21S 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March i8, 1899, 
neath the ice in winter (for be it remembered all fish 
must have ox.vgen from the air) and many of them are 
frozen to death or suffocated ; and second, as the waters 
of the lake diminish and it becomes shallower, the shore 
line, which is a great feeding ground for all fish at dif- 
ferent seasons of the year, is greatly reduced, and their 
source of food is very materially diminished. As a rule 
small fish are usually found in small ponds and large 
fish in large bodies of water, the reason being that the 
limited shore line of small bodies of water does not 
yield the relative quantity of food contained in lakes 
having a large shore line, and consequently relatively 
larger feeding grounds. The best lake fishing is found 
in those lakes which abound in deep waters and which 
have a large shore line for feeding grounds, like Lake 
Minnetonka and Lobster Lake, in Douglas county. It 
is this fact which in the past made Minnetonka* one of 
the very best fishing lakes that ever existed. But Minne- 
tonka's glory as a fishing lake has departed, and will 
not return again until the Forestry Association's work 
of reforesting has been accomplished. 
Again, forests and the trees and shrubs on the shores 
of streams and lakes are the favorite home of number- 
less flies and insects, and these, with each breeze, fall 
into the water and supply that insect food which fish 
most enjoy. We must remember that our better vari- 
eties of fish are not content with one variety of food 
throughout the year. Catfish, dogfish and reptiles may 
be the scavengers of the waters and swallow greedily 
whatever they can find, but our noblest fish, like trout, 
bass and pike, dema.nd a variety of food and are often 
very select in their tastes. In the spring they may feed 
along the shore line of the water and on the bottom, but 
later in the season, when flies and insects appear, they 
want them. It is this love of fish for flies and insects 
which is the secret of fly-fishing, the acme of the angler's 
art. And this love of fish for flies and insects explains 
very largely the reason why the worm fishermen in the 
hot months of summer may wade the brook for hours 
with scarcely a bite, while at the same season of the year 
and out of the same water, the angler with his artificiaJ 
fly delicately cast will in early morning or in the hour 
before sunse't display a creel of speckled beauties.' What 
angler is there who has not from a concealed spot 
watched the fish under the protection of some overshad- 
owing tree jumping at the flies and insects as they fell 
into the water? And have not all of us caught our lar-' 
gest trout, the trout of which we boast and in the catch- 
ing of which we made our record, under the shadow of 
trees or out from under a "cover" made by the trees or 
bushes? And not only this, but the trees make the shady 
and moist banks from whence come worms and grubs 
and under these mossy banks we know the fish are con- 
cealed ready to dart at their prey. 
All know that the shade of overhanging trees is agree- 
able to the fish, and one need only to place a quantity 
of brush in a stream or lake and make a "cover" and see 
how quickly the fish make it a resort, to be convinced 
that fish like shade. What tyro does not know that a 
shady deep pool is a good fishing point? And what ex- 
perienced fisherman is there who. when he goes upon a 
stream or pond does not almost invariably find that the 
fish have left the hot and unprotected shore and have 
taken to the shady side, and so he casts hi§ worm or fly 
on the shady side. 
It is a well-known fact that the best fishing is where 
a forest is near the shore, and, best of all, where the 
limbs overhang the water. Not only do the trees afford 
shelter, furnishing food and preventing evaporation, but 
at the same time they keep the water clear and cool in 
the summer. In winter the forests afford protection bv 
lessening the severity of the winter frosts, and in all 
forest regions the changes of temperature are not so 
severe as in treeless countries and on the open plain; 
and the effect upon the water is even greater. It is a 
popular saying in Denmark of the forest streams that 
they are cool in the summer and warm in the winter as 
compared with the atmosphere. This truth is not con- 
fined to Denmark, for it is the experience of woodsmen 
everywhere. 
Forests not only regulate the flow of water, but they 
purify it. This is an experience which has been dem- 
onstrated in Australia in cases where streams have been 
polluted by wool-washing establishments. After having 
passed a few miles through a shady and dense forest the 
water, according to Mr. Howitz. who was forester in 
Australia .some years, appeared as clear and pure as it 
was above the wool wash. 
In Scotland and other localities where salmon are 
bred after scientific methods, it has been clearly estab- 
lished that it is not enough to place spawn and fry in the 
waters, but that they must be provided with food, and 
that the best means to do this is to preserve the border 
trees and insure a steady supply of water and food by 
preserving the forests, from whence a supply of water 
and food is derived. 
