FOREST AND STREA^. 
149 
back be5'-ond trails and blazes to find Lac Croche, which 
was somewhere "over beyond Moise Lake," and Moise 
was two days by canoe and portage from the club house. 
When we got to Lac Moise we found Dr. Spencer F. 
Nash, of New York, in camp, and he told us how nearly 
he succeeded in reaching Lac Croche earlier in the year 
by way of the Batiscan, and the outlet of Lac Croche. 
Mr. W. F. McCormick, on his way out to the club house, 
told us how nearly he had reached the lake by way of 
Belle Riviere a short time before meeting' us, discover- 
mg Lake McCormick on the trip. Both of these gentle- 
men furnished all the information they had gained in 
regard to the lake which wc had heard about around 
camp-fires from guides and Indians, but which really no 
one on our visiting list had ever seen. We had all 
heard m.arvelous stories about the trout of great size 
that some Government exploring party had taken through 
the ice of Lac Croche, and after my first visit to Moise 
and its trout I was prepared to believe most anything 
about the trout of the lake beyond, for it seemed to be 
a case of the further you went the larger and more 
numerous the trout were, so that the legendary lake .in 
the somewhere over beyond Moise seerned a proper mecca 
for anglers. At Moise we found rain a-plenty, and 1 
found fever and a cough, and lost my appetite, and there 
in a wet camp I saw my finish as an explorer. When my 
diet got down to cigars and tea, there was a rebellion, and 
Goddard was for taking the back track with guides, In- 
dians and camp outfit,- but as a compromise I went back 
and he went on to Lac Croche alone, making a forced 
march as it were, and making a portage to visit the lake 
again this year. 
If I digress here it is because the only amusing thing 
which occurred on my back track is recalled to mind and 
causes me to smile now, although nearly a year has 
passed since it happened. Goddard and I had six guides 
• — four French habitants and two Indians from Lake St. 
k John— and almost from the start we discovered that our 
old guides seemed to feel that the introduction of the In- 
dians was an innovation which did not entirely commend 
' itself to them, and my head man on several occasions 
1 spoke slightingly of the skill of the Indians as canoemen. 
To save my strength for a portage that must be walked, 
and as the water in the Moise River was high, I started 
down stream in a canoe, light, ^vhile the Indians took my 
baggage in another canoe, which arrangement saved me a 
portage of five miles. It was snowing when I started, and 
^Ir. Goddard came over the first short portage to see me 
( tDff. and it was with difiiculty that I persuaded him to 
j rem-ain behind, as he feared that I was more ill than I 
reall}'' was. The men did not know of any sportsman 
I having run the rapids down to the Fullerton portage, but 
it was safe enough. I had to get out several times, and 
we took in some water and broke a few holes in the 
canoe, but on the whole got on nicely and came to a little 
fall with rapids above and below. The Indians, who were 
ahead, took out the baggage and carried the canoe 
around, and when my canoe came up the)' were seated 
smoking below the fall and rapids, watching us. My bow 
man took my rod case and walked down the rocks, and I 
followed, leaving Morasse, as I supposed, to follow me 
with the canoe over the rocks. The Indians stood up and 
]*3oked up stream as though something unusual was^ hap- 
pening, and i too looked back to see Morasse in the rough 
water with the canoe, relieved of the weight of two 
men, pointing skyward and turning as if on a pivot in 
spite of the guide's efforts with the paddle to keep the bow 
pointed down stream. Nearer and nearer he was drawn 
to the fall, and the look on his face was one of hopeless 
despair, for he could not get the canoe m a position to 
make the jump bow on. Up to this momeul. he had been 
on his knees in the stern, but he ceased paddling long 
enough to crawl over the crossbars and resume his 
paddling amidships, but in spite of everything !ie could 
do, over he went broadside on. and to m.y astonishment, 
and his own, the canoe struck on the bottom and re- 
gained right side up, when I did 'not think any power 
on earth could save him from an upset. He paddled to 
the shore and for the first time saw me laughing, for I 
\"ould have been obliged to laugh had he .gone over 
Avrong side up, and with a knoAving wink of his eye he 
said: "I show the sauvage how to jonip rapide." Then 
Morasse. having found his voice, began to sing. 
In the spring when the ice was gone he started once 
m-ore, and this time Mr, Witherbee was his companion. 
They made the circuit to Moise, up Belle Riviere to Lac 
Croche, and down the outlet to Lake Batiscan, and on 
this trip some new lakes were discovered. Mr. Wither- 
bee wrote me on his return, and this evening I have read 
his letter again, and make some extracts from it, as it 
conveys information pleasing to tis both : 
"Lac Goddard is no longer a myth, but a sure enough 
lake, with its name cut on its sentinel tree at the outlet. 
