Oct. 2, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



211 



long-named but never described Glanis aristotelis is. 

 "Writers generally bave considered the Grecian fish to be 

 identical with the common Silurus, notwithstanding Prof. 

 I Agassiz's expressed views, but there is grave doubt not- 

 withstanding. Indeed, years before Agassiz (in 1839) the 

 illustrious Johannes Midler had called attention to 

 discrepancies between the notices of Aristotle. It 

 should be added that Aristotle has given no consecu- 

 tive account of the Glanis, but simply noticed some of 

 its characters in comparison with other fishes, 



Aristotle in one place (I. , 5, 3} compared with its tail that 

 of the Cordylus; in another (II., 9, 4) he states that there 

 were two rows of filaments to each of the gills except 

 the last; and in another (II., 11, 7) that the gall bladder 

 is on the liver. A curious observation is made in still 

 another place (VIII., .20,12). The Glanis, "about the 

 time of the dog star, by reason of swimming on the sur- 

 face, becomes sunstruck, and is stupefied by loud thun- 

 der; and many Glanides in shallow water perish by the 

 bite of snakes." 



The longest notice given by Aristotle relates to the 

 habits of the Glanis, and is to be found in the ninth bonk 

 of his "History of Animals" (VI., chap. 13, § 2 6 and IX., 

 chap. 25, § 6). It will doubtless interest most of the 

 readers of Forest and Stream to see how a naturalist 

 over 2,200 years ago treated of a common fish of his own 

 country : 



"The fresh- water fishes spawn in the still waters of 

 riv ere and lakes among the reeds, the Phoxinos [Phoxin us] 

 and the Perke [perch]. The Glanis and the Perke give 

 out their spawn in a continuous string, like the frogs; 

 and indeed the spawn is so wound up that the fishermen 

 reel it off, at least that of the Perke, from the reeds in 

 lakes. 



"The larger Glanis spawns in deep waters, some at the 

 depth of a fathom; the smaller in shallower places, 

 especially among the roots of willows or some other tree, 

 and also among the reeds, or the mosses. * * * All the eggs 

 that are mingled with the sperma become generally on 

 the first day white and larger, and a little later the eyes 

 of the fishes become visible. These at first. in_all fishes, 

 as also in all animals, are early conspicuous on account of 

 their size. And those of the eggs that the sperm does not 

 touch, as in the case of the sea-fishes, are useless and 

 sterile. But in these fertile eggs, as the fishes grow larger, 

 a kind of husk separates, and this is the envelope that 

 encloses the egg and the young fish. When the sperm has 

 mingled with the egg, the spawn becomes more viscous 

 among the roots, or wherever it may have been deposited. 

 And where the greatest quantity is deposited, the male 

 guards the eggs, and the female, having spawned, departs. 

 The growth of the Glanis from the egg is very slow, 

 wherefore the male keeps watch for forty or fifty days, 

 that the young may not be devoured by the fishes that 

 happen to be in their neighborhood. 



"Of the river fishes, the, male Giants takes great care 

 of its young. For the female, having brought forth, 

 departs: but the male, where the greatest deposit of eggs 

 has been formed, remains by them watching, rendering 

 no other service except keeping other fishes from destroy- 

 ing the young. He does this for forty or fifty days until 

 the young are sufficiently grown to escape from the other 

 fishes. And he is known to the fishermen, wherever he 

 may chance to be watching his eggs, for he keeps off the 

 fishes by rushing" movements, and by making a noise and 

 moaning. And he remains by the eggs with so much of 

 natural affection that the fishermen, when the eggs 

 adhere to deep roots, bring them up to the shallowest 

 place they can; but he does not even then leave his off- 

 spring; but if he chances to be a young fish, he is easily 

 taken by the hook, because he snaps at all the fishes that 

 approach him; but if he is already accustomed to this and 

 has swallowed hooks before, he does not even then desert 

 his young, but breaks the hook by a very strong bite. " 



Theo. Giuu 



THE BRANCH ALEWIFE. 



