March 3, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Ill 



and artificial, on the Hudson. As a general estimate the 

 cost of fishways would not exceed $100 per foot in height 

 or fall of dam ; that is, for a ten foot dam, $1,000, The 

 fishways to be built in the strongest manner, giving four 

 to six feet in width of water-way and thoroughly pro- 

 tected against damage. The fish (Jiute in the dam at 

 Troy, properly located, can be readily converted into a 

 suitable fishway protected against damage at a cost of 

 $1,000. _ | 



My experience in New York last fall, and studies based 

 on that experience, has enabled me greatly to simplify 

 and strengthen construction ; and it also enables me to 

 get rid of sand and mud automatically, so that none can . 

 settle in and clog the working of the fishways. 



I note what you say in regard to strength' of fish ways ; 

 permanence o? construction is a sine qua noil. This is a I 

 question to which 1 have given special attention in study- , 

 ing the conditions to be encountered in your New York 

 rivers, and there, is no difficulty in assuring that fishways 

 shall be as stable as the dams to which they are attached. 

 This requires, in general that they shall be covered, but 

 there is no objection to this ; indeed, it is, I believe, an 

 advantage in the case of the bass and all of the Salmon- 

 iclce, and I am not sure that it is objectionable in the case 

 of the shad, in regard to amount of water, I would say 

 that a fishway easify practicable for salmon can be pro- 

 vided with a flow of water amounting to ten cubic feet 

 per second or (335 pounds per second. The consumption 

 of water in that case is equal to a little over one horse 

 power for every foot of fall — ®r for a ten foot dam the 

 loss of power by reason of the fishway would be equal to 

 about twelve horse power. 



A fishway of this capacity would be from three to four 

 feet wide, would be covered with heavy timber and 

 avou Id receive the shock of ice, logs or timber without 

 damage. Yours very truly, Marshall McDonald. 



THE MENHADEN QUESTION. 



AS our columns have always been open to the discus- 

 sion of the effect of the menhaden oil and 

 guano industry on the supply of food-fish, we quote the 

 remarks of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries of 

 Rhode Island, in their report for 18S6, in their entiretv. 

 They say : 



The important problem whether the bay and coast 

 fisheries should be protected by statute, is one that is fast 

 solving itself. With few exceptions (those of shad and 

 rock bass), this kind of fishing seems to be in a fair way 

 of becoming extinct, or at least, so destroyed by the 

 metdiaden fishers and trappers, that instead of furnish- 

 ing one of the cheapest kinds of food for the masses, it 

 will become the dearest, as the extremely high prices 

 which have ruled the past season show. 



From information obtained from wholesale fish dealers 

 of the prices of the various kinds of food-fishes natural to 

 the waters of the State for the last five years, it is ap- 

 parent that the prices have been steadily advancing, and 

 the supply as steadily diminishing until the season of 

 18S7 shows higher prices for nearly all food fishes than 

 was ever known before. The only remedy which sug- 

 gests itself to the Commissioners is a law preventing 

 menhaden fishing hi the bay or within three miles of the 

 coast, and for the shore fisheries a close time law which 

 can be enforced (the present law having been foimd by 

 previous experience, difficult in this respect), should be 

 enacted. Menhaden and other trap and net fishing is, 

 in the opinion of the Commissioners, largely the cause of 

 this scarcity of fish, and they are sustained in this belief 

 by the reports of Commissioners of other States. As an 

 illustration they quote from the report of the Commis- 

 sioners of New Jersey, 1884-1885, page 8: "The colonies 

 of fishermen. at Seabright and Galilee were loud in their 

 denunciation of the menhaden fishermen, and, as at 

 Holly Beach, threats were made of procuring cannon 

 and firing upon the marauding steamers. In speaking of 

 this matter an old fisherman said : ' There is no certainty 

 about the fishing. The oil fishermen destroy everything 

 that comes in the compass of their immense nets, and. 

