490 
below the bridge at Quincy Point, Mass. The dyna- 
mite was used by workmen, who were blasting the 
rocks in the channel to deepen the water, so that large 
vessels could ascend the river to the whan^es at the 
bridge; some of the bass weighed between 20 and 30 
pounds, and there were several that even exceeded 
the latter weight; the presence of such large fish in the 
river was a surprise to the residents of the neighbor- 
hood, who never dreamed of such monsters being in 
their waters. It would be equally as great a surprise 
nowadays for them to take a bass there of any size 
whatever, for I believe that they have abandoned the 
river entirely. 
Now this destruction of the bass cannot be laid at the 
doors of the angler or the hand-line fishermen, but it 
is unquestionably due to the weirs and pounds which 
gather in every fish, large and small, which enter their 
fatal portals. 
In the Report of the Massachusetts Commissioners 
for 1901, the catch of striped bass in the pounds, weirs, 
etc., is stated to have been 25,451 pounds; with such 
wholesale slaughter as that one may readily see that 
this valuable game fish will in the near future become 
so rare as to be hardly worth the angler's efforts. • 
In winters ten or fifteen years ago, I used to receive 
a box of bass that was sent me by a friend at New- 
castle, N. B. They were taken through the ice in the 
Miramichi River by spears or by dip nets thrust down 
to the mud at the bottom, when the fish were more or 
less torpid. 
My friend sent them to me as a treat, and I always 
unpacked the boxes with a great deal of pleasure, but 
the bass were very small, averaging not more than a 
foot in length, and I have often thought that our own 
fish, judging by the way they are now deteriorating in 
size, will soon be no heavier than those sent me by 
my friend. 
Sawdust and Fish Life. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Referring to the injurious ef¥ects of sawdust on fish 
life, will you kindly allow me to offer the following 
notes on the subject from the fishculturist's point of 
view: 
One of the first difficulties which the early trout 
breeders in this country had to overcome, was the 
presence of a fungoid growth that always appeared in 
the wooden troughs or boxes that the eggs were 
hatched in. It invariably grew on, and from the sur- 
face of, the wood that the troughs were made of, and 
in all our personal experience in hatching fish eggs, we 
never knew a single instance, east of the Mississippi, 
in. which fungus did not appear on the surface of the 
wooden hatching troughs very soon after the water 
was turned into the troughs, tmless the wood was very 
old or had long been water soaked. In these cases, the 
fungiis does not appear to so great an extent, but when 
the lumber is new, the fungus, except in highly oxygen- 
ated waters, invariably appears very soon after the 
water comes in contact with the green wood. 
This fungus is one of the most deadly things in the 
world to trout and salmon eggs. It is so destructive 
that if a million trout eggs were put into green lum- 
ber troughs to hatch, they would every one of them be 
killed before they hatched. Not one would escape. 
"Domesticated Trout," speaking of this fungus (page 
126, sixth edition), says "Fungus is- a vegetable growth 
of a low order, which makes its appearance almost in- 
variably where there is water, and especially on newly 
cut wood, on which it eventually becomes a mass of 
nearly colorless or milky slime." • 
"This fungus, if once present in the hatching water, 
will certainly attach itself to the eggs, and when it 
does, their fate is sealed; you cannot sav€ them from 
its effect, for it never lets go its hold. It will surely 
eat out the vitality of the embryo within, and will either 
kill it entirely or will leave a puny, lifeless, transparent 
creature, which will in all probability never live to grow 
up. It cannot, therefore, be guarded against with too 
much care." 
In consequence of this action on the surface of lum- 
bec under water, wooden hatching troughs were form- 
erly charred, and now are all covered with a coating 
of asphaltum on which fungus does not grow. No fish- 
culturist of any experience would now think foi a mo- 
ment of using wood for hatching trout or salmon eggs, 
without first covering every part of the surface und. 1 
water, with asphaltum or something furnishing simil.ir 
protection against fungus. 
