JAN. U, 1892.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



83 



region if it exists elsewhere. This is an example of the 

 confusion resulting from the superabundance of common 

 names of our fish. Undoubtedly the Adirondack frost- 

 fish is described and perhaps figured under a different 

 name, if we could trace it to the closet of the scientist; 

 and it is a little strange that in this day when common 

 names have been so carefully gathered, that this particu- 

 lar name, so generally applied to a fish over an extensive 

 region, should have escaped being tagged to the scien- 

 tific name of the fish. Still prosecuting the search, we 

 find that in 1882 the superintendent of the Adirondack 

 Survey requested Mr. Fred Mather to investigate the 

 waters of the Adirondacks and make a report upon the 

 fishes and other aquatic life, to be published in the appen- 

 dix of the twelfth report of the Survey. The latter re- 

 port has not yet been printed, but copies of Mr. Mather's 

 paper have been printed as an extract in advance of the 

 report, and in this we at last find the only connecting 

 link between the Adirondack frost-fish and its classified 

 name. 



Mr. Mather recognized the frost-fish as the Coregonus 

 <{vadrilateralis of Richardson, Coregonus novae -anglice 



was called a whitefish when found in Lake George, and 

 even now that name is applied, except by guides who 

 have seen the frost-fish in the Adirondacks and recog- 

 nized it as the whitefish of Lake George. As soon as the 

 ice disappears from the lake, frost-fish and lake trout 

 make their appearance at the surface and remain for a 

 few days. Perhaps I should use the past tense in writing 

 of f rost-fi8h in Lake George, for their ranks have been 

 sadly depleted, and another whitefish has been introduced 

 into the lake. The adult and young frost-fish comes to 

 the surface at the same time. The adult fish are easily 

 seen as they disturb the calm water, but it requires a 

 keen and practical eye to discover the fry in the water. 

 "When a trout is taken, however, its maw may be filled 

 with the little fish, their bodies scarcely an inch long and 

 almost transparent. 



In 1878 100,000 eggs of the lake whitefish (C. etupeifor- 

 mis) were hatched and planted in Lake George, as it 

 was thought that the frost- fish were becoming extinct. 

 After a few years the result of this plant was noticed, or 

 at least fishermen thought they noticed new schools of a 

 larger whitefish in the spring at the surface. One even- 



Round Whitefish or Frost-Fish (Coregonus quadrilateralis). 



of Prescott, Prosopium guadrilaterale (Rich.) Milner. It 

 is the shad-waiter of New Hampshire, Menomonee 

 whitefish, roundfish, pilot-fish and chivey of New 

 England. No wonder that with eo many names that of 

 fro3t-fish was considered superfluous. Jordan and Gil- 

 bert describe the Adirondack frost-fish under the name 

 of round whitefish, etc., as "Body elongate, not elevated 

 nor much compressed , the back" rather broad, the form 

 more terete than in any of the other species. Mouth 

 very small and narrow, inferior, the broad maxillary not 

 reaching to opposite the eye, 5i in head. Head long, the 

 snout compressed and bluntly pointed, its tip not below 

 level of eye; profile not strongly decurved. Preorbital 

 wider than pupil. Mandible originating under middle of 

 eve, 3Hn head. Adipose fin small. * * * Head 5 in 

 length; depth 4£. D. 11; A. 10; scales 9-bO to 90 8. Color 



can find of the "frost-fish" or round whitefish is in Dr. 

 T. H- Bean's paper, "The Alaskan Salmon and their 

 Allies," Washington, 1890. Dr. Bean says: "This fish 

 does not reach a large siz^, seldom exceeding 21bs. in 

 weight, but it is very abundant and very palatable, and 

 consequently it is an important food resource." Of its 

 distribution Dr. Bean says that it "extends through the 

 upper Great Like region, the Northwest Territory and 

 other parts of British Columbia into Alaska. Specimens 

 have been obtained as far north as the Kuwuk or Put- 

 nam River, a tributary of Hotham Inlet." 



Jordan, in "The Lesser White-Fishes," says: "The only 

 name which I have heard applied to this fish is that of 

 'Menomonee whitefish.' The name of 'roundfish' is given 

 to it bv Richardson, and that of 'shad waiter' by Pres- 

 cott. * * * I know nothing of its breeding habits." 



