192 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 27, 1890. 



FISHES INSENSIBLE TO PAIN. 



I HAVE read many articles on the subject of whether 

 fish when caught on the hook feel any pain or 

 whether their struggles were merely the result of finding 

 themselves fast. I fish a great deal in the summer 

 months for trout, bass and pickerel, and have done so 

 for many years. I have studied the matter very care- 

 fully and have made up my mind from various incidents 

 that have come under my observation that fish are not 

 sensitive to pain as are warm-blooded animals. I will 

 cite two instances that show to me plainly that I must 

 be right in my conclusions on this subject. 



Last October while fishing for pickerel on Lake Cary, 

 Wyoming county, Pa., in company with a companion, 

 among other fish that we caught was a pickerel that 

 would weigh nearly, if not quite", 31bs. My friend pulled 

 it up, and as it came on to the top I saw about 12ft. of 

 a very coarse brown line hanging to it. Upon inspect- 

 ing it more closely I found that the fish had in its side a 

 very strong and coarse hook, to which the piece of line 

 was attached. The wound must have been made a very 

 short time previous to our catching the fish, for it was 

 bleeding quite freely and looked very fresh, and if the 

 fish could feel pain it would certainly have deterred it 

 from taking our hook so soon after such an injury. There 

 was only one other party fishing on the lake that day, as 

 it was cold and windy, and that pickerel must have re- 

 ceived his injury from them and have come nearly 

 across the lake to us, dragging that piece of heavy line 

 with him. 



The other instance occurred in this way: I was fishing 

 for pickerel with a "skipping bait'*— most of your readers 

 know what that is — a piece of pork rind or a pickerel 

 belly, and had with me a friend who, though he could 

 handle a brigade under a heavy fire, was not up to the 

 trick of catching fish that way. I was having fairly 

 good sport, but he got impatient and finally, when he 

 had a good strike, he jerked so hard as to break his line, 

 and away went the fish, and lie at once proposed to go 

 home; but I told him in joke if he would wait five or ten 

 minutes I would catch that fish and get back his hook. 

 So we sat down and bad a short smoke. I soon com- 

 menced to cast my hook near where he lost his fish. I 

 had a strike, and to our mutual surprise out came the 

 General's fish with his hook well fastened in its mouth. 

 Now, I don't think the fish would have taken the bait so 

 soon again had it heen in any pain from the hook. Lex. 



[We are prepared to believe that fishes are insensible 

 to pain. The pike, after having its mouth torn with a 

 hook, will take the bait as freely as before. We have 

 seen sharks which had been disemboweled and thrown 

 away for dead, swim about near the surface and seize 

 food as eagerly as if nothing unustial had occurred. Eel- 

 like fishes are often bitten in halves and make a perfect 

 recovery, sometimes figuring in scientific papers as repre- 

 sentatives of entirely new animals. Sunfishes and stickle- 

 backs, which have lost the tail fin and replaced its func- 

 tions by an extension backward of the dorsal and anal 

 fins are frequently seen.] 



THE ALASKAN BLACK BASS, 



CALIFORNIANS are just discovering the immense 

 field for sportsmen in Alaska. It is for us what 

 Canada, would be for New Yorkers if it were still a wild- 

 erness. The fishermen seem to gain most in Alaska, for 

 the coast is far more accessible than the interior. Several 

 thousand tourists go to Alaska every summer, and many 

 moro fishermen would find their way there if the field 

 were better known. Salmon are so plenty in Alaska that 

 Sitka people deride the idea of calling salmon '"ga me." 

 They claim, up there, that the leading game fish of the 

 region is the black bas=. This fish is extremely rare on 

 the California coast. Once in a long while fishermen 

 bring in a few. In Alaska, on the contrary, black bass 

 fishing among the wooded, rocky islands, is the great 

 sport. 



A writer in the Alaskan, published at Sitka, describes 

 his experience with black bass. He says: 



"Our bait consisted of needle-fish, obtained only at low 

 tide and dug from the sand. The hooks had barely sunk 

 beneath the surface when bothrjoles were suddenly pulled 

 into the water by some unseen thing of apparent great 

 weight and strength. How they pulled, plunging down, 

 then drawing the line beneath the boat, then darting 

 directly for us. We at last conquered, and with the two 

 lines twisted together we pulled into the boat two large 

 and beautiful black bass. Our luck continued until late 

 in the evening, when we cast the boat loose and pulled 

 for home. The catch amounted to something over ninety 

 fish, ranging from 1 to Gibs." C. H. Shlnn. 



Nixes, California. 



