492 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



lDec. 8, 1892. 



ventured the opinion that this list might be added to 

 materially, but no one has yet made a contribution, 

 therefore I will add to it. Last summer an English 

 angler; while fishing for trout had his fly taken on the 

 back cast by a snipe. The bird was not hooked by 

 accident for it took the fly in its mouth. I regret that 

 I cannot tell where I read of this curious capture, but 

 think it was in Land and Water. The name of the 

 angler was given as well as other particulars, and all 

 things considered it was perhaps the strangest capture of 

 any that I have mentioned, and deserves to rank with 

 Frank Forester's story of a snipe roosting on a fence — at 

 least I think it was Forester who related it ; with the 

 Pennsylvania sportsman's tale of a wounded snipe diving 

 four times and swimming under water like a duck, and 

 with the oil painting of the race horse Black Maria tied 

 to a tree. 



Size of Yearling and Two-Year-Old Trout. 

 A question that is constantly popping up to be 

 answered is how large are certain fish ataceitain age, 

 and when I hear tlie question ray thoughts go back to a 

 can of yearling salmon that I once received to plant. 

 The fish were all hatched at the same time fromthesame 

 lot of eggs, and were kept t( g Lher in the same pond 

 until they were about fourteen months old, yet they 

 varied in size from about 2 to 6in. in length Varjfing 

 conditions of food make even a greater difference in 

 growth. I planted some brown trout in the famous 

 Half-way Brook in Warren county, N. Y., and their 

 .growth was so remarkable that a native fisherman told 

 me that be knew that it was impossible for trout at two 

 years of age, which was their age at the time, to grow to 

 the length that those fish did. They, however, were 

 babies compared to some two-year-old brown trout reared 

 by Mr. Thnmas Ford, the English fishculturist, who has 

 had trout 7in, long at eight months, and over 8in. long at 

 a year. Three trout at two years of age weighed |, 1^ 

 and Ulbs. respf ctively. They were left in a pond as 

 jearlings, and 18,000 fry wero put into the pond not 

 knowing the yearlings were there. At tbe end of the 

 following year there were only about 1,800 yearlings to 

 show for the 18,000 fry, the tiireej two-yea r-ol (is having 

 accounted for the others, A. N. Chenk^. 



PLAYING YOUR FISH. 



Several years ago, being on the Peninsula of Alaska, 

 tront streams plentiful and trout everywhere abundant. 

 I started out one day to have some sport with my rod. I 

 had often fished a certain stream with grand results, and 

 this day decided to return to it again. It was in the sal- 

 mon season, in which trout take roe bait, and this was 

 used, and many a shining coat was laid away in my 

 creel. At length, coming to a fall over which the waters 

 fell and were churned to foam in the pool beneath, an 

 ideal place for a fisherman to stand, by the roaring wa- 

 ters and the drifting spray, and drop his bait lightly 

 amid the shifting foam, fish after fish was drawn from 

 the cool waters. 



Beside the stream grew blue berries and salmon berries 

 in profusion. My appetite having been sharpened by the 

 jaunt and tbe cool air, I began to gather and eat the fruit 

 by the stream, paying little attention to my line, which 

 was trailing with the current, when suddenly my hook 

 was struck by some roe-eating inonster of the brook, and 

 off it started as if it had just received a telegram of a 

 great feast to be held at the mouth of the river. I also 

 started in the direction of the supposed feast, not wishing 

 to lose my gear. It soon came to shallower water and I 

 was able to comprehend what was taking my tackle and 

 myself toward the sea. This plaything was an old, 

 mouldy dog salmon, with sores along its sides and back, 

 its fins and tail chafed and worn, and with a general ap- 

 pearance of dilapidation and decay. Yet this ancient and 

 mouldy individual was game from the end of its decay- 

 ing nose to the tip of its blighted tail. Talk about fun: 

 there was fun "for an onlooker." In my endeavor to 

 save my line and hook, not having any spare ones, I 

 rushed after this Salmo non grata in frantic haste, and 

 filled first one long rubber boot and then the other, and 

 at last fell sprawling in the ice-cold stream. I arose with 

 great dignity, or at least all I could command, and 

 smiled a smile which at once congealed and thawed not 

 for many a day. With a quick jerk on my rod I broke 

 from the fish and saved my rod and line, and this grand 

 fish kept on its way to the sea with a grin on its decaying 

 features that haunts me to this day. 



