B70 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 80, 1898. 



The Connecticut Season. 



HadDam, Conn., Dec. 21— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Game of all kinds, except squii'rels, has been unusually 

 scarce in this locality' this fall. Quail have been like the 

 proverbial song of angel's visits — iew and far between. 

 Woodcock were not as plenty as last fall. Partridges 

 were more plenty than either of the other game birds, 

 but they were generally found siugly and scattered over 

 a large extent of cover. Gray squirrels were very plenty 

 and in excellent condition, owing to the abundance of 

 nuts. Rabbits seem to have been almost exterminated, 

 probably by the foxes, which seem to have increased 

 rapidly within a few years. 



By the laws of this Commonwealth the open season for 

 shooting quail, woodcock and partridge began Oct. 1 and 

 will end Dec. 31, but by the natural law of the seasons 

 governing such sport and in simple justice to the few 

 game birds remaining in this State it should not begin 

 till Oct. 15 and should end Nov. 30 in each year. 



There was an effort made in the last Legislature of this 

 State to abridge the open season for these game birds, but 

 in the great wisdom and knowledge on this subject of 

 the Committee on Agriculture, before which the matter 

 came, aided by the advice of a few men who seemingly 

 would like to shoot the last live bird on the last day of the 

 year and of the open season, the effort failed. 



It is hoped that those opposing this measure will re- 

 member how uncomfortably warm it was in this State 

 for pleasure shooting from Oct. 1 to 15 last, and also how 

 few leaves had fallen from the trees and underbrush even 

 by the latter date. It is also hoped they will make a note 

 of the severe snows and freezing weather we have had 

 almost from Dec. 1 to the present time, and see how few 

 have been the days in which a sportsman would care to 

 be seen in the field with his dog and gun, but that this 

 condition suits the market-hunter, for they can follow the 

 tracks of the poor birds in the snow and slaughter them 

 under the first cover they seek. It is a shame to tlie 

 sportsmen of this State that these three game birds are 

 not given a fair chance to live and increase, and it is 

 hoped the time will soon come when they will take effec- 

 tive action in the matter. A. 



Sport in Japan. 



JapAiV, as a sporting field, naturally falls within the 

 province of Chicago and the West, therefore I beg to bor- 

 row material as I may to hold down the field. This 

 morning a gentleman came into the Western office of 

 Forest and Stream and wanted a Forest and Stream 

 book sent over to a friend of his in Yokohama, .Jai^an. 

 The gentleman is Mr. E. W. Clement, now of this city, 

 and his friend is Mr. Jas. Ellacott Beale, editor of the 

 Japan Mail, a Yokohama newspaper. Mr. Clement lived 

 in Japan himself four years, 1887-91, and was able to tell 

 something of the sport in that country. He says that 

 game of many kinds, ducks, snipe, etc., was very abun- 

 dant, and much cheaper in the markets than beef. Pheas- 

 ants were common, and sold for low prices. Near by 

 Yokohama was a fine salmon stream, and the salmon 

 taken there were very fine, although it does not yet ap- 

 pear that salmon angling was practiced successfully. Mr. 

 Beale, being much of a sportsman, always kept a gun 

 and dogs, and had very fine sport. Mr. Clement was en- 

 gaged in traveling, in a native school further toward the 

 interior, and did not occupy himself with field sports, 

 but he says he remembers very well the swift rushing 

 salmon streams which tumbled their brief course from 

 the mountains to the sea. This summer at the World's 

 Fair we had many fine paintings of these mountain 

 streams done by Japanese artists. And now comes Mr. 

 Clement and says that he will write to his friend, Mr. 

 Beale, whose paper, by the way, he represents in Chicago, 

 and will prevail upon him to tell the readers of Forest 

 AND Stream a great deal more about the shooting and 

 fishing in that far away but pleasant land, where every- 

 body is polite and the days go goldenly along. If Mr. 

 Beale will kindly do this, he will give a great many 

 readers a sincere ple asure. E. Hough. 



[Lake Champlain Ducks. 



Rouse's Point, N. Y., Dec. 17— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: In your issue of Dec. 16, under the heading of 

 "Lake Champlain Ducking," J. R. Latham, M.D., of 

 New York, in relating his experience of this sport, states 

 that he was surprised at the extreme wildness of the 

 ducks, and upon his making inquiry was informed that 

 the wildness was caused by the constant pursuing of them 

 by several steam yachts from Rouse's Point and other 

 places on the Lake. 



As to the yachts from other places I know nothing, but 

 I do know tiiat no such use was made of the one yacht 

 which belongs in this port, and that none of our Rouse's 

 Point cunners made a practice of this method of duck 

 hunting. 



