FOREST AND STREAM. 
lOCT. 21, 1890. 
friends came in from the club house that very after- 
noon and camped, and the next day they sent us a hind- 
quarter of caribou that had been properly shot and de- 
cently killed. So we were possessed of a clear, clean 
conscience, so far as mui'dering caribou in the water was 
concerned, and we had meat in our larder. 
Output o£ Fish in New York. 
The Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission of New 
York report that for the year ending Sept. 30, 1899, the 
hatcheries of the State have turned out 150,290,370 fish 
of various kinds. This is something over 38,000,000 less 
than were hatched the year previous. Of the variovis 
species of trout the number is about the same each 
year; for, except lake trout, the stock fish arc under con- 
trol, and their eggs can be secured. The decrease is 
divided chiefly among herrings, lobsters, smelt, ciscoes 
and tomcods, the eggs of which can be secured only 
when the fish put in an appearance for the hatchery men 
to capture at spawning times. The pike-perch output 
last season was greater than ever before, twice as many 
eggs being secured as in the year previous. The smelt 
catch was almost a failure, because the fish did not enter 
the streams. The shad output was 14,313,800, the whitefish 
'■27:675,000. These fish being perhaps the most impor- 
tant of the commercial fishes of the State, it is gratify- 
ing that the number hatched was so large. It is a serious 
disappointment when fish are not obtainable to furnish 
eggs for hatching, but it is something which the Com- 
mission cannot control. 
Salmon in Cayuga Lake. 
Mr. H. A. Surface, of Cornell University, has sent 
nic the first of a series of papers he has prepared on the 
subject bf "Fishes Found in the Cayuga Lake Basin," 
Avhich is in the nautre of an introduction to the series, and 
my attention is at once called to a paragraph or two 
from which I quote in part to ask a question: 
"In migrating fishes mainly follow the larger water- 
ways, although Dr. Evermann, the ichthyologist of the 
United States Fish Commission, one of Amei'ica's ablest 
scientists, has recently written us that he considers canals, 
especially when of long standing, nearly as serviceable 
as natural waterways in aiding the spontaneous distribu- 
tion of fishes." 
That is quoted chiefly to again call attention to the fact 
that the building of the Erie Canal brought the black 
bass to the Hudson River and into waters of the middle 
and eastern parts of the State, and the bass availed 
thenf selves of this means of distribution as, soon as the 
canal was built. 
To continue the quotation: "It is only by availing our- 
selves of the principles governing the natural habits, 
conditions and requirements of fishes that we can hope 
for any degree of success in the artificial propagation or 
introduction of desired species, or the extermination of 
those that are known to be obnoxious. 
"As an application of these principles let us inquire 
why certain kinds of fishes are not here? The salmon 
has been here, and as far as this region is concerned has 
become exterminated, and cannot return, owing to the 
Baldwinsville dam without a fishway." 
From personal conversations with Mr. Surface, I as- 
surne that his papers will be devoted more particularly 
to fishes at present found in the Cayuga Lake Basin, and 
fishes that have become extinct will receive but passing 
notice, as is the case of the salmon which I have quoted; 
but I desire to ask that he will in some subsequent paper 
make known all that he has been able to learn about 
salmon once inhabiting Cayuga Lake, and I assure him 
that it will be of interest even in this day. There are 
now on file in Albany plans for a fishway in the dam 
at Baldwinsville. the plans having been prepared by 
Mr. Rogers, of the Rogers Fishway. It was clearly the 
intention that a fishway should be built in the Baldwins- 
ville dam, and only two years ago I thought I discovered 
that there was money available for this purpose, but upon 
consulting with the State Engineer I found that not only 
had the apparent surplus been used but more money had 
been required to complete the dam without consiclering 
the construction of the proposed fishwaj^ 
"Salmon Preservatfon." 
