408 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 24, 1902. 
1 
cold, proved to be a broad, flat stream, with sand or 
gravel bottom and a width abundantly great to allow for 
casting any length of line one cares to use. I began to 
peck away at the banks in the deep holes and along the 
logs, after the fashion customarily useful on most streams. 
I lost considerable time in this way, and had basketed only 
one fish of legal length — that is to say, over eight inches — 
when Mr. Mershon passed below- me. I heard him call 
out that he had just taken a trout "a foot long," and 
then he went around the next bend. Trying the same 
hole where he caught his good trout, I raised a beautiful 
double and landed them both after a sharp fight, both 
being ten-inch trout or better. This made me feel some 
cocky, and when Mr. Mershon asked me how many fish 
I had I told him I had three beauties. "1 have nine," said 
he, "and now I'll show you how to get them." 
We both had good rods and could reach them at any 
distance, from twenty feet up to a quarter of a mile. So 
we stood together in the shallow water at the edge of the 
stream, casting almost directly across, not in the deep 
holes or eddies, but at the edges of the swift water which 
broke over the stones. The trout were evidently feeding 
out in the broad, and not hiding. We could see them 
now and again breaking. It needed very few minutes to 
prove the efficacy of the method which Mr. Mershon 
showed me. After that I did not fish the deep water, but 
the shallow water. Had I been alone I should have prob- 
ably stuck to the deeper holes and not have done so well, 
for I did not think the fish would be feeding so extensively 
in the shallow, water so early in the season. Having solved 
the problem for this particular stream for that particular 
day at least, I moved on down merrily, and now and then 
put a lusty trout in my game sack. 
It was perl&ps about 12 o'clock when my friend and I 
rounded up together at one of the most beautiful points 
on this beautiful stream. We could see trout rising in 
numbers ahead of us, and we started in to do some busi- 
ness with them, for by this time the hatch of fly was well 
in progress, and we could see that the fish were going on 
the feed in no uncertain fashion. To make it short, we 
fished that same bend over and over again three times, 
taking a couple of trout each time we went through. Then 
we sat down, and just looked at the sky and the flowers 
and the tree and the trout, and we were good and glad 
that we were both alive and right there at that identical 
spot. It was a very, very happy time, and I am sure 
that for my part I shall never forget it, no matter what 
may be my fortune later in the sporting line. 
We worked on down the stream to what is known as 
the Four-Mile Dam, and there met Mr. Davis, who re- 
ported excellent success on his own part, and a perfectly 
lovely day. We reached the car in ample time for supper, 
and so ended a very enjoyable experience for the day. It 
should be remembered that the trout on this stream come 
under the eight-inch limit. During the day I presume 
each rod of us took forty or fifty fish, the undersized ones, 
of course, being returned to the water, so it may be seen 
that the sport was of no mediocre character. No one tried 
to make a very big killing, but I presume every member 
of the party was entirely satisfied. 
A Klondike Camp. 
On the next day we started for our little camping trip 
down the river, Mr. Mershon, Mr. Morley, Mr. Peter and 
myself. We had a wagonload of camp outfit, including a 
lot of new things, it being the fashion of the Saginaw 
Crowd to buy everything which is offered in the sporting 
line, and give it a thorough try out as to its practical 
and desirable features. 
This day the weather went back on us. It rained in 
the morning, and although the sky cleared later, a tre- 
mendous wind came up, a side partner no doubt of the big 
blizzard which struck Michigan upper peninsula the next 
day. Our team took us down country about five miles, 
when Mr. Peter and I were put off the wagon and in- 
structed to go over to the river and fish down stream 
until we struck the camp, four miles below, which the 
others were to put up. My companion and I were a little 
disheartened when we got a look at the water. It was 
running very milky and a bit high. We had no idea we 
would get much fishing, but determined to "do our pos- 
sible," as they say in French, in spite of the fact that the 
wind was blowing in more directions than it has since that 
memorable day when "the scow bus' hup on Lac St. 
Clair." Remembering Mr. Mershon's instructions of the 
day previous, I showed Mr. Peter how we had conducted 
ourselves. Now, however, the trout seemed not to have 
taken to the shallows, but were hunting the deep water. 
We found that the most effective method was for us to 
cast diagonally across the stream in the deep runs, and 
then allow the line to stretch out, the fly being then usu- 
ally well below the water. The trout nearly always took 
the fly not when it struck, but after it had completed its 
arc down stream. It was not like the sport of the day 
previous, when they snapped at the fly the instant it 
struck tbe water, but we conceived it was better to catch 
trout in this way than not to catch trout at all, so we fared 
on down stream, a little bit blue about the nose and a 
little bit cold about the toes, Mr. Peter caught eight good 
ones, and, if I remember, I had eleven when we struck 
the camp. 
