JVhY IS, 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
49 
told him of the fishway law he was a surprised lawyer. 
The publication of the law in Forest and Stream may 
bring it to the attention of people who would otherwise 
never see it. 
The general fishAvay law quoted above was approved in 
1892, and in addition to that law there is a special fish- 
way law applying only to St. Lawrence and Franklin 
countieSj and is Chap. 498 of the laws of 189S, and is 
printed in the Fisheries, Game and Forest Laws for free 
4istribution. 
Fishing in Lake George. 
Mr. Harry W. Watrous, president of the Lake George 
Association for the Protection of Fish and Game, called 
upon me one evening lately, and we talked of the fishing 
in the lake. Mr. Watrous had been at his summer place 
on the lake but a few days, and I had not visited the lake 
this season, so the discussion was chiefly about information 
that had come to us at second hand. He had heard that 
the lake trout fishing was not particularly good, al- 
though it had been good early in May, when the trout 
were at the surface, and wondered why It was no better 
when the lake was so well stocked with young trout 
every year. 
At the time Mr. Watrous was here there was a letter 
on my desk from Mr. E. Burgess Warren, owner of tlic 
fast steam yacht Ellide. inviting me to fish with him for 
lake trout in Lake George, in which he said: "I have 
fished two days for lake trout and got 361bs. Thursday 
and sslbs. yesterday. Largest, 9, 8, 7, 6?4 and 6i41bs. 
respectively. We had eleven trout Thursday and fifteen 
3'^esterday." Certainly that is good fishing, and any one 
who wishes for better it would be difficult to please. 
There are fishermen and fishermen, and when one man 
'is successful it does not follow as a matter of course that 
all who fish will be equally successful, and, too. success 
means to one fisherman a few good fish fairly caught 
after a good fight, while another fisherman is not success- 
ful unless he catches more fish than three men should 
in decency kill. Tlie lake trout fishing is not as good in 
the lake as it would be if there were less whitefish in it. 
Since the Great Lalces whitefish were planted by the Na- 
tional Fish Commission in 1887 they have fairly swarmed 
in the lake, and none are caught except the few taken as 
bait Hsh, so that not only is a vast quantity of the best 
food going to waste for lack of means to take it, but the 
whitefish are eating a great quantity of food which should 
go to the young trout. There is no finer food fish than 
whitefish, and the place to eat them is where they are 
caught, and I venture to say that nine out of ten who 
could have whitefish and lake trout placed before them on 
the tables freshly caught from the water, would prefer 
the former. The "Otsego bass," so highly prized as a deli- 
cate table fish, is a whitefish, and there is a special law 
to permit their capture in nets. The same section of the 
Fisheries, Game and Forest Law. namelj'-, 149, says that: 
"Frostfish. whitefish, catfish, sunfish, pumpkin seeds, bull- 
heads, perch, suckers and sturgeon may also be taken 
with nets from inland lakes not inhabited by brook trout 
during such period, and ni such manner and under rules 
and regulations as the Commissioner of Fisheries, Game 
and Forests may prescribe." If the Commissioners 
would license some nets to take whitefish in Lake 
George, the lake trout fishing would be improved and 
the people would have such a choice table fish that they 
would wish to remain there for an indefinite time to en- 
joy them. 
Black Bass. 
Mr. H. Faxon, of Chestertown, N. Y., writes me 
under date of June 22 : "Cannot something be done to 
prevent the wholesale slaughter of young black bass by 
taking the old fish off their beds? 
'T understand that the closed season for black bass was 
off in this section June 15. The bass are not yet off 
their beds, and there are parties here who take twenty to 
twenty-five adult bass daily, and yet I suppose it is within 
the bounds of the law no black bass should be taken 
from the waters in this vicinity before July i to July 10." 
That is all true enough, and everyone who knows any- 
thing about the matter must know it is true, but I have 
harped on this subject for so many years in Forest and 
Stream that I expect the editor turns purple every time 
he reads the words "black bass" in my handwriting. 
