FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 9, 1901. 
ally brought to the surface a handsome trout. I have al- 
ways thought myself a pretty enthusiastic fisherman, but 
Stone and Wallace can give me cards and spades at the 
game. They fish together quite often, and it came out 
that after they have caught all they want they play a 
game of pitch to see who shall clean the fish, the loser 
doing the job, of course. Stone says Wallace is very 
expert at the business. It's a great .scheme — for the 
winner — but if I had a hundred or more big perch before 
me, as Wallace did once this winter, taken over near 
Long Island, I should feel like sub-letting the job if pos- 
sible. Thursday the fish house was brought back to 
our shore, where Mr. Huse and I fished Friday, while 
Stone and Wallace put in some lines off Birch Point, 
further down the lake toward Alton Bay. Altogether, the 
fishing was not what it ought to have been. We tried what 
are considered the best grounds in the lake, and we lost 
but three fish after they had once taken the bait. We 
called that pretty fortunate, for it must be borne in mind 
that it requires good care and a steady nerve to pull a 
good sized trout from 75 feet of water — the depth we 
fished in on the broads. Our total string was seven trout, 
three cusk and probably twenty shad waiters, some of 
the latter quite sizable fish, while our biggest trout was 
5 pounds. However, I had a most delightful outing, and 
more than ever did I realize that it is not all of fishing 
to fish. Wallace and Stone I found to be gentlemen and 
sportsmen; Mr. HiTse I have known to be such for some 
time, and I hope we shall meet at the Huse cottage next 
winter, when the ice isn't so thick, the wind less furious 
and the trout in a more biting mood. Saturday noon saw 
trie home again with more than my regular share of the 
trout, the biggest cusk and a whole lot of appreciation of 
the kindness of my friends. Wm. B. Smart. 
The Megantic Club. 
At the annual meeting in Portland, Me., Feb. 26, of the 
Megantic Fish and Game Corporation, the annual report 
was presented, showing an addition to the membership 
in exchanges and shares sold of 41. 
During the year past, in addition to the regular run- 
ning expenses of the club, five new camps were built, one 
sleeping camp at I^orthwest and Big Island Ponds, two 
at Arnold Pond, and a dining camp at Big Island Pond, 
which for size and conveniences cannot be excelled in 
the State. These improvements with some new trails cost 
over $1,300. Three new private camps were built, and 
there are five more in process for the coming season. 
The Board and Supply Department was run at a profit 
of a little over $2,400, all the camps showing- a balance on 
the credit side of the ledger. 
One hundred and sixteen members spent 2,709 days on 
the preserve, and fiftj'-four guests were there 500 days. 
Below is a summary of the report of the treasurer, 
showing a cash balance with all expenses paid of 
$1,336.35. 
Quick Assets. 
Cash, including: $310.65 in the Permanent Im- 
provement Fund....,jjj^....,..,.i..,..,,,.j.,...|l,388 10 
Accounts receivable. 218 70 
Rentals due 125 00 
Assessments for 1900 due 480 00 
'$2,211 80 
Invested Assets. 
Re?l estate $5,000 00 
Treasury stock 1,100 00 
Unexpired insurance 112 90 
Supplies on hand 650 48 
Camps, furnishings and office fixtures 13,311 53 
$20,174 91 
$22,386 71 
Amount We Owe. 
Employees, balance withheld under contracts $51 75 
Total assets $22,334 96 
The directors chosen for the year are : Clarence A. 
Barney, Boston; John W. Cutler, Binghamton, N. Y.; 
L. Dana Chapman, Boston; L. O. Crane, Boston; Frank 
Fallon. Medford, Mass.; A. W. Gleason, New York; 
George A. Gibson, Boston; R. A. Griffing, Hartford; 
S. F. Johnson, Boston; Dr. W. G. Kendall, Boston; F. 
A. Niccols, Boston; George H. Payne, D.D.S., Boston; 
D. C. Pierce, Boston; Jeremiah Richards, New York; 
Arthur W. Robin-son, Boston; Henry W. Robinson, 
Boston; Richard E. Traiser, Boston; L. Dana Chapman, 
Boston; Dr. E. D. Robbins, Boston; Harry W. Sanborn. 