The camp itself was pitched on a high bank, near to a 
famous certain spring which gushes out half-way up the 
slope. So far from there being any visible place of 
abode, however, George Morley showed us our household 
goods and effects piled up in a heap on the ground, with a 
big tarpaulin stretched over them. "That tent would not 
last a minute in this gale," said he, "so we didn't try to 
put it up. We will just have to sleep under the tarpaulin 
to-night, and let it go at that." 
The wind was really frightful and the temperature went 
low enough that night to freeze an inch ice in the wjiter 
pail. Of course this did not disconcert us in the least, 
and we readily made ourselves comfortable under the 
circumstances. There was a camping table now put in 
place; a folding camp closet, offering shelves for dishes, 
etc.; a folding camp cook stove, the best I ever saw, al- 
ready busily engaged in baking potatoes; a lot of folding 
sleeping bags with air mattresses under them, and a beau- 
tiful collection of aluminum dishes, which reminded one 
of taking a number of rabbits and ninety-four yards of 
flowers out of a silk hat, As to the fire, we had to make 
it the best we could, without any back log, but fully ex- 
posed to the wind and with no artificial adjuncts. Mr. 
Mershon was the chief cook, and I imagine he never pre- 
pared a meal under harder circumstances, nor did any 
one ever eat a better meal, in spite of all. He is a shore 
good cook, and could sign with any cow outfit quick. We 
built a wind break out of a pine tree and a piece of can- 
vas, squatted down in front of the fire in the gale of 
wind, and ate our supper comfortably, bidding defiance to 
the elements. Then we took off our waders, dried out in 
front of the fire, and presently hustled into the sleeping 
Lags, on the ground under the tarpaulin. I never slept 
better in my life, and this was the verdict of all the others. 
In spite of all the time spent in putting up the camp, Mr. 
Mershon and Mr. Morley did not overlook trout fishing. 
Mi'. Mershon had fourteen beautiful trout when we struck 
.camp, and Mr. Morley something like a dozen. They 
explained to me that the fish in this part of the stream run 
very much larger than they did further up toward where 
we had fished the first day. Of course we could not give 
the water any fair" trial under such conditions, but the 
trout which we caught were beauties, running up close to 
a pound in some cases and with very many of a half-pound 
in weight. In this swift heavy water it was surely good 
sport to take them. 
This accounted for Wednesday and Thursday. My 
train for the south and home left at 12:45. Our camp 
was broken by 9 o'clock, at which time the wagon came 
down from the car to see how we were getting along. We 
piled the camp duffle aboard, since the driver came down 
alone and reported that the other gentlemen found it too 
cold for camping out. Mr. Morley and Mr. Mershon and 
Mr. Peter were to fish the stream while the wagon took 
me back with the duffle. The driver of the wagon started 
on ahead, saying that I could easily catch up with him. 
Perhaps I might have done so had it not been for the 
trailing arbutus which I found by the Avayside. As it was, 
the arbutus and the wintergreen berries led me astray. 
One of the most vivid pictures which I saw on the trip 
was that of a bright red bunch of these berries showing 
up in vivid contrast against the blackened end of a charred 
log. Who could hurry on after the wagon, when such 
things as these were all about? I preferred to walk all 
the way in, and did so, getting into the car at about half- 
past eleven. Then it was my miserable fortune, after leav- 
ing my good friends ten miles below just jointing up their 
rods and taking to the water, to see all the rest of the 
party, just sallying forth to go upon the stream when I 
struck the car. And so I said good-by to all these pleasant 
gentlemen. The last thing I saw as my train pulled out 
was the big frame of Mr. Humphrey sitting on the bank, 
his crutch beside him, his crippled leg carefully adjusted 
and his fly-rod working automatically. 
"Mr. Humphrey saw a big one off there yesterday," said 
Harry. I truly hope he caught him, and I truly hope that 
his bad ankle may be made good again. So plucky a 
man ought not to be thus handicapped, and the Saginaw 
Crowd can ill spare him when the hunting begins next 
fall. 
The catch reported by the members of the party who did 
not join in the camping trip was : Mr. Davis, 25 ; Mr. 
Stark, 8; Mr. Humphrey, 7; Major Lyon, 23; Mr. Brown, 
26. The lumbermen were flooding the stream, and strange 
to say, it was when the water was highest that Major 
Lyon caught nearly all his fish. They struck on all at 
once, and rose splendidly. 
