June 23, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



477 



bridge, that the fish doubtless shrank 21bs. after having 

 been taken. Its dimensions according to the statements 

 of Messrs. Stanley and Atkins, would indicate that alive 

 its weight would "certainly closely approximate 121bs. 



This great trout was as shapely in form and as beauti- 

 ful in color as a pound trout. Those of your readers who 

 are in New York city can inspect the stuffed skin of the 

 fish at my office, 69 Wall street. 



The Smithsonian Institution has a plaster cast of a trout 

 lllbs. weight, taken about nine years ago in Lake Moose- 

 lueniaguntic. This was a male trout loss in length t han 

 the one just referred to, but very deep, its shape being 

 what is known by the expressive term of "pot-bellied." 



After an experience of twenty -five years' angling in the 

 Rangelcy waters, I am among the number who believe 

 that trout exceeding in weight I21bs. are still alive, and I 

 shall be among the first to congratulate the fortunate 

 angler who is really entitled to claim himself as the pos- 

 sessor of the largest brook trout on record. But the evi- 

 dence on behalf of my authorities certainly seems to in- 

 dicate that Mr. Grote's trout could not have exceeded the 

 weight of Dibs. Geo. Shepard Page. 



New York. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



It has been suggested that the big trout are increasing 

 in the Androscoggin waters, the acknowledged home of 

 the largest pure Salmo fontinalis in the world. This 

 would seem to be the true state of the case, if the capture 

 of such fish within the past decade is to be taken as the 

 true index of the case. But it is possible that to the ini- 



E roved tackle of the present day and the skill that has 

 een acquired in pxtrsuing these fish, together with the 

 great increase in the number who hunt them, may be 

 attributed a part at least of the record of the great fish 

 that have been taken. It is certain that up to 1879 there 

 was no positive record of a trout weighing over 9|lbs. 

 ever having been taken from the waters of these lakes, 

 though there were accounts of "great fish" held in the 

 memory of guides; and, besides, there were records writ- 

 ten and drawings made of very large trout — done in pencil 

 and with a bit of charcoal — in several of the renowned 

 "old camps" at these lakes. But these records were usu- 

 ally spoiled by some envious or witty late comer, who 

 wrote "lie" or "fish story" under the records, or else im- 

 mediately proceeded to draw a much larger and impos- 

 sible fish, and under it wrote a story drawn purely from 

 imagination. Again, it is too much to expect that posi- 

 tive statements should have been kept of the weight of 

 fish at that time, before the invention of pocket scales, 

 and when a pair of steel-yards in a camp outfit that must 

 be carried for many miles into the unbroken forest would 

 have been looked upon as an impossibility. Indeed, when 

 the positive record of big trout was first startled by the 

 fish that weighed 1 If lbs. , taken by the guide of Mr. Marble, 

 Steve Morse, of Upton, Me., Sept. 29, 1879, there were no 

 steel-yards or scales at the Upper Dam that would weigh 

 him. There were a pair of old steel-yards there that would 

 weigh up to lOlbs., and that was as far as they would go. 

 But the great trout tipped the beam and a small pebble 

 was hung on to balance him and the calculation was made 

 that he would weigh 1211 js. Af terward an actual weight was 

 taken which was found to be llflbs. Mr, Marble believed 

 that the fish weighed considerably more at the moment 

 of capture. It was a most imgainly fish; a male with a 

 wonderfully prominent hooked under jaw. I saw the 

 fish a few moments after his capture — had seen him sev- 

 eral times before on the spawning bed which the trout 

 had made at that time a few feet above the dam, owing 

 to the low water. The trout, evidently an old one, was 

 thin and flat, but very wide, with a crooked back — the 

 numerous pictures on the covers of guide books and on 

 the advertisements of the Maine Central Railroad only do 

 him justice in point of ugliness. Still he had the bright 

 spots and the vermilion sides of the perfect Salmo fonti- 

 nalis at breeding time. The capture of this trout has 

 always been something of a secret, since Mr. Morse hooked 

 him when alone, though I have always understood that 

 Mr. Marble was there at the capture. The water was 

 scarcely 4ft. deep at that point and some mill logs were 

 floating over the spawning bed. By placing a board 

 across the logs and lying flat upon it one could see the 

 great trout as they came upon the bed — females followed 

 by the males. There were some very large fish there. 

 Several large ones had already been jigged up by excited 

 sportsmen. The big one had been seen a number of 

 times, Mr. Morse says, following a female considerably 

 larger. Mr. Morse is also understood to have said that 

 this female fish followed the male fish up to the very top 

 of the water several times during the capture, but disap- 

 peared. 



