r 190 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March S, 1904. 
tice had quickened his tongue, and evasion had become 
second nature when trout streams were mentioned. 
"You don't mean that stream on the JBascom farm, do 
you?" his incredulous friend asked in amazement. 
"The very one," was John's unblushing reply, "only 
don't tell anybody else." And he turned away to hide 
a smile. 
"Why, I have crossed that stream a hundred times," 
, his friend declared, "and I never imagined there were 
trout there." 
"That's where I get most of mine," John assured him. 
"If you catch any at all they will be lunkers." 
"I'll try it to-morrow," said his friend, "and I'll promise 
to keep it dark." 
Now, John knew no more about the whereabouts of 
Bascom's farm than he knew of the whereabouts of Bas- 
com's ancestors, therefore he gloated over his wily ruse 
in private, and finally, as a great mark of favor, let mc 
into the joke. 
The next morning John's friend returnee. His basket 
was full of speckled trout, full to overflowing, and the 
tale thereof numbered one score and ten, and the weight 
thereof was twenty-four pounds. 
Think of John. 
Of course I visited my brook many times that summer, 
tut my first catch was the only one worth talking about, 
and I gave it up at last and concluded that there were 
no more trout to be caught. 
That was several years ago. Last summer a friend 
with whom I do most of my fishing and I were out on a 
jaunt one day, and as usual we put our rods in the cart, 
from force of habit. On the way home our road crossed 
this brook of mine, and I suggested, half seriously, that 
we stop and try our luck. We had no flies with us, but 
we managed to find a few small angleworms. 
My friend was very dubious, and I myself not exactly 
sanguine of good results. And that only made -the out- 
come more enjoyable, for we carried home as fine a string 
of trout as you would care to look upon. 
We held a feast that night all by ourselves, and we 
waxed eloquent, and possibly a trifle bibulous as we 
gloated over our spoils; and the memory of it all will 
last so long as memory shall endure. 
Of all the streams that we have fished hereabouts, there 
is one which holds the first place in our affections. It is 
called Token Creek, but, as the "White Knight" would 
say, that is not its name, it is only called Token Creek. 
Its real name is — well, it matters not just what it is. It 
is a branch of Token Creek, and that is as much as we 
ever tell anybody, 
A man once had a private trout pond on the main 
stream, and one spring the dam washed away, and^ the 
trout went with it. That happened ten years ago. Two 
or three years ago we learned that a few trout had been 
caught in one of the branches of Token Creek, and we 
forthwith decided that it behooved us to investigate. 
Until you have eaten a Token Creek trout, you will 
never know what it is to eat a trout. Were I a gastrono- 
mer I could sing the praises of one of these fishes ad 
infinitum. As it is, the mere thought of them makes me 
hungry. How I wish that the good Sir Walter could 
have fished this stream. I can imagine the look of quiet 
joy that would have suffused his benign countenance 
when one of those big two-pounders yielded himself up 
after a gallant struggle. And then he would have 
launched forth into a careful dissertation, addressed to 
his willing scholar, upon the rare merits of this particular 
trout, and the best way to prepare him for the tsble. 
Truly in delicacy of flavor and perfection of. condi- 
tion, a Token Creek trout surpasseth any fish in this part 
of the world. We never catch many at any one time, but 
what we do land are worth traveling miles to obtain. 
And then there is a Charlie who owns the farm where 
we fish. Charlie is not precisely overburdened with 
honesty, nor with the energetic push — the overworked 
strenuousness of the twentieth century — but he has his 
points, such as they are. 
When we first met him we had just finished our even- 
ing's fishing, and were getting our rods and things to- 
gether. It was the quiet hour between twilight and dusk. 
We were seated on a sort of knoll on the bank of the 
stream. Almost at our feet lay the broad pool where we 
had landed our last trout. There was a moon that night, 
and every ripple in the pool gleamed and scintillated in 
its soft light. Occasionally a loud splash sounded in our 
ears, reminding us that there were big trout still left in 
-our stream, and we would half start to our feet with a 
glance at one another, each waiting for the other to sug- 
gest that we try them again. . ^ 
Upon this restful scene sauntered Charlie with a lan- 
tern on his arm. He seated himself beside us, and pro- 
ceeded to interrupt our train of thought. He started out 
by informing us that he knew nothing about trout fisHmg, 
and cared less. ^ 
"Give me a bullhead or - a sucker every time, b gad, 
said he. 
