A22 
tions have been made into the structure of the cochlea in 
singing birds. 
Many animals certainly are affected by music. Trained 
horses •recognize trumpet calls ; seals, wild animals of the 
genus feliSj dogs, cats and other mammals are said to be 
soothed by plaintive music and agitated by harsh or loud 
tones; but the literature on this subject is largely anec- 
dotal and wanting in scientific accuracy. The wonderful 
t&les of snake-charmers are sufficiently well-known; and 
many of them are as credible, perhaps, as the legend of 
Orpheus. 
Darwin, in his "Animals and Plants under Domestica- 
tion," discussing the relations of the sense of hearing to 
certain anomalies of color in animals, says that "white 
cats, if they have blue eyes, are almost always deaf. I 
formerly thought that the rule was invariable, but I have 
heard of a few authentic exceptions." In 1895, I saw a 
white cat that had blue eyes. I was able to test the hear- 
ing most satisfactorily and found no defect. In October, 
1903, I saw a white cat with one eye blue and the other 
yellow. This cat had no defect in hearing. According 
to Darwin, if a white cat has but one blue eye, the other 
being of the ordinary color, the animal hears. It is not 
easy to explain why a white cat with blue eyes is deaf, 
but this seems to be the rule with few exceptions. 
Austin Flint. 
Fish and Fishing. 
The Canadian Season is Opened. 
The ice has gone from all the lakes of the Quebec and 
I.ake St. John country. Ten days of extremely hot 
weather worked wonders with it. The last of it disap- 
peared from both Lake Edward and Lake St. John on 
the 13th inst. At the commencement of the month it 
had looked as though it might remain until after the mid- 
dle of the month. At present writing the waters are still 
very high, consequent upon the rapid thaw of the snow 
in the woods during the recent very hot spell, which has 
now given place to more seasonable weather. Just now it 
is not very easy for the fish to see either bait or fly, in 
consequence of the heavy condition of the water ; but by 
the time this letter appears in print, both rivers and lakes 
should be in fair fishable condition. In fact, local anglers 
are already preparing for their spring visit to their 
northern club lakes and to Lake Edward, where the bot- 
tom fishing is always good within a few days of the de- 
parture of the ice. Because of the very large extent of 
this lake, it is not affected to a very great degree by the 
spring thaw, situated, as it is, so near to the height of 
land, and receiving the waters of no very long rivers. 
Lake St. John, on the other hand, receiving an enormous 
volume of water, suffers a tremendous rise of level in 
springtime. For this reason it is nearly always the mid- 
dle of June before the water in the Grand Discharge is 
sufficiently low and clear to permit of fly-fishing, though 
the residents of the neighborhood take the ouananiche 
in large numbers — chiefly with bait — all along the shores 
of the big inland seas from the time that the ice breaks 
up. It is not probable that the steamer will commence its 
trips across the lake to the Grand Discharge, or that the 
hotel there for the accommodation of fishermen and 
guides will open before the middle of next month. 
The Salmon Fishing Season. 
Present indications are that the opening of the salmon 
season will not be so much later this year as was expected 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
from the length of the winter. Reports which reach me 
from both the north and south shores of the Gulf, as well 
as from the Baie des Chaleurs, indicate that by the 8th 
or loth of June the early rivers at least should be in 
proper condition to receive the first salmon run of the 
season. The north shore steamers are preparing this 
season to make more trips than ever before from Quebec 
for the accommodation of anglers, aiid the Government 
authorities who control_ the Intercolonial Railway of 
Canada are to run special sleeping cars on stated days 
as far as Mctapedia, for the exclusive use of salmon 
fishermen. 
Another Big Club of Americans in Canada. 
Mr. Allan D. Wilson, of Philadelphia, is at the head 
of a party of prominent people from the same city which 
has secured very extensive and valuable fishing and hunt- 
ing rights in eastern Quebec, and proposes to form a 
club to take them over. These gentlemen have purchased 
Government leases of the famous Squattick territory, 
situated in the county of Temiscouata, and lying east 
of Lake Temiscouata on the Temiscouata Railway. 
These leases give them the control of 375 square miles 
of hunting and 150 square miles of fishing privileges. 
Included in the latter are Lakes Squattick, Eagle, Horbon, 
and several others, and also some excellent brooks and 
rivers. The territory is well stocked with moose, caribou, 
and deer. There is no salmon fishing in the waters 
acquired, but very large brook and lake trout. The 
purchase price of the leases is understood to have been 
about $6,000, and the purchasers will at once proceed to 
develop their property and to erect both club houses and 
camps, and probably some family summer residences as 
well. 
