48 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aug. 9, 1888, 



MAINE WATERS IN AUGUST. 



THE summer days are upon us in good earnest, and 

 naturally our thoughts wander to the streams and 

 lakes where in the springtime we took the wily trout. 

 Who is there to-day? Only the vacationist as a rule. 

 "With anglers it is in the midst of the dullest season of 

 the year. The trout are in deep water and it is of little 

 use to cast the fly, though the hotel advertisement still 

 shines with tales of numbers caught. The season at the 

 angling resorts is unusually dull this year, or rather it 

 has been siuce the coming of hot weather. There are 

 guests at some of the principal hotels at Rangeley and 

 at Moosehead, but generally they are vacationists rather 

 than anglers. Among all" the anglers of my acquaint- 

 ance in Bostou not one is at present at the angling re- 

 sorts, where they so delight to congregate in the angling 

 season. I take up the papers and read the hotel arrivals, 

 and not a single name do I see whom I know to be an 

 angling expert. The anglers have not given up the sport; 

 not much. They will be there again in September. In- 

 deed the preparations for the fall angling are particularly 

 noticeable, and no sooner than September is ushered in 

 the tishers will be on the wing again. 



Generally the water has been very low in the lakes and 

 streams in Maine thus far this summer. A lack of rain 

 has driven the trout into the pools, and brook fishing is 

 poor. Perhaps I am writing that which is displeasing to 

 the hotel keeper, when I dare to assert that the fishing is 

 really poor. I am aware that the hotel puffer has been 

 employed to write up this and that resort, but the stories 

 of troiit caught, to be f ouud in the daily papers have come 

 to be looked upon with suspicion by those who have been 

 there. Take up a daily paper and read: "Here the trout 

 lie thick around the spring holes, and rise with a rush to 

 the fly— half-pounders generally, many of three-quar- 

 ters, and often tipping the scales at a couple of pounds- 

 handsome fish, and game to the very last moment." 

 "Where can this angler's paradise be found? Alas! It exists 

 only in the imagination of the man who wrote it, as 

 every real angler well knows. 



Again read in a Sunday paper: "In a pond near 



mountain, this week, two rods brought to net seventy- 

 three fish weighing 7!ilbs. , an unusual catch as to weight. 



In a little mountain pond back a few miles from 



last Tuesday a Hartford gentleman and guide caught 107 

 trout in two hours, weighing 421bs., and all with a fly — 

 the scarlet-ibis, so killing a fly in the Rangeley Lake 

 region." Brother anglers you are laughing now. " The 

 scarlet-ibis, so killing a fly in the Rangeley Lake region!" 

 There has been one in every angler's fly-book for years 

 perh Hps, but who ever found it to be a killing fly in the 

 region mentioned? Such stuff published in the columns 

 of respectable papers makes one think of the patent 

 medicine specifics — they cure every disease. But that 

 107 trout in two hours. That was just about one trout a 

 minute. How many scarlet-ibis did it take? A dozen 

 trout on a very well tied fly will generally ruin it, 

 especially trout weighing- the one-hundred-and-seventh 

 part of 421bs. Now our Hartford trout butcher must have 

 had in his fly -book about a square dozen flies of the scarlet- 

 ibis breed. Special. 



ADIRONDACK LARGE TROUT RECORD. 



F RANKIN FALLS, N. H., Aug. 1.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream: Your favor of July 30 is at hand. I 

 have been in the habit for many years of spending the 

 month of June in the Adirondacks fishing; I have always 

 camped at the same place and had the same guide (Robt. 

 W. Nichols). My camp is at First Pond on Bog River, 

 being the first of what are known as Chain Ponds. About 

 one-third of a. mile back of the Second Pond is a small 

 pond called Spring Pond. This pond is a deep, clear, cold 

 pond, and as its name implies fed wholly by springs, 

 there being no water running into nor out of it. I used 

 frequently to cross it in going to Grave's Pond fishing. 

 There were no fish of any kind in it. 



