Dec. 8, 19D0.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
4 53 
the second man reported that he haiW-^ccivcd 153 quarts. 
The first man said he had made a iai" riHovvance in his 
measurement. Each man had reported al a central point 
without knowing the figures of the other, so, on the face 
of it,- the first man had sent 5,520.000 eggs and the second 
man had received 5,630,400 eggs, or an increase of 110,400 
eggs in transit, allowing 36,800 eggs to a quart. In 
counting eggs hy measure much depends on the trust- 
worthiness of the men who do the measuring, that large 
eggs are not counted as small ones, and that the proper 
standard of eggs to a quart is used. Once 1 found a man 
using a standard of 44,000 whitefish eggs to a quart, and 
he believed he was right, and he had no idea of deceiving 
the Commission that employed hirn, for he had arrived at 
his figures by measuring a lineal inch of eggs and squar- 
ing them, but eggs in a square inch do not naturally 
occupy a position where the nadir of an egg in one layer 
coincides with the zenith of the eggs below it. The safe 
way in figuring fish eggs is to count a part of a quart if 
there is doubt about the standard and then allow a good 
margin loss and shrinkage. 
Vermont Thrift. 
The State of Vermont has a law which provides that if 
a person takes a brook trout, rainbow trout, or Loch 
Leven trout or brown trout less than 6 inches in length, or 
a black bass less than 10 inches in length, or a landlocked 
salmon, or salmon trout or steel head trout less than 12 
inches in length, and does not immediately return the 
same, with the least possible injury, to the waters from 
which it was taken or caught, he ^-'',^ll be fined. 
This is a good law, a salutnry law, and a law such as 
every State that desires to protect and preserve its fish 
should enact, if it has not already enacted it, and it is 
short-sighted wisdom not to enforce it once Jt is enacted. 
At the last session of the Vermont Legislature the lower 
house voted to repeal the short trout law, and only bj' 
vigorous effort at the last moment was the repeal bill 
defeated in the Senate. It was toixch and go to save the 
clause as it now stands. The same Legislature made an 
appropriation to build a new hatchery for the purpose of 
hatching the lake sturgeon, and for my part I cannot 
reconcile the two actions. Had the short trout bill passed 
the Senate and received the signature of the Governor to 
make it a law of the State the Legislature should at once 
have passed a bill to abolish its Fish Commission and 
close its hatchery, or it would not have been consistent. 
Vermont has never been widely advertised as being lavish 
in its expenditures for fish propagation, but such a step 
backward in this day of progress in fishing matters, as in 
other things, as to repeal the 6-inch trout law. would in- 
dicate lack of good judgment on the part of the law- 
makers if they desire to preserve the trout fishing for 
themselves and visitors to the State. Never could I un- 
derstand what any man who had arrived at years of 
discretion could do with little trout under 6 inches in 
length, or why he should desire to kill them whether there 
was a law on the subject or not, but that is simply a 
personal opinion or a matter of taste, and so does not 
have weight, but any man who loves to fish and hopes to 
live in this fair land for any length of time, and so 
expects to, fish in the future, should consider that if it is 
permissible to catch baby trout under 6 inches in length 
that the supply will give out. For if they are not per- 
mitted to' grow to a breeding size before they can be 
legally killed, how can the stock he kept up? Artificial 
hatching alone will not do it, and if it would how ab- 
surd it would be for one of the States to go into the busi- 
ness of farming baby trout. If the beginning and end 
of fishculture is to hatch trout eggs and kill the infant 
fish before they can possibly spawn, it certainly cannot be 
profitable to a man or a State. No doubt the 6-inch 
trout law is violated to-day, but the man who will kill 
them does not dare sell them, and it is a venturesome 
dealer who will buy them, because of the possessior 
clause, but make it legal to catch little trout and it 
naturally follows that it would be legal to possess and sell 
them and then it will be simply a question of time when 
the trout must go. Hatcheries must draw upon wild 
streams for eggs and stock fish to keep the blood vigorous, 
aad if there ai^e no wild fish of breeding age to draw upon 
the business comes to an end. The whole thing is to me 
so ridiculous that perhaps I am wasting ink in writing of 
the danger from a repeal of a 6-inch trout law, for I be- 
lieve the better judgment of any body of lawmakers will 
prevent such action but in Vermont better judgment was 
absent from the Lower House, and was awakened from 
slumber in the Senate only at the last moment. 
