Oct. 3, 1903.] 
tells rae that when the windows in his house are open the 
odor is offensive and unhealthy. The marshes and low- 
lands about the mouth of the river are covered with a 
gliie-like substance, and the action of the sun causes a 
frightful stench. I have myself seen the white scum 
covering almost the entire surface of the river as it flows 
under the arched bridge through Keeseville. 
"There is no disposition to throttle the mill industry, 
nor any raid to impair the vahie of any investment, or to 
work a hardship on those whose livelihood depends upon 
the operation of the mills. There is no effort to oppress 
anybody, but there is a very lively and active disposition 
to bring about an abatement of the trouble." 
Mr. Hatch then sliowed a letter he had received from 
Congressman Joseph C. Sibley, of Pennsylvania, who 
owns a fine summer place on the lake. It speaks for itself : 
'Tn reference to the much-talked-of nuisance created 
through the pulp mills discharging their refuse into Lake 
Champlain, I must say that my attention has been many 
times directed to the Saranac, Au Sable and Bouquet 
rivers. The Au Sable is a disgrace, and I believe the 
chemicals, together with the sawdust, will destroy the fish 
in ±he lake; certainly will drive them from that portion 
of the waters of Lake Champlain. The fishing in Lake 
Champlain now is so poor that it does not interest me 
to any great extent. The fact is on the New York side 
there is practically no fishing. I think they are already 
driven out. When I go fishing it is generally over on the 
Vermont shore." 
Mr. D. W. INIiddleton, of the Forest, Fish and Game 
Commission, in a letter to Congressman Sibley, says : 
"We find mill owners willing to do everything in their 
power to remove the causes of complaint, and in the in- 
stance to which you refer are spending thousands of 
dollars in an endeavor to remedy the difficulty. We trust 
that in the near future the efforts of the commission 
and the mill owners will result in a satisfactory solution 
of the problem as to the best method for the disposal of 
refuse so as not to contaminate public waters." 
The mill on the Bouquet River has been in operation 
since 1890. Soon after it was started jMaior J. Warren 
Pond, chief game protector of the Forest, Fish and Game 
Coimnission, brought an action against it, which resulted 
in an alleged promise on the part of the owners that they 
would construct a pool to collect the chemicals discharged 
from their mill. It is what is known as a soda mill. In 
the manufacture of pulp it uses poplar logs, and it con- 
sumes many tons of chemicals every day. The chemicals, 
when discharged into the river, are carried by the current 
fi distance of three miles into the lake and are suspended 
there in the form of gray precipitates. 
In spite of this alleged promise, the evil continued until 
Gov. Roosevelt's term, when the Forest, Fish and Game 
Commissioner employed special counsel and brought an- 
other action. 
When all the evidence of violation had been compiled, 
an action against the mill was brought in the county 
court, and the case was so strong that the defendants 
cornpromised. On their promise to offend no longer, the 
action was discontinued. 
_ Soon afterward the Forest, Fish and Game Commis- 
sion was merged with the Forest Preserve Board, a new 
set of officers took control, and the owners of the mill, 
it is said, forgot their promise. 
The mill on the Au Sable River uses spruce timber 
in making its pulp, and employs large amounts of sul- 
phurous acid gas. This mill is more than ten miles from 
the mouth of the river. The village of Keeseville formerly 
drew its supply of water from the river, but the stream 
became polluted to such an extent that it had to be aban- 
doned. Owners of the mill admitted their responsibility 
by offering to find the village another source ©f water 
supply. 
Rlills at Ticonderoga and elsewhere have spent thous- 
ands of dollars to dispose of the chemicals which they 
use without polluting the lake. It is alleged that the 
establishments on the Bouquet and Au Sable rivers are 
the only ones in the entire State which are permitted to 
defy the law with impunity. Both these streams were 
formerly prolific with game fish. The poisonous quality 
of the water of the spawning grounds for bass, pike, 
pickerel, after causing tremendous destruction, has now 
driven the fish entirely away. As the chemicals are in- 
soluble in water, the accumulation is continually grow- 
ing. It is predicted that five years more will entail the 
most serious results. 
On account of the noted purity of its water. Lake 
Champlain has been considered as a possible source of 
supply for New York city. For a long time there has 
been great indignation among Lake Champlain residents 
over the inactivity of the State authorities. They are 
convinced that the immunity the pulp mills enjoy is due 
to political or_ other influences. 
