166 
FOHEST_ AKD^ STREAM. 
tSEPT. 1, 1906. 
companionship than does a preference for football or 
golf; in fact, 1 believe any canaid sportsman will admit 
that out of fifty men who go aneid with guns or betake 
themselves to the waters witn rods or tish poles for sport, 
a greater proportion will be ignorant, worthless charac- 
ters than would be found m the same number who 
sought almost any other respectable amusement. 
It is for this very reason that I^orest and Stream is 
essentially a sportsman's paper. There is no other ckiss 
so desperately in need of instruction as they. Not in- 
struction as to how to get the largest bag, or the longest 
string of fish, bwt how to get the greatest amount of 
pleasure with the least destruction of the. sources of 
that pleasure. 
If every sportsman in the countiy would read Forest 
AND Stream regularly tor five years, there would be a 
wonderful elevation of sentiment among them; but as 
that- is too much to expect I can only wish it to be in the 
hands of as many as possible, especially of those who 
need it the most, 'the sportsmen who are also fish and 
game hogs. ' Lexden. 
100 Spommen's f ina$. J i ^ 
Some of the Qtieer Discoveries Made fey Those Who Are 
Looking tor Game or Fish. 
Harvey Wolf, while hunting recently near Galesburg, 
III, made a peculiar discovery a mile from the village in a 
piece of woods belonging to the heirs of the late Lyman 
Qua. It is an excavation some 8 feet square and s feet 
deep, which was evidently an enlargement of a natural 
depression. In one corner was evidence that fires had 
frequently been maintained, and empty cans were in 
great abundance. A wild cherry tree growing near the 
excavation was cleated from the ground to the height of 
its lower branches, a distance of probably 25 feet. It is 
evident that the tree had at some recent period been used 
as a lookout. Notwithstanding its apparent accessibility 
the locality is, owing to its peculiar situation, a retired 
one. Many people connect the discovery with the numer- 
ous petty depredations which have at various times dis- 
turbed citizens there. Others are inclined to the belief 
that more serious offenses may have made a hiding place 
desirable to those who constructed this one. 
Weldon F. Fosdick, of Hackensack, N. J., found five 
$1,000 7 per cent, gold-bearing bonds. He went to the 
Bergen county almshouse to transact some insurance 
business. Being a hunter, he took a short walk in the 
woods near the almshouse and was attracted by a squir- 
rel, which led him to investigate a hollow tree. He saw 
a piece of newspaper sticking out of a hole in the tree. 
He pulled the paper out and found the bonds wrapped 
•up in it. They were wet, but otherwise in good condi- 
tion, 
17 
While hunting foxes in Essex, Conn., the deep baying 
of hounds at a certain point attracted tlie attention of the 
sportsmen. Investigating, they found the dogs in an 
immense thicket of briers. After many attempts they 
cut into the thicket, when to their surprise they saw a 
large cave at the foot of a heavy ledge of moss-covered 
rock. A fire was built at the mouth of the cave, and 
when a fox sprang from the hole it was shot. The 
vault was about 20 feet in length and 17 in width and 
from 9 to 10 I'eet high. Within it were two old candle- 
sticks, a number of lead bullets and an old-fashioned 
flintlock gun with a decayed stock. It is believed that 
this cave was once the hiding place of settlers when 
beleaguered by Indians. 
The Forest amd Stkeam is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and as mnoh sarlier as practicable. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Trout and Acids. 
Never do I go into Sullivan, Ulster and Delaware 
counties in summer but I am impressed with the number 
of boarders to be found in every village and every farm- 
house. It is one of the most picturesque regions within 
the borders of the State, and it is. not to be wondered at 
that the people from the hot cities fl:ee to this mountain 
region of pure air and good country living. Every habi- 
tation seems to harbor its quota of summer boarders, 
and boarding appears to be the chief industry of that 
region. Great flocks of broiling chickens at the farm- 
houses, and acres upon acres of garden truck in the rich 
valleys, and herd after herd of Jersey cows in the pa.stures 
indicate that the summer boarders in the counties I have 
named are well nourished by tlie food provided by the host. 
