Pra. 14, 1903] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
131 
at one time had been inhabited by speckled trout, on the 
ground that it should have been re-stocked with trout in- 
stead of bass, or the trout remaining therein given the 
protection which would have resulted in their increase in 
due time. Tlie waters referred to are waters which are 
being extensively visited by holidaj' makers. They are 
clamoring for fish. The residents desired that we stock 
with fish that would re-establish themselves in the short- 
est possible time, and afford sport during July and 
August. They said : "There may be trout in the lake, 
but we cannot get them : we want a fish that will bite dur- 
ing July and August, otherwise people will not come here] 
let us have bass." The council of the municipality unan- 
imously appropriated a sum to assist in the work, realiz- 
ing its importance; and bass were accordingly put in. 
Of course we do not approve of putting bass into 
streams or small bodies of water which are inhabited by 
brook trout, or into waters where there would be a possi- 
bility, however remote, of restoring the trout fishing; but 
in large bodies of water several hundred acres in extent, 
in which the trout are practically exterminated, and which 
we wish to stock with the greatest possible expedition, I 
claim that bass are the proper fish. The opponents of 
biiss may also be too apprehensive with regard to the 
efifect on trout which the stocking of large bodies of water 
with bass will have. Henshall, in his "More About the 
Black Bass," says : "The black bass gets the best of other 
game fish, not by devouring the fishes themselves, but by 
devouring their food. For this reason, more than any 
other, they should not be introduced into the same waters 
with brook trout." On this point I should like to men- 
tion that I am acquainted with a gentleman who has a 
fishing preserve in Muskoka, in which he tells me he has 
trout and bass, and that they are thriving equally well ; 
that the trout are not holding their own, but are in- 
creasing rapidly. He showed me last season three trout 
taken in his preserve which measured 193/4, 19J/2 and i8)4 
inches respectively, the largest of which weighed three 
pounds. He had frequently, he said, opened bass to ascer- 
tain upon what they were feeding, and had never in a 
single instance found a trout. The food consisted prin- 
cipally of crawfish, minnows and perch, which abound in 
these waters. The preserve comprises 500 acres. There 
are no screens to prevent the trout and bass from inter- 
mingling. I have also been told that in some of the lakes 
along the St. John Railway in Quebec bass and brook 
trout have naturally and always co-existed. 
There are some who look with contempt upon the black 
bass as a game fish. Indeed, I remember hearing a dele- 
gale at the Montreal meeting say that a man would not be 
seen going up a back street in his country with a string of 
bass. There are manj^, however, who consider the bass 
quite the peer of the brook trout. Henshall speaks of the 
salmon as a king, the brook trout as a courtier, and the 
black bass "in his wirescent cuirass and spring crest as 
a doughty warrior whose prowess none can gainsay. He 
is plucky, game, brave and unyielding to the last when 
hooked. He has the arrowy rush and vigor of the trout, 
the untiring strength and bold leap of the salmon, while 
he has a system of fighting tactics peculiarly his own. He 
will rise to the artiiicial fly as readily as the salmon or 
the brook trout under the same conditions. I consider 
him, inch for inch and pound for pound, the gamiest fish 
that swims. The roj'al salmon and the lordly trout must 
yield the palm to a black bass of equal weight." 
Parker Gilmore, an English authority, whose writings 
appear over the nom de plume of "Ubique," and whose 
statements on sporting subjects are received everywhere 
without question, has this to say of the black bass: "I 
tear it will be almost heresy to place the black bass on a 
par with the trout, but I am bold and will go further. I 
consider he is the superior of the two. He is equally 
good as an article of food, is much stronger, and is untir- 
ing in his efforts to escape when hooked." Many other 
recognized authorities might be quoted to the same effect. 
It is not, however, the purpose of this paper to discuss 
the relative merits of the trout and bass as game fish. I 
have myself been a bass fisherman for many years, and I 
have enjoyed to the full the exciting sport it has always 
afforded, for in our cold waters the bass are most active 
and vigorous. I have also whipped the far-famed Nepi- 
gon, which many have declared, and properly so, to be the 
finest trout stream in the world ; and I should not like to 
say that the black blass is the peer of the trout as found 
in the Nepigon. But I think I have supplied testimony 
sufficient to satisfy the most exacting sportsman that if 
the waters of Ontario are not being stocked Avith the 
gamiest of fresh water fishes, we are introducing the next 
best, and certainly one which none can honestly despise; 
and the only one, I maj'^ say, which under existing condi- 
tions we are able to utilize, as the Government has at 
present no brook trotJt hatcheries and no resources upon 
which we can draw for trout. 
