166 



I Sept. 2d, 1«86 



FISH BY THE CARTLOAD. 



AUGUSTA, Ga., Sept. 14, 1888.— The earthquake on 

 the night of the 31st of August, which did so much 

 damage to Charleston, broke the dam of the Langley 

 Manufacturing Company, seven miles from tliis city. 

 Tiie waters of thi's immense pond came tearing down to 

 another pond one mile this side, used by the Bath Paper 

 Company, also carrying off a, large slice of tliis dam, tlie 

 combined waters of the two Avrecking two trains and 

 tearing up^ several miles of railroad. 



Some idea of the immense quantity of water can be 

 formed when I tell you that Bath Pond covered 900 acres 

 of land, and Langley about 1,000 acres, the water in the 

 deepest part about 20ft. , witli an average depth of about 

 8ft. These ponds are fed by a bold stream'called Horse 

 Creek, always noted for the quality and quantity of its 

 fish. This creek empties mto the Savannah River, just 

 below this city, the water of which is perfectly clear and 

 abounds with rock, trout, jack, bream, perch, etc. 



After the break, immense numbers of the idle mill 

 operatives about here lay along the banks of the creek 

 day and night about the break, and the catch of fish has 

 been greater than ever known. All kinds of devices ai'e 

 used — from the hook and line to the cast net — and it is 

 no exaggeration to say that fully twenty wagon loads of 

 fish have been taken. The writer has seen trout brought 

 In weighing from 10 to 121bs. Parties who have been 

 over the track of the flood of waters tell us that the woods 

 are full of fish, and that they had seen one trout left by 

 the waters which ^\'(^uLl weigh as nnich as SOlbs. The 

 hogs have been turned loose'to fatten on the fish left in 

 the swamp, as many were left stranded, and every little 

 mud hole is swarming v.ath tliem. The catch is not yet 

 over, and daily parties are going to the scene of the break, 

 always i*etm-ning with good strings. J. M, "W. 



forty by the roadside among the blackberry bushes while 

 driving on Saturday. 



A neighbor's cat has, within a week, left two flying 

 squirrels on the door step of a house just at the end of 

 the village and near a piece of woods" which they were 

 always known to inhabit. The cat never eats them, but 

 kills them and brings them home to her mistress, who has 

 sent one of them, a very large and perfectly white one, to 

 a taxidermist to be set uj). The other one she gave to me, 

 and I have dressed and stuffed the skin for one of my 

 little grand- daughters, who is delighted with it. 



The various migratory birds seem to me to be packing 

 very early, and I fear a long Avinter is coming, but the 

 summer here in the Connecticut Valley has been one of 

 remarkable beauty, and the wnld flowers liave been early 

 and plentiful, but the fringed gentian is in full blossom 

 now, fully a week if not two in advance of last year. 



I am glad to see the author of "Uncle Lislia's Shop'' in 

 type again, with "Sam Lovel's Camps," and enjoj" his 

 admirable "Kanuck" lingo, as delivered by "Antwine," 

 as much as ever, although I cannot make out what the 

 fish is he calls a "bow-fin." VoN W. 



Charlhstown, H., Sept. 13. 



["Bow-fin" is a local name for Amia calva, which is 

 variously called fresh-water dogfish, mudfish, lawyer, 

 grindle, John A., and John A. Grindle. It is not used 

 for food and is found in the Great Lakes and Mississippi 

 region, as well as in Virgmia Rivers.J 



MAN, THE MAIL CARRIER. 



I WAS cheated out of my long-expected fishing trip to 

 the headwaters of the Connecticut PMver this year by 

 untov."ard Imsiness engagements, which ]-:ept me in ex]iec- 

 tation of a summons to. court as a witness in a "water 

 case,'' and Avhich has after all been postponed; so that I 

 lost my fishing without any other practical benefit as 

 yet. 



