208 



FOREST AND STREAM. 







[April 8, 1886. 



THE TROUT OF SUNAPEE LAKE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Mr. Livingston Stone, whose name is well-known to all 

 your readers, called to my notice a day or two since, a letter 

 from Dr. C. A. Kingsbury, of Philadelphia, in which he 

 pronounces my suggestion, that if they he Oquassa trout, 

 which have been lately discovered in the Sunapee Lake, they 

 may be the descendants of the plant of 4,000 fry of that vari- 

 ety' made by Mr, A. H. Powers in June, 1879, when we were 

 both members of the N. H. Fish Commission, as "quite im- 

 probable, if not absolutely impossible." Also another letter 

 from Mr. John D. Quackenboss, of New York, who has had 

 for a dozen years a summer cottage on the shore of the lake 

 and is well versed in its inhabitants and who warmly in- 

 dorses my suggestion, for which I hereby return him my 

 thanks. 



Now, Mr. Kingsbury's statement as to the impossibility of 

 my suggestion, seems to be rather an ex-cathedia assumption 

 inasmuch as the landlocked salmon from the Schoodic eggs 

 have increased in weight from two to twelve pounds by the 

 same change of habituation, and as I now believe that what 

 I first suggested as a possibility is extremely probable. I will 

 give my reasons for such faith. 



In the first place, let me premise that I was born and 

 brought up in this village within thirty miles of Lake Suna- 

 pee, and although I went away from here, when seventeen 

 years old. more than forty years since, I have always when 

 practicable made an annual visit of more or less duration to 

 my birthplace. When a boy I was familiar with the Suna- 

 pee trout, and have seen them of three or four pounds 

 weight, which was considered very large and was, I think, 

 as large as they used to grow in those days. When Mr. Stone 

 handed me these papers, he asked me, "to what cause do 

 you attribute this abnormal growth of these fish in Sunapee 

 Lake?" 



"To the abundance of smelt food," I answered, and he 

 then asked me when the smelt spawned and what was their 

 size. I told him early in April or as soon as the ice was out 

 of the lake, and their ova were not much larger than a mus- 

 tard seed or a No. 8 shot. "They are small enough then," 

 said he, "for the young trout just planted in May or June 

 to swallow ?" 



I told him that they were, that a young trout could easily 

 dispose of half a dozen of them. 



"Then," said Mr. Stone, "I think this may account for 

 the increased size of the trout, if they are those which you 

 planted in 1879, for I have noticed in my experience in fish- 

 culture that the size of the fish depended very much on the 

 quantity of food which they could obtain during the first 

 six months of their existence, and if these young trout just 

 planted in the lake, could obtain an unlimited supply of 

 young smelt for food, I do not see why they should not have 

 grown to this unusual size." 



Mr. Stone has promised me to give you his own opinions 

 on the matter, and I will not forestall him any further, but 

 simply say, that the growth of the land-locked salmon in 

 Sunapee has been surpassed by that of the plant of the same 

 date in Squam, where one was taken last year that weighed 

 sixteen pounds from the same lot of Schoodic eggs, and that 

 in both these cases the lakes are well stocked with fresh- 

 water smelt, as is also the case with Sebago Lake, where the 

 great size of the land-locked salmon has long been known. 



This plant of Oquassa trout referred to was part of a lot of 

 eggs, 20,000 in number, which were divided between Sunapee 

 Lake in the west. New-Found and Squam lakes in the center, 

 and Cook's Pond in Brookfield and Lovewell's Pond in 

 Wakefield, in the east of the State. 



The first possible discovery of them is that of Mr. Hodge, 

 when on the spawning beds in Sunapee last October; but it 

 will be interesting to ascertain if they can be found in the 

 other waters the coming autumn, and I shall urge the present 

 Commission to examine them. 



If they can be found of equal size in Squam, it will give 

 some additional ground to the smelt food theory, and it will 

 then become desirable to stock all trout waters with smelt 

 also, for they are a very prolific fish. 



