108 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[AUG. 30, 1888. 



LAKE EDWARD. 



BOSTON, Aug. 20.— Editor Forest and Stream: I have 

 just returned from a canoeing trip of six weeks 

 through the Late St. John region, and as I read up the 

 back numbers of the Foeest and Stream, I see numer- 

 ous contradictory communications about Lake Edward 

 and the fishing there. 



Our party of three' camped about eight miles down 

 the lake, ' from July 12 to 17, and we had very 

 excellent fly-fishing most of the time. I think that the 

 contradictions of your correspondents result from the 

 fact that they overlook the fickleness of the Lake Ed- 

 ward trout. For instance, one of our party had excel- 

 lent fishing during the afternoon of July 13. The next 

 afternoon, with apparently the best of conditions in re- 

 gard to weather and water, we did not get a ris?, while 

 at noon the next day, under a glaring sun, the water 

 smooth as glass, one of our party took a pair of trout 

 weighing Bflbs. in the gross. One day bait was tried as 

 an experiment, and it could not be sunk to the bottom 

 before it Avas seized by a trout. We were able to judge 

 somewhat from this fact of the large stock of fish that 

 must be in the lake. They are the finest flavored trout I 

 ever ate and the gamiest. They had a trick when hooked 

 of jumping out of water, generally three or four times, 

 though they did not jump as high as the wionanish. 



The largest taken on a fly by our party weighed Bibs., 

 and was one of a pair that took Hbrs. to land, the other 

 fish weighing 1 .Ubs. During our stay we took scarcely a 

 fish weighing under |lb. From these facts. I gather 

 that Lake Edward is full of large trout which are ever 

 ready to take bait and which will take the fly, under 

 the proper conditions, in water not over 30ft. deep. 



II. IT. H. 



THE TRAGEDY ON THE TOBIQUE. 



nPHE three men suspected of the murder of Mrs. Howes 

 L on the Tobique River, in New Brunswick, were ap- 

 prehended and taken into custody. They are William 

 Day, Frank Trafton and Henry Phillipine. They have 

 been held on the verdict of the coroner's jury, which was 

 as follows: "We find that Susan L. Howes came to her 

 death by a bullet fired from a rifle in the hands of Wil- 

 liam Day. Frank Trafton or Henry Phillipine, and that 

 said William Day, Frank Trafton or Henry Phillipine did 

 wilfully murder Susan L. Howes." 



The following account of the affair by Major Howes is 

 taken from the Boston Herald: 



The cowardly murder of Mrs. Susan L. Howes, wife of Major C. 

 F. Howes, by poachers, on the Tobique River, has caused wide- 

 spread indignation and interest throughout the country. The 

 Tobique River is one of the tributaries of the St. John, ami enters 

 two miles below Andover, N. B.. at a place caller] Indian Point. 

 It is noted for salmon fisliiujar, and the Government derives a targe, 

 revenue from leasing this privilege. The river lias been free until 

 recently for fishing purposes, but of late it has been bought and 

 leased by a company of gentlemen. This Las incensed parties 

 who have, heretofore heen accustomed to fish in the river without 

 molestation, and wiio now take umbrage at the Government leas- 

 ing this privilege to others. They have openly avowed their in- 

 tentions of protesting against the Government's interference with 

 what common usage has made appeal" to them as a law. This 

 accounts for the attack which was made on Major Howes and his 

 family. Throughout the section the settlers are a law-abiding 

 people, and feel deeply grieved that such a blot should rest upon 

 them. They have shown much energy and promptness in hunting 

 down and arresting the parties whom they suspect are guilty of 

 this outrage. 



