14 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 7, jBgg. 
them ito the water, unharmed. I counted seventy-one 
dogfish in this haul, and they were from 3 to Sft. long, 
Ot course, some of these beasts had been taken on other 
hauls, but not in such numbers. I recommended a club 
about a foot long, with a sharp spike in the end to pierce 
the brain, but it's easier to let them go alive; never 
mind the future, after us the deluge! That view is corn- 
mon to all net iisliermenj we want fish to-day; there'll 
be plenty more lo-morrow. 
And now Dr. Dean was busy. This was the time of 
year, the last of September, when the dogfish were bear- 
ing young, and they would leave our coast for the south 
in a few weeks. He selected two of the largest females, 
opened them and found embryos from 3 to sin, long, 
One fish had four on one side and three on the other, 
v-hile the other had OJie less on each side; averaging six 
young each. The embryos were quite well formed, and. 
as is the case with most fishes, the eyes were well devcj- 
oped. There was no way at hand to preserve these speci- 
mens, and the Doctor arranged to .send alcohol to Bob 
and have him put up a lot before the dogfish left the 
coast. The uext morning was Thursday, one of the days 
to be in Freeport with fish for the peddlers, and the 
boxes were not full, although the dogfish haul of yester- 
day had panned out well, for the dogfish had gathered 
where there was food, as the vultures do, but the crew 
got off ar 4 A. M.. before daydight, and made a haul or 
two, but the wind died down and they did not get to 
ihe cottage until 10. Then breakfast, and we left with 
them. 
At the railway Bob called out: "Better send the alco- 
hol down at once, for we don't" get dogfish every day. 
^laior, I'll send you up some soft-rock crabs as soon as 
cold weather sets in and — " but the engine whistle blew 
as the train rumbled put, and the rest wa:^ lost, 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Salmon Casting. 
Experience teaches the angler much that is not put 
down in the angling books, excellent as they may be, 
and it is often the little things, not of sul^cient im- 
portance for n:ention in a text-book, that may add to or 
take away from an angler's success when pursuing his 
favorite sport. 
■ A very reliable American book upon salmon fishing 
w'ill tell the fisherman to lengthen his cast on the right 
or left of the canoe wdien casting at right angles to 
the direction of the current (by the way, I never ha^ e 
seen an angler cast directly at a right angle to the 
direction of the current, but rather at about an angle of 
45 degrees), and always to lengthen the cast on the 
same side of the canoe. Many fishermen do this; in fact, 
I do it myself, always kngthening the cast on my left. 
Last June, while fishing the Restigouche River, I had 
for one day an old Scotchman in the stern of the canoe, 
and after casting for some hours I asked him if he could 
cast, and he said a little. So T gave hiai my rod and 
proceeded to fill my pipe and rest my weak right shoul- 
der. When the pipe was lighted, I settled back to ob- 
serve the man's casting, whicl: was of a quality to show 
that a salmon rod was not a new weapon to him. and 
I noticed that he lengthened his cast directly behind the 
canoe, working the lly persistently fairly in line with the 
canoe before making a cast to the right or left. The 
more I watched him the more I became satisfied that 
he was right, and that I was wrong, and it was better to 
lengthen the cast always directly down stream be- 
hind the canoe rather than on the right or left 
casts. Afterward I found that one of the best 
native fishermen on the river did the same thing. 
It may be said that there is little if any difference 
in the result if one casts true whether the line is length- 
ened behind the canoe or at an angle on the right or left, 
but the former looks more workmanlike in comparison. 
When I took the rod in my own hands agahi I killed two 
fish, and as it happened both were struck as I was 
■working the fly behind the canoe after lengthening the 
line, and one fish came from quite a distance on one 
side of the fly to get it, but that is not the point. 
When the Jinv is lengtliened behind the canoe the fly 
is pidling straight with the tip of the uplifted rod, and 
when lengthened at the side just before the line is re- 
covered the fly is di-awing on a rod held at 45 degrees 
on one side of the canoe and the pull is not so direct. If 
there is a "slobber cast" at all it is on the angles after 
lengthening the line, but when the line is lengthened 
liehind the canoe and worked over a space 5 or 6ft. wide 
before recovering the angler knows just the amount of 
line he must handle. The difference between the two 
styles appears to bo very slight, and so it is, but after 
trying both I rather like the old Scotchman's method, 
who, by the way, was a better caster than gaffer. Mr. 
