890 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[May i6, 1903. 
favorite grounds, off Sand Bar. He was very fortunate, 
getting some splendid sport and a long string of fish, not 
one of which was a togue, but all squaretails or redspots. 
Mr. Hunt tells of seeing at Jackman one of the finest 
strings of trout he had ever seen brought into Jackman by 
D. Hancox, of that village, and a friend, who had been 
fishing in the river not far from the railroad bridge. 
There were several of the trout that weighed between five 
and six pounds, and none were small. It was such a 
string, he declares, as one seldom sees anywhere, and was 
worth duplicating — if one were able. 
Other successful Moosehead Lake parties include Engi- 
neer Alden Spear, of the B. & A. train, who visited Squaw 
Pond between trains with a friend and brought back 107 
trout, while Baggage Master Frank McClure, of the same 
train, went with a friend to Fitzgerald Pond, getting their 
full limit for the day. At Seboomook, on Tuesday, one 
sportsman is reported to have caught four or five trout 
that weighed four pounds apiece, and as six members of 
the Seboomook Outing Club from Newark, N. J., went to 
the head of the lake this morning under the able leader- 
ship of Fred Castle, this feat will undoubtedly be entirely 
eclipsed during the next ten days. 
A Bangor man who was driving through the town of 
Jonesport the other day passed three boys heavily laden 
with sizable brook trout in the road, and was told, upon 
inquiry, that there were 150 in the three strings, all caught 
in Indian River, which is a fine trout stream. 
C. S. Winch went with two friends to a brook out be- 
yond Clifton and brought in a handsome string of 
some forty-five or more trout during the week. 
Probably the best and steadiest fishing to be furnished 
by any pond during the week, imless, indeed, it may be 
that the St. Croix system has done equally well, was 
Tunk Pond, which always furnishes some splendid sport 
wath both trout and landlocked salmon as soon as the sun 
begins to warm the water. N. E. Bragg and a friend 
from this city fished there for a day or two this week, 
landing between them eighteen fish, one taking eight sal- 
mon and a trout, the other nine salmon. At the same 
time Dr. Haskell, of Brunswick, and a friend took twelve 
salmon in one day, and B. E. Clark, of Bar Plarbor, 
landed six more. When the Bangor men left for home 
there were five anglers still there, and the fun was fast 
and furious. Tunk Pond is among the jewels for fisher- 
men, and is easily reached by the Washington county 
route. 
Those who have fished in the Passadumkeag stream 
claim that it is the finest trout stream in America, and the 
writer can say from personal experience that it is great, 
although he fished it under the drawbacks of very cold 
weather, late in the season of 1902. All who go there 
get great sport, and the fish rise to the fly there earlier, 
perhaps, than in any other trout stream in Alaine. J. N. 
Merrill and S. A. Maxfield, of this city, were at Lee last 
week and went down the stream as far as Upper Taylor 
Brook, logs preventing their getting any further down. 
While the big trout are more likely to be met with in 
the deeper pools below that point — and they sometimes 
run as heavy as four pounds — still they had such sport 
as they had heard about, and took out of that stream 
150 handsome brook trout. 
To-day may be said, in truth, to be the real opening of 
the fishing season in the northern and northeasterly parts 
of the State, and the trains out from this city to the east 
and northeast have each and all borne their portion of the 
anglers who had been waiting for warmer days before 
starting for the fishing waters. As a sample train, the 
writer found on the morning train for Greenville anglers 
who were going to Williams Stream, Seboomook, North- 
east Carry, Capen's, Lily Baj^ Sugar Island and Kineo, 
while the Sterns party on Sugar Island, the Camp Com- 
fort Club on Sand Bar, and other parties already on the 
spot, must be having the greatest of sport, as the weather 
is warm, the sun bright, and the fish not having been very 
voracious since the leaving of the ice, they must be eager 
for the bait. Herbert W. Rowe. 
Salmon Culture in America ♦ 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of May 2, I read with much interest the 
second letter of Commissioner Babcock, of British Co- 
lumbia, expecting to find some facts and figures wjiich 
would prove his former confident assertions that salmon 
culture on the Pacific Coast had been a great success. 