He spoke in a rapid, jerky manner, and interspersed his 
conversation with many and frequent "b'gads," as _ we 
soon learned. He talked on general subjects for a time, 
but soon drifted around to personalities. , 
"Be any of you married ?" he inquired. . 
I alone pleaded not guilty. ; . ,,,1711 t 
"Ain't you?" he asked in envious tones. Well, 1 
didn't used to be, but I am now, b'gad. She's young yet, 
only fifteen, but I treat her right, Didn't . s'pQse I ever 
would get married a month ago, but I done it,, b'gad. 
She ain't the gal I picked out, neither.. No, boys, I was 
in love once. I don't look it,.. do' I? But I was, b'gad. 
Like to hear about it.?" 
Of course we gave ' *fiSn ; jHI , the . ;en?ouragaSSftt v-\he 
^desired. ■ . , ■ : 
"Well, then, boys," he went on, "I'll tell? you ^the-hi'gt*y 
of my life, short 's : 'tis, . b'gad.> 1 loved - a '.gal- .once; an*! 
she was a corker. Can't describe "her, but she was a winT 
ner, let me tell you. I courted her for air I- was -wiSrth, 
b'gad. Wore o.ut three buggies on her, b'gad. Toot her 
to dances, took her to everything, aiid she endtd ' xip 'hy 
throwing me dowI^, b'gad. Got mad at me, and me atAef-v 
and 'twaa all off. Tou might . sa^ the--devir-was^fe -^^^ 
on Token Creek, b'gadf ,. " - - 
"Met her in tfieTO^d one day afterwards.- "My- heart 
pid speale W( said don't speak to hen . Fol- 
lered my head, b'gad, and didn't, though she looked 
anxious. _ Wish I had now. Went to a dance one night. 
Drove six miles to get there. Knew she'd be there, and 
she was, b'gad. Went into the hall, and there she was. 
1 went cold all over, then I went hot, just like chills and 
fever, b'gad. She finished a dance with another feller 
just as I came in. My heart said go up and speak to her, 
my head said don't. Follered my head, and went out, 
b'gad, and that's the last chance I got. And I wore out 
three buggies on her, b'gad. That's the hist'ry of my life, 
short 's 'tis." ' 
"What became of the girl?" one of us managed to 
inquire. 
"Married another feller," he replied. "She'd rather had 
me, though. 'Tother feller was stingy as a mink. No 
style to . him at all. Never owned a buggy in his life till 
he got married, and I wore out three on that gal, b'gad. 
You see I was putting on style them days. Got some 
stuck on myself, I s'pose. That's why I follerred my head 
when I ought to have follered my heart. Tell you, boys, 
this here gettin' stuck on yourself don't pay no dividends, 
b'gad." 
We agreed with him, and nothing save the lateness of 
the hour and the long drive home kept us from hearing 
more of Charlie's "hist'ry of his life" that evening. It all 
came later — but of that, more anon, as the story writer 
puts it. - 
If I were to write a complete history of last summer 
the narrative would fill a book. When one gets started 
talking about such things, one is apt to go weaving along 
indefinitely. It is fun for the weaver, and that is all we 
are sure about. 
Many summers have passed, and other summers are in 
store for me, I hope, but last summer can never come 
again. The wine has been drunk, and naught but the 
empty goblet remains; but a fragrant aroma still clings 
to the goblet. I shall place this goblet in some corner by 
itself, and pray that it may be my good fortune to drain 
other goblets worthy to take their place beside this one, 
upon whose face these words are deep engraven : "Sacred 
to the memory of Last Summer." 
Fayette Durlin; 
Fish Chat. 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. 
Conceroing the Smelt. 
Second cousin to the grayling and trout, and one 
of the neatest, most graceful, and delicate of all our 
food fishes, is that universal favorite, the smelt. 
I say universal favorite, for such it is, being generally 
distributed along the Atlantic Coast, from the latitude 
of New York to Prince Edward Island and the St. 
Lawrence River. That its value as a table delicacy is 
fully appreciated, is shown by the generous supply of 
the little beauties that may always be found in our 
markets in the proper season, but an idea of the 
enormous quantities that are consumed can hardly be 
formed by those who have not given the matter more 
than a passing thought. 
