Ga 
large lakes named, by 
but this lake has been, perhaps, the most ruthlessly poach 
im 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
391 
_Buack Bass Fisaine my Canapa,—Hditor Forest and 
Stream: Tn looking over my old note-bouks I find an account 
of a trip to the Otonabec River, in Canada, a river which is 
tather out of the beaten track and one which J do not remem- 
ber to have seen mentioned in Forest AnD StRpAM, Two 
friends were with me there in 1876, and we had fine sport. 
The fiver i8 a tributary of Rice Lake, in the county of 
Peterboro, and is about twenty miles in length and of a 
sluggish character. Its width varies:from 200 to 350 feet. 
We had canoes and were armed with minnow rods and 
used shiners for bait, and found the bass yery gamy and all 
of the small-monthed species. We averaged fifty fish a day 
for three days and then packed them up and sent them to 
friends in Peterboro. The fish ranged from one to four 
pounds, although we heard of larger ones. The merits of 
Rice Lake as a ducking and fishing ground is well known, 
but the Otonabec River seems unknown.—PoxE-o’-Moon- 
SHINE. 
Tue Most Kitiine Fr.y.—Sulida, Colo.—We seldom use 
less than three flies on a cast, out here. My favorite cast is 
a drab gnat, on a No 12 hook for the top, next to the line, 
Then a brown No. 10 fly, governor is very good, and at 
the end of the cast a No. 10 coachman, either royal or plain. 
1 “back” the coachman. Let us hear from the angling fra- 
ternity in this respect. Which is the most: killing fly, in 
your estimation, at all seasons.—Koxkomo, 
fishculture. 
THE ADIRONDACK HATCHERY. 
|e will be remembered thai at the last session of the Legisla- 
ture of New York, the Hon. William T, O’Niel introduced 
a bill providing for the erection of a aaa in the Adiron- 
dack forest, which was passed. The bill placed the whole 
matter in the hands of the State Fish Commission, which, on 
Aug. 27, by a resolution appointed Gen. R, U. Sherman, of 
the board, to make a personal selection of a suitable site. The 
details of this have appeared in our columns. At the meeting 
of the Commissioners held in New York on Tuesday last, Gen. 
Sherman submitted the report here given: 
The undersigned respectfully reports as follows: 
The law contemplates the establishment of a fish hatchery 
for the Adirondacks—by which term, it is presumed, was in- 
tended the whole wilderness country, from the grand peaks 
at the heart, to the base of the mountains, on every side. 
This is an extensive region, and one into which, in many 
places, access is more difficult than to many points thousands 
of miles off, It is a work of less hardship to perform a circuit 
all aroutd it oy the common modes of travel, than to go 
through by any of the routes considered available. To estab- 
lish a hatchery station, therefore, at any point in this wilder- 
néss from which distribution may be safely made to all, is not 
practicable by any system of roadway or water communica- 
tion now existing, or attainable without immense cost. A 
system of artificial stocking, directed to a general replenish- 
ment of all the waters in the wilderness, to be effectual, must 
embrace at least three principal stations—one for the eastern 
or Adirondack proper waters, one for the Moose, Beaver and 
Upper Raquette, and one for the Lake Pleasantregion. As the 
law provides for but one, the policy of my present examina- 
tions was obviously to ascertain which of these, other condi- 
tions being equal, should haye the preference. 
I commenced my examination at Lake Pleasant in the 
southern part of Hamilton county. Here lie four large lakes, 
viz.: Lake Pleasant, Round, Piseco and Lewey lakes, and 
within a day’s travel of these are at least twenty smaller lakes 
and ponds and other trout bearing waters. The ultimate flow 
of all these is into the North and Hudson rivers, An hundred 
years ago there were clearings about Lake Pleasant, off-shoots 
trom the extensive colony of Sir William Johnson at Johns- 
town, The country was formerly considered a good agricul- 
turalregion. At 1,500 feet above tide water, winter wheat 
andrye were produced which were teamed to Albany for a 
market, Even now it is counted good grass land, and cattle 
and sheep are profitably raised and kept. This rezion was the 
first to attract the attention of tourist sportsmen from the 
preat eastern cities. Organized clubs, embracing merchants, 
professional men and others of wealth and leisure, raided 
Piseco, which, when I first visited it forty years ago, was the 
best fishing ground in the accessible part of the wilderness, till 
abundance changed to scarcity, and fishermen for market, 
with their set lines, depleted Lake Pleasant, Round and 
Lewey Lakes, till such fishing became no longer profitable, 
and other and more distant waters were sought by the tourist 
and fisherman, Some years of comparative rest have effected 
a considerable replenishment of the natural stock. There 
would have heen greater replenishment if the local poachers 
had left the fish on their spawning beds, Artificial production 
is now the only means by which these waters may be made to 
yield of fish lite in former abundance. : 
In company with Messrs. H. N. Scidmore and George Hink- 
ley, a committee of the citizens of Northville interested in 
this subject, and whose courtesies I take pleasure in acknowl- 
edging, IJ left Northville, the terminus of the Fonda, Johns- 
_town & Gloversville Railroad, on the morning of Ocf, 7, and 
reached Lake Pleasant, distant py etiPyele ne miles, by a fair 
road, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Four miles further on, at 
Sageville, the county seat of Hamilton, a little hamlet consist- 
ing of a court house, jail and county clerk’s office, two hotels 
and less than a half dozen dwelling houses, I spent the night. 
