Aug. I, 1903.1 
direction of Mr. Charles H. Townsend is perfect, but 
, still not Bermuda water, so clear that he could see his 
father's bones "full fathom five" among the coral. Never 
does time or tide sweep great golden sheets of dancing 
gulf weed past him now, borne down from the northwest 
; on the pure strong wind. Never does he see blooming 
oleanders dip above his swimming hole, or hear the song 
of the cardinal bird as it perches on a lily plant. Nor 
ever, as all the drearj' days go by, does he meet and pass 
with pride in his own unrivalled color a fleet of gay 
Portuguese men-of-war. 
There are many other Bermuda fishes in other wall 
tanks, upstairs and down. The squirrels in bright scarlet 
livery and with huge eyes, contrast strangely with the 
angels. Nature has given the squirrel fish a safeguard of 
his life in the way of sharp spines and a coat of rough 
scales which detract greatly from his palatable value in 
the eyes of his watery enemies. The hinds hug the bot- 
tom and well repay a few moments' study, for they change 
colors at frequent intervals, as do the wide-niouthed 
groupers. The parrots are as gaudy as their namesakes, 
and as varied in their colors and ornamentation. The 
two green parrots in the collection are larger than the 
parrot fish commonly seen in captivity, and they are re- 
markably fine specimens and of great beauty. Women 
particularly are pleased with the parrot fishes, and they 
say of their color "What a beautiful shade of green!" 
The parrot fish is a deep-bodied and pretty substantially 
built fish, but is of very graceful and symmetrical outlines 
and a good swimmer. It moves often with a dancing 
motion in the water, but in the case of the parrot fishes 
this motion is not so abrupt as it is with some others 
which have the same kind of movenrent. The parrot fishes' 
motion is less like a dancing movement and more like 
a slight and gentle bounding, or more still, as though it 
were the result of sheer buoyancy in the water. There 
seems to be a touch of reserved good humor about the 
parrot fish's mouth ; and, take it altogether, the parrot fish 
is a creation very agreeable to see. 
It may be observed that the rocks in the parrot fishes' 
tank are all more or less scratched about the edges; these 
scratches are marks made by the parrot fishes' teeth. The 
parrot fish's mouth is small as compared with the size of 
its body, but it has strong jaws and good teeth. In nature 
it eats various kinds of crustaceans, which it takes wher- 
ever it maj' find them ; if they are attached to a rock 
it bites them off, very likely scratching the rock where it 
bites. The blackfish would do the same thing, biting of¥ 
barnacles, for instance, from a rock. The parrot fishes, in 
their natiA'e waters, had been accustomed to roaming 
about the coral rocks, biting off anything clinging to them 
that might strike their fanc}'. Here, impelled hy habit, 
and perhaps finding on them some minute growths that 
they liked, the parrot fishes, upon their arrival and before 
i they had become accustomed to the food provided for 
I them, attacked the rocks in their tank and bit at them 
until they had them scarred all around the edges; now 
; they bite at them less. 
Among the things fed to the parrot fishes are soft clams 
( of small size which are fed to them entire, shells and all ; 
the parrot fishes like them. Some fishes that eat crusta- 
ceans crack the shells and eat the meat or the juices 
^ therefrom and reject the shells. The green parrot fishes, 
on the contrary, eat these clams shells and all, grinding 
the shells up with their teeth so fine that they can swal- 
low them without discomfort. 
The queer trigger fish is in many respects far and away 
the handsomest of the tropical fishes. It is a strong, 
! vigorous fish, flat-sided and deep from above downward, 
with almost all the colors of the rainbow on its body, 
and over these black lines suggestive of a huge bridle on 
his head. All the fins have long velvet-black streamers 
that fly like pennons as he swiftly swims about the tank, 
'l^hese fish are very rare in Bermuda, and for three 
seasons the fishermen kept a faithful lookout for them 
before bringing one in. The trigger fish has big, staring 
, blue eyes that roll incessantly. It has an apparently fool- 
ish habit of keeping its mouth open and poking out its 
tongue. 
I The doctors are shaped like a melon seed, and have 
^ a curious lance-like weapon on each side of the tail, 
■ whence they derive their name. Rock fish are mottled, 
' and are as near as possible in color to the rocks. At times 
it is difficult to distinguish between rock and fish. The 
sergeant major wears his chevrons with the greatest dig- 
nity, but they are of such a character as to suggest the 
thought that he might have been to Sing Sing and for- 
gotten to remove his prison garb. The moonfish look as 
if they might have been cut with a penknife from a piece 
of Luna herself, and little black beads added for eyes. 
