July 4, 1888.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



493 



SOUTHERN MASSACHUSETTS LEAGUE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The Southern Massachusetts Fish and Game League 

 was organized in New Bedford in the autumn of last 

 year. The objects of the association were fully set forth 

 in a circular letter, a copy of which was sent to you. 



For several years we have seen that many of the valu- 

 able food fishes of our sea coast were becoming fewer in 

 number and of diminished size. We have attributed this 

 to the increasing number and effectiveness of the appa- 

 ratus used for catching them, and chiefly fixed or station- 

 ary engines for their wholesale capture. 



SeVetal times many of us have united our efforts to 

 obtain protective legislation, but hitherto without much 

 success. 



During the session of the Legislature now just brought 

 to a close, the League made another attempt and again 

 without avail. 



We were met as heretofore by a combination of several 

 interests, backed up by any amount of money, and sus- 

 tained by a committee chosen specially to look out for 

 and protect those interests. These interests, as some of 

 your readers may not know, are the trappers themselves, 

 the several twine and seine manufacturers, the cod and 

 mackerel fishermen, the railroad corporations as carriers 

 of freight, the Board of Trade of the City of Gloucester, 

 the marketmen of the cities, and a powerful organization 

 having for its object the defeat of any restrictive legis- 

 lation. 



We are, however, neither disheartened nor discour- 

 aged. We are more and more con vinced eacli year that 

 as to certain kinds of fish, their exhaustion is not only 

 possible, but probable from these destructive methods of 

 fishing. Moreover, we are satisfied that we are instruct- 

 ing the people, and there is a growing public sentiment 

 in our favor, which if we keep up, will eventually give 

 us the advantage. 



I shall have time now to speak of only one species of 

 fish , the tautog or blackfish of New York. 



The upper part of Buzzard's Bay seems to be the nursery 

 of these fish. The returns from about seventy-five pounds 

 and weirs all around the bay, and also in Vineyard 

 Sound for 1888, gave a catch of about 68,000 of these fish, 

 while on the neck of land on the. east side of the Acush- 

 net River, in a length of only about three miles, twenty- 

 four traps or pounds took 50,000 of them. 



While we believe that this stationary apparatus and in- 

 deed all the wholesale enginery for catching fish is 

 destructive, the tautog in our waters have suffered to a 

 greater extent than any of the other kinds. 



As the setting of pounds is by law permitted only to 

 such as have licenses grauted to them by the Selectmen 

 Of towns, and as we believe no such licenses will be 

 granted next year in Fairhaven, none of those twenty- 

 four traps will be set, and consequently we shall have the 

 chance hitherto refused to us to see whether our waters 

 will not be repeopled. 



We shall watch the effect with much interest, for upon 

 it will depend all our theories as to the connection be- 

 tween fixed apparatus for catching fish and their increase 

 or decrease ih numbers and size. 



Aside fro'm the possible exhaustion of the fisheries, the 

 traps and weirs do an almost; incalculable injury by hin- 

 dering the proper and natural distribution of the fishes 

 during the season. Early in the year immense numbers 

 of fish, are taken in a very short time, so that the waters 

 arc depleted for most of the summer and autumn, the 

 markets are glutted so that it hardly pays to ship them, 

 and multitudes are dragged upon the shore to waste, or 

 at the best to be spread upon the land as manure. 

 Late in the season, consequently, no fish can be found 

 either for food or for sport. 



It has been reported to us that great quantities of scup 

 (or porgie) have been taken to the westward of us in the 

 pounds, and thousands of barrels of them have been 

 yarded up for a market. None have come yet into this 

 vicinity, as, but for this, it seems to us they would have 

 done, as they used to do years ago. 



Only a fe w blueiish have yet been caught with the hook 

 and line, and these only in the upper waters of the bay. 



We shall tiy to keep ourselves posted as to all the facts 

 of value to the fishermen, as well those who fish for 

 food as those who fish for sport. And I shall be pleased 

 if anything I. can say shall be of interest to you or to 

 your many readers, or shall add anything to the stock of in- 

 formation upon a subject so important, and upon which 

 so few people seem to have any reliable information at 

 all, ' Geo. H. Palmer, 



Cor. Sec'y So. Mass. F. & G. League. 



New Bedfod, June 8. 



INCIDENTS IN MY HUNTING LIFE. 



IV. — KEELING IN A TROUT. 



IN the spring of 1857 a party from Bethel started for 

 the Rangeley Lakes on a fishing tramp. They were 

 Rev. Zenas Thompson, the veteran bear killer, and Josiah 

 Brown — both of whom have since gone to the happy 

 hunting grounds beyond — and the third Joseph Twitchell. 

 Arriving at Upton at the foot of Umbagog Lake early in 

 the afternoon, they added to then- company the writer, 

 as guide, commissary, cook, boatman and companion. 

