April 17, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



229 



we value life of all kinds, including our own, as something, 

 Which we can take but cannot give" 



"Colonel,'' said I, "you have stated a fact that we all ac- 

 knowledge as time passes, I remember, when a boy of 

 twelve years old. that three of us borrowed a gun, an old 

 musket, and went to the outskirts of the village to shoot 

 •game.' We saw a little yellow bird on a thistle-top picking 

 tile seeds in o perfect souse ot security, aud, as the oldest, I 

 claimed the right to shoot. Advancing behind the fence, I 

 put the old musket through the rails and rested if'on one of 

 them, with the muzzle of the gun within ten feet of the little 

 innocent, pulled the trigger, and then jumped the fence and 

 exulted over a shattered mass of skin and feathers, which a 

 moment before had been a living thing of beauty in the full 

 enjoyment of life. O, had some sensible man, wearing a 

 stout boot, been there, aud had he applied the boot impar- 

 tially, he would have enforced a lesson that took years to 

 learn in a slow war." 



"True," broke in the Doctor, "but having learned this 

 lesson of the value of life by years of observation, and the 

 ease with which it can be destroyed aud the impossibility of 

 restoring it, you are in duty bound to teach this to the new 

 crop of boys which is constantly coming to the front, and 

 Who are as thoughtless and heedless as you were." 



"It's no use. "said the Colonel, "there are many things 

 that boys must learn for themselves. One of those is the 

 value of life. Some boys learn it at fort)', some at fifty and 

 some never seem to know- that any life is of value except 

 their own and that of their fellow man. I once talked with 

 a man on the subject of shooting birds in the nesting season. 

 He asked why he should not kill birds at any time be wished, 

 and when I said that the idea of young birds starving in the 

 nest should be enough to deter one from killing the parents, 

 he brutally answered that their sufferings were nothing to 

 him, he only considered Ins own wants. Of course, there is 

 no more to be said to such a man, yet he was a professor in 

 a German university." 



"How many fish "did Jack taker'' 



".Tack has not yet learned to give Ins line time enough be- 

 hind him in retrieving and he snapped off seveu flies, which 

 lost him that number of chances, or our system of alternate 

 fishing would have equalized our catch.' I made him lose 

 his chance every time he lost his fly, hoping to make him 

 more careful in future." Fred Mather. 



BLACK BASS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



AX article in the Worcester 8py K which from the style 

 we think was written by our friend Mr. S. H. Cbe, 

 sums irp the character of the black bass in all its qualities of 

 game, table and other points. We make the following ex- 

 tracts from it, though we do not agree with the writer on 

 the odor of the black bass, which to us seems an agreeable 

 weedy flavor, yet we do not, care for them on the table. He 

 says : 



Of the several towns in this vicinity which began experi 

 menting with black bass, it is doubtful if there is "one which 

 is fully satisfied with the result of the undertaking. Mendon 

 Pond was one of the first to receive attention, through the 

 efforts of a company of sportsmen, and they were among 

 the first to be dissatisfied with the results attained, or rather 

 the lack of results. There are bass, large ones too, to be 

 seen in the waters of the pond, but they defy the ingenuity 

 of an angler and the dead-falls of the potter alike. Occasion 

 ally one can be taken by still-fishing with a mud worm, but 

 there is no sport for a sportsman. Experiments were tried 

 at Asnebumskit, in Paxton, but the results have not been 

 satisfactory. At Lake Chauncey, in Westboro, there has 

 been a fair measure of success, and the same may be said of 

 Crystal Lake, in Gardner, but at neither of these places has 

 the outcome been what anticipation pictured. In Brookfield 

 all has not been realized that was anticipated. In the Lynde 

 Brook reservoir the fish were considered as doing well till 

 the disaster of 1876, which carried away the dam, the 

 waters behind the dam and the bass in the waters. Millbury is 

 the last of the towns in this vicinity to make the experiment 

 and the result is unsatisfactory. * Webster was one of the 

 first of the Worcester county towns to make the experiment 

 and is satisfied with the results as far as numbers and sport 

 are concerned. While the various towns have met with 

 varying degrees of success, have the bass been yet given a 

 fair trial? 