The summer boarder desires something more than good 
air and food and shelter. He seeks rest and change, and 
desires to be amused. I shall not attempt to recount the 
various forms of amusement to 'be found in the country, 
but fishing is one of them, and the region I have referred 
to is rich in trout streams and trout lakes, and waters 
where coarser fish may be found. The State has one 
fish hatchery in Sullivan county, and i§ to build another 
in Delaware county, and one would think that the people 
who entertain the .summer boarder and thereby live, would 
lise every endeavor to foster the trout fishing to amuse 
and entertain their bread and butter. On a recent visit 
to the region of which I am writing. I found it infested 
■ with acid factories that were running their refuse into 
the streams and thus killing the fish. I was in a measure 
prepared to find thgt injury was being done to the fish 
in the streams by a letter I had received from Mr, E. R. 
Hewitt, of New York, who said he found dead trout in a 
stream he was fishing near Fallsburgh, and he said the 
fish were killed by an acid factory on the stream which 
permitted its refuse to run into the water. Mr. Hewitt 
is a chemist and knows whereof he speaks. However, I 
was not prepared to find the acid works so numerous as 
they are. One of the acid factories was on Spring 
Brook, one mile from the point where it empties into the 
Beaverkill, and the brook is two miles above the State 
hatchery. I sent a man to procure some of the water and 
send to me, and also to dip a bucket of it from the 
stream and put a trout of known size into it and note the 
result. He reported that a 6-inch trout placed in the 
bucket of water lived four minutes, and when I saw 
the sample of water, I was surprised that the fish lived 
as long as it did. I was informed that the owner of the 
factory was "largely interested in the boarding business," 
but the boarding business and the acid btisiness will not 
mix any more than oil and water. The owner of the 
factory having heard that an agent of the State had been 
investigating the cause of the death of trout in the 
stream, at once removed the poison from the stream and 
ran it into vats, which he built at sufficient distance from 
the brook to insure that it would not seep into the stream. 
As soon as evidence can be procured, the State will 
bring an action against other owners of acid factories 
if they do not, upon proper notification, cease to poison 
the streams and kill the fish. One thing is st;re, as I 
have reason to believe — the State will not in the future 
furnish trout for any stream that is in any way tainted 
with refuse from an acid factory, for it would be a waste 
of fish to plant them in such waters. 
One stream that was recommended for the proposed 
Delaware county hatchery had on it a saw mill and an 
acid factory. It is for the interest of the people in that 
section who are in the "boarding business" to be active 
in taking measures that will put a stop to the poisoning 
of the trout streams, for unless this is done it would be 
far better for the State to abandon the hatchery in Sulli- 
van county and devote the money now used for its main- 
tenance in hatching and planting trout where they will 
not be killed by acids as soon as they are put into the 
water. 
I believe, however, that the people when they realize 
the injury that is being done to the fishing by these 
factories will of themselves take action to abate it, and 
that their apparent apathy on this subject is because they 
do not understand how their own interests are being 
damaged by stream pollution. 
Water Pollwtion Generally, 
Our present law upon the subject of water pollution is 
not definite enough, as to be ettective it shoiud prohibit 
pollution absolutely. The English sporting papers have 
for months been devoting much space to the subject of 
river pollution, and one article in Land and Water is so 
to the point and appears so nearly to conditions in this 
country that I shall make extracts from it: 
"That some need for legislation exists may be readily 
gathered from accounts m newspapers of fearful and 
wholesale destruction of fishes, and gross pollution of 
streams, only perhaps in a short paragraph pithily de- 
scribing the terrible results of the incursion of in- 
jurious matters into a well-stocked water. People seem 
to regard such waste of life as a mere nothing. The 
Legislature has been exercised as to the matter on occa- 
sions, and has brought forth one or more bills on the 
subject of the repression of the evil. We still read that 
further legislation is absolutely needed, legislation of a 
practical character. =:= * * There must be as little as 
possible discoverable in the acts that may cripple in- 
dustry, a strong guard against anything that may cripple 
free use of water for fishculture." 
