'Aug. 6, 1904J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
117 
back on the. stroke of. the minute. We learned later he 
tied his horse to the shed, threw his rod and basket put 
the window, and came to us as the crow flies, via the back 
door.. . . . . 
It was now n o'clock, and we had before us a four-mile 
drive and an hour's walk up the mountains. We nego- 
tiated the . first, but extensive lumbering operations had 
blotted out . our landmarks along the trail, and we were 
undecided as-. to which of the many roads to take. For- 
tunately for us,. w;e ran- across a' couple of lumbermen, 
who sooix put us right, and we reached the pond, ate our 
lunch, and were ready for work by 2 P. M. 
We secured an old log raft which would hold the three 
of us if we kept it properly balanced, and shoved off. 
The water went- from nothing at the shore to twenty feet 
ten -yards out, and Art immediately hooked one that 
started-.for; the. bottom good and strong. Art began to yell 
that he had a whale, and handed me his rod. It felt like 
a big one, and -I handled him very carefully for a white 
before bringing .him to the surface. He proved to -be. a 
half-pounder hooked through the tail just, back of . the 
belly fin, which accounted for the fight he put up. We, 
caught; no. more lliere and soon moved to the opposite 
side, near an old hemlock that lay in the- water at right- 
angles to the. shore, where we had seen several rise. T 
exchanged my steel for Art's fly-rod, and began casting 
with a Parmachenee-belle. and silver-doctor, flies that are 
usually good killers in our-: waters. But though they were 
rising all around us, I could not: get a strike after present- 
ing them with a greater variety of colors. I tried a spin- 
ner with no better luck. The boys had in the meantime 
landed about half a dozen beauties, so I exchanged my 
lure for a hook and leader, baited it for the daddy of them 
all, and plunked in. Still nothing doing. I began to think 
I was hoodooed, till the boys told me to use less bait. I 
did so, and was soon hitched to one, and from that on did 
business regularly. I found they had a preference for 
two medium sized, worms threaded on a No. 6 sproat in 
a way that left both ends of each worm dangling about an 
inch. After , taking a. few nice ones, they stopped biting, 
and we moved about a boat length further out and 
dropped anchor. . 
We were fishing in twenty feet of water, ten feet down, 
and Herb's hook had hardly straightened the line before 
his tip went under with a rush. The line did not seem to 
be running free, for half his rod was under water before 
he had him checked, and it was fully five minutes before 
he got him near enough the. top to size him up, and' .we 
got busy right away making guesses on his weight. Herb 
was for taking him in at once, but as we had no landing 
net and did not want to lose him, we kept him at it, and 
in the meantime Art and I were getting good sport with 
trout that would run from three, to the pound to three- 
fourths pound each. Twice we had three in the water at 
once, and Herb began to think that while he was playing 
trout, we in turn were playing him for a sucker, or getting 
the cream of the sport. Art finally unslung his creel, 
transferred his trout to my basket, and told Herb to lead 
him in. As he came to the side of the raft, a quick dip 
landed him in a doubled up position in the basket, the 
cover was -snapped down, and he was ours. We came 
near spilling off the raft by all rushing to the side to get 
a look. We were over our knees in water before we 
realized we were out of order. 
We made several guesses at his weight, but underesti- 
mated him in each case. He weighed a little over 2^4 
pounds after lying over night, and was the finest trout 
taken in this locality in years. We had him mounted and 
placed on exhibition at the post-office,, and Herb's reputa- 
tion as a fisherman is assured. .' Warrington. 
Fish Chat. 
The Sea Trout Again. 
Early in May of the present year I received a letter 
from a friend in Lockport, Nova Scotia, a small town 
situated about, half way between Liverpool and Shel- 
bourne, in which he described in glowing terms the tidal 
or sea trout, which were abundant all along the shore in 
that neighborhood. My friend, in describing the trout, 
said they attained a generous size, were almost of silvery 
brightness ; that they were very gamy, and took the fly 
when cast from the shore in the neighborhood of the 
estuaries of the streams which empty into the bays on 
both sides of the town. - 
In his letter he extended a cordial invitation to me to 
pay him a visit, bring my tackle along, and try my luck 
with the fish. Unfortunately I could not make arrange- 
ments to visit the place until early in July, and on arriv- 
ing there I found that the tidal trout had disappeared 
from the shore, having ascended the Sable, East, and 
other rivers in the neighborhood. 
