Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 1895. 
Teems, $4 A Yeae. 10 Cts. a Copy. | 
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J VOL. XLIV.— No. 
| No. 318 Broadway, New 
York. 
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THE TERMS OF THE CUP RACES. 
The past week has brought out nothing beyond a brief 
cable from Secretary Grant already published and the 
still shorter reply from Commodore Smith to show the 
exact basis of understanding on which a race has been 
finally arranged. The report of the Cup committee to 
the club on Monday night was conspicuous for its lack 
of information on this most important point, and we 
doubt whether the members who voted to accept the 
report and the challenge have any exact and definite 
understanding of the terms of the new ' ' agreement. ' ' 
The committee has vouchsafed no information as to the 
nature or extent of the "concessions" which it has 
made., nor has the nature of these "concessions" been 
disclosed in any other way. 
So far as it is yet known the Royal Yacht Squadron 
has had no definite and official statement of the position 
of the New York Y. C. since the resolution of May 17, 
1888, that the club would accept a challenge under the 
terms of the races sailed in 1885-6-7 ; and it is hardly 
probable that the squadron would after so many years 
accept this as a good ground for the recognition of the 
new deed. It is, however, in every way probable that 
some assurance has been given by Commodore Smith to 
Lord Dunraven as to the present interpretation of the 
new deed. 
The report of the committee is a masterly document. 
It affirms the integrity of the new deed as governing the 
proposed races ; it contains no recognition of any rights 
accorded the challenger, and it mentions casually that 
certain concessions were made to secure a match, leaving 
it to be inferred that they were too trivial to demand 
specific mention. In this report, and in the minutes of 
the club, there is nothing to indicate the long struggle 
between the two parties, and it reads as though the 
New York Y. C. had received and accepted a challenge 
complying in every respect with the requirements of 
the new deed. 
The assertions of American papers and of American 
yachtsmen are all in the same line, that the Royal 
Yacht Squadron has at last withdrawn all opposition 
to the new deed and has agreed to challenge under it. 
How this view of the case will be accepted by British 
yaohstmen is yet to be seen, but from all appearances 
the case is exactly the same as in 1892-3, one party 
claiming one thing and the other the reverse. As 
opposed to the American view the Field of January 12 
says : ' ' All yachtsmen approve of the Royal Yacht 
Squadron's accepting the custody of the Cup. The 
New York Yacht Club metaphorically consumed the 
deed, seals and all. The mutual agreement clause 
being interpreted to mean every clause, the deed 
can be wiped out of existence if the parties arranging 
the match so agree. The Royal Yacht Squadron will 
virtually hold the Cup, if won, as though no deed what- 
ever existed. The situation obviously is a great 
absurdity, but this is not of the least consequence if the 
Royal Yacht Squadron be fortunate enough to become 
the holders of the Cup. ' ' 
Each side has a right to its own opinion, but when, 
as it must sooner or later, the matter comes to a final 
test, the New York Yacht Club will be able to back its 
interpretation of the present agreement by its minutes, 
and by a receipt from Tiffany vaults for the America's 
Cup ; while the Royal Yacht Squadron will have 
nothing to fall back on but some vague and worthless 
cablegrams to the effect that the new deed means nothing. 
SALMON AT SEA. 
One of the most carefully guarded secrets of the ocean 
is its relation to the growth and development of the 
salmon. We are to some extent acquainted with the 
movements and habits of that aristocrat of the fresh 
water streams when the instinct of reproduction leads 
it within the range of our observation ; but after the 
stages of ascent, nest -building and descent are ended 
the salmon is soon among the mysteries of the deep and 
gives us but -a few transient glimpses of its oceanic life, 
and for these we are indebted to commercial fishery. 
In a recent publication of the U. S. Fish Commission 
Dr. Hugh M. Smith has brought together a number of 
notes on the capture of salmon at sea, for the most part 
in pounds and weirs and, more rarely, on trawl lines set 
for cod, haddock and other bottom fish. To cite some 
instances bearing upon the object of this article : 
At the Cranberry Isles, about twenty-five miles east of 
Penobscot Bay and thirty-five miles in a straight line 
from the mouth of Penobscot River, on July 14, 1888, 
six salmon weighing from four to six pounds each were 
taken in a herring weir. In June, 1893, a number of 
salmon of twelve to fifteen pounds were caught on cod 
trawl lines baited with herring and set on the bottom 
in rather deep water. 
Two significant points are presented, the presence of 
the fish on the bottom if they really took the hooks on 
the bottom and not while the trawl was being lowered 
or raised, and the return of young salmon so near to 
their birthplace before maturity compelled their move- 
ment shoreward. It is generally supposed that salmon 
live near the surface, and the only known important 
winter fishing for them takes place in the Baltic and is 
carried on with short lines attached to a surface trawl. 
The return of immature fish, of which examples will be 
mentioned, supports the theory of Mr. Blackford which 
was published in Forest and Stream some time" ago, 
namely, that salmon do not migrate far from the 
river mouths. 
