292 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
For Forest and Stream. 
TH E FROG S. 
BT MBS. EUNICE B. BAMBEBTON. 
W ILL you listen to the peeping 
of the frogs, 
As they chant a loud hosannah 
from the bogs? 
Can you tell me what tbeir gurgling 
throats would say, 
To the plodder on his dusty, 
weary way ? 
Do they lessons with, their husky 
psens give, 
Of thanksgiving for the simple 
right to live? 
Arefthey croaking to each other 
as they,moan, 
With exultings.in a language 
all their own? 
Tell they, rasping, of the vani 
lty of life, 
With its flickerings, its buffet- 
ings, its strife? 
Sit they, puffing like"a mighty 
mass of men, 
That in halls of state assemble 
now and then, 
Spouting forth unique opinions, 
wondrous wise; 
Throwing dust ad infinitum 
in the eyes 
Of the biggest frog among them, 
most erect, 
Making riot in all frogdom 
circumspect? 
Does the spirit of rebellion 
move in force, 
Till they scream their little burstirfg 
windpipes hoarse? 
Do they wail a sad and mono¬ 
tone lament 
For the hours in idle dissi¬ 
pation spent? 
Are they laughing at the thought of 
boozy frogs 
Reeling homeward, all a straddle 
o’er the logs? 
Tell, O tell me, ye who hold the 
magic key 
To this weird and complicated 
mystery, 
Where, O where, is this profound and 
wide domain ? 
Will one solemn frog arise and 
all explain? 
Rochester, N. F,,1874. 
Jfis/jT (ffjtttiw. 
This Journal is the Official Organ of the Fish Cultur- 
ists* Association. 
i —*—■ 
Shad in Lake Ontario.— It was a novel and bold idea 
of the Fish Commissioners to attempt to propagate shad in 
our great fresh water lakes, but the success thus far at¬ 
tained leaves no doubt of the practicability of the experi¬ 
ment. The St. Catherines’. News, of Canada, says that 
large quantities of these tish are now being caught at Port 
Dalhousie on the north side of Lake Ontario, and quite a 
number have been taken in nets at other points. Last Fri¬ 
day a shad nine inches long and weighing a quarter of a 
pound was taken with a fly from the end qf the pier at 
Oswego by Henry 0. Gardner, Esq., and on the Monday 
following a full grown shad weighing 4£ pounds was 
caught at Cape Vincent, and forwarded to Seth Green at 
Rochester. Some time ago Mr. Green offered a prize of 
$25 to the first person who should catch a shad in Lake 
Ontario weighing over three pounds This is the first one 
caught that comes up to that standard. It appears that 
these fish not only grow nicely, but they scatter from their 
native rivers to all parts of the lake. A correspondent of 
ours who was with Mr. Gardner when he took his shad re¬ 
grets that he cannot give with certainty the fly taken by this 
new denizen of Ontanio, as the fish dropped from a cast 
of three flies before he could see which one had hooked 
him. Doubtless fly fishing for shad will become at once a 
popular pastime in the lake. Speaking of this shad, Mr. 
Green says in a private note to us:— 
He weighed 4f lbs. Four years ago I put 1,000 young 
S had in the Genasee River, three years ago 15,000, two years 
ago ago 100,000, and last year 300,000. The one and two 
year old have been caught in great numbers. This is the 
first full grown shad ever caught in Lake Ontario* I had 
him for breakfast. He was a $25 shad, the premium I 
offered for the first caught weighing over three pounds. 
Seth Green. 
-—-- . 
The Aquarium Car. —We are in receipt of a most in¬ 
teresting letter in regard to the Aquarium Car addressed to 
us by Miss Francis W. Webber, Mr. Livingston Stone’s 
most intelligent Superintendent, who has now under her 
care Cold Spring Trout Ponds, at Charlestown, N. II. We 
hope soon to receive intelligence from California of its ar¬ 
rival and the satisfactory disposition of its contents. As 
Miss Webber has held for the last two years the important 
position of Superintendent, there is no doubt but that Mr. 
Livingston Stone’s interests will be properly attended to in 
his absence at California. It is a distinction to find a lady 
taking prominence in the catalogue of American fish- 
culturists. 