The next morning, in company with the gentlemen named, I 
visited Mill Creek, a point which they thought a proper one 
as the site for a hatching station, The spo particularly ex- 
amined, is two miles north of the head of Lake Pleasant, on a 
dilapidated road leading to Lewey Lake, barely passable for 
horse travel. Here there was formerly a sawmill, and a 
clearing remains, of sufficient extent fot the buildings and 
other plant necessary for the station. The land belongs to 
the State, having, like much other land in the wilderness 
which has been stripped of its valuable timber, reverted for 
non-payment of taxes. Mill Creek is astream made up entirely 
from mountain springs, and is of abundant capacity for a 
three million hatchery. At the place examined the bed is 
rocky and the current ed a The temperature of the water 
was 48° Fahrenheit. A dam maybe cheaply constructed to 
give the requisite fall and furnish a capacious reservoir, 
Above the stream is alternate rapid and still water, It rises 
at the foot of Dug Mountain, and flows southerly into Round 
Lake, opposite Sageville. Brook trout of small size run far 
up the stream to spawn; but two miles below the road, at the 
head of still water, tert te mile from the lake, are exten- 
sive sand beds to which the brook trout of the lake are ac- 
customed to resort at the proper season to cast their spawn. 
Here, perhaps, is to be found a better site for a station than 
the one described, as the place may be easily reached by row 
boats in the open season and over the ice in the winter. “Lake 
trout, for spawning purposes, may be taken in all four of the 
means of gill nets. How far, however, 
this means of obtaining spawn supply may be made available 
can be ascertained only by trial. It has been practiced by the 
United States Commissioner in Maine and elsewhere, and 
doubtless can be successfully employed here. 
There are at Piseco Lake seyeral good sites for a hatchery 
of any lake in the wilderness. The law is still defied here, 
though notas openly as as formerly. The grand juries of 
Hamilton county are composed largely of veteran and unre- 
formed poachers. They will sometimes indict an outside 
offender, but they never find cause of action against ons of 
their own kidney, whatever may be the evidence, The ques- 
tion suggests itself whether it is worth while for the State to 
stock waters with fish, whichif allowed to grow beyond the 
stage of fingerlings are snared in gill-nets, impaled on spears 
or snatched by grapples from spawning beds, When these 
people shall furnish some reliable guarantee that they will 
obey the laws for the preservation and multiplication of fish— 
laws enacted as much for their benefit as for the henetit of 
others, it will be time enough to establish fish hatcheries for 
them. ; 
No further examinations were considered necessary in this 
section; and the waters lying northerly, commencing with 
Indian Lake and extending to Long Lake, Raquette River and 
Big Tupper, being literally infested with pickerel (Hsoa luctus), 
it was deemed a waste of time to examine them with refer- 
ence to establishing trout culture in such waters. 
I therefore decided to proceed to the Ausable, Saranac and 
St. Regis waters, where many desirable locations had been 
indicated. Two routes were presented, one by the back track 
to Fonda, and thence by the Central and Delaware & Hudson 
railroads to Ausable Station in Clinton county; the other by a 
comparatively short cut over rough roads, through mountain 
gorges, to Hhzabethtown, in Essex county, an eastern gate- 
way ot the wilderness. The former route, though involving 
greater distance, would take less time than the other; but I 
chose the latter, because it afforded me an opportunity to see 
parts of the wilderness I had never visited before. 
The first stage of the route chosen was from Wellstown, 
where I left the Northville and Lake Pleasant highway, up 
the east branch of the Sacondaga to the settlements in J. ohns- 
burg, and thence to Riverside on the North River, the last 
station but one on the north end of the Adirondack railway. 
