312 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



IMay 14, 1885. 



Philadelphia, Mav 9. — The streams on the Camden & 

 Atlantic Railroad, within fifteen miles of Philadelphia, where 

 trout are known to be, are teemine this year with fish too 

 small to he taken. On some of these brooks dams have been 

 made which back the water and the larger trout resort to 

 them altogether. These poods are the only places where 

 fly-fishing can be had, but the owners of the land bordering 

 them will not allow fishing, It is impossible to fish the 

 streams proper with anything else than a rod a yard long, 

 and worm must be the bait, as the underbrush prevents fly- 

 casting.— Homo. 



Coney Island Rod and Gon Club.— Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 May 6 — The fishing interests of the club will bo confined to 

 Coney Island Creek and Gravesend Bay, and it is expected 

 that the gamy striped bass and the beautiful weakfisb caught 

 in these waters by oar members during the fishing season 

 will be the means of securing some club prizes. Our monthly 

 shoots at Kings Highway during the year will also offer 

 prizes to the best marksmen in their respective classes. — 

 Geo. L. Ayers, Secretary, 



Mr. Walter Brackett, the well-known artist of Boston, 

 has recently completed a trout painting, which is said to be 

 one of the best, if not the best, picture he ever painted. It 

 goes to Paterson, N. J., we believe. 



Jjlislictttture. 



THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



(AMERICAN FISHCULTURAL ASSOCIATION.) 



THE fourteenth annual meeting of the Society, and the 

 first under the new name, was held in Washington, in 

 the lecture room of the National Museum, on May 5 and 6. 

 The meeting was called to order by the President, Hon. Theo- 

 dore Lyman, of Massachusetts, with the following remarks: 



G-ENTLEMEN OF THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY: We are 



at a season of the year when important events repeat them- 

 selves. It is the spring:. Baneful influences have passed away. 

 Ice-bound winter, as by a miracle, has given place to southern 

 breezes, and— still more strange— Congress has adjourned and 

 gone home. Good things come to the front, full of hope and 

 energy, and intent on growth and reproduction. Asparagus 

 protrudes its welcome green nose from the soil; the suggestive 

 pea flourishes defiant of late frosts. The English sparrow in- 

 dustriouslv builds its nest in spots carefully selected to render 

 it as much a nuisance as possible; the cows go forth to pas- 

 tures green and reward the aqueous milkman with abundant 

 flow of rmlk pleasingly redolent of garlic. Nor do the waters 

 less respond to genial warmth; for now the shad and the her- 

 ling, intent on spawning and oblivious of the fatal seine, 

 push up the Potomac and seek the safe shores of the District 

 of Columbia, where they may breed under the parental pi o- 

 tection of a special act of Congress. Last and greater than 

 all these come the members of the American Fisheries Society, 

 pregnant with great ideas and anxions to deposit them in 

 Washington for the benefit of an ichthyophagous nation. 



Gentlemen, I bid you welcome. You are surrounded here 

 by great traditions" and mighty influences. From the cap- 

 stone of yonder monument ten entire weeks look down upon 

 you. In the grand pile of the War, State and Navy Depart- 

 ments, you wilt have a valuable lesson of what is to be avoided 

 in architecture. The hurrying crowds of office-seekers will 

 prove to you how the busiest bee may, under adverse circum- 

 stances, collect no honey, and how the earliest bird may fail 

 to catch the truly astute and resolute worm. The numerous 

 hansom and herdic cabs will point the moral, that however 

 long or agreeable or smooth be the road, we must all pay a 

 price at the end. The suave manners of our negro population 

 will biing to your minds the fact that some of the most agree- 

 able lights in life, like those in a cathedral, come through a. 

 colored medium. In a single word, then, 1 bid you welcome 

 to a sojourn which cannot fail to be profitable alikzeto human- 

 ity and to fish. 



On motion of Col. M. McDonald that a committee of three 

 be appointed to revise the constitution and by-laws of the 

 Society and report at the next annual meeting, the president 

 appointed Messrs. F. Mather, W. V. Cox and F. N. Clark. 



The following gentlemen were appointed to nominate 

 officers for the ensuing year: Prof. G. Brown Goode, W. L. 

 May, T. B. Ferguson, E. G. Blackford and Dr. T. H. Bean, and 

 a recess was taken until 2 P. M. The following is t^e list of 

 papers announced to be read at the meeting: 



1. "The Giant Clams of Paget Sound ,'U?rof, R. E. C. Stearns. 