Rainbow Trout. 
Looking backward, I now think there was a time when 
I was prejudiced against the rainbow trout as a fish for 
Atlantic coast waters. At the time I did not think I was, 
and I tried to be fair even in my condemnation of the 
fish, but I planted thein and they disappeared, and friends 
planted them and they disappeared, and it was generally 
supposed that they foiind their way to the sea, where 
they could and never returned. We have learned 
more about them since, and they do not all disappear 
when planted in waters that are suitable fqr them, and 
they do not always go to sea, but do go down from brooks 
into a lake, and they do remain in such a lake to a greater 
or less extent. Never did I object to the fish for any 
reason except its disappearmg qualities when it was 
planted in trout streams. At first it was a more difficult 
fish to handle in the hatcheries than the native brook 
trout, and being a spring spawning trout it required a 
closed season of 'its own, tht's complicating the fish and 
game law, and it was thought to be a soft-fteshed fish, but 
time and experience has changed or modified the earlier 
opinion of the rainbow in many respects. This fish has 
been taken up, as it were, in Europe, and newspapers in 
Great Britain have much to say about it This is an 
extract from a late issue of Land and Water, found in a 
letter written by Mr. Charles Walker: "Some years 
ago, when the controversy about the rainbow trout was 
somewhat violent, I pointed out that the rainbow had up 
to that time never done well in cold waters, but that it 
had generally been a success when introduced into warm 
waters. In the fac-e of titts it is evidently unfair to con- 
sider reports of the failu^ of the rainbow in cold waters 
as being a proof that it is not likely to succ^eed in any 
of the lakes and ponds in the British. Isles. That it. 
SfcjWiId e«ai^ frotai or gfaUually 4ie Q«t in ws^rs tn 
Scotland and the north of England, which ar^ frozen oyer 
every year for some time, only confirms the conclusion 
derived from previous experiments in other countries, and 
"it is therefore most important that reports from such 
places should be considered in the proper light. 
"Though in the south of England we find many artificial 
lakes and ponds which are rarely, if ever, frozen over for 
more than a few days at a time, and that many years often 
-go without their being frozen over at all, still it is by 
no means certain that these lakes and ponds are really 
warm enough for the rainbow trout. * * * Of course 
the mountain lakes are out of the question as a rule, for 
they are cold and bare of food." 
If this question of temperature of water has been 
urged against the rainbow in the English papers it made 
no impression upon me, and I have supposed that I had 
read about everything that had been said for and against 
the rainbow at the time of the "violent controversy" re- 
ferred to. One might get the impression from Mr. 
Walker's letter that the rainbow would thrive only in 
warm water, whatever warm water may mean, for no 
degrees of temperature are given, but in this country the 
rainbow requires water of about the same temperature as 
the native brook trout and the brown trout, though it 
will live in the water of a slightly higher temperature than 
that fatal to fontiiMlis, but there is no hard and fast rule 
about this even, for other conditions than mere tempera- 
ture have to be considered. In the State of New York 
the rainbow thrives as well in waters that arc thickly 
covered with ice for more days in the year than in any 
other part of the State, as it does in waters that are not 
covered with ice. In the Adirondacks ice forms to a 
thickness of 20 inches, and the waters are covered with 
ice from November to May, and it is in such waters -that 
the rainbow thrives. Last week in talking with the fore- 
man of an Adirondack hatchery about the species of trout 
that did the best in the ponds and lakes near the hatchery, 
it was found that the native brook trout and the rainbow 
were the best, and the State ordered brown trout stock 
fish disposed of, and the operations of the hatchery con- 
fined to lake trout, native brook trout and rainbow trout 
as the best fish for the ice-bound waters of that region. 
A. N. Cheney. 
"Public Waters." 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. A. N. Cheney in his article On page 391 of your 
issue of Nov. 17 refers to applications for "public fish for 
stocking waters tliat are public," and adds, "foi; under no 
circumsiances will State fish be fitrnished ' for stocking 
private waters." 
As a matter of fact nearly all of the fish which are fur- 
nished by the State are placed in private waters and not in 
public ones. The public waters in this State are limited 
and consist substantially of the Hudson River, I think part 
of the Mohawk, the Great Lakes, the waters in the forest 
preserves and the raging canal. 
