Nov. 25, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



488 



the purchaser getting Avhatever that draw of the net 

 might contain, the uncertainty making it interesting. 

 Whatever may be the cause, it is a fact tbat within the 

 last ten years smelts have been exceedingly more plenti- 

 ful than formerly, and the quantities taken make it a 

 boon to the citizens. 



The tommy cod, although taken in quantities in the 

 lower St. Lawrence all summer, only arrives here about 

 Christmas, when they are taken through the ice; Cabanes 

 built on the ice of the bay of St. Charles River, are often 

 leased to parties for the tide, but it is tame fishing and 

 the fish not for a moment to be compared to the lively 

 smelt, which is a real delicacy. Both smelts and tomcods 

 are only caught in tide waters, Three Rivers being their 

 lunit on the St. Lawrence. X 95. 



"Frozen Fish Thawed Out." 



Montreal, Can. — Previous to my last visit to the north 

 of France the downpour of rain had been very great. 

 The canals had overflown into the fields. Winter setting 

 in with unusual severity gave us a solid sheet of ice on 

 the ground both sides of the canal banks. Until the snow 

 came we enjoyed the best of skating, and while skimming 

 along we frequently noticed large fish imbedded in the 

 ice, and several of these frozen fish we cut out and carried 

 home quite stiff. I saw them thawed out before the fire. 

 They became quite lively and would doubtless have re- 

 mained so had they been restored to their element. 



David Denne. 



In Washington Waters. 



Spokane, Wash., Nov. 8.— The first of the present month 

 was a sad one for all fishermen. On that day the law 

 regarding trout went into effect. It did not, however, 

 affect those who are fond of catching salmon, which 

 come up above the mouth of the Little Spokane, about 

 twelve miles below the city. Some friends went out last 

 week and returned with three salmon weighing 9, 11 and 

 121bs. respectively, all caught with a 7-ounce rod and 

 spoon hook. A. B. K. 



liake Minnebella Black Bass. 



Mr. Geo. Elmer, of Minneapolis, sends us a photograph 

 showing a catch of 143 black ,bass made on June 27 and 

 28 on Lake Minnebella, seven miles south of Litchfield, 

 Meeker county, Minn. The top string of 20 fish weighed 

 701bs., and there are 62 fish which weighed 2*lb3. on the 

 average. The fish were taken with live frogs for bait and 

 used 7-0 Kirby Carlyle hooks. 



The 999th Time. 



Asv the next time will round out the 1,000th repetition 

 of this injunction to no-name correspondents who send 

 notes for publication, requests for information, money 

 for papers or books. Sign your name. Anonymous 

 communications will not be published. Anonymous in- 

 quiries will not be answered. Anonymous senders of 

 money will not have their orders filled. 



Pennsylvania Fish Protective Association. 



The eleventh annual meeting and dinner of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Fish Protective Association was held in the rooms at 

 No. 1020 Arch street, Philadelphia, Tuesday evening, Nov. 

 14, and was a most enjoyable gathering of members and 

 their friends. President Henry C. Ford, of the Pennsylvania 

 Fish Commission, read a valuable paper, which is here 

 printed in full, reviewing the work of the Commission; and 

 a most gratifying and encouraging review it is. Mr. A. M. 

 Spangler, who has the credit of being the father of the Asso- 

 ciation, and who during the eleven yeai-s of its existence has 

 been untiring in promoting the interests with which it is 

 concerned, read an address full of good counsel, aud worthy 

 the careful reading and reflection of even a wider circle than 

 that to which it Avas immediately addressed. 



The Pennsylvania Association is an organization of grow- 

 ing strength. It is engaged in an unselfish and wholly pub- 

 lic-spirited work. It should have the active, hearty, co-opera^ 

 tion of thousands Avhere it now has the support of tens. As it 

 shall become better known, as the people of Pennsylvania 

 shall come to understand what it means for them and for their 

 children, they will give it increased recognition. In these 

 days, when for the most part every man is for himself, aud 

 when most of us appear to believe that after us is the deluge, 

 and act on that principle, it is a duty to support and uphold 

 such an organization as this Pennsylvania Association, a 

 duty which belongs to every citizen of the State who is intel- 

 ligent enongh to appreciate the Importance and necessity of 

 putting an end to fi.sh-basket greed and imposition, 



Work of the Pennsylvania Commission. 



