472 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



[June 2, 1894. 



NEWS FROM THE FISHING WATERS. 



Vancouver, B. C., May 10. — A party of four, consisting 

 of H. Bell-Irving, Dr. Bell-Irving, W. Murray and H. N. 

 Mackay, left here last Saturday to inspect the hop ranches 

 at the Squarnish Eiver. As they would have a little time 

 to spare they decided to take their rods and try the fishing. 

 They fished the Ohackemus, a tributary of the Square isb, 

 and in six hours the party took 42 trout weighing ICOlbs. 

 Of this number Mr. Henry Bell-Irving took 17 out of one 

 pool, the heaviest of which weighed llflbs. All the fish 

 were taken on the Devon minnow. So far the fishing in 

 the Province has been'poor owing to the backward spring, 

 and above bag is at present the largest of the season. 



C. B, T. 



Ithaca, N. Y., May 25.— Game Protector Carr, of Union 

 Springs, has just put into Cayuga Lake a consignment of 

 100,000 mascallonge and between 25 and 50,000 perch. At 

 this end of the lake Mr. Carr has had a determined gang 

 of fish law violators to work against, but a second arrest, 

 lately made, of the same party of seine haulers, has ap- 

 parently developed a more wholesome respect for the law. 

 The bait-casting and trolling fishermen are taking some 

 pretty large pickerel at this end of the lake. Black bass 

 anglers are unlimbering their outfits preparatory to the 

 opening day pilgrimage to the favorite, resorts. At Lagoda 

 Park, twelve miles north of this city, a good many fine 

 bass were taken last season. M„ Chill. 



Neversink (Fallsburgh), May 18.— On May 12 "William 

 Turner and Mr. Eldrege, of Fallsburgh, N. Y., caught 103 

 very fine trout at Neversink; a number of them weighed 

 over lib. each. On May 14 Misner and Vanderlyn caught 

 93 trout, and Horner Shields caught on May 17 a very fine 

 lot. one over 21bs. A number of other catches have been 

 made the last week. H. W. Dean. 



Beech Creek, Clinton Co., Pa.— We expect good bass 

 fishing in the Bald Eagle when the season comes in. 



J. V. M. 



Newport, Vt., May 25. — Several good catches of lake 

 trout have been made the past week, one of which, just 

 brought in by one party I give the weight of. He had 5 

 trout, two weighed 12|lbs. each, the others 8, 10, llilbs. 

 respectively. Rob. 



BOSTON AND MAINE. 



Boston, May 25. — Messrs. E. A. Dow and Everett G. 

 Place, of Boston, have just returned from a successful 

 trouting trip to the Upper Dam, Richardson Lake, Me. 

 They had good fishing, Mr. Dow taking a 5lb. trout ; Billy 

 Cutting guided; Mr. Dow says that he had all the trout he 

 wanted. They threw back a great many small fish. The 

 Camp Allerton Lodge party, better known as the Col, 

 Rockwell party, left Boston Thursday. In the party are 

 Mr. C. H. Andrews, one of the senior proprietors of the 

 Boston Herald; Col. Horace T. Rockwell, than whom few 

 men are better known in military circles; Mr. Priest, and 

 one or two other gusts. Col, E. B. Haskell was to have 

 been one of the party, and indeed he may go later. 



The Camp Stewart party left Boston on Thursday. This 

 party is a large one. It is composed of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. 

 H. Stearns, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Farley, Mr. and Mrs. T. 

 Ralph Parris, Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Moody, Mr. Geo. T. 

 Freeman, Mr. H. S. Kempton and Mr. A, D. Hoitt. The 

 party is in for several days' fishing. Billy Cutting is 

 cook. Charles and George Cutting are guides, with three 

 others. Mrs. Stearns has a record of a 4lbs. trout. Mrs. 

 Moody has taken one weighing 81bs. and several of Gibs. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Parris are new-comers, neither having fished 

 the Rangeley waters previously. It is also possible that 

 Mr. C. H. Johnson of Mattapoisett may join the party. 

