May 8, 18970 
ANGLING NOTES. 
" Scientific Facts." 
Ip there waB any one thing that excited my admiration 
as a boy it was the condensed scientific facts that I occa- 
sionally came across in the newspapers. In a few lines I 
would find the result of perhaps years of study and inves- 
tigation all boiled down to a convenient size to put in a 
pocket or memorandum book, and consequently the clip- 
pings of "scientific facts" that in any way related to fish 
were always transferred to my pockets. When I became 
older I procured a scrap book for these "facts," as they 
were far too valuable to be worn out in my memorandum 
books. Later still, when I began to find out something 
for myself, I was not so cocksure of all these facts, and in 
some way I lost my respect for tbem, in a measure, and 
the scrap book was abandoned. 
Nowadays I sometimes get these newspaper "Scientific 
Facts" hurled at my head whether I want them or not, 
and frequently they seem to be sound, and occasionally I 
know they are not. Here are two "facts." which head a 
column of scientific notes in a recent issue of a news- 
paper: 
"Each salmon produces about 20,000,000 eggs. 
"It is said that the Greenland whale sometimes attains 
the age of 400 years." 
I pass on the whale's age, but it does seem to me that a 
salmon would have to hump herself 'to produce 20,000,000 
of eggs during her life; but if she produced 20,000 a year 
and lived for 1,000 years she could do it if she attended to 
business all the time. It would probably inconvenience 
her the first year of her life, when she was only 5in. long 
or such a matter, to produce about five quarts of eggs, but 
she would get used to it by the time she was 1,000 years 
old, if she ever did. In contradistinction to the quoted scien- 
tificfacts, I will givesome coldhatchery facts. Twenty-eight 
salmon of all ages and sizes produced an average of 8,089 
eggs each, and forty-eight salmon produced an average of 
9,247 eggs each; and these fish were in size an average lot, 
as they ran in a Canadian salmon river; but say that they 
spawn annually, and spawn for fifteen years, producing 
each year 10,000 eggs, and it would make a total 150,000 
eggs during the life of the fish. To be sure, this is a big 
cut in the scientific facta, but it comes nearer to the truth 
than the quoted figures. 
Holes In the Game Law. 
An item from the Elizabethtown (N. Y,) Post has come 
to this journal which says that "Certain shrewd fishermen, 
living in the town of Keene, took advantage of the amend- 
ed game law, which permits fishing through the ice after 
April 16, and went up to the Giant's Wash Bowl, the re- 
sult being that this curious body of water yielded quite 
freely to their wishes. We are reliably informed that 
several fine trout have been caught through the ice at the 
Giant's Wash Bowl and that the sport still continues." 
The tone, more than the words of this paragraph, indi- 
cate that these fishermen had in some way got the better 
of the law by reason of some hole they had discovered in 
it that was undiscovered by other fishermen, but really 
there was nothing particularly shrewd about the fisher- 
men who did this fishing. Any one who reads the game 
law to keep informed of its provisions with a desire to 
observe them could have done the same thing if desire 
and opportunity had been in conjunction. The law re- 
ferred to was passed two years ago and reads: "No fish 
shall be fished for, caught or killed through the ice in any 
waters inhabited by trout, salmon trout, or landlocked 
salmon during the close season for taking such fish." The 
Giant's Wash Bowl is inhabited only by "trout" of this 
section, and the closed season ends on April 15. The 
closed season for "salmon trout" and landlocked salmon 
does not end until April 30, so it would be unlawful to fish 
through the ice in waters inhabited by these fish. The 
item would be scarcely worth referring to if it were not for 
the fact that too often any apparent defect in the game 
law is hailed with satisfaction. Those who consider it 
perfectly legitimate to beat the game law appear to forget 
what the game law stands for, viz.: the protection of our 
fish and game during their breeding seasons that they may 
not be exterminated. It is not the principle of the law 
which these people respect, it is the penalties and fines 
which they feai\ 
Flshlns in India. 
Upon his return from India, Mr. Alfred C. Harnesworth 
writes me from London, chiefly to say that a little later 
he will give me a detailed account of his fishing experi- 
ence in that far-away land. One paragraph in his letter I 
had to read for the second time, because of the surprise I 
experienced on first reading. 
