Nov. 17, 1892.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



427 



ANGLING NOTES. 



Leaping Salmon and Swimming Trout. 



In a very intereeting article in Fokest and Stream, of 



Sept. 8 last, with the caption, "Ouauaniche at Ciuquieme 



Chute," "Rowdy Rod" pays an eloquent tribute to the 



leaping powers of the landlocked salmon of the Lake St. 



John region. After gome remarkably tine word painting 



of the vigor and dash of this fish, he says: "At Cin- 



quieme Chute I have seen the ouananiche, on his way up 



to Lac a Jim, leap full 10ft. agaioat the face of the falls, 



and with scarce a perceptible pause agaia leap as high, 



reaching the top of the Chute and falling into the mir- 



rory slide of the water be swept over the falls before he 



could get his head up stream, and his mighty tail going 



like the screw of an ocean liner." 

 There is a dilference of opinion as to the height that it 



is possible for a sea salmon to jump when it is ascending 



a river to spawn and encounters obstructions. One well- 

 known writer contends that salmon cannot jump the 



breast of a dam that is more than 6ft. in height, nor the 



breast of a natural fall of water that is more than the 



same height. On the other hand, Prof. 



Landmark, of Norway, who conducted a 



sf^ries of experiments to test the leaping 



powers of the salmon; Edward Fitzgib- 



bon ("Ephemera"); H- Cholmondeley- 



Pennell : Twiss, the author of "Travels in 



Iceland;"' Aichibald Young, the veteran 



Inspector of Fisheries in Great Britain; 



ex-Fish Commissioner Henry Burden ; the 



late Wm. J. Florence: Canadian canoe- 

 men who have spent more than a score 



of years on Canadian salmon rivers, and 



others that I might name, testify from 



personal observation] that salmon have 



jumped from 8 to 16ft. Prof. Landmark 



and Mr. Fitzgibbon say that they have 



seen the fish jump the last-named dis- 

 tance, while the others testify to dis- 

 tances ranging from 8 to 14ft. To dis- 

 play their jumping power at its best, 



salmon must have a deep pool from 



which to make the start, but Mr. Pen- 



nell personally vouches for the leap of a 



salmon made under the following con- 

 ditions: The fish was discovered in a 



shallow creek by two young ladies. 



They walked in the water below it and 



drove it up stream until it was almost 



stranded, and as they stooped to secure 



it the salmon sprang completely over 



their heads and landed on dry land. 



Until a few days ago the only picture 



that I had seen of a salmon taken in the 



act of leaping was the one reproduced 



from an instantaneous photograph in 



Prof. Goode's book, "American Fishes."' 



That shows the fish leaping a fall of 



water, and although the water is in 



good volume, the sheet thick enough 



apparently for the fish to swim up it, and 



it is an incline rather than a sheer fall, 



the salmon has made the jump in the 



air. I have just seen the negative of an 



exposure made at a leaping salmon in 



Alaska. (This reminds me that Prof. 



C-oode told me that the picture in his 



book was also made in Alaska.) It was 



made by Mr. S. R. Stoddard, and when 



prints are made from this negative one 



may be reproduced in Forest and 



Stream. In Mr. Stoddard's picture the 



salmon is in the act of jumping a dam, 



the height of which, unfortunately, he 



did not measure, but the measurement I 



shall obtain later. The crown of the 



dam projects down and over the water 



below, but there is no water running 



over it, so the fish is jumping a dry dam. 



This of itself is interesting, for salmon 



run usually only when the stream is in 



flood. The height of the dam appears 



to be about four times greater than the 



length of the fish. This dam was not a 

 bar to the ascent of the salmon, for on the 



top of it a net is stretched to prevent the 



fish from jumping over it. Mr. Stoddard 



tells me that he saw fish make a clean 



jump to the top of the dam, only to be 



thrown back by the net. Since I have 



talked with him he feels that if be could 



again make the Alaska trip he might 



secure some photographs that would be 



interesting to a Congressional committee 



having in charge the fishing interests of 



that remote territory. The salmon is a 



leaper, but it does not always leap in 

 passing an obstruction, and it can per- 

 form some astonishing feats in the swimming line. 



The difference in tactics between a salmon and a trout 

 in passing an obstruction is just the difference in action 

 between the two fish when hooked. In nearly every 

 case the salmon jumps to free its jaws from the hook, 

 while the trout swims in desperation with the same 

 object in view, and very rarely jumps above the surface. 

