June 27, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
818 
at the statement not warranted by my feeling. It was 
bscause I did not clearly understand his remaiks that I 
asked if his fry were 3in. long. 
Steelhead Trout. 
The steelhead trout fry recently planted in New York 
waters by the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission 
were raised from eggs sent by the U. S. Fish Commission 
from the Hoopa Valley station in California, now in 
cbarge of Capt. Wm. E. Dougherty, United States Army. 
Capt. Dougherty writes me about the fish as follows: "I 
am not able to give you any authentic instance in which 
it can be shown that the steelhead has spawned and reared 
young in fresh water without going to the ocean first. 
But it must be remembered that very little scientific in- 
quiry has been made into the habits of the steelhead, or 
indeed of the salmon on this coast. 
"I have some steelheads in our ponds her now 3 years 
old. We examined them about two weeks ago and found 
roe in the females and milt in the male, but so microscopic 
as to be almost rudimentary." 
It is quite possible that these fish will spawn next year. 
We will Bee. It has been alleged that our rainbow trout 
is a fresh-water modification of the steelhead. Recent 
investigation, however, supplies evidence that the two 
fish are different, and this has been confirmed somewhat 
by our experience here. It is alleged that the Kamloops 
trout is an offshoot of the steelhead. The Kamloops 
trout is landlocked and never gets to the ocean, and so if 
it is a steelhead it goes to show that the steelhead will 
spawn without going to the sea. But, again, it must be 
said that as little is known of the Kamloops trout as of 
the steelhead proper. My own opinion is that if the 
steelhead will adapt himself to a fresh-water habitat it 
will spawn and rear young in it without going back to 
salt water. 
It should be borne in mind that the natural range of 
the steelhead in the ocean on this coast is in water that 
never has any ice in it, and they do not enter the streams 
in the spring in any considerable numbers until the tem- 
perature of the water begins to rise; therefore I have 
some doubts that this fish can be successfully propagated 
in water that has ice over it during the winter season. 
Experiments only can determine this. 
Within a year or two I stated in this journal that 
Jordan had declared that the rainbow trout was the 
young of the steelhead, or perhaps a better way of put- 
ting it would be to say, as Capt. Dougherty does, that it 
was a fresh-water modification of the steelhead. This 
theory has been found to be untenable, and Bean has un- 
tangled the subject in an article on the rainbow written 
for the report of the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commis- 
sion of New York. The report is not yet issued, but soon 
will be, and I desire to give Dr. Bean credit at this time 
for his article separating the two species — the rainbow 
and the steelhead. 
In a recent letter from Dr. Jordan, which has disap- 
peared from my desk at the moment I wish to refer to it, 
be tells me that he never made the unqualified statement 
that the rainbow was the young of the steelhead, and 
that now he is of the opinion that it is not. I regret that 
I cannot give his own words, and will try and quote him 
in a later issue of Forest and Stream if the letter turns 
up. As to the spawning of the steelhead, referred to by 
Capt. Dougherty, it is perhaps nothing strange that the 
steelhead Bhould fail to spawn in their third year in con- 
finement. Landlocked salmon have not spawned until 
their fourth year when planted in waters in which they 
have wide range, and the sea salmon (salar) confined in 
fresh water gave no evidence of spawning in their third 
year, and it is more than possible, from what Capt. 
Dougherty has observed, that the steelheads at his station 
will spawn next year, or when they are four years old. 
The steelheads planted in this State were planted in Lake 
George, Lake Champlain and Long Island streams, except 
about 5,000 of the fry, which I sent to a small but deep 
and cold lake in the Adirondacks, where, if they thrive, 
they will be under restraint and can be observed. 
Accident to Veteran John Mowat. 
Under date of June 15 Mr. Archibald Mitchell, of Nor- 
wich, Conn., writes me from the Restigouche River, New 
Brunswick: "You will no doubt feel pained to learn of a 
very serious accident which our esteemed friend Mr. John 
Mowat met with to-day. I had finished my morning's 
fishing on the Restigouche River, and while resting on 
shore after eating lunch Mr. Mowat happened to come 
down river in his canoe, having been up at Deeside for 
about two weeks fishing his own pools and had met with 
good success. 
"He came ashore and we sat down together on a very 
large log which was lying on a steep bank about 25ft. 
from the water's edge and parallel with the river. We 
had just begun to enter into an interesting conversation 
in connection with our fishing experiences, when from 
our weight, I suppose, and without the slightest warning, 
the immense log commenced to roll down the bank 
toward the river and both of us in front of it. Mr. Mowat 
tried to escape by running down the bank, but unfortu- 
nately the log struck him and rolled completely over him. 
