226 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Sept. io, 1904. 
found where chub abound, the rising of the latter to the 
angler's flies is considered to be more or less of a 
nuisance, and when it can be seen that one of them is 
rising, an effort is usually made to snatch the fly away 
from it. I remember the late Mr. Cheney passing rather 
a favorable judgment upon the flesh of a Canadian chub 
which had been carefully cooked immediately after hav- 
ing been caught out of a cool stream, and the famous 
fishculturist was far from declaring it so unfit for food 
as some authorities have done. In this connection, one 
recalls Canon Kingsley's statement that a most accurate 
imitation of the chub may be made by taking one of 
Palmer's patent candles, wick and all, stuffing it with 
needles and split bristles, and then stewing the same in 
ditch water. 
If Canadians do not prize the chub, or ouitouche, as it 
is called by the French-Canadians, as an article of food, 
they make considerable use of its flesh for bait. The 
smaller specimens are used whole for spinning and 
trolling, and the white flesh of adult fish is cut up into 
squares and employed in bottom fishing for ouananiche, 
pike, pike-perch, touladi or namaycush, and large brook 
trout. 
Even Kingsley, too, admitted that in spite of the con- 
tempt in which they are generally held, they afford very 
good sport. There is certainly trouble enough taken to 
catch it, and all the early fishing books, as well as many 
of the more recently published guides for British anglers, 
devote considerable space to directions for taking it. It 
will be borne in mind that Walton, on account of its shy- 
ness, speaks of it as "the fearfulest of fishes," and I well 
remember how, as a boy, hour after hour was. of ten vainly 
spent by me upon the banks of a tributary of the Trent, 
.not far from Dove, endeavoring to seduce the chub from 
its clear pools with gentles, worms, and paste. I had 
not then attained to the dignity of a fly-fisher, and it was 
indeed a prize to catch a chub. 
The distribution of the chub, both in Canada and the 
Northern States is very wide, the, fish being often found 
in waters of such elevation that its existence in them 
would scarcely have been suspected. Trout waters in 
which none of these chub are to be found are much more 
highly esteemed by anglers and fishculturists alike than 
those containing them; for not only have the chub an 
unenviable reputation as eaters of the spawn of better 
fish than themselves, but they are fond of disappointing 
the trout fisherman by seizing his flies. This latter can 
usually be avoided by imparting a fairly rapid movement 
to the cast, and by keeping the flies pretty well upon the 
surface of the water, since it is usually some little dis- 
tance below the surface that they are taken by the chub, 
and then when almost stationary, as in the case of fly- 
fishing for whitefish. 
Fishing Personals. 
Mr. and Mrs. Walter Brackett, of Boston, only left for 
home a few days ago, having spent the whole summer 
upon their salmon river. 
Mr. John P. Elton, Mayor of Waterbury, Conn., has 
sold his share in the St. Marguerite Salmon Club, 
A share in the same club was recently purchased by the 
Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke. The price is understood to 
have been in the neighborhood of $1,200. 
Vice-Admiral Douglas and party are now fishing the 
Montmorency River at Beaver Meadows. 
Colonel Andrew C. P. Haggard, D. S. O., is once more 
in America. He has gone to Maine, where he will visit 
some of the more popular of the fishing waters, which he 
may describe for the Field and for Blackwood's Maga- 
zine. He will also revisit Quebec. 
Much regret is expressed by the many friends of Mr. 
Geo. E. Hart of Waterbury, that illness prevents him 
from paying his intended fall visit to the Lake St. John 
country.". .. •;' f :;' ■/ .. . ' ' 
Air. A. W. Hooper, of New Haven, is at present in 
camp at Commissioner's Lake, with other members of the 
Nonantum Club. 
Lady Erskine, Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Macpherson, and 
Mr. and Mrs. Edson Fitch, are camping on the preserves 
of the Stadacona Fish and Game Club. 
Colonel Starkey and friends, of England, have had a 
very successful salmon season this year upon their river, 
the St. Anne des Monts, in the county of Gaspe. 
General. W. W. Henry, U. S. Consul at Quebec, has 
been re-elected president of the St. Bernard' Fish, and 
Game Club. 
A Monster Cod. 
