150 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 18, 1886- 



4 inches; girth, at thickest part (after a five-pound pickerel 

 had been taken from its stomach), 26i inches; weight, 52 

 pounds. Besides the pickerel above referred to, the stomach 

 of the monster contained a number of other good-sized 

 fish." 



' Stanstead," Forest and Stream, Vol. XX., p. 490, it 

 leaps. 



Clarke, S. C , Forest and Stream, Vol. L, p. 236, edi- 

 torial: "The largest we have ever heard of is vouched for 

 by our friend S. C. Clarke, who says that in 1840 he saw one 

 at the mouth of the Calumet River, Michigan, which had 

 just been captured in a seine, that was six feet long and 

 weighed eighty pounds. The mouth would have admitted a 

 man's leg; it showed a perfect diemux de friw of teeth, the 

 canines at least an inch long!" 



"A.." Forest and Stream, Vol. XVII., p. 251, tells of 

 one of 33 pounds. 



muschilong.cE (four syllables). 



"Dr. "Williams, author of the 'History of Vermont,' in- 

 forms us that the pike in that State bears the name of 

 'muschilongw.' " — J. V. C. Smith, Nat. History Fishes of 

 Mass., 1833, p. 166. 



muskallunge (three syllables). 



Jordan, "Manual of the Vertebrates," 1876. 



ibid, 1878. 



muskallonge (three syllables). 



Kirtland, J. P., Proe. Cleveland Acad. Nat. Sci., 1845 to 

 1859, pub. 1874. 



Klippart, J. fl., Rep. Ohio Fish Commission, 1875-76, p. 

 81. 



Jordan and Gilbert, ibid, p. 82. 



Jordan, D. 8,, Rept. Ohio Fish Com., 1877, p. 92. 



Contributions to American Ichthyology, 1877. 



Cope, E. D., Rept. Pa. Fish Com., 1879-80, p. 107. 

 Rept. Pa. Fish Com., 1881-82, p. 154. 



Atwater, W. O., Rept. U. S. Fish Com., 1880, pp. 239, 

 257. 



Jordan, D. S., Geological Survey of Ohio, 1882, Vol. IV., 

 p. 917. 



Howard Pyle, "Sport with Gun and Rod," pp. 591, 592. 



"Rambler," N. Y. Times, Aug. 10, 1860. 



Jordan and Gilbert, "Synopsis of the Fishes of North 

 America," p. 353, spells it "muskallonge," and in a foot-note 

 refers to the generic name given by him in Rep. Ohio Fish 

 Com'n, 1877, of masmlongus, which he thus defines: "Latin 

 maska, mask; l-ongus, long." Turning to the report referred 

 to, page 92, we find that in his remarks on the genus Esox 

 Prof. Jordan says: "There being but one genus of this 

 family at present known, its characters need not be separated 

 from the family characters given above. It is divisible into 

 three well-marked groups, which may be considered as sub- 

 genera. One of these is the typical Eso.r, to another Ratin- 

 esque long since applied the name Picorellus; the third, or 

 muskallunge type, may be termed Musculo ng us, in allusion 

 to the long face and in special allusion to the vernacular 

 name muskallunge, which is said to be from the French 

 Masque <Mongi; in Latin Mascalongus." Further down, while 

 giving the species, Prof. Jordan follows Thompson and calls 

 it E. nobilior. 



muskellunge (three syllables). 



De Kay, James E. "Fishes of New York," 1842, pp. 222, 

 223, "The muskellunge, or maskinonge [four syllables], for 

 its orthography is not settled, occurs abundantly in Lake 

 Erie." (De Kay had never seen one, and took his name and 

 description at second hand, and got the description wrong.) 



Milner, James W. Rept. TJ. S. Fish Com'n, 1872-73, pp. 

 6, 32, 63. 



ibid, p. 523. 



Goode. "Game Fishes of the United States," 1879. 

 Nelson, E. W. Rept. U. S. Fish Com'n, 1875-76, p. 792. 



