Feb. 2, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
89 
first for five commissioners, to be known as the Commis- 
sioners of Fisherries and Forests, with a paid president, 
who is required to devote his entire time to the duties of 
bis office. The bill also provides for the necessaiy clerical 
force and for the appointment of thirty game and fish 
protectors, who will possess the powers now enjoyed by 
foresters and other employees of the Forest Commission, 
as well as those they enjoy under the present law. A 
very careful expert estimate has been made, a,nd is given 
below, of the total cost of operating the new commission, 
with two additional fish hatcheries and an increase of ten 
in the number of game protectors, and it is conclusively 
shown that a saving of over $30,000 a year can be effected 
to the State." 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Mohican Club Officers. 
At the annnal meeting of the Mohican Rod and Gun 
Club, of Glens Falls, N. Y., the following officers were 
elected: President, A. N. Cheney; Vice-President, Byron 
B. Fowler; Treasurer, Stephen A. Hays; Secretary, 
Franklin F. Gunn; Executive Committee, N. R. Gourley, 
J. M. Davis, D. L. Robertson, Dr. T. I. Henning and 
Beecher Clothier. The club has a local membership of 
nearly 120 and a non-resident membership of over 40. 
Spawning of Salmon. 
Mi-. Edward Hallam writes me: "In your article of Feb. 
19th you speak about the spawning of land locked salmon. 
You mention one case where a salmon spawned at Ply- 
mouth Hatchery, N. H., that A^eighed two pounds. Now 
this may be all right as far as freight goes, but still it is 
indefinite. Could you not tell us how many years or 
months elapse from the time the eggs of land locked sal- 
mon hatch before the salmon so hatched begins to rep- 
roduce its kind. This would be worth knowing. Ac- 
cording to your theory food makes weight and growth, 
and following out this line of thought a fish that had all 
it could eat might be only two years old and still weigh 
five pounds, while another salmon hatched at the same 
time, if it did not get enough to eat, might live five years 
and weigh only five pounds. Wont you please give it to us 
in years and months instead of in pounds." 
The note referred to was written because of a statement 
concerning the veight of spawning land locked salmon, 
the age not having been brought into the question. Land 
locked salmon in wild waters will spawn in their third 
year (confinement in hatchery ponds or tanks may change 
the habits of fish slightly, depending upon the conditions 
which obtain) , or, to follow the life of a salmon, the eggs 
taken last fall will be hatched this spring and the fry will 
remain in the brooks for one or two years according to the 
man who tells the story, for there is an honest difference 
of opinion about the matter when observations have been 
made in different waters, 
I planted one lot of land locked salmon in the month of 
May in a brook which never had seen them before, and 
in a year from the folloAviug October they were still there 
in such numbers as to make me think none had left, but 
some few must have gone, for two were caught in a nmi 
flume in the river below. The fish which ran down 
would be called yearlings, for they went down the next 
year after they were hatched, but as they were hatched 
in the spring and ran down stream in the fall they might 
have been 19 or 20 months old from the egg. Therefore 
when I say they spawn in their third year— I write of an 
actual case of a newly planted stream in New Hampshire 
— as they are born in the spring arid spawn in the fall the 
salmon are in reality three years and eight months old or 
thereabouts. 
The young land locked salmon run down from the 
streams where they are hatched or planted into the lake, 
which may be called their home exactly as the sea salmon 
in smolt stage rundown from the freshwater streams 
into the sea. 
That "food makes weight and growth" is not a theory, 
but a condition, if I may borrow that expression, but the 
land locked salmon does not begin its remarkable growth 
until it has left the stream of its infancy and gone down 
into the lake of rich pasturage. 
The salmon of smolt stage when it runs down into a 
lake, weighs but two or three ounces, but in another year 
or two it may weigh four to six pounds. 
Death of Thomas Andrews. 
