let me suppose a case. Mr. Blank has a splendid trout 

 stream, saj on Long island; there are plenty of brook trout 

 in it, and it is no trouble on any favorable day for him to 



make a good catch. He takes it into his head that he will put 

 into this stream the rainbow trout, and carries out his plans. 

 After a year or two he begins catching the new comers, of 

 good fair size, and he is astonished to see how they have 

 grown. He has lots of fun with them, they are so very gamy. 

 but if the weather is at all warm, he will find on arrival home 

 that the new fish are begining to be quite soft, while the 

 native fish are hard. What I say about their becoming soft 

 I have learned partly by experience and partly by "what 

 several fishermen have told rne. One. gentleman wrote that 

 they were like dried herrings when he got home. Our gentle- 

 man don't think much of this, and a year or so more passes 

 along when he invites a friend out to his preserve on the 

 opening day of brook trout fishing, and they r have plenty of 

 sport, hsh are plenty and perfectly willing to bite, but, con- 

 found it, they are almost all rainbow trout, and roust be 

 returned to the stream, as the law on them is not off for a 

 month or more yet! Our friend works hard and long for a 

 string of brook trout such as he could formerly take in a short, 

 time before introducing the rainbows. Now, gentlemen, if 

 this suppositious case proves true, is it advisable to put them 

 into your tine trout streams? It is proving itself to be true as 

 fast as possible in one of the best trout streams in the gta te of 

 New York, that has been stocked some four years, I believe, 

 with rainbow trout. 



A word to fishculturists. Will it pay to make any great 

 outlay, until we know that the rainbow trout are a, profitable 

 fish? "And another question is, are the\ r a good market fish? 

 They certainly are not if thev become "soft very soon after 

 coming from the water. What will the market price be! 

 Will the fly-fisherman show his basket of mountain trout 

 with the same pride, as he did when filled with the native 

 brook trout, are also questions to be answered. 



I know one fisherman that will not put one oi them into 

 his basket, but throws all of them away, and it has seemed 

 to me that it will do no.harm to consider well the questions 

 here raised before, we stock our brooks with a fish which may 

 exterminate, our native species and not prove to be so valuable 

 in the end. 



The President — Mr. Annin has opened a question which it 

 may be worth our while to consider. Perhaps it will be well 

 to learn more of this fish before filling our streams with it. I 

 would suggest that Mr. Mather give us his opinion on it. 



Ma. Matheb— I have had no personal experience with the 

 rainbow, or, as it is sometimes called, the California mountain 

 trout, and I am of the opinion of Mr. Page that it will bo well 

 to go slow until we know more. The fish same in with a 

 hurrah and everybody seems to want it. It grows fast and 

 may Supplant our native trout entirely, and to my lik 



latter is the best fish and the handsomest of the two." In 

 ported species often thrive and drive out native ones, witness 

 the so-called Norway rat, which has supplanted the native 

 until the latter is extinct on the seacoast. and even in parts of 

 the West. An imported species often grows faster in its new 

 home than it did in its original one, as witness the German 

 carp in America. I am not prepared to sav much of the rain- 

 bow trout: I have watched it with interest in ponds, but do 

 not know how it will agTee in streams with the native. If it 

 ! grows faster, it will get all the food and the native will Buffe: 



In that case I am opposed to it. If it will li 

 where the native will not, then it may be a good th 

 now have the curse of sparrows upon us, brought i 

 enthusiastic introducers of foreign species, and with 

 ample of mistaken benevolence before us, I think 



utioi 



Btn 



ng. W e 

 bout by 



this ex- 

 ■ should 



Mr. Bi.acjkkokd— I do not yet know what value the rainbow 

 trout will bear iu the market. When it first comes in it will 

 sell readily to those desiring to experiment. After that it will 

 rest on its' merits, I have no te.iv that it will supplant the 

 fontinalis on the table of the epicure. Mr. B. B. Redding, Fish 

 Commissioner of California, writes me that the Humboldt 

 River trout, Salvia elarkii. is much superior to the S. it l"3 ■•■-', 

 or rainbow trout. The Cahforninns are now introducing our 

 Eastern brook trout into then- streams, and are loud In their 

 praises of it. 



Mr. Phillips — Might the rainbow trout not follow the rule 

 that all the salmonida- of the Pacific coast are inferior to those, 

 of the Atlantic coast? I believe tha t T have understood Mr. 

 Blackford to assert that the Pacific salmon are inferior to ours. 



Mr. Blackford— They are. They maygrow faster than out 

 Eastern coast fishes, but California n salmon are nut so good. 

 When thev first began to send them h^ya thev sold ear loads 

 of them at forty to fifty cents per pound. Now it is difficult 

 to sell a small lot at thirty cents. I notice another market 

 man here, one who has had experience with these fish, and 

 would ask Mr. Middleton what his opinion is. 



Mr. Middleton — I agree with Mr. Blackfoi d entirely. The 

 salmon of the Pacific are inferior and do not sell well here, 

 now. 



Mrs. Lewis— I think all fish should be judged b\ the color 

 of its skin. The dark brook trout is c^ur-.-r and of fuller 

 fibre, and where this is the ease it ;> the best, i think the 

 rainbow trout brought East would be dark. California sal- 

 monhavenot gained the high rep !i ■ i i ■■ u the markets of 

 Europe that the Salmo salur has" It is not considered a good 

 salmon. 



