48 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July is, 1899- 
laws of Ohio as an association not for profit, under the 
name of the Toledo and Lake Erie Boating and Fishing 
Association, which legal title has not, however, replaced 
its former well-known cognomen in every day parlance. 
In 1881 the members pledged themselves to pay an extra 
building assessment of $100 each, and under 'a contract 
made in the fall of the same year a new and handsome 
club building was begun and completed in June of the 
year following. It includes a commodious office with a 
wide, open fireplace, for the comfort of the bass fishermen 
in the spring and fall, pleasant parlors opening on broad 
verandas which overlook the lake to the south and west, 
a dining room capable of comfortably seating 200 guests, 
and in the second story sleeping rooms for about one-half 
that number. The original building was moved to the 
rear and transformed into servants' quarters, kitchens, 
ordinaries, etc. Other valuable improvements since 1875 
have included new and larger docks, boat and bath houses 
and kitchens more adequate to the increasing requirements 
of the association. An enlarged and improved water- 
works system, with steam pumping apparatus, and a sub- 
stantial sea wall protecting the club property, have also 
helped to absorb a large part of the association's surplus 
receipts. ' 
The club house itself is in charge of a superintendent 
(steward) employed by the trustees, and he in turn en- 
gages and is responsible for his own corps of assistants. 
A fixed schedule of rates is made by the trustees for the 
board of members and their families (with reductions for 
children and servants), and a somewhat higher one for in- 
vited guests, who may be introduced by members from 
Toledo or elsewhere without geographical restriction. 
No charge is made for lodgings in the club house, and the 
cottages of members are cared for without charge by the 
employees of the superintendent, and in the same manner 
as the rooms in the club house. 
It was about 1890 that the ladies connected with the 
club decided that its religious welfare was being sadly 
neglected, and accordingly they turned their attention in 
that direction, with such excellent results that, with a 
little assistance from the masculine and more irreligious 
element, they erected a beautiful and commodious chapel, 
in which religious services are held nearly every week of 
the season by visiting clergymen of various denomina- 
tions. 
Upon private grounds to the eastward, and immediately 
adjoining the property of the club,- a miniature village 
has sprung up, composed of the cottages erected by club 
members. There are now twenty-three of these summer 
homes, whose picturesque exteriors and tastefully-kept 
laAvns greatly heighten the beauty of the scene. Some 
of these, in architectural design and interior furnishing, 
would do no discredit to much more pretentious resorts 
than Middle Bass. Adjoining the cottages the "Count" 
William Rehberg (the original owner of all the western 
part of the island, and the only honorary member of the 
club) has built a spacious dancing pavilion, and here the 
merry dancers and the light island wines circulate freely 
(hut within the bounds of moderation) in the soft summer 
evenings, and here the "Saturday night hops" of the club 
are the culmination of the week's social gaieties. 
Founded originally twenty-five years ago by a coterie of 
congenial Toledo gentlemen, the Middle Bass Club of to- 
day is an association whose membership comprises in- 
dividuals and families from all portions of the Union, al- 
though Toledo still claims the lion's share. The maximum 
number of members is limited by the constitution to 200, 
and at present only four vacancies exist. A candidate 
for membership is required to deposit in advance a mem- 
bership fee of $500, and in the ballot for his election the 
presence of three black balls is sufficient to cause his rejec- 
tion. Once elected, he is required to pay a yearly assess- 
ment of $20, which may, by a majority vote of all the 
members, be increased to any sum not exceeding $50 for 
the current year. The price of a membership certificate 
does not seem high when it is stated that the property of 
the association, including the grounds, buildings and other 
improvements, represent to-day a cash value of over $100,- 
000. Four of the club members hail from New York 
city; Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Denver and Louis- 
ville are all represented on its rolls, and among the Ohio 
membership are people from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Co- 
lumbus, Springfield, Dayton, Akron and other thriving 
towns of the interior of the State. The Governor of the 
State, Senator Foraker and ex-Secretary of the Ti-easury 
Foster are members and frequent visitors, and during 
the spring fishing seasons of 1898 and '99 ex-President 
Cleveland was both a welcome and appreciative guest. 
With him this year was "Fighting Bob Evans" of the 
battleship Iowa, and other gentlemen scarcely less dis- 
tinguished in the councils of the State and the nation. 
It is understood that Mr. Cleveland is of the opinion that 
the bass fishing about the islands in the westerly end of 
Lake Erie is not surpassed by any corresponding piece of 
water in the country, a belief in which he is heartily cor- 
roborated by many lesser but no less enthusiastic fisher- 
men. 
