FOREST AMD STHEAM, 
In my jmaginatioii I have coiistructed a great halo 
about the fish, niany-hiied and glittering with gold and 
sdver, and my iraagmation has led my desire until it is 
well perhaps that 1 have not caugiit the fish, possibly to 
discover that "my idol was a thing of clay." As a child 
a nurse pictured to me a fairy more beautiful, more kind, 
more gracious, and sweeter iar than all the other troops 
of fairies with which she iniiaraed my youthful mind, and 
1 imagined my particular fairy on a pedestal far above 
her kith and kin— a queen with a scepter, and royalty 
stamped on her features as her subjects bent the knee in 
.ove and homage. So in later years with the grayling. 
I elevated it above other fishes as one cast in a nior^j 
delicate mould, of finer fiber, a patriarch among fishes— 
the one thing to be desired. Now 1 expect I must go on 
dreaming of it to the end of the chapter, never knowing 
whether it deserves, in my opinion, to actually stand 
above other species in giving delight to the angler, or if 
it is just an ordinary fish, "little better on the hook than 
a silver chub." 
My reason for saying all this is that in a letter received 
this evening from G. Henry Shearman, of Bay City, 
Mich., a friend of D. H. Fitzhugh. Jr., whose name will 
always be associated with the Michigan grayling, lie 
says: "'Our grayling is nearly extinct. Hardly ever 
catch one on the upper Au Sable, where they were su 
plentiful a few years ago." Man's inhninanity to some 
species of our fishes will cause millions of those who 
come after us to mourn their extinction. It seems to be 
111 our blood and bred in our bone to destroy, and when 
we iiave killed to satisfy our wants we argue with our 
consciences as to how we can kiU still more and at the 
same time preserve our seh respect. We kill to eat and 
then kill for specimens; kill to feed a lumber camp; kill 
to salt down for winter; kill to bring home to friends; 
kill to be photographed, and kill for all sorts of reasons! 
when the uncloaked truth is tliat we kill because Ave love 
to kill, until we are confronted with the fact that we have 
overdone the business and destroyed fish or game until 
it is practically extinct in the regions where it was abun- 
dant and where it would have remained plentiful had 
we been conservative in our killing. 
Cope described the iNIichigan grayling in 1865 and 
gave it its scientific name. Previous to this, the fish had 
been known locally as "white trout." In 1868 Mr. J. V. 
Le Moyne, of Chicago, visited the Jordan and caught the 
grayling, and the next year Mr. D. H. Fitzhugh, Jr., 
caught thera in the Rifle, and in 1873 be visited the Au 
Sable as a pioneer grayling fisherman, and then the 
fame of the fish spread over the land. In X874 Uncle 
Thad Norris visited the Au Sable with Mr. Fitzliugh, and 
in his exceUent article describing the haunts of I lie fish he 
says: "European waters were probably never as prolific 
of grayhng as those of Michigan; for trout, which feed 
largely on the young of all fish, are there found in the 
same streams. In Michigan rivers, wdierc grayling most 
abound, there are no trout, and the fry of their own and 
other species are never found in their stomachs. The 
various orders of hies which lay .their eggs in mnuiiig 
water, and the larv?e of such ilie.s, appear to be their onlv 
food." 
Of the fishing at that time Norris says; "In Michigan, 
in a day's fishing, the true-hearted angler returns to" the 
water a great many more than he puts in his live-box. He 
will keep none under yi pound, and where the streams 
are so abundantly stocked, he will not begrudge ilieir 
liberty to all under that weight," 
That was only twenty-six years ago, and now the 
grayling are gone from Michigan waters, practically, while 
in £uroi>e, where the "waters were probably never as 
prolific of grayling," the fish are still moderately plenti- 
ful. Is the fauh with our protecti\-e laws ur with our 
people, that in twenty-six years we have, with greater 
capital at the outset, bankrupted a fishing that is still 
paying dividends on the other side of the sea? Hel'e tire 
^xtracts from an account of early grayling fishillg in 
Michigan, but I have not the heart to write the author's 
iiamc, for he was one of the elect in the angling world, a 
contemplative angler and a* kindly man, now in Shadeland, 
from wlience, if his spirit could send a message, he would 
, |)robably admit that he overdid it without intending to 
do so: -t;5'*J 
"On our second day we killed and salted down— heads 
and tails off— 120 pounds of fish, besides eating all Wo 
wanted. In one hanging rift close by the bunk ^ * * 
\ took at five casts fifteen fish, averaging 34 of a pound 
each. The following day we fished along leisurely until 
we had our live-boxes, containing each 60 pounds so full 
that the fish began to die. Then we passed ovim- splendid 
pools in which we conld see large schools of gra\ hiig on 
the bottom without casting a Hy; for we would iv.-t destroy 
them in meri; wantonness. In a few days, liowever. we 
came across occasional timber camps, wdiero we com- 
menced fishing again," and supplied all hands with fresh 
fish." . . 
