July 24, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



511 



troduced at considerable trouble and expense, as it was 

 thought to be excellent food for the carp. Prof. Baird will 

 cause every vestige of it to be immediately removed from 

 the Government ponds, and will warn carp-culturists 

 everywhere to examine their ponds and destroy any that 

 may be found there. 



The specimen received from England has been placed on 

 exhibition in the Fishery Section of the National Museum, 

 where it can be seen by any who are interested iti the 

 subject. R. Edward Earll. 



National MusmSM, July 10. 



THE SCHOODICS. 



AT the Schoodics some good fishing for landlocked salmon 

 has been enjoyed, though there comes the same com- 

 plaint of unfavorable weather. The mystery is as great as 

 over why these lakes afford no large fish, unless the food 

 theory is correct. There is no appreciable difference be- 

 tween the Grand Lake salmon and thos« from the Sebago 

 waters, except in point of size, and yet fish have been taken 

 from the latter waters weighing twenty -five pounds, while 

 the salmon from the Schoodics (Grand Lake) seldom go 

 above two pounds, and four-pound fish are very rare. The 

 explanation of both Messrs. Stillwell and Stanley, Fish Com- 

 missioners of Maine, is that the food in the one lake is abun- 

 dant and of the right, sort, while in the other waters it is a 

 quantity unknown or but little understood. This theory 

 would seem to be confirmed, from the fact that large salmon 

 are already being found in the Androscoggin lakes, although 

 they have" been but a few years stocked with these fish. A 

 salmon was hooked the other day in Mooselucmaguntic 

 Lake, which was large enough to break away from a rigging 

 which would have been ample to have secured an eight- 

 pound "red spot." A five-pound salmon has also lately been 

 taken from Umbagcg Lake, of the same chain. Besides, 

 Mr. Stanley mentions seeing one on the spawning beds in 

 Rangeley Stream (Audroscoggia waters) when taking brook 

 trout for propagation, in the fall of 1882, which must have 

 weighed ten pounds. The abundance of fresh-water smelts 

 in the Sebago and the innumerable chub and dace (Cyprimdm) 

 in the Androscoggin waters are doubtless the cause of the 

 large size of the"' 'black spots" (landlocked salmon) as com- 

 pared with the Schoodic fish. Special. 



GREENWOOD -Pond.—- Monson, Me,, July 16.— The num- 

 erous visitors to Lake Onaway (Ship Pond), in Elliottsville 

 township, will be pleased to learn that E. H". Gerrish, the 

 well-known guide, will open his camps at that beautiful re- 

 sort about Aug. 1 , and will remain there about two months. 

 1 spent four days a short time ago, camping and fishing at 

 Greenwood Pond, one mile from Onaway, which is the 

 water crossed by the traveler in his route to the latter place. 

 Lake and sported trout from two pounds to four pounds in 

 weight were quite plenty. Many lake trout are taken in 

 this pond which weigh six, eight and ten, and sometimes 

 twelve pounds. The scenery is good, and although there 

 are no land-locked salmon here as in Onaway, I believe, the 

 other fish are much more abundant, and I advise those who 

 intend to visit Onaway the present season to tarry for awhile 

 at Greenwood, where they will undowbtedly find" satisfactory 

 sport, The spotted trout will rise to a fly, and the angler 

 who retains the habit of the fathers by fishing with "live 

 bait" and worms cannot fail of having a "good time." The 

 laws against poaching and the special laws against winter 

 fishing on several ponds are well enforced, and their good 

 results are already apparent to all observers.— J. F. S. 



Croton Lake.— New York City, July 19. — Editor Forest 

 and Stream: Croton Lake, in Westchester county, is a splen- 

 did place for the New York business man to spend a few 

 days fishing for bass. Every summer I make it a point to 

 spend several days on this lake. The lake is filled with bass, 

 white and 3 r ellow perch ; the largest bass I ever saw taken 

 there was last August; it weighed exactly 5 pounds 5 ounces, 

 there are a great many taken weighing over 3 pounds, 

 but the usual size is three-quarters to a pound. In one day's 

 fishing my companion and myself took 279 bass, weighing 

 147 pounds. I have also, with two companions, taken a bushel 

 basket full of perch in one day's fishing. The bass do not 

 take a fly well and will not often bite at the spoon. 1 have 

 always found the grasshopper and especially the cricket the 

 most effective in killing. I write that you may let your 

 readers know that they can have some lair sport fishing 

 within an hour's ride by rail from New York city. Take the 

 New York City & Northern Railroad and get out at South 

 Croton. As for aecommadations, they are fair, as there is a 

 good hotel on the lake.— E. L, L. 



