190 
[Sept. 8, igoo. 
There can be no doubt that Mr. Amsworth worked out 
his improvements on independent lines, for the very 
nature of his invention is the best proof of this, for he 
copied no one, and he has told me that he had never 
heard of Jacobi, Remy or Gehan when he commenced 
his fishcultural work. I think he is in error, however, in 
thinking that Garlick and Ackley only hatched a few 
trout eggs in an office in Cleveland. Their first ex- 
periments were conducted in an office building, and it 
was there that Dr. Sterling was called to see the trout 
embryos, and strangely enough Dr. Sterling was the 
only American who witnessed the experiments of Remy 
and Gehan in Paris, conducted under the directions of 
Prof. Coste. Sterling was a classmate of Garlick in 
Cleveland before he went to Paris, but he assured me 
several times that the Paris experiments made no im- 
pression on his mind, and he knew nothing of Garlick's 
experiments until he was called to see the fry that were 
hatched in 1854 in the office of Drs. Garlick and 
Ackley. Subsequent to this, however, these pioneers 
did have a hatchery. Just before Dr. Garlick's death he 
presented me with half a dozen copies of the now very 
scarce "Treatise on Artificial Propagation of Certain 
Kinds of Fish, by Theodore Garlick," in which the 
author said: "The plan adopted by Prof. Ackley and 
myself, and which we find to answer the purpose in 
every respect, is as follows: At the head of the spring 
we built a house 8 feet in width and 12 feet in length. 
We placed a tank made of 2-inch planks, 4 feet wide by 
8 feet long, and 2 feet deep, in the end of the building 
nearest the bank. The water from the spring enters 
the tank through a hole near the top, and escapes 
through a similar hole at the other end, from which it is 
received into a series of ten successive boxes. These 
boxes are 18 inches long, 8 inches wide and 6 inches 
deep, and are so arranged that the first is much higher 
in the series than the last one. They must be filled 
with clean sand and gravel to the depth of about 2 
inches, the same being placed at the bottom. The 
impregnated eggs are to be scattered over and among the 
gravel, care being taken not to have them in piles or 
masses." 
This, I think, will show that Garlick had a regular 
hatchery, much after the manner of a hatchery of to- 
day. In fact, just before Dr. Sterling's death he made 
an effort to restore the hatchery for the purpose of hav- 
ing it photographed for me, and the work of restoration 
was in progress at the time of his death. 
The fact that Garlick did have a hatchery and did 
hatch trout on, a greater scale than a mere othce ex- 
periment, does not alter the other fact that Mr. Ains- 
worth was the first man in New York State to hatch 
fish artificially, and that he was one of the pioneer 
fish breeders that few people in this day and generation 
know of as such. 
Black Bass Baits. 
Black bass have long had a reputation of being 
peculiar in regard to the kind of bait that they are par- 
tial to at different times, and probably there is no fish 
taken with bait for which so many different kinds of 
baits are provided by the fisherman who seeks this 
capricious fish. Crayfish, minnows, dobsons, worms, 
grasshoppers, crickets, artificial fly, larva of the dragon 
fiy, frogs, trolling spoons, are but a partial list of the 
lures employed to bring this dusky fish to the landing 
net. In West Virginia I found a fisherman M'ho swore by 
a black lizard as the most killing bait for black bass. 
In the Potomac River young bullheads arc deadly, but 
at times nothing that the fisherman can command will 
prove attractive. Twice this evening I have been told 
that the black bass fishing in Lake George is very good 
this year, and that the common eartli worm is more 
deadly than minnows, crickets, grasshoppers or cray- 
fish, the baits commonly in use. In Glen Lake, not far 
from Lake George, the golden shiner (bream) was for 
a period of time the most effective liait that could be 
employed as black bass bait, then yellow perch took 
the place of the golden shiner and killed most of the 
very large black bass recorded from this lake. 