MUSQUEALONGE. 



Forest and Stream, Vol. X., p. 280. "In an official 

 Minnesota pamphlet we find the name of this fish spelled 

 nrus^ertlonge! This is the latest orthography. It is alto- 

 gether an innovation upon the old-time spelling of musca- 

 longe, maskeuonge, masquelonge, muskallunge, et al , and 

 cannot be regarded as an improvement." 



MUSQUINONGY, 



Esox musquinongy, Mitchell, Mirror, 1824, p. 297. (This is 

 quoted by Gunther, Catalogue of Fishes Brit. Mus., and by 

 De Kay. Jordan says he cannot find it in the Mirror, and 

 I have not access to it). 



I have no doubt but the French "masqueallonge" is as near 

 the Ojibwa "maskinonje" as they could get it, and as the 

 fish has a long face or iong snout, they accept that as their 

 name for it. I have as little doubt also, that the Indian word 

 was originally "maskinonje" which, as your correspond- 

 ent "X." inclines to think, means the "spotted pike," and 

 thinks the "common pike" was simply "kinoje." I do not 

 anywhere find any warrant for the spelling "muskellonge" 

 and its variations. These are probably corruptions, such as 

 we sometimes hear in Canada, where the two first syllables 

 are entirely ignored, and the fish is spoken of as simply 

 "lunge," a term used in Maine for the great lake trout. It 

 is too late to attempt to correct any errors in spelling or in 

 pronunciation which have crept into the name of this fish; 

 and it is no part of my intention in writing this article, to do 

 anything of the kind; the only object being to attract the 

 attention of others who may be interested in the derivation of 

 names to this subject in order that we may know why the 

 fish has been thus called. It seems as if the Indian name 

 should be spelled "maskenozha" and the Rev. Dr. Dough- 

 erty gives it as "mushkinozha." Nowhere in this book of 

 his do I find "mas" for spotted, but do find, as I have said, 

 "mis" for red, as "mis-ko-be-nay-see" for redbird, "mis- 

 qaah-muh-gud," it is red, etc., and as the spots on Eox 

 nobilior are not red, it certainly could not have been intended 

 to be "mis-que-nonge." But I do not know the Ojibwa 

 word for spotted which your correspondent "X." tells me is 

 "mas," and therefore I have no reason to doubt it, but hope 

 that it is so, for I believe that the Canadian Frenchmen cor- 

 rupted an Ojibwa word into masque allonge, and we have 

 accepted it and still further abused it, as above shown. The 

 fish was here before the Frenchmen and they learned its 

 name from the natives, and from its resemblance to words 

 of theirs they gave it a twist into long snout. 



Of the authors quoted above Roosevelt comes the nearest 

 to being correct when he says that "masque allonge is a trans- 

 lation from the Canadian Indian dialect of masca nonga," 

 but he divides these last words wrong and misses it when 

 he says they "have the same signification." "Kenozha" is 

 Ojibwa for a pike and has no other meaning more than 

 "horse" or "cow" have, and "mas" is an adjective of some 

 kind, for only the great nobilior is so called. I do not believe 



with Frank Forester that the derivation is lost nor that long 

 face or long snout had anything to do with its original 

 Ojibwa name, even though Scott says the same thing. This 

 is an after thought of the Canadian Frenchmen. There is 

 no authority except that which comes from modern use, for 

 either the letters u or 1 in the name. It may be maskinozha, 

 maskinonje, or maskinonge, but all such forms as mascalonge 

 or muskellunge, uot to mention the other outlandish names 

 I have quoted, are corruptions. Fred Mather. 



THE RECORD OF A LINE. 



RUMMAGING among my fishing tackle I pick up a thin 

 brown line (sample of which find inclosed) to which is 

 attached the following memorandum: 



"July-Aug., '85, taken on this (2d season), 172 perch, 18 

 rock bass, 32 black bass, 298 trout, 4 pike; total 524." 