The last issue of Fishing Gazette, London, announces 
the death of Thomas Andrews, one of the best known 
and most progressive of English fish culturists. I have 
had occasion to quote from Mr. Andrew's personal letters 
concerning Ms methods of rearing fish several times 
during the past few years in this column, particularly 
his advocacy of rearing and planting yearlings of the sal- 
monidae to obtain the best results and concerning his 
methods of rearing natural food for trout. For the past 
two years at intervals he has furnished to the Gazette 
papers upon "How to Breed and Rear Trout," and they 
have been written with such care as to details and have 
been read with so much interest on this side of the ocean, 
that I have urged upon the author and publisher the de- 
sirability of printing them in book form. 
It is to be hoped that the papers were completed before 
the author's death as they will serve as a monument to his 
memory. The Gazette states simply that Mr. Andrew's 
died of pleurisy and promises a sketch of his fife later. 
Eyes of Fishes. 
A friend who has read Dr. Hinde's note in Forest and 
Stream of Jan. 5, concerning his examination of the 
eyes of the large mouthed black bass writes: "While these 
deductions are apparently conclusive, it would be inter- 
esting to know how under such conditions black bass are 
able to protect then- young at night. That the fry have 
noctrunal enemies cannot be doubted. The catfish, or 
bull head, which is generally supposed to be a night 
feeder is one of them. A microscopic examination of the 
retina of the eye of the catfish might reveal some facts 
whether its habits are nocturnal or not. I do not know 
as you will agree with me as regards the nocturnal habits 
of the catfish. I only know of this from observations in 
the brackish water in the bay in front of my residence. 
I have~bften seen these fishes at night during a moon, 
chasing the fry of edible sorts on the edge of the beach, 
and feeding upon them. How it is with the fresh water 
catfish I have no positive knowledge." 
The fresh water catfish or bull head or horned pout is a 
night feeder. So much so that there is a popular delusion 
that the pout will not bite during a bright day. They are 
usually fished for at night, at which time they bite rav- 
enously. The eye of the bull pout is very different in ap- 
pearance from that of the beach bass, and I presume Dr. 
Hinde will be glad to act on the suggestion, and examine 
and compare the eyes of the two fishes, but whatever the 
resists may be, I doubt not that plenty of evidence will 
be forthcoming that the black bass does feed at night. _ 
In a previous note I referred to a belief that artificial 
propagation made salmon less game when they became 
dult, and said that I would submit the matter to the vet- 
eran John Mowat. He writes me: "As to the salmon 
of the Restigouche, not fighting or being as game since 
artificial stocking began, it is all nonsense. Pisci culture 
has no doubt increased the average weight of the fish 
with better protection and care, and a heavy fish is not 
game as a rule. Fish from 17 to 25 povmds, are the game 
fighters, above that it is more brute force than gameness. 
I am sending yu some chats on the salmon for Forest and 
Stream, and I amy chat over this subject by and by." 
Brook Trout. Abroad. 
The dis cussion about our native brook trout in the 
waters of Great Britain has brought out some curious 
testimony as I have already related. One writer comes 
to their defense as follows: 
Thev are the wickedest little fellows I have met with, 
for they rise well and fight their battles on the surface." 
A. N. CHENY. 
THE TOMCOD. 
Now is the time for tommy -cod fishing in our neighbor- 
hood. 
I don't know what family of fishes he belongs to and I 
do not suppose he is a cod at all. Doubtless thousands of 
your readers do know, but those are not the ones I have 
inquired of. All I know is that the French people call 
him petite morue (little cod), and the English people, 
"tommy cod." Down in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick, where he is very plentiful, I believe he is called 
frost fish. What his habits are in that region somebody 
else may tell. I only know he comes along here about 
Christmas and continues about three weeks; not longer. 
He is fished for here through holes cut in the ice from 
little cabins set just along the fine of rocks that borders 
the channel of the St. Lawrence on the north side. He 
does not wander far on to the flats nor out into the strong- 
current, but keeps just along the edge of the slack water. 
When the tide gets to running heavy he disappears. One 
may sit and bob there for hours without a bite, but for a 
while at about high or low water he usually takes hold 
well. The night tides are best, and not seldom three, 
four or five hundred are taken from one cabin by a couple 
of men or boys in a night. Here they are only caught 
with hand lines, but at some places farther up the river a 
great many are taken in traps. One night last winter 
would be frequented by characters that decent folks 
would prefer not to meet. 