It took us four daj's from Moise to reach it. It is one 
and one-half miles long, and has a beaver dam at its in- 
let, making another lake, which I called Lake Warren. 
We photographed everything, including moose at 75yds. 
twice, caribou, etc. Lac Goddard can now be done from 
Moise in a day and a half, as we cut portages and blazed 
■w^ell. Lac Croche is out of the question from the Batis- 
can, but vice versa it is a fine canoe trip in A''ery swift 
water. In my opinion Lac Croche is the lake of the 
tract, being large and affording fine views of some grand 
mountains. You cannot fish with more than one fiy, as 
you would catch too many trout, for two or three rise 
at a fly at every cast and jump clean out of the water. 
Game? Well, I never saw gamier trout. What we got 
were not particularlj' large, but very fine and hand- 
somely colored. We slept in the same camp twice for 
two nights each time. Every other night of the sixteen 
we were in the woods we made a new camp. There are 
lots of beaver on the tract, and moose, too. The largest 
trout — s-j^lbs.— I caught out of Trois Caribou on the first 
day out from the club house. I lost my whale out of the 
landing net when the fight was over,'so I will not tell 5''on 
how large it was. Edward" (the steward at the club 
house) "told me that L. C. Smith sent out a trout from 
the Batiscan weighing 8Hlbs. Further details I will have 
tc tell you as they are too numerous for a letter/' 
Raiafaow Trout, 
Ever since the rainbow trout came over the great 
divide from the West and found more or less transient 
lodgment in Eastern streams opinion has divided in re- 
gard to the desirability of the stranger fish in our waters. 
Confession is good for the soul, and I can admit it 
right here, that for a long time I thought the rainbow a 
mighty poor substitute for our native trout, even when 
he would stay where he was put and not run away and 
disappear forever the second year after he was planted in 
the fry stage. That the rainbow is a game fish on the 
hook, and in taking the ily, jumping as the fontimlis 
larely does after it is hooked, no one will deny, but as a 
table fish the rainbow must be in the very pink of condi- 
tion to equal the native trout when it is not quite up to 
its best condition. Perhaps the greatest fault to be found 
with the rainbow is that it will not stay put when it is 
planted, and it is more difficult to propagate than the 
common brook trout (but that has been overcome re- 
cently, so that it is now possible to get nearly as high 
a per cent, of impregnated eggs as with the native trout), 
and being a spring-spawning fish it does not arrive at 
its best estate as early as the native. Giving due weight 
to all the objections raised against the rainbow in Easterxr 
waters, I have come to like the fish more and more the 
bettei- T know it, and for some waters I think it a better 
fish than the fontinalis. 
In Europe the rainbow has done bettef thaW the fotUi- 
nalis (wliich over there has acquired a hahit of running 
away for good and all when planted in streams with 
the gates open), and I think is more highly esteemed, 
particularly in Germany, and the European fish breeders 
have, I must confess, studied the peculiarities of the fish 
and tried to understand him as we have not, chiefly be- 
cause we think we have something better. In searching 
for information concerning the rainbow. Mr. Marston 
obtained a letter from Mr. Livingston Stone which is 
well worth printing here after its journey across the s^aj 
but I quote it only in part. 
Before writing Mr. Marston, Mr. Stone communicated 
with Mr. Myron Green, for several years superintendent 
of the United States trout station on the McCloud Rivei', 
California, from which station all the rainbow trout that 
iiave been distributed by the United States were originally 
obtained (it was from this fact, by the way, that we got 
in New Y''ork waters what were termed McCloud River 
trout), and Mr. M. L. Dunning, employed by the U. S. 
Fish Commission at Baird station on the McCloud River, 
who has fished many California streams for this fish. 
Mr. Stone says that these two men having had unexcep- 
tional opportunities for studying the rainbow, he con- 
siders that they can hardl.v be excelled as authorities on 
the subject, and they tell us some of the very things that 
are very desirable to know, and speak from personal ex- 
perience. Here is the extract: 
"Both Mr. Green and Mr, Dunning agree that the rainbow trout 
are not cannibalistic in their habits. They also both agree. that 
at certain times and at certain ages the golden band is absent; 
that the smaller variety ot rainbows inhabiting the smaller .streams 
very often do not possess the golden band at all. Mr. Green does 
not wish to express a decided opinion concei'ning their tendency 
to go to the ocean, as he lias never been among these trout near 
the ocean. Mr. Dunning is quite of tlie opinion that they do go 
to the ocean under some circumstances, 
"Please allow me to quote a little from the letters of these ex- 
cellent authorities. Mr. Dunning writes as follows from Baird, 
Cal., luider date of Jan. 30, lSi99: 
" 'Three years ago about 300,000 young salmon were fed here in 
the troughs until the latter end of May, when they were planted 
in the McCloud River. For the next seven or eight days after 
the planting I caught over forty trout, of l%lbs. and upward, and 
opened most of them immediately, and in no instance did I find 
anj' of the fish or remains of the fish we had planted. At other 
times while iishing I have often examined the stomachs of trout 
caught, and it was a rare exception that anything was found that 
would indicate that they were feeding principally on young lish. 