I suppose that sort of- "thing may have been perfectly 
proper; any way I do not at this date wish to set up as a 
judge of ethics of the matter, though really when it comes 
time for me to go away up above the timber line to push 
clouds. I hope no one will be able to quote a similar state- 
ment from me, for my heirs and assigns may not like to 
read it, in view of the fact that while on earth I have 
professed to lead a life of moderation in killing fish, and 
have as a rule succeeded. In the case of the grayling 
there seemed to be no means of offsetting the immoderate 
killing by artificial breeding, for the fish could not easily 
be reared in the way that trout are bred and reared, and 
so they had to go, and the question now is, which will be 
the next fish to follow? 
Judging from the same picture that I have seen I 
\vould_ guess that in the nearby future some oen will 
chronicle the passing of the ma.scalonge in Wisconsin, 
although there is a possibility of deferring the end of 
this fish by artificial means. 
Dr. WilHam Henry Diummond, 
Just before the Boston Show. Dr. Drnmmond wrote me 
from Montreal to nsk when- we should meet in Boston, 
and when T arrived, in a rain storm, he was the first to 
greet me. and I found I was booked for a dinner almost 
as soon as I could get into evening clothes. At this din- 
ner Dr. Drnmmond was induced to recite some of liis own 
poems from the "Habitant." which to me are always 
redolent of balsam boughs, and su^e&tiv£ o£ leapiag trout 
and birch canoes, the portage and other things dear to 
the heart of the angler in Canada, but be also repeated 
.some of his later poems, as yet nnpublislied, inspired by 
the war in Africa, so I was not snr])rised to Iiear a day 
or two ago that he had written a new poem, "Strathcona's 
Horse," and dedicated to the commander, l^ord Strath- 
ctina, of the regiment of cavalry recruited in the far 
Northwest, that l»as just sailed from Halifax for South 
-Africa, but 1 was surprised that the unusual compliment 
had been paid to the sportsinan-puet of having his poem 
cabled to London that it might be published simnllaneously 
in England and Canada. 
Dr. Drummoad is a great-hearted, generous, lovable 
man, and a sportsman to the core, and all his verses are 
instinct with out-of-door life and action, and he lias found 
a congenial field for his genus in the events of the African 
war. Here is an extract from. "Strathcona's Horse" : 
''But ihe sweet wild grass of uiountain pass, an.t ihe shuumeiiiig 
summer streams, 
Afiist vanisli forevermore, perchance into ihe land of ilreanis; 
Fur the strong jQung North hast sent us torth ro battlefields fat 
away. 
And the trail that ends where the ocean trends, is die trail we ride 
to-day I" 
This evening, while looking over some of Dr, Drum-- 
mond's letters, I came across one written just about a. 
year ago when the snow was almost as deep as it is 
now, and at a time wlien he was having the first touch of 
that fever whicli comes to anglers in the spring or late 
winter, and which is the only-fe'ver welcomed by fisher- 
men ; / 
"Mr. Bardick writes me a letter in which he refers to 
birds and fish, and says you and he had a twenty-four 
hours' talk the other day — ^babbling streams and all that 
sort of thing. I'm feeling that way mj^self : 
■'O rise up, -S.'els"jn Cheney, and prepare your Parmaclicnee, 
Your six-ounce rod and leader, your landing: net and 'book'; 
For I've given up feeling lazy, and I'm crazy, crazy, crazy, 
To join yiui, Nelson Cheney, by the trouUet-liauuted brook. 
1 can hear the river calling high above the lilsiy brawling, 
(»f the rapid as it plunges the uiotmlain gorges through. 
Jn loving tones it calls me, and no matter whaf belalls me, 
I'll obey the welcome summons in a mouth (or maybe two)! 
And I'll bring, O, Nelson Cheney, just a little teenie weenie 
Flagon of the vale Glenlivat that will make yonr sout rejoice, 
And relieve your aching femur (while waiting for the steamer!)— 
Then harkeii^ Nelson Cheiiey. to my tender pleading voice." 
"Waiting for the steamer" was performed in four acts 
and seven scenes going to and returning from the St. 
Maurice Club. We did not wait for the steamer to ar- 
rive, but we waited on it, hoping it would depart; waited 
while it was on a rock; waited, breathlessly, while it hung 
in a rapid, not knowing whether we would surmount the 
rapid or drift back and be tlirown on the rocks, and 
finally, on tlie return, when the steamer went hard and 
fast on a sand bar, iNIr. iUickbone and I took to a canoe 
and left Dr. Drummond waiting for the steamer to get 
oh the bar, and there he w^aited for more than twenly-four 
hours. It was tlie first trip of a new steamer up the St. 