He says: "I had magnificent sport in India, which, if it 
were not for the heat, would be the best angling country 
in the world, * * * The chief fish of India are carp of 
various kinds. Bred in the fast and turbulent Indian 
rivers they acquire enormous strength, and yet maintain 
the extreme caution of the carp tribe. My first fish was a 
42lb. carnatic carp, now being prepared for the forthcoming 
fishing exhibition here." Another paragraph reads: "Our 
trout fishing season in the South of England opened on 
the 1st of April. There was a bad snow storm on, but I 
went out and got three fish. There is a certain charm 
about our South of England rivers which is missing in 
wilder waters, and I can assure you I positively enjoyed 
this smallness after the vast streams of India." 
When an accomplished English angler, a dry fly-fisher 
(LXid all that, one who has fished pretty much over the face 
of the earth where waters run and fish are lured, says that 
India except for the heat would be the best angling coun- 
try in the world, it means something, and it caused me to 
stop and think. I confess that I have always regarded 
India as about the last place in the world for reall}-^ good 
fishing. To be sure, there is the giant mahseer, called the 
salmon of India, that requires a heap of fishing to kill, but 
I thought it was about the beginning and the end of the 
bill when this giant carp was brought to hook. It seems 
that there are other carp, and that they aflbrd sport In the 
catching. I know that the small mahseer and the small 
carnatic carp will take the fly, but the larger fish are lured 
with the spoon, generally, and I have yet to learn whether 
either is a good fish on the table — probably as good as any 
carp, and no better; but we must wait until Mr. Harnes- 
worth has his say in detail before making odius compari- 
sons. 
Salmon In Hawaii. 
Fishing in India for carp, reminds me that the Domin- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ion of Canada has sent a lot of Pacific salmon from British 
Columbia to Honolulu to see if they can be esiablished in 
the rivers there. The spread of artificial fish propagation 
is something remarkable when one sits down to think 
about it seriously, and realizes that it has all been accom- 
plished in about a score of years or a little more. To be 
sure the first successful shipment of salmonidoi to the Anti- 
podes was made in 1864, but I think it was in the 70's that 
distribution began in the colonies. 
Cape Colony now has a successful trout hatchery, and 
who knows but India may yet have its trout fishing in ils 
hill streams. As I was writing this note a letter came 
from Mr. J. J. Armistead, the Scotch fish breeder, and 
author of that very instructive book "An Angler's Para- 
dise, and How to Obtain It," being a modern work upon 
fishculture which goes to thebottom of things piscicultural, 
in which he says: "There is great room for improvement 
in our fisheries, but we cannot get our Government to 
work here like yours. I only wish we could. I was a little 
while ago over in Germany, and my son has just returned 
from there. They are doing much in that country, and 
also in other places in Europe." Once in a while a letter 
like that reminds me how we Yankees are favored in the 
matter of artificial fish breeding by the liberal policy of 
our National and State Governments in their particular 
field, which is doing so much to keep up the food supply 
as well as to furnish fishing for other than those who fol- 
low it for bread winning. A. N. Cheney. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Chlcagro Fiy-Castlne Club. 
Members of the Chicago Fly-Oasling Club met in banquet 
at the Briggs House, this city, Thursday evening, and liad 
a pleasant time. Arrangements were made for the semi- 
monthly contests, which will begin May 8, at Gat field Park. 
A largei tournament is planned lor August next. 
A Good Programme. 
Mr. W. H. Crawford, of Dayton, 0., an ardent canoeman 
and angler, writes me that he has a good programme laid 
out for this summer. 
"I do not know when I will he in Chicago again," he says, 
"probably not before June, as I am going to spend practi- 
cally the entire month of May fishing. I have been invited 
to go in the Font'nalis Club on May 1, the opening day, and 
spend a few days there. Then on the 10;.h the Dayton 
Angling Club expect to go to Middle Bass, 0,, and there 
enjoy a few weeks black bass fishing. On the 26th I expect 
to leave for Boston, where 1 will join a party of twenty gen- 
tlemen, composing the Last Makers' Angling Club. We 
expect to spend ten days at Parlin Pond and Mt. Kineo, 
Moosehead Lake, Me. I have spent neaily all winter getting 
my fishing tackle ready, and if I should meet you at the 
summer meet of the W. C. A. I will be full of fish stories, 
etc." 
It is too bad a man has to work that hard. 
Wisconsin Season Open. 
The Wisconsin trout seasoa opened April 15, but high 
waters have held hacls the anglers, and I have heard of no 
one going out. It is usually well into May before trout rise 
well in Wisconsin. 
Biar Fishing in Fox Lake. 
One rod killed ninety-three black bass in Fox Lake waters 
(probably on the Grass Lake spawning beds) on one day this 
week. Bass are now running and are biting a little in the 
streams. 