2. "Hibernation of the Black Bass/' James A. HenshalhH.D. 



3. "Smelt Hatching." Fred Mather. 



4. "The Porpoise Fisher v of Cape Hatteras," F. W. True. 



5. ' 'Results of Artificial Propagation and Planting of White- 

 fish in the Great La.ces," Frank N. Clark. 



6. "Does Transplanting Affect the Food or Game Qualities 

 of certain Fishes?" A. Nelson Cheney. 



7 "How to Restore om- Trout Streams," J, S. Van Cleef. 



8. "Exhibition of Complete Series of Salmon and Trout of 

 North America," Tarleton H. Bean. 



9. "Objective Points in Fishculture," M. McDonald. 



10. "A Glance at Billingsgate, 1 ' W. V. Cox. 



11. "Work at Cold Spiing Harbor," Fred Mather. 



12. "Oyster Beds of New York," E. G. Blackford. 



18. "On some of the Protective Contrivances developed by 

 and in connection with the Ova of various species of Fishes," 

 John A. Ryder. . , , . „ 



14. "The Use of the Throwing-Stick by Eskimo m Fishing," 

 O. T. Mason. , _. , 



15. "The Chief Character istics of North American Fish 

 Fauna," Theodore Gill. 



16. "Suggestions as to the Development of Oyster Culture 

 in the Chesapeake Area," M. McDonald. 



17. "Biennial Spawning of Salmon," Charles G. Atkins. 

 During the meeting the following were proposed and erected 



to membership: Hon. Geo. M. Robeson, of New Jersey: Dr. 

 E W Humphries Commissioner for Maryland; W. W. Ladd, 

 Jr., New York city: Frederic R. Ryer, New York city; Prof. 

 H. J. Rice, New York city; Prof. Chas. V. Riley, Agricultural 

 Department, Washington; S. H. Kauffman, Evening Star, 

 Washington; W. A. Butler, Michigan Commissioner; Gwynne 

 Harris, Inspector of Marine Products, Washington; S. C. 

 Brown, Register National Museum ; J. P. Wilson, W E. Bailey. 

 Engineer, Geo. II. H. Moore, Newton Simmonds, W. F. Page, 

 J F Ellis, J. J. O'Connor, J. E. Bi own, A. Howard Clark, W. 

 W. J. Murphy, Thomas Lee and Peter Parker, Jr., all of the 

 U.S. Fish Coin mission; Ed. H. Bryan and Henry W. Spofford, 

 both of the Smithsonian Institution: Major G, I. Ly decker, 

 U. S. Engineers, and Lieut, Pietmyer, U. S. N., commanding 

 steamer Fishhawk. 



On the second day the following officers were elected to 

 serve the coming year: President, Col. M. McDonald, U. S. F. 

 C • Vice-President, Dr. W. M. Hudson, Commissioner of Con- 

 aecticut; Treasurer, Mr. E. G. Blackford, Commissioner of 



tional Museum, chairman; Roland Redmond, New York; Geo. 

 Sheoard Page, New Jeisey; W. L. May, Nebraska; F. N. 

 Clark, Michigan; Dr. J. A. Henshall, Kentucky ; S. G. Worth, 

 North Carolina. . 



During recess the Society called on the President of tne 

 United States and visited the carp ponds and the central 

 hatching station in the Armory building. 



On Thursday, Tth, a trip was made on the Fishhawk down 

 to Fort Washington, where planked shad were served, and 

 then a visit made to the station for hatching shad, where 

 4,000,000 eggs were in process of packins for the central sta- 

 tion. On the return a meeting of the Executive Committee 

 was held, and it was decided to hold the next meeting in 

 Chicago. 



The Committee on the Constitution offered the following, to 

 be considered until the next meeting, when it will be voted on : 

 PROPOSED CONSTITUTION. 

 Article I. —Name and Objects. 



The name of this Society shall be The American Fisheries 

 Society. Its objects shall be to promote the cause of fishcul- 

 ture ; to gather and diffuse information bearing upon its prac- 

 tical success, and upon all matters relating to the fisheries; 

 the uniting and encouraging of the interests of fishculture and 

 the fisheries; and the treatment of all questions regarding 

 fish, of a scientific and economic character. 

 Article II.— Members. 



