1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



9 



m and §iver fishing. 



ST. LAWRENCE RIVER WORK. 



WM. STEELE. State Game and Pish Protector at 

 • Clayton, makes the following interesting annual re- 

 port of the work, on the St. Lawrence River and elsewhere 

 in Jefferson county : 



Clayton, Jan. 2, 1886. Gen. R. XJ~. Sherman, Secretary 

 Commission of Fisheries, New Hartford. Dear SiT: I. heg 

 to submit my report for the year 1885, as requested by you. 

 My entire time lias been given to the protection of fish and 

 game, and I have had no other business*, except that for a 

 period of two weeks, by official permission from you, I gave 

 my atttntion to personal matters out of my district. My 

 memoranda shows that I was actually engaged two hundred 

 and one days. The details are attached to this report. As 

 you are aware my time is almost entirely devoted to the 

 river St Lawrence. It is long and wide and filled with 

 islands, and affords the very best chances for violators of the 

 fish and same laws to work undiscovered. I think it a low 

 estimate 'to say that I have traveled more than four thousand 

 miles on the river during the year. My skiff has been in 

 almost constant use in searching for illegal nets, but at times 

 I have used a sailing yacht loaned me for the purpose. 

 During the year I have been in constant consultation with 

 officers ;md members of the Anglers' Association of the St, 

 Lawrence River. I have investigated every complaint and 

 watched many nights, lying in my skiff, for the purpose of 

 discovering violators of ' the law and illegal nets, which it 

 was impossible to get at in the day time. 



The illegal fishing has been very great in the St. Lawrence 

 River in former years. Prom Tibbett's Light at the source 

 of the river at Lake Ontario to Chippewa Bay, some fifty 

 miles below, there have been for many years men who have 

 mainly made their living by fishing with m ts. It has been 

 estimated that until the Anglers' Association commenced 

 their work, and prior to my service under the instructions 

 of your Commission, there were over one hundred tons of 

 game fish taken from the river annually. But that is a 

 thiug of the past. Nets and netters are rapidly disappearing. 

 It is a fact that until three years ago the laws were not 

 known to a half dozen people living by or interested m the 

 river. I have exerted myself to the utmost to make the 

 laws known, by the distribution in pamphlet form of a copy 

 of the game laws of the State and by posters specifying their 

 application to the river, and I believe that they are now 

 understood bv all who are interested in the river or who live 

 by its side, "whether tourist, resident, boatman or guide. 

 During the year 1 have destroyed 62 nets, found in illegal 

 use at'various points in my district, but mainly taken from 

 the St. Lawrence. These nets I have pulled from the water, 

 getting such help as I could from time to time. I estimated 

 the value of the nets at not less than $1,500. In each case 

 they have been burned in accordance with the law. During 

 the last three months of the year I was assisted by Daniel 

 Staring, of Alexandria Bay, who was employed by the Ang- 

 lers' Association at their own expense. He performed valu- 

 able services, and worked earnestly to rid the river of the 

 murderous nets. ■ . 



I have had no opportunity for persecuting offenders, 1 he 

 nets are set under cover of darkness and are emptied in the 

 darkness, The owners will watch them when they are being 

 taken, but will not claim them. It is almost impossible to 

 prove an ownership. They simply look on and see their 

 property taken away, and calculate the chances of profit by 

 replacing them. 



I believe that the law passed during the last session of the 

 Legislature which forbids the "having in possession" of 

 black bass and other game fish wilt be of very great benefit 

 the coming spring, and until the time that the close season 

 ends. The law formerly had merely conditioned that cer- 

 tain fish caught in the waters of the State should not be had 

 in possession. Canada fish were sometimes secured, to be 

 sure, and shipped by the fish mongers to this region, but in 

 spite of the most incessant watching, many tons were, taken 

 from our waters during the close season, called "Canada 

 fish" and sent to the market under this misnomer. It will 

 be very easy under the law as it now reads to prevent this. 



