Dec. 8, 1894.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
5- 9 3 
A New Jersey Convention. 
Bbcnswick, N, J., Dec. 3.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
For many years there has been general complaint of the 
inefficiency of the game and fish laws of New Jersey to 
protect the game and fish to any appreciable extent. In 
spite of State and individual efforts to stock forests and 
streams, pot-hunters and other unscrupulous individuals 
have been able to disregard the laws with practical 
impunity. 
The New Brunswick Gun Club at a meeting recently 
held took the initiative in a movement looking toward the 
adoption and enactment of adequate laws. It was 
decided to hold a convention in this city in Voorhees Hall, 
at 12 o'clock noon, Dec. 15. An invitation will be sent to 
each gun club in the State to send two delegates. The 
Brunswick Club will bear all the expense except the 
transportation of delegates. It will be the purpose of the 
convention to recommend to the commission recently 
appointed by the Legislature such changes in the game 
laws as will serve to protect the game and also to provide 
means of detecting and punishing infractions of the la.w. 
The local club has elected Barker Gummere of Trenton, 
and George A. Viehmann as delegates. 
New Lefever s. 
It will be good news to many sportsmen to learn that the Lefever 
Arms Co. have decided to place upon the market medium price ham- 
merless guns fitted with automatic ejectors. This improved ejector is 
a model of simplicity, consisting only of two pieceB, one a hook 
pivoted in the hammer, the other a lever pivoted in the frame. The 
mechanism of the gun is not cut away or weakened, nor are any of its 
compensating features interfered with. Only the discharged shell is 
ejected, and it is thrown with force a good distance. The ejector 
parts may be removed and easily replaced by any one. The Lefever 
Company announce that their prices are more favorable than ever 
offered on ejector guns.— Adv. 
TROUT IN THE RANGELEY WATERS.— III. 
BY MOLECHUNKAMUNK. 
I think the trout in the Rangeley Lakes, excepting the 
Umbagog, are about as plentiful as ever, although the 
raising of the waters has changed their spring and 
autumnal habitats a good deal, and some of the old fish- 
ing places are of the past. Trout Cove in the large lake 
above the Upper Dam was a spring fishing place for a 
period of ten or fifteen days, where in the gentle current 
one could satisfy his most ardent passion for trout, and 
become fairly surfeited; that is if one could ever become 
completely surfeited with fly-fishing. 
Not far from Trout Cove was the run below the old, 
now submerged, stone dam, which for large trout in the 
autumn surpassed any spot I ever knew of. I used to 
have the fishing there alone and unrestricted to my exorbi- 
tant heart's content, over twenty years ago, when there 
was scarcely another rod going. Day after day I fished 
it in the height of the season, wending my way to it a 
mile through the woods by lantern light to get the first 
fishing of the blushing morn, and after resting through 
the day I would take in the evening fishing, and wend my 
way home an hour after dark by the same light which 
had guided my morning footsteps. Sometimes I would 
get hold of a big fellow after dark, which would so tire 
my patience that I would feel like straining my leader to 
separation. 
The water there ran dark and smooth in a passage of 
30 or 40ft. wide between large rocks into a pool of several 
acres in area below. In the passage and below were the 
leviathans of the deep. Now of late years, the lake raised 
12 or 15ft. high, has destroyed the current, and made a 
sea of the locality. 
Some days one might whip the run and pool for hours 
without arise, although gigantic breaks about might occa- 
sionally be observed, but the favorable hour in the right 
season was sure to reward the seeker. Once I caught the 
pool on a day of high carnival, a day of exultant joy, of 
moving and commotion of trout, which on some days 
and occasions exhibit an eager recklessness, and all fear- 
less and bent on destruction. It was a cold, blustering, 
gusty day, with occasional sleet, late in September, when 
I had to go back frequently to a fire on the shore to thaw 
out my bennmbed hands. At intervals the water boiled 
about me with swirling breaks, and visible currents of 
.pursuing fish. My first cast, a short one, scarcely 10ft. 
away, responded with a 5-pounder in an instant, and I 
begrudged the time it required to bring him to net. 
Another and another rose in succession to my fly, which 
(Scarcely flecked the merry ripple tops ere it was taken. 
.No under surface draw seemed required for my first few 
,fish, and I screamed with delight at each strike. My 
.third was an 8f-pounder, and the largest of the day, and 
ithe smallest was 31bs. , and my total catch 10 fish, which 
weighed 571bs. 