Any person shall, upon a two-thirds vote and a payment of 

 three dollars, become a member of this Society. In case that 

 members do not pay then- fees and are delinquent for two 

 years, they shall be notified by the treasurer, and if the 

 amount due is not paid within a month, they shall be, without 

 further notice, dropped from the roll of membership. Any 

 person can be made an honorary or a corresponding member 

 upon a two-thu-ds vote of the members present at a regular 

 meeting. 



Article III.— Officers. 



The officers of the Society shall be a president and a vice- 

 president, who shall be ineligible for election to the same 

 offices until a year after the expiration of their terms, a corres- 

 ponding secretary, a recording secretary, a treasurer, and an 

 executive committee of seven, which, with the officers before 

 named, shall form a council and transact such business as may 

 be necessary when the Society is not in session, four to con- 

 stitute a quorum. 



Article IV.— Meetings. 



The regular meetings of the Society shall be held once a 

 year, the time and placa being decided upon at the previous 

 meeting, or in default of such action, by the executive com- 

 mittee. 



Article V.— Changing the Constitution. 



The constitution of the Society may be amended, altered or 

 repealed, by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any 

 regular meeting. — 



THE MENHADEN QUESTION. 



Edi.lor Forest and Stream; 



I notice in your issue of April 9 that a correspondent from 

 Brooklyn, N. Y, states the points made by mo in your paper 

 of Feb. 21, 1884, in regard to our fisheries, are incorrect. If so 

 why not produce facts to refute them, simple denial is not 

 argument. I now reiterate every statement made in that 

 article and challenge him to refute a single point. At a meet- 

 ing held by the U. S. Menhaden Oil and Guano Association, 

 January, 1885, the following figures were given: Number of 

 steamers in use during 1882, 83; number of menhaden taken, 

 340,038,555; number of steamers m use during 1883, 69, number 

 of menhaden taken, 013,461,776; number of steamers in use 

 during 1884, 59; number of menhaden taken, 858,592,691. The 

 question comes up, why the increase in fish and decrease of 

 fishermen? The tirst question is answered by the fact that 

 menhaden were plenty during 1884 on all the menhaden fishing 

 grounds of our whole coast west irom Rhode Island, and the 

 decrease of fishermen is explained by sayina: that as a whole it 

 is not a paying business on account of low prices of oil and 

 guano, and high cost of men and material. 



Your correspondent speaks of his long experience and tells 

 of shore seines and there not being used as of old. It is the 

 old man's lament for old times with stage coaches instead of 

 railroads, sailing vessels instead of steam, moimted messengers 

 instead of electricity. Why is it that fishermen can't keep 

 abreast and utilize the improvements of tue age without being 

 kicked at not only by fossils but by the editor of Forest and 

 Stream? It is an industry that stands on its own bottom and 

 fights its own battles and asks only to be let alone and would, 

 if it was rightly understood, be fostered, protected and 

 encouraged, instead of being hampered by unjust laws ad- 

 ministered by men that know practically little or nothing of 

 fish or fishing. 



I submit the following facts for his digestion. During 

 summer of 1885, between Fire Island and No Man's Land, and 

 between Newport and 25 miles off shore, there w r ere over 1,600 

 square miles of water that swarmed with menhaden, and a 

 Rhode Island steamer called the Humphrey caught in ten 

 weeks 35,000 barrels of menhaden and did not go west of 

 Montauk to get them. Steamer Seven Brothel's started after 

 menhaden one month after they made their appearance and 

 with a crew of two men and six boys caught over 17,000 bar- 

 rels, and most of them in Narragansett Bay. Sloop Ida Lee 

 with one boat to freight fish began to cruise last of June and 

 caught between Providence and Beaver Tail over 11,000 bar- 

 rels. Why menhaden did not slip down to Westport is of 

 course known only to themselves, they did visit West Island, 

 Seaconnet, and our Little Compton friends sent us word that 

 the waters in that vicinity were full of them. Westport is 

 only six miles east from West Island and if the menhaden 

 come to this coast this season his old heart may be made glad 

 by the sight of menhaden on their old grounds and in quan- 

 tities more tnan equal to tnose seen in his youth. 