 He is one of the pioneers of Camp Stewart. Mrs. Geo. Y. 

 Freeman was to have been one of the party, but is pre- 

 vented by illness. She has a record of a 41bs. and a 51bs. 

 trout, both landed the same day. 



The. Linder party was to leave Boston on Friday for 

 Moosehead. This year the members are Mr. G. H. Lin- 

 der, Mr. Maynard and Mr. Hurd. They go this year under 

 a rather different arrangement. They are to go into a 

 camp, instead of chartering a steamer as has long been 

 their custom. They go for fly-fishing, rather than trolling, 

 and they believe they will get it better if camped in the 

 right location, than if tied to a steamer. There are few 

 greater lovers of the angle than either of these gentle- 

 men. 



Mr. Claude H. Tarbox, with his friend Mr. Charles 

 Bailey, have made another day on the trout brook at Bay- 

 field. This time they warned the Colonel, as on previous 

 occasions, that they should pass his house very earlv. He 

 was to be up and waiting for them. Thev called him at 

 a little past 3 A. M. A rooster crowed and a dog bayed in 

 the distance, but the Colonel was not awake. He ap- 

 peared on the scene later". They warned him again con- 

 cerning the evidences of old age creeping on. Time was 

 when nobody could get up earlier if it was a fishing trip 

 that required attention. They took ten trout, and came 

 home happy. They have got the brook they fished prac- 

 tically under control. It is posted, and they have permis- 

 sion from the owners to fish it. Some 10.000 trout fry 

 have been secured and put into the same stream. They 

 look for good fishing in a few years. Special, 



Onondaga Anglers' Outing. 



. Syracuse, N. Y., May 24,— The third semi-annual out- 

 ing and fishing contest of the Anglers' Association of On- 

 ondaga, will take place at Brewerton, on Thursday, 

 J lino 7. 



A large number of prizes will be distributed on the 

 various scores made, as at last year's contest. Members 

 of the Anglers Association only are eligible to enter the 

 contest. Two persons as contestants must fish from the 

 same boat each one to be chosen for different sides in 

 the general contests. Oarsmen accompanying contestants 

 must not be allowed to fish. 9 



All contestants must report at the Washburne landing 

 one horn- and a half before the scheduled time of return- 

 ing train. On signal for closing, the roll will be called 

 promptly , and all persons not present when named shall 

 be barred from entering their catch for prizes or for the 

 general contest. Two captains will be chosen to select 

 sides for general contest. The tickets, including trans- 

 portation to and from Brewerton on the previously speci- 

 fied trains, and the entrance fee for the contest for prizes 



etc., are sold for $1. At this extremely low rate, it is 

 hoped a large number of tickets will be disposed of for the 

 benefit of the Association. 



Tickets are now on sale at the store of Reuben Wood s 

 Sons & Co., and can be had of the committee and other 

 members of the Association. A meeting of the Associ- 

 ation will be held Monday evening, June 4, at 8 P. M., at 

 the Business Men's Rooms. Amos Padgham, G. B, Wood, 

 C. H. Mo wry, R. A. Molyneaux, F. C. Brower, Com- 

 mittee. 



Terre Haute Fishermen. 



Terre Haute, Ind., May 20.— By reading the following 

 clipping from a local paper you will see that the Terre 

 Haute fishermen have awakened from their long sleep. 

 Nothing but dynamite could arouse them: "Complaints 

 are being made within the past few days of fish being 

 dynamited by fishermen too lazy to catch them by the 

 lawful practice. Some of the more enthusiastic members 

 of the Terre Haute Fishing Club have taken the matter in 

 hand and propose to put the violaters through the judi- 

 cial machinery and grind them as much as the law will 

 allow. Large quantities of dead fish are found in various 

 places on the shores of the Wabash River, but the nuis- 

 ance will be abated. Nets are also being used by lazy 

 fishermen, who want to make a big showing, and this 

 practice will also be stopped. The Fish Commissioners 

 will be notified this week." 