TT17E have received from a correspondent at Eaton, 

 V Y Madison county, N. Y., a specimen of the branch 

 alewife, which is found in a pond near the village, but 

 makes its appearance near the shore only at the spawn- 

 ing season in early spring. The accompanying letter, 

 herewith quoted, will explain the circumstances attending 

 the capture and give some insight into the habits of the 

 fish. Our correspondent writes under date of Sept. 12: 



"I send you a peculiar fish, and my object is to learn 

 just what species of fish it is. Near this village of Eaton 

 is a pond called Woodman's Pond. In days gone by it 

 has been used as a feeder for the old Chenango canal. 

 This pond it is that contains this, to us, unknown fish. 

 Never seen except in early spring or frozen in the ice, it 

 has been a difficult task to secure one for your inspection, 

 which I determined to do two or three years ago. Yes- 

 terday one of our local fishermen, who was fishing in 

 this pond, observed this fish and secured it for me. It 

 jumped a foot or more from the water and where it is 

 40ft. deep. You can see from the marks upon its body 

 that it only came to the surface because badly wounded ; 

 and in fact it lived but a short time after being found, 

 although kept in the water. This pond contains, besides 

 pickerel, large-mouth black bass, some of them growing 

 to the immense size of 7f lbs. But few are ever caught 

 on hook and line, and we think it is owing to the abund- 

 ance of the fish I send you, which are from 2 to 8in. long. 

 Could we only secure this small fish for use as bait 

 we all believe we could catch some of these large bass. 

 Will you kindly drop me a line telling me the kind of 

 fish this is, and also the best way of securing them for 

 bait?— 0. L. H." 



The branch alewife (Cliopea vernalis) lives in Lake 

 Ontario, and in many inland lakes of western New York, 

 wherein it is land-locked. This is one of the fishes, like 

 the shad, that ascends rivers early in the spring from the 

 sea for the purpose of spawning. Unless prevented by 

 obstructions, it will push on to the headwaters of streams 

 and into tributaries. Under ordinary circumstances the 

 alewife would return to salt water in the middle of 

 summer or early in the fall accompanied or followed by 

 its young, which have attained to a length of several 

 inches. Many of the fish die after spawning, and this is 

 true of the shad also. When land-locked, instead of re- 

 turning to the sea, the fish moves toward deeper parts of 

 the lake, and is supposed to undergo a sort of hibernation 

 in winter. In the St. Lawrence this alewife, under the 

 name of gaspereau, has a record of taking artificial flies 

 with avidity, as set forth in Forest and Stream some 

 years ago. The example received from SJaton is 7$in. 



long, and a very piuuip male, with the spermaries far 

 from maturity. The thickness of the body is noticeable, 

 and indicates an abundance of invertebrate life in Wood- 

 man's Pond suitable as food for small-mouthed fishes like 

 this httle herring. The alewife, on the other band, is a 

 choice morsel for the big black bass, for which the pond 

 is famous. For a full account of the alewife in lakes of 

 western New York, consult the "Fisherv Industries of the 

 United States," Section I. 



THE CLUBS OF THE ST. CLAIR FLATS. 



VI.— THE PENINSULA CLUB. 



AFTER leaving Rushmere Club there is no other club 

 building for some distance up the river. The right 

 hand bank of the river presents the same expanse of rice 

 and reeds, but that on the left— the strip of made land- 

 is pretty well built up with structures large and small, 

 public or private. The first building beyond the cut-off 

 is the tasty twelve-rooms cottage of Mr. Wm. A. Butler 

 and sons, of Detroit, which was planned by Mr. Varney and 

 built before Rushmere club. Then there* comes the long 

 water front known as "Keweena Island Dock." There 

 is no building here yet, unless one except the bath houses 

 at the back of the "island." Our yacht lay anchored 

 just back of this spot, and in passing to and fro here in 

 the duckboat we could not help observing what a good 

 bathing beach there was here, the water being shallow 

 for a long way out, and bottom for the most part good. 