I made a hairbreadth escape by springing to the right 
and around the end of it. The log went clear down into 
the river, where my canoe happened to be, and smashed it 
beyond repair. 
"I immediately rushed to my friend's assistance and 
asked him if he was badly hurt. He said, 'Yes; I am 
done for; I am done for.' 
"In a few moments he became very pale, fainted and 
lost all consciousness. We placed a cushion under his 
head and made him as comfortable as possible. I thought 
then he was dying. My two men and I then placed him 
in his canoe and took him down river for about two and 
a half miles to the home of James Adams. Wired to his 
family at Campbellton and had Dr. Murray come on a 
special engine, and he arrived in a remarkably short 
space of time. Mr. Mowat regained consciousness before 
we took him out of the canoe, but he was suffering a 
great deal of pain. After an examination Dr. Murray 
found there were no bones broken and his spine seemed 
to be uninjured. His head escaped without injury, 
which was something miraculous. Dr. Hynam also 
came up in the evening. As far as the indications appear 
now the chances of his recovery seem to be good. If he 
is able to be removed he will be taken to his own home 
to-morrow in a canoe, which will be the best mode of 
conveyance for one in his condition. Mrs. Mowat and 
several members of his family are now with him. When 
I was driven up river to-night I stopped and examined 
the log. If you saw it you would be puzzled to under - 
stand how such a large piece of timber could roll over 
any man without killing him. About the first words 
that he uttered after his mind became clear were: 'Oh, I 
am so glad it did not happen to you.' Had that log 
rolled over me I would have been a dead man now." 
"Tuesday Morning, 16th. — I drove down to James 
Adams's house this morning and was glad to find that 
Mr. Mowat had spent a fairly comfortable night, and he 
is looking much better this morning. When I left they 
were getting ready to take him to his home in Campbell- 
ton." 
After luncheon to-day I read Mr. Mowat's letter in the 
last isBue of Forest and Stream, and it reminded me that 
I ought to write to him. After dinner this evening I ad- 
dressed an envelope to him, and before the ink was fairly 
dry Mr. Mitchell's letter came telling of the accident. 
Mr. Mowat is 76 years old, but he comes of sturdy 
Scotch stock, and his out-of-door life on the Canadian 
salmon rivers in summer and in the forests in winter has 
kept him more vigorous than many a younger man. For 
more than fifty years he has been identified with the fish- 
eries of Canada, and no man has stored up more knowl- 
edge of salmon fishing and the habits of the fish than he. 
That Mr. Mitchell should have been with Mr, Mowat at 
the time of the accident probably came about through the 
writer. Mr. Mowat had some salmon fishing to sell and 
told me about it. I wrote to Mr. Mitchell and he wired 
me to take it for him, and he entered into possession three 
years ago. 
Mr. Mowat wrote me in August, 1895; he says: "I have 
been fairly well for a man of 75. I had about a month's 
outing in all, tenting out, cooking my own grub, pad- 
dling my own canoe, hooking and killing my own salmon 
(only eigtheen) all alone, and I lost but one fish in the land- 
ing. Of course I am properly prepared for it, and would 
rather kill one fish all alone and fight him out than to 
kill ten with two men to paddle me around." 
His first words after returning to consciousness, believ- 
ing he was fatally hurt, were characteristic of the brave 
old man: he was glad that the injury had not happened 
to' his friend, 
Mr. Mowat's many friends will welcome news of his 
complete recovery, and may he be spared for years to 
come to kill fish in his own independent manner on the 
river he loves. 
Marston Trout. 
Mr. J. G, A. Creighton, of Ottawa, has sent me nine 
specimens of the Marston trout from Lac de Marbre. 
Unfortunately they were too long on the road to be in 
perfect condition for the table, but they were finely col- 
ored with the colors peculiar to this fish, though lacking 
the high colors of former specimens received, as they were 
nearing the breeding season. Mr. Creighton says they 
struck him as harder fighters than is usual for lake fish, 
Salmon in the Hudson. 