Boston; clerk, Dr. George W. Way, Portland; assistant 
clerk, H. W. Robinson, Boston. 
The Dennys River. 
Editor Forest and Sir earn: 
Your editorial on the wane of the Dennys River of 
Maine in Forest and Stream of March 2 is pathetic. It 
must be so, especially to the scores of habitues who have 
been wont to seek its delectable shores summer after 
summer and enjoy for the nonce not only its scenic at- 
tractions but the "privilege of fishing ad libitum without 
license, fee or charge. It is the only absolutely free 
entire river worth fishing that T know of in the United 
States or Canada— that, is within striking distance. The 
consciousness of this exceptional privilege is of itself as 
ecstatic as a draff of pure air to a lifelong inmate of a 
dungeon. And to blight the joys of a resident community 
by destroying the beauty and resources of such a stream, 
as well as by ignoring the prerogatives inherited from 
their forefathers for generations by deliberately closing 
the natural fishway around the dam, and turning loose a 
perpetual output of sawdust and edgings, regardless of 
protest or appeal, is truly an offense which may be classed 
as criminal, more's the pity ! 
The remedy which your editorial suggests of appeal to 
the State Fish Commission and the Legislature ought to 
have been invoked and applied three years ago. It might 
be made efficacious now. If it is possible to keep mill 
waste out of streams elsewhere, it can be done in Dennys- 
ville, and the salmon will follow their propensity to seek 
the spawning beds of the upper streams as soon as they 
find the way clear. That they attempt the passage every 
year is shown by the quantities of salmon caught in the 
estuary. 
It is a marvel to industrial economists that the mill 
company cannot see that it is to their pecuniary profit to 
iitUize their mil stuff by disposing of it to fqel yards, ic? 
packers, upholsterers, canners, et al., instead of turning it 
loose to pack knee deep on the bottom or find its way 
out into the ocean. But at the present acute stage of the 
complaint, it looks as if compulsory measures would 
effect more than the argumentum ad hominem. For my 
part, I declare I cannot understand how the manager and 
resident members of the mill syndicate can have the 
nerve to look their fellow citizens of Dennysville squarely 
in the face. Oh, love of lucre! How it sours the milk 
of human kindness ! Mind you, good Mr. Editor, I would 
not save the Dennys River for monopolists to enjoy, while 
those to the manor born stand helpless and forbidden to 
fish. Better let the slabs and sidings continue to drift 
with the tides which flow in and out of the estuar3^ But 
if, by some happy chance or effort, the river is to be 
restored to its old prestige, and the angling for salmon 
become again what it was when Walter Brackett took his 
dozen fish per day out of the pool above the present rail- 
road bridge, I am thinking that a rod tax of $5 or less 
would not be a bad idea, as it would enhance the fishing 
privilege, on the theory that one values most whatever has 
cost him most or been hard earned; and the income would 
go to keeping the fishway. open and a vigilant guardian on 
the river. 
As you say, "It is an outrage that the conditions now 
existing should go on unchecked," I hope that the mills 
of the gods will eventually outdo the mills of the sawyers, 
albeit they grind so slowly. Charles Hatxock. 
On Lac San Claire. 
The Detroit News chronicles in rhyme in the style of D. 
Drummond Mr. Dan Davies' catching a big bass in Lake St. 
Clair: 
A fisherman on Lac San Claire, 
'Bout six mile off from shore, 
Fished hard for one, two, three, four hours; 
By an' by he fished some more. 
Some time he fish with old dry bait, 
Some time he fish with wet — • 
He give the dry bait to the fish. 
The wet bait — nit! you bet. 
Long time some fish did never pome, 
Then one, two, three passed by; 
They smell of that old dead, dry bait 
And wink the other eye. 
By an' by one great hig bass come 'longf, 
'Bout five, six, seven pound weight; 
So old he neither smell nor see. 
And ate that old, dry bait. 
The fisherman stood very still 
And reeled out yards of line — 
He worked that poor old blind black bass 
So very, very fine. 
By an' by the fish began to pull, 
By an' by he pull some more; 
And then was fun in Lac San Claire, 
'Bout six mile off from shore. 
The fish he plunge like one mad horse. 
And then he pulled like ten — 
He towed that Ijoat nine miles an hour: — 
Big boat and four big men. 
