Not. 20, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
409 
Codfish were never more plentiful than at present along 
the shore at the mouth of Narra^ansett Bay, No dexterity 
is required to make a catch, and it is even said that scarcely 
any bait is required, as the cod are so numerous that they 
sometimes bite at the bare hook. Bipj catches are daily re- 
ported. One day last week the Lewis Brothers, of Wickford, 
hooked 1,170 codfish. 
Simeon Gardiner, of "Wickford, captured an eel last week 
that was 4ift. in lenp^th and weighed IS^lbs. 
.J. M. K. Southwick, a member of the State Fishery Com- 
mission, will distribute 3,000 brook trout among the park 
owners of Newport this month. 
Thursday afternoon a strange animal was noticed in the 
pasture with the cows of Charles T. Chase, a milkman, near 
iSaylesville, in the northern part of this State, and upon in- 
yestigat'ou it proved to be a good-sized wild buck deer, hut 
it scented danger and quickly disappeared in the woods. 
Several persons saw the animal, which was an unusual sight 
in that part of the State, 
Large flocks of wild ducks frequent the waters of Narra- 
gansett Bay in the vicinity of Prudence Island, but they are 
so wild that they keep out of range of sportsmen's shotguns. 
The ducks begau coming into the bay about Oct. 1, and 
were hunted from sail boats and steam launches. At first 
mflny were bagged by this means, but they have lately be- 
come so wild from constant hunting that they now keep out 
of range A few ducks are taken from blinds on the shores 
of the rivers and upper waters of the bay_^t night, when 
they come ashore to feed. 
Seldom, if ever, has a finer string of deer been seen in 
Providence than that displayed last week, three bucks and 
three does, as a part of the results of a vacation visit to the 
big game section by Drs. P. H. and J. W. Keefe and \V. L. 
Munro, with Charlie Harris, Emery Perkins and Fred Ray, 
three hardy woodsmen, as guides. The deer were all shot 
within a radius of ten miles from Lake Nahmakauta, the 
most beautiful of the Maine lakes. W. H. M. 
Tlie New England Exposition. 
Antonio Apache, the Indian whose recent tour through 
the JVIaine and New Brunswick wilderness resulted in 
securing so many valuable features for the New England 
Sportsmen's show, is now in the wild regions of the far 
West revisiting many of the scenes of his childhood, not- 
ably those in southern Arizona, where, as an untutored 
Indian hoy, he was captured by troops operating under 
Gen. Crook and sent to Po.'-t Monroe. 
While selecting from among various tribes of North 
American Indians the finest hunters and trappers of the 
several races and nations for the great Indian camp to 
occupy the entire stage of Mechanics' Bailding in March 
next, he has been enahled to secure an extensive collection 
of antique and unique specimens of Indian art of rare value, 
and has already shipped ten cases of Pueblo pottery, and a 
number of bales of carefully selected Navajo blankets, 
which, with rugs, robes and curios, will play an important 
part in the forthcoming exhibition, and will serve as valu- 
able souvenirs for those who are fortunate enough to obtain 
them. 
Tents of Mrch bark, inhabited by full blooded braves, 
'Squaws and papooses wearing rudely fashioned garments of 
furs and buckskin, will exemplify the aboriginal conditions 
•of the North American Indians. The visitor will then stroll 
.through an Indian village of the last decade, with its more 
brilliant and eliecllve adornment, pausing here and there to 
admire the skillful handiwork of the Indian maidens, and 
the sturdy manhood of the braves, as they fashion their im- 
plements of warfare and deftly make bows, arrows, spears 
and canoes, and a great variety of traps and devices for the 
capture of game animals and birds. In point of realism and 
•scenic effectiveness this Indian camp will undoubtedly prove 
a revelation not only to those whose journeyings have never 
led them beyond the confines of civilization, but to the great 
army of sportsmen; while the antique specimens of genuine 
Pueblo pottery, the brilliant and picturesque Navajo blank- 
fits, and the rugs, robes and curios will interest amateurs no 
less than connoisseurs in this delightful field of research, 
especially when shown and demonstrated by the Indians 
themselves. 
TH£ STORY OF THE COWBOY. 
The review which appeared in the issue of Nov. 6 did 
simple justice to Mr. Hough's admirable book, "The Story 
of the Cowboy." It is a vivid and truthful picture of a 
splendid figure which played a heroic part in the subduing 
and civilizing of our West, but which occupied the public 
eye only for a brief quarter of a century, and then rode 
away into the darkness, to be seen no more. 