 spoil the fishing not only off shore, but in the bays and 

 sounds along the Jersey coast.* 



" They are al ways on the lookout, and at the first sight 

 of a school of fish making for an inlet or skirting along- 

 shore, they are out with their boats, and in a twinkling 

 the purse net is around the school, and all, pursued and 

 pursuers, big and little, menhaden, bluefish, weakfish, 

 drunrfish, Spanish mackerel and all are gathered in to be 

 ground into pulp and pressed for oil and manure, that a 

 few rich monopolists may grow richer at the expense of 

 the thousands who depend upon fishing for their bare 

 existence. This thing is all wrong and should be stopped ; 

 it is crippling a great and vital industry and robbing the 

 State. It robs the shore men of thousands of dollars 

 every year. The oil manufacturers claim that they give 

 employment to hundreds of men, but at the same time 

 they are robbing thousands. One of the most profitable 

 sources of income to the bay fishermen exists in catering 

 to the anglers who come to'the shore every year. They 

 are growing fewer every season, because the fishing is 

 being destroyed. These thousands of men spend money 

 freely among the fishermen, farmers and boarding-house 

 keepers. It is safe to say that for every dollar spent in 

 the State by menhaden fishermen, the anglers spend hun- 

 dreds. Nor is this all ; the wholesale destruction of food 

 fishes, as the bluefish, weakfish and mackerel, is a 

 wicked waste of what Providence provides for the poor 

 and hungry, and to continue to permit the piratical in- 

 vasion of the menhaden boats along the coast in the face 

 of a common protest, is a great wrong to the whole peo- 

 ple. It was announced at the close of the season that 

 the menhaden fishing had been unprofitable, and thai the 

 business would probably be relinquished by many of the 

 companies. This looks like an effort to forestall legisla- 

 tion by quieting the opposition. 



" It is to be hoped that it will not succeed in producing 

 any indifference to the great evil which now exists and 

 which will certainly continue until the last fish is caught 

 or driven from the coast. The enormity of the business 

 may be understood when it is known that over 200 steam- 

 ers, each with a capacity of catching from 40,000 to 50,000 

 fish per .day, are constantly patrolling the coast." 



The Commissioners say that the same applies -to the 

 waters of their State, and some action should be taken 

 which shall prevent this wholesale destruction of the 

 shore and bay fisheries. So important has this subject 

 become that Congress |has been appealed to for special 

 legislation in this matter. 



Maine Waters.— Fishermen are preparing for the sum- 

 mer campaign. Going into one of Boston's largest dry 

 goods jobbing houses the other day, the head of the firm 

 brought me the catalogue of a well-known rod maker, with 

 the remark that he was going to purchase a couple of 

 rods, and he desired my advice in the selection. Of course 

 I advised him to purchase no maker's rod without first 

 seeing it. The gentleman is something of a novice in 

 the business. It was only a year ago last June that he 

 made his first trip to the Maine trout waters— the Seven 

 Ponds — but he is none the less an enthusiast. He made 

 that first trip at the earnest solicitation of a friend, but it 

 converted, him. He has talked a great deal about it since. 

 Last year he was kept at the store by the illness of an- 

 other partner — lately deceased. Mr. C. P. Stevens, whom 

 I mentioned in a former letter as about ready to start for 

 the woods to locate a camp he is building, with four of 

 his friends, on the border of the Narrows, Richardson 

 Lake, Maine, left a week and a half ago. Not a word has 

 been heard of him since he left the settlement at Bethel. 

 He there found four or five feet of snow, but also a report 

 that there was a road up the lake to the Narrows, and a 

 road from Sunday Cove to the Middle Dam. Mr. Stevens 

 wrote that the next day he was to have Ins first experience 

 on snowshoes. No fears are entertained for Mr. Stevens's 

 safety, for he is in the good keeping of Adana Brooks and 

 four or five other thorough woodsmen: only it is probable 

 that the recent blizzards and snow storms have cut them 

 off from the mails for a season. They propose to camp 

 on the spot and get into the new camp as fast as it, is 

 built. It will hardly be Vive Vale — the name that the 

 camp is to be called— at first up there. By the way, the 

 telegraph made a recent number of the Forest and 

 Stream get that name "Vine Vale" instead of the Latin 

 term, which means to live well. This latter name has a 

 sound something like grapes or strawberries, but Mr. 

