•. . : 



Would There be More Fun in the Field in a Day? 

 — One revolution of the earth on its axis is called a day. 

 A day is divided into twenty-four parts called hours. 

 Each hour is divided into sixty minutes, and each minute 

 is divided into sixty seconds. The day is again divided 

 into two equal parts of twelve hours each. This division 

 is arbitrary and productive of no little confusion. It is 

 two days in one day. Various attempts have been made 

 to remedy this defect, but none have succeeded. The 

 railroads sought to abolish the two tables and make one 

 of twenty-four hours, regulating all time and time 

 machinery accordingly; but for some reason nothing has 

 come of it. Perhaps its effect on all chronometers pre- 

 vented its introduction. An innovation that would in- 

 validate all the timepieces of the world would not readily 

 be submitted to. A remedy is near at hand, and perhaps 

 from its very simplicity has been overlooked . Double the 

 length of the hour, minute and second, and regulate all 

 time machinery down to one-half its present velocity. 

 That would meet all difficulties now existing, and increase 

 the value of all chronometers. They would run slower, 

 last longer and do better service, and A. M. and P. M. 

 would retire.— Levi S. Klagle (Vinton, la,). 



Ducks in Fishing Nets, — Erie, Pa.— Unluckily, though 

 the Pennsylvania game laws protect the ducks along our 

 shore of Lake Erie from gunners in the spring, they do 

 not keep them out of the gill-nets of the fishermen. 

 Nearly every tug and smack coming in from the nets of 

 late have had a goodly number of plump bluebills and 

 other ducks aboard. The fishermen are not pleased at 

 these catches — as might be at first expec ted that they 

 would be — the damage the ducks do to the delicate nets 

 is so great. As I have written before, the price the 

 drowned birds bring does not recompense the fishermen 

 for the damage they do. Bluebills from the nets are 

 offered on our street market at 15 cents each, and do not 

 find purchasers. And when large numbers have been 

 shipped East to commission houses, they have almost in- 

 variably been thrown back on the senders' hands. — Mal- 

 lard. 



Our Wild Goat Picture.— The author of the wild 

 goat hunting relation (issue of April 7) writes of the illus- 

 tration: "Mr. Seward is to be congratulated on his suc- 

 cess of his photograph. I had good opportunity to observe 

 the goats lying down, feeding and moving about undis- 

 turbed; and ean say that the picture is true to life, and 

 the surroundings are perfect. We have four persons in 

 this place who have hunted the wild goat; and they all 

 unite in praise of the picture. My brother, who hunted 

 the wild goat near Mt. Baker, Wash., had a fine oppor- 

 tunity to observe some old bucks sitting upon their 

 haunches, a habit they frequently indulge in when dis- 

 turbed by anything unusual in sight. If I go West this 

 fall, shall try to get my camera up in the range and 

 secure some pictures from life. — E. H." 



Lard as a Concentrator. — "The next time you load 

 any shells," a friend told me, "put about a spoonful of 

 melted lard on the shot. The lard will run down through 

 the shot and harden, making a regular slug." Two days 

 later I set out with several shells loaded with slugs made 

 of No. 6 shot and lard. A crow sat on a big dead pine 

 seventy-three good paces away. I shot at him and he 

 died. Seventeen shots had pierced his side and head. 

 Shots at a paper 10xi2in., at 80yds., showed an average 

 of twenty -three shot in them.— Ray Spears. 



Linn..-ea.n Society of New York.— Regular meetings 

 of the society will be held at 8 P. M. at the American 

 Museum of Natural History, Eighth avenue and Seventy- 

 seventy street, on May 4 and 18. May 4. — Remarks by 

 Mr. F.'M. Chapman on a recent trip to Cuba. May 18, — 

 Remarks by Dr. C. S. Allen on a recent trip to Florida. 

 Reports by the members on the spring migration. — 

 Arthur H. Howell. Sec'y, 212 Madison street, Brooklyn, 



The Natives of Tierra del Fuego catch seals with 

 a decoy of seal-skin stuffed with grass, which they draw 

 through the water by a thong, imita ting at the same time 

 to great perfection the bellow of the animal. Birds they 

 catch at night by torch-light, letting themselves down the 

 cliffs by ropes of leather, and fish they take in nets made 

 of sinews of the guanaco. — Scottisli, Geographical Maga- 

 zine. 



Michigan Snipe. — East Saginaw. — A good many snipe 

 have been shot around Saginaw this spring, but as I do 

 not believe in spring shooting I have not been out. — M. 



Tbe New York Game Bill — Albany, May 2. — 

 [Special to Forest and Stream.'] — Governor Flower has 

 not yet signed the game code. — M. 



Notes of The Season. 



