April 27, 1895.] 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
82 9 
"iVo intiende, Senor," the greaser replied , politely. 
"Ten days nothing !" said the other, "I only lost him 
yesterday !" 
The Irish Spaniard. 
Still more serious was the difficulty offered by the lan- 
guage to a section boss on the Aransas Pass Eailroad, who 
had Mexican laborers under him, although the difficulty 
was one of which he was unconscious. The section boss 
was Irish, of course, as all section bosses are, but he 
prided himself on the fluency of his Spanish. Mr. Fulton 
one day heard him giving orders to his men. 
"Underly" (andale— hurry up), he called out, "Un- 
derly, ye dom hombres (men). Fetch along thot han'- 
car-r-r, an' unload about t'irteen ov thim rotten ties. 
Fetch along one parlor (pala — spade), an 1 git a move on 
yez. It's sorry 1 am I iver learned to spake the dom 
langwidge ! " 
Texas is a great State. If Wisconsin passes her non- 
trespass law I think she should send to Texas for the jus- 
tice of the peace who declared the State law unconstitu- 
tional. Or else, perhaps, the gentlemen who favored this 
unconstitutional law in the Wisconsin Legislature might 
move to Texas and become justices of the peace. The 
public need not despair while there is such abundance of 
wisdom lying around loose, even in so widely separated 
sections of the Union. 
Wisconsin Laws. 
Later— April £0.—The Wisconsin Legislature adjourned 
to-day. The closing hours- were, as usual, full of con- 
fusion. A dozen game bilk local or otherwise, were 
killed. 
Meandered Lakes Called Public. 
In regard to the "non- trespass" law mentioned earlier 
as probably passed, my informant at Madison, the Wis- 
consin State capital, says: 
"The Senate in afternoon session concurred in the 
Assembly bill declaring meandered lakes public waters." 
This will affect to greater or less extent the Diana, 
Horicon, Nee-pee-nauk and other Chicago clubs having 
holdings in Wisconsin. This is the same measure which 
Chicago sportsmen have fought and beaten in Indiana. 
It means nothing more than temporary litigation and 
will not disturb the value of club holdings. 
The Wisconsin Fishways. 
Senator Burke opposed the Sloan measure for fishways 
on all streams, and moved that it be indefinitely post- 
poned. Senator McMullen suggested that the bill be 
amended to regard Rock River as not in the State in this 
case. Senator Spensley was in favor of the bill. He 
thought a great majority of people, sot dam owners, are 
in favor of the bill. He said the State has gone to great 
expense in stocking streams and should provide for the 
free running of the fish. The motion to indefinitely post- 
pone was defeated by a vote of 8 to 20. The bill was then 
ordered to a third reading. The bill was then passed 
under suspension of the rules. E. Hough. 
909 Security Building, Chicago. 
New York Game Law. 
Up to the time of going to press the'only amendment 
so far made in the New York game law was in the wild 
fowl open season, which extends to May 1 throughout 
the entire State. 
NEW ENGLAND WATERS. 
Boston, April 20. — A Massachusetts man just returned 
from Alaska, where he has been located for three years in 
the Government employ, has stories to tell of trout and 
salmon fishing in that country which are calculated to fill 
the breasts of many of our home anglers with a wild 
envy. He pronounces trout fishing in the rivers and 
streams simply superb, and says they run to very large 
size. There is the usual reckless waste where fish are 
plentiful, many being taken and simply weighed and 
thrown away. After the salmon begin to run up the 
streams, he states that nearly all fly fishing stops, the. 
custom being to use the spawn taken from salmon as 
bait. Another gentleman lately returned from Alaska 
tells me the same story of wonderful fishing in that 
country, but agrees with me that too much fishing, or 
rather too many fish, pall on the taste, and he would 
rather have fewer fish and a little more work for them 
to add zest to the sport. 
Mr. Gr, W. Pitcher, of Providence, R. I., has just re- 
turned from Florida, where he has been nearly all win- 
ter enjoying the fishing. He reports great sport with 
black bass, squeteague, and channel bass fishing. With 
the exception of the cold weather during the February 
storm, he was able to enjoy the sport uninterruptedly, 
and thinks the reports of severe weather sent north quite 
exaggerated. Mr. Pitcher is also a devoted salmon fish- 
erman, and spends many summers in the maritime prov- 
inces angling for salmon. 
