162 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 18, 1892, 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[By a Staff Correspondent.] 



MR, JOHN L, STOCKTON is lately back from a trip 

 to Swan Lake Club, of the lower Illinois country. 

 Speaking of the late irnbroglia in which the club's 

 keepers, the Woods boys, were concerned with the warden 

 of the Illinois Valley Protective Association, Mr. Stock- 

 ton says that the boys have done no fishing whatever 

 since then. Yet they tell him that more netting has been 

 and is going on now on the Illinois River than for a long 

 time. They tell him that these nets are plentiful even as 

 high as Peru, the headquarters of the association, and that 

 around Chillicothe and Peoria they are also abundant. 

 The warden at Chillicothe is reported to have a different 

 mode of procedure from that of the association officers. 

 He allows fishing, tells the fishers to sell their netted fish 

 in order to pay their fines, and advised them to use the 

 2in. mesh. This is above the Copperas Creek Dam. This 

 warden, if Mr. Stockton is imformed rightly, is as&uming 

 as correct a construction which the whole eff ort of the 

 Illinois Valley association has been to show incorrect 

 and illegal. The association has hung out the flag to stop 

 all seining whatever above Copperas Creek Dam. It 

 would better interview the Chillicothe warden. Of course, 

 that will be the way to get the case correctly, as it has 

 passed through several bands at this stage, and some of 

 us may have erred unconsciously. Mr. Stockton tells me 

 that, so far as the Woods boys are concerned, he doubts 

 if they fish much more, the tacit feeling of the club being 

 so strongly against even a possibly illegal act of its men. 

 A new ai-rangement for the coming year will be made. 

 Possibly only one of the boys will be retained as keeper, 

 but all these points are not yet determined. 



This seining in the Illinois River will have to come up 

 for judgment some day, for over this question the chief 

 fight is now waging, and will be waged. Stop the sein- 

 ing in the Illinois, and you improve a hundredfold the 

 fishing in a great district of northern and central Illinois. 

 There should be a test case, and if we get beateu, we 

 should go to work and get a better law, or die trying to. 

 I don't believe for a minute in holding back from a test 

 case because of a supposed, weakness of the law. Test the 

 case and test the law. It's no comfort to think that may- 

 be you are standing over a quicksand, though you hope 

 you aren't. Find out, and if you are, get off from over it. 

 The gentle neighbors of the Woods boys had about got 

 them worked up to the point of fighting a test case, but 

 Mr. Stockton showed them they would thus be litigating 

 for a class*, and not for themselves, and so they concluded 

 not to put up all the necessafy funds. As the case stands, 

 the best temporary solution of the whole difficulty at 

 Ssnachwine Lake is to have the Woods boys stop fishing. 

 This solution would be but temporary, however, and I 

 am of the belief that a case ought to go up on the Cop- 

 peras Creek Dam clause, and that at an early date. 



Up above us the ice still holds, and March 1 bids fair 

 to show it covering all the lakes of the Fox Lake region. 

 Mr. Savage, of Lake Marie way, says the residents are 

 getting their tackle ready and are catching their bait for 

 the spring trade. They think the law is not so bad, if the 

 ice will hold a few weeks after March 1. That is the best 

 of the ice fishing season always. 



It is a mournful fact that the glory of the "lower coun- 

 try," or that portion of Indiana and Illinois south of Chi- 

 cago visited by the Chicago Club men, is gradually 

 departing. Tolleston Club by a big fight keeps good 

 shooting, the Kankakee clubs get a little shooting at long 

 intervals and some fishing, Hennepin and Swan Lake also 

 get a little shooting occasionaily. Still, though the 

 thought is reluctant, sport at these places is not what it 

 was, and it is not so certain as to invite a good number 

 of the members even during the fall season. Of the 

 "sandhill" clubs, between the Calumet and the lake, the 

 growth of the city has left practically nothing. At Fox 

 Lake sport is slowly but surety changing into summer 

 resorting. The situation in all this has changed very 

 much indeed even since I made my first studies three 

 years ago among the Chicago clubs. 