The only thing to be done to remedj' the condition com- 
plained of is to amend the black bass law and make the 
closed season cover the breeding season and the time 
thereafter that the young bass require the protection of 
the parent. That is the only thing which Avill preserve 
our black bass fishing, for bass cannot be hatched like 
trout and shad, and they need all the intelligent protection 
a State can give them. Spawning in the lakes, the young 
bass are the prey of countless enemies, in spite of the 
watchful care of the parents, and the parent bass has been ■ 
known to devour its own brood after watching over it 
during the hatching period and days which follow, and 
the fry devour one another when they begin to feed (a 
few days ago I went into a baggage car on the Delaware 
& Hudson River Railroad, where a messenger of the 
Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission had 6,000 young 
big-mouth black bass in cans going to the Hudson River, 
and I asked him why he looked so troubled, and he said 
because the bass were beginning to eat one another, and 
he wanted to get them in the river before the practice 
spread), so that altogether too much care cannot be ex- 
ercised to protect the fish so far as just laws can protect 
them. The Fisheries. Game and Forest Commission has 
ceased to distribute the small-mouth black bass, although 
some big-mouth fry are sent out to certain waters where 
the same species is native, and nothing but a law to cover 
the spawning and rearing season will preserve the black 
bass. Every time it is suggested in Albany to lengthen 
the close season until July i, there is such opposition to 
it that the amendment fails; but the time must come 
when a sufficient number of people will realize the im- 
portance of such an amendment to secure its adoption, and 
it is to be hoped that the time will come before it is too 
late to save the fish for generations to follow us. 
Pacific Salmon. 
Mr. J. H. White, of Buffalo, N. Y., writes me about 
^Pacific salmon as follows : 
"I read your article in Forest and Stream re^rding 
Pacific salmon, which interested me greatly, and I wish 
to add my testimony to your position on the question of 
said salmon taking the fly. 
"I resided on Gray's Harbor, Wash., frqra the spring 
of 1890 to the fall of 1892. Said Gray's Harbor empties 
into the Pacific Ocean about forty miles north of the 
Columbia River. During all the time I was in Washing- 
ton I was a devotee of the rod and line, .and never heard 
of a salmon being taken on the fly, although I was for- 
tunate enough to be in the boat on three separate occasions 
when we hooked salmon, but the others fellows held the 
line. Twice we hooked the fish on a spoon and landed 
them, and once we took one on salmon roe, which we 
procured from net fishermen, and were using for salmon 
trout, so called there, but more likely sea trout" (this 
fish is the steel head now introduced into Eastern waters 
and also called salmon trout on the Pacific Coast. This 
year it bred in the fresh-water ponds of the U. .S. Fish 
Commission at East Oakland, Maine). "I was informed 
by men from Tacoraa that they had great sport at times 
on Puget Sound taking salmon on small spoon and light 
rod and line from moving sailboats. Kipling, speaking 
of 'Chinook' salmon, would indicate that he was fishing 
in the Columbia River, as the Chinook is only found in 
that stream, except on rare occasions, when one net fisher^ 
man would get one. You know the salmon vary in dif- 
ferent rivers, some species being found only in one strftam, 
vide Quinault, found only in the river of that name 
coming out of the Olympic- Mountains, and the most de- 
licious eating of them all. You may rest assured that the 
Columbia River salmon found in Eastern markets is more 
like others than the Chinook, and probably never saw the 
Columbia River." 
I think Mr. White must be in error about the Chinook 
being found only in the Columbia River. Tt has various 
other names, such as King salmon, Quinnat salmon, 
Sacramento salmon, Tyee salmon, Tchaviche. Saw-Kwey 
and Tschawytscha, and its range is put down as "Alaska. 
Oregon and California. Southward to Ventura River, and 
to northern China, ascending all large streams, especially 
abundant in the Columbia and Sacramento rivers, where 
it is the principal salmon," 
The Quinault salmon is new to me. and 1 wonder if it 
is not the Quinnat, another name for the Chinook or King 
salmon. It is more than likely that I have written in 
this cohmin of the catching of salmon in Puget Sound 
with spoon and artificial minnows, for during the residence' 
of a hrother in Tacoma for several years he sent me 
photographs of catches of salmon made with both lures, 
and Gen. Ripley, of Rutland, Vermont, wrote me on one 
occasion from Tacoma, I think, of a day's fishing in Puget 
Sound when he killed a number of Pacific salmon on an 
artificial minnow and with spoon as well. 
A. -N- Cheney. 
In Camp on Back Creek. 
Winchester, Ya.— Editor Forest and Stream: I have 
been intending for some time to write the story of a 
camping trip made by my friend Steimann Snapp and 
myself on Back Creek, fifteen miles from this city. We 
had been plaiining this trip for some time, and each of 
us, being tied down to business, looked forward with a 
great deal of pleasure to the day when we should starr. 