It is to be hoped that the man who draws a loaded gun toward 

 him muzzle first will shoot no one but himself. Any way he has 

 no business with a loaded gun at this season. 



Now is the time when the old adage is reversed, and a bird in 

 the bush or marsh is worth two in the hand, and two ppared 

 now may prove a dozen in the hand in the fall. A wahsoose. 



Map of the United States. 



A large, handsome map of the United States, mounted and suit- 

 able for office or home use, is issued by the Burlington Route. 

 Copies will be mailed to any address on receipt of twelve cents in 

 postage by P. S. Etjstis, General Pass. Agent, C, B, & Q. R. K., 

 Chicago, 111.— Adv. 



The Tent You Want.— If you need a new tent for your camp- 

 ing trip this summer, it will pay you to investigate the "Protean 

 Tent," elsewhere advertised in these columns. It is far better 

 lor the purpose than any other tent, and will add much to the 

 pleasttre and comfort of your outing.— Adv. 



A Book About Indians.— The Fobest and Stbeam will mail 

 free on application a descriptive circular of Mr. Grinnell's book, 

 "Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-tales," giving a table of con tec ts 

 and specimen iUnstratlons from the volume.—^ dv. 



A certain well-known angler was playing an active salmon. 

 "Land him, sir, land him, or he'll break your lines," shouted 

 the guide. '"Can't do it, can't do it," returned the fisher- 

 man composedly. " 'Wells's Manual' says I must run him 

 at least ten minutes, ' ' And he lost his fish.— Boston J oumal. 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



J^a atfrf fishing. 



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

 Territories and British Provinces are given in the BooTt of 

 tlie Game Laws. 



Trout Near New York. 



We have secured, for the private information of the readers of 

 Fobest and Strram, knowledge of a number of streams and 

 lakes easily accessible from this city, where we believe that good 

 fishing for trout and black bass may be had. The information, 

 munh of which comes from private sources, we are not at liberty 

 to print, but we shall be glad to furnish it without charge to any 

 reader of Forest and Stream who will apply for it, either per- 

 sonally or by letter. 



PACIFIC SALMON AND TROUT.* 



A HIGHLY interesting, popular account of the salmon 

 and trout of the Pacific Coast of the United States, 

 from the pen of Dr. D. S. Jordan, has been issued as Bul- 

 letin No. 4 by the Board-of Fish Commissioners of Cali- 

 fornia. This article condenses into 15 octavo pages a vast 

 deal of information of value to anglers and students 

 generally. 



Dr. Jordan says: "Of all the families of fishes, the one 

 most interesting from almost every point of view is that 

 of the Salmonidie, the salmon family. It is not one of the 

 largest families, comprising less than a hundred species, 

 but in beauty, activity, gaminess, quality as food, and 

 even in size of individuals, different members of the 

 group stand easily with the first among fishes, 



Sahnonida> are found in the north temperate and Arctic 

 regions, and are everywhere almost equally abundant 

 wherever suitable waters occur. 



"All the Salmonidie feed upon fish ; the smaller ones 

 upon worms, insects and small fish; the larger forms on 

 fishes and Crustacea — whatever they they can find. 



"Naturalists divide Sahnonida into nine genera: Core- 

 gonus, the whitefish; Pleeoglossus, Ja little annual fish 

 which is found in the waters of Japan, born in the spring, 

 runs up the rivers in the summer, and dies in the follow- 

 ing winter, only the young surviving; Brachymystax, a 

 large and scarcely known salmon-like fish in the waters 

 of Siberia: Stenodus, the inconnu, a large, weak-toothed 

 salmon found in the Mackenzie River; Thymallus, the 

 grayling: Hucho, the Huchen, or Rothfisch of the River 

 Danube, a large, voracious, pike- like salmon, which 

 seems to he little known either to naturalists or to 

 anglers; Oncorhynchus, the Pacific coast salmon, or 

 quinnats; Salmo, the salmon and trout; and Salvelinus, 

 the charr, or red-spotted trout. Of these the various 

 fishes commonly known as salmon and trout belong to 

 the last three genera." Dr. Jordan then gives the source 

 of tbe common names. 



