270 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tOcT. s, rpoi. 
above. It was, therefore, not aii infectious disease, and 
did not spread from lot to lot. 
It was further observed with i-eference to this disease 
that the occasion of its first appearance was coincident 
with a great reduction in the proportion of lake water in 
the hatchery supp!}^ A coffer dam had been constructed 
at the outlet of Craig Pond (or lake) whicii in the spring 
shut off the lake water and compelled us to use a much 
larger proportion of spring water. A, second attack in 
1892 was coincident with a very low stage of Craig Pond 
and brook, caused by a scanty fall of rain and neglect of 
storage measures. It therefore seemed reasonable to 
turn our suspicions in the direction of the spring water. 
Measures were taken to insure a fuller supply of lake 
water dtiring the stage following and immediately pre- 
ceding hatching, and this has been attended with favor- 
able results. 
I earnestly recommend all fishculturist.s to keep com- 
plete records, even to. the verge of fus.siness, so com- 
plete and exact that they can be intelligently referred to 
after the lapse of m.any years. Besides "many other uses, 
they may serve to solve some of the puzzling problem.s 
connected with the diseases of fishes. 
Fish and Game in Western Maine. 
CoKOTSH, Me., Sept. 2i.~Editor Forest and Stream: 
Now that the time has arrived for replacing the rod with 
the gun or rifle, I am' reminded that possibly a brief re- 
view of the fishing season in this section mav be of in- 
terest to some of your readers, especially as I partly 
promised in an earlier number to report the effects upon 
the trout fishing of the severe drought of a year ago. At 
that tmie nearly all our brooks, even the larger ones, went 
partially dry, some of them for a distance of more than 
half their length, and it was naturally inferred that very 
poor trout fishing must follow. Such, however. I am 
happy to .state, was not the case, as these same streams 
apparently yielded about their usual quota of trout, or 
would have but for the frequent rains, which kept the 
brooks at too high a pitch for good fishing most part of 
the season. When the streams can hold up against such 
natural drawbacks, in addition to the terrible annual drains 
of the rod, it would seem to indicate that with due respect 
for the law, and a little judicious stocking, there is still 
a long life for trout fishing, even in overcrowded New 
England. 
Of course, to give anything like a detailed account of 
the numerous strings of trout taken would be impossible 
Dr. W. S. Weeks and Ira Garland, clothier, doubtless 
excel m pomt of numbers, principallv because thev have 
done most fishing, ahhough this implies no lack of .skill 
on then- part, as men better posted on the fine points of 
this sport It would be hard to find. But to Mr Wm G 
Ayer undoubtedly belongs the honor of ^'high line" for a 
single catch, he taking twenty-one beauties in a few hours 
on Little River, ranging between 9 and 14 inches the 
most of them creeping well up toward the latter fi^ire 
1 he writer, as well as many others, had the pleasure of 
looking at these, and was so excited thereiiy that he dug 
worms by lamplight that evening, rose at daybreak and 
accompanied Wm. to the same stream— and didn't get a 
bite in a whole forenoon. 
Bass fishing has also been good, both in the rivers and 
the ponds. Mr I. N. Richardson, proprietor of the Park 
Hotel, havmg been m poor health, has been one of tlie 
most ardent followers of this sport, and has taken many 
fish. Another of our busiuess men who take great pleas- 
use m pond fishmg IS Mr. Erskine L. Watson, who keeps 
a good boat and plenty of the best tackle, and annually 
]and,s many fine salmon and "red-spot" trout. Last week 
he showed the writer an 8-pound salmon, taken from a 
near-by pond. 
_ But naturally every sportsman's interest is now center- 
ing m hunting, and no one who makes any pretensions of 
being a hunter is satisfied with knocking over partridees 
or squirrels, but is firmly resolved on baggin-^ a deer Tt 
is surprising the number of rifles that have been bou-ht- 
high class finely sighted arms-since the coming intS our 
calibers, hard and soft, nose bullets, smokeless powders 
etc., fairly fills he air. Cumberland county, which has 
been under absolute protection for several years is to be 
open for shootmg during October, much to the delio-ht 
of our hunters, as deer are known to be plenty in tha 
county. And m conclusion, I may say. to such of mv 
readers as . can be relied on "never to tell," tha" ome 
getting heir aspirations raised even above deer hunting as 
the track of a big bull moose was discovered within fou? 
miles of this- village not two weeks ago, the old fellow 
apparently making for the wild region about Sebago Lake. 
. — _____ Templar. 