When the California Aquarium Car reached Niles, 
Michigan, on 6th June, Mr. George H. Gerome, the inde¬ 
fatigable Fish Commissioner of the State, contributed to the 
collection forty of the unrivalled St. Joseph’s black bass, the 
same being, (to use Mr. G’s own language conveyed in a 
private note to us,) “Michigan’s slight but cheerful testi¬ 
monial of gratitude and thanks for California’s last year's 
most munificent gift of 80,000 salmon.” 
-- 
Maryland Fish Culture. —In the Baltimore American 
of last week, we notice an excellent article on fish culture. 
Starting back with the pagan histoiy of the art of fish rais¬ 
ing, telling of the famous Dom Pichon, the patron Saint 
undoubtedly of the science, telling us about Jacobi, and 
Remny and Coste, it takes us from the past to the present 
condition of fish raising in different portions of the United 
States, and more especially in the State of Maryland. It 
was twenty years ago, we are told, that Alban G. Stabler 
and J. P. Bukehart, together with Forsyth and Shriver 
brought a small lot of black bass in the tender of a locomo¬ 
tive from Wheeling Creek, West Virginia, and put them in 
the Potomac. From this small beginning, as has been be¬ 
fore noticed by us, sprang the noble race of fish which now 
swarm in the river. The leading fishculturist at present in 
the State of Maryland is Alexander Kent, Esq., whose fish 
ponds at Green Spring Valley are admirable of their kind, 
and whose success has been marvellous. Mr. Kent’s three 
ponds are fed *by a spring having a discharge of 2,000 gab 
Ions a minute. The hatching house is 40 bj 7 " 32 feet, in 
which are 32 hatching boxes 12 feet long. The location of 
Mr. Kent’s ponds, the Baltimore American says, is a beauti¬ 
ful one, surrounded on all sides by magnificent scenery. 
All the fish in the ponds, some 6,500 trout, owe their ..origin 
to fish caught by Mr. Kent himself in the Blackwater, the 
head waters of the Cheat River, whose beautiful banks 
Porte Crayon and the late John P. Kennedy have immor 
talized. 
—Four years ago Cayuga Lake was wholly depleted of 
the fine trout with which it once abounded; but a jealous 
protection of the half million fry and spawn planted there 
in 1870 has wrought wondrous results, and now anglers 
bring in daily fine strings of fish, and boast that their w T aters 
surpass all other fishing grounds. This will be gratifying 
intelligence not alone to anglers in the immediate vicinity 
of Cayuga Lake, but throughout the State, and to all who 
are interested in fish culture throughout the country. 
—The new rooms of the Massachusetts Anglers’ Associa¬ 
tion in Baldwin Building, 368 Washington street, Boston, 
were formally opened last week, its President, Dr. Ordway, 
in the chair. The quarters are very nicely fitted up with 
Brussels carpet, desks, settees, &c.; a beautiful clock adorns 
the wall at the rear end of the room, and the charter of the 
association, handsomely engrossed on parchment and 
framed, hangs on one of the side walls. In one of the front 
corners of the room is placed a fine bust of the late Prof. 
Agassiz, resting upon an elegant pedestal, rich in finish and 
tasteful in design. Twenty-two new members were admit¬ 
ted, and the number is increased at every meeting. We con¬ 
gratulate this efficient society upon its success thus far and 
the enlargement of its sphere of usefulness. This journal is 
pledged to its support. 
—Week before last Mr. Andrew Pierce, of Claremont, 
New Hampshire, caught a plump fat bass, which weighed 
one pound and nine ounces. He caught it in Sugar River, 
just below the dam at West Claremont, where, we are told 
are “many more of the same sort.” They doubtless came 
up, or down, the Connecticut, in the tributaries of which 
our Fish Commissioners have been at work. 
—The Calais (Maine) Times says that over twenty salmon 
and trout weighing from one to six pounds were caught 
by a gentleman, one day last week, at the mouth of the 
brook in which the fish Commissioners put the young 
salmon, in Vanceboro, last year. 
—Seth Green, Esq., sends the following letter:— 
Little Falls, June 8, 1874. 