Gentlemen of the Pemisylvania J^ish Protective Associ- 

 atinn: 



Six years ago, when the members of the present State Fish 

 Commission succeeded the former board, the retiring presi- 

 dent of that board extended his welcome in these discouraging 

 words: "You will find that your task is a thankless one. 

 No matter how earnestly he may labor for the good of the 

 State, a I^sh Commissioner will receive more kicks than 

 blessings." Yet after six years' incumbency as Commission- 

 ers, although we have been assailed at times, it has only been 

 after energetically enforcing and upholding the laws; and the 

 abuse has come almost solely from that class whose interest 

 has been to profit by their violation. 



We would briefly call your attention to some of the good 

 work accomplished by the State Fish Commission. It has 

 fitted our rivers and streams for the increase of fish by tear 

 ing out the illegal devices erected for their wholesale destruc- 

 tion. It has established a cordon of wardens, who patrol the 

 rivers and streams of our Commonwealth as policemen watch 

 the streets of a great city, \vho are alike the terror of poach- 

 ers aud illegal fishermen. Laws are respected only when 

 they are enforced. As a result of the Commission's work in 

 this respect, the fishery laws are no longer the dead letter 

 they were only a few years since. There is a universal senti- 

 ment throughout the'State that renders their violators more 

 and more the object of public obloquy. The man who takes 

 a trout out of season or under size, is to-day noted and 

 marked as gtiilty of an unmanly act, and as one capable of 

 meaner deeds. 



Your rivers have not only been cleared of destructive de- 

 vices, but by artificial stocking their capabilities have been 

 increased. We scarcely need remind you of the good work 

 of shad restoration in the Delaware, where the production 

 has inL-ieased si.Kfold iu six years; or to the great increase in 

 the yield of whitefish and pike-perch in Lake Erie through 

 the "millions of these fish planted from our Erie hatchery. 

 The Commission has restored and kept in condition hundred 



•October I 0th, '93. 



As WITH fishing tackle, so with all appliances and equipments, standard articles, 

 novelties — everything and anything for the angler, the shooter, the camper, the 

 amateur sailorman — the sportsman. The Forest and Stream pays its advertisers 

 and pays them not doubt- 

 fully nor sparingly, but be- 

 yond all question, and in 

 rich measure. This is not 

 theory, nor unestablished 

 assertion, nor unwarranted 

 "talk" for the purpose of 

 getting advertisements. It 

 is a plain statement of ac- 

 complished fact. Witness 

 the experience of Poorest 

 and Stream advertisers. 

 We are proud of the fact — 

 proud of the paper and its 

 "earning capacity" for its 

 advertising patrons. 



213-215 Fifth Avenue, '~(/y/UY^^/P^'' 

 The Forest & Stream Publishing Co, 



We can truthfully say that 

 we received more inquiries and realized more value from our adver- 

 tisement in the "Forest & Stream", than from any other, or all 

 papers in which we have advertised. We are surprised at the wide 

 scope of country from which the paper brought us business- it came- 

 from Canada to the Gulf, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 

 we have sold a quantity of fishing lines in^Europe through your 

 medium. 



Very Respectfully, 



THE NATOHAUG SILK GO. 



of trout streams in spite of incessant Ashing, and in scores 

 of our moimtain lakes new and better varieties of fish are 

 now caught in addition to their former indigenous inhabi- 

 tants. The Commission is daily receiving information of 

 present success and future possibilities. 



The pike-perch deposited in the upper Delaware have so 

 increased that they are taken in large numbers from Lacka- 

 waxen to Hancock and are gradually increasing in the lower 

 reaches of the river. 



Large numbers of smolts, the young of the Atlantic sal- 

 mon, are present in the mountain tributaries of the upper 

 Delaware where they were planted two years ago and give 

 promise that the day may come when the salmon angler will 

 cast his silver-doctor and Jock-Scott iu the splendid pools of 

 our noble river. 



During the past year the Commissioners have deposited in 

 Pennsylvania waters of brook trout and other species of 

 trout, about 4,000,000; of whitefish in Lake Erie, 25,000,000; of 

 lake herring in Lake Erie, 1,-540,000; of pike-perch, 30,000,000; 

 a total of over 60,000,000 of these varieties of fish alone. 



