94 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[kua. 4, 1893. 



SALMON FEEDING IN FRESH WATER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



la your issue ol July 7 is a very intereFting article from 

 Judge S. H. Greene, of Portland, Oregon, on the question 

 of salmon feeding in fresh water. In this article a very 

 complimentary reference is made to my studies on 

 the salmon of the Northwest, together with a challenge 

 for the proof of certain statements connected with my 

 publication. 



First, the statement which has been several times made, 

 originally, I believe, by Livingston Stone and afterwards 

 by myself, that wbile the salmon of the Columbia River 

 will more or less readily take the fly or a baited hook, 

 they have never been known to feed while in the river. 

 The basis of this generalization lies in the fact that 

 neither Mr. Stone, nor Dr. Bean, nor Dr. Grilbert, nor my- 

 self, nor any one else whose observations have been 

 placed on record, have ever found any food of any kind in 

 the stomach of an adult running salmon. This absence 

 of food and ultimately the absence of any room for food 

 in the stomach has been taken as negative evidence to 

 show that the salmon does not feed. The fact that the 

 running salmon become in time excessively lean, besides 

 their sexual distortion and the fact of the gradual con- 

 sumption of the oil which fills their flesh when they leave 

 the sea, may be taken as collateral evidence in this 

 matter. In taking the fly or baited hook it is apparently 

 uncertain whether these running salmon take it as food 

 or whether they simply snap at an ob ject which happens 

 to be in their neighborhood with no intention of actually 

 devouring or swallowing it. 



All these data on which our opinion is based seem to be 

 accepted by Judge (rreene. The question is. Are these 

 data sufficienl? And in this matter, as in all others, I trust, 

 I am open to conviction. If any food can be found in the 

 stomach of any salmon which has run any considerable 

 time in the river, I shall certainly believe that the salmon 

 feeds in the river. At present the balance of probability 

 seems to be on the side that it does not feed. It may, 

 however, be true that this early run of salmon feeds upon 

 insect larvas and other soft, nutritious ^ substances which 

 leave little or no trace in the stomach, and I quite agree 

 with Judge Greene that much is yet to be learned of the 

 habits of the salmon in fresh water. 



As to the second point, of the adult salmon which 

 ascend the rivers in the spring and are therefore able to 

 go some six or eight hundred miles before the spawning 

 season oA'ertakes them, it is certain that a very large and 

 unknown percentage die before they reach the ocean. Of 

 the young salmon which spawn before the age of four 

 years is reached and of the salmon which enter the rivers 

 late in the fall and can therefore go no great distance 

 before the spawning seasdii arrives, an unknown and 

 doubtless large percentage survive. Considering the 

 distortion, leanness, weakness and disease of those salmon 

 which have started early in the sirring and gone to great 

 distances in the river, I think that the percentage of 

 those which reach the ocean must be extremely small; 

 l)erhaps none of them return. Of those whose run is a 

 short one and who have gone but a little way, there is no 

 doubt that there are many survivors. In regard to both 

 these kinds of salmon we have absolutely no way of 

 ascertaining the exact percentage. The great majority, 

 I think, of the salmon running in the river are about 

 four years old, and the average weight of these is or 

 should be about 331 bs, I have no doubt that the occa- 

 sional oOlb, salmon are fishes which have spawned more 

 than once; but what percentage of the 221b. salmon 

 have had a previous experience in the river it is impos- 

 sible to say." 



Among all our fishes there is none the life history of 

 which is BO difficult to trace as that of the salmon. I 

 I have felt gratified that so much of the work which I 

 have done on this subject has stood the test of time, and 

 I have felt still more gratified at the general agreement 

 of the conclusions which I have reached with those of 

 Stone, Bean, Gilbert and others who have been at work 

 on the same problems. But all conclusions of this kind 

 are oi)en to rev^ision with more evidence. Biology is 

 always an inexact science because it is never possible for 

 one man or one generation to get together all the data 

 necessary for an absolute settlement of any great ques- 

 tion. David Staer Jordan. 



Palo Alto, Cal., July 20, 



"DOC" REPLIES TO "OLD MAN." 



May the woman dubbed as "Doc"' in your last issue 

 venture into the columns of your paper, columns that 

 are decidedly masculine: but then," having once worn 

 trousers, and "Sunday ones" at that, I make the venture. 



"Old Man," blessings on him, can never tell of the 

 keen enjoyment of this vacation of mine. I, who never 

 caught a trout or bass before in my life, surely appreciate 

 this wild Pike county home. Here are worn the "old 

 dads" and an immense straw hat. the only trimming 

 being a shoestring to tie under one's chin when the wind 

 blows. Here c ome the ro8^'S to one's ch^-eks in the shape 

 of sunburn and here also com<- the freckles, which I give 

 a fljwer-likf> name to, too, ' B chelor buttori&" I call 

 my trecklf s, for any man in beholding them would re- 

 main a bachelor all his dayw were I fhe only choice. 



