Aug. 36, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



89 



as Curtis described him, who went down to ono of tho 

 great wharves of New York and watched an East India 

 ship come in, and when no one was near the boy put his 

 hand on the warm sides of the big sliip, which seemed to 

 bear some t3T[Hcal tale to the tender heart and oriental 

 imagination of the youth. 



This much by way of prologue, for there was nothing 

 the least poetical in the matter or manner of our catching 

 the first sheepshead in July at Atlantic City , at the wreck 

 of the Cassandra. James" B. Roney, a Philadelpliia law- 

 yer, and Charles Folwell, a retired hatter, had heard J, 

 M. S. descant on the joys of deep-sea fishing, and we had 

 all packed our fishing suits and cuttyhunk rig in an hour 

 ready for a Saturday's sport. An entliusiastic piscator 

 always finds more hope than anything else in the Pando- 

 ra's box of daily life. What tl:c fisherman wishes he 

 cei'tamly thinks will come to pass, and "Kingfisher," he 

 of the charming Sterne-like sketches of the charms of tak- 

 ing bass in Michigan lakes, never felt more certain of a 

 "big catch" with old "Hyperboler'' than we did on the 

 eventful Saturday I shall attempt briefly to describe. 



Atlantic City, be it known to the //(7;-i/!'<«'. of Newjiort 

 and Long Branch, covers much space, and to avoid lying 

 and lazy hackmen, who promise to call us "early, mother 

 dear," who come at 7 A. M. when they promise'to call at 

 5j we three in Atlantic agreed to sleep on cots on the 

 piazza of the Pavilion, the house nearest the waters of the 

 inlet, whence Ben Sooy's TiUie Covert was to set sail for 

 the home of the toothsome sheepshead and the sulky sea 

 bass. It was moonlight and Roney was talkative and 

 bright, as only a Philadelpliia lawyer can be, and it was 

 long past the witching hour of 1 A. M. when tked natm-e 

 assumed her sway in balmy sleep, and Roney and Folwell 

 began to snore as hard as a quarter horse is wont to trot 

 on Poixit Breeze track. Little we feared the cold when 

 we went to sleep, for the light rain had disappeared; but 

 a cold wind had spnmg up about 4 A. M. which caused 

 all of us to yawn and stretch om'selves painfully when 

 Skipper Sooy aroused us at 5 A, M, 



There was an ominous look in. the north sky which 

 made Sooy look serious, but we made light of the heavy 

 weather and insisted on going to the m-eck, rain or no 

 rain, and there was not an umbrella on that end of the 

 island ; and yom- time fisherman would be as much ashamed 

 of carrying an umbreUa after sheepshead as Saint Beuve's 

 friends and seconds were ashamed of that distinguished 

 French savant, who coolly 'insisted on fighting a duel 

 with a brother editor on the Boulevard St. Martin, on a 

 rainy day, under the shelter of his umbrella! Saint 

 Beuve, when remonstrated with for his gaucherie, replied, 

 "They might kill him, but he didn't mean to get wet;" 

 and he didn't die nor become what Mantalini called "a 

 demmed moist body." 



The TiUie Covert soon Iiad her mainsail furled by the 

 help of ' 'Mickydoo" the boy of all work on the yacht. 

 Much to oxu- surprise, for our start was an early one, we 

 found the market fishermen ahead of us at the wreck 

 with fifteen splendid sheepshead in their two boats. 



And I might here be permitted to state, witliout in any 

 way vouching for its essential trutii, "and tell the tale 

 as 'twas told to me" by an Anglesea fisherman, that the 

 Atlantic City fishermen sometimes use dynamite car- 

 tridges to blow up the sheepshead, when the demand is too 

 eager and exigeant for the supply. This fish, the sheeps- 

 head, brings in summer or winter twelve cents a pound 

 in the fisherman's boat, and they are "plentiful 'scace at 

 that," as the Barnegat fishermen say. 



While the sky looked lowering, the dangerous cloud 

 seemed no bigger than a man's hand; but Skipper Sooy, 

 one of the best-tempered disciples of Izaak Walton I ever 

 met, had looked preternaturalUy stolid and solenm all 

 morning. But Roney reasoned that this was because the 

 Captain — and a very good captain, too — of the Tillie 

 Covert had come off 'without any matutinal or pre-pran- 

 dial cocktail or even a cup of coffee. 