In the year 1878 I caught from a brook running into 

 Grave's Pond twenty brook trout from 4 to 8in. and 

 carried them to Spring Pond and put them in. Nineteen 

 of them swam off into the pond and one died. I thought 

 no more of the matter till in 1888 Mr. Frank A. Buriel, of 

 Laconia, N. H., who w T as camping with me, in crossing 

 the pond saw a trout break water. Ho tried them and 

 caught several large ones. During that season Mr. 

 Buriel and myself caught quite a number of trout weigh- 

 ing; from 81bs. to 51bs. each. 



The next year, 1884, I caught one weighing 61bs. 2oz. 

 There were with me Mr. James O. Williams, of Schoharie, 

 N. Y., who weighed the trout and made the inclosed 

 drawing upon our return to camp, laying the trout on a 

 piece of paper to do so and marking the date and weight 

 upon it. There were of our party Mr. Williams, Mr. Buriel 

 and myself and, for guides, Charles Greenough, Hosea 

 Colbath and Robert W. Nichols. 



This, I believe, answers your inquiry as to particulars 

 about this particular trout." Walter Aiken. 



Thouttng at Meacham Lake. — A correspondent 

 writing from the northern Adirondacks says that the 

 fishing in Meacham Lake has been excellent this season. 

 The solitary pickerel caught there this spring scared all 

 who are interested in the lake, but no other fish of this 

 kind has been seen. Both brook and lake trout have 

 been plenty, one lady took fifty-four good brook trout 

 trolling with flies one forenoon, and they were not fin- 

 gerlings either, several of them being half-pounders and 

 over, while one weighed three-quarters of a pound. 

 Another lady took an 81bs. lake trout a few days ago, 

 while trolling for the first time. The yearly stocking of 

 the Meacham by Mr. Fuller, and his care in guarding 

 the lake from 7ietters and illegal fishermen, has kept the 

 stock up so that good fishing is the rule there. 



On Sunday luorning a most extraordinary event was wit- 

 nessed in the lake at the Welsh Harp, Hendos. About half- 

 past ten a gentleman observed a commotion in the water, 

 and on closer inspection he found that a fight was in progress 

 between a carp, weighing about 181bs., and a bream, which 

 afterward turned down the scale at 3>£ibs. The fight lasted 

 fully fifteen minutes, at the end of which time the bream 

 was thoroughly vanquished. It was picked up, and on its 

 right side were found several wounds, the largest being 

 about three inches broad and two inches long. The bream 

 was fearfully lacerated, several of the ribs being laid quite 

 bare. It had also a deep wound on the head, above the right 

 eye.— Derby (England) Express, Jvly 16. t 



THE NEW YORK COMMISSION. 



AT a meeting held in New York, on Monday last, Com- 

 missioner Bowman announced that Supt. Seth Green 

 has been very ill for months, and that it is improbable that 

 he will ever resume his work, and in consequence of this 

 Mr. Bowman had purchased hatching jars for whitefish, in 

 order to begin the work of stockiug the waters of Lake 

 Ontario. Mr. Bowman also said that a strange fish, resem- 

 bling a whitefish, was now sold in the markets. Thirty acres 

 of oyster beds in Little Neck Bay were declared to be for 

 rent, and are to be. advertised. The propagation of masca- 

 longe in Chautauqua. Lake was decided upon, Mr. Blackford 

 advising care lest the propagators, who are not ichthyolo- 

 gists, mistake and increase the pike or pickerel. Mr. Black- 

 ford also spoke of the successful stocking of the Hudson 

 with salmon, and proposed that a fishway be built at Me- 

 ehanicsville. 



The appointment of game protectors was laid over. Game 

 Protector Schwartz was commended for promptly putting a 

 stop to thelillegal net fishing at Skaneateles. Commissioner 

 Bowman said he would back Game Protectors Schwartz and 

 John Sheridan to go anywhere and nut a stop to illegal 

 fishing in spite of any threats by desperate fishermen. 

 Schwartz could not be frightened "even by bullets. As to 

 destroying the nets, it was suggested that some care should 

 be exercised, as one court has already decided that such 

 destruction of property, although it is authorized by the 

 fish laws, is unconstitutional. It is proposed to turn over 

 the captured nets to the courts. 



The meeting was marred by the entrance of a notorious 

 politician from Staten Island who tried to force the appoint- 

 ment of one of his pets as a game protector, and blustered 

 and threatened like the bully that he is, but no appoint- 

 ment was made, 



SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE BLACK BASS. 