In December, 1891 a salmon weighing twenty-eight 
pounds was taken on a cod trawl near Halfway Rock off 
Salem Harbor, and in September, 1893, one was caught 
off Gloucester, Mass., on a hake trawl. These lines 
were set in depths of 130 to 150 feet. Mr. Blackford 
receives a few salmon every winter from the Atlantic 
coast. They are captured at Provincetown and North 
Truro in mackerel nets in very deep water off the cape. 
In Maine the smelt fishermen get them in their nets 
occasionally. 
Referring again to the return of small salmon as 
described in Dr. Smith's notes : 
Captain Atkins Hughes of North Truro, Mass. , has 
for two or three years observed large numbers of young- 
fish about six inches long in pound nets during Octo- 
ber. Each net takes one or two barrels annually. In 
1893 very few of such small ones were taken. At 
Provincetown, in September, 1892, Mr. V. N. Edwards 
saw a great many salmon weighing four or five pounds, 
each caught in pound nets In a single net he saw 
enough to fill two sugar barrels. 
In Sandy Hook Bay the number of salmon taken has 
been increasing for the past three years in the spring 
only, and among them are sometimes seen fish weighing 
half a pound. In May, 1893, two medium size were 
caught at Mantoloking, N. J., thirty-five miles south 
of Sandy Hook, where none had ever been taken before. 
pound salmon in a purse net set around a school of 
mackerel. Another salmon was reported in the seine, 
but it escaped. No parallel case is known to the mack- 
erel fishermen. 
About the middle of December, 1894, a five pound 
salmon was reported as captured on a trawl with cod 
and haddock by a Gloucester fishing schooner. Many 
additional notes of similar character are among the 
records of the IT. S. Fish Commission, and will soon be 
brought out, but enough is here stated to show what we 
started out to establish, the presence of adult salmon in 
winter near the coast and the frequent, we may almost 
say the regular, occurrence of young salmon not far 
from the fresh waters in which they were born. These 
facts appear to give great weight to the belief that the 
sea life of the salmon is passed in near by waters. 
At a most opportune moment for this discussion, Mr. 
H. J. Barling contributes fresh information about 
the salmon of Alaska. Mr. Barling has spent many 
years at the great fishing centers and is well posted as 
to the movements of the fish at the most critical period 
of their life. He states that about the middle of May, 
1894, just when the ice passed out of Karluk River, 
Kadiak, young red salmon came down the stream in 
myriads. To use his own words : ' ' They looked like 
hail stones on the river. ' ' The run lasted a week. The 
fish were two and a half to three inches long. 
The little salmon went right out to sea and disap- 
peared. During the descent shags, gulls and divers 
were abundant and played havoc with the fish. With 
the departure of the salmon the birds went off and did 
not return until after the fishing season opened. These 
great runs of young salmon take place only once in two 
years, and this corresponds with our own observation 
on the spawning habits. 
During the season of 1894 Mr. Barling caught forty 
salmon measuring six inches, and he saw a great many 
escape through the meshes of the nets. Sometimes they 
take individual of nine or ten inches. It was a pleasure 
to be informed that the increase in the size of the mesh 
has allowed the escape of nearly all Dolly Varden trout 
which were formerly killed by thousands and wasted on 
the beach. 
Fully nine and one-half millions of salmon were 
caught in Alaska for canning and salting in 1894, or 
more than enough, if placed one behind the other, to 
reach from New York to San Francisco. It seems im- 
possible that the supply should long stand such an 
enormous drain. 
SNAP-SHOTS. 
The Minnesota Fish Commissioners have been suc- 
cessful in establishing a breed of albino brook trout. As 
trout culturists know, it i ? not uncommon to find albino 
among newly hatched fry, but such individuals are 
usually of deficient vitality, and, as a rule, do not long 
survive. Three years ago several albinos were found in 
a lot of fry at the Willow Brook hatchery at St. Paul. 
From those which lived 147 true albino were obtained, 
and the stock had with fluctuations been preserved, until 
now the ponds contain nearly 2, 500 of this year's hatch 
ing, and 22 which are two years old. The fish are to all 
appearances quite as strong and as healthy as their 
commonplace speckled relatives of corresponding ages. 
This new albino trout of the Minnesota hatchery is a 
marvelously beautiful fish. The body is a pure white, 
with the iridescent spots most delicately marked ; and 
the fins shade from a delicate pink to a creamy white. 
If the -stock shall be perpetuated we may be sure that 
there will be a great demand for the new fish. 
The greatest distance at sea at which salmon -have 
been captured was the record of Captain Solomon Jacobs 
about April 10, 1893. While cruising for mackerel about 
fifty miles E. S. E. of Fenwick Island lightship and 
sixty miles from the nearest land, he took a sixteen 
Mr. John B. Lawrence, Jr., of New York, president 
of the Narrows Island Club of Currituck Sound, N. 
C. , had an unusual experience recently with™ English 
snipe. He was shooting, Dec. 29, at Flanders, Long- 
Island, not far from River Head, ' and started a lot of 
snipe from an open spring hole. The thermometer stood 
at 14 degrees Farenheit, and the bay was frozen over 
this spring hole being the only open water in the 
neighborhood. Mr. Lawrence killed eight snipe that 
day, two the next day and two more the day after. 
The birds were reported as having been there for a week 
or more. They were vexy fat. 
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