TJnder this heading, Land and Water, London, reviews 
at considerable length in its last issue the report of the 
Inspectors of Fisheries for England and Wales for 1898,' 
with tables showing the number of boxes of salmon sold 
at Billingsgate Market from 18S9 to 1898. These tables 
show a great fluctuattion in the annual supply, but in 
this year ihe falling off has been about one-half. Com- 
menting upon this Land and Water says: "This is very 
serious, indeed; and worse is behind, for the Inspectors 
of Fisheries, instead of making any suggestions for a 
cure, seem to us to go out of their way to sneer at the 
methods of artificial breeding that we hoped would be- 
come as popular in England as they have in the United 
States. This is what they have to say in condemnation 
of the methods that have certainly succeeded most re- 
markably in the United States: 
" 'In connection with this subject we may here call attention 
to the increasing expenditure which, it would appear from the 
returns of Boards of Conservators, is being incurred in the 
artificial hatching of salmonida;, both migratory and non-migratory, 
where artiiicial breeding is restored to for the purpose of 
introducing a new strain, or for restocking waters which have 
become depleted or which have not hitherto contained a particu- 
lar species, no exception can be taken to the practice, pro- 
vided, of course, the necessary precautions are taken against the 
introduction of undesirable varieties, and provided, also, that the 
expenditure is not incommensurate with the results that may be 
reasonably anticipated. But where the intention is to keep up 
the breeding stock by means of artificial hatching, rather than 
by affording facilities for" the access of fish to their spawning 
bed, by restricting overfishing, and general^ by protecting the 
breeding fish and their progeny, we have the gravest doubts as 
to the wisdom of such a policy. On this point we are con- 
stantly met by a reference to the systern which is alleged to be 
adopted with such success in other cormtries, and particularly 
in Canada and the United .States of America, and to the result's 
attributed to artificial fishculture there. We propose at a future 
date to go more fully into this question as a whole, but pressure 
of work forbids otu' attempting to do so on the present occasion.' 
"In support of this view in regard to salmon they make ex- 
tracts from Canadian and United .States ofificiat publications, and 
we cannot help thinking tliat it would have been far better to 
have^ left the subject entirely alone than to have treated it in 
the inadequate manner they have. Their opinions against re- 
lying on the artificial rearing of young salmon have already been 
largely quoted; consequently we feel hound to reproduce the 
evidence on which they appear to rely, and we cannot help be- 
lieving that it will be thought very inadequate as against the 
salmon, especially after Mr. Morton Frewen has made us ac- 
quainted with the grand results achieved in the United States 
by means of artificial hatching and rearing of fish, especially of 
salmpn. The first quotation is from Prof. Prince, Canadian Com- 
missioner of Fisheries, who says: 
" 'No greater error can be given currency than that which 
by some aitthorities has been urged as at once s.a£e and satis- 
factory, viz., the removal of all protective and preservative re- 
.strictions,_ close seasons and the like, and the extension of 
artificial fishculture. Experience in various countries has proved 
the trtjth of the opposite view, and has shown that fishculture 
must be regarded as a supplement to fishery laws. With strict 
and proi)er fishery regulations there is no more valuable or bene- 
ficial adjunct than an efficiently conducted scheme of artificial 
propagation.' 
"But our inspectors are not satisfied with their cliosen extract, 
and proceed to criticise it in the following manner: 
" 'tn the first part of the above expression of opinion we most 
fully concur; but the concluding portion seems to us to be subject 
to some modification. It is obvious that any "scheme of ar- 
tificial propagation," to be beneficial, should be efficiently con- 
ducted; but the questions of the degree of efficiency requisite 
to secure beneficial results, and of the expense at which such 
results can be obtained, are essential to an accurate determina- 
tion of the vahie of artificial propagation, of the extent to which 
it should be relied upon, and of the purposes to which it should 
be applied. These are questions which we must reserve for future 
consideration. But in the meantime w-e desire to refer to the 
extreme caution which should be exercised in the introduction 
oi new varieties of fish and to the possible abuse of artificial 
propagation when applied to this object. In_ last year's report 
Mr. Freyer called particular attention to the mischief which has 
resvilted from the indiscriminate introduction of carp into Ameri- 
can waters. During a recent vacation in Canada and the United 
States, Mr. Freyer devoted some time to an investigation of 
various questions connecetd with fish hatching, and among other 
evidence and expressions of opinion on the part of authorities 
entitled to speak on the subject, his attention was called to the 
second x-eport (.for the year 1895-96) of the Commissioners of 
Fisheries, Game and Forests of the State of New York, in which 
reference is made incidentally to the injury caused by the undue 
multiplication of carp, and more particularly to the increase of 
black bass, a fish whose introduction into English waters has 
been very frequently advocated.' 
"Then they proceed to quote .-several pages written by Hon. 
A. N. Cheney, from 'The Black Bass and Their Distribution in 
the Waters of the State of New York.' 
"These remarks are very interesting, but they have no re- 
lation whatever to salmon culture; although they prove that 
much injury has been done to fisheries by the introduction of black 
bass, there is not a single word of refutation of the array of facts 
in favor of artificial salmon rearing that Mr. Morton Frewen 
lately paraded in the Nineteenth Century Magazine, and which 
have also appeared in Land and Water four weeks ago." 
