800 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Beo. 5, 1-880. 



"That reminds me." 

 289. 



I HAVE a beagle thai: is first-class at hunting rabbits, 

 his experience having been entirely confined to cot- 

 tontails, until the other day, I happened to be with hirn 

 when he struck a hot scent and went off in full cry. The 

 devious track led him into a thicket: but almost imme- 

 diately after his joyous bay was changed into a terrified 

 yelling. The poor beast seemed frantic with pain or fear, 

 and at once I concluded he had run into a nest of hornets 

 or skunks, or both. As poor Tippler rushed out of the 

 thicket with his tail between his legs and every indica- 

 tion of terror on his countenance, a pure white bunny of 

 the domestic kind bounded out of the other side equally 

 frightened, and the mystery was explained. But never 

 since have I been able to induce this superstitious dog to 

 hunt in the thicket where he met the ghostly apparition 

 of a rabbit. Ernest E. Thompson. 



MAINE ANGLING INTERESTS. 



r pHERE is still hope for trout and salmon fishing in 

 JL the future, in spite of all that poaching and the 

 march of mill dams and sawmills can do. At the same 

 time there is still a hard struggle to be fought out by 

 those interested in these sports, and who are aware that 

 the only salvation of their favorite fish lies in propaga- 

 tion and the enforcement of wholesome fish laws. About 

 the greatest menace that has lately stared the propaga- 

 tion and protection of fish in the waters of northern New 

 England in the face is the pulp mill with its adjacent 

 darn; but worst of all, the turning of all the waste chem 

 icals from these mills iuto the waters. The advent of 

 manufacturing paper from wood has suddenly made a 

 lot of second-growth wood in Maine of considerable 

 value, and streams that were safe from the incursion of 

 sawmills have recently been dotted with mills for the 

 manufacture of wood pulp. In some cases the Maine 

 Fish Commissioners have had a hard fight to make the 

 proprietors of these mills put in the proper fishways, even 

 when the entire salmon interest of some of the best 

 streams in the country were threatened, if such fishways 

 were not provided. Indeed, it may startle the ordinary 

 reader to know that the entire salmon supply of the 

 Penobscot, the last river left to the salmon on the Atlantic 

 coast, has lately been threatened by these pulp mills. A 

 single pulp manufacturing concern on the upper Penob- 

 scot waters has recently ordered twenty thousand bar- 

 rels of lime in a single order, and all of this lime 

 is to be turned into the waters of that river. "Will it 

 poison the salmon to extermination? The best authority 

 to be had on the subject says that the salmon coidd not 

 live in such waters for any length of time, but it has been 

 observed by the Commissioners, and others who have 

 watched their progress, tha,t the spawning salmon have 

 this fall taken the opposite side of the river from the 

 stream of spent lime from the pulp mills. Nature has 

 evidently been teaching them to seek purer waters. But 

 at the same time it is suggested by good judges that one 

 reason for the lack of a run of salmon in the Penobscot 

 at Bangor last spring was the presence of such a great 

 quantity of impurity in the waters of the river. Why, 

 in the case of almost an epidemic of typhoid fever in Ban- 

 gor this year, an eminent physician testified, when the 

 question of impure water was being argued as the cause 

 of the fever, that there was "sulphuric acid enough in 

 the waters of the Penobscot to completely kill all the 

 germs of typhoid fever." This sulphuric acid comes from 

 the pulp mills. The wood and lumber interest is pre- 

 dominant in the State of Maine. The Legislature is al- 

 ways under the control of that interest. If any relief 

 comes, it will come through the interference of the 

 United States Fish Commission. I understand that that 

 Commission will be applied to for relief of some sort. 



The Maine Fish Commissioners are having good suc- 

 cess with the landlocked salmon this fall. The full 

 quota of eggs will be obtained at Edes Falls, on the upper 

 Sebago waters. It is a very interesting fact that the poach- 

 ers who, two or three years ago in the night time, armed 

 with guns and with blackened faces, drove away those 

 in care of the hatching works at Edes Falls and tore away 

 the pens, letting loose the salmon that they did not want 

 to take away, have been caught. One of their num- 

 ber cautiously mentioned recently that he was con- 

 cerned in the robbery. He was watched and finally in- 

 duced to tell still more about the matter. The Commis- 

 sioners ordered his immediate arrest, and frightened, as 

 he was expected to be, he has turned State's evidence and 

 implicated all that were concerned in the business. At 

 the January term of court in that county they will be 

 brought to trial. 



