Nov. 80, 1890,] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



358 



w nt[d ^iver ^kiting. 



The full texts of the game fish laws of all the States, 

 Territories and British Pro vinces are given in the Book of 

 th e Game Laws. 



VERMONT TROUT. 



WATERBURY, ft, Not. 17.- Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I am pleased to note the communication, 

 "More About Vermont Trout," in your issue of the 13th, 

 and I am glad to have any of my views indorsed by such 

 good authority. Perhaps your correspondent did not 

 understand that my remarks applied to this section of the 

 State only, and for his benefit I explaiu that I am, as 

 earnestly as he can be, in favor of any means that will 

 protect our trout and increase the supply, if possible, but 

 I do not think we are ready for some of the means pro- 

 posed. I should favor the hatchery if the trout it turned 

 out could be protected, but at present I think the money 

 used for the hatchery would do more good if every cent 

 were expended in enforcing the law. If the present law 

 can be enforced, give us the hatchery by all means. 



Of course your correspondent knows the season has 

 been changed, making it from May 1 to Sept. 1, and I 

 agree with him in thinking this a most unwise thing to 

 do. I may be wrong, but I tbink our Vermont trout spawn 

 much earlier than is usual in other sections; and I believe 

 two-thirds of all the trout taken after Aug. 15 will be 

 found nearly ready to spawn. I have taken many as 

 early as July 30 that were full of nearly ripe eggs, and 

 other anglers in this section have had the same experi- 

 ence. Of course this means that millions of eggs will be 

 destroyed by August fishing. However; our legislators 

 may provide for this by making it unlawful for trout to 

 spawn before Jan. 1, and trusting to providence that the 

 measure will be enforced, as they have in case of the 6in. 

 law. I think it is all wrong to allow August fishing at 

 present. It was urged that by changing the season fish- 

 ing through the ice in April would be prevented, but I 

 am sure that for one trout so taken fifty trout nearly ready 

 to spawn will be taken during the last week of August. 



In conversation with one of the commissioners, I was 

 informed that the hatchery would be established, and, 

 with your correspondent, I hope that having gone so far 

 they will try and do something toward enforcing the 

 ti-inch law, as this is the only thing that will save our 

 trout. 



•'Ompumpamoosue's" suggestions are very good, and I 

 wish they could be carried out, but I know of but two 

 newspapers in the State that take any interest in the 

 subject, and they are too busy in the interest of Lake 

 Chamrjlain bass to say much for the trout. But the 

 people in the back towns cannot be "educated" to look 

 favorably on any law that would prevent them from 

 taking all the trout they could get, of any size, or at any 

 time. It is this class who are doing the most of the 

 illegal fishing, and they can't be reached, in many cases, 

 by newspaper articles. The only way to touch this class 

 is through their pockets, and a few arrests would do 

 more good than any amount of "preaching." They 

 should be made to understand that the law is a law, with 

 a big L, and that it would cost them something to disre- 

 gard it. 



I do not know who will do this, certainly not the local 

 wardens. They seem to see little glory or fun in then- 

 business, and they have small chance of getting anything 

 else. Speaking for this section, the local warden system 

 is a failure. I never heard of a complaint or an arrest 

 made by one of them, and they could not lack for work 

 if they wanted it, as the law is openly violated every day. 

 I think if the present Legislature would stop tinkering 

 the lasv and try and devise some means of enforcing such 

 as we have, it would be a benefit to the State and a credit 

 to themselves. Lancewood. 



A NEW HYBRID TROUT. 



ON Oct. 12, while at the Sunapee Lake Hatchery, 

 of the New Hampshire Fish Commission, Col. Elliott 

 B. Hodge showed me some very beautiful and fertile 

 hybrid trout. The cross was produced by impregnating 

 eggs of the golden trout (Salvelinus aureolus) with milt 

 of the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), and the ex- 

 amples studied were three years old. The observations 

 were made upon the living fish. 



A male fifteen inches long had the following characters: 

 The upper parts dark grayish olive. Reticulations much 

 fainter than in fontinalis and showing along the entire 

 length. The lower two-thirds of the dorsal are mottled, 

 while the upper third is plain, as in aureolus. Caudal fin 

 like dorsal, with a broad dusky margin. The caudal 

 peduncle is thick and roundish as in aureolus. The pec- 

 toral, ventral and anal fins are all larger than in 

 fontinalis, the spread of the first being not far from 

 5Ain. The milky-white margins of the ventral and anal 

 fins are limited by a black line as in fontinalis: the rest 

 of the ventrals is vermilion, the anal also, but not quite 

 so intense. Sides of body with numerous small crimson 

 spots, above and below the lateral line, much more plenti- 

 ful below. The lower parts are very much as in the dark- 

 colored male fontinalis, peculiar to Sunapee Lake, with a 

 mixture of the orange of aureolus. The branchiostegal 

 membrane is very dark, intermingled with whitish on the 

 portion covering the rays. Caudal fin as in fontinalis, 

 but somewhat larger. Hyoid teeth well developed. Gill- 

 rakers not curled at the tip. 