An alien to New England waters it has been brought here 

 and left to shift for itself. Turned loose among fresh-water 

 sharks in waters abouuding in other fish which prey not 

 only upon their own, but the spawn of all other occupants of 

 the same waters, has the bass experiment been tried under 

 the most favorable circumstances? Once large enough it is 

 well able to take care of itself, and it seems to be the verdict 

 of all who have studied its habits that it is more of a fresh- 

 water shark than the pickerel, and every half-pound pick- 

 erel is looked upon as having eaten three times its weight in 

 other fish. The bass has been here but a few years, hardly 

 more than ten in the ponds first stocked. Other varieties, 

 pickerel, perch and the like, in the waters where the bass 

 have been introduced, have not held their own. All inter- 

 ested seem to agree in testifying that they nave diminished 

 rapidly. 



And the black bass is the gamiest fish of its size that 

 swims in any water, fresh or salt. It fights continuously 

 from the time it is hooked till it is brought to net. It neve'r 

 sulks, like the salmon, and goes to the bottom after being 

 hooked only when it sees a possible chance for escape among 

 the rocks or weeds at the bottom of the pond or stream. A 

 bass always forces the fighting, and is never upon the de- 

 fensive. The riv ment he is hooked he comes to the surface, 

 jumps clear of the water, sometimes to a height of between 

 two and three feet, and shakes himself vigorously while in 

 the air, in the effort to dislodge the hook. Then he makes a 

 rush through the water for the same purpose, following the 

 first with other rushes, and often breaking watei two and 

 three times, and sometimes more, in his efforts to escape. 

 Only when forced by sheer exhaustion to swim on his side, 

 does he show signs" of quitting, and then he usually has 

 vitality enough left for another struggle in deep Water when 

 he nears the boat. He seldom breaks water again after once 

 turning upon his side. He is a better fighter than the trout, 

 but the pleasure of catching him ends with the landing. A 

 trout landed is beautiful to look at; to the enthusiastic 

 sportsman there is no handsomer sight. The bass has noth- 

 ing to recommend him in this direction, and he is the 

 "stinkingest" fish found in freshwater, and admiration of 

 his fighting qualities is often turned to disgust by the dis- 

 gieeable odor he emits when being unhooked. 



For the table he is pronounced undesirable, because of the 

 coarseness of the flesh, but he has not grown coarse since he 

 was the general favorite for introduction in New England 



waters. He was as coarse then as now, and under a coaise 

 scale tine flesh is seldom found, especially when that scale is 

 set into a skin tougher than that worn by any of the fish 

 found in the waters of this vicinity, when 'the bass was in- 

 troduced. But there is no bad taste about a bass. On the 

 contrary, although coaise, it is sweet, with the added merit 

 that the bones are large and easily detected. 



Even at Webster, where the bass is quite freely taken, his 

 habits are not yet fully understood, and he still defies the 

 sportsman's cunning, refusing many tunes to be taken after 

 the latter has exhausted all his patience, drawn upon all his 

 resources, and employed all the art he may possess. They 

 seldom take an artificial fly, although on other Worcester 

 county ponds they rise fairly, and it is believed can be 

 brought up by a "Ferguson" at any time in July or August. 

 Sometimes a trolling spoon coaxes* them to strike, but it is 

 never sure. A common mud worm is good at times, but 

 fails often. Grasshoppers are good to-day, useless to-morrow. 

 Live bait users tell the same story. Bass are not strong- 

 biters as a rule, showing their strength only when hooked. 

 Then coolness, judgment, skill and good tackle are necessary, 

 or the bass, no matter how securely he may be hooked, has 

 a good chance for escape. Whether us'ing artificial or 

 natural bait he can be handled best with a fly-rod and click 

 reel. 