The numbers of these beautiful little fish which are 
found along our eastern Atlantic shores, are incon- 
ceivably great, in some localities, when the smelt are 
about to ascend the rivers and streams for the purpose 
of depositing their spawn, the water seeming literally 
to be alive . with them; in fact, I have seen brooks 
which they were ascending that appeared to be al- 
most a solid mass of struggling fish. They appear to 
have favorite localities for spawning, and visit the same 
brooks and streams year after year. For example, 
there is a brook of rather insignificant size, called the 
Milton Brook, which empties into Dorchester Bay, 
Mass., that has been visited by them in prodigious 
numbers from time immemorial, and the aquatic grasses 
and weeds which abound in the brook are covered 
with the spawn that has been cast. 
There is another brook of even smaller size in 
Quincy, Mass., which in places seems almost filled with 
the spawn that has been deposited; there are several 
smaller streams which empty into the Weymouth Fore 
River that are visited by myriads of these fishes in the 
spawning season. 
Along the Massachusetts coast and thence north and 
east the fish enter the brooks and small streams in 
immense numbers. The spawning sesaon varies with 
the degree of latitude, beginning almost with the break- 
ing up of the ice in very early spring in Massachusetts, 
and becoming later in Maine and Nova Scotia, the fish 
entering the streams tha.t empty into Margarets Bay, 
N. S., early in May, while in the rivers which flow into 
the Bay. Chaleur quite late in that month, incredible 
numbers ascend the Jacquet and other rivers as late 
as. May 20 or 25. : _ _ 
Some idea of their abundance at this period may be 
had when I state that they are or were netted by' the 
hundreds of barrels full and used by the farmers on 
the bay shore for manure; this was the case a number 
of years ago, but I believe the practice of using them in 
this manner has been abandoned for the more profit- 
able one of packing them in cases and shipping them 
to the great markets . of this country. This business 
has become large, important and lucrative one; many 
packing stations having sprung up on the coast of 
Maine and the Maritime Provinces. I have before me 
a clipping from a St. John paper, which contains a 
communication ' from Richibucto, N. B., that shows 
how important the smelt packing industry has become 
in that place, which is one of many that are scattered 
along the shores of the" bay. ; It reads as follows: 
"The smelt fishing season, which opened yesterday, 
is the biggest thing in this part of the country. Al- 
though it is carried on but a little over two months in 
every twelve, it does -more rear good in that time than 
all the other- industries , put , together can do in a virhbJe 
year. The secret of itS; benefi.ciai e|fect is found in, the 
system .by which the business is conducted. Other 
kinds of? fishing,. ..lumbering and such thm'gs are. nearly 
a'lKdone. -by due .bili-wethod, tjit/the^'man'-whp .attempts 
to' take.'.a hand in buying smdts without: the cash' on the 
spot, 'is not in It!' Long before daylight, yesterday, 
rnorning* dozens of nets were out all over t|?p r|Ye?' 
and in the small streams for the purpose of holding 
places until the ice makes the fisherman run some risks! 
by this work; as at former seasons many nets have . 
been taken away and lost by drifting ice, or by storrns 
breaking up the ice after it was supposed to have 
formed sufficiently strong. 
"Following the catching of the fish comes the prepa- 
ration of them for market. It is nothing unusual for 
small boys to earn from a dollar to a dollar and a half 
a day packing the smelts in boxes. No matter in what 
way you are_connected with the work it is cash. Forty 
or fifty thousand dollars emptied out within a radius of 
ten miles in a few months, means something, and the 
man or woman who cannot talk about smelts from 
now until the middle of February, is of no use in this 
vicinity." 
The net used in seining the smelts is pretty close 
meshed, of course, and is large enough to inclose sev- 
eral thousand pounds at a haul; the struggles of the 
fishes as the folds of the net encompass them more and 
more closely, together with the weight of the captives 
as they become compact, forces the spawn from them, 
and that to such an extent, that I have seen the beach 
where the seining was done covered with the eggs in 
winrows looking like so much sawdust. 
