148 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 12, 1889. 



river Au Salmon that they could be scooped up in a land- 

 ing net , and very much of this decadence is attributed to 

 the fact that a dam, which shuts out the fish from their 

 principal spawning bed, was thrown across the river some 

 years ago. It is quite probable that this view is a sound 

 one; this fish is exposed to numerous enemies in the lake 

 and Discharge, and perhaps more fatal than pike or dore 

 is the sucker when it gets access to the spawning beds, 

 and the barrier in the Au Salmon has possibly excluded 

 a great body of the; fish from what, for good reasons, was 

 their favorite spawning bed, and led to their gradual de- 

 crease. Only the most prolific reproduction could com- 

 pensate for the ravages of the deadly pike, to which may 

 be safely attributed the fact that so few ouinanish reach 

 an advanced age. 



The land on both banks of the river Au Salmon has now 

 been purchased by Mr. Nazarre Tarcotte, and as this gen- 

 tleman is reputed to be a sportsman, let us hope that he 

 will at once put in a fish way or raze the dam. If he 

 show no disposition to move in this direction, it may be 

 hoped that the Quebec Government, realizing the amount 

 of money which the opening of the Lake St. John region 

 is bringing into the Province, and that the continuance of 

 this influx of visitors with well-lined purses is dependent on 

 the maintenance by the region of its reputation as a fish- 

 ing resort, will follow the lead of the New York Legisla- 

 ture in this matter. 



I am by no means sure that the Quebec Government is 

 fairly awake to the importance of this problem. It has 

 given a lease of some islands at the mouth of the Dis- 

 charge, and the lessee, a Canadian named Trombly, for 

 and in consideration of the sum of thirty-six dollars an- 

 nually, coin of the Dominion , has license to stretch his 

 nets from island to island and intercept the ouinanish on 

 their passage to and from the Discharge. It seems in- 

 credible that this rare and highly-prized game fish that 

 has carried the fame of the St. John waters into all 

 English-speaking lands, should be exposed to extinction 

 for such a paltry sum; but Mr. Trombly has his license 

 to show, and although he is under the patronage of John 

 C. Eno, of the "American Colony" in Canada, there is no 

 question as to the genuineness of the license. Nets must 

 be tolerated in the lake for the taking of pike, dore, 

 whitefish, suckers, etc. , and if a proportion of ouinanish 

 get taken along with them it is fisherman's luck; but no 

 net should be tolerated within half a mile of the cluster 

 of islands at the entrance of the Grand Discharge. 



I endeavored to impress on Messrs. Griffiths and Scott 

 and on Mr. Baker of the Robervale Hotel, who is no less 

 interested in the perpetuation of the fishing, that a well 

 managed hatchery is the price of succes in this direction, 

 but there is little probability of their taking the matter 

 in hand, and it is sincerely to be hoped that the Quebec 

 Government, realizing the interests at stake, will take the 

 necessary steps to perpetuate the well deserved popular- 

 ity of the fishing waters of the region. 



I am told that there is very good ouinanish fishing in 

 the Mistassini below the first falls, within three miles of 

 the lake, and they are sometimes taken readily with fly 

 among the islands Opposite Chamford, where they appear 

 to congregate at certain or uncertain seasons, while in 

 the Peribonca they show little appetite for fly, and are 

 trolled for with spoon or minnow, but as a matter of fact 

 I dare say our knowledge of their habits is only very 

 superficial. 



The lake will not be leased to clubs, and will continue 

 open to all having a fishing permit from the Commis- 

 sioner of Fisheries, but if any of the rivers which con- 

 tain ouinanish are still unleased in whole or part, we may 

 be sure they will soon be taken up. 



Fishing clubs, of course, will be very conservative in 

 the treatment of their waters, but there must be some 

 holders of fishing rights under riparian law, who, like 

 Mr. Griffiths, will be willing to give fishing privileges for 

 a consideration. The ouinanish may be described as the 

 most elegant and graceful of the Salmonoides; the back 

 is of a deep steely blue, which breaks up first into bars on 

 the sides, and lower down into spots of the same color; 

 the belly is silvery white, the caudal fin unusually large, 

 and the whole figure indicating a fish of exceptional 

 activity. It is a fish especially adapted to seething tor- 

 rents, swift currents and foaming eddies, and although it 

 may do well transplanted into other waters, there can be 

 little doubt that lakes with access to rapid rivers are es- 

 sential to its highest development. 