Mr. Hough's comprehension of this figure is complete 
and the measures that he has applied to it are faithful and 
accurate. It was time that it should have been measured 
and its history written, and it is fortunate that a writer so 
competent and so sympathetic as Mr. Hough should have 
undertaken the work. 
It was not until the drives from the south had bpgun, and 
the cattle had commenced to invade the northern ranges and 
- to mingle with the buffalo, which they were soon to replace 
that the cowboy began to figure in the fugitive literature of 
the day. _ In the Southwest he had existed for many years 
before this, but always far from the railroads, and so beyond 
the ken of the newspaper reporter. Wtien, however, the cat- 
tle came north and reached the railroads, the reporter met 
and was quick to recognize the new type and to grasp its 
salient points, those which came in view when the cowboy 
"struck" the town— his worst points and his weakest, But 
the reporter knew nothing then, and never came to know 
anything, of the cowboy's life on the range— of his indus- 
try, his endurance, and fbove aU, his unflinching loyalty to 
his employer. To all these characteristics Mr. Hough has 
done ample justice. But the last point deserves especial 
emphasis, and should be referred to over and over again; for 
it was on precisely this point that the success or failure of 
the whole cattle business depended, since cowboys who were 
careless, unfaithful or dishonest meant ruin to the owner 
No doubt from time to time there were worthless cowboys 
but "Jim, the foreman," soon learned of their failure to do 
their work, and weeded them out. In like manner there 
•were men for whom the continuous and severe labors of the 
range proved too arduous, and whose constitutions broke 
down under the work. The younger hands taken on from 
time to time felt the influence of the devotion to duty of the 
older men, and took a pride in doing honest work on the 
range. So, by a process of natural selection, a class of 
men grew up as cowboys to whom loyalty to the employer 
and enthusiasm for his interests was as natural as eating or 
sleeping. 
The cowboy of the old cattle country would as soon have 
thought of losing his right hand as of letting a calf belong- 
irg to his employer be branded by another's iron. He would 
fight for the interests of the man who hired him to the last 
drop of his blood. Sometimes he might grumble and growl 
at bad weather, night herd or the stampede, but when the 
lime came for action he was in his place and doing his duty. 
But, as Mr. Hough says, the cowboy was a silent man and 
did not grumble much. It was the cook who did the growl- 
ing for the outfit, and indeed it may have been the cook's 
example that taught the cowboy to bear in silence the hard- 
ships of his life. 
'The ill repute of the cowboy arose from the excesses which 
many of his class committed when they came to the town 
JFor months at a time he was working alone on the broad 
free range, trusted to do his work, and bearing always a load 
of responsibility. Go a sudden he found himself in town 
where he met other people, where he had no duty and was 
free from responsibility, "rhen he was like a sailor just 
arrived in port. He wanted to have a good time; as good a 
time as he possibly could. It is not inapt to call the cowboys 
lanisailcrs. They were like sailors in their isolation, in the 
severe labors which they performed, and in the dangers to 
which they were exposed. They were like them, too, in the 
readiness with which they yielded to temptation when they 
were off duty. 
The cowboy is a being of the past. Brief was the time 
during which he rode across the spacious stage of the busy 
range, but while he was there he played his part bravely 
and well — a vigorous, indomitable and' ever loyal type. He 
could exist only so long as the range cattle business was at 
its height, and with the passage of the glory of the old 
range, the cowboy passec^ too. There are still in the West 
good riders and ropers and cattlemen, but the cowboy is 
gone; the type has disappeared. He has largely become a 
granger; once an object of his own deepest contempt and 
scorn. 
The Indian, the trapper and the fur-trader were the 
striking and picture.' que figures of the old uncivilized West, 
which some of us can remember. They were in and of it, 
but they did nothing to make it productive. They took 
what it offered, reafing where they had not sown, and 
gathering where they had not strewn. Theie fallowed 
tbem the soldier, the cowboy, and the railroad builder, and 
a new era dawned over a vast empire These men were 
civirzers, and each did his part toward increasing the re- 
sources of the world. Of them all, none— according to his 
opportunities — did more than the cowboj''. 
Let us be glad that he has found a fit historian ; that one 
has arisen who could acceptably sing the great epic of the 
range. There are many thousands of men who owe Mr. 
Hough thanks for refreshing thtir fading memories of the 
old days, and for doing justice to a class of men to whom it 
was denied until after they had disappeared. G. B. G. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
The "Game Laws in Brief." 