Now, I have for years been interested in the history 
of the so-called sea trout, and was greatly disappointed 
at not having arrived in time to procure some this year in 
salt water. A number -of years- ago, I, in common with 
many other anglers, entertained the belief, of vaguely had , 
the idea, that we have on the northern Atlantic Coast, in 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Baie des Chaleurs a sea 
trout similar to the European species, or rather that that 
.species visited our shores more or less often and in 
greater or less abundance ; and to prove that the belief 
was correct, I spared no effort nor begrudged any expen- 
diture of time- and money. 
■:x» i'; Anatomical Peculiarities. 
I visited -almost numberless -localities in the -Dominion 
where sea trout "abounded, . and first and last handled 
many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fish, "but/ although 
I studied them closely, I could not detect any anatomical 
difference between them and S: fontinalis. Fin rays were 
countedin hosts of specimens, hundreds of scales were 
examined microscopically and compared with those which 
were taken from .fish which : were unquestionably fonti-. 
nalis, and other points of structural peculiarity were 
carefully compared. I even went so far in my researches 
as to visit those northern regions in midwinter, cutting 
holes in the ice in tidal waters and far up one or two of 
the rivcta- to .obtain .specimens,- : ; but . J -could - not find any-i . 
thing sa peculiar in the SQ'called sea tfGVrt us \e> chav.v. 
Vtttec tftfJtu as a.4kt««et species, • • 
|t imf readily ifta, tlicfeforo, that I hailed with tfV 
light the opportunity to examine the tidal trout that were 
mentioned by my friend, and perhaps throw a little more 
light on the vexed question of its identity; and it goes 
without saying that' my disappointment was great in not 
being able to obtain any .specimens -in. the salt water, -for it 
was from - them that I expected -^d obtain evidences of 
structural peculiarity, if such existed. . , - 
Specimens of the same fish, however, .taken a consider- 
able distance up the Sable River- which local anglers pro- 
nounced to be the sea trout, show, no characteristics dif- 
ferent from those : obtained, in other : localities ; the so- 
called tidal or sea-trout <>i ;lrtt region are. S. fontinalis 
• without a, doubt. While, at Jjoekport 1 interviewed a num- 
ber-of local anglers and net and hand-line fishermen, and 
gathered some points of information which may be worth 
•. putting on record here. ' .. 
p ; Important Facts. 
Among the gentlemen from whom data were obtained, 
- was Dr.' T: C. : Lock wood, who has for years been a suc- 
cessful practitioner in the town, and who is a good 
>'; observer and an enthusiastic angler withal. In his belief 
-: the so-called : Se-a trout and spotted river or brook trout 
; are ' identical-. He states that early in April they come 
down the rivers on this coast and enter the salt water; 
: that they: 'are then in very poor condition, being gaunt 
with very little flesh on them ; they are, in fact, spent fish, 
or "slinks," or, as we would term them, if they were 
salmon, kelts; that during the month of May they hover 
about the estuaries of the rivers in the bay, and even 
ascend the streams in pursuit of the herring and smelts, 
upon which they prey ; and that they return to, and re- 
main in, tidal water through nearly the entire month 
of June, where they subsist upon young herring, smelts, 
and other small fry, and become exceedingly well condi- 
tioned, being plump, of bright color, and very strong and 
gamy; they then reascend the rivers, where they remain 
until the ensuing spring, soon taking on the livery of the 
brook trout and resembling it in every respect. 
Sea Trout Not Found tn the Sea. 
The Doctor further asserts that the fish is never taken 
in the bays at any distance from the estuaries of the 
rivers; that he has questioned scores of fishermen, and 
that their report invariably is that they never capture in 
herring nets in. salt water a sea trout at any considerable 
distance from the shores or from the mouths of rivers. 
I also pushed my own investigations among netters and 
"bankers," but not one could say he ever knew of a trout 
being taken in deep water. One of them who has fol- 
lowed the sea all his life, said that he occasionally found 
a sea trout in his herring nets when drawn near the 
estuary of East River, but the occurrence was a rare one. 
Now, this habit of these trout of remaining in the rivers 
after spawning and until the spring, as ; described by Dr. 
Lockwood, differs from that of the sea trout which ascend 
the New Brunswick rivers, for they very generally 
descend to the salt water after the spawn is cast, or at 
any rate before very cold weather sets in and slush ice is 
formed. I have proved this on more than one occasion 
by ascending some of the noted sea trout rivers to some 
of the upper pools, in which during the summer the fish 
are very abundant, and, cutting holes through the ice, en- 
deavored to secure them with bait, but hardly a fish was 
to be obtained ; they had, according to the guides on the 
rivers, returned to the salt water, but I had no difficulty 
in obtaining them at Campbellton at the head of Baie des 
Chaleurs, the Micmacs capturing them in considerable 
numbers. 
