Oct. 10, 1903.11 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
283 
le rights of the people as a whole in the matter of pro- 
ctin^ and promoting the multiplication of fish. 
Justice Brewer rightly appealed to the sense of right, 
id such an appeal ought to prove effective with all 
asses having to do with our fishing interests. If such 
1 appeal will not cause men to stop the wanton destruc- 
on of fish in Lake Champlain by the wholesale, there is 
possibility of meeting those communities which stand 
r seining in Lake Champlain on their own ground. 
The only benefit which a community receives from the 
berty to haul seines within its boundaries is the circu- 
tion therein of the comparative pittance which fishers 
:ceive from the sale of the fish thus taken. Now com- 
ire this small benefit to the results which would follow 
ere Lake Champlain so well stocked with fish for 
igling that our shores would be lined with cottages 
id summer cottages for the accommodation of summer 
sitors attracted here, in part, by onr excellent fishing, 
^ould not the large sums of money thus attracted to 
lese shores from the large cities and brought here by 
lurists from all parts of the country, far surpass the 
nounts received from the sale of fish taken in seines? 
If it be urged that even excellent angling might not 
,ean the realization of the picture thus painted, it can be 
ated on the authority of those whose interests lead 
lem to study the subject of attracting summer visitors 
» Lake Champlain that the lack of good fishing with 
Dok and line is one of the most serious objections that 
ley have had to contend against. They come into con- 
,ct with tourists and know the appeals which tend to 
:tract tourists to other places where good fishing con- 
itutes one of the best drawing cards. 
An immense hotel is to be erected on one of the 
lands of Lake Champlain in the_ near future by a cor- 
jration as an experiment; and if the experiment is a 
iccess it requires no argument to show that other struc- 
ires of this character will speedily follow. It is tha 
jty of the residents of the Champlain Valley to do 
rerything in their power, speaking from a purely selfish 
andpoint, let alone the common welfare, to spare no 
asonable effort to assure the success of this experiment. 
Instead of clamoring for the privilege of drawing 
■ines, every town on Lake Champlain should see to it 
lat no seines are used within its borders to deplete the 
ock of fish in Lake Champlain. We cannot hope to 
)nvince our Canadian neighbor that he should not draw 
le seine, while we are pulling out loads of fish as we 
Jk to him. Someone must stop seining first, and inas- 
uch as we shall have summer hotels before our neigh- 
Dfs, it will not be unreasonable to ask that people on 
lis side of the boundary set our neighbors the right kind 
£ an example. 
Fish and Fishing, 
The Salmon Seasoa in Newfoundland. 
Mr. W. F. J. McCoRMiCK, who wrote the interesting 
ctails recently given to Forest and Stream of tlie 
itching of Newfoundland salmon with bait, furnishes 
le with valuable information respecting some of the 
ilmon rivers of the Island Colony, and the catches of 
le recently terminated season. Of the Little Codroy 
'iver, from which he wrote, Mr. McCormick says that 
le fishing there has been worse than in any other part 
f the island, owing to the crowd of inexperienced per- 
?ns — not anglers — who have been thrashing the imfor- 
imate stream ever since July i. Only eight miles in 
■ngth, and containing but four pools, it has been forced 
> support a daily average of ten "fishermen" with tackle 
mging from a 35-4-ounce bamboo trout rod to an Eng- 
sh telegraph pole 24 feet long, and heavy enough for a 
argo boom on a tramp steamship. Though the Little 
lodroy fish are not exceptionally numerous, they seem 
D run large for Newfoundland. Mr. McCormick com- 
lains, however, that their fighting powers arc not very 
reat. He killed a 3T-pound male on the 22d of August 
I eight minutes. It made but one run and came in 
early dead. He would like to Icnow what is the mat- 
;r with the fish here, and suggests that they may feel 
le want of exercise, since the river is very shallow, so 
luch so that it can. be waded almost everywhere. Ex- 
'uding all fish under ten pounds in weight, the following 
a list of the salmon killed by Mr. McCormick in the 
.ittle Codroy during the first three weeks of August : 
)ne of 23^0 pounds on a No. 2 silver-doctor; one of 
i^i pounds on a No. i black-dose ; one of 12% pounds 
a a No. 4 Hornsby; one of pounds on a No. 6 
3ck-Scott; one of 19 pounds on a No. 4 Hornsby; one 
f 31 pounds on a No. 2 silver-doctor; one of 161/2 
aunds on a No. 2 dustj'-miller ; one of 15 pounds on a 
\o. 2 Jock-Scott; and one of io;.-2 pounds on a No. 8 
Iver-doctor. The last mentioned fish was taken on a 
out rod on the 25th of August, and the ig, 31 and r6lA- 
3und fish were all killed in about two hours' fishing on 
LUgust 22. The 31-pound fish is the largest taken this 
ar in the Little Codroy. Mr. McCormick reports that 
I addition to the large fish mentioned above, he killed 
large number of grilse from 3 to 8 pounds, and about 
lirty brook trout from 2j4 pounds to 4^. The 
sst trout fishing, however, this year was in the Gander 
iver. The fish were plentiful about the isl of July, ran 
irge and took the fly well. 