However, my son Bob, whom I have mentioned in 

 former letters, went ^dthout me, accompanied by a friend, 

 INIr. B., of Hartford, Conn., and spent a couple of weeks 

 in the middle of August with great sticcess and pleasure 

 to themselves. They went first to Second Lake to Tom 

 Chester's cabin, whe-re they put in several days, having, 

 as they sav, the best fishing they ever saw. Otic day they 

 fished'the east inlet, bringing in forty trout that weighed 

 SOlbs., and two more days were devoted to the two 

 branches of the north inlet, Avhich cinnes down from 

 Third Lake, with the result of full baskets every time. I 

 have always been ttp in June, but am satisfied from their 

 report that it is better to go later, after the larger trout 

 have begun to run up from the lake in more ccmsideral^le 

 numbers; and they also report them as rising to the fly 

 better than I have found them to do earlier in tlie season. 

 They say that the east inlet has been swept out by the 

 spring floods since the new dam on it in-oke away tliree 

 years' ago, so as to lea.ve much more opevi wat er, v,-ith 

 good iDools, where they could throw a fly comfortalily and 

 successfully. From Second Lake thcw came back to 

 First, and thence took a liuckboard and "Shank's mare'' 

 over a tote road fourteen miles to the headwaters of 

 Indian Stream, crossing Perry's Stream on the vvay. 



Here they spent a week at Billy McCutchins's camp, and 

 as they said, "'had all the trout fishing they wanted." 

 They propose to go agaiu next year, and I hope I may be 

 able to accomoany them. 



While at this camp, just as they were about starting 

 out one morning. McCutcliins came to them and asked 

 them ii they wished to write home, saying that the mail 

 carrier was just going in to First Lake to the post oflice 

 and they could have a chance to send letters. They had 

 seen no mail carrier, but Mr. B. did want to write to his 

 wife, and sat do\%'n at once and indicted a short letter 

 which he handed to McCutchins who, \\a-apping it up in 

 a silk handkerchief, called u]j a fine collie dog which lay 

 by the door, and tied the handkerchief about his neck, 

 saying, "Now, Man, it's timefor you go to the post olric","' 

 and opening the door and taking down a pistol from tlie 

 wall fired it out in the direction of the rr)ad. 



The dog immediately bounded a^vay, and ttu-ning 

 round, Billy said to the boys, "'Sow, if there are any let- 

 ters for vou at First Laire, Man wfll brmg tlieii) Ijack for 

 you to-niorrow night. The mail will get tlierc at « o'clock 

 in the evening, and Man will wait there for it and ho out 

 here about li." (Be it understood, tliat the mail from 

 Colebrook to First Lalie and Pittsburgli goes u]:> and re- 

 turns on alternate days). 



So the next night the boys sat up, and told stones and 

 discussed their adventure-^ until 11 o'clock, when a sharp 

 bark was heard outside, and as McCutchins opened the 

 door, in trotted Man with the bandanna round his neck, 

 and being opened, it disclosed two letters for Bob, which 

 had been sent to him at First Lake. As the boys said, 

 "You had better believe tha.t dog had a good supper be- 

 fore he went to bed!" 



It seems that he goes in to the post office at the sound 

 of the pistol shot, whenever any one wants to send a 

 letter, and spends the night and next day at the Lake 

 House, returning with the mail in due season. It is as 

 good a dog story as I have heard lately, and Bob has 

 asked me to send it to Forest and Stream for him. 



I have little to relate of mv own experiences this sum- 

 mer A few small trout from, the impoverished sti-eams, 

 some of which are today (or were on Saturday, when I 

 took a long drive over the hills with a friend from Cah- 

 fornia) mere beds of gravel, with now and then a, pailful 

 of water in hollows, and promising no fish for another 

 summer. I have botanized more than I have fished. The 

 Connecticut River is reported full of black bass, but no 

 one can induce them to take a bait. 



I strolled out on the hills with my gun the other day, 

 and sat dovai in an oak gro^-e to watch for gray squii-rels 

 an horn- or two. Thougli I saw none I was entertained 

 for fifteen minutes by the operations of a great pileated 

 woodpecker, who looked as big and black as a crow, and 

 whose red crest shone in the sunshine like fiame. Being 

 a member of the Audubon Society I allowed him to de- 

 part in peace, after he had finished liis investigations of 

 an oak tree whliin 40ft. of me. 