I shall not attempt either to discuss in detail what ap- 
pear to me to be the relative advantages and disadvant- 
ages of stocking in the manner which we have been 
adopting and that of pond culture and the introduction of 
the fry. Each no doubt has its advantages in some 
respects, and each its drawbacks. Indeed, I think that 
better restdts could be attained where practicable by a 
combination of the two. Especially would this be so in 
the case of small lakes and rivers where a full carload 
would not be required, and to which a can of fry could be 
readily dispatched, and there are a great many such places 
in this Province. The work could probably also be car- 
ried on to a later period. But it is gratifying to us to 
know that the success of transplanting the parent fish 
has been demonstrated wherever they have been intro- 
duced. As I have already intimated, lakes which were 
stocked some few years before a department was estab- 
lished, now afford excellent fishing; and those into which 
bass have since been introduced are said by our oflScers to 
be literally swarming with the young of these fish. But 
pond culture woidd appear to be yet in the experimental 
stage, judging by the reports of States which are propa- 
gating in that \va.y, and I have therefore refrained from 
recommending any appropriation for the construction of 
ponds until the results of pond culture appear more cer- 
tain. Michigan, I suppose, has m.ore nearly solved the 
difficulty than any other State. But even from that State 
1 have a communication in which the writer says he has 
for 20 years or more given the black bass considerable 
attention, and that the result of his own experiment, and 
what be can learn from others, is that he is "not ejv- 
thusiastic on the subject of raising black bass for stocking 
other waters for many reasons, one of them being that a 
given tiumber of adult fish will not produce one half as 
many fry in artificial ponds as in the _ wild state. They 
spawn too late in season in the artificial ponds to be of 
any use. The fry must be planted before they are 
properly weaned, or as soon as they begin to eat, as the 
3'gung bass do not take kindly to liver or other artificial 
food, as in the case of brook trout. There are many other 
reasons equally good on which to base the statement that 
all that has been accomplished in the experiments is to 
demonstrate the necessity of giving the black bass the 
necessary protection during the spawning season. 1 firtnly 
believe that Dame Nature has done abotit everything that 
can be done for them." 
In lieu of the construction of ponds, I have thought 
of recommending the experiment of screening off small 
areas at appropriate points on the shores of lakes which 
we are desirous of stocking, and placing therein a few 
breeders. The fish would then spawn naturally and with- 
out disturbance, the parent fish could be removed when 
desired, and the fry when old enough could swim out into 
the lake. The mesh of the screen could be fine enough to 
prevent the encroachment of other fish, and strong 
enough to withstand the force of the sea. The cost 
Vv^ould be a mere bagatelle. .A.t the end of the season the 
screens could be packed away for use again. An almost 
unlimited number of pens could be so erected. I have 
never heard of the experiment being tried, and_ I should 
like to hear an expression of opiuion as to the idea. 
I do not know that I need relate to a gathering such as 
this the manifest benefits which Avill accrue to the whole 
community from having our inland waters well stocked 
with fish. It goes without saying that every dollar spent 
in the work will be returned to the people manifold by the 
thousands of persons whom good fishing will attract. 
The recently inaugurated work has been confined to 
those waters where tourists have congregated in largest 
numbers, and where the drain has been heaviest, btit it 
may be extended until all our suitable waters are in a 
condition to afford the greatest amount of pleasure 
to the angler. This, of cottrsie, cannot be accomplished 
without an active public sentiment to uphold the depart- 
ment in requiring a strict observance of our laws. To 
promote the creation of such a sentiment, we bave_ en- 
couraged the formation of anglers' associations, as it is 
believed that these may exercise a potent influence in that 
direction. But our legislation prohibiting the taking of 
bass with nets, and their sale, will no doubt prove the 
most effective safeguard for their preservation. It has 
greatly removed the incentive to take the fish illegally. 
Caviar. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The suggestion contained in your editorial of January 
24, that our declining caviar inclustry may, in a measure, 
be revived by a resort to fish roes other than the stur- 
geon's, impresses me as being of such value that I am 
impelled to crave space for its fuller discussion. The 
third volume of a publication entitled "Indttstries of Rus- 
sia," printed and published at St. Petersburg, states that 
the total exports of Russian caviar for 1891 were 208,865 
pouds, of Avhich only 29,699 were of sturgeon caviar. In 
the Ural fishery the amounts of sturgeon caviar and that 
of other fish produced in 1890 were nearly the same, but 
in 1900 were greatly disproportioned, the sturgeon out- 
put being but six per cent, of the whole, or 6,060 pouds 
out of 100,309, the poud being 36% pounds. The Baltic 
product in 1891 was 750 pouds, of which 500 was salmon 
caviar. It will be conceded that what the Russians ac- 
complish we can, also ; but their creation of a highly 
profitable industry out of what we discard as offal is a 
manifestation of superior enterprise not complimentary 
to our people. 