From this letter it appears that Mr. B. has held his present 
position of Fisheries Commissioner of the Province of 
British Columbia since November, 1901, and that he "de- 
voted a part of October and November to the investiga- 
tion of a limited portion of the spawning grounds of the 
sockeye salmon of Fraser River, and during the entire 
spawning season of 1892 he devoted as much time to the 
spawning grounds of the Fraser and Thompson rivers as 
the limited season would permit." On this small ex- 
perience of one season and part of another he tells us 
that all who have written of the vast numbers of salmon 
that overcrowd the Pacific rivers, notably the Columbia, 
the Fraser and the Skeena, from Sir George Simpson to 
Livingston Stone, including Capt. Butler, Lieut. Schwatka, 
Charles Hallock, Samuel Wilniot, Thomas Mowat (who 
managed the first hatchery on the Fraser), and all the 
witnesses who testified before the Commission in 1891, 
were mistaken, and that no such state of things as they 
all described ever existed, and he asks how, "without sta- 
tistics," the Old Angler ever came to believe that such 
was the case? My answer is that I was intimately ac- 
quainted with Samuel Wilmot and Thomas Mowat; that 
I am in regular correspondence with Mr. Charles Hal- 
lock (who devoted twenty years to the study of Pacific 
Salmon, from whose "Salmon Fisher" I quoted largely in 
a former letter), and with the friend, who has had years 
of experience on Fraser River, from whose letter, written 
last February, describing the salmon run, I quoted as fol- 
lows : "The salmon enter this river in such enormous 
numbers as to stop boats. It would seem to me that the 
force of their weight in rugged places would kill thous- 
ands, forcing them against the shores and rocks bv pres- 
sure from behind. The weaker must succumb to the tre- 
mendous force of struggling millions, and be literally 
jammed to death." These writers had no "ax to grind," 
no reason tq exaggerate, nor any motive to suppress the 
truth, and I mean no disrespect to Commissioner Bab- 
cock when I say that I prefer their testimony, based on 
many years' experience and observation, to his, based on 
the limited experience of a part of two seasons on spawn- 
ing grounds which are reached by a very small percentage 
of the vast numbers that enter the mouth of the river. 
As this is a vital point, largely affecting salmon culture 
on the Pacific Coast, which Mr. Babcock not only ignores 
but by implication denies, and one which both he and Mr. 
Stone studiously concealed in their letters to Mr. Marston, 
of the London Fishing Gazette, I quote some further well 
known authorities as to the overcrowding of Pacific rivers 
— and notably the Fraser and the Columbia. In his work 
on "Vancouver Island and British Columbia," Mr. 
Matthew Macfie, F. R. G. S., says in writing of the 
salmon in Fraser River: "At certain times the caiions 
or gorges of the river are so crowded with salmon that 
the navigation of canoes is virtually impeded. The In- 
dians catch them there with a pole, attached to one end 
of which is a transverse piece of wood. Into this are 
stuck tenpenny nails. Leaning over the gorge they strike 
the nails into the fish, impaling one or two at each descent 
of the pole." The same writer says of the Columbia 
River, "that on a sudden falling of the waters the num- 
bers of salmon left on the banks are so immense as to 
cause the river to stink for miles." The late A. C. Ander- 
son, Inspector of Fisheries in British Columbia, in one 
of his reports says : "In the Fraser River, as well as in 
the Columbia and Sacramento, the quantities of spawned 
fish that die in their downward journey and lie rotting on 
the banks or are carried in thick masses down stream, 
are so great that I am forced to the conclusion that the 
salmon of these rivers do not reach the sea after spawn- 
ing, but perish after that natural function is performed." 
From a report made by Mr. Livingston Stone to the late 
Lhiitcd States Commissioner of Fisheries, Prof. Spencer 
F. Baird, describing the enornious schools of salmon in 
the Sacramento River, I quote the following: "It was a 
sight never to be forgotten; for several rods below the 
bridge the salmon formed one black, writhing mass of 
life. Piled together, one above another, they charged in 
solid columns against the bridge and dam, which trembled 
and shook continually under their blows. Not daunted 
by their repeated failures, they led attack after attack 
upon the fence, one column succeeding as another fell 
back. Finding the fence impassable, many fell back a 
little and tried to jump the bridge. This some succeeded 
in doing, sometimes striking the men on the bridge in 
their leaps, and sometimes actually jumping between their 
feet. For an hour and a half this fierce assault continued, 
when, exhausted by their efforts and discouraged by many 
failures, they fell back to the deep hole just below the 
rapids, arrested for the first time in their progress up the 
river." In another report Mr. Stone writes: "The grat- 
ing was an entire bar to the salmon, and the experiment 
satisfied me that the salmon which ascended the river to 
spawn never returned to the sea. The numbers which 
passed above the grating before it was finished must have 
been hundreds of thousands, while thousands crowded 
against its lower side when completed, vainly attempting 
to pass. As to their return, I failed to discover a single 
live salmon, though thousands of dead ones lodged 
against the upper side of the grating." 
