Jtrrai 8, I8SI.3 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



§ex xnd $w$r Jfiishing. 



FISH IN SEASON IN JUNE. 



m«SH WATER. 



Brooktrout, Stiiveliniuifontinalis. Yellow porch, Pvrcafluviatilis. 



Grayling, Tlij/mallus tricolor and Btriped base fRockflsh\ Roccue 



T. montanu*. Uneatua. 



Balnbow trout, Salmo iridea. Whit* bass, Rnccu* rhryiops. 



Clark's trout, Salmo clarkii. Hock bass, Ambloplitea, two epe- 

 Dolly Varden trout, SaXvtUnv* ciea. 



malma. War-mouth, Chasnobryttus gulo- 

 Black bass, Micropterut. 2 species. sua. 



Maskmonge, Esox nobilior. Crappie (Strawberry bass, etc.). 

 Pike (N. It . pickerel), Esox lucius. Pomoxye nicromaculatua. 



Pickerel, Esox reticulata*. Bachelor-, Pomoxys annularis. 



Pike-perch (Wall-eyed pike) SH- Chub, Seinotihui bullarw. 



308tethium. 



SALT WATEB. 



Sea baas, Cenlropristes atrarius. Tautog or blackflsh, Tautoga oni- 

 Striped bass, Roctyus lineatus. tis. ' 



White perch, Morone americ-ana. Blueflah or taylor, Pomatomus 

 Soup or porgie, Stenotomus ar- ealtatrvc. 

 gijrops. Weakfiah or squetague, Oynos- 



cyon regalia. 



O, sir, doubt not but that angling la an art; is it not an art to deoeive 

 a trout with an artificial fly? a trout! that is more sharp-sighted than 

 any bawk you have named, and more watchful and timorua than 

 your high-mettled merlin is bold? and yet I doubt not to catch a 

 brace or two to-morrow for a friend's breakfast. Doubt not, there- 

 fore, sir, but that angling Is an art, and an art worth your learning; 

 the question is rather, whether you be oapable of learning it? for 

 angling is somewhat like poetry, men arc to be born so: I mean, with 

 inclinations to it, though both may be heightened by discourse and 

 practice; but he that hopes to be a good angler must not only bring 

 an inquiring, searching, observing wit, but he must bring a large 

 measure of hope and patience, and a love and propensity to the art 

 itself; but having once got and practiced it, then doubt not but 

 angling will prove to be so pleasant, that it will prove to be like 

 virtue, a reward to itself .— Izaak Walton. 



VIVIPAROUS FISHES. 



THAT there are certain flab.es, Embioloeidw, on the Pacific 

 coast which hring forth their young alive, and are 

 popularly known as ' 'viviparous perch, " is well known. It 

 is not so well known, outside of the students of ichthyology, 

 that there are certain fishes on the Atlantic coast which have 

 this habit. Nevertheless it is true that many of the mem- 

 bers of the family Gyprmodoniida, are viviparous. 



The cyprinodonts are, as the name implies, a sort of cypri- 

 noid, or soft-finned carp-like fish, which have teeth, and 

 their small size prevents their becoming very well known 

 to the angler. The little fishes whereof we write are from 

 an inch to four inches in length, and are common along the 

 Atlantic Beaboard, and in the streams flowing into the sea. 

 They are fond of brackish water, and are sometimes found 

 in water entirely fresh. They are divided into about twenty 

 genera and over a hundred species. They are popularly 

 known about New York as "killyfiah," from the Dutch name 

 of "kill," meaning creek; in Connecticut and East they are 

 called "mummichogs," probably an Indian name, which is 

 often shortened into "mummies." Some of the genera are 

 called in other localities, according to Jordan, "Mayfisbes," 

 "stud fishes," "top-minnows," from their habit of feeding 

 near the surface, and they doubtless have other local names 



Only a few members of this family are viviparous, the re- 

 mainder having the habit of laying the eggs before they are 

 hatched, but the larger portion bring forth their young alive. 