Now, if the exposed surface of the three planks 
which form the hatching trough can exercise such a 
deadly and universal effect on the fish eggs that are 
in it, what a vast power of injury there must be in 
sawdiftt, in which form the exposed surfaces of the 
wood are multiplied almost indefinitely. Take an inch 
board a foot square and reduce it all to sawdust, and 
it will give an amount of exposed surface almost infin- 
itely greater than the board itself. Then consider what 
must be the effect of throwing tons of this sawdust 
every year directly upon the spawning beds of the fish, 
aud where the sawdust will float down to the spawning 
b^ds below, if there should happen to be any below. 
From the moment the sawdust falls into the water it 
begins to produce the fatal fungus, and makes it abso- 
lutely impossible for a fish egg to hatch where it is, 
and what is more, the invisible fungus which destroys 
the eggs so effectuallj'', gets into the gills of the young 
fish that are exposed to it and kills them also; and, be- 
sides this, by one of those wonderful instincts that are 
implanted in the lower animals, fish will avoid a stream 
where the conditions of spawning are unfavorable, and 
sooner or later will abandon a stream, the spawMing 
beds of which are covered with sawdust. 
The writer trusts that the above considerations are 
sufficient to show that large deposits of sawdust should 
be looked upon with much suspicion in streams that 
are valued on account of the fish life' that is contained 
in . them. . . Salmo. 
All ccmimutiications for Forest and Stream must 
be directed to Forest aad Stream Pub. Co., New 
York, to receive attention. We have no ©ther office* 
FOREST AND '^ 'rtREAM. 
Lake Champlai^^oilatlon. 
Annoyed by the continued lay of the report o£ Prof. 
Landretli, Consulting Engir ,r ijf the S.s'e Board of 
Flealth, in regard to the pr' itiofi of tlie 'Aaiers of Lake 
Champlain by the pulp mi' in. that region, D, C. Clark, 
of the well-known Wall : .et firm of Clark, Dodge & 
Co., stated yesterday that , . intended to employ expert 
chemists who would make an immediate and thorough 
investigation. 
Mr. Clark's extensive es .te is located on Lake Cham- 
plain, about two miles sou 1 of the mouth of the Boquet 
River, on which the mills of the New York and Pennsyl- 
vania Company are situated. 
Said Mr. Clark: "The State authorities have lagged 
so much in the matter that I have decided to begin an 
investigation and have a chemical analysis of the waters 
made at my own expense. In so vital a matter delays are 
dangerous. With the report of my chemists in hand, 
more active steps will be taken to abate the evil. 
"Tlie agitation of the question of the pollution of the 
waters of the streams flowing into Lake Champlain and 
the waters of the lake itself, has aroused interest of the 
most far-reaching character, involving, as it does, the 
question of sewage, as well as other matter capable of 
polluting waters in which the public, in general is 
concerned. 
"People have been accustomed to treat bodies of water 
along which they have land as if they owned the water 
as well as the shore, but this is not a fact, as is well 
known to all students of riparian rights. As a matter of 
fact, no individual corporation has a right to use any 
stream or body of water as a dumping ground for refuse 
of any character that will make the same unfit for drink- 
ing purposes or for the habitation of fish, be the same 
sawdust, chemicals or sewage." 
Mr. Edward Hatch, Jr., of Lord & Taylor, who re- 
turned to town yesterday from a week's stay along the 
shores of Lake Champlain, states that the waters of the 
lake and of the rivers emptying into it are lower now 
than they have been in years. The portion of the banks 
exposed by the receding waters, he says, is covered with 
a" nasty, ill-smelling slime which everyone declares is 
caused by the refuse from the pulp mills. Fears are en- 
tertained that an epidemic of typhoid fever may result, 
and residents along the borders of the lake are in despair 
over the slow action of the State authorities. The feel- 
ing, it was said, seems to be general that the mill owners 
who have for so many years successfully defied the law, 
will, on account of certain political affiliations, continue 
to do so. 
Those interested in fighting the pulp mill owners at 
Lake Champlain are somewhat jubilant over the fact that 
the manager of the American Strawboard Company at 
Tiffin, Ohio, has just been fined $500 and sentenced to 
ten days in jail for contempt of court, the charge having 
been the pollution of the Sandusky River by emptying 
paper mill refuse into it. It is hoped that the New York 
courts will soon take similar action against the owners 
of the offending pulp mills. 
