Feb. % 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



69 



found in the same part of the water where the trout begin 

 to thin out. Looking ahead we discovered a break in the 

 mountains, and concluded that, as the stream must come 

 down through it, we would take a near cut and thus save 

 time. No sooner said than we commenced to work 

 our way through the thickets in that direction. When 

 I tell you that nature had sowed that stretch of 

 mountain with locusts, and that they stood as 

 thick as the hairs on the proverbial dog's back, 

 and that they had an unusual number of thorns on 

 them, and that they were moist and getting wet- 

 tor, and that every time we stooped to get 

 through the tangle something poured water down our 

 necks, you will begin to understand the felicity of tho 

 trip. And when we did at last get there, we found the 

 hollow as dry as a bone. There was no stream, and never 

 had been one there. It was now about noon, and our 

 train was due at five. Not satisfied with our recent ex- 

 periment, we concluded to take our way over a spur of 

 the mountain to where we knew the stream must be; so 

 off we went. It was tolerably smooth going for a while, 

 and we were congratulating ourselves on our good luck, 

 when just as we struck another thicket of locust and 

 greenbriers, a mountain fog came down on us. We could 

 see about ten feet away, just far enough to see nothing. 

 We took our bearings by the compass and went ahead. 

 About two o'clock Ave raised a shout of triumph, for we 

 were out of the woods, and on the long lost stream. We 

 had no time to go up and fish down, so commenced cast- 

 ing with bait and flies as we waded up. After going a 

 hundred yards I caught something. It was so gloomy, 

 and the fish was so small, that it required close inspection 

 to prove that it was really a trout. When I had made 

 sure of this, and had located the spots so as to be able to 



Eoint them out to one who had never seen a spotted 

 eauty, I called to the Doctor to come and view the 

 game. He hurried to where I was standing and after 

 looking at it a long time he said: ''And that is a trout ? 

 Well, by George!" I assured him that it was a veritable 

 specimen of that celebrated fish, and that this was the 

 place and the usual method of capturing them. We 

 fished as long as our time would allow, catching a dozen 

 or two; then struck out for the station and boarded the 

 train for home. 



When we came to the station where I had to leave the 

 train, the Doctor handed me his new fishing kit, Baying 

 that he was glad he had been fishing for trout, and while 

 he had not caught many, they were enough to last him a 

 lifetime. Two days after he wrote me, saying he had 

 counted the expense, and they just cost him five dollars 

 a pound; but counting the experience, he thought they 

 were cheap at that. Homerus. 



SURFACE SCHOOLS OF FISH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Feb. 10, under the caption "Surface 

 Schools of Trout,"' J. H. Way says that "on Moosehead 

 Lake, Me. , trout of all sizes appeared near the surface," 

 etc. "Spicewood" idem says he saw "a large school of 

 fish and * * * found them to be trout." He also 

 says that these fish all refused the fly, although cast with 

 great caution, but that he succeeded in hooking one in 

 the back, but does not say whether he landed, the fish 

 thus accidentally fastened" 



Will you permit me to hazard the opinion that these fish 

 were not trout at all, but some other species of the finny 

 tribe. My partner and myself had almost precisely this 

 same experience two years ago in fishing Fletcher Lake 

 in the Muskoka district, or rather about fifty miles to the 

 northeast of the Muskoka lakes. These fish appeared in 

 large schools early in the morning and late in the even- 

 ing over the deeper portions of the lake at some little 

 distance from the shore. They seemed to be playing, not 

 feeding, and refused both fly and bait. We were unable 

 to procure a specimen, notwithstanding various efforts to 

 that end. But we came to the conclusion that these fish 

 were not trout, but what are known among the settlers 

 in that country as herring. These fish frequent the deep 

 water dming the summer and only approach the shores 

 at the beginning of cold weather in the late autumn, 

 when they are caught in nets and, after curing, packed 

 away for winter use. The fact that "Spicewood" caught 

 trout "with a long line trolling deep"' where they went 

 down is by no means conclusive evidence as to their iden- 

 tity with the fish seen swimming on the surface. If the 

 latter were herring they wordd have paid no more atten- 

 tion to the troll than to the fly, but large trout lying iu 

 the same water would have responded to the troll pre- 

 cisely as they did with us, under like circumstances. 



