FOREST AND STREAM. 
313 
catch. He was repaid. When I appeared at 7 o'clock 
there lay twenty-seven trout — such beauties! none under 
•a pound and the largest 3lbs.! Gethro stood up to his 
knees in water; a few yards below him the guide with his 
net. As Gethro cast into the middle of the stream, often 
hooking two fish at one strike, an old guide who sat on 
the rocks watching the performance said: "They seems 
to be a reg'lar flight er the critters." Gethro wanted me 
to try my luck. I had never thrown a fly, and like every- 
thing else it needs practice; but I managed to get one 
into the water, and the second the fly touched the surface 
a trout had it and was off. I Avas told to play the fish 
till the guide brought the net. I could not wait for all 
that ceremony, so I snatched my trout out, doubling my 
rod terribly. The two men nearly had a convulsion ; 
they thought the rod would snap, but I thought I should 
lose my trout, and I did not wait for the proper way. 
I ran off, dragging him into the bushes, where I was 
sure he could not get away from me. I dropped the 
rod, seized him with both hands, took him off the hook 
myself, and ended his life. 
We had caught all the fish we needed for ourselves and 
friends, and after a breakfast of trout baked in cream 
we packed our finny prizes for the walk back to Cedar 
Stump. I was so lame I could not walk, and Bony was 
called to carry me down. (He was so named because 
he ate fish; bones and all.) I was strapped on to his 
back. My whole duty was to .look out that the branches 
didn't sweep me off his back, or the black flics devour me. 
Reins were not needed to guide this remarkable horse; 
he picked his way among those boulders as man could 
not — never stumbled. But the pitching down and back 
was verj'^ peculiar — ^quite seasickening in effect. Occasion- 
ally I would exclaim, ''Oh, Bony! do wait a minute till 
I regain my equilibrium," which language he always un- 
derstood, and cheerfully waited. He often made the 
journey over the carry with people strapped on his back; 
no less a personage than Gen. Ben Butler had been 
carried in the same manner a few days before. 
At last we reached Cedar Stump. I was taken off dear 
Bony's back, and I bade him an aft'ectionate farewell 
and told him I would drink his health from Cold Spring 
nearby. I was dying of thirst, and proceeded at once 
to the spring, a little in advance of the men, who were 
collecting materials for a fire to cook our lunch before 
the twelve-mile row down the lake. As I neared the 
spring a man was lying down, drinking. I had often 
seen Gethro do it, so thought nothing of it. As he 
finished and moved, behold! a bear before my very eyes! 
I stood gazing at the shaggy creature, when the guide, a 
few feet away, called out, "I smell a bear." I thought it 
was rather circus-like in odor in that lovely dell, but did 
not connect it with bruin. I could not moA-e — ^Avhether 
fear or intere.*t held me, I was unable to sa\^ After a 
satisfactory gaze at me, the bear with great dignity 
marched into the bushes. The guide was much excited 
and wanted to chase him with his gun, but I told the 
guide it was my bear, for I saw him first, and as bruin 
was polite enough to leave me unharmed and enough 
water in the spring to quench my thirst, I should protest 
against molesting him. The guide, too, belonged to us, 
for in those days Ave actually bought guides. 
We had what I call a wild lunch — no dishes to cook 
in, but trout and thin slices of salt pork stuck on a green 
stick (which would not burn easily), and frizzled, and 
delicious water from Cold Spring, the quality of which 
cannot be excelled. , r • 
We found our little rowboat just as we had left it the 
night before. T was so tired I was made to lie in the 
bottom of the boat and an umbrella spread over me to 
keep me from being sun-burned, for I was already a 
wreck from lameness and the miserable black files. We 
arrived at the mouth of the Cambridge River as the sun 
was going down behind Squaw Mountain, and I forgot 
all my ills in mv admiration of the surroundmgs. I 
cannot describe the grandeur. Please, _ readers, all go 
there and see for yourselves the beauties of nature m 
that region. 
When we reached Upton we found an audience ready 
for us— guides who had been to B. Pond and Parma- 
chenee Lake with Gethro in the old days, and who 
thought him a wonder because he could throw a fly so far, 
and several woodsmen who had many a time enjoyed his 
good stories round the open fire. In we stalked, carrying 
the big string of trout. "There! I tole ye so! The 
biggest ketch yit!" said one of his old friends. 