[This name is well established in southeastern Alaska 

 and on Vancouver Island for a fish which bears a pretty 

 close resemblance to our fresh- water black bass; the 

 species is Sebasbichthys melanops, which is mentioned in 

 Forest and Stream, Aug. 8, 1889, among the fishes of 

 Esquimalf. Without doubt it is one of the choice food 

 fishes of Alaska and affords excellent sport for the ang- 

 lers, to whom it is known also as "rockfish" and "rock 

 cod," although it is no more like a cod than a cunner is. 

 The needle-fish is what we would call a sand launce or 

 sand eel (Ammodytes piersonatus) and is universally used 

 for bait. Sebastichthys melanops ranges south to Mont- 

 erey, but begins to be common in the Puget Sound region. 

 We have heard the name "black bass" applied to it at 

 Kadiak and Unalaska, as well as at Sitka,] 



LOBSTERS IN GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 



TN his last report upon the Fisheries Protective Service 

 A of Canada, Lieut. Andrew R. Cordon, R. N., refers 

 to the lobster fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence as one 

 of the most-important industries engaged in by Canadian 

 fishermen. He says that this fishery, like the mackerel 

 fishery, has greatly declined during the last few years, 

 and he makes the following practical suggestions for the 

 preservation and future development of this important 

 industry: 



First— "That the packing season in the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence close on July 5 instead of on the 15th, as at 

 present. 



"Second— That every buoy to lobster trawl, net trawl, 

 or in fact every fisherman's buoy, be marked with a 

 registered number or mark, register to be kept with the 

 nearest Custom house officer or fishery officer, all un- 



numbered or unmarked buoys to be confiscated and de- 

 stroyed. 



"Third— That the artificial culture of lobsters be un- 

 dertaken and proceeded with on a commensurate scale 

 as soon as possible. The packers to save all the ova. 



"Fourth — That a system of nurseries or closed areas be 

 adopted for the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 These closed areas should be strips of water two miles in 

 width and extending out at right angles to the general 

 trend of the shore. The boundaries to be marked by the 

 alignment of two small beacons, and a closed area of two 

 miles out of every ten to be set apart. There would thus 

 be alternately eight miles fishing and two miles closed 

 area. 



As to the first recommendation, the closing of the sea- 

 son on July the 5th would probably not have much effect 

 in protecting the hatching of the lobster, unless the sea- 

 son there is much later than on the New England coast, 

 where the spawning (i. e., the hatching of the eggs) sea- 

 son commences about the first of May and continues 

 until July 10. The second, if carried out, would be of 

 much convenience to the authorities in preventing dep- 

 redations and illegal fishing. Third, it has been deter- 

 mined by the U. S. Fish Commission that the artificial 

 cultivation of lobsters can be carried on successfully, that 

 the eggs taken from lobsters during the hatching season 

 can be hatched separately from the lobster in the ordinary 

 hatching apparatus used for hatching codfish eggs. The 

 fact that the packers are called upon to save all the ova 

 would, of course, result in great good and largely' increase 

 the number of eggs. It would be practically useless, how- 

 ever, to take the eggs from the lobster for this purpose 

 except during the spawning season or immediately pre- 

 ceding it. As to the fourth recommendation , the system 

 of nurseries is undoubtedly a good one, but the width of 

 the areas proposed by Lieut. Gordon for nursery purposes 

 is probably not large enough. While lobsters are sup- 

 posed not to migrate far up or down the coast, still they 

 must move to some extent in those directions. Their 

 principal movement is toward the deeper water at the 

 beginning of cold weather, and toward the shallower 

 w r ater at the commencement of spring. 



A LINE DROPPED TO MICROPTERUS. 



THE RIFFLES, Crystal Brook Co., State of Cold water. 

 Dec. 15, 1889*. — Micropterus Dolornieu, Esq.: Dear 

 See — It was with mingled feelings of pleasure and pain 

 that I read your most courteous and highly valued letter 

 to me in Forest and Stream of Dec. 12; pleasure at being 

 the first member of my family, so far as I know, to re- 

 ceive a written communication from one of yours, and a 

 communication withal so explicitly friendly in its senti- 

 ments; but pain that, through a misprint (due to a hasty 

 and obscurely penned word of mine) and also partly to a 

 too careless reading of my words on your own part, you 

 should have formed so mistaken a notion of my true 

 feelings toward you and your kindred. Let me say at 

 the outset that I welcome any lawful means which may 

 promote communication between us, and of the means 

 known to me I consider our beloved Forest and Stream 

 one of the very best, especially during my long "stay-at- 

 home" periods, when all tackle but a stub pen has to be 

 hung up. 