The remarkable part of this may be in the fact that the 

 line has never parted with a fish upon it. Several hooks 

 have been broken, but no fish lost through fault of the line. 

 It had, however, one pretty severe test. The angler's wife, 

 who is fond of the sport, once hooked a large bass while he 

 was busy with the bait, and womanlike, she proposed to let 

 no fish escape— big or little— if a strong steady pull would 

 effect anything. The light rod was making rapid and very 

 profound salaams to the denizen of the flood, while the line 

 swished to right and left in a way to make the angler's heart 

 jump to his throat as he realized the impending disaster to 

 his tackle; and shouting to his "better half" to "let go the 

 reel," which she was holding with determination known 

 only to woman on such occasions, he dashed to her relief. 

 For a brief moment it was a trial of endurance between the 

 fish, the lady and the line, but the calamity was averted by 

 a timely release of the reel, and plenty of line wherewith to 

 divert himself, the gallant fish was soon obliged to succumb. 

 He tipped the beam at 5f pounds. 



The record of 1884 has been mislaid, but it included sev- 

 eral black bass, one pike of 13 pounds and one 17-inch trout 

 taken at the mouth of Carp River. Twice did the angler 

 have his nose to the gravel and as often did the brave fish 

 fight his way back to his native element against the utmost 

 endeavors of bis captor. A third time was he hauled within 

 reaching distance, when throwing down the rod, with the 

 desperation born of a last hope, the angler pounced upon his 

 prize with both hands and the stiuagle was soon over. The 

 weight of this fish some hours after, was 3 pounds 1 ounce. 

 The hook was an extremely small one and the least slacken- 

 ing would have lost him. The line will be used again this 

 season, C. J. T. 



HAMPTON PONDS. 



A SPRINGFIELD paper yesterday morning contained the 

 following item : "A black bass weighing 7f pounds is 

 on exhibition in an Elm street store window. It was caught 

 at Hampton Ponds, and is the largest fish of this kind ever 

 taken there. " 



That is a monster, indeed, and no doubt the very one so 

 many of us were fishing for last summer. Hampton Ponds 

 afford about the only bass angling to be found in this imme- 

 diate vicinity. The fishing there is generally nothing to 

 boast of. Every man professes to believe that the waters 

 are full of bass, "and excuses for poor success are never want- 

 ing. In fact, I have myself seen them jumping in every 

 direction and have not been able to take more than one in all 

 the afternoon. Large fish are caught occasionally, and the 

 parties who keep boats to rent do not fail to give the matter 

 proper circulation. 



The first minnow I ever cast into the pond returned me a 

 bass weighing nearly three pounds. I jumped to the conclu- 

 sion that this was the place I had been looking for for some 

 time; but I never caught another so large. I have seen one 

 weighing four pounds caught with a frog, while traditions 

 of six-pound fish are current among the employes at the 

 grove, where horses are left and boats obtained. 



It is a very pleasant place to spend a day, and Holyoke 

 and Westfield anglers are always well represented when the 

 weather is favorable for sport, while the tents of campers are 

 often seen upon the island. Those who fish the waters fre- 

 quently meet with occasional good success, and find their 

 scores at the end of the season moderately satisfactoiy. One 

 Westfield business man stated in August that he had taken 

 fifty up to that time, ranging in weight from four pounds 

 down. It was reported that on one day in the month of 

 May, 1884, a man filled a clothes' basket with bass from this 

 pond. They must, doubtless, have been taken from the 

 spawning beds. This and similar practices amply account 

 for the fact that a person may fish all day in July and catch 

 nothing. Nonotuck. 



Holyoke, Mass., March 10. 



COLOR OF TROUT IN SALT WATER. 



IN former numbers of Forest and Stream I have occa- 

 sionally seen notes on the change of color in trout. That 

 the color of trout undergoes some modification in different 

 waters seems to me beyond doubt, and this I suppose to be 

 the prevalent opinion. I will give an example within my 

 own experience. 



