Nov, IS, 1S86. 1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



327 



LAKE BOMOSENE. 



THIS sheet of water, which is one of the most beauti- 

 ful in the New England States, is situated in the 

 towns of Ciistleton and Hubbardton, Rutland county, 

 Vt., and about twelve miles from the headwaters of 

 Lake Chamnlain. It is about ten miles long and nearly 

 two in width. At the widest part, about three miles of 

 the upper portion of the lake is a. large marsh, which 

 makes a splendid breeding .grouud for bass and pickerel. 

 It receives its (supply of water from a few small streams 

 and a string of six or eight little lakes at tlie nortli of it. 

 The lake is oiisily i-eached from Fair llaxen and Castle- 

 ton, wliicli are situated on the Dela ware & Hudson Canal 

 Company's railroad. The former town is 1^ miles from 

 the outlet and the other 31 miles. There is an excellent 

 road from either place. A number of boat houses are 

 scattered along the east shore. The fishing has been the 

 best this season for a number of years, owing, no doubt, 

 to the fact that the Fish Commissioners have been watch- 

 ing the parties that have netted its waters for a nmnber 

 of years. The officers succeeded in capturing quite a 

 nuiiiber of large nets, and the Legislature, which is now 

 in session, has been asked to pass inore rigid laws for the 

 preservation of our game fish, and it wiE probably do so. 



Of the large pickerel caught in this lake there are no 

 doubt two kinds, one being shorter and tliicker, which I 

 have no doubt in calhng the mascalonge, and the other 

 the gxeat northern pickerel. Both of these fish are caught 

 in the Ht. Lawrence River, and Lake Champlam empties 

 into the St. Lawrence, so tliat it is easy to see how they 

 could get there: but fi'om Lake Ghamplain to Lake Bo- 

 mosenc ihora axe two falls about 60tt. high, and no pick- 

 erel could go up tliere. The question arises, How did the 

 mascalonge and groat northern pickerel get into the 

 waters of Lake Bomosene? Something over a year ago I 

 was talking with the late J. T. Buel (every iishennan 

 knows the Buel trolling spoon). He asked how large a 

 pickerel I had ever caiight in Lake Bomosene. I told 

 him the largest that I ever weighed was 81bs. , but I had 

 seen some that weighed 181bs. (Since then some have 

 been caught that weighed over 251bs.) I added that they 

 were very large, more like the pickerel of Lake Cham- 

 plain than the common inland pond pickerel. He said : 

 "They are no doubt the mascalonge and great northern 

 piclterel of Lake Ghamplain and the St. Lawrence River, 

 for a good many years ago I was going there for a day's 

 sport with a friend, and we took over about a dozen 

 pickerel from Lake Champlam and put in there." I have 

 no doubt that we have to thank the old gentleman for tlie 

 fish we are now catching. I should like to hear from 

 others about these fish through your paper. Ned. 

 Fair Haven, Vt. 



A SOUTHERN M ASKINONJE. 



LAST week we received a fish from our well-kno^vn 

 correspondent "Kingfisher" with a request to inden- 

 tify it. It proved to be a maskinon je of 5 or 61bs. weight, 

 but not having been packed in ice it was not in good con- 

 dition for preserving. It was black spotted and not the 

 blue pike from tlie "West. The following letter gives the 

 particulars: 



CracriOs^ATi, O., Nov. 9.— 'Editor Forest and Stream: I am 

 powerfully pleased that the fish turned out to be a masca- 

 longe, as it is the first one that I know of to be credited to 

 the waters soiith of Mason and Dixon's line. The one sent 

 was taken (we took two of just about tlie same size, not 

 .50yds. apart) with a Buel spoon in Clear Fork, a few rods 

 above where it empties into New River (on the Postal maps 

 New River is called Big South Fork), in Scott county, Tenn. 

 New River rises in the mountains above Huntsvillei Tenn. 

 and empties in the Cumberland River at Port Burnaide, Ky. 



Cleai' Fork flows into New River about ten miles below 

 New River station, a small hamlet on the Cinciijnati South- 

 ern R, R., fifty-one miles from Port Burnside and 316 from 

 Cincinnati. Here in the "crotch" we made om- camp with 

 neither stream more than two rods from the tent. 



