Oct. 38, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



367 



"pig" fish. Where in times past, and up to the time of 

 the gale, it was no trouble to capture hundreds of fine 

 whiting, weakfish, bluefish, cavalU, and in fact, all the 

 varieties for whicli our coast is famous, nothing was now 

 to be found but the small fry mentioned. Not even the 

 excitement of a fight with a shark, or the strong pull of 

 an ocean cat, which have hitherto proved a nuisance to 

 anglers, occurred to vary the monotony. 



Now, what was the cause of all this? Where had the 

 fish gone? This we were unable to determine; but one 

 thing we certainly did know, that whereas the waters of 

 the ocean and sound have always been of the clearest, 

 being far removed from the mouths of any of our great 

 muddy rivers, they were now so thick (and the yellow 

 mud boiled and churned in them as thoroughly as it does 

 in the Mississippi during a flood) that nothing but accident 

 could cause a fish to stumble on our bait. For a brief fif- 

 teen minutes at dead low water the ocean would clear up, 

 and then the advancing tide would sweep in yeUow mud 

 like the overflow of a "clay hole." And this, too, almost 

 four weeks after the gale. Eeliable information reached 

 me that the clear coral reefs five miles to sea had taken on 

 a thick coating of this same mud, and of a consistency 

 that would adhere to the lead of a deep-sea line. Where 

 did this mud come from? Could it be possible that while 

 the winds were spreading destruction over the land some 

 submarine eruption was going on? 



One noticeable result of the storm was that hundreds 

 of thousands of sea fish found their way far up the Wa- 

 camaw River, where they died and rotted in the swamp. 

 In the disturbed condition of the ocean they imdoubtedly 

 mistook the river mouth for the sound inlet. 



After ten days of hoping for better luck next day, with- 

 out that hope ever being realized, it became necessary to 

 bid farewell to my kind friends and the unkind ocean, 

 but before leaving I had the satisfaction of seeing nature 

 reasserting herself and the apparently blasted oaks putting 

 out their bright yellow buds for another coating of green. 

 It was certainly a strange sight to see spring m all its 

 glory at the latter end of September. But there it was, 

 ti-ees budding, weeds sprmging up through the dead 

 leaves, and peach, apple and plum trees in blossom; and 

 so ended my fishing for this year. 



Before closing, it is with regret that I have to relate 

 that the laat storm of Oct. 13 has swept froni the face of 

 earth the many beautiful homes of my friends and 

 acquaintances around the sand, and cauHrd the death by 

 drownmg of fifteen of them. Happily Uie family with 

 whom I spent my fishing trip escaped with their lives, 

 but their beautiful summer home is a ruin. 



South Carolina, October. W. M. Brown. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



An Editor. 



The biped man is a natural kicker! Some men kick 

 from what they consider principle, some kick because 

 they are made that way, some kick for exercise, and some 

 kick— just to kick. Some kick a feeble, onf^-legged kick, 

 some kick with both feet, some kick with their "hind 

 legs" only, and some kick as if they were centipeds instead 

 of bipeds. Some men kick at their dinner, some kick at the 

 moon, some kick at the weather, some kick at their luck, 

 and everybody kicks at the editor. Not all kick for the 

 same reason, but all kick, just the same. 



If there is any living man, who can read, who h.is not 

 had his kick at the editor, it is because his tm-u bus not 

 come yet; but it will if he will take the papers, read them, 

 is patient and in readiness to kick when, in his opinion' 

