292 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Oct. 8, 1898. 
of it for themselves, and work the rest of it like a coal 
bank for "all there is in it," and it seems strange too if. 
such a state of things is permitted by the Quebec Gov- 
ernment. 
Until I see you, I am, as ever, yours, A. D. 
Ouananiche Stocking. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In view of the conflicting statements concerning the 
ouananiche in Lake St. John waters, the following notes 
may be of interest, having just returned from a fishing 
trip in that country: 
The waters of the Grande Descharge have been tor 
the past few years, so closely and constantly fished by 
visiting sportsmen that the size and number of the 
ouananiche show a very marked falling off. As is well 
known, the fish come down from the waters of the lake 
in great quantities in the spring, and stay there during 
the early part of the summer. In August, when I was 
there, there were still a few to be had, but they did 
not take the fly readily, and were for the most part fish 
running about three to a pound. 
The western side of the Descharge, where the chief 
pools are situated, in fact where four-fifths of the 
best ouananiche fishing in the Descharge is located, be- 
longed until this spring to William Alexander Griffith, 
of Quebec, one of the best known sportsmen m Can- 
ada. It was sold by him this spring to B. A. Scott, 
Mayor of Roberval, and has been fished during the 
summer bv the guests of the Hotel Roberval. 
In August the fish begin to move up the great rivers 
emptying into Lake St. John, to reach their spawning 
beds, and the best opportunities for river fishing are 
found in the large pools below the chutes. The fishing 
rights of these rivers, and of many of the adjoining 
lakes, belong to Mr. H, J. Beemer. and are used in con- 
nection with his hotel at Roberval. Mr. Beemer has 
very wisely determined to withdraw from free fishing 
one of these rivers, the Metabetchouan, and retain it as 
a reserve, where the ouananiche can spawn freely, and 
keep up the supply in the lake. 
A fish hatchery has also been established not far from 
Roberval on the Ouiatchouan River, and a fishculturist, 
Mr. R. E. Follett, placed in charge. Several attempts 
having been made by netting in the mouth of the 
Metabetchouan to secure a sufficient number of spawning 
fish for the hatchery, with only partial success, Mr. Fol- 
lett determined to obtain the necessary fish by sending 
them down the river alive in crates from the upper 
pools. 
On the 28th day of August, 1898, Mr. Follett and the 
writer went for this purpose to the third pool in the 
Metabetchouan, and camped there on a small island.- The 
location was an ideal one, as the banks of the river 
rise to a height of over 100ft, forming above and 
below a narrow and almost impassable gorge, through 
which the river runs in a series of rapids. We had 
with us three crates, about 3ft. square and ij^ft. in 
thickness, to hold the fish. This pool had only been 
fished twice before during the season, and there seemed- 
to be practically no end to ouananiche of a large size in 
it. Fishing from a little after noon until dark, the fol- 
lowing was our catch: 
M. G. — Sixteen fish weighing in pounds, 4. 3^, 4 1 /?, 
4, 4. 4. SVa, 3, 4, 3, 3 l A. 4- 4. 4, 3Yz, 4- R. E. F.— Twelve 
fish weighing in pounds, 4, 4, 5, 4, 6, 4, 4, zYz, 4, 4>4, 
3, 3; and six unweighed fish of about the same size. 
In addition to this, the guide took one of 3^41bs., and 
several fish were hooked and lost in landing, one of them 
being apparently rather larger than any of the above. 
In fact, a fish taken from the same place some two weeks 
previous by an English sportsman, Col. Andrew Hag- 
gard, weighed, I understand, over 7j41bs. 
Any doubt that may have lingered in my mind as to 
the propriety of referring to the ouananiche as a sal- 
mon was dispelled by the way these large fish acted. 
They took the fly under water, bored, ran and leaped 
precisely like the Atlantic salmon. The leaping, of 
course, was far freer, more frequent and relatively higher 
than the leaping of salmon. Some of them in fact came 
out of the water to a height of 3 or 4ft. six, eight, nine 
and even ten times. Some of the fish, possibly a third 
of them, did not leap at all. 
I had never had fishing to compare with this after- 
noon's sport, and when dusk came I laid aside my 
rod for the first time in my life with a feeling of suffi- 
ciency. 