 All things being ready we started up the lake in a row- 

 boat. We had hard pulling, for the wind was ahead and 

 blew hard, and we had to hug the western shore and fol- 

 lowed near the land to the extreme end of North Bay, 

 and so on up the East Arm. AVhen we arrived at the 

 carry landing it was about dark. But we were all so 

 anxious to get to Molly chunkemunk Lake that night, to 

 get the morning fishing, that we decided to cross the five 

 miles as best we could that night. We got on very well 

 until the last mile was reached, then it was pitch dark, 

 and with only a spotted or blazed line through thick 

 woods over rough ground to travel. However, we man- 

 aged — one of us holding on to a spotted tree,. while an- 

 other went ahead and found another spot, and so on — to 

 grope our way slowly along, and about midnight arrived 

 at Middle Dam, where we found a small board camp just 

 large enough for our party. We soon had a generous 

 fire burning and cooked our tea and lay down for the 

 rest of the night on our sweet balsam bed. We were 

 awakened during the night by some animal jumping 

 onto our camp, but we were so tired out by our last night 

 tramp that we didn't scare worth a cent, and early in the 

 morning we started for the dam, some quarter of a mile 

 away, to try trout fishing. 

 Previous to starting, Zenas had instructed Joseph in 



the art of landing trout with the nice slender rods and 

 reels which Joseph had never used nor even seen before. 

 Zenas told him he must gradually reel the fish in after 

 striking him, and at the same time call for the guide to 

 help land him. 



Joseph went down upon the apron at the foot of the 

 dam and the rest of us tried our luck above the dam. 

 Joseph had not been there long before we heard a great 

 outcry above the roaring of tho waters a-calling for help. 

 Climbing quickly upon the dam, we discovered the cause 

 of the alarm, for there was Joseph crying out at the top 

 of voice, '-Come quick! I've got him all reeled up.'' 



And, sure enough, there he was with a five or six -pound 

 trout reeled up within three feet of the end of the rod, 

 jumping and threshing, first down to the bottom of the 

 w hite water as it rushed through the dam, then up and 

 out into the air above; and Joseph puffing and blowing 

 and holding on and singing out, "Come quick, or I shall 

 lose him." This was more than we could bear; we fairly 

 roared with laughter before we could go to his assist- 

 ance, 



This was Joseph's first large trout; and he thought he 

 was following out the minute directions of Mr. Thomp- 

 son as he reeled him up solid. But Joseph saved his fish 

 by the assistance of the guide, and he doubtless remem- 

 bers this and many other comical instances of his first 

 trip to the lakes, when the only road in was an Indian 

 trail and blazed trees. 



At that time it was not much labor to get all we wanted; 

 and after cooking in various ways and eating all we could 

 of t he delicious red-meated beauties, we brought away all 

 we cotdd take care of; and treated our friends not only 

 with a nice mess of trout, but also with the amusing story 

 of "reeling him up." J. G. R. 



Bethel, Mo. 



BOSTON ANGLERS BACK FROM MAINE. 



THE trouting parties are about all in, and now the 

 situation is left to the tourist and the vacationist. 

 With the fishing tackle people, trout baskets and lunch 

 baskets, with cheap rods and lines, sell better than the 

 really practical tackle of earlier in the season; all of 

 which shows that the real season, when the sportsmen 

 themselves are abroad, is about over. Still the tackle 

 people note an excellent trade in salmon tackle, indicat- 

 ing that the salmon rivers are to bo visited as usual, 

 though the success of last season, except at Bangor, was 

 not inspiriting. But, curious enough, this year Bangor 

 is a failure. The salmon have not put in an appearance, 

 not even in the nets and traps further down the river. 

 The fishdealers complain that there is a dearth of Penob- 

 scot salmon. One of the wise ones (?) ventures the theory 

 that the scarcity of salmon is largely due to the great 

 numbers taken by the United States Commission at Or- 

 land for breeding purposes. "The taking of these salmon 

 should be stopped," he says. He reminds one of the boy 

 who objected to the throwing away of so much wheat in 

 spring time for seed, only that every salmon taken for 

 breeding purposes is carefully put back into the river 

 again. 



One of the latest of the sporting parties with rod and 

 reel from among Boston merchants was that of H. B. 

 Moore, of J. E. Soper & Co., which party has just re- 

 turned from a five-days' fishing excursion to Moosehead. 