He pulled like bass 'bout six feet long, 
May be he be 'bout seven; 
May be, if not pulled out right quick, 
He'll grow to be 'bout 'leven. ' 
By an' by they pull that bass- half out, 
By an' by they pull him more. 
And Lac San Claire fell four, five feet, 
'Bout six mile off from shore. 
The Lime Kiln Crossing got so low 
The boats they could not pass; 
An' Dan he say the river fell 
When he puUed out that bass. 
Color in Differentiation* 
Mr. Cheney says that he is convinced that very little 
is known about the primal cause of color variation. "Only 
this fall," he says, "I have been struck with the difference 
in the coloring of breeding males in the same trout pond, 
one individual being highly colored, others shading down 
to a pink blush, and all fed on the same food and con- 
fined in a small pond at a breeding station. There is 
nothing uniform about them so far as coloring is con- 
cerned. There will be light troitt and trout almost black, 
the vermiculation pronounced and the vermiculation ob- 
scured, and so on to the end of the chapter." 
The best object lesson I know of is a goldfish pond, in 
which one often discovers pink, white, black, red, yellow, 
crimson and silvery specimens, with mottlings and com- 
binations of these basic colors in puzzling variety, and all 
from the same stock. In flowers the zinnia is one of the 
most striking illustrations of vagary in coloration, ex- 
hibiting quite frequently many different hues on the same 
stems. 
These studies in nature are interesting, but it is not easy 
to explain or understand the "whyness of the what." 
Charles H alloc ic. 
Annual Dinner of the Lawrentian Club* 
The Laurentian Club had its annual dinner at the Hol- 
land House on Fiftli avenue last week. It was a success. 
More than eighty members and guests were present. Mr. 
Joseph W. Howe, the President of the club, presided. 
On his right and left were seated Dr. William H. Drum- 
mond, of Montreal, the author of "The Habitant and 
Other Poems" and a director of the club; J. Bishop Put- 
nam, Dr. A. A. Smith, Bayard Dominick, E. W. Cog- 
geshall, Chas. P. Frame, J. W, Cromwell. Percival 
Roberts, Jr., Wm. H. McCord, L. A. Bevin, Edward Hol- 
brook, J. M. McCutcheon, Dr. George S. Huntington, of 
Columbia University; Wm. H. Parker, of Montreal, 
managing director of the club; F. C. Wagner, Dr. Chas. 
T. Poor, Jos. E. Gay, Jos. Bushnell, David S. Cowles, 
W. S. Cornell, Messrs. Phelps. Chas. P. Cowles. Among 
others present were Geo. A. Weber, Emory Lyon, A. E. 
Hart, of Hartford; Chas. H. Lane, Waldo K. Chase, 
Howard Fuguet, J. P. Howe, J. H. Bailey, A. B. Miller, 
J. B. Miller, R. W. Poor. 
After a speech, welcoming members and guests, the 
President called upon Dr. Drummond, who spoke and 
recited in his inimitable way several of his poems. 
Mr. Parker made a flattering report of the condition of 
the club, Mr. J. Bishop Putnam was introduced as the 
publisher of "The Habitant." 
Mr. Weber read a letter written to the Dinner Com- 
mittee by Hon. S. N. Parent, Premier of the Province of 
Quebec, regretting in graceful terms his inability to be 
present, as ihc Parliament of the Province opened on the 
day of the dinner. 
Mr. Chas. P. Cowles responded in a happy manner to 
a vote of thanks to the committee. 
The report of the club, just issued in paniplilet form, 
shows that the club now has more than 250 members, with 
ample space of water and forest land and fishing and 
hunting privileges for all of them. Walton, 
Fkb. 28. 
A New Hampshire Lake Trout. 