Black bass do not look with favor on a bait with 
which they are not familiar, and in a lake that never 
contained crayfish this bait was almost unnoticed until 
the crayfish were planted and became abundant, and 
then it was effective. The same I have found to be true 
of the dobson, for while it is an excellent bait in waters 
where this larva is found naturally it is comparatively 
worthless in waters where the bass are not familiar 
with it. 
Many years ago I went to a small lake tliat had been 
stocked with black bass, and I made a business of pro- 
viding baits of various sorts, and sent an extra wagon 
with a boatman and a man to care for the horses, and 
they took the baits. We had dobson, white and black 
minnows, grasshoppers, crickets and crayfish, as well 
as spoons and flies. 
Not a thing would those bass take all tliat dav of the 
baits provided, until late in the afternoon I noticed a frog 
in the bait bucket, that the oarsman had caught while 
we were at luncheon. I put that frog on my hook, and 
the moment I cast it on the water a bass took it, and 
i caught two more fish on the same frog. The oars- 
man was put on shore to get frogs, and when they were 
secured the bass took them furiously, and we left them 
in a bitmg mood when the setting sun told us it was 
time to start for the hotel where we were spending the 
summer. That evening I related my experience to a 
gentleman m the hotel, and the next morning at day- 
light he started with the same oarsman I had had and 
they went to the lake and caught frogs, but the bass 
would not look at them. Not until thev had caught 
minnows in the outlet on a minnow hook did the bass 
respond to their lure. This note would not have been 
written had I not been on the Niagara River the past 
week and there found that shedder cravfish was the 
best bait for black bass. I know that it used to be 
thought that crayfish xyas not the proper bait to oft'er 
bass until September, but in the Niagara the cravfish 
was suppcme ,n the middle of August, and I saw a mas- 
f^hlf l^'l " ""V \^'^^^ employee fishing 
or black bass, Two hours after I return home I am in 
formed that worms are the best of baits in a take where 
crickets Ayere .?;cneral1y considered as good a- the b,-ct 
When the new fishway was built, it was not placed in 
the old channel where the salmon and alewives were 
accustomed to go, but was placed, as Dr. Morris stated, 
where the fish did not go. Furthermore, although it 
complied with the regulations of the law, perhaps, it was 
so constructed that at night it could be closed so as to 
prevent the salmon from going through. Again, the 
old fishway was removed and the dam raised higher and 
slabs, sawdust and all kinds of mill refuse have been and 
are alloAved to run in the stream, polluting it to the ex- 
tent of being an unhealthy, unsightly and dirty obstruc- 
tion even to navigation. 
Several years ago, in a public town meeting in the ad- 
joining town of Edmunds, which lies just across on the 
other bank of the Dennys River, a resolution was adopted 
inviting the State Fish Commission to come to the 
town and investigate the state of affairs, and also hear the 
opinions of the inhabitants of the town upon the subject. 
Alas ! the Commission came not ; they turned a deaf ear 
upon the subject, and in consequence the mill people are 
in control. 
An arm of the Cobscott Bay branches inland from the 
Passamaquaddy Bay at Eastport for over seventeen miles 
and gives tidal water nearly up to the mill site of the 
Dennysville Lumber Company. The shores on either 
side are far more picturesque and beautiful than those 
of Mt. Desert or Old Orchard. Fi,sh and game, deer, 
ducks, partridges, even bears, certainly abound. Shad, 
which were formerly caught, have disappeared. Ale- 
wives and salmon are not as plentiful as formerly. Un- 
less some action toward their preservation is taken, the 
trout and black bass and pickerel may follow. In the 
months of R smelts are»general]y plentiful, and one may 
obtain, almost for the asking, clams and an abundance 
of that rare and delicate mollusk, the scallop. Board i.' 
for bhiclc bass. So it will not do to decide what is the 
best bait for bass in one lake or river because a certain 
bait is good in another. The local fisliernien can tell far 
better what is the correct bait to use than for the visiting 
fisherman to depend on any fine spun theory as to baiLs 
that he has been successful with elsewhere, 
Brown Troot. 