The next morning we were up before the lark even, be- 
cause we must reach Bethel early— before the heat shoi^d 
wither our trout—and as the driver said it was a dreffu 
han'some drive down to Bethel." I suspect by han - 
some" he meant the downhill drive as well as ear y 
morning scenery, and with our own horse we were able 
to make the trip more rapidly than the stage. The news 
of our good luck had preceded us, and never were mortals 
more warmly welcomed than we that morning by our 
friends at the Bethel House. _ 
To-dav Cedar Stump carry is much like any other 
piece of" wood road, and a span of horses attached to a 
three-seated buckboard makes the journey from M dd e 
Dam to Sunday Cove, morning and afternoon, ^ddk 
Dam of '99 is quite different from Middle Dam of 
'74 The lake, mosquitoes and flies can be found the 
same. The old log cabin, Asa Frost the man of he 
place, the dear horse and cow, as well as most ot the 
trout, have disappeared. 
Mttscallonge at Hay Bay. 
Editor Forest and Stream: r^ . .i 
At Hay Bay, Ontario, near Napanee, on Oct. 2, the 
&e\'eral boats that were out trolling took thirteen muscal- 
longe Messrs. Maxwell and Peal, of New York, were 
credited with five. The writer, with a friend, staying at 
Mr. Spencer's at Hayburn. captured seven, using steel 
rods .successfuly in preference to hand lines. The October 
.season seems to be the best for this noble fish. A. 
If you have the Game Laws in Brief yon have the 
authority on fish and game laws of the United States and 
Canada. It will tell what you want to know ; and what it 
lells you may depend on. Time, moncA^ and pains are 
•*xpeTl4^4 to ma,ke the Brief m ?>ccvrate ^nd s^U |«id?. 
Fishing Up and Down the Potomac* 
Uncle Sam's Little Fishes. 
The resources of the United States have been ex- 
ploited in nearly every direction. Maps have been 
made of the land, topographical, and the strata studied 
to great depths and charted, so that for much of the 
United States one may know not only the elevation 
of the surface but what stones he may expect to find 
on boring to any reasonable depth beneath that surface 
in almost any locality. Its waters have been measured 
and sounded and charted. Its minerals are located, 
measured and valued. 
Agriculture has a separate portfolio, and no scale too 
small to claim its attention if it threatens a crop. Soils 
are studied, and climates and rainfall; bugs and blights 
arc constantly under the microscope. 
A Fish Commission has been appointed and directed 
to study the fisheries and propagate and distribute 
fish to suitable Avaters in our borders, and has done 
this so successfully and economically as to awaken the 
admiration of the world in the gigantic results, that stock 
not only our pools and streams but oceans with mil- 
lions. All this to our credit and glory. To our shame 
no provision has ever been made or the slightest atten- 
tion paid by the Government to the needs of these little 
fishes. There is a marine station where investigations 
are going on into the forms of this lesser life, but there 
is nothing" being done, nor has there ever been in the 
more important fresh waters of the country. Millions 
of fish are hatched every year at the various stations. 
What do they eat? What do they need? Where 
Avill each sort thrive best? Who knows? If 
bolting cloth be carefully shrunken, stretched over a 
net frame, let down to the bottom of a body of water, 
marine or fresh river or lake, and drawn up, there will 
be found in the net a mass of microscopic living forms. 
It will not contain quite all in the vertical section through 
which it was drawn, for the resistance of the close net 
will cause some water to oyerflow its edge, and fine as 
are the silken meshes some forms are minute enough 
to pass through. 
Ihis infusorial life, which contains both vegetable 
and animal forms, as Avell as some almost impossible to 
classifj', is called the plankton, and aside from its in- 
terest as an integral part of the economy of life, has 
as Avell the charm of the unknown. Its students are 
explorers in a densely populated but almost undis- 
covered continent, the country of the Lilliputians. Il- 
linois and Michigan stand out bright examples by the 
encouragement they have given to such men as Kofoid, 
Reighard and Forbes in their investigations of the 
plankton and the food of local fishes, but no other State 
has done so much. The interstate rivers have received 
absolutely no attention. Even the Potomac, important 
as its waters are by reason of its nearness to and use 
by a capital where gather the representatives from 
every corner of the land, stands unsurveyed. 
