Oct. 8, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
293 
a committee to take charge of the publication of the 
proceedings of the Association. 
"To-day's Proceedings.— The Association met at 10 
o'clock this morning (Feb. 8, 1872), President Clift in 
the chair. Some routine business was transacted, when 
the following resolutions were offered: 
"1. To petition the Government to establish two or 
more fish hatching establishments— on Puget's Sound 
and the Atlantic Coast. 
"2. To seek foreign exchanges. 
3. For a permanent fish exhibition in Central Park. 
"4. That the headquarters of the Association be at 
No. 10 Warren street, New York, where the next meet- 
ing, in February, 1873, will be held. 
"5. Recommendations to all States to encourage fish- 
culture. 
"Messrs. Dr. Streeter, of New York; S. Wilmont, of 
Canada, and S. F. Band, of Washington, were made 
honorary members. 
"After miscellaneous business, the Association ad- 
journed." 
Permit me to close this somewhat lengthy paper with 
some extracts from the report of my own work as secre- 
tary, during the first year of the existence of the Asso- 
ciation: 
"Circulation of Last Year's Report.— In order 
that the meeting of practical fishculturists in New York, 
Dec. 20, 1870, the first in the way of organization in 
this country, might be generally known, a copy of the 
report of the meeting was sent to all the leading news- 
papers in New England and New York, and to some 
further West and South, and also to nearly 200 practical 
fishculturists in various parts of the country. 
"I am happy to say that the newspapers in almost 
every instance printed the report in full, or noticed it in 
some way. 
"The Agassiz Circulars. — For some time previous 
to the meeting on organization, I held a correspondence 
with Professor Agassiz on topics relating to fishculture, 
in the course of which the Professor mentioned a labor 
in which he is now engaged, of preparing an illustrated 
work of all the sahnonida; of this continent, showing 
the variations of age, sex, locality, and the like; and 
after the formation of the Association he suggested 
that the Association should use its influence in furnish- 
ing material for this work. * * * 
"I consequently take the liberty here to remind you 
that this is a most valuable work which Professor 
Agassiz is undertaking, and one which will be unsur- 
passed by anything of its kind in the world, and I 
warmly commend it to the attention and interest of the 
members of the Association. 
"Mr. Agassiz cannot finish his work unless the re- 
quisite material is furnished him, and the members of 
this Society and all interested cannot do the dis- 
tinguished naturalist a greater kindness, nor the cause 
of fishculture a better service, than by sending him, as 
opportunity permits, specimens of the various individ- 
uals of the salmo family. * * * 
"The St. Lawrence River Correspondence. — Dur- 
ing the session of the High Joint Commission at Wash- 
ington last spring, I received a letter from Hon. Stephen 
H. Ainsworth, asking me, as secretary of the Asso- 
ciation, to request our State Congressional delegation to 
use their influence with the commissioners to adopt 
some measure toward removing the obstructions in -the 
River St. Lawrence which prevent the salmon from 
ascending its tributaries. I accordingly wrote to our 
New Hampshire Senators and Representatives on the 
subject." Of the correspondence which resulted, I will 
merely offer here one letter, and this chiefly because 
the name of the distinguished writer has been recently 
brought to the country's attention by the death of his 
son and namesake in the famous charge of the heroic 
Rough Riders in Cuba: 
"Department of State, Washington, April 20, 1871. — 
Hon. E. A. Hibbard, House of Representatives — Sir: 
In answer to your note referring to a communication 
from Mr. Stone, on the subject of salmon fisheries in the 
tributaries to the St. Lawrence, I have the honor to 
say that Mr. Stone's letter was one of many interesting 
communications on the same subject. 
"As the obstacles to the free access of the salmon to 
these rivers are matters within the control of local or 
provincial legislatures of the British colonies, I have 
brought the subject and laid several of the letters in- 
formally before Sir John Macdonald, from whom I 
understand that the obstructions complained of are 
prohibited by the Canadian laws, and that the authori- 
ties are constant in their efforts to prevent them from 
being placed in the river, and patrol the river for that 
purpose, but find it very difficult to prevent the violation 
of the laws on the subject. He has taken the letters, and 
assures me that no efforts will be wanting to prevent 
or punish future violations. Very respectfully yours, 
"Hamilton Fish." 
