Dec. 1, 1892,3 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



471 



culturists hatch from 90 to 98 per -cent, of the eggs 

 taken in this manner. I cannot tell how many eggs 

 would have hatched in a natural way, but I do know, as 

 I have already stated in Fokest and Steeam, that Mr. 

 Alexander Mowat, a fishery officer in Canada, who ex- 

 amined the salmon beds in Lower Canadian rivers— 

 Restigouche, St, John and Prince Edward Island— after 

 the water had receded and left them dry, found by actual 

 count that only two per cent, of the eggs were vitalized. 



Now I pass to another part of the same article: " But 

 we shall be told, as one always is in tlipse cases, to look 

 at America, and see the marvelous things that are done 

 there by artificial breeding. We are quite ready to ad- 

 mit that on paper the results are marvelous, so much so 

 that we wonder that any official document can gravely 

 print them. For instance, the doings of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Fish Commission are wonderful. It is stated that 

 100,000 salmon fry were two years ago placed in the 

 upper reaches of the Delaware Eiver — ^that is, the pro- 

 duce of Biy about a dozen twenty-pound fish. The re- 

 sult is stated to be that last summer quite a number of 

 salmon, measuring from 12in. to 30in., were caught. 

 Such fish would be worth seeing. One would be note- 

 worthy, but a number would be a feature that required 

 some explanation, and we shall be glad to hear what the. 

 Pennsylvania Fish Commission have to say of the num- 

 ber of two-year-old 13in. and 30in. salmon. Is it merely 

 an attempt to see how much people will believe, or is it 

 put forward in sober earnest? We should dearly like 

 to see a 15in. smolt. Again, why were they ciught? 

 Was it as curiosities or as articles of commerce ? * * 

 Indeed, the whole statement is of a nature to throw 

 doubt on the credibility of the reports of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Fish Commission. * * Truly the Americans are 

 a great people, and not the least item in their greatness 

 are the official statements on fishculture and the size of 

 sinolts. We must, however, protest very strongly against 

 such statements being otTicially made." 



Let me say in reply to this extract that we actually 

 are doing some things over here in the way of breeding 

 fish artificially that might, with truth, be called mar- 

 velous, but no" salmon smolts 20in. long have been reared. 

 The Pennsylvania Fish Commissioners have made no 

 such report officially or unofficially. As a fact, Mr. B . 

 C. Demuth, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Fish Commis- 

 sion, wrote me some little time ago that the report for 

 1890 and 1891 was still in the printer's hands, and it has 

 not been is-^ued. It will be one of the most magnificent 

 reports ever issued by any fish commission, when it is com- 

 pleted. It is true that there was such an item printed in 

 the daily newspapers, wholly without the sanction of the 

 Fish Commissioners, and without foundation in fact, 

 that salmon smolts 20 inches in length have been taken 

 in the Delaware two years after the fry were planted, but 

 like some other unsigned articles upon the subject of fish- 

 culture that I have read, the writer gave the best evi- 

 dence in the article itself that he was stumbling along in 

 the dark over unfamiliar ground. There were some 

 smolts caught, it is true, but they were not as cm-iosities, 

 not as articles of commerce, but because we have poach- 

 ers over here, as I presume they have in England, and 

 we have fish hogs, too, that catch baby salmon and call 

 them trout, and do other things for which they should be 

 sent to Jail if they got what they deserved. At the time 

 the 20-inch smolts item was going the rounds of the 

 papers, Mr. Henry C. Ford, president of the Fish Com- 

 mission, wrote me in part ; ' ' There have been many 

 smolts taken in the upper Delaware during the past sum- 

 mer, though none have come under my observation, I 

 have had oorrespondenoe with parties who have seen and 

 recognized the fish. My correspondents made no refer- 

 ence to the length of the smolts, with one exception, 

 when the writer stated that the fish he had seen were 

 nine or ten inches in length. This seems to correspond 

 more nearly with your experience," In other words the 

 man guessed that the smolt was nine or ten inches long, 

 I dave planted salmon fry and yearlings for the past nine 

 years, both for the United States and the State of New 

 York, and have caught a few smolts at the request of the 

 Fish Commissioners to see how they were doing. The 

 largest one I caught was, I think, a little over eight inches 

 long ; but it is in the Smithsonian Institution now and 

 can be measured if necessary. This fish was planted in 

 May and caught a year ;from the following October. 

