90 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
UuLY 29, t8gg> 
the door of the Smithsonian Institution and applicants for 
appointment on the scientific staff would find in this their 
Shibboleth. No civil service or other examination would 
be required, but the only mental and moral test of fitness 
would be the possession of an intelligence broad enough 
to see in this stream-worn slab a cultivator; and that 
lucky or brazen individual should be made chief who 
boldly asserted that he could decipher Adam's trademark 
in its moss-eaten surface. 
The ledges and dams which reach across the streams of 
the Upper Potomac system often have but a single opening 
with water sufficient to carry over a boat, and here the 
current is swiftest and reaches in a glassy curve over the 
stones almost to the foot of the rocks, and then breaks 
into heavy waves that look to the uninitiated as the worst 
possible place in which to trust a boat, but over which it 
goes as lightly and safely as an autumn leaf. It is so 
often the case that failure becomes a disappointment that 
a good fish lies in wait at this point and a fly dropped 
over the curve and .drawn back to the edge is nearly sure 
to get a response. Sometimes as he takes it he goes over 
the fall with his first leap, and a broken rod is the price 
paid for that experience this year. He felt a lo-pounder, 
but when he was at last killed weighed scant 3. To the 
angler it seems a poor place for the fish to ambush for 
that as soon as he can sight his game it is gone, but the 
certainty with which he hits the fly encourages the be- 
lief that in this as in many others the wily bass knows 
his business. The bass, like the pike, and probably most 
other predatory fishes, has a habit of heading off his 
game, and perhaps if one fished up, the bass' turning rush 
at the fly would carry him up stream, but fishing down, 
which seems to find them easiest, he inteixepts the fly with 
his head turned down with the current. Inconsistent as 
it may seem, a quick, hard strike is safest both for rod 
and fish. It turns the bass' head up stream, and j^ou get 
him in the pool where the man, as well as the fish, has a 
fighting chance, whereas a slower tightening of the line 
lets him over the falls and puts his pulling weight at 
pounds on a rod intended to hold ounces, to say nothing of 
the nasty effect of stones and swift water on one's tackle 
and the fish's tactics. 
The river here runs eastwardly. The best way to fish 
is with the fly. If it is too clear and bright to find the 
bass in mid-river, is to fish down the northerly bank in 
the morning when the bushes on that side cast their 
shadows up stream and up the other bank in the evening. 
Hunting here as a couple, we take each a side, and on 
half a dozen dift'erent days and seasons the left bank has 
yielded fish in the morning only, the right bank in the 
afternoon. It is not hard to find a good bass reason for 
this, that there should be no fish on the north side after 
12 o'clock. The fish when at rest is always headed up 
stream, and the afternoon sun would be shining right in 
his eyes under the bushes, and besides the glaring light 
and comfortable warmth of the summer sun against the 
bank and shallow water, the fish itself would stand re- 
vealed too conspicuously to his hunted prey or his hunter 
— man. 
When a bass is found in this water though, he gives a 
good account of himself, and is as reluctant to come to 
net as the famed ouananiche, but he leaves the water no 
oftener than his congener of the slit face, his fight after 
his _ long runs _ are over being principally a sj'stem of 
borings. Every time he catches sight of the skiff his heels 
"kick at Heaven" and he starts for the bottom of the 
river as if he had business in China. 
They are, however, not so plenty as they once were, and 
one of the old inhabitants who had spent his life on the 
banks of the river and who claimed to know every stone in 
it, thinks he can remember when there were more fish than 
stones, but now, he mourned, "You can count every bass 
in the river when it's low." 
Arnong the curiosities of "Angling Literature in Amer- 
ica" is a series of articles written for Knickerbocker's in 
^855, by Charles A. Munger. They are a parody, and a 
very clever one, on old Izaak, and called the "Coinplete 
Susquehanna Angler." He makes his Piscator say, "The 
flesh of the Susquehanna bass is reputed by those who 
have had the good fortune to taste it to surpass that of all 
the other dwallers in the water. Yet I cannot vouch for 
the truth of such affirmation, since never have I, nor have 
any of my honest brethren with whom I have met, been 
so fortunate as to eat thereof. Still there be reasons 
which force me to give faith to the rumor, to wit: For 
that it is generally received as true; also, for that they be 
very scarce and difficult to take, qualities which give flavor 
and relish to anything: and also for that I did once see 
an honest angler, who did assure me that formerly he did 
see another brother of the rod and line, who, upon his 
honor as a fisher, did most religiously and solemnly as- 
severate that he did once upon a time drink of some 
water wherein tradition said a large bass was seen to 
lie, and that it had a most sweet and wholesome taste." 