That the sanitarians chould be ready to join with the 
sportsmen and pisciculturists follows as a matter of course. 
They both want one and the same thing. Why have they 
not made common cause before, and made their voices 
duly heard in formation and demonstration of a strong 
public opinion? Such a force, if only properly used, 
cannot well be resisted by any body, however influential it 
may think itself. 
If only people would but interest themselves more in 
this question of pure water, river pollution and waste of 
polluting matters would very soon automatically come 
to an end. If we only look with sufficient care and eyes 
that want to see, there is seldom any real difficulty in 
finding some useful outlet for "wastes" of manufacture. 
A way having been found for neutralization or other 
remedial treatment, the next question is the best manner 
of presenting the subject to the persons affected; in other 
words, the polluters. The whole gist of the matter re- 
solves itself into one problem. 
Given a strong public opinion, determined to stop 
existing eivils, respecting or resulting from injurious mat- 
ters in any way admitted from any source into waters, 
would not the existing powers of the Legislature be 
strong enough to cope with the existing evil ? 
Is their present form of a really practical and workable 
nature? If it is not, how could it be altered? 
Such inquiries, whatever their source, Government 
or other, so far from harassing an honest industry, might 
in the future, as in the past, throw some new scientific 
light on the source of danger and so remove it, as well 
as suggest or indicate ameliorations in the processes, for 
which the manufacturing interests would be ultimately 
grateful. 
A manufacturer does not like to have his special work 
overhauled. As long as he commits no nuisance he need 
have no apprehension of interference or inquiry. The 
scope of any inquiry should be strictly confined to cases 
wherein pollution of water or air has actually occurred, 
and none but offenders can complain with justice of any 
proposed inquiry or legislation. This point amply suffices 
to disarm opposition of, or on the part of, any right- 
minded person, and no trade secret would be violated. 
All opposition to a law which would absolutely prohibit 
the pollution of our waters comes from manufacturers 
who apparently have little regard for the rights of others. 
Sawdust and acids and other poisons are permitted to 
run into the streams on which mills are situated simply 
because it is cheaper to foul the water in this way than 
to remove the cause of pollution and dispose of it on the 
shore. A representative of one Qf the lar^e paper mills 
in northern New York said to me when I told him that 
the lime from one of his mills was killing the fish below 
the mill : "Would you have us throw all these men out 
of employment because the refuse from the mill kills a 
few fish that some rich fisherman might otherwise catch?" 
"No," I said. "I would have you employ more men 
and build vats on shore and let all your refuse run into 
it and then dispose of it, and not injure the people below 
you on the stream who got a fair amount of fish from the 
river to add to their food supply before you built your 
mill ; and I think you would feel better if you ceased 
what I consider a high-handed outrage and a violation of 
the spirit of the law, even if your dividend were decreased 
in consequence one one-hundredth of one per cent, per 
annum." It is always the same old story of throwing 
men out of employment to please idle fishermen, and it's 
absurd on the face of it. One mill on the Hudson was 
threatened by the State with an action for polluting the 
water, and they erected vats and conducted the waste 
into them, and within a month a man came along and 
paid tlie mill owners 25 cents per ton for the waste, but 
the mill owners never sent a note of thanks to the State 
for compelling them to do something that added to 
their revenue and their self-respect. 