 Salmon fry are not uniform in growth. The largest year- 

 ling salmon taken in the upper Hudson one season was 

 five inches long. Another yearling taken in the lower 

 Hudson four days from the time the other was caught 

 was seven inches long. These fish were hatched at the 

 same station, at the same time. Both are figured in a 

 New York State report. It is scarcely necessary for me 

 to say to readers in this country that the official state- 

 ments of our Fish Commissioners are to be relied upon 

 absolutely as an expression of what they have accomp- 

 lished. A. N. Cheney. 



VERMONT FISH AND GAME LEAGUE. 



Rutland, Vt,, Nov. 2%.— Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 inclose here -vith list of officers elected at the annual meet- 

 ing of the Vermont Fish and Game League, held on the 

 33(3 inst. at Montpelier. The meeting was called to be 

 held in the parlors of the Pavilion, but as many members 

 of the Lpgislature are also members of the League, and 

 there was an evening session of the Legislature, the 

 meeting was adjommed to the Capitol, where we met in 

 the room of the Committee on Military Affairs, About 

 twenty new members were elected, including one life 

 member, Erastus Baldwin, of Wells River. 



The committee appointed at the last annual meeting as 

 a legislative committee made a report which showed 

 that they had done their work faithfully, and it was a 

 matter of congratulation to all members present that we 

 now have a new chapter of fish and game laws, all the 

 old laws having been repealed; also the fact that we have 

 an appropriation of $5 000 for the equipment and man- 

 agement of the State hatchery for the next two years. 

 You will perhaps recall that this hatchery was built from 

 the appropriation of $3,400 made two years ago. The 

 Fish Commissioners of the State continue to have the 

 annual appropriation which has been made in former 

 years of $3,000, and this .^o.OOO appropriation is for the 

 especial work of equipment and maintenance of the State 

 hatchery at Rosbury, The time and place of holding 

 the next meeting, as well as the question of holding a 

 banquet some time during the present winter, were left 

 |iO be decided by the president. 



The meeting' was presided over by H. R, Dorr, presi- 



dent, with John W. Titcomb secretary. Jas, W, Brock, 

 I treasurer, was also present, and made a statement show- 

 ing that the League was in possession of ample funds, 

 I The officers elected were: Henry R. Dorr, Rutland, 

 President; John W, Titcomb, Rutland, Secretary; .James 

 W, Brock, Montpelier, Treasurer. Vice-Presidents, M, S. 

 Colburn, Manchester; C. f3r. Williams, Essex .Jnnction; 

 W, W. Miles, Barton; E. C. Smith, St. Albans; Geo. W. 

 Wing, Monlpelier; Geo. W. Hooker, Brattleboro. Exec- 

 utive Committee* W. R. Peake, Bristol, Addison county; 

 C, F. Or vis. Manchester, Bennington count v; James 

 Ritchie, St. .lohnsbury, Caledonia county: W.W. Henry, 

 Burlington, Chittenden connty: N, Hobson, E. Brighton, 

 Essex county; F, J. Hawley, Swanton, Franklin county; 

 N. W. Fiske. Grand Isle, Grand Isle county: E, B, Saw- 

 yer, Hyde Park, Lamoille county, W, S. Curtis, Ran- 

 dolph, Orange county; L. D. Miles, Newport, Orleans 

 county: F, D. Proctor, Proctor, Rutland county; A. W, 

 Ferrin, Montpelier, Washington county; Walter H. 

 Childs, Brattleboro, Windham coimty; C, F, Chapman, 

 Woodstock, Windsor county. Board of Auditors, E. C. 

 Orvis, C. 0. Warren, Wm. W. Walker, Membership 

 Committee, M. S. Colburn, C. M. Wilds, John W, Tit- 

 comb, 



THE CHANNEL CATFISH. 



Amono the fresh-water fishes now living in the aquaria 

 of the U, S, Fish Commission in Washington is a large 

 and very dark specimen of catfish from the Potomac 

 River. The species is known aa the white cat, channel 

 cat, ajid Schuylkill cat. The individual here referred to 

 is remarkable on account of its color and especially 

 because of the division of the barbels on its nose. The 

 right nasal barbel is forked, and that of the left side 

 doubly forked. The writer has never seen another exam- 

 ple of the kind among the thousands of cattish which have 

 come under his observation. 



The artist, Mr. A. H. Baldwin, has represented the fish 

 as it appears in the aquarium. The specimen is healthy 

 and will take its food with becoming regularity. It was 

 caught by Mr, L, G, Harron, at Bryan's Point, in the 

 Potomac, last summer. 



Prof. Ryder has studied the breeding habits and develop- 

 ment of the common catfish, which is a very near relative 

 of the channel catfish. His account was published in 

 1883 in the Bulletin of the U. S, Fish Commission. 