There is (or was in 18f>9) a nice little trout brook and pond 

 at Glenwood, L. I. Glenwood is situated on Roslyn or 

 North Hempstead Harbor. I once stocked two small ponds 

 of my own from this brook, and years ago took many fine 

 trout from it. The brook was dammed up a few hundred 

 feet from the harbor. I think it was 1859 that the gate of 

 this dam was broken down by a freshet, and hundreds, if 

 not thousands, of trout soon found themselves in salt water. 

 Five or six weeks afterward I saw some of these trout taken 

 from a fyke on the opposite side of the harbor. They had 

 all this time been living in salt water. The color had nearly 

 all faded out of the spots and the fins, and the whole fish 

 was of a pale silvery hue, and they might very well have 

 been called silver trout. When cooked the flesh was firm 

 and the flavor excellent. This account may have some 

 interest for Mr. Hallock. 



I wish to say further that the dam was repaired as speedily 

 as possible. A few days after it was finished I went over to 

 Glenwood to see how things were looking. The water was 

 then coming over the dam again in quite a large volume. I 

 may state that the dam was over six feet high at the gate. 

 While looking at the flow of the water I was surprised to see 

 a trout go up over the dam. My interest was at once aroused. 

 1 stepped back a few paces and looked down the brook to 

 the hay, a distance of a few hundred feet. The brook was 

 alive with trout, large and small, and they seemed to have 

 been alarmed at my presence. Drawing back a little further 

 and remaining as motionless as I could, I presently saw the 



beginning of one of the grandest sights I ever beheld. Firs 

 two or three, then a dozen or two, and finally multitudes of 

 trout went dashing up and over the waterfall For a moment 

 1 was spellbound. All, however, did not succeed in going 

 over the fall in the first attempt. Apparently exhausted 

 before reaching the summit, some of them fell back into the 

 stream below, but only to renew the attempt again after a 

 few moments of rest. They were moved by a common in- 

 stinct to get back to their native haunts, and no obstacle 

 seemed too great to overcome. 



For two hours I watched this flight of the trout up and 

 over the sparkling and foaming waterfall, and then reluct- 

 antly left for my boat. I had become so fascinated that 

 while rowing away my eyes were kept fixed on that water- 

 fall till it finally faded from sight. I returned the next day, 

 and the trout were still leaping the falls, but in lessened 

 numbers. Many a time since, in half dreamy moods, I have 

 enjoyed this scene over again with little loss of freshness 

 from the years that have passed. Petra. 



A Dead Sure Thing.— The member for West Algoma 

 tells a good story about a species of sturgeon from 40 to 60 

 pounds in weight, which is peculiar to Rainy River and 

 Lake. On a visit which he paid last summer to a settle- 

 ment on the river, he had occasion to visit a young bachelor, 

 who, with true backwoods hospitality, insisted that he should 

 stay for dinner. Mr. Conmee seated himself and watched 

 the preparations of his entertainer. First he set down his 

 home-made bread on the table, with tin mugs for the tea, 

 and then he put a big pot full of water over the fire. When 

 the water came to the boiling point he infused the tea and set 

 it aside. Then he seized a gaff about 6 feet long, stepped out- 

 side to the river's edge, which was not over 10 paces distant, 

 and returned in three minutes with a sturgeon kicking on 

 the end of his gaff, part of which was soon cut, off and trans- 

 ferred to the pot of boiling water to be cooked for dinner. 

 This is the usual thing up there. They always have the 

 water boiling before they go to catch the fish, and they use 

 only a common gaff. — Toronto World. 



