Sept. 34, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



169 



streams and swamps contiguous to the lake and rivers, de- 

 positing their spawn. They are the earliest apawners we 

 I have. By the time the ice is fairly out of the larger rivers 

 I and the lake, they have deposited their spawn and returned 

 to the deep waters. They never feed during the spiiwning 

 season, when they become much emaciated, in which con- 

 dition they remain till late in the summer. They are in 

 their best condition from the middle of September to the 

 middle of February. They have been known to weigh 

 twenty-five or thirty pounds. They will take a trolling bait 

 or spoon, a live minnow in deep fishing, a frog, a young 

 duck and have been known to swallow a gosling a week old. 

 When in season they are esteemed by many as a very fair 

 table fish. The largest should be boiled, the smaller broiled. 

 They are also rapid growers; at one year they will weigh sis 

 ounces; at two years, one pound ; at three years three to four 

 pounds; five to six years they attain their growth. 



Third — The common Eastern piclierel or green pike {Esox 

 reticulatuH) has the same habits as the great lake pike, and is 

 fished for in the same way. They are uot often seen in the 

 great lakes, and seldom weigh more than five or six pounds. 

 Tbey are much darker colored than the lake pike; the bars 

 on the sides are more marked and distinct. 



Fourth— The hump-back pickerel {Esox rt/pho) resembles 

 Esox salmon&us, only he is rounded or swollen in the dorsal 

 fegion. 



Fifth — The banded or trout pickerel {Esoai a/tiieneanus), 

 dark green, the sides covered with twenty curved bars. 



Sixth — The little pickerel or trout pickerel (-fe'sv;,;; salmonem), 

 olive color, green above and white below, with strtiaks on 

 the side instead of black bars. These three last never grow 

 to be a foot long, and are considered of very little account 

 by fishermen. Their habits and mode of life are very much 

 like the other species of the family to which they belong. 



FAIRLEE LAKE. 



Editor F&rest and Stream: 



A few days since I was in the village of Post Mills, Yt., 

 eDjoying the genial hospitahty of Captain Thos. H. Chubb's 

 home. A copy of the FoiiEsx and Stream was placed in 

 my hand and my attention called to an article bearing the 

 signature of "S." and entitled "Auld Lang Syne," which 

 carried me at once, in imagination, to scenes of my child- 

 hood, which, I believe, must have transpired in the same 

 town of which "S." writes. lam sure the description an- 

 swers perfectly to the town of R h, where I was horn, and 



the Uncle Lisha must have been Uncle Isaac R — d, of 

 whom I have heard many most laughable anecdotes besides 

 those related by "S." Uncle Isaac was a man who, besides 

 being universal "Uncle," was universally liked. But he had 

 one bad habit; he would partake too freely of the "ardent," 

 and when exhilarated he got the "cart before the horse" 

 more than ever, and then the boys — some, and, in fact, most 

 of them "boys" of a larger and older growth — delighted to 

 congregate in the village store and hear the old gentleman 

 talk. 



It was on one of these occasions that he said he "wanted 

 to get a good board to come and boy with me and go to 

 thcool thith winter." Also on such an occasion he told a 

 storey of a wonderful field of pumpkins in these words: 

 "Onih 1 had the nithetht field of pigths that ever wath, and 

 the neighborth's dam punkinth kept getting into them pigths. 

 I got tired of it, and I jutht called the houth out of the dog, 

 and they went through the devil atii though the very bruth 

 fenth wath after them." And I wonder if it was an exag- 

 gerated version of the story that "S." relates that I heard, or 

 if "S." did not quite remember it all. To "tell the story as 

 'twas told me," he once borrowed a sleigh called a cutter in 

 those days, of a man named Tucker, and in the course of the 

 evening "he stepped into Mr. Tucker's house, saying, "Well, 

 Mithter Cutter, I run your tucker under the thed and put 

 your harneth in the thtable and hung your horth up in the 

 barn, and I gueth you will find it right." 