Salmo, from salio, to leap. Fario (Forelle of the Ger- 

 man), trout of Izaak Walton and all English writers. The 

 Latin word Triitta, from which the name trout is 

 derived, was applied to the sea or salmon trout, Salmo 

 trutta. The Doctor remarks that there are in England, 

 whence our names have come, "three species of black- 

 spotted silvery fishes of this family: (1) The salmon, 

 largest of all and anadromous; (2) The trout, living in 

 the brooks and the lakes only; (8) The salmon trout, 

 which stands between the two. All three belong to the 

 genus Salmo, and the only difference of any importance 

 between the salmon and the trout, so far as structure 

 goes, lies in the fact that the salmon sheds the teeth on 

 its vomer, that is the middle part of the roof of its 

 mouth, as it grows older, while in the trout these teeth 

 are preserved throughout the fife of the animal. Living 

 in salt water and feeding on large fishes and Crustacea, 

 the salmon is the more vigorous, with coarser and more 

 oily flesh, but this difference becomes of small import- 

 ance as a matter of distinguishing species." Then the 

 chair of England is mentioned, known as saibling in 

 Germany and ombre chevalier in France. The generic 

 name is Salvelinus (the same including our brook trout), 

 and is a sort of diminutive of Salmo, meaning a little 

 salmon. The name ombre is given in allusion to its dark 

 colors and love of shady places in the lakes and brooks. 



"Armed with these names of salmoD, trout, salmon 

 trout and charr, our ancestors came to America." The 

 name charr was little known, and has probably never 

 been in common language applied to any American fish. 

 "In the fresh waters of New England and New York, in 

 all the clear streams throughout tbe Allegheny region , 

 and in the lakes of Canada and the Northwest, our fore- 

 fathers found a red-spotted, fine-scaled, dark-colored, 

 speckled beauty. Finding no real trout with black spots 

 and large scales in the rivers, and having forgotten the 

 name of 'charr,' they gave to this fish the name of trout, 

 or speckled trout, or brook trout, and in spite of the fact 

 that in reality it is not a trout, but a charr, the name of 

 brook trout is likely to adhere forever to the Salvelinus 

 fontinalis. 



"Real trout there are none on our Atlantic coast, and 

 salmon trout is likewise wanting, but the name salmon 

 trout is often given to the brook trout, or charr,' which 

 has run out into the sea." This name is applied also, and 

 more generally to the lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). 



"In the lakes of Greenland and the eastern part of 

 British America, tbe European charr (S. alpinus), is as 

 abundant as it is in Europe— a fact which has been only 

 lately made manifest, and even yet there is some ques- 

 tion whether some of these which are found in the lakes 

 in New Hampshire have not, some time or other, been 

 brought over and planted there from Europe." To the 

 Pacific coast were taken the names used in the East, and 

 besides the salmon the settlers found an abundance of 

 what they called trout. Black-ppotted, and in every way 

 closely resembling the trout of Europe, wholly unlike the 

 charr or trout of the Eastern States. 



The derivation of the name Dolly Varden trout is given 

 as follows: "In Oregon the red-spotted trout, or charr, is 

 distinguished by the name of bull trout. In California it 

 had, for a long time, no distinctive name. A landlady 

 in some hotel in the neighborhoyd of the IT. S. Fish 

 Hatchery at Baird, on the McCloud River, at the time of 

 the Dolly Varden craze, noticing the gaudy colors of this 



* Salmon and Trout of the Pacific Coast. By Dr. David Starr 

 Jordan, President of the Leland Stanford, Junior, University, 

 Sacramento, State Office. A, J. Jonston, Supt. State Printing. 

 1892. . 



[May $, 1892, 



charr, proposed to call it the Dolly Varden trout. This 

 name coming to the ears of Professor Baird, then United 

 States Fish Commissioner, pleased his fancy, and he 

 directed me, who then had the classification of the trout, 

 in the Smithsonian Institution in hand, to continue for 

 this species the common name of Dolly Varden trout, 

 and so, in the books at least, Dolly Varden trout it is to 

 this day." 



There are five species of salmon on the west coast, 

 namely, the quinnat or king, the blue-back or red, the 

 silver, the dog and the humpback. The first averages 

 221bs. in weight, and reaches lOOibs. The red fish usually 

 weighs from 5 to Slbs. ; the silver salmon 3 to 81bs. ; the 

 dog salmon averages about 131bs., and the humpback 

 (the smallest) weighs but from 3 to 61bs. The king and 

 blue-back salmon run in the spring, the others in the 

 fall. An account of the habits of the fish when in the 

 rivers is given, and the food, spawning and changes in 

 form and color. The great destruction of salmon in the 

 Columbia River and decrease in the fisheries all along the 

 coast are mentioned. 



"Of the American trout," says the Doctor, "the one 

 which most closely approaches the European Salmo fario 

 is the rainbow trout of California, Salmo irideus,' as, it 

 was named some forty years ago by Dr. W. P. Gibbons, 

 of Alameda." No specimens of this trout have been ob- 

 tained east of the Cascade Range or of the Sierra Nevada. 

 It ranges in size from six inches in length to six pounds 

 in weight. 