 Harry has usually been to Richardson Lake, but this year 

 he was persuaded to try Moosehead. His party was 

 made up of Calvin Austin, general freight agent of the 

 Boston & Bangor Steamship Company; H. M. Stephen- 

 son, architect of ?emberton Square; G. C. Moore, woolen 

 manufacturer, North Chelmsford, Mass., and last, but 

 not least, G. R. Moore, his father. The party found the 

 fishing excellent, the largest trout taken being 3£lbs., a 

 good one for Moosehead. But Harry shows some marks 

 of other bites than trout. The black flies took up the 

 situation about the last day of the excursion and the boys 

 were literally driven out of the woods. The best of fly 

 preventives was of a good deal of service, but nothing 

 could more than make life endurable. 



The full list of the names of the Kineo Club members, 

 who took part in the annual excursion to Moosehead 

 Lake this year and not previously mentioned in the For- 

 est and Stream was: J. B. Thomas, Jr., president of 

 the Standard Sugar Refinery; C. E. Lanriat, of Estes & 

 Lauriat; J. F. Nickerson, of J. F. Nickerson & Co.; J. P. 

 Woodbury, H. R. Beal, of Miner, Beal & Hackett, and J. 

 W. Sanborn, of Crockett Bros. & Sanborn. Frank Wise, 

 of Fisher & Wise, was a guest of the club during the 

 trip. Mr. Nickerson caught the largest trout, a fine one, 

 weighing 4}lbs. Mr. Thomas says that the fishing was 

 all that could be asked for by reasonable men, and the 

 Kineo Club is made up of reasonable men that are satis- 

 fied with a reasonable number of trout. The party 

 fished less than usual, really, spending only a few hours 

 of each day on the water. Mr. Thomas also noticed a 

 growing tendency among members of the club to fish 

 with the fly only. Some of the members trolled, it is true, 

 but generally they dropped the minnow and took up the 

 fly after trolling awhile. 



By the way, Harry Moore, mentioned above, is the gen- 

 tleman who brought that moose story out of the woods, 

 published in Forest and Stream last winter— the one 

 where the teamster ran the moose down on the glare ice, 

 till, in attempting to turn his sharp-shod team, the sled 

 slewed, striking the legs of the moose in such a manner 

 that he fell on to a sharp short stake in the sled and was 

 pinned there, handsomely loaded and ready to be hauled 

 home. Another story — a fish story — was told on 'Change 

 the day Harry got home from Moosehead, though he will 

 not vouch for its truth, A boy was fishing a stream and 

 catching trout quite rapidly. He got excited and threw 

 his trout up the bank and behind some brush as fast as he 

 caught them. They bit rapidly, till finally the boy threw 

 out an eel. This he threw up among the trout till he had 

 fish enough, and thought he would gather them un and 

 go home. He stepped behind the brush, alder stringer 

 in hand, when behold the eel had got ahead of him. He 

 had tried to crawl down the throat of every trout in the 

 pile, but instead had passed out through the gill of each 

 trout and into the mouth of another, till every trout was 

 strung, and the boy had only to tie a knot in the head 

 and tail of the eel, when his fish were ready to take 

 home. Special. 



George Fowler, formerly proprietor of Bartlett's, in 

 the Adirondack?, now owned by the Saranac Club, died 

 June 2(ith, after a lingering illness. 



THE PENOBSCOT SALMON. 



BA NGOR, Me. , June 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 This is an off year. But forty-nine salmon have been 

 landed to date (the last one was taken June 15), against 

 140 last year. There are some salmon jumping daily, but 

 they refuse all flies offered. They are dark-colored fish, 

 which tends to show they have been in fresh water a long 

 time; no bright fish from the sea are seen, although the 

 bay fishermen twenty and thirty miles below us are still 

 taking them in large numbers. Our Commissioners at- 

 tribute the cause of the fish refusing to come into fresh 

 water to the impurity of the water when low in the river, 

 caused by waste from the pidp mills and tanneries on the 

 river above us. When the water is high it must be purer. 



We suffered a great loss this season to our fishing (it 

 happened early in the season, when we look for the best 

 fishing and the gamiest fish) by the washing of the bank 

 at Great Works at end of dam, which caused the water 

 to be so muddy for a month that a fly could not be seen 

 by a fish in a foot of water. 



What w r e need most, in my opinion, which is indorsed 

 by all resident and visiting sportsmen, is a weekly close 

 time on the weirs and nets on the river and bay. There 

 are several hundreds of them now in operation from April 

 1 to July 15, continuously fishing; and one man alone 

 tells rue lie has taken nearly 300 salmon this season. If 

 we could ha ve his catch alone at the Bangor pool each 

 season it would be satisfactory, and make grand sport, 

 and would bring thousands of dollars into the State. I 

 am pleased to know that the citizens are becoming en- 

 lightened on this subject, and are talking freely of help- 

 ing the matter through. I also believe it would be for the 

 benefit of the weir and net fishermen to have it a law and 

 enforce it, and I will guarantee that their average catch 

 will be greater by allowing more fish to go to their natu- 

 ral spawning beds each year, as it is a certainty that that 

 is the object of the fish when entering our river; and I 

 will furthermore guarantee that all the fish taken with a 

 fly will not equal the amount taken by single weirs. 