Nobody knoAvs anything about the life in its waters. 
The Hydrographic Office did collect samples a couple 
of years ago at various points, which the Marine Hos- 
pital Service examined, but only for bacteria of typhoid 
and kindred diseases, and the result was such a revela- 
tion that the Secretary of the Treasury has ever since 
been asking for authority to examine all interstate rivers 
in the interest of the public health. It is impossible to 
understand why such authority is not given; perhaps 
because it comes in the form of a suggest'ion and does 
not appear in the estimates for appropriations, and as 
it is not pushed never is considered by the proper au- 
thorities. Departments are ahvays sIoav to ask for 
appropriations in ncAv directions, and this is as it should 
be. Expenses groAV all too rapidly Avith strictest econ- 
omy, and it is the province of the Legislature, the 
people, to direct ncAV enterprises that necessitate the 
expenditure of public moneys. 
But here is a case where the public is ignorant not 
only of the importance of the subject but of its very 
existence. 
That standing Avater has some wrigglers of course is 
common knoAvledge, but most of us not only never saw 
these, but never even met any one else who knoAvs any- 
thing about this lesser world, peopled with a thousand 
forms, Avith species as distinct and as easily identified 
as in the larger fauna of the earth — an unseen 
AA^orld, in Avhich the struggle for existence is as hotly 
Avaged as among the higher forms, for if their destruc- 
tion Avas stayed but for a fcAV weeks the ocean would 
become solid, the waters of the earth would disappear. 
That no effort should be made to knoAv something 
of this life, which teems in every drop of the Potomac, 
and which furnishes the milk for every suckling fish, is 
negligence so gross as to be in the nature of a national 
disgrace. 
The Fish Commission does what it can without specific 
authority or appropriation. At Put-In-Bay Prof. 
Reighard, with volunteers, is conducting investigations. 
In Indiana some observations are being made, and a 
limited exploration is being conducted on the Monon- 
gahela. The Potomac remains a no man's water, un- 
explored and unknown. 
The pollution of our rivers has destroyed the fisheries 
of many States. A factory assumes the right of using a 
public stream as a sewer, and throughout its course the 
fish disappear and there seems to be no redress. One 
of the reasons why the public is ppwerless to put a stop 
to these outrages is our crass ignorance. To show 
cause for complaint the public must show damage, and 
that has heretofore been impossible, because we could 
not tell how the refuse of mills and mines, affected the 
Avaters. Sawdust may cover the spawn beds and, slow 
to decay, accumulate from year to year. It is visible 
and grows offensive to man, and therefore has always 
come in for the principal burden of execration. But there 
are chemicals which may work _ worse harm ; astrin- 
gents and pugnent acids may irritate the delicate gills 
of the mature fish and drive them away; may strangle 
the young fry; may blight the spawn; may destroy the 
riparian vegetation which sustains the minor forms so 
necessary for the sustenance of the fry; may so modify 
the condition of this wealth of small life as to destroy 
nature's balance, and if t|ie volume of the plankton i^ 
undisturbed its elements may be so changed as to Jcisg 
its value as fish food. 
How do the various pollutions affect the waters of 
our pools and streams? Until this question can be 
answered we are helpless. It can never be answered 
until the waters have been measured and strained, and 
their contents counted and named and pictured. 
Ehrenberg, Avho practically broke the ice for the 
study of the infusorijE, could not distinguish the animal 
from the vegetable forms; but he left a startling idea of 
the miraculaus reproduction of a single form in an esti- 
mate which shoAved that undisturbed an individual in 
less than two months might outnumber all the peoples 
of the earth. It is well to map tlie stars and count 
the glittering glories of he sky, but here is a question 
directly concerning the daily life and sustenance and 
health of our people, about which collectively we know 
little — individually, save for here and there a student, 
we know absolutely nothing. 
What is wanted is a knowledge of these forms and 
their place in the great chain of human life. 
Some are more deadly than the fabled Upas tree. 