Beyond " Keweena Island " is another deep cut-off, 

 which serves as the boat canal for the boat houses of the 

 well-known Star Island House, the largest, neatest and 

 most desirable socially of all the public resorts in this 

 portion of the Flats. The Star Island grounds embrace 

 29 acres, well shaded and with an admirable turf. The 

 house is 158x150, built in cross-shape. Its dining-room 

 is 158ft. long and a fine room. It often sees 200 guests at 

 table. Jim Slocum— or may be, as he seems to be pretty 

 well fixed financially, I ought to call him Mr. James 

 Slocum— bought this property about 9 years ago. The 

 house is 12 years old. Much of the popularity of the 

 place is due to Mr. Slocum's tact and ability as a manager. 

 This is a great stopping place for the pleasure vessels, 

 which pass up and down the channel from all parts of the 

 waters hereabout. Some of the notables and would-be 

 notables drift in here occasionally to eat fish and put on 

 airs. It was our fortune to see here a certain American 

 tenor, with an Italian tenor's stomach, who has lately 

 achieved success by marrying a rich and weighty wife 

 who paid an opera company to let her new husband sing 

 in the cast for a while. One could not soon forget the 

 large and princely air with which this celebrity waved 

 adieu to Star Island from the deck of the receding 

 steamer. After the custom of "resorters." from Horicon 

 west, the populace had gathered to see the boat off. The 

 tenor thought they came to see him off, and smiled gra- 

 ciously as he stood spraddled out at the rail and waved 

 his gloved hands. That made me laugh, which did my 

 dyspepsia good. So it seems that tenors can be of some 

 use after all. 



Mr. Slocum sometimes uses l,3001bs. of fish in one day 

 on his tables and has had 625 guests at one meal. He 

 sometimes uses bass, illegally speai-ed. I know this, be- 

 cause I saw a French fisher boy sell such bass there, dur- 

 ing our stay, which was in May. There is much com- 

 plaint along the Flats that such and such an individual 

 buys speared bass, and so offers a market to the Indian 

 and French law-breakers. It is probable that one corn- 

 plainer is about as deep in it as another and all of them 

 a great deal deeper than they ought to be. Old Joe 

 Bedore isn't the only man along the channel who buys 

 illegal bass and there don't anybody need think so. In 

 an article last spring I described a string of speared bass 

 that I saw sold at the Peninsula Club. At that time the 

 bass were beginning to spawn in the shallows baclr of the 

 marsh which lies up toward the latter club house and the 

 French fishers were spearing them there, if the lights out 

 at night were any sign. And every market fisher of 

 them knows that he don't have to go an hour's pull to 

 sell every bass he gets, no matter by what means he gets 

 them. The market is there. Later on some statements 

 will be made comparing the bass fishing of to-day with 

 that of a few years ago. It has already been stated that 

 the falling off of the fishing, or the growth of illegal 

 methods, had caused certain gentlemen of the St. Clair 

 and Rushmere clubs to invite John Parker and Frank 

 Wherry, the game wardens, to make this very trip upon 

 which we had now come up. Let these gentlemen make 

 no mistake about how matters appear to an outsider who 

 spent only one day along the Channel. 



If the bass of the Flats don't go, it will be because there 

 is a change in affairs up there. No steward of a club 

 ought to be guilty of buying a bass. I wish Mr. Slocum, 

 pleasant as he is, and apparently alive to interests wider 

 than those of to-day, would kindly resolve never again to 

 buy at least an illegal bass, and ceasing to turn his head 

 when the native fishers are unloading their boats, would 

 tell them plainly that he would make them trouble, 

 instead of giving them money, if they brought in any 

 more such bass. The same to the Peninsula Club— to 

 which, by devious paths, we are now progressing, not 

 with any ill nature m our minds, let us hope, but with 

 nothing stronger than regret that this club, even in each 

 small respect, is not as strictly admirable as it might be 

 in all matters of sportsmanship. It has few steps to go 

 until it is thus admirable. Why not take them? Why 

 not join with Mr. Slocum, and cut off that much more 

 of the market for bass speared on the spawning beds? It 

 might be thought more friendly, or more discreet, not to 

 say anything about such things here. For the first part, 

 I do not think so; for the latter, I do not care. A news- 

 paper can be too kind, and too discreet. The main thing 

 is the truth. . 