All small lakes, ponds and nearly all the streams of this 
State are essentially private waters and not public in any 
sense of the term, and they cannot be made public by 
any legislative act or any declaration of the Commiss:oners 
of Fisheries. The rights of riparian owners are fixed and 
certain, and they are" vested rights incident to the owner- 
ship of the fee. 
I have suggested once or twice that the Commissioners 
should define what they mean by public waters, but they 
have never done so, and unless they have changed their 
course recently all that they have required in the past has 
been an affidavit bv the applicant that the fish desired are 
to be placed in public waters, with the result that private 
streams have been stocked throughout the State, and that 
('ish have been furnished by the State on the pretense that 
hey were public streams and very frequently by persons 
who have no interest in the streams either as riparian 
owners or otherwise. 
The result has been that many of our finest streams 
have been practically destroyed by stocking through acts 
of trespass to which the State has really been a party, and 
it is a grave question whether a claim for these injuries 
to the rights of riparian owners could not be successfully 
made to the Court of Claims of this State. 
One of the serious results of this course has been the 
claim that where fish have been introduced at some point 
in a private stream the waters in consequence were pub- 
lic; and the worst elements in the neighborhood have 
insisted upon fishing the entire stream on the ground that 
the waters by reason of such acts, which are little less than 
crimes, had made the stream public and deprived riparian 
owners of their exclusive right of fishery. 
I am not speaking at random on this point, but with 
full knowledge of more than one instance where the State 
has lent itself to the destruction of private waters upon 
the application of one or more persons whose statement as 
to the waters being public was known by them to be 
false, and which the State should have known to be so, or 
could easily have found out that they were false if they 
had taken a little trouble in the matter. 
Under the United States Government many seeds are 
furnished to our citizens on the ground that they con- 
tribute generally to the expenses of the Government, but 
no claim has ever been made that they should be planted 
in commons for the benefit of the public at large or that 
by planting them in a private garden the public became 
entitled to enter it and gather the products. The people 
of this State are supposed to contribute ratably toward the 
general expenses, including the expenses of the Fish Com- 
missioners, and it is worse than absurd to say that people 
owning lands adjoining private streams or private ponds 
cannot obtain any fish whatever, although they have con- 
tributed toward their production, without throwing open 
these Avaters to the public, while some person who has no 
interest in them can abtain all the fish that he wants to be 
placed in these very waters on the false pretense that 
they are public. 
There is a lake near this Qity which some years ago 
abounded in very large pickerel, and if it had continued 
in that condition it would readily bring to-day not less 
than $10,000. .Some persons in the neighborhood obtained 
a lot of bass from the State, both large and small mouthed, 
with the result tha.t the small-mouthed have all gone down 
to the river apd the large-mouthed bass have destroyed 
nearly all the large pickerd. Tq-day it is a. pickerel and 
bass P9?»4« ?<»*n? both, w>t much of dt^??r-, mi the 
damage sustained by the acts to which the State was a 
party are at the very lowest estimate $5,000, and this is 
but one instance out of many. J. S. Van Cleef. 
POL-GHKKEPSIE, Nov. 20, 
Flotida Sharks. 
I AM reminded by Mr. C. M. Stark's letter, referring to 
John I. Eastman, formerly of Concord, N. H., of Mr. 
Eastman's exploits as a fisherman last winter at Hawk's 
Park, Fla. He did not bob for the festive eel, but landed 
some sharks which were eyeopeners. On two occasions 
when his lines were set over night he found 6-foot .sharks 
on the hooks, and the sharks had been bitten squarely in 
two by something larger. It is hardly necessarv to say 
that bathing there lost its charms. D. R. Marshall. 
Fixtures* 
FIELD TRIALS. 
Dec 10.— Paris, Mo.— Fourth annual field trials of the Missouri 
Field Trials Association. L. S. Eddins, Sec'y, Sedalia, Mo. 
1901. 
Jan. 14.— Greenville, Ala.— Fifth annual iield trials of the Alabama 
Field Trials Club. John B. Rosenstihl, Sec'y. 
Jan. 21.— Benton County, Miss.— Tenth annual field trials of the 
United States Field Trials Club. W. B. Stafford, Sec'y, Trenton, 
"Tenn, 
BENCH SHOWS. 