The question ensuing upon the above statement of 

 facts, which after a while all will admit to be current, is, 

 Where shall Chicago next turn for her playground? 



I am disposed to think that nature and the lumbermen 

 have already answered that question. Within a night's 

 ride above us, in Wisconsin and Michigan, there are mil- 

 lions and millions of acres of land over which the logger's 

 axe has passed never to return. The timber once taken 

 off, the land has no value. It cannot be farmed. The 

 most pitiable thing in the world is to see a man try to 

 support his family on a pine woods sand farm. The log- 

 ger opened this country, and behind him it is closing. 

 By hundreds and hundreds of miles it is swiftly lapsing 

 again into wilderness, silent and untracked. Nature is 

 trying to forget the lumberman. 



All through much of this region there are streams and 

 lakes which, even treated as they have been, afford bet- 

 ter sport than any below Chicago, and in a wilder, 

 healthier, more fascinating country. The trees, thinned 

 out so terribly, will increase as the logging operations 

 become less and less. In short, there is in this vast wil- 

 derness to the north many and many an opportunity for 

 a magnificent club holding to be obtained at very little 

 cost, perhaps a few cents an acre. 



The Eagle River Fishing and Shooting Club, one season 

 old, is a good index to what may be the next drift of 

 Chicago sportsmanship. They have secured a great tract, 

 northeast of Crosby's, on the heads of the Eagle system, 

 and have gone to work to make a fine place of it. At 

 their meeting last week they votedto erect further build- 

 ings, buy more boats and fix up good quarters for the 

 ladies. In the early spring a road will be cut in from 

 Hemlock station, which will put the club within walking 

 distance of the railway. Tne old road was twenty-two 

 miles. The club has good deer country and plenty of 

 deer, it is Baid, besides seasonable sport at bass, muscal- 

 longe and trout. Mr. Al. Hofmann is to be the president 

 for the coming year, and Mr. Alex. White secretary, 

 Messrs. C. D. Gammon and H. C. Nioholls on the board 

 of directors. I think we shall not only hear more from 

 this club but from others like it. 



The Chicago Fly-Casting Club, as announced in pros- 

 pect, held their meeting Wednesday evening, Feb. 3, at 

 tb-e Grand Pacific, Mr. Harryman, president, in the chair, 

 Mr. Kenyon, secretary, at the table. There were present 

 VIessrs. Geo. Murell, E. E. Wilkinson, H. M. Dann, J. S. 

 liossiter, John Christian, Wm. Krocke, Chas. F. John- 

 son, H. Liphardt, J. M. Clark, 0. Yon Lengerke, Chas. ' 



Antoine and H. Babcock. The constitution as earlier 

 outlinf d was adopted clause by clause, the initiation fee 

 being, however, placed at $2, with annual dues of $1, 

 with membership limited to 100. The club will hold its 

 next meeting the first Wednesday in March. The execu- 

 tive committee chosen, Messrs. Antoine, Rossiter and 

 Murell, were requested to find a place for practice. 

 Messrs. Hough, Strell and Clark were appointed a com- 

 mittee to draft rules for competitions. 



Dr. Bartlett, State Fish Commiisioner, is laboring with 

 the State League question in the lower country, and 

 writes me as follows: 



Qutnct, III., Feb. 3.'— I am making a personal census of the fish- 

 ing clubs with a view to secure an assessment per capita irom 

 each club and try and secure she proposed amount needed before 

 we complete orgauiz-ttion. I have had a talk with two of lhem 

 and wi'h favorable resul's. I have been, however, more than 

 half sick myself for two days and with considerable less inclina- 

 tion han usual for work. I will be in Chicago, all being weil, 

 again some time next week. — S. P. Bartlett. 