Every little while some one asks how to catch brown 
trout that have been planted in some particular water and 
established themselves therein, and in a letter that 1 
find waiting for a reply a correspondent says that after 
the brown trout were planted in a local stream they grew 
rapidly, and at two years of age would rise to the fly, but 
after that time they would not take fly or bait. The 
brown trout is a more rare fish than our native brook 
trout, and fine tackle and fine fishing is necessary to 
bring the fish to basket. If a man will use gossamer 
leaders and very small flies, and cast the flies ever ,so 
gently on the water, he will succeed in killing brown 
trout, but such leaders and flies as are required for 
brown trout fishing the average fisherman would con- 
sider only fit to catch minnows. The brown trout can 
be taken at night with larger flies and stouter leaders, 
but in the day time it must be "fine and far off" to kill. 
Just here i am reminded of a conversation with Mr. 
Archibald Mitchell one evening in June when Ave Avert 
salmon fishing on the Ristigouche. He was looking over 
my stock fly-book, and noticed some fine trout casts 
that he had sent me from Scotland when he was there on 
a visit. The leaders were of drawn gut, and the flies 
Avere No. 16 and 18 hooks. He said that when he Avas 
a young man in Scotland the manner of fishing was to 
use a single fly like one of those on the cast, and watch 
the stream for a rising fish. When a rise was discovered 
the fly was cast to fall directly in the circle on the surface 
of the water made by the rising fish. The cast was 
measured, of course, with the eye, and the moment the 
fly alighted, if it was not in the proper spot, it Avas at 
once retrieved and another cast made. Even if the fly 
alighted propcriy it was not allowed to sink, but was re- 
drawn before it became submerged, so that it was by a 
succession of casts at a rising fish that the fishing was 
done, and never permitting the fly to sink beneath the 
surface of the water. At once it occurred to me that this 
may have been the origin of dry-fly fishing, for in the 
latter style of fishing the fly is cast on the surface a 
little above the rising fish and the fly swims over it by the 
action of the current, and is then retrieved if there is 
no strike, and the fly is dried by switching it backward 
and forward in the air to dry it before another cast is 
made. 
Brown trout anglers in this country may learn from 
this the delicacy required in successful fishing for this 
trout, and it has been planted so extensively that soon or 
late the anglers who would bring the fish to their baskets 
must practice the highest degree of the angler's art- 
fine and delicate casting with the finest of tackle. 
The State of New York has adopted the policy of de- 
crcasuig the output of brown and rainbow trout and 
iiicreasmg the output of native brook trout, and to this 
end the State ponds have been and Avill be again gone 
over to remove the stock of large breeding brown °and 
rauihow trout and materially reduce the stock and in- 
crease the stock of native trout. This is made neces- 
sary by the greater number of applications for the tiatiA^e 
trout over those of other species. The broAvn trout in 
the hatchery ponds and in the hatching troughs and rear- 
ing races is a more hardy fish than the native brook trout 
and less subject to disease, but the demand for it is not 
so great as for the native fish. The red-throat trout 
promises well, but it is not yet sufficientlv established in 
Eastern waters to determine ju.st Avhat its standing Avill 
be in the salmon family in Atlantic waters. In the 
West it is highly prized, and years ago Avhcn I caught this 
fish 111 Utah and Wyoming. I thought it the equal of the 
Eastern brook trout on the hook. This fish has not been 
planted as extensively as the brown or the rainbow, hut 
It has been planted in a number of good waters, and in a 
few years avc aviII know just what position it Avill fill in the 
fish worid. yv N. Cheney. 
Take Inventory of the good things in this issue of 
Forest and Stream. Recall what a fund was given 
last week. Count on what is to come next week 
Was there ever in all the world a mor^ ^hu^dai^^t 
^•lakl^ «tor« at iwortamen'A reading? 
Panther Lake. 
ri 
Andover, Sussex County 1 N. J. 