May 13, — Mr. Mershon tells the rest of the story of the 
Saginaw Crowd's trip for trout in the following letter, 
written after his return home. It seems that the writer 
had the cream of it after all, for the blizzard which struck 
in north of here caught the hoys for fair in the 'Sable 
country: 
"When you waved 'good-bye' last Friday morning," 
says he, "I was just climbing down the bank to try a cast 
under the logs where you said the big fellow was. I did 
so, but he did not come; in fact, I tried casting for quite 
a while before I got a fish. The wind was mighty cold, 
and it was hard work to put a fly in the wafer. I shivered 
and shook, and thought what a fool a fellow was to try 
casting for trout in the dead of winter, but I occasionally 
fooled one from some nook or corner, and by the time 
I reached our camping spot at 'Father's Barn' I was 
sorely tempted to go ashore and take a piece of that 
rhubarb pie that John has sent up for us in the morn- 
ing. I kept on down stream; in a grove of cedars below 
our camp half a. mile, a shingle was nailed up: 'Camp 
Carrow, 1891.' I think we couid have put up a tent there. 
It was not sheltered a great deal, but there were a few 
trees around it that would have done to have guyed to. 
I kept on trying some of the choice spots, inwardly re- 
marking that 'if there was not a trout there, there was not 
one in the river,' and that T had never passed this spot 
that I did not take a good fellow;' but it was no. go. I 
occasionally did strike a pool that was productive and 
yielded a few trout. 
"The river gets much deeper, as you know, down 
stream, and by half past one I had overtaken Peters and 
George, who had started out to fish down from the camp 
in the morning. They were delighted, for George had 
taken two good sized rainbow trout in swift water that 
went over a clay bottom into a gravelly pool beneath. 
The. larger one of the two weighed about 1^2 pounds. 
"We were well satisfied with our catch, considering the 
day, for all of us had some fish, and when put together 
they pretty nearly filled one creel. 
"The next morning when we awoke at the car it was 
snowing, and it kept it up until noon. Most of the 
party determined to fish below, and only got seven or 
eight fish apiece. George and I went above; we drove 
about five or six miles and had the team meet us iust at 
night. The flood started about one o'clock and until 
five w r e did not fish, but after five the fish took the fly well. 
The snow had stopped, the wind had let up a little, and it 
had warmed -up some, but not much. George had forgot- 
ten his creel so we fished side by side, so as to use the 
one basket I carried. The limit being eight inches meant 
a good many trout to throw back, for they were smaller 
up stream than down below. Yet when we got to the car 
and counted, we found we had just 49 trout, not one of 
them being a single fraction less than eight inches, and 
we voted we had a mighty good time," 
E, Hough. 
Haswo»» Btra^piiro, Chicago, XJ^ 
A New Species of Shad from the 
Ohio River/' 
BY BARTON WARREN EVERMANN, PH.D. 
Ichthyologist of the United States Fish Commission. 
From time to time there have come to the U. S. Fish 
Commission reports of the capture of shad in the Mis- 
sissippi Basin. When attempts were made to verify these 
reports, either no reliable data could be secured or the 
fish thought to be a shad proved to be some other species. 
For example, the "shad" from the Atchafalaya River, in 
Louisiana, was shown by the present writer in 1897 to be 
an undescribeel species and genus of the hickory shad 
family (Dorosomidce) which was named Signalosa atchck 
falayce. This is a small fish, not exceeding a few inches 
in lengthy which is used as a bait by the catfish fishermen 
of that river. 
As long ago as 1872 Professor Baird called attention to 
the occurrence of shad in the Ouachita River, in Arkan- 
sas, and Dr. Goldsmith, of Vermont, stated that he had 
several years previously taken shad at the Falls of the 
Ohio. 
The "shad" now and then reported from the Ouachita, 
White and St. Francis rivers and other waters in Arkan- 
sas proved, in some cases at least, to be the hickory shad, 
Dorosoma cepedianum. Not many of the reports from 
this region, however, have been investigated. A few 
years ago the toothed herring or mooneye (Hiodon 
alosoides) became unusually, common in the Wabash, 
and, coming as it did, soon after a plant of Potomac shad 
had been made in the Wabash by the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission upon the recommendation of the late Col. Richard 
W. Thompson, local fishermen were in the habit of re- 
ferring to it as the "Dick Thompson shad." 
A newspaper item from Montgomery, W. Va., dated 
May 20, 1896., says : 
The fishermen hereabouts are having great sport. Large schools 
of shad, put in Elk River by the Government six years ago, are 
stranded at Lock No. 2, and are being scooped out by the hun- 
dreds with dip nets. One man took 300 pounds in two hours. 