That trouting pxpedition wUl evtr be as a poem in my 

 memory. How I wished I was an artist with a box of 

 water-colorf, for oils would seem too gross for those 

 tender shades. How soft those tones of green, with here 

 and there patches of gold in them from "old Sol:" how 

 tangled the ferns and vines running over some fallen tree 

 of tba,t wilderness! 



I enjoyed that tramp, and the cool, rushing water was 

 soothing to my feel, clad in hot rubber boots, and then — 

 my first trout. Surely no trout ever before had such 

 pretty specks on him, none ever so supple, and. when his 

 neck was broken 1 was downright sorry; but was soon 

 busy with a fresh, fat, pink worm. 



After such days are long past and we are back in the 

 busy city once more, we can sit and muse or tell pro- 

 digious yarns about our sport. We are more charitable 

 toward our fellow men, for we have been in communion 

 with nature and she teaches us gentleness, patience and 

 steadfastness of purpose. 



I pore over the advertisements of Forest and Stream 

 with a very knowing air which I think would amuse my 

 friends, I discuss light-weight rods, fishing tackle and 

 boats in a manner that has the "courage of its convic- 

 tions." My life will know content when I own a bunt- 

 ing coat such as I see advertised, "Old Man" carried 



worms, frogs, snelled hooks, leaders and book of flies, 

 lunch, pip<^, tobacco, re*^ls and even small snakes in those 

 blessed pockets, while I, with envy in my soul, trudged 

 along, a handkerchief thrust in my belt and one poor 

 useless pocket, the whereabouts known only to my 

 modiste. 



"Old Man" is modest and tells not of the frog he man- 

 ufactured of pork, the legs of which dangled in the 

 water in a most comical manner, causing us njany a 

 hearty laugh and many a loss when we attempted to 

 strike. It was "Old Man" who taught me how to cast 

 and how to coax the bass from "the shadows of great 

 rocks" and to have patience with the fastidious pickerel 

 and give him time when he chews with dainty nibbles 

 your choicest perch bait. "Doc" blesses "Old Man" and 

 forgives him that libel, that gum gossip, 



"Doc" (M. K.). 



ANGLING NOTES. 



Photograph of Dr. Bethune. 



When Rev, Dr. A. J. Upson, vice-chancellor of the 

 University of the State of New York, told me a few days 

 ago that he had something to show me that I would be 

 pleased to see, it was not long before I called upon him 

 to find what the something was. I found it to be a pho- 

 tograph from life of Rev. G. W, Bethune, the editor of 

 the American edition of "Walton's Compleat Angler,'' 

 This photograph had but recently come into Dr. Upson's 

 possession, having been presented to him by one to whom 

 Dr. Bethune gave it, and it was taken under the follow- 

 ing circumstances: The officers of the Piseco Trout Club 

 were Mr. Henry Vail, President; Dr. Bethune, Vice-Pres- 

 ident; Mr. Alfred Brooks, Secretary. On one occasion 

 Dr, Francis Vinton, of New York, entered Dr, Bethune's 

 study, and noting the surroundings of books, fishing rods, 

 creels and other angling paraphernalia, asked for a pho- 

 tograph of him for the club, as he saw him there. Con- 

 sent was finally granted upon condition that after a few 

 prints were made for members of the club and a few in- 

 timates the negative should be destroyed. The photo- 

 graph represents him sitting in his study with morning 

 gown and cap, spectacles on nose, pen in hand, and a 

 ponderous volume on the desk before him. Leaning 

 against the desk is a long-stemmed pipe— his "orthodox 

 pipe," and on the wall are rods and fishing creel. A friend 

 said: "We owe many a fervid page, and many a burst 

 of eloquence to that same creel and rod, for they kept his 

 heart young and his body manageable." I shall not at- 

 tempt to give a description of Dr. Bethune's personal ap- 

 pearance from this photograph, T imagined him to have 

 been tall and spare, but Dr. Upson, who knew him 

 long and well, tells me that he was, as the photograph 

 bears witness, rather short and quite stout. Dr. Upson 

 relates that once Dr. Bethune was detained at the home 

 of a fisherman all night by a storm: "Who are you?" 

 said the man. "You have been with me in my boat all 

 day fishing, skillfully, not swearing once, and now you 

 have sung like an angel and prayed like a saint. Who 

 are you?" One who was brought into the closest relation 

 with Dr. Bethune by their common love of angling and 

 forest life is a contributor to the columns of angling and 

 shooting journals of to-day, but his identity is concealed 

 under a pen name. He prepared a sketch of Dr. Bethune 

 as an angler, but the copy was lost in a newspaper office 

 before it was printed, and it is not probable that the 

 sketch will be rewritten. 