But although the Commissioners of Fisheries of Quebec 

 might easily provide for the spread of this excellent game 

 fish over the whole waters of the region, the fact remains 

 that he has at present only a very limited habitat, but 

 mauger his absence, the lakes and rivers of the region 

 are among the finest fishing waters of the Province. The 

 trout is everywhere, and I believe no larger trout are to 

 be found anywhere than in this region, I left Quebec on 

 Tuesday, the 23d J uly , and although an excursion train 

 went out before us, the regular cars were crowded. The 

 good people of Quebec, both sexes and all ages, were 

 going fishing. They got off at St. Gabriel and St. Ray- 

 mond to fish the neighboring lakes and rivers, and while 

 I suppose that rivers so near such an enthusiastic angling 

 population must be in course of depletion, it seems cer- 

 tain that there must be some fair catches to maintain the 

 enthusiasm. Some of the party I believe were bound for 

 Lake St. Joseph, which is said to contain some large fish. 



The principal clubs which have already secured leases 

 of the fishing waters are-. The Little Saguenay Fish and 

 Game Club, the Talbot, the Laurentides, the Tardivel, the 

 Stadacona, the Paradise Fin and Feather, the Metabetch- 

 uan, the Ecarte,theA. L. Light, the Quaquakamaksis, the 

 Springfield and the Winniniche Fishing Club (Scott's), and 

 these occupy but a small portion of the available waters. 



I got out at Lake Edward, allured by the published 

 stories of the size of its trout, but a little inquiry made 

 it clear that it was us'eless to fish with the fly or to troll. 

 The fish were at the bottom, and bait and sinker were 

 the recognized methods of capture. Moreover, as is the 

 case with many places of repute, the other end of the lake 

 was the best. A little steam tug was available, and my fel- 

 low travelers, three Minneapolitans and aBostonian, with 

 whom T was loth to part, determined to take the steam tug 

 and their canoes and go into camp for a few days at the 

 mouth of the escape. For myself I determined to stay a 

 day and try the river with fly. 



I found the trout all under eight inches, generally from 

 five to eight; they took the fly readily enough in suitable 

 holes, but they were not very numerous. There were but 

 few places in which one could get access to the river, and 

 the black flies attacked in legions, 



I returned to dinner, took a boat and tried trolling on 

 the lake without success: and as I did not care to go on to 

 St. John until my fellow travelers returned, I spent the 

 next day on the river. 



They had also whipped the main escape ancl one of the 

 feeders, getting nothing better than I; but two of the 

 party devoted themselves to deep bait-fishing, and got 

 fair creels of fish ranging up to 3+lbs. I reported my 

 catch of the previous day as "seventeen fish, all under 

 41bs." 



There are unquestionably some large trout in Lake 

 Edward, and with not a pike or dore iu the lake there 

 should be. The scenery of the lake, too, has a certain 

 wild charm about it; being 1,200ft. above sea level ancl in 

 the heart of the woods, L affords a refuge from the heat 

 of the cities, and the hotel being commodious and well 

 managed, it makes a pleasant place for a few days' rest; 

 but as a fishing resort it has not justified the flourish of 

 trumpets with which it was heralded. Still, the whole 

 region is one of great interest to the angler ancl tourist, 

 and even if the Quebec Government fails to take timely 

 measures to keep its lakes and streams perennially 

 stocked, its big trout and its ouinanish will doubtless sur- 

 vive in song and story, and their legends be told and sung 

 by the quarrymen ages hence as they hew their blocks of 

 gneiss for the monuments and sculpture of a coming age. 



C. F. Amery. 



[We understand that Capt. R. L. Ogden is about estab- 

 lishing a fishing club at Lake Edward, having leased of 

 the Canadian Government valuable concessions. The 

 club is to be limited in number of members ancl not to be 

 expensive. We presume a few gentlemen desiring mem- 

 bership could "come in," although we do not know, as 

 the list may be already filled.] 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS.-IX. 



ECHO LAKE, ONTARIO, CANADA. 



AFTER the capture of the lean maskinonje we got in 

 the boat and went back to look for the mate of the 

 one just taken, but after fishing carefully over an acre or 

 two of water in the vicinity where he was first struck, 

 without success, we gave up the search and went on 

 around the head of the lake in just the right humor to 

 jerk the jaw off the first Canada pike that tampered with 

 our bait. 



We fished on down to the rocky point near the island, 

 crossed the lake and got back to camp in the afternoon 

 with some pickerel, nothing else, and we began to think 

 the bass had all run out into the St. Mary's River, or we 

 had forgotten how to fish for them. 



Some of the boys were still out down the lake, but they 

 came in toward sundown with a jug of water from the 

 spring, a big loaf of bread, a bucket of milk and some 

 more pickerel, which old Sam said "was a mighty good 

 day's sport if they'd jest leave the picker'l out o' the 

 count." 



We began to wish the wheels of time would jump a 

 cog or two and land us somehow into the middle of Sep- 

 tember, the time when every one in the region had told 

 us both bass ancl maskys were in their best biting humor, 

 but the cogs kept right on working the same old way, 

 and the pickerel fishing went on as usual, with no signs 

 of the supply giving out. 