The distance is thirty-two miles. 
The route up the Sacondaga affords a striking picture of the 
destructive influence of lumbering operations in this wilder- 
ness, For thirty years or more the timber butchering process 
has been going on. The pine, being the most valuable, was 
the first to fall. Then came the tanners to strip the hemlock, 
and leavetrunks, tops and limbs to the ravages of fire. And now 
there is but little left except the spruce and this is fast disap- 
pearing. The beautiful wooded hills, which bounded the 
view on each side of the gorge, through which the river flows, 
have been swept for miles and miles by fire, till now little re- 
mains but the bare and whitened rocks. And even where the 
poplar has tried to rear its timid head amid this desolation, it 
has been quickly swept away by the demand of wood pulp 
fibre. Alas, that there are not rags or straw or other waste 
material in the world, enough to furnish it with paper, with- 
out stripping the poor remains of the once dense and beauti- 
ful forest. 
The Sacondaga River, once a handsome and an abundant 
flowing stream, has become by the destruction of the forest 
a wild torrent in the spring and a fordable rivulet in the sum- 
mer. Its former population of trout has been driven out and 
exterminated by the action of thousands of sawlogs which 
every spring come rushing and tumbling down, tearing away 
rocks and plowing up the bottom so that the fish can no longer 
find shelter or refuge. 
From Riverside my route was by mail wagon twenty miles 
to the head of Schroon Lake. 
I made no examinations at this lake, for the reason that the 
presence of large numbers of black bass in its waters, is a bar 
to the restocking with trout. There isa private hatchery here, 
maintained by the hotel and cottage interest, that has the 
ower of solving the question whether infant trout and mature 
boat can live in harmony in the same waters. The trialisone 
the Commissioners cf Fisheries can hardly afford to make with 
their limited resources. 
From the head of Schroon Lake, I proceeded on the 1ith of 
October up the Schroon and down the Boquet valleys thirty- 
two miles, to Elizabethtown, the beautiful county seat of 
Hssex where, in the suinmer season, hundreds of people from 
the great cities wisely go, to breathe the pure air of this health- 
fulregion and feast their senses on scenery, the charms of 
which are beyond verbal description, Theroutefrom Schroon 
to Elizabethtown presents, in inany places, the same marks of 
desolation which characterize the road up the Sacondaga. For 
miles on a stretch, nothing but bare rocks are visible where, 
before the ravages of the luambermen and the fire which fol- 
lowed their path, there was beautiful forest. The Boquet 
River, which is naturally the rival of crystal in its clearness 
and purity, is choked {up with sawdust and other sawmill 
refuse, tillnow, what was once a joy and a health-giving ele- 
ment, threatens to become a breeder of malaria and fever. 
In the late presidential campaign, the rallying cry of one 
of the great contesting parties, was “protection;” ‘protection 
to manufacturers, to trade and to labor;” but what party 
raises a voice for the protection of our great forests—the 
source of our chief water supply, and the haven of rest and 
recuperation for the overworked, the weary and the debilitated 
of our people? 
A brief account of the watersI proposed to visit will be 
necessary toa better understanding of the situation. The 
sources of all are in the mountain gorges of the Adirondacks 
proper. The Ausable River has its rise near the foot of Mount 
Marey—the highest ground in the State. The east branch 
heads at the Ausable ponds, which lie in basins of rock 2,000 
feet above tide. The west branch rises near the north ex- 
tremity of the Indian pass, a mighty gap in the mountain of 
rock that forms the dividing ridge between the waters which 
flow southward tothe Hudson and those which flow north- 
erly into Lake Champlain. The two branches diverge to the 
right and left, and unite in the open country forty miles from 
their respective heads, at a place called Ausable Forks. In 
this distance there is a fall of 1,500 feet. Twenty-five miles 
further on, to the northeast, the stream enters Lake Cham- 
plain, a short distance north of Port Kent. Many small ponds 
enter the branches at different points; but Lake Placid is the 
only lake of considerable size that contributes to either 
branch. Between the two branches a mountain barrier rises, 
through which no wagon road has been found practicable ex- 
cept at a gap at the foot of Pitch Off Mountain, where lie, in 
a deep, dark gorge, the Edmunds ponds. The scenery all 
along the course of the branches is of the wildest and most 
Peciiresa ne description. That wondrous work of nature, the 
ndian pass, is at the head of the west branch, and Wallface 
and the Wilmington notch stand as grim sentinels over its 
wild beauty below, while on the main stream, but a few miles 
from its exibin Lake phe plan, lies the wonderful chasm 
where the waters of the great river are confined for two miles 
in a gorge 100 feet deep, over which a goad leaper could, in 
Many places, spring at a hound! The charm of the east 
branch is the beautiful Keene valley, where the softness of 
luxurious yerdure is framed in by grim and giant precipices, 
with lofty mountains in the still further background. This 
region has been fitly styled by tourists the “Switzerland of 
America.” 
