fVB. 21, IBVt.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
171 
The effects oE tMa measure cannot be overestimated. It 
will mean the placing around the basa and all varieties of 
game lish, which are also enumerated in the prohibitive 
clauses of the bill, of perfect protection from the forays of 
pot-fishers, which have been so constant in the past, and will 
especially protect them during the spawning season, from 
April 15 to June 1. Mr. G-eorge L. JSIicholson, the manager 
of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, who is a zealous sports- 
man and always eager to help anything that will seek to pro- 
mote sport in its proper sense, will haTe all the canal walkers 
of the system under his control appointed deputy game war- 
dens at a very early dale, and, as these wide-awake, alert 
men virtually patrol the Potomac from • l^ashiogton to its 
source, the persons who have heretofore kept up predatory 
warfare on the game fish in its waters will be compelled to 
give up their business. Heretofore it has been impossible for 
the State authorities of Maryland and Virginia and West 
Tirginia to stop the law breakers in the river, because when 
approached by the officers of one State they would seek the 
shore of the State opposite and evade arrest. Under the new 
law, however, they will have no chance to continue this sys- 
tem. 
Immediate steps will now be taken to have Congress pass 
a law similar to the one described, extending the protection 
from Little Falls, where the District begins, to the east line 
of thePistrict, below Alexandria. — Washington btar, Feb. 30. 
The New fork Bass Season. 
Ehinebeck, N. Y., Feb. 3'3. — Edit^or Forest and Stream: 
I noticed some weeks ago the proposal of the New York 
State Fish and Game Commission to submit to the Legisla- 
ture an atpendment to open the season for black bass on 
July 1 and to close the same on Oct. 15. There seems to 
be good reason for extending the close term from May 30 to 
July 1, as the bass are at best only leaving their spawning 
bed's during June, and during that month should be left un- 
disturbed with their young; but as for putting the anglers of 
this part of the State into winter quarters on Oct. 15, 1 do 
not believe it should be done without a protest. 
When I first noticed this proposition I wrote to Mr. Che- 
ney, fiahculturist, whose very interesting communirations, 
under tbe head of angling notes, prove such a valuable ac- 
quisition to your paper; and he informed me that the contem- 
plated change in the law was due to the fact that so many 
bass were slaughtered late in the autumn, after they had re- 
tired to the deeper waters for the winter. His reasons are 
fully set forth in the last issue of Foeest and Stoeam (Feb. 
20). While such may be the case in northern New York, 
this condition does not obtain in Duchess county, nor 
do 1 believe it does in any of the southern counties. 
The finest fishing days are throughout October. The 
great heat of July and August makes it diflicult to 
coax the bronze-backer, and it is only during Sep- 
tember and October that he is in "fighting form." I will 
promise my friend Cheney something better than "a dead and 
salted codfish" on his book if he will then urge one of our 
Dlack bass to the test, for in the frosty October mornings they 
take the bait with one grand rush, rather than with "nibble, 
nibble, nibble." There is no retirement to deeper water in 
October in this section, but the fish are taken in the same 
quarters as in summer, and never in large numbers. 1 am 
no advocate of pot-hunting, and am always content if three 
or four grown-up fish come to the boat, sending those under 
a pound and a half back whence they came to grow 
some more. If I mistake not, your paper contains each year 
reports from lakes Mahopac, Greenwood, Tuxedo, etc , of good 
sport — not slaughter— in late October, and it does not teem 
reasonable to so amend the law that fishing in all parts of the 
State must cease on Oct. IS. It occurred to me that the in- 
terchange of opinion on this subject through the medium of 
Forest ahd 8tkk)am, a journal so devoted and loyal to the 
highest mterests of the bportsman, might bring about the 
correct result in the solution of the proolem as to the clos- 
ing of the bass season. Should it not be extended to Nov. 
10 or 15 rather than closed on Oct. 15? A. Lee Wagek. 
THE OUANANICHE AND ITS HOME.* 
This is by far the most beautiful angling book printed 
in this country devoted to an individual fish. The author 
is widely known to Canadian and American anglers as a 
writer on fishing in the Provinces; and in this work he 
has given us the result of long and loving study and prep- 
aration. The chapters deal with the description, classiii- 
cation and habits of the ouananiche; sketches of camping 
and fishing experiences in its pursuit; and well-written 
descriptions of the country and its surroundings, which 
after all constitute so much of the ever-renewing charm 
of an angling excursion. The text has worthy presenta- 
tion in all that beauty of type and printing and picture 
and paper and binding can contribute. 