This must have been the striped bass, as our black bass 
were not planted in that stream until later, and one cannot 
help a feeling of satisfaction that such a scoffer never 
had the opportunity of enjoying the real thing either in 
the water or out of it, though for that matter if he had he 
could no longer have been so bitter; he would have been 
"pigeon-livered and lacked gall," Henry Talbott. 
"Where to go. 
Oke important, useful and considerable part of the Forest and 
Stream's service to the sportsmen's community is the information 
given inquirers for shooting and fishing resorts. We make it our 
business to know where to send the sportsman for large or small 
game, or in quest of his favorite fish, and this knowledge is freely 
imparted on request, 
On the other hand, we are constantly seeking information of this 
character for the benefit of our patrons, and we invite sportsmen, 
hotel proprietors and others to communicate to us whatever may be 
of advantage to the sportsman tourist. 
Take inventory ot the good things in this issue of 
Forest and Stream. Recall what a fund was given 
last week. Count on what is to come next week 
Was there ever in all the world a mor© abundant 
weekly store of Kportsmen's reading? 
Canadian Angling Notes. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Were all the world to think alike the readers of Forest 
AND Stream would certainly be deprived of much amus- 
ing reading about the game qualities of the ouananiche. 
The letter from your correspondent of last week who 
ranks the fresh water salmon as inferior to a chub is 
quite amusing, but not a bit more so than his quotation 
from "the famous ouananiche fisher who has written a 
book on the subject." It is just such nonsense as he 
quotes about "the rod smashing qualities of the ouanan- 
iche," and the luck of killing even "two fish out of five 
hooked," that has brought contempt upon the fish by lead- 
ing visiting anglers to anticipate something different from 
what they actually find. In their vexation they rush to 
the other extereme and belittle those admirable game 
qualities of the ouananiche that have been so fully testi- 
fied to bj*^ Messrs. Cheney and Van Dyke and Myers and 
Morris and scores of other unassailable witnesses. 1 
would not have it appear, however, that I have any desire 
to discredit the statements of that small minority of 
ouananiche anglers that expresses disappointment, with 
the sport. It is unreasonable that the whole World should 
be expected to think alike, eithelr in regard to thfe gafiie 
qualities of the ouananiche ot to any othejr subject bf 
equal interest to those engaged in the discussion of it. 
For one ouanai^iiche is so much unlike another in the 
method of its fight and in the game qualities that it dis- 
plays, that I can quite understand much of the difference 
of opiniion in respect to the fish. Nor is it to be expected 
that the 2%\h. fish, which was about the largest taken by 
Mr. Palmer, would put up anything like the fight of the 
5 and 61b. ouananiche that are so familiar to old-time 
anglers on the Grande Decharge. 
Within the last few weeks there has been splendid sport 
in the Discharge, and many anglers report catches of 
thirty to forty fish a day. Some of those sent to Quebec 
during the last few days weighed 3 and 4lbs. each. 
It will be good news to lovers of the sport to learn that 
Mr. Beemer is quite determined to keep up the supply .of 
fish in Lake St. John and its tributary water. I paid a 
visit recently to his hatchery at Roberval and found there 
75,000 young ouananiche, which are to be planted at the 
end of the present month. The parent fish were taken in 
the Metabetchouan last autumn, and there was a differ- 
ence of about fifteen or twenty days in the time of strip- 
ping them. The spawn was placed in the incubator about 
Nov. I, and the fish eggs were hatched on April 21, all 
the fry being out by May 20. The young ones are ex- 
ceedingly healthy in appearance, and the mortality has 
been almost nil. 
There are also to be seen at this hatchery 75,000 young 
salmon and 25,000 little fish, the product of a cross be- 
tween salmon and ouananiche. What the fate of the lat- 
ter will be it is difficult to foresee. They may prove a 
good game fish; but if worthy of perpetuation the stock 
may have to be renewed by a fresh crossing of the parent 
fish, since mules have not, so far as I have been able to 
inform myself, the power of reproduction, and these little 
fish are decidedly mules, if there be any groimd for the 
contention — which I am not read}'' to admit — ^that the 
ouananiche and the Salmo salar are two distinct varieties. 
The experiment of planting the salmon from the sea in 
some of the tributaries of Lake St. John is likely to prove 
deeply interesting. I see no reason why it should not 
succeeed, providing that a good passageway for the fish 
is made with dynamite at the falls of the Saguenay above 
Chicoutimi. During a recent visit to Newfoundland, I 
found that salmon ascend from the sea to the headwaters 
of several rivers, which necessitate their passage through 
large inland lakes. Why should they not similarly ascend 
through Lake St. John into the Peribonea, the Mistassini, 
the Ashuapmouchouan and other rivers tributary to it, in 
which they may be planted, and where they may spend 
the first two or three years of their life? 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
(^UEItEC, July 31. 