Upon the arrival of Major Howes in this city, a Hc.riiUl represen- 

 tative called upon him, and the following version of the affair was 

 given: 



"We left Andover July 30 in a wagon, the Indian guides with 

 four canoes preceding us two days, and drove 65 miles to a little 

 settlement called Riley Brook, where we met our guides and pro- 

 ceeded It miles up the river, and encamped two weeks among the 

 salmon pools. On Aug. 14 we started down the river seven miles, 

 and encamped at what is know n as The Forks, remaining there 

 until Saturday morning, Aug. 18. We then left and went down 

 the river about 30 miles, reaching a place called Gulquah. at the 

 mouth of the Gulquah River, where we encamped at night. Just 

 before wc reached our camping ground we noticed a man dodging 

 behind an island, evidently wishing to spy us but not to expose 

 himself. He was observed by several of our party, but nothing of 

 importance was attached to the occurrence. We could see that 

 there was a camp there, as we observed smoke arising from across 

 the island. About 9:80 that night we noticed a canoe containing 

 two men with a lighted flambeau and spear coming down into the 

 salmon pool. I shouted to them two or three times not to spear 

 in the salmon pool and to come ashore, but they paid no attention 

 to it; and I stepped down to the shore, launching a canoe and call- 

 ing to one of the Indians to naddle me out to them. As I was do- 

 ing so my son fired off his gun in the air, when they put out their 

 flambeau and started down the river, I following them to the 

 lower edge of the pool without having any conversation with 

 them. There was nothing said that would in any way exasperate 

 them, and I then returned to camp. I had intended to remain 

 there a number of days, but receiving letters forwarded to Riley 

 Brook from Boston changed my plans, and we started down the 

 river Sunday morning, intending to reach Andover Monday night. 



"After we had proceeded some four miles we came to' a short, 

 turn in the river known as t he Ox-bow, my canoe being in ad- 

 vance. As we turned the bend in the river a shot was fired at us 

 from the embankment, which was about 20ft. high and some 40 or 

 50yds. away. In the canoe was my wife, my little son Stewart, 8 

 years old, an Indian boy by the name of Ambrose Lockwood and 

 myself. To the left, nearly on a line, was a canoe containing our 

 baggage and camp equipage, paddled bv an Indian named John 

 Thomas. The shot struck the Indian's canoe directly under where, 

 he was sitting, and passed directly through, nearly causing it to 

 sink. The next shot passed between mvself and rav wife, who eat 

 facing me, and that was quickly followed bv another shot, which 

 struck my wife above the left ear, going through the brain and 

 passing out of the opposite side of her head, causing instant 

 death. Several shots followed in rapid succession, striking all 

 about us, 



"At this time another canoe, containing an Indian named John 

 Bernarr, my son, 0. Lorraine, my daughter, Helen E., and my 

 son, Theo, 7 years old, came in sight, and fire was opened upon 

 them. Lorraine saw smoke arising from the bushes on the em- 

 bankment and immediately picked up his shotgun and returned 

 the fire, at the same time telling the occupants of the boat to lie 

 down, which they at once did, and this undoubtedly saved the 

 life ot my daughter. Several shots were then fired in quick suc- 

 cession. At this point the fourth canoe, containing Mr. Harry 

 Lincoln, of Dennisville, Me., and an Indian named Frank Lock- 

 wood, came round the bend. Mr. Lincoln saw the situation and 

 the smoke arising from the bushes, and immediately seized his 

 ( Jolt's repeating rifle and fired in that direction. My son Lorraine 

 called to him to go ashore and stay until he found who the villians 

 were. He directed his Indian to put him ashore at once and pulled 

 up the stream, landing him where he could get up to the embank- 

 ment, as it was perpendicular from the river. The Indian also 

 started and ran, tninKing that Lincoln was following him. When 

 Lincoln reached the spot he found the parties had fled. 



"In the mean time, his canoe had floated, off, and he was 

 obliged to wade in to regain it. He then paddled up the stream a 

 short distance and entered a cove, from which point, he could see 

 the place where tue firing was done, ami some distance above and 

 below. He remained there about three hours watching, when 

 just below the spot where the firing came from, it being the only 

 place where they could land, two men eanie out from the under- 

 brush, pushing out a canoe which they had concealed there, and, 

 hurriedly jumping into it, pulled to the opposite shore and started 

 down the river. They were distinctly seen by Mr. Lincoln, he 

 taking ao accurate description of their clothing and appearance. 