It is quite true that nothing which is said in "Black 
Bass and Their Distribution" can have any bearing upon 
salmon centers, and why the article is quoted in this 
connection I do not even now fully understand, nor do 
I know just what use is made of it in the report of the 
British fishing inspectors. I never have written a line 
rhat could be used to bolster the theory that artificial 
fish propagation was unnecessary to keep up our supply 
of food fishes. That artificial propagation has restored 
our fisheries when practically exhausted we have only 
to point to the restocking of the Atlantic coast rivers 
with shad, the Great Lakes with whitefish and the 
Pacific coast streams with salmon. 
It is also true that at one tim^e a national Commissioner 
of Fisheries hoped to make fish so plentiful by artificial 
meatis in the waters of this country that prohibitive or 
restrictive la-ivs would be unnecessary; but that such laws 
are necessary in connection with artificial citlture we have 
only to examine for proof the statutes of the different 
States, which provide a closed season for our fresh-water 
fishes during the spawning seasons. Fishculture and 
fish protection are* both necesary to keep up the supply 
of fresh-water fishes, and there is no good reason that 
1 can see why they should not harmonize. Why there 
should be the slightest objection to a method of fish- 
culture that hatches over 90 per cent, of the eggs of the 
salmon, as against only 2 per cent, of impregnated 
salmon eggs by actual count when deposited naturally 
by the fish, I do not understand. Without adequate pro- 
tection of breeding salmon when they are in the shallow 
water selected for their spawning beds artificial propaga- 
tion would be of no avail, but this is so self-evident that 
it needs no defense from any pen, and the dream that 
fishculture tnight eventually supplant all protective laws 
Avas but the desire of an enthusiast to furnish cheap 
food at all seasons, and I doubt if any of the salmon 
familj' entered into this scheme even in his mind. 
Land and Water states that "One hundred hen fish 
of 2olbs, each will supply 2,000,000 eggs, but only about 
10 per cent, of these eggs hatch out, whereas by artificial 
means 90 per cent, hatch out." 
The 10 per cent, figures are probably estimated, and 
are much too high, for in the work of rescuing salmon 
eggs naturally deposited in the York and Dartmouth 
rivers in Canada it was found by actual coimt that but 
2 per cent, of the eggs were impregnated. 
On the Ristigouche River it requires 210 days to hatch 
salmon eggs in the water of the hatchery, which is prob- 
ably colder than the river water for a longer period; but 
say that 2 per cent, of impregnated eggs are buried in 
gravel of the spawning beds for five months, and for 
thirty days after hatching the fry are practically anchored 
to the bottom with a large umbellical sac, will one-half 
of I per cent, of the original eggs hatch and become fry 
that "swim up" and feed through the mouth? From 
95 to 98 per cent, of eggs taken artificiall}'- are hatched, 
and the frj^ are not turned out until the sac is absorbed 
and the}-^ feed through the mouth. So with fry. On one 
hand by natural processes there is probably a fraction of 
T per cent, to begin the struggle of life, and on the other 
b}^ artificial methods about 90 per cent. In this country, 
however, it is not the policy to plant fry when the fish 
can be reared to fingerlings (eight months old) or year- 
lings. In Maine at the U. S. Fish Commission's salmon 
stations, 87 per cent, of fry have been reared in ponds to 
two years of age. Last month I planted a carload of 
fingerling salmon from Maine, two days and two nights 
on the iotirney practically without the loss of a fish. To 
show that salmon fry will stock a river in which they 
Avere previouslj- unknown we have only to refer to the 
Hudson. The fish were established, but dams and falls 
cut them off from their natural breeding grounds in the 
headwaters. 
For sixteen years I have planted salmon fry or older 
fish for the United States Fish Commission, or the Fish- 
erics, Game and Forest Commission, or both, and what 
I believe to be necessary to create a salmon river or 
preserve the salmon in a river are artificial propagation, 
protection, restrictions as to netting, and removal of 
natural and artificial obstructions between the sea and the 
headwaters w^here salmon naturally spawn. Omit any 
one of these things and the work will prove to' be a fail- 
itrc. . Propagate and protect, regulate and remove, and 
salmon can be preserved; but what a Herculean task it 
is to do all these things, and do them well. 
On this side of the ocean no salmon river is guarded 
more carefully than the Ristigouche, but one year when 
I was fishing there one of the guardians was seized and 
bound while the poachers drifted through several pools. 
Of course the guardian was in league with the poachers. 
Another time the pools directly under the lodge of a 
lessee were drifted by poachers while the lessee slept; 
but things are better now under new management. Of 
the four things I have mentioned as necessary for the 
preservation of salmon the least difficult is to propagate 
and plant the fish; all the others will require constant and 
hard fighting to accomplish. Every dam and fall that 
salmon cannot pass over will need a fishway over it, and 
every owner of a dam will contend that a water power 
is of far greater consequence than all the food fish in 
the stream. 