Eggs were found in one of the aquaria on July 13. The 

 egg mass was about Sin. long, 4in. wide, from ^ to f of an 



i 



TAB CftariTie.1 Crcf f/sh 

 (loM c7c formed larMs-\ 



inch in thickness, and was estimated to contain 8,000 

 eggs, eacli of them about ^in. in diameter. "The ova 

 were covered with an adhesive but not gelatinous outer 

 envelope, so that they were adherent to the bottom of 

 the aquarium and to each other where their spherical 

 surfaces came in contact, and consequently had interven- 

 ing spaces for the free passage of water, such as would be 

 found in a submerged pile of shot or other spherical 

 bodies. It was evident that the male was forcing fresh 

 water through this mass by hovering over it and vibrating 

 the anal, ventral and pectoral fins rapidly." 



All of the eggs left in the care of the male were hatched, 

 but of some detached eggs, which were placed in another 

 aquarium with running water, scarcely more than one- 

 half came out. The period of hatching was six to eight 

 days, during which time the male was never seen to leave 

 his charge, although the female apparently took no inter- 

 est in the development of the eggs. 



The newly hatched fish showed a tendency to school or 

 "bank" like salmon, and to swim against the currents of 

 water. The young began to feed on the fifteenth day 

 after the eggs were deposited, and it was found that raw 

 liver suited their taste perfectly. They were fed about 

 a month on this food without the loss of a single fish. 

 Teeth were developed in the young fifteen days after the 

 eggs were deposited, and "they would pull and tug at 

 the fragments of liver with the most dogged perseverance 

 and apparent ferocity." 



"It is worthy of note," continues Prof. Ryder, "that 

 when pieces of liver were thrown into the aquarium the 

 parent fishes would apparently often swallow them, with 

 numbers of young ones eating at and hanging to the 

 fragments. I was soon agreeably surprised to find that 

 the parent fishes seemed to swallow only the meat, and 

 that they invariably ejected the young fish from the 

 mouth quite uninjured, the parent fish seeming to be able 

 to discriminate, instinctively before deglutition occurred, 

 between what was its proper food and what were its own 

 young. As soon as the young began to feed they com- 

 menced to disperse through the water and to all parts of 

 the aquarium, and to manifest less desire to congregate 

 in schools near the male, who also abated his habit of 

 fanning the young with his fins, as was his wont during 

 the early phases of development." 



According to Prof. Ryder, the early appearance of the 

 barbels is the most interesting feature of the development 

 of young catfishes. The barbels at the ends of the upper 

 jaws appear first on the third day, then the outer chin 

 barbels, next , the inner chin barbels are formed. "By 

 the seyeat^f nth day §ii of bfee barbels have acquired very 



nearly the same length in proportion to other parts of the 

 body, as may be noted in those of the adults, but they are 

 nearly transparent and appear to be thickly studded 

 superficially with fpecialized sense organs, which are 

 probably tactile in function." T. H. B. 



A FLORIDA HOUSE BOAT. 



Mb. John S. Danfobth, the celebrated Parmacheene 

 guide and camp owner for so many years in the Maine 

 woods, but now manager of the same camps for the Par- 

 macheene Club, has designed and had built at Bath, Me., 

 a floating hotel for Florida waters. His floating hotel has 

 been navigated with safety as far as Boston, and it is now 

 on its way to New York or has already reached there. 

 The design of Mr. Danforth is to furnish sportsmen in 

 Florida water with a floating home. The vessel is 125ft. 

 in length, 50ft, beam, but only draws from 20 to 35in, of 

 water, according to the load on board. She is designed 

 purposely for floating up the Florida bays and rivers in 

 water too shoal for any other sort of a craft. She has 

 twenty staterooms furnished in good shape, and Mr, Dan- 

 forth designs to take sportsmen on board and furnish 

 them with everything they need for a fishing or hunting 

 trip. He has a store on board, and he will sell, or let for 

 a day or an hour, anything in the shape of fifhing or 

 shooting tackle. He designs to run the vessel 200 miles 

 up the Indian, the Halifax and the Hillsboro rivers. The 

 vessel has attracted a good deal of curiosity in Boston, 

 where she was anchored at Rowe's wharf for several 

 days. She has been visited largely by sportsmen who are 

 acquainted with Mr. Danforth's celebrity in the Maine 

 woods. On board Mr. Danforth has some twenty Maine 

 guides, all anxious for a winter's sport in Florida. He 

 has saved a good many curiosities during his many years' 

 hunting in Maine, and some of the best of these he has 

 on board his floating hotel. He has a moose head, the 

 argpst and the most perfect ever taken in Maine, This is 

 perched over the cabin door and is festooned with bear 

 traps. He has preserved a remarkable specimen of the 

 work of beavers and has it with him on his ship. It is 

 the stump of a white birch, nine or ten inches in diame- 

 ter. This was cut down with the tree by the teeth of the 

 beavers till the tree had fallen over, but leaving wood 

 enough in the center to hold the stump to the roots. Mr. 