The Canadian authorities have taken up the matter of 

 protecting the game fish of the river from capture in nets 

 and have greatly improved their laws and increased their 

 protective service. There have been large numbers of nets 

 destroyed on the Canadian side of the river by their officers 

 and by their sportsmen. I think we can feel sure that entire 

 co-operation from their side of the river will be extended to 

 us. With the work that is now being done it can hardly be 

 otherwise than that the fishing in the river will become even 

 better than it has ever been before. I shall in the future, as 

 I have in the past, permit no opportunity to punish offenders 

 to escape me, by working and Watching at all times. 



I have no suggestions to offer as to the laws or any needed 

 feforrn in them from the standpoint of this part of the State 

 or the region to which I have been assigned to duty. 1 be- 

 lieve thai we have enough laws, and in fact too many. 

 They need, if anything, simplification and condensation; 

 and if those on the statute books were but thoroughly lived 

 up to by the people, and enforced by the magistrate when 

 complaint was made, they would be all sufficient to properly 

 and thoroughly protect the fish and game of the State. 



In ridding the river of illegal nets too much praise cannot 

 be accorded" to H. R. Clarke, a summer visitor from Jersey 

 City N. J. His steam yacht goes daily to many parts of 

 the' river, and himself and his employes omit no opportunity 

 to pull nets. He has permission from the Canadian authori- 

 ties to remove nets from their waters when they are illegal, 

 and he has during the past year made many raids on their 

 side of the river as well as our own. A large number of nets 

 were thus destroyed in addition to those named in the report. 



The nets captured were located as follows: March 6, 

 Clayton Bay; 30th, Fly nn's Bay; April 25, French's Creek, 

 1 fyke net at each ; May 9, Salmon River, 9 fykes, 10 gills, 

 one trap and two sieves, in five days; 16, Clayton Bay 1 

 fyke; 19-20, Pulaski and Salmon River, 4 fykes in three 

 days ; June 10-20, Ohipnewa Bay, 3 gill nets; 24, Chimney 

 Island, 1 gill; 29, Blanket's Island, 1 trap; August 21, Cart- 

 ton Island, 1 fyke: 25-27, Blind Bay, 1 fyke: September 13, 

 Eel Bay, 2 gills; 24-25, Carlton Bay 10 gills ; October 9, 

 Cape Vincent, 200 rods gill nets; 15, Cape Vincent, 200 rods 

 gill nets; 16, Miller's Bay, 200 rods gill nets ; 19, Chippewa 

 Bay 3 trap nets; 20, Chippewa Bay, 100 rode gill nets; 27, 

 Millet's Bay, 100 rods gill nets; November 4, north side 

 Grindstone island, 45 rods gill nets; 11, Goose Bay, 100 

 rods gill nets; 14-18, Cape Vincent, 200 rods gill nets; 26-28, 

 Eel Bay, 40 rods gill nets; December 1, Eel Bay, 1 gill net; 

 g f Hickory Island, 25 rods gill nets. 



In my work during the year, I have invariably and at once 

 investigated any complaints, rumors or information as to 

 nete. You can readily understand that much work was per- 

 formed in this way of an entirely useless nature. Some one 

 would say that there was a net in such a place. It might be 

 honest information, or an honest belief, but it has not al- 

 ways been so. When there have been no complaints to in- 

 vestigate I have created work by visiting suspected places. 

 All of which is respectfully submitted. W. M. Steele. 



The Vticn Obnerwr say that Commissioner Sherman is ex 

 ceedingly well pleased with the above report in form and 

 substance. It shows what he particularly wishes to demon- 

 strate—what thorough work may be done when sportsmen 

 boldly and actively take hold of the work and thus strengthen 

 the hauds of the law and its officers. Special Protector 

 Staring will continue to labor with State Protector Steel this 

 season, under the employ of the Anglers' Association. Dr. 

 Sargent, of Watcrtown, President of the Jefferson County 

 Fish and Game Association, Captain Tyler, of Henderson 

 Harbor, and others interested in fish protection in the harbors 

 of the lake, are hard at work and will complete the chain of 

 fish protection on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario in this 

 State, this year. Fish thieves will have but little comfort in 

 1886, or later, with all these active men watching them. 



FISHING AT KEY WEST. 