Another very interesting fact to sportsmen, who for so 

 many years visited the Androscoggin waters, is that 

 there is at last a good fish hatchery at Rangeley. The 

 enterprise of the citizens of that town, with the assist- 

 ance of several sporting gentlemen who annually visit 

 the lake, has done the work. Prominent among these 

 gentlemen is Gen. Harmon, of Connecticut, the owner of 

 Lake Point Cottage. And best of all, the Maine Commis- 

 sioners have been applied to for permission to locate the 

 hatchery and take trout and landlocked salmon for pro- 

 pagation, and the Commissioners have been up to Range- 

 ley and have shaken hands with Gen. Harmon and Gen. 

 Harmon with them, just as honorable gentlemen are sure 

 to shake hands some time or other when each is engaged 

 in the same grand object, though there may have been 

 at one time a misunderstanding as to methods. The 

 Commissioners have sanctioned the efforts of the citizens 

 and visiting sportsmen, have sent the hatchery a large 

 number of trays, and will give the enterprise 60,000 land- 

 locked salmon fry in the spring. 



It is also understood that the hatchery is having good 

 success with trout this fall. At last Rangeley waters 

 have a trout hatchery that promises to be a success. The 

 turning m of a large number of trout and landlocked 

 salmon into the upper waters of those lakes is bound to 

 be of great advantage to the fishing in every lake of the 

 chain. Sportsmen who go there should bear this in mind 



and should be willing to contribute toward the enter- 

 prise. The question may arise as to why the Commission 

 does not take up the entire work of stocking these waters, 

 and the answer is that the liberality of the lumber inter- 

 est in the Legislature of that State has allowed them no 

 money with which to do the work. Sportsmen who visit 

 Maine will readily understand the situation, if they take 

 into account the fact that, if there was no fish and game 

 interest in the State, no fishways would have to be built 

 at the mills, and there would be no restrictions as to the 

 turning of spent chemicals and mill waste into the streams. 

 Hence the feeling of the lumber interest toward the fish 

 and game laws and the lack of appropriation for their 

 enforcement. Special^ 



SUNAPEE TROUT FROM DAN'S HOLE 

 POND. 



" FT is the unexpected that always happens," according 

 1 to the proverb: but in the case about to be stated it 

 is the foretold, searched for and confidently expected 

 which has suddenly materialized. Col. Elliott B. Hodge, 

 of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Commission, who 

 first brought the Sunapee trout to the notice of ichthyolo- 

 gists, is now the first to recognize the same handsome 

 trout in a pair obtained, after many disappointments, 

 from Dan's Hole Pond, in New Hampshire. These speci- 

 mens were forwarded to the writer about the middle of 

 November and they are now in the National Museum at 

 Washington. 



Readers of Forest and Stream who followed its ac- 

 counts of the new trout of Sunapee Lake will recall the 

 fact that the describer of the species refrained from ap- 

 plying to it a local or geographical name because its 

 range was undetermined and might prove to be very 

 extensive. In this course of action he was sustained by 

 Col. Hodge and others. The wisdom of that procedure 

 is now established. 



In order that due credit may be given to Col. Hodge for 

 his, praiseworthy efforts to bring out facts about the New 

 Hampshire trout it should be stated that he has long sus- 

 pected that the Dan's Hole Pond trout is identical with 

 the Sunapee, and has been determined to obtain the 

 means of settling the question. On March 20, 1889, he 

 wrote me as follows: [A well known ichthyologist] "had 

 specimens of the Dan s Hole Pond trout some years ago 

 and then called it a variety of the brook trout. I under- 

 stand he now says that it is identical with the Sunapee 

 -form. I have sent a permit to a fisherman in that part 

 of the State and promised him ten dollars for specimens 

 of the Dan's Hole Pond trout, whether they are identical 

 or not. I have for some time believed that they are very 

 much like the Sunapee trout. If I get them I will send 

 them to you as soon as they come." 



Th a. recent 1 letter Col. Hodge assured me that he had 

 been trying to obtain a specimen from this poud for three 

 years, and had at last got these at a great deal of ex- 

 pense. The letter accompanying the trout is quoted 

 herewith: 



"Plymouth, N. H., Nov. 14.— My Dear Dr. Bean: I 

 send you by express to-day two trout from Dan's Hole 

 Pond, in the eastern part of the: State. I made only a 

 hasty examination of them, but find them identical with 

 the Sunapee form. The male is a deformed fish, but 

 the other is a perfect specimen. As these two bodies of 

 water are in different watersheds, and as the Dan's Hole 

 trout have been known to exist for seventy-five years 

 and perhaps longer, I think I am justified in claiming 

 that this must settle the question and that I have been 

 correct in my claim that this fish is a native of Sunapee." 