 Danforth found this far away in the woods, freshly 

 gnawed. It struck him as a remarkable specimen of the 

 work of these great rodents. With his ax he cut the tree 

 oft' just above the gnaw. Then he cut the stump up by 

 the roots and below the beavers' work. It was a great 

 load to carry, but he was equal to the task. Reaching 

 his camps he wrapped the specimen in blankets till it 

 was seasoned, in order that it might season with as little 

 cracking as possible and without discoloring the wood. 

 For his care and pains he now has on board his Florida 

 vessel a sample of beaver wood cutting that is worthy of 

 the National Museum. The teeth marks are .as fresh as 

 though made yesterday. 



A number of Boston sportsmen are to meet Mr. Dan- 

 forth in Florida this winter and have engaged accommo- 

 dations on his novel craft. He also expects several 

 members of his Parmacheene Club to join him in New 

 York. Special. 



Mascalonge of Upper Saranac. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Say ten years ago, perhaps more, pickerel, so-called 

 then, were placed in the Upper Saranac Lake, N, Y. , and 

 I knew it, but kept silent about it, convinced, however, 

 and awaited the result. It became known to a few, then 

 after a while became generally known. It appalled me, 

 the increase, with my known love of trout. To be ex- 

 plicit, however. Last May large quantities of so-called 

 pickerel were caught running down through the sluice- 

 way at Bartletts to Lower Saranac Lake weighing from 

 Gibs, to 191bs, in an iron screen set for the purpose. I 

 heard of it, and was appalled again at the thought of 

 losing trout in the Saranac Lakes, Adirondacks, N. Y. 

 Good Heavens! Whew! Well, in May of this year I was 

 at Wabeek Lodge, Upper Saranac Lake, detained thereby 

 adverse winds and snow for four days. On the fifth day, 

 down at the boat house, saw a so-called pickerel caught. 

 The day preceding found a copy of the Fokest and 

 Stream, May 14, 1891, containing a description of the 

 pike family and cuts of mascalonge, pike and pickerel (I 

 despise a pickerel). Rejoicing after examination of the 

 above caught and called pickerel, I said to my guide the 

 cuts in Forest and Stkeam which we examined yester- 

 day are mascalonge. He went immediately, and getting 

 the paper we compared fish and cuts and unanimously 

 agreed that it was so, and I still stick to my opinion, 

 governed, dictated and influenced in my opinion by your 

 published cuts. The great trouble is that authors dis- 

 agree in their opinions regarding mascalonge and pick- 

 erel, and it leaves the question open for discussion, and 

 creditability on the knowledge of authors. I think you are 

 right, however, in spite of the abuse that has been heaped 

 upon me, governed by your cuts. R. 



Cayuga Lake Fishing'. 



Ithaca, N. Y., Nov. 36.— Until the late extremely 

 cold weather local black bass anglers have kept pegging 

 away along the east shore of the lake, meeting with 

 enough success to warrant them in braving the discom- 

 fort of stifliened limbs and rheumatic twinges, but the 

 most persistent of them all, Mr. F, Randolph, has quit, 

 winding up with a hard day's work with only a lamprey 

 eel to show for it, and so it may be said that the fishing 

 is virtually over at this end of Cayuga Lake, The open- 

 ing day on bass resulted in a catch from Fall Creek Cove 

 alone of between 60 and 70 of gamy fellows, some of 

 them big ones, too. This retreat, however, had been 

 closed to all fishing for several seasons past. The total 

 catch for the season has been very good, I am told. A 

 good lot of perch has been taken, 15 being the best single 

 day's catcli I know of for one rod. Perch have averaged 

 considerably larger at this end of the lake this season 

 than at the foot. A few nice sized muscallonge were 

 taken during the summer, Ed. Buckbee being credited 

 witk a lolb. one. At a point over the west shore some 

 50 or 60 so-called German carp were taken in one week. 

 These carp must have been hybrids. At any rate, I am 

 inclined to that belief, though I have the affrmation of 

 old anglers to the contrary. Taking the season as a 

 whole I think it has been a pretty profitable and en joy- 

 pble one for local anglers. M. C. Ef, 