"New Members.- — -In the course of the year I took 
occasion to write to most of the practical fishculturists 
of this country, whose acquaintance I had made by cor- 
respondence or otherwise, to the number of about 200, 
extending to them an invitation to join the Association. 
These letters met with various replies, some few were 
not answered at all, but they were, on the whole, well 
received, and the replies in most cases contained ex- 
pressions of interest in the prosperity of the Asso- 
ciation. * * * 
"The notification circular of the present meeting was 
sent to all professional and amateur fishculturists whose 
names were in my possession, and to the fisheries com- 
missioners of the various States, and was generally 
noticed in the newspapers and agricultural periodicals. 
"In conclusion I will merely add that in the course 
of the year I have mailed 500 letters on business of the 
Association, and nearly 1,000 circulars and papers. 
Livingston Stone, 
"Albany, Feb. T, IS72." "Secretary A. F. C. A." 
The next annual meeting of the Association was held 
about a year later, but the Association was no longer in 
its infancy. It was now on a firm foundation, and has 
since continued to grow in strength and favor. 
Livingston Stone. 
The Forest and Stkeam is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday, and as much earlier us practicable. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Illinois Fish Commission. 
Ctitcaco, 111., Sept. 30— The work of the Illinois 
Fish Commission in seining out young fish from the 
shallow waters of the Illinois River bottoms has received 
frequent comment as being one of the most practical 
forms of fishculture which can possibly be employed. 
All through the late summer the commission has been 
at this work in Lake Barlow and similar waters, near 
Me red o.s fa, and by this time the black bass taken have 
attained a size which insures their life after transporta- 
tion to their new homes. These great breeding grounds 
along the Illinois bottoms have no equal in the West. 
It is stated that a black bass will in one year attain a 
size in the Illinois River waters which it takes it four 
years to acquire in the Minnesota lakes. This is based 
on the experiment of a Minnesota angler, who tagged 
1.200 bass, which he put in Lake Miltona, Minn. At the 
end of five years they had not attained anything like the 
size of the Illinois fish, which were known to have had 
only one season's growth. The work of the Illinois 
commission is elaborately described in one of the Quincy 
newspapers, which is sent to this office. I observe that 
Dr. Bartlett still asserts that the introduction of the 
German carp has not proved harmful to the bass, but 
that both bass and carp have largely increased in num- 
bers, the bass taking very kindly to the carp when in the 
young and tender stage. 
Indiana Fish Commission. 
The State Fish Commissioner of Indiana is known as 
Elder Sweeney. He is a pastor of the Christian Church 
at Columbus, Ind., and formerly represented the United 
States as consul-general at Constantinople. He has 
served as fish commissioner for two years, and de- 
serves credit for what he has done. The State of In- 
diana allows its commission but a few hundred dollars 
each year with which to pay all its bills. Even with 
hands thus tied, Mr. Sweeney has effected a great deal 
during his term of office. He considers that dynamiting 
is the most destructive form of illegal fishing. He 
favors a three-year law, which shall, during that term, 
abolish the buying or selling, or transporting for sale, 
any game fish taken within the limits of Indiana, 
Fishing. 
The fall fishing season is now in full swing, and the 
big-mouths are biting finely in the lake region of upper 
Illinois and lower Wisconsin, as well as in the streams 
below this city in Illinois and Indiana. September has 
been a very successful month in this part of the West 
this year, and enjoyed by no one more than the anglers. 
The muscallonge season of Wisconsin has been good, 
especially in the fall. I note that John P. Murphy 
landed a 321b. 'lunge at the Fifield lakes last week. The 
season at Lakota has been a good one, and at Mercer 
and Manitowish, Fay Buck's country, the fish are now 
biting well. At the Kabekona Camp country the mus- 
callonge are "just beginning to wake up," as Manager 
Eber Smith writes. On Sept. 23 the following fish were 
brought in at that point: E. A. Charles, four fish, 21, 
25, 28 and 34lbs. ; W. C. Gillespie and A. E. Walter, of 
Chicago, six fish, 20, 18, 23, 21, 22 and 2albs. W. H. 
Gatnbool, Cedar Rapids, la., three muscallonge. Mr. 