IT is a cold day in Key West; and when I say cold I mean 

 it, although were I to give the exact height of the mer- 

 cury, I doubt very much if you good people in New York 

 and further north, who are toasting your toes around the 

 cheerful holes in the walls and floors, through which the hot 

 air pours, would agree with me. It is just 50° Fah., with a 

 thirty mile au-hour zephyr coming straight from the Arctic 

 circle, a cloudless sky and a bright sun, in which, screened 

 from wind, the thermometer I have just had put out to try 

 it, soars upward to 70°. It all depends upon the route by 

 which you reach a temperature, whether it shall be consid- 

 ered hot or cold from above or below, 1 have in my time 

 found it a little coolish at 80° and warm at 32° j the former 

 in lots of places all over the world, in Woosuug and Wkam- 

 pou, China; inBatavia and Singapore, India; inBahiaand 

 Rio, South America; in the Red Sea and in Aden, Arabia, 

 where for days at a stretch — and nights too, for that matter 

 — a thermometer whose marks stopped at 100° would be use- 

 less; I have fouud the latter in our own temperate zone, in 

 a sweet village, in a valley, which honored me by allowing 

 me to be born there, a New York Central village, which 

 possesses, according to the statement of the oldest inhabitants, 

 ' 'the finest climate in the world, sir." So at Key West where 

 as a general thing the winter weather is just right for out- 

 door life, in autumn clothing, for one extreme, white pants 

 and straw hats for the other. When the day, one winter 

 years ago, the thermometer marking 44°, established for it a 

 perpetual record as the cold day, when not a dozen times in 

 a score of years has it marked below 55°; 50° is indeed cold. 



But this cold day has furnished an incident very much out of 

 the common, and one that 1 think worthy of being recorded. 



Although it is cold, and the water is rough, and it is Sun- 

 day, fishing i3 going on at a very lively and successful rate, 

 and by a method differing from all accounts of "Al Fresco," 

 Henshall, "Nessmuk," and other Florida anglers, whose 

 contributions have enriched your columns. From the various 

 wharves a great variety of fish are being captured with scoop 

 nets. One bucket full that I examined contained not only 

 the ordinary fish which we catch daily with hook and line, 

 namely, "grunts" (hog-fish), yellow tails, snappers, groopers 

 and porgies, but others seldom so taken, and some not at all; 

 of the former pompano, and of the latter paintfish, I recog- 

 nize. And one, a new and strange fish to me, of which I 

 send outline sketch, shaped somewhat like a pompano, but 

 of dark purple color, and armed on both sides at the inter- 

 section of tail and body with a fang-like weapon. The paint- 

 fish is an unwholesome, bilious-looking fellow, of green 

 pink, pale yellow and blue tints, with a remarkable mouth, 

 made evidently to detach and crush shellfish. The lower and 

 upper jaws project and form each a continuous sharp, 

 crescent-shaped tooth. These fish are swimming around 

 listlessly on the surface, evidently chilled nearly to death, 

 the temperature of the sea being 52°, at least 10° lower than 

 usual. And in addition to its low temperature it has, I 

 should judge, an extremely unusual amount of lime stone 

 rock and sand mixed with it, its color being that of thick 

 whey, and my bath tub this morning, an hour after being 

 half filled, had a bottom deposit of fully an eighth of an inch 

 of sand. 



The cause of this unusual state of affairs is a strong 

 norther, which, beginning on Christmas morning at about 

 2 o'clock, gradually freshened into a strong gale, which just 

 now is moderating after over sixty hours" of stirring up 

 things. Although called a norther, the gale has been actu- 

 ally from northwest, gradually hauling to north, where it now 

 is, and dying out; and, except for the force of the wind, 

 roughness of the sea and fall in temperature, which before 

 was well up in the seventies, more beautiful weather could 

 not be conceived of. There is one peculiarity about these 

 northers; no two are alike, and no description of the approach 

 of one would give any valuable data by which to recognize 

 in time that of another. The oldest pilots and fishermen 

 admit that the times are out of joint. Previous to this year 

 they could foretell with considerable certainty the weather. 