We hope next year to make a large addition to these 

 figures from the output of the new shad hatchery which the 

 Commission mil have in operation next spring— an appro- 

 priation having been made for its erection by the last Legis- 

 lature. And yet this same Legislature was either so indiff- 

 erent to the future fishing interests of the State or so ignor- 

 ant of what they were doing that they passed an act legaliz- 

 ing the re-erection of fish baskets in our rivers, although 

 these had been destroyed by the Commission at great expense 

 to the State. This, too, in spite of the special recommenda- 

 tion by the Governor that severer laws should be passed for 

 their complete abolition. This act meant the obstruction 

 of every river and stream in the Commonwealth by illegal 

 devices, it meant the annulment of the usefulness of the Fish 

 Commission in stocking the Commonwealth's waters; it 

 meant the destruction of the restored industry of shad pro- 

 duction in the Delaware. It assured the depletion of the 

 mountain trout streams as well as the lowland tributaries of 

 our great rivers. It meant the retrogression of fishculture 

 and the triumph of barbaric methods. In short, it meant 

 fish temporarily plentiful for individual profit and the lasting 

 poverty of our waters for the people. But this iniquitous 

 act was not permitted to become a .law. Pennsylvania for- 

 tunately possessed a chief executive who had the courage to 

 stand up for the rights of her people against the greed of a 

 few. The hands of progress were not turned back on the 

 dial and the friends of fish protection and of fishculture are 

 indebted to Governor Pattison for the veto that saved Penn- 

 sylvania's good name. 



This year has been a busy one in the annals of the State 

 Fish Commission, Its splendidly illustrated report with its 

 elaborate history of the fish of Pennsylvania, .stands at the 

 head of similar State publications, and has secui-ed it the 

 approval of the scientific world. The other publication of 

 the Fish, Fishing aud Fisheries of Pennsylvania, intended 

 for the Columbian Exposition, has besides had wide circula- 

 tion throughout the State. The State Fish Exhibit at Chi- 

 cago was fuiother work requiring close study and attention 

 to perfect Under the able management of Colonel Gay it 

 proved one of the greatest attractions of the Exposition, and 

 has done much to popularize fishculture. 

 * Before closing, we wotild thank your Association for the 

 assistance given the State Fish Commission. With the con- 

 stant support of an association like this, and its kindred 

 societies throughout the State, the enforcement of the laws 

 and the protection of the spawning fish is assiired. More 

 than this, the assaults of ignorance, and the hindrances of 

 the lawless will always yield before the might of intelligent 

 and concerted action. 



H. C. Ford, Pres. Pa. Com. of Fisheries. 



A Word of Counsel. 



\^ an age like the present, in which progress is the order 

 of the day, it would be an anomaly if an organization such 

 as the Fish Protective Association of Pennsylvania should 

 fail to keep pace with the stirring spirit of the times. It has, 

 if not a remarkably notable, at least an honorable record 

 and cleaily merits a place in the front rank of associations 

 of kindred character. \^'hen I retrospect its history, its 

 quiet, unpretentious origin, its earnest doings, and whatwas 

 expected of it by its founders, and how more than fully 

 those expectations have been realized, 1 cannot repress a feel- 

 ing of honest pride at the thought that during the eleven 

 years of its existence it has been my privilege to have held 

 close connection with it, shared the toils and its sometimes 

 perplexities and harassiags, as well as the enjoyment of its 

 triumphs, so mauy of which it has achieved, aud of which, 

 wheiher because of the inherent modesty of its members or 

 for some other reason, the genei-al public has not the full 

 knowledge it should have. This hiding of our light under a 

 bushel is, I think, a wrong to ourselves aud at the same time 

 a wrong to the public. 



If there has been merit in our transactions, if in any 

 marked sense we have promoted the public welfare or even 

 honestly endeavored to do so, it is due to us that the facts 

 shall be made known. 1 do not believe there is a single 

 member present or connected with us who will not agree 

 with me that the widest possible dissemination of the princi- 



ples upon which this association rests is a consummation 

 much to be desired and worthy of special effort. Therefore, 

 while thei'e is nothing criminal or even intentional in the 

 withholding referred to, it must be conceded that if men are 

 entitled to approval for commendable doings, and if such 

 commendation is comforting and calculated to encourage 

 renewed and more eai-nest endeavors, as it undoubtedly is, 

 then this Association is fairly entitled to such recognition. 