I acknowledge we have a class of pot-hunters here 

 (such as is found in most every locality), who will hunt in 

 season and out of season, and seem to have an utter dis- 

 regard of any such thing as game law, and as we have no 

 local game constable here, they do pretty much as they 

 please. 



I agree with the Doctor that this manner of duck hunt- 

 ing from steam yachts is very unsportsmanlike and should 

 be prevented, and it is my utter dislike of it that causes 

 me to make this correction as regards Rouse's Point gun- 

 ners making a practice of it, and I hope he will think 

 twice before he again makes us so conspicuous in an 

 article of this kind on the simple information of some 

 one from Alburg, Vt^ WILL McCOMB, Jr. 



Pittsburgh's Game Fields. 



Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec, 15.— Game of all kinds, turkey, 

 grouse, quail, squirrels and rabbits, are very scarce and 

 wild in the Laurel Hill Mountain section this season. As 

 this is the nearest ground of any importance within one 

 hundred miles of our city, all sportsmen in this section 

 are interested. It is reported that considerable game is 

 killed illegally in this sir-ction, and the sportsmen who go 

 there in the legal season find but little left. This season 

 there was a party composed of members of the Wilkins- 

 burg. Pa., Gun Club up in this section for about a week. 

 They had moderate success. Also a party composed of 

 members of the Mutual Gun Club, of the E. E. , who re- 

 yjort very poor success; and a party composed of members 

 of tlie Iroquois Gun Club, S, S., left a few days since for 

 the same district, but I have received no report in regard 

 to their success so far. F. 



Following the Trail. 



Barton, Vermont. — We are having plenty of snow and 

 cold weather in the woods. There was twenty inches of 

 snow on Dec. 20 and thermometer registered 40° below. 

 On Dec. 7 Mr. Brown, of Belvidere, was told that a large 

 bear had been seen crossing the road the night before. 

 Mr. Brown is 62 years and an old bear hunter. He took 

 the bear trail the next morning, armed only with a light 

 axe and heavy revolver. The bear passed through this 

 town, going east, on Dec. 9, with the old man about one 

 hour behind. Brown, when he crosses a road near a 

 house, stops, gets something to eat and follows on. He 

 has followed the bear steadily up to date. He has come 

 up to him once and wounded hina slightly. On Dec. 10 

 two of our hunters started on after Brovrn and overtook 

 him on the 11th, and traveled with him until Saturday 

 night. Brown told them they might go on if they wanted 

 to, but that was his bear and iie should claim it who 

 ever killed it. The bear is headed for the big woods of 

 Maine. 



Dec. 4 I was intending to take my trip to Maine after 

 my deer. Three of our hunters went and brought back 

 a deer each, one a very nice buck with a splendid set of 

 horns. They say that deer are very plenty and there is a 

 nice tracking snow. Another party starts to-morrow. 

 We go to Lenoxville, P. Q. , then from there to Megan tic 

 and to Lowelltown, Maine. There is a large lumbering 

 business down there, some 300 men being in the woods; 

 that means crust-h unting. G. E. R. 



White Deer in Pennsylvania. 



The announcement that a white deer had been killed in 

 the woods near Foxburg, Forest county, on Bluejay Creek, 

 has attracted much interest among the naturalists and 

 hunters of this vicinity. Tlie deer above referred to was 

 killed on Tuesday of last week by A. Gilson and C. H. 

 Dubois, and is now on exhibition at the latter's place of 

 business in Bradford. This is the first authentic record of 

 an albino deer being killed in this vicinity since 1838, 

 when Joseph Gayetty, the father of ex-Police Captain 

 J. M. Gayetty, of this city, killed a white buck deer at 

 the headwaters of Horse Creek, about six miles from 

 where the city hall now stands. In the same year and 

 later in the fall, John McCool killed a white doe on Hem- 

 lock run. Eighteen years ago and near the vicinity where 

 the white deer was killed last week a spotted deer and full 

 grown, was seen for three different seasons, and was 

 chased by many hunters, but could not be shot nor cap- 

 tured. Its mangled carcass was found one summer by 

 one of the hunters in search of a bee tree. The deer had 

 been dragged down by a panther, wild cat or lynx, and 

 when found the carcass was so badly decomposed that 

 the hide could not be saved. — Oil City Derrick. 



Native Animals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 



Mr. Samuel N. Rhoads of the Academy of National 

 Science, Philadelphia, is preparing a book on the animals 

 (quadrupeds) of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He asks 

 for the collection of specimens of such four-footed animals 

 as are not commonly met with, from every county of the 

 two States, and second, information about the habits of 

 certain species which are little known or are supposed to 

 have become extinct since the settlement of the country. 



en Htjd ^iv^r fishing. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



Landlocked Salmon in New York. 