A large saw mill, also on the Hudson, ran its sawdust 
into the river until the river bed for miles was a mass 
of decomposing sawdust. It could not possibly remove 
it from the stream, and what were a few fish compared 
to an industry that employed labor ! The mill finally 
found they could save money by burning the sawdust in 
an allied industry, and at once troughs were constructed 
under the mill, belts with scrapers were placed in the 
troughs and soon the sawdust was gathered automatically 
and conveyed from a central sawdust pit by team to the 
adjoining mill, where it was burned. The truth is, the 
industries as a rule find it cheaper to run all the waste 
and poison into the streams, and apparently they care not 
one sou what becomes of it or what damage it may do to 
the public at large if they are permitted to save t^hem- 
selves the expense of taking proper care of it, and the 
evil will go on until the law, a law that cannot be dodged 
or evaded, compels the owners of the mills and factories 
to remove the waste from the streams. It is wrong, 
absolutely wrong, to permit such a state of things to 
exist, and the chances are that once the factory and mill 
owner is made to abate the nuisance he will find a 
market for his waste. It is his business to do this, not 
the business of the general public, so long imposed upon 
by those who poison our streams and fill them with 
waste. The labor question has never entered into the 
question at all. It has been and is a matter of dollars and 
cents required to remove the waste and dispose of it on 
shore, and some day a long-suffering people will arise 
in their might and insist that laws of health, decency and 
economy in the food supply shall be complied with. 
Stocking with Adult Trotit. 
Dr. Drummond told me in Montreal- that in 1892 the 
L'aurentian Club placed 132 adult trout, fish 3 to 4 ounces, 
in Lac au Foin, a body of water of about fifteen acres 
that never before contained trout. This lake was con- 
nected with two other lakes, one three by one miles in 
size. Now all three of the lakes are well stocked with 
trout, and on Aug. 3, 1899, two dozen were taken that 
averaged 2 pounds in weight, and one weighed 4 pounds. 
It is unnecessary to say that all the lakes were abundantly 
supplied with food for the trout, and that after the plant- 
ing in 1892 the lake was not fished to death by the club 
members to see if they could catch the 132 trout planted 
for stocking purposes, as would have been done had the 
trout been planted in public waters in New York. This 
example shows what can be done in the way of stocking 
a body of water if moderate fishing only is indulged in 
after the fish have had time to establish themselves in it. 
Late Salmon Fishing. 
Hurrying to a train in the Union Station at Albany one 
day last week I met Mr. William Sage, and finding the 
train ten minutes late, we had a little fish talk. He said 
that after I left the Ristigouche heavy rains raised the 
river, and apparently many salmon passed up river to 
spawning grounds above the rod fishermen, but as the 
river ran down again, the fishing was good, and he be- 
lieved it would be good to the end of the season as 
limited by law. He said that Mr. Kennedy, Ptesident 
of the Ristigouche Salmon Club, killed over seventy fish 
in the Ristigouche and Cascapedia, and on two ' days at 
least he had to stop fishing because he had killed the 
limit, which I think is eight fish, though it may be ten. 
An Ancient Reel. 
A gentleman who has on several occasions furnished 
me with interesting information on fishing subjects, has 
put me under fresh obligations by sending me an old 
fishing reel, of which he says: "The reel was given to 
me by a man who told me his grandfather made and used 
it seventy years ago. The man is now forty years old, so 
it is quite probable. I do not know that there is any 
particular history connected with the reel or whether it 
ever helped any one to land a fish. You will see that one 
of the bars which hold the disks together is removable 
by taking out two screws iti either end, and when the 
bar is removed a screw driver can he inserted to reach a 
screw hole in the reel seat, and this makes it evident that 
the reel was fastened to the butt of a rod with a screw. 
Reel seats were probably Jiot in use when this reel was 
made, or if so the maker did not know of them. I think 
I would prefer to fish with a hand line than such a 
weapon. Do not sent it back, as I will present it to you 
as a relic of old times." ■ 
If my correspondent had said the reel was reputed to 
have been made 170 years ago, the reel itself bears no 
evidence to dispute it. The disks are of brass and the 
spindle a bit of iron wire bent on the outside ^to form a 
crank handle, and the reel has no click or check of any 
sort, but otherwise it closely resembles a modern reel in 
form. The bearings of the spindle are much worn, and 
other indications are such as to convince me that the reel 
has seen much service. I think a proper abiding place 
for this relic is the case in Forest and Stream office, and 
there I will send it to bear witness that long ago some 
enthusastic fisherman made for his own use. in all prob- 
ability, a reel that was "the best he knowed." 
A. N. Cheney, 