Scores of leading property holders along the Vermont 
side of the lake have already signed the petition which 
will soon be laid before Gov. McCullough, which appeal, 
it is hoped, will impel him to take more active and ma- 
terial steps to abate the evil. The owners of the pulp 
mills on the Au Sable River continue to deny that they 
are evading the law. Those interested in fighting the 
mills point to the Twentieth Annual Report of the State 
Board of Health, wherein the said board of health 
describes the Au Sable River as polluted by refuse and 
discharges from said mills. 
"The situation is growing more acute every day," said 
Mr. Hatch, yesterday, "and I believe in a comparatively 
short time we will have forced the mill owners, through 
the courts, to end their acts of pollution. Public opinion 
is arrayed against them, and the bhififs they have worked 
for years will no longer avail." 
American Fishes. 
Many readers of Forest .^nd Stream have read with 
great interest and profit the late G. Brown Goode's 
book, "American Fishes," published in 1888, a volume 
"prepared for the use of the angler, the lover of nature 
and the general reader." The work has been highly 
successful from every point of view, and having been 
out of print for some time, Dana Estes & Company, 
the present owners of the copj-right and plates, have 
published a revised edition to meet the continued de- 
mands for the book. Not only has the work been re- 
vised, but it has been largely extended by Dr. Theodore 
Gill. The additions are a most excellent portrait and 
biographical sketch of the author, an editorial preface 
of two pages, an introduction of fortj^ pages, and at the 
end of the volume, new chapters on the whitefishes, 
the smelts and their allies, the eels, and the sturgeons. 
The principal addition to the book given us by Mr. 
Goode is Dr. Gill's so-called Editorial Introduction, 
in Avhich he treats of the geographical distribution of 
fresh and salt water fishes, their popular names, scien- 
tific nomenclature, and gives a systematic index of spe- 
cies. The chapter on the popular names of the fishes 
is especially interesting, and shows much study and a 
wide acquaintance with the literature upon the subject. 
The systematic index of species shows at a glance the 
fresh water fishes of the Mississippi Valley and Atlan- 
tic slope, the fresh water fishes of the Pacific slope, 
salt water fishes of the Atlantic coast, of Florida and 
the Gulf of Mexico, and of the Pacific coast. Both 
scientific and common names are used, making the in- 
dex especially useful to the generality of readers and 
students. 
Colored plates of several of the species are given, 
but owing to the poor manner in which they have been 
reproduced, are not noteworthy. That of the common 
sunfish is simply execrable, and the proof could not 
have received the approval of the editor. 
Altogether, this already valued treatise upon one of 
the most fascinating branches of natural history has 
been made still more useful, and will doubtless receive 
a hearty reception from the ever-increasing throng of 
readers of the literature on American fishes. 
B. A. Bean. 
Washington, D. G, 
[Deg 19, 1903- 
Masfcinongre. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Surely the plea advanced last week by Mr. Chambers 
for general acceptance of the name maskinonge should 
appeal very strongly to all who are interested in our 
northern fishes. It would, indeed, seem undesirable as 
well as hopeless to choose for adoption one of the cor- 
rupted forms mentioned — mascallonge, muskallunge, and 
what not— and with the annoyance to both writers and 
readers caused by the present diversity of spelling, the 
change proposed should be most willingly accepted. To 
the considerations so well presented by Mr. Chambers it 
may be added that the prevailing corruptions referred to 
are such as to quite offend an Indian-trained ear. 