These fish were handled in every instance with the 
utmost care, and transferred alive to the crates, and 
were so far uninjured that the next morning only one fish 
out of the thirty odd in the crates was found dead, the 
others being in exceedingly good condition. The next 
morning, at daylight, we started the crates down the 
rapids with the assistance of ropes and fending poles. 
The work of getting them clear of the rocks below the 
main pool was terrific. No wooden structure, however, 
could stand the pounding against the rocks that these 
crates received in the swift water, and when they 
emerged from the rapids in the quieter waters of the 
second pool one of them was found hopelessly knocked 
out of shape, although the fish were still in it." The fish 
were beginning to show signs of exhaustion from the 
shaking up they received, but we fixed up the crate 
as well as we could and started them down the next 
rapid. At the last pool the broken crate was found 
to be entirely destroyed, only one end of it remaining, 
and the fish, of course, had escaped in the river. The 
two remaining crates showed signs of weakness, but we 
again repaired them, and with their living contents 
started them down the long rapid, some miles in length, 
to the mouth of the river. Mr. Follett and I hurried 
down the portage, and on arriving at the foot of the 
rapids found one crate with its end broken off, and the 
fish gone. 
The third and remaining crate was found later in the 
afternoon half a mile higher up the river lodged be- 
tween some rocks in midstream. The fish were in such 
an exhausted condition that only immediate release could 
save their lives, so the expedition ended with three 
broken crates and no fish. 
The impracticability of obtaining live fish in this 
manner having been thoroughly demonstrated, an arti- 
ficial retaining pool was decided as the best substitute. 
It will be built close to where the fish were taken, and 
the spawning fish will be placed there until they are 
ready to be stripped. The eggs can then be transferred 
overland to the hatchery on the Ouiatchouan River. 
Mr. Beemer is entitled to the support of all sports- 
men in his effort to preserve this finest of fighting 
fish from its threatened extinction. He is using every 
effort to do away with the nets, which in the past have 
been freely used in St, John waters, and is trying to 
limit the destructiveness of sawmills, which are to-day 
the greatest menace to the inland fishing interests of 
Canada, and, owing to the character of the Govern- 
ment in Quebec, it seems to be impossible to enforce the 
laws against throwing sawdust into the fish-bearing 
waters, where it spreads over and utterly destroys the 
spawning beds. 
I understand it is the intention of Mr. Beemer to 
establish a great game park in the neighborhood of 
Lake St. John. This would be a great boon to hunting 
interests, as the land is of no value for any other pur- 
pose. Mr, Beemer is talking, however, of introducing 
various European game animals, so-called, such as the 
boar and Scottish stag. Leaving aside the probability 
of failure and the certainty of great expense in an 
attempt of this sort, it is, in my opinion, a great mistake 
to attempt to introduce animals foreign to the Canadian 
woods. The American game animals native to these 
witds are in every way superior to their European con- 
geners of to-day, as the latter have deteriorated in size 
and stamina through long years of close inbreeding. 
Why anyone should wish to supplant our native 
moose with the European elk, our woodland caribou 
with the Lapland reindeer, or why anyone should want 
an European wild boar as a game animal under any 
circumstances, I never have been able to understand. J 
trust, however, that the proposed enterprise will not be 
marred by any such mistaken ideas. The project of 
fencing, stocking and protecting many hundred square 
miles of wild land in the Province of Quebec is suffi- 
ciently vast without complicating it by introducing ani- 
mals unsuited to the country. Madison Grant. 
The Origin of the American 
Fisheries Society. 
[A paper read by Livingston Stone before tbe American Fisheries 
Society at Omaha. J 
On the first day of November, 1870, the following call 
was sent to various persons who were known to be in- 
terested in the culture of trout: 
"The undersigned, desirous of promoting the interests 
of fishculture, call a convention of pisciculturists, at the 
Skating Rink, City of New York, Dec. 20, 1870, at 11 
o'clock A. M. 
"The design of the convention is consultation for the 
protection of our interests, and, if thought best, to 
organize a permanent association. 
(Signed) "W. Clift, 
"A. S. Collins, 
"J. H. Black, 
"F. Mather, 
"L. Stone. 
"Mystic Bridge, Conn., Nov. 1, 1S70." 