I will say no more for the present, except that if any extra- 

 ordinary variety of trout had existed in Sunapee Lake forty 

 years ago I should have been as likely to have known it as 

 any one, and I am very sure that the swarm of poachers who 

 have infested the lake would have found them out and 

 stripped the spawning beds, as they have those of the lake 

 trout in Winnepesaukee long ago, and by lake trout I mean 

 Salmo na-mayeush, for the dwellers around all these waters 

 call their fish lake trout, even to little Dublin Pond, which 

 has been rechristened Lake Monadnock. 



Samdel Webber, 



Charlestown, N. H., March 30. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Ten pounds in six years is certainly a phenomenal growth 

 for a trout, but is it impossible or only phenomenal? The capac- 

 ity of a young trout for digesting and assimilating food is so 

 great that it is hardly safe to set a limit to it anywhere. 

 When a trout breeder has six boxes of young trout fry to 

 feed, the first lot is hungry and ready to feed again by the 

 time the sixth lot has been fed, so that the breeder could 

 keep going the rounds of the six boxes all day without find- 

 ing a single fish that had had enough food to satisfy it. 



This digestive power of a trout is something marvellous 

 and it so rapidly destroys the animal tissues that have been 

 taken into its stomach as food that, as Col. Lyman suggested, 

 its operation more resembles that of fire than anything one 

 would expect from any kind of organic action. 



Now, the more the fish eat, the faster they grow, indeed 

 their amount of growth seems to be in direct ratio to their 

 amount of food, other things being equal, and this is partic- 

 ularly true, or rather particularly noticeable in the first few 

 months of their lives, when their capacity for taking and dis- 

 posing of food is so enormous. 



In fact the difference in size between well fed young trout 

 and poorly fed ones is sometimes so great as to be almost 

 incredible, and 1 can testify from personal experience that I 

 have seen many a well fed yearling trout that could and 

 would eat for his breakfast a dozen poorly fed trout, such 

 as I have also seen, of his own age. 



Now to bring my remarks to a point. Do we really know 

 that it is impossibJe for an Oquassa trout to get a ten pound 

 growth in six years? May it not be possible after all that 

 with a trout's prodigious capacity for eating and growing, 

 there may be favorable circumstanjces which would enable 

 Ihe fish to accomplish this growth in the time given. My 

 friend, Col. Webber, to whom JMew Hampshire fishculture 

 is so much indebted and whose efforts to improve the fish 

 of Sunapee Lake are so well known, has told me of some- 

 fehjng j^hifih has cejrfcainl/ prepared the way in. §ujaapoe,Lakp 



for this extraordinary growth of ten pounds in six years and 

 has made it possible, if anything can make it possible. Col. 

 Webber says that fresh-water smelts have been plentifully 

 planted in Sunapee Lake. This being the case and the in- 

 troduction of smelts being supposed to be a success, I can 

 hardly imagine anything more likely to furnish for the trout 

 just the right kind of food to give them a rapid and extraor- 

 dinary growth. The smelts hatch out just enough later than 

 the trout and are just enough smaller to provide the trout in 

 their infancy and early life with the very best growing food 

 that they could possibly have. This must increase their 

 ultimate growth immensely, for this depends more upon the 

 feed and growth they get during the fir9t six or eight months 

 than during any other similar periods of their lives. If after 

 this they have all the food they want, and if smelts are abun- 

 dant in the lake, I do not see why they should not. Then I 

 cannot help thinking that it is still an open question about 

 the extraordinary growth that is claimed for the Oquassa 

 plant, At all events ! do not think that any positive evidence 

 in favor of the Oquassa theory should be set aside, or would 

 be even much weakened by any a priori argument based on 

 the supposed impossibility of the alleged growth, it being 

 generally conceded, I believe, that apriori arguments are at 

 best extremely hazardous and fragile weapons against evi- 

 dence resting on established facts. 