 They may be distinguished by their soft fins, a single dorsal 

 usually placed far back, head covered with scales, and teeth 

 in both jaws. The males of those which ore viviparous have 

 the anal fin modified into a sort of sword-shaped lntromittent 

 organ. The fact that these members of the family copulate 

 was first called to our attention in 1875, while hatching shad 

 upon the Pamunky River, Virginia. We saw the fish come 

 in with the tide and approach the shore so closely that they 

 lay upon their sides and plainly saw the operation. Upon 

 going to "Washington and relating the fact to Professor Gill 

 he told us that this had long been known, and brought down 

 a dusty volume wherein it was described. Last month we 

 received a few specimens (all females), which were in a gravid 

 condition, from Hon. Thomas T. Aby, of Louisiana, and 

 from one of which we took 101 young ones and about a 

 dozen undeveloped eggs. Mr. Aby was not aware that the 

 fish had received attention from naturalists or other persons. 

 We wrote him for the name which is applied to them in his 

 district by the people, and Were informed that the only one 

 he knew was "pot-guts," and that they inhabited indiffer- 

 ently stagnant pools and running streams, and were often 

 seen on the surface of the water. 



A friend of Mr. Aby's, Dr. John Calderwood, who Writes 

 us from the Ouachita River, Louisiana, says: 



Tour letter acknowledging receipt of a certain viviparous 

 fish sent you by my friend Dr. Aby, has been referred to 

 me to answer. 1 regret that my knowledge is so very 

 limited. Such as I could get, after diligent inquiry from all 

 whom I knew would be beat able to supply the informa- 

 tion you desire, I herewith give you, first, as to the various 

 names by which it is known among the natives : The most 

 common are "potgut minnows," "top-water minnows," "top 

 minnows." The first name evidently is due to the .great 

 prominence of the abdomen when in the gravid state. The 

 other two from the fact that it is a BtjirJace swimmer. I 

 have also known it to be called the "bullhead minnow," by 

 reason of the great prominence of head and eyes at certain 

 stages of its growth. With the present generation, this name 

 is, however, obsolete. As to its habits; it is gregarious, always 

 keeping in schools of from about eight to fifteen, and always 

 using near the shore as closely as it can. As our streams 

 never freeze they aro to be seen at all stages of water and at 

 all seasons, lining the shallowest margins of water in all our 

 rivers, bayous, creeks, etc. In flood seasons they are con- 

 veyed into interior ponds, water holes, etc., where myriads 

 are left by the retiring waters to become victims of the suc- 

 ceeding -drouth or food for hogs, This fish differs from those, 

 members of the same family that you speak of as being par- 

 tial to brackish water. The water of our streams is the col- 

 lected rainfall of our valley, and (rainwater, I understand, 

 to be the purest form of natural water) is exceedingly fresh 

 and sweet, especially in the winter and spring, when Its 

 temperature ranges" from thirty-five to about sixty degre >s 

 Fahrenheit. During summer and fall its temperature rises 

 from between sixty to seventy-five degrees, but during this 

 time when filtered and chilled with ice to a, proper palatable 

 degree is found to be equal to best cistern water for drinking 

 purposes. It is in water of this kind that our little fish 

 dalighte, and i* completely at home through all seasons. 



When they are found in stagnant overflows or ponds it is 

 the result of accident, having been left there by retiring 

 floods. 



To my inquiries as to whether it had a particular breeding 

 time, the answer was that it had been and could be seen in 

 the gravid state at all seasons of the year. I could not learn 

 how many young they generally brought forth at a litter, 

 nor how many litters they produced in a year. It is, how- 

 ever, easy to be seen that it is a very prolific fish, and the 

 fact that they are seen in gravid state "at all times of the year 

 would lead to the belief that they drop successive litters 

 throughout the year. Dn. John Cax.dkkwood. 



SALMON FISHING. 



I HAD lived more than sixty years before I ever saw a 

 salmon, except in a fish market. Much I had read about 

 this noble fish in the writings of Scott, Wilson, Scrope, 

 Davy and others, who estimate the killing of a salmon with 

 the fly as the greatest exploit of the angler. Most of the 

 other game fishes of the United States I had taken, but in 

 my younger days it was generally believed that the salmon 

 of American rivers would not take a fly, and those anglers 

 who had the time and money used to go to Scotland for 

 their sport. 