Frozen Fish Come to Life, 
In connection with the oft-repeated story of the re- 
viving of frozen fish, a correspondent writes from Rapid 
City, Mich., to say that several instances of this apparent 
phenomena came under his notice in western Ontario. 
He describes at length two cases in particular. He says : 
"In the winter of '74-75 I was living in an inland town 
of Lambton county. The ice for summer use was cut 
and hauled from the River St. Clair, some eighteen miles 
distant. One of the. hotel keepers of the town, during the 
winter mentioned, had stored a large quantity. During 
the first week of June, on passing my office, he called me 
in to show me a curiosity, as he called it. It was a pike — 
jackfish they are called up here — imbedded in the center 
of a block of ice eighteen inches thick and about twenty- 
two inches square on the surface. Several persons ex- 
amined it, and the main point in the discussion was : 
Would that fish come to life if thawed out? It was 
fijially decided to have the proprietor of the house place 
the ice in a washtub of water. It took about two weeks 
to thaw the ice, and, when that was accomplished, the fish 
v/as as lively as if just taken out of a river. The fish 
was about twelve inches long, and, in the course of a 
day or two, would come to the top of the water for 
crumbs of bread thrown to it. The other instance was 
that of one of the same kind of fish having been put in 
a well — a surface one — on a farm in the township of 
Moore. The water froze clean to the bottom, and yet 
for three years, during which time I saw it frequently, 
the fish would resume its normal life in the summer. In 
talking to some of the Lake Huron fishermen about these 
matters they told me it was nothing unusual." 
It would be instructive to hear from scientists soine 
[May 21, 1904. 
explanation of the manner in which this animation for 
months at a time, while frozen into a solid block of ice, 
is to be accounted for. 
American sportsmen will perhaps be interested in 
learning that no amendments to the existing fish and 
game laws of the Province of Quebec are to be submitted 
to the Legislature at its present session. After all, it is 
a better enforcement of existing laws that is' needed, 
rather than the enacting of new ones. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
A Voracious Suckef. 
Pittsburg, Pa., May 7.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
The following incident may be of interest as illustrating 
v/hat unexpeeted things some fish will do. 
Last summer, with three friends, 'I spent a couple of 
v.'ceks fishing in the South Branch of Potomac, stopping 
at Mr. Johnson's, about six miles above Romney. One 
(by while fishing at the head of what is called Ben's 
Eddy, and casting from shore with an artificial minnow, 
the bait was suddenly shot into the air about fifteen feet. 
The cast was about sixty feet, and not more than five feet 
of line had been recovered when the bait was hit. I had 
only a glimpse of the fish, but the light color and flash of 
red told me it was no bass, and might be a wandering 
trout. 
After unsnarling the line, I made another cast over the 
same place, and the bait had hardly hit the water when 
the fish struck hard and I successfully landed — a sucker 
of about 14 inches. A sucker taking an artificial bait was 
a new experience to me, and seemed the more strange as 
the water was quite deep and the bait hardly under the 
surface. In the hope that he might teach others of his 
family better things, he was put back. 
This may not be the unusual occurrence it seemed to 
me and to others whom I told about it, and probably 
some of your readers who are up on sucker lore could 
venture an explanation. E. L. W. 
Michigfan Trottt. 
Bay City, Mich., May 10. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Wm. Hanson, ot Harris ville, Alcona county, Mich., 
caught, Monday morning, May 2, a genuine speckled trout 
28 inches long and weighing 9 pounds 6 ounces. The 
catch was made in Mill Creek at Harrisville, and the fish 
is supposed to be the largest trout of its kind ever 
caught in Michigan. The Detroit & Mackinac Railway 
Company has secured the fish, have taken photographs of 
it, and will have same stuffed and mounted. 
Trout fishing in Michigan is said already to be very 
good, and a telegram received May 6 at Bay City stated 
that streams were in normal condition, and that 3,000 
trout had been taken out of creeks and rivers near Rose 
City. These were captured by several hundred fishermen, 
the largest individual catch having been 42. 
Frank. 
The Angler's StCret. 
The Angler's Secret. By Charles Bradford. 206 pages. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. 
The Angler's Secret is a series of short essays on a variety 
of subjects connected with angling, and does not appear to con- 
tain anything new, nor indeed anything newly put. It contains 
twenty-one chapters, in which there is more or less about the 
equipment of an angler and his ways, and some few hints which 
should aid him. The frontispiece is a half-tone engraving from 
the well-known etching by Wm. M. Cary. Price, $1.00. 
The Cruise of Minota. 