But alas! the trout fishing of which "S." speaks is now no 

 more. Like most of the towns in Vermont, the brooks of 

 R h are tenantless, and the hills once clothed in ver- 

 dure are disrobed. Many of our beautiful forest trees have 

 been "cutoff as cumberers of the ground," and are now no 

 more. Tree planting will soon be as necessary with us as at 

 the West. 



But the hunting and fishing laws of Vermont are beginning 

 to have a beneficial effect. Game and fish are more abund- 

 ant than they were five years ago. It is well that there were 

 a few men far-sighted enough to realize that game and fish 

 must be protected by law and cultivated, and a happy illus- 

 tration of this foresight may be seen in the case of Fairlee 

 Lake, which lies partly in Port Mills village. The waters of 

 this lake had formerly contained a great variety and seem- 

 ingly an inexhaustible supply of the finny tribe, but fifteen 

 or twenty years ago they only lived in the memory of the 

 people. However, about that time there came to Post Mills, 

 from the Lone Star State, a gentleman who was passionately 

 fond of hunting and fishing, especially the latter. He was 

 at once struck with the beauty and healthfuluess of this 

 locality, and he decided that this was the place for him, 

 consequently he brought his family and settled here, and as 

 it was now to all interests and purposes his home, being an 

 active energetic man, he set about making improvements. 

 He interested himself in the law for protecting game and 

 fish, and stocked the beautiful lake that is so like an emerald 

 ;gem, with a variety of fish, and established a manufactory 

 .of all kinds of fishing implements, and has kept the place 

 alive generally. His is a history which, were it only written, 

 is well worth the reading. R. A, T. 



Vermont. 



Georgia Bass Fishing.— Macon, Ga., Sept. 15.— My 

 Iriend and partner (H. B, D.) owns an interest in a large mill 

 pond three and a half miles from Macon. In this are a great 

 many small bass. Some years ago the supply was almost ex- 

 hausted by the largest ones destroying the smallest and then 

 being taken by the fishermen. H."B. D. had the pond 

 restocked, and now the fishing is improving. He and I 

 caught over twenty fish one day in June, most of them bass, 

 and we also had some bream fishing. Together with a friend 

 one morning in June I caught twenty of these, the finest 

 perch fish in the world. Three miles beyond this pond is 

 one owned by Dr. McC, of Macon, which is well supplied 

 with bass, and several parties have caufrht some big weights 

 there recently. I give you weights of ten, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 

 5i, 8i, 9 and 9 pounds respectively-. These are private ponds 

 and well protected. We anticipate some fine sport in Novem- 

 ber, as H. B. D. will let off most of the water in his pond 

 to have some repairs done. The fish will then be in a small 

 compass of water, and will bite freely. Will report to you if 

 we have much success. — I.H.J. ■ - 



A SECOND COURTSHIP. 



A YOUNG lawyer friund of mine, H. H., has lately 

 married. His wife is a, good Catholic of au old Vir- 

 ginia family, and on Frida_ys and Wednesdays 11. has to eat 

 fish or dine with the heretics. These circumstances have 

 been fortunate for your esteemed correspondent, who, by 

 pretended or true interest in the cause of chtu-chly fasts, was 

 invited to "try the trout some Thursday." So last Thursday 

 I asked H. if he thought his folks would take kindly to 

 Snimo f<mtmalu, or salvelinus, whichever be correct. His 

 reply was favorable, so I meditated another bold stroke, 

 namely, to persuade my own wife to walk to the stream and 

 participate in the prospective .sport. Leaving directions to a 

 colored citizen to follow with lunch, my wife and I set out. 

 The Big Spring is about two miles or more from our humble 

 dwelling. We "walked in the middle o' the road," to avoid 

 climbing too many fences. We wanted the trip to be incon- 

 spicuous, but every acquaintance we have seemed that even- 

 ing to be on that particular road. My wife, however, be- 

 haved well under fire, and trudged along admiring the beau- 

 tiful landscape on each side of the way, and enjoying the 

 fresh air and exhilarating exercise as much as her fisherman 

 escort, who was feeding on prospective pleasures yet to be 

 drawn from the clear running brook, odorous with fragrant 

 mint and sweet-smelling plants— pleasures of tangible shape 

 and beauteous form— tiame-colored fish sprinkled with 

 sparkles of the finest jewelry. In fine, he was thinking of 

 the trout and she of the landscape. 