Charley F, threw over his line, only to be rewarded 

 with a bladderfish on the upper hook and a flyitig fish on 

 the lower Chestertown. Roney looked disgusted; and 

 Ms countenance only elongated as he pulled up a small 

 and quite transparent flounder. "This is your great 

 sheepshead groimd, where the gi-eat Matt Quay caught 

 fifty-four sheepshead of a morning, is it?" complainingly 

 muttered Roney. 



"But," said J. M, S, "the sheepshead is a game fish, 

 feeds somewhat precariously, and like all well-bred deni- 

 zens of the deep, biteth not when the wind is from the 

 east." 



"Oh yes!" replied Roney, "that is all very well by way 

 of explanation, but you go catch a bladderfish." This is 

 a small fish, as large as the palm of your hand, which 

 utters a disagreeable gutteral sound when scratched on 

 the belly. 



By this time Sooy, madder than ever, began to batter 

 the brains out of an unofliending or offending dogfish Sin. 

 long, which "willy niUy" had frozen on to Capt. Sooy's 

 sm-f-clam bait, 



"Gently now, gently. Skipper Sooy," exclaimed J. M. 

 S., "I've got a whopper," and sure enough I began to feel 

 that down pressme and sulky back-action which certainly 

 heralded the first advent of asheepshesd in a "nor'easter," 

 for by this time it was blowing like blue blazes and not 

 even the lOlbs. sheepshead, as Sooy bounced him in the 

 landing net, could bring a smile on the grim visage of the 

 usually amiable, but now saturnine Sooy. 



Suddenly the Captain looked out and saw the TdHe 

 Covert dragging anchor. Be it remembered the Tillie 

 Covert (the gift of Statesman Quay to Skipjjer Sooy) is 

 dearer to our festive cajitain than apples of silver set in 

 filagree of gold. He looked unutterable things, for 

 "Mickydoo" had gone sound asleep in the yacht's cabin, 

 a stone's throw distant, while we four "redeemed the 

 time" trying to fish in a bad northeast storm, for it had 

 been pouring rain for fifteen m in utes and by preconcerted 

 an-angement not a word was to be said by the fishermen 

 thi'ee to Sooy about the rain. 



Sooy yelled, "You blankety blank Irish spalpeen, don't 

 you see your anchor ^vill catch in the wreck?" Still 

 Mickydoo slept the sleep of a tired bay boy. 



"Dash my eyes," shouted Sooy, "I'll mm-der that Irish- 

 man," and eo imtanii he threw a hard-shell clam at the 

 sleeping Micky, wliich made such a racket as it struck the 

 cabin door that Mickydoo jumped out with each red hah 

 on his red head standing up straight, looking generally 

 and particularly as if the devil was after liim, Micky 

 slept no more dming that storm. 



"Captain," said I, softly, "suppose you up kfllick and 

 let's drift for flounders?" 



"Flounders! Drift! We'd better drift home," said the 

 angry skipper. 



I quietly remonstrated, and suggested tha,t, as we had 

 come out for a |10 fish, I found the weather almost 

 pleasant. 



I think that was the first lie I ever told. 



FolweU had hauled in his lines, looking the pictured 

 image of despan as the water ran off his felt hat down liis 

 back, Roney gazed sadly at the four empty bottles of 

 Tannabauser in the bottom of the dory and sighed as he 

 scanned the bottom of the quite empty hmch basket. 



Folwell began to shako as if quinine could not save him. 

 He tried to hum softly:, 



"01 give me. a cot in the valley I love 

 And a trout fly on my summer hook." 



He shook like an aspen; but Skipper Sooy smiled not. 

 He too was wet to the slrin and wanted to go home, but 

 didn't dare say so. The wind howled as it does on an 

 Illinois prairie on a November night. 



Not a bite did we get. A trifle vexed at our bad luck, 

 and amused at the pictured despakof Roney and Folwell, 

 I finally said, "Skipper, I've got enough for to-day." 



"Micky, bring her around," shouted Sooy; and like 

 unto four drowned rats we were soon whizzing home- 

 ward with the blizzard in our teeth. 