A fisherman off the Gaspe Coast in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence caught a codfish last week which weighed 74 
pounds. I have heard reports of larger specimens, but 
have never seen them; but the fish here reported was 
seen by a reliable party who has given me the details. 
The recent capture of an octopus is also reported from 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but fortunately the creeping 
horror was not a large one. Still it took a fisherman 
some time to kill it. E. T. D. Chambers. 
Lake Champlam Pike* 
Eagle Lake, Ticonderoga, N. Y., Sept. 1.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: The great scarcity of pike in this 
lake this year is a source of wonder to many. During 
the long drouth in spring -and early summer of 1903, 
large specimens of this fish were found floating about the 
waters lifeless. There seemed to be no cause for the 
mortality, but it is now believed to have been caused by 
the growth of worms in the liver of the fish, similar to 
those reported in Forest and Stream lately as having 
attacked the pike in New England waters. It is thought 
that they may have eaten small fish in the shallows 
already affected by this parasite. At any rate, almost 
no pike have been taken by trolling, where from 
twenty to fifty specimens weighing from 5 to 20 pounds 
each are usually taken" with the spoon every season. 
Many Who expected the cool nights would bring on the 
fishing, have been forced to seek their favorites on the 
sunken islands and other known resorts of this pirate of 
the waters. Up to date, 3 x / 2 pounds for a pike caught by 
a hotel guest is about the record. Only two years ago 
the writer saw several specimens running from. 37 to . 42 
inches in length, and weighing from 1 7 pounds upward, 
caught in the same lake. The scarcity of bass artd perxh 
is not so marked, catches of the former of from l A to. 3 
pounds each are common. The record was made by 
Mr. Edward Runge, of Island Cottage, who landed a fine 
small-mouthed bass weighing 5^ pounds. Mr. Runge is 
a great lover of angling, and has caught many fine bass 
this season. He was pulling up anchor near the bridge, 
and had allowed a cane pole and line baited with a large 
crawfish to trail after the boat. The great bass seized 
and bolted the bait, jerking the rod overboard. It was 
recovered just in time, and an exciting game of scientific 
work without a reel took place. The angler called for 
help to aid in landing the fish, but none came, and he 
finally succeeded in' getting his prize on board by the aid 
of a net. 
This lake contains perch often weighing V/ 2 pounds, 
of most excellent quality. There were formerly quantities 
of suckers which almost -filled the tributary brooks in 
springtime, and old farmers tell of their success with the 
spear and snare in pursuit of these large fish, which are 
a favorite early in the season with some country people. 
The catches were often measured by the bushel. Not one 
of these peculiar fish has been observed here for years. 
They have been exterminated by man and fish enemies. 
The presence of some young lake or brown trout under 
the lily-pads in the outlet, has started a discussion re- 
garding the stocking of Eagle Lake with landlocked sal- 
mon and trout like Weld Pond, mentioned in your issue 
of August 13, 1904. It has the same, surrounding moun- 
tains and tributary brooks of cold water which would 
shelter the young salmon and trout. There are abundant 
cold springs close to the shores and running into the lake, 
forming places suitable for large speckled trout, and the 
supply of shiners, crayfish, and minnows is very great. 
The depth of the lake is about 50 feet in places, and there 
are various reefs and shoal rocks affording resting places 
for adult fish. Best of all, this is natural trout water, 
and the bass, pike, perch, and sunfish were introduced by 
residents fifty years ago. The lake is 3^2 miles by Y\ of 
a mile. It is believed by some that the small-mouthed 
bass are "running out" by close interbreeding, to use a 
local expression. The climax has been reached, and the 
question now is, shall the lake be restocked with bass and 
pike or be restored to its proper place as trout water. The 
friends of the latter plan assert that there are enough of 
the pike and bass here now, and that the attention toward 
salmon fishing will diminish the drain upon the lesser 
fish and allow them to regain their numbers. The sum- 
mer residents here are numerous, there being twelve cot- 
tages, small and large, besides a hotel and boarding-house. 
All are anxious for the future best interests of the angler, 
and those in charge of the State fish hatcheries should de- 
tail an expert to study the case of Eagle Lake, Essex 
county, as was done in the case of Weld Pond. Several 
of our neighboring small mountain lakes have been re- 
cently stocked with State fish, and are now yielding fine 
catches of brown and rainbow trout of large size. Old 
Lake Pharaoh has always been famous for splendid red- 
meated speckled trout. Peter Flint. 