 This year all signs fall. During the first fortnight of our 

 stay we were hardly free from one of these storms, our 

 heaviest being the storm of Nov. 2 and 3, which wrought 

 such havoc at Aspinwall, when with us the wind got up to 

 fifty miles an hour. That began, as this one did, at the 

 northwest, hauled just the same, but instead of the bright, 

 beautiful, dry weather of this one, it was accompanied by 

 the usual weather of a storm— clouds and drizzling rain. 

 Another came on us in a calm, the air hot, sultry and laden 

 with moisture, from a black bank to the north northwest 

 there sprung one single, intense flash of lightning, accom- 

 panied, not followed, by a tremendous thunder blast, and in 

 ten minutes a gale was blowing, the thermometer dropped 

 ten degrees and a perfect deluge of rain fellfor several hours, 

 with no more electric display. This was the last one of any 

 weight for over a week, and it seemed as though that shower 

 had wrung every drop of water out of the air, and since it we 

 have had fine weather. 



These northers seriously break up fishing for amusement. 

 One does not care to go far from home in an open boat, with 

 no fair prospect of getting back— without having suffered 

 considerable hardship and exposure, not unattended with 

 danger. So before a norther we don't care to go. During 

 one we couldn't if we would, and after one there is but little 

 chance of success, for the water has grown cold and the fish 

 I don't bite well. Until to-day I believe the assertion of the 

 I fishermen, that the fish during a norther run off the reefs 



and into the gulf stream to keep warm ; but to-day's experi- 

 ence teaches that certainly a great many remain and become 

 more or less torpid ; and even were they here in plenty and 

 vigorous, the water is so discolored that a trolling bait is 

 probably invisible to them as it is to us dipped an inch under. 

 We have not been entirely deprived of the amusement. 

 There have been some good days, and we have made the 

 most of them. Anchored anywhere on the reefs with rock 

 bottom and no grass below us, fishing is made easy, too 

 easy in fact, fortbpre is but little of the element of chance 

 and none of that of skill in it. Baiting with "sardines," 

 crawfish, conch or corned kingfish, named in the order of 

 their value, little time is lost, and a bucketful of delicious 

 pan fish is soon obtained. In order of value for the table 

 there are pompano, grunts (called hogfish in the Chesapeake), 

 snappers, groupers, porgies, yellow tails,, and now and then 

 a hideous yellow and black spotted eel, with an enormous 

 mouth garnished with many sharp teeth, Now and then a 

 youue; shark interrupts the proceedings. I don't, know what 

 the fish called here sardine is. They are in myriads in all 

 the shoal quiet spots near shore, and axe the young of some 

 one species. With a mosquito bar net we catch all we want 

 easily, and cooked as whitebait, they are not bad, They 

 would elsewhere be termed minnows, of from one to three 

 inches in length. 



What I describe may be called home fishing. Anywhere 

 within three hundred yards of the ship is far enough to go, 

 and seldom brings to hand any fish of size ; nearly all range 

 from one-half pound to two pounds. By going five or six 

 miles to the outer edges of the reefs and fishing in from ten 

 to twenty fathoms, larger gropers, snappers, with occasional 

 channel bass, are found, We find them easier in the mar- 

 ket. Alongside of the wharves some sheepshead are caught, 

 but as the only bait they will touch is a fiddler crab, which 

 is scarce, not 'many are taken. I am told tarpon can be 

 caught from the wharves as soon as the mullet get to run- 

 ning, which desirable event is promised soon. As yet there 

 are very few mullet and no tarpon. 



At times, after an easterly wind, trolling for Spanish 

 mackerel furnishes good sport; but they are very uncertain. 

 I have made three efforts, all unsuccessful, and I think that 

 one reason is that just the weather that suits the mackerel to 

 run in, suits me to stay in. One day, however, I was out 

 when other boats were successful, and 1 got none. I had 

 various kinds of spoons, spinners and minnows. (artificial); 

 they all looked very fine to me, but the fish seemed to prefer 

 the slice of white pork skin, fastened on to the single long- 

 shanked hooks of the natives. It was the same on a longer 

 trip made by a party to the "American Shoals," eighteen 

 miles away, after kingfish, They carried with them a fine 

 assortment of fancy gear, but they caught their fish (and a 

 fine lot they were, too, from thirty pounds down to ten, and 

 a half dozen handsome Spanish mackerel) with the fisher- 

 man's gear— a single large cod hook with tapered end, a 

 wire snood hitched and soldered to the inside of the shank, 

 leaving about half an inch as a spur on which to hitch the 

 small end of the long triangle of pork skin used for bait. 

