Dec, a, 1891.) 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



898 



Cafion Creek. In (ribbon River it occurs both above and waters of North America, one of the species extendjjig 

 below the falls and may have been transported over the I southward as far as the Alabama River. One variety is 

 barrier by some fiah-eating bird. As a destroyer of eggs i frequently found in caves in the limestone region from 

 and young fish the Miller's thumb perhaps has no equal. Indiana to Tennessee. None of the blobs much exceed 

 Commissioner McDonald has seen one of moderate size | 7in. in length; some of the largest examples we have 



tiveness to eggs and young of the salmon. The rainbow 

 (Sohno iridem) is equally destructive. The young fry 

 are devoui'ed in enormous numbers by fish-eating birds. 

 In Che region referred to the writer has shot gulls and 

 terns, and on holding them up by the legs young salmon 



The Grayunu. 



'M. Red-Thboateu Trottt (Young). 



ubiquitous marauder. "" Wherever salmon and trout j possible to' exaggierate their power^Vw Around 

 are found m America it is safe to say that the ' the margin of Karluk Lake, Alaska, we have seen nest 



dropped out of their mouths. Near the river mouths 

 marine flounders and sculpins enter the brackish water 

 and feed upon young salmon. In the ocean seals and 

 sea lions continue the destructive work. The adult fish, 

 when entering the rivers for the purpose of spawning, 



10. Mlller's Thumb. 



!)6. Bkd-Throated Trout (Adult). 



Miller's thumb may be seen keeping the species in 

 check. About twenty species of blobs are recorded in 

 the latest catalogue of the fishes of North America, and 

 one of these, Cotfus richardsoni, runs into nine varieties. 

 These fishes are now placed in the genus Goftiis: but 

 were formerly united under the name Uvanidea. There 

 are several sections of this genus, those containing the 

 largest number of species being Potamocottuii' and 

 Uranidea. The one described above belongs to Fotavio- 

 cottus. The blobs are found in nearly all the fresh 



after nest of the red salmon emptied of eggs by these 

 small fishes. The eggs are rapidly digested, and the 

 capacity of the blob for the destruction of salmon is 

 greatly increased by this circumstance. 

 _ In Forest and Stream of April 3 and 10, 1890, atten- 

 tion was called to the vast number of enemies against 

 which the salmon has to contend for its existence. On 

 the spawning grounds are the blobs, and, besides these, 

 are the black-spotted and red spotted trouts of the region. 

 The Dolly Varden (S. malma) is famous for its destrac- 



raustrim the gauntlet of incessant seining across the 

 river mouths; they must endure the hardships incident 

 to the ascent of the rapid and rocky sti-eams: and when 

 they reach the shoal waters in which their eggs are de- 

 posited bears await them, to give the finishing touches to 

 the work of destruction. If we add to all of these hard- 

 ships and death-dealing agencies the obstructions and 

 pollutions of salmon streams in populous regions, the 

 wonder is that any of the anadromous salmon are left to 

 reproduce their species. T. H. Bean. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, III., Nov. 26. — Mr. Jeff. Smith, whose 

 petition for appointment for fish warden for work 

 in the Fox Lake district was mentioned last week, has 

 just received his commission from the Governor. He 

 starts the first of next week for the lake covmtry, where 

 the cold weather- has already frozen some of the lakes 

 hard enough for ice fishing, He will finish his work of 

 warning the residents against ice fishing, and will look 

 out to see whether any parties already warned have 

 begun to fish. He says lie will stop this fishing before it 

 begins, if possible. Jeff. Smith should not be mistaken 

 for his cousin, Ike Smith, who keeps a summer resort 

 hotel, over beyond George Clark's. Ifc is Ike Smith who 

 is too lazy to fish through the ice, and not Jeff. Smith. 

 The latter will see to it that nobody, lazy or otherwise, 

 fishes through the ice up there, he says. Jeff. Smith 

 lives in Chicago most of the time and has property there, 

 but also owns property near the neck of Catherine Lake. 

 He tells me that he has already been approached by 

 several of the residents who want to know whether there 

 '•would be any trouble" if they should set out a few lines 

 "just to catch a few fish to eat," He told them there 

 would be. That - 'fish to eat" plea is very threadbare, 

 likewise very transparent. 



Last week I offered a short letter from Dr. Rartlett, 

 bearing on a damage suit brought against him in Schuyler 

 county. Some time ago mention was made of the $5,000 

 damage suit brought in that county by a market-fisher- 

 man by the name of Smith. Not being clear as to which 

 suit was which, I wrote to Dr. Bartlett for information. 