I secured all alive in two large cars I had at the run, 
excepting the largest, which was gilled, and on the fol- 
lowing day weighed the balance and gave back to the 
pool all but three, which answered any use I could give. 
The largest trout I have seen after being caught 
weighed almost exactly lllbs., although there are well 
authenticated instances of trout whioh have been caught 
weighing 12 and 151bs., and 10-pounders have been taken 
in several instances. The largest I have ever taken 
weighed 9£lbs. and the second largest 91bs., and I have 
taken a good many from 7 to a little over 8lbs. I once 
•secured a impounder from the apron below the Upper 
Dam some fifteen years ago, which came over the fail of 
the dam above and was left dry on the apron logs. The 
logs of the apron were separated somewhat, allowing the 
water to pass through as it flowed over the datn. I was 
some distance off, and saw the commotion on the apron 
which I first thought was my Skye terrier at play, as he 
frequented the spot; but succeeded in arriving at the 
apron and in securing the fish as he had almost reached 
the end of the apron and was about to drop into the water 
below. I have seen eels of 10 and 121bs. weight caught 
securely between the logs of that old apron, which came 
over the dam at night, large, lusty, black-backed and 
yellow-bellied fellows, which had doubtless done then- 
share in ravaging the lakes. 
1 remember well this large trout,' the 11-pounder. which 
for several years in the autumn came to the same place 
in a moderate swirl of water above a dam, where in his 
mighty solitude — for he seemed quite alone — he would 
signify his presence occasionally by an uplifting at the 
surface which would make an angler's heart quake. He 
became the target of many ambitious efforts, both of fly- 
casters and bait-dabblers, but maintained a dignified and 
conservative indifference. In a quiet surface and with 
the sun's rays in a favorable quarter he was often ob- 
served either in quiet meditation or slowly taking his 
constitutional promenade. In vain were flies sunk down 
for his convenience, and equally vainless were the tidy 
worms and natty grasshoppers trailed before his majestic 
presence. Some vowed he was 3ft. long, that his mouth 
was large enough to take in a black duck, and that he 
must weigh 151bs. Well, he was taken one day by an old 
guide, who would have scorned to have taken him any 
other way than fairly, but most curiously he was taken 
while everybody was at dinner, and according to his ac- 
count he had allowed his worm-baited hook to rest on the 
bottom for a while, from which it was seized by the old 
patriarch, and in natural sequence completed his forag- 
ing adventures and he soon laid gasping an the green 
grass. He did not prove to be 151bs. in weight, or 3ft. 
long; in fact, was a very short trout for his weight, mea- 
uring exactly 274in. in length and of magnificent color. 
His photograph, life-size, is before me. 
A remarkable and well authenticated catch was made 
by my friend, the Hon. H. O. Stanley, of Dixfield, Me., 
some years ago, in the large lake of five trout in one day, 
and all with a fly, which weighed 42lbs., the largest 
weighing lOlbs. and the smallest 71bs. It is doubtful if 
this catch with a fly has ever been exceeded by any fisher- 
man at the Rangeley Lake in a single day. 
In fishing through the ice in winter, the habit of trout 
to occupy one locality is quite perceptible, especially in 
large ponds or lakes, and trout so speedily partake of 
their surroundings, not only in color, but in proportions, 
that but little difficulty is found by one who has succes- 
sively fished certain large bodies of water, in determining 
the places from which a mixed lot have individually 
been taken. In one of the Rangeley Lakes with which I 
am particularly well acquainted, and in which I have 
fished many winters, I have noticed a very great dissimi- 
larity in the trout, so marked as to be noticeable at a 
glance. When I first fished the lake it was comparatively 
unknown, and the catching of trout through the ice was 
to some extent a necessity to provide food, and not in 
conflict with the law, although during late years the habit 
has become limited, in accordance with the legal provision. 
1 observed the great dissimilarity in the trout the first 
year and kept the daily catches separated according to the 
places secured from. At that time pur party consisted 
of five, and we put out from twelve to fifteen lines with live 
bait in different places, each being from a mile to two 
miles from the others. Toward night our horse and 
pung was employed in conveying us home where each 
party brought his catch, and each fish was carefully 
weighed and a record made of the catches of each fisher- 
man. Following up this method for several years and 
keeping the fish separated, I observed not only the differ- 
ences of the fish in color and proportionate lengths as to 
weight, but a marked difference in average weight. 