The changing of the temperature of the water ot a 
lake or stream by the clearing away of trees, and forests 
has a inost deleterious effect on fish. As already stated, 
not only is the supply of food removed and the spring 
which should send forth a supply of clear, cool water in 
which fish so much delight dried up, but more than this, 
the direct rays of the sun upon the water in summer 
raise it to a temperature too warm for the abode of fish, 
while in winter the absence of trees causes an extreme of 
cold which is equally bad. If Qne of you gentlemen had 
a superb trout brook upon your premises, well stocked 
with trout and well protected by trees, and should ask 
the surest way to annihilate the trout, I could tell you 
no surer way than to cut down the trees and bushes. 
What few trout survived the loss of food and the warm 
rays of the sun and the warm water in summer, would 
-readily be exterminated by the extreme cold of winter oc- 
casioned by the absence of trees. The higher breeds of 
fish, in which anglers most delight, like trout, salmon, 
bass, whitefish, pike and muscalonge, must have suffi- 
cient shade, depth, and coldness of .water in which to live 
and breathe, and it is in the shade and cold water that 
the experienced angler hunts them. 
Scientists tell us that the ranges of hills and uplands 
which we now have in Minnesota are the remnants of 
that mountain chain which once constituted the great 
divide between the water systems of the Mississippi, the 
Winnipeg and the Great Lakes, but which by erosion 
and other natural forces, working through the ages, have 
become the highlands and hills of to-day. They also 
tell us that the lakes and streams of Minnesota have not 
only reached their maturity, but have passed it, and that 
under the laws of nature, saying nothing about the rav- 
ages which we have already suffered and must continue 
to suffer through forest destruction, that the tendency 
of these lakes and streams will be to still further decline. 
With this tendency of nature to reduce the quantity of 
water, by natural laws, over which we have no control, is 
it not a crime to ourselves and to future generations to 
permit the destruction of forests to go on, and thereby 
still further reduce the quantity of water and moisture 
and help on the train of evils which are sure to befall 
a rainless country? It has been truly said, that there 
are districts in France and Italy where the olive and 
the orange once flourished, but where now, on account 
of the change of climate resulting frotti extensive re- 
moval of the forests, they can no longer be grown with 
success. This saying involves an agricultural truth as 
to every country where forest destruction has gone on 
from the Euphrates to the Mississippi. And to anglers 
there is a parallel truth, which may be stated thus: There 
are vast districts in Minnesota Wisconsin and Michigan 
where fish of the noblest varieties once flourished, where, 
owing to the diminution of water at certain seasons of 
the year, and torrents and floods at other seasons of the 
year, occasioned by the removal of the forests, they have 
already disappeared, and other parts of these States are 
rapidly reaching the same condition. 
My nearest neighbor, a prominent insurance man, 
whose early home was in Kentucky, tells me that in the 
early history of Kentucky its streams were full of trout, 
but as the land was cleared the trout disappeared, and 
that to-day, outside of a few private preserves, it is doubt- 
ful if a trout can be found in Kentucky, while in Vir- 
ginia, of which Kentucky was originally a part, in those 
regions where, owing to the poverty of the soil and other 
reasons, the forests have not been cut, the trout still 
abound. Do we need a better illustration of the effects 
of forest destruction upon fishing than this? 
Did time permit, I would like to speak of the vast 
quantities of money brought into a State by tourists, 
hunters and anglers, and tell hoV this money gradually 
works back to the pockets of our farmers, producers and 
merchants. I would like to tell how the mountains of 
New Hampshire-, sterile as they are, have through sum- 
mer months' tour.ists and visitors, proved a veritable 
Klondike to the citizens of New Hampshire, and brought 
into that little State milHons of gold. Should the beau- 
tiful lakes and streams which center around the head- 
waters of the Mississippi and" St. Croix prove less val- 
uable? 
To-day the State spends its money in the propagation 
of fish and in the stocking of lakes and streams; it has its 
fish and game laws and its fish and game wardens, and 
it imposes penalties for fishing and shooting during the 
closed season (and these laws are all good) ; but inean- 
while tlic destruction of forests and its consequent evils 
go on. To use a homely phrase, it is like closing the 
.spigot and opening the bung. To anglers the lesson is 
apparent that if they desire to preserve what fishing there 
is left in Minnesota they must join hands with the For- 
estry Association and help save the forests and rear new 
forests; for on the preservation of the old forests and the 
rearing of new forests do fish and fishing depend. 