Upon seeing this item the Commission addressed a 
letter of inquiry to the postmaster at Montgomery, to 
which Mr. W. M. Dent replied June 5 : 
I have sent several of our local fishermen to catch some speci- 
mens [of the shad], but I am sorry to say that they are unable 
to catch them at the present time. A few weeks ago, when the 
river was flush, quite a number of fish were seen below the dam 
near this place, and some of them were caught by what we call 
grab-hooking, which is to tie a number of hooks to a line and 
drag it through- the water, but since the river has fallen, I am in- 
formed that most of the fish have disappeared. 
I had a talk to-day with the man in charge of the Government 
lock, and he promised to try to catch some of the fish when there 
is a rise in the river again. In case he succeeds I will take pleas- 
ure in sending them to you. 
Mr. Dent was not able to secure any specimens, and 
nothing further was heard regarding the occurernce of 
shad in the Kanawha that year. On May 22, 1897, a let- 
ter was received by the Fish Commission from Mr. James 
Sowders, wholesale dealer in fresh fish and oysters, Louis- 
ville, Ky., in which he says : 
I forward you four small shad. I get them as large as 4 or 
5 pounds each. They are not hickory shad, but are the same fish 
taken in the rivers along the Atlantic Coast. I have been getting 
these fish for the past twenty years or more, but only a few, as we 
have never fished for them in the right way. I put in the long 
seines this season, and took lots of them. I expect to do much 
better next season, as I expect to make a success of gill-netting 
them. We have never fished gill nets of any kind in these waters. 
I know that there are just millions of these fish in this river, for 
I see them out in the rapids going up the river to spawn. I 
have fishermen all along the Ohio, and have several crews fishing 
below Memphis on the Mississippi River in the early spring, and 
they get a catch of shad there a month before we do here, and 
my men at Troy (about 130 miles below Louisville) get them 
before we do here. 1 am positive that they are the same fish 
caught in the Atlantic Coast rivers. These shad come from the 
Gulf of Mexico and spawn in the Monongahela River. 
An examination of the four shad sent to the Commis- 
sion by Mr. Sowders showed that they differed from the 
common shad, as well as from the Alabama shad, in some 
important particulars, and it was determined to take the 
first opportunity to visit Louisville and make an investiga- 
tion as to the character and extent of the fishery. Ac- 
cordingly, on May 11 of the following year, when Mr. 
Sowders sent on six additional specimens, and wrote that 
the shad were running in considerable numbers, it was 
arranged that I should visit Louisville at once. 
On the way out from Washington I stopped one day at 
Montgomery, W. Va., to make inquiries regarding the 
occurrence of shad in the Kanawha. 
Arriving at Louisville on May 15, I spent the next four 
days making investigations there. The shad were then 
running in some numbers, and many specimens were ex- 
amined. 
It at once became evident that the Ohio shad was an 
undescribed species. Its publication, however, has been 
delayed in the hope that an opportunity might soon offer 
to trace the migration of the fish up the river from the 
Gulf. Other duties have not permitted such an investiga- 
tion to be undertaken, and it now seems undesirable to 
delay longer the report upon the inquiries already made. 
The following is the technical description of this new 
species of shad: 
Alosa ohiensis Evermann. Ohio Shad. 
Type No. 50469, TJ. S. N. M., a female example IS inches long 
and weighing 3 pounds, taken by Mr. James Sowders, May 9, 
1898, at the Falls of the Ohio. 
Description of the Type.— Head, 4.5; depth, 3.6; eye, 5.5; 
snout, 4; maxillary, 2.1; mandible, 1.87; D., 18; A., 18; gillrakers, 
49 + 26 = 75 on right side; 47 + 27 = 74 on left. 
Hody very long, slender and much compressed; dorsal and 
ventral outlines very gently and evenly arched; head rather long, 
conic; caudal peduncle very long, the distance from base of 
caudal to dorsal fin equaling distance from that point to pre- 
opercle; mouth, large; maxillary broad, reaching posterior border 
of eye; lower jaw slightly projecting and fitting into a small notch 
in tip of upper jaw; cheek and opercles strongly striate; scales 
large and deciduous; fins moderate; gillrakers moderate in number, 
the longest about equal to snout in length. 
The ten cotypes, which consist of two males and eight 
females, exhibit no important differences, and the thirty- 
eight examples examined at Louisville May 16 to 19 
showed no variations of value. Indeed, the characters 
of this species seem unusually stable, as may be seen from 
an examination of the accompanying table. 
The number of gillrakers varies from 66 to 75, only 
• From advance sheets of an article by Dr. Evermann in the 
current Jteport of the U. S. Fisfc Commission, pp. 307-315, 