In the foregoing I have quoted nearly everything that 

 I can find that has been printed about C, quadrilateralis, 

 either as a frost-fish or round whitefish. 



In the Adirondacks the frost-fish is found in nearly all 

 the waters that contain lake trout. In some lakes they 

 have been planted, in others they were found originally. 

 They are also native to the waters of Lake George. I 

 know of no waters in which they existed in greater pro- 

 fusion than in Raquette and Blue Mountain lakes, nor do 

 I know of waters in which greater numbers have been 

 taken for food. It is customary to say that they run 

 from one-half to three-quarters of a pound in weight, but 

 I think that if the fish were placed on the scales they 

 would fall short of that average. They are so long and 

 slender that one is apt to overestimate their weight, the 

 length being the striking feature. They do, however, as 

 Dr. Bean says, grow to 21bs. 



Little is known of their habits except that for the 

 greater part of the year they remain in the cold water at 

 the deepest parts of the lakes that they inhabit. In the 

 fall, after a few cold nights, they come out of the deep 

 water at night in swarms and head for the brooks which 

 flow into the lakes. Their coming is heralded by a noise, 

 which, on a still evening, has been likened to the patter 

 of rain or hail on a tin roof, and is made by flapping the 

 tail on the surface of the still water as with curved bodies 

 the school leaps above the water only to plunge back 

 again. This flap, flap, flap of single fish, or one grand 

 flap of hundreds of fish in unison, can be heard for a long 

 distance if there is no air stirring, and it is a weird 

 sound at night. The great schools of frost-fish make 

 their way into the streams, crowding and pushing each 

 other in their haste to spawn, and in the morning they 

 are gone. It is at this time, and this time only, that they 

 are caught in nets and traps and salted for winter use. 

 I have known of but two instances of frost-fish taking a 

 baited hook, and both were in winter while fishing in 

 deep water through the ice for other fish. It has hap- 

 pened to several fishermen to see large schools 

 of frost-fish in winter by looking into holes cut 

 in the ice for perch fishing, and those who have 

 thus seen them report that they swarm past the 

 point of observation solidly massed in a procession 

 that seemed to be endless. They moved slowly, but 

 steadily, like well-drilled troops and paid not the least at- 

 tention to a baited hook lowered into their ranks. One 

 statement quoted above is that the frost fish is never se en 

 except in the autumn, when the fcpoolg come into the 

 streams to spawn. This is not true'of the frost-fish of 

 Lake George, for in this lake they come to the surface in 

 the spring when the ice first goes out. For years this fish 



ing in July last I was rowing across Lake George to 

 Caldwell, where I was astonished to hear the flap," flap, 

 flap, that is associated with the frost-fish, and the sur- 

 face of the water appeared to be fairly alive with the fish 

 that made the noise. After that I heard them often at 

 night, and saw them frequently during the day, and the 

 sound and sight continued through July, August and 

 September. The question with me was: what fish is it? 

 I could see schools and schools of these in every direction 

 leaping out of the water, their bodies glistening in the 

 sun, but I could not catch a single one. They might be 

 frost-fish or they might be the lake whitefish, for cer- 

 tainly they were one or the other. One day coming up 

 the lake on a steam yacht, the pilot, an old fisherman, 

 and one who had fished Adirondack lakes as well as 

 Lake Georsre, asked if I had noticed the "frost-fish" 

 jumping off Crosbyside Point. I told him that I had 

 noticed the fish all over the water at trie head of the lake, 

 but I was not at all sure that they were frost-fish, and if 

 they were their habits must have changed in a radical 

 manner to be jumping at the surface in July and August, 

 and jumping in the day as well as at night. My belief 

 was that the fish were whitefish that had been plauted 

 rather than frost-fish native to the lake. I made some 

 inquiries to find if the fish had been seen jumping in other 

 parts of the lake, and could not find that they had been 

 noticed at the northern part of the lake, which would be 

 the most likely place to find them. 



While trying in every possible wav to support mv be- 

 lief that these fish were the lake whitefish rather "than 

 the frost-fish, J recalled the report that the United States 

 Fish Commission had made a plant of whitefish fry in 

 Lake George some years after the plant made by' the 

 State in 1878 and wrote to Chief Clerk J. J. O'Connor 

 asking if he would havf the records examined concern- 

 ing such a plant. Mr. O'Connor wrote that after a care- 

 ful search of the records in the office at Washington it 

 was found that in February and March, 1887, the TJ. S. 

