12 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 3, 1903* 
jump into the woods. I can't forget it.' Personally 
I should hate to be haunted by such a recollection." ' 
The officers of the St. Maurice Fish and Game Club 
are as follows: President, Dr. W. H. Drummond; First 
Vice-President, C. R. G. Johnson; Second Vice-Presi- 
dent, Charles S. Haight; Secretary-Treasurer, S. H. 
Smyth. The directors are W. H. Parker, Dr. F. A. L. 
Lockhart, H. M. Brigham, Waldo K. Chase, Frank 
Presbrey and William Herrick. 
My Record Bass. 
The sun was sinking into a labyrinth of elongated, 
milky clouds in the west, after bathing old earth all 
day m a hazy light and warmth that made it seem an 
effort for the sober looking frog to utter his monoton- 
ous croak and the tree toad his prolonged drone. 
We stood beneath majestic pines, upon the great 
brown carpet of their needles, woven by Nature's mas- 
ter hand, the softness and beauty of which cannot be 
equalled even in the finest tapestry. At our feet lay 
that exquisite sheet of water. Lake Nagog; its placid 
surface stretching away a mile or more like a huge 
mirror, reflecting tree, rock ana vine, accentuating in 
the reflection the grandeur which towered above. 
It was due to the black bass that we stood at the 
edge of beautiful Nagog, drinking' in the grandeur of 
the scene as the sun began to irradiate the silver- 
tinted clouds in the west, throwing a mellow glow upon 
the great overhanging gnarled oaks and towering pines 
along the rocky shore. Clear as crystal is the water 
of Nagog. clearer than anv otber lake water 1 have ever 
seen ; a dime can be readily seen at a depth of ten feet 
on its clean gravel bottom. 
There were three of us, bent on measuring cunning 
with the wily bass — my wife, myself and Smith. Each 
had a boat and each an attendant to ply the oars. 
"Too calm for the fl}%" I remarked; so setting up my 
rod, a new nine foot ten ounce split bamboo I had 
just bought, I proceeded to carry my new. "never- 
break" through the guides. This accomplished, a bar- 
rier was encountered. What lure should I use? After 
a short semi-scientific meditation, it was concluded 
that :he most sensible and best adapted bait to the 
conditions was a small Skinner spoon with a No. i 
hook, and soon the flashing lure was dangling at the 
end of the line by a trace swivel. 
We embarked, each taking a diflferent course. I in- 
structed my boatmaiT to row slowly and cautiously 
along the northeasterly shore, which is very rocky, sur- 
mounted here and 'there by rustic camps nestling 
among the verdant trees that tower far above them. 
My objective point_ was about an eighth of a mile 
above, where the water makes into a narrow cause- 
way, across which a. wire fence is extended. Here 
abundant aquatic vegetation shows on the surface — it 
being conspicuously- absent in nearly the entire rest of 
the lake. At the edg^ of the pads a huge rocky ledge, 
with overhanging- profile, breaks the ripples of the 
lake, and jostles the -mighty oaks that spread their 
massive arms .above, it and far out over the water. 
Cautiously we glide over the placid water, well out 
from shore. Cast after cast is made right to the very 
brink, retrieving nearly to the boat, and yet no strike. 
Ahead I see the lair. Tt is instinct, telepathy, or what 
that sets the blood tingling at sight of the massive 
ledge and overhanging branches at the edge of the 
pads? I warn my boatman to go slowly and a trifle 
further awater; closer and closer we approach; I make 
a cast three feet from the rock and pads; then carefully 
measuring the distance. I make a cast a la Henshall; 
the bright, glistening spoon ruffles the first pad and 
starts outward. What's that! A swish — a splash— a 
gleam, and the instinctive turn of the wrist sets the 
hook in the gallant foe. "Back for deep water, man," 
in sharp tones, to the boatman. How the reel sings, 
as with a mighty rush he makes for his lair beneath 
the ledge. Now rod, your mettle: now line, your 
strength; for I give him the butt, and true as steel the 
weapons bear the mighty strain. He is headed the 
other way. With a swish the line cuts the water as he 
dashes away at an angle of forty-five degrees from the 
boat — a sudden turn, and he leaps from the water, the 
crystal liquid dripping and sparkling from his broad, 
gleaming, copper sides. In angry fright he seems to 
stand erect on his great tail, shaking his head, as a 
terrier when shaking a rat, in an effort to eject the 
stinging hook. The line is slackened, then drawn taut 
quickly, as he plunges bac^ to his crystal abode. Then 
comes another wild dash of fully fifty feet, the multi- 
plier singing in sweetest cadence. 