Some day it may be proved that Oquassa cannot grow ten 

 pounds in six years, but it has not been proved yet and it 

 does not seem to me that the alleged impossibility can be 

 fairly used yet in the present state of this good-natured con- 

 troversy against the advocates of the Oquassa explanation 

 of the appearance of the new fish. 



On the other hand there appears to be, from Mr. Hodge's 

 statements, conclusive proof in his possession against the 

 Oquassa theory, viz., evidence that the fish was caught in 

 the lake before the Oquassa were put in in 1879. The estab- 

 lishment of this fact would settle the question forever in Mr. 

 Hodge's favor, and it now seems to be in order for Mr. Hodge 

 to produce this evidence. Livingston Stone* 



Charlestown, N. H. _ 



A TROUT ANGLER'S FIRST SALMON. 



I HAVE been a trout fisherman for many years, but have 

 always had an ambition to try salmon fishing, and last 

 summer was able for the first time to gratify that ambition. 



My friend B. and I are members of the Sainte Marguerite 

 Salmon Club, and on our arrival at the river last summer 

 found ourselves assigned to the home pool as our station on 

 the stream. We arrived at the pretty little cottage, which 

 was to be our home for some time, on Sunday afternoon, 

 July 5. After inspecting our very pleasant quarters and 

 resting from our four-mile tramp over the portage, we went 

 to look at the lower pool, which is just in front of the cot- 

 tage, and found it an ideal place to" hook and play a large 

 fish. At the upper end the water comes rolling and tum- 

 bling from the heavy rapids above, and all through the pool 

 it is swift and boisterous in mid-stream, with comparatively 

 smooth water on either side. While watching the water, 

 out in the middle of the pool a large salmon came handsomely 

 out of the water, showing his bright silvery sides, and fell 

 back with a splash, "like a Frenchman falling off a wharf," 

 as one of the old Oswegatchie guides used to say. It was a 

 sight to make a fisherman's heart heat a little quicker than 

 usual, and make him look around for his tackle ; but it was 

 Sunday, and the Canadian game laws are strict, and we felt 

 it was best to observe them, although it was hard work to 

 sit still and not just try those new rods for a few casts on 

 that water where we knew there were such good fish. 



Monday morning bright and earlv found us stirring, and 

 after a hurried breakfast we carefully examined our rods, 

 lines, leaders and flies, which had been made ready the night 

 before, and started to kill our first salmon. 



The lower pool fell to me for the morning's fishing, and, 

 with my pulse beating rather more rapidly than usual, I 

 began casting from the shingle beach at the head of the pool. 

 At the third cast one of the Frenchmen stopped me, and on 

 reeling up showed me my beautiful Jock Scott broken off at 

 the bend of the hook. Not being accustomed to a rod six- 

 teen feet long and weighing over twenty ounces, I had struck 

 the fly against the stones behind me and the quick-eyed 

 Frenchman had immediately noticed it. Putting on another 

 Jock Scott, I began casting again, and at the third or fourth 

 cast saw a fish come up out of the rushing, surging water, 

 not over thirty feet away, that looked to me— a trout fisher- 

 man—as large as a porpoise. As he turned to go down, in 

 my excitement I struck hard enough to have broken some- 

 thing if he had taken the fly, but fortunately he missed it. 



I sat down and rested him for the orthodox five minutes, 

 and then when the fly reached the spot where he rose before, 

 up he came again, only to disappoint me once more. 



After another rest, as the fly went over him he came up 

 with a rush, throwing himself out of the water and taking 

 the fly back with him, and started with a fierce rush across 

 the pool. It was my first experience of the rush of a salmon 

 when first hooked, and I found it something simply mag- 

 nificent. It seemed almost impossible to get the rod up 

 straight enough to give the fish the spring necessary to keep 

 him from breaking line or leader, and the rod in my hand felt 

 as tnough I had hooked a "limited" express train. He went 

 straight across the river, and when within twenty feet of the 

 opposite bank threw himself out of the water fully six feet. 

 I dropped the tip of the rod quickly, as I had been so sol- 

 emnly warned to do by all the old salmon fishermen, and he 

 returned to the water still on the hook, and nothing parted. 