 the occasion is rifie. Most bipeds kick with their "hind- 

 legs," and for the same reason that a long-eared quadru- 

 ped kicks— they were built that way, ground plan and 

 hind elevation. The kick may not be sighted for the 

 editor, but if it is aimed at the proof-reader or fired at the 

 compositor's range, the editor gets it finally. The editor 

 wlio edits a paper for sportsmen gets fewer kicks, per- 

 haps, than his brethren, because very few sportsmen have 

 "hindlegs" to kick with, and if anglers kick less than dog- 

 men or gunners it may be because tliey are a sort of amphi- 

 bious animal that, if they develop anything, develop wavy, 

 yielding, soft-rayed fins, like the wings of a cherub, in- 

 stead of rudimentary hindlegs. I shall not pretend to deny 

 that a properly adjusted, perfectly calculated kick, if ap- 

 plied at the right time, in the right place, and in a proper 

 frame of mind on the part of the kicker, may not do the 

 kickee a world of good. Few kickers eA^er become artistic 

 as such, and great care should be exercised that the habit 

 may not prove chronic and as incurable as the opium 

 habit, for I have read: 



"But as some muskets so contrive it, 

 As oft to miss the mark they drive at, 

 And though well aimed at duck or plover, 

 Bear wide, and kick their owners over." 

 This train of thought was started from reading what an 

 angling editor said very recently about himself and his 

 news|)ai)fc r. The editor was Mr. R. B. Marston of the 

 Fishing tTUzeUe, and he was on a fishing expedition with 

 Mr. G. Varde, of the Fly-Fishing Club, London. This is 

 part of Mr. Marston's story: "I fished with G. Y. long be- 

 fore the Fishing Gazette was heard of; I first saw it at his 

 house. 'My dear sir (a favorite expression of his, even 

 when talking to an old angling chum), if you took up this 

 paper jWd make a fortune bv it.' 



"Well, I took it up. and if I have not made a fortune I 

 liave made countless friends, which is far better, for if 

 you have enough to struggle on with and pay tlie' poor's 

 rate it's all right. I have, as oui- friends across the water 

 8ay, 'run' the Fishing Gazette simply from a deeply- 

 rooted love of angling, and a keen enjoyment of the com- 

 panionship of the lovers of anghng. I have endeavored 

 to give oftense to no man, but, as dear old Izaak Walton 

 said, over two hundred years ago, 'there are offenses given, 

 and offenses not given but taken,' and I long ago found 

 that it was a sheer impossibility as editor of Fishing 

 Gazette to please everybody." For Fishing Gazette sub- 

 stitute the name of any other paper, and in the last quoted 

 sentence I imagine the experience of every editor wiU be 

 found, given in a nutshell. 



Ouananiche. 

 Last summer my friend. Mr. E. T. D. Chambers of 

 Quebec, asked me if the ouananiche of Lake St John 

 had ever been examined by om- ichthyologists, and if not 

 he would send specimens to whomever I might suggest 

 "for life is too short to be spent in wrangling out the 

 question of identity." Jt is so well known that the 



ouananiche is the landlocked salmon, so-called, and that 

 the landlocked salmon is no other than the sea salmon, 

 Salmo salar, with its home in fresh water, that mv first 

 thought was that the ouananiche had been examined, but 

 I could not find that any of our authorities had ever 

 passed upon this particular fish from the waters of the St. 

 John region. It is true that Mr. J. G. A. Creighton, 

 of Ottawa, in perhaps the best paper that has been writ- 

 ten upon "The Landlocked Salmon or Wananishe," 