These fish are very thin, except at the crown of the 
head, which is four or five times the thickness of their 
bodies. It is impossible to tell why they protrude their 
lips and pout in the absurd manner they do. 
Like many another fish the moonfish has many names. 
One of these is dollarfish, because at one period in its 
growth it is of just aboitt the size and shape and general 
. dimensions of a silver dollar, and brighter than the 
brightest silver dollar ever made. It is also called monkey- 
fish, because of the resemblance of the front line of its 
liead to the profile of a monkey. Other names of this 
sort that it bears arc horsehead and headfish. It is also 
called lookdown, because it has the appearance of always 
looking down. Another name is ghostfish, because of its 
white figure and quick gliding through the water, not 
flatwise, but on edge. 
In one of the tanks in the center of the building is a 
large sturgeon eight feet long. "Fish may have no moral 
laws, but they certainly show their respect for others 
which govern their society by invariably choosing the 
right," so said Curator Spencer at the Aquarium not long 
since. When questioned as to his meaning, he explained 
that it was a well-known fact that all large fish in cap- 
tivity when swimming around a tank have never in one 
instance been seen to make a complete circuit from left 
to right, while they swim for hours from right to left. 
The large sturgeon, though not a beautiful fish by any 
means, is one of the most fascinating to watch, on account 
of the half rotary movement of the body, together with 
the regular, graceful swing around and around the tank. 
Beautiful and dainty in contrast is the little butterfly- 
fish. It is apparently translucent, with all the delicate 
(•olorings of an opal, except the two dark spots near the 
• W and the little bead-like eyes. This fish, which is al- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
ways small, has a decidedly demure expression. Its mark- 
ings are so like its namesake as to at once suggest the 
name. They are, however, sometimes called "four-eyes," 
on account of the eye-like ornament on either side near 
the tail. It looks enough like an eye to be one, and de- 
ceives many persons. In Bermuda waters they flit in and 
out among the caverns and nooks of the reefs, and prob- 
ably owe their lives to their disguise, for a fish always 
seizes his prey by the head ; in this case it would be 
by the tail, which allows the little fellow a chance to dart 
away. 
Fish and Fishing, 
A Fish that Makes Fun of the Angler. 
The Rev. Father LeMoine, one of the Oblat Fathers 
engaged in missionary work among the Montagnais In- 
dians who roam the vast extent of territory lying betweeil 
Lake St. John and Hudson's Bay, has lately published a 
dictionary and grammar of the Montagnais language, 
which will doubtless prove of very great interest, not 
only to agents of the Hudson's Bay Company and all 
others having commercial dealings with these poor people, 
but also to those sportsmen who are in the habit of em- 
ploying them as guides. Had this work appeared before 
I had prepared the monograph on "The Philology of the 
Ouananiche" for the Royal Society of Canada, or the more 
voluminous work on "The Ouananiche and its Canadian 
Environment," I might have added another to the list of 
many ingenious derivatives attributed to the name of 
Canada's sportive fresh water salmon. Father LeMoine 
is by no means positive as to the origin of the name, but 
says that it is very probably derived from the verb una- 
ittshin — iu — 1 make fun. This derivation is very much 
more far-fetched than many of the others which have 
been suggested from time to time, but it may at least 
claim the merit of fairly depicting one of the leading 
characteristics of the fish. No other sporting fish better 
fulfills the condition of making fun both for and of the 
angler than does the ouananiche. While none aff'ords him 
better sport, there is certainly none that is more elusive 
v>'hen hooked or more uncertain as to the nature and re- 
sult of its fight. An illustration of this fact was recently 
afforded to a friend of mine who was fishing from a 
canoe in the Grand Discharge. He had hooked and was 
playing a ouananiche of about two pounds in weight, 
when, to the surprise of both the angler and a friend 
who was fishing quite near him in another canoe, his fish 
leayjed straight into the latter. The fisherman had barely 
time to congratulate himself upon the safety of his fish, 
and those in the other boat had not time enough to re- 
cover from their astonishment and to kill the fish, before 
it made another leap, this time safely reaching the water 
ar,d carrying away with him the fly upon which he had 
been hooked, together with a portion of the casting line. 
I he leaps of this fish closely resemble those of its near 
congener, the larger salmonoid — Salar, The Leaper. Mr. 
Noah Palmer, of New York, was fishing the Washeshoo 
a few days ago, when a salmon that was not hooked at all 
leaped into his canoe aad out of it again. 