The greater portion of the Russian product of caviar 
is from a miscellaneous variety of fish, that from the 
perch, roach, chub, etc., being red; that from the bream, 
yellow ; while that from the sturgeon is generally dark, 
sometimes black. In the Kouban district of the Azof? 
Sea fishery, from 500,000 to 700,000 pounds of perch 
caviar is made annually, the miscellaneous fish caviars, 
which, besides those mentioned, are inclusive of the carp, 
kefali or mullet, etc., being marketed largely in Turkey, 
Greece and other countries of the eastern Mediterranean. 
There are two methods of preparing the sturgeon caviar, 
both initiated by forcing the roe through a sieve whereby 
the encompassing egg membranes are separated from their 
contents ; in short, the eggs are shelled. In the choice 
or so-called fresh variety, the resulting material is sli.riiht- 
ly salted and put in tin cans in which it will not keep 
long save at a low temperature. The other kind, or 
pressed caviar, is preserved in strong brine, then put 
in bags and subjected for a number of days to extreme 
pressure, much of the moisture being by such means 
eliminated. This inferior caviar is put up in cans by Lon- 
don dealers and labeled "Russian Caviar." The Ameri- 
can product, likewise assuming to be Russian, is prepared 
differently from either of the foregoing methods. About 
1875 a New York dealer initiated the domestic cavi.ir 
preserving industry by canning the roe and subjecting it 
to ttie saute cooking process by which all tinned fruits, 
vegetables and meats are preserved, great heat being 
necessary to destroy the germs of decomposition, and 
such method has since been followed. As a necessary re- 
sult tlie flavor dift'ers from the foreign, and our product 
so canned would meet with scant recognition abroad, 
our caviar exports being salted and shipped in kegs with 
German salt imported for that purpose. It will thus be 
seen that the American palate has been educated to the 
appreciation of a peculiar preparation, one that is not ac- 
ceptable to the lovers of true caviar, which article it 
nevertheless assumes to be. 
Russia's chief delicacy, the supreme delight of her 
epicures,_ is the caviar of the white sturgeon in its fresh- 
est possible slate. The cold storage preparation first 
alluded to cannot be retailed in New York at a reason- 
able profit except at rate of five dollars a pound, and 
bears the same relation to the genuinely fresh product 
that cold storage eggs bear to those newly laid. From 
the time of Queen Catherine each successive occupant of 
the imperial palace has been the earliest possible re- 
cipient of the first fruits of the caviar fishery; it is the 
Czar's perquisite, and the trijiute is gladly paid, fo^ t^ie 
general marketing of this tidbit the Cossacks of the Don 
keep in readiness their fastest horses and speed them, 
burdejied with the precious roe, to the nearest railway 
station. Tank cars are also in use which convey the fish 
alive to St. Petersburg and Moscow, where they are 
killed, and thus the dawning life they bear may reach the 
consimter ere its palpitations cease. Taxed with the 
charges of over a thousand miles of expensive transporta- 
tion, the cost, except to the wealthy, is prohibitive, and 
this superlative quality of caviar is necessarily obtainable, 
outside of its district of production, only in the large 
cities of the empire. The other form of fresh caviar is 
extensively exported to Germany and elsewhere on the 
continent, the perversion of the American palate render- 
ing its appreciation difficult, some of our countrymen ex- 
pressing a preference for their accustomed hard grained, 
cooked and fianned product. Such instances of palatal 
education are upon every hand; indeed, it has been 
plausibly maintained that every alimentary substance, 
apart from the infant's maternal nourishment, is at first 
accepted with indifference or repelled with aversion. It 
is, therefore, idle to say that the public cannot be induced 
to eat caviar prepared from miscellaneous fish ; given 
time, its favor can certainly be won, for many years 
elapsed before the cooked caviar approved itself. If, from 
out the hundreds of tons of salmon roe that are annually 
thrown away at the Pacific Coast canneries, there Avas 
put upon the market a product labeled "Salmon Caviar," 
tliere can be no reasonable doubt that its ultimate popu- 
larity wottld be established. The caviar that the Russians 
make from the Baltic salmon is locally consumed; but 
if for centuries its earliest product had been annually 
hurried to the imperial table its fame would have greatly 
extended its vogue. Perhaps it would be too niuch to 
assume that the superiority of the salmon's flesh over that 
of the sturgeon extends also to its roe. Sturgeon meat 
has little of the fishy taste common to the finny tribe, 