Mr. McCormick believes that he has found out the 
•ouble with the lower Humber and the reason why there 
I little or no fishing in so promising-looking a stream, 
[e was near its mouth in the Bay of Islands for several 
ays, from the 2d to the 7th inst., and fished for trout 
t the first big I'apids with fair success. The salmon 
ill not stop in the river, however, below Deer Lake on 
ccount of the large number of seals with which it is 
warming. My informant saw six in one small pool at the 
ime time. The Bay of Islands district gives a bounty of 
I per head on seals, but not apparently' with much effect, 
molt are plentiful in the river, and in fact a perfect 
uisance to the trout fisherman, so that there is every 
eason to hope that in time the upper walcns of the 
[umber will be well stocked witli salmon. 
Very Large Trout- 
1 cannot remember any previous year in which there 
av_e been so many large trout killed in this country as 
aring the last two months of the season which has just 
i^cd. From every j>ait oi the Province in which large 
trout are known to exist come reports showing that the 
biggest fish have been easily taken on the fly. The ex- 
cellence of this fall fishing goes far to compensate for 
the very indifferent sport enjoy^ed during the spring and 
early summer. Mr. A. W. Hooper, of New Llaven, re- 
turned here from Commissioners' Lake on the 2d inst., 
having killed during the last few days of the season 
several fish running from pounds to 4 pounds. He 
also lost some very large ones in consequence of bad 
hooks. 
But by far the greatest interest aroused by big trout 
this season was that manifested in a catch of fish recently 
brought to town from the big lake Jacques Cartier within 
the limits of the Laurentides National Park. This lake 
is very inaccessible, being only reached by two or three 
days of very hard work, though not more than about 
seventy miles from Quebec. The road to it has been 
practicall}'- deserted for so long a time, however, that it 
is in parts well nigh impassable for a horse and buck- 
board, and would scarcely be recognized by John Bur- 
roughs as that traveled by him thirty to forty years ago. 
Very large trout had previously been taken out of this 
lake, but none so heavy as one brought thence a few days 
ago, which turned the scales at 9 pounds. 
Speaking of heavy trout reminds me of an illustration 
which came under my notice the other day of how some 
big fish records are made. A Toronto newspaper re- 
ported that a beautifully spotted trout had been captured 
by a well-known clergyman of that city in an inland lake 
of Ontario which weighed over 17 pounds. The item 
was no doubt perfectly correct, for lake trout of very 
much larger size have been taken out of Ontario lakes, 
and the lake or salmon trout (namayciish) is certainly 
a very beautifully spotted fish. But as paper after paper 
copied the item all over the country, for the Toronto 
divine is a very well-known and popular fisher of both 
men and trout, the spotted trout became a "speckled 
trout," this latter adjective doubtless appearing to the 
editors to be the better one._ So people were seriously 
asking themselves whether it was possible to catch a 
17-pound fontinalis, and whether the Rev. Dr. Langtry's 
trout was not a record breaker ; for, as in the case of the 
"cowslip on the river's brim," a trout is a speckled 
beauty without distinction of variety to the ordinary 
newspaper reader, and it is nothing more. 
Cognate to this subject is that of the reported catch 
of several sea salmon of late in the St. Lawrence, in the 
vicinity of Cornwall or Barnhart's Island. Were these 
fish namaycush or lake trout, or what were they? I am 
not aware that any species was examined by anybody 
competent to decide the question. Salmon have inhabited 
the waters in years gone by where these fish were taken, 
but there is no reason for believing that they have again 
ascended the St. Lawrence so far, and if they had they 
would not take bait or a spoon so far from the sea. It 
has been suggested that these fish were rainbow trout. 
It is well known that for some years past Lake Titus, 
on the American side of the river, has contained these 
fish, and that specimens -weighing at least 10 pounds have 
been seen below the dam there in spawning time. Being 
sorsewhat of a migratory fish it is quite possible that 
they may have run down the Salmon River into the St. 