Although properly a marine species entering the fresh 
water streams solely for the purpose of spawning, the 
smelt thrives perfectly if it makes its home in fresh 
water the whole year. I have somewhere seen it 
stated that the landlocked smelts are even a greater del- 
icacy than those which return to the sea. This may be 
the case, but I have my doubts, for the reason that 
those which remain in the fresh water are obliged to 
subsist mostly on minnows and other small fishes, 
while those which obtain their food in the salt water 
consisting as it does of shrimps and other crustaceans, 
and a great variety of piquant marine creatures,- must., 
attain a flavor and plumpness that the others cannot 
possibly have. / 
The smelt has been planted in a number of the Maine', 
lakes, which have been stocked with landlocked sal- 
mon, and the Fish Commissioners of that State are of 
the opinion that they are indispensable as food for the 
salmon; those fish growing and thriving only in waters 
into which the smelt have been introduced. At all . 
stages of their existence the smelts furnish food to the 
salmon even when they both are in the fry period. 
Hon. Henry O. Stanley, in speaking of this fact sAys: 
"I have no doubt in many of our inland lakes there is 
a lack of suitable food, more especially for, the 
younger fry, also affecting their growth as they ad- 
vance in life. I believe many of the newly hatched 
fish starve for lack of suitable food. Those that do 
survive are apt to be stunted and do not grow to be 
handsome fish. The smelt hatches at about the time 
the young salmon begin to feed, and is so small they 
readily swallow him. They are as eager after him as a 
cat is after a mouse. I have dipped them in a pail of 
water, turned them in our hatching troughs with young 
salmon. They would hunt them until they caught the 
last one." 
It is not in the fresh water alone that the smelt fur- 
nishes food for the salmon, for in the ocean that little 
fish, together with its near relative the capelin, sand- 
launce and the herring, provide no small proportion 
of the food for that fish, instances being on record of 
salmon having been caught on trawls baited with her- 
ring in twenty fathoms of water at George's Banks and 
elsewhere, and the stomachs of fish taken in gill nets 
along the shore have often been found to contain 
smelts and capelin. 
While there is only one variety of the smelt on our 
coast there seems to be a considerable difference in 
size and coloration in different localities; in the gen- 
eral run of the fish their length does not average much 
over six inches, and the color is usually of a brownish 
green on the back and silvery on the sides, but some- 
times in a day's catch there will be quite a number of 
larger and more highly colored fish. 
At Salem, Mass., it is or was a common thing to take 
smelts averaging ten inches in length; their backs were 
almost bright green, and their sides were beautifully 
iridescent, changing from pearly white to pinks, lilacs 
and almost purple. I never saw such highly colored 
fish elsewhere, except at Prince Edward Island, and the 
size of the fish there exceeded any I have seen at any 
other point. I found these smelts to be rather abun- 
dant at Malpecque. I was standing on the bridge 
which spans the river at that place one morning, when, 
on looking down into the water which was almost as 
clear as crystal, I discovered a number of fish darting 
about near the piles of the bridge, which I supposed 
at the time to be sea trout. On returning to the house 
where I was stopping, and inquiring concerning their 
identity, I was informed that they were probably smelts, 
and that if I had a mind to try for them with angle 
worms, for bait I might get a mess. 
Acting on this suggestion I rigged up a bait rod and 
lin.e, and with a good supply of worms, went down, to 
the bridge again and threw in my hook; it was quickly 
seized, and I soon landed a smelt that was fully a foot 
in length, and most beautifully colored. The cucumber 
odor that the smelt always exhales was present in this 
fish in a remarkable degree; and when I had caught 
a couple of dozen of the silvery beauties the odor from 
my creel was decidedly pronounced. These fish were 
in prime condition, and when served at the table were 
absolutely ..delicious. 
Smelts in. harbors along the New England coast, fur- 
nish recreation to a large number of anglers im.the 
autumn and winter . nionths., the bait used before' ice 
form's consists us.ually. of shrimps and minnows, prcr 
ferably the former, but when the surface of the watef 
freezes and 'the ice becomes thick, and strong enough' 
to -bear the.fishermen,. holes are .cut in it and the anglers 
behind huts and other shelters from the wind, find 
lucrative erriploymfent in srrielting, the' bait used being 
shrimps Or miji.nows,. if they can be:pbtained, pieces. .of 
meat;frojTi a' frog's .leg. sand worms,- and bits of-;fresh 
beef, 'the Jresh .caught fish usually commanding a^price 
at' least'^o^ubl.e 'that .obtained for thos.e . which have 'been 
irpitxi' and packed: • 'Wheir the smelt, ftshihg" "season, is 
-at Its "height, "ten or fifteen, dozen often' constitute ^ 
^^y's catch. • ' 