Regardless of the fact that the dynamiter, net and 

 seine fishermen have had full sway for several years, 

 there are yet a few fish left for the true fishermen, as the 

 following will show: "Mort McKinley, Fred Pomeroy, 

 William Gleason and Louis Stern returned from a fishing 

 trip twelve miles up the river this afternoon heavily 

 encumbered with fish. When the fish were pla.ced on 

 the scales the beam was tipped at 671bs." W. B. C. 



Fishing Near Los Angeles. 



Los Angeles, Cal., May 18.— Many trout fishing parties 

 go from here to San Gabriel Canon. There is practically 

 no fishing less than eight or ten miles up the stream, and 

 the trout are more plentiful the higher up you go. 



The fish average about Din. in length, although occa- 

 sionally a "whopper" is caught, as was evidenced by the 

 fact that Mr. Ed. Silent, of this city, successfully landed, 

 this season, a mountain trout a fraction over 20in. long, 

 weighing 3| lbs. It was said to have been the largest trout 

 ever caught in the San Gabriel. Mr. Silent used a light 

 rod and small flies. 



Messrs. Bath, Safford, Sr., and Saffcrd, Jr., returned 

 from a two days' trip up the cafion, the sum total of their 

 creels being 83 trout. 



Another party of four stayed up five days, and report a 

 total of 263, the largest being a trifle over 12in. long. 



The trout in Bear Valley Lake run much larger than 

 those in the streams, some having been taken last year as 

 high as 121bs. weight. They are the genuine mountain 

 trout, but the large fish will seldom take the fly, preferring 

 a species of grub found in the bark of the pine tree. 



Culpepper. 



A Brown Trout Record. 



Port Henry, N. Y., May 20.— I wrote you last year of 

 some of the results obtained from planting trout fry in 

 local waters and cited the killing of a 41bs. 2oz. German 

 brown trout, in a pond that was never known to contain 

 a trout until the fry was planted there by me. I inclose 

 you a photographic proof and an outline traced around 

 the largest of a catch made in the same pond, on the 17th, 

 by my wife and myself, all were taken on light rods, fly- 

 rods, but with "worms for bait." 



A peculiar thing to me is, that in one of the females 

 taken, both ovaries or sacs were filled with spawn that 

 would be ripe or in condition to be spawned in the fall, 

 while in addition there was about a tablespoon full of 

 spawn that was all ready to be deposited, and as if she 

 were just finishing up. None of the others were in that 

 condition. A great many trout have been caught this 

 spring, although I am sorry to say that the youngsters 

 find it hard to live up to the 6in. law in the nearest brooks. 



W. C. WlTHERBEE. 



[The outline sent shows a fish 22in. long, 14in. girth and 

 4ilbs. weight. The presence of eggs of different stages of 

 development is not unknown.] 



THE CHINOOK SALMON. 



(Oncorhynchus chouica; Salmo qutnnat.) 

 Its Non-Feeding Habits in Fresh Waters. 

 BY LIVINGSTON STONE. 



It is an admirable provision of nature that the great armies 

 of anadromous fish that annually ascend fresh-water streams 

 to spawn, where there is, practically speaking, no food for 

 them, should be so constituted that they are not obliged, in 

 order to sustain life, to feed in fresh water. Mammals are 

 said to be more ravenous than ever at corresponding periods; 

 but in the case of anadromous fishes, and possibly of almost 

 all fishes at the spawning season that congregate in large 

 numbers over limited areas, a wonderful exception is made 

 in their favor, iu consequence of which they are not only not 

 obliged, in order to support life, to feed where there is no 

 food, but, in the case of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus 

 chouica), their alimentary organs are so modified at the 

 spawning season that they "could not eat if they would; and 

 in consequence of this again they probably do not suffer 

 from hunger, for if the ability to eat be removed by natural 

 causes, we expect nature to remove also the desire to eat. 

 One can hardly help wishing that industrial armies had also 

 been included in this exception at all seasons of the year. 



That such a provision of nature in the case of fishes is 

 necessary— is absolutely indispensable, indeed— is obvious. 