 Stevens and liis f ellows hardly expect to clothe that piece 

 of the wilderness in "the figtree, the olive and the vine" 

 just at present. To be honest about it, they prefer trout 

 and about as much of wilderness thrown in as can be had 

 to the square rod. As for grape juice — well, true sports- 

 men do not use it. — Special. 



Salmon Angling in Maine.— The success of those who 

 fished for salmon with the fly near Bangor, on the Penob- 

 scot last summer has attracted much attention , and we 

 hear of several anglers who will visit Maine during the 

 next salmon season to test their skill and the excellence 

 of the fishing. The river has been well stocked during 

 the years past, and the results of the plantings are now 

 apparent. Last year there were many salmon taken by 

 local anglers, most of whom were novices in fly-fishing, 

 and several visitors from outside the State also fished the 

 river, and then- success was recorded in our columns. 

 This has attracted attention far and wide, and the result 

 will be a movement of anglers toward Bangor when the 

 season opens. 



Subscribers who may chance to receive mutilated or 

 defective copies will confer a favor by returning them to 

 this office, and others will be supplied in exchange. 



THE FISHING MAIDEN. 



QHE was full of cunning crinkles, little tricks and wily wrinkles 

 ^ to catch crabs and periwinkles in the waters of the hay. 

 She knew all the leading jobbers in fish tackle, reels and bobbers, 



and she always caught the robbers that would steal her bait 



away. 



She could see without her glasses how to catch her trout and 

 basses, and she gathered in by masses victims of her wily 

 skill. 



Only one thing was the matter— she could fish but couldn't flatter; 

 and that made the young men scatter— she could never fill the 

 bill. —Seneca, in Railway Advocate 



THE GEORGIA COM M ISSION. 



THE fisheries and fishculture of Georgia comprise a de- 

 partment under the control of Hon. John T. Henderson, 

 Commissioner of Agriculture, assisted by Dr. H. H. Cary, 

 Superintendent of Fisheries. We have the report of the 

 Commissioner embracing the years 1885 and 1886, which con- 

 tains several pages devoted to the fisheries, from which we 

 learn that the subject of the artificial propagation of mi- 

 gratory fish that naturally seek the waters of Georgia, lias 

 never received the full meed of attention from the State 

 authorities which its importance and peculiar interest de- 

 mands. The supply of shad has greatly diminished within 

 the last thirty or forty years, from several causes, chief 

 among which is the increasing demand of the population, 

 the facilty with which the fish may now he distributed to 

 distant northern markets, and the consequent undue en- 

 croachment upon the supply of spawners. Every device has 

 been resorted to at the shad fisheries in the endeavor to cap- 

 ture all the shad that enters the mouths of the rivers. In 

 addition to this, most of the rivers of Georgia are so ob- 

 structed by dams that it is practically impossible for the 

 shad to reach the upper waters. This not only deprives the 

 dwellers in the up country of this source of fish supply, 

 but the barely ripe spawners are hemmed in, so to speak, 

 below these obstructions, and until quite recently were 

 taken day and night by the fishermen. 



Under "date of Oct. 16, 1886, Superintendent H. II. Gary 

 submits his fourth biennial report covering the time since 

 his last report dated Oct. 16, 1884. A very limited appropria- 

 tion has limited and embarrassed the work of fishculture, 

 but with the means at his disposal the Superintendent has 

 advanced the work of the Fish Commission as far as possible. 

 He alludes +o the fact that nearly all the rivers in the State 

 have more or less obstructions to the passage, of anadromous 

 fishes to their spawning grounds, which consist mainly of 

 dams constructed for milling or manufacturing purposes, 

 and suggests that these maybe overcome by the construction 

 of fishways. From careful observations extending nearly 

 the entire length of the Atlantic coast and of a portion of 

 the Gulf of Mexico, he is satisfied that the shad is the Qnly 

 anadromous fish, with perhaps one or two exceptions, that 

 would be profitable to attempt to propagate in Georgia. 