During the past dozen years I have used the head salmon 
in the Hudson a number of times over, but never with 
more satisfaction than I do now. Last week, while I was 
at the shad hatching station of the Fisheries, Game and 
Forest Commission on the Hudson near Catskill, I learned 
that a 151b. salmon had been taken in Capt. John Pinder's 
net just before I arrived. The fish was released as soon 
as it was discovered, but it served to turn the talk of the 
fishermen to salmon instead of shad and herring. I was 
informed that salmon had been found in large numbers 
by one of Capt. Pinder's men on what he believed to be 
their spawning bed. A few days ago I made another visit 
to the shad works and learned where this supposed spawn- 
ing ground of the salmon is located. The fisherman's 
statement is that he discovered the fish while hunting 
ducks. He was familiar with salmon, having seen a num= 
ber taken in the nets he was fishing, and when he saw a 
number of large fish on a gravel bed he quickly recog- 
nized them as salmon. The time was last October, and 
he says if a net could be hauled around the bed the fish 
were so large and there were so many of them that no 
net that he had ever seen would hold the fish. The matter 
will be thoroughly investigated, and if it proves to be true 
that salmon are spawning in large numbers, as the fisher- 
man declares, the State will doubtless be able to take its 
own salmon spawn from the Hudson River fish. The 
possibilities are great if the story is all that it promises for 
the future, and I can see no reason to doubt the man's 
statement that he did see salmon spawning. 
A. N. Cheney. 
SMELT AND SALMON IN SUNAPEE 
LAKE. 
St. Johnsbury, Vt., June 13. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I inclose herewith extracts from a letter recently 
received by me which might be of interest to some of your 
readers, and bring out a discussion either about Sunapee 
Lake or, what is more important, the question of fish food 
for such waters. It certainly would be unreasonable to 
think of depriving a body of water of desirable fish food 
for the purpose of forcing a fish to rise to the surface to 
take flies or artificial food. Jno. W. Titcomb. 
"May 8bh last I reached Sunapee Lake and thought I 
would try the fish for a few days before writing to you, as 
I intended doing. The few days lengthened to a week, 
but on the seventh day the bite came, the tackle fixed for 
a salmon gave notice, and I landed a 4lb. eel. Then an- 
other bite, and I landed a yellow perch of about lib. ; then 
another and in came a bass of fib., which of course was 
returned to the water. Then another bite and a 4£lb. 
sucker came to grief; then another and yet another, the 
last two being trout of 2£ and 2Jlbs.. And this occurred 
in twenty minutes, after having fished the entire week 
without one bite. My companion caught one eel and bass 
the fourth day and nothing more until the eighth. I 
fished fourteen days from 7 A. M. to 7 P. M. and caught only 
a few trout the last six days. None big enough to talk about 
and no salmon. There was only one salmon, 8£lbs. , 
caught while I was there and only a few trout. The poor 
fishing was laid to the smelt, as they had come in shore 
and run up the stream and then gone back to deeper 
water, and are followed wherever they go by the salmon 
and trout. Now it is a question in my mind whether smelt 
are or are not an advantage, and from what I learn at 
Sunapee, and I have been there now a number of times, 
I am about convinced that they are a disadvatage in more 
ways than one. 
"They no doubt spoil fly-fishing, as the trout and salmon 
are forever after the smelt, and after the first week or so 
after the ice leaves it is almost impossible to catch the 
smelt for bait, and even if they are caught they cannot be 
kept alive more than a few minutes, and consequently it 
is about impossible to obtain bait, and even if it could 
be got it is of very little use when dead. Of course min- 
nows, shiners and small suckers can be caught and kept 
alive; but where there are smelt in the water a piece of 
maple sugar for bait would be almost as effective as any 
other fish but smelt. No doubt of the smelt being great 
food; but if it spoils fishing with rod and tackle where is 
its advantage? It certainly may ruin the fly-fishing, as it 
no doubt does the bait fishing, to a very great extent. 
"There is no fly-fishing at Sunapee at all, and the only 
way it is accounted for there is the smelt." 
ON NEW ENGLAND WATERS. 
Boston, June 22.— Lovers of the rod and reel will be 
pained to learn of the death of Hon. Daniel Gunn on Tues- 
day last, aged 72 years. Always an angler, he seemed to 
take greater delight in the sport as the years swept by. 
, It was always a remark of his that he hoped to be able to 
go a-fishing at least once a year while life lasted. His 
wish came very near to being gratified, since it has been 
only the present season that ill health has prevented his 
making his annual trip to Nova Sootia for sea trout. 
Reports of great bass fishing come from Lake Cobbos- 
seecontee, in Maine. Mr. Gould, of Boston, is back from 
a very satisfactory trip there. Ninety-two bass are set 
down on his score. Druggist Talcott and Mr. Heintzman 
made a very pleasant bass fishing trip to Belgrade. Sen- 
ator W. P. Frye, of Maine, has returned to his home, in 
Lewiston, from his spring trout fishing trip to his camp 
on Lake Cupsuptic. Mr. A. H. Proctor and Mr. Breed 
are back from a successful trout fishing trip to The 
Birches. They had the good fortune to see the big trout 
that were led in by Mr. Frost at Pleasant Island camps, 
even if they did not get quite as large ones themselves. 