Does your friend recollect the menhaden oil factory that 

 w-as built on Penikise Island, Buzzard's Bay, forty or more 

 years ago? If so, he knows it was put there because there 

 were plenty of menhaden in the vicinity. Does he recollect 

 that soon after it was built menhaden disappeared from that 

 locality and on that account it was not used for years and at 

 last rotted down? Does he recollect of menhaden swarming 

 around Penikese, Cuttyhunk, Martha's Vineyard and in all 

 the waters from Montauk to Nantucket, outside and inside 

 during the year 1876, and that they were so plenty that the 

 bass fishermen could catch them bait by standing on the shore 

 and throwing hand lines with hooks attached into the schools 

 and haul them ashore? What a chance for shore seines 1 

 Does he recollect that during 1882 there was not a single school 

 of menhaden seen east of Montauk? If he is familiar with the 

 above facts will he explain, or give us a reasonable theory for 

 them presence and absence for years together at and from 

 the same locality? I have heard a great many men explain 

 and give reasons but no two agreed. The fishermen report 

 that during 1884 there were with the menhaden more sharks 

 than usual, schools from one acre to five acres in extent were 

 common. The result was wholesale destruction, which if 

 continued, will in a short time wipe out the 1884 crop. 



Prooably more menhaden were destroyed every day last 

 season by sharks than all the menhaden fishermen of the 

 United States could catch in ten years. It is a fact well 

 known to those posted and familiar with the. subject that 

 man is only a cipher in comparison with the engines of 

 destruction' furnished by nature to destroy fish that live, 

 breed and have their homes in om- rivers, bays and the ocean. 



Daniel T. Church. 



Tiverton, E, I., April 18. 



SHAD GO OVER A FISHWAY.-The superintendent of 

 fisheries for South Carolina reports to the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission, under day of May 5, as follows: "The fishway on the 

 Saluda River is working nicely. I was told by the superin- 

 tendent of the factory yesterday, that shad and round fish are 

 going over it constantly. This I do not doubt, as while in- 

 specting the way myself I found fish on it near the head. 

 This is the older form of the McDonald fishway, erected in 

 1882, and is very crude in construction and inefficient;, as com- 

 pared with new designs. 



r Me Ximwl 



FIXTURES. 



BENCH SHOWS. 



May 13, 14 and 15.— Third Annual Dos; Phowof the Toronto Dog 

 b "S w Association. W. S. Jackson, Secretary, Toronto, Ont. 



May 19, 20. 21 and 22.-Sho\vof the Philadelphia Kennel Club. F. A. 

 Diffenderfer, Superintendent. Philadelphia. Pa. 



,„ Ju . ne ?' 5 ,4 J5 U S, 5 -— First Annual Dog .Show ot the Illinois Kennel 



Club. John H. Naylor, Secretary, 3.182 Archer avenue, Chicago, m. 



FIELD TRIALS. 



Nov. 16. 1885 -Seventh Annual Field Trials of the Eastern Field 

 Trials Club, High Point, N". C. Entries for Derby close Mav 1. W. 

 A. Coster, Secretary, Flatbush, L, I. 



Dec. 7.-Seventh Annual Field Trials of the National Field Trials 

 Club, Grand Junction, Tenn. Entries for Derby close April 1 B M 

 Stephenson, La Grange, Tenn., Secretary. 



A. K. R.-SPECIAL NOTICE. 



rpHE AMERICAN KENNEL REGISTER, for the registration of 

 - 1 - pedigrees, etc. (with prize lists of all shows and trials), is pub- 

 lished every month. Entries close on the 1st. Should be in early. 

 Entry blanks sent on receipt of stamped and addressed envelope. 

 Registration fee (50 cents) must accompany each entry. No entries 

 inserted unless paid in advance. Yearly subscription $1.50. Address 

 "American Kennel Register," P. O. Box 2832, New York. Number 

 of entries already printed 2386. 



BRUNO. 



rpHY coat of arms, the symbol of thy knighthood, 

 -*- Is thy coat of shaggy black and fawn; 

 Thou comest doubly of a house that's knighted, 



For deeds of valor and courage done, 

 Thy fawn is the fawn of thy sires who peril'd 



Then- lives for life in the Alpine snows, 

 And thy olack is their black who knew the waters, 



When dark death lurked in their ebbs and flows. 



Thy deep, glad bark at my call, and thy bounding, 



Touch my heart with a flush of joy, 

 For the trust of a dumb, dependent creature 



I count a blessing without alloy. 