No Mascalonge th Saratoga Lake. — Your correspond- 

 ent from Saratoga asks if any mascalonge have ever 

 been captured in Saratoga Lake. 1 would say, having shot 

 and fished in and around that lake for over 15 pears, and 

 being peroually acquainted with all the fishermen of local 

 celebrity, such as old Pete Francis, Jim Black, the Averj r s, 

 Rileys, old Uncle Bill Valentine, Harvey Cook, Dutch Henry, 

 that was drowned in its waters, and a host of others, and 

 spent many days fishing in their company, 1 never saw in 

 all that time a true mascalonge (Esox nobilior) taken from its 

 waters. I have seen the great northern pickerel (Esox Ittcius) 

 shot in the spring weighing as liigh as thirty-three pounds. 

 Have seen them caught by fair angling on hook and line to 

 weigh from seven pounds to fifteen pounds. In conclusion 

 would say I think if any mascalonge had been taken, as I 

 know the'tish well, I should have known it, but the vulgar 

 error or localism there is to call all those big northern 

 pickerel mascalonge.— Washington A. Coster. 



New Brunswick Salmon. — Several Boston sportsmen 

 have within a year or more become interested in leases of 

 salmon waters in New Brunswick, on the Restigouche and 

 other favored localities. Some of them have just returned 

 from a fishing trip, and they are much pleased with the local- 

 ity and the waters, but they report the fishing as having been 

 very poor up to within a week or more, when some good 

 sport was had, but no very large fish. The weather has been 

 unfavorable and the salmon have failed to rise till of late. 

 Good weather promises better things of the waters where the 

 lamented Dawson' so charmingly depicts the struggles of 

 Chester A. Arthur with his salmon rod landing twenty and 

 even thirty-pound fish. The rod was not burdensome, but 

 the face of the President — that was to be — was disfigured by 

 a malignant carbuncle, the burnings of which none but a 

 true sportsman with a lion heart could have "endured with- 

 out a groan," and— kept on fishing.— Special 



Brothek Stites.— A man who calls himself "Brother 

 Page Stites," at Schellinger's Lauding. Bear Cape May. has 

 issued a card that reads thus: 



''If you hare beeu Wishing 



For to go a Ashing 



Take the cars for Sewell's Point, 



Where you will find in waiting 



Hook and lines and baiting, 



And ask for Brother Page Stites 



Who will take you where you 



Can yank "em." 



Sheepshead ox Long Island.— West Hampton, L. I. 

 I., July 15.— Four sheepshead were caught in Shinnecock 

 inlet, with a seine, about four weeks ago. In the same haul 

 were caught, nineteen striped bass, and 135 bluetisb. Bay 

 snipe have not made their appearance here yet to any extent, 

 — Bat SNirB. 



One Thousand Bass.— Philadelphia, July 21.— The Pres- 

 byterian Fishina- Club caught 1,000 sea bass last Wedoesday 

 on the Fishing Banks off Cape May, N. J. Dr, Moffatt, one 

 of the leading spirits of the organization, says it was the best 

 fishing he ever had. — Homo. 



sffislicnltnre. 



NATURAL CAUSES INFLUENCING THE MOVE- 

 MENTS OF FISH IN RIVERS. 



[A paper read before the American Fishcultural Association.] 



BY MARSHALL M'DONALD. 



IF we will consider for a moment the varieties of conditions 

 that eoncur in and modify agricultural production we will 

 be better prepared to appreciate the multiple influences that 

 enter into the question of maintaining and increasing the pro- 

 duction of our fisheries. 