But in the cabins along our shores we hear of nothing- 
objectionable and the people who have little to do at 
this season, comfortably seated in warm cabins, doubtless 
enjoy catching tommy cods to last them through Lent 
just as much as the millionaire enjoys taking the salmon 
that perhaps costs him a hundred or two dollars and that 
he hardly knows what to do with when he has it. 
And this one of the fishes that asks no law for its 
protection. Its wonderful instinct makes all the law it 
needs and man can apparently do nothing to apparently 
diminish its numbers. Ages hence .future generations of 
Canadians will doubtless find the petite morue as plenti- 
ful as it is to-day. 
QUEBEC, Jan. 10. G. DE MONTAUBAN. 
Special writes of tomcod fishing in Massachusetts: The 
fishermen in the vicinity of Salem, Beverley and Byfield 
tong them. This tonging is a peculiar method, but it 
affords the boys some amusement, and takes the fish. A 
pair of wooden tongs are constructed, with sharpened 
brads between the jaws, in such a way that once they 
are closed on to the tail of the tomcod, "he is a goner." 
The fishing or tonging is done at low tide, and at the 
mouths of brooks and rivers that enter the salt water over 
a rocky bottom. The tomcod swim up among the rocks 
as far aspossibe, at this season of the year, and are caught 
among the rocks in shoa water, when the tide is out. 
Then comes the tonger. He quietly crept up, clad in 
rubber boots and with waterproof gloves, or old mittens 
that he does not care for. Down among the rocks the 
wriggling tail of the tomcod is seen, when down go the 
tongs, and with one bite of the bradded jaws the tomcod 
is out of the water and in the basket. 
THE TOMCOD. 
two men took fifty bushels in a night, selling them on the 
spot at fifty cents the bushel, which is about the usual 
price. When frozen they would rim about 250 to the 
bushel. 
One would hardly suspect a little fishery "of the kind 
lasting only three weeks, to be of commercial import- 
ance, but a few years ago when the winter was so mild, 
that there was no ice on the flats and the cabins could 
not be placed at the proper time, we reckoned the loss to 
the village at about $2,000. 
The fish go to the head of tide water to spawn, coming 
back in two or three weeks, very hungry,but so poor and 
thin as to be scarcely eatable. In the spring the fry may 
be seen along our shore in millions, making their way to 
their summer habitat in the salt water. 
Just now the fishing is a little past its best, and the 
close of the week will almost see the end of it. For about 
a mile the edge of the chamiel is lined with cabins. We 
can count nearly a hundred of them, some only large 
enough for only two men or boys, and a few to accomo- 
date four or even six. In these pleasant moonight even- 
ings the lights resemble those of a miniature Canadian 
village. If you go to a man's house to inquire for him, 
the chances are fully three out of five that you will be 
told he has gone fishing. And not only the men but the 
women and children, boys and girls, youths and maidens, 
go to fish for tommy cods, although 'these last mostly in 
the daytime, for the distance is long and the way over the 
ice not the best. 
And besides the villagers, parties come from the country 
and even from Quebec, for a day or a night's fishing. 
These are mainly people who have friends owning 
cabins and who come for a little lark, bringing their 
provisions with them, of which a good share is in bottles. 
Doubtless they enjoy themselves and they make no dis- 
turbance, so we will not begrudge them their pleasures. 
Years ago, along the Beaufort shore, and by the mouth 
of the river St. Charles, at Quebec, people used to build 
similar cabins but larger, having facilities for cooking 
and eating the fish on the spot. Probably they do so 
now, but these improvised restaurants must be better 
conducted than they sometimes were formerly. I re- 
member one winter when the carousals held at some of 
them scandalized the community to such'an extent that 
I believe the clergy was obliged to interfere. 
Some places were decently kept and were frequently 
visited by highly respectable people; but it can well be 
imagined that situated as they were, quite far from 
shore, beyond police supervision and often difficult to 
reach or leave in a dark night, there would be some that 
THE COLOR OF BLACK BASS. 