Mb. Annin— I have eaten the rainbow trout. Lieutenant 

 Mansfield, of the U. S, Navy, has caught them in the West 



and in my stream, at Caledonia, N Y. One of the partv 

 went on the lower end of the stream to take rainbow trout 

 and caught many. He saved the larger ones in the well of the 

 boat and had them cooked in the morning. We all ate of 

 them and it was the unanimous verdict that they were in- 

 ferior. Lieut. Mansfield said that they tasted like black bass 

 from warm and muddy waters. East summer I cooked one 

 which was good. It had red flesh, the only one of the species 

 that 1 ever saw with red flesh. Some Rochester gentlemen 

 own the lower preserve on our stream, and they have said 

 that they would give a hundred dollars if there was not a 

 rainbow' trout in it. 



Mr. Weeks— We need all the trout we can get in Pennsyl- 

 vania, but the proper thiutt to do is to get them into the n-h 

 places. Rainbow trout should never be put into good streams 

 where the native trout will thrive. Those, who handle, i fiem 

 should be certain that they are not making a mistake, and 

 should have, a correct knowledge of the habits and merits of 

 the fish before distributing them too widely. 



The meeting then adjourned until the following da v. 



THE TILE FISH. 



LOPHOLATILCS CHA3L3SLEONTICEMJ— GOODE AJND BEAN, 



THIS fish was firsit discovered in 1870 by Capt. W. II. Kirby . 

 of Gloucester, Mass., who forwarded a specimen bo I he XJ.Bt 

 National Museum, where it was described and named by 

 Prof. G. Brown Hondo and Dr. Tarleton fi, Bean, Gang 



Kirbv took about five hundred pounds of this fish on a codfish 

 trawl, at a depth of eighty-four fathoms, eighty mile n ; 

 of Nomaiis Land. The largest one of his catch weighed fifty 

 pounds. 



Messrs. Goode and Bean say that the species appears to be 

 genet icallv distinct from the already described species of the 

 family l.afllidre of Gill. It is related bv its few-rayed vertical 

 tins, and other characters, to the genus LalilTIS as restricted 

 by Gill, but is distinguished bv the presence of a large adipose 

 appendage upon the nape, resemblinc the adipose fin of the 

 Salmonida, and by a fleshy prolongation upon each side of 

 the labial fold extending backward beyond the angle of the 

 mouth. 



Several of these fishes have been taken and have been eaten 

 and pronounced excellent, but no number has been sent to 

 market. In our issue of March :■«.). will be found an aeeoi.mt 

 of the great number of dead fish which were found floating in 

 the Atlantic between the Grand Banks and Barnegat, N. J. 

 Whether the miles of dead fish which half a dozen vessels, 

 whose course was wide apart, report as visible, were, ail of 

 this species is impossible to say. Prof. Baird thought that 

 they were numerous, at least, among the dead fish, and after- 

 ward the specimen sent hitu proved his surmise correct Eoj 

 they were all "tile." fish. 



Strolling down to Fulton Market one day near the close oj 

 last week we saw a large hsh hanging above Blackford's stand 

 and a crowd of people surveying it. Upon nearing if we saw 

 that it was the much talked of tile fish, a handsome yellow- 

 flecked specimen of fifty, pounds weight. This fish was picked 

 up on Thursday, April 30, by the schooner Herald of the 

 Morning, Captain Levi N. McLean, in lat. nT.'.'f, long, 

 eighty-five utiles off the capes of Virginia. When seen it was 

 floating on its back and struggling, and was brought OB boa.1 d 

 with a gaff and lived for two hours on the deck. ' 



The name "tile fish" is one designed by the. scientists wlio 

 described for the use of the. fishermen, and those who i anhol 

 handle its full name. It will be seen that it is a shortening of 

 its generic name. What has caused the excessive mortality 

 in this fish is at present unknown, but if all the dead fish re- 

 ported to have been seen were of this species, they must ex 

 1st in immense numbers, and if not exterminated", woidd bo 

 well worth fishing for. 



FtSHERY EXHIBITION IN LONDON NEXT YEAR. I 



OUB English friends are already sthrinn in the mat! 

 inducing the United States to take part ill the Fishery 

 Exhibit of VSSS, and we wish them success iu it. There is no 

 doubt of the advantages to be derived by our fishermen and 

 i interested by au exhibition of our fishery resources in 

 London. As the case stands it will require a special appro- 

 priation by Congress to enable our country to be represented. 

 as the Commissioner of Fisheries has no funds which hi car 



>r this purpose. If, however, Minister Lowell rnovi 

 the matter it in a.y l>e accomplished. .Advices hi oabli from 

 London, April SJO, say: A meetinfl^rtlfe held at the Mansion 



to-day in furtherance of efie proposed lisle; ..,, 



bion ftt London in 1888 Mr. Lowed, the American Minister. 

 said that he had grounds for believing that Ids gi 

 would participate. 'Tie had, he said, this morning transmitted 

 bj cable to Washington the formal invitati 



'The Prmee of Wales has interested himself in this matter. 

 as may be seen by the following vhieli was ..-ahled to the New 

 York Herald on the 9 I 



n influential ni - lis' Looms, London, 



the Pri n lies presided, and thus briefly stated the 



objects of the exhibition: "Ladies and genl 

 of the Duke of Richmond has brought 

 sauem, munts and importani 