This method of winter fishing I followed up for a dozen 
years on a particular lake, besides fishing quite a number 
of other lakes through the ice the same years, and my ex- 
perience in fishing the same localities during the springs 
and autumns of over a quarter of a century, has resulted 
in convincing me that a very large proportion of the 
trout possess localized peculiarities, and remain in and 
about the same places the whole year, although some of 
them take their regular outings, and a few of them may 
take permanent departures. There are in this lake I refer 
to some portions that mark the denizens so clearly that 
they are ,most clearly recognized when caught in places 
several miles from their previous homes. In some places 
the trout are similar, though not entirely so, to those of 
some other place, but the extreme markings are wonder- 
fully different, so much so that I will venture to say that 
the difference in length alone as to weight in the trout 
from two localities in mind, would amount to fully from 
2 to Sin. in length for each 41b. in weight, and of course a 
proportionate difference in waist measurements. 
We find in men the characteristics peculiar to climate, 
soil and food. So with trout, excepting that they show 
much more prominently than with the human race, the 
disparities occasioned by their surroundings. Once when 
fishing through the ice for several days with a friend at 
a certain place on the lake where we had remarkably 
good luck in getting short thick trout, and which place 
by the way produces the heaviest trout in the lake for 
length, and after pulling out a fat 4-pounder which 
hardly measured 16in. in length, I remarked to my friend 
that he would probably be surprised to catch a l^lb. trout 
which would exceed the 4-pounder in length. In demon- 
stration of this we set a dozen lines in 30ft. of water by 
an island where above all the places in the lake I had 
observed the trout to be very long and slim, and where 
the color indicated most positively that the bottom was 
not only very muddy, but extremely dark. Here we 
caught fifteen or twenty trout, which were invariably 
slim and eel-like and black-bellied. Among them were 
several running from 1 to lilbs., which were not less than 
from 15 to 17in. in length. In that locality it is unusual 
to catch any trout of great weight, although I once 
caught there a trout of the most unusual weight, lono- 
slim and dark, which was the longest trout I ever saw' 
measuring 30iin. in length and weighing 71bs. He was an 
old one and evidently dying of old age and lack of food, 
which his waning activity failed him in gaining. A 
short time ago a lady, a friend of mine, caught a plump 
8-pounder, which measured exactly 23£in. in length, 
wnich was caught in comparatively shallow water in a 
quarter where 1 have taken thousands of trout, but where 
1 have never known a slim black-bellied trout to be taken 
from, not even a stray, though often strays are picked up 
about the lake, and I have often taken trout which I 
knew had arrived where caught within twenty -four hours 
from a distance at least of two or more miles, having the 
markings in color too strong to be ignored, and which 
had not been long enough at the new place to get fitted 
out in the prevailing garb. 
Inexperienced fishermen may think this somewhat im- 
probable, but men with whom I have almost yearly fished 
for tiie past thirty years will recognize the features I have 
illustrated. We often remark to each other, that is a 
cedar tree trout, or a so and so trout, and probably cor- 
rectly. Why trout will remain about one place for life, is 
difficult to explain; but they do. And so we may say 
about men. Why will they stay in one place and eke out 
an uncertain and precarious existence, when they can go 
where they could do so much better? I often think of this 
while I am traveling about the world, and witness the 
prosperity of some localities and the misery of others, and 
find humanity pleased and satisfied in each place. No 
matter where I go it is mostly the same, with the inhab- 
itants lauding the respective merits of their region and 
claiming advantages not possessed by others; and so they 
stay and die, and their children grow up after them and 
follow in the footsteps of their parents. And so it is I 
presume, with the trout. If they could talk and express 
themselves and be understood, it would probably be found 
that they had very good reasons of their own for continu- 
ing where they could not be otherwise than slim and black, 
when they might go where they would soon get fat and 
mellow with unctuous delicacies. Occasionally one strikes 
out, as with humanity, and never returns, linking his for- 
tune with another colony and unknown evermore among 
his old friends and relatives. And if a trout be carried 
away from his accustomed home he will return forthwith. 
He will lose no time, after the recovery from the fright 
of his strange taking away, in heading from home again, 
and he will have no more difficulty in finding it than a 
man would if taken from his home to a distance, but 
from where he can see the old, familiar landmarks, from 
which he cannot go amiss. It is no more instinct with 
the trout to find his way home, or the experienced hom- 
ing pigeon to find his cote when taken a thousand miles 
away, or with the salmon to find his way in the sea to his 
native stream, than for the man to find his way home 
when in sight of the church spire of the home town. 
