FOREST AND STREAM. 
(Jan. 20, 1906. 
More About Eels. 
: BrooklVn-,: Jan. la — Editor Forest and Stream : I have 
read with unuch interest the opinions and ejcperiences 
of : Messrs.. Cheney and Wall concerning the elusive eel. 
During- the last fifteen years I have caught eels in 
many ditferent ways, and have had considerable experi- 
:;epceijand'' noted many peculiar facts in regard to this 
"'tri&'&t slippery fish. 
. Although some claim that the eel migrates to deep 
water at the approach of winter, my actual experience 
has been that thousands of them do not. I have speared 
them during November, December, January and the 
first two or three weeks in March, in the muddy bot- 
toms of various small creeks, which flood and ebb with 
the tide, and are also fed by fresh-water springs. 
• . When the tide is at its lowest there is only two or three 
inches of water covering the channel of these creeks, 
under which they bury themselves, not only during the 
winter, but also during many low tides in warm weather. 
/ About the last week in March they begin to take the 
"bob" .readily. Usually they do not leave their bed until 
the tide is about one-quarter up, the young or small 
ones bite first, generally about half an hour beiorc the 
larger ones begin to take hold. . 
- vi Ajs rsoon as it is slack high water they cease bitmg 
(although they sometimes stop before), excepting when 
strong easterly winds cause the tide to run unusually 
highland flood the adjoining meadows to the depth of 
three or four inches; then they will continue to bite an 
hour and sometimes two after high water. 
On 55uch occasions the small or medium-sized ones 
when flung upon the bank easily swim away undetected, 
but the large ones can be readily found by their violent 
splasliing, and a blow with a stout green branch makes 
them easy prey. 
We bob in the creeks until about May 15, when they 
appear to leave and seek the deeper water of the bay, 
where we bob them until June. 
Owing to a time-honored custom we do not try them 
again until August, although I once saw an old gentle- 
man bobbing in the surf during July, and from his 
comical antics with a long pole and longer line, he ap- 
peared to be getting plenty of bites. 
I was weakfishing at the time about 100 yards from 
him, and could plainly see him sling an occasional eel 
upon the sand. ^ ^ 1 /-> 
We bob them again during August, September and Oc- 
tober, but when November begins they seek soft muddy 
spots to bed in. , ■ . 
, Mr. Wall says the young are hatched or born in deep 
water! In regard to that I would like him to explain 
the following: During the early part of last July I was 
walking with a friend across the meadows, through 
which a large number of small streams run in every 
direction ; some of them dwindle to mere rivulets, which 
you could span with your hand. In one of these very 
•small rivulets, and extending about 50 yards to a 
creek, were countless millions of young eels squirming 
and wriggling one above the other, so that every drop 
of water was occupied by eels, eels, eels! 
■ I placed my hand in the water and took out a few to 
examine them. They were about i inch long and ap- 
peaTed. to have just been borne or hatched, as they were 
not- yet ; properly colored. The only way I can de- 
stcibe their color is to say that if you mixed one part milk 
and three-parts water it would about fill the bill. Their 
eyes were" not fully developed, and everything consid- 
ered should say they were not over twenty-tour hours 
old. Now, if the eels breed in deep water during the 
winter, how did these very young eels happen to be two 
tntl-fes'froiu deep water during the month of July? 
'My brother and I were spearing last Saturday (Jan. 
6.)i and upon cutting the ice found a considerable number 
of small eels about 2 inches long frozen in the ice. 
Again when we brought lumps of mud and pieces of 
reed roots up from the bottom we found quite a num- 
ber of live eels about the same size. We were on a mill 
■pond, and the water was from three to five feet deep. 
These eels must have been born or hatched later_ than 
July, or they would have attained a much greater size. 
Taking aii in all, I should judge from the above that 
gels are similar to man in the respect that they are liable 
to; be brought into the world during any month that 
eif^Gumstajaces permit, ■ Winet H. Emmons. 
' Apropos of which we lake from the London Fishing 
Gazette the note from a New Zealand correspondent: "It 
has been held by naturalists that eels never breed in 
fresh Water, but go out to sea for the purpose. No one, it 
has beeii said, had ever seen eels spawn. That eels do 
sometimes spawn in fresh water is proved by a case re- 
ported by the Southland Times of Thursday: Mr. W. J. 