Gradually I lead him back near the boat, and for the 
first time I observe my boatman as I tell him to pre- 
pare with net. There he sits with wide, open mouth 
that would do justice to the fish at the end of the line; 
eyes protruding, apparently as much interested as if 
.he were watching Hercules striving to land a Green- 
land whale with the North Pole. 
We have worked out to spacious water, and the gal- 
lant fish is fighting with Gen. Grant's stubbornness, 
and, metaphorically speaking, it seemed to me it would 
take all summer to fight it out on this line. Again 
he leaves the water, and again I slack the frail-look- 
ing silken line. 
What a beauty and a monster, a race horse game to 
the core, fighting every inch of the home stretch to the 
wire. 
Gradually the strain, long and steady, of the elastic 
bamboo is doing its Avork. I have hirn close to the 
net at last, but with a sudden dash he is away again, 
right under the boat. "Heavens! my rod is gone." 
Not so, however, for dexterously I pass it astern and 
give line, the battle continues on the other side. Again, 
I reel in, at least for the twentieth time. He leads 
obedient till near the boat, which, no doubt, awakes 
his declining spirits, and as if in a last despair, he makes 
a mighty plunge — down — down — in the very depths of 
the lake. 
I lead him gently back; he is wellnigh all in; the 
bright, gleaming side of golden green and copper glis- 
tens at the very side of the boat. "The net," I almost 
whisper to the boatman. A sudden commotion behind 
pje— be g;rasps tUe »et, stumbles over ai»4 ov^r, pitches 
heavily against me with the force of a bail of hay fall- 
mg on an imwary passerby. I am pitched forward on 
the gunwale of the boat with my circumspect attend- 
ant piled upon me — a wild gasp and we are both floun- 
dering in the water. I hear a voice calling my name 
in the distance. I grows more distinct; I make it out 
at last; it's my wife's: "George! George! Get up! 
There goes the quarter of seven train." 
" 'Twas but a dream. 
Contorting grandeur of the rose 
That blooms in thought ere night's repose." 
Single Hook. 
Fish and Fishing. 
Fiish and Fish Food. 
One of my friends was fishing an inland Canadian 
lake for trout during the late summer season, and was 
told by an old resident of the locality an interesting 
story of the enormous quantities of these fish, and of 
their great size, which were taken there nearly half a 
century ago, when he was a boy. For very many sea- 
sons past it has been carefully preserved and only fished 
a very little by sportsmen. Yet neither in number nor 
in size does it contain anything like the fish which were 
taken out of it years ago, when it was unprotected, 
and Avagon loads of trout taken from its waters were 
annually shipped to market. Like the teller of the 
story, my friend was rather surprised at the alleged 
falling off in the supply under the circumstances re- 
lated. Later on, in the course of the conversation, 
however, something was said that started my friend 
a-thinking. The old-timer remarked that when the big 
catches of large trout were taken out of the lake for 
market, it was the custom of the market fishermen to 
cart the offal of neighboring slaughtering houses to- the 
lake and throw it into the water in order to bring 
the fish to the place where it was desired to take them. 
Further inquiry elicited the fact that the entrails of the 
animals slaughtered were fed to the fish in consider- 
able quantities, and there can be no doubt that herein 
is to be found the explanation of the size and number 
of the trout taken from this water in former times. 
When that particular food supply was interrupted — 
the lake not being particularly well furnished with nat- 
ural food — the larger trout were driven to the neces- 
sity of feeding upon their smaller relatives, and as 
these decreased, there were fewer to reach maturity, 
and still less food for the few survivors to thrive and 
fatten upon. 
Salmon for Hatcheries. 
Complaints have been made from time to time that 
some of the salmon waters in Canada, which are leased 
to anglers, are injured by being excessiA'cly fished by 
the officers of the fishery department, in their efforts to 
obtain parent fish for stripping for the hatcheries. As 
many as five hundred salmon are often taken for the 
supply of eggs for a single hatchery. It is, there- 
fore, with very much pleasure that I notice in the 
last report of the department of Fisheries at Ottawa 
that a system has been adopted in New Brunswick 
Avhich should be followed in connection with all the 
salmon hatcheries of the country. The salmon' hatch- 
eries at Grand Falls, N. B., and Bedford, Nova Sco- 
tia, are supplied with eggs obtained from fish confined 
in a salt water pond located at Carleton, opposite the 
city of St. John. The fish are purchased from bona 
fide fishermen, and confined in this pond until ready 
for spawning operations in the autumn. The fish 
are caught by the actual fishermen, and if not purchased 
by the department, would be placed on the market; but 
owing to the present policy, they are a means of in- 
creasing their species, and by being returned to the 
water, afford a second source of reA^enue to the fisher- 
men. 