Seth Green, Esq:— 
In January last you sent us 3,000 California salmon for 
the Mohawk River at this place, and on Friday last, the 
5th, Mr. Richard Casler caught one of them with a hook 
and line measuring about five inches long. • We are now 
satisfied that they will do well here. Knowing that you 
would be pleased to hear from your little ones I take the 
pleasure of informing you. James M. Smith. 
The California salmon hatched in January are as large 
now as the Maine salmon are at one year old last Marcn. I 
never have taken care of any fish that gave me so little 
trouble and grow so fast as the California salmon. 
Yours, Seth Green. 
_A car containing live oysters and lobsters arrived at 
Ogden, Utah, last week, and an attempt will be made to 
propagate them in ^Ireat Salt Lake. 
— Mr. James W. Hayden, proprietor of the Squantum 
Beach House, Squantum, Mass., a short time since cap¬ 
tured a baby seal on the marsh near his house, which he is 
now raising by hand. The little fellow shows considerable 
affection for its keepers, will follow them like a dog, and 
in fact has become quite an attraction. Another seal was 
caught at Spring Hill, Mass., by George Hoxie last week; 
these instances indicating a possible return of the seals to 
old haunts along shore, long since deserted. 
_The Cape Ann Advertiser says that occasionally a hali¬ 
but or codfish is brought in which has a watery, sickly, 
dropsical appearance. In nearly every instance where 
they have been opened, the cause of theif sickness is found 
to be the swallowing of fish-hooks which they have bitten 
off of trawls. 
<M£atuml history. 
Quail Bred and Breeding in the city.—A few days 
ago we had the pleasure of seeing the nests of two pairs 
of quails in this city, one containing eight eggs the other 
five. The birds are enclosed in a large galvanized iron 
frame running all the length of the yard, wherein is planted 
small pines, flowers, &c., so as to give the birds cover and 
hiding places when they hatch. These quail are now 
breeding in the yard of a gentleman field sportsman who 
has been amusing himself for the last three years in trying 
the experiment of breeding quail in the city. He has suc¬ 
ceeded in raising large broods for two seasons and bids fair 
to add a third term to his success. The birds are all hearty 
and doing well, and'we are authorized to say that any gen¬ 
tleman wishing to see them find their nests, either as a mat¬ 
ter of curiosity or for practical purposes in the way of breed¬ 
ing, in order to gain, such information as to be able 
to stock a locality from a single pair, can call at 86 Clinton 
Place, and the servants are directed to show them to any 
person desiring to see them, also to give all the practical 
information that has been acquired concerning the proper 
treatment of the birds at and before breeding time. 
Perhaps eight or ten pair might be turned loose in a season 
and the original pair still kept breeding in confinement 
until the requisite number for fairly stocking a neighbor¬ 
hood was produced. 
A Floating Menagerie. —It is stated that a party of 
army officers, who have been engaged in mounting guns 
and otherwise putting the Gulf forts in serviceable condi¬ 
tion, while sailing through Mississippi Sound, since the re- 
ceni flood, encountered a remarkable scene. For miles 
were seen logs, driftwood and patches of turf and soil float¬ 
ing out into the gulf, filled with live animals, who clung to 
their frail barques with the tenacity of shipwrecked 
mariners. Among the animals were seen rats, raccoons, 
’possums, rabbits, alligators and moccasin snakes in un¬ 
counted numbers, all brought down from the swamps and 
marshes, perhaps from fifty to one hundred miles inland. 
The novel exhibition had a scientific interest, as it suggested 
the manner in which, during past geological periods, 
animals were transported from regions far inland to the 
mouths of estuaries, and their bones being entombed in the 
silt and soft mud, furnished the organic remains which are 
preserved for ages in the hardened strata.- It was, doubt¬ 
less, by similar means that the fossils now found in the 
solid limestones were engulfed and preserved; and also that 
animal life has been distributed over portions of the globe,, 
—Boston Journal . 
--- 
TARPUM. 