It is pretty clearly demonstrated in Mr. Chambers's 
book that the Indian name of the fish was not always 
pronounced uniformli?^ by the aborigines themeelvee, and 
it appears that ivananish represents as close an approxima- 
tion to the Indian sounds as the English language can be 
made to furnish. Common names of fishes have about 
as little permanence as names traced on a sand beach be- 
tween tides, and people who go fishing take the liberty of 
selecting for their favorites whatever designation stnkt s 
their fancy. Even tbe author in his charming descrip- 
tions lapses into the synonym "fresh-water salmon," ai-d 
at other times characterizes the red-spotted Marston trout 
as a "bewitchingly beautiful leopard of Northpm water," 
while the brook trout becomes "the leopard of the brook." 
These are mere straws, but they show which way the 
wind of popular nomenclature blows, and after all the 
names of fish are among the least important of their be- 
longings. 
As for the scientific name of the ivananish, or ouanan- 
iche, that is another matter, and one that is to be settled 
by more nearly precise methods. If it be established that 
the wananish at Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and 
Canada represent a single variety of the Atlantic salmon, 
it is more than probable that most ichthyologists will con- 
tinue to associate with them the name seSagro, first applied 
by Dr. Girard in 1854 to the little fresh-water form found 
In lakes in the southern part of Maine. It is useless to 
say, "There never was a variety sebago." That name 
was given to the toananisli; the types ot tbe description 
were preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, where 
they were examined and redescribed by Dr. Suckley in 
* "The Ouananicbe and Its Oanadian Environment." By E. T D. 
Cbambtrs. Blustratad. New York; Harper & Bros. ►"1896, 
^861. Both the original description and tbe account pub- 
lished by Suckley made mention of certain characters 
which will serve to distinguish the wananish from 1 he 
Atlantic salmon. 
The points of difference between grilse and wananish 
are well stated in Mr. Chambers's book by a quotation from 
Walter M. Brackett (page 17), showing that tbe eye of 
tbe wananish is much the larger, the profile rounder, the 
dark spots larger and much more numerous, the caudal 
pedunclei broader and flatter, and the head larger in pro- 
portion to the body. On page 32 Mr. Charles G. Atkins 
still further distinguishes the sebago salmon from the sea 
salmon by (1) its diminutive size, (2) its leaner flpsh, (3) its 
lower tone of color, (4) its less permanent sexual marks, 
(5) its greater liability to ovarian disease, (6) different 
habits of feeding, ahd (7) the larger size of its eggs and 
very young fry. Additional confirmation of the same 
nature is to be found on pages 20 and 31, whereon tbe 
author himself reviews the differential characters and 
quotes the excellent description by Mr. Creighton. The 
distinctive name is evidently based on some things that 
are more important than "different habits alone." 
We cannot agree with Mr. Chambers in accepting the 
doctrine of the fresh-water origin of the common Atlantic 
salmon as if it were established by satisfactory proofs. 
This is distinctly debatable ground. As far as observa- 
tions have been recorded the fish now reproduces in fresh 
water only, but it is impossible to tell how long that habit 
bas characterized the species. Until the ancestral salmon 
has been found fossil in fresh- water deposits the origin 
of tbe common form in fresh water must remain an un- 
proved theory. It is true that Prof. Cope has described a 
genus of salmons from a tertiary fresh-water lake, but it 
is not certain that the fossil belongs to the salmon family. 
It is also true that a museum in Canada has some unde- 
soribed fossil remains closely resembling the genus of 
Pacific salmons from tertiary clays of a river in British 
Columbia, But nothing is established with certainty 
upon this interesting subject and theories should not be 
too readily accepted. One thing, however, admits of no 
question : the name Salmo salar belongs to the sea salmon , 
and if a specific name be needed to distinguish the 
tvananish from the migratory form, Girard's name is 
clearly available. 
Why do the salmon go to sea? Perhaps most members 
of the family have possessed the sea-going habit from the 
infancy of the race as well as the infancy of the individ- 
ual, assuming that reproduction has always taken place 
in fresh waters. It is certain that the sea provides 
abundant food and that the troublesome paraskes and 
fungus, which make salmon life wretched in the rivers 
and lakes, disappear and cease to annoy in the salt water. 
There are serious drawbacks, however, for the marine 
salmon, in the form of seals, sharks and some of the large 
predaceous fishes which make life a constant struggle 
and render more endurable a periodical exchange of af- 
flictions by a return to fresh water. 
The pink color of salmon flesh appears to be poorly ex- 
plained by reference to a diet of red crustaceans. Many 
fish of the family that never feed upon such animals still 
have pink flesh and many marine fish which are known 
to subsist chiefly upon red crustaceans have pale flesh. If 
observations count for anything the principal food of the 
salmon at sea consists of herring, capelin and sand 
Isunce. It is difiScult to understand how such an expla- 
nation of the red flesh of salmon should have been so 
long accepted and repeated without contradiction. 