In 1885 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the Com- 

 missioner of Agriculture to appoint one or more game 

 wardens, who should have power to make arrests for viola- 

 tions of the fishery laws. Immediately after the passage of 

 the act the Superintendent made a tour of inspection to most 

 of thu fisheries in the State, and found that little attention 

 was paid to the laws at any point. In . about a month after 

 the appointments were made a second tour of inspection was 

 undertaken, and it was found that the fishermen on receiv- 

 ing notification had promptly stopped fishing. 



I There is but one fishway in operation in the State, and 

 there is uo law requiring any. The one mentioned is in the 

 dam at the head of the canal near Angusta. and was the re- 

 sult of the compromise between the State of South Carolina 

 and city of Augusta. It has never received proptr care and 

 attention, and has been choked up with material brought, 

 down by the floods. The United States Fish Commission 

 has made many plantings of shad in the State, and the fart, 

 is stated that before the artificial hatching and propagation 

 of shad fry no shad appeared in the rivers that empty into 

 the Gulf of Mexico, but now they have appeared in nearly 

 every river emptying into the Gulf, not only in Georgia but 

 in adjoining States. Grown shad have been taken both at 

 Columbus and Albany. None have been taken, so far as 



• known, in the Chattahoochee above Columbus, from the 

 fact that they cannot pass the obstruction at that place. It 

 is recommended that the fish wardens give the sturgeon the 

 benefit of the protection which they extend to the other 

 migratory fish, also that the State should take some action 

 in the matter of oyster culture. 



The number of carp ponds in the State, is very large, and 

 where proper attention has been given success has resulted. 



THE RHODE ISLAND COMMISSION. 



A AT E have received the annual report of the Commission- 

 VV ers of Inland Fisheries of Rhode Island for 1886. 

 From it we learn that in January, 188H, 10,000 trout spawn 

 were received from the U. S. Fish Commission, and were 

 very successfully hatched, which, together with 90,000 other 

 trout fry purchased by tine Commission, we're distributed, in 

 the various waters of the State. They also received from 

 the U. S. Fish Commission, in May, 1SS6, 1,500,000 shad fry, 

 which were placed in the head waters of the Palmer River, 

 and from the same source 2,000 German carp were obtained 

 in November, 1886, which have- been freely applied for by 

 parties interested in their culture. 



Concerning salmou, it is the opinion of the Commission- 

 ers that if proper fishways could be constructed at the dams 

 of the manufacturing companies along the Pawtuxet River 

 to allow the fish to pass up and return to the salt Avater, 

 that this fine stream could be restocked with this game 

 fish. 



The Commissioners state that from personal observations, 

 as well as from information derived from other valuable 

 sources, they are convinced that the 'efforts to re-stock the 

 streams of the State with trout, which were once so plenti- 

 ful, have been rewarded with a very satisfactory degree of 

 success, and that the present system of placing a few thou- 

 sand trout fry of the various kinds, which they can obtain 

 from the U. S. Fish Commission, from other States and by 

 purchase each year, would be a judicious course to continue 

 to pursue. 



Black bass continue to thrive and increase, and are being 

 more highly valued each year asafood and game fish. At the 

 May session, 1886, on petition of citizens of North Scitnate, 

 all restrictions upon the. taking, or fishing for black bass 

 were removed from Moswaneicut Pond, thereby allowing 

 this fish to be taken at all times, not affordiug them any 

 protection during the spawning season. This oversight has 

 been brought to the attention of the General Assembly and 

 will probably fie corrected. 



Since the State began the re-stockiug of its waters with 

 shad, this fish has shown the best results, as evidenced by 

 the increased catch 'each year. It is a matter of doubt with 

 the Commissioners whether the waters of the State are 

 adapted to the successful cultivation of the German carp. 