The Fish Commissioners do not abandon the bass, although 

 many who have taken the trouble to introduce them do. It 

 may be possible that they have done so hastily. It is cer- 

 tain that there is more sport taking black bass than any 

 other kind of fresh-water fish, and if taken for sport alone 

 there is no reason for finding fault with him. For food he 

 is as desirable as when the experiments were begun. He has 

 not increased in numbers as fast as was anticipated, but has 

 time enough elapsed to make the experiments thorough? In 

 size he excels any fish that will live in ponds in this vicinity, 

 specimens weighing two pounds being freely taken, with 

 those weighing three and four not infrequent, while occa- 

 sionally those weighing five or six pounds are captured. 

 The friends of the bass say give him a chance and you will 

 be satisfied, while the sportsmen admit that for sport he is 

 unequalled. The raising of any fish in fresh water for 

 profit save trout in very retired localities, is out of the ques- 

 tion. Is not the bass, the sportsmen's delight, then, prefer- 

 able to perch or pickerel? 



THE DUBLIN POND TROUT. 



Prof. Spencer F. Bairel, Director XT. S. Xotional Museum; 



Sir— With reference to the trout recently received from 

 Mr. Walter J. Greenwood, fish and game warden. Dublin, 

 N. H., I have the following communication to make: These 

 trout have also been made the subject of a letter to Mr. 

 Richardson from Mr. J. H. Kimball, of Hillsboro, N. H. 

 They have been referred to, also, in the Boston Journal of 

 March '-'2, under the title of "Dublin Trout,' - and are also 

 mentioned in Forest akd Stream of March 27, 1884, page 

 170. second column, under the title "A Peculiar Fish." 



After a careful examination of the individuals received 

 from Mr. Greenwood, I arrived at the conclusion that they 

 are the common brook trout, Salvdinus fonlinedis, diflering 

 in no respects, so far as I can see, from the usual type of the 

 species, excepting in their pale coloration and few vermilion 

 spots — variations which I have frequently observed in trout 

 from widely different localities. In order to aid in deter- 

 mining the species, I record the following characters of the 

 Monadnock lake trout : 



It is a Salvelinus without hyoid teeth. The gill rakers are 

 fifteen to sixteen in number; there are about 115 tubes in the 

 lateral line, the number of rows of scales, of course, being 

 much greater. The eye equals the snout in length, and is 

 contained four and one-half times in the length of the head. 

 The maxilla reaches a little beyond the vertical from the pos- 

 terior margin of the orbit, and is nearly one-half as long as 

 the head. The origin of the dorsal is nearly midway 

 between the tip of the snout and the root of the upper caudal 

 lobe. The length of the pectoral is one-sixth of the total 

 without caudal. Dorsal ten; anal ten. Coloration silvery- 

 gray on the upper parts, whitish below ; pectorals, ventrals, 

 and anal, largely vermilion : vermilion spots on the sides few 

 in number. Takleton II. Bean, 



Curator, Dept. of Fishes, U. S. National Museum. 



Washington, April 5, 1884. 



"BIRCH LAKE PERCH." 



A LETTER from "S. E. B." appeared in these columns 

 two wrecks since deprecating the wholesale destruction 

 of fish in .Michigan lakes by netting and fishing with hook 

 and line through the ice. Although "S. E. B." is "away 

 off" as regards the law and also as regards the location of 

 "Birch Lake," still his strictures are timely, and his inten- 

 tions evidently are to do good, The clause he quotes as 

 from the laws of Michigauriiowever, is not to be found in 

 them anywhere, while his suspicion that "Birch Lake" is a 

 misnomer for some Northern Michigan sheet of water is 

 altogether unjust. Mr. Gillman has never heard of "Birch 

 Lake"; never fished it to his knowledge ; in fact is surprised 

 to have "S. E. B." quote him as knowing its whereabouts. 