From New River station to its mouth by river, a fraction 

 over eighty-one miles, \)er Government survey, the stream 

 has a fall of 731ft., in some places as much as 50ft. to the 

 mile, and infested with rocks and boulders from the size of a 

 house up. 



Thefish sentis called by the natives in that region a "Jack" 

 and we were told they are very plentiful both in New River 

 and its tributary, Clear Fork. 



Mr. Maurice Poster — our nearest camp neigbor — told ns he 

 had taken them weighing 10, 12, 15, 30 and as high as SOlbs., 

 the latter one measming 4ft. 6in. in length. They are as 

 game a fish as I have handled for half a year, the first one 

 taken leaving the water three times to a height of 3 and 4ft. , 

 and the other one, taken by Billy Wetzel, lea\ung it four times 

 before he saw the errror of his ways. I believe th ey are a simon 

 pure maskalonge, the only difference noticeable between 

 them and their Michigan, brethren being their brighter color 

 and markings, and while the Northern fish has flesh of a 

 faint straw color, the flesh of the other is white. I thank 

 you for the interest taken in having the fish "analyzed" and 

 his proper family name given him. EIiisaFlsHER. ^ 



A 



CATGUT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am rejoiced to note in your issue of yesterdaj' that Mr. Dun 

 took his o41bs. salmon on a catgut leader ; for I have long con- 

 tended that a genuine fiddle string would be the proper thing to 

 use for tackle, since the svish of the line is to angler's ear music 

 more entrancing than ever Ole Bull could wax from i-arest old 

 Cremona. C. Sharp. 



Editor l^'orcsi and Stream: 



Win. BUieli, in""\'Sniite Heather," writes about "catgut lead- 

 ers," and so does Mr. Wiman in Fohest and Stream. There 

 is no excuse for Mr. Blaclc, but there may be for Mr. W. Chas. 

 Dudley Warner has written about catgut leaders ," but only in 

 a humorous manner, for he knows what leaders are made of, as I 

 am personally aware. C 



XS, '^i 



A Haddock's Refuge.— U. S. F. C. Schooner Grampus 

 ofl: Gloucester, Nov. 9.— This morning as one of our men 

 was removing from the well some of the fish that were 

 deadhe brought up a dead cod of some 7 or 81bs. Aveight. A" 

 look inside his mouth disclosed the presence of a lively 

 Norway haddock of perhaps ^Ib. weight. The Uttle chap 

 was taken out of his odd quarters and retiumed to the 

 well again. That passage whicli says: "In the midst of 

 Hfe we are in deatli," was quite reversed. Some of the 

 larger fish had doubtless tried to catch lum to eat. Under 

 these circumstances the smaller fish was obliged to prac- 

 tice the sailor plan of "any ixirt in a storm." Seriously, 

 however, there is room for conjecture as to how the had- 

 dock knew the mouth of his dead enemy to be a safe re- 

 treat from the mouth of his living enemies. ~ 



Silkworm Gut.— Under the title of "Fishing Lines and 

 Ligatinres from the Silk-glands of LeiJidopterous Larvaa" 

 in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia is the following: A communication was re- 