[Read before the American Fisheries Society;] 

 BY G. r, HOLT. 



HAVING resided for the past thirty-five years on the bank 

 of the Thornapple River, a favorite resort for that king 

 of Michigan game fish, the small mouthed black bass, I have 

 had ample opportunities of studying their habits, and for 

 the past few years have given the matter considerable at- 

 tention. 



They leave their winter quarters, usually under heaps of 

 drift-wood or in hollow sunken logs, about the middle of 

 April, and in a short time repair to their spawning grounds. 

 I am quite sure that they pass the winter in hollow, sunken 

 logs whenever they can, for, about the first of April, 18S5, 

 while removing some drift-wood from the river, we took out 

 one hollow log that contained eighteen small-mouthed black 

 bass, weighing from two to three pounds each; and again 

 this year.' at about the same time, I found six more under 

 the same conditions. The spawning season here begins the 

 last week in April. The first bed seen in 18S5 was on April 

 28; in 1886, April 24; and in 1887 and 1888, April 26. The 

 places selected are in nearly still water, near the shore, and 

 in water from one to two feet in depth. 



The beds are circular in form, from eighteen inches to 

 three feet in diameter, and are formed by cleaning from the 

 bottom all sediment, sand, etc., leaving abed of clean peb- 

 bles. This is the joint work of both male and female fish. 

 The bed having been prepared, the female then moves slowly 

 over it, depositing her ova, and the male impregnates them 

 as fast as laid. The. eggs, which are very small, are glued 

 fast to the pebbles. The impregnation is almost absolutely 

 perfect. In the past three years I have examined a large 

 number of beds, by carefully removing one or more of the 

 pebbles covered with eggs, and examining them with a 

 microscope, and have never yet fouud more than one per 

 cent, of uuinipregnated eggs. 



After the eggs are impregnated the male leaves to the 

 female the whole care of the eggs and the young brood. She 

 now passes constantly backward and forward over the bed, 

 t he motions of her fins and tail keeping theeggs clean, which 

 the fact of their being glued fast permits her to do without 

 washing them away. The following incident will illustrate 

 the necessity for this constant care and attention on the 

 part of the female, as well as point a moral, and furnish an 

 illustration of how the greatest possible increase of this fish 

 may be brought about: One evening in the spring of 1886 I 

 noticed a "jack light" coming down the river, and I felt cer- 

 tain that some of my pets would have to suffer. I had 

 endeavored to protect them as much as possible by request- 

 ing such neighbors as I could reach to respect my wishes, 

 and to avoid the beds that I had under observation. Nearly 

 all were willing to do so, but this time one of them made a 

 mistake, as I expected they might, and when I went out in 

 the morning the mother fish was gone. 1 thought 1 would 

 secure the young fish (they were just hatched) and take 

 them to the house and -'bring them up by hand." So, 

 putting on my wading boots, 1 walked out to the bed, and 

 there I found, not the young fry, but throe or four crayfish 

 and some minnows, which had evidently devoured every fish 

 on the bed. At another time, under similar circumstances, 

 except that the eggs were not hatched, the crayfish had de- 

 stroyed all the eggs. I took up every pebble without finding 

 a single one. 



The eggs are hatched in from five to ten days, according to 

 the temperature of the water. When first hatched, the 

 young fish are transparent, and so small as to be invisible 

 to the naked eye. They have a much larger umbilical sac 

 than the young brook trout, in proportion to the size of the 

 body. At first they are unahle to swim, or even move them- 

 selves from the bottom, but in from two to six weeks they 

 begin to rise and swim, although they are from one to two 

 months old before the sac wholly disappears and they be- 

 come perfectly developed fish. 