 has said, "Nothing in the range of observed facts relating 

 to the Sahnonidce is better established now than the exist- 

 ence m certain parts of the United States, Canada and 

 Sweden of a salmon which inhabits lakes and is anatomi- 

 cally indistinguishable from the salt-water salmon." It is 

 quite proper to note in this connection that Mr. Creighton 

 also said in the article from which I have taken the above 

 extract: "In British Columbia, too. a lake salmon is 

 found concerning which my information is at present 

 too meager to enable me to say more than that it is highly 

 probable that under similar cu-cumstances some of the 

 Pacific salmon, admittedly quite distinct species from 

 Salmo salar of the Atlantic, have acquired a fresh-water 

 habitat." A year after this was written Dr. Jordan des- 

 cribed a new landlocked species of salmon from Kamloops 

 Lake, B. C, and Mr. Creighton wrote me that this was the 

 fish referred to. Dr. Bean has also described a new land- 

 locked salmon on the Pacific coast, 0. kennerlyi, distinct 

 from 0. kamloops. As Mr. Creighton's article is found only 

 man expensive book, I thought, with Mr. Chambers, that 

 it might be well to have a Lake St. John ouananiche ex- 

 amined by one of our ichthyologists for the benefit of 

 such anglers as maintain that this particular fish is dif- 

 ferent from the landlocked salmon of Maine, and at my 

 suggestion Mr. Chambers sent two fine specimens to Prof. 

 Samuel Garman, at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Cambridge, Mass. Prof. Garman writes me briefly that 

 the ouananiche of Lake St. .John is not different from 

 Salmo salar of New England, or to quote him more spe- 

 cificaUy: "In regard to specific identity, I see nothing 

 by which to distmguish the fish of Lake St. John from 

 Salmo salar as represented by specimens from New Bruns- 

 wick and Maine, or other New England States. It may 

 prevent misunderstanding if it is explained that I take 

 the fresh-water individuals, including of course those truly 

 landlocked as commonly designated, to be the better repre- 

 sentatives of tli<=! species S. salar. As you ai-e wefl aware, 

 no distinctions arc made between yotmg born of parents 

 that have returned from the sea and those of others which 

 have never been there. Propagation takes place, so far as 

 now known, only in the fresh waters, and the fact that 

 some individuals leave them for a time, becoming some- 

 what modified by so doing, neither gives rise to a different 

 species, not even a different variety. The change is 

 simply variation of an individual, which variation is not 

 at all a necessity for the continued existence of the 

 species." Referring to the landlocked salmon of Maine 

 which are known as S. salar, var. sebago. Prof. Garman 

 says: "In reaUty there is no variety sehago, it is the 

 species itself; the variation occurring in the individuals 

 that get to sea, but being individuals that do not repro- 

 duce the variation— their offspring being the landlocked 

 —there is no variety." In other words, it wiU be well for 

 anglers and others to bear in mind that the life history of 

 the sea salmon begms in fresh water and ends there ex- 

 cept for such individuals as cultivate a desu-e for 'salt 

 w^ter. N. Cheney. 



ANDROSCOGGIN ANGLERS. 



Angler's Protective Club. 



Rangeley, M.dMie.— Editor Forest and Stream- The 

 Angler's Protective Club of the Androscoggin Lake has 

 been engaged in rearing salmon and trout for these 

 waters for a long enough time to convince us that the re- 

 stocking of these waters can be accomplished if proper 

 support is given to the undertakmg. The club has now a 

 hatching house, large enough to hatch annually 1,000 000 

 fish. The water supply is satisfactory in flow, purity and 

 temperature. Dm-ing the past season we hatched, with a 

 very small percentage of loss, something more than 

 200,000 salmon and trout. Our facilities for rearino- the 

 young fish after they are hatched, are yet too limited to 

 permit us to rear more than one fom-th of this number 

 We were therefore compeUed in June last to plant three- 

 fourths of our young fry in the brooks, though it would 

 have been far better to have kept all our fish until fall 

 had we been able, as one fish 2 or 3in. long is worth more 

 than ten lin. in length. The fish now in the hatchery 

 all salmon, are in the best possible condition, are growing 

 fast and the average daily loss at this time, does not 

 exceed seventeen fish in all. 