The female is I3^in. long and the colors of the living 

 fish, in water, were as follows: The ground color a 

 brownish gray, about as in aureolus. Sides of body with 

 numerous pale spots both above and below the lateral 

 line. Back with indistinct reticulations all over resem- 

 bling those of fontinalis. Belly and lower third of sides, 

 to end of anal, orange with a pink tinge. The dorsal fin 

 is dusky as in aureolus, and is without bands or mottl- 

 ings. Caudal fin dusky as in axireolus. Pectoral, ven- 

 tral and anal fins exactly as in aureolus; the broad milky- 

 white margins are not limited by the black streak of fon- 

 tinalis. The shape of all the fins and the form of the 

 body are the same as in aureolus. There is a well devel- 

 oped patch of hyoid teeth. 



From the above descriptions it will be evident that the 

 hybrid shows very little trace of its relation to the brook 

 trout, in which it follows the rule in hybridity as far as 

 my own investigations may be taken as a guide, all the 

 essentia! characters being denTed from the female when 



crosses are made between two species of the same genus. 

 There is scarcely anything but the reticulations to indi- 

 cate a mixture of brook trout, while the general colora- 

 tion, form of body, size of the scales, shape of fins and 

 structure of the teeth follow the female parent. In this 

 case both parents are small-scaled fish and the hybrid has 

 small scales. When a large-scaled species is crossed with 

 a small-scaled form the result will be a large scaled fish 

 whichever way the cross is made. 



It appears to me a matter of great importance that fish- 

 culturists should put on record their experiments in 

 hybridization and give complete details of such opera- 

 tions. Thi3 is especially desirable in dealing with that 

 most difficult of all families of fresh-water and ana- 

 drornous fishes, the salmon family. T. H. Bean. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



T^R. R. "W. ELLS, of the Geological Survey of the Do- 

 U minion of Canada, has probably had better oppor- 

 tunities of judging of the merits of the different trouting 

 waters in that country than any other living man. There 

 is not a river or lake throughout the Province tha,t he has 

 not floated his canoe on or cast a fly over. He is an ex- 

 cellent angler, and his duties keep him in the wilds of 

 Canada at least five months out of the twelve. In a re- 

 cent conversation he stated that for large speckled trout 

 the Gaspe region went ahead of all others. Sea trout 

 weighing from 4 to ?ibs. were as plentiful in July and 

 August as the most exacting angler could desire, and 

 river trout up to 51bs. in weight were equally common. 



After the latter part of June the Newfoundland coast 

 swarms with salmon and sea trout. In Hall's Bay they 

 can be seen in great schools. The settlers there do not 

 bother with hooks and lines, but use small nets. They 

 catch all they want to use on the table and salt down a 

 supply for the winter. Salmon can be bought along the 

 coast when they are running for seven cents a pound. 



Few, if any of the streams that empty in the bays on 

 the east coast of Newfoundland have ever been fished in 

 by anglers. Once in a while officers from the British 

 men-of-war try them with considerable success. The Red 

 Cross line of steamers that sail from New York to New- 

 foundland ports stop at Pilley's Island at the mouth of 

 Hall's Bay, and their officers say that they often enjoy 

 fine trout fishing, though the steamer does not stop long 

 enough to enable them to go far. The best way wouid be 

 to stop over one steamer and try the different streams. 

 At Pilley's Island the angler can hire a man to take Mm 

 up to Richard Goody ear's attbe head of Hall's Bay, where 

 he will be made welcome and have comfortable quarters. 

 If he stays until Sept. 1 he can enjoy good willow grouse 

 shooting, though that is better further south nearer St. 

 Johns; and after Oct. 1 caribou are in season and very 

 plentiful a few miles back from the coast. If it were not 

 for the great quantities of cod, salmon, trout, capelin and 

 herring, the settlers on the coast (and there are none in 

 the interior) could not exist. These, with caribou in the 

 fall and winter furnish their food supply. Pigs, cows 

 and, in fact, all stock feed on fish very freely: and their 

 flesh tastes very strongly of fish. 