 ceived from Miss AdeleM. Fielde, statino; that the locality in 

 which she wrote, Swaton, Cliina, the suk-glands are taken 

 from the larvaj of several species of large lepidopterous 

 msects just before they enter the pupa stage, and are made 

 into fisliing lines. At tins period in the life-history of 

 the insect, the glands are fuU of the viscid white sub- 

 stance from whicli the cocoon is to be spun. The silk- 

 glands of a species of Atlas were found to be one yard 

 long, a tenth of an inch in diameter at the free, posterior 

 end, and the Imndredth of an inch in diajneter at the 

 anterior end. The two glands extend nearly the whole 

 length of the body cavity, on either side of the ahmentary 

 canal, lying in loops of varying length, and uniting in a 

 single duct under the mouth, as in the silk- worm, Bombyx 

 mori. The Chinese make a transverse cut across the back 

 of the caterpiUai-, take hold of one of the loops of the 

 silk-glands, draw it out entire, drop it in vinegar to take 

 off its external coat, then stretch it to double or treble its 

 original length, and ch'y it, A dm'able filament is thus 

 foi-med, strong as catgut, and much cheaper. The tena- 

 city of the filament is constantly restored by soaking it 

 for a few minutes in warm rice-water, that is, in the 

 water in winch rice has been boiled for food. The fisher- 

 men say that when thus prepared a fine wiU hold the 

 largest fish taken on the coast. It was found, however, 

 that a single filament would not sustain more than four 

 and a half pounds. Dr. Causland, in charge of the 

 hospital in the English Presbyterian Mission at Swatow, 

 had successfully used tliese filaments for tying arteries in 

 sm'gical operations. It was suggested that the cocoon- 

 spinning lepidoptera of the United States might furnish 

 in their silk-glands, for the joining of wounds, a thread 

 which would have all tiie virtue of spun silk, without its 

 objectionable traits. Silk- worms have been successfully 

 reared in the neighborhood of Swatow, on lettuce, the 

 silk from such caterpillars being coarser than that from 

 those fed on mulberry leaves. 



Age of Fishes. — A newspaper report has been going 

 the rounds stating that "Professor Bahd, who is at the 

 head of the Smithsonian Institute and United States 

 Commission, and probably the best Hving authoidty on fish, 

 says, 'There is, I believe,'authentic evidence to show that 

 cai-p have attained one hrmdred years. There is a tradi- 

 tion that within fifty years a pike was living whose age 

 dated back to the fifteenth centrvry. The fish is said to 

 be 18ft. long. Tins is not, however, considered to be reli- 

 able. There is nothing, however, to prevent a fish living 

 almost indefinitely, as it has no period of maturity, but 

 grows with each year of life. In each species, hke mam- 

 mals and birds, where there is a limit, a definite term of 

 years is the rule.' " Concerning the authenticity of this 

 Professor Baird writes us in reply to an inquiry: "It is 

 possible that I made the statement ascribed to me in the 

 concluding part of the paragraph which I herewith re- 

 turn. The pike story is an established one, however 

 authentic it may be. It was said to have been owned by 

 Frederick Barbarossa. The statement as to the continu- 

 ance of the life of the fish, and its mdefinite growth, is, I 

 think, accurate; although, of coiu-se, there must be some 

 limitation, such as hems in the life of the mammal and 

 bird, though less decided. — Spencer F. Baird." 



Grayling or Mountain Herring?— Denver, Col.— In 

 Forest and Stream of Oct. 21 "H." reports the catching 

 of two grayling in the Smith Fork of Green River, Wyo- 

 ming Territory. I apprehend this is a mistake. The Ash 

 was probably the mountain herring, which is plentiful in 

 Yampa, White and many other tributaries of Green 

 River. It is almost universally called grayling through- 

 out that section of country. It takes the fly readily and 

 often shows quite as mucli game as the trout. In 1877 I 

 first caught this fish, although I had heard of it for some 

 years before. In writing Forest and Stream I called it 

 grayling, as I heard others term it. You questioned the 

 correctness of the name and requested specimens of tlie 

 characteristic features to determine, which I fmnished. 

 The decision, and I think it was given by Professor Baird, 

 was that it was the mountain herring. In your final 

 answer you sent me the dorsal fin of a grayling, which is 

 all I ever saw of that fish; but it proved conclusively that 

 our Green River fish is not a grayling. Once when fish- 

 ing m the Yampa my line fell upon some willows, leaving 

 the fly dangling six or eight inches above the water, when 

 one of_ these herring leaj^ed up and caught the fly, was 

 hool^pfl and safely landed. — W. N. B, 



Death of Nathaniel E. Atwood.— Nathaniel E. At- 

 wood, the famous old fisherman of Cape Cod, died at his 

 home on Nov. 8 at the age of 79. As a practical ichthy- 

 ologist he not only enjoyed a national reputation in his 

 own countrj^, but his name, in coimection with this 

 branch, has for many years been known by scientific men 

 in Europe. In 1853 Lotus Agassiz, impressed with the 

 value of Mr. Atwood's contributions to ichthyology, vis- 

 ited him in his home upon Long Point, and there began 

 an acquaintance that shortly ripened into a warm, life- 

 long friendship. Their correspondence respecting fishes 

 was constant, and continued through the Professor's life. 