J. W. Burdick. of Albany, and T were the guests of Mr. 
Archibald Mitchell, of Norwich, C'nnn.. and we were fi h- 
ing the Alford water. Mr. Burdick had hooked a fish 
of 32^1bs. above me, and had passed down river, his 
fish on one side of me and his canoe on the other, into 
the fog, which shut him off from my view. Soon after 
Mr. Burdick had disappeared I hooked a 26j-^lbs. fish, 
and put on the pressure to kill him quickly and get back 
to my fishing before Mr. B. should return. I asked the 
old Scotchman if he could gaff from the canoe, and he 
said yes. When I drew the fish to his gaff he simply 
raked him up the side with the steel, and the fish was off 
down stream, apparently as fresh as at_ first. Again I 
brought the salmon to the gaff, and again he was raked 
up the side and ran under the canoe, the leader drawing- 
across the gaffer's neck, but he did not move, and T 
cleared the line before the fish had fairly got up steam 
to run for the Dawson water below. As I brought the 
fish up for the third tmie, I said. "A.t least put the canoe 
where the fish cannot run under it if you miss again." 
That remark did the business, and the steel went home. 
Both fish killed that afternoon were killed on a Durham- 
ranger. I Ifad fished all the morning without a rise, 
and at noon Mr. Alford asked what I had been using, 
and I said. "Jock-Scott and du.sty -miller," and he said, 
"This is great water for the Durham-ranger; try one 
tliii afteluocji." The iirtt fish rose 'iliorL U) the rangei 
and would not botne %aifi, a:ii'd 1 tried him with various 
Alias after resting him, and finally ptit the Durham- 
ranger back on the cast and got the fish on first cast. 
A Grand Day on Grand Cascapcdia. 
On my way home from the Restigouche I found 
that a friend. Mr. James Barnes Baker, was at the 
Restigouche Club, but when I arrived he was in bed 
and I would not have him called, for I was to take the 
train at 1:30 A. M. for Quebec. A couple of weeks 
ago I was at dinner at the Plaza, in New York, when 
Mr. Baker came from a nearbi^ table to speak to me. 
He said that a few days after I left the river he went 
to the Grand Cascapedia, and in one day in one pool, 
with not above three drops, he killed seven fish, w-eighing 
41, 40, 38. 35. 35, 30 and 281bs., a total of 247lbs.. and an 
average of 35 2-7lbs. It is the most remarkable salmon 
score for one day's fishing that ever came to my knowl- 
edge, and when I sent the score to Mr, Mitchell he used 
the same language in writing about it, that he had never 
healed of its equal. 
This salmon score is not the Crtlly temarkable occur- 
rence of the past season in the region of Matepedia, 
as witnes.s the letter of Mr. Alexander Mowat, of a 
spawning grilse and a salmon, giving both ova and milt. 
I confess I had to read his letter twice over to fully 
comprehend what he had discovered. ^ 
A Chance Meeting. 
Last September I was seated at luncheon at the 
Chateau Frontenac, in Quebec, with Col. Andrew Hag- 
gard and Mr. E. T, D. Chambers, when Col. Haggard 
said, "Has it occurred to any one here that it is rather 
strange that we three men should be gathered at this table? 
Here is Chambers, of Quebec, author of 'The Ouananiche 
and its Canadian Environment'; Cheney, of New York, 
to whom the book is dedicated; and Haggard, of Lon- 
don, who wrote the introduction to the book, and with- 
out; any previous understanding we have met' at this 
place, quite by chance, as it were, and are lunching to- 
gether and talking fish and fishing in the land where 
the ouananiche grows in all its perfection. This world 
is not so big after all." It was rather curious that the 
three men mentioned should meet as they did, for I was 
returning from the Triton Cluh, ill and miserable, 
anxious to. get home to my physician; my baggage was 
checked to Montreal, my ticket and berth secured, and it 
was five minutes after the time for the train to leave 
when Chambers rushed into the car and rushed me and 
my rods out and into a cab and up to the Garrison Club; 
so the meeting came about onh^ by a margin of five min- 
utes. Furthermore, if I had not been ill I would not have 
been there at all at that time, for I had been in camp 
but two days when I was obliged to take the back track 
without having done any fishing worth the mention. 
The Leap of the Salmon. 
It is doubtful if any reader of Forest axd Stream en- 
joyed the article, accompanied by illustrations, by Dr. 