In 1873 I was invited to join a party who were going to 

 fish the upper pools of the. Restigouche, one of the finest- 

 salmon rivers in the Dominion of Canada. It forms the 

 boundary between New Brunswick and Quebec, and flows 

 into the head of the Bay of Chalheurs. Here we camped in 

 the wilderness. Thre« days I spent in a bark canoe with two 

 Indians— one in the stern with a paddle, the other in the bow 

 with a setting pole — without bringing home a fish. This is a 

 much easier way of fishing for salmon than that practised in 

 Scotland and Norway, where the angler casts from the 

 shore, and is obliged to follow his fish along the bank wher- 

 ever it may lead him, often to wade waist deep in a heavy- 

 current, Bometim.es to swim. In a canoe, when your Abu 

 makes long runs, the canoe follows him; when he goes to 

 the bottom and stops— "sulks" is the name for this trick 

 of the salmon — the Indians start it with a pole or throw 

 stones at it. _ Keeping the fish always on the move, even a 

 salmon will tire itself out in time, although apparently made 

 of India rubber and mounted on steel springs. For the 

 novice, however, it is not an easy matter to sit upon the 

 thwart of a bark canoe, much less to handle a sixteen-foot 

 rod on that eminence, which seems as unsubstantial as an 

 egg-shell, and he feels much like a person who is for the 

 first time on horseback. I fortunately had served my 

 apprenticeship in this vessel during many excursions in the 

 Northwest after trout and black bass, and could sit my 

 canoe with the ease of an old rider. 



Three days I passed upon the river, casting the fly, not 

 wholly without success, as I could often raise my fish, and 

 sometimes hook them ; but they always escaped* either by 

 unhooking themselves in their frantic leaps, or taking away 

 hook, with more or less of my line. I found the salmon only 

 in the pools, where they were resting from their laborious 

 journey up the river to the spawning beds. They usually took 

 the fly beneath the surface; as I cast down stream, the cur- 

 rent took the line away, and the strike came generally as I 

 withdrew the fly preparatory to another cast. When hooked, 

 the fish made a swift run clown stream of thirty or forty 

 yards, and then leaped clear of the water four or five feet ; 

 then off again for a longer run unless they got clear in the 

 first jump, as often happened with a novice, who had not 

 the presence of mind to drop the tip of his rod. Once I had 

 a strong fish run out my whole line of 100 yards, and break 

 loose with the hook. So I found that 150 yards of line was 

 none too much for a salmon fresh run from the sea. 



There were four in our party, and we took in turn the four 

 pools nearest to the camp. On my fourth day the nearest 

 pool and the best, belonged to me, "and I was on it at 7 A. M. 

 I soon hooked a large and vigorous fish, which, after some 

 long runs and lofty leaps, sought the foot of the pool and 

 sulked at bottom in deep water. We could not reach it with 

 the pole, and stones did not start it; at the bottom it re- 

 mained, sawing at the line as if to cut it on the rocks. I 

 used as much force as I dared to start the fish, but he hung 

 to the bottom, and there we sat for half an hour or more. 

 The cook came down from camp to see the contest, and I 

 began to think I should pass the day there, as an old salmon 

 fisher of our party told us he had done. He hooked his fish 

 at 7 A. M., and at 7 P. M. he broke loose, fairly beaten by 

 the fish, if fish it was. 



Suddenly up from the bottom came my salmon and off 

 down the river, the reel whizzing as we followed as best we 

 could. Just at the foot of the island where our tents were 

 pitched a heavy rapid extended for a quarter of a mile; 

 down this rushed the salmon, the canoe sometimes following, 

 sometimes alongside of him. All control of the fish was 

 lost, and until we reached the foot of the rapid I did not 

 know whether he was still on the hook, but we came through 

 together and the fish started on another rim of some hundred 

 yards to the next pool below, where one of our party was 

 then playing a salmon from a canoe. My fish then turned and 

 went up stream on the other side of the island, but soon 

 stopped. Said my Indian, "He most done now," and I was 

 glad, for I also was most done; it seemed as if I could not 

 hold the rod much longer. The salmon was now visible 

 through the clear water about thirty or forty feet away on 

 our broadside, three feet long, at least, of burnished silver. 