I am sure that the sense of deep and undeserved injury 

 which must have filled your heart when you read my 

 words in Forest and Stream of Nov. 21 could not have 

 exceeded in poignancy my own chagrin at reading the 

 same and seeing the error which the types had made. 

 I am somewhat comforted, however, by the hope that 

 you saw in the issue of Dec. 5 the disclaimer which I 

 hastened to make, and which for double assurance's sake 

 I here repeat: "The Bristly Bass.— In some recent com- 

 parisons between trout and black bass and pickerel as 

 game fishes I did not mean to be quite so 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 scale about him." 



You charge me with saying, speaking of your family 

 in general, "He is no friend of mine," whereas what I 

 did say was, "Compared with the trout the black bass is 

 no great friend of mine," Thi3 is a very different thing, 

 as I am sure a person of the frank and honest disposition 

 shown in your letter will, on reflection, admit. Tie 

 epithet "coarse" and the expression "only better than a 

 pickerel," I must own up to, and of the latter I shall have 

 something more to say in a moment, but it is due to me 

 to add that I also said, speaking of you, "But still he is a 

 genuine game fish, and in waters where he is the rightful 

 king and not an interloper, he is to be respected and 

 valued." I submit that, making allowance for pardon- 

 able difference of private preference and the influence of 

 early association (I was born among the trout brooks of 

 New Hampshire, and never had the pleasure' of seeing 

 one of your family till I was 14 years old), the above 

 ought to put me on a fairly respectable footing with you, 

 especially as I went on to denounce a certain ruthless 

 enemy of your race. 



Now, as to "only better than a pickerel!" I myself 

 called him "the miserable fresh-water shark," and you 

 call him, and I think justly, "tyrant, bully, coward and 

 thief." With so bad a count against him 1 perceive that 

 in calling you "only better than a pickerel" I did you a 

 great injustice, and I hereby beg to make my best apol- 

 ogy to all black bass and emphatically to state that "for 

 pluck and gamene3s," and "fair, equal, straightforward 

 style of fighting" the pickerel is simply nowhere com- 

 pared to you, and I freely admit that I did "speak in 

 haste" and for a moment failed to make proper discrim- 

 ination, I have not the slightest wish to excuse myself 

 from your just criticism on this point, though it affords 

 me, perhaps, a trifle of comfort to note how others — 

 yourself, for instance— can now and then become a little 

 overearnest in speech. Are you sure you are not giving 

 even the pickerel a rather mixed pedigree and relation- 

 ship, when yon call him "that misbegotten progeny of a 

 water snake and an alligator, that slimy, speckled, slab- 

 sibed cousin of a shark and foster brother of the eel?" 



I am glad that my little article, whatever its short com- 

 ings, was the occasion of calling forth your really bril- 

 liant panegyric on the noble qualities of your race. 1 

 consider that you have made out an excellent case for 

 yourself and kindred in respect to your claims to a hip 'i 

 degree of courage, a refined and 'aesthetic color 5 n v, 



♦Written at that- date, but deferred by la grippe. 



conjugal fidelity, cleanliness, etc., and you are qaite\ 

 justified in demanding that opinion as to your flavor 

 should he formed under proper conditions and not after! 

 you have suffered from violence and abuse. Slili in giv-i 

 ing my vote, as I must in opposition to Dr. Henshall, and- 

 for Sahno fontinalis (I will say Salvelinus if anybody, 

 wants me to) as having the most counts in his favor. Ij 

 wish to assure you that I am not compelled to base my 

 comparison on knowledge of your family gained from 

 the Florida members of it alone. In fact, my first ac- 

 quaintance with you was on the Fox River, of Illinois, 

 and I have memories of very agreeable and satisfactory 

 meetings with others of your kindred on Indian Lake, 

 Minn., who fully sustained the high character you have 

 given them. 



You will admit that the whole matter is largely one of/ 

 taste, and will understand me as in any case according 

 you a place high in the scale. I shall be only too happy, 

 whenever engagements permit, to chop you a line. 

 Yours cordially, C. H. Ames. 



AQUARIA NOTES, 



Occasional Observa tions on tbe Fishes in the Aquaria of the IT. S. 

 Fish Commission, 



THE popular ignorance of the physiology of fishes and 

 of aquatic life generally is so great that the com- 

 ments and queries of visitors of all grades of intelligence 

 are of the most remarkable character. Some of the 

 guides, too, of Washington, who are supposed to en< 

 lighten the weary pilgrim to this Mecca of scientific re- 

 search, rattle off with a glib tongue a hotch-potch oi 

 mingled truth and fiction that would horrify a natural 

 ist, well knowing that there is little likelihood of their 

 being detected, and knowing also that what they may 

 say will be forgotten or so confused in the mind as to be 

 a matter of uncertainly before references can bo made 

 to the encyclopedia (or natural history) at home. 