Dec. 6-10. — Cincinnati, O.— Annual bench show of the Cincinnati 
Fox Terrier Club. J. C. Trohliger, Sec'y. 
1901. 
Feb. 26-March 1.— Cleveland, O.— Cleveland Kennel Club's annual 
bench show. C. M. Munhall, Sec'y. 
March 6-9.— Pittsburg, Pa.— Duquesne Kennel Club's annual 
berxh show. F. S. Stedman, Sec'y. 
Eastern Field Trial Club's Trials. 
Subscription Stake. 
Many of the visitors left for other parts on Saturday, 
consequently the attendance was much smaller. The in- 
terest in a trial is diflicult to maintain if the competition 
carries over into the second week. 
The competition as a whole was not marked by any 
special brilliancy of execution. The best work was done 
on the last day of this stake, and the winners therefore 
were of the competitors which ran on the last day. _ - 
Sioux, winner of first, surpassed any competitor in 
the stake, although her good work was seriously marred 
by her disobedience. Loud orders and much whistling 
seemed necessary in handling her, and on scattered birds 
she was handled with the greatest difficulty. However, 
she had more range and speed than any other dog in 
the stake, and maintained them to a uniform degree. 
She found well and showed a knowledge and skill in 
locating and pointin';^ which were admirable. 
Peg's Girl won second easily. She was going with 
less range and spirit than when she ran in the All-Age 
last week, but her work on birds in respect to accurate 
locating and pointing was of a high finish. 
Geneva was placed third. She ranged well, and at good 
speed. However, in bird work she was- .surpassed by 
both Sioux and Peg's Girl. 
Monday, Nov. 26, Seventh Day. 
The weather was cool almost to a degree of rawness. 
A stiff wind blew, and the sky was overcast with broken 
clouds. The fields were wet and heavy as a consequence 
of the all-day downpour of rain on the preceding day. 
Nevertheless, the birds were moving in search of food, 
and they were found in sufficient numbers for the pur- 
poses of the competition. The spectators had dwindled ' 
down to a relatively small number. 
Lady Rachel and Geneva were started at 8:14. The 
half hour of running on Saturday was cut out of com- 
petitive consideration, and the heat began anew. It 
therefore was two hours in duration. Lady was dis- 
obedient and exceedingly difficult to keep in bounds, at 
times working out of control. Geneva was not taknig 
in so wide a scope in her ranges as on Saturday, though 
she was working well, and was under control. Geneva 
found and pointed five bevies, was steady on point and 
back, and worked to the gun. Lady made four points 
on singles, backed well at such times as she could be 
called in, broke shot once when a bird was killed to her 
point, and was lost part of the time. Geneva slowed up, 
and contracted her range about the middle of the heat, 
and Lady was going much slower and narrower at the 
finish. The heat had no notably remarkable features. 
Sioux and Peg's Girl were cast off at 10:27. This 
heat was easily the best of the stake. While Sioux was 
difficult to handle, she outranged and outworked all her 
competitors. She did not break away on any self hunt^ 
ing trips, and showed finding and pointing abilities of a 
high order. Peg pointed two bevies and had a share in 
a third on which both pointed. Roading on to locate, 
Sioux flushed, and stopped to wing, or pointed just as 
the bevy flushed. Peg made six points on singles, and 
was pleasingly sharp and accurate in all her bird work. 
While her range was good, it was not up to that dis- 
played in the All-Age Stake. Sioux found and pointed 
four bevies, and made four good points on single birds. 
She maintained her speed and range to the finish, and 
won out with something to spare. 
The competition was suspended till after lunch, which 
Avas served at Yount's. 
Final. 
Peg's Girl and Geneva were cast off at 2^24 and ran 
24 minutes. Soon Peg pointed, and moving on to 
locate, Geneva joined in the roading, and both pointed 
the bevy in the open. On the scattered birds in woods 
Peg made four points and a flush, and Geneva made a 
flush. Geneva made two points on singles. Peg in open 
weeds flushed some outlying birds, then held her point 
on some which remained and flushed wild. The dogs 
v.^ere then ordered up. 
The judges soon thereafter announced the winners, as 
follows: Fist. Sioux; second. Peg's Girl; th.ird, Geti^vg^ 