Ruffed grouse are very plenty, we put up a covey ot 



ous to 1872 (I presume he means 1879), they put me in 

 mind of the man who was being tried for a^n offense be- 

 fore a Dutch justice: three witnesses swore positively 

 that they saw him comrait tlie act, but he in his defense 

 brought twelve who svyore that tliey did not see him do 

 it, and the justice found that tlie balance of testimony 

 was in his favor, and discharged him. 



I hope that Mr. Quackenhos dues not think the readers of 

 Forest and Stream decide cases apon\hat kind of evi- 

 dence. The names he presents are, as far as I knowthem, 

 of parties whose fishing has been dqne with nets, spears, 

 guns and clubs when the brook trout of the lake were 

 entering the lirooks, in October and November. 



Witliout taking up more of your space I will say that 

 Dr. Fletcher never ]:ilanted any Oqtiassa fry from the 

 lower St. Lawrence in Snnapee Lake. 



I am surprised tliat IMr. Quackenbos should ho show his 

 ignorance in regard to tnait as to sj^eak of a male ti'out, 

 becaiieie he lias a huoked jaw, as a distinct variety, as 

 "hawkbills" or "St. John River trout." E. B. HODGK 



Plymotjih, N. H., Sept. U. 



THE SUNAPEE TROUT 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have neither the time nor the inclination to' enter into 

 a long controversy over the Sunapee Lake trout; and I 

 should not trouble you again with this matter had it not 

 been for the— I ^^dll draw it mild — erroneous and mislead- 

 ing statemens of Mr. J. D. Quackenbos, in FpREST and 

 Stream of Sept. 2. The gentleman jDOSsesses at least one 

 of the essential qualities <_)f a good lav/yer, and that is 

 "when you have no case abuse your opi^onent," and he 

 makes all he can of this privilege. His lettei- contains so 

 many wild and unreliable statements that I will not 

 attempt to follow liim tlu'ough them aU, but wiU only 

 call attention to a few of them; and as they are all of the 

 same character, any one can see how mucli reliance is to 

 be placed upon them. 



He starts off with the statement that he does not claim 

 that the Oquassa trout of Sunapee Lake are the result of 

 the plant of blue-back trout made in 1879. He must have 

 forgotten his statmient in Forest and Stream, March 18, 

 1886. in which he says, " The new trout are the giant off- 

 spring of the Rangeley blue-back trout, introduced a few 

 years since as food for the large trout." Mr. Quackenbos 

 lias also pubUshed the following: "I thoroughly agree 

 with Col. Webber that the new trout are the blue-bacJis he 

 introduced in 1879, grown to an enormous size.", Again: 

 "The little blue-backs of Rangeley liave here found the 

 food and Avater to nialie them grow as large as their con- 

 geners of Disco Island and Labrador." — J. D. Q.,inFoREST 

 AND STREA3I, April 1, 1886. From the above it -wall be 

 seen that he has made the claim, and if he now denies it 

 jierhaps lie is getting ready to accept my theory. 



I still claim tliat it is only witliin a very few years that 

 any one thought of fishuig for trout in 70 to 90ft. of 

 water. A tew and ^ery few did fish tlu'ough the ice 

 near the shores for troat and jierch in water from 20 

 to oOft. deep. His S.llbs. Oquasna was caught off! the 

 mouth of a brook wheit smelts were rumiing up at that 

 time, and near tlie baiil^ ur drop oil:' where tiie dejitli 

 changes from a few feet to 40 or 50, almost perpendicular,, 

 and while his fi.sli may have been landed in 4ft. it was 

 hooked in deep water. 



Again he says, "the blue-backs of Rangeley are caught 

 by the barrelful wHon spawning near the si i ores in 

 October." He is cai'eful not to say how near the shore 

 or in what manner they are taken. ' The fact is they are 

 caught with dip nets "in the streams, and in the small 

 streams one would not have to go far from the sliore to 

 get them. 