After the fish are hatched the mother seldom passes over 

 the bed, as in their then helpless state the motion of her fins 

 would scatter them; but instead she now swims in circles 

 around it driving away all intruders, such as minnows, 

 crawfish, etc. After the young begin to swim she enlarges 

 the circle until it becomes from ten to fifteen feet in diame- 

 ter, she then gradually drives them toward the shore into 

 shallow water where, she keeps them inside of a half circle, 

 the shore forming the other side. From this half circle all 

 of their natural enemies are carefully excluded, and the fish 

 are allowed to develop. After that is done she scatters them 

 along the shore among the weeds and grass, where, if pur- 

 sued, they can find hiding places. Then, and only then, 

 does she leave them to care for themselves. They are now 

 from one-half to three-fourths of an inch in length, black in 

 color and very lively, darting out of their hiding places and 

 seizing their prey as readily as the older fish, and by the first 

 of October following, will be two inches in length. 



I should estimate the average number of eggs in the beds 

 at 4,000. Owing to the fact that some of the beds observed 

 were near the mouths of cold spring brooks, where the tem- 

 perature of the water in the river was much lower than 

 where other beds were located, will account in a great meas- 

 ure, in my opinion, for the variation in the time taken for 

 hatching the eggs and the development of the young fish; as 

 in some seasons, and in some locations, I have found the 

 young fish developed or weaned in one month from the time 

 that the ova were deposited, and at other times two months 

 were required for the same purpose. 



I have been unable to procure both male and female fish at 

 the proper time to try artificial impregnation, hut have re- 



peatedly taken part of the ova from the bed as soon as im- 

 pregnated, and hatched them in dishes, and have kept them 

 there until fully developed. I am of the opinion that very 

 little can be done in the way of artificial impregnation or 

 hatching, as nature has done tor the black bass ail that could 

 be done. 



All that the fishculturist need do is to stock all suit- 

 able waters with them, where they do not now exist, and 

 thou protect them during the spawning season. 



Cascade, Mich. 



FOOD OF THE FISHES OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

 VALLEY. 



ItY PROF. 8. A FORBES. 



(.Read before the American Fisheries Society.] 



TH KRE is a kind of insect in the South, called the agricul- 

 tural ant, which is extremely fond of the seeds of cer- 

 tain grasses growing there^ spontaneously among the many 

 species which make the prairie sod, Naturally, the agricul- 

 tural methods of this ant are of a Very primitive sort, and 

 even fall below those of the native Indian, Besides collect- 

 ing, wherever it can find them, _ the fallen seeds of many 

 grasses and other plants, and storing these in Its burrows, it 

 also clears completely ail area from 6 to 12ft. Wide around its 

 nest, and here either sows or permits to grow only one or two 

 of the common grasses of whose seeds it is especially fond, 

 harvesting the product and storing it for future Use. It has 

 not learned to cultivate thesoih or to introduce exotic plants 

 of larger yield and better quality than those native to the 

 sod, but it has advanced so far as to destroy on a little tract 

 the competitors Of the plants which bear its favorite foodi 

 and thus secures a larger and more convenient supply than 

 would grow spontaneously: I mention this little ant be^ 

 cause its agriculture seems tome to illustrate Very well the 

 aquaculture. practiced by mankind at the, present time. As 

 this little insect collects the seeds Of weeds wherever they 

 happen to grow, so we fish the streams for whatever they 

 happen to contain; and as it clears its little farm around its 

 burrow, so we make our little fish ponds, seine out the worth- 

 less and destructive fishes, the snakes, frogs and turtles, and 

 throw the better species back to increase for our benefit. In 

 two things our aquaculture is in advance of the agriculture 

 of the ants, we nave successfully introduced two or three 

 foreign species, and we have learned to take measures to 

 maintain the fish supply wherever it has suffered from the 

 effects of overpopulation. The first of these measures the 

 ants have not thought of, and the second they probably do 

 not need, because their numbers do not overrun their food 

 supply. I believe it will pay us to inquire whether we can 

 hope to get beyond this ant stage of aquaculture, and whether 

 we may "not learn to do at least as much to increase aud im- 

 prove the product of the waters of the country as the wild 

 Indian did to cultivate the soil. 



At present four things are done in general: First, we 

 attempt to maintain or restore the relative numbers of our 

 valuable aquatic animals— fish especially — defending the 

 population of our waters against the evils growing out Of 

 civilized settlement, This is like trying to restore the native 

 growth of trees and grasses to the surface deadened by 

 travel and building, and by careless or unskillful usage. 