This was the very first step taken toward the forming 
of the American Fish Culturists' Association, now known 
as the American Fisheries Society. 
The prime mover in the issuing of this call was Rev. 
Mr. W. M. Clift, of Connecticut, who was carrying on 
at that time a large fish and stock farm at Mystic Bridge. 
It is undoubtedly true that the •chief motive for issuing 
the call was, as the call plainly states, a desire to do 
something for the protection of the interests of fishcultur- 
ists. It is also true that from the very first moment of 
the assembling of the meeting, as will be seen later 
on, the mere pecuniary interests of fishculturists became a 
secondary consideration. It should be stated here, by 
way of explanation, that the term "fishculturist" at that 
time meant trout breeder, for there were then no prac- 
tical fishculturists in this country except the trout 
breeders, and it may also be added that trout breeding 
meant the raising of the brook trout, or speckled trout, 
of New England and New York, now. I think, generally 
known all over the world by its Latin cognomen, fonti- 
nalis. The call was accordingly addressed particularly to 
those engaged in the raising of trout. 
It is true that the State of New Hampshire had 
created a fish commission six years before, and the ex- 
ample had been followed by several other States. The 
Fish Commission of Massachusetts had already con- 
tributed to the world, through its reports, some of 
the most valuable information ever published on the sub- 
ject of fishculture. Seth Green had already done suc- 
cessful work in hatching shad, the writer had built and 
operated a large salmon hatchery in New Brunswick, 
various States had experimented successfully on nar- 
row lines in propagating other fish than trout, but the 
extensive and varied work of the United States Fish 
Commission, created a year later, had not then begun, 
and hatching work in this country on all other fish than 
brook trout (S. fontinalis) had. up to that time, been 
experimental rather than practical, so that fishculture 
not only meant trout culture, but trout culture meant 
the breeding of the fontinalts, or brook trout. 
It was to brook trout breeders, therefore, that the 
above-mentioned call was issued, and the object of the 
call was to form an association for the protection of 
their commercial interests. But upon the assembling 
of the meeting, it became apparent at once that some- 
thing altogether broader and less personal was in the 
minds of those present, and I think I can truly say 
that that which I may perhaps term the selfish feature 
of the call scarcely ever showed itself at all in the meet- 
ing. From the very beginning of the meeting the little 
group of men assembled appeared to be actuated more 
by an earnest and generous interest in the cause of fish- 
culture than by a desire to promote private ends. The 
spirit that prevailed seems to me to have been that 
which has characterized the meetings of the association 
ever since. It was comprehensive rather than nar- 
row, devoted rather than self-seeking, and good will to 
all prevailed over sordid feelings of competition with 
each other. If I remember rightly, hardly a word was 
said about regulating the prices of fishculturists' prod- 
ucts or increasing the pecuniary profits of the business. 
Not a resolution bearing upon the pecuniary side of the 
subject was passed. It seems as if this handful of pio- 
neers had a foresight of greater and better things. At 
all events, if the pecuniary considerations had any- 
thing to do with prompting the call for the meeting, they 
had no place in the meeting itself. The meeting having 
come to order, and a temporary chairman and secretary 
having been chosen, it was voted at once and unanimous- 
ly to form a permanent organization, and Dr. Ed- 
monds and the writer were appointed a committee to 
draft a constitution. Each member of the committee 
presented a separate form for a constitution, the one 
offered by the. writer being the one finally adopted. 
As the records of the early meetings of the society 
have been lost, it may not be out of place to present 
here the original constitution, as it was adopted at the 
time of the organization of the society. It is as fol- 
lows: 
CONSTITUTION. 
ARTICLE I. 
Name and Objects. 
The name of this Society shall be "The American Fish Cul- 
turists' Association." Its objects shall be to promote the cause 
of fishculture; to gather and diffuse information bearing upon its 
practical success; the interchange of friendly feeling and inter- 
course among the members of the Association; the uniting and 
encouraging of the individual interests of fishculturists. 
ARTICLE. II. 
Members. 
All fishculturists shall, upon a two-thirds vote of the Society 
and a payment of three dollars, be considered members of the 
Association, after signing the Constitution. 
The CommiBsioners of the various States shall be honorary 
members of the Association., ex-offieio. 