Does the reader ever stop to think at what a fearful 

 cost of human life we enjoy our codfish cakes V Just to 

 think, eighty-nine lives lost from Gloucester alone this 

 past year, to say nothing of the terrible hardships these 

 fishermen must suffer. The writer passed two of them 

 while going to Newfoundland a few weeks ago. It was 

 a terrible night, blowing a gale, great seas running and 

 as dark as Egypt. All we saw were two little gleaming 

 lights, but we knew eaoh light represented a fishing 

 schooner, riding at anchor, far from land and in great 

 danger both from weather and passing steamers. 



The captain said that on the last voyage during a dense 

 fog he was hailed by a dory which they nearly ran down. 

 They had gotten lost from their schooner, and had been 

 without food or water for over twenty-four hours. The 

 captain offered to take them to Halifax, but they refused, 

 saying they would lose their share of the catch if they 

 did not find her again. Whether they did or whether 

 they were lost he never knew. Scarlet-Ibis. 



SOME TEXAS FISHES, 



MR. ALBERT TURPE, writing from Brackettsville, 

 Texas, about the fishes of his vicinity, states that 

 they have various kinds of catfishes, including a slender 

 fish of 80 to 1001 bs., the clumsy mud -cat of the same 

 weight and some smaller sorts. A small black perch, too, 

 is among the native species. Of the gar pikes (Lepidosteus) 

 he recognized four different kinds. They have also the 

 sucker, a fish resembling the German fresh-water barbe, 

 and another resembling the mirror carp. The barbe-like 

 fish lias flesh of good flavor, but is so bony that it is impos- 

 sible to eat it. Mr. Turpe mentions a speckled trout, 

 which resembles the German heeht (pike, Esox lucius) in 

 shape, but does not exceed lib. in weight. This is probably 

 the small pickerel of the region, Esox vermicidatus. The 

 black bass grows to a weight of 61bs. A silvery fish reach- 

 ing 31bs. in weight, is thin-bodied, has a deeply-forked 

 tail-fin, and in form resembles the German bleu, known 

 in England as the bream. Mr. Turpe describes it as being 

 more compressed than the bream. It has well-flavored 

 flesh, but is so full of small bones that it is not used for 

 food. This may be a species of carp-sucker (C'arpiodes). 



The cold season sets in about Nov. 1 and the fish ceases 

 to bite, but in the spring the sport with hook and line will 

 be renewed. 



Utah Fishing. — Ogden City, Utah.— Carp were placed 

 in a few private ponds several years ago, now they are 

 found in every slough and stream not too salt for them, 

 but the anglers do not care to fish for carp, trout are good 

 enough for most sportsmen. We have two streams here 

 and good trout fishing at our doors. There are two kinds 

 of trout, one of them called the brook trout and the other 

 known as salmon, which grows to a weight of 5 or 61bs., 

 the brook trout not exceeding lib. We have, also, a 

 herring in the rivers: this does not readily take the fly; 

 it is fished for mostly with bottom bait. The herring 

 reaches 21bs. in weight. There are some deer back in the 

 mountains and a bear is seen once in a while. — W. D. C. 

 [The herring referred to is doubtless Williamson's white- 

 fish (Co regonus ivUliamsoni), sometimes called grayling: it 

 has been mentioned in these columns as a fish, that some- 

 times ta.kes the fly.] 



"GRANNY SHEPARD." 



WHEN I was a boy about twelve years of age I 

 lived in a little town in southwest Geoi'gia, right in 

 the midst of a fine fishing ground surrounded on all sides 

 by large bold running streams, well stocked with all 

 kinds of fish peculiar to that section. One of the noted 

 characters of the village was Old Mother Shepard. 

 "Granny Shepard," as she was usually called, was about 

 80 years old at that time, and had from childhood spent 

 the most of her life in the wild wood or on the bank of 

 some familiar stream with her rod and line. She always 

 walked on these expeditions, often tripping her way 

 lightly for five or six miles through some narrow path 

 with her long bamboo rod and a well-filled sack of tackle 

 and lunch slung across her shoulder. Sometimes she was 

 accompanied by other disciples of Walton, but as often 

 alone. 



Granny was a believer in the signs of the moon and 

 would never venture off with the intention of catching 

 any fish unless the moon was right. 



One Saturday during vacation, having got the consent 

 Of our parents, my younger brother and I repaired to 

 Granny's house and persuaded her to go with us over to 

 the Natchaway Creek, about three miles, for a fish. But 

 the moon was not right, Granny said, and it was with 

 great difficulty that we persuaded her off, and then she 

 went more to pacify us than anything else. We arrived 

 at the creek about 9 o'clock and Granny led the way down 

 the creek to one of her favorite hoks, which she said she 

 had kept baited for suckers. Everything was ready in a 

 few minutes, and the old lady had a hard time keeping 

 us boys from running around/as we were like young deer 

 just turned loose, and wanted exercise. Granny settled 

 herself snugly on a cypress tree, drew forth her long pipe 

 and began fishing for suckers, while my brother and I 

 fished along the bank with short poles for trout and pike. 