The Netting in Lake Champlain. 
It is sincerely to be hoped' that something maj^ yet 
be done to put an end to the netting of the pike-perch 
on their spawning grounds in Lake Champlain. I 
know that Canada is largely responsible for the out- 
rage, as already stated in this column, but it is melan- 
choly to learn, from what a Burlington man told me 
to-day, that the destruction of fish is now even greater 
on the American than on the Canadian side. As the 
authorities in Vermont claim a readiness to prohibit 
the netting if Canada will do the same, another effort 
should certainly be made Avith the Canadian authorities. 
For this movement, the best possible opportunity 
that could offer will be afforded by the meeting, in the 
third week of January, in the city of Ottawa, where 
the Dominion's Department of Fisheries has its head- 
quarters, of that important international body, the 
North American Fish and Game Protective Associa- 
tion, which has already taken the matter up conjointly 
with the Vermont Fish and Game League. Largely 
through the personal influence of Mr. John W. Tit- 
comb, of the U. S. Fish Commission, Avho happened, 
last year, to be the president of both those bodies, the 
then Canadian Minister of Fisheries was induced to 
prohibit netting in Lake Champlain altogether; though 
political pressure, later on, compelled the withdrawal 
of the prohibition. The present Minister of Fisheries 
is a new man in the office, and the association may be 
able to have him present at its meeting in Ottawa, to 
be informed of the iniquity of the present condition of 
affairs. Tt appears to the officers of the association 
to be very important that the U. S. Fish Commission 
should interest itself in this matter, and they have con- 
sequently invited it to be represented at the approach- 
ing meeting. Mr. Titcomb has this matter at his 
fingers' ends, and if he cannot straighten it out with 
the Canadian authorities, if sent to Ottawa for the 
purpose, on such an occasion as that referred to, it 
may be taken for granted that nobody else can. 
Fishing at Kootenay. 
A friend sends me an interesting extract from a let- 
ter concerning the fly-fishing for rainbow trout in the 
Kootenay River, British Columbia. Though this water 
is less widely known and discussed than those western 
Streams in which steelhea4s are taken, there sterns tQ 
be no possible doubt that execellent sport awaits the 
angler Avho is fortunate enough to cast his flies over 
It. The rainbow hereabouts run up to about eight 
pounds each, are described as extremely gamy, have 
not yet been made shy by overfishing, and rise greed- 
ily to almost all the angler's ordinary flies, the coach- 
man, hackles and March-brown being found exception- 
ally good. Life in the rapids seems to have given the 
fish strength and courage, and an angler with a light 
fly-rod has been knoAvn to have been kept for over 
half an hour killing a two-pound Kootenay trout, Thev 
are said to snatch at the fly with a dash and splash and 
whirl of gleaming sides that is often quite disconcert- 
ing to the novice, unused to their ways. 
E. T. D, ^Thambers. 
Advanced Ideas in Farming, Trap- 
ping and Woodcraft.— IV, 
The impetuous editor of the Zephyr met Avith an ac- 
cident one evening Avhile pursuing the hazardous occu- 
pation of Kansas journalism, Avhich while not neces- 
sarily as fatal as accidents of that kind sometimes are, 
but which effectually interfered with his duties in the 
editorial chair, or, to be more exact and literal, on the 
editorial soap box. He was in the act of descending 
with some haste the ladder that Avas for such cases 
made and provided, leading from the second story 
window at the rear of the building in Avhich the 
Zephyr Avas domiciled, to be used in case of sudden in- 
A-asion by the libeled populace. It appears that an 
armed invasion by one of the said populace had oc- 
curred on the night aforesaid, precipitated by some 
personal allusion in one of the Zephyr's characteristic 
personal items— Avell meant, perhaps, but highly in- 
judicious. The person Avho had in this Avay been in- 
jured in feelings and reputation, paid the editor a 
call, but his progress up the stairs was too tumultuous 
and his language somewhat too lurid to admit of any 
doubt as to the nature of the proposed interview. 
Somebody was to be dealt with. The editor had pos- 
sibly experienced other conferences of similar nature 
and had made use of the always ready avenue of escape. 