All the talk about playing your fish goes for nothing- 

 this fellow played me. E. P. H. 



POTOMAC NOTES. 



The cold rains beginning of Thanksgiving week set- 

 fled the Potomac bass fishing. Many of our anglers had 

 kept their tackle ready, intending to spent the 34th on 

 the river, as the fishing had been fair up to the 18th 

 but they were doomed to disappointment, and all owing 

 to the ab-5ence of the Government rain-makers in the 

 eastern United States. The river resolved itself into a 

 flowing mud puddle, the stores at once removed their 

 stock of fishing tackle out of sight, so as to have "fresh 

 goods" next year, and the fishermen so fortunate as to 

 have gims, and the time to use them, at once set to 

 cleaning out the rust spots, lubricating the workino- parts 

 and planning with friends for a hunt, ° 



Quite a number of good bags of quail have been made 

 any number of rabbits have come to grief, and a few 

 wild turkey, grouse and pheasants have been secured 

 withm a radhis of fifty miles of Washington, 



Mr. John Pollock spent a week in Virginia, right in the 

 Blue Eidge, and brought home three good turkeys The 

 largest, a gobbler, weighed 221b8.. ahenoflolbs. the 

 other still smaller. A very large flock was seen and 

 John s friends, living in the section, have shot several 

 since. I was talking with a gentleman from Virginia 

 last evening and he tells me that the practice of baiting 

 turkeys is kept up. Many are mowed down in this 

 manner. 



In western Maryland there ".are usually more rabbits 

 than you can shake a stick at. One of our ardent rabbit 

 hunters succeeded in bagging twenty-three in one day 

 m Frederick county recently. As Harry puts it, "thev 

 grow on bushes up there." 



The manner in which quail are hawked around the 

 v^nl' ^ sight. Whence they come, no one 



knows. They reach us in barrels, the regular, every-day I 



kind, in which apples, turnips, cabbages and other pro- 

 duce is shipped, and are offered on the streets as the 

 pseudo-hunter's own capture, "fresh from the covers." 



Ducks on the Potomac? Yes, and steam launches and 

 big-guns, too. Two weeks since a party of legitimate 

 sportsmen went down the river and found ducks in fair 

 numbers attempting to alight on the Potomac. A large 

 flock would 8ettle,'when|tu tu-tu-tu tu-tu-tu a small steam 

 launch would steam up rapidly toward the game, and if 

 near enough several gunners would rise in their places and 

 fire a parting salute at the birds. The gentlemen of the 

 small boats found it out of the question to get near 

 enough to the many flocks seen that day, as the ever- 

 present launch would be down on every fresh arrival be- 

 fore they could fairly settle. Is this not a great violation 

 of the law, and the breach committed right in the shadow 

 of the dome of the Capitol. Bon. 



Washisgxon, D. C, Nov. 28. 



SHARKS OF THE SOUTHERN SEA. 



The northwestern coast of Australia thirty- five years 

 ago was a land seldom visited by the whites and by these 

 only from vessels touching at isolated points along the 

 coast, as in the case of the whalers. No white settler 

 was to be found in all that region. The aboriginal tribes 

 alone roamed over its desolate waste; no European had 

 at that time crossed that continent, either from east to 

 west or from north to south, the central and north- 

 western portion of the continent being sparsely populated 

 by the natives of the country, who stand the lowest in 

 the scale of humanity of all the savage tribes I have ever 

 encountered. The North American Indian, the digger of 

 California, the Esquimau of the Far North, the inhabit- 

 ants of the South Sea Islands all built themselves some 

 kind of an habitation and made some attempt at clothing 

 their bodies. It seems the natives of Terra del Fuego 

 most nearly approached them in degradation. 



These people roamed tbe desolate plains adjacent to 

 this coast, clothed in nature's garb, and lying down to 

 sleep wherever they might be when night overtook them. 

 No implement of iron was seen among them. Their 

 weapons were made entirely of wood — a hard wood spear 

 with the points hardened by charring in the fire, this 

 being used by a hand or throwing board, and the boom- 

 rang were their principal weapons. 