Jay Bebe. 



Toledo, O,, Feb. 12. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In the summer of 1878, while at Plumador Pond, I 

 often noticed surface schools of trout. When first 

 noticed the guide told me there was no use fishing either 

 with bait or fly, and that that was the only place he had 

 ever seen them act so. As I remember now the trout 

 acted in this way on sultry afternoons; they would ap- 

 pear in the middle of the pond and roll along a short 

 distance, like porpoises, except they never showed their 

 tails. I was on the pond for a week to ten days, and, 

 perhaps, saw them four or five times. In the morning 

 there would be fair fishing, but by 4 or 5 P. M. the trout 

 would rise and I would not attempt to fish in deep water 

 but would try at the outlet where I could get enough- 

 small fish for supper. 



The reason for then: rising in this manner I can't ex- 

 plain, unless it was on account of an approach Of a 

 thunder storm, for the last days of my stay there were ac- 

 companied with a violent storm. In the schools there 

 could not have been more than six trout, but I noticed 

 some five or six schools about the same place. 



E dward Brooks. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Twenty years ago I often went to the Aclirondack lakes 

 for trout in the spring, and camped on Tupper's Lake. i ; 

 have seen on this lake when still, just at sunset, acres of 

 trout playing with backs and tails out of water, and 

 neither fly nor worm would tempt them. They would 

 stay up about ten minutes and come -within 20ft. of the 

 boat if I kept still, but at the least move or noise onthe 

 water'would fly, but they would soon return to the sur- 

 faoe again. In those days there was no trouble in catch- 

 ing all the trout we wanted, and we returned hundreds 

 that we gave an airing just for fun. D. W. T. 



Marlboro, N, H. 



THE DEATH OF MR. FRANCIS FRANCIS. 



FEW who then belonged to the great brotherhood of 

 anglers, and who still live, have forgotton the wave 

 of sorrow that swept over the fraternity when it became 

 known that Thaddeus Norris had gone to his eternal rest, 

 Not oidy to those personal friends to whom his genial 

 \ nature had endeared him, was this confined. Thousands 

 who had never heard his voice and to whom his personal 

 appearance was but a picture of the imagination — all 

 w ho had ever read "The American Angler," felt as though 

 a dear personal friend had gone from them forever. 



A similar misfortune has befallen the anglers of Great 

 Britain, and American anglers will not be slow to extend 

 their sympathy. Indeed, the loss is ours as well, for the 

 beneficial effects of Francis Francis's life-work were by 

 no means limited by the Atlantic. 



Though a voluminous writer, it is his "Book on Angliug" 

 which has done most to endear him to the many who will 

 mourn him in this country— a book which is, and will 

 continue to be, a land-mark in the literature of angling 

 second to none in prominence. 



Angling may be said to be practically confined to the 

 English-speaking Peoples. As the passing years mark the 

 progress of the art, its votaries, born under whatever flag, 

 should draw closer and closer together in sympathy, and 

 recognize in a common love a common bond of gentle 

 good-fellowship and union. Such I believe to be the fact. 

 It is fitting, therefore, that in a case like tins— when every 

 English angler is mourning the death of Mr. Francis 

 Francis — that we American anglers should not only feel, 

 but should also express our sympathy. 



With him who has departed is now "that peace which 

 passeth all understanding." His is the gain. But to 

 those whom he has left behind, only the kindly hand of 

 time and the hope that the parting is not forever can 

 bring consolation. But if present consolation be im- 

 possible, it may still be some gratification for theru to 

 be assured that the value of his life-work is widely 

 recognized, and that he won the affection and respect of 

 thousands and thousands of Iris fellow-men who never 

 saw his face — in the New World as well as in the Old — in 

 the Southern as well as in the Northern Hemisphere. 