Mr. L. R, Brown, of this city, was born under a cloud, 

 and has never emerged from under it. It is his particu- 

 lar notion that he can't touch a fishing rod without 

 breaking it. He went fishing every week last summer, 

 and he broke a rod every time he went. Once he made 

 a special effort, and put his {rod knowingly behind him 

 as he paddled down the river toward home. His paddle 

 caught in something and he gave it a wrench. It was a 

 bight of the line hanging overboard, and it broke the rod 

 short off . "I was afraid of that," said Mr. Brown, and 

 he got another rod. The next day he and his wife went 

 out fishing together, and much to his surprise he got 

 through the day without breaking his new rod. With 

 pride mantling his cheek, he got out of the boat and 

 started to go into the club house, the rod over bis shoul- 

 der. His wife held the door open for him. Mr. Brown 

 got almost through the door with the rod, when there 

 was a slip and a bang, and the spring door closed on 

 about six inches of the tip. That was the nearest Mr. 

 Brown ever came to not breaking a rod. This gave him 

 hope, but he bought no more rods last fall. He ordered 

 a very large, strong, coarse and masculine Belhabara 

 rod, such as no man could break. He ordered it last fall. 

 It got here yesterday. Before a large crowd of friends 

 Mr. Brown took it from the case and passed it around. 

 They tried it admiringly. "You can't break this one, 

 Brown," they said. "No, I should say not," said Mr. 

 Brown, "nobody could." He took it in his hand, looked 

 at it with a proud gleam in his eye, whipped it once or 



twice up and down, and smash! went the rod, square 



off through the second joint! The man who can make 

 Mr. Brown a rod which he can't break will fill an aching 

 void. The funniest thing is, Mr. Brown gets madder and 

 madder every rod he breaks. There is no use for him to 

 kick at his cloud. He will always break rods. Some men 

 are born that way. 



There is coming a vague fever in the air, these many 

 moons in advance. There is a great deal of talk about 

 tackle. I saw a faithful angler yesterday sorting his 

 flies, and figuring just where he was going to make his 

 first cast for bass and what flies he would use for that 

 cast. "It shall be at Kelly's on the Kankakee," said he, 

 "and I shall use silver-doctor for stretcher, with Donald- 

 son above it." E. Hough, 



BOSTON ANGLERS. 



]3LANNING new trips for the coming season, and 

 . the pleasures of anticipation is now almost the sole 

 enjoyment of Boston anglers. Each succeeding year sees 

 a larger number of the disciples of the "gentle Iziak" 

 bound for the early spring fishing in the lakes of Maine 

 and New Hampshire, and there is much speculation just 

 now as to when the ice will go out. Trolling for land- 

 locked salmon and the big lakers, which abound in Sebago 

 and the Rangeley Lakes in Maine, and Winnepasaukee, 

 Newfound and Sunapee lakes in New Hampshire, is ex- 

 citing sport, and the results attained are often more satis- 

 factory than the fishing indulged in later in the season, 

 even though the conditions may not be quite so comforta- 

 ble. Although the breaking up of the ice varies each 

 season with the severity of spring weather, clear water 

 can generally be counted on as certain by the loth or 20th 

 of May at the latest. Arrangements are made to get the 

 news at once by telegraph, and when it comes it is all 

 aboard boys and away for the sport. The different lakes 

 visited depend altogether on the affections of the angler. 

 Some of our Boston fishermen have been for years visit- 

 ing the same waters, and almost always with good results. 

 Others go year after year to different places, and come back 

 well pleased with what they have accomplished. The 

 Rangeley Lakes have the greatest number of devotees of 

 the sport. Among the anglers of the Hub who make a 

 yearly spring pilgrimage to this popular resort are Henry 

 W. Clarke, Mark Hollingaworth, C. W. Glidden, Dr. H. 

 C. Haven, Wm. G. Russell and son, Harry Dutton, State 

 Treasurer Geo. A. Marden, M. N. Smith, A. C. Ashton 

 and son, L. Dana Chapman, G. W. M. Guild, Gov. Wm. 