 His strength was failing, and with difficulty could he keep 

 himself upright. Such was his vitality, however, that, for 

 nearly another half hour he resisted my efforts to bring him 

 to gaff. Finally my Indian paddled up to him, I reeling in 

 line the while and Peter quietly put the gaff hook under him 

 and lifted hitn into the canoe; but his last struggle nearly 

 took the Indian overboard. The fish was so exhausted that 

 he never kicked again; a game fish like a salmon or a 

 trout does all the fighting outside the boat. A sluggish pike 

 allows itself to be hauled on board without much resistance 

 and then flics all over the boat. I hooked my fish about 

 7:30 A. M., and he was gaffed at 11:30, just four hours. 



We returned at once to camp, where the fish was found to 

 weigh twenty-four pounds, and I retired to my bed to rest 

 my weary limbs. 



That evening I went out again and killed a salmon weigh- 

 ing twenty-two pounds in thirty minutes. Such is the 

 difference, between two salmon of about the same size. My 

 first fish, however, was an exceptionally strong one, and of 

 about the right size to make a long tight. The next day I 

 killed one of twelve pounds and another of three pounds 

 called a grilse; then, having satisfied my ambition iu salmon 

 killing, I went of to the river Novelle after large trout, a 

 kind of sport involving lees fatigue than these contests with 

 bjg sttlmou, 



Mr. Francis Francis, the English writer on angling, gives 

 it as his opinion that trout fishing require! more skill tbaa 

 salmon fishing, and I am inclined to agree with him. When 

 salmon are abundant and feeding, it is easy to raise and 

 hook them, the difficulty is to bring them to gaff. There i* 

 more excitement, of course, in a contest with a big fish thaa 

 with a small one, and the sport is much more expensive; m 

 much so that only millionaires, such as railroad officials and 

 mining kings, can follow it habitually. The _ control of a 

 salmon river, liker the ownership of a yacht, is the sign of 

 wealth, and the investment is often made on that account by 

 people who do not care, for fishing or sailing. 8. O. 0. 



THE TROUTS OF CALIFORNIA. 



Bbookpield,JW. T., MayJ12, 18W. ' g 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



In nearly every number of Fokest ahd Stream I find 

 something about the trout of the Pacific. Coast; and as they 

 seem to be but little understood by Eastern sportsmen, per- 

 haps a few words in regard to them may be acceptable. For 

 convenience of description the trout of the coast may be di- 

 vided into two classes: the ied spotted and the black spotted, 

 I think it is now generally admitted by the best authoritiee 

 that there is only one species of red spotted trout native to 

 the coast, the Salwlinm spectabttis or 8. malma. It range* 

 from the Sierra Mountains to Alaska. Of its dozen or more 

 popular names that by which it is known in California, 

 "Dolly Varden," seems the most beautiful and appropriate, 

 and should be generally adopted. Like fontinahs, its near 

 relative, it is fond of cold, swift streams; and in California i* 

 only found in those that are fed by glaciers. It resembles its 

 Eastern relative in habits and character; the important diff- 

 erences being its greater size, it reaching a weight of fifteen 

 pounds or more; its longer, more cylindrical figure; the back 

 and head being spotted as well as the sides; and the absence 

 upon the head and back of the irregular mottled lines of fon- 

 tinalis. 



How many species of black spotted trout there are'is yet 

 an open question. Prof. Jordan says two or three, which 

 he names as follows: First — Salmo clarkii, the most widely 

 distributed of all; found nearly everywhere west of the 

 Rocky Mountains. This is quite a variable species, but 

 there is one constant character by which it can be easily dis- 

 tinguished from the others : that is the fineness of its scales. 

 Counted in a longitudinal series, it has from 160 to 180. 

 Second — Scilmo irideus, found in California and Oregon, 

 west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. This is a 

 coarse scaled species, having only about 180 rows. Third — 

 Salmo ga/rdnerii, the common "steelhead " of the Columbia. 