It was the night of a warm, sultry day, and we made the 
start about 11:30 o'clock. It clouded up shortly after 
we left town, which made driving somewhat difficult, and 
we did not reach our destination until about 5 o'clock 
the next morning. However, we arrived all safe, and se- 
lecting for a site on which to pitch our tent a slight eleva- 
tion about 20yds. from the creek, we soon had the white 
canvas stretched. The next thing on the programme 
was to have breakfast. This was my first camping trip, 
and I had never cooked nor helped to cook anything in 
my life; but my friend had been there before, and the 
breakfast was all right. We next visited a straw stack 
nearby, and carrying several large armfuls to the tent, 
proceeded to construct some sort of a bed, which proved 
to be very comfortable. 
It had cleared off beautifully by 9 o'clock, and the 
water in the creek was clear and smooth, and had we 
only known that a hard rain was in store for us in the 
evening, we would very likely have put in most of the 
day fishing. Instead, we explored around our new quar- 
ters, hunting good fishing holes, wood, etc. Well, along 
about 5 o'clock in the afternoon the rain came down in 
torrents, and at one time things looked rather serious for 
us. We hadn't pegged our tent down very securely, and 
the wind which accompanied the rain came very near 
carrying it away. However, it stood the storm, and we 
were happy in the thought that we had it pitched on dry 
ground. When darkness set in things looked rather 
gloomy around camp. A drizzling rain was faUing, and 
the darkness outside was inky. Another thing also came 
into our minds, and that was the fact that there would be 
no bass fishing on the morrow. The creek had risen very 
high, and was rushing past below us with a wild roar. 
AboutS o'clock several young farmers strolled down to our 
tent, and thry were very welcome visitors.' Snapp and 
myself had brought banjo and guitar along with us, and 
I suggested that we have some music to liven things up. 
We played several selections for our visitors, who in turn 
favored us with several "coon" songs. The night passed 
off very pleasantly, and it was after 12 o'clock when we 
rolled into our bed of straw. 
The next day dawned clear and bright; but oh! ths 
water was so muddy. After breakfast we overhauled our 
out-lines and got them in readiness to set in the after- 
noon. Right down below us was a barbed wire fence 
running clear across the creek, which looked as if it 
might have been used at one time for a water gate. Well, 
the water was right deep along- here, so we just strung 
pur out-lines right along the wire. About 4 o'clock in 
the evening Snapp took his gun and went out to trj^- 
his luck on some doves, which seemed very plentiful jn 
this section. In less than a half hour he came back with 
five nice, plump doves for supper. Broiled dove, corn 
cakes, fried potatoes, coffee and good old country milk— 
what more could two campers want? After supper we got 
out our Powhatans and talked over what we intended to 
do later — of the bass we were going to catch and the 
hauls on otur out-lines. About 12 o'clock that night we 
looked at our lines, I was the first one down to the 
creek, and noticed something tugging to beat the band 
on the third Hue from the shore, 
Snapp hurried down to where I was standing, waded 
in and soon had struggling in the air an immense eel, his 
white belly showing up under the glare of the lantern 
which I was holding. We had to get the boat to go out 
to the rest of the lines. After we had examined all the 
lines we had six eels and five bass. We went to bed 
that night with the assurance that we wouldn't go hungry 
in the morning. There are some people who wouldn't 
eat an eel if they almo.st starved; but they don't know 
what's good. We ate them and enjoyed them, too; but 
Snapp is an unusually good cook, and may be that had 
something to do with them tasting so delicious. 
The next day the water began to clear, and our main 
thoughts were of those big bass which we were going to 
catch. In the afternoon we got our minnow seine out 
and went down to where we had thrown the refuse from 
the eels we had caught before, and caught a nice bucket 
of live bait. Putting the bucket out into the stream just 
far enough so that the water would cover it, and placing 
a large stone upon it, we left it there until the next day. 
We had been down the creek a good piece, and had dis- 
covered some excellent-looking sheets of water and had 
also seen some fine bass disporting themselves therein. 
It was agreed that we should make an early start the 
next morning and try our luck. We were up at S o'clock 
pnd off for the fishing place. As we were walking along 
I noticed a quiet, deep eddy, into which the water rushed 
from, a slight elevation, and after going round and round 
dashed on upon its never-ceasing journey. I put on a 
fly and made a cast right into the middle of the eddy. 