Mr. Rodney P. Woodman will start on his annual trout 
fishing trip to Parlin Pond and Jackman early next week. 
Special. 
Judge Robert Grant, of Boston, whom I mentioned in 
Forest and Stream a short time ago as having gone on a 
salmon fishing trip with Justice Horace Gray, of the U. 
S. Supreme Court, is back in Boston, a much disappointed 
man, having been called home suddenly on urgent busi- 
ness before he had a chance to wet a line. 
Dr. F. S. Watson and party, of Boston, left this week 
for the Southwest Branch of the Miramichi River in New 
Brunswick. Salmon and sea trout fishing is the sport in 
view, and they expect to make a long stay. 
F. W. Estabrook and George O. Whiting left on Friday 
night for a two weeks' trip to Parmachenee Lake. Mr. 
Eatabrook is, I believe, a member of the Parmachenee 
Club, and has undertaken to initiate his friend Whiting 
(who is making his first trip) into all the mysteries of fly- 
casting. He will have an apt pupil. 
Big Borris Lake, the headwaters of the Tusket River, in 
Nova Scotia, is the destination of a party of Boston men 
who left the city a few days aeo after salmon and trout. 
C. W. Whitney and O. C. Whitcomb passed through 
Boston a few days ago en route to Bemis, in the Rangeley 
Lakes, Mr, Whitney is an old campaigner in the Rangeley 
country, and know! about every inch of it. They will be 
away two weeks, and will visit Kennebago for some fly- 
fishing before returning, 
C. F. Ropes and J. E. Spencer left on Saturday last for 
Billie Soule's camp at Indian Rock, Maine. Before re- 
turning they will make a trip up Kennebago Stream and 
into the hills of that region, where there is a small pond 
from which Mr. Spencer took a 61b. salmon a year ago. 
Some other anglers who have gone to Billie Soule's with- 
in a few days are: J. M. Blakey, W. A. Tracy and Dr. H. 
F. Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton is a great lover of bass fish- 
ing, and intends stopping at Belgrade on his way home 
for a few days. 
There are a few lucky bass fishermen over in Cambridge 
now, who have obtained permits to fish in Fresh Pond, 
from which the city's water supply is taken. The rules 
are quite strict regarding the fishing; only one boat being 
allowed each day between 6 and 10 A. M., and but two 
occupants to the boat. The greatest number of permits to 
any one person are six, and the season extends from May 
to December. About the same rules apply in Boston re- 
garding the Chestnut Hill reservior, and there has been 
something of a scramble among the Boston anglers for the 
much covoted permits. Bass are quite plentiful in both 
places, and last year sortie good catches were made. I 
near that Jamaica Pond, which is now included in the 
Metropolitan Park system, is open to fishing, and an en- 
thusiastic resident of that locality has told me that they 
are getting them by the barrel. 
Smith's Pond, up at Wolfboro, N. H., used to be one of 
the most noted places in New England for bass. Since 
the craze has been on for the Belgrade ponds it has been 
neglected by its old friends, and the bass have had a chance 
to recover from the heavy onslaught made on them in 
the past. I am told that the fishing there is excellent 
now, and some of its old habitue's are preparing to try it 
again. Chas. S. Bates, who used to go up year after year, 
left a few days ago for a ten days' stay, and C. J. Halpin 
has gone to stay about the same length of time. 
Cod-fishing is much enjoyed by Mr. O. H. P. Stoddard, 
of the firm of Dame, Stoddard & Kendall. With H. A. 
Whittemore and F. S. Wadsworth, also connected with 
that house, he devoted a day last week to the sport off 
Duxbury, and the party captured about 75lbs. of fish. The 
usual severe attack of seasickness visited the boat, but 
was confined to one member of the party and was not un- 
expected. He fished through it all, and even has the 
courage to say he will try it again very soon. 
N. L. Millard, C. H. Cutting, Stephen Fairfield and 
Zenas Sears, Jr., have left on an extended trip to the 
Seven Ponds and through the Dead River region of Maine. 
They will probably go as far as King and Bartlett, and 
intend giving all the ponds a good trial, 
The Diamond Pond country, near Colebrook, N, H., is 
a famous old sporting region. The Dead Diamond camps 
during the lifetime of Amasa Ward were known far and 
wide, and even now are dear to the heart of many a 
sportsman. The ponds are well taken care of, being 
stocked annually by the State, and therefore the fishing 
always reliable. F. F. Proctor and W. H. Harris will 
spend the next ten days fishing and tramping up there, 
