148 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
(Aug. 21, 1897. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Bullheads. 
As a food flsli the bullhead occupies an important posilion 
in the State of New York. In 1895 nearly 200,000!bs. of 
bullheads were caught in State waters, dressed and sold 
there, and four times as many pounds as of any other of the 
fishes from the interior waters. 
As an economic food supply the bullhead is not to be de- 
spised, and in some waters its propagation should be en- 
•couraged by laws to pi-otect it durine its breeding season, 
and there are other waters from which it should be extermi- 
nated—cleaned out, root and branch, as in those waters it 
serves no useful pui'pose, but, on the contrary, destroys the 
food of other fishes and the fishes themselves. 
I refer to trout waters in the Adirondacks as waters from 
which the bullhead should be removed, as a deleterious fish. 
This may not apply to all A.dirondack waters in which the 
bullhead is found, but it undoubtedly applies to many of the 
trout ponds and lakes in that region. It is not a hasty judg- 
ment when I say that I believe that the bullheads have prac- 
tically destroyed the trout fishing in a number of the lakes 
in the Adirondacks. One lake that I visited last spring con- 
tains a few very large trout, but a small trout is unknown 
in it, and for years not one trout has been caught from it 
weighing under 31bs. In this lake the bullheads fairly 
swarm, and at times when they swim near the surface they 
present the appearance of a solid mass of moving fish. They 
have apparently eaten everything that will serve as food, 
and are themselves so dwarfed in size that they will 
not pay for dressing. In fact, when they are skinned 
there is scarcely- anything left to eat, for they are 
only from 3 to 5in. long, Bullheads are notorious 
spawn eaters, and not only do they eat the spawn, but they 
eat the food of the trout. In the lake to which I refer, 
about 2,000 of these little bullheads were caught in part of 
one day by my companions, who visited the pond with me. 
We went thereto find out, if possible, what the reason could 
be tliat no small trout were ever taken. We had not far to 
look. With a piece of meat tied to a string, as many as 
seven bullheads could be taken at one time. Three, four 
and five at once was not unusual, and with two men in a 
boat, each armed with a string and piece of meat, it was not 
a question of how many bullheads could be lifted into the 
boat, but it was a question of how long one could keep his 
arm in motion, first dipping the meat into the water and 
then hfting into the boat as many fish as could get hold of 
the meat during the two seconds or such a matter of time 
that the meat was left in the water. 
When the fish were brought to the shore we found a boy 
that consented to take a few, comparatively, of them home, 
picking out the largest of Ihem, and the balance could not 
be disposed of among the people living near the pond, for 
they were really too small to pay for dressing, and there is 
no prospect of their being any larger, for they seemed to 
have cleaned the pdnd of all manner of food, and must in 
great measure live hereafter upon one another. Under such 
circumstances we had no compunctions of conscience when 
we took from the pond all the fish possible during the day. 
This pond is not a solitary example of too many bull- 
heads for the welfare of the trout, and I am quite 
positive that the increase in the bullhead tribe is 
largely accountable for the dearth of trout in 
many Adirondack waters, and I would suggest that the 
Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission be applied to for 
permission to destroy the bullheads in such waters as I have 
described. It will be worse than useless to attempt to culti- 
vate trout in such lakes until the bullheads are routed out. 
Under the law the Commission has power to remove deleteri- 
ous fish when they interfere with the growth of trout, and 
there can be no more deleterious fish than the bullhead when 
he destroys the spawn of the trout and its food as well, and 
then becomes a dwarfed fish unfit for food. Fish Com- 
missioner Hughes, of New Hampshire, told me last spring 
that he examined the spawning beds of lake trout in his 
State last fall, and found on the beds bullheads so stuifed 
with trout spawn as to be utterly helpless and lying at the 
bottom on their sides. In fact, the appearance of some of 
the bullheads indicated that thby would not survive their 
feast — or gorging — of trout spawn. Commissioner Hughes 
vsras of the opinion that the bullhead was far more destruct- 
ive of trout spawn on the beds he examined than the eel or 
sucker, and both are bad enough. 
Bullheads watch their nests after spawning and the young 
after they are hatched, and the young can he netted out of a 
pond when the brood rises by using a shallow net of mos- 
quito netting, if consent is obtained from the Commission to 
do so under the direction of a game protector. In many 
lakes the trout are sought persistently (trout do not guard 
their spawning beds or young and are naturally less prolific 
than the bullhead, as the trout is a fall spawner, taking from 
90 to 150 days to hatch their eggs, while the bullhead is a 
spring spawner and hatch their eggs in a few days), and 
fished for constantly. The bullhead is not sought for food to 
the extent the trout is, and has little to do but thrive and 
multiply until it overruns the pond, destroying the young 
trout and its food and remains in sole possession of the water. 
