states*, 
THE STORM. 
T HE rain fell thick and fast, 
The stbrffi-clond brooded low; 
The night wind rang with a sadden blast. 
Like the sound of a coming foe. 
The billows scattered foam. 
The mountain waves were v,lute; 
Ah! for the ships that came sailing home 
From distant seas that night! 
God! didst Thou hear the prayer 
That rose from pallid lips? 
Christ! as'of-old, didsflThou meet them there— 
The wildly tossing ships? 
Thro’ all that'wearyhiight, 
Her white and trembling hand 
Held in the casement a flickering light 
To guide her love to land. 
The sun rose o’er the town, 
And sparkled on the sea— 
The Storm King flung his sceptre down. 
And peace reigned royally: 
The song bird trilled a note, 
And warbled wild and free; 
Two idle oars and an empty boat 
Were drifting out to sea! 
St. John - , N. B. — Maritime Monthly. 
This Journal is the Official Organ of the Fish Cnltur- 
. / ists 5 Association. 
WHY SHAD HAVE NOT BEEN FOUND 
ABOVE THE HOLYOKE DAM. 
P UBLIC expectation, not only in regard to fish culture, 
but as to many other mundane matters, is terribly im¬ 
patient. Exactly as a child plants a seed in the earth and 
digs it up again within the hour, to see if it has sprouted, 
so do we children of larger growth express our dissatisfac¬ 
tion at what we deem to be the slow progress Nature makes. 
But this is not the worst of it. We even require, at times, 
that certain phenomena should occur for our special bene¬ 
fit, which are diametrically opposed to natural laws. We 
instance particularly the very premature dissatisfaction 
expressed in regard to the absence of shad above the new 
fishways at Holyoke, in the Connecticut river and the 
Susquehanna above the Columbia dam. Last week we 
published a letter from Professor Baird dated the 22d of 
June, which letter unfortunately had been delayed by us, 
from want of room two weeks. In his correspondence, 
the chief commissioner explains fully why it is impossi¬ 
ble that shad could be found above the fishways, for the 
simple reason that we ought not to expect shad to ascend 
above the point where they had been introduced as young 
fish, and that no shad had ever been placed above these 
dams; or at any rate not long enough before this summer 
to have attained maturity. Marvellous though it may be, 
once the action of anadromous fish is fully understood, the 
matter becomes wonderfully simple. Professor Baird 
states as follows:—“ It is one of the axioms ot fish cul- 
turists, and that upon which the efforts at stocking rivers 
are essentially based, namely, that the fish return to spawn 
to the place where they were born, or where they were 
first introduced into the rivers.” Now, it seems certain, 
that no young shad ever were put above Holyoke dam, and 
that though fish were hatched out at Newport, Penn., 
above the Columbia dam, it is too early to expect them to 
return. If young fish were put this season in the Con¬ 
necticut river, above the dam, it might be fully three years 
before we could find out whether they would return. Not 
until 1876-7, can we be able to decide whether the young 
shad, first quickened into life in 1873, will start up stream, 
pass the fishway, and be found above it, searching by 
some mysterious instinct for the exact place of their birth, 
in order that there and there only they may reproduce 
their kind. 
The chief commissioner of fisheries therefore begs a 
suspension of public opinion until the proper time shall 
arrive. If life is short and art is long, the same remark 
holds good as to fish culture. It is asking too much of 
nature to bid her hurry up, regardless of her laws, in 
order to please our childish impatience. It is well for her 
and for us that she bides her time. 
For Forest and Stream. 
THE HABITAT OF THE BROOK TROUT. 
T HE possibility of enlaiging the extent of the habitat 
of the brook‘trout is worthy of consideration. Much 
ignorance exists, even at this day, as to the conditions nec¬ 
essary to the life and sustenance of the speckled beauty. 
The brook trout has a much wider range on this continent 
than the salmon; he does not depend upon access to Arctic 
seas, because although kin to the solar, lie is not anadro¬ 
mous, and is found in beadwarters of streams flowing into 
the Gulf of Mexico as well as those debouching into the 
cold waters near Labrador. Most men living in the north 
think that there arc no trout south of Virginia. This error 
is on the increase, because in the south they call the black 
bass trout, and except where the brook trout is abundant, 
do not understand the distinction between the two fish. 