There is only one answer to the question, "How can 
we preserve the fish and fishing in the Northwest?" and 
that answer is by preserving the forests and bv reforest- 
ing, and thereby putting in play again all those manifold 
influences of nature that can come from the forests. The 
propagation of fish in State hatcheries and the planting 
of them in our waters, the operation of fish laws and the 
acts of fish wardens, good as they are. nevertheless work 
only on a very small scale, snd are ineffectual and puerile 
as against the great evils of forest destruction. Only by 
the operation of those great laws of nature which come 
from forests can. our fishing become and remain what it 
ought to be. 
Salmon in Monroe County. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Touching the subject of salmon in the fresh waters of 
this State, it has occurred to me that very interesting facts 
would be brought to light if diligent search were made 
among the records of the pioneers who first settled in 
the territory adjacent to the waters which in old times 
were frequented by the king of fish. My own experience 
supports this view, for, while engaged a few years ago 
in compiling a history of this city, I had occasion to 
search for information regarding early times, among old 
publications, and came across many passages calculated 
to stir the blood in one who lives in a city but has a love 
for the woods and waters. 
Within a hundred years panthers and bears have been 
shot in the woods of this county, and several of the 
towns were noted for the abundance of deer. The first 
settler at the mouth of the Genesee River seems to have 
had a grudge against the snake family, for it is recorded 
that on one occasion he alone killed forty rattlesnakes in 
one day along the river, and was one of a party that de- 
stroyed 300 of the reptiles during an expedition organized 
for the purpose. 
The eggs of wild geese and ducks, which bred in the 
marshes of Irondequoit Bay and the ponds in Greece, 
were an important article of food to the pioneer. Beaver 
and otter were common in the waters, and one family 
of the first named rem_ained in Braddock's Bay for a year 
or more after the first settler built his hut on its shore. 
There was until recently, if indeed it does not still exist, 
a beaver dam in the town of Greece, on a tributary to 
Braddock's Bay. Allan's Creek was fairly boiling with 
ti-out — one of the pioneer anglers said that you could 
"catch a hundred of them without changing his position." 
As this creek receives the waters of the Spring Creek 
on which the State fish hatchery at Caledonia is situated, 
it is easy to understand that there were trout here in 
pioneer daj'^s. 
But to return to our salmon: Enos Stone, who in t8ii 
cleared a few acres of land on the east side of the Gen- 
esee River, just where the Erie Canal aqueduct crosses 
the stream, and shot a bear that was ravaging his corn- 
field. Enos in his reminiscences tells of an occasion 
when he knew ten barrels of salmon to be caught in a 
weir on Irondequoit Creek. Mr. Stone was the man who 
one night, while searching for lost cows at the head of 
Irondequoit Bay, saw an unexpected camp-fire and made 
his way , thither, to find that it had been kindled by the 
Indian chief Brant, who said he was on his way from the 
west to Canandaigua. Roswell Atchison, a pioneer of 
Parma, said that he one day caught three barrels of sal- 
mon in Salmon Creek, which enters Braddock's Bay. 
. The fountains of Irondequoit Creek and Salmon Creek 
still mingle with the River St. Lawrence, and the St. 
Lawrence with the ocean; but if any salmon from the 
Atlantic has of late years ventured into the bays it prob- 
ably fround the surroundings uncongenial and went back 
to the salt water to spread a report that a change for the 
worse had come over the old familiar haunts on the 
south shore of Lake Ontario. There are still some great 
pike and bass to be found in Irodequoit and Brad- 
dock's bays, but although I have been, shooting and fish- 
ing and sailing over them for a good many years, it has 
never been my good fortune to hear of or see any sal- 
mon caught there. If the creeks were traced to their 
present sources they would probably lead to a barnyard, 
and salmon have not become reconciled to the condi- 
tions; 'tis true, 'tis pity. 
Edmond Redmond. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
A California Reminiscence. 
San Francisco, March 4. — If old wine is valued for 
its age, why should not an old story be, provided it i-- ' 
old enough to have been forgotten by present-day read- 
ers of Forest and Stream? You ask me Vi'hat that one 
was of my earlier contributions touching upon the di.-,- 
covery of a Delmonico cook in one of my trout-fishing 
experiences. I think I can remember the episode yon 
refer to, if it is worth repeating. 