In another bullhead- infested pond in the Adirondacks I 
found that the trout had been feeding (this was a pond re- 
stocked with yearling trout) on the larvae of the May fiy ; but 
when the time came for a rise of the fly there were lew on 
the water. The swarming bullheads had been devouring the 
larvae which should have gone to feed the trout. As in the 
first-mentioned pond, the bullheads were small, too small for 
food; and as they were never or rarely fished for, they had 
simply increased at the expense of the trout. I venture to 
predict that, if the New York Commission or its agents 
should net one of these ponds and remove as many bull- 
heads as possible, it would be a comparatively easy matter to 
once more repopulateit with trout; and I believe something 
of this kind will have to be done with the smaller lakes be- 
fore trout fishing in them is as it once was. There is an- 
other thing to be comidered in this connection. When bull- 
heads swarm in a pond with insufficient food to sustain 
them, they are more than likely to be infested with internal 
parasites, which unfits them for human food. 
A correspondent wrote me a few weeks ago from western 
New York, saying that the bullheads in a pond that he had 
fctocked were dying, and he had picked up dead or dying 
fish with their tins gone. He wishes to know what caused 
the "epidemic." 1 told him that his fish were starved, as 
evidently the pond contained no food for them, and they 
were preying upon one another; for once a hungry bullhead 
gets hold of the fin of another fish he does not let go of it 
until he has eaten that fin. This was the first case that had 
come to my knowledge in a wild pond, but it is character- 
istic of bullheads ia an aquarium. I suggested to the corre- 
spondent that if he could get a dead fish that was reasonably 
fresh, he should send it to Prof. Surface, of Cornell Uni- 
versity, as he was near at hand, for a microscopical exam- 
ination. 
Keturning home after an absence of a week, I found a 
letter from Prof. Surface in which he said he had received a 
bullhead and had written to the sender as follows: "A care- 
ful examination has revealed the undoubted fact that the 
bullhead died of a superabundance of tapeworms and an 
insufficient supply of proper food. From the condition of 
this specimen, which is an adult female, I feel sure that there 
are but very few mollusks, small crustaceans or insects in 
your pond." Prof, Surface adds to me: "Of course you 
know how unsafe it is to judge general conditions from an 
examination of one specitnen, but in the first place this fish 
was starved. What the pond needs just now is fewer fish 
and more fish food." 
Prof. Surface did not know what I had told my corre- 
spondent or the conclusion I had arrived at, in fact, knew 
nothing about the matter in any way except that a fish had 
been sent to him for examination and cause of death, but he 
confirmed in every particular my opinion. 
Just thirty years ago I caught in the Adirondacks the finest 
lot of trout I ever caught in one day in that region. They 
were taken with the fly from a small lake, and afterward the 
lake came into possession of the bullheads, and it was a rare 
thing to get a trout, so rare that it was scarcely fished. 
Means were taken to destroy the bullheads so far as possible 
— means that would not be tolerated under the law, and with 
which I have no sympathy — and trout were planted from an 
adjoining lake, and the first lake again became famous for 
its trout fishing. We live and learn, and one thing we are 
learning is that the bullheads must be kept down if the trout 
in the same water are to thrive and increase. 
.Sunapee Trout In Lake George. 
FOEEST AND STREAM has told of how the Sunapee trout 
were transplanted -last autumn from Sunapee Lake, N. H , 
to Lake George, N. Y. The State fish car brought forty- 
two adult trout, half male and half female, and planted them 
in the last-named lake. When the car reached the end of 
the railroad, at Lake George, I employed the steam yacht 
Olive, Capt. Raphael Patten, to take the fish down to a 
shoal near Diamond Island, where they were released in gocd 
order, so far as we could see. There were left in the car 
four of the Sunapee trout for the New York aquarium and 
ten for the State hatchery at Caledonia. The fish that were 
left developed fungus, hs they had rather severe handling 
when they were spawned just before starting for New York. 
Salt water baths saved some of them, but most of them died 
from the fungus, and it has been a matter of speculation 
how those in Lake George have fared. A few weeks ago 
Capt. Patten was trolling for lake trout in Lake George and 
caught a golden or Sunapee trout. He recognized the fith 
before he got it to his boat and released it uninjured. This 
is good news, for if one fish survived it is reasonable to sup- 
pose that more of them are alive and well and that they will 
spawn in the lake next fall. Capt. Patten's fish looked to 
weigh about 2^1bs. and was in excellent condition. It is the 
only one of these fish known to have been caught. They 
have been so well described, and the fishermen are so much 
interested in them, that I feel that they will be returned to 
the water if more should be hooked. 
Landlocked Salmon In Lake Champlaln. 