In commenting on the continued pollution of the waters 
of the lake and the never ending destruction of the noble 
forests round and about it, Mr. Hatch, in enthusiastic 
vein, said : 
"Around no other section of the country cluster his- 
Ttorical associations so brilliant and memorable. In the 
•annals of a century and a half by successive deeds of 
■daring, by bloody forays, by the romances of border war- 
fare, by the conflicts of fleets and armies, the waters 
<ind the shores of Lake Champlain have been consecrated 
as the classic ground of America. In those merciless con- 
tests in \yhich _ France and England were the allies of 
savage tribes, in the long and sanguinary conflicts be- 
tween those great powers, in the war of the Revolution, 
and that of 1812, the whole course of the lake was stained 
with blood, and emblazoned by feats of glory. How long, 
T ^vonder, \yill the people of New York State and of the 
nation continue to regard with indifference the desecra- 
tion of this consecrated spot!" 
Q is 
Take inventory of the good things in this issue jj 
Q of Forest and Stre/V.m. Recall what a fund was 
given last zveek. Count on what is to come next 
itt week. Was there ever in all the world a more i? 
^ abundant weekly store of shortsmen's reading? 
FOREST AND STREAM . 
Common Names of the Basses and 
Sunfishes. 
BY HUGH M. SMITH. 
Extracted from TJ. S. Fish Commission Report for 1902,i paces 
353 to 366. 
The strictly American family of fresh water sunfishes 
and basses (Centrarchtdce) consists of numerous species, 
mcludmg some of our best-known fresh water fishes, 
which are much sought by anglers, and contribute largely 
to the food supply. The family is well represented in 
nearly all parts of the United States east of the Rocky 
Mountains, in Canada and Mexico, and one species is 
found in California. 
Some of these fishes are known only to the ichthyolo- 
gist, and have no distinctive names by which the layman 
may designate them; others can claim only book names 
which have never come into use and probably never will ; 
and others have received a large number of vernacular 
names, some general and some local in their application. 
Some of the popular designations are appropriate and dis- 
tinctive, but others are misleading, inaccurate, and in- 
definite, and much confusion has been occasioned thereby 
in popular literature and in legal papers. This compila- 
tion is offered in the belief that a key to the numerous 
names of these fishes will be useful to fishermen, fish- 
culturists, and legislators. There is no intention to lay 
undue stress on the importance of common names; on 
the contrary, it is thought that the multiplicity of names 
here shown serves to emphasize the necessity for definite- 
ness which can, in many instances, be secured only 
through the use of the technical names. 
The common names are presented in two lists. In the 
first an effort is made to bring together, in alphabetical 
order, all the common names that have been applied to the 
sunfishes in the United States and Canada, to show the 
distribution of these names, and to identify the species to 
which each common name is given. Practically all the 
names in print are recorded, together with a number of 
others reported by correspondents and associates, which 
have apparently not been printed. 
The following explanations of the list are given : 
1. The vernacular names are arranged in strict alpha- 
betical order, and are recorded in the various forms in 
which they are spelled or pronounced. The fish may be 
identified by its vernacular name by noting its technical 
name, and tlien, if necessary, referring to the latter in 
the systematic list of the members of the family. 
2. The geographical distribution of the names is indi- 
cated as accurately as possible. Names used over a wide 
area and appearing often in print are marked "general." 
The absence of locality indicates either a lack of knowl- 
edge as to where the name is employed or the appearaiicc 
of the name only in books. 
3. Whenever practicable a reference is given to a pub- 
lished record of the use of the name for the species and 
region cited. In the case of many names this record was 
the first known, but for other names, whose earliest ap- 
plication has not been determined, it has been considered 
sufficient to refer to a standard work. [These references 
are here omitted.] 
The second list comprises the scientific and approved 
vernacular names of the Centrarchida, and under each 
.'pecies all the common names that have been applied to it. 
Notes and Comments on the Common Names. 
The fertile imagination of Rafinesque induced him to 
coin many names for the members of this family, and he 
is responsible for a large proportion of the book names 
mentioned in the list. More recent writers have, how- 
ever, contributed a number of such names, as will appear 
from the list. In some cases, where common names are 
given without comment in local lists of fishes and in 
general works, it has not been possible to determine 
whether they were in actual use or simply supplied by the 
writers. This compilation is therefore probably subject 
to correction in a number of such names which could not 
be corroborated from other sources. 
The names "sunfish," "bream," and "perch" are applied 
with little discrimination to all the smaller species, more 
especially those of the genera Lepomis and Eupomotis in 
the Southern States. "Bream" is often corrupted to 
"brim," and "perch" to "peerch" or "pearch." The same 
names are also given to Pomoxis, Ambloplites, Chano- 
bryttus, and Centrarchus, with or without qualifying 
words. 
The name tobacco-box, which is applied to Eupomotis 
sibb osus in Maryland and Virginia, doubtless was based 
on a real or supposed resemblance in size, form, or color 
to the old-fashioned pocket receptacle for smoking and 
chewing tobacco. In regard to another fanciful name of 
this fish, Frank Forrester remarked that "the numerous 
spots on its body have procured for it the absurd name of 
pumpkin-seed in manj' States." 