'Some half an hour afterward Mr. Lincoln entered his canoe 

 and paddled down the stream. After going about a mile lie saw 

 several people on the bank of the river, and landing, asked one of 

 their number to paddle him down the river, as be wanted to catch 

 Maj. Howes' part}'. He also asked them how long since they had 



passed, and if there had been any canoes down the river that day 

 except Maj. Howes' party. They replied that there had been one 

 down about half an hour before, with two men in it. Upon asking 

 wbo they were, a man told him one. of them was named Day, and 

 the other Harry Trafton. He asked if those men owned guns, which 

 was answered in the affirmative, and that they were Winchester 

 repeaters, the only two on the river. He then proceeded down 

 stream. 



"During this time the other three canoes with their occupants 

 had proceeded down the river some three miles, landing at the 

 farmhouse of J. O. Flanders. Here we were received by the fam- 

 ilj.who extendod to us every assistance and kindness in our 

 heavy affliction. Here the camp equipage and baggage was dis- 

 charged, so that wc might proceed down the river with greater 

 dispatch. 1 sent a dispatch from here by Mr. Flanders' son fo 

 Andover, to uolify the sheriff and toget an undertaker at Wood- 

 stock, a dis lance of fifty-seven miles. Up to this time we had had 

 no tidings of Mr. Lincoln. Near bv Mr. Flanders lived a mag- 

 istrate by the name of Samuel Fullerton, to whom 1 gave the cir- 

 cumstances of the murder. Mr. FuUerton and his son started 

 immediately up the river to find Lincoln. After proceeding about 

 two miles they met him coming down, when he detailed what 

 information he had learned in relation to the men above men- 

 tioned. They at once consulted and advised with the settlers, 

 who were greatly excited, and who immediately volunteered their 

 services to arrest the parties who committed the deed. Some 

 twenty-five men were sworn in as special constables, and at once 

 staTted out on their mission. 



"Upon our arrival at Andover, about 9 o'clock Sunday evening, 

 the settlers turned out en masse, and the indignation and excite- 

 ment were intense. The coroner and jury bad been summoned, 

 and were ready to proceed at once with the inquest. We were re- 

 ceived by J. Allen Perley, the proprietor of the Newcombe [louse, 

 and every kindness and sympathy possible were extended to us 

 by the residents. The attentions paid by Mrs. Perley, Mrs. New- 

 combe, Miss Anna Newcombe, Mrs. Stewart and Mrs. Beverage 

 were particularly touching. No sooner had we reached the land- 

 ing than they took possession of the canoe containing the dead 

 body of my dear wife and bore it tenderly to tho hotel. They 

 had strewn it with beautiful flowers, and their sad offices were 

 of the kindest nature." 



Mrs. Howes was the daughter of Gen. Luke Lyman, now the 

 secretary and treasurer of the Dominion Bridge Company of 

 Montreal. She was 38 years old. an accomplished lady and be- 

 loved by all that knew her. A sister Mrs. M. O. Diner, with her 

 husband, is now traveling in Europe. 



Rev. Leo A. Hoy t, rector of the parish in which the murder oc- 

 curred, has sent a letter to tho Boston Globe in which he says that 

 he saw in a Boston paper that "Major Howes's conduct had been 

 perhaps a little arbitrary." Of this he says: "Nothing can be 

 further from the truth. Major Howes, during his summer visits 

 fo tins country, has made friends of everybody, and his whole 

 manner has always shown his desire not only to receive pleasure, 

 but to impart pleasure to all bis surroundings. The same can 

 scarcely be said of all tourists. As for the late Mrs. Howes, 

 though she. was not so generally known as her husband, yet who- 

 ever had the pleasure of her acquaintance felt that she was only 

 known to be beloved. To fire from behind a stump at a pleasure 

 party in which were women and childreu is a piece of cowardice 

 and villainy of which wc should suppose savages only could be 

 capable. 