Lawrence, in which case they would be very likely to be 
taken in the vicinity of Cornwall. The proper examina- 
tio!i of a specimen would of course soon settle the ques- 
tion. 
In the Footsteps of Cotton. 
Charles Cotton built a fishing hut on the bank of the 
Derwent in Beresford Dale, and it is reasonable to sup- 
pose that he made frequent use of a footpath leading by 
the hut. Concerning this footpath there has arisen a dis- 
pute, the present owner having closed it against the pub- 
lic. Beresford Dale is on the borderland of Stafford- 
shire and Derbyshire, and to-day it is quite as favorite 
a resort of anglers as in the days of Walton and Cotton. 
There is another footpath on the opposite bank of the 
stream, but it does not permit a near approach to Cot- 
ton's hut, and this is a privilege which the occasional 
visitors to the Dale, acting through the local Footpaths 
Preservation Society, are striving to regain. 
Mysterious Movements of Fish, 
How remarkable are the pilgrimages of some of the 
immense shoals of fish in the ocean ! It has been well 
said that the laws of their warnderings still belong to 
nature's mysteries. I hear through friends who have 
been salmon fishing in Scandinavia that vast armies of 
herring have appeared off the west coast of Sweden, and 
that the fisherfolk are reaping a rich harvest. These fish 
have now been absent for a quarter of a century. Dur- 
ing the middle ages the herring fisheries of Sweden pro- 
duced great wealth, but the herring unaccoimtably disap- 
peared for three centuries. They reappeared at the end 
of the eighteenth century and at the middle of the nine- 
teenth, just as they have during the present season. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
Wisconsin Muscalongfe Fishing. 
Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 18. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I cannot resist answering two articles which 
appeared lately concerning the different baits used in 
taking muscallonge in northern Wisconsin lakes. The 
statements that amused me the most were these: "One 
does not recollect any instances of muscallunge being- 
caught on frog bait. The most up-to-date method of 
taking the educated muskie would seem to be by casting 
a sucker minnow weighing about a pound. The frog, 
for one reason or another, is not commonly used by the 
muscallimge fishers of the Wisconsin district." 
Allow me to suggest that this poor unsophisticated 
writer should be sentenced to thirty days of solitary 
muskie fishing in northern Wisconsin, with nothing to 
eat until he should catch a muscallunge "casting a sucker 
minnow weighing about a pound." Perhaps that might 
enable him to write articles from experience, and relieve 
him of that terrible strain of drawing so heavily upon 
his imagination. 
I have fished for muskies for fifteen years in fifty lakes 
in Wisconsin, and find that casting a frog on a weedless 
hook without a spoon is the most enticing bait and used 
more by the best fishermen thai; a»y other bait. Of 
course, a minnow is the natural bait for musjcallunge, but 
is not used as much as frogs for several reasons. Min- 
nows are not easily obtained in a great many localities ; 
they do not wear as well as frog and cannot be handled 
as well in casting unless they happen to be just the right 
size. 
I think the next best bait is a plain spoon with a few 
bright feathers and a single hook. A single hook re- 
duces the chances of being caught in the weeds; and, be- 
sides, it is not considered sportsmanlike to use more 
than one' hook. 
Now, concerning that "Casting a sucker minnow 
weighing a pound." In the first place it is almost too 
absurd to talk about. There is not a casting outfit man- 
ufactured for inland lakes fishing that can stand the 
strain of casting a pound weight; neither could a sports- 
man be found who could stand the strain for any length 
of time. 
I have fished for muskies every day for the last three 
months and used frogs for bait two-thirds of the time — 
always killing the frogs before using. I have no record 
catches to brag of, as I do not measure my sport by the 
number of fish taken, but I had excellent fishing all 
summer. 
I shall write you again sometime giving a more de- 
tailed acount of my experiences fishing for muskies in 
Wisconsin and shooting chickens in the Dakotas. 
T. K. 
The Largest Bluefish* 
In Forest and Stream, June 25, 1874, it is noted that 
a bluefish weighing 25 pounds was caught with rod and 
reel at Cohasset Narrows, Massachusetts, by L. Hatha- 
way, a veteran fisherman. This appears to have been a 
record fish, for the vague reports of forty and fifty 
pound fish in New England prior to the American Revo- 
lution must be regarded with some suspicion. Jordan 
and Evermann, in their "American Food and Game 
Fishes" (1902), says: "The largest bluefish of which we 
have any record weighed 22 pounds and had a length of 
three feet." 