Lake George has always seemed to me an ideal water for 
the propagation of landlocked salmon, or, as 1 believe, they 
should be called ouananiche, as the water is pure, cold and 
deep, and it abounds in "frost fish ' (the round whitefish) 
for food, but it lacks in one particular, large tributary 
streams for fish to run into for spawning purposes. The 
late Col. McDonald, then U. S. Fish Commissioner, told me 
if I would recommend the stocking of Lake George with 
saltpon he would furnish the fish. It was some time before 
I would take the responsibility of making the recommenda- 
tion, and then not until I had visited Sunapee Lake, and 
found similar conditions as to spawning streams existing 
there where salmon do well. 
In the spring of 1894 I did make the recommendation, and 
the U. S Fish Commissioner sent me two car loads of 
fingerling salmon in October of that year. Twelve thousand 
were planted in Lake George streams and 10,000 in streams 
flowing into Lake Charaplain between Port Henry and Blulf 
Point. The next year two additional car loads were planted 
one in the stream of each lake. So far as known thn first 
salmon to be killed as the result of these plantings was killed 
in Lake Ohamplain near Port Henry on July 29 of thiayear. 
Commodore W. C. Witherbee, who has taken an active 
interest in planting fi,sii in and about the lake for many 
years, and who rendered material aid iu planting all tlie 
salmon, wrote me of the capture of the fish in question and 
said that it weighed ajlbs. The salmon must have been 
three years old last spring, as the first plant was of fish 
Latched in the spring of 1 894. 
It is believed that a salmon was caught in Lake George 
early in the summer, but nothing positive is known, except 
that it was not a lake trout. The men who caught the 
fish had never seen its like, and from some of the things said 
about it I was inclined to think it possible that it was a 
salmon. Lake George, as I have said, furnishes whitefish 
food for the salmon, and Lake Champlain furnishes smelt 
food, and it will be interesting t) watch developments and 
discover in which lake the saimon do the best. Probably 
other fish may be taken in one or both lakes before the sea- 
son closes. Anyway, the prospect for salmon fishing next 
year is promising. 
Yearllnsr Brook Trout. 
About a year ago I had something to say about the growth 
of trout fry at a private hatchery of a Long Island club, at 
one of the State hatching stations, and at a hatchery inrnas- 
sachusetts, where trout are reared for sale. All the trout 
showed rapid growth, but none were tqual to some trout 
that have been reared at the Cold Spring Harbor station of 
the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission of New York 
this year. In the fry ponds I saw last week (Aug. 5) fry 
that were 5Jin. long from eggs hatched this year, and there 
were plenty of fry in the same pond that measured 5iti. 
la the yearling ponds I measured trout that were 10 and 
lOJin. long, from eggs hatched a year ago last spring. 
If any one is curious about these fish, let him take a 
foot rule and mark on it 5iiu. for fry of this year's 
hatching, and lOJin for yearlings of last year's hatch- 
ing, and they will get an idea of what size trout grow 
to on Long Island. The trout were deep, well 
conditioned fish, and not specially grown for record of 
length, in other words, they were simply such fish as are 
raised there for distribution in State waters. In one of the 
yearling ponds containing 6 000 fish I noticed a trout much 
too big for a yearling. I caught a ghmpse of him in the 
mob of trout as they circled around the pond, but was sure 
my eyes had not deceivtd me, although the men said there 
were nothing but yearlings in the pond, and they had been 
recently sorted. 1 insisted that a search should be made for 
the trout, and finally he was discovered and netted — a two- 
year-old trout. As" he was beitg removed a fish dropped 
from his mouth, partly digested. It was one of the yearlings, 
and how many he had ealen no one could tell. Fortunately 
he had been there but a few days, for the yearlings had been 
counted into the pond when they were sorted a short time 
before. How he got there was a mystery, for the screens 
were nailed fast and the raceway boarded over, and there 
were no two year-old anywhere near the yearling pond. 
Probably some bird of prey had captured the fish from the 
two-year-old ponds and in flying away with him lost him in 
the yearling pond, where he was found. 
Sponge for Bait. 
* In writing of bullheads I intended to say that their vorac- 
ity has a limit, although it may not be suspected where they 
are found, as I have narrated, in some of the small Adiion- 
dack lakes. 
A friend whom I was visiting at his camp on the shore of 
one of the lakes that contain more bullheads than are needed, 
proposed one evening to go out and reduce their number. 