 Col. Hodge again, in a letter of Nov. 24, assures me that 

 there are at least two other lakes in New Hampshire 

 which contain Sunapee trout and thei'te is a lake in Que- 

 bec inhabited by a trout which he has every reason to be- 

 lieve the same as the Sunapee species. The Quebec form 

 spawns in the lake and is said by the natives to attain to 

 a weight of 6 to 81bs. "I, as well as others, have whipped 

 the lake in May and June; but not a fin could I raise, 

 although I have seen large fish breaking water the same 

 as the Sunapee trout do. The trout taken by the [Quebec] 

 natives mentioned above were taken from the spawning 

 beds." 



Col. Hodge very appropriately continues as follows: 

 "I feel a good deal of satisfaction in being able to produce 

 this fish [Sunapee trout] from waters in which there can 

 be no question that they have been caught ever since the 

 town was settled. I have labored patiently to get at the 

 truth— not so much to establish my theories as to get at 

 the facts." Thif is the^ proper frame of mind in which to 

 undertake all problems' relating to the salmon family, and 

 will save students from many errors and disappointments. 



The Sunapee trout is represented in Forest and Stream 

 of April 4, 1889, and it is not necessary to repeat the illus- 

 tration, because there is no difference between the Dan's 

 Hole Pond specimens and the types from Sunapee Lake. 

 The female is 21 in. long and her abdominal cavity is 

 pretty well filled with free eggs, which have a pale lemon 

 yellow color and measure nearly one-fifth of an inch 

 m diameter. The coloration in both sexes is exactly 

 the same as in types of Salvelinus aureolas from Sunapee 

 Lake, for an account of which see Forest and Stream, 

 Aug. 5, 1886, p.26, and Proceedings U S. National Museum , 

 1887, page 630. The peculiar curling of the tips of the 

 gill-rakers is very noticeable. The male had his back 

 broken and was, consequently, deformed; yet he was 

 sexually mature and up to the standard of destructive- 

 ness in males, for in his stomach I found about two dozen 

 ripe eggs. There was in it also a mass of slender worms. 

 The length of the male is 18in. T. H. Bean. 



A Brook Trout for a Cent.— Washington, D?"*n!% 

 In Pocahontas, Webster and Nicolas counties, W. Va., 

 trout have been very abundant during the past season. 

 Elk River is a favorite fishing stream. In the waters of 

 the Gauley, trout weighing about lib. were taken with the 

 fly. Black bass were caught in the same stream and in 

 the same way. May, June and July are the best months. 

 The mountaineers claim that worms are the best bait, 

 and that a piece of bacon or ham is also good for trout. 

 In the counties named above the people sold us trout by 

 the hundreds for a cent a piece. The best time to catch 

 trout is during the rain, just as the Btream begins to rise. 

 — C. E. C. 



Fishing in Florida Waters.— Anglers who intend visiting 

 Florida this coming winter will find it to their advantage to in- 

 spect the superior tackle for tarpon and other fishes manufac- 

 tured by Thomas J. Cohroy, 65 Fulton street. New York.— Adv. 



DESTRUCTIVE FISH WEIRS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Official duties have taken me to Cape Cod, Massachu- 

 setts, for several successive summers, and I have often 

 been astonished and not a little grieved by the relation of 

 the commercial shore fisheries to the protection and in- 

 crease of the fishes. I spent last summer at and near 

 Provincetown, and became more than ever convinced 

 that the fish weirs are among the greatest engines of fish 

 destruction on the coast. Men who had been employed 

 at the weirs confessed to me that they killed great quan- 

 tities of young fish of all kinds. The only people who 

 deny the injury accomplished by these traps are those 

 who have a pecuniary interest in them; the rest of the 

 community is firm in the belief that legislation is neces- 

 sary to modify the influence of the nets, and that speedy 

 measures must be taken to enforce protective laws. The 

 mackerel fishery out of Provincetown this year was a flat 

 failure, and yet not many years ago mackerel spawned 

 in Provincetown Bay, and hook and line fishing for them 

 was very profitable. Sea bass and bluefish were much 

 scarcer this season than last year. 