 Be many thy joys, faithful friend, that gladden, 



Few, faithful friend, thy sorrows that ache, 

 For thine is the depth of love and devotion 



Even to death for thy master's sake. 



Thine eyes have almost more than human pleading, 



Brimming with eloquent mute appeal; 

 ADd thy brown head's reassuring pressure, 



Doth thy loyal sympathy reveal. 

 If speech were thine, what thoughts were thine to utter, 



What emotions thine to be expressed, 

 Expressed what floods of staunch and steadfast feeling, 



Surging and glowing within thy breast! 



There is a touch of pathos in the offer 



Of thy paw, when on my lap 't is laid; 

 Thine honest paw no traitor pulses flutter, 



Thou hast no taint of blood that e'er betrayed; 

 And the clan of nature's nobles that claims thee 



Insures thy fealty till Me shall end; 

 So I hold thee one of my best and truest, 



We are pledged together friend and friend. 



Jeknib Maxwell Faise. 



CINCINNATI DOG SHOW. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Before offering any observations on the above-named show, 

 permit me to hark back to that of New York, held the previ- 

 ous week, to remark upon and reply to the criticisms on my 

 decisions, which 1 have read in your columns and that of your 

 Western contemporary. 



On the points 1 desire to touch you are in agreement, and I 

 am told similar expressions of opinion have appeared in other 

 papers, which I have had no opportunity of reading. 



I am not surprised at the unanimity in the mild censure on 

 the particular decisions with which you differ from me, and 

 that for two reasons: Firstly, because the manner in which 

 adverse opinion has been expressed is characterized by the 

 courtesy to a visitor which has marked my reception here, and 

 which past and present experience teaches me is a prominent 

 trait in the American character. Secondly, because my pub- 

 licty expressed criticisms on several awards made by me is in 

 accord with that of your own and other reporters. 



In the two cases of the mastiff bitcn class and the pug dog 

 class, I must now recallmy admission that I was in error in my 

 decisions, for having had a second opportunity of seeing Rosa- 

 lmd and Prussian Princess together, and to take a more 

 leisurely survey of them, and with time to consider the sub- 

 ject in its various bearings, I am prepared to stand to my first 

 decision, as in fact I have done, as the Cincinnati prize hst 

 given below will show. 



It would, however, be wanting in respect to all concerned, 

 if, apparently seesawing from one opinion to another and back 

 again, I did not offer the reasons by which I justify myself, at 

 least to myself. 



In your introductory remarks to your critique of the New 

 York dog show, you very justly say that "comments on the 

 dogs should be for the benetit of the pubbc and as a guide to 

 the breeder who has no opportunity of examining them;" 

 and your further observation in reference to mating, with the 

 view of eliminating faults and improving desirable qualities, I 

 thoroughly indorse. 



I beheve that every one of your readers will agree in that 

 view, and that difference of opinion will only begin when we 

 come to discuss the methods to be pursued to attain that de- 

 sired end. The subject is too big to be exhaustively treated in 

 the preliminary of a dog show report; I will, therefore, confine 

 myself to an explanation of the principle I laid down for my 

 guidance and which I followed as well as I was able, and as 

 the circumstances of the case (the classes of animals before, 

 me) permitted of, merely premising that I shall be pleased to 

 return to the subject to discuss it with any one interested. 



You are in this country engaged in founding a breed which, 

 whatever we may call it now, will in f uture be the American 

 mastiff. , . , 



In doing so you naturally and wisely seek your parent stock 

 iu its home; and I looked upon it asmy duty to select from the 

 specimens before me those of the best type of English mastiffs, 

 as that type is defined and accepted iu England at the present 

 day. I say nothing of the old English mastiff, for although a 

 club of that name exists, under the pretension of preserving 

 the ancient broad-mouthed dogs of Britain, it would be as ab- 

 surd to speak of a show dog as at all resembling Ins progenitor 

 of the bear garden as to speak seriously of the present exist- 

 ence of the mastodon. It is my opinion that Prussian Princess is 

 nearer to the present accepted standard than Rosalind in type 

 or f amity character, and that for breeding purposes, for stamp- 

 ino- the character on the breed in this county, she possesses 

 the requisite dualities in an intensity which Rosalind does not. 

 I am not overlooking her physical defects in legs, but such 

 faults are of tener due to bad kennel management than inher- 

 itance, and treated as a loss in calculating the ideally perfect 

 animal, is of less consequence from a breeder's point of view 