Now it seems to me that the brodk trout may be introduced 
in any stream of pure clear water, which does not rise in 
temperature above 60 deg., if it be sluggish, or above 65 
deg., in lively rapid water, in the hottest day in the year. 
No matter where this stream be, even if it should be in the 
Torrid zone. To be clear, the headwaters of the Amazon 
in South America may have trout introduced into them if 
you only go high enough up to reach the right temperature. 
Trout cannot be injured by the unsuitableness of the lower 
part of the stream as salmon may. Trout are found in 
America on the Atlantic side from Maine to the extremity 
of the Appalachians in Alabama. If this theory be true 
there are many streams now barren of trout t.lia.t might be 
made to teem with this valuable fisli. Near Sewanee, in 
Tennessee, there are many streams, like Elk River, clear, 
with sandy, gravelly bottom and fed by springs at short 
intervals all along their course, and.so cold in some places 
that swimmers dislike to swim them near the large springs 
springing up close to the banks or in the very beds them- 
■ selves. This stream has a good many black bass in it, and 
used to be full of that fisli. The natives here seine the 
j streams without mercy, and now many'are barren which 
I used to abound in fine fish. Some of the lovers of the 
! rod mean to try this stream with the fly to test whether 
| black bass here take the artificial morsel. They have 
- been caught here by casting alive minnow near them in 
\ a clear stream and might be induced to take lire fly, we 
j think, especially as they take greedily the “red bob,” as 
■ the fishermen here call it, trolled from a dug-out. If there 
i be any hidden reason why trout streams may not liere- 
J'after exist in high elevations in low latitudes, we would like 
• to know through your columns from some of your able 
\ correspondents. Limestone water does not kill them, for 
I have caught them near Leesburg, in Virginia, in a spring 
branch flowing from a limestone spring. If the watery 
citizens here take the fly you will be notified. T. W. 
--- 
United States Fisii Commission. —Here is a brief 
letter relative to the efforts now being made under the 
present Congressional appropriation, to introduce shad to 
the western waters. One batch, taken from the Connecti¬ 
cut has been delivered, and a second (herein referred to) is 
by this time probably at its destination: 
Holyoke, Mass., July 12th, 1874. 
Ed. Forest and Stream:— 
Just arrived from Bellfoutaine, O., last night and leave 
for Elkhart, Ind., to-morrow. We (United States Fisfl 
Commissioner are whacking the shad through lively. Had 
no chance to fish with fly here, too much rain and muddy 
no water; i aw a boy take one last Wednesday. Many fishing 
from the bridge then; but water too cloudy. They haul a 
shad up from the water in the bridge, I should think 35 or 
40 feet. From the bridge they fisli with long hand lines, 
but use rods from boats. 
Fred. Mather. 
AUTOPSY OF A SALMON. 
IiY THADDEUS NORRJS. 
I F an inquest is held before applying the knife, and the 
coroner asks “from what cause does this form of sym¬ 
metrical proportions and glistening exterior lie before us? 
from a natural death or one of violence?” the angler re¬ 
plies “from a natural death.” “What” says the coroner, 
“is there not a deep wound made by the gaff you hold in 
your hand, and is not the blood still oozing from its side?” 
“True sir,” rejoins the angler, “and yet it was a natural 
death, though initiated in artifice and consummated in vio¬ 
lence. You see, sir, this despot in his ocean home, this 
aristocrat, this bright mailed, roving cavalier, is native to, 
and spends his summers in, this river. After surmount¬ 
ing that pitch of three feet, he stopped just on the 
brink, as is the custom, and I essayed to break a lance with 
him, or rather gave him opportunity to break this seven¬ 
teen foot ashen withe. So I deftly cast my gauntlet 
of fur, feather and hook on the brim of the pool just above, 
and as it swung with the current over his lair, his predatory 
nature prompted him to seize it. Td recover my own there 
ensued a long contest in Avhicli I vanquished him. And 
how could he die a more natural death than by an angler’s 
hand?” 
