634 
FOHEST AND STHEAM. 
iDsc 30, 1899. 
bass are biting, this lower Severn River furnishes as good 
fishing as may be found in the Dominion. We did not 
count our catch — merely landed them and threw them 
into the water again; but we caught probably 100 bass 
that afternoon. Not bad for two rods. "While fishing ray 
line tangled in the reel, and thrice, while loosening it, I 
caught bass on a small piece of worm, and finally in 
sheer desperation I threw my hook high and dry on a 
rock, while I untangled my line. While bass may have 
eyed it longingly, none ventured to crawl up the bank to 
purloin it. 
Near where I fished there was a large crack perhaps 
2j4 inches wide and 6 inches deep running from the 
water's edge back into the granite rock. I caught a bass, 
laid him in the water in this crack, head toward shore, 
and he never made a move to get out. I caught three 
other bass and kept them in that crack like cattle in a 
stall for at least two hours. They iT>oved forward, but 
never bacl<ward; even when only a lilile over one-third of 
their bodies was in they seemed powerless to get out. 
I very much doubt if a bass can move backward at all. 
Perhaps some fellow angler has noticed this fact and can 
add his testimony or test the truth of ray statement by 
trying it. 
At 7 P. M. we had supper of fried bass, and if you like 
bass rare done you can always have it; for in camp it 
is rarely done well. > ' 
After supper we recounted the triumplis 6i the day, and 
all agreed that it was a day long to be remembered. 
Schellhaas built a rousing camp-fire, and although we 
were in the heart of the Canadian wilderness, a region 
infested with bears, wolves, lynx and other wild animals, 
yet no one seemed uneasy. 
At 10 o'clock we went to bed and were lulled to sleep by 
Mother Nature's own slumber song, made by the mani- 
fold voices of the rushing, beating waters of the Ragged 
Rapids, and our dreams were sweetened by the incense of 
pine, balsam and fern, and we all slept soundly until the 
coming sun sprayed the tops of the old pines and cedars 
Avith a mist of gold. 
Montgomery volunteered to get breakfast, and it was 
one of the best meals of the season. After breakfast we 
all fished up the river, but with rather indifferent suc- 
cess. The fish refused to bite, as was their wont the day 
before ; of course we caught more than we could use. 
Rosselle and I did considerable trolling for muscallonge, 
but were unable to even get a strike. 
We came to camp early, and all hands turned in and 
helped with dinner. After dinner we all fished down at 
the foot of the Ragged Rapids. Here the waters come 
down this narrow gorge, boiUng and fretting themselves 
into fury — wild as an avalanche of snow, and just as 
white. The falls are caused by a drop in the bed of the 
river of 100 feet in about an eighth of a mile, and it 
seemed as if some Titanic hand had cleft the sheer walls 
of granite that the pent-up waters might be freed. Where 
the water rushes round and round in circling eddies we 
found the fishing fine for bass, pickerel, muscallonge 
and channel cat. At this rapid Dr. Rosselle caught a bass 
of perhaps a pound and a half, and as he drew his prize 
to shore a giant muscallonge darted from \mder a rock, 
swallowed the bass and galloped away with it. Fifty feet 
from shore old "musky" dashed out high above the raging 
waters to relieve his overloaded stomach. The Doctor 
tried to lead him in toward the shore, yelling at me to 
come and gaff the beast. Just as he got the 'lunge to a 
shelving rock that ran down into the water, the fish dis- 
gorged the bass, and the rushing waves threw it into a 
niche in the rock 8 inches up out of the water, and 
mirabile dictu! that fool fish ran his nose up that rock and 
thrice snapped at the tempting morsel, and then darted 
away. The recurring waves dislodged the bass before we 
could secure it, and the fish floated off, bleeding from the 
three gashes down the sides and apparently quite dead. 
This is no very unusual thing for muscallonge to take 
captive bass, but unless the bass is lightly hooked through 
the lip the 'lunge frees himself by disgorging. 
I saw an angler catch a 17-pound muscallonge that had 
gorged a captive bass here. After Rosselle's experience I 
fastened a large spoon on my silk line; casting well into 
the raging waters that went thundering by like 
wild white horses coming down the home stretch 
at a county fair. My spoon sped away a hundred 
feet or more, and I moved over and reeled it in through 
the eddies. For a half-hour I cast off and reeled in, long- 
ing for a 'lunge to take hold. While yearning for a 
battle with a big one, Rosselle took a snap shot, which 
shows the rapids just as they emerge from the gorge. ; To 
my left are the eddies in which the 'lunge come to feed. 