My opinion is that rainbow trout are not natural cannibals, lliougli 
when driven to it bj' hunger they might become such.' 
''Mr. Dunning continues: 'In fishing the waters of Hatchet. 
Roaring and Montgomery creeks, mountain streams and tributaries 
of Pitt River (the Upper Sacramento), I have caught as high as 
twelve dozen in a day, many of them fully matured and parent 
fish, and none of them showed the golden band. If these are the 
rea] rainbows, my opinion is that they do not show the golden 
band in all waters." 
"Tn regard to these fish going to the ocean, Mr. Dunning says: 
'I was sent to Olema, Marin county, Cal., about one year ago 
this month, to assist in hatching out 2,000,000 salmon eggs. While 
there we spent part of our time seining in Paper Mill Creek at 
a place called White House. This was in tide water (we often 
having to wait until the tide went out, in order to seine), about 
four miles from the ocean. We caught a large variety of fish, but 
by far the largest number were rainbow troiU, which I should 
say were about a year old. As these trout were miles below their 
spawning beds, 1 was strongly of the opinion that their course 
WHS downward, and that they were on their way to the ocean, and 
in quite large numbers.' 
''Mr. Green writes as follow.? on the same subjects: 'I have 
opened a great many rainbow trout on McCloud River, but have 
never found any fish in them except young salmon that were very 
young, I have never seen the large trout trying to eat the small 
ones, and I do not think that they are destructive to other fish. 
I have kept large and small trout together in the same pond, 
and the large ones did not disturb the small ones, but if they 
were starving, perhaps they would,' 
"^Vbout the golden band on their sides, Mr. Green says : 'I do 
not think it shows much on the young fish at one year old. 1 
think it shows but very little at two years, and not very much until 
the fish is full sized. J?uU-grown trout carry the golden stripe all 
the year round, but it shows plainest and is brightest at the 
spawning season. The trout in small streams do not grow a.s 
large as in the river, and show the red stripe but little. " In the 
river the large males show the stripe the most, but I have se.eil 
large females that did not have the stripe at all.' " 
Large trout of all species become cannibals, and the 
large rainbow is no exception to this rule. The big fel- 
lows in a stream establish themselves in a "hole" and 
wage war on their kin — after the manner, I suppose, of 
a man-eating tiger, having obtained a taste of the flesh 
that gives them their name,, they seek that chiefly ; anyway 
it seems to be so with a big trout in a stream. A rain- 
bow trout weighing gibs, established himself in a hole in 
one of the State hatchery streams and lived on trout 
until he was netted out of his lair; but it was an excep- 
tional case. I mig-ht say here that I have been slowly 
coming to the belief that all large trout, exceptionally 
large tro-ut, are trout-fed. It has been claimed that the 
large fontinalis of the Rangeley Lakes grow to their great 
size on a diet chiefly of the small Oquassa trout, or 
bluebacks, and the large trout I have caught in Canada 
showed conchtsively that they lived largeli^ on smaller 
trout, for they had tjout inside of them when caught in 
a great many instances. The big trout that inhabit a hole 
and prey upon this species are generally old male fish, and 
are of far more use knocked on the head than when left 
alive in the water, but they must be knocked on the 
head in a legal manner, and so they escape the end they 
deserve when fishermen know just the destruction they 
are working in a trout stream, for they are wary beggars 
and know all the legitimate lures used by anglers. 
In one lake where the rainbows have been planted, they 
remained and multiplied, but they will not rise to the 
fly, nor take bait during the day. In the. evening and far 
into the night they will rise readily to the fly, and are so 
taken through the season. 
Another lake was planted, and it was supposed thr; 
rainbows had disappeared forever, until splendid large 
fish were found running up the inlet stream to spawn. 
The late Rev. Dr. Reese caught a large rainbow while 
trolling for lake trout in the spring of last year, and he 
told me it was the gamest fish he ever hooked. This 
was in Lake George, N. Y., and no one supposed that 
there was any of the trout in the lake, and other lakes 
that have been planted may prove to have the rainbows, 
and 1 believe there is a future for this fish in Eastern 
waters after we become better acquainted with him, and 
jlant in suitable waters, for they will live and thrive in 
warmer waters than the native brook trout, and are a 
good table fish fresh from the water in their season. 
Sfie of Trout Best for the Table. 