Hexry P. Wells. 



Nkw Yokk, Feb. 1, 1887. 



Black Bass in the Mohawk. —A correspondent of the 

 Albany Argus mites to that journal as follows: "We 

 should" expect to find the black bass in abundance, or 

 large size and gamy in such a river, and this is a fact. 

 For years the river has been known to be very productive, 

 those who have fished in it by scientific methods pronounce 

 the fish of large size, full of fight, and reasonably plenti- 

 ful. The extent of the river is sufficient to furnish all the 

 fishing that anglers in its neighborhood could ask for. I 

 have recently made some investigations, and I find that 

 throughout nearly its entire course it has been infested 

 with nets. Along nearly its entire course are men who 

 lire by trapping the bass in nets, and peddling them about 

 the country. There are men who openly defy the law, 

 and say they will fish opposite their property anyway. 

 There are others who do it slyly, watching the m< weinents 

 of the proper officers. As soon as the ice is out of the 

 river in the spring, hundreds of nets go into the liver. So 

 flagrant and great has been the abuse of the law that even 

 in winter when the bass are sluggish, holes are Gut through 

 the ice, nets are put in and the fish are captured in their 

 dormant state. There is no means of judging, but it is 

 well known that many tons, possibly amounting to a hun- 

 dred tons, are each year taken in nets. The country fish 

 peddler ean be found throughout nearly the entire valley 

 of the Mohawk, summer, fall, winter and spring. Only 

 last week two negroes were arrested and fined in Schenect- 

 ady and three nets secured and destroyed, in which were 

 found six large bass. There is not a mile of the river that 

 is not poached upon during the entire year. Men too lazy 

 to do anything else, openly defy and violate the law, 

 getting a meagre living from their murderous work. A 

 river which extends a distance of one hundred and fifty 

 miles presents three hundred miles of shore. It is very 

 nearly equivalent to a lake three hundred miles around. 

 Of course a lake would have shoals at a distance from its 

 shores, occasionally, and there would be islands, but 

 practically the Mohawk River is equivalent to a lake from 

 two to three hundred miles around, as far as its adapt- 

 ability to black bass is concerned. The protection of such 

 valuable water as this has been almost entirely neglected. 

 If we had a lake of vast size in our neighborhood, it would 

 most assuredly be protected. In recent years the Anglers' 

 Association of the St. Lawrence River has, by its efforts, 

 driven the netters away. The Eastern New York Associ- 

 ation should do the same with the Moha wk. It will in a 

 very short time give lovers of the rod and line all the 

 sport they ask for. It is not a question of chance, but it 

 is a fact that, if the nets can be kept out of the river, 

 black bass will be found in great abundance. It is the 

 intention of the Eastern New York Association to take 

 vigorous measures during the coming season and to drive 

 the netters away from the rivers, and compel them to 

 seek other means of livelihood. All persons interested in 

 angling, in outdoor life, or in a pastime which gives pros- 

 perity where it exists, and health to those who indulge in 

 it, should give the association their influence as members, 

 thus adding to the fimds necessary in carrying out the 

 work." 



Landlocked Salmon.— -Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 did not receive satisfactory answers to my note in your 

 paper about this fish. I will now try to be more explicit. 

 There is a fish in the Lake Superior waters called by the 

 natives the red trout, or landlocked salmon. It is not the 

 common lake salmon or salmon trout. The fish I mean 

 is, to look at, very much like the salt-water salmon, 

 Salmo salar, and its flesh is quite pink. On the table I 

 think this fish is quite equal to the Salmo salar. What 

 is the name of this fish? Is he the landlocked salmon, if 

 not, What is he? He grows to a size of 80 to 401bs. Your 

 readers must not confuse this fish with the common lake 

 trout whose flesh is white. Can any of your readers give 

 me the name of this grand fish and sav whether or not 

 he will take the fly?— L. H. Smith (Strathroy, Out.). 