An Ohio Sportsman's Experience. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
An old fishing and hunting companion in northern 
Ohio, m a letter, gives some of his experiences of las 
wllZZJfT-r ^-^"^^ with ^^rrasfsium e 
TrfJ ^ T ^ ^ ^ few times after bass 
Lr anart^°Used"'h.'> ^^^^T^' ^ut the times were too 
]^,J^ hu ^I-^^ T^'^' not cast a fly all summer 
neur vTY' ^o our old Stamping gi^nni 
near Phalanx I arranged a couple of times to take a 
Sur t^.'. n '"'^ mv folding boat, but something wmdcl 
occur that prevented my goino- "-juiu 
las^fi'lf bi^hS -7' g'"°"«e ^'^d quail 
iast tall, but had the misfortune to lose mv do^^ bv the 
carelessness, of a friend who was hunting with me ^ Mv 
dog had pom ed a quail about 40 feet ahead of F who 
flushed the bird and let both barrels go and killed the 
dog dead m his tracks. It was the mosrcai-e e's and 
retirdthenX'fi?-:?" ""--'^ inexcutble" ! 
Hie DiTd when he fired was 10 feet up in the air Th*. 
IrL^ '^^'"^^^ Champipn Croxtetil T raSd 
him from a pup and he was thoroughly broken He did 
Srf hif Sh' Tf. °^ ^ -"P"^ of dats 
ueioie nib clcath I ^vas out with him, and had scattererl 
a .covey of quail and was picking up sing rbiSs h 
pointed one, which I flushed and brou^ dlwn the'd ' 
was retnevmg him, and on his way back he pointed an 
other bird, .vith the on^. in his mo^th; I watSed him a 
few moments, and it wo\rld seem that he got tired of ho d 
3l,g the retnf^yed b,rc| ^d down, fhad whS^ 
the quail, and, as the dog let go, it started and walked 
away. It went about 6 feet, when the dog started and got 
it. and went back and took his point. If that was not 
using reasoning faculties, what was it? I have now an- 
other promising pup, but never expect to have another 
(iog as good as the one that was killed. 
"In regard to the trout, U. told me the same story 
about tlie one he saw caught and had put back by the 
darkey, but I always thought it rather 'fishy,' as I have 
fi.^hed up there considerabl}-, and never saw a trout, but 
still it may be so, as there was a large one of 3 pounds 
caught last fall up near the bridge over the creek at 
Allyn's, near H. station. Fred Allyn was catching min- 
liows for a bass trip, and dropping his bait in an eddy this 
fellow took it. Fred had quite an exciting time, but suc- 
ceeded in landing him. He sent me the head, which I was 
going to forward to you. but it was somewhat decom- 
jxjsed, so I did not. It w-as no doubt one of the German 
or brown trout. We were very much elated to know for 
certain that one had been taken, for if there was one there 
must be more. It was late in the season, and I did not 
go up. but shall try them when the season next opens and 
report. If I remember correctly, it was yotyself and 
Collins that planted the trout in that stream in 1890. 
There must certainly be some in the other branch in the 
l^dall locality, for it always seemed to me it was the best 
water — more shade and fully as many springs. I shall 
try up there also. I hope to see you up here again when 
the season is open, and we will once more 'take a fall' out 
of the bronze backs. Fr-\nk.^-' 
The foregoing extract, was of especial interest to me, 
and I trust will prove interesting reading to many of the 
Forest and Stre.\m fraternity. E. S. Whitaker. 
Carthagb, O, 
Salmon Feeding in Fresh Water. 
It is not often that a Blue Book attracts s])ecial at- 
tention, but that published by the Fishery Board of Scot- 
land relative to the feeding habits of salmon in fresh 
v.ater. in the year 1898, was certainly one of tlic excep- 
tions which prove the rule. A most elaborate examina- 
tion some time after death of a comparatively small 
number of salmon taken from rivers had been made by 
certain members of the Scotch Cijllege of Physician,s, 
and so far as salmon fishers who ha\'e been closely fol- 
lowing this subject are concerned it is perhaps hardly 
necessary to say now that th© conclusion arrived at was 
that salmon could not feed in fresh water because their 
digestive organs were so absolutely out of order that 
the assimilation of food was impossible. The subject, 
which had for j'ears been a matter of discussion among 
salmon fishers, was eagerly taken up by many who an- 
nounced that at last this vexed question had been 
solved. Those writers on angling matters who had been 
of the opinion that salmon did not feed in fresh water 
joyfully accepted the conclusion of Dr. Noel Paton and 
his conlieres. Avhile those who had taken the opposite 
view, had their opinion shaken by the publication of the 
Bine Book. Looking at the question from a judicial 
rather than from a scientific standpoint, it seemed to 
me at the time that, while the observations of those who 
had been inquiring into the subject were no doubt ac- 
curate, the conclusions arrived at were not warranted 
by the amount of evidence adduced. I ventured to 
say as much in an article in the Field on the subject, 
but discussion was avoided by those responsible for the 
repOT-t. on the strange plea that the subject was one only 
suitable for consideration in a scientific publication. 