The farmer of to-day has as a guide in the conduct of the 

 practical operations of agriculture, the collective experience 

 of all who have preceded him. The observations of many 

 generations condensed in proverb and apothegm, and handed 

 down from father to sou. gives to the unlettered peasant the 

 interpretation of natural signs, the forecast of seasons and the 

 empirical'rules by which he tills and sows and garners the un- 

 equal harvests, which the unequal seasons bring. 



Less than a century ago, chemistry allying herself with agri- 

 culture, laid the foundation of rational methods and since then 

 chemists and botanists, physicists and physiologists, have been 

 busy with then investigations, each contributing in some es- 

 sential particular to the solution of the important problem of 

 increasing and maintaining the fertility of the soil. 



In those countries, like England for' example, where the re- 

 sults of scientific investigations have been formulated into 

 rules of practice, the average production of cereals per acre, 

 now exceeds two-fold, and often three-fold, the average pro- 

 duction per acre two hundred years ago. 



This result has been accomplished in the face of an intensive 

 system of cropping which long ago would have rendered the 

 fertile fields of England unproductive moorlands, or ban-en 

 wastes, but for the lessons taught by chemists in its applica- 

 tions to agriculture, and appropriated and applied in practice. 



Just in proportion as man has learned to dominate the con- 

 ditions which influence agricultural production, he has been 

 enabled to raise the average yield per acre; but, unequalities 

 of production from year to year, resulting rroni the influence, 

 of natural conditions beyond his control, still persist. 



Confronted with those adverse influences, all the toil of the 

 husbandman, all his stores of experience, all the resources of 

 science, are powerless to avert scanty harvests, or absolute 

 f ailure of crops. 



What is time or* agriculture is equally true of aquiculture, 

 and more particularly of pisciculture in rivers. 



The restoration and maintenance of our river fisheries de- 

 pends upon our ability to promote conditions favorable to pro- 

 duction and exclude those which are adverse. 



First — The seed of the future harvest must be sown. Where, 

 in consequence of the interference of man by excessive fishing, 

 or by the destruction of spawning grounds, natural agencies 

 are inadequate to produce the young fish in numbers sufficient 

 to repair the inroads made by capture or by natural casual- 

 ties, we must supply the deficiency by artificial propagation. 



But the breeding and planting of shad or herring by the 

 million or tens of millions, in an area like the Potomac or the 

 James or the Susquehannah rivers, cannot carry the annual 

 product of the fisheries in these rivers beyond a certain maxi- 

 mum limit, which is defined first, by the extent of the breed- 

 ing and feeding area acceptable to the fish, and second by the 

 abundance of food for the fry which is to be found in this 

 area. 



Second — The extension of the breeding and feeding areas to 

 then- natural hmits, by providing practicable passes for oiu- 

 anadromous fishes over the artificial or natural obstructions 

 which have contracted these areas, is a second essential condi- 

 tion to be fufifilled, and is one of equal or even greater impor- 

 tance than the artificial propagation and planting of the try, 

 because it is possible by this means to secure the permanent 

 restoration of our river fisheries under natural conditions, 



A third condition, exercising an important influence upon the 

 permanence of our river fisheries, has only recently attracted 

 attention and offers an inviting and important field of investi- 

 gation. 



We may plant the young of shad or herring in our rivers in 

 countless millions, we may extend the breeding and feeding 

 areas to their natural hmits, but if the agency of man has so 

 modified the natural conditions that the proper food of the 

 young fish during their river life is no longer found, or occurs 

 in much less than the necessary abundance, then the effort 

 to increase supply by artificial propagation and planting will 

 prove a dismal failure. 



How far the pollution of our rivers by sewerage, gas tar, 

 refuse chemical products, etc., has changed the original con- 

 ditions of our rivers, is a matter inviting exhaustive and crit- 

 ical investigation. 



Fourth— A rational code of laws, relating to the fisheries, 

 may exert an important conservative influence, by imposing 

 such restrictions upon the time and methods of 'capture, as 

 will permit some considerable portion of the shad and herring 

 which enter our rivers to reach their spawning grounds and 

 deposit their eggs without molestation. 