The heavy rain of last week throughout the New Eng- 
land States has greatly changed the hopes of many people 
in regard to the condition of the ice in the several New 
England lakes. Two weeks ago it seemed to all that the icy 
fetters which tightly bound the waters of the Rangeleys 
and Moosehead in Maine and Newfound and Winnepa- 
saukee in New Hampshire could not be loosened till long 
after the usual time. Now everything is changed. The 
heavy rain, together with a strong wind which has pre- 
vailed quite steadily for some time in this district has 
played sad havoc with the ice king, and it now looks as 
though clear water would be seen quite as early as usual 
in the more northern Jakes. Sebago Lake, near Port- 
land, Maine, a celebrated place for landlocked salmon, is 
reported to be entirely free of ice." As the close season 
extends to May 1, except to natives of the State, 
many Boston parties are feeling bad that they cannot 
avail themselves of the early season. Quite a few will go 
down to look over the ground, and get their camps in 
order, and perchance to assist the natives in getting in 
their fish. One party who goes every year left 
last Saturday night, intending to stay about one 
week. They are all persistent fishermen, and gene- 
rally bring out all the law allows to prove their 
prowess. Frank Holden, Dr. E. M. Holden, Dr. A. S. 
Knight, all of Boston, and Frank Heslor, of Worcester, 
are the four men who make up the party, and "Crock - 
etts" is where they stop. ; Portland is always strongly 
represented at Sebago in the early fishing, and no one is 
more promptly at work than Herbert A, Clay, of that 
city. This gentleman lets no time elapse before getting a 
line overboard, and always has a sorong party of Boston 
and Portland men with him. 
A note just received from a friend at Oakland, Maine, 
dated April 16, states that the ice is just breaking up in 
Meskalonskee and the other lakes connected with it. 
These are the waters recently mentioned in Forest and 
Stream as being expected to furnish some exceptionally 
good salmon fishing this season. 
Mr. Harry Pierce and wife, of the King and Bartlett 
preserve, Maine, have gone into the camps to make ready 
for the coming of sportsmen who like to patronize this 
popular resort. 
In the issue of Forest and [Stream for April 13, men- 
tion is made of the large painting of a trout by "Brack- 
ett," shown in Dame, Stoddard & Kendall's window. The 
impression given is that Mr. W. M. Brack ett was the 
artist, while in reality to Arthur L. Brackett, the son of 
W. M., belongs all the praise, as he painted it. This gen- 
tleman is already noted for his splendid work on game 
birds, and bids fair to rival the celebrated work of his 
father on game fish. 
In connection with the subject of early fishing in the 
Maine lakes, it will, no doubt, be interesting to many 
anglers to read the following dates as to when the ice 
left the Rangeley lakes in the past. The list is complete 
from 1882 to the present time, with the exception of the 
year 1893, which by some oversight is left out. 
1882 May 12 1S8S May 21 
1883 May 14 18S0 April 80 
1884 May 13 1890 . May 9 
1885.... May 15 1891 May 10 
18SG May 3 1892 May 4 
18S7 May 16 1894 May 3 
Hackle. 
SPRING FISHING IN CANADA. 
A Late Season Expected. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Though sleighs have at last given place to wheels upon 
the city streets, runners are still employed on some of the 
country roads north of Quebec, and on this Easter Tues- 
day afternoon I look out from my library window upon 
banks of snow under the trees upon the lawn, at least 
three feet in depth; and on the Plains of Abraham, just 
across the road, at the opening of the lane leading to the 
monument which marks the spot where ' 'died Wolfe vic- 
torious," is a cutting through a drift that is still from eight 
to ten feet high. No wonder that local sportsmen, as they 
meet, remark upon the lateness of the season. It was only 
yesterday that a strong northeast gale succeeded in break- 
ing up the then rotten ice bridge over the north channel 
of the St. Lawrence, between the Isle of Orleans and the 
mainland, and the river opposite the city is still full of 
floating ice. Not before next week is the first steamer ex- 
pected here from Montreal. 