 Fish Commission had deposited 761,000 whitefish fry in 

 Lake George at Caldwell Station. Caldwell Station is at 

 the head of the lake just where I saw the jumping fish, 

 which I am now satisfied beyond doubt were whitefish 

 (C clupeiformis). The fish seen were young, some schools 

 made up of numbers four or five inches long and others 

 of double that length. That they have propagated and 

 thriven is evidenced by the fact that on one still day I 

 went up on high ground and as far as the eye could reach 

 looking down the water was agitated by whitefish 

 breaking the surface. In jumping they made the same 

 flapping noise as the frost-fish and at night one would 

 unhesitatingly call them frost-fish. A, N. C. 



SNIGGERING AND GUDDL1NG. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I never heard the term "sniggering" used in England 

 for what is here said to be "jigging" (your note in issue 

 for Dec. 31), but have always heard "snatching" for this 

 process. 



"Sniggling" is a method of catching eels by means of 

 a needle passed into a worm. 



"Trimmering" is a set line with one or two hooks for 

 fish of prey. 



"Leistering" is a form of spearing. 



"Tickling," or in Scotland "guddling," is the taking of 

 trout from beneath a bank by tickling the belly with the 

 fingers and then suddenly clasping the fish and throwing 

 it out. 



"Bobbing" is catching eels with a clot of worms thread- 

 ed on worsted. 



"Dibbling," "daping," "dopping," are convertible ex- 

 pressions for the use of the real insect instead of the arti- 

 ficial in fly-fishing. 



"Lobbing" refers to the use of a bunch of the ordinary 

 garden worms on the hook, 



Doubtless there are other elegant terms in the vocabu- 

 lary of the semi-poacher but I do not recall them now. 

 "Guddling" is distinctly "heathenish," it strikes me. 



J. Harrington Keene. 



Florida Tarpon,— Fort Myers, Jan. 4.— The first tar- 

 pon pf the season was caught by B. QfavleUe on the let 

 mat,, after a fight or about an hour. The fish weighed 

 ISaibs. and was (1ft. 3iu. in length. Ed Law and myself 

 shot 28 quail last Thursday afternoon,— Walter F. 

 Mickle. 



VIRGINIA TROUT AND BASS, 



OWING to its proximity to the mountains, Staunton 

 fishermen have fine trout fishing within a few 

 hours' drive. Shiflet's. on North River, twenty-five 

 miles away, and John Peere and Rodgers's, on Ramsey's 

 Draft, about the same distance, are the favorite streams 

 within easy range, and afford good trout fishing at any 

 time during the season (which begins April 1 and closes 

 Sept. 15); while the mountain streams of West Virginia, 

 some two or three days' drive distant, afford still better 

 fishing. 



Owing to the lateness of the season and the unusually 

 heavy snows of the winter, which lingered long in the 

 mountain gorges and kept the streams full until late in 

 the spring, but little fishing was done before May and 

 June. The Greenbrier Club, composed of Messrs. R. P. 

 Bell, George Beall, Capt, Jas. Bumgardner, C. L. Cooke, 

 F. R. Webb and W. L. Weller, made their annual trip to 

 the headwaters of the Greenbrier River in West Virginia 

 in June, where they met with their usual success. I have 

 not their score at hand, but the catch was considerably 

 over 1,000 trout in six days' fishing, averaging in size 

 from 6 to 12in.; all fish under 6in. are returned to the 

 water. This club is a regular organization and owns a 

 complete camping outfit, and makes this trip every year, 

 some ten or twelve'days being devoted to the trip, in- 

 cluding the time spent in going and coming. I think the 

 time chosen by the club is a little early for the best fly- 

 fishing, although the fish ri3e freely. Nevertheless the 

 barnyard hackle seems to be preferred by the fish. 



They are somewhat capricious in their tastes, for in 

 1890 the favorite flies were the royal-coachman, queen-of- 

 the-waters, professor and other bright flies on No. 6 and 

 8 hooks; this season the black-gnat, brown and black- 

 hackles and other dark flies on very small hooks proved 

 the most killing. The conditions of water and weather 

 were about the same. 



The fish commissioner, Dr. Henkel, with Messrs. W. 