 There is nothing egotistical in this remark. It is a simple 

 declaration, the truthfulness of which cannot fail to com ■ 

 mend itself to every one who gives it a moment's thoughtful 

 consideration. It is not a trumpeting of our operations, but 

 a plain, fair and square presentation of important facts for 

 general information. 



I fail to recall any association of equal membership, re- 

 spectability and usefulness in its special line of work, that 

 does not annually publish a full report of its operations and 

 their results. We have done nothing of the kind, at least 

 not in suflicient detail, but have contented ourselves with 

 laboring for the promotion of the public good, accepting as 

 compensation the pleasant consciousness of having, during 

 these eleven years, been faithfully discharging an important 

 public duty. In one sense, such compensation is ample, but 

 would not our sphere of usefulness have been greatly en- 

 larged, if, instead of having the impression go aljfoad that 

 we were merely a company of anglers, and our organization 

 a mere sporting club, the community at large was made 

 familiar with the true character of the Association and 

 naturally, would not its membership have been materially 

 increased? 



I have said that this covering up of our doings has been 

 clearly unintentional, though none the less a wrong to our- 

 selves and a wrong to the public — a wrong to the public for 

 the reason that the object specially aimed at is the promotion 

 of an interest in which all citizens are concerned. We, hav- 

 ing given thoughtful consideration to the subjects of food 

 fish propagation, distribution and protection, are presumed . 

 to be at least somewhat familiar with them, and to compre- 

 hend them more fully than those who have not devoted time 

 and attention to them. Such knowledge comes not by in- 

 tuition. It cau be gained only by careful observation and 

 investigation, and should therefore be as widely disseminated 

 as possible by those who have acquired it, for it must be 

 admitted that there are comparatively few persons in this 

 great commonwealth who have comprehensive knowledge of 

 the subjects named or of our restrictive fishery laws, and 

 there are many who are not only ignorant on those points, 

 but of the existence also of laws that relate to the fishery in- 

 terests of the State. 



Again, how comparatively few have anything like an ade- 

 quate conception of what would be the dollar and cent value 

 of our entire fishery resources were they properly protected? 

 Aud how fewer still there are sufficiently interested to make 

 the subject a study? How small the number of those who, 

 if questioned, could tell whether the annual shad products of 

 the Delaware River — the now finest shad stream on the con- 

 tinent—could tell even approximately, whether they amount 

 to an hundred thousand or a million of dollars! Right here 

 in the city of Philadelphia, the intelligence of whose citizens 

 is proverbial, how many could tell with any degree of accuracy 

 whether these products have increased or diminished, and 

 the probable causes for such fluctuations, and how much 

 more productive that river would become if all citizens would 

 agree to abide by the law's simple behests in regard to fish 

 protection? 



If such ignorance, indifference, or whatever you may please 

 to term it, exists in the city, what probability is there that 

 the same condition of things, or worse, does not prevail in the 

 rural districts? 



The more the subject is considered, the more apparent it 

 becomes that lack of information and appreciation of food 

 fish value, coupled with ignorance, willful or otherwise, of 

 our restrictive laws, lie at the foundation of the evils we are 

 considering, though there have been instances in which cor- 

 rupt legislation was a potent factor. Take as a case in point 

 the action of the last Legislature of this State in regard to 

 the repeal of the law forbidding fish baskets in public 

 streams. By a system of log rolling, in the highest degree 

 discreditable to anumber of the people's representatives from 

 this city, the pernicious bill passed both houses, and but for 

 the brave and commendable exercise of the veto power by 

 Governor Pattison the profitable shad fisheries would have 

 again been ruined, and the notably good work of the State 

 Fishery Commissioners during the past six or eight years — 

 not only in that stream, but in all the principal streams of 

 the State — would have been rendered abortiv^e. 



If, then, ignorance or disregard of the fishery laws lies at 

 the foundation of the evils we have been considering, en- 

 lightenment would seem to be the legitimate remedy. But 

 if enlightenment were general, would the illegal killing of 

 fish be entirely abolished? I fear not. Every man, woman 

 aud child in the community is aware that it is a violation of 

 law to steal, and yet thefts ranging from a penny to a million 

 are every-day occurrences. But if there were universal 

 knowledge ot the restrictive laws, naturally greater respect 

 would be paid to them, for the majority of men are honest, 

 if not for honesty's sake, for the fear of incurring the penal- 

 ties that attach to dishonesty. 



