J"aN. 22, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
69 
m nt(d ffiviir ^wiling. 
Men I Have Fished With. 
LXI — Dr. Bashford Dean, Ph.D. 
The Lakes of Long Island. 
Thehe are charming lakes on that ternihial moraine 
which is called Long Island, but they have never been 
written up to any extent otitside of the dry reports of 
the Fish Commission, although they abound with a va- 
riety of fishes to entice the angler. The trout fishing in 
historic Massapequa is about gone since the city of 
Brooklyn included it in its water supply, and now per- 
mits are issued to more men to take trout in its waters 
than there are fish in the lake. Those of us who fished in 
it when it was the private properti' of the Floyd-Jones 
family will do so no more. 
I had been running the State hatchery oil ttie island 
for a little over three years when a young man about 
nineteen years old presented his card and an order from 
Commissioner Blackford to me to. give him every pos- 
sible facility for his work. He was Prof. Bashford Dean, 
instructor in biology in Columbia College. He distilled 
the salt water of Cold Spring Harbor and worked up the 
deposit, weighed and treated it to all manner of things 
which had never been done to it before; made micro- 
photographs of the food of the oyster and pried open 
their shells and into their internal economy regardless 
of their feelings, and actually made enlarged drawings 
of their gills, hearts, livers and other organs to publish 
to a world whose main interest in an oyster is to first 
know jf it is in season, and then to disptite whether 
lemon is superior to vinegar on Rockaways, Blue Points, 
East Rivers and Shrewsbury s, 
I hold a decided opinion on. this last question, and 
waited long for the young professor to intimate a prefer- 
ence for lemon, or for black pepper over red, when I 
would arise and kindly suggest that when his palate was 
a h\v years older and had reached a proper age to dis- 
criminate he would not adhere to such heresies. Bttt he 
never referred to these subjects, and stuck to his photo- 
graphs and microscope. He showed me that the mouth 
of an oyster is back at the hinge of the shells; how its. 
four rows of gills lay under the mantle, and how the 
beating of its heart could be seen just above the adductor 
muscle, which closes the shells. x\lso how the motion of 
tire gills and hair-like appendages sent currents of water 
and food back to the mouth, and then traced out the 
digestive organs, as if an elephant had been under the 
scalpel. These things are interesting to know, and evi- 
dently this unassuming young man knew a lot about the 
anatomy of the oyster, but I soon found that an- oyster 
to him was like the noted primrose on the river bank, 
only this and nothing more, and he couldn't distinguish 
a Shrewsbury from a mill pond or a Blue Point. I could 
do it, and this illustrates the fact that we each have a 
little bit of knowledge that all the world has not. 
His investigations were continued during 1886 and 
1887, at the hatchery, when a broader field was opened 
for him. Mr. John D. Jones, who gave the State the 
ground for the hatchery, erected a laboratory on the 
harbor for biological study, under the auspices of the 
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, of which Mr. 
Blackford was treasurer, and Prof. Dean took charge of 
it for the first year, and it was a surprising treat to me 
to see him draw on the blackboard any symmetrical ani- 
mal like one of the crabs, with chalk in each hand while 
he talked of its nervous and digestive apparatus. 
He had to give this work up and go to Europe to 
study the methods of oyster culture there for the U. S. 
Fish Commission, and his reports were published. 
In July, 1889, Mr. Blackford wanted an examination 
made of the two principal lakes of Long Island. It was 
to be a complete examination into the flora, fauna, depth, 
temperatures and areas, with a report on the needs of 
each lake in the way of vegetation and animal life. Prof. 
Dean, now an A.M., volunteered to work the botany and 
invertebrates, while I did the fishes, and we both took 
a whack at the depth, temperatures and area.?. 
The work was most congenial. Several weeks' outing, 
with somettiing to be learned and perhaps added to 
human knowledge. Not only this, but I rejoiced to 
know that while my companion in the investigation was 
to be a man high up in his specialties he was one who 
was really companionable, for I once spent a fortnight 
in the wilderness with a man who was entirely destitute 
of humor and insisted on talking on dry subjects in 
which he alone took interest. I knew that outside his 
studies Dr. Dean never alluded to them, never "talked 
shop," and that he had a keen sense of humor, without 
' 'hich no man is companionable to me, and the prospect 
\v'us pleasing. 