Clarence I. Peck and family, of Chicago, were at this 
point last week, and they caught several nice fish, 
10^4, 12^4, 20 and 27lbs. Mr. Peck's nine-year-old son 
caught two fish, of 20 and 2ilbs. He writes very en- 
thusiastically of the sport. Mr. George F. Jennings, at 
the same point, last week caught two 'lunge of 18 and 
22lbs. The above weighs run into a very heavy aver- 
age, and it would indeed seem as though the 'lunge were 
"wakin"- up" in Minnesota. 
About Mosquito Dope. 
Last week I mentioned a mosquito done, the formu- 
la of which was given by a gentleman of Kalamazoo, 
Mich. To-day he writes me to add the following cau- 
tion : 
"In writing you the other day about mosquito dope, I 
omitted to say that the tar and pennyroyal mixture 
should not be carried in the creel, as it is liable to give 
the trout a lasting and disagreeable flavor, as I know 
by experience. White vaseline 2oz., oil cedar 24oz., 
oil pennyroyal ?4oz,, makes a nice looking, clean repel- 
lant for mosquitoes, etc., quite similar to a preparation 
sold by a well-known New York firm. This preparation 
is not as efficient as the tar mixture." 
Minnesota Bass. 
Deputy Warden Stephens and four friends fished 
last Tuesday in Lake Lydia, one of the Detroit chain of 
lakes in Minnesota, They took sixty bass in a forenoon, 
or about a dozen bass apiece, and then quit, on the 
basis that they had had fun enough for one day. The 
fish were all small-mouths and averaged 2j41bs. each. 
In Indiana. 
This is the way the Ledger,- of Noblesville, gets after 
Rev. Dr. Sweeney, State Fish Commissioner of the 
State of Indiana: 
"State Fish Commissioner Sweeney has been over at 
Anderson smelling around the strawboard works and 
'smelt a mouse.' He will probably institute suit against 
the works over there for polluting White River, much 
to the inconvenience and discomfort of the festive chubs 
and shiners that claim that stream as their home. If Rev. 
Sweeney would pay more attention to the divine mis- 
sion to which he seems to be called, and less attention 
to the interests of the sporting fraternity, the world 
would probably get along just as well." 
It seems to me that is a pretty poor way of treating 
a man who is trying to do his duty in the work which 
he has undertaken, no matter whether that be preaching 
the gospel or arresting law breakers. The world will 
get along just as well with a little more fair-mindedness 
than the writer of that paragraph seems to have. It is a " 
thankless task enough that Mr. Sweeney has with the 
appropriation at his disposal, and the decent folk of his 
State ought to help him and not hurt him. 
By the way, speaking of Anderson, Ind., does it not 
seem to be a sort of dark and bloody ground around 
there? In the News, of that city, I observe a distinct 
squirm of some unknown citizen who signs himself 
Fair Play, (Is it not a singular thing that the biggest 
liar will usually sign himself Truth, and the most lone- 
some citizen call himself Vox Populi, and the most un- 
fair man designate himself Justice or Fair Play, in these 
anonymous contributions of the spleen?) Well, Fair 
Play thinks it is all wrong about stopping the netting 
in Fall Creek, which is one of the streams where illegal 
work of that nature has been detected. He goes on to 
say: 
"We desire to give notice through your caper to those 
whom it may concern that the people of Adams township 
are now determined not to be imposed upon any longer 
by fine-haired fellows that desire to put a construction 
on the fish and game laws of the State of Indiana. 
They seem to think that they are privileged characters. 
They will find out different. They will try to keep 
men from fishing and hunting on their own land, which 
they pay taxes on, and those very same, fellows, includ- 
ing lawyers, doctors, judges and county officers, will 
come to Fall Creek with their fishing outfit and their 
guns and dogs, and try to make a clean sweep of the 
game, regardless of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, women 
or children, fences, men's rights or anything else. If a 
farmer attempts to catch a mess of fish or kill a bird, 
then, oh! what a howl from some of those goody-goody 
fellows. The time has come that these things will not 
be tolerated any longer. * * * If the business, men 
of Anderson will permit things to go on thus, without 
objections, men who are expecting our patronage, should 
we not turn our trade in another direction? Now a 
word to those trespassers: If neither law nor kind words 
will prevail we will try what virtue there is in stones, and 
if that will not do some M. D. will have a job of ex- 
tracting something that has still more weight." 