^ Coil of Lead Instead of Shot. — Paterson, N. J.— When 

 fishing in fast running streams split shot is generally used 

 to sink the bait. My objections to using split shot are that 

 when attached it is difficult to remove and in attempting the 

 same the gut becomes frayed. It is difficult to regulate the 

 weight required; sometimes one split shot is too little and 

 two are too much. It also has a tendency to become fas- 

 tened between stones in the bed of the stream. Another de- 

 vice may be of use to your readers who use split shot. Pro- 

 cure a small piece of sheet lead and hammer it until it be- 

 comes the thickness of heavy paper. Cutoff a piece the 

 shape of a little worm and coil it around the gut in a spiral 

 shape. The weight of the lead can be altered in an instant 

 without fraying the gut. I carry a little sheet (lx2in.) of 

 this lead in my tackle book and when wanted cut off a 

 suitable piece. The lead that tea chests are lined with will 

 answer the purpose very well. — G. A. M. 



Japanese Tackle. — We have recently been shown some 

 flies and artificial baits from Japan, by our correspondent 

 "Petra," whose daughter brought them to this country. The 

 gut to which these flies were attached was two feet five 

 inches long and was composed of five twisted strands and 

 yet the wnole of them made a gut length not larger in di- 

 ameter than we ordinarily use. The flies were delicately 

 made, with long black wings and colored wool bodies in 

 closer imitation of nature than we are accustomed to. The 

 hooks had a sharp bend and a slight beard. A caterpillar 

 was a perfect imitation, even to the feet. "Petra" tells us 

 that his son-in-law has been fly-fishing with Japanese gentle- 

 men and he will try and learn something about their 

 methods. 



Black Bass in Lake Champlaln. — That small portion 

 of Lake Champlain which extends northward into Canada 

 and is called Missisquoi Bay has been a fruitful source of 

 trouble to those who wish to make the laws of New York, 

 Vermont and Canada establish a uniform time for fishing in 

 the lake. Vermont anglers have complained that they were 

 protecting black bass merely to have them taken on the 

 spawning beds in Missisquoi Bay, and it is said that black 

 bass have been illegally taken in Vermont waters, sent to 

 Canada, and returned through the Custom House as legally 

 caught Canadian fish. Now that the Dominion has passed 

 a law extending the close season until June 15 all such cause 

 of complaint is ended. 



The Largest Trout.— Red Bauk N. J. March 8.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: Mr. Charles Hallock iu his 

 ' 'Fishing Tourist," says, page 93, that trout (Salmo foniinalis), 

 have been taken in the Rangeley waters weighing as high as 

 twelve pounds. From inquiries made last June 1 found that 

 the heaviest on record was eleven pounds. The additional 

 one pound is not much in a fish yarn, but let us have the 

 true record. Come Stephen Morse, Lawrence Sargeant. 

 Marshal Whitney, and all good honest guides, send in your 

 records and oblidge your friend, Geo. Wild. 



Canadian Seasons. — The fishing regulation of 1879, fix- 

 ing the close season for pickerel, bass and maskinonge in the 

 Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, from the 15th of April to 

 the 15th of May in each year, is repealed, and the following 

 regulation adopted in lieu thereof : In the Provinces of On- 

 tario and Quebec, no person shall fish for, catch, kill, buy, 

 sell or possess any pickerel between the 15th day of April 

 and the 15th day of May (both days inclusive) in each year, 

 nor any bass or' maskiuonge between the 15th day of April 

 and the 15th day of June (both days inclusive) in each year. 



tgisJfcttltnre. 



THE AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



THE following circular has been issued: The American 

 Fisheries Society will hold its annual meeting in the Pal- 

 mer House club rooms, Chicago, on April 13 and 14 next, and 

 it is desired to have as large an attendance of Western men 

 interested in fishculture as possible. The undersigned, a com- 

 mittee appointed for the purpose of making arrangements for 

 this meeting, hope that your Commission may be well repre- 

 sented, and that you will invite all others interested in these 

 matters that you may meet, to be present on that occasion. 



Dming the time of this meeting there will be a fish exhibit 

 in the Exposition building, where ample space and aquaria 

 have been provided for the display of live fish, hatching appa 

 ratus, models of fish ladders, nets, boats, fishing tackle, etc. 

 that dealers or interested parties can be induced to send. W 