A Marvelous Salmon Score. 
The mention of Mr. Palmer reminds tne of a memoran- 
dum of his rectnt catch on the Washeshoo, which was 
shown me the other day on board the King Edward, re- 
turning from the north shore of the gulf. It is certainly 
one of the most remarkable scores reported from any 
Canadian rivers in recent years. The Washeshoo flows 
into the Gulf of St. Lawrence five hundred miles below 
Quebec, and was formerly the property of the late Hon. 
J. J. C. Abbott, who purchased it outright from the pro- 
prietors of the Mingan seigniory. In twenty-four days' 
fishing, Mr. Palmer killed 182 salmon, several of them 
being over twenty pounds each, and their average weight 
being nine pounds. The first killed by him weighed six- 
teen pounds. His best day's sport gave him twenty fish, 
and when he left the river a few days ago it was still so 
full of rising fish, despite the late period of the season, 
that he killed ten during his last day on the river. Had 
it not been that he was considerably handicapped by a dis- 
appointment in the quality of a portion of his tackle,. Mr. 
Palmer states that he could easily have killed 250 fish to 
his own rod. The fishing commences at the sea and con- 
tinues for nearly four iniles up the river, which is wide 
and clear, running through a rocky gorge, and being abso- 
lutely without mud throughout its entire course. Mr. 
Palmer tells me that he cannot imagine any condition of 
the water in the Washeshoo in which it would not be 
possible to kill salmon during the season. Owing to the 
rapid currents and the frequent waterfalls in the river, 
its fish are exceptionally gamy. Below the falls they lie 
in such abundance that they might be thrown out of the 
water with a pitchfork. Above them they usually take 
the fly almost as soon as it is presented to them. Mr. 
Palmer cut short his fishing because he had run short of 
salt and would not kill any more fish than either his men 
or himself could make use of. It can readily be imagined 
from the score above given that his guides will not be 
likely to run short of salmon during the coming winter. 
Enormous Tuna in Nova Scotia 'Waters. 
From a correspondent in Halifax, writing on the 24th 
of July, I learn that enormous tuna have struck into Mira 
Bay, Cape Breton, in big schools, and that many sports- 
men are hurrying to the scene. The writer of the letter 
states that on the twenty-third, two Glace Bay men who 
went out in a tug, hooked a fish seven feet long, but the 
monster broke away. The Nova Scotians never know the 
fish as tuna, but call it horse mackerel or albacore. 
Several specimens have lately made their appearance in 
Gaspe Basin. 
Ontario's Angling Attractions. 
There is a good prospect that the govermnent of the 
ProAnnce of Ontario may shortly take a leaf out of Que- 
bec's book and offer for sale the lease of some of its many 
magnificent anghng waters. Such, in fact, is the conclu- 
sion to be drawn from a statement recently made in the 
Legislature of that Province by Hon. F. R. Latchford, 
Minister of Fisheries. Referring to his own lease of a 
lake in the Province of Quebec, he expressed a general 
8d 
approval of the Quebec policy in regard to the northern 
lakes, and suggested the possibility of complete surveys 
and explorations by experts, with full reports as to game 
fishing, scenery and other attractions, to the end that 
m.any remote lakes might be leased by public tender to 
wealthy anglers. In Quebec there are many complaints 
that this system of leasing has been overdone, and that 
local anglers are virtually deprived of sport in all the 
m.ore accessible waters. But, on the other hand, it is 
altogether likely that without the excellent protection 
v/hich these leases have given to their waters they would 
long ago have been depleted of fish, as many of those in 
Ontario have already been. Men without sense and in- 
capable of feeling shame have murdered fish by the thous- 
ands in small lakes. The pirate, with his net, has 
scooped them up, little and big, in and otit of season. 
Groups of men have stumbled on little lakes, fairly teem- 
ing with black bass, and have glutted their passion for 
fishing, leaving the slain in heaps on the rocks. Now the 
chief danger which seems to threaten the beautiful waters 
of Ontario is the lease of their fishing for commercial 
purposes. That of Lake Manitou, Lake Nepigon, and 
other lakes has already been leased to commercial fishing 
companies, and it is this circumstance which led up to the 
recent angling debate in the Legislature, in the course of 
which earnest protests were made against the leasess in 
question, and sportsmanlike appeals were made to the 
Govermnent to preserve the magnificent trout and bass 
waters of the Province for local anglers and for those 
visiting sportsmen who come to Ontario for the fishing, 
and who make such generous expenditure of their money 
there. Much gratification will be caused by the announce- 
ment of Mr. Latchford that it would be nothing short of 
a crime to even consider applications for netting licenses 
in such magnificent waters as those of Lake Temagami, 
concerning the attractions of which he discoursed so hap- 
pilj' that the reporters inform us that many of the mem- 
bers sighed quite audiblj' in the heated chamber for the 
cooling breezes of the cleverly depicted haunts of the big 
trout and bass. And such delightful fish stories were re- 
hearsed from one corner of the House after another that 
even the biggest of them was allowed to pass without the 
raising of any point of order or any appeal to the rules of 
debate. iE. T. D. Chambers. 