While I was angling close itp to the rapids Mont- 
gomery fished to my left in a circular bay, trolling with 
a quarter-pound live bass he had hooked (the fish men- 
tioned earlier in this narrative). 
My! it was a splendid fish, and for a while it seemed 
as if he should land it. It rushed hither and thither_ in 
the eddies, but finally swung so heavily on a taut line 
that Montgomery just donated 15 feet of his valuable 
silk. Being a minister, he said nothing, but what he 
thought will never be known. 
Rosselle and I then fished up the right bank of the nar- 
row gorge, and where there was a bay or even the ap- 
pearance of one — ^just enough to make an eddy and 
fnrnish a place of rest for the bass — we found the fishing 
fine. As the Doctor was baiting for a bass, I took a 
snap shot that shows the wild waters of the gorge, _ and 
the dangerous descent he and I made to reach likely 
bays. 
tjn to this time our lad Hamilton had done nothing 
to distinguish himself in the Canadian wilderness, and 
felt he must do something historic to link his name 
to the legends of this wild country. He did. While 
fishing he tumbled headlong into the raging rapids and 
was fortunately washed into an eddy that threw him near 
enough shore to be dragged out. He then saw the tip 
of his fishing rod and gamely dived in and recovered it 
and again came out safe. A few inches further out, or 
an unfortunate movement of the undertow, and he would 
have been hurled down the gorge and his body 
might have been wedged under a rock and never re- 
covered. 
At 7 P, M. we had supper, and Hamilton and Rosselle 
took a very hazardous journey down the gorge for 
channel catfish. Although the moonlight was exceed- 
ingly clear, and as it always is in thi? North cpiAiitry, yet 
t was glad'whfen th6y Waiidered ifito capip at 10 o'clock. 
We gathered another supply of pine tufts and made 
our last night in camp the most memorable. At 8 next 
morning we had our luggage packed, and on pulling 
away from camp we said never a good-by nor an '|au, 
revoir," but fervently spake "Auf Wiedersehen." 
In an hour we were vover the McDonald's Portage and 
fishing at the head of the falls. Where the waters first 
break we found splendid fishing. We saved six of the 
best bass we caught and carried them home to our 
families at Sparrow Lake. 
At the First Portage, eight or ten miles from home, 
we had dinner. Here in a quiet little nook, just below a 
fallen hemlock, whose green branches played up and 
down the eddies, and under the shade of a big pine, we 
caught eleven beautiful bass. They were mottled as 
prettily as trout. 
The remainder of the distance was splendid muscal- 
longe fishing, and my companion and I were determined 
to carry into captivity one of the largest in the region. 
Although we trolled in and out of every weedy bay, we 
took only one mean, measly little 'lunge no larger than 
a good-sized trout. 
At 7 o'clock our boat grated at the landing, and we 
returned safe and sound to our families. This was 
Schellhaas' first experience roughing it, and I fancied 
he did not like it. The other day I met him in Pitts- 
burg and asked, "Schellhaas, what was your most de- 
lightful experience in Canada last year?" His face shone 
with the honest emotion of the Teuton as he said, "I 
had my best time in the little old tent down, by the 
Ragged Rapids, and, I find myself thinking of those de- 
lightful experiences every hour of the day." 
The time of our departure was drawing nigh. Thou- 
sands of guests were hurrying southward with the haste 
of feathered tourists in autumn, but we had gathered 
our store of health and strength, and a wealth of pleas- 
ant recollections that abide with us still like the memory 
of a pleasant dream, and form the basis of a, lively hope 
that next year we may come again. 
Allbghekv, Pa., Dec 11. JamES M. NorRIS. 
Onondaga Anglers* 
Syracuse^ N. Y., Dec. i8. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Anglers' Association of Onondaga has sent to the 
Board of Supervisors its annual report for the fiscal year 
of 1899, which reads as follows : 
Gentlemen: One year ago your honorable board ap- 
propriated $200 to be expended by the Anglers' Associa- 
tion of Onondaga for the purposes of fish protection and 
propagation in the public waters of this county. We 
therefore desire to place this report before you that you 
may be informed of the manner in which the money has 
been expended and the work that our Association has 
done with the aid of your appropriation. 