New Wisconsin Fish Law. 
Mr. G. A. Buckstaff, the Wisconsin State representative 
who framed and pushed through the former Wisconsin 
statute known as the Buckstaff law, which was found faulty 
later in some clerical features, writes me as follows in regard 
to Ihe new Wisconsin law: 
' Tlie State of Wisconsin has another fish and game law 
that will protect aU the inland waters from net-fiahing. This 
means that on Lake Winnebago, Butte des Morts, Winne- 
conne and Poygan there will be some of the finest black bass 
fishing there is in the Northwest. As Oshkosh is only four 
and one- quarter hours' run from Chicago, the Chicago sports- 
men should take advantage of the fine fishing in these lakes 
and make Oshkosh their outing ground this summer. I will 
try to keep the readers of Forest and Steeam informed as 
to the fishing here." 
Mr. Buckstaff was in the thick of the bitter fight with the 
Winnebago net fishermen, one of the stubbornest contests 
the sportsmen of the West ever saw waged with the market 
interests. The anglers of the country may thank him if they 
now have better fisbing in the once prolific waters of Winne- 
bago and adjoining lakes. 
Burned the Nets. 
I learn from a Dubuque, Ta., paper that some of the sports- 
men of that city who have long been suspicious of illegal net 
fishing in Fentress's Lake, this week determined upon a little 
hunt for the nets. They dragged for the nets and got up a 
lot of them, of the sort known as hoop nets. These they 
piled up on the bank and promptly burned— without process 
of law, it is true, but just as effectively so far as the fire was 
concerned. Then they filled a lot of barrels with sand and 
sunk them in the water, so that seining will, after this, be a 
practical impossibility in that part of the fishing country. 
Mr. Fentress was one of the party. The Dubuque men have 
resolved to enforce the law, and they have in this case en- 
forced it in a veiy efiicacious way. 
For Bass. 
A friend who knows whereof he speaks tells me that last 
year he had most excellent bass fishing in the Kalamazoo 
River, not far from Saugatuck. The small-mouths in this 
river take the fly. Another good stream, I am advised by 
equally competent authority, is the Thomapple, a lovely 
wading stream where bass take the fly nicely in the summer. 
This is also a South Peninsula stream, and can he reached 
near Ada, a good fishing point. E. Hough. 
1206 BoycE BuiLDisa, Chicag-o. 
An Angling Pilgrrimage. 
New Yoek, May ^—Editor Forest and Stream: Mr. E. 
Vom Hofe left New York on March 19 for an extended 
fishing trip in Southern waters. He followed down the 
Florida west coast, stopping at Captiva Pass, Punta Rossa, 
Punta Gorda and Fort Myers, at which latter place he is 
at the present writing. From Fort Myers he expects to 
go to Texas to try concltisions with the Aransas Pass 
tarpon. 
So far he has reported the capture of four tarpon, the 
smallest weighing 1351bs. The first two of these fish were 
taken in one day at Captiva Pass by the method known as 
"pass fishing." This is practically trolling with the boat 
anchored. The tideway gives a current of five or six miles 
per hour in the channel, and this gives the bait the neces- 
sary action. A mullet is used on one triple hook. 
- Mr Vom Hofe also reports very fine channel bass fish- 
ing, the bass running large and averaging 251bs. 
J. B. B. 
RHODE ISLAND'S FISH. 
Providence, R. L, April 26. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The season for trout fishing, according to the Rhode Island 
statutes, is from April 1 to .Tuly 15 of each year. Early in 
the morning of the first dav of the trout season hundreds of 
anglers were trying to lure wary speckled beauties from 
their watery haunts, and this sport, so dear to anglers, has 
had scores of devotees daily since, who have visited the 
many brooks and streams in this State, particularly in the 
western part, and have returned, after hours of rare sport, 
with laden baskets. And the trout anglers report the best 
sport and best luck in years, thanks to the Inland Fish 
Commissioners who, for three years, have taken especial 
pains in stocking the brooks of the State with this beautiful 
and gamy fish. 
The Inland Fish Commissioners, who comprise J. M. K. 