During the years of 185'/-'8-9 I had many opportunities 

 of observing the habits of these people, and their mode 

 of defending themselves from the attacks of the ferocious 

 sharks which are found in the shallow waters of this re- 



AUSlRALlAN NATIVE AND SHARK. 



gion in immense numbers, being peculiar to these tribes 

 alone, are deserving of description. Having no boats, 

 these natives are able to visit islands lying several miles 

 from the main land, also ships at anchor, their aid to 

 navigation being a small log of driftwood. They usually 

 select one three or four feet long and say eighteen inches 

 in diameter; this being rolled to the water, the native 

 seats himself thereon with legs and feet straight out be- 

 fore him. His weight entirely submerging the log, and 

 using his hands for paddles, away he goes. 



The sharks in these waters are so ferocious they often 

 seized our oars when rowing, yet these natives launch 

 the little craft into the shark-infested sea, their only 

 weapons being a few straight, tough sticks, a little larger 

 than a lead pencil, from twelve to eighteen inches in 

 length, sharp-pointed at the ends. The log protects the 

 person of the native from attack from beneath, and the 

 shark can only approach at the side, and as he ranges 

 alongside the log looking for a chance to seize his prey, 

 the native with a skillful thrust of the little stick stabs 

 the^monster in the gills. This is the vital point to strike 

 a shark. I have seen them cut with a whale spade across 

 the belly in such a manner that their entrails protruded 

 and dragged behind them, yet not ceasing to feed on the 

 blubber of the whale lying bv the ship, and yet a slight 

 cut across the gills of the largest would turn him from 

 his meal with a countenance so full of woe as to touch 

 the heart of anyone except a sailor, and casting a look of 

 reproach at its human tormentor, it dives into the depths 

 of the ocean. 



A shark struck in the gills never renews the fight. 

 This fact being known to the native, he has no fear of 

 the retm-n of the monster after a wound in this vital spot, 

 therefore, when the shark turns awav, the native replaces 

 the little spear in his hair and paddles along with as little 

 concern as if he had killed a fly. 



When given food on the ship, the natives would gorge 

 themselves, rubbing their bellies to make good stowage 

 and when they could eat no more would seek a quiet 

 place to lie down and sleep. Hard-tack and molasses 

 gave them them the greatest delight of any food offered 

 them. In person they were very thin— skin and bones 

 best describes their condition— but they are possessed of 

 great endurance as travelers, marching great distances 

 and subsisting the while on a land so barren that a white 

 man would soon be overcome in it with both hunger and 

 thirst; but nearly all kinds of creeping things are food 

 for them— grubs, worms and snails being toothsome 

 articles. 



The appetite of the shark is something wonderful; one 

 specimen taken by us and examined contained in its 

 atomach one barrel of blubber from a whale recentlv 

 killed by us, one-and-one-half barrels of lean from the 

 same source, the crown or upper shell of a green turtle 

 lb inches across, the partially digested remains of four 

 sea snakes, "which are very venomous and the bite of 

 which 18 most deadly to man," the bones of various fishes 



the beaks of cuttle fish, and two sea fowl— "shags"— re- 

 cently devoured. In addition to the above, the liver 

 filled a 45 -gallon cask, and 33 young sharks were found 

 in the belly with the egg-like attachment by which the 

 young is nourished in the belly of its mother. These 

 young fish were about 14 inches in length and rather 

 slender in body. 



It is well known that the young of the shark is born 

 fully developed and, under the instruction of its mother, 

 is soon able to forage for itself and prey upon the smaller 

 fishes. 



It is often stated that the shark must turn belly up to 

 seize its prey; this is simply nonsense. The shark takes 

 its bite in any position, and when fastened to^the object, 

 with a few vigorous strokes of its powerful tail it so 

 twists its body that the strong serrated teeth soon cut 

 through the toughest substance. Smaller bodies are 

 swallowed whole like the turtle above mentioned. 



The movements of the shark are sluggish and it views 

 its prey with a suspicious eye unless the object is familiar 

 to its sight, or blood be following; in the last case the 

 shark awakens to instant activity and rushes to the con- 

 flict with vigor. 