But it is a long way yet to the Peninsula Club by way 

 of the water, as any one may find who paddles , a duck 

 boat against the rapid flood of the blue St, Clair. After 

 the cut-off next above the Star Island house there is 1000 

 of vacant land, its water front all nicely piled and 

 planked. Then there comes another cut-off, with a 

 current like the tide at sea. Just across this is the summer 

 cottage of Mr. Hiram Stansell, of Detroit. There is a big 

 horseshoe of water clear about the place. Over the next 

 cu t is the cottage of John and Wm. Boydell, of Detroit, 

 said to be the first private house ever built on the Flats. 

 I tied up here a few moments and talked with Mr. Boy- 

 dell. who, with his two manly young boys, was just fixing 

 up his Httle steam yacht for a run. He kindly offered to 



pick me up, further on up the river, and take me over to 

 the Canada Club, whose housetop we could just see from 

 this portion of the bend, but which I was doubtful about 

 reaching that night in the cluck boat. This seemed a very 

 clever offer to a perfect stranger, and I gladly accepted 

 it. He overtook me about an hour later, up the channel, 

 saved me a lot of time and gave me a very pleasant ride, 

 too. 



Above the Boydell place is a cut, then comes 450 

 of vacant land, owned by the Boydells, and then another 

 cut, and then what is called the May berry cottage, built 

 by Mr. W. C. Mayberry, but now owned by Mr. May berry 

 and Mr. J. F. Webber. Then there is another cut for a 

 change. We will get to the Peninsula Club after a while 

 and the man who thinks this is a tough way ought to 

 paddle up there once. Then there is another cut. We 

 are now getting up toward where these cuts run back 

 into a marshier looking sort of country, with channels or 

 runs through it. Then there comes the Sam Craig cot- 

 tage and the Gies cottage, and then another cut, and then 

 the two small cottages of the Holland brothers, and then 

 a cut. Beyond this is the solid and spacious dock of the 

 "Peninsula Fishing, Shooting and Yachting Club." 



Here the reader may pause in the exciting sport of 

 naming cottages and indulge hi the dissipation of a few 

 mild statistics. 



The "Peninsula Club," so called by the public, was or- 

 ganized in October of 1884 and duly incorporated, the 

 incorporators being Messrs. Geo. W. Larkins, John C. 

 Brandon, Emmet Streeter, Aid. C. Lanyon, Thomas A, 

 Woods, Alfred C. Hempel, Henrv Koester, Levi A. Wil- 

 cox, Hobart H. Gray, Frank Bowring, Andrew W. Hack- 

 ett and Alex S. Gray. Stock is held at $50 a share. The 

 membership is limited to 200. There are about 80 mem- 

 bers now. The annual dues are $10. 



The club house is about 40 x 60ft., two stories, very 

 comfortable and provided with good boat houses, which 

 harbor about thirty small boats. Mr. W. R. Cole', one of 

 the members, owns a good little steam yacht, the J. I. C. 

 There are about a dozen bedrooms in the house, and 

 these are not enough to hold everybody sometimes, for 

 now we have fallen upon a club of strictly practical 

 hunters and fishers, who come out when the season is on 

 and work hard for results. 