 And as Mr. G. has never been in Manitoba, I don't wonder 

 at his ignoranceof the lake; for "Birch Lake," be it known, 

 is but another name for Lake Winnipeg or a small lake near 

 Lake Winnipeg. At all events, seventeen car loads of fish 

 have been brought down from Manitoba by the Buffalo firm 

 that our skeptical brother thinks also a myth. Of the seven- 

 teen car loads three or four have been distributed by Detroit 

 parties, who acted as agents for the Buffalo firm, in Michi- 

 gan, Ohio and Indiana. 



The fish were of the variety called shovel- nose pike, and 

 ran remarkably even as regards size and weight, averaging 

 from three pounds to five pounds each. None were larger 

 than five pounds and few less than three pounds. They were 

 caught by Indians who fished through the ice with'hooks 

 and lines, and the fish were nearly incredibly voracious and 

 hungry. They hit at anything dropped in the water, and 

 could be jerked out as fast as one pleased. Caught in a tem- 

 perature of 2(1 to 40 degrees below zero they froze at once, 

 and then were hauled nearly 100 miles to a railroad, where 

 they were packed in cars, or rather corded up like so many 

 sticks of wood. Upon the arrival in Buffalo or Detroit, the 

 inside of the car would be found literally covered with frost 

 and the fish as soiid as ice. Arriving as they did in superb 

 condition, they met with ready sale, and the meat moreover 

 was pink in color, aud like nearly all the fish from the north- 

 ern lakes, very palatable. 



When the first lot reached Buffalo, the question with the 

 fish firm w T as. what shall we call them, and then the BiEch 

 Lake name was pitched upon and they were called "Birch 



Lake Perch." Anything to make them sell, you know. The 

 season is now by for them. At any rate. 'a carload, I am 

 told, went, begging for a purchaser last week in Chicago. 



So much for Birch Lake, but after all I don't wonder that 

 "S. E. B." is skeptical, or that he apparently has great con- 

 fidence in the contents of our Michigan lakes to feed the mul- 

 titude, at least for a while. Had he not the confidence he 

 would never have imagined that Birch Lake, from which 

 seventeen full carloads of fish have been taken inside a few 

 weeks with hooks and lines, was situated in Michigan. He 

 knows perhaps a few lakes as I do that might pan out nearly 

 as well. I took the pains to ascertain the" above facts, and 

 my authority is undoubted for declaring that "S. E. B." is 

 all wrong in the conjectures he made. His letter won't do 

 any harm, however, for our Michigan fish are certainly 

 greatly lessened in numbers yearly. Delta. 



Detroit, April 12. i - 



FISHING THROUGH THE ICE. 



Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of March 20 is an article on fishing through 

 the ice. Now let me say, and I speak from actual knowl- 

 edge, it is a mistaken idea that fishing through the ice lessens 

 the amount of fish taken by the rod during'the summer. I 

 know of several large ponds that have been fished through 

 the ice thoroughly for years, and the supply seemed to lie 

 inexhaustible. Ten years ago they were stocked with black 

 bass, and fishing was prohibited for seven years. Since that 

 time it is almost impossible to get many fish, while other 

 ponds of small area have been thoroughly fished, winter and 

 summer, and now yield good strings of" good-size 1 pickerel 

 in only a few hours' fishing. The 'facts are that Ihe large 

 iish eat up the small ones, and that is the whole secret. I 

 say if a man wants to freeze up and fish through the ice and 

 catch the large ones, let him do so, and then in the summer 

 he can have better sport than if no traps were used through 

 the ice. 



A few years ago, while fishing for trout in the early spring 

 at Eangcley Lake, a party of three of us caught in one hour 

 thirteen trout that averaged four and a half "pounds apiece, 

 on ground that had been' thoroughly fished through the ice 

 all winter, and I hooked one and took from his stomach a 

 dace, or chub, that was over a foot long, that was partly 

 digested. Fortunately for the fish, but unfortunately for me, 

 it hooked in his dinner instead of his stomach. 