His henchman, forester, fisherman and educated story-teller 
{: ducated m part, I suspect, by my friend for the enter- 
tainment of his guests), I have already introduced in 
my notes by his name Hank. Hank was told to get ready 
a big flat bottomed boat and my friend, his two sons, HanK 
and myself went out at dark to wage a small war on the 
bullheads. Hank had a rod, but no opportunity to use it, 
for no sooner were we anchored than there was a fringe of 
bullheadsdangling about his bead to be taken from the hooks 
and the hooks rebailed. The bullheads came so fast that 
sometimes they got in Hank's face or down his back, for one 
cauld not see very well in the dark Hank never uttered a 
protest, for he had be< n well trained, and simply waittd to 
get even. My friend passed over a bullhead and Hank took 
it off by the light of a lantern, but did not rebait the hook. 
In a moment my friend caught another bullhead without a 
bait; possibly a small piece of worm adhered to the hook. 
When the fish was removed Hank baited the hook with a 
piece of sponge and my friend continued fishing, with no 
bites. He thought it strange and passed ovtr bis hook for an 
examination, but Bank told him he had a gtod, full bait on 
his hook, and the fishing continued, until I was obliged to 
laugh, and caused suspicion and an examination of the 
hook. Hank stoutly maintained that as we had been trying 
all sorts of experiments he wished to try a piece of sponge, 
but as he had no chance to fish he had been forced to put the 
sponge on his employer's hook, but he was satisfied that bull- 
heads drew the line at a ph ce of boat sponge, although they 
would take a bare hook that had recently had a worm on ii. 
The only thing which surprised me was that Hank did not 
contend that he bad often caught bullheads with a piece of 
sponge: perhaps he did not think of it. A. N. Cheney. 
NEWFOUNDLAND ATTRACTIONS. 
The railroad in Newfoundland is going across to new 
game and fish resorts. Dr. Wilfrid Greafell, Superintendent 
of the Royal Deep Sea Mission to Labrador Fishewien, 
writes in the Toronto Globe: 
"I have cruised the coast now five years in succession, 
navigating my own boat, and am by no means inclined 
to consider it as dangerous as is generally supposed for 
yachtsmen. True, the cliflfs in many place look forbidding, 
but there are such an enormous number of islands and excel- 
lent natural harbors to run for, in some of wbich the fleets 
of the world could lie in safety, that though my voyages 
have been in an 8 ton and then in a 34-ton steam launch, 
we have never found any difficult}' m getting Irom har- 
bor to harbor. There are hundreds of rivers, not a single 
one of which is private property, and also iafiiumerable lakes, 
well stocked with trout and salmon. Many of these are still 
innocent of an artificial fly. The shooting to be obtained is 
excellent. The wild geese, ducks and sea bhds are naturally 
abundant. The willow grouse afford excellent sport also; 
They are plentiful and strong flyers. Snipe are abundant in 
places, and plover also. Reindeer, larger than I have met 
in Norway or Labrador, or indeed anywhere — for 1 believe 
them to be the largest of their species — are simply innumer- 
able. But the stranger must purchase a $iOO license before 
he can shoot them. Bear, wolves, otters and beavers are 
also to be found. The large Arctic hare and rabbit are in 
plenty. 
The country should oft'er the archseologist also an excellent 
field for work. The aboriginal tribes of the island have 
only recently disappeared, and next to nothing has been done 
to obtain traces or records of them. Toe ornithologist, 
botanist and entomologist have also a great field open whence 
to gather knowledge and fresh laurels. Very little has ever 
been done with the entomology of the island. The agricul- 
tural prospects of the countr7 seem limited to the western 
part of the island, but there appears to be there good grazing 
land, and in places good agricultural land. The logs so 
associated with the country I have not failed to experience, 
and that more than once, but they are limited to the sea al- 
most entirely. Many times, making the land in foggy 
weather, we have found a glorious day with lovely sunshine 
on the land. As a matter of fact, the climate of the interior 
is a dry one, is extremely healthy and bracing, and if 
only good hotels existed on some of the large inland 
lakes, such as Deer Lake and Grand Lake, from the stand- 
point of a physician 1 should say that persons with weak 
lungs and tendencies to tuberculosis could do far worse 
than spend the summer months in Newfoundland. Until 
now it has almost been impossible to get into the country at 
all. Very few persons had ever been across it, and even its 
own inhabitants knew next to nothing about it. But the 
new railway is solving the problem. By next June it will be 
open in its entire length, and a fine- steamer now being 
specially constructed lor the service will transfer mails and 
passengers in six hours from Sydney on the Intercolonial 
Railway to Port au Basque. Whether the current of pas- 
sengers to the mother country will be diverged to run 
through this channel is still to be seen. Certainly the time 
on passage will be very considerably reduced, and fast 
steamers from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Liverpool, which 
IS the shorcest trans- Atlantic course, should accomplish the 
journey in little, if anything, over three days. Thus bad 
sailors should all eventually go this way. Let us hope 
that this will not be a stigma, attaching to everyone choosing 