Maurice River, taking us to the club house of the St, 
Maurice Club on VVayagamac Lake, where we had the 
finest of trout- fishing and forgot all al-mii waiting for 
the steamer, 
Icc ur Smdla. 
Mr. C. Harry ]\Iorse writes me from. Boston : "I have 
read with much iiiierest your notes on the so-called ice 
hsti of Lake Champlain. Of course, you know exactly 
where you stand in the matter, but I thought I might add 
a word from my knowledge of this subject. I am not at 
nil a 'fish sharp' and know few fish save only by their 
local llamcSi 
"I htive fished Lake Champlaiii ffotii Grand Isle to 
Otter Creek, both side-s, and have caught inindreds of 
dozens of smelts hi the vicinity of BurliUgtoH. That is 
uhat they were called in that section, and the name 
fish I never heard until I saw it in your notes. Is it not 
pos.sible thai this is a Ulcal name peculiar Uj the southern 
end of the lake? Il seems to iiic it must be, or else the 
name has been taken up recently. At any rate, fifteen 
years ago they Were clillcd biiK'hs (there is no tiuestion 
but what they arc tlie same lish) abotU Burhngton, and 
were not known by any other name. When I first caUle to 
know them it was the popular belief that they left the 
lake in the spring for the ocean via St. Lawrence, re- 
turnmg in the late fall. But later on we came to know 
that some of iheiU at letist remained in the lake through 
the stuiiiner. I renieinber to Im^e seen one which was 
taken in the nliddle of the suniiiier, though jubt how f can- 
not hay, though my inipressioH Is tliftt It Was taken in a 
seine with other fish. When I \vns ill school several of 
us boys owned a shanty which we took onto the ice as 
soon as the lake was apparently frozen over to stay, and 
moved it about during the winter. We were in the habit 
of spending our Saturdays and many after-school hours 
in this shanty smelt fishing. 
"\Ve fished about all tlte dift"crent smelt grounds around 
Burlington, and if any one had called the .smelt an ice 
fish T am sure I would have heard of it, yet I never did. 
The only point in this which I thought might be of in- 
terest to you is the fact that not only are the fish re- 
ferred to smelt, but they are so known, and only so — or 
at least were a few years ago— in another part of the 
same lake. I catch the same fish in Boston Harbor. At 
least, they look to me to be tlie same fish, and when 
cooked freshlj^ taken, taste the same as the Lake Cham- 
plain smelt. Port Henry is a little further south than 
my fishing range extended, and possibly they have always 
had ice fish there; but about Burlington I can't believe it." 
A few j'ears ago I threshed this smelt-ice fish question 
out in Forest and Stream more freely than the matter 
has been referred to in my notes of the past few weeks. 
.A.t that time a number of contributors to Forest and 
Stream, including. I remember. Mr. Rowland E, Robin- 
son, bore testimony to the fact that some few^ smelt at 
least were known to have been taken from Lake Chamnlain 
during the summer »ionths. showing that if the bulk of 
the_ fish returned to salt water after snawning in the 
spring, numbers of the tribe remained in the fresh 
water of the lake throughout the year. Since that time T 
have become more than ever convinced that the great bodv 
x>£ smelts do go out to the St, Lawreace awi T£imn, .and I 
have given my reasons for so believing. One is that 
nowhere are such large smelts found as in Lake Cham- 
plain, except in the St. Lawrence when they are running 
up that river in the late autumn. At the time of the 
discussion to wdiich I refer, I mentioned that so far as I 
know, smelts were taken through the ice of Lake Cham- 
plain only at West Port, Port Henry and at Burlington. 
As to the name ice fish, I presume it may have 
originated on the west shore of the lake and be local to 
that region.- I first heard it about 1874 or '75 at a hotel at 
Port Henry, as I was passing through to the county .seat, 
and when I saw the fish I said they were smelts, and thiri 
was disputed until I sent some to be identified, and I havt* 
been more or less familiar with them ever since. Two 
years Jfgo I planted 5,000,000 smelt fry for the Fishing. 
Game and Forest Conimission in Lake Champlain. the 
fry coming from the Long Island station at Cold Spring 
Harbor, and I think another lot of fry from Long 
Island will be planted in the lake this year, 
"My LliHe GkL" 
Not long ago a friend was writing me about rods, their 
power, weight, manufacture, etc., for he is a mighty angler 
with the light rod and artificial fly, and has to his credit 
one of the largest brook trout ever caught with fly in fair 
angling, and he said ; "My little girl captured a 3-pound 
5-ounce trout on a 2-ounce rod last fall in the pool be- 
low Upper Dam. It required a lot of fine work to land 
• the fish, as the water was very swift and her line only 35 
feet, and H at that. She was dangling the fly over the 
'gunnel' when the trout took it, and it almost took her 
fingers at the same time. It was an ugly male." 