Concerning . 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some years ago the impropriety of "ringing the 
changes" on the hackneyed expression "speckled beauties" 
was discussed in your columns by the readers of Forest 
AND Stream, and the "consensus of opinion" by a large 
majority, in fact nem. con., pronounced against it with 
emphasis, as being dudish, qualmish, nauseous and gen- 
erally reprehensible. For a number of years thereafter 
this repulsive expression remained in a state of "innocuous 
desuetude," much to tlie relief of delicate stomachs. 
But as vigilance relaxed the expression again stealthily 
crept in. tmtil one can noW scarcely ever become immersed 
in an otherwise interesting fishing narrative but he will 
straightway run up against "speckled beauties" in all its 
sickly smiling inanity, upon which event this writer in- 
variably throws down the magazine, and when it is again 
piclced up he carefully avoids falling into the same trap by 
skipping the offending article altogether. 
One is tempted to exclaim with Hotspur: 
"Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art, 
A good TOouth filling oath; and leave in sooth,. 
And such protest of pepper gingerbread 
To velvet guards, and Sunday citizens." 
In the name of suffering humanity, Mr. Editor, please 
bring into requisition your editorial prorogative — use the 
blue pencil, and spare not such offenders against the 
canons of good taste — substitute for the sickly and un- 
wholesome "speckled beauties" some such sturdy expres- 
sion as "freckled frowsies," for example, or any other 
that a healthy stomach can digest without a faintness in 
the epigastric region. Your suffering friend, 
COAHOMA. 
P. S. — After laying down Forest and Stream for the 
purpose of relieving an overburdened mind by outpouring 
the above diatribe, I again picked it up and shortly fell 
upon Mr. Cheney's very moderate and sensible protest 
against the same abuse. I felt that I was "outclassed" 
by Mr. Cheney, and ought to withdraw" somewhat "hot 
and incoherent" complaint; but on reflection I concluded 
that the medicine, though drastic, was fitted to the malady ; 
SO let it gOf if you think it worth space. Coahoma.' 
Lon§f Island Fishing* 
Wreck LfiAi!), L. L, July 24.— Fishing has been good 
during the past week. Sea bass and fluke are very 
plenty, and weakfish are still caught. They are, however, 
not as plenty as they were early in the' season. 
Queenswater, L. L, July 24. — A peculiarity of this sea- 
son's fishing is the scarcity of bluefish and blackfish. The 
auxiliary yacht Inner Beach has been off to the wreck of 
the Iberia or the fishing banks nearly every dav this sea- 
son. Capt. Henry Wright says that there have been no 
bluefish to speak of for spme time. He thinks the low 
temperature of the water is the cause. There seems to be 
plenty of food, and as soon as the water gets warm, either 
by a change in current or by the heat of the sun, there 
will probably be a great run of fish. Weakfish, sea hass 
and fluke are very plenty, and a basket full may easily be 
caught, either in the bay or off to the banks. 
A curiosity in the way of the gastrottoniical poWefs Of 
the Weakfish Wets discovered by Capt. Saniitel Jacksoii. 
It Was ah oyster nearly 3ih. iii length iii the stotilach Of 
the fish. Thfe strangest part of the stofy is tile Met , 
that thfe poster was recognized as a Prince's iBay, corise- 
quehtiy the fish must have made a jouriiey of thirty hliifes 
after swallowing the oyster. 
127 
Chicago Fly-Casting Clwb. 
Chicago, July 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: At the 
fifth competition of the club to-day the following, records 
were made : 
Long Distance Accuracy 
Distance and Accuracy, and Delicacy, 
Fly, Feet. Per Cent. Per Cent. 
94 2-3 94 1-3 
85 96 
90 1-3 
01 g6 2-3 
88 1-3 9| 
93 90 i-^ 
— ^Lohg distance fiy, I. H. Bellows ; 
distance and accuracy, I. H. Bellows; accuracy and deli- 
cacy, C. A. Lippincott; bait casting, H. A. Newkirk. 
I. H. Bellows. 
H. G. Rascal. . 
N. C. Heston 
C. Lippincott. . . ... 
H. NeWkirk 
F. N. Peet 119 
Holders of Medals. 
Bait 
Casting, 
Per Cent. 
95 8-iS 
96 13-15 
95 11-15 
93 i-i.^ 
97 l3-tS 
9^ .3-^ 
he Mmml 
Fixtures. 
BENCH SHOWS, 
Aug. 5.— Providence, R. I. — Rhode Island Kennel Club's one- 
day show. Crescent Park. George S. Miller, Sec'y. 
Sept.^ 4-7. — Toronto, Can. — Toronto Industrial Exhibition Asso- 
ciation's eleventh annual show. 