., University Museum, i 
v( Middletown, Conn., June 11, 1874. f 
Editob Fobest and Stream:— 
I notice in your issue of the 28th ult. (page 252), a communication from 
Mr. S. C. Clarke, of New Smyrna, Fla., concerning certain large fishes 
of the eastern Florida coast. The Tarpnm is doubtless Megalops thrissoi- 
des (Bloch-Schneider) Gunther, which occurs occasionally in the waters 
of the West Indies and of the east coast ot the United States. Its affin¬ 
ities are with the shad and herring family {Ciupeidce) rather than with 
the mackerel family, as Mr. Clarke supposed. It may at once be known 
by its enormous silvery scales, often two inches in diameter, and by the 
great prolongation of the last spine of the back fin. I have seen the fish 
in the Beimudas, where specimens measuring five feet are sometimes 
taken. It is known there by the name “Tarpum” and at Barbadoes by 
the somewhat similar “Caffum.” These names have a singularly bar¬ 
baric sound, and as they are only in use in American waters they may 
very possibly be the names by which they were known to the aborigines. 
Mr. Clarke says that he finds these names in Captain Roman’s “Concise 
Natural History of Florida.” I hope he will throw some additional light 
on this interesting question of names, by informing us whether the name 
“Tarpum” is at the present time used by the Florida fishermen. Megal¬ 
ops thrissoides is sometimes taken in the St. Johns River and brought to 
the Jacksonville market. Its scales are kept for sale in all the curiosity 
shops, and are much sought after by ladies who make from them and the 
scales of smaller fishes very pretty sprays. of fancy flowers. The St. 
Johns fishermen know the fish as the “Jew-fish.” The “Jew-fish” 
mentioned by Mr. Clarke, I judge from his description to belong to the 
old genus Serranus , and would probably not be classed under Professor 
Gill’s Trisotropis or Epinephrtus. The name “Grouper” is variously ap¬ 
plied at different points in the West Indies, but usually is attached to 
some member of the genus Epinephelus. The “Grouper” of the St. 
Johns is quite different, being a much shorter, higher and heavfw|sh, 
with large, smooth, pearly scales; it is known in the New York ma*jS§t 
as the “Flasher” ( Lobotee surinamensis— Cuv.), and occurs as far north 
as the Vineyard Sound, where it was taken by the United States Fish 
Commission in 1874. Gr. Brown Goode. 
-- 
Honeoye Falls, N. Y., June 8,1874. 
Editob Forest and Stbeam :— 
The picture of the Grayling in your issue of the 4th is perfect. Mr. 
Forbes has got his likeness “to a spot.” The first picture of a Grayling 
thax I ever saw was in Webster’s Unabridged, where it has scales like an 
armadillo and no second dorsal fin. Now a poor picture is worse than 
none, and the illustrations of fish in this dictionary are from old cuts, 
mostly of foreign fish. (See the mullet.) I don’t know where they got 
that cut of a mullet with two dorsals . The only other cuts of a Grayling I 
have ever seen are in Sir Humphery Davy’s “Salmonia,” and if they are 
good representations of the English fish of that name they bear no re¬ 
semblance to ours, as the eye is small, and the outlines of the first dorsal 
sharp and square. Your picture puts the fish squarely before the eyes 
of the public, who have no opportunity to see the fish itself, and they 
can judge for themselves if it be “a variety of scisco,” or “a cross be¬ 
tween a herring and a perch!” The last idea is brilliant; yet how many 
there are, men who have been among fish all their lives, too, that do not 
seem to know that animals, to cross, must have the same physical struc¬ 
ture, and even then the progeny are unfertile, and that to try to cross a 
fish with soft fins like the herring, with one that has sharp rays like a 
perch, would be as absurd as to try to cross a humming-bird with a snap 
ping turtle. Fred. Mather. 
-<»► -- 
CENTRAL PARK MENAGERIE. 
Animals received at Central Park Menagerie for the week ending 
June 13,1874. 
One Blotched Genet, Genetta tigrina. 
by Mr. P. Mooney. 
One grty Squirrel, Sciurus Carolinensis . 
[saacs. 
One Collard Peccary, Dicotyles tajacu. 
Griffin, steamship Colon. 
One Moose, Alces machlis\ female placed on exhibition. 
One Spider Monkey, Ateles belzebuth. 
One Ocelot, Felispardalis. ^ 
Three Black Wolves, Cams occidentalism ar. ater. Bred mttie w 
W. A. Conklin. 
Bab. South Africa. Presented 
Presented by Mr. Isadore 
Presented by Capt. S. P- 