Fortuiiately. in the interests of everybody concerned. 
Dr. Kingston Barton made .similar experiments to those 
carried out at Edinburg, and very quicklj- discovered, as 
was reported in the Field at the time, that the alleged 
peculiar condition of the salmon's stomach which had 
been observed, was, at any rate, in a large number of 
cases, owing to the fish having been examined a consid- 
erable period after death. In other words, the alleged 
"desquamative catarrh" was due to post-mortem changes, 
and was also to be found in the .stomachs of various sea 
fish examined some hours after death. Mr. Brown made 
similar observations. 
In the recently issued Blue Book of the Scotch Fishery 
Board Dr. Lovell Gulland gives the results of some fur- 
ther investigations into the subject which were obviously 
necessitated by the communications of Dr. Kingston 
Barton and Mr. Brown. He mentions at the commence- 
ment of his paper that when the earlier research was 
begun there was no idea what would be found, and no 
arrangement had been made or at that time could be 
made for having the viscera "placed in a preservative 
at the water side. The salmon more recently examined 
by Dr. Lovell Gulland number only seven, three having 
been taken from Newtonhille, five miles from the moutli. 
of the Dee, and four from the upper reaches of the 
Tay. It is a pity, in view of the importance of the sub- 
ject, that Dr. Lovell Gidland has not carried' his e.xperi- 
nieiits further, but he has come to the conclusion from 
an examination of the data recently obtained, and from 
the work of Dr. Kingston Barton (which he has verified) 
and Mr. Brown, that, to use his own language, "the 
desquamative catarrh formerly described is certainh' not 
constant in river fish." He is not prepared, however, to 
admit that it is entirely in the nature of a post-mortem 
change, on the grounds that it appears to occur with 
considerable capriciousness. coming on rapidly in some 
fish, and onlj' after many hours in others, without any 
traceable relation to the state of the weather or other 
conditions. It is more prone to occur in river fish, and 
he thinks it may be associated with a lessened power of 
resistance from diminished functional activity. 
The point is one on which I think anglers can throw 
some light, for most of us have observed occasionally 
how certain fish will keep good much longer than others. 
For instance, a trout caught out of a sewage-polluted 
stream goes bad very quickly, or, to use the language 
of the report, the post-mortem change comes on rapidlj-. 
On the other hand, a healthy salmon, fresh from the sea, 
will keep good for a considerable time. It is ca.sy to 
understand that the same fi.sh, after 'it has lost its con- 
dition in fresh water, will not keep so long. The.re can 
hardly be a doubt, as I ventured to suggest once before, 
that the peculiar condition of the' salmon's -stomach; 
which has given rise to so much speculation, is largely 
owipf? to the- fish beiugf unable to get tinv consi(it»vi>,bk" 
quantity of food in fresh water, while, in addition, 
changes will occur more quickly in the stomach of a 
fish long resident in fresh water after it has been killed 
than in one stronger and healthier just up from the sea. 