-Sept. 12-15.— Milwaukee, Wis.— Milwaukee Kennel Club's fifth 
annual bench show. Edward Meisenheimer, Sec'y. 
Oct. 2-6.— Dallas, Tex. — ^Texas Kennel Club's second annua! 
bench show. Sydney Smith, Sec'y. 
Oct. 3-6.— Danbury, Conn.— Danbury Agricultural Society's eight- 
eenth annual show. G. M. Rundle. Sec'y. 
Oct. 10-13.— Providence, R. I.— Rhode Island State Fair Asso- 
ciation. E. M. Oldham, Supt. 
Nov. 15-18.— Philadelphia, Pa.— The Philadelphia Dog Show As- 
sociation's first annual bench show. Marcel A. Viti, Sec'y. 
Nov. 22-24.— New York.— American Pet Dog Club's show. S. C. 
Hodge, Supt. 
FIELD TRIALS. 
Aug. 31.— Emmettsburg, la.— The Iowa Field Trial Association's 
second annual field trials. M. Bruce, Sec'y. 
Sept. 4.— La Salle, Man.— Western Canada Kennel Club's annual 
amateur field trials. A Cole, Sec'y. 
Sept. 6.— Morris, Man.— Manitoba Field Trial Club's thirteenth 
annual trials. William C. Lee, Sec'y. 
Oct. 31. — Greene Co., Pa. — The Monongahela Valley Game and 
Fish Protective Association's fifth annual field trial. A. C. Peter- 
son Sec'y. 
Nov. 7.— Washington C. H., O.— Ohio Field Trial Club's trials. 
C. E. Baughn, .Sec'y. 
Nov. 8-9.— Lakeview, Mich.- Michigan Field Trials Association's 
second annual trials. E. Rice, Sec'y. 
Nov. 12.— Bicknell Ind.— Independent Field Trial Club's first 
annual trials. George D. Mayfieid, Sec'y. 
Nov. 14.— Chatham, Ont.— International Field Trial Club's tenth 
•annual trials. W. B. Wells, Hon. Sec'y. 
Nov. 17.— Newton, N. C— Eastern Field Trial Club's twenty- 
first annual trials. Simon C. Bradley, Sec'y. 
Nov. 21.— Lawrenceville, 111.— Illinois Field Trial Association's 
inaugural trials. O. W. Ferguson, Sec'y. 
Nov. 28.^ •, Mo.— Missouri Field Trial Association's third 
annual trials. L. S. Eddins, Sec'y. 
Dec. S.— Newton, N. C— Continental Field Trial Club's trials. 
Thos. Sturges, Sec V- 
1900, 
Jan. 22.— West Point, Miss.— United States Field Trial Club's 
annual trials. W. B. Stafford, Sec'y. 
Feb. 5.— Greenville, Ala.— Alabama Field Trial Club's fourth an- 
nual trials. T. H. Spencer, Sec'y. 
Derby Entries of the Manitoba 
Field Trials Club. 
Mahdi, liver and white pointer dog, May (Tippo— 
Queen Kent). Charlottesville Field Trial Kennels. 
Dervish, liver and white pointer dog. May 27, (Tippo — 
Queen Kent). Charlottesville Field Trial Kennels. 
Kartum, liver and white pointer dog, July 3 (cham- 
pion Rip Rap — Toxic). Charlottesville Field Trial Ken- 
nels. 
Soudan, black and white ticked pointer bitch, July 3 
(champion Rip Rap — Toxic). Charlottesville Field 
Trial Kennels. 
Bedouin, black and white ticked pointer bitch, July 3 
(champion Rip Rap — Queen III.). Charlottesville Field 
Trial Kennels. 
Luna, black, white and tan setter Bitch, January ( Tony 
boy — Christiana). Charlottesville Field Trial Kennels. 
Ightfi.eld Rill, lemon and white pointer bitch, April 20 
(Alberta Joe — Ightfield Diana II.). F. G. Simoson. 
Jubilee Lilla, black, white and tan setter bitch, Marcli 
29 (Brighton Monk — Manitoba Belle). G. B. Borradaile. 
Nora, lemon and white setter bitch, April 19 (Duke'.« 
Rush — Nehie), H. G. Spurgeon. 
Witch, black and white pointer bitch, May (Shot— 
Tannis). James Gower. 
Princess Bonnie, liver and white pointer bitch. May 
(Shot— Tannis). C. C. Bradley. 
Star Bondhu, black and white setter dog, May i (Dick 
Bondliu 11. — Bonnie Lit), John Wootton. 
May Bondhu, black and white setter bitch, May i 
(Dick Bondhu H.-— Bonnie Lit). John Wootton. 