I make these long quotations to show how disingenuous 
were both Mr. Stone and Commissioner Babcock in their 
letters to Mr. Marston, in leading him to infer that to 
artificial culture the enormous catches of the Sacramento 
and the Columbia are to be ascribed. While no "sta- 
tistics" are wanted to enable the reader to form a correct 
opinion of the foregoing statements, they are absolutely 
necessary to enable Mr. Marston and the scientific 
doubters of England to judge whether artificial culture 
has increased the run of salmon in Pacific rivers. One 
thing, I think, must strike every man of common sense 
who has read this discussion in Forest and Stream, 
namely : If the supply of salmon in the Sacramento and 
Columbia rivers was so enormous as described above by 
Mr. Stone in 1877, and in the Fraser and Skeena as 
described by Messrs. Anderson and Mowat in 1885, and 
by Samuel Wilmot's Commission in 1892, there can be no 
need of artificial culture to keep up the supply with which 
natural propagation has overstocked the Pacific rivers. 
Proper close times and judicious protection will do more 
than all the hatcheries the Government can operate at 
public expense. 
There has been a hatchery in operation on Fraser River 
since 1885 — no less than eighteen years — and 98,089,800 
young salmon have been turned out of it; but Commis- 
sioner Babcock says : "I do not believe that any fair de- 
duction can yet be made from the work carried on." How 
then can he so confidently assert that it will be of any 
practical benefit? How does he know, without statistics, 
that the hatcheries have helped the catch on Columbia 
River? If he can make no fair deduction after eighteen 
years' operations, how many years must elapse before he 
can do so? He tells us that "the conditions on the Fraser 
are such that it will take a considerable period to show 
whether the run is or is not decreasing." But what assur- 
ance has he that the artificially hatched fry will not be 
subject to the same law of "periodicity"— of good and bad 
years — which is the only reason he assigns for the estab- 
lishment of hatching houses, since the run is not shown 
to be decreasing? 
This regular irregularity or "periodicity" in the run of 
salmon is not peculiar to the Fraser River, nor to the 
Pacific Coast. The same thing is seen, on a smaller scale, 
of course, in all the salmon rivers of the Atlantic Coast, 
both in Europe and Amercia. This has long been noticed 
in the rivers of Scotland and Ireland, and it is still more 
noticeable in those of Quebec, Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick. One hundred years ago, when all the rivers 
were more abundantly stocked than they are now, this 
"periodicity" was more marked. But the salmon fisher- 
men of the Maritime Provinces still look for the fat and 
the lean years, and make their calculations with much 
confidence that the fourth year will compensate for the 
previous bad years. This was the very argument that 
induced the first Minister of Fisheries, the late Hon. P. 
Mitchell, to take up fish hatching as a departmental work. 
The present writer, then Inspector of Fisheries for Nova 
Scotia and New Brunswick, was the most urgent and per- 
sistent advocate of the process then in its infancy at the 
Stormonfield hatchery on the Tay in Scotland. In com- 
mon witib the enthusiasts of Scotland, w\iQ expecte4 
artificial culture would restock the thirty-two deserted 
rivers of that country which had once been good salmon 
streams, the writer hoped that hatcheries would not only 
increase the stock in the few remaining salmon rivers, but 
would restock and restore the numerous deserted rivers 
in the Maritime Provinces. The same hope animated the 
Fish Commissioners of the United States, notably the late 
Spencer F. Baird, who employed Mr. Livingston Stone 
and the late Seth Green to restock the deserted salmon 
rivers of the Northern and Eastern States. After thirty 
years' operations Mr. Stone told us, in your issue of 
March 7, that the result was total failure; that his efforts 
to restock the Merrimac, the Connecticut, the Hudson, 
the Delaware, and the Susquehanrta, had not been suc- 
cessful, and have now been abandoned. The same total 
failure to restock deserted rivers with artificially hatched 
fry, or to increase the catch in the remaining salmon 
rivers of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the like fail- 
ure of similar efforts made in France, Germany, Sweden, 
and Norway, has led to the practical abandonment of 
further exertions both in Great Britain and on the conti- 
nent of Europe. 
In no country in the world has salttion culture been 
pursued on so great a scale as in Canada. Since 1874 
there have been built sixteen hatcheries. Eleven of these 
were in eastern Canada. One in Ontario has long since 
given up salmon culture, and one in P. E. Island has 
been abandoned as a failure after eight years' operation 
and the planting of 6,085,000 fry in a single river, without 
any results except the loss of all the money expended. 