Really I do not know which is the more difficult to 
enforce — netting regulations in the lower part of a 
stream or spawning bed murder in the upper part; but 
both ends of the stream will have to be watched night 
and day without ceasing. 
In the issue of Land and Water from which I have 
quoted is a paragraph about shooting a salmon. It says 
that a sportsman (mark the term, for I do not use it, and 
wish it distinctly understood that I am quoting it from 
the English writer who furnishes the information) was 
patrolling a beat at the mouth of a salmon river on the 
lookout for a hare. Fish were running up stream with 
a rise in the river. As he rounded a bend, with his choke- 
bore at full cock, his eye caught a break in the surface 
of the river, "and with the strong instinct of the sports- 
man upon him he let drive and hit a magnificent sal-mon 
of about 3olbs., which was running at the time. The 
|ish commenced floundering about, when another well- 
directed shot found its liver and titrned it over on its 
side." The fish was got ashore and "divided among some 
workmen." Now, had it been a poor devil of a work- 
man that had slaughtered a magnificent salmon running 
up to spawn, because the in.stinct of the pot-hunter was 
strong in the workman, he would have been hauled up 
and fined; but being a "sportsman" the act is paraded in 
the newspapers as something to be proud of, when really 
the man should have been ashatned of his wanton act, and 
if he had got what he deserved it would have been a 
fine, with quite a different newspaper notice. 
Salmon Fishing Wisdom. 
" 'A salmon does not take the fly as a trout does, and 
never rises to one while it is passing up or down stream,' 
says an experienced angler, for this kind of fish. 'It is 
only while the salmon is lying at rest in pools, the re- 
posing water at the foot of some rapid, or the silent 
starting place of such a rapid, that it will respond to 
the fisherman's cast. Salmon may be moving along by 
the thousand in the deep stretches of a stream that ex- 
tends perhaps for a mile between rapids, but the angler 
might drop his flies above them for a month without 
being rewarded by a single rise. 
" 'The pool is the place to whip, and the time early morn- 
ing and late afternoon. If the epicurean denizen of the 
pool is so inclined there is sport ahead for the angler. 
He drops his fly lightly on the water, and then the 
salmon in the humor will rise to it and seize it at once." 
Thus the sporting department of a newspaper gives 
itistruction in the art of salmon fishing. If I were to 
continue the advice in the same vein I w'ould suggest 
that if the salmon fly does not drop lightly on the watet 
the first time the angler should have another trial, for 
if the water is thick and the fly is tied on a 2-0 hook 
you cannot always drop it like thistledown, and there 
may be a decided plunk first off, and the fisherman 
should not be declared out on account of the plunk if he 
prevtouslv announces that he intends the fly to fall 
lightly. 
Then, too, if for any reason a fisherman should whip 
one of those reposing pools at any other time than early 
morning or late afternoon, Avhich he might do if he had 
a good excuse, and .should hook a salmon, he should tail 
it and put it back in the water. This fishing by rule is 
tough, but once embarked on a sporting life, the rules 
must be observed by the rule fisherman or he will run 
up against something not provided for in the canon. 
It is like playing a system ; you must stick to it or you 
will lose, although you may lose any way. When a fish- 
erman gets out his book of instructions, as it were, on 
the art of fishing, and how and when to do it by hard 
and fast rules, I am apt to think of old George Holland 
in the play of "Rosedale" at Wallack's old theater, with 
his book of instructions on dancing, which he studied 
during the figures of the dance, with the result that he 
was never in the right place at the right moment, and his 
instructions were always about four minutes late for ' 
each figure. Rules in fishing are good up to a certain 
point, and then the angler would better depend upon 
himself and study the conditions as he finds them, 
A. N. Cheney. 
Introduced Trout in New Zealand. 
Even some of the most successful examples of ac- > 
climatization have their drawbacks. We have heard 
tnuch of the wonderful growth of trout, and various 
species of Salmonidw in the rivers of New Zealand, where 
they have flourished to a degree almost unknown in their 
own country. I now hear whispers that this innovation 
is not so advantageous as its promoters would wish us to 
believe. The trout have flourished exceedingly in New 
Zealand. They have almost rivaled salmon in size, and 
have even been mistaken for them ; their great progress 
depending upon the abundance of food they have in their 
new location, feeding upon the smaller fishes, chiefly, I 
believe, those belonging to the genus Galaxias, the native 
Kokopu. These, it is now -said, the trout are exterminat- 
ing. If this occurs, and they lose their ample supply of 
food, they may be expected not to flourish to the same 
extent; and I hear suggestions that it may be necessary 
to introduce and to acclimatize minnows in order to feed 
the trout. — W. B. Tegetmeier in London Field. 
The FbS'ES'f AND Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and as much earlier as practicable. 