With the fish and the bird it is a matter of scent and sight 
of concentrated perceptiveness, as with the hound which 
follows the track of the fox and deer or the footsteps of 
his master among a hundred others; of a sense of acute- 
ness, which might be considered a new sense, so unknown 
is it to the human race. 
Hundreds of instances could be adduced to evidence if 
necessary the almost miraculous acuteness of scent and 
sight with many of the lower order of animals. Scent 
with the Salmo family is of the highest order and most 
keenly developed, and we are all familiar with the rapid- 
ity with which the trout will eject the deceitful fly if not 
hooked. Stoddart, one of the most reliable and conserva- 
tive writers on trout, gives an incident of drawing trout 
up stream for over a mile when he had used spawn bait, 
which by the slight impregnation of the running water 
from the bait, tolled up black-bellied trout from a pond 
on the stream below, and water is a far better conductor 
of odor than of heat and cold. 
The ocean is not trackless to its denizens, and its cur- 
rents have their lanes and highways, and no lake or pool 
is so sluggish as not to have its varying qualities, partak- 
ing of local features. 
Every spring and stream has its peculiarity of odor, 
depending upon the formations about the flow. The dis- 
colorations of the Amazon and Mississsippi are apparent 
to the eye for many miles at sea, but the outreaching 
laminations of odor extend hundreds of miles beyond the 
color line. Neighboring streams have a dissimilarity ap- 
parent to the crudest sense, and the water of a single lake 
varies in color and taste, according to its locality. That 
of one cove will be different from another, affected by 
the character of the ground and of the neighboring plant 
life, while in the imperceptible yet existing currents of 
the lake a distinctive character is imparted. All these 
features are apparent to the perceptive and acute scent 
of the trout, which guides the possessor in the darkest 
night as readily as in the day, and it is well known that 
the journeys and migrations of the Salmo family occur 
almost exclusively in the night, and no darkness is too 
dense for their advance. 
I will cite an instance which came to my observation, 
by accident, in one of my early winter fishing excursions! 
It was in January. Camping the first night at the lower 
end of the lake, we commenced our journey the following 
early morning over the ice for our permanent camp nine 
miles distant. The ice was about eighteen inches thick 
with a foot of settled snow upon it. The going was hard 
and when six miles up the lake, and three miles from 
camp we stopped for lunch by the shore, at a locality 
noted for the extraordinary beauty of its trout. So noted 
were the trout of this particular place for their plumpness, 
and vivid colors, surpassing any of the lake, that it is not 
uncommon to have the old native fishermen familiar 
with the lake say, whena particularly high-colored plump 
trout is taken in other localities, "Oh that is from middle 
point, next chub cove." The day was fine, the hour early, 
and the distance comparatively short to camp. I was 
anxious to take a few of the beautiful trout of the place 
to show one or two of my friends of the party who were 
novices at the lake. We had our ice chisel, and plenty 
of five bait, which we had brought in, but unfortunately 
no hooks or lines as they were at camp, but one of the 
party finally brought out from his valise half a dozen 
slim but good sized hooks on single gut, rather inferior 
for work, but acceptable in the situation, and which we 
lengthened out into hand lines with serviceable twine at 
hand. Three or four holes were speeddy cut, and it 
must be admitted over a spawning bed with which we were 
familiar. With some small minnows and careful hand- 
ling, we soon had half a dozen fine trout out. I had one 
of the men cut a basin in the ice beside one of the holes, 
in which water was conveyed from the opening, in 
which I had the trout placed as soon as caught, that we 
might better observe their beauty, and they were beauties 
indeed, averaging between two and three pounds in 
weight. 
We did not lose a single trout we hooked. This we 
distinctly remembered, but in the handling of the flopping 
trout upon the ice, before they could be conveyed to the 
basin, three of the single guts snapped, leaving the hooks 
in the jaws of the trout, where they remained, as we did 
not care to remove them immediately, to the injury of 
the fish. We all admired the remarkable beauty of the 
imprisoned trout, and a regret was expressed that they 
should be sacrificed. An idea suggested itself which was 
carried out, that we would take them to camp alive. We 
had a tight box containing stores. This was emptied and 
filled with water, into which the trout were placed, with 
its cover lightly tacked on to prevent the swaying of the 
water, and with the box on a hand sled it was so con- 
veyed to camp. On its route the water was changed sev- 
eral times, so that all the trout arrived in fine condition. 
At camp the trout were put in a car with a weight, by 
which it was Bunk in 10ft. of water. That evening it was 
decided that we would have trout for breakfast, but upon 