■ Think of it A little girl with a 2-ounce rod, 35 f«et of 
line and swift water playing and landing a trout Qi 3 
pounds and 5 ounces ! 
There is no way of expressing exhultation with a stub 
pen, but as I read the letter I had no difficulty in imagining 
the pride in the father, for I have a big girl of my own 
who was once a little girl and went fishing, and I recall a 
day -when my little girl and a friend's little boy went 
trout fishing in charge of a young man, while the fatheriS 
of the two children took a day off from fishing to look 
over tackle, etc. A heavy storm came up on that warm" 
summer's day, and the father of the little boy walked the 
floor and bewailed that his child should get wet, and the 
father of the little girl smoked his pipe and hoped the 
storm would not raise the water and spoil the fishing, for 
he knew beyond a peradventure that his little girl would 
not show a yellow streak because of a thunder shower, 
and when they all came back wet and draggled, but happy 
and rosy, and the little girl had caught the only trout 
taken that day, her father took her up in his arms in alf 
her wet clothes and mussed his boiled shirt front just 
under his chin. I know something about little girls my- 
self. 
1 see that I have used the expression "one of the largest 
brook trout ever caught with fly in fair angling," and f 
must confess that T did it inadvertently, but the meirtiott 
of Upper Dam carried my thoughts back to a time when 
I witnessed attempts at that place to catch trout witli an 
alleged fly that was not fair by any manner of means, bt!!: 
Forest and Stream exposed the whole thing long ago. 
and as I am writing of Mr. E. S. Osgood, of Brooklyn, 
and his little girl, it would not have been necessary to 
say fair angling had I mentioned his name at the be- 
ginning. 
Smells and Tautog. 
A correspondent in Providence, R. I., writes: "I won- 
der if the fish 1 caught off the wharf at Crescent Park la^,- 
fall were smelts? 1 was fishing for small bluefish, and thi- 
fish I think may have been smelts were from 4 to 7 inches 
long and so transparent as to be almost light green, and 
they had blue stripes along their sides. They took ahnost 
any bait and came to the top of the water for it, I Used n 
white horsehair leader and no sinker, and every time thi- 
bait touched the water, it was attacked by a whole school 
of these fish. They Avere fine eating, but small. 
"I had another experience, wdiich I think even you will' 
-consider out of the ordinary. With a friend I was about 
to go last fall for a day's fishing for tautog, when an 
acquaintance of ours who had never done any salt-water 
fishing asked perinision to accompany us, and as there were 
not too many in the boat, he was told to come and liring 
his tackle. He was at the train at the appointed time, car- 
rying a package of tackle, as we supposed, though it after- 
ward proved to be something else. Arriving at the fishing 
ground off Warwick Light, we were surprised to find all 
the tackle our friend had was a five-cent mouse-colored 
line, cotton and about F in size, such as he would use in 
a fresh-water pond if fishing for bullheads. My friendi 
looked at the outfit and at its owner and said in a quici 
way, I'll bet that the largest fish hooked to-day bites on 
j-our line.' We loaned him two books snooded. which he 
attached to liis line and commenced fishing. It was not 
very long before we saw him give a decided pull, and my 
friend said, 'You have got him.' and he had, but he 
wanted some one to land the fish, and my friend took the 
fine and permitted the fish to go to the bottom, as he was 
afraid of the line's breaking. By careful work he got the 
fish up where we could see it, and behold, there were two 
large tautogs. ' Eventually they were brought up where 
we could get hold of the snoods and the fish were lifted 
into the boat. On our return we stopped at a store and 
put the fish on the scales and found that together they . 
weighed a trifle over 13 pounds." 
Smelt or Sand Smelt. 
The fish that my correspondent caught off the wharf 
at Crescent Park may have been the smelt, and 
very likely likely it was, but his description also 
fits- another fish called a smelt, wdiich it is not. 
The sand smelt, or silversides. is a small fish not 
unlike the Eastern smelt in general appearance, and it has 
a similar dark line along the sides. It swarms along the 
Atlantic coast near the shore and in brackish water, and at 
various points is called "friar," "caplin," "sand smelt" 
and "anchovy," and is a finely flavored fish, but inferior to 
the Eastern smelt. The sand smelt may be easily dis- 
tinguished from the Eastern smelt, as the latter has the 
second dorsal or fatty fin generally coiwidered peculiar 
to the brook trout, and the sand smelt has a small 
spinous dorsal, and its second dorsal is raved and much' 
largerj whik the ventral fi» at its .bas.e is jojiger than the 