Hamill, of Folly Farm, George road, informed us, some 
time ago, that his children had noticed a peculiar white 
deposit upon the branches of scrub, a few inches under 
the surface of the water of a lagoon near his house. They 
observed it spreading from day to day, and told their 
parents about it. The young folks, however, became 
greatly interested in the matter, and watched the place in 
hopes of discovering the cause. Their scientific ardor was 
very soon rewarded, for they saw the eel, or eels, quite 
plainly gliding about among the twigs, the deposit being 
left thereon as the fish passed slowdy over. The children 
took gi-eat interest in observing the operation, and might 
almost be said to have established friendly relations with 
the eels of the lagoon, and could tell the males and females 
whenever they saw them in the water. Mr. Hamill 
brought a glass jar to this office on Tuesday, containing a 
quantity of the ova stripped off the branches. The semi- 
transparent, glutinous mass had partly hatched out, as 
hundreds of tiny creatures, like a morsel of very fine 
thread, were to be seen wriggling about all through it. 
In a phial Mr. Hamill had a few of the fry in a more ad- 
vanced stage of development. These were about 2 inches 
lon^, and as thick as a good strong darning needle. They 
had ^ot quite clear of the matter, and sought the sand 
at the bottom of the yessel for shelter when disturbed. 
It was intended by a gentleman in town to send the speci- 
mens to a scientific friend in Dunedin, but the warmth of 
the last few days was fatal to this object, as on Wednes- 
day the contents of the jar had commenced to decompose, 
and only a few of the little threads still visible showed 
signs of life at all. Another effort under more expeditious 
arrangements will be made to secure specimens for in- 
vestigation. The occupants of the phial were liberated 
into a soup plate with a little sand and plenty of fresh 
water, and are still as lively as eels." 
Mr. Marston comments on this : "The observation is 
interesting but not conclusive, as parasitic worms have 
often been mistaken for young eels. Still, we do not 
regard the eel generation question as by any means settled 
yet." _^ 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Misstatements '^0. [Ptitxt. 
Ten days ago I was talking with a Member of Congress 
about a prominent official with a national reputation 
about whom there was a rumor that he had violated the 
fish and game laws of one of the States. I knew that the 
charge was absolutely without foundation in fact, and the 
prominent official had explained to me how the rumor 
started; but, said the M. C., if it should get into the news- 
papers and he should deny it the denial would never 
overtake the original charge, and there will be people 
who will believe it with the denial before them; and 
others will believe it because they will never see the de- 
nial, for a denial never overtakes a charge of wrongdoing 
to refute it utterly. He said more to explain why this 
was so, but I will leave that to the imagination of any 
one who may read this note. 
The evening of the same day I read in one of my home 
papers an extract credited to the New York Sun stating 
that American landlocked salmon had been introduced 
into the waters of Scotland, where they had practically 
driven out the native Scotch salmon. I recognized the 
Scientific American article which I criticised in Forest 
AND Stream of Nov, 11, but the Sun had to stand spon- 
sor for it, because it had copied it in good faith. The 
extract bore the ear marks of plate matter and I con- 
cluded that it had a good start for a long run — a sort of 
continuous performance of giving wrong information. 
Being from home for a few days, I returned to find in 
my mail a letter with a similar printed extract inclosed 
asking if it were true. For reply I referred the writer of 
the letter to Forest and Stream of Nov. 11, and if I 
had had any doubt about the correctness of the observa- 
tion of the Member of Congress I would now be con- 
vinced that it is most difficult to overtake a misstatement 
in print with a denial or correction, for misstatements ap- 
pear to 'thrive, strange as it may be, in circulation far 
more vigorously than a correction. 
A quarter of a century ago, or such a matter of time, it 
got into the newspapers that Forest and Stream had 
offered a prize of blank dollars for a black bass weighing 
6 pounds. Forest and Stream never offered a prize 
for such a fish, but the bogus offer is in circulation yet — 
at least it was last summer, and it will live until this paper 
is 100 years old and appear regularly with all the vigor 
of youth. 
Fi&hiog Fevef. 
The fishing fever is a peculiar malady. It may be epi- 
demic, sporadic, contagious, annual, semi-annual or 
monthly, and the man who has had it once is never im- 
mune so long as he can walk or talk, or even think. 