The trout stream runs through a beautiful grassy meadow. 

 Its waters, clear, swift and sparkling, glide over enameled 

 pavements of multifarious mosaic, many-formed and many- 

 colored, all colors represented in its pebbles and clays — reds, 

 whites, yellows, bluish-grays, and lead-shaded tints changing 

 their hues with the movement of water, sky or cloud, out- 

 shining the products of man's poor looms. 



One of our sons with the colored contingent had arrived 

 and the rods were jointed, the narrowness of the stream pre- 

 cluding the fly, we began to try the swift stream with the 

 festive grasshopper, who was out in force and tumbling from 

 everything but "sweet tater vines" into the stream and being 

 gulped up by the agile and scaly citizens of the water. Rob 

 caught the first and largest fish, more than a foot long and 

 as broad as my palrn, in fact the rascal, notwithstanding 

 the commandment, "Honor thy father," etc., beat me in size 

 of catch, though not in numbers. Or to put the matter as 

 Henry Powell," the colored aide, did: "Mr. W., if your fish 

 were two or three inches longer you would beat Rob all to 

 pieces, 1 tell you this for a fac'." 



We fished the stream to the river, about half a mile, caught 

 a dozen tLsh, eight trout, nearly all plump and sizable, and 

 after lunch and a pleasant walk home, ate trout for supper 

 with the fragrance of mint still clinging to them, besides 

 turning over to our friends enough for their Friday meal. 



My wife had such a color, was so pleased and excited by 

 the pleasure of the trip that I only was kept from courting 

 her over again by the presence of the children, and by the 

 consideration that "discipline must he maintained." If ladies 

 only knew how much prettier a complexion may be gotten 

 on a trout stream than from a drug store they would take 

 more exercise and less powder. T. W. 



Leksburg, Va,, Aug. 81. 



Rhode Island Bass. — 1 took with the rod the week end- 

 ing Sept. 16, striped bass, the largest weighing 22 pounds; 

 smallest di pounds. Two rods that I baited during the week 

 ending Sept. 12 took respectively: Rod No. 1.— Sept. 7, 

 five, of 13, 9, 4f, 5 and4i pounds respectively; Sept. 8, two, 

 of 17 and 8-| pounds; Sept. 9, six, of 10, 7, 5h 5, 21 and 2 

 pounds. Rod No. 2. — Sept. 10, one, of 22^ pounds; Sept. 

 12, four, of 12|, 10. 7J and 5 pounds; and Sept. 12 another 

 rod took six, of 6, 5^. 4f , 4, 3 and 2^ pounds. Seven blue- 

 fish were also taken during the week, weights, lOf , 10, 8i, 8, 

 6, 5i, 3 pounds. I think from the indications that there is 

 going to be the best fishing this month there has been for 

 some years. For the past month the menhaden steamers 

 have been in other parts and the menhaden have struck into 

 the rivers and along this part of the coast, which in this 

 locality means good bass and bluefishing. The gill-netters 

 and trap-fishermeu have had very poor fishing most of the 

 season and it looks as if there would be less of them the 

 next season. If there should be less and should the steamers 

 also make themselves scarce, it would be of great benefit to 

 the hook fishermen who depend on the line for their daily 

 bread. I was much pleased with your editorial on the men- 

 haden question, also with Mr. Clapham's notice, and could 

 it be made as plain to the United States Government as it is 

 to most fishermen that the steam fishing, pound and gill- 

 netting destroys our fishing and fish supply, they would 

 either be restricted or wiped out. — W. M. Hughes (New- 

 port. R. I., Sept. 13)^ 



Fighting Bass. — New York, Sept. 22. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: A friend of mine, recently from Florida, has just 

 told me an absolutely true fish story, as follows: A friend 

 of his with his wife were out rowing on Lake Nettie, near 

 Lake Eustis, Orange county, Fla. , when, noticing a commo- 

 tion in the water at some distance, they approached and 

 found tv/o black bass in deadly combat. The water boiled. 