A more thoroughly wearied or water-logged party never 

 struck the paviUon as we did in less than an hour, more 

 dead than alive, not boasting in the least of our transparent 

 flounder and single sheepshead. Roney struck for tlie Ocean 

 House, to get on a dry suit: Folwell, who ^veiglls 1401bs. , 

 ot into a fat man's ba tiling suit, intended, doubtless, for 

 im Cassady, a 340-pounder, who orates and exordiates 

 and perorates at Pittman's Grove, and on week days is a 

 "commissioner for all the States and nearly all the Terri- 

 tories." Even Sooy's good nature came back, and he 

 "roared throughout the fevered air" to see little Folwell 

 rattle around in the fat man's bathing suit. As I gazed 

 at my solitary sheepshead I thought it might be 

 better to stray over the cornfields of Sussex county, and 



gull out the bronze-backed bass with a lancewood rod in 

 arpenter's Lake, but the sun came out before train time, 

 and ere another day I was ready to take another shy at 

 the sheepshead m the summer sea. J. M. S. 



OUR SALMON RIVERS. 



A FISHING CHRONICLE. 



[From the French of J. M. Le Moine, in Le Joii/rnal cles Campagnes, 

 Quebec] 



HOW much progress has been made in the development 

 of our fisheries, how many instructive and enter- 

 taining books have been wTitten on our sahnon streams, 

 on pisciculture and so on, since the time long ago when a 

 learned physician, Dr. Wm. Henry, Superintendent of 

 Military Hospitals in this Province, stationed at Quebec 

 and Montreal in 1828, described in detail in 1839, the fruit- 

 ful trout and salmon fisheries of the rivers Murray and 

 Jacques-Cartier, in the county of Charlesvoix. Indeed 

 his work in two volumes, "Trifies from my Portfolio," 

 stands in the eyes of the faithful disciples of Ausone and 

 of Columelle as a prized record of our early fishing days. 



The sketches gathered together in the learned doctor's 

 portfolio show not only the skilled, angler, but also 

 the charming conversationalist, the writer, elegant 

 and even classical, the careful observer of natm-e, the 

 great ti-aveler, the man of society and also the skillful 

 practitioner of his art; since one of the sketches exhibits 

 bim as one of the anatomists appointed by the Enghsh 

 Government to take part in the of&cial autoi^sy on the 

 body of Napoleon I., at St, Helena. 



The sketches of Dr, Henry, delightful volumes which 

 amatem-s now dispute over, have caiTied the fame of the 

 Jacques-Cartier as a fishing river to every quarter of the 

 globe. We should not be surprised to learn that the re- 

 noAvn of its rocky falls, of its rapids, the reputation of the 

 Remous St. Jean of the Grands Rets, were, thanks to him, 

 known to the savage tribes of Central Africa. 



The names of Henry and of his lamented successor at 

 Jacques-Cartier, the late Charles Langevin, have been 

 associated for half a century with this raging stream and 

 with the neighborhood of the bridge of Louis Dery upon 

 this river. Mr. R. Nettle has even taken the trouble to 

 furnish a comparative table of the salmon catches of our 

 excellent fellow citizen from 1850 to 1856. Mr. Langevin 

 has given his name to an artificial fly of wonderful effi- 

 cacy in making salmon rise, the Langevin salmon fly, and 

 the name of Hemy is still borne by one of the descend- 

 ants of the former proprietors of the old Dery bridge. I 

 made this discovery in the following way: 



In August, 1884, with a friend I was descending in a 

 bark canoe one of the treacherous rapids of the great 

 outlet of Lake St. John. Mr. Wm. Griiiith, the owner of 

 the celebrated fishing station on this rapid, had kindly 

 granted a permit to fish to my companion, who, in less 

 than an hour, had filled the canoe with suijerb winninish, 

 weighing on an average 51bs. each. The winninish, called 

 by the English landlocked salmon, is extremely voracious 

 at this season and takes any fly. I had the cmiosity to 

 ask of the old canoeman who managed om- craft his name 

 and the place of his birth. "I am called Hemy Dery and 

 was born at Dery's Bridge on the Jacques-Cartier," he said, 

 pushing up his red cap and tm-ning his quid. "Honore or 

 Hem-i" said I, "which is your name?" "Neither one nor 

 the other, sh," he replied, "but Henry Dery. My name 

 is that of a benefactor of my family. Dr. Henry, whom 

 you might have known in Quebec, perhaps sixty years ago. 