Our last report to your honorable board was for the 
year ending Nov. 30, 1898, and showed no balance of 
your previous appropriation on hand. Since then we 
have continued to employ Wm. Everson as protector, and 
we have also continued our work of restocking the lakes 
and streams of the county with game and food fish. The 
salary and expenses of our protector and our expenditures 
in the transportation and planting of fish and fish fry have 
aggregated $539.53. Of this sum $200 was paid with the 
fund appropriated, the balance from the funds of the As- 
sociation. There is, therefore, no part remaining of the 
amount set aside by your board for our use. All has been 
expended for the purposes for which it was designed, .ind 
in addition thereto $339.53 of our own money derived 
from the dues and contributions of our members. 
During the year ending Nov. 30, 1899, our protector 
has been employed continuously except during the months 
of January, February and March, A summary of his 
work is as follows: 
Number of miles traveled 2,656 
Fyke nets captured and destroyed 25 
Gill nets captured and destroyed 8 
Trap nets captured and destroyed 5 
Flat nets captured and destroyed i 
Seines captured and destroj'ed 2 
Total number of nets captured and destroyed, 41, the 
aggregate value of which was $336. 
Number of persons arrested for violations of the law, 
17; number of convictions^ 13; aggregate of fines, $595. 
Our Association has received from the State during 
the past year and planted in public waters, 3,000,000 pike 
fry, 48,000 yearling and fingerling brook trout, 39 adxdt 
brook trout, 26 adult brown and rainbow trout, 25 adult 
black bass and 11 adult pike. The total of 98 adult fish 
named above were those exhibited at the State Fair m 
September last, which were given to our Association and 
planted in the Geddes Brook, Nine Mile Creek and Onon- 
daga Lake. This is the second time the exhibit at the 
fair has been turned over to our Association, and it a 
fortunate circumstance that places them in our hands, as 
the few adult fish that we have thus been able to put in 
our waters are more valuable so far as breeding and 
propagation are concerned .than as many thousands of 
fry. 
Adding the number of fish planted last year to tliose 
reported to your board during the two previous ycar.s 
that we have been engaged in the work makes a grand 
total of 6,940,000 fry, and 64,060 adult and yearling fisli. 
Of these 6,925,000 were food fish, and 79,060 were game 
varieties. We are planning to continue this work with 
an enlarged scope during the next year, and expect to 
cover streams and waters that we have as yet been un 
able to reach, and we would repeat the request made in 
our report last year, that if any member of your board 
knows of streams that are adaptable to restocking we shall 
be glad to have their advice and will follow it so far as we 
are able. It will be remembered that these plantings 
have been made not for the benefit of the few, nor for 
the sportsman and angler, but are made in waters only 
that are open to all people, and are for the good of every- 
body who may desire to take the fish in a lawful manner 
for either food, sport or recreation. 
Hand in hand with the restocking of the waters goes 
th:e .necessity for their protection from the depredations 
of unlavvfui fishermen, who in their selfish greed would 
take and destroy everything, by any means, for the 
transient gain of a few in reckless disregard for the future 
or for the rights of the people tO whom the waters belong. 
The urgency of protective laws is recognized by all en- 
lightened governments, our own among the foremost, 
and the recent public utterances of Governor Roosevelt 
upon the subject show the regard in which they are heid 
by .the chief executive of this State. Our Association is 
also planning more extensive measures in this respect for 
the coming year, during which we shall devote our 
energies, our time and our money to the protection of 
the people's rights and the upholding and enforcement 
of the laws that are upon the statute books of our State. 
Our Association is not composed of wealthy men, nor is 
our treasury well provided with the funds necessary to 
carry forward this important work, and we appeal once 
more to your honorable board for the aid and assistance 
5'ou have so liberally granted us in the past. We thank 
you for what you have done ; we ask that you will again 
at this session set aside for this purpose a sum not less 
than that you have appropriated heretofore. If you can 
find it v^ithin your means and your judgment to make the 
appropriation larger at this time than it was last year, we 
assure you that it will all be economically and carefully 
applied to the public good and for the benefit of the people 
alone to whom it belongs. Very respectfully yours. 
The Anglers' Association of Onondaga. 
George B. Wood. President; John H. Forey, Vice-Presi- 
dent; J. E. Bierhardt, Secretary; Charles H. Mowry, 
Treasurer; R. V. Miller, Chairman Executive Corn- 
mittee. 