 It seems that these two cases are the same, and that the 

 $5,000 has dwindled down to a $62 verdict, with a new 

 trial on that, as the following letter wiU show; 



IiiUNOis State Fish Commission — Quincy, 111,, Nov. 21, 1891.— 

 Tlie status of our cafie m Schuyler counts is about as follows: 

 Smith, of Meredosia. owns or claims to own the fishing right in a 

 portion of what is knowa as Coal Creek; across this creek, which 

 is quite wide— large enough for a steamboat to go into it— he 

 places a combination pound and wing-net, wings from net en- 

 tirely across one side of stream and within a few feet of the shore 

 ■on the other side. We were advised of this net being there, and I 

 ■ordered the Lotus there and wardens to take it up, which they 

 •did, taking net to Beardstown for safekeepin?. Smith replevins 

 the net and sues myself and others for trespass to a cloae, or In 



new trial it was granted. An indictment has been found against 

 Smith lor v iolation of the law in setting his net in said Coal Creek, 

 and will be ti ied D=xt term of court. Fishing still good at office 

 boat, two gentlemen of Kew York making a nice catch there a 

 few days ago.— S. P. Bartlett. 



The last sentence of the letter has reference to the 

 official joke of the Illinois Fish Commission, which I have 

 detailed earlier as duly investigated by mvself . For fuller 

 particulars apply to the two gentlemen from New York. 



To-day I talked with Mr. W. H. Haskell more fully 

 about the "landlocked salmon" in Trout Lake, Wis. It 

 seems that one of these fish was sent to the Smithsonian 

 Institute, and reply was received that it was neither the 

 landlocked salmon nor the lake trout. No further de- 

 scription was vouchsafed. The fish, as described by Mr, 

 Haskell, has a general silvery tone of body, with large 

 bluish or pttrplish spots, black in the center. The flesh 

 ranges,_ like that of the brook trout, from nearly white or 

 faint pink to deep salmon color, according to the individ- 

 ual. It is very delicious eating. The highest weight 

 reported is ?3ilb.s. In the fall, after the close of the 



spawning season, these fish spread all over the lake, feed 

 on the surface and break water in schools. Thev can 

 then be taken on the fly or the spoon. After that they 

 seem to sink and spend the year in deep water. Trout 

 Lake has outlets, but this fish is not reported from any 

 coimected water. E, Hou«h, 



ANGLING NOTES. 



STRIPED bass are still being caught in considerable 

 numbers in the Hudson River, particularly off Sing 

 Sing. They are found in the deep channels, and take 

 sand worms in preference to any other bait. It is unusu- 

 ally late for them to be taken on the rod and reel, and 

 while they undoubtedly remain in the river all winter, 

 they will soon stop biting. 



Inquiries for tarpon tackle are beginning to be made at 

 the fishing tackle stores and already a number of ardent 

 fishermen have left for Florida. Many changes and im- 

 provements have been made in the tackle used for the big 

 herring, particularly in the way of snelled hooks. The 

 cumbersome and expensive chain has had its day, the 

 linked wire, rubber-covered snell and many others have 

 been tried and found wanting; the latest and best seems 

 to be the braided linen snell wrapped with copper wire. 

 This snell is hitched to a special hand-made forged steel 

 10 0 hook. The wire winding should commence about 

 Sin. above the hook. The object of this is to allow a 

 shark, if hooked, to bite oft' the snell, and to prevent its 

 being chafed off by the rough lips of the tarpon. Of 

 course the tarpon is allowed to swallow the bait and the 

 unprotected part of the snell passes into its throat. This is 

 the rig used by Dr. Grymes and other expert tarpon fisher- 

 men. 



Fishermen should remember that these fish are big and 

 powerful fighters, and that it is useless to expect to kill 

 them with cheap tackle. Many anglers have been disap- 

 pointed after going to the expense and trouble of a trip 

 to Florida, to find that chey lost most of their fish; in fact, 

 I know several fishermen who, while they struck a ntmi- 

 ber of tarpon, never saved a single one. Some lost them 

 because they got "rattled," but in most instances it was 

 due to cheap reels and lines. Cheap reels become useless 

 with the first run of these big fish, the spoon expands 

 under the pressure of the swelling lines, for all lines will 

 swell when wet, particularly the cheaper grades, and the 

 line, of coiu-ee, parts at once when the reel fails to work 

 properly. The reel should be large enough to take 600ft. 

 of first-class linen line not smaller than No. 18 or better 

 No. 21. 