Destroy them all, and not only the fish but man would 
die. They must be identified and tagged. 
In his last annual report to Congress the Secretary of 
the Treasury said (page LXI.): "It is also recom- 
mended that a commission of medical officers of the 
Marine Hospital Service be authorized by act of Con- 
gress to investigate the sources of pollution of streams 
and other Avater supplies of tOAvns and cities, where it 
affects the people of more than one State." 
This is Avell, but more is needed. This proposed 
commission of medical officers it is only intended shall 
devote its efforts to an investigation of those forms 
of bacteria Avhich directly affect human health; Avater- 
borne germs of typhoid and other diseases that threaten 
life. The relations which they bear to the normal- 
plankton may be far too remote to lead to any informa- 
tion on the subject of the fishes and their needs. There 
may well be pollutions Avhich Avill not directly affect man 
and yet be fatal to fish life. 
What is needed in addition to the investigation de- 
manded above is a coincident study by infusorial ex- 
perts like those of Illinois and Michigan into the effects 
Avhich the various pollutions have upon the plankton 
and through this upon the fishes of our rivers. 
Give the Fish Commission the necessary authority 
and funds to do this, and take aAvay the burden and dis- 
credit of our ignorance; increase the sum total of human 
knowledge, and for a more direct reward than mere 
scientific progress, desirable as this may be, secure the 
more practical result of increasing the efficiency of our 
tremendous operations in fish hatching and the pe- 
cuniary benefits which must follow in greater returns for 
the appropriations already authorized. 
Henry Talbott. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST 
Illinois State Fish Commission. 
Chicago, 111., Sejpt. 27.— The Illinois State Fish Com- 
mission, under guidance of Dr. Bartlett and President 
Cohan, of the Commission, touched at Peoria, on the 
Illinois River, Avith their steamer Reindeer this_ week. 
The Commission is noAV engaged in a large distribution 
of young fish, and Mr. Cohan sends me the following 
synopsis of the plans: 
"There are large tanks aboard the Reindeer, and these 
receptacles contain about 5,000 game fish, tAvo-thirds of 
them being black bass. There are some rock bass, some 
croppies, and a few ring perch in the collection. These 
fish were taken with a net, ranging in length from 30 to 
looyds., as required for use. The vessel has been operated 
Avith a crew of eight men in Lost Lake, below the Copperas 
Creek Dam, and there have been not less than 100,000 fish, 
other than those selected for distribution, captured and 
liberated in the river. As the lake is drying up, this 
transfer saved them for future use. 
"The fish reserved as desirable for distribution are 
graded according to size and age. There are some 
adults, and others of less maturity. The water in the 
tanks is kept in a condition suited to the health of 
the inmates by a system of pumps, the water being 
literally aerated. In sending the fish out from Peoria the 
trains will be taken advantage of. But in using the rail 
in this AA'ay it can only be at night. An attendant is sent 
out with each shipment, and it is his duty to keep the 
Avater aerated by hand, so that there is no stagnation 
detrimental to the health of the fish. The pumping and 
draining of the Reindeer's tanks is according to an in- 
genious system iuA^ented by Commissioner Bartlett, and 
it is found to be very effective. 
"A very good idea of the importance of this work may 
be had from the fact that, according to the conservative 
estimates of the Fish Commissioners in charge, the ship- 
ment aboard the Reindeer just now will, in the course 
of two brief seasons, yield not less than io,ooolbs. of the 
finest fish food for those residing on the banks of the 
Illinois River and its tributary streams. During the 
season noAV about to close the Fish Commissioners of 
Illinois have saA^ed not less than 150,000 bass for dis- 
tribution, and these fish were taken from lakes cut off by 
loAV water, and in AA'hich the fish must soon have perished. 
The operations are to be continued until the advancing 
Avinter closes the river channels with ice and prohibits 
navigation until spring. 
"The points Avhich it is intended to reach in making 
shipments from Peoria before the departure of the vessel 
are Monmouth, Hillsdale, Milan, Aurora Lakes, Cliiiton, 
Lake County and Kankakee. The idea is to place a liberal 
share of the bass in the Kankakee River if the supply 
holds out." E. Hough. 
480 Caxton Building, Chicago, III. 
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