We shoifld be in a position to hatch and rear till fall not 

 less than 1,000,000 fish. To do this we would be compelled 

 to construct smaU ponds or troughs on the open grounds 

 ui which the young fry can be placed as soon as they are 

 old enough to be removed from the hatching troughs 

 There they must be carefully tended and fed daily To 

 provide a flow of water for these troughs or ponds a 

 second dam must be built on the stream. It is essential 

 also, if we would secure tangible results, that we should 

 have constantly in our employ a competent man con- 

 versant with the business, and personaUy interested in the 

 success of the enterprise. Such a man could be obtained 

 at once if we were m a position to pay the necessary 

 salary. Our mcome, about $500 a year, 'is derived from 

 the voluntary contributions of guides, business men in 

 Rangeley and its vicinity, the railroads and visitmg 

 anglers. Of necessity, our receipts are variable and un- 

 certain and the managers do not feel inclined to make 

 any expenditures or engagements without the prospect of 

 being able to meet the expenses from the income 

 Clearly it is better for us to do our work thorou-^hly for a 

 short time rather than to do it poorly for an Indefinite 

 plln^' ^^'^^^^ sP*^^<i $500 on increasing our hatchmg 



To provide a fund for this purpose it has been deemed 

 best to ask the friends of fish propagation and protection 

 m this region, to become life members of this club on the 

 payment of a fee of §35. If one-hundred members re- 

 spond favorably to this caU, we will be able to make all 

 necessary improvements, to secure the services of a com- 

 petent man and to be assured of an adequate mcome for 

 two or three years to come. With this fund we would be 

 able to put 3,000,000 weU grown fish m these waters 

 withm three years, acd with the streams closed to all 

 hshmg and the fishing m Rangeley dam maintained as at 

 present, we may confidently expect aa a result of our ex- 



penditure to see better fishing in this locality than has 

 been known for a generation. Brief as has been our 

 existence, and hampered as we have been in many re- 

 spects, good results may already be oberved. The spring 

 fishing of 1893 was undeniably better than it has been in 

 five years or more, and more large fish have been seen 

 and caught in these lakes during the early part of 

 September than for some years past, while Hinkley 

 Brook, at the hatchery, never tenanted before but for a 

 few small trout, is now full of fish, some of which weigh 

 certainly not less than fib. Surely it is worth while now 

 to make a systematic effort to place this worthy enterprise 

 on a business basis. 



We are sending out a form of subscription which provides 

 that payment of the life membership fee is not due or 

 payable unless at least fifty members subscribe thereto. A 

 prompt reply to this appeal will enable us to accomplish 

 much during the present season. 



All subscriptions should be sent to Mr. Arthur L. 

 Oakes, Treasurer, Rangeley, Maine, to whose order all 

 checks and drafts should be made payable. 



The Angler's Pbotectivb Club. 



Feedektck S. Dickson, President. 



Arthur L. Oakes^ Sec'y and Treas. 



"FISHERMAN'S LUCK." 



Have your readers ever studied the problem of "Fisher- 

 man's Luck"? Can they guess why fish do not always biter 

 Why they bite one day and not the next? And why small 

 ones almost invariably come to the creel and big ones are 

 the exception? Is it because the wind is easterly? because 

 the day is cold? or the sun too bright? or the weather dis- 

 agreeable? It has been so argued by those who have ob- 

 sei-ved the phenomena. But are there not more cogent 

 reasons? 



Quite recently I have observed the habits of fishes in the 

 public aquaria, and I notice that the black bass and vari- 

 ous other game fishes feed most freely at early morning, 

 which is a suggestive pointer for the somnolent angler 

 who goes forth tardily. And I have observed how the 

 fishes in the tanks are apt to gorge themselves to repletion, 

 and how they often he off after a surfeit, frequently for 

 days at a time. Bass no larger than 21bs. in weight will 

 swallow from ten to fifteen 2-inch shiners at a meal. Do 

 the small bass have equal chances with the big ones? Not 

 much! They have to stand one side until the heavy fish 

 have fed. Again and again the big ones will charge on 

 the smaller ones to hold them back unti their own wants 

 are satisfied. So the big fish are pampered and the small 

 ones are always hungry. It is the little fish that anglers 

 for the most part catch; for whfle the big ones are sluggish 

 with repletion, they are on the alert, improving their 

 opportunity. This is a wise providence in nature, too, 

 because the intervals of quiescence give the shiners and 

 other live food a chance to develop and multiply. At least 

 they improve by accessions from other localities, for it is 

 notorious that they do not seem to diminish from year to 

 year as a rule. Another reason may be added to explain 

 good fishing one day and poor fishing the next, to wit: 