ARTICLE III. 
Officers. 
The officers of the Association shall be a president, a secretary 
and a treasurer, and shall be elected annually by a majority vote. 
Vacancies occurring during the year may be filled by the presi- 
dent. 
ARTICLE IV. 
Meetings. 
The regular meetings of the Association shall be held once a 
year, the time and place being decided upon at the previous 
meeting. 
ARTICLE V. 
Changing the Constitution. 
The Constitution of the Society may be amended, 'altered or re- 
pealed by a two-thirds vote of the members present at any regular 
meeting. 
It is rather interesting to note how few changes have 
been introduced into the original constitution during 
the twenty-eight years of the Society's existence. 
It is also sad to note how few of those who took part 
in the organization of the Association have lived to see 
its growth. There is no one now living, I think, except 
Dr. Edmonds, then Fish Commissioner of Vermont, and 
the writer who were present at this first meeting, or 
who took an active part in the organization of the 
Society. 
A report of the meeting of organization that appeared 
in the New York Citizen — which, by the way, was the 
paper of Hon. Robt, B. Roosevelt, who afterward be- 
came, such an ardent and influential supporter of the 
Association — reads as follows: 
"The constitution having been adopted, the following 
officers were chosen for the ensuing year: W. Clift, 
Mystic Bridge, Conn., President; Livingston Stone, 
Charlestown, N. H., Secretary; B. F. Bowles, Spring- 
field, Mass., Treasurer. 
"It was then moved that an effort be made to secure 
an exhibition of live fish at the next meeting, and that 
the following gentlemen be requested to prepare papers, 
to be read at the next meeting, on the subjects annexed 
to their names: A. S. Collins, on 'Spawning Races 
and the Impregnation of Eggs'; J. H. Slack, on 'The 
Culture of Black Bass'; W. Clift, on 'The Culture of 
Shad'; Dr. Edmonds, on 'The Introduction of Salmon 
into American Rivers'; B. F. Bowles, on 'Landlocked 
Salmon'; 'Dr. Huntington, on 'Fish in the North Woods 
of New York'; Livingston Stone, on 'The Culture of 
Trout.' 
"It was decided to hold the next meeting and ex- 
hibition in connection with the New York Poultry 
Show, next year. It was voted to send a report of the 
meeting for publication to the New York Citizen and 
Round Table, the New York Tribune, the Springfield 
Republican, the New York Poultry Bulletin, and other 
papers at discretion; and the secretary was instructed 
to mail the published reports to fishculturists generally." 
following is an account of the first annual meeting of 
the Association, taken from a New York paper, of 
Feb. 8, 1872: 
"At the afternoon session yesterday the following 
officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, 
Wm. Clift; Treasurer, B. F. Bowles; Secretary, Livings- 
ton Stone; Executive Committee, Seth Green, J. D. 
Bridgman and A. C. Rupe. 
"A paper was read by A. S. Collins, on spawning 
races and the impregnation of eggs; a paper by W. 
Clift, on the culture of shad, and a paper by Dr. Ed- 
monds, on the introduction of salmon into American 
rivers'. 
"A box of a hundred trout eggs that Mr. Stone had 
taken by the Russian or dry method were examined, and 
97 per cent, were found to be impregnated. The inter- 
est of the meeting was very much increased by remarks 
interspersed during the intervals by Seth Green. 
"At the evening session B. F. Bowles read a paper on 
'Trout m the North Woods,' and L. Stone read a paper 
on 'Trout Culture.' Discussion ensued on the dry 
method of impregnation, and the expression of those 
who had used the method was in its favor. _G. S. Page 
moved that a memorial be presented to Congress for a 
more general distribution of ova throughout the coun- 
try, and the motion was carried. 
"Interesting remarks were made by Hon. Horatio 
Seymour on fishculture. * * * He suggested that 
an effort be made to learn more in regard to fishculture 
in China and Japan, and also to obtain desirable varieties 
of the fish of those countries, and introduce them into 
the United States. In pursuance of the suggestions, 
Mr. G S. Page and 1 the president, Mr. Clift, were 
appointed a committee to communicate with various 
foreign countries and take measures for an interchange 
of fish with those countries. 
"Gov. Seymour and Livingston Stone were appointed 