 In a few minutes I brought to hand a nice 24lbs. trout 

 (bass) with my minnow hook while fishing for bait. The 

 next was a large jack fish flirted out by my brother; he 

 bad started the pole with a jerk which sent the fish some 

 ten steps back in the brush. We kept up this lick for 

 about two hours, when we had about all the fish we could 

 carry on a pole laid across our shoulders, and returned to 

 wmere Granny was still patiently waiting for a sucker 

 bite, but really not expecting it, for the moon was not 

 right. We had caught all the fish needed , so the party 

 returned home by one o'clock. But Granny never could 

 explain how the two "fidgety" boys caught so many fish 

 on that day. Nor can I account for it. They seemed so 

 eager to bite that they wovdd almost jump out of the 

 water after the bait, and although I have wet my hook 

 in many waters since then, I have never caught so nice a 

 string in so short a time, and my memory will ever 

 cherish good old Grandma Shepard, the south Georgia 

 waters, and the Saturday's fishing. T. J. SKAGGS. 

 BeevilTjE, Texas. 



STRIPED BASS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 



SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 7, 1890.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: The noble striped bass planted in the Bay 

 of San Francisco near Vallejo several years ago, 

 have recently made their appearance in the tributaries 

 of the Bay. In the Sacramento River and Sonoma 

 and Lagunitas creeks large numbers of young striped 

 bass averaging from 6 to 9in. are reported from so many 

 different sources that their presence in these waters no 

 longer remains doubtful. On the 4th or 5th of this month 

 Mr. Cullandan, of the Fish Commission, arrested a China- 

 man with twenty or more of these young fish in his pos- 

 session, he having taken them in a net. He is now in 

 custody aw r aiting trial, and as the evidence is absolutely 

 positive and the Commission has the opportunity to make 

 an example of him, it is highly probable much "good will 

 be accomplished. 



The law provides that no striped bass of less than 81bs. 

 weight shall be offered for sale in California. As a most 

 vigilant watch is kept on the San Francisco markets, the 

 Italian and Chinese fishermen have been sending the 

 young striped bass to small inland towns during the pres- 

 ent season: and now that they know the Commission is 

 informed of their doings, and will punish them to the 

 full extent of the law, the illegal fishing will be prac- 

 tically abandoned. 



During the past two years several very large striped 

 bass have been sent to this city by the market fishermen 

 (one weighing 401bs.). The sight of these carried many 

 of our local sportsmen back to their youthful clays on the 

 Atlantic coast and fairly electrified them with enthusi- 

 asm. With hastily improvised rigs — and every kind of 

 bait they could think of —each of them selected what 

 seemed to him to be the most favorable water and fished 

 it with a faithfulness fully worthy of the object — out of 

 view. They tried it on all the quarters and between all 

 the quarters of the moon, at mid-day, night and early 

 morn, at ebb tide, flood tide, slack tide, high tide large 

 and low tide small, caught and landed some of every- 

 thing in these waters, from a bullhead to a skate, but 

 never had a strike from the prince of game fishes. 

 , The only one known to have been taken with hook and 

 line was caught about a week ago in Russian River near 

 Guerniville (about fifty miles above tide water), by Dr. 

 Dean of this city. This was a landlocked fish weighing 

 about 4lbs., and measured about 15in. in length. The 

 Doctor was casting a live minnow for black bass and had 

 out about 60ft. of line. He credits this pioneer victim 

 with the skillful use of all tactics known to his kind, and 

 says it was the gamest fish he ever killed . 



The rocky shores on each side of the Golden Gate, and 

 around the islands in the bay furnish an abundance 

 of "lively" ' water, and the natural stands for casting 

 being all that can be desired, we anticipate royal sport 

 within a year or two — when the present stock of young 

 bass has matured. Harry Elwood. 



Fishing About Washington.— The black bass fishing 

 this fall has been so poor in the upper Potomac that 

 many anglers have turned their attention to less preten- 

 tious waters nearer Washington city. In Rock Creek 

 considerable sport has been obtained above Pierce's mill 

 in fishing for fall fi3h (Semotilus bullaris). According to 

 the Evening Star a party of fishermen recently caught 

 twenty-three of these fish in a day, the largest of them 

 measuring lGin. in length. The baits used were grub- 

 worms and grasshoppers, and the fish were pronounced 

 to have as good game qualities as the black bass. A pick- 

 erel 16in. long was taken in the eastern branch of thi? 

 Potomap, at Benpjng's bridge, a f>w davs ago, 