Morris, on the leap of the salmon, in the issue of Dec. 24, 
more than I did, and for this reason : 
Something like nine or ten years ago T wrote an edi- 
torial article on the leaping powers of the Atlantic 
Sainton, and quoted from the experiments of Dr. Land- 
mark in Norway, showing that some salmon had been 
krown to hap 16ft. A well-known angling writer de- 
tected nie as the writer, and took me to task in another 
journal, editorially, and thought I should know better 
than to write such stuff when it was well established that 
salmon could not jump much if any above 6ft. in height. 
Then I quoted authorities, books and anglers, to prove 
that I was right and he was wrong; but I only made the 
matter worse, for my friend Avould not be convinced 
that salmon could jump anything like the distance I had 
givm. NoAv I am wondering what he will say about 
the statements made by Dr. Morris, for iSft. is more than 
J 6ft. I have had the pleasirre of listening to Dr. Morris' 
description of his fishing experience in Labrador, but 
he did not happen to mention the leaping of the salmon 
or 1 would have importuned him to do just what he 
has now done in Fore.st and Stream. There is an en- 
larged photographed in my possession of an Alaska 
salmon in the act of leaping, and it makes the most 
striking picture of a jumpijig fish that I have seen, as 
the fish is of .such great size in its enlarged form as to 
be impressive. There is one thing about it which seems 
peculiar at first glance, and this is also true of a picture 
of an Atlantic salmon Avhich I have; the fish is caught as 
it is nearly at the height of its leap, and the question 
in the observer's mind is: How will the fish get the 
lateral motion necessary to reach the crest of the fall, for 
the leap seems to have been made straight upward from 
the base of the fall, leaving considerable space between 
the position of the fish and the top of the fall, which the 
fish is endeavoring to gain. Not one of the photographs 
by Dr. Morris gives a similar impression, for every one 
of the six fish seem to be going over the fall as straight 
as straight can be. 
Landlocked Salmon. 
The remarks of my friend Von W. about the unfitness 
of the name landlocked salmon reminded me of some- 
thing I liad read on that subject, and upon hunting for 
it I found I wrote it myself in the report of the Fisheries, 
Game and Forest Commissioners of the State of New 
York for the year 1895, and this is it: 
"The landlocked salmon is another exampl'e of inap- 
plicable names for sea fishes. It is not landlocked, and 
never was landlocked in its original habitat, whether that 
was Maine, Quebec, Labrador or Sv/eden. It has been 
established that tlie original common name of the fish 
(in the Indian tongnej was ouananiche, pronounced 
whon-na-nishe, and that is what it should be called, 
whether it is found in the Dominion of Canada, Maine, 
New Hampshire or New York, reasoning from the 
standpoint of the scientist who calls a black bass "trout- 
like" because it was the first name applied to the fish. 
If the first scientific name applied to a fish should hold, 
why not the fi-rst common name, particularly when it is 
appropriate, musical, distinctive and a departure for once 
from "tin mouth" and "red eye"? Reforms of this kind 
can be worked much more effectively tlirougli the fishery 
newspapers atid the gt&at body of fisheirmen, but a fisher- 
ies commission may put the seal of approval Upon them." 
I fear I have not in all cases stuck to what I preached 
in the quoted extract, but I believe it now, as I did when 
I wrote it, that it would be far better to adopt ouananiche 
as the common name of the so-called landlocked salmon, 
and in this note I will stick to my text and say that I 
have recently been to Lakes George and Champlain with 
car No. i of the U. S. Fish Commission to plant a lot 
of fingerling ouananiche — 3,000 in each lake. The day 
that we were at Port Plenty a ouananiche of about slbs. 
was caught through the ice by a perch fisherman. The 
first plant of fingerling ouananiche was made in the lakes 
in 1894, when 10,054 were planted in Lake George and 
0,770 in Lake Champlain. In 1895 5,000 were planted in 
Lake George and S,ooo in Lake Champlain. There were 
no plants in 1896, but in 1897 4,800 were planted in 
Lake George and the same number in Lake Champlain, 
making a total to date of 22,854 in Lake George and 22,- 
570 in Lake Champlain. During the summer of 1897, 
when the fish were three years old. Judge Deuel, of New 
York, caught a ouananiche of 6lbs. in Lake George, and 
the same season one of 3j'2lbs. was caught in Lake 
Champlain. During 1898 nine were caught in Lake 
George, of which I have record, and seven in Lake 
Champlain. The fish were from 5 to 6^1bs. in weight. 
In Lake George they have round whitefish, Adirondack 
frost fish, as well as the big lake whitefish, for food; and 
in Lake Champlain they have smelts. All the ouananiche 
have come from the U. S. Fish Commission stations in 
Maine, and it has been the policy of the Fisheries, Game 
and Forest Commission of New York to concentrate 
the plants and establish the fish to draw upon them for 
eggs to stock other State waters, 
A. N. Cheney. 
Alaska Fishing. 