In fact, thinking is quite apt to bring it on in a violent 
form. There is no remedy for it in the pharmacopasia, 
and the only cure known, if prescribed and taken, affords 
but a temporary cure, as the fever is liable to break out 
again because of the prescription, if the patient has any 
luck. 
Last week the fever got me, and it might be termed a 
malignant form of it that attacked me. A friend wrote 
me that he expected me to fish his salmon river with him 
in June. "It is not too early to lay out your plans now. 
Do not forget that a short vacation on a salmon river will 
enable you to do a good deal more and better work than 
you can accomplish if you remain at home all the time. 
Ristigouche air and water gives a man a clear head." 
What a physician my friend Mitchell would make, and 
how his patients would take his medicine when they had 
the fever! I read the letter in New York, and when I 
came up the river on the Southwestern Limited my think- 
ing machinery was working as fast as the engine drivers. 
I went over the events of last season, when I did not go 
fishing, and the face of a young woman who is very 
dear to me came before me, as it so constantly does, and 
I thought how I remained at home to be near her be- 
cause I imagined it was her wish, and how affection won 
when pitted against desire to go fishing. That evening at 
the home dinner table I announced to my daughter: "I 
shall go fishing for salmon nexl June." 
"This is January. Why do you announce your plan 
for Jtme so early?" 
"Because I want it understood now, and I shall be 
thinking about it more or less from now until June." 
The next morning at breakfast I again announced that 
I would go salmon fishing in June, and now it is fully 
understood that the fever has got in its deadly work, and 
will run its course until June rolls around and the gnly 
remedy is applied. My own physician unconsciously 
added fuel to the fever in this wise: More than a year 
ago Dr. Van Dyke sent me a copy of his book, "Little 
Rivers," and my physician took it home with him to 
read. This morning he returned it and put it on my 
desk, where I was writing. I picked it up and opened it 
to the "Island Pool" chapter. The author does not men- 
tion in the book where this particular pool is situated, ex- 
cept in this indefinite manner: 
"Among the mountains there is a gorge. And in the 
gorge there is a river. And in the river there is a pool. 
And in the pool there is an island." That description may 
not identify the pool, but later the author writes: "But 
.when we came out upon the bald forehead of a burnt cliff 
and looked down, we realized the grandeur and beauty of 
the unseen voice that we had been following. A river of 
splendid strength went leaping through the chasm 500 
feet below us, and at the foot of two snow white falls, in 
an oval of dark topaz water, traced with curves of float- 
ing foam, lay the solitary island." 
That helps to identify the place; but when in the next 
paragraph I read, "The broken path was like a ladder. 
'How shall we ever get down?' sighed Graygown, as we 
dropped from rock to rock; and at the bottom she looked 
up, sighing, T know we never can get back again," " that 
settled it, for I went up and down that "broken path 
like a ladder" six times in three days, and the day after I 
left Dr. Van Dyke came. From that island, fishing in 
the rough water at the upper end of it, I hooked one 
ouananiche after another until I had landed three, all too 
large, as Maurice informed me, for a certain purpose. 
The fourth salmon was just the right size, according to 
Maurice, who dressed it, rolled it in bark and cooked it 
in hot sand with the embers of a fire covering the 
top of the primitive oven. When cooked. Bill Rath- 
bone sat down at one end and I sat at the other of 
the fish and began to eat of it. I think our forks met 
fairly in the middle, and then for the first time I lost faith 
in the judgment of Maurice, for Billy and I were both of 
the opinion that he should have selected a larger fish to 
properly satisfy our appetites. 
In the pool just below the island pool I hooked a 
ouananiche that jumped twelve times above the surface 
of the water before Maurice put the landing net under 
him, and I felt like doing as a friend did who was fishing 
with me for black bass when he hooked a bass that 
jumped seven times — and it was a fish of about 3 pounds 
weight; and when netted he removed the hook and re- 
turned the bass to the water alive with the admonition: 
"Go and propagate more game fish like yourself." 
Dr. Van Dyke fished the island pool for three days, as 
I did, but his score was greater, for such fish as Billy and 
I and the men could not eat went back into the water, 
while the doctor's guide pickled his extra fish for winter 
use. He writes: "Why should I repeat the fisherman's 
folly of writing down the record of that marvelous catch? 
We always do it, but we know that it is a vain thing. 