 The often-repeated story of salmon so thick in fresh-water 

 streams that one could cross the stream on their backs if he 

 could keep his balance, is true. The writer has seen salmon 

 like that scores of times. It happens indeed every year in all 

 good salmon streams where the primeval abundance of the 

 fish has not been reduced by human agency. Now, imagine 

 all these streams filled, as they are every spawning season 

 tor weeks and months, with thousands, yes, hundreds of 

 thousands of salmon, all crowded together where there is no 

 tood for them, and suppose at the same time that it was 

 necessary to their existence to have food. What would be 

 the result? The result would inevitably be that they would 

 soon be driven wild with hunger, and would doubtless in 

 their desperate extremity endeavor, if possible, to return to 



the ocean. Later on, if they continued to stay in fresh water, 

 they would die of starvation before the days of their spawn- 

 ing were accomplished, and ultimately the race would in 

 consequence become extinct, 



It is evident therefore that the salmon must be enabled to 

 live without food in their fresh-water spawning streams. 

 Otherwise it would be simply suicidal for them to go up the 

 streams to spawn. In other words, if the salmon must of 

 necessity go where there is no food, they must also of neces- 

 sity be provided with the power of living without food. 



The common objection to the statement that salmon do not 

 feed in fresh water, is one that comes up at once in every 

 mind instinctively, namely, that it is not natural for an active 

 creature like a salmon to go without food for so long a period 

 as the salmon have to. The argument, put concisely, is that 

 it is unnatural that they should live so long as they do in 

 fresh water without feeding, and consequently it cannot be 

 that they do not feed there. The reply is that it is much 

 more unnatural that, being compelled to feed in order to 

 sustain life, the salmon should be sent into places to stay for 

 months where there is no food to be had. This would be un- 

 natural indeed. On the other hand is it not the most natural 

 thing in the world, since the salmon must of necessity be sent 

 up into rivers where there is no food for them, that they 

 should be so constituted that they should neither be starved 

 to death or tortured by hunger for want of food? Let us 

 look now at some facts bearing upon the question. Some 

 years ago, a large salmon hatching station was built on the 

 Clackamas River in Oregon, and each year a rack was con- 

 structed across the river to prevent the ascending salmon 

 from going up the river beyond the station. 



In the year 1888 the rack was put across the river in March 

 and during the summer of that year there were, it is safe to 

 say, upward of 5,000 full grown salmon (Oncorhynchus 

 chouica) in sight below the rack. The salmon did not begin 

 to spawn till the middle of September. The great body of 

 these fish were there three months, many of them four 

 months, and some of them five months. During all that 

 summer there was not amoment, night or day, when there 

 were not hundreds of these fish struggling to get past or 

 through the obstruction in front of them, and in all that 

 time there was not visible feed enough where they were in 

 the river, to provide them with an ounce of food apiece once 

 a week. In one place the salmon were so thick that a per- 

 son standing on the rack could with an ordinary carriage 

 whip reach 500 full grown salmon averaging 201bs. a piece 

 in weiyht, and all of them actively struggling all the time 

 to hold their places against the current. No food whatever 

 was there. No appreciable amount of food could have come 

 down through the rack to them. No food could they possi- 

 bly have had except such microscopic nutriment asmay have 

 existed in the water, and there must have been only infinit- 

 esimally small rations of this, when divided up among so 

 many thousand pounds of fish. The only conclusion left is 

 that they must have lived several months practically without 

 eating. There is no question whatever about these facts. 

 The writer saw the salmon below the Clackamas rack almost 

 every day during the summer of '88. Hundreds of other 

 people saw them too. The same thing has happened every 

 year except that there are not so many fish now and they are 

 not stopped so early in the year. The same thing happens 

 every year at the MoCloud River in California, where the U. 

 S. Fish Commission has its salmon breeding station, named 

 after Prof. Baird, which the writer has had charge of and 

 where he has watched the salmon for nearly twenty seasons. 