By the observance and enforcement of the conditions above 

 indicated, we may reasonably expect to greatly increase the 

 average annual production of our river fisheries, but we can 

 never hope to ehminate great unequalities in the product of 

 the fisheries in different seasons. 



Natural conditions, apparently beyond the control of man, 

 will determine disastrous and discouraging failures one season 

 and the next a teeming abundance in the same river. 



The influence of water temperatures, in determining the 

 presence or absence of certain species of fish in certain areas 

 of water, has been observed both in regard to the ocean and 

 the river species which are the object of commercial fisheries. 

 Observation of water temperature and its relatious to the 

 migrations of fish have not been continued long enough to jus- 

 tify us in formulating conclusions, but the drift of investiga- 

 tion and observations goes to show that there is for each 

 pecies a uormal temperature in wldch it prefers to be, and 



that its migrations are determined by the shifting of these 

 areas of congenial temperature under the influence of the 

 seasons. 



Observations, now continued for several years, have led to 

 the conclusion that, in the case of the shad, the normal tem- 

 perature, toward which it is ever moving, is about 60 degrees 

 Fabr. The data upon which this conclusion is based are as 

 follows : 



Fust— The shad make their appearance in the St. Johns 

 River, Florida, as soon as the temperature of the river fails to 

 (50 degrees, or thereabouts, which takes place from the middle 

 of November to the 1st of December. At this time 

 is colder than the ocean plateau outside, and the movement or 

 migration is from warmer to cooler areas in the direction of 

 the normal temperature of 60 degrees. 



Second— The shad which are spawned in the Potomac in 

 April, May and June remain in the river all summer. Schools 

 Of them may be frequently seen iu the river in front of Wash- 

 ington. Thiey continue abundant imtil the latter part of Octo- 

 ber or 1st of November. When fine temperature falls below 

 60 degrees, they begin to drop down the river in their migra- 

 tions seaward.' In this case they are moving from cooler to 

 warmer waters and toward the normal temperature of 60 de- 

 grees. 



Third— The beginning of the spring run of shad into the 

 Potomac River is about coincident with the date when the 

 river temperature rises above that of Chesapeake Bay. In 

 this case, too, the shad are moving from cooler to warmer 

 waters, and in the direction of the normal temperature of 60 

 degrees, for the temperature of both bay and river is at the 

 beginning of the season always below 60 degrees. 



It will be seen, therefore, that wherever we have been able 

 to intercept the shad in its migrations and place it under ob- 

 servation, it is always moving in the direction of the normal 

 temperature, of 60 degrees. 



Assuming it to be true as a general fact that the. shad in 

 their ordinary migrations are ever traveling on temperature 

 paths which lead to the normal temperature of 60 degrees, it 

 becomes possible to determine the law. the rate, and the limit 

 of their movements in a certain area, by tracing the shifting 

 of the areas of congenial temperature, under the influence of 

 the seasons. 



The data for the discussion are furnished by the records of 

 observations of water temperatures, made at the lighthouses 

 by the direction of the Lighthouse Board, and at Washington 

 by an employe of the IT. S. Fish Commission. 



The three stations selected for comparison of ocean, bay 

 and river temperature are (1) Winter Quarter Shoals for the 

 ocean plateau, (2) Wolf-trap Light for Chesapeake Bay, and 

 (3j Washington, D, C, for the Potomac River. 



The station at Winter Quarter Shoals is up the coast about 

 forty miles north of Cape Charles, and is about eight miles 

 from shore, It is close, to the edge of that cold Arctic current 

 which wedges itself down between the Gulf Stream and the 

 shore, and, bringing with it the temperature of Arctic lati- 

 tudes, builds a wall of minimum temperature beyond which 

 the shad probably never pass in their migrations. 



The only records of bay temperature available for the season 

 of 1881 were the signal service observations in Norfolk Harbor. 

 These records, which give the temperature of Elizabeth River 

 rather than the bay, indicate more i apid fluctuations than is 

 possible in the general temperature of the bay, and give a 

 daily range of temperature several degrees higher- than that of 

 the bay. 