The London Fly-Fishers' Club.— At th* annual meet- 

 ing, in January last, the secretary announced that the 

 club now numbers over two hundred and seventy mem- 

 bers, and has over five "hundred dollars in the treasury. 

 Arrangements for house dinners and the reading of papers 



were discussed, and several interesting papers were 

 promised for the meeting following the dinner on March 3. 

 The former committee were re-elected, the vacancy caused 

 by the death of Mr. Francis Francis being filled by the 

 election of Mr. W. Pingo Horton. 



Thousasujr are born with a tendency to consumption. Such 

 persons, if they value lire, WiD not permit a cough or cold to be- 

 come it fixture in the lungs and chest. The best known remedy 

 for either is Hale's Honey of Horehound and Tar. Pike's Tooth- 

 ache DRors cure in one minuto.— Adv. 



^inhcnlinvt. 



THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



THE volume before us is Part XII., Report of the Com- 

 missioner for 1S84, and is, like its predecessors, a bulky 

 work filled with information of various kinds. These re- 

 ports are valuable, not only to lishculturists, but to the 

 practical fisherman engaged in any branch of the commer- 

 cial fisheries, as well as to the zoologist. The report proper 

 is divided into two heads; an inquiry into the decrease of 

 food fishes, and the propagation of food fishes in the waters 

 of the United States. Under the head of inquiry are prose- 

 cuted researches, not only into the habits and characteristics 

 of the fishes themselves, but into their general relationship 

 to each other and to man; the statistics and methods of their 

 capture; the influences exerted upon their movements by 

 physical and other causes; and in short, whatever informa- 

 tion is necessary for a satisfactory and proper treatment of 

 the general subject. Among the noteworthy points which 

 have engaged the attention of the Commissioner during 

 the year are: The vigorous prosecution of the work on 

 the Wood's Holl pier and breakwater, the completion 

 of the quarters and water tower buildings, and the com- 

 mencing of the hatching house; the construction of oyster 

 ponds at Wood's Holl and St. Jerome stations, and the in- 

 vestigation of the oyster beds of Chesapeake Bay; the trip 

 of the Albatross to the Caribbean Sea for the purpose of 

 prosecuting hydrographic and fisheries work; the investiga- 

 tion of the Florida shad fisheries by the steamer Fish Hawk; 

 the examination of the oyster beds of Long Island Sound by 

 the steamer Lookout, under the direction of Mr. E. G. Black- 

 ford; the investigation of the fish epidemic in Lake Mendota 

 and other lakes of Winconsin; the collection of specimens 

 of cetaceans, through the co-operation of the Life-Saving 

 Service; the construction of a third car for transporting and 

 hatching fish and eggs; the introduction of the cod gill net 

 upon the Paci&C coast; the occupation of Fort Washington 

 on the Potomac River, for shad hatching, by permission of 

 the Secretary of War; the occupation of a station at Weldon, 

 N. C for propagating striped bass or rockfish; the efforts to 

 hatch the codfish at Wood^s Holl station; the planting of 

 lobsters in Chesapeake Bay: the importation of blue carp 

 from Germany, and of the European trout (Salmo fario) 

 from Germany and England, and the appointment by the 

 Senate of a standing committee on fish and fisheries, to con- 

 sist of seven Senators. 



The principal stations of the Commission in 1884 were as 

 follows: For investigation and research there are three, 

 Gloucester, Mass., Wood's Holl, Mass., and Saint Jerome. 

 Md. At the former it was possible to secure a great amount 

 of help from the fishermen in the way of contributions of 

 information and specimens brought in from the Banks. The 

 office was at first in charge of Capt. S. J . Martin, but in Feb- 

 ruary, 1885, it was reorganized with Mr. W. A. Wilcox in 

 charge, and Capt. Martin as assistant. The information 

 gathered at this station is expected to be of great value, as 

 the treaty of Washington with Great Britain expired on 

 June 30, 1885. At Wood's Holl, which was in charge of 

 Capt. H. C. Chester, since deceased, there were prosecuted 

 special researches and the practical propagation of cod, 

 mackerel, lobsters and other sea fish. At Saint Jerome, 

 which is in charge of W. de C. Ravenel, practical experi- 

 ments in oyster culture are made. 