 The nomadic habits of the minnows, which shift their 

 locality from time to time, the big fish of course following 

 them. Good judgment woifld, therefore, instigate an ob- 

 servant angler to try a different stand in another part of 

 the fishing ground, if he gets no bites to-day where success 

 was signal the day before. And as to morning fishing, I 

 wiU say that of late years I have wasted no hours between 

 11 o'clock A. M. and 3 or 4 o'clock P. M. There is usually 

 a good evening spurt about sundown when the fish bite 

 freely. Charles Hallock. 



Canandaigua Rod and Gun Club. 



That very flourishing organization the Canandaigua 

 Rod and Gun Club held its annual election last evening 

 and selected the following admirable staff of officers- 

 President, F. D. Crandall; Vice-President, C. B. Lapham;' 

 Secretary and Treasurer, Frank Christian; Shooting Mas- 

 ter, Lewis H. Adams; Assistant Shooting Master A P 

 Wither ; Chief Angler, Herman Van Vechten; Assistant 

 Cluef Angler, Wm. H. Fox. The executive committee 

 comprises all the above, and in addition Messrs. Wm M 

 Spangler and Alex. Grieve. The president and Prof. J, 

 C. Norris act as an auditing committee. 



After the election the members to the number of about 

 seventy-five repaired to the Canandaigua Hotel and par- 

 took of a sumptuous dinner, served by "mine host" 

 Murphy. The tables made a very pretty appearance, 

 being profusely and artistically ornamented with flowers 

 m great variety. The inteUectual part of the feast was 

 most enjoyable. T. C. Parkhurst acted as toastmaster, 

 and was both graceful and happy. The speeches were of 

 a high order and greatly enjoyed. Space will not permit 

 even a synopsis of the "pat" remarks, and it must suffice 

 to say that Hon. John Raines, Judge Metcalf, Homer J 

 Reed (a poem full of pith and points). Dr. Chas A Van- 

 derbeck, Frank Christian, ex-Senator Hicks, as well as 

 F. J . Amsden, of Rochester, aU contributed much to the 

 pleasure of a most enjoyable evening. An alarm of fire 

 (which did not materialize into much of a blaze) unfor- 

 tunately brought the festivities to a close at about mid- 

 mght, and deprived the happy diners of tlie privileo-e of 

 hearing from Royal R. Scott and Dr. Charles T. Mitchell 

 which circunistance was greatly regretted.^Itochester 

 Umon and Advertiser, Oct. 20. 



Does Freezing Kill Fish? 



In your issue of Oct. 14 Mr. Hallock writes on this 

 topic. 



Some years ago I kept in a large foot-tub a smaU golden 

 perch. One day of a very cold winter I left home and 

 was away several days. On my return I found the water 

 in the foot-tub sohd ice, and I was told that the fish had 

 been frozen fast the first night of my absence. I placed 

 the tub by a fire and thawed the edges of ice loose, then 

 upset It m the yard. The perch was in the center of this 

 cake of ice. I broke the cake with an axe without injury 

 to the little fish, and my sister took it in her hands and 

 lettmg It he m the palm of one hand gently stroked it. 

 She must have held it thus half an hour, adnurmg its 

 beauty of shape and colors. She said she was sure that 

 she had felt a sUght tremor pass over the little feUow 

 1 laughed at this, but she insisted; and sure enou^^h in 

 about an hour our perch came to life in her hands? and 

 after bemg placed in water was none the worse, so far 

 as we could see. It hved several years with us, but feli 

 a Yictim to a cat at last, J C Y 