The current edition of tae Ganie Laws in Brief (index page dated 
Aug. 1) oontalns fctie fish and game laws for 1897, with a few excep- 
tions, as they will continue in force during the year. As about forty 
States and Provinces have amended their laws this year, the Brief 
has been practically done over new. Sent postpaid by the Forest 
and Stream Pub. Uo. on receipt of price, 25 cents. AU dealers sell it 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Trout Eggs Separating. 
Some weeks ago a correspondent wrote to know what I 
meant when I wrote in Forest and Stkeam of trout eggs 
separating. I have not replied for several reasons, the 
chief of which is I do not know what I did mean, for I do 
not know when I wrote it. It might have been written 
any time during the past twenty-one years, so far as I am 
informed, and the correspondent does not give the issue 
of the paper, the month or year. I made a memo- 
randum of the query, and put it on the hook to 
answer it when I got to it. Now, I have looked 
back over the numbers of Forest and Stream for 
the past year, and I cannot find that I have written 
anything during that time about trout eggs separating. It 
is rather too much to expect me to look back over the 
twenty other years to find what I may have written. 
Now I cannot find the letter even, to see the language 
that the correspondent used, and have only the memo- 
randum for a guide. If the issue of the paper had been 
given, I would have replied to the query long ago. The 
letter came from Cambridge, Mass., and if the writer cares 
enough about the matter at this late day to repeat the 
query and give the date of Forest and Stream I will try 
and not lose the letter until the reply is written. It is 
safe to assume that I wrote of trout eggs separating in con- 
nection with spawning operations, for I can think of no 
other sense in which the word would be used. When the 
eggs first come from the fish they are not perfectly sound 
The egge and milt are joined in the spawning pan and im- 
pregnation takes place; then a little water is added to the 
pan, which the eggs absorb until they are round and 
plump. During the time that absorption takes place the 
eggs adhere, and when it is completed they separate. 
This is, in brief, the only separation in trout eggs that T 
would be apt to write about. 
Trout In New Zealand. 
_ Mr. D. Russell, honorary secretary of the Otago Acclima- 
tization Society, writes me from Dunedin, New Zealand, 
very interestingly about the fish and game of that country', 
and I quote a portion of his letter: "Trout in New Zealand 
have thriven wonderfully well from the very start, some 
twenty-six years ago, and at the present time the whole of 
our inland waters are well stocked and very large numbers 
are to be seen along the coast in the sea, and they run up 
the river to spawn in June and July. 
"The largest fish that we know of having been caught in 
the salt water was 361bs., and it is quite possible larger 
may have been caught, as fishermen are very silent on the 
subject, it being illegal to take them with a net. 
"Although we have put large quantities of American 
brook trout and Loch Leven trout fry into our streams for 
the last twelve or fourteen years, it is very seldom that 
anglers catch them over 9 or lOin. long or over lib. in 
weight. All our river trout seem the same. 
"This society purposes breeding as many young salmon 
as possible to turn out as fry and yearlings. The stock 
salmon grow to about Slbs. in our ponds and produce ova 
for about five or six years, the eggs being as large as the 
eggs of a large salmon, but we lose a great many every 
year of the old fish in the stripping, as it takes consider- 
able pressure to obtain the ova, and it must be severe on 
the parent. The fry grow well in the hatchery, and when 
in thesmolt stages the;^ are fine fish 6 to Sin. long, and are 
often caught by the anglers when they are making their 
way down stream the latter end of November and begin- 
ning of December. It may be possible to grow our stock 
fish larger if we only knew how to do it. Unfortunately 
in New Zealand game birds are very scarce on account of 
so much poisoned grain being scattered all over every win- 
ter to destroy the rabbits. As long as we have the rabbit 
pest we will have very little game; wild ducks and our 
native pigeons being the only birds we have to shoot 
now." 