With proper tackle and a little experience in handling 

 large fish there is little risk of losing even a 300lbs. tarpon. 

 Another cause of these fish breaking away is the use of 

 too stiff and too short rods; if the rods have a little spring 

 they are not half so apt to tear out. Some of them are 

 made so stiff' that they do not give a particle, and this 

 affords the fish too mtich purchase and brings ail the 

 strain on the line. Mr. John G. Hecksher's pattern of 

 rod seems to have given the best results, for while con- 

 siderably stiffer than a striped bass rod, it still has a good 

 deal of spring, Scarlet-Ibis. 



The Velvet Train of the Monon Route between Chicago and 

 Cincinnati offers the best and moat luxurious service obtainable 

 >)etween thoa.e rioinia.— ^c7i). 



DERRYFIELD BEEF. 



CHARLESTOWN, N. H., Nov. 21.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Thanks to "Kelpie" for supplementing 

 my memories of William Stark's poem; he is all right as 

 far as he goes, but the whole poem would fill a page of 

 Forest and Stream. Some of it was genuine poeti-v, 

 too, for Stark was a talented man, though eccentric, and 

 his brain finally gave way, and he died'in an asylum, 



I knew him well, and remember his stocking . a deer 

 park in the suburbs of Manchester with a herd of elk 

 from Wisconsin some thirty years ago, and visiting it 

 with hirn to see them one bright morning in the early 

 "sixties." He also had some rare wildfowl and a trout 

 brook. He was years in advance of Austin Corbin and 

 many others. 



The poem referred to Manchester, New Hampshire— 

 not Massachusetts, as printed. The country right around 

 Amoskeag Falls was called "Derryfield," being an out- 

 lying district of the old town of Londonderry, originally 

 settled by emigrants from Londonderry, Ireland, com- 

 monly known as the "Scotch-Irish." They were strong 

 men, and left a mark not only on the history of the State 

 but of the Union. 



The names of McNeill, McClary, McCrillis and McGaw 

 are well known beyond the limits of New Hampshire. 



Some of the same emigrants found their way over to 

 the western edge of the State, and "Derry Hill," in our 

 neighboring town of Acworth, marks the site of their 

 farms, though the name of old "Deacon Finlay" is the 

 only one I can recall. 



I should like to meet "Kelpie," for we have evidently 

 "camped on the same trail;" and if Forest and Stream 

 plants that bivouac at Chicago at the Exposition in 1893, 

 and "the Pibroch of Donnil" calls the clans together, I 

 hope that those of us who are still in the flesh may get 

 together round the camp-fire and form a personal ac- 

 quaintance with each other. I should hope to see "King- 

 fisher" and "Awahsoose," too, and the genial poet from 

 Louisiana, as well as "Bourgeois" and "Piseco;" but we 

 should miss and mourn those, who, like "Nessmuk," 

 "Wells" and "Ned Btmtline," haA'-e already gone to the 

 "happy hunting grounds." How man's visions of a 

 future life are colored by his tastes in this one. To the 

 wild Indian it is an eternity of field sports with his 

 favorite horse and dog. To the music-loving Jew it is an 

 everlasting sacred concert, which would be apt to pall on 

 unmusical organizations. Who can tell ? VoN.W. 



TRULY ODD IF ODDLY TRUE. 



W. R. Davidson, a well known citizen of South Nvack. went out 

 on the river this morning to lift one of his -'set Hues" and was 

 surprised to And on the end of the line one of the largest sea gulls 

 ever seen in this part of the Hudson. The bird had probably 

 made a dive into the water for a ftsh and caught one which was 

 fast to the haok. The hook caught in the bird's mouth and held 

 him there until Mr Davidson's arrival. The gullwiJl be kept 

 alive by his captor.— jVet;; York Times. 



FoitEST AND Stream. Box ^,83r3. N. Y. cUy, has descriptive iUus- 

 trated circulars of W. B. Lefflngwell'a book, "Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 lug," which will be mailed free on reyuesL. The boot is pro- 

 nounced by "Nanit," "Gloan" "Dick Swivoller," "Bvbillene" and 

 other competent authorities to be the best treatise on the subje' t 

 extant. 



A Book About Indians.— The Forest .\nd Stream vnll mat 

 free on applicaiion a descriptive circular of Mr. GriqacU's book, 

 "Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-tales," giving a ta»l& di (jontflntvi 

 and apeolmen Ulastratloiqs f rpm tl^o volame.— (Jd. ' ' 