 He used to come salmon fishing every summer to the 

 Jacques-Cartier River." "I did not know him," I replied, 

 "but I know of whom you speak." 



I shall have many other things to say with regard to 

 this facile writer, who, I believe, was the first to describe 

 our salmon streams. I shall confine mj^self for the pres- 

 ent to notice as I go along the interesting account found in 

 his book of a fishing trip wliich he made from Montreal 

 to Mai Bay in Jmie, 1830, with a friend, Major Wingfield, 

 of the Sixty -sixth Regiment. They seem both to have 

 partaken very heartily of the hospitality oft'ered there by 

 the roof of Mr. Chaperon, which if I remember right, lies 

 a Uttle to the east of the Nanne Manor. Their guide was 

 named Jean Gros; and Jean Gros having lost his paddle 

 in a rapid at the head of the fall in the Mai Bay River, 

 they were nigh taking a cold bath in the river. Some 

 energetic oaths from the Doctor atti-acted the attention of 

 some neighboring people, who tlu-ew planks and poles 

 to the distressed mariners. The canoe made the bank before [ 

 t was caught by the rapid. The epic of the sufferings, ' 



which the black flies, midges and mosquitoes inflicted 

 upon them is very amusing; but a ray of good fortune 

 soon, came to brigliten the gloom of their adversity. This 

 w^as the talcing of G \ e salmon, weighing 1051bs., and forty- 

 eight trout, wliicli averaged 31bs. each. Dr. Hemy and 

 his companion jiassed next on to Duck River and Black 

 River, twentv miles lower down. * * * ■» * 

 Except a few articles in tlio newspapers and magazines, 

 we meet with no long h'catises on our sahnon rivers be- 

 tween 1839 and 1858, except a useful work on piscicultm-e 

 and the protection of our rivers, entitled "Salmon Fisher- 

 ies of the St. Lawrence," by a respected teacher of this 

 city [Quebec], Mr. Richard Nettle, now employed at 

 Ottawa in the Inland Revenue Department. Mr. Nettle, 

 convinced that his tastes and his special knowledge 

 might be utiHzed to the profit of his adopted countiy, 

 put forth a volume which did so much to call public 

 attention to a hitherto ignored som-ce of revenue that the 

 Government of the day, at the sjiecial solicitation, we are 

 told, of His Excellency, Sh Edmund Walker Head, created 

 the post of Superintendent of Fisheries, of which Mr. 

 Nettle became the first incumbent. Here his work, his 

 love for angling, and his literary aptitude were of real 

 service in the organization which Parliament later 

 adopted. Mr, Nettle was one of the first among us to 

 call attention to the success m piscicultm-e attained in 

 France by the pioneers in the discovery, two poor fisher- 

 men of the Vosges, Gehin and Remy, which success Mr. 

 Coste later developed in so clear a maimer. Mr. Nettle 

 enmnerated our salmon sfei-eams, insisted on the import- 

 ance of protecting fish and game in the spawning and 

 breeding season, gave plans of fishways to be erected in 

 mill sliuces, furnished comparative tables of the yield of 

 the most fruitful rivers of the Old World, protected and 

 unprotected ; dilated at length on fishculture, which Mr. 

 Seth Green has so well carried on at his estabMshment at 

 Mumford, in the State of New York. In short, the writ- 

 ings of Mr. Nettle were very acceptable to all friends of 

 progress. Some obstructionists, it is ti'ue — liy the men of 

 the^ nigogue^—va. a word, the advocates of destniction 

 of fish at every season, even that of spawning and repro- 

 duction, endeavored, but in vain, to trip hiin up. Nettle 

 was destined to triumph and did. 



Later, his name was em-olled by the side of that of 

 Fortin, Couchon, Sicotte, Mitchell, the patrons and pro- 

 moters of our actual fishery organization. 