The Jedge and I had not been satisfied with our day 

 out together, and the next morning we went down to the 

 farm for milk and some more pickerel. At the outlet 

 near the spring we caught a bucket of minnows with 

 hook and line, among them a few fine chubs with which 

 we hoped to inveigle a bass or two on the way back, but 

 we fished all along the rocky shore across from the 

 island with our minnows towing idly astern, wit! i out 

 attracting the notice of bass or longsnout, and at the 

 point where we turned into the deep bay, where Sam 

 had taken the first maskinonje, we stopped and still- 

 fished for nearly an hour, casting up and down shore oc- 

 casionally to vary the pastime and keep our arms in 

 practice. 



But we got nothing here to reward our patience, save 

 a solitary goggle-eye that mustered up energy enough as 

 we were about to lift the anchor to fan lazily out from 

 behind a rock and swallow the Jedge's minnow as it 

 settled slowly to the bottom after a short cast in shore. 



"That settles it," said the Jedge, when he had ex- 

 tracted the hook and tossed the red eye back in the 

 water, "I'd rather catch snakes than rookies, any time; 

 let's move." 



Around in the bay we took five pickerel, which were 

 duly and artistically knocked on the head with the club, 

 and then we moved on again toward camp at a good 

 pace, paying little heed to our minnows, which, owing 

 to the speed of the boat, and having no sinkers on to 

 keep them down, were twisting and skipping along at 

 the top of the water 60 or 80ft. astern in a manner that 

 would have set an old Tippecanoe River bass wild. 



As we passed a point of bulrushes near the high cliff 

 we saw the water fly just where the Jedge's chub was 

 dodging from side to side in the wake of the boat, and a 

 tug at his fine that nearly jerked the rod from his hands 

 roused him out of a drowsy daydream and brought him 

 to his feet wide awake, while the boat was stopped sud- 

 denly and the skipper's line reeled in to be out of the 

 way. As pickerel frequently break water when they 

 make a dash at a bait or troller that is barely under 

 water we felt little interest in the impending controversy, 

 the Jedge merely remarking as the line ran off the reel, 

 "Another Canada snake." When a short time had been 

 given to swallow* the small chub, the Jedge gave him a 

 "feeler" in the shape of a smart twitch with the rod, ancl 

 then began a circus the like of which we had not en- 

 joyed since we were boys, and for the next half hour we 

 hadn't time to show any lack of interest in the final re- 

 sult of the struggle. 



After three or four seconds of sharp, fierce play a finely 

 marked maskinonje went in the air as high as an ordi- 

 nary man's head, which brought a "hooray" from the 

 Jedge that might have been heard at camp; and with 

 eyes snapping with excitement he cautioned the skipper, 

 "Handle the boat carefully, old Hickory. I wouldn't 

 lose that fish for twenty dollars." (Mem. — Anent the 

 leaping proclivities of the maskinonje, my individual ex- 

 perience with them has been, they have all left the water 

 after being struck. I have taken several, big and little, 

 in the past ten years, and others of the party have taken 

 perhaps twelve or fifteen in fishing the waters of Upper 



* The ninnies that go to the woods in knee breeches might pos- 

 sibly feel easier in their minds were the word gorge used. 



Michigan, ancl all, save one, have left the water high out, 

 from one to four times. The solitary exception was a 23- 

 pounder taken in Central Lake (one of the Intermediate 

 Chain) that never made a ripple in the water till towed by 

 the line out on a shallow, sandy beach and struck with 

 the gaff.) 



He was using for the first time a little 7oz. all lance- 

 wood rod of his own make (the Jedge was quite an ac- 

 complished amateur rod maker), and a half dozen times 

 during the dispute for the mastery it looked as if it would 

 certainly go to pieces; but it was a wonderful stick, and 

 stood a strain that would have smashed nineteen rods out 

 of twenty, as rods are made. 



Three different times the fish dashed under the boat so 

 suddenly and without warning that the skipper hadn't 

 time to swing it around and give him a free fine; and 

 each time, laboring under the excitement and nervousness 

 of his first battle with a maskinonje, the Jedge held on to 

 the reel handle with grim determination, preventing the 

 running of the line, till the almost overtasked little rod 

 was actually, not figuratively, doubled, with the tip 

 under water, and nearly in sight on the further side of 

 the boat, a catastrophe being only averted by a violent 

 stroke of the oars in opposite directions, and sotne mighty 

 warm-tinted language addressed to him on the impulse 

 by the skipper that would hardly bear a reproduction in 

 these chronicles. 