In niy letter of Aug. 5 I said that the blue-back trout 

 seek the brooks and rivers for spawning. Jlr. Quacken- 

 bos thinking that the readers of Forest and Stream 

 may have forgotten my statement made last winter in re- 

 gard to the Rangeley trout very cooly says that last wm- 

 ter 1 -^proclaimed them to be' lake' spa-wners." This is 

 what I said last winter: "The blue-back trout of Rangeley 

 seek the streams for the pm-pose of spa\\'ning. The Stm- 

 apee are lake spa wners." See Forest and Stream, March 

 11, 1886. In regard to the v.-eight of these Su)iapec trout, 

 only four individuals saw tliem and each of them states 

 that ijianj'' of them would A\-eigh from S to lOlbs. See 

 statement of Fr-^d Gould and ]\Ioses Gould, Aug. 5. A. H. 

 Powers, in Icttca- to Col. Webber, pubUshed in FOREST 

 AND Stream, Feb. 11, 1886, says: "I have no doubt that 

 some of those we saw would weigh from 8 to lOlbs." 

 These three gentlemen are men whose word would be 



shire to compel him to, and if he believes these men to be 

 untruthful others do not. The record of the Commission 

 show that blue-back trout Avere planted in Sunapee Lake, 

 Star Pond, Squam Lake, Newfound Lake, Connor's Pond 

 and Lovewell's Pond in 1879, and I neither "take two 

 years from the growing time," nor do I "add 41 bs. to the 

 weight. 



In regard tf) his attack on Mr. Gould I shall say noth- 

 mg. Mr. Gould is a gentleman too well Imown in New 

 Hampshire to need anj- defense from me; and his attempt 

 to ridicule that gentleman's statements I consider un- 

 w-orthy of notice. He says "thousands"— he means 

 hundreds— "cross the spawning bed m sleighs and boats 

 every year." Who ever heard of anyone taking a sleigh 

 to look for a spawning bed? When the boats cross there 

 it is months after the trout liave left. I again make the 

 statement that no one who noAv li\'es neai- the lake, neither 

 "poachers" nor any one else, had any knowledge that 

 trout spawned in that part of the lake; even the Professor 

 himself did not know anything about it. He tells the 

 truth when he says "he can give the names of anglers 

 who have fished tliat shoal in years past winter and sum- 

 mer." They fished it for black bass in summer and caught 

 a few percii in winter. I have caught bass there, but I 

 did not at the time mistrust that trout came there to 

 spawn. 



In regai'd to the answers made to his questions by 

 various parties, that they never saw the new trout pre\d- 



THE CARP AS GAME AND FOOD. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In yoiu- issue before the last, you say "you will be glad 

 to have reports of any experience with carji, as fish to be 

 taken with the fly, and also their cdubility compared with 

 native fish." I have had no expei'ienee i)i fisliing for them 

 with the fly, but know they will takt.' almost anytliiug 

 thrown in, or on tln^ water. I have frequently caught 

 Them with a gTassho])per cast on the surface of the water, 

 though I usually liait with corn or wheat-bread crumbs, 

 and can catch them as fast as the hook can be baited. 

 Tliej' afford but little sport to the anglers — a 5-poiiiider 

 wall suiTender after a tew lunges when first hooked, and 

 is but little more difficult to land than if he were dead. 



As to their edible qualities, I have heard entirely 

 opjiosite oj)inions, some characterizing them as fii-st- 

 cltiss, and others declaring them unfit to eat. I have three 

 ponds stocked with carp, have been raising them for four 

 years and have been eating them freely for the past 

 twelve inontlis, and I considei' thenra most excellent and 

 desirable fish. At least fifty friends have partaken of 

 them at my table and all pronounce them excellent, the 

 majority say they are inferior to ti'out and black bass, but 

 some declare tiiem to be the best fish they ever ate. All 

 unite in the ojiiniou that tliey are superior to perch, pike 

 or catfish or any of the native fish of this region. I think 

 the flavor and "firmness i.if the carp depends gi-eatly, if 

 not eiU.irely, on the cli;ira(.-ter of the watgr from which it 

 is taken. My p< mds a re su] ii ilied by a brook of pm-e water, 

 and have a'sti-eain of j:r.-sli i-uiniing water passing con- 

 stantly in and out oC tiiein, au'l the fish are fed daily on 

 corn and wheat dough. 