"Care should be taken that an impression should not be left on 

 the public mind that 'the settlers on tho Tobique,' as the people 

 of that district have been called in the papers, are not a lot of 

 border ruffians, of whom such things might be expected. The 

 people living ou the Tobique River are as law-abiding and self- 

 respecting a class of people as can be found anywhere. During 

 the past summer they Have been irritated beyond measure, and 

 have suffered in silence. Their riparian rights 'have been invaded, 

 and alt hough the more intelligent of them know that the bills 

 posted along tho river forbidding these rights were waste paper, 

 yet these bills were irritating to the ignorant and annoying to 

 tlie whole population. The threats and oaths of those supposed 

 to be in authority that they would shoot anyone caught fishing 

 in the river were insulting to the last degree. The term 'poach- 

 ers,' applied to those fishing on their own ground or on that of 

 their neighbors by consent, is a needless insult. Firing at persons 

 spearing sattnon is as illegal as the spearing itself, and firing in 

 the air is not much better. People are not dogs that they should 

 be tired at, nor crows that they should he frightened from mis- 

 chief by the smell of powder." 



THE DIGESTIBILITY OF FISH. 



BY PHOF. W. O. ATWATEK. 

 [Read before the American Fisheries Society.] 



N the course of an investigation upon the fheinistrv uud 

 Food-economy of Fish, whirh lias been in progress for a 

 number of years, under the auspices of the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission, a study of the digestibility of fish has seemed de- 

 sirable, and a beginning lias been made in the form of 

 experiments upon the comparative digestibility of the flesh 

 of fish and lean meat. The object of the present paper is to 

 give a brief outline of the main results. These Confirmed, 

 by quantitive test, the general impression that in fish we 

 have one of the most completely digestible of food materials. 



The question of the digestibility of foods is very complex, 

 and it is noticeable that the men who know most about the 

 subject, are generally the least ready to make definite and 

 sweeping statements concerning it. One of the most cele- 

 brated physiologists of the time, an investigator who has, I 

 suppose, devoted as much experimental study to this partic- 

 ular subject as any man now living, declares that aside from 

 the chemistry of the process and the quantities of nutrients 

 that may be digested from different foods, he is unable to 

 affirm much of anything about it. The contrast between this 

 and the positiveness with which many people discourse 

 about the digestibility of this or that kind of food, is very 

 marked and has its moral. 



One source of confusion is t he fact that, what people com- 

 monly call the digestibility of food includes several very 

 different things, some of which, as the case with which a 

 given food-material is digested, the time required for the 

 process, and the effect of different substances and conditions 

 upon digestion, are so dependent upon individual peculiari- 

 ties of different people and so difficult of measurement as 

 to make the laying down of hard and fast rules impossible. 