False Cuff for Waterproof Coat. 



A friend, Mr, Wm. W, Ladd, Jr., told me of a false 

 cuff for a waterproof coat, and I asked him to describe it, 

 which he does in a letter as follows: "The false or inner 

 cuff about which I wrote you came to my notice in an 

 English- made waterproof coat which I obtained last year. 

 It is very simple in construction, and I have tested it last 

 season and again this, and found it to answer its purpose 

 admirably. Picture to yourself a cuff made of the same 

 material as the coat placed inside the sleeve so that the 

 lower edge is about one-half inch up from the end 

 of the sleeve. The edge of the cuff nearest the elbow 

 is attached to the inside of the sleeve so as to exclude 

 water in the same way that the sleeve is joined to the 

 body of the coat. The lower edge of the cuff is turned in 

 over an elastic band which keeps it close to the wrist and 

 prevents the water running along the arm. The cuff does 

 not show below the sleeve, and is a neat, and as I have 

 said , an efficient protection from that nuisance in wading 

 or boat fishing — wet arms. I have never seen anything 

 of the kind on waterproofs made in this country, but I 

 am sure that it could be copied to the comfort of anglers 

 and sportsmen in general." Wet arms and wet knees are 

 to be avoided by anglers if possible, for as a rule these 

 parts of the body add more to one's discomfort than any 

 other when they get wet. I fought against wet knees 

 unsuccessfully until I got a waterproof coat in Scotland 

 with (-kirta that came to my heela, and with room enough 

 to permit one to nit down. With false cuffs added to a 

 long skirt, boat-fishing in the rain may be a pleasure, pro- 

 vided the fi:sh bite, and in stream-fishing the skirts might 

 be turned up and buttoned to the body of the coat. 



Open Season for Black Bass. 



Juit eight years ago, in a column letter in Forest and 

 Stream, I said: "For several years the impression has 

 been gaining ground, from personal experience, that the 

 close season for black bass in tbe State of New York is 

 altogether wrong, and at no distant day will result in 

 depleting our waters of this game fish , unless there is a 

 change made in existing laws. From the examination of 

 local waters, interviews with professional fishermen, and 

 correspondence with anglers in different parts of the 

 State, the impression has resolved itself into a fact as to 

 the present, and the fulfilling of the prophecy must follow 

 as a consequence." 



In commenting on this letter editorially you were good 

 enough to say that the subject was one upon which I was 

 competent to speak, and added, among other things: "In 

 the State of New York, the date at which all law-abiding 

 bass should have finished spawning and protecting their 

 young has been fixed at Jime 1, but we regret to say that 

 the majority of bass are so depraved and have so little 

 regard for law as to delay their family arrangements for 

 a month later, and the question is. Shall the fish be com- 

 pelled to change their habits to comply with the wisdom 

 of our legislators or shall we acknowledge that they know 

 best when they want to spawn and accommodate our- 

 selves to them? * * * The main opposition to such a 



I change would come from summer resorts and country 

 hotels which look for black bass fishers in June. With 



I them it is a question of dollars, in which we and unselfish 

 anglers like Mr. Cheney are not at all interested. The 

 law npeds changing." 



The law was changed and made to open May 30, Deco- 

 ration Day, which is a holiday. The sole reason given 

 for this change was to afford anglers the opportunity to 

 avail themselves of the holiday to catch black bass in 

 Greenwood Lake. Then those who were actually inter- 

 ested in keeping up the supply of bass, and who realized 

 that June fishing promised to destroy them, procured 

 special legislation to protect black bass in a dozen differ- 

 ent waters until July 1 or later, The new law of '92 

 wiped out the special laws, and again the destruction 

 goes on legally, for the season opens everywhere, except 

 in Lake George, on May 30. I know that it is an old 

 story, but I shall harp upon it as long as the abominable 

 law remains on the books. In a recent letter from that 

 prince of writers, the author of "Sam Lovel's Camps," 

 occurs this reference to the black bass law: 



"So far I have wet a hook but once this year, when the 

 boy and I went to the Slang for bullpouts, and didn't get 

 'em. We fished opposite Sam's and Antoine's camping-! 

 place, very much changed since they and I first knew it, 

 when it was surrounded by the primeval forest. What 

 laws we have, and how they are enforced! What an 

 absurdity to extend the close time for pike-perch months 

 beyond their spawning time, and open the black bass 

 season in the very height of their spajs'ning. Such idiotic 

 enactments disgust law-abiding people with protective 

 legislation, and makes them lukewarm concerning the 

 disregard of it by the lawless. I hope for more intelligent 

 legislation." I think I have nothing to add to those sen- 

 timents. A, N. Cheney. 