In the earlier days of California there were innumerable 
streams that had never known the advent of such a thing 
as an artificial fly upon their water, or for that matter, a 
hook of any kind, as the early settlers were_ not edu- 
cated in angling. In my boyhood the passion for fishing 
was a pursuit to which I gave more attention than to my 
books, and an important item of my .belongings was al- 
ways a trout rod and a book of flies. I had a friend who 
was equally fond of the pursuit; and having heard of a 
promising stream some twenty miles down in the coun- 
try from San Francisco, with but a meager description 
of its locality, we chartered a horse and buggy and set 
out in quest of it. There were as yet no fences to pre- 
vent free going in any direction, so after a drive ot tweu'.y 
miles over the only road the country afforded, we struck 
off in the direction the creek was supposed to be. The 
country was flat, with no impediments except the crop 
of wild oats, affording splendid teed for the band of 
wild cattle that roamed at will. When -we struck the foot- 
hills we found several canons or gnlleys that bothered 
us a good deal, until we came to the edge of a deeper 
one than any we had met with, at the bottom of which 
wc were gladdened by the sight of what appeared to 
be as promising a trout stream as one vvould ask for; 
but the question was how to get down to it. The banks 
were too steep to permit of taking our wagon down, and 
we finally solved the problem by unharnessing the horse 
and sliding him down, and with a rope we lowered the 
wagon by taking a turn around a tree. The opposite 
bank was less difircult, and hitching up we matiaged to 
find level ground, and drove along the creek in search 
of a lone shantv described to us as being the abode of a 
Frenchman. After driving about a mile, by the greatest 
piece of good luck we encountered it, a mere shack, set 
in the cosiest of spots under the shade of a grove of trees. 
The proprietor was swinging in a hammock, sm.oking a 
pipe, and at our hail raised his head and answered our 
hallo, a very much surprised man, as he afterwards told 
us. We we're the only intruders on his solitude for three 
months. Having unharnessed the. horse and picketed 
hint out in the patch of wild oats, we proceeded to get our 
tackle in order, meantime inquiring of our landlord as to 
the prospects for trout. He comforted us by saying, 
"Plenty of fish." The creek ran within a few rods ot 
us, and we were soon ready for the fray. At the first 
cast made there was a rush, and we landed doubles, and 
so on every cast. The trout were not large, but of fair 
size. Our l.iaskets were soon filled, and we adjourned to 
the shack and dressed as many as we thought we could 
eat. and that was a goodly number, for we Avere hungry. 
On inquiring of our landlord if he had such a thing as 
a frying pan. he produced one, and my friend, who 
prided himself on being an expert camp cook, remarked: 
"Of course, this tramp don't know how to cook a trout; 
I will just show him." The tramp looked on, smoking 
his pipe; but being rather the worse tor our day's travel, 
it was suggested that before eating our supper we would 
have a bath; so, adjourning to the creek, w-e had a re- 
freshing dip. Returning to the house, we were sur- 
prised at seeing a little rude table set out under the trees, 
on which were casters, china plates, a white cloth and 
napkins. Where they all came from was a mystery, but 
they Were there. My friend says: "Now for the trout. 
I will show you how trout should be cooked." But here 
came our landlord with a platter piled up wiLh nicely 
browned fish. How- many we ate there is no record. 
The fish were followed with small cups of delicious 
black coffee. After smoking our pipes we rolled up in 
blankets and slept as only tired hunters and fishermen 
do. Our breakfast was a repetition, with hot white rolls 
in addition. 
We lost no time in refilling our baskets with trout, an- 1 
prepared to depart Our landlord would accept no re- 
muneration, only a few flies and a line and a pocket- 
knife, having lost his. Brown, thinking to compliment 
him, 'said: "Mv friend, there is the makings of a good 
cooic in you. Why don't you go to San Francisco and 
hire 'out? No' doubt you could get a good situation." 
There was a twinkle in the Frenchman's eye as yawn- 
ingly he rep'ied: "Yes, I can cook a leetle. I was Dd- 
monico's chef for ten years, and I get what you call tifed, 
and come to California to get a leetle rest." Poor Ben- 
son. You should have seen his face. The idea of his 
proposing to show Delmonico's chef how to cook was 