Newfound Lake, Bristol, N. H., March i. — ^A large 
lake trout (Gristivomer mamayctish) , taken from this 
lake through the ice in 85 feet of water, has been on ex- 
hibition in the rotunda of the State House at Concord, and 
created quite a stir. Hundreds of people, including many 
of our Granite State fishermen, have gone in to see so 
large a fish from inland waters. It weighed 2S pounds, 
measured 38 inches in length, girth 27 inches. The trout 
has been sent to Boston to be mounted, and we under- 
stand it is the intention of the State officials to have it 
placed in Doric Hall at the State House. Perhaps it is 
to be kept there as a reference guide to anglers that they 
may explain to their friends what size fish it was that 
got away when they lost that big one. This is the second 
fish about that size the writer has seen taken from New 
Hampshire waters. The previous one was caught with a 
9-oimce rod while trolling in Maj'- by Sam Fay, of Wolf- 
boro, about seventeen years ago at Lake Winnipiseogee. 
At this writing a bill has just passed by both branches 
of the Legislature prohibiting ice fishing in Newfound 
Lake. S. H. 
The South Branch of the Potomac, 
A CORRESPONDENT writing to the Hampshire Review, at 
Ronuiey, enters his protest against the polluiion of the 
South Branch of the Potomac bj"- the proposed establish- 
ment of a large tannery at Moorefield, and this protest 
should be sanctioned and upheld by every good citizen 
residing along this grand old stream. As the writer truly 
states, it is about the only stream in the State whose 
waters are limpid and pure, and it should remain so 
forever. It is the angler's paradise, and along its grassy 
banks in youthful days we have waited and watched 
with eager expectancy for a "nibble" from a "sunny" or 
"sucker," and in more matttre years we still love to visit 
its verdant banks and angle for that gamiest of all the 
piscatorial tribe, the black bass. Let no one raise a hand 
toward its pollution in any way whatever, and the strong 
arm of the law should be used to protect it from con- 
tamination from any source whatever. — Piedmont Inde- 
pendent. 
Mmml 
Fixtures* 
BENCH SHOWS. 
March 6-9.— Pittsburg, Pa.— Duquesne Kennel Club's annual 
bench show. F. S. Stedman, Sec'y. 
March 13-16.— Chicago. — Mascoutah Kennel Club's eleventh an- 
nual show. John L~ Lincoln, Sec'y. 
The Vindication of the Foxhounds* 
"Well, your hounds were running in my woods, and I 
found the dead sheep in the edge an hour after." 
So said our friend the farmer, and though still uncon- 
vinced, we settled, and entered it up, "Kennel account, 
$3.50." The hounds had never been seen to notice sheep 
in the least. Several times they had followed a fox 
through a flock, which scattered and ran a short distance 
and then stood watching the dogs out of sight. It was. 
perhaps, unwise to admit responsibility, but we preferred 
propitiation to having our dogs shot indiscriminately. 
^ * ^ * 
The first snow came unexpectedly in November, and 
three fox men and two hounds were out early in the 
morning. A fox was started opposite the gun club 
grounds and made for a high hill a mile or so away, and 
circled about its wooded top. Just before reaching their 
runways the hunters came on a dog track and, as it led 
their way, followed it. A short distance further, as they 
were about to separate, they came upon a freshly killed 
sheep. Their feelings can be appreciated, only by fox 
hunters in a sheep country. That it was the work of one 
of their own dogs they had not a doubt, and with hea"\^' 
hearts the}"- took up the trail with the determination to 
shoot on sight. 
Ten minutes later they surprised a collie in the very 
act of pulling down a'lamb. The dog started, and four 
long shots resulted in slightly wounding him ; but the 
chase was taken up with lighter he_arts and a grimmer 
determination to deal justice. The fox and hounds were 
left to enjoy the day as best they might. 
From 9 A. M. to 5 P. M. that collie dog. led the three 
fox hunters and a small army of farmers, recruited along 
the route. He was seen several times and several long 
shots were taken. No one recognized him. At last he 
was seen to enter a barnyard, and in the watering shed 
he was cornered and dispatched. The owner was after- 
ward located nearly five miles from the scene of the 
dog's depredations. 
The hounds are vindicated! Fox hunters get the glad 
hand and the open oat bin wherever they choose to put up. 
Jos. 
Sherbrookb, Quebec. 
Black Bess. 
That grand little bitch. Black Bess, the property of A. 
E. Perry, of St. Paul, has met the fate that seems to over- 
come a majority of our best dogs — a death by poison. 
Black Bess was one of the best dogs that I ever had 
the pleasure of shooting over. She was very active, 
staunch and possessed of one of the. best of dispositions. 