and there may be some peculiarity of the creature that 
gives its roe a distinctive excellence. Again, it may be 
largely an habituation of the public palate to its accus- 
toined delicacy that bars the adoption of a similar pro- 
duct. Not improbably the sturgeon caviar was the first 
made by reason of the great size of the fish (individuals 
occasionally reaching t,200 pounds) insuring the most 
abundant supply, the largeness of the grains also facilitat- 
ing the preparation and improving the appearance of the 
product. Having intrenched itself in popular favor, it is 
only the exhaustion of the supply that will insure the 
adoption of a substitute. Time was when the sturgeon 
of the Volga were captured for their roe and i.singlass 
alone, the I'emainder of the carcass being discarded as 
offal, for the meat was lightly valued. Now it is other- 
wise, the fish has become a valuable prize,- and a large 
roe-laden individual a veritable bonanza. While the con- 
tinued observance of the admirable regulations restrict- 
ing the fishery maj' indefinitely prolong its life, it cannot 
supply an ever increasing demand. As the figures herein 
quoted show, it is the caviar output from other fishes than 
the sturgeon that maintains the volume of Russian pro- 
duction, and but for such substitution a famine would 
be ;it hand. Such a famine now confronts us at home, 
for tlie exhaustion of the fisheiy is nigh, its reconstitu- 
tion hopeless, and the sole alternative therefore the adop- 
tion of an analogous preparation. 
1 he best American caviar is from the lake sturgeon 
(A. rubicundiis), the next is that from the common At- 
lanijc sturgeon (A. sturio), then follows that frorii the 
Pacific sturgeon (A. transmontanus) . The extreme 
scarcity of roe has of late years impelled a resort to 
ano'her species, the shovel nose sturgeon of the Missis- 
sipi i (A. scaphirhyncus) ; its caviar is the poorest of 
all, being objectionable in taste and odor, and the grains 
sma'i, but nevertheless has commanded recently 75 to 
80 cents a pound. As the price rises the hunt for the few 
remaining fish becomes keener, for the reward is ample, 
the product of a single Delaware fish may net, at present 
prices, $70. Less than a score of years ago the sturgeon 
fishery was initiated upon , the Columbia River, immense 
numbers of the fish being captured with great revolving 
wheels, the destructive engines, actuated by the current, 
flinging them out of the water. Many tons of fish 
weighing less than fifty pounds were thrown back into 
the stream, their bodies serving only to contaminate its 
waters. The stoiy of one ravaged river may be said to 
be the story of ad, for ere the utilization of the roe the 
fish, in eastern rivers, as well as the great lakes, were 
regarded more or less as a nuisance. 
When the first shipment of American caviar was made 
in the late 6o's to Europe, where it brought but 2 cents 
a pound, the delicacy was unknown and unappi-eciated 
at home. For some years the price remained at from 10 
to IS cents a pound, and the cheapness of the product 
tended to popularize it in Germany among people to 
whom the price of the superior Russian article was pro- 
hibitive. It became also a frequent feature of the free 
lunch counters in New York saloons, the cheaper resorts 
being often supplied with spoiled caviar unfit for ship- 
ment abroad. In this way the delicacy became known to 
the American public, and the free lunch counter should 
render equal introductory service with the fish caviars 
the manufacture of which is herein advocated. 
Some effort has been made in this direction; garfish 
eggs have been tried, and, though of good size, are insipid 
and of objectionable odor. The most successful substi- 
tute yet found seems to be shad eggs, which have been 
mixed Avith the sturgeon's, but with an obvious impair- 
n:ent of the quality of the caviar so formed. The product 
of sturgeon caviar in the United States and Canada in 
1S98 Avas 2,800 kegs of from 125 to 160 pounds each. Of 
these, 500 kegs entered into domestic consumption, the 
remainder being exported, but the diminution of the 
product, the higher cost, threatens to extinguish next 
year's foreign demand. 
NorAvegians make cod caviar by subjecting the roe 
to a slight fermentation and then placing the product in 
tightly sealed one pound glass jars. In, Germany caviar 
IS made from the pike, pickled Avith salt and citric acid, 
then flavored with lemon and tightly sealed. NorAvay's 
development of her fish delicacy trade was Avell demon- 
strated by her exhibit at the great International Fishery 
Exposition at St. Petersburg last year. A tempting array 
of preserA'ed preparations was displayed, crab soups as 
Avell as those of various fishes, hashed fish in thick soup 
diA^ers fish sauces, Gabelbissen (bits of a species of 
§un^r4)t smoked sprats, herrings ip oil o?- tomato s^u?e, 