Regarding the meaning of the name, the opinions given 
in favor of "deformed pike" are from high sources, and 
might fairly be taken as conclusive. When to such 
authority is joined the important support of Father La- 
combe's dictionary of the Western Cree, there seems in 
fact no room left for discussion. Yet strangely enough 
another view is held by scholars of uncommon opportuni- 
ties. There are at least two authors in the Algonkian, 
missionaries among the tribes, who assign to maskinonge 
the meaning great, or greater, pike; and some inquiry 
among the Indians themselves by the writer has failed to 
weaken their position. "Means big pike," was the dictum 
of a Montagnais, born to the language. The actual fact 
of the matter could be determined without much trouble 
almost anywhere along the northern border, and as the 
name is perhaps as interesting in form and subject as any 
we have inherited from the primitive tongue, its correct 
meaning is not likely to continue long in doubt. It is not 
too much to say here that the word as hitherto explained 
quite fails of the usual aptness of Indian descriptive 
names. Even if mask- may be translated as _ "different," 
in agreement with Bishop Lafleche, it is essentially a word 
of stigma, and by our standards inappropriate to an ob- 
viously splendid fish. The final decision in the matter 
must rest, of course, upon the authority of the wigwam, 
and is, fortunately, not far to seek. If Mr. Chambers 
especiall}', among those favorably situated, would pursue 
the subject further upon opportunity, the facts of the 
case should soon appear. W. B. Cabot. 
Boston, Mass. 
Ring in Shark's Stomach. 
Lars Petersen, an able seaman of the steaniship 
Hypatia, which arrived recently from St. Lucia, _ is 
looking for a woman who in some way lost a ring with 
the initials "L. H. B." engraved on the inside, and 
which was in some way lost at sea. Petersen has the 
ring. 
After the vessel left St. Lucia a large gray shark 
was seen following it. For two days he continued in 
the wake of the ship, when Petersen resolved to hook 
him. Procuring a large hook, he baited it with salt 
pork, and after some difficulty landed the monster, 
which measured almost 12 feet from tip to tip. 
Thinking of the stories of treasures found in sharks' 
stomachs, Petersen procured a knife, cut the animal 
up, and found the ring. — New York Times. 
— ■% — 
Russian "Wolfhownd Club of America. 
New York, Dec. 11. — ^At a meeting of the executive 
committee of the Russian Wolfhound Club of America, 
held December 7, it was voted to award twenty special 
club prizes for competition at the coming Westminster 
Kennel Club Show. Four silver challenge and other cups 
offered from this and foreign countries, together with 
twelve other prizes to be awarded under the auspices of 
the club, were accepted. . 
A full classification (ten classes) for Wolfhounds has 
been secured, and steps are being taken to make this the 
record exhibit of the breed. 
Joseph B. Thomas, Jr., Hon. Sec'y. 
Qncinnati Bench Show. 
A BENCH show will be held in Music Hall, Cincinnati, 
Ohio, January 12 to 16, in connection with the sixth an- 
nual show of the Cincinnati Poultry and Pet Stock Asso- 
ciation, Dr. Geo. Clayton, of Chicago, will judge all 
breeds. The superintendent is Dr. Henry Loth, of Cincin- 
nati. Strong efforts are being made to organize a kennel 
club in this citj', and if this is done fanciers can look for 
an A. K. C. show next year. Bonasa. 
Points and Flushes. 
The Texas Field Trials Club's second annual field trial 
is fixed to take place on January 12, six miles from Flores- 
ville, Texas, on the ranch of Mr. J. S. Thornton. The 
stakes, All-Age, Derby, Members' and Champion Stakes 
will be run in the order mentioned. A special railroad 
fare has been arranged. For other information apply to 
the secretary, Mr. T. A. Ferlet, San Antonio, Texas. 
From Bitd to Buzzard. 
Louisville, Ky., Dec. 2, — Miss Elizabeth Bird, of 
Harrison county, near Paris, started early in Hfe to 
feather her nest well. 
Her first venture outside of the home nest was when 
she married Bud Martin. When Mr. Martin died she 
married Edward Crow, a prosperous farnier. When 
the time came to change she allied herself with William 
Robbin and lived happily until the matrimonial season 
for Mrs. Robbin again rolled around. _ Then David 
Buzzard, a widower, appeared. Mrs, Robbin became 
Mrs. Buzzard to-day. 
Into the Buzzard eyrie the bride carried one little 
Martin, two little Crows, and one little Robbin. One 
little Buzzard was already there to welcome them. — New 
York Times. 