A Cruise on Lake Michigan from Chicago to Charlevoix 
and Return. 
BY REGINALD MACK, CHICAGO, ILL. 
The yacht in which I shipped as a working passenger 
last August for a cruise up Lake Michigan, was the sloop 
Minota, built in 1899 as a Canada's cup defender by 
James M. Andrews, of Oakville, Ontario^ and described 
m the February 10 and 17, 1900, issues of Forest and 
Stream. For the last three years she has been flying the 
flag of Fleet Captain Atkin, of the Chicago Y. C. 
Her over all length is 40.75ft.; waterline, 31.31ft.; 
breadth, 9ft., and draft, 6ft. She carries 6,000 pounds of 
outside lead ballast, which makes her very stable, and 
enables her to easily carry 1,416 square feet of sail, 375 
of which is in the jib. 
To withstand the racketings and buffetings of Lake 
Michigan a boat must be strongly built, with not too 
much overhang, and the Minota fills these requirements 
very well. Her_ cabin has sleeping accommodations for 
four, with a pipe bunk forward for the professional 
sailor; and, while the head room is low (owing to the 
fact that she is a flush-deck boat), we found her very 
comfortable during the two weeks we jived aboard. 
. Wednesday night, August S, 1903, had been decided as 
the date on which the cruise of the Chicago Y. C, on 
^hich the Mit^ota was to sail, shou|4 sts?t< The bo^ts 
were provisioned, the crews selected, and the hour of 
starting set for 7 P. M., in order that the workers could 
put in a good day's work before beginning their suminer 
vacation. When the evening edition of the papers was 
brought to them they were much chagrined to see that 
the amiable Professor of Weatherology who roosts at the 
top of the Auditorium had issued a warning to all 
mariners to be sure to keep in port that evening, as the 
worst storm of the year was bound to arrive and wipe 
all sailing vessels from the face of the waters. There 
was consequently a good deal of telephoning and cancel- 
ing of engagements, and when the skippers reached the 
club house for dinner, they found that nine-tenths of their 
sailing mates had a very bad attack of what is commonly 
known as "cold feet," and there was a strong disposition 
to postpone the start (which, by the way, was to be a race 
from here to Milwaukee) until the expected tornado had 
passed away. At 9 we called up the weather bureau, 
and were informed that it had passed over and that no 
trouble need be anticipated, but only two boats were 
found willing to start out — the schooner Hawthorne and 
the sloop Minota — and at 10 o'clock they rounded the 
Van Buren street light neck and neck, and headed for 
Milwaukee, with a brisk S.W. wind behind them. Th^ 
puffs that always accompany a S. W. wind compelled the 
sloop (which was carrying full sail) to occasionally luff 
up, but the heavier schooner kept on her course, and off 
Waukegan, at about 2 o'clock, 35 miles on our jotrrney, 
■ she was a quarter of a mile ahead. The wind sfilLkept' 
fair, and by 7 o'clock in the morning both boats were 
off Wind Point, 20 miles this side of Milwaukee. The 
wind changed round to the N.W. and began to breeze up. 
The schooner promptly took in her topsails, and Mmota 
followed suit by putting in two reefs, and from there 
to Milwaukee harbor it was a beat against a strong wind 
and a heavy sea. 
Hawthorne had to give us an allowance of 20 minutes, 
and she passed the Milwaukee pier head at 10 minutes 
past 10, the Minota following her at 10:42, thereby losing 
the race by 12 minutes, corrected time. 
We worked up the Bay and anchored near the Mil- 
waukee Y. C. house, and were almost immediately visited 
by the affable fleet captain, Mr. Adam Strachan, who ex- 
tended to us the courtesies of the club during our visit. 
After calling at the club house, we began to get our boat 
ready for the regatta which was to open the next morning. 
This regatta was a success in every way ; the weathc- 
was perfect, and the races well contested. We were en- 
tered in the 35ft. class, and had as competitors Milwau- 
kee, IlHnois, and Prairie. It really seemed a farce to en- 
ter a race with as little preparation as we had. The boat 
was laden down with provisions, etc., for the cruise, and 
part of the crew had never raced the boat before, conse- 
quently the showing we made was not very good, with the 
exception of the first leg, where we beat the rest of the 
fleet by about S minutes, owing to the wind being very 
light and fluky — which, I am told, is Minota's best point. 
On Saturday the captains met on the flagship Charlotte 
R., and agreed to get under way for Charlevoix (thejr 
next stopping place) as soon as possible after_6 o'clock in 
. the evening, and preparations were made with that end 
in view. In the meantime^ the other yachts of our fleet;-^ 