 E. Russell, Mayor Nathan Matthews, Jr., W. J. Reynolds, 

 and many others almost too numerous to mention. ' Other 

 towns and cities lying close to Boston, also furnish their 

 quota for the early fishing, prominent among which may 

 be mentioned Mr. C. D. Boss, Jr., of New London, Conn.; 

 A. A. and H. C. Sargent, of Haverhill, Mass., who have 

 been going to Rangeley for many years; O. A. Benoit, 

 Worcester, Mass.; G. H. Webster, Haverhill, Mass.; C. 

 W. and J. M. Lasell and G. M. Whitin, of the Whitins- 

 ville Machine Co., Whitinsville, Mass., and A. F. Lamb, 

 of Providence, R. L 



Sebago Lake, Maine, has loomed up during the last 

 four or five years in landlocked salmon fishing, and as it 

 possesses the virtue of being easy of access, it is a favorite 

 place with those who have but little time to spare away 

 from business. Newfound Lake, N. H., has been well 

 stocked for some years past, and is now proving to what 

 a successful issue this kind of work can be brought. Of 

 course it has its off seasons, but almost every spring the 

 yield of fish is quite wonderful. Among those who visit 

 the lake are Col. Bebee of Boston, Dr. Heber Bishop, one 

 of the best known sportsmen in the Hub, Frank W. Ben- 

 son, Philip Little and W. S. Thayer, all of Salem, Mass., 

 A. G. Weeks, Jr., M. C. Greaves and many others. Win- 

 nipasaukee for large lakers is unsurpassed ; some of those 

 who drop a line in its waters every spring are J. T. Busiel, 

 Laconia, N, H. ; C. F. Goodnow, of South Sudburv, Mass.; 

 Dr. H. F, Hamilton, of Boston; Dr. J. F. Hadly'and W. 

 H. Flagg, of Waltham, Mass., and W. A. Pevear, of 

 Lynn, Mass. Though the weather may be ever so cold 

 and blustery when this kind of fishing is best, it has no 



terrors for the real enthusiast, and the thorough enjoy- 

 ment of the trips are evidenced by the zeal with which 

 they relate their experience on returning home. 



SALMON AT SEA. 



WHERE the salmon go when they descend the fresh 

 water rivers and enter the sea is as yet a matter 

 of speculation, or, as I expressed myself on another occa- 

 sion, "There is a certain mystery about the habits and 

 movements of the sea salmon after it has left the fresh 

 water rivers in which it spawns, and gone down to the 

 sea, that never has been satisfactorily explained. One 

 theory is that all the salmon of the rivers along a coast 

 may journey down to the sea and then move ultimately 

 in one great body southward along the coast until they 

 find water of suitable temperature, with an abundance of 

 food, in which to spend their time in growing fat until 

 the spawning instinct warns them to return, when they 

 proceed northward, each river school entering its own 

 particular . river as the main school arrives opposite the 

 river mouth. Another theory is, that the salmon of each 

 river as they arrive at its mouth, after descending from 

 its headquarters, go out to sea sufficiently far to find the 

 conditions of temperature and food which suits them and 

 there they remain, separate from the salmon of other 

 river?, until it is time for them to return to fresh water. 

 Considering the certainty with which the salmon of any 

 particular river return again to the stream of their birtli, 

 the latter theory seems most tenable of the two." 



That was written several years ago, and while the 

 mystery is still unsolved in all particulars, light has been 

 thrown upon the matter which leads to the conclusion 

 that the movements of the salmon are governed entirely 

 by the question of food; that if they find food at the 

 mouths of the rivers there they remain, and if not they 

 seek it further away, in some instances at a great dis- 

 tance from their rivers. Apparently they seek no par- 

 ticular food as much as they seek cpiantity. 