During the winter a correspondent asked me the size 
of trout I considered best for the table, jndging from per- 
sonal experience. I was very busy at the time, and I re- 
plied, "s^-ilbs." He did not fancy my reply altogether 
and was inclined to think I was making light of a serious 
(ine.stion. Certainly I had no desire to treat a serious 
matter with levity, and I explained that my reply answered 
his question fully and to this I was prepared to make 
oath. Of all trout I ever ate, that one of sJ^lbs. stands 
out above all others, for it was very fat and well flavored, 
and I was particularly hungry, for we had no other meat 
in camp. It would have been good at any time, and in 
any place; but in camp on that occasion it was the best 
I ever ate: besides, I caught it. 
Now a lady has asked me practically the same ques- 
tion, and I cannot be quite as abrupt as I was with the 
man. for she does not put the question wholly as a matter 
of personal taste. Taste in eating is such a queer thing 
anyway, and there are so many millions of people in this 
fairly good world with different tastes in regard to what 
solids go down their throats, that it is rather presump- 
tuous for one man to even attempt to tell what a lot of 
other men like best. 
I haA^e known of men, brought up under Christian in- 
fluences and the enhghtening forces of modern civiliza- 
tion, who have openly confessed that they loved trout best 
when they were 3 or 4in. long and fried crisp. To me 
such a taste appears to be hke infanticide with no ex- 
tenuating circumstances; therefore, I cannot judge this 
question impartially, for the larger trout — brook trout— if 
it is in good condition, and I caught it, the better I like 
it. There is no literature of any moment to guide me in 
answering this query, but Mr. J. J. Armistead in his ad- 
mirable book, "An Anglers Paradise," has something to 
say on the subject. Referring to Mr. Siegfried Jaffe's 
fish-breeding establishment in Germany he says: "Mr. 
Jaife tells me that a very, large number of trout are sent 
to rharket in a year for eating purposes, and they are 
onl\^ grown up to a comparatively small size, as they are 
thus more valuable as articles of food, being younger and 
more tender, and possessing a finer flavor. In regard to 
the eating qualities of trout, for which purpose a large 
number are killed annually at the Solway fishery, I can 
quite bear this out. the best flavored trout being those 
running from J^lb. to ilb." 
My own opinion of wild trout is that the flavor de- 
pends not so much upon size as upon condition. 
A. N. Cheney. 
The Bass that Jumped Into the Boat. 
The Lockport, N. Y,, Union-Times has this to say of 
the incident of forty-seven black bass jumping into boats 
on Oak Orchard Creek: 
On the word of Senator Pound, corroborated by Prof. 
Fessenden, we accepted the Oak Orchard story about 
jumping black bass. Some of our contemporaries are not 
'so fortunate as to have the personal acquaintance of these 
gentleman and their word-of-mouth testimony on the 
most profound piscatorial sensation that has occurred this 
summer season of 1899, and which far exceeds any fish 
story so far pressed upon an incredulous public; so we 
can pardon any exhibition of incredulity on the part of our 
fellow editors. 
Senator Pound has reached a stage where he feels com- 
pelled to vindicate his veracity and that of his friends by 
letter writing. Here is what our esteemed townsman has 
to tell the doubting editor of the Rochester Democrat and 
Chronicle : 
To the Editor of the Democrat and Chronicle. 
.Sir: I find that one tells fish stories, no matter how 
truthful, at the risk of one's reputation. Your little 
editorial paragraph to-day implies that the account of 
black bass jumping into boats on Oak Orchard Creek last 
week w as the product of stimulated imagination and nerve. 
I was unfortunate enough to be a witness of the occur- 
rence on two or three trips of the Ray, on which it hap- 
pened. I think that I have convinced a few people of its 
truth. But I wish very much that it could be treated 
seriously, for it deserves the consideration of students of 
natural history. 
No ordinary fact, to be established by the evidence of 
credible witnesses, Can be more easily proved than this, for 
at least 150 people can testify to some part, at least, of the 
occurrence. It is not a fisherman's story. There is no 
credit in taking fish in that manner. It is not an advertise- 
ment of Oak Orchard. The bass are not biting there and 
it is not probable that they will continue to jump as they 
did on the nights of July 27 and 28. While I do not 
care to appear solicitous about it personally, I do 
earnestly wish that you would at least 'take my word that 
it is not a joke nor a fairy tale. Yours very truly, 
CuTHBERT W. Pound. 
Lockport, N. Y.. Aug. 5. 
Tickling Trout. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A friend has been telling me that when a boy he 
caught trout by gently inserting his hand beneath them as 
they lay in the water, tickling or caressing them, and 
suddenly closing on them. Was he stuffing me, or can the 
thing be true? _ ^ J, B. W. 
[It is possible to take fish in this way; we have printed 
accounts of it before now.] 