We were not to camp, but what was nearly the same 
were to stop in hotels among strangers, and spend 
- evenings together, and a life spent in angling and 
fishculture, with its necessary reports on the latter, has 
put all fish talk in the category of "shop," and in camp 
T love the song, the joke, and anything except a discus- 
sion on fish. Dr. Dean was my ideal man, for I never 
talk about fish if I can help it. Outside his classes he 
never referred to the vermiform appendix of the oyster, 
nor the alimentary canal of the lobster; he shut up on 
these subjects when he put up his scalpels, thus following 
that most excellent advice, "put up or shut up." 
If a man happens to be engaged in an occupation in 
which other people are interested they are apt to think- 
that he knows nothing, else, and they think they do him 
a favor by talking to him on the subject. As a fishcul- 
turist of several years' experience, I will candidly say 
that there are about six men in America with whom I 
can profitably talk on fishculture; that is all. In camp 
I want to leave business behind and enjoy life untram- 
meled b3'- it, and I don't want a companion whose talk 
is of politics, religion, science nor fish, and Dr. Dean 
filled the bill. 
There was Lake Ronkonkoma, an Indian narne said 
to mean white sand, situated in the middle of Long 
Island, something over fifty miles from either end, and 
on the top of an extended gravelly ridge which projects 
eastward from the high land on the north side of the 
island. The lake is oblong, its greatest leiigth being 
north and south, and it covers more than a square mile. 
It is fed by bottom springs, and has something like an 
inlet in the shape of a broad, irregular arm, which pro- 
jects to the northwest. There is no outlet, evaporation 
and filtration taking all the water. Perhaps it may feed 
some of the numerous trout streams on the south side of 
the island. 
The lake is in the wild, unsettled part of the island, 
where the deer still range, and no portion of "the island 
of shells," Seewanhacka, as the aborigines called it. 
contains more fables and traditions than Lake Ronkon- 
koma. There was no bottom to this lake, and a tide rose 
and fell once in seven j'cars. I had picked up this in- 
formation from various .sources, and on the way down 
imparted it to my companion. 
"That's very curious," said he, "for one would hardly 
expect deep ponds on the island, because in all glacial 
drifts small ponds hollowed out in the soft clays and 
gravels arc not apt to be deep, for no matter how power- 
ful may have been the eroding force of the waters, the 
shifting nature of the drift graA'^els would in time fill t\p 
any deep pockets that might haA'c been formed. Surely 
would this be the case on Long Island, where the gravels, 
boulders and clays which were deposited by the melting 
ice mountains from the north were not merely reground, 
washed out and .sifted by the glacial torrents, but were 
continually smoothed over by the pounding sweep of 
the ocean." 
"Your reasoning seems correct," I replied, "but Long 
Island is singular in one thing: ten times more water 
flows from it than falls on it, and the query is, where does 
it come from ?" 
"Are you certain about this statement?" 
"Positive. I've been all around the island and tested 
the temperature of every stream of importance that flows 
from it. It has an area of 1,682 square niiles, and the 
average rainfall is from 40 to SSin. Take a medium of 
47in., figure it into gallons, and the Nissequoge on the 
north, and the Conetquot on the south will more than 
carry it all. Then on the south side there are_^ about 
three good trout streams to the mile from Valley Stream 
to Patchogue, a , distance of over thirty miles, not to 
mention the minor streams. I don't know of an equal 
area in America which contains more large trout streams 
than Long Island. Mark me, I don't mean trotit waters, 
for in the Adirondacks and in other parts of the country 
there are more trout waters within the area named, but 
they are lakes, and I only mean flowing brooks and 
rivers. I am prepared to assert that there is at least 
ten times the amount of water flowing from the island 
than can be accounted for by the annual rainfall." 
"Then it nntst come from the north and pass under the 
Sound in crevices of the rock." 
"No doubt of it, for there are fresh-water springs in 
Long Island Sound," and so we argued the time away 
until the railroad dumped us at a station called Ron- 
konkoma, and a stage took us through the sand and 
scrub oaks to The Towers, a hotel on the lake which has 
since been burned. 