On one occasion a finely dressed ancl apparently culti^ 

 vated man of a small party was overhearcl to say to htt 

 companions, "Well, I can't understand how a fish can" 

 open its mouth in that way without getting the waten 

 into its lungs." The fact that fish should have theii 

 mouths open in the water excites continual surprise, anc? 

 the motion of the gill covers is often taken to mean some 

 distressing contlition, the function of the gills not being 

 generally understood. It is quite a common belief the 

 gills are mere strainers, solely of use in catching food 

 and that the fish are able to extract animalcule life o> 

 other imperceptible nutriment from the water. In faci 

 this is a very common statement made by dealers in golf 

 fish. "Dick's Encyclopedia of Receipts and Processes' 

 states, concerning the keeping of goldfish: "It is no* 

 good to feed them, as the food will only serve to rendei 

 the water unfit for their existence, and if renewed evert 

 day the water itself furnishes them with enough materia' 

 for their sustenance." 



The fact is, however, that none but the very youngest! 

 fry feed upon anitnalculae except where they are take* 

 with the slimy masses of minute plants upon which manj 

 species feed. The young fry can be seen to catch the! 

 animalculse invisible to the naked eye of man, they nr< 

 doubt having microscopic vision. The gill-rakers winch 

 are, in some species, specially adapted to the purpose, art 

 used as strainers, but it is only creatures above tbe proi 

 tozoa and visible to the naked eye that are thus caught; 

 At all events even quite young fish will starve in wateJ 

 alive with animalculao if not provided with food. 



The manner of reproduction of fishes is also but little 

 understood, and by the way, the fact that the fish egg is 

 transparent and that the little fish may be seen moving 

 about in it furnishes the means of an important objec* 

 lesson in the elemonstration of a great universal physio 1 

 logical fact — the development of all vertebrate life front 

 the egg. The hatching jar is the one place where a per 

 son may be taught the elementary knowledge of the fun 

 damental principles of physiological development. When 

 people realize that the little spheroids of protoplasm oi> 

 the tiny transparent fry in the hatching jars and aquaria 

 grow into the great fish they see in the markets and enjoj 

 on the table, they will have learned something of the! 

 lesson not easily forgotten. In certain seasons the ovs 

 may be seen in the various stages of development frou? 

 that in which the nucleus is first visible to that in whicfc' 

 the little fish may be seen moving about. 



The guides have been heard to point out the anemonet 

 as immature forms of the lobster. A common question 

 concerning the lower forms of acmaria life is, "What dfl 

 they turn into';"' Often otherwise intelligent persons are 1 

 heard detailing to their friends the most astounding met 

 amorphosis and developments of marine animals, rival 

 ing even the mythical origin of the goose from the goose 

 barnacle or the popular horse-hair theory of the develop 

 ment of Oordius aguatieus. 



Be it understood that it is not in a spirit of ridicule thai 

 these things are referred to, but only to show the gen 

 eral ignorance of the subject and the desirability of the 

 development of opportunities for extending such knowl 



Perhaps the funniest question of all, asked in all sin 

 cerity, in a genuine search for information by a person 

 engaged in one branch of fishculture, but unfamiliai 

 with marine fishes, will be received with incredulity 

 We must, however, charitably look upon it as a case osi 

 momentary mental confusion arising from an associatior 

 of the article of commerce of the same name rather than 

 as the dense ignorance implied. The question was 

 "Have you such a fish as the boneless herring?" Fori 

 tunately the person appealed to was not familiar witl 

 marine fishes, and being non-plussed, replied that ht 

 didn't think we had . 



Millions alone will satisfy the average mind in e3ti 

 mating the numbers of fish fry in an aquarium. Half £ 

 million fry but half an inch long, and so transparent ar 

 to be invisible, in an aquarium 5ft. long, 18in. wide anc 

 18in. deep, appear like clouds, literally swarming like: 

 maggots. When carried in cans, four or five millioni 

 make a very large carload. The amount of labor and 

 skill necessary to handle 150 or 200 millions of delicate 

 fry, as is done in the case of the shad and the wlutefis^ 

 by the U. S. Fish Commission alone, and the enormoun 

 space they would occupy if collected together, woulc 

 be difficult to appreciate. Wm, P. SEAL. 



Tp e Best Eishinu Taoklb in the Wori/d 15 t.o l^e found at tlw 

 salesroom of Thtis. J. Oonroy, 65 Fulton street, N. Y. See adver- 

 tisement opposite first page of reading matter.— Adv. 