 It was at his suggestion that Mr. Atwood was employed 

 in the winter of 1868-69 to deliver a course of fom-teen 

 lectures upon food fishes before the Lowell Institute of 

 Boston. When Mr. Atwood was a boy his people were 

 very poor — so poor that they cordd not afford to keep a 

 clock — and his father used to call him up in the night 

 fend send htm out on the beach to ascertain the time by 

 the height of the tide so he could know when to laimch 

 his boat. 



" vThe Remarkable Case in issue of Nov. 4 reminds me 

 of an incident related to me by a friend of mine, who 

 was on a fishing excm-sion with his son. They had 

 caught quite a quantity of trout and other fish, and pre- 

 pared them for frying, throwing the heads, etc., back 

 into the stream. While the gentleman was starting a fire 

 the boy picked up a rod and gave the flies a flirt into the 

 stream. A rise, a stiike and a i-ush that made the reel 



sing followed. A sti-uggle in which the odds M'ere at 

 times in favor of the fish, was finally ended by my friend 



The cod was ^pping the landing net under and brmging safely to 



the common God«.sworr///fa, the Norway haddock was, 4hore— one of the heads tliat had just been tlirown into 

 Sebastes mann£s.—X, Y. Z. . . . ^ 



the water. — ^A. A. D. 



MASKiNONGfi.- i;d#or Forest and Stream : I note what 

 "H. R."say8on this name in your last issue. Most of 

 the American authors on anghng have followed a state- 

 ment made by some one that " mascalonge," as it is often 

 spelled, was a word meaning " long snout," and came 

 from the Fi-ench words masque allonge. It was to this 

 that I referred. What"H, R." further says bears out 

 my former statement that the word is one of four syl- 

 lables and that the g should be soft. All forms of the 

 name winch sound that letter hard, as ' ■' muskellung," 

 are corruptions worse corrupted. I have, however, heard 

 a Canadian call the fish " mascalonge," but it is on this 

 side of the line where aU sorts of barbarous names have 

 been applied to tins fish. I owe an apology to General 

 Garrard for misspelling his name while trying to settle 

 the spelling of another. Either the printer or I was re- 

 sponsible for printmg it Gerrard, perhaps the fault lay 

 in a miserable penman. — Fred Mather. 



Sensbbility of Fishes to Vain.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Yoixv correspondent "O. 0. S." is hardly fair in 

 his allusion to Rev. Dr. M. M. Marshall's experience with 

 the fish. Imputations upon that gentleman's humanity 

 would be in order were there any reason whatever for 

 thinking t)mt he had been cruel to the fish. "O. O. S," 

 appears to tlunk that it was an aot of cruelty to cut a 

 piece out of the living fish and then thi-ow tlie mutilated 

 creature back into the water. Well, there are two ways 

 of looking at that. If it hurt the fisli, perhaps it was 

 cruel. But it did not. The very fact that the fish was 

 ready for more of the same sort shows that. — LoGIO. 



Pennsylvania.— Creighton.— The Jolly Hunting and 

 Fishing Club were encamped at West Hickoiy, Forest 

 county. Pa., from Aug. 23 until Sept. 10, and we caught 

 a large number of black and yellow bass and jack salmon. 

 They were caught on night lines and were as fine a lot as 

 I ever saw caught on the Allegheny River. We also got 

 about a hundred and thirty or forty black, gray and red 

 squirrels. If some reader would be kind enough to give 

 me some information in regard to the hunting and fishing 

 near Cumberland. Va., I will be very much obhged. — 

 S. S. H. 



The Menhaden Steamers.— Greenport, L. I., Nov. 7. 