Let us pause a few moments in admiration over the body 
of this fresh run salmon. The substance which imparts so 
brilliant a lustre is secreted in the skin just beneath the scales, 
which are entirely transparent, and corneous. The dis¬ 
tinct line extending from the upper portion of the gill cover* 
to the root of the caudal fin is formed by perforations in 
the centre of those scales. Why these perforations? Take 
off one of the scales and you will find upon the inner sur¬ 
face, almost invisible with a microscope, a minute tube- 
which penetrates the skin. It is a branch of a longer duct 
originating in the glands of the head, where a mucous sub- 
stance—sucli is the accepted theory—is secreted, and trans¬ 
mitted along the body through the apertures, in the scales 
of the medial or lateral line, thus forming a lubricating 
coat of slime which defends the skin from the action of the 
water. The main tube is plainly to be seen on cutting a 
salmon transversely. 
Beginning at the head is also a thick, tough cord, some¬ 
what flattened, buried in the muscles, and running down 
to the anterior portion of the first dorsal fin; then commenc¬ 
ing posteriorly, it continues and crops out in the cartilaginous 
projection called the adipose fin, thus forming a somewhat 
ornamental terminus. 
Between the skin and the muscles—or pink tinted flesh, 
as most persons see it—from head to tail, encircling the 
body, there is an elastic tissue filled with gelatinous fat, 
somewhat like the blubber of a whale, although in smaller 
proportion. This tissue becomes thinner as summer and 
autumn pass, and the days and nights of procreation come 
on. In it is stored the aliment which it acquired on its 
marine feeding grounds and which sustains its gradually 
wasting body for long months; for it does not feed in the 
river, no food ever having been found in its stomach there. 
We will boil the half of this salmon presently.in our 
camp kettle, and between the flakes of flesh find a thick 
curd; an evidence of high condition. This is the connect¬ 
ing tissue, dissolved at first by moderate heat, then, like 
other albuminous liquids, coagulated in further boiling. 
This also wastes away as the season advances and the roe 
and melt are proportionately developed. 
Let us consider of this rapid swimmer and wonderful 
vaulter. First of all comes the pectoral fins, projecting 
from the humeral bones, and if allowed the comparison, 
analogous to the arms in man. These with the ventrals, 
half way down, and the caudal or tail fin, are its propellers. 
The caudal, which in a salmon of sixteen pounds, and 
thirty-three inches long, has a spread of nine inches, is many 
times more powerful than all the other fins combined. It is 1 
sometimes moved as a sculling oar, acts as a rudder, and is 
the chief power in leaping a cataract; a depth of water be¬ 
low, however, being necessary that, the fish may acquire 
impetus; just as a boy takes a good run to make his best 
jump. The caudal is also sometimes mischievously used— 
though rarely—in slapping at a fly on the surface, and 
thus is hooked as the trout is, in or near the tail, by the 
angler’s counterfeit. If we observe the mot ions of fish in an 
aquarium with glass sides we will find that the pectoral 
fins are used alternately, and sometimes with a backward 
motion with the evident object of keeping the body, for s 
the time, in a fixed position. 
The anal and large dorsal serve to keep the fish “on an 
even keel.” The second dorsal, which, as before stated, is 
a mere adipose cartilage, is a distinguishing characteristic 
of the 8almonidm\ and although apparently entirely useless 
to its possessor, is sometimes turned to account, b}^ punch- 
a hole in it, or clipping, or slitting, or attaching a thin 
piece of metal, to note the growth of the fish on its return 
from sea. 
Let us take off the head. Opening it beneath we find a 
series of leaflets, called gills, suspended on arches termed 
“os hy odes .” Each leaflet is covered with a tissue of innu¬ 
merable blood vessels. The water drawn into the mouth 
in breathino- passes out through the gill covers, while the 
air,in the water is retained and acts, on the blood, which is 
constantly impelled from the heart through the gills. The 
venous blood, after being changed into arterial by its con¬ 
tact with the air, passes into the arterial trunk, under the 
spine, and is dispersed through the body by diminishing, 
blood vessels, again to return to the heart through the veins. 
For this reason the blood of a fish is always cold; some¬ 
times beneath the temperature of the water it inhabits. 
Immediately beneath the back bone is the air bladder, 
divided into two lobes, which, by contraction or expansion 
assists the fish in rising or sinking, or maintaining any 
desired elevation in the water. Thus in still water, as a 
net is drawn in, the bubbles on the surface are an indication 
of the catch, as fish instinctively discharge air that they 
may sink to the bottom. In connection with the gills, the 
air bladder is analogous to the lungs in land vertebrates. 