The Saranac River hasits primary source in a network of 
ponds, thirty or more in number, that lie west and north of 
the Upper Saranac, and haye their Ultimate outlets in that 
lake. The great contributory waters are the Upper, the Mid- 
dle (or Round Lake as itis generally called) and the Lower 
Saranac. The Upper and Lower lakes have each an area of 
over six fhousand acres. The river, after leaving the Lower 
Lake flows first southerly, then east, and finally northeast, 
till it enters Lake Champlain at Plattsbnrz, 
The St. Regis River is made up from three branches, knawn 
respectively asthe East branch (usually called Deer River), 
the Middle branch.and the West branch. The St. Regis Lakes 
proper, yiz., the Upper and Lower ‘lakes, and Spitfire Pond, 
which lies intermediate, Meacham Lake and a number of 
smaller trout-bearing waters, form the chief source of the 
Middle Branch. The West Branch has a number of small 
onds at the head, but the East Branch has only its own 
Sivect springs and watershed to feedit, The St. Regis and 
Meacham Lake outlets form a junction a fey miles above St. 
Regis Falls in Franklin county. The Middle Branch then con- 
tinues on till it reaches Stockholm in St. Lawrence, where the 
Middle and West branches unite. 
The Hast branch enters at a Olas still further north, The 
main stream flows into the St. Lawrence River at Bombay on 
the Canada border, 
From Blizabethtown I proceeded on the 12th of October by 
the usual route westward toward the Saranacs, to examine 
the waters in that direction. ~~ 
The valley of the Little Boquet, through which the first part 
of my route passed, is overlooked by hills and_precipices, 
wooded to the top, showing a foliage of mingled evergreen, 
maple and poplar, and yet not seriously marred by the ravages 
of fire. The scenery is almost one of unequaled beauty, and it 
is no wonder it has attracted to this route so large a share of 
the tourists. But the wood pulpers haye already scented out 
the poplar and spruce, and it is only a question of time, and a 
short time at that, when desolation shall rear its head here. 
Thalted foraday at the Hdmunds ponds, eighteen miles 
west of Elizabethtown, where I had been informed were 
superior facilities for a hatching station. These ponds are 
situated at an elevation of 2,030 feet above tide, in the only 
practicable gap which lies between the east and the west 
branch of the Ausable River. The outlet flows into the east 
branch at Keene Center. In this gap, with dark gray rocks 
rising perpendicularly on each side, 1,000 feet high, he the two 
ponds, They contain an area of probably not over an hundred 
acres, and so fill the basin in which they lie as to leave room 
only at one point, within a distance of two miles or more, for 
a hotel and the necessary outbuildings. The roadway has been 
made atthe base of the west precipice, mainly out of the 
debris falling from above. These ponds contain no fish of any 
sort except brook trout, and they are in such numbers that 
during the open season an hundred guests are daily supplied 
with trout at meals once and sometimes twice or three times 
each day, This is the dining place for passengers en route 
from the Saranacs and Lake Placid. It is estimated that each 
season’s catch of trout amounts to 12,000in number of the 
aggregate weight of a ton or more. These trout neyer grow 
to any great size. They do not get a chance to do so, as they 
considerately permit themselves to be caught when they are 
in the best stage for eating, which is when they are from two 
to three years old. Moreover, their food being wholly of 
insect or crustacean kinds, they do not makethe great growths 
reached by those whose food is fish. 