 The salmon do not feed in these streams, or if they do their 

 food is invisible. The same thing happens every year in 

 Rogue River, Oregon, where Mr. R. D. Hume has had for 

 over fifteen years a salmon hatchery on a large scale. Mr. 

 Hume says in his little pamphlet ("Salmon of the Pacific 

 Coast," p 25) that "it has been the custom at his hatching 

 pond to hold salmon nearly four months, even after they had 

 been held in the river for some time prior to being placed in 

 the pond, and this without supplying them with any sort of 

 food." Many moie instances might be furnished of salmon 

 living a long time in fresh water without eatiug, but those 

 just given would seem to be sufficient. It may be mentioned, 

 however, as incidentally confirming this truth, that although 

 hundreds of salmon have been found with absolutely nothing 

 in their stomachs, not a single instance has ever come to 

 light, at least to the writer's knowledge, of a genuine 

 Chinook salmon being caught any considerable distance 

 above tide water with a full stomach. Furthermore, although 

 thousands of salmon have been known to live several months 

 without eating, not a single case has ever been, produced to 

 show that a salmon has not been able to live in fresh water 

 without eating. 



It does seem impossible that any creature above the grade 

 of reptiles could live so long and keep so active without eat- 

 ing. It does seem impossible and hence people argue that 

 "being impossible, it cannot be true," but it is a well-known 

 principle of logic that an a priori argument like that has no 

 weight whatever against the argument of one unanswerable 

 fact. No a priori argument based on the general principle 

 that animals cannot live for months without eatiag can 

 hold for a moment against actual welbauthenticated facts 

 that prove that salmon have so lived without eating, and 

 the Clackamas, McCloud River and Rogue River hatcheries 

 furnish these facts without limit and with overwhelming 

 conclusiveness. It is not claimed that the salmon thrive or 

 get fat on this way of living. On the contrary, they get 

 very weak and finally very much emaciated in fresh water. 

 From the moment they pass above tide water they begin to 

 fall off in weight, appearance and general condition, and 

 they never under any circumstances whatever improve their 

 condition afterward. They go on getting weaker and thinner. 

 Every day their blood grows less red and less abundant, 

 until at last their great store of strong red blood that they 

 brought from the sea almost entirely disappeai-s. Every 

 day the rich layers of fat between their flakes of flesh become 

 less noticeable till they disappear also. The dark rich pink 

 of the flesh itself changes to a dirty white. Even their scales 

 are absorbed into the body. Everthing about their appear- 

 ance indicates that a tremendous draft is being made upon 

 their physical organization. It is without doubt the draft 

 that nature is making upon their flesh to keep their 

 vital organs in the activity necessary to sustain life, and 

 to develop the growing seed that will replenish the next 

 generation. For, here let me also say, it is not claimed, 

 because salmon live without eating, that there is nothing 

 whatever to keep their vital forces in action. This would 

 indeed be incredible. This would be having a fire without 

 fuel, an effect without a cause. It would be quite as absurd 

 as the perpetual motion theory— indeed, it would be, in a 

 sense, a realization of perpetual motion. The fire must have 

 fuel, the vital processes going on within the fish must be 

 sustained by some supply of nutriment — this must be ad- 

 mitted, but this supply does not come from outside the fish 

 in the form of food. It comes from within the fish. It is the 

 blood, the fat, the superfluous flesh that the salmon brings 

 from the ocean in his own body that he lives on in fresh 

 water, and that enables him to sustain life so long without 

 taking food from outside into his stomach, and this explains 

 — indeed, it must explain— why salmon do not have to feed 

 in fresh water. 



It was remarked near the beginning of this paper that 

 "the alimentary organs of the salmon are so modified at the 

 spawning season that they could not eat if they would." 

 This is easily verified. If any one will examine the viscera 

 of a Chinook salmon, caught well above tide water and near 

 the spawning season, he will find that the stomach and 

 throat of the fish are singularly contracted, so much so in- 

 deed that one cannot push one's finger down the throat with- 

 out lacerating the tissues, while the stomach is so shrunken 