Aside from the excellent annual reports submitted to 

 the Legislatm-e by the Hon, P. Fortin during seventeen 

 yeai's, commander of the Caiiadienne, in the coast service, 

 aside from Judge Routhier's little work "En Canot," aside 

 from some well-wi-itteii pages in which the elegant style of 

 om- friend A. M, Montpetit is revealed, Canadian literature 

 contains no lengthy work in the French language upon 

 the subject of our fisheries. It is to English wi-iters of 

 Canada and the United States tliat we owe a series of 

 instructive and amusing works — elaborately illustrated — 

 upon om salmon rivers, which we propose to pass rapidly 

 in review. 



In 1860, the celebrated English house, Longman, Green, 

 Longman & Roberts, printed at London, edition de luxe, the 

 volume "Salmon Fishing in Canada, by a resident, with 

 illusti-ations," for Sir James Edward Alexander, Colonel 

 of the 14th Regiment. This officer, known to the literary 

 world by his explorations in America, in Africa and else- 

 where, a great lover of anglmg, haddm-ing his sojourn in 

 Canada made the acquaintance of the Rev. Dr. William 

 Agar Adamson, D. C. L., Almoner or Chaplain of the 

 Legislative Assembly. Sir Alexander took charge of the 

 mblication of the journal, or notes on his fishing, which 

 lad been prepared l9y Dr. Adamson, It is a work of 

 nearly 400 pages, illusiJrated by numerous drawings, beau- 

 tified by vignettesrepresenting sporting adventures, some- 

 times burlesque; it comjirises twenty-four chapters, des- 

 criptive of joUy fishing excursions after salmon and 

 salmon trout, on the eddies, in the rapids of the Saguenay 

 and its tributaries, on the Escoumains, in the Petite 

 Romaine, on the Sault an Mouton, at Portneuf and Ber- 

 simi, on the Sheldrake, Godbout, Matane, Metis, Trinite, 

 Pentecoste, Marguerite and Moisie rivers, not omitting a 

 voyage to Labrador with the whalers of Gaspe in search 

 of whales, the whole seasoned with scraps of j)oetry, with 

 little poems improvised for the occasion, with anecdotes 

 meiTy with keen reiiartees as with Attic salt. In this sal- 

 magxmdi of salmon we find a Httle of everything, even of 

 music. Two annotated Canadian songs precede the ap- 

 pendix, Moore's Boat Song of 1804, ti'anslated into French 

 and set to music, and the touching coviplainte of 

 the regretted Gerin Lajoie: 



"Un Canadien errant 

 Loin de ses foyers." 



The appendix contains documents, reports, and the fol- 

 lowing j)ieces, several of them of great importance: 



I. The memon read by Dr. Adamson before the Cana- 

 dian Institute of Toronto, in 1858, and on which, later, was 

 founded in great measure our legislation for the protec- 

 tion and artificial propagation of salmon, "On the De- 

 crease, Restoration and Preservation of Salmon in Can- 

 ada." 



II. "Observations on the Habits of the Salmon Family." 

 By Wilham Henry, Esq., M.D., Inspector-General of 

 Hospitals. 



HI. "Fislung in New Bnmswick and Canada." By 

 Colonel Sh- Alexander, F. R. G. S. and R. A. S,, 14th Regi- 

 ment, 



IV. Extract of the "Report of Commissioner of Crown 

 Lands, Canada, 1860." 



V. "Salmon and Sea Trout Fisheries of Lower Canada." 



VI. "Report of Crown Lands Department, Fisheries, 

 1858." Hon, P. M. Vaukouglinet. 



Dr. Adamson's book, after a quarter of a century, con- 

 tuiues to delight amateurs, and sends us each season its 

 quota of tom-ists. 



In the spring of 1863 I gave to the pubHc, under the 

 title "Les Pecheries du Canada," the summary of certain 

 studies, the work of my leisure hours during the long 

 winter evenings. The treatise was divided into two parts. 

 In the iu-st of these I described the results obtained in the 

 Old World by the method of fishculture aheady known 

 in the Province of Goldstein since 1858, but of which 

 Gehin and Remy, the fishermen of the Vosges, became, 

 without knowing it, the most fllustiious apostles in 

 France, and which a learned member of the Institute who 

 is at the same time professor in the College of France, 

 IVIr. Coste, had accepted by the French and several other 



*T]ie iiUiiiuue is the Indian name of the spear used to kill salmon 

 by torclilight. 