In the dozen pages of formal report to Lord Balfour 
of Burleigh, the "Secretary for Scotland, placed in the 
commencement of the Blue Book and signed by the 
chairman and other members of the board, I)r. Gulland's 
work is thus summarized: 
"Entire desquamation of the mucous membrane of the 
digestive tract is found in organs preserved twenty-four 
tc forty-eight hours after the death of the fish," but they 
add that "desquamation may also be found in the stom- 
ach or intestines of salmon preserved within fifteen 
minutes of the capture of the fish." This way of putting 
it is certainly misleading, and it would only have been 
right to say that a little desquamation was found in one 
clean fi.sh, but that in the case of two others, in which 
a small amount of desquamation was found (in the 
stomach of one and the intestines, only of the other), 
the specimens were suffering from salmon disease, which 
may have affected them in various ways. In the second 
fish not diseased there was no desquamation. The re- 
port continues: "It is noticeable, however, that the 
entire digestive tract may be free from the change re- 
ferred to. and that, therefore, there are fi.sh in the upper 
waters of our rivers, which, although non-feeders in the 
])roper sense of the term, are nevertheless capable of ab- 
sorbing nourishment." It is difiicult to imagine a more 
illogical statement than this. When the former Blue 
Book was published "feeding" was defined as not 
merely the taking of food into the mouth or stomach, 
but the assimilation of food. Now it is admitted that 
there are salmon in the upper waters of our rivers which 
are capable of absorbing, which I take to be the same 
word as assimilating, nourishment, and the extraordinary 
remark is made that the fish are non-feeders in the 
proper sense of the term. As a matter of fact, the theory 
of salmon not feeding in fresh water, as set out in the 
Blue Book, was based mainly on the fact that salmon 
could not absorb nourishment when in fresh water, owing 
To the condition of their stomachs, and now it is found 
that, at any rate, a certain number of salmon can absorb 
nourishment, the theory is evidently without substantial 
foundation. It would have been wiser to have admitted 
the mistake than to place obstacles in the pursuit of 
knowledge by a vague and contradictory statement. Tt 
is very significant that nothing in this report is said as 
to grilse. In the former Blue Book the particulars of 
the examination of grilse were excluded, and I have no 
doubt whatever that when these particulars come to be 
published, if ever, we shall find that they point to grilse 
feeding in fresh water. No explanation, too, is given 
of the 1898 Blue Book theory that kelts become well 
raended by absorbing, unshed ova. It is difficult to im- 
agine a more thoughtless statement on the part' of scien- 
tific men, for the fact that male kelts have no unshed 
ova to absorb and yet become well mended was entirely 
overlooked. John Bickerbyke. 
Hot Stuff. 
H.vvH you ever handed your flask to your guide in a 
spirit of companionship and, after he has sampled your 
ten-year-old whisky, had him hand the flask back to yott 
with a sort of unrequited air that has sort of kept you 
guessing until, later on during the trip, you hear him 
express h'mself in favor of whisky that you can feel all 
the way down? 
When a boy I made my first trip in the Maine woods, 
and my father, selecting from his cellar some whisky that 
had been there for years, filled a flask and read me a les- 
son on its medicinal value if one came into camp wet and 
chilled through. 
I remember giving some of that smooth old whisky to 
my gu'de and having him "josh" me because my father 
had wate:red it, he claimed, before" he would let me 
have it. He intimated that there was no life to it, and it 
felt just like water going down. He missed the fusel oil — 
and craved for it. 
.Subsequently I visited Maine again, and as there was 
quite a party of us, I volunteered to supply the whisky 
and brandy, knowing that I could, out of my father's 
cellar, get reliable stuff. 
In due course we were off. At the end of the railroad 
journey a long trip by stage followed. It was in Sep- 
tember, the night was cool, almost cold, and as the 
horses pulled up on the crest of a hill we jumped out to 
improve our circulation. From my grip I took my flask, 
and in consideration of the arduous work the driver had 
had with the horse, handed him the flask. I can see him 
in the moonlight with his head thrown back and can 
hear the guggle, guggle of the brandy as it flowed down 
his throat. Removing the flask frOm his mouth he gave 
three or four expressive snorts of approval and with the 
tears running down his cheeks he expressed himself in 
the highest words of appreciation for the contents of 
that flask. He said it was the fir.st real fair and square 
liquor he had had for months. It just simply made itself 
felt all the way down, and was his idea of what good 
liquor should be. 
His coughing and tears followed by his commendation 
made me suspicious, and replacing the bottle I took out 
the other of whisky and removed our chilled condition. 
I quietly investigated in a homoeopathic way the con- 
tents of that brandy flask and left it severely alone, 
T found when I returned home that the bottle from 
which I had poured the brandy was on the lower or bot- 
tom layer in the case. I examined the metal cap of the 
ne.xt bottle and saw it had been tampered with. The other 
remaining bottles in the case were in perfect condition. I 
looked at the outside bottom of the case and found that 
at some time in transit or in the warehouse of the dealer 
the bottom had been carefully taken off and replaced, and 
as the brandy, with the exception of these two bottles, had 
been of a standard quality, .it .was evident that the con- 
tents of the two bottles had been jemoyed. some cheaper 
-.substitute filled in and the bottles ;replaced. ' It was cer- 
tainly red-hot stuff, and met the- apprdvai of our stage 
driver, who on our return- trip suggested that; if I did 
not mind, he would like a dririk out. bl- thie same bottle 
that he h.-^d used coming uf): •And:he got it. .. . " ■ 