 This does not differ in any respect from the preceding ex- 

 cept in size, and may be the adult of that species. 



Although all black-spotted trout are rainbow trout, when- 

 ever I see rainbow mentioned in Eastern papers I suppose 

 that 8. clarkii is the species meant; and that it is of this 

 species that Eastern sportsmen and fish culturists wish to 

 learn. To begin then: this is a partly migratory species; 

 but the number that migrate to the sea, and the size at which 

 they go, seems to depend upon the size of the stream and ite 

 distance from the ocean. Here, thirty miles from salt water, 

 nearly all fish worth catching will be absent from the last of 

 May to the first of August. I say nearly all, for a few will 

 remain, their number and size depending upon the size of 

 the stream; the larger streams being sometimes fairly 

 stocked, while the small ones are absolutely empty of fish. 

 As you recede from the coast this habit is less marked, 

 though it exists to a less degree as much as two or three 

 hundred miles inland. Its spawning time is greatly ex- 

 tended, being from December to the following June; the 

 largest fish spawning latest. They spawn in the mountain 

 streams. 



Those that have passed the summer in the streams are 

 called mountain trout; those that return from the sea from 

 August to November, being bright and silvery from contact 

 with salt water, are called salmon trout, providing they do 

 not weigh over three or four pounds, for people here insist 

 upon calling the very large ones (from five to twenty-five or 

 thirty pounds) steelheads, though the true steelhead is quite 

 a different fish. In this locality the mountain trout seldom 

 weighs more than a pound, being at that weight from twelve 

 to fourteen inches long; its flesh is white in most case*, 

 sometimes pink, rarely as red as salmon. I have never ob- 

 served a tendency in the flesh to grow soft, but we do not 

 have much very hot weather here. The flesh of salmon 

 trout is always pink, and in the very large ones red as sal- 

 mon, but they do not hold the color bo well in cooking. 



The clarkii is not so fond of swift w ater as the Dolly 

 Varden, but lays at the bottoms of deep, dark pools, at the 

 end of long riffles, or under piles of drift wood; and in such 

 places you will often take a dozen or twenty as fast as you 

 can land them. The most taking bait is salmon roe; occa- 

 sionally angle worms are in order, and sometimes when all 

 bait is rejected they will rise eagerly to the fly. I have had 

 more success with the coachman than with all other flies, 

 but the tinseled red and brown hackles sometimes give excel- 

 lent sport. It is possible that the mountain fi6h may have 

 less endurance, when hooked, than the brook trout, but I 

 will back a sea-run fish against anything of his ounceB for 

 the first rush or the twentieth. 



Great account has been made, and with good reason, of the 

 docility of these trout. When well fed they arc as peaceable 

 in a pond as sheep in a pasture. They may sometimes eat 

 Binall fish, but certainly they do not to anything near the ex- 

 tent that the brook trout and the Dolly Varden do. The 

 large ones eat many shellfish, shrimps in saltwater and cray- 

 fish in fresh; these, with various flies and worms, and salmon 

 roc when salmon are spawning, and water grasses and weeds, 

 for they are considerable vegetable feeders, constitute, their 

 food. If they ever succeed in driving the brook trout from 

 his native streams it will be by eating his food and not by 

 earing hirn. I suppose the weight I have given for the 

 largest of them will surprise Eastern readers, but it is a fact 

 that I have often weighed them in May and June, when they 

 were exceedingly thin from recent spawning, at twenty- 

 pounds, and I think the same fishes inNovember, if they had 

 lived, would have weighed at least, thirty pounds. If winter 

 fishing is ever practiced on the lower Columbia it will not 

 surprise me to see. a "rainbow" trout of forty pounds. 



If Mr. Mather's suggestion should prove true, and like 

 German carp they should grow much larger in Eastern 

 rivers than in their native waters, there will be a surprise for 

 him one of these days. I doubt if even Mr. Stone, knowing 

 them only by what he sees in far inland waters, suspects the 

 size to which they grow at the mouth of this great tidal 

 river. But the clarMi is not our largest trout, and I will 

 close by mentioning that I have within a mouth measured a 