There has been a good deal of change since the begin- 

 ning in the membership of the Peninsula Club, and also 

 in its character. It is said that there used to be a few 

 men in the club who didn't care very much for either 

 game or fish laws. They would net, spear, shoot out of 

 season,' or do anything else they felt like doing, at least 

 so say their neighbors. And tbese same neighbors say 

 that all that is now changed, and that no such carryings- 

 on now occur. The membership of the Peninsula Club 

 is now certainly of a high order, and is drawn mostly 

 from the ranks of solid business men or those in official 

 capacity. Mr. C. P. Collins, the president, is the able 

 Auditor of Wayne county, and a Detroit man of large 

 business interests. He is a sportsman, and has a big heart 

 for sportsmen, as witness the expensive medal he offered 

 the Peoria Club at their tournament last spring. "Jim" 

 Battle is chief of the Fire Department of Detroit, Mr. Jas. 

 Nagle, I understand, is a State Senator of Michigan, and 

 there are a good many others of the members who live in 

 the court house in working hours. All of the gentlemen 

 I met were courteous and helpful to the last degree. A 

 very whole-souled set of hard-working, practical sports- 

 men. I should take the body of this club to be. Their 

 club house is chiefly for business. The ladies of the club 

 are welcome, but when the flight is on, the decks must be 

 cleared for action. There is considerable summer-day 

 pleasure, sailing, boating, etc. , here ; but this is no sum- 

 mer resort, but a lodge of fieldsmen. Celestine is absent 

 here, but there is some one in the kitchen who can fry 

 perch to the queen's taste, as I found when the steward, 

 Mr. Hodgson, asked me in to supper as I was coming back 

 down the channel later in the day. Mr. Hodgson has 

 been steward for about a year. The basis here is about 

 the same usual elsewhere — the steward has a salary and 

 charges a rate for board, providing his own materials. 

 Mr. Hodgson is a quiet, pleasant young man, and will 

 make the club popular and pleasant. In a talk with him 

 he expressed a knowledge of the lawless depredations 

 being carried on upon the Flats and of the necessity for a 

 proper game warden for that locality if any respect was 

 to be had for the law. 



On the day following my first visit I returned with 

 Messrs. Parker and Wherry, who, as has already been 

 stated, were up purposely to try to find a suitable person 

 to recommend for the position of warden on the Flats. 

 They had a long talk with Mr. Hodgson and I inferred 

 that the latter would be very likely to get the appoint- 

 ment. Tiiis would be very well, and I feel sure that if 

 Mr. Hodgson were backed by the clubs of the Flats, as he 

 should be, he could stop a great deal of lawless destruc- 

 tion of fish and game. The previous warden resigned his 

 commission, or stopped work, simply because he could 

 not afford to do the work for nothing. He was a better 

 warden than he is spoken of as being, but he could not 

 work at this unpleasant business for pleasure, nor could 

 any reasonable man expect it. There seems to be a notion 

 that a game warden should be diligent and active, out in 

 all sorts of weather, after all sorts of characters and 

 should live on the glory of supporting the law. There is 

 no good sense displayed in game law matters. The great 

 and wealthy clubs of the St. Clair Flats don't need to get 

 so very proud of themselves. They have not done their 

 part, but have failed just where they should not have 

 failed. They should certainly be ashamed of themselves 

 if they can not now between them raise enough money 

 to keep at least one warden in the opinion that he is not 

 alone in the work. They would better cut a little ginger 

 bread off from their boathouses and put a little ginger 

 into a place where it is sadly needed. For Mr. Hodgson 

 in this capacity there is this to be said, that his work as 

 steward would not interfere with his work as warden, 

 but help it. Let us hope that he will hold this place and 

 begin a work which has been delayed too long. 



In the next paper or so some description will be given of 

 a few methods of taking bass in these waters, any one of 

 which may be called an unsportsmanlike device, although 

 extremelv deadly in its way. This will be touched upon 

 in the talk about the Delta Club. To the Peninsula Club, 

 with regret that the necessities of Bpace make the men- 

 tion so scant and dry, we must bid a hurried farewell, 

 for we are not yet up to the Southeast Bend and . have 

 BtUl some traveling to do. Following is the membership 

 of Peninsula Club; C. ?. Collin* (president), Harry Hof- 