Many carp ponds are made by simply colleoting from 

 the winter and early spring rains by means of a dam, a 

 liole of water. As soon as the rain ceases there is no fresh 

 Avater coming in, the hole dries up until the hacks of the 

 large fish can be seen ahave the water, it becomes as 

 muddy as a "hog wallow," and is covered -with a dirty 

 green scum. If a mountain trout could live in such a 

 mud-hole would it be fit to eat when taken out ? 



In preparing it for the table, a carp from 2 to olbs. and 

 upward should be stuffed and baked; from 1 to 21bs. they 

 shotdd be fried in an abundance of fat bacon grease. My 

 experience is that the leather carp is superior to the scale 

 variety, its flesh is firmer and of finer texttu-e. Tlie 

 numlier of carp iionds is rapidly hicreasing, and in a few 

 years almost every farmer will have one, and the larger 

 'majority who are" unable for the want of meaus and time 

 to go trouting, will bless Prof. Baird for having inti-oduced 

 the carp, giving them an abundant supply of excellent 

 food fish at their own doors, and worth to the people more 

 than all that has been appropriated to the Fish Commission 

 since its establishment. P- 



Frederickshall, Va., S«pt. 1-5. 



JAPANESE FLIES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Dr. E. Sterhng of Cleveland, Ohio, recently presented 

 me with a copy of a well-known angling work which 

 he has "revised" by makmg marginal comnients, criti- 

 cisms and coiTections, by tlie insertion of original draw- 

 ings and old and rare iUstrations, newspaper clijipings 

 and other additions which give the yoPame a rare yalue 

 to the lovers of angling. One iiewspa]ier clipping is from 

 the London Field and contains the cuts of two Japanese 

 fisli hooks and a description thereof; but there is no means 

 of telHng the date of the paper, nor can I remove the 

 clipping to show you the forms of the two hooks. They 

 are both barbed; one is not mfiike a Kinsey hook in form 

 and the other looks like a cross between a Chestertown 

 and a gravitation hook. The Field states that its samples 

 were direct from Ja];>an. I inclose a Japanese fly tied on 

 a Japanese hook that is also direct from Japan, and was 

 given to me by Mi-. J. N. Magna of Boston. Please noti 

 that this is a barbless hook. The barbless hook is of com- 

 jiaratively recent invention and ]:iatent in this country, 

 iiut a Japanese gentleman to wliom I showed one of tlie 

 flies tells me that the barbless hook hi Japan dates back 

 further than his memory. Under tliese ciicumstances I 

 do not tliink that Wendell Plulfips would have considered 

 the making of barbless hooks a "lost art " that was re-in- 

 vented by an enterprising Yankee. The gut is nearly two 

 feet long, very fine and natm.-al. I use the term natural 

 in contradistinction to "ch-avv-n" gut, which is made fine by 

 drawing tlu-ough a small hole in metal after the maimer 

 of drawing wire. From the size of the fly and gut one 

 can see that the Japs understand "fishbig fine." 



The body of the fly is peacock herl, chicken red hackle, 

 and has a "small gilt ball, evidently of metal, for head and 

 tag respectively ^ A.N.Cheney. 



Glens Falls, N. Y. 



Salmon on- a Light Rod.— Mr. G. B, Adams, of No.' 

 11 Waverly place, New York city, killed on Aug. 30 a 

 91bs. salmon, and on Aug. 81 a 321bs. salmon measming 

 44in. in length, girth 32*in. Both of these were killed on 

 a 7oz. 8-seGtion round bamboo fly-rod, 10ft. long, made by 

 Abbey & Imbrie, of this city. He had 50yde. of "D ' hn€ 

 on his reel. Time of kflling, 30 minutes.— H. 



KiNGFiSH.— Bridgehampton, Long Island.— Have had 

 some fine kingfisliing on Peconic Bay, got ft! one day oi 

 average weight of lib. — ^V, F. 