 So it was, I remember, the first time I went bluefishing off 

 Nantucket. My costly lot of lines were soon put out of 

 commission, and I caught my fish on an eel-skin drail, for 

 which 1 paid a quarter. One lives and learns. 



I started once to go to the shoals for kingfish. Our pro- 

 gramme was to leave here at 5 A. M., reach the shoals by 8, 

 troll till satisfied, land in Loggerhead Bay, shoot a lot of 

 plover on the ebb tide and be back by 9 P. M. We started 

 at 5 with light airs; at 9 we anchored in twelve fathoms. 

 Close to, on one side, a nasty reef, the Sambro, and our stern 

 tailing off the green water of soundings into the blue waters 

 of the gulf stream, into which we had ventured ; and be- 

 calmed we drifted rapidly to the eastward, just catching air 

 enough to get back the four or five hundred yards to sound- 

 ings, after two hours' drifting. As we had no bait for bot- 

 tom fishing, but corned kingfish, we tried it; but the sharks 

 liked it too well, and we soon used up all of our gear with- 

 out a fish. It was tedious work and the planks of that 

 schooner, the Foam of the Sea, were hard, and the seventeen 

 hours that the trip cost us were dull ones. To be sure we 

 were, or ought to have been comfortable enough. Captain, 

 cook, pilot and fisherman were full of valuable information 

 about everything nautical and piscatorial connected with the 

 Cays; and Gabe, the cook, kept us well filled with most ex- 

 cellent fish, coffee, etc, but somehow nothing compensated 

 for the enforced idleness. 



We had but one adventure, a big loggerhead turtle came 

 past, and as he was engaged in feeding on Portuguese men-of- 

 war, he could be approached, for when so feeding they close 

 their eyes to avoid the stings. A. Coster started for him, 

 struck him and lost. I couldn't see how he could expect 

 any other result, for the spear used consisted simply of — 

 well it might have been half of an iron spike, sharpened, 

 about two inches long, then narrowed abruptly. I couldn't 

 see why it shouldn't pull out as easy as it went in, but It is 

 the correct thing, the wound in the turtle's back, they say, 

 immediately swells close and this spike having become 

 detached from the staff, becomes firmly imbedded and has 

 attached to it about twenty or thirty fathoms of line, by 

 which the creature is eventually secured. 



Most of the turtles brought to this market by the spongers 

 are caught in nets set across the channels of the various cays 

 they go to for sponges. These nets are very much on the 

 principle of gill nets, the turtles striking them never turn, 

 but using every endeavor to force their way through, get 

 heads and flippers hopelessly entangled. Under many of 

 the wharves are turtle pens, in which at all times are kept 

 quantities of green and loggerhead captives. The hawk 

 bills are generally killed at once for their shells, which 

 furnish the finest "tortoise shell," worth $4 per pound. 

 Many of the shells are kept intact, calipash and calipee con- 

 nected, the former handsomely polished, the latter cleaned, 

 and of these are made very handsome "wall bags," the liu- 

 ing and bags being of satin or silk. These range in value 

 from $2 to $12. One at the latter price being about 

 18 inches long, very richly colored and not trimmed, thai; is 

 satin lined, etc. 



The spongers have had poor luck this year, although 

 upon my first visit to the various depots, I was astonished at 

 the great number in various stages of preparation. I was told 

 that the crop was a very small one, owing to the continued 

 bad weather. It is a pretty sight to see the fleet come iu. 

 It reminds me of the Gloucester fleet, but individually there 

 is no beauty in the vessels as there is in the down Easters; 

 these are broad, flat and unshapely, but good sea boats. 

 The owners combine with sponging the business of wrecking. 

 Last week the incoming steamer from Galveston brought 

 news of a German bark ashore at the Tortugas, and in less 

 than half an hour the entire sponge fleet was off for cotton, 



£ct West, FIjv. , Dee- 3? Ptseco, 