Editor Forest and Stream: I agree with Mr. Cheney in 
his belief, expressed in your issue of January 19, that 
small-mouth black bass take on a color similar to the bot- 
tom over which or about which they rest; but I do not 
think this color results simply from the stationary, as 
alleged, habits of the black bass on dark nights, nor that 
this color demonstrates that the habits of the black bass 
on dark nights are stationary. 
I think the color depends upon the residence of the 
black bass — whether of stationary or restrictive character 
— and whether such residence be during the day or the 
night. It is the home where this valiant warrior of flash- 
ing eye and quivering fin finds his most delightful siesta 
or dress-parade or base of assault, which gives to him his 
light or dark coat. Roaming elsewhere for temporary 
purposes, whether impelled by hunger- or a desire to see 
the world, he carries with him to the new grounds the 
distinctive evidences of the character of territory in which 
he most delights. 
Bass naturally seek, when hungry, places where food 
is attainable. Who has not seen them chasing minnows 
on shoals and riffles where the water scarcely covered 
their backs, yards away from their usual haunts, and 
where not a cannibal fish would be "fool enough' to make 
his residence? And again on these same shoals, when jig- 
ging suckers and "red boss" at night by the light of a 
torch, who has not seen bass of goodly size darting away 
to the deeper water? 
Among the rocks and deeply-submerged limestone 
shelves of Elkhorn Creek, I have often taken bass of dark 
color and lighter ones from the shallower sandy bottoms. 
Amid the immense cavernous rocks and exceeding depths 
of Rockcastle and Cumberland Rivers I have taken bass 
almost inky black, and at any time of the day. 
kgMr. Cheney says: 1 'I knew that the fish came on the bars 
and shoals at night to feed," a,nd again, "It « r as custom- 
ary to catch bass on the shoals in the evening, baiting for 
them to come on, long after dark." Does this indicate 
that the habits of the bass at night were stationary? 
The man who knows when the black bass are going to 
be "on their feed," I think has not yet been born. If he 
has ever lived, he joined the silent majority without 
giving to the world a secret which anglers have thirsted 
to know since the memory of man My judgment is that 
the black bass feeds when he is hungry, and that time is, 
as yet, beyond human ken 
Nor do I think that the stationary habits of the bass at- 
tach to the night alone. In a five-weeks' fish on Elkhorn 
Creek, the past summer, I daily took from under ledges 
and shelving rocks, often within a foot or two of the 
shore, small-mouth black bass, and rock bass, or "red 
eyes," that I am satisfied had been daily stationary from 
dawn to dark. Nor was there any "luck" in dropping 
the bait in the chaneel or open deep water. Fishing 
without float or sinker, the minnow was laid alongside or 
in front of the rocks or ledges underneath which I knew, 
with almost certainty, the bass were gently resting. 
They would not deign to come out two or three feet to 
take the bait, but it had to be laid under their very noses 
and even, at times, temptingly wiggled to induce them to; 
take it. As the creek was low and the water unusually 
clear, this tempting of the wary bass grew almost into a 
passion, and often, when feeling certain of one's presence, 
the playing of the bait was variously continued for many 
moments before its disappearance denoted the biter had 
bit. 
As to bass biting at night, in company with another 
"Kingfisher," the past summer, we had opportunity to 
make a test. We were fishing in* Clear Lake, Canada. 
After supper, one afternoon, we took boat and slowly 
trolled along the shores, using grasshoppers for bait. Not 
a bite did we get until twilight deepened into night, and 
the night grew into nine o'clock, too dark to see our lines 
or even the end of our rods. Then suddenly one of the 
party felt a jerk and found work in hand. A small- 
mouth bass was landed, and within the hour five or six 
bass and as many pike were taken. We finished by guess. 
The biting ended as suddenly as it began. 
Enlarge the bill of particulars, Mr. Cheney, and widen 
the logical deductions, and see if we can't agree that it is 
the rerlence of the black bass, w hether he is at home, by 
day or tught, that tends to fix his color and not the mere 
remaining stationary on dark nights that gives the color, 
nor, inversely, that the color proves he remained station- 
ary on such nights. 
OLD SAM. 
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