It seems a pity that the author should have accepted so 
readily the idea tbar the golden trout, or Sunapee saib- 
ling, is an introduced species which should be looked 
for also in the St. Lawrence basin. A little closer search 
into the columns of Foeest and Stream, wherein the 
trout was very early and very fully described, should 
have satisfied him that the species is indigenous to Dan 
Hole Pond, N. H., and Flood's Pond, Me, That it will be 
found elsewhere is almost unquestionable; but there is no 
more reason for identifying it with the European saiblirg 
than there would be in considering it the same as the 
great red-spotted trout of Labrador or the Western Dolly 
Varden. 
Since the author and the publisher have given to anglers 
and book lovers such a rare combination of entertaining 
text and superb illustration, it is an ungrateful task to caU 
attention to some defects, which mar the beauty and <o 
some extent destroy tbe usefulness of the work. The ai - 
thor should not have spoken of the "chub and other white- 
fish," for the first belongs to the Cyprinidce, and the last 
as he well knows, is a member of the salmon family. e' 
brook trout is not Salmo salvelinus, but 8. foniinalis 
The dote is not a "near neighbor of the pike" in the seni e 
of relationship, since it is a spiny -finned fish, while the 
pike belongs to the soft-finned order. Unionidce, it seem s 
needless to say, is a family name and not a "generic 
name." The whitefish of Hamilton Eiver and other in- 
land waters of Labrador, as also of the Deoharge, may not 
be identical with the common whitetish of the Great 
Lakes. Judging from what is said of it by Mr. Chambers 
it seems more likely to be the Labrador whitefish (Core- 
gonus Idbradoricus). 
In "The Ouananiche and its Canadian Environment" 
the publishers have added another beautiful book to their 
long series of splendid publications. It is too bad there- 
fore, to see it marred by occasional examples of such 
proof-reading as, for example, Salmo salvelinus marstonii 
for Salmo (Salvelinus) Marstonii (pp. 255 and 270), David 
T. Jordan for David S. Jordan (p. 15), C. Brown Goode 
for G. Brown Goode (p. 334), Moutagnais for Montagnais 
(d. 114), Bastican for Batiscan (p. 277), Exos lueius f( r 
Esox lucius (ip. 283), the Atlantic on tbe west instead of 
east (p. 133), entomostracce for entomostraca (p. 81). 
Thfi utility of such a list of authorities consulted as the 
one beginning on page 331 is open to question. It is not 
an index of literature pertaining to the species mentioned 
in the book, and for the tvananish it is far from complete. 
The student of the salmon family must search further and 
range more widely if he wishes to become possessed of an in- 
timate knowledge of certain problems presented in "The 
Ouananiche and its Canadian Environment." 
'he Mmmt 
FIXTURES. 
BENCH SHOWS. 
March S-6. St. Louis —St. Louis Kennel Club 
March 10-13. < hioago M- scoutah Kennel Ciiib. 
Miich "1- 7 - Pittsburg - Diiquf sue Kennt-I Club. 
March n-' O.- Louisville - Kentucky Kennel Cluh. 
March 30-April Baltimore.- Bahimore Kennel Assrciatton. 
March 30-April 2. - Kansas LiTY.-Kansus City Ktnnel Club. 
March 3 -April a.— San .Jose.- Santa Clara County Poultry and 
Kennel Club. 
April 7-10.- Stockton.— Stockton Kennel Club. 
Aprill 1-17.— Los Angeles. -Southern California Kennel Club. 
'Angling Talks.' 
We have a very few copies of George Dawson.'s "Angling Talks " a 
Eerits of chapters of enterlaining chat about men, fishermen fish 
fishing and fishing places. Cloth, 50 cents. Forest and Stream Pub- 
lishing Co. 
IN-BREEDING OF ENGLISH SETTERS. 
A BELIEF has been steadily gaining ground among prac- 
tical sportsmen that much of the old theory and practice of 
breeding English sptteis, in so far as it applies to breeding 
on certain old lines of in-breeding, was faulty and harmful. 
In the boom years of English setter breeding, when stud 
f( ea were high and one dog brought in a revenue equivalent 
to a good income, and when puppies had a fictitious value 
and were many times more valuable as a marketable pro- 
duct than they now are, the "science" of breeding was the 
pet phrase of all fashionable breeders, whether they were 
empirical in their practice, and beginners of yesterday as to 
experience, or whether they were wise and experienced. 
The native dog was designated as cold-blooded; the im- 
ported was blue-blooded or thoroughbred, both of which 
terms were used arbitrarily. The blue bloods became the 
fashion, and that, once established, no argument avails 
against it, and none is needed to maintain it. It lives ti.l it 
dulls aa a matter of fancy, then declines. 