 Althoixgh the salmon is a high jumper and the trout a 

 desperate swimmer, in passing an obstt-uction neither 

 confines its action to a display of its chief characteristic, 

 for the trout is something of a jumper when forced to 

 show its agility in that direction. As a boy I often 

 wondered how trout forced their way over what were 

 apparently impossible falls in mountain trout streams. 

 That they did pass up over these falls I was convinced, 

 but how I was unable to explain, even to my own satis- 

 faction. Some years ago, perha^ps fifteen, perhaps more, 

 a, well-known public man, the head of a lumber com- 

 pany in New York State^ told me that <liiring his visits 

 to the lumber woods in the fall of the year he hari seen 

 trout swim up a vertical fall of water of several feet and 

 pass over the dam that made the falling water. As I 

 said to him at the time, therefore I do not mind admitting 

 it here, it was a difficult matter for me to believe that his 

 eyes had not deceived him, but I have had proof enough 

 of it since. He described the operation thus; He was 

 sitting on the bank of a stream near a dam that his own 

 men had erected, when he noticed a movement in the 



water which attracted his closer attention. The water 

 was falling from the crown of the dam in one unbroken 

 sheet, 2 or 3in. thick, into a pool below, A trout would 

 start ifrom the pool up the sheet of water in a zig-zag 

 motion so quick that it was almost impossible to follow it 

 with the eye. Some trout would go over the dam, and 

 some, after making part of the ascent, would fall back 

 into the pool below, only to try it again. By watching 

 closely he discovered that the trout fell back because 

 they got their fins out of the water. The moment that a 

 fin was exposed back the trout would go. Those of the 

 trout that kept within the sheet of water made the pass- 

 age without accident, and the ascent was as quick as a 

 flash of light. Ouce in a while there would be a little 

 struggle and a splash at the crest of the dam as the fish 

 made the final efl'ort and the turn at the same time, but 

 this did not always indicate failure, though many fell 

 back even from that point, when they were all but over. 

 One of the foremen of the lumber company told me that 

 he was once building a dam on a small stream to store 

 the water for the spring river driving, and was obliged 

 to put in a plank that had an auger hole in it. The bulk 



living in the village. He carried the trout to the stream 

 below, but soon found the same or another trout in the 

 same pla.ce in the trough, and then he carried the fish to 

 the water above the dam. I drove out to the dam and 

 arrived just as Mr. Gayger had for the second time trans- 

 ferred the trout. Foilowing the course of the leakage 

 stream from the brook it seemed to be utterly impossible 

 for a trout to swim in the small amount of water in the 

 channel, and the height from this little pool under the 

 trough to the trough itself was to my eye far too great 

 for a trout to jump, and the water was not thick enough 

 for a trout to swim up in it. Yet, that trout ma^de the 

 journey twice. 1 could multiply instances of this kind if 

 it were necessary to show the power that a trout pos- 

 sesses to swim up over waterfalls that to the uninitiated 

 are apparently impossible. The accompanying repro- 

 duction of a photograph shows a fall of water that is a 

 fair example of the supposed barriers to the ascent of 

 trout. The photograph is of Shelving Rock Falls, on 

 Shelving Rock Brook, a stream that flows into Lake 

 George, N. Y., on the east side, just south of the Nar- 

 rows. The falls are but a short distance from the lake, 

 and are considered well worth looking at, 

 and many journey to the place for this 

 purpose. The picture does not show the 

 entire fall, but enough to indicate its 

 character. Trout go down over these 

 falls to the lake and return passing over 

 falls. Trout that stay for a time in 

 the lake take on a coating of silver from 

 lying on the white sand, which almost 

 covers the markings and mottlings and 

 which gives them the local name of 

 "silver trout." In this respect they are 

 very like the so-called sea trout of Can- 

 ada. When the trout have returned 

 to the brook the silver coating gradually 

 disappears and the spotting shows again 

 in all its beauty and freshness. Years 

 ago I was fishing this Shelving Reek 

 Brook with a friend when he called to 

 me to join him. He had just caught one 

 of the silver mantled trout and was 

 amazed to find it above the falls, for he 

 knew well where it got its silver coat, 

 but did not suppose it possible for a fish 

 of any kind to swim up and over the 

 falls. A man living near told us then 

 that he knew the trout went up and 

 down in the spring and fall when there 

 was water enough to make the passage, 

 but my friend declared the "silver trout" 

 must have been carried up in a bucket of 

 water, although he was afterward con- 

 vinced that the trout could go up and did 

 go up as the man expressed it, "slick as 

 grease." A. N. Chemey. 