Philtpsburg, Centre County, Pa., Dec. 19. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: This fish story my brother, O.' T. 
Switzer, asked me to send to you for publication. He 
went to Alaska in August, 1897, has reached Teslin Lake, 
and during the last summer had the fishing experience 
which is here written. E. A. S. 
Teslin Lake, Alaska, Sept. 16.— I wonder if j^ou can 
stand a fish story? You kntaw I have been awfully disap- 
pointed in the fishing. While I have taken quantities of 
fish, it has been the coarsest kind of fishing, void of any 
skill, only good when you are hungry; but I owe British 
Columbia an apology and will never do so again. The 
south end of Teslin Lake, on which I am located, is 
about one-half= mile wide and continues so a distance of 
nearly two miles. At that point it narrows up and 
runs through a channel not more than looft. in width. 
On the left bank there is a perpendicular wall of rock, 
broken fragments of which have fallen into the w-ater until 
they have almost closed the channel. On the right bank 
is a level, sandy beach. It is an ideal spot for fish, and 
I anticipated great sport when I first saw it and did not 
lose much time before giving it a trial, I think I have 
whipped over that spot twenty times with the most at- 
tractive flies I possessed, but never a rise. I could take 
annconnia with a spoon, trolling from a boat, but never 
a trout. I have one of my nets set at the mouth of a 
stream a short distance below this, and while passing 
through these narrows a few days ago I saw an immense 
trout rise only a few rods from the boat. I went back 
home and rig.ged up my fly rod. Had nothing heavier 
than single gut leaders, and my rod only weighed 4j^oz., 
but it is the best that can be made, and it is supposed to 
land any ordinary brook trout, pr6viding you know how. 
Don't think, however, the maker would recommend, it 
for such fish. 
Arriving at the spot, I made a cast, selecting a spot close 
to a rock which was partially out of the water. At the 
first rattle out of the box there was a flop, and an elec- 
tric shock passed through me, completely unnerving me 
for a second, followed by the zip of the reel. With the 
first feel of the hook he made his initial rush down through 
the channel. I had 150ft. of line, but thought he would 
never stop, and knew if he did not stop of his own ac- 
cord before he reached the end of my line that it would 
be all off. He did, but there was not 2ft. of line on 
my reel when he quit. I wanted that fish, but made up 
my mind to lose him rather than damage my rod. Had 
there been another man in the boat to row, it would have 
been very much easier, but being alone I had to handle 
the boat and the fish also. There was a paddle in the 
boat, so getting in the stern, I handled the rod with my 
left hand and managed to keep the boat in proper posi- 
tion with my right. I worked up on him about 50ft., at 
the same taking in line. About this time he concluded to 
change position and started at right angles from the boat. 
It took both hands on the rod then. The second rush 
was nearly as long as the first, but owing to the direction 
he took, did not use up so much line. I worked to within 
50ft of him before he changed position. This time he came 
directly to the surface and threw himself clear out of the 
water. That was the first sight I had of him, and he was 
a corker. Plis head was fully as large as Bill Holt's dog 
Collie. After his examination of things on the surface, 
he made two complete circles around the boat, and went 
to the bottom almost beneath me, which enabled me to 
get in all my line but a few yards. This thing continued, 
with a slight change in his maneuvers, for over two hours 
and a half. I never let him rest. As soon as I could get 
my line in would feel him gently and keep him moving. 
Finally I grounded my boat on the sandy beach and got 
on land. By this time his runs were very short, but I 
could not get him ashore without endangering my tackle, 
and after once seeing him wanted to keep him if at all 
possible. When I did get him to shore he was bottom 
.side up and had just a gasp left. I lifted or rather dragged 
him out by passing a forked stick through his gills. I 
took hhn up to the store, and undressed he weighed 
23lbs. and measured 34in. It was the longest fish taken 
this year from the lake by any means, nets, spoon hooks, 
etc. A fresh-water trout taken wil;h a aYzoz. split bamboo, 
single gut leader and a No. 10 fly. ordinary black gnat, 
It has been raining all day and blowmg hard from, the 
north. I am afraid our summer is about ended. The 
days, too, are getting shorter; at 6 P. M. we have to 
light our candles Tlie trail is finished at Inst .-md old 
ptospectors sav it id now the be^t one tlit, tvti 