Panther L.-\ke is one of the most beautiful little sheets 
of water east of the Alleghany Mountains. Had spme 
scenic arti.st planned its shores, he could not have made a 
panarama more pleasing to the eye. All of the northern 
and western shores are covered Avith heavily timbered 
.spurs and hills, with here and there miniature" precipices 
and bold, rocky points. The eastern shore is undulating 
and rolling meadow lands with a perfect picture of pre- 
cipitous broken rocks surmounted and surrounded by 
pines in the center. The southern shore rises very abrupt- 
ly for about 50 or 75 feet; the slope is covered with 
magnificent chestnut and oak trees. Behind this fringe 
stretches the luxuriant peach orchards which belong to 
Mr. Chrispell. 
These crooked and interesting shores encircle a sheet 
of water absolutely spring fed. Many years ago it was 
PANTHER LflK£. 
thoroughly stocked with smah-niouthed black bass, Avhich 
have thriven wonderfully, and to-day we can safely say 
that Ave know of 110 water that contains bigger ones. AVe 
have fished Panther Lake many a time, and generally 
get some good fish out of it, but the bass in this water 
are peculiar to themselves in the Avay they feed. First 
of all, we have ncA-er been able to take one by casting 
or trolling; aa'c have ncA^er been able to take one either oh 
crawfish, helgramites or minnows. We have caught a few 
on crickets and grasshoppers. The best baits for them, 
Avhicli are very plentiful in the neighborhood and easily 
obtained, are frogs and perch about 5 or 6 inches long. 
Any one can take a few worms and go into one of the 
little bays of this lake and catch perch enough in half 
an hour to last him a whole day's fishing. Mr. Chrispell 
must have a private farm of frogs, for if you express a 
wish to him for a few, within half an hour he will have 
half a pailful for you. 
The bass appear to feed in spots in this lake; we have 
never caught any beyond the jllaces which we have 
marked. The first place is Burnt Rock. To fish this 
spot, anchor your boat as closely to shore as you can ; 
your bait should not be more than 15 to 25 feet from 
the shore. The second spot we would mention would be 
around the old ice house point; quite a sandy bar runs off 
this point, and the bass come out on the bar mornings and 
evenings to feed. The next spot to try is the cold spring 
which lies midway between the old ice house point and the 
southern shore. Another good place is about the center 
of the southern shore. Anchor j'our boat about 50 feet 
out and lay your bait 15 to 25 feet from the boat toward 
the shore. The next spot is off the new ice house point. 
Anchor your boat quite close to shore — ^in fact, cast your 
anchors on the shore — and fish 15 or 20 feet from the 
boat. 
We will now start down the lake, pass through the 
narrows and take the shore on the right hand side. We 
have taken a few bass here, but A'ery fcAv ; also a few 
around the islands in the lower part of the pond. 
NoAV for the modus operandi. Anchor your boat, bow 
and stern, and draAV your ropes pretty tight so that the 
boat cannot swing Avith any breeze. The angler can use 
one or more rods, which should all have reels on them 
Avhere the click is movable. L^se a 3-foot leader with a 
four o or five o hook, put a buckshot on the line end of 
the leader, throw your bait to or 15 feet aAvay from the 
boat and allow it to sink to the bottom. As soon as it is 
settled, lay your rod across the boat and take the click 
oft' the reel, so that it runs freely: do not attempt to 
strike the fish on the first run, or Avhen running, except 
when the bait is small. As soon as the line begins to 
run off the reel you may know that a bass, and a big one. 
has taken your bait. It is well then to take 
up the rod and place your thumb ever so lightly on the 
line in the reel to pre\'ent it's o\-errunning. As soon as 
the bass has stopoed (and he may not stop under 60 or 
80 feet, and sometimes more) you can then put on the click 
again and wait for the second run. As soon as you feel 
him on the .second run, snub him good and hare], as you 
]i;\vc n lot Hue w,d a gmt <kn\ of «;l5i,si;i<;vly t^j 