This great Salmo fontinalis was soon after obtained by 

 Prof. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institute, as the largest 

 specimen of that class of fish in existence, and mounted 

 by his direction, and it is a prominent feature in the 

 history of the trout family. But my reason for so ex- 

 tended a notice of this fish at this time is that another 

 great fish has been caught, this time a female, as the 

 following letter will explain: 



Boston, June 18, 1887— Editor Forest and Stream: In answer to 

 your inquiries about the brook trout recently taken by me in 

 Lake Mooselucmaguntic I send the following details: The fish 

 was taken off Sandy Point on June 7, while trolling with a minnow 

 in deep water, John J. Wilbur, guide. Weight liJilbs., length 

 27^£in., depth S^in., thickness 4in., girth 20J^in. These weights and 

 measurements were taken at the float of the Oquossoc Club, bv 

 members of the club, after the fish was dead. The fish was a female 

 and contained a considerable quantity of ripe spa wn, considerable of 

 which escaped before the fish was weighed. There is no doubt but 

 it weighed, when taken from the water some hours before, fully 

 121bs. This fish was one of three consecutive fish weighing 9}^, 6, 

 ll^lbs. respectively; total 27J41bs.— S. J. Mixter. 



Here is a positive record of another great trout, fully 

 equal to the Marble trout. I mentioned its capture in 

 the Forest and Stream last week, but up to that time 

 I had only a newspaper account, and did not feel certain 

 about the size. In the case of this fish the suggestions 

 are several. In the first place, may it not have been the 

 great female trout that Mr. Morse mentions as present 

 at the time of the capture of the Marble fish? The lake 

 was the same, but the points of capture three miles apart. 

 Again, what a pity it is that this female fish could not 

 have been put in the hands of Prof. Baird for the Smith- 

 sonian Institute, and for a companion fish to the great 

 male already there. Dr. Mixter says that he never 

 thought of it, but is it not singular that no member of the 

 Oquossoc Angling Association present should have 

 thought of sending so large a female fish where it might 

 have been a feature in natural history for years to come? 

 Again, Dr, Mixter would have been much pleased to have 



furnished this fish to science and history, but alas, no- 

 body thought of it. Copies of the Forest and Stream 

 with the history of this fish should be on a prominent 

 shelf in the camp of the Oquossoc Angling Association , 

 and every other camp in the lake region, in order that 

 the mistake of men not thinking may never again occur. 

 It is a feature of these big trout worth mentioning that 

 the largest have all come from Lake Mooselucmaguntic, 

 the largest of the chain, though there is merely a dam 

 between that lake and Richardson Lake below. The 

 largest iish ever ta ken in the latter lake would not go 

 over lOlbs.. while the record of Rangeley Lake, above 

 Mooselucmaguntic, is not much better. What causes the 

 Salmo fontinalis to grow to such size in the Androscog- 

 gin waters? Why are not the trout as large in Moosehead 

 and other Maine lakes? Cut open the maw of one of the 

 great trout and the question is answered. There you will 

 find minnows in several stages of digestion, from the one 

 just gulped down to only the backbone of the first one 

 eaten. It is the feed. Millions of chubs, cyprinidaj, are 

 there for the trout to eat. It is probable that these min- 

 nows, cyprinidse, are increasing faster than the trout. 



Special. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



An item has been going the rounds of the papers 

 in northern New York, stating that the largest trout 

 (font w talis) ever taken in New York State was recently 

 caught by a lady in Loon Lake, Franklin county. A 

 gentleman who was visiting Loon Lake at the time gh r es 

 the following particulars: A female employe of the hotel 

 where he was staying was rowing on the lake and found 

 the trout dead on the surface of the water. It was 23in. 

 long, 13in. in girth and weighed 6|lbs. The trout, a 

 Salvelhius fontinalis, was extremely fat, and "it was 

 thought that the super-abundance of fat killed it." A 

 few years ago two trout were caught in St. Regis Lake 

 which weighed, if my memory serves me, 5J and O^lbs. 

 respectively. Mr. Hotchkiss,.of New Haven, Conn., who 

 caught them, told me that it was conceded at that time 

 that they were the largest brook trout ever captured in 

 the Adirondacks. I think that both fish were stuffed and 

 are now at Apollo ("Paul") Smith's, St. Regis Lake, who 

 can verify the weights, A. N. Cheney. 



Glens Fat,t,s, N. Y. 



THEY WOULDN'T BITE. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



Your editorial note in the issue of June 9 in relation to 

 the "Farmer Brown's Trout " correspondence, is sound. 

 That the interests of farmers and sportsmen are identical 

 there can be no question, and it is in most cases no diffi- 

 cult task to convince the farmer of this, provided he is 

 approached in a manly spirit. 



In nearly every case it will be found that where a 

 farmer repulses overtures civilly made, and looking to- 

 ward the capture of game or fish upon his lands, it is be- 

 cause he has in the past been made the victim of thought- 

 less or dishonest practices. 