On this occasion, howcA^'er, the hasty retreat down the 
ladder was more precipitous, and the man of usually 
methodical movement, missed the second rung of the 
ladder and fell seA^enteen feet, landing with great pre- 
cision in the cyclone cellar, without which appendage 
or annex no house or habited building in that State is 
complete. When you read of a residence or a boarding 
house having all the comforts of home, it has refer- 
ence to the thoughtful provision of a cyclone cellar. 
He went through the cellar door Avithout a stop, and 
lay on the floor a promiscuous heap of disabled edi- 
torial functions. This Avas probably all that saved his 
life, for the invading force Avas hunting for him every- 
where else with blood in his eye and a doubled-bar- 
reled shotgun in his hands. 
He was found the following morning, and consider- 
ing the shake up received, his anatomy Avas in pretty 
fair condition. He was under the impression that 
there had been a cyclone, and let it go at that. He 
sent for me the first thing and plaintively laid the case 
before me as clearly as bandages, splints, poultices 
and plasters would admit of, and said he could see his 
finish right there if I did not consent to take hold of 
the Zephyr and write things for three weeks until he 
could get around. Think of a man Avith thirteen dam- 
aged specimens from a busted menagerie and circus 
on his hands, running a farm in his uncle's absence. 
Avith a reputation to sustain, assuming in cold blood 
a country neAvspaper, Avhich was the organ of the 
greenbackers at one time in the State of Kansas. Well, 
as I said before, there's no accounting for tastes! I 
' did it. 
The first thing I printed was an appeal to all the 
subscribers in the county to act as associate editors 
and send in their copy. It Avas a howling success. The 
.postmaster was obliged to get one of his nieces to help 
him, and the mail of the Zephyr increased from six- 
teen pieces a Aveek, exclusive of exchanges and duns, 
to a soapbox full of letters the second Aveek. Some 
were Avritten on the blank portions of old envelopes, 
some on both sides of pieces of Avrapping paper, some 
on pages from school copy books, some on grocery 
bills, very old and not receipted. One of these came 
very near accomplishing ray ruin as managing editor. 
The intelligent compositor printed the bill entire as a 
communication, without looking at the other side, and 
I seemed in danger of another invasion. 
HoAvever. there were some excellent treatises on 
agricultural matters, a good deal of poetry, an occa- 
sional obituary, personal reflections on the conduct 
and character of neighbors, in connection with church 
socials and the support of the ministry. Like this, for 
instance: 
"It beat.s me how a certain young man Thet wears a red necktie 
and a light drab overcoat can hire a horse and buggy every 
Saturday and take a certain young lady with a big hat and a 
light blue sack out ridin' when he don't seem to be able to pay 
his subscription to the missionary circle. i\Iebby the chap can't 
get credit at both places to oncet, and mebby the girl don't know 
just where he is at." Thompson. 
But one on the status of the crops by Melancthon 
Kraddock was the right stuff. Here it is: 
Krop Noats. 
^\'atte^ mellutts wus a bountiful Krop, whitch wus to be Ex- 
pected in veau of the large Amount of Watter planted last Spring 
in various .Sexions. The Krop of agricult'ral impalments Ap- 
pearantly want wuth getherin; I cum to this konclusion after 
seein' the number of implamence left into the feelds where they 
growed. This is all right fur the machine Agunts, but It shows 
that The Krop of lasey shifles farmers is about ez big ez yousual. 
Rye was allers a pop'Iar Krop. The propper kwantity to plant 
to oncet is about 3 fingers, with a leetle water, but thare ain't no 
fixed rool about when or How often it should be planted. Thats 
a Good deal a matter of Taste. If doo cair is taken in cultivatin' 
of it it yeelds a Brilliant rose-colored Blossom. Korn likewise 
pans out harnsum in this respeck. Onyuns is allways a Strong 
Krop for the farmer, and iz doin more probably to Break up the 
Kissin' habit than most enny other Krop. 
The Krop of fools, Kranks and embezzlers has been hevy all 
over the country, and thrashin' ort to be kep' up lively right along, 
and even then I skacely think we can git throo before another 
krop will be ripe. It seems an orful pitty that there aint no 
furrin demand fur this Krop. Lord! how quick we could pay orf 
the nashonal dett if there wus any markit for half of thi.s ere Krop. 
Theres one Krop that haint been harvested yet, tho it seems to 
\>t gittin ripe tolprabl? fast. Tfee fellers tbcts beo sowin' the seed 