By a vote of 31 to 3 the Board of Supervisors this 
afternoon adopted the resolution presented at a previous 
secction by Supervisor Rubin, appropriating $200 to the 
Anglers' Association. There were present in the interests 
of the Association, Riley V. Miller, George B. Wood, 
John C. Bierhardt, S. T. Betts and Charles H. Mowry. 
Those voting in the negative were Supervisors Shaver, 
Hoffman and Breitschwerth. • G. B. W. 
As to Eels. 
Happening casually to pick up a copy of your interest- 
ing paper of July i last, my eye fell upon an article on the 
subject of eels from the fertile and ever welcome pen of 
Mr. A. N. Cheney. From long and close observation of 
the habits of this most mysterious fish, I have learned 
some facts and formed some surmises concerning them 
which may prove interesting if not convincing to some 
of your readers, and with your permission I relate them 
as briefly as I can. 
From Mr. Cheney's article I learn that some modern 
European icthyologists have reaced the conclusion that 
the eel is an oviparous fish — spawning in salt water, 
like marine fishes. Years have elapsed since I had the 
honor of being a pupil of the celebrated Joseph Leidy, 
and consequently it is with much hesitancy that I pre- 
sume to put my humble opinion in conflict with that of 
the modern expert histologists, yet I am strongly in- 
clined to the belief that their conclusion will not apply 
to the American eel. I now allude to tlie anadromous and 
migratory eel, having for its habitat the waters of the 
James and Potomac rivers, in Virginia. However, it 
may be possible that the European fish has a mode of 
generating its kind different from its American .congener. 
Although not thoroughly convinced, yet I am strongly 
inclined to suspect that the eel I am now writing about 
is an ovo-viviparOus fish, like the shark and some other 
fishes. I will state the facts and hypotheses upon which I 
base my conjecture. 
A score or more of years ago I was angling for trout 
in the Jackson River, one of the principal tributaries of 
the James, in Highland county, Va. I was fishing near 
the source of the river, where the eels and trout most do 
congregate. Returning to my quarters late one cloudy 
evening in the month of August, my course lay along a 
path on the banks of the stream in which I had been fish- 
ing. The stream at this point was deep, narrow, clear 
and swift, and much broken by little falls. At a point 
where the path I was following crossed the creek I was 
compelled to leap the stream in order to continue my 
journey on the opposite bank, and as I did so I noticed 
something of a white color waving in the water, resem- 
bling a newspaper or white handkerchief. Having my 
curiositj' excited, I laid down my rod and creel and lay 
down upon the bank of the brook in order to get a nearer 
view of the object that had. attracted my jiotice, for it was 
then nearly dark. As I did so imagine my intense surprise 
and astonishment to find that what I had mistaken for 
the objects above alluded to should turn out to be a great 
mass or aggregation of eels wrapped and twisted around 
one another like a rope and slowly turning from side 
to side, with their heads all up stream — the white ap- 
pearance in the water which had attracted my attention 
being caused by the white bellies of the eels as they were 
turned toward the light during their revolutions in the 
water. Unfortunately, owing to the darkness, I could 
not ascertain what they were doing in this singular atti- 
tude. Had I been able to determine whether these fish 
were spawning or copulating, the question of the gen- 
eration of eels, which has confounded philosophers for 
several generations, would have brought this most diffi- 
cult subject near to a definite conclusion. I can hardly 
think they were spawning, for no eel ova or young eels 
have ever been met with in such localities, as far as I 
have been able to learn. If they were engaged in the act 
of copulation, why then the conclusion that the eel is an 
ovo-viviparous fish would be ineA^itable. 
yMthough T had never met with this singular aggrega- 
tion of eels before (nor have I since), yet I have been in- 
formed by eel fishermen that they had met with such 
phenomena while spearing eels late in summer on dark 
nights. Although it cannot be positively proven, I nev- 
ertheless think that one would not be far wrong in sus- 
pecting that the eel is an ovo-viviparous fish; that the 
females are impregnated late in summer rind on dark 
nights near the sources of our rivers, whence they pro- 
ceed in autumn to our salt water bays and estuaries in 
order to give birth to their young. 
But here another difficulty meets us: What becomes of 
the eel when it reaches salt water, for I have_ heart' 
averred that no one ever met with a gravid eel.? Well, I 
can only answer this very formidable and quite pertinent 
query by offering an hypothesis, which may or may not 
be attended by some elements of probability., and Uais is 