Most of the land on which these ponds are situated belongs 
to the Hon. W. FF. Weston, manager of the iron works at 
Keene and Wilmington, There is a tract at the west end of 
the upper pond which belongs to the State and includes a part 
of this pond, A vacant spot between the ponds, just opposite 
the hotel, affords sufficient room for a hatching house, and the 
fall from the upper to the lower pond being seven feet in the 
space of a few rods, there is a convenient and sufficient water 
supply. While l was at these pondshe trout were running 
up in great numbers to their spawning grounds at the head of 
the two ponds, in the upper pond where a rill comes into it 
over the face of a precipice; and in the outlet of the lower 
pond, and I had opportunity to see that an abundance of 
spawn could be procured without difficulty. The temperature 
of the water I was surprised to find at 54 degrees. I am una- 
ble to account for this high temperature when the water is 
made up mainly of springs coming from the bases of great 
precipices, and where it could be but little affected by the 
action of the sun’srays. JI was informed, however, that im the 
winter it goes down to the freezing point and that ice forms 
on the ponds to the depth of three feet. That the water is 
well adapted to fish hatching is proved by the fact that not- 
withstanding the great number of trout annually taken there 
has been_no perceptible diminution of the stock for many 
years. While making examinations at the spawning grounds 
ere, [had an opportunity to obserye the mischief done by 
mink in trout waters, I saw lying on the bank of the inlet 
where the trout were making their beds, seven ripe spawners, 
which had been taken from the water, evidently, that day. 
A part of one only had been eaten, The others had been killed 
apparently merely for the love of destruction. rv 
There are no facilities here for obtaining spawn of the lake 
trout, This would have to be drawn from the State’s stock 
at Caledonia, or procured under circumstances of labor and 
hazard from the lakes farther backin the wilderness. Mr. 
Weston generously offered, in case the station should be 
located here, to donate the site and render other valuable aid. 
His courtesies to me, while making investigations at this point, 
I wish particularly to acknowledge. 
From the Edmunds ponds I proceeded on Oct. 14 to Lake 
Placid, a distance of nine miles, arriving in time to make a 
reconnoissance of the lake, by boat and guides, the same day. 
Lake Placid has been properly styled the gem of the Adiron- 
dack waters, and is visited probably by more tourists than any 
other lake in the wilderness. Two lakes, Mirror and Placid 
lie side by side, separated only by a narrow neck of land and 
flowing by different outlets into the west branch of the Ausable 
River, Mirror Lake is nearest to the main road, and oyer- 
looking the lake are seven large hotels and a considerable 
hamlet supported by their patronage. An intervening rise of 
ground shuts out the view of Lake Placid, except at one or 
two higher points and from the upper stories of the hotels, 
but when the eye rests upon its surface a scene is presented of 
surpassing beauty. The lake is four miles long by two and a 
halt broad, and three large islands interyene in the middle, so 
that at no point on the water can the whole surface be seen, 
The water is of remarkable purity. It is easy when it is still 
to see the pebbly bottom at twenty feet depth. Many of the 
great Mountain peaks are visible from its surface and the 
forest remains in its primitive beauty. I found seyen consid- 
erable inlets flowing into the lake all from spring sources. 
One called ‘‘Two Brooks,” entering from the west side, was 
particularly examined. Quantity, quality and fall were found 
sufficient for hatching purposes. The temperature of the water 
was 40°, None lowér than this wasfound anywhere during 
the trip. The facilities for obtaining spawn here are not of the 
best. A supply for hatching purposes would need to be pro- 
cured mostly from outsidesources, The land at ‘Two Broo zs,” 
pelauee to Mr. Brewster, one of the hotel keepers at Lake 
cid. 
The next place visited was the Ray brooks, eight miles west 
of Lake Placid, where I arrived at noon onthe 15th. Little 
Ray _Brook is tributary to Big Ray Brook. The latter flows 
into Miller’s Pond, and this has its outlet in the Saranac River 
afew miles from where this river leaves the lake. The Ray 
Brook House, which stands on the main road tothe lower 
Saranac, near the confluence of the two brooks, is a first-class 
hotel, owned and kept by Duncan Camieron, and is much re- 
sorted to by the best class of tourists and fishermen. Mr. 
Cameron courteously conyeyed me to all the points of inter- 
est in the neighborhood connected with my mission, and at 
nightfall landed me at Miller’s excellent hotel, at the foot of 
the lower Saranac. This is four miles west of the Ray Brook 
House. I found at Little Ray Brook, opposite to and only a 
few rods trom Mr, Cameron’s house, a good site for a hatch- 
ing station for brook trout. The water is very pure, abun- 
dant in quantity, and has a sufficient fall in a few rods dis- 
tance. The temperature is 40 degrees. I saw evidences of a 
good supply of brook trout spawnin the neighborhood, but 
there are no local facilities for obtaining spawn of the lake 
trout. The land here belongs to Mr. Cameron, His fishing 
grounds are reserved for the use of his guests. 
‘At the Lower Saranac Lake I employed the' services of a 
fuide and boat, and on the morning of the 16th proceeded 