The first plant of landlocked salmon fry made in the 

 waters of New York was made in 1879. The fry, 9,000 of 

 them, were, I believe, intended for Bisby Lake, but owing 

 to hot weather and unavoidable delays it was found im- 

 possible to reach the waters to which they were consigned 

 and they were dumped into the middle of Woodhull 

 Lake, in Herkimer county, near the Bisby lakes. The 

 same year 9,000 fry were planted in western New York. 



Since that time 466,500 fry and eggs of the land- 

 locked salmon have been distributed in various New York 

 waters, chiefly in the Adirondack region. The eggs, of 

 course, were hatched after leaving the distributing sta- 

 tion and the fry planted; but for convenience I have 

 placed eggs and fry together. 



What is there to show to-day for nearly half a million 

 salmon fry planted during the past fourteen years ? There 

 is not a lake in the State that has a reputation for its 

 landlocked salmon, even if there is one that affords fish- 

 ing for the fish that is worth mentioning. 



It is true that many thousands of fry were planted in 

 waters wholly imfit for the adult fish. I planted one lot 

 of 20,000 myself that might as well have been turned into 

 a tea kettle on a stove in which there was a fire. I obeyed 

 instructions, but I knew the water and the one in autho- 

 rity who ordered the plant did not, although he had the 

 best possible intentions. Not one of that plant was ever 

 heard of afterwards. 



In fact, except in Woodhull Lake and the Bisby chain, 

 if any of the half-million fry have prospered I have not 

 been able to learn about it. In Woodhull Lake, I believe 

 that within a few years after the first plant a small num- 

 ber of salmon of a pound or so in weight were caught 

 and it was afterward reported that the fish had worked 

 down stream and disappeared. In the Bisby lakes land- 

 locked salmon up to four pounds in weight have been 

 caught and Gen. Sherman considers the waters there 

 suitable for them, but the lakes are owned by a private 

 club. I have an idea that the failures to establish the 

 landlocked salmon in tlie waters of New York State have 

 been chargeable in large part to the fact that the waters 

 selected for the fry have not contained suitable food for 

 the fish. The principal food in the waters where they are 

 originally found is small fish, and the particular small 

 fish that they thrive upon is the smelt. ''Frost fish," 

 which means the round whitefish, would seem to be an 

 excellent substitute for the smelt as salmon food, and in 

 Bisby Lakes this is the food that has been supplied for 

 them, although the frost fish were not planted until five 

 years after the first planting of salmon fry. 



Landlocked Salmon for Lake George. 



For a number of years past I have been impressed with 

 the thought that Lake George, N. Y., which my friend 

 Mr. W. H. Tippetts, editor of the Lake George Mirror, 



cills on the title page of his paper, "The Queen of Ameri- 

 can Lakes," wovild be an ideal water for landlocked 

 salmon— the king of fresh-water fishes. 



The water is clear as crystal and so cold that the sur- 

 face water in August is but little above seventy -two de- 

 grees Fahrenheit. It is made up largely of springs in the 

 bottom and no mountain lake can boast of water of greater 

 purity. As for food the lake fairly swarms with white- 

 fish. The frost fish, or round wliitefish, C. quadrilatera- 

 lis, is native to the lake. (See Forest and Stream of 

 January 14, 1893, for an article upon, and illustration of, 

 the "Frost-Fish," in which I described them as found in 

 Lake George), and the U. S. Fish Commission has planted 

 (m the spring of 1887) 761,000 fry of the lake whitefish, 

 C. dupeifonnis, whose young may now be seen covering 

 the surface of the lake at certain seasons. 



Upon one point only was I in doubt about the success 

 of planting Lake George with salmon. I feared that the 

 inlet streams, which are ordinary trout brooks, might not 

 be large enough to afford spawning grounds for the big 

 salmon, which the fry would surely become on the rich 

 pasturage of the lake, and this is why I halted. Some 

 nine or ten years ago when I first conceived the idea of 

 planting landlocked salmon in Lake George the late E, M. 

 Stilwell, Fish Commissioner of Maine, wrote me: "In 

 Grand Lake the favorite spawning ground for the fish is 

 in Grand Lake stream, the outlet of the lake. In Sebago 

 Lake there are several favorite spawning grounds, but 

 they are all in tributary streams or inlets. * * * They 

 require in miniature the same conditions as Salmo salar, 

 viz., the ocean home (the lake) and a river of aerated, 

 broken water and gravelly, sandy bottom to spawn on, as 

 well as to clean themselves in. The young fi.sh when 

 hatched are helpless and should drift into their lake home 

 rather than be compelled to drift away from it. The 

 instinct of the fish teaches them to seek the inlets. * * * 

 They will spawn in shallow water on a sand bar where 

 the wind will give a little ripple, but few ever hatch of 

 the eggs so deposited." 