The gills are exceedingly tender. If the anglers’ hook 
pierces them ever so slightly, a bleeding at the lungs, it 
may be termed, is a sure precursor of death. 
The stomach and viscera, as will appear to the most care¬ 
less observer, are si*nple. The former is crooked abruptly, 
and the food, after passing the turn, is always decomposed. 
In predatory species the tail of the victim may be in the 
throat while the head is being gradually dissolved in the 
posterior portion of the stomach of the captor. 
No one ever sees a salmon with a protuberant belly—as 
we frequently see a pike, a perch or a trout—unless it be in 
autumn in a gravid fish. The cavity in a salmon is exceed¬ 
ingly small, and the flesh on the belly of one of twelve 
pounds, when in condition, is at least an inch thick. And 
thus, with its small head, it probably gives more edible 
food for its weight than any other animal. There is hardly 
a pound of offal in a fish of the weight just named. Un¬ 
like other fish, which are considered light food, a pound 
oi its flesh is estimated to contain as much nutriment as a 
pound of beef. On the river the angler soon becomes 
cloyed and tired of fresh salmon. 
The timbers Composing the frame work of this fast craft 
are well worthy of study. The backbone is composed 
of a series of round bones so joined as to give easy lateral 
motion, and one who lias hooked and played a salmon 
is well aware of the supple and powerful play of that 
backbone. There are fifty-seven of these vertebrae, from 
the upper surface of which arises a series of bones con¬ 
nected by a membrane which gives attachment to a thick 
layer of muscles. To the latter the dorsal fin is attached. 
There are thirty-one neatly curved ribs on a side, form¬ 
ing a graceful arch. These are strong and elastic, each 
fixed on its own vertebra by a movable joint, to accomo¬ 
date the increasing mass of eggs as the time of spawn¬ 
ing draws on, when, as in the shad, the ova equal about 
one fifth of the fish’s weight. 
As is the case with the shad, they frequently die from the 
exhausting effect of spawning. An abrasion of the skin is 
very apt to prove fatal, while a severe gash generally heals, 
although it may leave an ugly mark or even deformity. I 
have seen a trout recover and thrive with half of its under¬ 
jaw torn off by a hook. I have also killed a salmon late 
in the fly-fishing season with a healed wound almost as 
deep as the backbone, made a few months before by an 
Indian’s spear. 
There is a way of setting up the skeleton of a fish, which, 
has been adopted of late years by expert taxidermists, 
showing the minutest bone in its structure. Thus, when 
an interesting specimen has even become putrid, the angler 
or naturalist may at least preserve the frame work. 
--— 
ICTHYC FAUNA OF NORTHWESTERN 
AMERICA. 
^ - ♦ - 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
The ictliyc fauna of Northwestern America are probably less known 
than those of any other portion of the civilized world, and this fact may 
be attributed to the want of interest manifested by our Government in 
such matters, and also the scarcity of scientific men who are interested 
in icthyology, or else their lack of time to prosecute'the study irwthis 
distant quarter. The amateur in this science has many difficulties to 
encounter in classifying the various species, as he must be far distant 
from authorities on the subject out here, and even were books of refer¬ 
ence convenient, he would find it a difficult matter to know which no¬ 
menclature to adopt, and still more difficult to reconcile the discrepan¬ 
cies between the various authors, for the greater number differ in many 
important points necessary to the proper identification of a variety or 
species but comparatively little known. Our remarks, therefore, must 
be limited to general outlines, rather than to the technical detail which 
men of science require.; but we have had one advantage—the study of 
the varieties in their native element—which the scientists do not always 
possess, and this may atone in some degree for the absence of a thor-. 
ough technical description. 
It may be asserted as a general remark, that though the rivers in the 
greater portion of the northwest lying between the 35th and 50th paral¬ 
lels never freeze over, yet, only the few species of fish of the many fre - 
quenting them, are constant residents. The principal of these are the 
salmonidse family, excluding, of course, those that enter them to spawn. 
The most prominent features of the icthyc fauna of the Pacific region are 
' the cathaphracti, or mailed cheeks, the embiotocoids, or viviparous fam¬ 
ily, the heterolepids, and the trachinids. 
The gadoids are represented by a cod and a whiting; the pleuronec- 
tids or flatfish are very abundant, though we have no rhombus or turbot. 
The scamberoids are very scarce, as comber or mackerel, a pelamys and 