Few listen to the tale and none accept it. Does not 
Christopher North, reviewing the, , 'Salmonia' of Sir 
Humphrey Davy, mock and jeer unfeignedly at the fish 
stories of that most respectable writer? But on the very 
next page old Christopher himself meanders on into a 
perilous narrative of the day wheri he caught a whole 
cart load of trout in a Highland lOch. Incorrigible, 
happy inconsistency! Slow" to believe others and full of 
skeptical inquiry, fond man never doubts one thing— 
that somewhere in the world a tribe of gentle readers will 
be discovered to whom his fish stories will appear cred- 
ible." There is a whole sermon in that paragraph, and it 
shows that we are poor miserable sinners; but if it were 
not true as gospel I would not be writing these notes 
week after week. After reading the chapter on the island 
pool I was simply forced to go to my rod chest, and to 
my surprise a number of rods were missing. Then I _ex- 
amined my rod cases and one case was full of rods, just 
as I had returned from Canada with them, more than a 
year ago, and then I began to realize how absolutely I 
am bossed by a girl and that furthermore I rather like it 
(the bossing), even if it does keep me from fishing at 
times. But I wrote for a ;new salmon rod, and from time 
to time I shall announce at the domestic hearth that I 
am going salmon fishing in June; and the fishing fever 
still burns with intensity, while the thermometer is fall- 
ing outside to the neighborhood of zero. There is no 
danger of its burning out during the remaining winter 
months, and I intend to lay out my plans now, asimy 
friend advises, for I mean to go salmon fishing in June. 
"Water Beetles. 
In an article written for one of the reports of the. Fish- 
eries, Game and Forest Commission of the State of New 
York on "Food for Fishes," I said: "Perhaps the most 
rapacious of water iinsects is the water hecilQ iDytiscus^). 
The larvse have mandibles which close upon their victim 
with certain destruction, and, little fishes are their vic- 
tims on occasion; but larger fishes eat the beetle, though 
they are not to be cultivated, for -in larval and perfect 
form they will work destruction among a lot of fry. A 
larva has six legs near the head, and its segmented body 
tapers toward the tail. In the different species the larvse 
may be from i to inches long." In these notes, too, 
I have given warning to those who were about to intro- 
duce insect food into trout waters to be extremely careful 
that water beetles were excluded. Recently I have seen 
it noted that a water beetle was seen to kill a trout weigh- 
ing nearly 4 ounces, and the observer, Mr. Charles \yal- 
ker, an English writer of experience, writes of stocking 
waters with fish and fish food. For fish fobci he 
recommends fresh water shrimps, snails, mussels and 
smaller Crustacea (Daphnia, Cyclops and Rotifera). "It 
is generally advisable to avoid water beetles, as most of 
them are more likely to do harm than good, such a num- 
ber of our water beetles being carnivorous. They will 
probablv not harm adult fish, but they will destroy ova 
and fry." 
In order to make sure of not introducing carnivorous 
water beetles into 4 water, I think it best as a rule not to 
introduce beetles at all. Corixcs are, however, so like bee- 
tles that many people call them beetles, and therefore I 
will give a few points which will make them distinguish- 
able from each other. In beetles the wing cases meet ex- 
actly in the^middle lirie; in Corixce and'other water bugs 
the anterior wings, which resehible the elytra of beetles, 
overlap, which causes the line on the back to curve away 
to one side at the lower end. In beetles the wings which 
lie under the wing cases are folded up on themselves, and 
when spread out are much larger than the wing cases. 
The wings are transparent and very delicate. In Corixce 
the posterior wings, which lie under the hard and horny 
anterior wings, are a little shorter than the anterior wings; 
they are not folded up on themselves and are not so deli- 
cate and transparent as the wings of the beetle. 
Corisa {Corixce^ is the typical genus of the family 
Corisidm, commonly called water-boatmen. There _ are 
two genera commonly met with. One, the Corisce, 
swims' like a beetle, back upward. The other, Notonecta 
glwuca, swims with back downward and is of no use as 
fish food; but the Corisa is, and their introduction into 
trout waters is advocated, as they increase rapidly and 
trout are fond of them. The hind legs of water-boatmen 
are developed as oars and become flattened, fringed with 
hairs and useless for locomotion on land. ■ 
They fly well, and the Corisa flies" af night, and 1t can 
remain beneath the surface of the water as long as it 
pleases, while the other genus cannot, as they are more 
buoyant. In cold weather the water-boatmen bury them- 
selves- in the mud and remain until spring. The eggs 