Such annoyances and even losses as are caused by the 

 failure to put up a set of bars, the leaving open of a gate, 

 the tramping down of standing grass and corn, are bad 

 enough in themselves, and often entail upon the toihvorn 

 farmer hours of labor which no one has a right to claim 

 from him unpaid; and, when in addition, his rights as a 

 property owner are defied or set at naught by reckless 

 and dishonest men, he does as you and I would do, and 

 "cavecanem." 



I know the American farmer as well as most, and can 

 testify that in his normal condition he has commonly a 

 strong fellow feeling for the true sportsman. 



Usually he is, or has been, a fisher himself, and more 

 or less of a hunter; and his trusty muzzleloader, perhaps 

 long unused, but deadly still in the old man's hands, fur- 

 nishes many a text for wise counsel to the amateur 

 forester, or for thrilling tale of sylvan warfare in days 

 when "game was plenty" and he was young. 



Even though he be unskilled in the arts of the sports- 

 man, he has probably sons or nephews whose tastes shall 

 well atone for Ms deficiencies in this regard ; he likes to 

 see them come in full-handed from wood or river, and 

 jeers them unmercifully when they fail of success. 



If you be a gentleman — mind, I am not speaking of 

 your clothes — he is quick to discern the fact; and will 

 often go out of his way to show you " the best graound 

 fer patridges," or "the crick where Pop Emmons ketched 

 forty-three real pooty traout 'n one a'ternoon." 



I speak of him as he still is, in some favored localities; 

 as he was in many — to many more, where erst we and 

 multitudes of your readers have passed in joyant quest of 

 fin or feather, days which live still among the brighter 

 memories of our past, where, alas, the feet of the poacher, 

 the pot-hunter and the trout-hog since have been ; 



And where the fish-bog's hoof doth prance, 

 The sportsman gets but half a chance. 



The lines quoted are from Byron, and their occult sig- 

 nification implies a belief on the part of the poet that when 

 a farmer has been defied or trifled with, say a matter of 

 fifteen or twenty times by the various breeds of swine 

 above mentioned, the secretion known as "milk of human 

 kindness" sours in his heart, or becomes deteriorated in 

 quality to such extent that it is often unsafe to show a rod- 

 tip or gun-muzzle on the homeward side of his defences. 



My own experiences with the farmers over whose lands 

 I have fished or shot have seldom been disagreeable, and 

 I have tested the temper of these men in very many 

 States of this Union. When I have found a farmer in- 

 clined to graffness or incivility of speech, it has invari- 

 ably appeared that I had been preceded by some "dead 

 beat," or at least somebody who had, if knowledge of, 

 certainly no respect for, the commonest equities or ameni- 

 ties of civilized life. 



I seldom have found a farmer tm willing to listen to a 

 reasonable request for the privilege of shooting or fishing 

 in his preserves, and there has sometimes been a comical 

 outcome to such experiences. 



When living in Wisconsin, some years ago, I one day 

 had occasion to drive about twenty miles into the w r oods, 

 and took along my rod for the pm-pose of investigating 

 the contents of a fair-sized brook, known by the name of 

 Splinter Creek, the mouth of which I had often noticed 

 issuing trom the forest and losing itself among a collec- 

 tion of saw-logs in a small millpond. I was of the opin- 

 ion that by going eastward from the "supply road" upon 

 which I was traveling I could strike this stream at a point 

 three or four miles above the pond. 



I put up my team at a farmhouse, and, having com- 

 pleted the business part of my errand, started for the 

 brook without having been able to get any information as 

 to its contents or capabilities. 



On my way I met a farmer named Archie, who, with 

 another man of like calling and name lived near this 

 brook, which traversed their clearings for some distance 

 as they lay side by side. These men were unknown to 

 me, but Archie No. 1, whom I had met, was civil enough 

 and directed me how to reach my destination. I did not 

 ask him about the fishing. The barn of Archie No. 2 

 stood within 20ft. of the brook, and the clearing was some 

 eighty rods in length. 



Walking leisurely up the stream until I reached a likely 

 pool near the forest edge, I jointed my rod, long unused, 

 sat down behind a stump and cast my hackle lightly over 

 the surface of the stream. No; I am wrong; it wasn't a 

 hackle that time, but a great green grasshopper, which 

 was instantaneously seized by a -Jib. trout, which I landed 

 without much parade, as I was after fish. Of these I had 

 twelve very respectable specimens, when at last I strode 

 forth in triumph from the shadow of the stump. About 

 that time I may say that I felt good, and descending the 

 stream until I had reached a suitable stretch of op<^i 

 water, I substituted for the traditional hopper an ancient 

 red fly, which might perhaps have been an ibis, though 

 this I doubt. Certainly it had long before seen active 

 service on the Rangeleys. 