A California Frog Ranch. 
Owned and Run by a Woman who Gets a Gocd 
Income From It. 
A writer in Out West describes interestingly a frog 
ranch owned by Miss Edith Stege in Contra Costa 
county, California: Richard Stege, father of the present 
owner, is said to have been the first man to cultivate 
frogs in California for the market. The idea came to 
him from observing the boys spend their holidays 
catching frogs about the marshes on his place, and 
learning that an afternoon's work would yield them a 
dollar or two. Since his death a few years ago, his 
daughter has been the sole occupant of the family 
home and proprietor and manager of the entire estate, 
froggery included. 
The frog-ponds cover more than six acres, and are 
four in number, besides the small pools where the 
tadpoles are kept. It is necessary to keep them care- 
fully divided according to size, since the frog is one 
of the most cheerful of cannibals. Anything of his own 
kind, from a tadpole up, is fair game for the larger 
frog that can catch and swallow it. Indeed the eater 
does not insist on swallowing the whole of his victim. 
If a part of it can be brought within reach of the 
digestive fluids, the banquf er is content to let the 
rest of his meal dangle out of his mouth till room has 
been made for it inside. J-i spite of every precaution, 
one of the larger frogs v .11 occasionally be found of 
a morning in the midst c i the pollywogs and wearing 
that placid smile which betokens that a sufficiency of 
pollywogs are most satisfactorily in the midst of him. 
This poaching is accomplished in spite of tight 
board fences more than three feet high inclosing each 
pool. 
The pools in which the tadpoles are kept are lined 
with cement and are not more than one foot deep. 
As they grow to sufficient size, they are skimmed out 
with a long-handled dip and put in with their larger 
relatives. These pools are deeper, and the bottoms 
are of mud, in which the frogs bury themselves during 
the winter. All the pools are carefully drained to pre- 
vent overflow, and all of the water may be drawn off 
within a few minutes, if at any time necessary. The 
ponds are covered with green lacework of the algae so 
thickly that it looks like a single leaf, but underneath 
the water is fresh and pure. 
While they remain at home, it is not necessary to 
feed the frogs, large or small. They forage for them- 
selves, a part of their diet consisting of insects which 
venture unwarily near, but the principal reliance of 
the adults being upon the larva;, found in the muddy 
bottom, and young fish and spawn. The tadpoles are 
more inclined to a vegetable diet, the chief dish being- 
supplied by the algae. The frog, by the way, has teeth 
in his upper jaw, the tadpole having a horny beak 
instead. "When the frogs have to be shipped long dis- 
tances to the market, they are put into barrels, with 
plenty of green moss, the water changed on them every 
day, and their hunger satisfied with a diet of oatmeal 
and liver, or oatmeal and dried blood. By this method, 
they are shipped as far as the Hawaiian Islands with 
very small loss — perhaps a couple from a shipment of 
many dozen. 
The native California frog is small of size, though 
delicate of flavor. Frog raising had not been a busi- 
ness for long, before it occurred to the experimenter 
that an increase in size would be desirable. Accord- 
ingly, frogs of the largest and choicest brands were 
imported from as far east as Baltimore and Florida. 
These stood the journey well and throve exceedingly 
under the change of climate. Some of them, brought 
from the east eight years ago, are still to be found jn 
the Stege ponds, twelve years being the average life 
of a frog. The "thoroughbreds" may be distinguished 
by their yellow throats, with a pale green about the 
mouth, and a purplish green upon the back. But 
among the many varieties which swim about the pools 
and sun themselves ' in the grass, epicures pronounce 
just the right cross between the larger eastern and the 
small California to be the finest eating. The combina- 
tion of size and flavor is asserted to put the finest 
product of Paris to the blush. 
Race suicide is far removed from any practice of 
the frog, and the breeder profits greatly by the size 
of the frog families. The female spawns from 2,000 to 
8,000, of which perhaps 10 per cent escape the dangers 
from the many hungry enemies and reach maturity. 