I now have to announce the capture of what may 
prove to be the largest bluefish of which an authentic 
and definite record exists. Mr. George E. Orpin, keeper 
of the Maddequet life-saving station at Nantucket, writes 
to the Bureau of Fisheries that in the latter part of Sep- 
tember, 1903, Nelson P. Emer, surfman at the station, 
caught from the beach a bluefish 3 feet Q inches long 
which weighed 27 pounds. H. M. Smith. 
Bi REAU OF FiSHESiES, Washington, D, C. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New York, and not to any individual connected with the paper. 
Ftxtores. 
BENCH SHOWS. 
Oct, 20-23.— Frederick County, Md., Agricultural Society show. 
J. Roger McSherry, Sec'y. 
Nov. 17-19.— Boston, Mass. Terrier Club show. 
FIELD TRIALS. 
Oct. 26.— Clare, Mich.— Sportsman's Field Trial Association 
trials. E. C. Smith, Sec'y, Midland, Mich. 
Oct. 26.— Washington Court House, O.— Monongahela Field 
Trial Association trials. A. C. Peterson, Sec'y, Homestead, Pa. 
Oct. 27.— Paradise Valley, Nev.— Nevada Field Trial Association 
trials. Dr. C. E. Wilson, Sec'y, Elko, Nev. 
Nov. 2.— Washington Court House, O.— Ohio Field Trial Asso- 
ciation trials. G. R. Haswell, Sec'y, Circleville, O. 
Nov. 3-6.— New York.— Annual sho-w of Ladies' Kennel Associa 
tion of America, 
Nov. 9.— Fourteenth annual beagle trials of the National Beagle 
Club of America. Charles R. Stevenson, Sec'y. 
Nov. 9.— Howardsville, Va.— Missouri FieM Trial Association 
trials. L. S. Eddins, Sec'y, Sedalia, Mo. 
Nov. 9.— St. Joachim, Ont.— International Field Trial Associa- 
tion trials. W. B. Wells, Hon. Sec'y, Chatham, Ont. 
Nov. 9.— Hutsonville, 111.— Independent Field Trial Club trials. 
H. S. Humphrey, Sec'y, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Nov. 9.— Western Irish Setter Cluh trials. Dr. T. L. Fenn, 
Sec'y, Chicago, 111. 
Nov. 10.— Hampton, Conn.— Connecticut Field Trial Club trials. 
F. W. Smith, Sec'y, New Haven, Conn. 
Nov. 16.— Robinson, 111.— Illinois Field Trial Association trials. 
W. R. Green, Sec'y, Marshall, 111. 
Nov. 23. — Robinson, 111. — American Championship Field Trial 
Association trials. H. S. Humphrey, Sec'v, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Dec. 1.— Clay City, Ind.— Indiana Field Trial Club trials. C. F. 
Young, Sec'y. 
Dec. 5.— Thomasville, Ga.— Continental Field Trial Club trials. 
John White, Sec'y, Hempstead, N. Y. 
Nov. 16.— Holmdel, N. J.— Pokiter Club of America's trials 
C. F. Lewis, Sec'y, New York city. 
Nov. 30.— Chase, City, Va.— Virginia Field Trial Association 
trials. Charles B. Cooke, Sec'y, Richmond, N'a. 
Vaccination Against Distemper. 
For a long time the term vaccination had only a 
single meaning, indicating the introduction of the virus 
of cowpox into the system of the human being for the 
purpose of preventing an attack of smallpox. In the 
present day, however, the term is used, and for some 
time past has been used, to include the introduction of 
any modified virus into an animal's system for the 
prevention of the disease from which the virus has been 
derived. Vaccination, how^ever, as it is ordinarily rn- 
derstood, was at one time in great favor, and probably 
is still with some persons, as an inf-Jlible preventive of 
distemper in dogs, and distinguished medical men have 
asserted that a long experience with the matter c ' 
cowpox taken from a vaccinated arm and inoculated 
into your dogs by means of passing a piece of thick- 
cotton dipped in the matter through a portion of the 
inside of the ear has proved an infallible preventive of 
distemper. It is, however, perfectly well known that, 
as the result of direct experiments, the virus of cowpox 
has absolutely no influence whatever as a preventive nf 
the disease of the dog. There was one great difficnlly 
in connection with the attempts to obtain a modified 
virus of distemper. No one had been able to isolate 
any specific organism which had the power to produce 
the disease. Some years ago it was believed that that 
ditficulty had been overcome, and that the microbes of 
distemper had been discovered. Two organisms ha4 