Southwick of Newport, Adelbert D. Roberts of Woonsocket, 
C. W. Willard of Westerly, and Henry T. Root and William 
P. Morton, both of this city, have charge, under the statutes, 
of fresh-water fishing and certain kinds of salt-water fishing, 
besides the catching of lobster. During the past three years 
the Commissioners have placed 35,00f) yearling trout — fish 
from 3i to 6in. long — in the brooks and streams of the 
State, distributing 10,000 yearling trout a year for the first 
two years, and 15,000 yearlings last year. During that time 
the Commission has also -distributed in streams and brooks 
100,000 trout fry, from f to lin. in length. All this fish 
was procured from the Carolina hatchery, C. A. Hoxie, pro- 
prietor. The Commission is also stocking some ponds with 
baas. The Commission has spent its yearly appropriations 
of $1,000 or $1,500 wisely — the fishermen think the amount 
should be doubled — and now anglers are getting the benefit. 
The yearling trout distributed a year or so ago are now 
large enough to be caught, and furnish good sport, and^the 
trout fry are growing into yearlings, and prospects are good 
for fine sport for a number of years if the fishermen will 
CO operate with the Commissioners, and obey the laws about 
not catching trout out of season, not catching any under 
Gin. in length, not using nets, etc., for all of which misde- 
meanors the law provides a fine of $20 for each ofiOense. 
The Commissioners have destroyed a number of nets set in 
brooks to catch trout, and have also warned a number of 
people about catching yearling trout, and about going trout 
fishing out of season, The Commissioners are giving care- 
ful attention to their duties, and if the anglers of the State 
will co-operate with them in enforcing the law, there is no 
reason why trout fishing should not be a pleasure to those 
interested every year. 
In their report just made to the Legislature, the Commis- 
sioners say of their black bass work: "A body of water 
located within the town of Westerly has been set apart for 
this purpose with the consent of the Town Council, and will 
be used exclusively for the cultivation of this variety of 
game and table fish. Two consignments of fish have al- 
ready been received and planted in this preserve; one Aug. 
4, of 600, and one Nov. 4, of 1,500, both from United States 
Commission. In two or three years these fish will have 
increased sufliciently to enable the Commission to commence 
the work of stocking many of the ponds and rivers of the 
State. 
"The large-mouthed bass is native to the Great Lakes, the 
rivei's of the Mississippi Basin, and nearly all the waters of 
the Southern States. In New England it is comparatively 
unknown, the small mouthed being perhaps better adapted 
to the clear, cold waters of most of our lakes and ponds and 
has consequently received more attention. There are, how- 
ever, in this State, many waters that are better adapted to 
the large-mouthed species; for instance, in large shallow 
ponds or lakes of comparatively high temperature and in 
rivers with sluggish current and muddy bottom, also in 
rivers that are somewhat polluted by refuse from mills. It 
is this class of waters particularly that the Commission hopes 
to largely benefit by the introduction of this species. 
' 'As a food fish the large mouth bass rank among the first 
of the fresh-water fishes, its flesh being firm and white, and, 
when properly cooked, tender and juicy. As a game fish it 
is fully equal to its relative, the small-mouth, when taken in 
the same waters and under same conditions. And upon good 
authority it can be claimed that it is a much more ready 
biter, rising freely to the surface of the water for natural 
bait or artificial fly. The small-mouth, on the contrary, as 
many anglers can testify, is extremely epicurean in its tastes 
and on the whole a very uncertain biter. In point of size 
the large-mouth is certainly the superior of all varieties of 
the fresh-water basses of this country, attaining in some 
waters the enormous weight of 18 to 201bs. , whereas the 
largest specimen of small-mouth of which there is any 
authentic record, weighed but 8flbs. 
' 'The fishing for the small mouth black bass last year was 
not equal to that of the preceding season. This fact is no 
taken as evidence that the fish are decreasing, but is prob 
ably owing to low water in many of the ponds during the 
best part of the fishing season. Realizing that there are 
many ponds and streams in the State well adapted to this 
species and which are as yet unstocked, the Commission has 
leased a small preserve near Niantic and has stocked it with 
adult fish. These fish spawned in May, and it is estimated 
that there are now several thousand young bass in the pond, 
which are doing well. They will at the proper time be 
transferred to waters hitherto barren of this varietv of food 
Ij.sh. 
"Squeteague have of late years been very abundant and 
very regular in their visits to our waters. They seem to 
have in a measure taken the place formerly held by their 
colleagues, the bluefish, whom they resemble in their habits, 
both being very destructive of other fish. Why the bluefish 
remain in the waters about Block Island and are very plenty 
further west, and cease to come here in numbers, is a prob- 
lem we at present cannot solve." W. H. M, 
"Angling Talks." 
We have a^ery few copies of George Dawson's "Angling Talks," a 
series of chapters of entertaining chat about men, fishermen, Hsh, 
fishing and fishing places. Cloth, 50 cents. Forest and Stream Pub- 
lishing Co. 