For the propagation of Salmonida? there are eight stations. 

 Grand Lake Stream, under the direction of Mr. Charles G. 

 Atkins, is devoted to the propagation of landlocked or 

 Sehoodic salmon. Bucksport, Maine, also in charge of Mr. 

 Atkins, is primarily connected with the multiplication of 

 Penobscot salmon.* North ville, Mich., in charge of Mr. F. 

 N. Clark, is devoted to whitefish and trout. Alpena, Mich., 

 is an auxiliary station for the whitefish service, and is also 

 under the direction of Mr. Clark. Baird, Shasta county, 

 Cab, on the McCloud River, has been devoted exclusively to 

 the cultivation of the California salmon, for which . it is 

 eminently adapted, but the work was suspended during the 

 year. Trout ponds near Baird are situated five miles from 

 the salmon station mentioned above, and the station is 

 devoted to keeping up a large stock of California trout to 

 supply eggs tor Eastern waters. Wytheville, Va., this 

 station is rented from the Virginia Fish Commission, in 

 order to obviate the expenses otherwise attendant upon the 

 transporting of the voting Salmonidae, such as California 

 trout, brook trout, landlocked salmon, etc., from other 

 stations to different points, especially to the southern 

 Alleghanies. Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y. : Here are hatched 

 the eggs of the salmon from Maine and the whitefish from 

 Michigan for introduction into the rivers and lakes of 

 northern Pennsylvania and New York. It is in charge of 

 Mr. Fred Mather, who carries on, simultaneously, work for 

 the State of New York and for the United States; the place 

 being in convenient proximity to New York, enjoys excellent 

 facilities for transportation and distribution. 



For the propagation of shad there are three stations. 

 Battery station at Havre de Grace, Md., Fort Washington, 

 Md., aiidthe Central station, Washington, D. C, the latter, 

 which is established in the oid Armory Building, is now an 

 important point for hatching shad, herring, salmon, white- 

 fish, etc., and receives its supply of eggs from the other 

 stations. 



For the propagation of carp there are two stations, the 

 Monument Reservation, Washington, D. C, is the principal 

 one, where are cultivated the leather and mirror carp, gold 

 fish, golden ides and tench are all raised in considerable 

 numbers. At the Arsenal Grounds in Washington the scale 

 carp only are cultivated. 



A great deal of useful information is contained in the 

 appendix, which may be divided into five heads, and which 

 consist of 42 separate papers treating upon matters relating 

 to the work of the Fish Commission. 



Reports of Steamers and Stations. — The first article is by 

 Lieut. -Commander Z. L. Tanner, and gives a report of the 

 work of the steamer Albatross dming 1881, illustrated by 

 three plates. In this report are also included subordinate 

 reports by Lieut. Seaton Schroeder, Passed Assistant Engi- 

 neer G; W. Baird, Surgeon James M. Flint, Naturalist Jas. 

 E. Benedict, and various tables of temperatures, specific 

 gravities, stations occupied, records of dredging and trawl- 

 ing, and lists of fishes, invertebrates, etc.. taken. Next is 

 given a report by Lieut. W. M. Wood, on the work of. the 

 Fish Hawk, during 1883 and 1884; and a report follows by 

 Mate James A. Smith on the work of the Lookout during 

 1S84. The twelve papers which f ollo^w relate mostly to the 

 propagating operations of the Fish' Commission, ana consist 

 of the reports from persons charged with the work of propa- 

 gation, distribution or investigation. They consist of three 

 reports on fish hatching, shipping eggs to foreign countries, 

 and receiving them from foreign countries at the Cold 

 Spring Harbor station, by Mr. Mather; the operations at tho 