Our first work was to find the depth of this lake which 
"had no bottotn," I had known of such lakes in Ver- 
mont and New Hampshire, where the hills are higher 
and the lakes are proportionally deep; but I also knew 
that when prying Fish Commissioners carefully sounded 
them they seldom found over looft. of water. I had 200ft. 
of thin linen codfish line, thin so as to better resist cur- 
rents and the drift of the boat, and this was carefully 
marked with white cord at every fathom, and blue at 
every five fathoms for ready reckoning. In the morn- 
ing a few ignorant natives winked and grinned at the 
idea of two duffers coming to their lake tp find out what 
they had never been able to find, but some more sensible 
ones saw us off and were willing to withhold their ver- 
dict. The water at this tiriie was up to the shrubbery on 
the shores, although my men, who had planted fish in the 
lake ^a few months before, reported the existence of a 
sandy beach of some 20 to 30ft. all around the lake. It 
was now near the last week in July, and Dr. Dean re- 
marked: "The seven years' tide seems to have come in 
a few weeks this year." 
"Yes, but we must reserve that question until after we 
sound the lake. These people here don't see how two 
strangers propose to find out more about this water in a 
week than they have learned in a lifetime, and they half 
resent our intrusion of their domain. They don't realize 
that they have been satisfied to catch fish in the depths 
and shallows, and where their fish lines found no bottom 
they were content with the tradition that there was no 
bottom. I have no faith in the tide theory, but we must 
not jump on them with both feet. If we don't find bot- 
tom at 2ooft. we'll get more line." 
The Doctor; I call him Doctor here because that is 
one of his titles, never mind what I call him on the lakes, 
but I have seen him in print as Dr. Ba.shford, Dean of 
Columbia College;" that's the penalty of bearing a sur- 
name which is also a title. Said he: "This is glorious! 
To get down among these musty old myths and tradi- 
tions and bust 'em." - ^ 
"Will you please give me the correct orthography of 
'bust,' and also please parse 'bust 'em?' " 
"With pleasure; the orthography and parts of speech 
are closely allied to the phrase which you used a moment 
ago, when you wanted the oars, and said: 'Gi' me um.' 
You will see that the boomerang can be used for other 
purposes than to kill a rabbit behind a bush," 
On a similar occasion Falstaff said: "No more of that, 
Hal, an' thou lovest me." We were not even, for there 
was a balance against me. 
We went around the lake and put flags at every lOoft., 
in order to sound at the intersecting lines. This took a 
whole day, and at night our troubles began. Time and 
again we explained that we had made no soundings, and 
as often we saw significant glances exchanged. The duf- 
fers had toiled all day and done nothing. That was very 
satisfactory to a few, but among those interested, who 
lived on the lake, were Mr. W. H. Warner, a maker 
of metal tubes for scientific instruments, and Hon. James 
R. Ferguson, a lawyer, To. -these gentlemen we ex- 
plained our day's work, 
The next day we began by guessing our distance at 
loOft. from the shore and sounding around the lake, and 
then, getting our ranges from north and east, sounded 
the lake at tlie intersection of all the lines until we came 
to a deep hole, which we worked out two days later. 
Two pounds of lead and a registering thermometer, 
weighing almost as much, told us that the lake' then had 
s depth averaging tsft. all oHr, with the exception of a 
deep hole in the southwestern part. This is about Sooft. 
from the shore, opposite the residence of Mr. H. B. 
Kirk, and the sides are shelving. This hole was prob- 
ably 20oft. long by 50ft. wide. I say proDably because 
our boat was not anchored, but drifted with the wind. 
The bottom was of clay, and was not deeper than 65ft., 
and the bottom temperature was 38 degrees Fahrenheit. 
The surface water was 88 ; the air nearly the same, while 
at the bottom of the sandy plain which formed the main 
body of the lake the thermometer registered 78. 
The next day we were to fish and to look up the other 
animal life before going into a hunt for aquatic vegeta- 
tion and the water-breeding insects, but just as we were 
about to put off for our work Judge Ferguson and some 
friends stopped us. Said the Judge: "Would you ob- 
ject to our using your sounding line in the deep hole 
while you are fishing?" 
"Glad to have you do it, Judge. We are only after 
facts and have no theories to sustain.- We will be glad 
to have you use our sounding line, arid when ydti get 
the deepest \vatcr just buoy the line and note the depth. 
We are satisfied with our soundings," 
There was a crowd at the landing when we came in 
before sundown. They looked the line over and talked, 
while we went up to the hotel. Then came Ferguson and 
others. The Judge said: "I don't doubt your measures, 
but the boys here can't believe 'em. They say they've put 
out over 300ft. of line and never touched bottom, and as 
I sounded with your line and took your measured 
fathoms as a standard I wish to ask if there is any ob- 
jection to letting our boys measure your line?" 