There remain in active operation since 1874 — twenty-nine 
years — nine salmon hatcheries. Three of these are in 
Quebec; three in Nova Scotia, and three in New Bruns- 
wick. From the hatcheries in Quebec have been planted 
105,889,000 young salmon; from those in New Bruns- 
wick, 125,486,000; from those in Nova Scotia, 81,882,500. 
In all these Provinces the catch of salmon was greater 
before the hatcheries were built than it has been in any 
j'ear since. In 1874 the catch in New Brunswick was 
3,214,182 pounds; in 190T, the last year for which I have 
the figures, the catch was only 1,235,350 pounds. What 
became of the 125,486,000 fry that had, in the interim, 
been turned out of the hatcheries? In 1874 the salmon 
catch in Nova Scotia was 1,758,818 pounds. After twenty- 
nine j^ears' operation the catch in 1891 had fallen to 
557,802 pounds. What practical benefit resulted from the 
81,882,500 fry hatched out in the houses? This is what 
the official reports show as the result of thirty years' 
salmon culture in eastern Canada. What reasons can 
Commissioner Babcock give to lead us to believe that any 
better results will follow from the same system pursued 
in western Canada? So far, he himself being judge, he 
has given none, for he admits that "the conditions on 
the Fraser are such that it will take a considerable period 
to show whether the run is or is not decreasing." As 
Mr. Hallock and Mr. Stone have shown, the "conditions" 
on the (Columbia are precisely similar to those described 
on the Fraser, and of course it will take just as long a 
period to show whether the run on that river is or is not 
decreasing, and yet the hatcheries on these rivers have 
been in active operation for eighteen years, during which 
time the Fraser River house has turned into the stream 
98,089,000 fry. I have no figures showing what has been 
done in the Columbia River hatcheries, but I presume the 
results are not less. 
From my private and official experience of seventy years 
among salmon fishermen, and from my observation of the 
effects of over-fishing in all rivers of New England and 
eastern Canada, now so visible in the steadily decreasing 
catch of the Maritime Provinces, I regret to see the same 
greedy system being pursued on the Pacific Coast and in 
British Columbia. Mr. Babcock concludes his letter by 
telling us that "the combined Fraser River and Puget 
Sound pack in 1901 was 2,400,606 cases of 48 pounds each, 
making 115,229,088 pounds, which, he says, is nearly half 
the annual pack of the world. Surely there can be no 
need of hatcheries on such rivers as these ! 
If Commissioner Babcock, in view of the experience of 
Europe and eastern America, covering a period of over 
thirty years, expects to keep up this enormous catch by 
means of artificial culture, he is simply chasing rainbows, 
and I know not which most to admire, his calm indiffer- 
ence to the past history of salmon culture and the lesson 
it teaches, or his sublime faith in oodles of ova and 
figures of fry. But I doubt if this last letter will make a 
convert of Mr. Marston, while I am quite sure that the 
"scientific gentlemen" will see in neither of them any 
i-eason for changing the opinion which a better knowledge 
of the literature of salmon culture, both in Europe and 
America, has forced upon them. 
The Old Angler. 
Some New Jersey Fishing-. 
AsEURY Park, N. J., May 2.— While the trout season is 
new a month old, the news from the very few streams in 
this (Monmouth) county are very meagre. Of a truth 
may it be said that the results to be attained in any of the 
nearby streams are scarcely worth the endeavor. _ While 
they are continuously re-stocked, they are so persistently 
fished that fingerlings are about the only reward. 
Perch fishing, however, has been at the front the past 
month, and never have I seen them either so abundant or 
of such fine size. I have been able to make thus far 
eight trips to the different lakes and have taken many 
fish and of a size much larger than I ever before caught. 
I recently took eight in rapid succession which weighed 
on average one pound each. Using trout tackle, these fish 
made glorious battle, and are strictly worthy the attention 
of any angler. Como Lake, three miles to the south of 
this place, seems to be fairly alive with these toothsome, 
sprightly fellows, and has been most liberally patronized. 
But little has been done in salt water thus far; nothing 
in. the surf save a few ling, and in the rivers flounders 
in but very limited numbers. Blackfish are, however, 
biting fairly well, and they are favorites with many. The 
spring run of whiting is now due, and while it lasts but 
about two weeks, affords fine sport and abundance of il. 
They seldom bite during the day, but at night feed 
ravenously. They run in weight from one to three 
pounds each, fight hard and are a good table fish. 
^ Leonabd Hulii, 