 Why it is, for instance, that some are made seriously ill by 

 so wholesome a substance as milk, and others find that cer- 

 tain kinds of meat or vegetables or sweetmeats " do not agree 

 with them," neither chemist nor physiologist can exactly 

 tell* Late investigations^ however, suggest the possibility 

 that the ferments in the digestive canal may cause particu- 

 lar compounds to be changed into injurious 'forms, so that 

 it may sometimes be literally true that "one man's meat is 

 another man's poison." But digestion proper, by which wc 



♦Things do not always, nor indeed, often come to hand exactly 

 when they fit best, but, oddly enough, just as I am writing this 

 the postman brings a letter from the recording secretary of the 

 American Fisheries Society with the following statement: "By 

 the way,, I cannot digest oysters, raw or cooked, but can eat clams 

 (both Venus and Mya) and can go to bed on the outside of a 

 lobster mayonaise. Coffee ties a hard knot in I he interior depart- 

 ment, buckwheat cakes start my 'vinegar factory' to work on full 

 time, beans cause the 'gas works' to be put in operation. This 

 merely proves tie adage about 'one man's meat, etc.'" The 

 learned gentleman follows this by the statement that he has 

 already passed the age of forty, at which a man is said to become 

 "either a fool or a physician:" and gives a physiological explana- 

 tion of his digestive temperament, which he attributes to dyspep- 

 sia "aggravated by nine months' diet on corn meal, ground cob 

 and all, and sorghum syrup, in Confederate prisons." Of course 

 it would be wrong to affirm that in this especial ease it is the 

 microbe that causes the protein of the. oysters to be changed 

 into compounds which make them disagree, or produces the dis- 

 agreeable fermentations in the buckwheat cakes and beans, but 

 somehow or other different food materials do produce very dis- 

 agreeable effects in the digestive apparatus of different people, 

 and the science of to-day explains this in part by the action of the 

 digestive ferments, among which microbes play an important 

 role. • 



understand the changes which the food undergoes in the 

 digestive canal in order to fit the digestible portion to be 

 taken into the blood and lymph and do its work as nutri- 

 ment, is essentially a chemical process. About this a great 

 deal has been learned within a comparatively few years, so 

 that here we have many important facts that have not yet 

 got in to current literature. 



The average man swallows, say six pounds of food and 

 drink, meat, fish, potatoes, bread, coffee, milk, water, and 

 What not, per day. Every twenty-four hours, then, all the 

 solid substance, all the protein, fats, carbohydrates, and 

 mineral matter of this quantity of food, except the small 

 portion that passes through the alimentary canal undi- 

 gested, must be either dissolved or divided into such minute 

 particles as to be able to get through the microscopic pass- 

 ages that permeate the walls of the canals and thus find 

 their way to the blood. To judge accurately of the nutri- 

 tive value of our food, then, we must know nqf simply how 

 much of the different nutritive ingredients, the protein and 

 fats and carbo hydrates, it contains, but how much of each 

 of these nutrients will be digested. This is a matter that 

 can be determined more or less accurately by experiment. 

 But a great deal of labor is needed to make, the experiments 

 accurate, the line of research is new, the methods are not 

 yet perfectly matured, and the results thus far obtained, 

 though extremely interesting and valuable, are still far from 

 complete. The side questions, such as differences in the 

 digestive apparatus of different persons; the effects of exer- 

 cise and rest, or mode of preparation of the food, and of the 

 flavoring materials and beverages taken with it, tend to 

 complicate the problem of digestibility, yet even here experi- 

 mental research has something to tell us. In brief , we have 

 to-day a tolerably fair idea as to what proportions of the 

 ingredients of a good many of the more common liind of 

 animal and vegetable food materials, meats, milk, butter, 

 cheese, eggs, bread, potatoes, are ordinarily digested by 

 healthy people. But the list of materials the digestibility 

 of whicb has been accurately tested is far from including all 

 the more common kinds of rood, and more experiments are 

 needed, even with the foods that have been tested, to show 

 the variations in digestibility by different classes of people, 

 and under different conditions. The only direct experiments 

 on the digestibility of fish by men or other animals, so far 

 as 1 know, are those described in this paper. 



THE CONSTITUENTS OF FOOD. 



But before going further I ought, perhaps, to say a few 

 words about the nutritive ingredients of fish and other food 

 materials and the technical terms which we are coming to 

 apply to them in the chemical laboratory. Fish, like meats 

 and other food, are made up of different constituents. These 

 we may classify as follows: 



1. Edible substance, c. g., the flesh of meats and fish, the 

 shell contents of oysters, wheat flour. 2, Refuse, c. (/. , bones 

 of meat and fish, the shells of oysters, bran of wheat. 



The edible substance consists' of: 1. Water. 2. Nutritive 

 substance or nutrients. Leaving out of account the refuse 

 and the water, we may consider simply the nutriments. 

 Speaking as chemists and physiologists, we may say that 

 our food supplies, besides mineral substances and water, 

 three principal classes of nutritive ingredients, viz.: Protein, 

 carbo liydrates and fats; and that these are transformed into 

 the tissues and fluids of the body, muscle and fat, blood and 

 bone, and are consumed to produce heat and force. 