 The fish attacked and retreated after the approved style of 

 the arena. FinaDy one of them seized the other by the 

 upper and lower jaw, and shook him as a dog shakes his 

 prey. So exhausted were they that the gentlemen reached 

 down and drew them both into the boat. One of them 

 weighed 9 pounds and the other 9^ pounds. Verily Florida 

 waters are the ones in which to go fishing, withotit either 

 rod, line, hook or sinkers. — Geo. Shepard Page. 



Rainbow Trout in the Adirondacks. — Number Four, 

 Lewis County, N. Y., Sept. 20, — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 During the spring of 1882, while I was in this region, Mr. 

 Fenton was hatching 300 eggs of the rainbow trout. About 

 the first of this month Rev. Dr. Shipman, of New York city, 

 caught one of these fish in the rapids of Beaver River, which 

 weighed ten ounces. A day or two afterward one of the 

 same size was caught by a gentleman from Albany. I found 

 that they fed on green worms gathered from the rock bottom. 

 —Spencer M. Nash. 



Brittle Hooks. — Redditch, Eng., Sept. 10.— Editor 

 Forest and Stream: We notice that one of your correspond- 

 ents complains of the ciuality of the sproat hooks of one of 

 the manufacturers in this town. We take the liberty of 

 sending you 100 of our manufacture, and shall be obliged if 

 you will try them and report on them. Yours truly— S. 

 Allcock. & Co. [We have tested the hooks sent and find 

 them of most excellent quality, and have sent some to oux 

 coiTespondent Mr. E. A. Leopold.] 



Long Island Sea Fishery.— Springs, Long Island.— The 

 fishing of September here has been better than before, but 

 the fresh winds and rough sea have been unfavorable for the 

 bunker steamers and the pound-fishermen. The cooler 

 weather and water have brought in the fish from the ocean 

 tides in greater abundance, biit the water has been too rough 

 to allow the pound boats to "lift" their nets. One party 

 here (Fireplace Point) who have five pounds at Fort Pond 

 (Montauk) have been able to visit them but once this week, 

 viz., on Monday. On that day (7th) we had fresh easterly 

 winds here, when the racing yachts were prevented by calms 

 off Sandy Hook from completing their struggle. The fish 

 chiefly taken in the pounds of Block Island, Gardiner's Bay 

 and Peconic Bay waters are weakfish, bluefish, porgies, 

 shiners and flatfi.sh, these five pounds taking from two boxes 

 of fish to twenty. The average prices they receive for them 

 in New York vary from $2 to $12 each, according to the 

 demand for them in city markets. The dealers tax the fish- 

 ermen about 12 per cent, for sales, which is a fair sum and 

 is not objected to here. Once each day a cartload of worth- 

 less fish is taken, such as sharks, dogfish, skates, bunkers, 

 etc., and these are used to manure the land. — I. MoLellan. 



Snake and Bethabara Woods. — Snake or letterwood is 

 a tree of the genus Firatimra, growing in Guiana, South 

 America, and used by the natives for making bows and 

 arrows, for which reason it should be an excellent wood for 

 fishing rods, but has not entered into general use owing to 

 its being very heavy and expen.sive, costing twenty-five cents 

 per pound in the log in Guiana. Greenheart is a variety of 

 the genus Laurus, found in the West Indies and South 

 America. That in Jamaica and Guiana is the Neetandra 

 rodimi, called also "cog wood" in the former and "sipieri" 

 in the latter locality. Lancewood is a tree found also in the 

 West Indies, called in botany Quatteria virgoAa, and is par 

 excellence the best wood for fishing rods. It will be diffi- 

 cult to find bethabara wood in the botanical list, it is only 

 found in the catalogues of some fishing rod makers who have 

 enshrouded it in mystery, otherwise ii is nothing but a fancy 

 name for greenheart. — M. 



Flt-Fishing EOR Perch. —Salisbury, Md., Sept. 14. — 

 My colleague and myself were red fishing on the Urcomico 

 River, two miles below this place, and at my suggestion, Mr. 