A week or two ago I read in the market report of a 

 New York paper that Atlantic salmon were worth a cer- 

 tain price and that they were captured at sea off Cape 

 Cod. I asked Mr. Blackford if he could tell me whether 

 the salmon were captured in shore pounds or in deep- 

 water nets, and he replied as follows: "We get every 

 winter a few fish from the Atlantic coast that are evi- 

 dently part of the schools of fish that run up into the 

 Kennebec, Penobscot and other Eastern rivers. Dur- 

 ing November and December we had about fifteen to 

 twenty fish, weighing from 12 to 241bs. each, that were 

 caught in the mackerel nets in the vicinity of Province- 

 town and North Truro, Mass. These nets are set out 

 from the Cape in very deep water. During the past two 

 or three weeks we have received several specimens of very 

 handsome salmon from Maine, where they have been 

 caught by the smelt fishermen in their nets when they 

 have been fishing for smelt. I think these catches of 

 salmon go very far to prove that the schools of fish are 

 not very far off from our shores during the time that 

 they are not found in the rivers, and that both shad and 

 salmon when they leave our rivers do not go either east 

 or south, but are within 100 miles or so of the rivers where 

 they were spawned. The fish are remarkable in being 

 in splendid condition and perfect in form and appear- 

 ance." 



My first thought was that these fish taken off Cape Cod 

 were Merrimac River fish, in fact, they must have been 

 from either the Merrimac or Penobscot, unless we in- 

 clude the Hudson; and as salmon were being taken off 

 the mouth of the Maine River at the same time that they 

 wet e being taken off Cape Cotl, it is still reasonable to 

 Btippose that the latter were Merrimac fish. It would he 

 interesting to know what food these fish had in them. 



A Scotch writer has said that 15 per cent, of the salmon 

 taken off the east coast for an Aberdeen saimon preserv- 

 ing establishment were filled with herring, and that the 

 fishermen could calculate the appearance of the herring 

 off the coast from the condition of the salmon, and from 

 this and other similar testimony he argued that the move- 

 ments of the salmon at sea were regulated to a certain 

 extent by the movements of the herring schools. Salmon 

 preservers testify also that salmon live mainly upon 

 herrings in the German Ocean; but they have been found 

 to have in their stomachs rnusseJs, "sand eels, smell, 

 whiting and shrimps, when taken in European waters. 

 Mr. John Mowat, of New Brunswick, a fishery officer of 

 long experience, Bays that when the Canadian salmon 

 arrive in the estuaries they are commonly filled with 

 herrings or mackerel; that they gorge themselves when 

 they strike the capelin schools on the coast, but that he has 

 opened many hundreds of salmon on the coast where sand 

 eels are plentiful and never found one in the stomach of 

 a salmon. All of which may be accepted as evidence 

 that the salmon do not move along the coast in one great 

 school, each salmon river adding its quota, seeking 

 warmer or colder water, as the case may be, but that they 

 go off the coast sufficiently far to find schools of herrings 

 or mackerel, on which they feed, be the distance more or 

 less. 



That salmon do travel great distances in the sea is es- 

 tablished by the fact that in the rivers of Holland salmou 

 have been caught with cod hooks in them which must 

 have been taken from the deep sea lines of the Norwegian 

 fishermen, a distance of six or seven hundred, or even 

 more miles. I read of one instance within the year of a 

 salmon being taken in one place with evidence about it 

 that it had come from another place, neither of which I 

 can recall at this moment, although I think it was in the 

 Baltic, but I distinctly remember that I figured the dis- 

 tance between the two places and that it was over 1,000 

 miles. The reason given for the journey was scarcity. of 

 food. 



There is another matter of speculation which I refer to 

 briefly. For years fishermen and fishculturistshave been 

 guessing how many eggs of the salmon laid in the natural 

 way arrived at maturity in the shape of healthy fish, 

 either fry or older. Mr. Alexander Mowat, a fishery 

 officer in Canada, reports that he has overturned and ex- 

 amined salmon beds on the Restigouche, Prince Edward 

 Island and St. John rivers, after the water has receded 

 and left the beds dry and the ova to perish, and in all 

 instances he has not found more than one egg in fifty 

 that was vitalized. If only two per cent, of salmon eggs 

 naturally deposited are fertilized, the guesses as to the fry 

 batched are very, very wide of the mark. As ninety-five 

 per cent, of eggs artificially taken are hatched and turned 

 into the rivers, comment upon the success of artificial 

 fishculture is unnecessary, A. N, C, 