The temperature remains so low and the ice on inland 
lakes is still so firm, that unless a great change sets in 
within the next few days, it will be the first or even the 
second week of May before the ice breaks up on lakes 
Beaufort, St. Charles and St. Joseph. In the latter lake, 
which is reached by rail in little more than an hour from 
Quebec, the best trout fishing of the year is had during 
the week or ten days following the disappearance of the 
ice. The fishing continues good very much longer in Lake 
Beauport, and the fish from its waters are the most beau- 
tifully marked and the most toothsome when cooked of 
any Canadian trout. Lake St. Charles is one of the few 
lakes in this vicinity where the namaycush, or forked-tail 
lake trout, occasionally rise in the spring of the year to the 
angler's fly, though in Lake St. Joseph they are taken up 
to a very large size by bottom- fishing. Anglers going up 
to Lake Edward and Lake St. John for spring fishing, may 
find it an agreeable change to stay over for a day or two 
on the way at Lake St. Joseph. 
At present writing, I would r not advise anglers to visit 
Lake Edward this spring before the middle ot May. The 
heavy trout, for which this beautiful body of water is so 
widely noted, are most readily taken between the 15th or 
18th of May and the 10th of June. But in the Riviere aux 
Rats, its principal tributary, the fly-fishing is abundant all 
the summer, and so, unfortunately, are the flies, especially 
after the first few days of June. 
Lake St. John will scarcely be clear of ice this year 
much before the 10th of May, from present appearances, 
and I would not recommend anybody to cross to the 
Grande Decharge for fly-fishing before the 15th of June, 
unless the summer comes on with much more of a rush 
than now seems probable. There is little doubt, however, 
that the spring fishing for ouananiche in the lake itself 
will remain good from the time the ice breaks up until the 
8th or 10th of June, especially for bait-fishing and trolling. 
Fly-fishing will have to be sought in the early part of the 
season, in or near the mouths of theOuiatchouanor Meta- 
betchouan rivers or opposite the village of Roberval. I 
hear that the old Hudson Bay Company's fort on the point 
of land overlooking the mouth of the Metabetchouan is to 
be kept as a boarding house this year, and if so it will 
prove a convenience as a temporary shelter for anglers 
fishing there, who have little enough time to travel daily 
between the hotel at Roberval and the Metabetchouan, 
It may interest some of your readers to know that im- 
mense specimens of the great catfish {Amiurus nigricans) 
have been taken out of Lake St. John through the ice by 
eome of the inhabitants of the locality during the past 
winter. The pike is, therefore, not the only pirate of can- 
nibalistic tastes against whom the ouananiche of Lake St. 
John have to be upon their guard. Ouananiche of a good 
size have been found in the stomachs of those night scav- 
engers. Do ouananiche sleep at night? If not, how are 
they outwitted and captured by miserable, lumbering cat- 
fish? E. T. D. Chambers. 
Quebec, April 16. 
Moosehead Lake Ice. 
The ice will probably leave Moosehead Lake some time 
between the first and sixth of May, so landlord Dennin 
has just written to a friend of mine. F. S. Bunker. . 
CAN A FISH FEEL PAIN ? 
B That fish experience fright in various degrees its beyond 
question. They are often "quickened with touches of 
transporting fear." 
But that they feel the sensation of pain is to me an un- 
settled question, and from my own rather intimate ac- 
quaintance with them, in the course of whicn I have given 
them an opportunity constantly of experiencing acute 
anguish if they are capable of it, I am strongly inclined 
to the belief that pain nerves have been le' t out of their 
organization. To be convinced of this could be a vast re^- 
lief to every fisherman. I propose to give a few notes 
from my own experience, which seem to me to side with 
the negative of this question, and hope that others may 
be interested enough to contribute from their own recol- 
lections, pro or con. I may as well assume that the 
failure to emit cries or groans when the fish is lacerated, as 
warm blooded animals would do if in pain, is not to be 
regarded, as fish are not constructed for making noises 
to express fright, fear or anguish, I do not forget that 
the drum and some other varieties emit sounds when 
captured, but that can be ascribed to the sense of suffo- 
sation in the hostile element, and the cries are not occa- 
sioned or increased in any way by the removal of the 
hook or spear and the accompanying laceration of the 
flesh. But my contention is that, like men, beasts and 
birds, the fish, if x-pcently wounded, would not attempt 
to take food if it were suffering. 
1. My daughter and I were returning from a delightful 
day among the lagoons of Sanibel, at Charlotte Harbor, 
last March. We were crossing the bay on our way to 
St. James City, and my daughter was trolling for trout 
(the Southern weak fish) and lady fish. Her troll, whicn 
was 150 feet from the boat, was seized by a fish, which 
she reeled up to within a few feet of the boat. The 
hook tore out, making a long gash in the mouth of the 
fish (a trout) and plainly visible. The spinner was 
given a jerk, when the fish, which lay motionless at the 
surface of the water, seized it like a flash, was well 
hooked and was taken into the boat. 