"Another California trout is the so-called steel-head, 

 more usually known in California as salmon trout, a fish 

 sufficiently like the salmon trout of Europe, but the name 

 steel-head seems to me preferable, because it is given to 

 no other fish." The name is suggested by the color of its 

 head and hardness of the skull bones; usual weight in 

 Columbia River 131bs., maximum 25lbs. (We have seen 

 321b. fish). The Doctor compares the steel-head and rain- 

 bow, and finds few and minor differences. "It is not at 

 all unlikely that the steel-head is simply a rainbow trout 

 which has descended into the sea and which has grown 

 larger and coarser, and acquired Rome what different 

 form and habits on account of its food and its surround- 

 ings." 



Next is the cut-throat trout, Salmo mykiss. "It is the 

 most widely-distributed of all our (west coast) trout, being 

 found throughout Alaska, Kamtschatka, in all the 

 streams of Washington and Oregon, in the northwestern 

 part of California; throughout the rivers of the great 

 basin of Utah, in all the streams on both sides of the 

 Rocky Mountains until we come to the desert lands, 

 where the washes of sand make the streams uninhabit- 

 able to any trout, and thence extending its range south- 

 ward in the mountains as far as the springs in Chihuahua, 

 the southernmost point reached by any trout in any 

 country." The name cut-throat alludes to the crimson 

 blotch around the throat. [A better name is red throat], 

 It reaches a weight of 25ib3. or more. The largest 

 known specimens occurring in Lake Tahoe and in the 

 salt water of Puget Sound. 



The next and last fish is the Dolly Varden. "The finest 

 of the trout-like fishes on the Pacific coast, and scarcely 

 different from the Eastern brook trout, the slight differ- 

 ence being, on the whole, to his advantage. It is rather 

 plumper in body than the brook treut of the coast. The 

 red spots are on the back as well as on the sides, and the 

 back and upper fins do not show the dark green marblings 

 which are characteristic of Salvelinus fontinalis. In 

 food, in body and in gamineas, the Dolly Varden, or 

 Salvelinus malma (this, too, a Russian name, first given it 

 by Steller), is not inferior to its Eastern cousin. 

 '"Everywhere on the Pacific coast, in the clear streams 

 of the Cascade and Sierra Nevadas, and even the Coast 

 Range of mountains, some species of trout abounds. This 

 region should be the paradise of anglers." 



A TRIP TO SABATT1S. 



A MONUMENT situated in the town of Wales, Me,, 

 will perpetuate the name of the old Indian, Sabat- 

 tis, in the memory of Maine during all time to come. 

 Near Sabbatis Pond stands this monument — Sabattis 

 Mountain. It commemorates the name of the once 

 famous and widely-known chief. It is a beautiful struc- 

 ture and decorated in nature's loveliest fashion. For all 

 we know, like the Pyramids, it may be full of chambers, 

 where repose unknown treasures or the valueless remains 

 of ancient dead. We do know that an entrance to the 

 pyramid of Sabbattis exists, but no one has as yet had 

 courage to explore this ancient structure, built long be- 

 fore the name Sabattis was given it. It was our purpose 

 to explore the cave of Sabattis Mountain and to get some 

 shooting and fishing in its vicinity, when over a decade 

 ago the writer visited the locality." 



Sabattis Pond years ago afforded unsurpassed fishing 

 and hunting to the sportsmen of the neighboring city and 

 towns. Pickerel were abundant and large; ducks, snipe 

 and yellowlegs were plentiful. The lake was near the 

 low-tide of its glory when we sought to wage warfare on 

 nature's children there. Only the last remnants of the 

 tribes that inhabited the waters or the neighboring foreBt 

 remained. As the Indians had disappeared slowly from 

 the banks long ago, leaving only the name of a chief to 

 indicate their former abode there, so the pickerel were 

 gradually being exterminated in their turn, as had the 

 trout before them. Enough could be caught to induce 

 the Sunday sportsman to come from Lewiston, and 

 enough snipe and plover, with an occasional duck, suf- 

 ficed to excite the huntsman's ardor, and in the woods of 

 the mountains gray squirrels still ahounded. The pond, 

 it is said, was once stocked with black bass, but they have 

 given no sign of existence there. 



We found our guide, old friend of our boyhood, who, 

 provided with a lantern and geological hammer, con- 

 ducted us to the entrance of the dread abode. The space 

 was too low to allow a person to enter otherwise than by 

 wriggling flat on his stomach. We wormed our way up 

 a slight incline into quite a spacious gallery. How far it 

 extended we did not learn. The somber walls and roof 

 glittered with precious goms, which at the touch of 

 human hands turned to drops of water. We found no 

 treasures near the entrance, so proceeding a short dis- 

 tance further we tried to peer through Stygian darkness 

 ahead. My guide was positive he could see two green 

 eyes staring at him and insisted upon a departure, which 

 soon after we concluded to make, as our light flickered 

 and went out. We scratched a match, which, too, was 

 immediately extinguished. We then threw some stonea 