The eggs appear on the surface of the water as a 
sticky scum, large clusters of them being gathered to- 
gether with a gelatinous envelope. This mass 
presently separates into individual globules, which turn 
black as they increase in size. When the tadpole at 
last emerges, his first food is the envelope which has 
protected him. At this stage he has gills, and ex- 
tracts the necessary oxygen only from the water.. 
Later on he loses his gills and must come to the sur- 
face at frequent intervals to get his supply of air. 
During the first part of his career, he has a tail which 
serves him as both rudder and paddle-wheel. In these 
earliest days, it not uncommonly happens _ that the 
larvae of the dragon-fly, or some other of his aquatic 
enemies, just miss getting him whole, but succeed in 
snapping off his tail, in which case he is able to grow 
another one rapidly. But a little later, he loses his 
tail for good, and is obliged to discover the use of the 
legs that are beginning to sprout. He is the most 
comical sight when he has ceased to be wholly tadpole 
and has not quite become a frog — with some tail, a 
great deal of hindleg and a very little foreleg. 
The owner of this ranch does more active work at 
the frog business than any of the men in her employ. 
When a large order comes in, she puts on her rubber 
boots, short skirt and "jumpers," and goes to work 
with the net. Most of the frog-catching is done at 
night, a boat carrying a lantern with a large reflector, 
a dip, and some one who knows how, being all the 
essentials. The light being thrown on the water, one 
inquisitive MonsieUr Crapaud after another comes up 
to investigate, the net is placed over him, and his 
leap for escape lands him a safe captive. Of the knack 
required in using the net, the expert owner of this 
ranch says: "If you try to dip under the frog, as you 
would with a fish, he will escape every time. You must 
put the net down over him and when he jumps it ;W,iH 
be right into it. Sometimes they are difficult to catch 
because they have hidden in the deep mud. The only 
way then is to drain off the water and go after them. 
That is what we have to do to catch the small frogs 
when they are of sufficient size to go with the larger 
ones." 
Last year — which was counted a poor one — the Stege 
ranch sold to San Francisco markets 2,600 dozen frogs' 
legs, netting a profit of more than $1,800. The price 
of frogs varies, according to the season and the size 
of the frogs, from $1 to $8 a dozen. They are shipped 
alive to hotels and restaurants. Lately the "poulette," 
in which all the muscular part of the frog is used, has 
come into fashion, and the once popular "fried frog's 
legs" are less esteemed. 
A Kineo Fish Story, 
Newell Mitchell, one of the Indian guides who are 
located here, went on a fishing trip in quest of lakers, and 
when he returned to shore he had a 1714-pound togue to 
show for his skill as an angler. This is not the largest 
togue ever taken in Mooshead by any means, as there is 
a record of a 26-pounder, but it is sufficiently large to be 
worthy of mention, for it is a number of pounds larger 
than the average togue which is landed here in the course 
of a season. As a rule, so the experienced guides and 
fishermen say, more are taken that tip the scales at less 
than eight pounds than exceed the 10-pound limit. But 
even then the man who can successfully land even an 8- 
pound togue has accomplished something: of which he may 
well feel proud. — Rumford Falls (Me.) Times. 


— <$> — 
Pointer Club Trials. 
The fifth annual field trial of the Pointer Club of 
America will be held at Barber, North Carolina, com- 
mencing December 12. Entries to all stakes, with the ex- 
ception of the Members', will close on November 1. The 
events to be run are the Derby, All-Age, Free-for-All, 
and Members' stakes, and with the exception of the latter 
will be open to the world. Members' stakes to close be- 
fore starting. The entry fee to the Derby and All-Age 
stakes will be $10, and an adidtional $5 to start; Free-for- 
All, $10 to enter and $15 to start. A -silver trophy, value 
$50, will go to winner of first money of each event. The 
adoption of an open race system is a new departure for 
the club, as well as the holding of their trials in the South, 
and good results are anticipated. C. F. Lewis, 
.. Secretary... 
Points and Flushes. 
Mr. C. H. Keith, of Nutley, N. J., has these pointer 
puppies for sale from his thoroughbred bitch Cornish 
Dolly by Joe Gray, combining the. best blood of both 
American and European pointer stock, ■ They were 
whelped July 20, 1904. 