2. About five years ago, while at St. James City, my 
companion in fishing, North P. Norris, and myself, who 
had been kept in the hotel two days by a cold "norther," 
in desperation started out for an afternoon's trolling up 
Matlacha Pass,. We were in pursuit of channel bass. 
Very few fish would take the bait, so as we rounded 
Wood Key, where the fishing was usually most abundant, 
I made the remark to Norris that I bet him that I would 
take the first fish. We were sitting side by side, and his 
troll was about twenty feet further than mine. We 
were trolling with tai'pon tackle, and never troubled our- 
selves to play anything under fifteen pounds weight. 
Norris hooked a fish and reeled in rapidly. Almost in- 
stantly, I, too, had a strike, and there was active work. 
But one fish was taken — a ten-pound bass — both of our 
hooks firmly fastened in either side of the mouth. While 
being pulled past my troll he had seen it, turned aside 
and snatched it. 
3. Fishing in Estero Creek, Avhere now are located the 
Koreshan Colony, which, like the disciples, profess to 
"have all things in common, " but which was then running 
through a wilderness, it was a still noon time, and the 
sunbeams sifted through the pine trees to the narrow, 
black and deep stream against the steep bank of which 
our skiff was moored. The prospect of taking one of the 
big tarpon which had been lazily rolling by all the morn- 
ing was very slight. I cast my tarpon bait across the 
stream, and close to the opposite bank and had a strike. 
I knew it must be a jew fish, and having very strong 
tackle, I kept him from running under the bank and 
drew him to the middle of the stream, when the hook 
tore out. I let the bait sink, and h? immediately seized 
it again, and I drew him nearly to the boat; again he was 
free, and the third time I hooked him and brought him 
to gafl. He was a jew fish and weighed eighty pounds. 
4. Another winter, Norris and I were on the grouper 
ground near the pass into Estero Lagoon, below Charlotte 
Harbor. We were using up our condemned and worn 
tarpon snells, of which we had a large and various collec- 
tion; plumber's and brass chains, piano wire and cord. 
The grouper, if he can get into a hole in the rocks, will 
often break the line. Norris, using a snell of plumber's 
links, had a strike, and after a struggle his line broke. 
Npxt, he used a piano wire snell, and this at once met the 
fate of the former. "Dode," our boatman, and an excel- 
lent guide, and familiar with all the fish in those waters, 
and their haunts, remarked: "Them's big jew fish; they 
use here. You done sure lose a heap of lines on them big 
fish!" In five minutes I had taken the fish which had the 
first snell, and immediately Norris took the second. The 
snells were hanging from their mouths, each a black 
grouper weighing fifteen pounds. 
5. On another occasion, the same year, I believe, we 
were coming down Surveyor's Creek from tarpon fishing, 
in our skiff, and were nearing our sailboat and camp. 
There was a tremendous stir in a school of silver mullet, 
showing that a saw fish was striking among them. 
When we approached we could see plainly the big yellow 
sawfish in shoal water. We had no grains in the boat, 
and Dode jabbed him with a pole„ drawing blood, and 
pursued him into deep water, where he escaped. Re- 
suming our journey to camp, which was near by, I put 
out a troll, which was immediately seized by a five-pound 
cavally, which I pulled into the boat, and found that he 
had been punctured clear through the body by at least 
four of the teeth of the saw, and from the holes in the 
fish blood was oozing. F. S. J. C. 
That "Invention for Anglers." 
Charlestown, N. H.— Editor Forest and Stream: I do 
not like to carp or criticise, but I must ask, "What man- 
ner of man" is your correspondent Aberdeen, who in the 
Forest and Stream of April 20 describes a diabolical 
instrument in the shape of a fish spear, having the spread 
of a ]0-bore gun at thirty yards? What "angler" can be 
interested in such an implement ? Or who professing to 
be an angler ever uses such a spear ? 
I never owned such an implement, nor do I remember 
ever using one but once, and that was forty years ago, 
when I speared a brace of suckers for a scientific purpose. 
That is the only time I ever speared a fish, and I am sur- 
prised that any reader of Forest and Stream should re- 
fer to such an implement as the one mentioned as of in- 
terest to anglers. I trust I may be forgiven for taking up 
the matter, but such a communication is quite a contrast 
to the usual tone and teachings of "our paper." Vox W. 