 After a run of twenty feet out he came again, and as the sun 

 struck him he looked like a bar of burnished silver. By 

 this time my heart was beating like a trip-hammer against 

 my ribs, and the excitement was intense. After some lively 

 rushes about the upper part of the pool he started for the 

 rapids below, I making quick time over the rocks, but just 

 as be reached a point where I should have had to take to the 

 canoe the men had ready for me, he changed his plans and 

 rushing up stream faster than I could follow to the point he 

 first rose from, he went to the bottom and sulked. This 

 gave me time to fill and light ray pipe, which tended to 

 quiet my rather excited nerves. When at last he started, it 

 was to rush to the surface and throw himself out at very 

 close quarters— not over thirty feet away— and it startled me 

 tremendously, and 1 am afraid the rod was not lowered as 

 quickly as it should have been, but the tackle was new and 

 strong, and as he started off I found he was still "thar," 

 and I began to feel easier. After a few more circles about 

 the pool he began to show he was not as fresh as when 

 he was first hooked, and as the line was reeled in he finally 

 showed himself not over fifteen feet from the shore, where it 

 was quite shoal. One of the men stole into the water with 

 the gaff, but before he was within, reach the fish saw hyp. 



and made a last desperate dash out to the middle of the 

 river. My hands and arms by this time had become fairly 

 sore from the long strain, and it was really hard work to 

 Teel him in again across that strong current. But this time 

 Pete was successful, and as he thrust the gaff in the water, 

 bubbles and blood came up and the pressure was taken off 

 the rod. He raised the struggling fish from the water, and 

 I would not let him stop until he had taken the salmon full 

 twenty feet from the shore. And now 1 had killed my first 

 salmon 1 Time fifty minutes from strike to gaff. The scales 

 were brought out and the fish found to weigh twenty-four 

 and a half pounds. 



I took my .salmon over to the shade of a tree and told the 

 men I had had all the fishing I wanted for that morning, 

 although it was then only half past seven. I lighted my 

 pipe, and throwing myself on the grass, "visited" with my 

 beautiful prize until I knew every inch of him from head to 

 tail and if 1 had been an artist could have drawn his portrait 

 from memory. 



On the trip I struck altogether 28 fish, saving 19 of them • 

 the largest weighed 33 pounds, the smallest 8, and the aver- 

 age was 17 pounds. 1 made up my mind that a trout fisher- 

 man could readily learn to kill salmon, even on such a rush- 

 ing, tumbling stream as the Sainte Marguerite is the whole 

 forty miles from Upper Forks to the Saguinay. Gard. 



Oswego, K. Y., March, 1886. 



DEATH OF IRA WOOD. 



WE are pained to chronicle the death of our friend and 

 companion of boyhood, Ira Wood, the well-known 

 angler and genial sportsman. Mr. Wood died very suddenly 

 of bilious colic at Albany, N, Y., on Tuesday last". He was 

 born at G-reenbush, opposite Albany, about the year 1883, and 

 was consequently close to his fifty- third year." While jet a 

 boy his family moved to Syracuse, where for a long time Ira 

 was chief of the fire department of that city. He served 

 with credit during the war, and a few years ago returned to 

 Albany, where he was in the employ of a large house deal- 

 ing in stoves. Within a month he opened a store for the 

 sale of fishing tackle, and hardly a week ago he was in our 

 office, cheery as ever, and with bright hopes for the future. 

 Those who met him at the recent fly-casting tournaments in 

 this city were impressed with his manly, straight-forward 

 way, and the unselfishness with which he coached amateurs 

 and helped his opponents when their lines became tangled. 



Mr. Wood was a brother to the late Reuben Wood, so re" 

 nowned as an angler. He leaves a family. 