There was a surge and a snap as the old relic floated 

 through the air, and before it struck the water the trout 

 had it, and I sprang to my feet just in time to keep his 

 nose out of a cartload of roots and brush-wood, with the 

 intricacies of which ligneous deposit he was evidently 

 more familiar than I thought it advisable to become. 



He was a good one, and as I had not fished for some 

 time I was partieularly anxious to save him, not that this 

 made much difference, but it so struck me at the time 

 and I did my level best, and so did he. 



"And up and down, 



And round and round, 



So fierce was his career," 

 that ruore than once my heart sank within me as he 

 missed but by an inch or two some "coign of vantage" 

 he had vainly sought. No landing net or gaff had I, and 

 he was hooked but lightly. Whew ! how the leader hissed 

 through the sparkling water as he made his final rush, 

 after having sulked for a moment at the bottom of the 

 pool. By good fortune it happened that his course lay 

 for an instance toward an opening between two loose 

 boulders, beyond which was a shallow with a gently slop- 

 ing bank. Delicately as possible I put the helm hard 

 down, he obeyed the signal and shot right into the open- 

 ing. Somehow, he didn't stop until he had slid through 

 the grass to a point about ten feet distant from the edge 

 of the water. 



Then I removed the hook, so slightly fastened that I 

 was filled with wonder that the fish had not escaped. 

 This done I proceeded to break his neck— unpleasant, 

 doubtless, to the fish as well as to myself, but certainly 

 merciful and a duty not to be neglected. Then I lighted 

 my pipe and admired the trout. 



Lastly I estimated his weight, and haviog no scales at 

 hand with which to set at rest intrusive doubts, I had it 

 all my own way, and continued to estimate after my pipe 

 was out and I had recommenced my fishing. 



I am still at times occupied in estimating the weight of 

 that trout, and happy am I to be able to certify that since 

 he quitted the seclusion of that brash pile in the edge of 

 Splinter Creek, he has increased in weight until the more 

 or less mythical "big bass of Bomaseen" would seem but 

 as a minnow beside his magnificence. 



Show me the idiot who totes around in his pocket a set 

 of steelyards when he goes afishing, and — some time 

 when I am in your office, or you in mine, I will give you 

 my opinion of that man. 



The brook narrowed and I resumed the grasshopper. 

 Toward evening I had about eighty fine trout safely de- 

 posited at different points along the brook, and was just 

 ready to "limber up." I neared. the watering place just 

 as No. 2 was leading his horse to drink. He saw me try- 

 ing to work my hook into a hole concealed by a tangle of 

 briers, and pleasantly said: "Tryin' ter fish, be ye?" 



I nodded, and he continued: "The's traout here, but 

 ye can't ketch 'em, We use ter see 'em when we was a- 

 loggin' an' aburnin' in the f oiler (fallow), but they 

 wouldn't bite. Hello! you hev got one, I s wow. Well, I 

 never see the beat," he continued, as having reeled up I 

 proceeded to collect my fish. "Ye hain't got no fish 

 hooks ter spare, now, hev ye?" It so happened that I had 

 and we parted good friends. 



Some months afterward I met him in town and he gave 

 me a cordial invitation to come again and fish all I liked. 

 Said he: 



"T'other Archie toF me 't he see ye a-pokin' 'raound 

 the crick 'n 't fus he thought ye was a surveyin' 'n' then 

 he thought ye was a dum fool; but nex' time I see him I 

 toF him 't was we 't was the dum fool, ter live alongside 

 o' that crick long enough to clear up two farms 'n' never 

 get the first mess o' trout aout on't." KELPIE. 

 Cbnthal Lake, Mich., June 13. 



Black Bass in Quebec— The open season for black bass 

 and maskinonge began here yesterday. So far but few 

 catches have been reported. The season opens fifteen 

 days too soon for bass, for those taken now are engaged 

 in family cares, protecting their young, and are in ill con- 

 dition for food, The Fishery Department suspended the 

 law protecting black bass for the Queen's Birthday, May 

 24, and hundreds of bass were killed that day, which 

 means the destruction of millions of the young fry. 

 Among the class of so-called intelligent anglers for black 

 bass there is not one in a thousand that knows, or, I 

 believe, cares to know, anything about the breeding hab- 

 its of that fish; and there is no game fish that requires 

 closer protection during their spawning time, and for at 

 least one month after the fry are hatched, than the black 

 bass. Until their habits are fully known and proper laws 

 are made and enforced for their protection, their numbers 

 in our northern waters will be f ew compared to what they 

 would be if they were rightly protected. — Stanstead. 



Dr. James A, Henshall has returned from his long 

 European trip in perfect health. The Doctor called in 

 our office last Monday, and on Wednesday left the city 

 for Cincinnati and home. 