Taken all in all, the Middle Bass Club may rightfully be 
regarded as an excellent example of a successful social 
and piscatorial trust. ' Jay Beebe. 
Toledo, O., June 30. 
Showingf Off. 
Edmundston, July i. — Our lakes and streams now pre- 
sent a very pretty picture for the sportsman. Being out 
on waters near here for the past seven days, with Harry 
S, Brown, of the New York Herald, we had two days of 
the finest trout fishing we ever experienced; took all we 
wanted; gave away over 3olbs. One day while on the 
trip we had stopped at the mouth of a brook, as it was 
raining. Mr. Brown and wife were waiting inside a 
house. I cast a few times and hooked a large trout. The 
whistle of the locomotive told me the train was coming. 
As the track was in plain sight and close to me, the idea 
presented itself to show ofi, which I did by playing the 
fish very easily; and while the train was passing I stood 
with rod bent, the trout splashing, which must have made 
a feeling of envy in any sportsman who viewed the sight 
from the train. But alas, for my delusion, I paid dearly 
for it. Just as the rear car went round the bend my 
trout got free by the hook breaking, which shows that it 
don't pay to put on airs, R, 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Another Coincidence. 
Coincidences seem to be coming my way in these days, 
and I shall put one down now while it is hot. Last 
February a friend met nie in the street and said he had 
just bought a salmon rod at a bargain. It was a Forest & 
Son rod, and from what he told me about it I concluded 
that it was a bargain, and regretted that it had not fallen 
to me. In March I wrote to the tackle dealer in New 
York of whom my friend bought his rod, and incidentally 
reproached him for not letting me know that he had had 
such a bargain in a salmon rod. I received no reply un- 
til to-day, and I simply glanced at the contents of the 
letter and put it on my desk, as a stenographer was 
waiting for me to talk to him on another subject than 
salmon rods. This evening after dinner I took up the 
letter to read that my New York friend had written me 
about another bargain in a salmon rod, and explained 
why he had not written before. As I was reading the 
letter, my home friend rang the door bell and was shown 
in to where I sat reading the letter, and he had his bargain 
in a salmon rod in his hand to show me. He had been 
in Florida since he bought the rod, and except for meeting 
him on the train as he was returning, I had not seen him 
more than one other time, to pass him in the street, since 
he made the purchase, and he knew nothing about my 
having any correspondence with the New York dealer 
until I told him this evening. If it is not a coincidence 
what is it? 
Sturgeon for Finland. 
The two last words in the above note reminded me of 
something the moment I wrote them. I received a cable- 
gram from Helsingfors, Finland, in March, which read: 
"Possible ship impregnated sturgeon eggs. Hintze." Mr. 
Hintze is the editor of a fisheries journal in Helsingfors, 
and at first I did not know whether to take the words of 
the message for a question or a declaration, but finally de- 
cided to accept it as a question. I had serious doubts 
about shipping sturgeon eggs to Finland, or rather I 
doubted if they would arrive there unhatched and in a 
condition to be hatched, and in this I was confirmed by 
Dr. Bashford Dean, of Columbia University, who, more 
than any other man, has had experience in hatching stur- 
geon eggs. When I wrote the reply, saying the eggs could 
not be sent safely, and the operator told me the message 
would cost $2.43 a word, including address and signature, 
I thought I knew why the message I received did not 
say, "Is it possible," if it were meant for a question, or 
"It is possible" if intended as a declaration. My message 
was revised and the operator revised his rate and called it 
43 cents a word. 
There was no further question about the meaning of the 
first message, when Dr. Nordquish, Inspector of Fisheries 
of Finland, wrote to ask if I could procure for him either 
adult sturgeon of small size, as he understood .such fish 
were caught in all waters and thrown away, or sturgeon 
fry, and ship them to England, where they could be met 
by a messenger from Finland. There is but one concern 
doing business in this country likely to be of vital as- 
sistance in such a matter, for as yet the propagation of lake 
sturgeon artificially is in embryo, but I thought if I could 
get the eggs from commercial fishermen, the United 
States Fish Commission would hatch them, as an attempt 
to ship adult fish would be extremely risky even if the fi.sh 
of suitable size could be procured. Dr. Dean's experience 
with the river sturgeon had taught him that the fry would 
require fifteen days in which to absorb the umbilical, 
sac, and it might be possible to get the fry across the 
sea and to their destination within that time if they were, 
hatched to fit in Avith the departure of a fast mail steamer.* 
When I wrote to the United States Fish Commissioner 
I found that it had been decided to propagate the lake 
sturgeon this year, and by direction of the Commissioner 
Mr. Livingston Stone was then on the Great Lakes seek- 
ing to obtain ripe fish that would furnish eggs to be 
hatched at the Cape Vincent station, and with the 
courtesy that has become traditional in the Commission I 
was adA'ised that if Mr. Stone was successful in his quest 
I would have some sturgeon fry assigned to go to Finland 
instead of being obliged to search for eggs myself. The 
last of May Mr. Stone wrote me from East Alburgh, 
Vermont, that he was getting plenty of sturgeon, but up 
to the time of writing no ripe eggs had been secured. Ar- 
rangements have been made with the North German Lloyd 
Steamship Company to transport the fry, so the experi- 
ment will be tried this year if ripe eggs are found to 
produce the fry. 