SALMON OF THE GRAND CASCAPEDIA, 



The followintf letters explain themselves. The action of Mr, 

 Davis is moat I umuafciMlEiblt; aiidtvtf.> uu., inif.iosTed in salnjon 

 fishing will hope that :io imptdimpnt may stand in the way of hl6 

 completing the proposed arrangement. 



Naeraqansett Pier, R. I., July 93 —To the Hon. C. H. 

 Tapper, Minister of Marine and Fisheries, Ottawa, Can.: 

 Deah Sir — The net-fishermen at the mouch of the Grand 

 Ca&capedia River, five in number, have agreed to take up 

 their nets for five years if I pay a certain sum to each, 

 and if the Government will not revoke their licenses at 

 the end of said term, providing the law remains the same 

 as it is now, allowing them to fish by paying so much to 

 the Government. They seem to think by taking up the 

 nets they will forfeit their rights, which I sincerely hope 

 is to the contrary. I am very anxious to preserve the 

 salmon in the river, and by taking up the nets for five 

 years it will be the means of restocking it. 



Will you kindly tell me at once if the Government will 

 grant their licenses as usual? so that I may assure them 

 that by leasing to me they will not be deprived of their 

 rights at the end of the five years, if net fishing is then 

 allowed. They of course will pay for their licenses each 

 year, but will not put their nets out. 



We are hoping to have a boundary placed at the head 

 of the river to protect the salmon on their spawning 

 ground and where fly-fishing will not be allowed. 



I trust that you will please give this your immediate 

 attention, so I may notify the men and make arrange- 

 ments for the coming year. Respectfully yours, 



E. W, Davis. 



Nareagansett Pier, R, I., July 22,— To the Hon. Fd- 

 mmid J. Flynn: Dear Sir— For the past two years I 

 have been trying to get the net fishermen, at the mouth 

 of the Grand Cascapedia River, to take up their nets and 

 have at last made terms with them for five years, pro- 

 viding the government will not revoke their licenses at 

 the end of said term, if licenses are then issued as now. 

 They will take out their licenses yearly and I am to pay 

 them not to fish. It will help the river greatly, but to 

 preserve the salmon a boundary should be made at some 

 point on the river and no fly-fishing allowed above that 

 point. 



I have looked into the matter thoroughly and consulted 

 with the oldest fishermen on the river — I refer to the 

 natives — men who have speared and know the habits of 

 tbe fish; they all tell me that no fishing should be al- 

 lowed above Indian Falls, this giving a stretch of water 

 thirty miles above the township line for fly-fishing. Some 

 of the men think the boundary should be at the forks: if 

 the boundary is made there parties can fish L^zy Bogan, 

 which it is absolutely necessary to protect. Lazy Bogan 

 is a stretch of pools where the salmon collect before 

 starting up the forks, and any number of fish could be 

 killed there, formerly, late in the season. It is their 

 spawning ground as well as the forks and should by all 

 means be protected. 



If I am allowed by the government to pay the net fish- 

 ermen not to fish for five years and you will help us in 

 protecting the salmon at the head waters, it will take 

 but a short time to get the salmon back by protecting the 

 river as I have advised. The government, should it de- 

 cide to lease some of the fishing, would receive a good 

 round sum for the privilege. 



A petition will be sent you and I sincerely hope you 

 will give it your consideration, as by so doing you will 

 be helping us to protect the gamest fish in the world, in 

 their most beautiful river, the Grand Cascapedia, and 

 at the same time you will have the good wishes of all 

 tiue sportsmen throughout the Dominion, as well aa 

 yours respectfully, E. W. Davis, 



Tobogganing for Fish. 



Erie, Pa., July 24, — As I believe that catching fish with 

 a toboggan is not a very general practice, I send you this 

 account. A young gentleman using the marine toboggan 

 slide at Massassauga Point (the summer resort at the head 

 of our bay) experienced the queer sensation of some large 

 slippery body gliding between his legs Saturday last. 

 Suddenly remembering the reports which were circulated 

 a few years ago, to the effect that some men when closing 

 an exhibition at the Point had freed several good-pi,''.ed 

 alligators in the bay, the frightened young man scrambled 

 to the shore and calif d the bystanders to the scene The 

 animal proved to be a huge sturgeon, which had probably 

 wandered in from the lake to catch some spawn. Men 

 set upon the fish with clubs, a gun not doing the work, 

 ard soon had him landed, The prize measured 4ft, 9Ln. 

 and brought the ecjales down to 421b8. Mallard, 