 D. put on a leader containing three flies. On the third cast 

 he took a white perch, and on the fifth or sixth cast took a 

 large yellow perch, twelve or fourteen inches long. Hand- 

 ing his rod to me, he went into the yacht's cabin to put a 

 leader on another line, when upon the th-st or second cast, I 

 took a large yellow perch. This was on a narrow mud flat, 

 shelving up toward a marsh in fresh, or perhaps a little 

 brackish water. The tide had been flowing perhaps an hour, 

 and was in a short time too high upon the flat to fish. We 

 will try it again. Fly-fishing for perch is something new to 

 both of us. — E. W. Humphreys. 



Fishing With a Paddlewheel. — Hornellsville, N. Y. — 

 I see it reported that the other day the steamei* Moulton 

 struck and stunned a thirty-five pound pickerel with her 

 wheel, in the lake off Chautauqua. A fisherman named Rew 

 killed it with his oar and sold it to the Chautauqua meat 

 market for four dollars. It was more of aa object of interest 

 than the pin machine, for the time being. I do not think, 

 this fish was a pickerel, but a muscalonge {Esox nobilior). I 

 have caught them in Chautauqua Lake, but could see no 

 dilTerence in them and the Niagara and St, Lawrence musca- 

 longe except in color. True this is some years ago and I 

 did not at that time know that the true muscalonge had 

 naked gill covers. — J. Otis Fellows. 



Bass PisHCSfG on the Schuyl/Sill. — Philadelphia, Sept. 

 19. — Bass fishing is now excellent in the Upper Schuylkill, 

 above Phcenixville, and the fish take the fly freely. Two 

 friends waded the river at or near this turn a few days since 

 and took twenty or twent5^-five fine bass with the artificial 

 lure. September and October with us are the season jsar &&- 

 ceUence for this fish, and our anglers are finding it out grad- 

 ually and many put up their bass rods for July and August 

 and never think of jointing them until autumn opens. — 

 Homo. 



Pickling Clams, Mussels and Eels. — Can any of your 

 readers give me directions for pickling clams, mussels and 

 eels, for use on a long cruise? — A. W. R. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



THE BIENNIAL SPAWNING OF SALMON. 



The Bucksport Experiments. 

 Piead before the American Msheries|Society.] 

 BY CHARLES G. ATKINS. 



AFTER the organization of the establishmeat for the col- 

 lection of eggs of sea-going salmon at Bucksport, on the 

 Penobscot River, in 1872, it was one of the earliest suggestions 

 of Professor Baird that we should attempt, as occasion might 

 offer, to obtain e\T-dence bearing on the frequency and dura- 

 tion of the salmon's migrations and its rate of growth. 



To carry out these suggestions ib seemed requisite that ob- 

 servations should be made on individual fishes at successive 

 periods in their Uves; yet, whatever means should be taken to 

 secure and identify them must, it was evident, not prevent 

 free movement in the open river to and from the sea, or inter- 

 fere in any way with the development of their functions or 

 their regular growth. They must be distinctly and durably 

 marked, yet in such a way as to do them no injury. Tne cut- 

 ting of the fins would answer the purpose only in part, since 

 it would not afford a sufficient variety in form to enable us to 

 distinguish a great number of individuals. Branding upon the 

 side of the fish was thought of and even tried, but the serious 

 mutilation that befel the first fish operated on, and the ex- 

 treme probability that those marks that were so lightly im- 

 pressed as to do no injury to the fish would soon become illeg- 

 ible, or so nearly so as to be overlooked by fishermen, caused 

 tbat method to "be abandoned. A metallic tag, stamped with 

 a recorded number, appeared to offer the greatest promise of 

 success. The tu'st tag tried was of thin alumimun plate, cut 

 about a half inch long &ud a quarter wide, and attached to a 

 rubber band which encircled the tall of the fish. It is probable 

 that most of the bands slipped off, and that those which wei'e 

 tight enough to stay on cut through the skin and produced 

 wounds that destroyed the fish. At any rate, no salmon thus 

 marked were ever recovered. 



The next method employed was the attachment of an 

 aluminum tag by means of a platinum wire to the rear mar 