Commenting upon this the late Prof. Baird said: "Run- 

 ning Avater is not necessary to the propagation of the 

 landlocked salmon. The landlocked salmon can be, and 

 has been made a pond fish, provided that the lake is large 

 enough and its water fresh, cold and pure." 



Neither of the gentlemen quoted said one word about 

 food which I have come to believe is of the first import- 

 ance in establishing any kind of fish, and as they seemed 

 to be not in accord in regard to the necessai-y conditions 

 for the successful sjmwning of the landlocked salmon, I 

 thought it would be beat for me, like Br'er Rabbit, to lay 

 low for a time. 



Later I made several vLsits to Sunapee Lake, N. H., 

 where the landlocked salmon have been planted and 

 established, growing to twenty pounds and over, and 

 affording excellent fishing. There I studied the con- 

 ditions which existed to produce this result and compared 

 them with conditions existing at Lake Geoi-ge, and was 

 convinced that everything was favorable in a marked 

 degree to the establislmient of the salmon in the latter 

 lake. The streams flowing into Lake George are larger 

 than those flowirg in Lake Sunajjee, in which the salmon 

 enter to spawn, or would enter if the Fish Commissioners 

 did not net them at the mouth and spawn them artifi 

 cially. In Lake George the frost fish are as abundant as 

 the smelt in Sunapee, and other conditions are similar. 



Final Action. 



With these facts acquired to my satisfaction I still hesi- 

 tated about taking the responsibility of recommending 

 Lake George as a lake in which to plant salmon, for there 

 was still the chance that the salmon might go down 

 stream to spawn and so work into Lake Champlain; but 

 when the U, S, Fish Commission began to plant fingerling 

 salmon in Lake Champlain the last objection in my mind 

 faded away. 



Last month I wrote to the U. S. Fish Commission, de- 

 scribed the lake and its adaptability for landlocked sal- 

 mon, and suggested that it should be planted with fin- 

 gerlings or yearlings; and said that while I was convinced 

 that it would prove a lake second to none in the State for 

 this fish, if they should by any chance go out they would 

 go into Lake Champlain. Col. McDonald wrote me as 

 follows: "Acting upon your suggestion I have de- 

 termined to plant, during the ensuing season, fingerlings 

 of the landlocked salmon in Lake George as well as in 

 Lake Champlain. I feel very sm-e that both lakes will 

 prove desirable habitats for this species, and I propose to 

 continue the planting on as great a scale as our means 

 will permit, until the species is well established in Lake 

 George and Lake Champlain, or the scheme is demon- 

 strated to be impracticable. I do not, however, appre- 

 hend failure." 



I then wrote to Mr. J. W. Burdick, General Passenger 

 Agent of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, whom 

 I have always found most ready to render assistance to 

 any undertaking of this kind, and he very kindly offered 

 to haul cars of the U. S. Fish Commission and furnish 

 transportation for the men free over his railway, which 

 runs to Lake George and along the shore of Lake Cham- 

 plain, so the way is prepared to make Lake George, as 

 well as Lake Champlain, the home of the "ouananiche," 

 and I believe that in a few years this will be an accomp- 

 lished fact, and that the Empire State will have the very 

 best of landlocked salmon fishing within her borders. 

 Lake Champlain will furnish smelt food, and Lake George 

 frost-fish food for the salmon, and their merits can be de- 

 termined by comparison, A. N. Cheney. 



Trout Development in Tasmania. 



That the European trout introduced in New Zealand 

 waters have done well has long been known in a general 

 way, but some facts recently published in the London 

 Field give details which are interesting. The Agent 

 General of Tasmania has recently sent the Field a photo- 

 grapli of a number of trout, of which the following details 

 are given: They were taken in the great lake Tasmania 

 by three rods from April 1 to April 12, The total was 53 

 fish, weight 4701bs., average 91bs. The number and 

 weights were as follows: One fish Hlbs., one .Slbs., two 

 41bs,, one 4Albs., six Olbs. , three 61bs., one 6Jlbs., three 

 71ba., three 7ilbs., two 8Ibs., four 91bs., three 9Ubs., four 

 lOlbs., eight Ulbs., one 12lbs., one I'dlbs., two 161bs., ono 

 17ilbs. The character of these descendants of Hampshire 

 and Wycombe fish has been often described, and the large 

 specimen weighing i72lb3. is a magnificent example of 

 the short, deep, thick, well-shaped variety of the fariOy 

 which has now become acclimated in Tasmania. 