Once, as the fish rushed past the bow of the boat, the 

 line caught on the bow-stem as it went by, and for a 

 moment we thought the sport would end right there; but 

 the Jedge was induced by a few well-selected and very 

 brief remarks to take his thumb from the spool for an 

 instant and give the rod an upward flirt, which cleared 

 the line without cutting; and the game fellow kept on 

 out in the lake under a pull that called on every fiber of 

 line and rod to do its share of the work, so determined 

 was the Jedge to give the new rod, as he said, "a fair 

 test." 



Again the fish went in the air with wide open jaws, to 

 rid himself of the hook as it seemed, only to fall back 

 still full of fight and swing away around astern shore- 

 ward in dangerous proximity to the rushes; but by the 

 combined stubbornness of the rod and the Jedge, he was 

 held away and headed back for the boat. 



He was swimming slower now than at the start, but he 

 went by us close to the stern in plain sight, with his 

 "propeller" working four or five strokes to the second; 

 and as the line pulled taut and the little rod got down to 

 its work, we followed him under an easy strain 50 or 

 60yds. out in the lake into deep, open water, where he 

 was at last worn out with the ceaseless pull and brought 

 alongside, when the skipper jerked the gaff in his lower 

 jaw and lifted him in the boat, the bravest and garnest 

 and best fighter for his size that ever lost his life at the 

 hands of any of the Kingfishers. 



He flopped and "thrashed " around in the boat till ex- 

 hausted for lack of water, when he lay gasping quietly, 

 while the Jedge secured him with a stringer, cut the 

 line above the gimp, leaving the hook in his throat, 

 and hung him on the pocket scale where he registered 

 just lOlbs., not an ounce more, for the Jedge was too 

 honest to take advantage of the fish- market method 

 of " slanting the scale," and then we wondered where all 

 the strength and dash ancl fight were concealed in so 

 small a fish. The difference in the hustling qualities of 

 this one and the one taken the day before was so marked 

 that we could hardly believe they belonged to the same 

 tribe, but the Jedge settled it to our satisfaction by lay- 

 ing it, in the case of the other and larger one, to " a dys- 

 peptic and empty stomach, while this healthy, well-fed 

 fellow, if you'll notice, has a belly on him like a beer 

 brewer." He swung him over the side and tied the cord 

 to the seat rail; and then we hooked on a couple of fresh 

 chubs and pulled back near the rushes to see if we could 

 get another one, with the Jedge in such great good humor 

 with himself and so elated over the performance of his 

 rod that the little boat seemed almost too small to hold 

 him. 



AVe ran over the water half a dozen times without feel- 

 ing a symptom, and then pursued our way upshore with 

 a twinge of disappointment racking us, for it always 

 seems that where one good fish is taken there ought to be 

 another. 



A quarter of a mile further along I struck and wore 

 out a 3$ib, small-mouthed bass, ancl although the battle 

 was much shorter than that with the maskinonje, it were 

 hard to tell which was the most inflated with " tickle," 

 the Jedge or "James Mackerel," for it was the first bass 

 I had taken in the lake (it was the last one as well), and 

 it was an event to feel good over; besides, it was proof 

 that there were good bass in the lake. But another half 

 .hour of patient fishing failing to raise another, we reeled 

 up and started to camp, more than ever convinced that 

 the black bass of Echo Lake were fuller of whims ancl 

 crotchets and perversity than our grizzled comrade of 

 many years, old Knots, and after all, this was making 

 out rather a mild case against the bass. 



When we got back to camp we found Knots sitting out 

 on the end of the dock in his camp chair, so lost in the 

 tangles of some new figures he was abstractedly weaving 

 in his landscape across the lake that he barely noticed us 

 as the keel of our boat grated on the beach back of him; 

 but when the Jedge held up the maskinonje and called 

 to him, he left his chair and came out, and surprised us 

 by really admiring the fish without harrowing our souls 

 with the expected, time-frosted query, "Where did you 

 buy him?'' whereat the Jedge was moved to say in an 

 "underground" tone, as he furtively watched Knots to 

 be sure he was not overheard, "The 'old lady' must have 

 confined himself to a water diet to-day," but happily the 

 pleasantry failed to reach Knots's ears, and the Jedge 

 saved his scalp. 



The others were still out, Sam and Charley back some- 

 where in the hills with their guns, and Dan and the 

 "kids" up near the head of the lake fishing; but they 

 were all in at supper time, the hunters with a bluejay 

 and a chipmunk and the anglers with a few more pick- 

 erel, but they had seen a big maskinonje in the shallow 

 water across the lake, and old Dan was almost as happy 

 as though he had brought him to gaff. 



But we were getting tired of pickerel, and began to 

 yearn for some old-time sport with the bass ancl the tan- 

 gles of the trout streams of northern Michigan. 



Kingfisher. 



The revised and abridged edition of the A. O. U. Check List of 

 North American Birds, including the additions and changes made 

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