After traveling along the coast and learning that every 

 available point from Provincetown to Plymouth, a dis- 

 tance of more than fifty miles, has its labyrinth of net- 

 ting of small mesh extending from near the shore out to 

 an average depth of six fathoms, I ceased to wonder why 

 fish were scarce and felt surprised that they were not 

 altogether swept out of existence. Some of the leaders 

 of these weirs are nearly a mile in length. The tide rises 

 and falls 9 or 10ft., and large portions of the netting ex- 

 posed at low water often contain young fish resembling 

 herring, which have been tangled in the meshes and can- 

 not free themselves. At one time in the month of 

 August a weir company near Provincetown captured 

 about 200bbls. of young fish in a single day, chiefly blue- 

 fish, mackerel and scup. The owners sold all they could 

 for bait in Provincetown and elfewhere, and the balance 

 were dumped overboard. Shortly afterward the beach 

 was strewn with the fish destroyed and wasted in this 

 shocking manner. Large quantities of young cod are 

 killed in the same way. 



It is time that the people who desire to protect and in- 

 crease our food and game fishes make their influence 

 felt in preventing such wanton destruction which no one 

 can justify by any interpretation of law or application of 

 common sense. " E. E. Haskell. 



Washington, D. 0. 



SALT-WATER FISH IN FRESH WATER. 



THE possibility suggested by Mr. W. P. Seal, in Forest 

 and Stream recently, of extensive transfers of 

 marine fishes to fresh water, reminded me of an experi- 

 ment made by Prof. A. E. Verrill, of Yale College, about 

 ten years ago. As Prof. Verrill's experience harmonized 

 very well with that of Mr. Seal, I wrote to the Professor 

 for information about it, and received the following in 

 reply : 



"Dear Doctor Bean— The experiment that you refer 

 to was ni ade some ten yea rs ago. Seei ng some very fresh- 

 looking tomcocl in the fish market here, but frozeu very 

 hard and stiff on a cold winter day. I got permission to 

 put a dozen or more into a large aquarium in the market, 

 supplied with a constant current of city water. My ob- 

 ject was to see if they would revive after being frozen. 

 They all revived perfectly in an hour or less. As they 

 seemed to feel satisfied Avith their quarters in the aqua- 

 rium, we allowed them to remain, and there they lived 

 all winter — probably three months or more — till turned 

 out in the spring to make room for other things. Sin- 

 cerely yours, A. E. Verrill (New Haven, Nov. 24, 

 1889)." 



Here we have a marine fish suddenly transferred from 

 salt water to air below a freezing temperature and then 

 into fresh water without loss of health and vigor. This 

 was a remarkable case, and the result could not have 

 been anticipated. There are many anadromous fishes 

 which ascend rivers from the sea far into the interior for 

 the purpose of spawning. Among these the shad, ale- 

 wife and salmon will be recalled by every one. The ale- 

 wife will even endure perpetual landlocking and continue 

 to multiply; the same is true of the smelt and white 

 perch. Doubtless numerous other illustrations of a sim- 

 ilar nature will occur to some of our readers. Some of 

 the flounders run into the rivers above tidal waters: the 

 bluefish and the silver gar ascend far from the sea. Even 

 the halibut has come up the Potomac to the vicinity of 

 Colonial Beach, wluue the water is brackish. Examples 

 of marine species domiciled in fresh water can be cited 

 indefinitely, and we should not be surprised by any new 

 developments. T. H. B. 



FLORIDA FISHES UNDER GROUND. 



WE have been told by Mr. H. S. Farquhar, of Washing- 

 ton, D. C.,that when the sewers of Pensacola,Fla., 

 were being constructed a great centrifugal pump was 

 frequently used to pump out water mixed with loose 

 sand which was encountered in the course of excavations. 

 The elevation of the surface above the bay was about 

 15ft. and the bottom of the sewer was 8 or 10ft. above the 

 sea level. On a certain occasion the pump brought up 

 some crawfish, a couple of small catfish and some eels 

 about one foot in length. This goes to show what a 

 wonderful fish country Florida is, for not content with 

 filling the water and appropriating everything in sight 

 that resembles a hook, the fishes worm their way into the 

 vulnerable soil and are liable to be turned up by a hoe or 

 a spade. 



Who can tell us what animal Mr. Farquhar has in mind 

 in the following description? Living in swamps there is 

 a creature reputed to be blind and popularly supposed to 

 be a fish called the conk, or conch. It is a 6tout animal 

 about a foot long, and, according to negro superstition, it 

 has a fatal sting. None of the negroes could be induced 

 to bring Mr. Farquhar a specimen and he cannot give a 

 detailed account of the species. 



THe Bristly Bass. — In some recent comparisons be- 

 tween trout and black bass and pickerel as game fishes 

 I did not mean to be quite 6o hard on the bass. I intended 

 to say '"the bristly bass" and not '-the beastly bass" as 

 the types made me. I had in mind the spiny dorsal fin 

 and rough scales of the bass compared to the smooth- 

 backed and practically scaleless trout with never a spine 

 about him.— C. H. Ames. 