This correction I have approximately applied in 'the discus- 

 sion of the temperature observations of 1881, in order to bring 

 them into harmony with the observations of bay temperature 

 for 18S2 and 1883, which were made by observers at Wolf -trap 

 Light. 



This locality is on the west shore of the bay, half way be- 

 tween the Rappahannock and York rivers, and being well off 

 from the shore, little influenced by local variations, the tem- 

 peratures taken here may therefore be taken to represent the 

 general temperature of the bay waters for corresponding 

 dates. 



The result of the study of the data above indicated are 

 graphically presented in three outline maps of the Chesapeake 

 and Delaware basins, illustrating the movements of the areas 

 of congenial temperatures under the influence of the seasons, 

 and in the chart showing the relations between the tempera- 

 tures of the Potomic River during the fishing seasons of 1881, 

 1882 and 1883, and the fluctuations in the shad fisheries of the 

 river for the same period. 



(The rest of Col. McDonald's remarks were oral and with 

 reference to the maps and charts exhibited.) 



The conclusions deducted by him from the discussion of the 

 data presented were as follows: 



The temperature records for 1881, '82 and 'S3 indicate that 

 for the winter months the area of maximum temperature is 

 not in the rivers or in the bay, but on that ocean plateau out- 

 side, extending from the capes of the Chesapeake to the Dela- 

 ware breakwater, The presumption, therefore, is that the 

 schools of shad belonging both to the Chesapeake and the* 

 Delaware, have then common winter quarters on this plateau. 

 When under the influence of the advancing seasons the waters 

 of the Chesapeake and the Delaware Bays become warmer 

 than on this plateau, the migrations into continental waters 

 begin. The proportion of the entire run that will be directed 

 to the Delaware or the Chesapeake, will be determined at this 

 time. If the northern end of the area warms up more rapidly 

 than the southern, then an unusual proportion of the shad 

 will be thrown into the Delaware. On the other hand, cold 

 waters coming down the Delaware, may effect a contrary 

 movement, and throw the schools of shad almost entirely into 

 the Chesapeake ; thus leading to a partial or total failure of 

 the shad fisheries of the Delaware for the season. 



When the schools of shad have entered the Chesapeake, their 

 distribution to the rivers will be determined in the same way 

 by temperature influences operating. If the season is back- 

 ward, so as to keep down the temperature of the larger rivers 

 which head back in the mountains, then the run of shad will 

 be mainly into the shorter tributaries of the bay, which have 

 their rise in the tide-water belt, and which, of course, are 

 warmer at this season than the main rivers. 



Again, warm rains at the beginning of the fishing season in 

 our large rivers and the absence of snow in the mountains will 

 determine the main movement of the shad into the larger 

 rivers of the basin; and if, when the schools enter the estuaries 

 of these rivers, they encounter a temperature considerably 

 higher than that in the bay itself, the movement up the river 

 will be tumultous ; the schools of shad and herring all enter- 

 ing and ascending all at once, producing a glut in the fisheries 

 such as we sometimes have recorded. 



It follows, therefore, in the light of these facts, that we may 

 have a successful fishing on the Delaware accompanied by a 

 total or partial failure in the Chesapeake area, and vice versa; 

 and considering the Chesapeake area alone, we may have a 

 very successfid fishery in the aggregate, yet accompanied by 

 partial or total failure in particular streams under the in- 

 fluence of temperature conditions, as above indicated. Statistics 

 of the shad fishery, if they are to furnish a measure of increase 

 or decrease, must include the aggregate catch of the Chesa- 

 peake and Delaware River, and indeed of the rivers much 

 further to the north. Statistics based upon a comparison of 

 the catch in the same river in different seasons, are of no value 

 as serving to give a measure of the results of artificial propa- 

 gation. 



A WATER SNAKE KILLED BY A CARP. -(From a 

 letter to Prof . S. F. Baird, by Milton P. Peirce).— Philadelphia, 

 Pa., May 14.— The following very singular incident has just 

 been related to me by the owner of some carp ponds in 

 Southern New Jersey, and it occurs to me to f orward it. A 

 gentleman was sifting upon the bank of the pond with a gun, 