Now, these last named fish may be said to possess the 
anadromous habit, for they seem to pass the greater por- 
tion of the year in tidal waters, ascending the rivers for 
the purpose of spawning, and descending again after the 
spawn is cast, and this is a difference of habit from that 
of the fish of the rivers of the eastern shore of Nova 
Scotia, which, according to Dr. Lockwood, remain in 
those streams at least three-fourths of the entire year, 
descending to the salt water only for the purpose of re- 
cuperation. This difference in habit is no doubt due to 
• environment, and is not sufficient to cause the fish to be 
separated as varieties of the same species, for they are 
alike in every respect, and are all of them, undoubtedly, 
i our dear old friend the spotted brook trout, which has 
gladdened the hearts of thousands of anglers, and will,. I 
hope, continue to gladden them for many generations to 
. come. . 
Salmon Culture in America. 
In Forest and Stream for July 16, The Old Angler 
takes exception to , statements made in my communication 
printed in the issue of the paper of July 2. While we 
agree, on the one important point that the privilege now 
enjoyed by salmon netters should be very greatly cur- 
tailed, we disagree in our views in relation to the artificial 
propagation of the fish. I have no desire to enter into any 
newspaper controversy with any one, and certainly not 
with The Old Angler, who is not only an interesting 
writer, but who is also bristling with a grand array of 
facts and figures to support the theories he maintains ; but 
it seems to me in this case I should make a brief reply to 
some of the statements he has made in his communication 
relative to my views on salmon culture. 
Visible Results. 
First, in relation to the rivers I have named in which 
beneficial results have followed the planting of salmon 
fry,, the .claim I made was that the stock of salmon, in . 
those rivers is larger, even now, notwithstanding,th.e ex- 
cessive netting. that has brcu practiced, than it would have 
been, had no fry been liberated in' them. In the Merrim.ac 
and: Penobscot this is, in my mind, unquestionably the 
case, although The Old Angler .declares "There is not a 
particle of evidence that the increased stock comes from 
the fry planted." That the Port Medway River, one of 
the best salmon streams on the eastern coast -of Nova 
Scotia, has been benefited by. artificial restocking, . every- 
one in that section whom I have interviewed agrees ; not- 
withstanding the great amount of netting that is done , at 
its mouth, anglers have had better sport in the last fen 
years than they had twenty-five years ago. I have had as 
boatmen and guides several of the Ponhook Indians 
whost* qomgs v.ow on the fjvct uhm Greenfields and their 
stideuivlUs ugVoy '-Wth thuw: 01 (Ml'HH' -Vcsidl'ftls \)t that ■ 
iieighborhgod. ■'. ' ' "• ' • 
Wanton Destruction 1 of Young Salmon. 
I have seen several of the above named Indians on a 
number of occasions peddling salmon smolts by the hun- 
dreds at Greenfield and Molega, arid asked them how; it 
happened that they could get so many of the smolt, when 
thirty years ago very few were to be seen, and why they 
were permitted to catch the young salmon for sale in such 
great numbers. In reply to the first, question they staled 
that the fish were more plentiful since the river' had r! been 
restocked by the fishery officers, but their answer to the 
second question was the statement "The law lets Injun 
do it," and this was accompanied by a broad but signifi- 
cant grin. It is hardly necessary to state that -if the hun- 
dreds or perhaps thousands of yotmg salmon which' were 
thus wantonly destroyed had been permitted to mature, 
the river even now would be better stocked than it is. 
_ Excessive netting at the mouth of this river is still car- 
ried on, as it is almost everywhere in the Dominion, and 
the wonder to me is that a salmon is left to ascend the 
streams. Not only is netting carried to excess along the 
shores on both sides of the estuaries of the rivers, but in 
some of them it is pursued far up the streams.' In the 
St. Mary's, for example, nets are set all along both sides 
of the river as far as tide water extends, or at least nine, 
miles from its mouth. In the Dunk River, P. E. I., I 
have not had the personal experience that I have in 
many other Canadian streams; I fished it in i88o, ; but 
although it was, as I considered, a promising salmon; 
stream, I did not get a fish, and was informed by Mr. 
Bearston, of Malpeque, that an angler would be "scared 
out of a year's growth if he got a salmon in that river. 