Dean said:"W^e will only be too glad to have you do it. 
It will help us much. We have no other object than to get 
at the truth. You have the number of fathoms marked 
<m our line, but I would prefer that you measure them 
with your own tape." 
W^e sat in the hotel when the party came back. "Your 
measure is all right," said Ferguson, "6sft. is the deepest 
water we could find." 
And then arose the bartender. I had not seen him be- 
fore. Said he: "This lake is over 500ft. deep, an' I know- 
it. W^hat's the use of you two fellers comin' down here 
for a few days an' tellin' us how deep it is. I guess we 
know our own covtntry better 'n you do. Why I killed 
three deer here last fall, an' if I hadn't been busy all sum- 
mer I'd 'a' caught more fish than all of these fancy fisher- 
men that come down here. But about that deep water; 
65ft. ain't half the depth of that hole, an' I'll bet $10 it 
ain't." 
We had mapped out the hole and sounded every 
s(iuare yard of it; obtained specimens of the clay from it. 
and recorded the temperature, and these things may be 
found in Eighteenth Report of the New York Fish Com- 
mission for the year ending Sept. 30, 1889. I replied: 
"I don't care to bet, but if there is deeper water than we 
have found we want to know it, and I will give you $10 
per foot for each foot you can show me above 70." 
"Golly, but I'll make about $50 offeu you to-morrow," 
he said, but he never demanded any money. The fact 
was that they had used >20z. sinkers and paid out line 
as the boat drifted, and thefe was "no bottom." The 
next thing to investigate was the mysterious seven-year 
tide. Our soundings had caused a commotion, and the 
billiard room was visited nightly to hear the news; we 
brought up the subject, and' the argument ran along 
after this fashion: . 
No. I — "You see it's this way: the tide rises for seven 
years, and then it takes just as long to fall, you see — " 
No. 2 — "No, you ain't got it right. I've allers heard 
that it took seven years to rise and fall, while in j'-our way 
it 'ud be fourteen years. It's just seven years since I 
rented my farm, an' the water was high then an' it's high 
now." 
No. 3— "That's so, Jo; I remember we went a-fishin' 
that year, an' you reached over to haul in a big bass an' 
plumped overboard, an' had to swim where we can wade 
at low water." 
To help along I remarked: "Last spring my men re- 
ported low water here, and they had to wade out to get 
into the boat." 
"You're right," said the bartender, "I helped 'em carry 
the cans." And then they waxed warm over it. No one 
had kept a record, but they resented my friend's sugges- 
tion that the annual ■ rainfall could influence the "tide" 
in any way, and they did not relish "our doubts about 
the ancient tradition any more than they did our finding 
less than 70ft. of water in a bottomless lake. 
We heard it night after night, and listened respect- 
fully, leaving them to fight it out, which they may be 
doing yet, ,We fished with flies, bait, tT"olling spoon and 
gill nets, and recorded the following species: Sunfish; 
both species of black bass; the small pike-perch, for 
which we have no poptilar name tmless it is sauger, 
which I have read, but never heard spoken, it is 5", cana- 
dense; bullheads; rock bass; yellow perch and mumi- 
chogs, or killies. Not a pike, pickerel nor a shiner. The 
latter would be a good fish for the others to feed upon. 
Our dredge brought us many mollusks, crustaceans and 
insrcJs, v/hich the Doctor accorded. Tiiese and the water 
plants amused those of the natives who had been an- 
noj'ed at our discoveries, and they "didn't see the use o' 
huntin' up little no-' count things like them," But we had 
a record of every bit of animal or vegetable life in the 
lake which was large enough to be held by the bolting 
cloth with which the miller sifts flour. 
Then we went to Riverhead to look ijito Great Pond. 
This is some miles from the village, but Mr. J. H. Per- 
kins not only put a boat on it for vis, but loaned us a 
horse and buggy each day. If they will stock this lake 
with black bass it will be a better lake for an angler than 
Ronkonkoma. It is mtich deeper and colder, the bottom 
springs being sufficient to sustain brook trout.* 
Flere we found the fresh-water mussel (Unio) the 
usual Long Island crustaceans and insects. Of plants 