I have replied by letter to Mr. Russell's queries about 
feeding young fish in the hatchery and raising ponds, but 
I made no mention of one matter now called to my atten- 
tion by copying from his letter. He says, "all our river 
fish seem the same." This is directly after the mention of 
American brook trout and Loch Leven trout. Of course, 
the trout first mentioned as growing so large in the sea are 
the brown trout, and the mere fact that thev go to sea will 
account for their large size, for there they obtain a great 
supply of the best sea food. By river trout looking all 
alike, Mr. Russell evidently refers to brown and Loch 
Leven trout, and I can say that I do not know of a single 
instance of a Loch Leven trout egg brought to this coun- 
try from Scotland that did not, when hatched, grow into 
a brown trout. Every one has developed the crimson 
spots peculiar to the brown trout, and absent from the 
Loch Leven. Again and again I have taken trout of dif- 
ferent ages, hatched from Loch Leven eggs, and placed 
them by the side of trout hatcaed from brown trout eggs 
and never have I seen the least diflference between them' 
both were always brown trout pure and simple, with crimson 
spots. If the people of New Zealand have had a like ex- 
perience with Loch Leven eggs, it is not strange that all 
river trout look the same, if our native brook tront(fontinaUs) 
is excluded. To me it is just as evident that the 9 and 
lOin. trout of these rivers lack proper food, and in abund- 
ance, as it is that the brown trout running down to the sea 
grow very large because of the rich pasturage they find 
there. Food in abundance will do wonders in the way of 
increasing the size of various species of fish, and the ab- 
sence of it will as surely dwarf the fish, but it is doubtful 
if feeding will materially increase the size of salmon 
{Salar) confined in fresh water beyond the figures I have 
quoted from Mr. Russell's letter. The late Mr. John 
Mowat confined sea salmon in fresh water until they 
arrived at the spawning age, but they were dwarfed in 
size from fish of same age that had access to the sea. 
Being an anadromous fish, the changed conditions when 
confined in fresh water is sufficient to account for their 
slow growth. Particularly when it is considered that a 
smolt going down to sea weighs not more than 2 or 3ozs., 
and two or three years later, when it returns from the sea,' 
may weigh anywhere from 9 to 12lbs., or even more. It 
is the sea food that gives size and weight to the fish, and 
when salmon are cut off from sea pasturage it must be ex- 
pected that they will be under normal size. 
Trout In South Africa. 
Mr. E. Latour, in the London Field, gives a very interest- 
ing account of his operations as a fishculturist in South 
Africa, and the results he obtained in the way of hatching 
and rearing trout in water of high temperature. Mr. 
Latour went out from England to hatch trout eggs for th ' 
Government of the Cape of Good Hope. The°ova was 
sent out from England, and the eggs were from brown 
Loch Leven and American brook trout. In the details of 
his experiments he scarcely mentions the American brook 
trout eggs. The Loch Leven eggs amounted practically to 
nothing, but he was very successful with the brown trout 
eggs. After satisfactory work near Capetown he put up a 
new hatcherv 600 miles from Capetown to hatch a lot of 
eggs sent out from England (6,000 miies by sea) for King 
William's Town Acclimatization Society. He had to put 
up with a water supply yielding but 2,308 gallons in 
twenty-four hours. The water at the beginning, Feb. 15, 
was 70° Fahr. With considerable sediment, I will give a 
few extracts from Mr. Latour's diary: "March 1— Water 
74° Fahr. Very hot. Temperature of hatcherv 85" 
March 3— Water 70°. Outdoors in shade, 87°. March 4— 
Water 70°. Five new troughs tarred with two coats of tar, 
but not charred; have ropes of fungus on sides and bot- 
toms; one charred deeply and painted two coats of 
black enamel has no signs of fungus. March 
5— Put some fry in rearing pond. Water in pond 
71°, in hatchery 70°. March 8— Very hot day. Water in 
troughs, 75° Fahr.; outside in shade, 92° Fahr. March 11— 
Two boxes of ova arrived from Guildford, Eng., this morn- 
ing. Removed trays and cooled them ofi:, with an occa- 
sional shower of tepid water, for they unpack easier 
and with less danger if soaking wet. Water 74° 
Fahr. March 18— Ova all hatched. March 23— Fry in 
pond feeding well. Water 66°. April 6— All fry turned 
out into feeding ponds. Water 70°. 
"There is no difficulty in hatching trout ova successfully 
and in rearing the trout afterward in water of a temper- 
ature of 75° Fahr. * * * Although 1 have incubated 
trout ova successfully in a temperature of 75° Fahr., and 
the fry revel in the water afterward, I do not for a mo'ment 
ttiink that naturally deposited ova would overcome to 
anything in such a temperature; and I think this will 
always prevent the Sal.motiidn; from becoming common to 
South Africa. At the same time, I am of the opinion that 
the trout can be successfully introduced to any country 
provided always that a permanent river is found possess- 
ing upper waters, accessible to the fish, with a winter's 
temperature not higher than 60° Fahr." 
This would seem to explode aU preconceived ideas of 