 — A large number of the menhaden steamers have now 

 laid up for the season. Several of them still follow the 

 sea, but -will probably soon tie up. They had very good 

 luck dui-ing tlie weelr ending Oct, 30, and some of the 

 boats cauglit many liuiidreds of thousands during this 

 week,— Isaac McLellan. 



MhhcnUum 



Address all communlcatiom to the Fcyrest and Stream Pub. Co 



THE GREAT WORKS FISHWAY. 



THIS was originally designed by Mr. Everett Smith, civil 

 engineer, Portland, Me., for the Great Works dam in 

 Penobscot River, and the following description accompanied 

 a model exhibited at the Berlin Fisheries Exhibition in 

 1880, but has never been published: 



This fishway is designed and located to aiford a passage for 

 salmon, trout, alewives, shad, etc., to pass the dam and 

 ascend the river, and to be such a passage as the fish will 

 naturally and readily find and use tor this purpose. It is 

 designed to be eft'ective at all stages of the water of the 

 river, whether high or low, and to require no attendance. 



The model shows the design as adapted to the end of a dam 

 at the river's bank. But at the Great Works dam the fish- 

 way was located near the middle of the river, at the junction 

 of the main dam and a wing dam. No flume was there re- 

 quired, but the water admitted directly to the fishway 

 through the wing dam. 



This design can be adapted to any dam, and the capacity 

 of the fishway modified to meet the requirements of any 

 stream. 



The model shows a high pier, that serves as a necessary 

 protection to the fishway in a great river subject to freshets 

 carrying do^^Ti immense quantities of logs and ice. The 

 water is conducted from the river above the dam by means 

 of a flume or aqueduct to the head of the fishway (its end 

 furthest from the dam), whence it flows to join' the river 

 current at the outlet near the foot of the dam. It is here 

 that the fish enter the fishway, and they can tarry to rest in 

 each department of it if so disposed, finally passing through 

 the flume to the river above the dam. 



Many fishways have been constructed as inclined planes, 

 down which the water flows with accelerated velocity until 

 abruptly checked, whereby it is much broken, filled vrith air, 

 and objectionable for the passage of fish, and at times im- 

 passable when the incline is too steep, or the water im- 

 jproperly checked. Or still more defective if the water is too 

 %iuch retarded, so that its delivery at the outlet is so slow 

 ftat DO fish will be attracted to eriter the fishway. 



the Great Works fishway the water descends from 

 onat level plane to another successively. The velocity of the 

 current is also retarded on the bottom by the stone paving 

 and is checked and diverted by the partitions. 



The stone paving serves a triple purpose. It loads the 

 wooden strnctm-e, retards the current witmin the fishway and 

 makes a bottom resembling that of a natural stream, hence 

 more enticing to the fish. The effectiveness of a fishway 

 depends upon its location in the river. As a general rule its 

 outlet should be located at the part of the waterfall 

 furthest up stream. 



EXPLANATION OF DETAILS (OF MODEL). 



The inlet to this fishway, for the delivery of water from 

 above the dam is 6ft. high, ift. wide, and its bottom 2>^ftv 

 below the crest or highest part of the dam (these dimensions 

 varied to suit dam and stream, but must always be such as 

 to afford an ample supply of water at all times). The "inlet" 

 to have a floating guard to prevent drift material entering 

 tha^in. 



*i**The pier for protection against freshets, ice, logs, etc., is 

 not required upon some of the smaller streams. 



The flume or acqueduct to this fishway is 6ft. wide, 78ft. 

 long, and consists of three level planes, each Kft. lower than 

 the next preceding one. 



The waste-ways relieve the fishway of a surplus of water 

 during freshets,' but aUow no waste when the river is low. 



The floor of this fishway is laid on the incline of 1 in 13, but 

 so paved with stones as to make a level bottom to each alter- 

 nate chamber. 



The longitudinal partitions regulate the volume of water 

 required, and the capacity of the fishway for its delivery may 

 be diminished or increased by xhe addition or removal of the 

 vertical planks. 



The outer side of the fishway is of such height and strength 

 as to preclude all danger from damage by freshets. 



The outlet for the water is the entrance for the fish. Its 

 stone-paved bottom is below the low water level and in this 