There was a rush through the water just as the fly touched 
the surface, and away he went down to the bottom. In 
a few seconds he started again. I called a halt then by giv- 
ing ihe line a sudden jerk. The hole in which I was 
fishing was not more than 15 by 20ft. Well, sir, that fish 
made the water in that eddy boil. Around and aroiand he 
went, sometimes skirting around the edges, and now and 
then throwing himself clea,r out of the water. I let hmi 
have his fun, for I didn't wish to ri.sk my rod trymg to 
land him while he was in this bad humor. My friend 
had not yet made a cast, but was standing near by watch- 
ing the excitement with keen interest. The struggles of 
the fish were becoming weaker, and I slowly began to reel 
him in. I had no trouble landing him. for he was pretty 
neariy worn out; but he had fought hard and had given 
me more exciting pleasure than I had experienced for 
a long time. , • ,^ 
"Isn't he a dandy! He'll weigh at least Slbs., wont 
he?" said Snapp. , t 1, t- 
"Yes, he'll weigh every bit that much, and 1 believe 
there a're some more of them in here. Bait your line 
and make a cast just behind that rock. I just saw a npple 
in the water there." 
He put on a minnow and threw in, and balancing his 
pole on a stone on the bank, came over to take another 
look at the fish I had just caught, 
"Look out. there!" I cried. "Something's got your 
line!" And just as he rushed to the spot his rod had 
slid over the bank into the water. Snapp is a true sports- 
man, from the crown of his head to the soles of his shoes, 
and without a word jumped right square into the water 
after that fish. I couldn't help but laugh at him as lie 
splashed and made a grab for his rod. The water caught 
him up around the Waist, and after bracing himself he 
commenced to work on that fish. The reel on his rod 
was buzzing like a saw mill. The bass had struck out and 
had gotten out of the eddy into the riffles below, and 
was going down stream as fast as he could go. Luckily, 
Snapp had about 150ft. on his reel, , and he let the fish 
run. Well, that bass kept on going, and Snapp was ^get- 
ting nervous. He only had iSft. of line left. Al, he 
said, what must I do? I have only loft. of line left, and 
I can't stop that bass." x • 1 j t. 
Ramming my hand down into my pocket, I picked out 
a silk line, and rushing up to him in the water, snatched 
the end of his line, which was hanging out about iin. 
from the end of the reel, and tied mine to it. I was not 
a minute too soon, for away went the hemp, foUowed 
by the silk. This was an unusually long run for a bass. 
He did not stop until he had gone fully 200ft. Then he 
slowed up. I ran down below the riflles, jumped into 
a boat and rowed to within 30ft. of the fish and grabbed 
the line and commenced to pull him in. It would have 
taken some time to reel him in, and then he might have 
taken the idea into his head to start off again. I got 
him safely into the boat with the assistance of a landing 
net rowed to the shore and presented him to Snapp as his 
prize. He was a little bit larger than mine and weighed 
probably SJ^lbs. Thus ended one of the most exciting 
bits of sport with the bass I exer experienced. We were 
very well satisfied with onr two big fish and started on 
o.ur way back to camp. It was very near dinner time, 
and we were very hungry. We met a farmer, who ad- 
mired the bass very much, and said they were the largest 
he had seen caught around this section for some time. 
There was a house about 200yds. from us, up through a 
lane of locusts. We must return our thanks to the people 
of this household, for they were certainly kind to us. 
They gave us milk and eggs and told us to help ourselves 
to anything in the garden we needed. 
I got up quite early one morning, and taking niy 
fishing rod strolled down the creek to catch some perch. 
In an hour or so I had caught a very decent string. 1 he 
perch you catch in these waters are about as big as your 
hand and when fried nice and brown make an excellent 
dish ' I had stopped fishing and was lying on the ground 
enjoying the cool morning breeze, when suddenly I 
smelled the faint odor of coffee. Snapp was getting 
breakfast, and the gentle wind was bringing the sweet 
fragrance of that old, battered and burnt coffee pot right 
down the creek. I jumped up, and getting my fish to- 
gether started for camp at a double-quick gait. I couldn t 
stand the smell of that coffee pot. and every step I took 
toward camp the odor became stronger, and presently X 
detected the noise made by the frying pan. 
Our time was growing limited; we only had two more 
davs left before starting back home. We put in all the 
tirne possible fishing, so as to have some fish tc. carry 
back with us. When we counted our fish the evening we 
left we had thirty-two all told. With reluctant hands we 