Vermont Fish JLaw. 



rS"", SDELVING ROCK PALLS 



Photo by Miss Rose Welles Cheuey. 

 (Forest and Stream Amateur Pliotograpby Competition.) 



of the water was shut off, leaving the pool below quiet. 

 Soon the water raised on the upper side of the dam until 

 a stream poured through the hole, and as it gained a 

 little head it discharged round and clear into the water 

 below, agitating it. The foreman was looking at the 

 stream thinking whether it was worth while to stop it 

 with a plug when he saw a trout shoot out of the side of 

 the solid stream. Then he watched and saw a number 

 of trout try to swim up in the stream and some few suc- 

 ceeded in passing through the hole, but many fell .back 

 unsuccessful. After a time the head became so great 

 that the force of the water was more than the fish could 

 overcome. In these cases the trout accomplished what 

 they sought by their swimming powers instead of by 

 jumping. 



While a dam at a storage reservoir of the Glens Falls 

 village water works was being rej)aired a small leak was 

 siTpplied with a trough made of two boards nailed 

 together to cany the water away from the base of the 

 dam. The lower end of the trough was, i should says 

 15 to 20in. above the ground. The leakage found its way 

 into the stream below, which was a trout brook, by a 

 channel which it made for itself. A trout from the 

 brook followed up this little leakage to the miniature 

 pool under the end of the trough, then jumped into the 

 trough, worked its way to the upper end of the trough in 

 water not deep enough to cover its back, and was there 

 found by Mr. Henry Gaygerj a venerable bank officer 



HiOHGATE, Vt. , Nov. 5. — Editor Forest 

 and Stream: Among the changes pro- 

 posed in our present fish laws is one 

 which, if it becomes a law, will, we 

 fear, nearly exterminate the fish in this 

 section of Lake Champlain. It is pro- 

 posed to make a lawgiving our Fish Com- 

 missioners the power to grant licenses to 

 seine the northern waters of the lake dur- 

 ing the time that the fish are entering 

 the mouth of the Missiequoi River to 

 spawn. The reason given why licenses 

 should be given here is that licenses are 

 given on the Canadian side. That is a 

 poor reason, for though Canadians do fish 

 with seines, a large number of fish annu- 

 ally come into our river to spawn, and 

 then return back into the lake and there 

 remain within the borders of our State 

 and furnish sport and food for a large 

 number of our residents, as well as for 

 summer tourists who come here during 

 the hot season. If the above bill becomes 

 a law, the same influence that caused the 

 bill to be made and to become a law 

 will be used to get licenses granted. 



I believe that much of the net fishing 

 done on the Canadian side of the line has 

 been done by persons resident of this 

 town and the towns of S wanton and 

 Alburgh, Vt., and the fish caught were 

 brought back to this side of the line and 

 then shipped to the New York and Boston 

 markets. A stringent law should have 

 been passed and enforced to prevent this 

 kind of work, 



A few days ago one of our Fish Com- 

 missioners and the editor of a local paper 

 were cruising in the lake near the mouth 

 of the river, where they ran into a trap net that had 

 some 400 fish in it. The Commissioner liberated the 

 fish and took up the net, but it was left where it was 

 stolen from him that night. The editor has not made 

 any mention of the fact, which shows how his sympathies 

 are. It is to be hoped that the good sense of our Gover- 

 nor will cause him to refuse to sign the bill. If not, we 

 hook and line fishermen will be obliged to take our rods 

 and our cash and go elsewhere for our sport, 



Stanstead. 



An Automatic Striker. 



An English firm has invented an automatic fish-striker, 

 by which the line is twitched and the biting fish is struck 

 entirely without the angler's intervention. "We have 

 not tried this invention, as we do not care about auto- 

 matic affairs of this kind, which all tend to reduce the 

 interest of angling and its sporting i haracter," says the 

 London Fishing Gazette. "It you are fishing for your 

 living, by all moans use half a dozen lines (if you may 

 legally do so) and automatic sti-ikens, but do not as a 

 sportsman claim any glory for fish killed by such means, 

 'Many a fish is lost,' say Messrs. Hearder, 'by not being' 

 struck the moment it takes the bait.' Of course it is, and 

 that's one of the charms of angling. It requires skill, 

 but if these automatic affairs do what they profess to do, 

 then you only want a boy to pull in the fish and rebait 

 for you," 