We owe a great deal of gratitude to our Fish and Ga me 

 Commissioners, Hon. E. M. Stilwell of Bangor and Hon. 

 Henry O. Stanley of Dixfield, for their persistent en- 

 deavors to keep our river stocked each year by artificial 

 breeding, besides the large amount of other waters in the 

 State to be looked after; and were it not for their noble 

 work I think the Penobscot River salmon would be a 

 thing of the past. But they are now heavily handicapped 

 in their work by small appropriations from the State, 

 with greater demands elsewhere: and there is a large in- 

 crease of weirs and nets in the river below us. We are in 

 hopes that steps will be taken for strict legislation on this 

 important matter. 



There is a move being made now in different parts of 

 this State to form fish and game protective societies, 

 which is a move in the right direction, as the wardens 

 get so little for their services that they have as a rule 

 lost all interest, and the Commissioners are powerless, 

 not having the means necessary to overcome the lawless- 

 ness, but as there are a few of us old fellows left we will 

 do the best we can. Bangor, 



PACIFIC SALMON IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



STJNBURY, Pa., June 2d.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I had intended writing you earlier, and giving a more 

 full description than I gave Prof. T. H. Bean of a genuine 

 McCloud River salmon (Salmo qidnnat) found dead after 

 the recent flood on the shore of the Susquehanna River 

 at this point. He, or she, was a magnificent specimen, 

 B8in. in length and 10;ftn. broad from dorsal to belly, and 

 esti muted to weigh from 20 to 25lbs. : undoubtedly the 

 result of the millions of fry planted in this river during 

 the "seventies," when, as no results had been observable, 

 the efforts, of which we hoped great things in the possi- 

 bility of being able to adopt the Pacific species in our 

 more southern rivers of the Atlantic coast, was abandoned. 

 The fish was in fine condition physically, but consider- 

 ably decomposed when discovered, so that no accurate 

 weight could be obtained. It was an object of great in- 

 terest to fishermen and others, and was viewed by great 

 numbers of people after my identification. 



Mr. Blackford may possibly remeinher that about 1880 

 I spent an hour or so a t his Fulton Market on my way 

 home to Pennsylvania, and among other things of inter- 

 est inquired about the California salmon which he was 

 introducing refrigerated. He said he had none then, hut 

 was expecting a consignment in connection with a firm 

 in Philadelphia, and that more than likely it might be at 

 the Dock Street Market on my arrival there. This proved 

 to be the fact, as they were in the act of breaking the 

 package just as I stepped foot in the market, I then took 

 note of the features of the quinnat, distinguishing it from 

 the salar, the larger head and jaws, coarser scales, larger 

 dorsal and adipose fins, forked tail and greater depth for 

 length, etc. This magnificent fellow had all these char- 

 acteristics. 



I have been quite familiar with the Atlantic Salmo 

 salar from a boy, when it was customary twice or thrice 

 a week in the "thirties" to sit down to dinner at the old 

 Merchant's Exchange in State street, Boston, to a fine 

 boiled "Merrimac;'' may that time come again! The 

 notable thing about this fish is that it is the only adult 

 specimen, so far as I know, killed, captured, or taken by 

 any device in any Atlantic coast river out of all the 

 millions of fry which have been planted. Others may 

 have been taken but not identified, which would seem 

 probable under the circumstances. A. F. Clapp. 



The Tautog Record. — Newport, R. I., June 23.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream : I notice in your issue of June 

 20 mention of a tautog weighing 14lbs , thought to be the 

 largest taken in American waters. Sept. 14, 1882 I took 

 one on Smith's Ledge, in the Seconet River, weighing 

 lojlbs. ; I refer for proof of same to David Brown, of 

 South Portsmouth, R. I. May 17, 1885. at Long Rock, 

 East River, R. I., I took a tautog of 14jlbs., reference, 

 Wm. Gifford, South Portsmouth; Oct. 21, 1885, at Clay 

 Ledge, East River, one of 14*lbs., reference, Chas. M. 

 Hughes, South Portsmouth; Sept. 10, 1887, one of 141bs. 

 2oz., at Mack Rogers Ledge, off Seaconet Point, reference, 

 I. J. Barker, South Portsmouth. My friends claim for me 

 that I can show a record of large tautog that cannot be 

 beaten in this State, nor, in fact, on the coast. I have 

 followed tautog fishing since I was five years old, thirty- 

 five years in connection with sea bass fishing, and have 

 caught many large fish, but these given are the largest, 

 — Wm. M. Hughes. 