To A Firm in Gloucester, Mass., who have named a new 

 schooner in his honor, Mr. Whittier has sent a note in which 

 he writes: "I have always been interested in the New 

 England fisheries, and am glad you have honored me by giv- 

 ing one of your schooners my name. I thank you for the 

 compliment, and send you my unasked-for autograph on the 

 sheet inclosed." On the sheet inclosed he had written : 

 Luck to the craft that bears this name of mine, 

 Good fortune follow with the golden spoon. 

 The glazed hat, and tarry pantaloon : 

 And whereso'er her keel shall cut the brine, 

 Cod, hake and mackerel quarrel for her line. 

 Shipped with her crew, whatever wind may blow, 

 Or tides delay, my wish with her shall go. 

 Fishing by proxy. Would that it mig:ht >how 

 At need her course, in lack of sun and star. 

 Where icebergs threaten, and the sharp reefs are; 

 Lift the blind fogs on Anticosii's lee 

 And Avalon's rocks: make populous the sea 

 Round Grand Manan with eager Dnuy swarms. 

 Break the long calms, and charm awav tn e storms. 



John G. Whittier. 



Oak Knoll, 3d mo., 16S6. 



What Fish Has This Habit? — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 For several years, in my fishing tours around Montauk Point, 

 Oyster Bay, Sea Cliff, and several places about Long Island 

 Sound, I have noticed in small fishing that I would catch 

 two fish on one hook, the cause of which I attributed to 

 their heing frightened by larger fish of prey. So last season 

 I determined to find out, in order to be sure that this state- 

 ment would be right. I was accompanied by an angler, and 

 by careful watching came to the conclusion that, seeing one 

 of their school taken in an opposite direction, they take hold 

 of the unfortunate's tail to keep him back from a supposed 

 current, as they are used to this habit in streams of opposite 

 currents; and' after being out of water, exhaustion causes 

 them to tighten the bite, thus enabling the angler to land 

 them. I would like older anglers than myself to publish 

 their experience of this. — E. Fkank Ross. 



Maseinonge. — Editor Forest and Stream: I see that I am 

 quoted as using the spelling "muscallonge," but in the 

 manuscript of my article mentioned (see Forest and Stubam, 

 Vol. XX., page 490), I certainly wrote maskinonge, but the 

 printer made it read muscollonge. In the Province of Que- 

 bec there is a Maskinonge county, also several villages, 

 rivers and lakes by the same name, and as it is to be sup- 

 posed that they there have the correct pronunciation of the 

 word, its glossic is as follows : M+a-f s4.k4-i-f.u4- au'n-i-g+e. 

 (the sign + stands for the glide from the sound of a letter 

 to the next following). Some years ago I attempted to learn 

 the origin of the above word, and after most diligent inquir- 

 ies among the best informed habitants, 1 could only learn 

 that it was the Indian name for the largest of the pike fam- 

 ily, E80.V nobilior.— Stanstead (Sackville, N. B). 



Bass Flies.— Will Mr. Holberton give a little information 

 about the dressing of the bass flies he mentions as taking 

 ones in a late issue of Forest and Stream, if it is not ask- 

 ing too much, so that we will know what to purchase or how 

 to tie? He speaks of a "bass grizzly" and a "bass miller." 

 Are these any wise different from the regular grizzly king or 

 white miller, save that they are tied on hooks of a size suit- 

 able for bass? And wherein does a "match-wing ibis" differ 

 from the red ibis, so well known? And will he give the 

 tying of these flies that he mentions— Holberton, post jungle, 

 St. Patrick and Lottie? These may be common species but 

 there is such a woeful looseness in fly nomenclature, that 

 they, in name at least, are new to me. — Percvval. 



An Unique Angling Work —For the past three years 

 Mr. Wakeman Holberton, well-known as a a accomplished 

 angler and artist, has been engaged in writing a book on his 

 favorite sport. The volume is entirely engrossed by Mr. 

 Holberton's pen on vellum. The illustrations are in pen and 

 ink and in water colors, while the initial letters are illumin- 

 ated in mediaeval style. It is calculated that three more 

 years will he required to finish this volume, which will be a 

 treat to those w1k> are ao fortunate as to see & 