The Nepigon, its Beauty and its 
Trout. 
{Concluded from page 69.) 
The bait fisher monopolizes most of the sport at Pine 
Portage. Occasionally the fly scores among the big square 
tails; but I'll take the minnow against the field every time. 
Nevertheless, it is delightful to cast your flies into the 
lovely pools and rapids and battle with the vigorous light- 
weights. That was my idea of it, so I did not propose 
to change my gait until I arrived at the headquarters of 
angling. Virgin Falls, not far away, above the rapids of 
the Great White Chute, clamor for recognition. Their 
claims should not be ignored, as a record breaker is as 
likely to be encountered here as anywhere. As fly-fishing 
did not pan out very well I concluded to move off up 
stream, so gliding up the narrow arm, above the White 
Chute, we portaged into Lake Emma. This pretty gem 
of the woods is inclosed on al! sides by dense forests that 
shelter a few caribou; in fact, game is quite scarce along 
the river, but abundant further north. The rapids at 
Camp Minor that showed up ahead, were a welcome sight 
to us all. The pool below looked very enticing, but I was 
in no haste to sample its attractions. Promising an early 
call, I followed on after the guides. The carry is short 
and rough and can be avoided, if the birch is loaded light, 
by hauling it up the rapids by means of bushes and pro- 
jecting limbs. The river above Camp Minor is placidly 
beautiful ; it spreads out like a miniature lake, mirroring 
in its pellucid waters the beauty of forest and sky. A mile 
away it terminates in a precipitous mass of rock, whije 
from the huge cleft in its rocky wall a vast volume of 
water and sound was projected far into space, deepening, 
as we advanced, to a muffled roar. It was the stentor- 
ian voice of Virgin Falls, calling from afar. Beyond the 
raging outlet we caught the gleam of white tents, but no 
sign of life showed up on our side. This was encourag- 
ing. The cataract dinned a thundering welcome in our 
ears as we stepped ashore at the last portage, between 
the river and Lake Nepigon. We had the pick of the 
camp sites, as there was no one on this carry to dispute 
possession. About an eighth of a mile from the landing 
a narrow path intersects the main trail, terminating in a 
stony platform, clothed with a sparse growth of vegeta- 
tion that extends to the head of the falls. Here in this 
lovely spot close to a beautiful bed of wild flowers, we 
erected our permanent camp. Twilight was coming on 
apace, but the bright light of the camp-fire reflected from 
the cheerful faces of the guides, helped dispel the gloom 
after partaking of a bountiful repast and planning for 
to-morrow. I retired under canvas to be lulled to rest 
by the monotonous roar of the falls. 
The next morning was spent getting ready for_ the 
evening fishing, and inspecting my wild surroundings. 
The view from the edge of the cataract was truly mag- 
nificent. Here the pent up waters of the lake leap with 
an appalling shout into the abyss below. Above the 
frightful tumult of fighting waters a wild droning hum 
pulses on the air, that presently resolves itself into a 
weird chant of many voices, rising and falling now far 
and sad, again wildly triumphant, like a war song, a 
veritable hymn of the forest. A few yards away from its 
base, the conflicting currents meet and form a whirlpool 
from the center of which, at regular intervals, a splendid 
jet of water Avas hurled upward to the skies. From my 
lofty perch I could overlook the camp of fly-fishers near 
the outlet; their white tents conti^asting beautifully with 
the somber green background. There must be innnense 
hooked-jawed trout lying up in the smooth current at 
the head of the falls, and there they are likely to re- 
main, as death in its most frightful form awaits the dar- 
ing angler and his guides, who dare encroach on thi- 
danger line, which is some distance above. Human 
muscle would avail naught against the powerful suction or 
the torrent, whose warning voice causes the very air to 
tremble. It is not necessary to tamper with this death 
trap, as there is a good place about an eighth of ^ mjl^;; 