That the shark is capable of rapid motion, a battle I 

 once witnessed from the masthead on a ship between 

 his highness and a swordfish will prove. It being a 

 calm day, the vessel had little headway, and the sea was 

 perfectly smooth. Which was the attacking party I 

 know not, but when first seen a commotion in the water 

 was noticed. Examining the spot with my glass, there 

 plainly to be seen were a large shark and a swordfish, 

 about ten or twelve feet apart, lying motionless in the 

 water, their bodies glowing in the sunlight. Then there 

 was a rush and the two had changed places and were 

 heading for each other again with the samt; alert appear- 

 ance. Again and again this took place before my eyes, 

 aided by strong glasses. The movements of the two 

 were like a flash of light and for a half hour there was 

 no advantage on either side. Whichever may have been 

 the aggressor it soon became evident that the shark 

 avoided the formidable beak of the swordfish. Neither 

 could run away, and so they passed out of sight with the 

 battle undecided, and it may be both wishing themselves 

 in some far distant sea. E, P. H, 



SPAWNING SEASONS AND HABITS. 



Under this heading we propose to publish notes and 

 comments upon the reproduction of the game fishes of 

 the United States, and we invite anglers and lovers of 

 natural history generally to contribute their observations 

 on these subjects: 



The Smelts. 



The smelts are well known in salt water on both sides 

 of the continent and in Eastern lakes, especially of 

 northern New England, landlocked varieties are found. 

 The best waters for landlocked salmon are well stocked 

 with smelte, which furnish abundant and choice food for 

 their larger relatives. 



Smelts ascend rivers from the sea in early spring to 

 spawn; the landlocked form runs up tributaries of the 

 lakes for the same purpose. In the Raritan Eiver, N. J., 

 the eggs are deposited in March. In Maine lakes spawn- 

 ing is in progress in May and June, The fish crowd up 

 the streams at night only, sind their small, golden, ad- 

 hesive eggs coat every rock, twig and blade of grass in 

 their line of ascent. 



By July 1 the young smelt have grown to the length of 

 from i to fin., and constitute the favorite food of young 

 trout and salmon. 



It is an easy and remunerative task to transfer the nat- 

 urally fertilized eggs to waters stocked with salmon. 



VERMONT FISHING INTERESTS. 



HianaATE, Vt., Nov. 2^.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 It is a most fortunate thing for the interests of fish and 

 game protection that the columns of your widely-read 

 journal are ever open to correspondence on this subject, 

 which will be read by nearly all those who are in a posi- 

 tion to give the much-needed assistance in carrying out 

 this work, 



A journal like yours is an "educator," and when it has 

 taugnt the intelligent public the breeding habits of our 

 food and game fish there will then be no difficulty in 

 making and enforcing suitable laws for better protec- 

 tion. 



In your issue of the 24th inst. we note the following: 

 "We are told that the Vermont proposition to license net- 

 ting in Missispquoi Bay is of the nature of a retaliatory 

 measure against Canadian fishermen." Such was claimed 

 by the friends of the bill before it was passed, and now 

 that it has become a law. as we before predicted, the 

 mask is thrown aside and the true object of the bill ap- 

 pears, as will be seen by the following, which is taken 

 from the last issue of a local paper, the acknowledged 

 champion of the net fishermen: "Spring fishing once 



more. Hurrah! Don't forget that Editor has 



always been on our side," etc., etc. 



This means the undoing of the good work performed 

 here by our former Fish Commissioner, the Hon. Herbert 

 Brainerd. After our spawning fish have been elestroyed 

 then our legislators will be called upon for an appropria- 

 tion to defray the expense of restocking the waters of 

 Lake Champlain. The editor of that paper in an editorial 

 in the same issue descends to personal blackguardism 

 which in itself shows the rottenness of big cause. 



We were surprised to read in the late report of our 

 pjesent Fish Commissioners that the wall-eyed pike or 

 pike-perch (>'. vitreon) of our lakp, mostly spawn in the 

 waters of Missiequoi Bay, on the Canada side of the line. 

 Can it be possible that our Commissioners know so little 

 about the spawning habits of this fish, which is the most 

 important food fish in our lake? The pike-perch, like the 

 salmon, only spawn on gravelly bottoms of streams 

 where there is a moderately stiff current, and the only 

 stream of this description emptying into this part of the 

 lake is the Missisquoi River, which is on the Vermont 

 side of the line. We can perhaps account for this mis- 

 taken statement of our Commissioners from the fact that 

 they had but recently been appointed Commissioners, 

 and that their report was necessarily hastily gotten up, 

 and not being posted they accepted information received 

 from persons interested in having it apnear that this fish 

 spawns in tbe Canadian waters of Missisquoi Bay. 



We also notice among the recently elected officers of 

 the State Game League the name of Capt. Hawley who, 