S. P. Hebbarxj, M.D. 



[When we wrote the article in question we were under the 

 impression that if a pond contained a certain number of fish 

 alter the season's fishing, all those taken through the ice 

 would necessarily be subtracted from that number. We now 

 see that a lake which is thoroughly fished through the ice all 

 winter is not robbed of its fish, because only the big ones are 

 taken, and the tingerlings grow' to take the places of the cap- 

 tured ones in a few weeks. The results of fishing in the 

 Kangeley Lakes, as quoted by our correspondent, are con- 

 vincing, and instead of propagating fish to stock these waters, 

 it will be well for the Commissioners of Fisheries to have 

 them thoroughly fished through the ice each winter.] 



TENNESSEE NOTES. 



THE angling season began in earnest on the 1st of April, 

 and already a number of parties have been out to the 

 various streams of Middle Tennessee. Ben McCann, Ander- 

 son Crosswaite and four others returned from White Oak on 

 the 7th, having had royal sport each day they were there. 

 General Ira P. Jones had a splendid day in the preserved 

 waters of the Rockvalc Club, at TumbulL Hermann Burk- 

 holz, Jim Palmer and Jack Bentley are at present on the 

 banks of South Harpetk, and Messrs. Eugene and Allert 

 left for Buffalo to-day. 



Besides the above, hundreds of less well-fixed disciples do 

 White's and Mill creeks, bringing home very creditable 

 creels. It is generally conceded that ihe streams are more 

 abundantly supplied with fish this year than any within the 

 last ten. I am glad to learn, from every section of the State, 

 that the feeling in favor of enforcing the protective laws is 

 gradually growing stronger. This is all that is necessary; 

 for, situated as is this favored region, millions of fine fish 

 from the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers will annually 

 seek spawning grounds in those of then tributaries which 

 rise in or run through it. 



Mr. Warner is succeeding admirably at his trout hatch- 

 eries near Craggie Hope, in Cheatham county. Hitherto he 

 has imported the spawn (to be hatched) from the North, but 

 last year he stripped a number of his native bred fish, and 

 their spawn came, to maturity and yielded a large percentage 

 of healthy fry. There are a great many localities in the 

 State where an abundance of sufficiently cold water can be 

 found, to establish even larger hatcheries than the one above 

 mentioned, and it is safe to predict their early utilization 

 since Mr. Warner has practically tested the feasibility of the 

 industry. 



It is amusing to read the various opinions as expressed 

 with reference to the German carp as a food fish. It has 

 been considered a delicacy in Europe for the past 1.000 years, 

 aud is so much in demand at present, that carp pond projects 

 (on colossal scales) form the theme of hundreds of newspaper 

 items. Compared to the flesh of the salmon, trout and bass, 

 or red snapper, Spanish mackerel, pompano. sheepshead, or 

 codfish, it is less firm and savory, but then there are thous- 

 ands of persons w r ho cannot enjoy the pleasure of eating 

 them, while the carp can be raised anywhere and in un- 

 limited quantities, and serves as an elegant substitute for the 

 more delicious varieties named. i. D. H. 



New Law 7 in Iowa. — The Iowa Legislature has enacted a 

 law preventing the spearing of fish in any of the permanent 

 lakes or ponds or outlets or inlets thereto within the State, 

 between the hrst day of November and the thirty first day of 

 May next following. The sale of fish so taken "is made un- 

 lawful. Any person who may draw from the water any 

 game fish, such as pike, bass and the like, when seining for 

 minuows for bait, shall return the same without injury 

 under the penalties of this act. 



The Adikoxdacks.— April 10.— It may be interesting to 

 Adirondack fishermen to know that a letter with date of 

 8th inst. has just been received from Blue Mountain Lake, 

 Hamilton county, N. Y., which says, "Sleighing is good as 

 any time this winter, and the ice in the lake is two and one- 

 half feet in thickness."— T. 8. S. 



The Limited Payment Policies of the Travelers, of Hartford, Conn., 

 concentrate payments into tiie forking years ot a man's life, and 

 leave kirn free from all worry in his later years even if helpless,— 

 Ade. 