My last visit to the island was in 1888, for plover shoot- 
ing, when I was informed by one of the bank officers at 
Summerside,_ whose name I cannot now recall, that the, 
Dunk was, in consequence of having been restocked, a. 
fairly good salmon river. -? 3 
Of course, a large portion of the information T have 
been able to gather during the past forty or fifty years in,. 
relation to fish has been, as The Old Angler implies, hear- 
say, but I have endeavored in gathering it to gather judi- 
ciously, and have printed only that which I thought to be 
accurate. 
I have knocked around a good deal, however, and from 
my own personal observation have been able to pick up 
many facts that have since proved of value; it is true, I 
have not had the experience among hatcheries that he- 
has had, but I have first and last visited nearly all there 
are in the Dominion and in the Eastern United States, I 
have watched the operations conducted therein with- in- 
tense interest, and as- I witnessed the wonderful work 
that was being done, I could not but regard the artificial 
reproduction of fish as one of the greatest achievements 
of the nineteenth century, and nothing that can be said 
will ever cause me to believe otherwise; and I am now, 
notwithstanding the facts and figures The Old Angler has 
put forth, firmly convinced that it will be due to the arti- 
ficial propagation of the salmon that our- rivers will be 
stocked with the fish, if they are to be stocked at all, for 
the natural supply will not henceforth be sufficient to meet 
even moderate demands of the netters and anglers, arid 
that the culture should be pushed to its fullest extent. ■ 
Treatment of the Fry. . 
It has been stated by The Old Angler that the artificial 
propagation of salmon has in a large measure failed of 
success because of the treatment the fry. received, . .they 
having often been "dumped by" millions into- rivers and 
parts of rivers not at all suited to their healthy growth, 
and that, after being transported in tepid, water by 
steamer, rail, and wagon many . miles— often hundreds^— 
from which millions no results are ever seen." But that 
does not prove artificial propagation should be abandoned, 
and , the contrary might be. shown by a dozen familiar 
illustrations, one of which can be; easily 'Understood by 
all. A poulterer with a large number of fowls, who finds 
if unprofitable to have dozens of setting, hens about, his 
premises, puts, four or five hundred eggs in an incubator. 
. and hatches them ; the percentage of chicks obtained - from 
the eggs in a modern improved incubator is. very high. 
I have seen . settings in which nearly every fertile egg' pro- 
duced a chick; the chickens thus" hatched ire as strong 
and vigorous as those incubated in the natural manner, 
and they are not, moreover, when at . a tender age, en- 
feebled by the attacks of vermin which infest the, body of 
the mother bird. Now, if the poulterer turns those 
chickens loose, in the wet grass,, in unhealthy .localities, 
without providing for them proper brooders, food, eta., 
the mortality among them' becomes very great; in fact, it 
would be a wonder if any of the chickens should survive. 
They must be liberated under proper conditions, and if 
those conditions are not supplied tliey perish; but that 
they did is no argument against the artificial manner in 
which they were hatched. 
Hatchery Fry Strong and Healthy. 
I have repeatedly watched the operat ion of taking the - 
ova from salmon, the impregnation of them with' milt 
taken from the male fish ; have seen the: fry develop and: 0 
come from the egg and watched them through their early 
fryhood, and believe— and I do riot think The Old' Angler 
will differ with me— that . those -fry so artificially propa- 
gated are as strong and healthful as any hatche'din the : 
rivers from spawn depositedby the parent- fish. The pro- 
cess is also an economical- orte, as compared with the 
natural method ; for in. the former nearly every egg is fer- 
tilized, if manipulated in the proper manner, while in the 
latter, a wasteful one, hardly - five; per cent, of the ova 
cast being fertilized.. Now at first glance it seems pre- 
sumptuous to call nature's processes wasteful, but if we- . 
watch , many of 'them closely, we" find evidences of tfifeir-« 
prodigality on every side ; the laws governing them were '; 
framed for conditions which do L not now. exist, for nitural 
conditions are ' departing from us on every hand, and 
civilized man at the present time, if he had hot'improved 
on nature's methods, would he hut little better off than 
is the, Eskimo ^or Hottentot. If nature had not been im- . 
proved upon, bur modern magnificent 'fruits and other 
varied food products would .be^; an 'unknown quantity. 
The wastefulness of the method exhibited in the natural" 
reproduction of the. salmon was amply .Sufficient for ' the-., 
continuance of the species when .original- conditions pre- 
Vftticdj a t§rtihptWiV of osily five percent, of the ova cast 
was fcnoMh. to .sioc.k the rivets to . a. firrttftlr capacity; the ■ 
fish tlWh had. but few. pMweg w the rivers, avid' 