The "science" of breeding consisted chieiiy in breeding to 
imported dons, ones costing large sums and also commanding 
large sums for stud fees, jPield trials and bench shows en- 
hanced the value of the progeny. The commercial value of 
dogs was so great at that time that the matter of pedigree 
transcended all other considerations. Instead of selecting a 
pedigree with the sole object of producing really good field 
dogs, it was selected with a view to selling dogs.' By breed- 
ing to dogs of a fashionable ownership and pedigree, the 
sale of puppies was assured if the bitch had any claim to a 
line or two of fashionable blood. The average purchaser 
seldom gave much attention to anything other than pedigree. 
Gradually, as the commercial value of pedigree became- bet- 
ter recognized by many breeders, and as winners became 
more numerous, still mort; attention was paid to pedigree, 
and in pnTticular to having the names of a large number of 
winners appearing in it. iSome of the pedigrees so con- 
structed were pleasing to look upon, though as to the dogs 
to which they referred so much could not always be truth- 
fully said of them. The same sire might appear repeatedly 
in several generations. Such repetition was held forth as the 
multiphcation of good qualities of the sire and the clinching 
of them in the progeuy. Besides the good qualities, the 
mat er of color was considered of prime importance;, so 
much so that dogs other than black, white and tan were not 
approved, and some breeders went to the extrenae of killing 
all puppies which happened to be of a color other than 
black, white and tan. 
JSow, there is no reason to disapprove of a fancy for color, 
or for the practice of breeding intelligently to winners. .But 
either can oe perverted or misapplied, or conducted in an 
unskillful manner. 
The result of tbe in-and in-breeding was that many of 
the fashionably bred dogs were in time bred on very narrow 
lines of blood. The combination of breeding to construct a 
catchy pedigree, with a view to stud fees and the sale of pup- 
pies, resulted in the degeneration of certain families of dogs. 
Still it was difficult to secure a purchaser for any dogs, how- 
ivergood, if the fashionable pedigree were absent. It was 
much easier and incomparably more remunerative to deal in 
the dogs of fashionable requirement— goods already in de- 
mand and thoroughly well advertised-^than it was to deal 
in dogs, however good their merit was, if it were unknown 
to the public or not desirtd by it. Dogs whose breeding 
was not fashionable were not profitable. 
The effects of so much rank bad breeding under the 
shibboleth of "science" was that there appeared numerous 
undersized dogs, some mere midgets or weeds, many of them 
with extremely narrow heads ana sharp noses. Many showed 
mental weakness, they bting stupid, or whimsical, or, work- 
ing with much diligence for themselves, they worked with 
little interest to the gun, even it they, ever understood its 
pui poses. Many of them were weak in constitution, predis- 
posed to disease, and with little power of resisting 
ii when it attacked them. The mortality among the 
-"scientifically " bred stock was enormous, yet so numerous 
were the breeders everywhere that the supply was equal to 
the demand; and notwithstanding the enormous losses from 
disease and death, lue profits of setter breeding were great. 
It need not be , inferred that no good dogs resulted from 
such breeding, or rather, good dogs here and there were pro- 
duced in spite of it Such, however, were paraded in some 
instances as proof of the soundness of the "scientific" breed- 
ing. There might be one success and one hundred failures, 
but the one success was made to prove that the hundred fail- 
ures were a part of good breeding. A native doe, though of 
pure breeding, sound constitution, high intelligence and grtat 
working ability, was considered a cold-blooded brute, wnile 
a dog, by virtue of a trip across the ocean, even though sent 
with the st igma of being a cull, was acceipted on trust as bdng 
the true article. 
Field trials, as they were run at that time, did much to 
perpetuate the incompetent dog, for the nursing and helping 
given him by his handler in a field trial were not properly 
considered as something apart from the dog's own perform- 
ance, and sharp handling flourished for a while in conse- 
quence. 
As the winner of erery heat was announced after the heat 
was run, there was thus more available maiter for advertising 
purposes; for John Doe could say that his dog beat Dick, 
which beat Sam, which beat Bob, owned by the illustrious 
sportsman, Mr. So-and-so, and as a matter of fact Dick, Sam 
and Bob might be of much or no merit, as the case might be. 
The short heats also helped out the meflicient performers. 
The trials of the present day are run on much better and 
sounder lines. The judges generally give the winners a thor- 
ough test in an intelligent manner. Really good dogs are 
not run off their feet, as they were sometimes in the years 
gone by, and poor ones are dropped out on their own indi- 
vidual merit, instead of conung in on the inferiority of a 
competitor, as was the case when the heat system prevailed. 