" Speckled Beaaties." 
This is an expression that gets the blue pencil in its 
vitals in well-regulated newspaper offices of this day, for 
it was worn to^a frazzle before the period of the cave 
dwellers, and yet there is enough life in it for a corre- 
spondent to use it three times on a half-sheet of note paper 
in a letter to me this morning. I never heard him use it in 
conversation, for when he talks about brook trout he says 
brook trout, or he may vary it by saying speckled trout. 
It cannot be an expression that he has just heard, for he 
has read Forest and Stream since its first issue, and to 
my certain knowledge the expression appeared in these 
columns at least seven times back in the seventies, and 
why he should fire it at me this hot morning, as if it came 
out of one of those guns that are loaded through a fun- 
nel,_ as you would fill a jug, and fired with a crank, such 
as is used to squeeze music out of a barrel organ, and 
makes a target look like a sieve after two turns of the 
crank handle, I cannot for the life of me understand. If 
he had written it once, I would have made no protest, but 
three times and on one side of a small half-sheet of note 
paper ! If there had been quotation marks I would have 
understood it as a rude joke played on a fellow fisherman 
when the thermometer stood at 94 degrees in the shade 
and he could not defend himself. There are no quotation 
marks, and I must assume that the writer was in a 
poetic frame of mind. Freckled beauties is not so 
hackneyed as speckled beauties, but how is one to tell 
whether either refers to a trout or a hen or a pointer pup. 
when shorn of the context. If one wishes real poetry 
with the dew on it, why not adopt that of my friend. Dr.. 
Quackenbos, who says : "Golden tinctured sides, gemmed : 
with the fire of rubies." 
If that is too long, say brook trout, or speckled trout, , 
or freckled trout, for every man, woman and child who '■ 
has caught them knows that they are beauties without' 
being told. 
Dams and Fishways. 
A letter has just cOme in in the evening mail that will; 
fit right in here, for it pertains to a subject that it was myi 
plain duty to call attention to in Forest and Stream long: 
ago. 
The letter is dated Oneonta, N. Y., June 8, and is as; 
follows: " _ _ 
"I send you by this mail a copy of the Oneonta Star, giv- 
ing an account of fish trying to leap a dam near here.' 
The dam in question was constructed last fall by the 
Oneonta Electric Light and Power Company across the 
Susquehanna River, one mile east of this town. On the 
6th I visited the dam, to find if the reports were true about 
fish trying to get over it, and found the circumstances 
as stated in the printed account. In ten minutes, by 
actual count, I saw sixty fish make the attempt, and fall 
back. Should there not be a fishway in this dam?" 
Apparently there should be a fishway in the dam;( 
furthermore the dam seems to have been erected illegally 
and is maintained contrary to law, subjecting the ownerj> 
to a fine if such should prove to be the case. Here is tht 
clipping from the Star: 
"A sight which will give every fishei-man the fever at 
once can be seen at the upper dam of the Water Powei 
Electric Company each evening, from 6 o'clock until dark 
Readers are, no doubt, familiar with the habits of mani 
fish to go down the streams in the fall to deeper waten' 
many going to the ocean itself, and returning in thd 
spring. For the past few weeks large quantities of fisl 
have been making their way up the Susquehanna, bu 
when they have reached the upper dam of the electriJ 
company they have been unable to swim or leap it. Th(| 
water sweeps over the top and down the dam upon planks 
which are inclined possibly 35 degrees, and then alon^ 
another row of planks about sft. long, which are level^ 
When the water passes oif the second row it breaks agains 
the bottom, making a very large wave. The fish, in swim 
ming up stream and striking this large wave, attempt t( 
leap over the dam and can only throw themselves a par 
of the way and fall back into the rapids. Frequently ; 
dozen fish are seen in the air at a time, vainly attemptiuj 
to make the dam. At evening more are seen, but at al 
times of day, for many days now, this novel sight has beei 
seen. Suckers, bass, pickerel and others can be dig 
tinguished. 