 W. Gibbs, Hampton Wayt and Mr. Davis, from Balti- 

 more, visited the Greenbrier about June 1, a week or 

 more ahead of the Greenbrier Club, stopping at Traveler's 

 Repose, hut they found the river high,' and consequently 

 did not meet with much success. 



Several successful trips were made during the summer 

 by vfu-ious parties to the nearby streams — North River 

 and Ramsey's Draft. 



Messrs. C. L. Cooke, George Beall and F. R. Webb, of 

 the Shenandoah Canoe Club, enjoyed some very fine bass 

 fishing while on their annual cruise of two weeks on the 

 Shenandoah River last August. The bass were plentiful 

 and of good average size, and rose freely to the fly. The 

 most killing flies proved to be the Parmachene-belle, 

 professor and Governor- Alvord, with the preference for 

 the dark fly. The largest bass was taken by Mr. Beall 

 and weighed libs. The Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers 

 afford fine bass fishing, with the great drawback that both 

 rivers are quickly affected by the rains and seldom stay 

 clear long at a time; both are'more apt to be clear late in 

 the summer, say in August and September, than during 

 the earlier months. Shendun, Elkton, Bear, Lithia 

 Springs, Shenandoah, Luray (three miles from the river), 

 Front Royal and Charlestown (three miles from the river) 

 are the best points for the stranger desirous of fishing the 

 Shenandoah to stop, and all afford good hotel accommoda- 

 tions as well as railroad facilities. Commodore. 



MINNESOTA ICE FISHING. 



Vf INNEAPOLIS, Minn , Dec. 31.— Editor Forest and 

 LvX Stream: I send you an account of the case of the 

 State of Minnesota vs. Cbas. Crigo and W. H. Wixon. ' 

 The parties were first arrested at the lake and tried before 

 a local justice, who found no case. Game Warden Stet- 

 son then brought them to the city, with the result that 

 Judge Elliott found as follows: 



"In order to discover what is inconsistent we must 

 clearly understand what at that time was the existing 

 law. Tbe various statutes which have been passed con- 

 tained no express repealing clauses, but by necessary im- 

 plication they had. operated to repeal various parts of prior 

 statutes until at the time of the special act of 1891 the 

 law seems to have been as follows: 



"First— It was lawful to take fish with hook and line 

 only during the months of June, July, August, Septem- 

 ber, October and Novembei-. 



"Second— It was unlawful to take fish in any manner 

 luring the months of December, January, February, 

 March, April and May. 



"Third— It was unlawful to take fish in any manner, 

 except with hook and line, at any time. 



"Fourth— It was unlawful for any person to construct 

 or maintain any trap, net or other contrivance across any 

 stream, creek or other narrow passage of water, so as to 

 obstruct the passage of fish therein. 



"Fifth — It was unlawful for any person to build, erect, 

 maintain or use a fish house, or any house, building, shed, 

 tent or structure of any kind upon the ice on any lake or 

 its inlets or outlets, or any river, creek or stream in Hen- 

 nepin county for the purpose of catching fish, either with 

 hook and line or any other device, or for the purpose of 

 killing or destroying fish in any manner. 



"This is simply a restatment of the existing law. An 

 act making it unlawful to take fish 'otherwise than with 

 hook and line' is not inconsistent with the existing law. 

 The only effective part of the act of 1891, that is the only 

 part in conflict with the existing law, is the penalty. 



"Such being the state of the law the prosecution against 

 the defendants can be maintained, and if convicted the 

 provision of the act of 1891 would govern as to the pen- 

 alt v." 



The penalty is a fine of from $20 to §50, or 60 days in 

 jail. The defendants were fined $35. In giving his de- 

 cision Judge Elliott stated that it was his purpose to make 

 the fish laws of the county clear, as he thought they were 

 not properly understood, w. F. D. 



Potomac River Fishing.— Christmas week a lib, bass 

 was taken at the mouth of Muddy Branch, near the Great 

 Falls of the Potomac, and prospects for some fair fishing 

 wecfe good until the heavy rainfall of the 25th and 26tb. 

 This settled the angling here for the season. Quite a 

 number of yellow perch and the common sunfish were 

 taken along the Virginia shore opposite Washington late 

 in December. The perch are full of roe, considerable of 

 which is found for sale in the market. 