There is a certain fine American ring about the fore- 
going declaration of independence which rather pleases 
me. It reminds me of a conversation 1 once heard be- 
tween a neighbor in our town and another neighbor, a 
grocer by the name of Work, who had a dog which liked 
spring chickens — a predilection which I am sure any just 
and accurate taste must ratify. The first neighbor was a 
German originally, and he couldn't talk very well in 
United States, though he made his meaning clear. 
"Billverk," he said, "you Billverk, of you dondt geep 
dot dog by your own hause, by chracious I dondt buy 
any schucker mit you, und I got some pizen und shoou 
urn." Yet my recollection is that both "Billverk" and 
his dog lived to a ripe old age. E. Hough. 
1200 Boyce Building, Chicago, 111. 
Newfoundland Salmon. 
St. John's, Newfoundland, Aug. 20. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Just a line from an old contributor. This 
is the first day of the snipe shooting in the colony, and 
it has been raining hard since early morning. I have 
been out after the long bills, and a most ridiculous ac- 
cident has sent me home. I had shot five snipe, and 
was getting my hand in quite satisfactorily, when an 
ominous crack, I found that my suspender had burst and 
all, to use a sailor's expressive phrase, was coming down 
by the run, stockings as well as pantaloons. I tried 
all sorts of absurd expedients to manufacture garters 
out of rushes and twigs, but all failed, and to shoot 
with your garments all falling about you in pouring 
rain, the situation at last became simply impossible, so 
I was fain to take the wagon and come home. The 
downpour destroyed all the pleasure of shooting, and 
now, after this little episode, let me say a word about 
the salmon fishing. All your readers know about the 
caribou shooting in Newfoundland. The interior of this 
country is a vast deer park, where the lordly stags 
wander at their own sweet will, unmolested by man. 
Hitherto our salmon fishing has not been held of much 
account; we have hundreds of salmon rivers, their repu- 
tation, I am bound to admit, was vastly inferior to the 
grand streams of New Brunswick and Quebec. This 
season an extraordinary change has taken place; up to 
last month, with the exception of one 251b. salmon 
caught by a naval officer in one of our northern rivers, 
no big fish had ever been captured with the rod. Last 
month, in Harry's Brook, flowing into St. George Bay, 
Mr. Ernest Whiteway, son of Sir W. V. Whiteway, 
killed one splendid fish weighing over 35lbs., and sev- 
eral more have been taken in the same stream from I7lbs. 
down to grilse, 3 to 5lbs. An American tobacco mer- 
chant from the Southern States, A. W. Howell, did very 
well on the grand River Codroy; his take was 75plbs., 
ranging from 17 to 7 or Slbs., with plenty of grilse and 
sea trout. Another American, Dr. Robt. T. Morris, of 
your city, has had splendid sport on the upper waters of 
the Humber, the beautiful river that flows into the far- 
famed Bay of Islands, in the words of the art critic 
of the Century Magazine, the most picturesque coast 
scenery in America. 
All these beautiful salmon streams are now accessible 
from the railway, the line runs by them. Camp and 
canoe can be carried right to their banks, and supplies 
and letters forwarded to sportsmen thrice each way 
every week. Our party had excellent grilse fishing on 
Codroy, grand river, one of the most picturesque 
streams in America. Mr. Howell is building a house 
here for next season's sport. In a word, the new play- 
ground of America, now brought within the railway 
system of America, will soon become as celebrated for 
its fishing as it is now for its shooting. Pullman and 
palace cars are now complete, even to the familiar dusky 
conductor. 
I have not mentioned that the season for fishing 
varies. In the northern rivers sport begins in July; in 
the southern rivers it commences in June. To the 
salmon fisher trout of all kinds are only "small deer." 
Brown are everywhere, and are simply innumerable. 
Sea trout come up the rivers in great shoals, and gener- 
ally remain for some time in deep pools. Loch Leven 
and rainbow trout imported from Scotland and Cali- 
fornia have done exceedingly well, and around St. 
John's specimens have been caught up to 7lbs. 
D, W. Prowse. 