The two members of the genus Pomoxis are very sim- 
ilar in appearance and habits, and exist together in 
many waters. It is, therefore, no wonder that they bear 
many of the same common names, although each has some 
particular appellations. 
"Strawberry bass and calico bass seem to be very ap- 
propriate designations for Pomoxis sparoides, and have 
the additional advantage of being already generally in use 
in a large distript" (Goode.) For Pomoxis annularis, 
crappie may be recommended. 
The names "campbellite" and "newlight," which appear 
to have originated in Kentucky, and to have spread thence 
to Indiana and Illinois, are said by Goode to have been 
given to P. annularis "by the irreverent during the great 
Campbellite movement in the West nearly half a century 
ago," and Klippart shows the origin of the name in Ken- 
tucky by recalling that the fish "appeared in the waters 
of that State simultaneously with the advent of the dis- 
ciples of Rev. Alexander Campbell." These names are 
seldom heard nowadays, but are carried along in the 
books on fishes, and are interesting nomenclatural relics. 
That they have not entirely died out, however, is shown 
by the fact that as late as January, 1903, the Fish Com- 
mission received from Kentucky an application for "new- 
lights" for stocking a pond, and Dr. S. P. Bartlett, of the 
United States Fish Commission station at Quincy, III. 
reports that he has occasionally heard the name "cam'pbel- - 
lite" in that State. Klippart attaches these names to B. 
261 
sparoides, "but other writers have restricted them to P. 
annularis. 
Monsieur Montpetit ("Les poissons d'eau douce du 
Canada ) thus discusses the names crappie and crapet: 
_ Crapet? Nothing similar exists in any French dic- 
tionary to designate a fish. I have reason to believe that 
the American word crappie is simply a transformation by 
the ear of the Canadian word crapet, which must have 
r AT ^PP''^^ to this fish a long time before the colonists 
of New England could have known it. Whether this fish 
took the name of crappie in the limpid waters of the Great 
Lakes or in the muddy v/aters of the mouths of the 
Mississippi, there is not less reason to believe that this 
name is only the alteration of the French word crapet 
which was given to it, either in Canada or Louisiana, a 
century and more before the English had become ac- 
quainted with it. Ah! te crapet! That is an essentially 
Canadian expression which we have all heard from the 
mouth of our mother, when for some teasing trick or 
mischievous act she threatened us with soft and affection- 
ate blows. Ah! le crapet! Which meant: 'No matter 
by what end he is taken, he is always bristling, ready to 
do us an injury — he is a crapet.'" 
The euphonious French name sac-a-lait (bag of milk) 
which IS heard in the lower Mississippi Valley and now 
apparently is applied to other centrarchids as well as to 
P. annularis, to which it was originally given, has been 
corrupted to "suckley perch" in Louisiana near New 
Orleans. John Demon and shad, names mentioned by 
Mr. Goode as being applied to the craopie, have not re- 
cently been heard, and their geographical distribution is 
unknown to the compiler. According to Professor Ever- 
mann, tin-mouth and paper-mouth are names now often 
heard in Indiana, the former having reference to the color 
of the inside of the mouth of the crappie, the latter to the 
fact that the mouth tears easily when hooked. 
Of the numerous names applied to members of the 
genus Micropterus, none is so distinctive as black bass, 
with the qualifying terms large-mouthed and small- 
mouthed, and these are the designations which should be 
generally adopted and adhered to, even though few, if 
any, specimens are really black. 
Mr. Goode recalls that "Charlevoix, a Jesuit missionnrj' 
who explored Canada in. 1721, mentions a fish called 
achigan, which is thought to have been the large-mouth." 
M. Montpetit, in his "Les poissons d'eau douce du 
Canada," has adopted achigan as the most appropriate 
vernacular name, and writes as follows regarding it: 
"In the Province of Quc„,;c, in more than one Ameri- 
can State, the name achigan will persist and will perhaps 
finally prevail even on the continent of Europe. By 
priority, recognized as a principle by the naturalists of 
Europe and America, it has incontestable titles, since for 
cencuries and centuries, doubtless, before Laudonniere 
called this fish salmoides, the aborigines of Canada desig- 
nated it under the name achigan. It is a name of terror, 
the Algonquin name, picked up by Charlevoix and re- 
ligiously preserved among us. One savant, versed in the 
savage languages, the Rev. Father Lacomb, O. M. I., has 
claimed that the word means the fish which disputes, 
which struggles, which shakes and bungles the line! 
Those who have seen it at work will admit that that is 
just its description." 
Alphabetical List of the Common Names of the Basses 
and Sunfishes. 
'Achigan -Canada Micropterus salmoiJes 
Achigan Micropterus. 
Achigan grand bouche .AJ icropierus salmoides. 