The principal nutrient of fish is protein. In chemical 

 composition the protein of fish is essentially the same as chat 

 which makes up the bulk of the nutritive material of very 

 lean meat. In both lean meat and in fish it is called myo- 

 sin. It is very similar to the albumen (white) of egg, the 

 casein (curd) of milk and the gluten of wheat. The protein 

 compounds are sometimes called "flesh formers." They are 

 the most important of the nutritive ingredients of food, be- 

 cause they are the only ones that contain nitrogen and they 

 alone make muscle, tendon and other nitrogenous tissues of 

 the body. Of the fats we have familiar examples in the fat 

 of meat and fish, lard, butter, olive oil and other kinds of 

 oil. including the oil of corn and wheat. Some kinds of fish, 

 as salmon, shad and mackerel, contain considerable fat, but 

 the flesh of codfish, haddock, pike, perch, bass, bluefish and 

 the most of our common food fishes contain very little fat. 

 less, indeed, than is found in even the leanest meat. Of the 

 carbo hydrates, sugar and starch are the most important. 

 The carbohydrates make the chief nutritive material of 

 vegetable foods. Oysters and clams contain a certain amount 

 of carbo hydrates, as does milk. These different .substances 

 in food have different kinds of work to do in nourishing the 

 body. The protein compounds, which are the only ones that 

 contain nitrogen, make the muscle, tendon and other nitro- 

 genous tissues. This the carbo hydrates and fats, which 

 contain no nitrogen, cannot do. The carbo hydrates and fats 

 serve for fuel, yielding heat to keep the body warm and mus- 

 cular strength fur work. Protein compounds can also serve 

 for fuel. 



Since protein can do the work of the carbo hydrates in 

 furnishing heat and muscular power, and has a work of its 

 own to do in building up the tissues of the body which the 

 other nutrients cannot perform, the protein compounds are 

 the most important of the food ingredients. And when we 

 compare the quantities of the different nutrients in food 

 with the market prices of foods, we find that protein is by 

 ar the most expensive, It costs, pound for pound, several 

 i mes as much as fats and carbo hydrates. The fats are 

 more expensive than the carbo hydrates, and have a higher 

 fuel value. In short, fish furnishes protein to form muscle 

 and other nitrogenous parts of the body. Some kinds of 

 fish contain considerable fat also. Since the protein is the 

 most important and the most expensive of the food ingredi- 

 ents, andf at is more costly and valuable than carbohydrates, 

 it is evident that fish is an extremely valuable article of 

 food. Indeed, the importance of fish in domestic and in na- 

 tional economy has not yet come to be justly appreciated. 



Our national diet is one-sided; we eat too much of the fats 

 and carbo hydrates and relatively too little protein. This 

 comes from our enormous consumption of highly fattened 

 meats and of sweetmeats. As population becomes denser and 

 economy becomes more necessary, we shall have to devote 

 relatively less of the productive power of our land to meat 

 production. If we can replace part of the meat that we con- 

 sume by fish, it will be greatly to our advantage as regards 

 both health and purse. In the older and more densely popu- 

 lated countries of the world, as Europe and Asia, the food 

 of the people is mainly vegetable, and is relatively deficient 

 in protein. To produce meat to supply protein seems im- 

 possible. Tt thus appears, that, the world over, by rish-cul- 

 ture, the rivers and the sea are made to rightly supplement, 

 the land in the production of food for man. I hope in an- 

 other place to enlarge upon these statements, and to cite 

 statistics to illustrate them, but must now go back to my 

 subject, the digestibility of fish. 



THE DIGESTIBILITY OE FISH. 

 There are two ways of studying experimentally the diges 

 tibility of fish as of other foods. One is by experiments in 

 artificial digestion, in which the food material is exposed to 

 the action of the digestive juices in the laboratory, in ap- 

 paratus fitted for the purpose. The other is by direct experi- 

 meriments with man or other animals. A series of experi- 

 ments upon the artificial digestion of fish in gastric juice 

 have been made by Messrs. Chittenden and Cummins, and 

 reported in Commissioner's Report of the Commission of 

 Fish and Fisheries of the United States for 1884, page 1,109. 

 In the introduction to the account of their work these ex- 

 perimenters speak as follows: 



"Few experiments appear to have been made on the diges- 

 tibility of fish; this is the more strange when we consider 