"This, of course, has resulted in a congestion of fis) 
below the dam, and it is said to be a conservative estimat 
that 2,000 suckers alone have been captured there. Ott 
fisherman, anchored in a boat in the center of the strean 
in one day is said to have captured ninety-six suckers." 
The fishway law of the State, now, and for seven year 
past, in force, is as follows: 
The Fishway Law. 
Sec. 260. Commissioners to be Notified of Construction of Dan 
—No dam shall be constructed by the State or any person upo 
any stream more than six miles in length inhabited by fish pri 
tected by this act, until the person about to construct, or tt 
officers having charge of the construction of the same shall gi\ 
written notice to the Commissioners of such intention, togethd 
with a statement of the name, length and location of said strean' 
and the size and general description of such dam, and the pu 
poses for which it is to be erected, together with a diagram thereo 
Sec. 261. Authority of Commissioners to Direct Fishways.— Tl 
Commissioners are authorized in such cases to direct the coi 
struction of suitable fishways by an entry on their minutes an 
service of a copy of such order on the person constructing i 
officers having charge of the construction of such dam, ar 
the person so constructing shall at his own expense, or the office 
having charge of the construction shall, out of the funds appropi 
ated for the construction of such dam, comply with such dire 
tions, subject, on application on notice as on a motion, to tV 
right of the Supreme Court to afiirm, reverse, modify or alter sue 
directions. 
Sec. 262. Owners to Comply with Directions of Commissioners. 
Such fishways shall be properly maintained by the owner or perso) 
in possession of such dam, and shall be subject to examination ar 
inspection on behalf of the Commissioners, who may direct su< 
repairs and alterations as they may deem necessary, subject to tl 
order of the Supreme Court, as in case of construction. 
Sec. 263. Commissioners to Recover for Construction ar 
Penalty. — In case of failure, refusal or neglect on the part of ai; 
person to comply with the directions of the Commissioners as 
building and repairing fishways, the Cornmissioners may cau 
such fishways to be constructed or repaired, and the expen 
thereof may be recovered by the Commissioners in an action again 
the owner or person in possessioon, or both, in the name of tl 
people, and shall, in addition to the personal liability of su( 
owner or person in possession, be a lien upon the premises upd 
which such dam is situated. The person refusing or neglectir 
to comply with such directions of the Commissioners as to co 
struction or repairs shall also be liable to a penalty of ten dollai 
for each day during which they neglect to obey such direction 
which penalty may be recovered in like manner in the same or 
separate action. 
Sec. 264. No person or persons, association, corporation ■ 
company shall build, place or maintain any rack, screen, weir 
other obstruction across any of the creeks, streams or rivers of tl 
State inhabitel by fish protected by law that will prevent the pf 
sage of fish from one point to another point in said waters excei 
as provided in Sec. 143 of the fisheries, game and forest laH 
Whoever shall violate or attempt to violate the provisions of 
section by placing, maintaining or causing to be placed or m^H 
tained any rack, screen, weir or other obstruction to prevent flH 
passage of fish as aforesaid shall be deemed guilty of mi sM 
meanor, and in addition thereto shall be liable to a penalty of 
for each rack, screen, weir or other obstruction built or maintait» 
in violation of this section. (Added by Chap. 408 of Laws of 
The exception in Sec. 143 relates to the maintaining i§| 
eel weirs in certain waters. _ _ . . r 
I have examined the applications made to the Fisherieli 
Game and Forest Commission for permission to ere 
dams, that have been filed for the past two years ar 
more, and find no application from the Oneonta Electr 
Light and Power Company. When such ^ an application 
filed with the Commission, it is usually referred to tl 
State Fish Culturest for an examination of the dam, and, 
report upon it, and I am quite sure that no applicatio 
for permission to build this dam has been referred 
him. It is not strange that this dam should have be<' 
constructed without compliance on the part of the ownel 
with the provisions of the fishway law, for repeatedly 
have found that those about to build dams knew nothii 
about the law, so that there was no intention on tht 
part to evade it. One of the first cases of this sort tb 
I knew about was of a dam being erected by a lawy 
who was attorney for a pulp compan3\ and who was pro 
ably saturated with legal information in regard to wal 
po\^fers, danif and water privileges generally,' and wher; 