Achigan noir -. .Micropterus.- 
Aghigan petite bouche Micropterus duloniieu 
Bachelor—Iowa I'omoxis sparoides 
Bachelor— Ohio yalley I'omo.xis annularis. 
Bachelor perch— Ohio River F'omo.xis annularis. 
Banded sunfish Ennencanthus obesus. 
Banded Sunfish Mesogonistius cli.ctodon. 
Bank-hck bass— Ohio l'omo.\is sparoitlcs. 
Ear-fish— Lalce Michigan— Wisconsin I'oniu.Nis sparoides 
Bass--General -Micropterus! 
Lass hog-fish .Micropterus doloinieu (vouug). 
Bass sunfish , Xcantharclius p"-)iii.iti-;. 
Bayou bass— Southern States Micropterus salm .iilc-.. 
Big-ear sunfish l,epomis niii^nluii- 
Big-fin bass romo.xis .,|.;irui,i^s. 
Big-mouth— Upper Mississippi \alley Chanobrvttus ^ulu^us. 
Big-mouth bass— General. Micropterus saliUDi.le-.-. 
Big-mouthed black f)a-is— General Micropterus saliiKiiiies. 
Big-mouthed sunfish— Kentucky— Ohio ? Ch.-cnobrvtlu- kuIo-us. 
Big-mouthed trout — Kentucky^. Micro). itfus sa'iiioidcs. 
Big-nosed sunfish Apornotis i-clivriis. 
Bitter-head— Ohio I'umoxis sparolde-. 
Black-banded sunfish .M esogonistiiis cliictiul u. 
Black bass — General M icrotiti i us. 
Black bass of the Huron Mtcroiiterus <a'moidfs! 
Black crappie— Illinois , I'omoxis spami.los. 
Black-eared pond-fish l.t-piniis palliiliis; 
Black-eared pond-fish l.ipoinl-, auritus. 
Black-ears— Ohio \'al1ey . . -.^.Lepomis mcgaloti-;. 
Black-eyes — Ohio N'alley T.epomis cvaiu I n-. 
Black-eye sunfish I-epotni- cvaiii'llu-i. 
Black fresh-water bass Micrupltrus iliK.mitu. 
Black Huron Micropttriis ^a!maidcs. 
Black perch— Ohio \ al!ey; Miss._; Tenil. , . . . Micro|»ierus dolomicu. 
Black sunfish— Mississippi? Cli.Tnobryitus gulosus. 
Black sunfish — 01*io Ambloplites rupestris. 
Black-tailed sunfish — Ohio Valley Lepomis mcijalotis: 
Black warmoulh ' Ch.Tnobryttus gulu^nu. 
Bloaity sunfish Lepomis nicsaloiis. 
Blue-and-green sunfish Lepomis cyanellus. 
Blue bass — Ohio X'alley Lepomis cynnclliis. 
Blue bream — General Lepomis pallidiis. 
Bluefish — Ohio \ alley l^epoiiiis cyanellus. 
Blue-gill (or blue gills) — Maumee River, C; JJichigan. 
Lepomis iiallidus. 
Blue-gill ed bream — Jfichigan. . . . , t-cpomis iiallldus. 
Blue joe — North Carolina I^epomis pnllidus. 
Blue-mouthed sunfish I e|ioniis pnllidus. 
Blue perch — .Yorth Carolina: Lepomis pnlliiliis. 
Blue sunfish — General l.t-pomis pallidus. 
Blue sunfish — Ohio Leiiomis cyancliiis. 
Blue-spotted sunfish Lepomis cyanellus. 
Blue-spotted sunfish Knneacanthus simulans et glnriosu-;. . 
Bream — Maine; Massachusetts liujiomolis gibbosus. 
Bream— Maine , ...Lepomis auritus. 
Bream — Southern Atlantic States Ambloplites rui>estris. 
Bream — Southern At'antic States Cha-nobryttus gulosus. 
Bream — Southern Atlantic States Lepomis auritus. 
Bream — Soiitliern Atlantic States Hupomoti.s gibbosus. 
Bream — Southern States; general Lepomis, ICuponiotis, etc. 
'Breme — Quebec. Ambloplites rupestris. 
Bride Perch — Ohio Micropterus salmoides. 
Bridge perch I'omo.xis annularis. 
Brilliant sunfish, ... . . Lepomis megalolis. 
^Brim (see bream) — General; SotHli. «Lepomis, Eupomotis, etc. 
Bronze-backer , .Micropterus dolomicuj 
Bronzed centrarclius , .Ambloplites rupestris. 
Brown bass — Oliio X'alley. Micropterus doloinieu. 
Brown river bass. Micropterus dolomieii. 
Brown trout — Ohio Valley Micropterus doloinieu. 
Buflalo bass — Michigan Chasnobryttus gulosus. 
'Indian. ^French. ^Corruption. '•Obsolete. 