 The wide distribution of the present invoice may enable 

 them to determine this more satisfactorily later on. In 

 another column we give their views on the coast fisheries 

 and the menhaden question. 



THE WISDOM OF FISHCULTURE. — Editor Forest 

 and Stream: In your issue of Feb. 10 "Special" quotes the 

 suggestions of a veteran Maine sportsman relative to game 

 protection. The majority of his views are sound, and I for 

 one heartily indorse them, but cannot agree with him on the 

 subject of artificial propagation, for on many of our streams 

 and rivers I believe propagation has solved" the question of 

 protection to an extent otherwise nearly impossible. For 

 instance, we will take Crooked River, where our Commis- 

 sioners so successfully operated this fall. Here some three 

 miles of the favorite spawning beds of the Scdmn seUOQQ lie 

 surrounded by woods and away from habitations, the resi- 

 dents have from earliest history practiced spearing, and 

 many of them to-day consider that they have a ''divine right" 

 to kill a spawning fish, and no one warden, be he paid ever 

 so well, can thoroughly protect them. He may be able to 

 procure evidence and prosecute, but even that is not pro- 

 tection in its fullest sense, for the mischief has been done, 

 and the loss of one female fish heavy with eggs is great, and 

 only time can repair the damage. And with the difficulty of 

 procuring witnesses and unbiased juries, I believe an ounce 

 of protection to be worth many pounds of prosecution. This 

 year the Commissioners constructed a weir and pound as 

 near the mouth of the river as was practical, and held and 

 guarded every salmon that entered it. After delivering them 

 of their eggs they were again returned, to Sebago Lake with- 

 out the loss of a single fish. Whether the million of eggs 

 taken and now in the hatching house at Edes Falls prove 

 a failure or not I am willing to let time decide, but will 

 acknowledge that I shall be greatly surprised if good results 

 do not come from them. Of one thing I am certain, that for 

 once landlocked salmon have enjoyed protection while in 

 Crooked River, and in no other way do 1 believe it could 

 have been so efficiently accomplished at the same expense. 

 For another locality where I think protection and propaga- 

 tion would go hand in hand take Roger's Brook, a tributary 

 to Lone Lake and a stream with which your correspondent 

 "Special" is also familiar. Here again the spawning beds 

 are surrounded by woods for a distance of nearly two miles, 

 aud I would not fear to wager that once a week during the 

 spawning season, were I so disposed, I could take a salmon 

 from it undiscovered, even if it were constantly guarded by 

 two of the best wardens procurable, and they experienced 

 guides; but the establishment of a weir by the Commis- 

 sioners (and I have reason to believe it will be done next 

 season) near the mouth of the brook for the purpose of tak- 

 ing eggs for artificial propagation would not only hold the 

 fish where they could be better protected, but would, I 

 believe, be productive of good results in stocking our waters. 

 —J". C. Mead, 



THE PERILS OF FISHCULTURE. — It. J. Richardson 

 has a game preserve three miles north of Dunbar's Hotel at 

 Stillwater on the Beaver River, Adirondacks. Mr. Richard- 

 son procured some young fish at the State hatching house, 

 and having two men to assist him, started with the fry for 

 his preserve, Sheriff Hugh Mullen, of Lewis county, either 

 by invitation or from curiosity to see the country, accom- 

 panied them. They drove to Dunbar's Hotel and thence to 

 the end of the road IK m. toward the waters to be stocked. 

 From there they were obliged to draw the fish the remaining 

 1% m. on a hand sled. This required much labor, and the 

 Sheriff, who is a large, powerful man, took hold, for he is of 

 that make that was never known to look on and see others 

 work without taking hold himself; and in this case report 

 says that he did more than the others. Not b'eing accus- 

 tomed to walking on snowshoes, he became much exhausted. 

 They planted the fish and late in the afternoon started on 

 their return to the hotel. The Sheriff became so paralyzed 

 that he proceeded with difficulty. The two men soon left 

 him behind with Richardson. They had not proceeded far, 