 Second, we try to increase the relative numbers of the most 

 valuable of our native aquatic animals above the limit 

 originally fixed by nature. This is as if we should collect 

 and plant the nuts and acorns in the woods, and gather and 

 sow abroad the seeds of the most valuable native grasses, in 

 the hope that this artificial aid might enable our favorites 

 to surpass their rivals. Third, we nave aimed to introduce 

 foreign with our native, species in our natural w'aters. This 

 is too much like sowing quantities of apple seeds and wheat 

 and corn broadcast in the woods and on the prairies in the 

 hope that if we. Use seed enough the plants we seek to Intro-- 

 duce will crowd out the native vegetation. And finally we 

 do, on a small scale, partly imitate actual agriculture by 

 clearing or forming little patches of water here and there, 

 and planting in them an exotic fish, protecting it. from the 

 agricultural practice of the native Indian, who partly cleared 

 his little patches in the river bottoms and planted and 

 harvested the exotic corn and bean and pumpkin; 



But it will not do to push this parallel too far. There arc 

 some things possible in agriculture which the aquaculturisfc 

 cannot do. We cannot plow and till our lakes and rivers as) 

 the farmer does the prairie sod, ruthlessly exterminating all 

 the native forms ot life in order to substitute other sorts 

 more usef ul to him. And even where we clear a little lake 

 or start a pond, stocking it with carp or croppie, we cannot 

 keep out the frogs and bullheads by any artificial tillage, as 

 the farmer can the weeds. We are compelled, in other 

 words, to work for improvtment in the midst of things as 

 they are. Not being able to destroy the native population of 

 our waters, we have to take it into account and then make 

 our adjustments to it. Aud right here, it has long seemed 

 to me, is where the work is most needed. If we cannot get 

 rid of the natural order, we certainly need to understand it. 

 If we cannot destroy the native population, but must live 

 and work with and through it, we certainly ought to know 

 what it is like and what we can do with it; what we can do 

 in spite of it, and what we caunot do because of it. It is 

 because I have worked out some parts of an answer to these 

 questions that I have ventured to appear here to-day, in a 

 society of fishculturists. If fishculture is merely the culture 

 of fishes, then I can have little or nothing to say, because I 

 never raised a fish in my life; but if a scientific and rational 

 fishculture must finally merge in the broader science and 

 art of aquaculture; if we must study to understand and im- 

 prove the system of aquatic life into the midst of which we 

 thrust our little fishes— then I may perhaps claim some 

 share in your deliberations. 



What I have to report to-day is chiefly an answer to the 

 question; What do our native fishes eat? This is only a 

 single item of what we really need to know, and yet per- 

 haps a larger one than might at first be supposed. Although 

 fishes are the dominant class in every fairly permanent body 

 of fresh water, they have no great variety of interests or 

 occupations; but except for the relatively brief intervals de- 

 voted to their simple office of reproduction, they do litt le 

 but to search for food and to eat, and aA r oid being eaten in 

 turn; consequently, if we seek to measure or estimate their 

 function in the general system of life in any region or lo- 

 cality, we are limited chiefly to their food relations, imme- 

 diate and remote. 



Among the purely practical results to be anticipated from 

 such a study, are a more accurate knowledge of the condi- 

 tions favorable to the growth and multiplication of the 

 more important species; the ability to judge iuteUigently of 

 the fitness of any body of water to sustain a greater num- 

 ber or a more profitable assemblage of fishes than those oc- 

 curing there spontaneously; guidance as to the new ele- 

 ments of food and circumstance which it will be^iecessary 

 to supply to insure the successful introduction into any lake 

 or stream of a fish not native there; and a clear recognition 

 of the fact that intelligent fishculture must take into ac- 

 count the necessities of the species whose increase is de- 

 sired, through all ages and all stages of their growth, at 

 every season of the year, and under all varieties of condi- 

 tion likely to arise. 



We should derive, in short, from these and similar re- 

 searches, a body of full, precise, and significant knowledge 

 to take the place of the guess-work and empiricism upon 

 which we must otherwise depend as the basis of our ef- 

 forts to maintain and increase the supply of food and the 

 incitement to healthful recreation afforded by the waters of 

 the country. 



As a contribution to the general subject, I present here- 



