Sept. 24, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
268 
found us still in our blankets, idly watching the birds 
and squirrels among the trees, or dozing to the music of 
the 'murmuring stream. A few yards away there gushed 
out from under a large rock a soda spring, whose cold, 
sparkling, pungent waters we relished exceedingly. There 
were other mineral springs about us — sulphur, iron, and 
even arsenic-— but we regarded them as mostly, medicinal, 
and for a beverage always turned to the first. 
Breakfast under the above conditions was invested with 
a delightful uncertainty that would have appealed to the 
most romantic temperament. The first to arise was ex- 
pected to build the fire and get on the coffee ; later ar- 
rivals dropped into such positions in the department as 
happened to be vacant. It was only when fried cakes 
were to appear in the breakfast menu that anything like 
method was discernible; the privilege of making these 
had by a unanimous verdict been assigned to the Judge, 
who, with only a short practical experience, had developed 
a deftness and grace in flopping slapjacks that was as 
surprising as it was mysterious, and which Zerah and 
I, whose judgment from many years' experience in that 
direction was entitled to some consideration, pronounced 
nearly perfect. The probable source of this elicited much 
active discussion, Zerah being inclined to regard it as an 
innate proposition, while the writer confidently asserted 
that it was the result of the Judge's long and successful 
career as a technical contortionist in adapting knotty 
legal situations to harmonize with his own views. A per- 
sonal appeal to the Judge himself did not elucidate mat- 
ters, his explanation being regarded as preposterous. In 
the early days of California mining, an expert at this art 
was entitled to some perquisites and privileges not ac- 
corded his less fortunate contemporaries, and it was 
stated that the highest grade of operators were able to 
toss a cake up the chimney and running outside to catch 
it right side up in the frying-pan before it reached the 
ground. It was a mistake of ours that the Judge was 
not submitted to this crucial test while we were at the 
Broder cabin. 
After breakfast had been served on the great .flat rock 
that answered for a table, Wilfred usually jointed his rod 
and quietly faded away in the brush along the stream, 
as it was no light task for even a good angler to supply 
the necessary amount of brain food for four hungry men 
from the educated denizens of Mineral King Creek. The 
writer, although confined rather closely to camp, found 
an abundance of entertainment about him. There was 
plenty of reading matter, and when this grew irksome, it 
was interesting to watch the tourists who were coming 
and going every day, and could be seen for miles as they 
toiled up the trails to Timber or Farewell Gaps. The 
wild life about us was a never-ending source of pleasure. 
The blue grouse seemed to be well posted on the game 
laws, and brought their full-fledged broods boldly down 
to the stream within a few yards of camp ; one full-grown 
approached within thirty feet of the fire, and for many 
minutes watched our operations with the greatest interest 
from the lower limb of a tamarack, a rather unusual pro- 
ceeding, even in the close season. It is only fair to ob- 
serve, however, by way of explanation, that the Judge at 
that moment was executing his inimitable pancake act. 
We were a short distance below the majority of the 
tents and cabins that clustered about the stuffy little 
store ; the average number of people being about seventy- 
five, some stopping only a day or two, and others for the 
season. Among -these we found Dr. Montgomery and 
Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, of Lemon Cove, who had been 
our associates at the Broder cabin on a stormy night two 
years ago. 
Three times a week the stage came in bringing the mail, 
and then everybody hastened to the store to hear old Mr. 
Cutter call off the letters. The fact that a large majority 
never expected a letter made not the slightest difference; 
they were just as anxious to get there. 
On the morning of July 31 we broke camp and started 
for Grunegen's Ranch, eighteen miles away on the steep 
down-grade that leads to Visalia, where we arrived early 
in the afternoon, and spent the night, the next day's 
drive of twelve miles landing us again at Three Rivers, 
where we found Chester Huntley awaiting us with a two- 
seated wagon and a span of horses. The delightful 
climate of Mineral King had now been replaced by the 
torrid heat of the citrus belt, and while Chester started 
homeward with the burros early in the afternoon, we 
waited until nearly sunset before following in the wagon. 
At 11 P. M. we drove in under the giant oaks of the 
Huntley domain, to find Mr. and Mrs. H. awaiting our 
arrival; a bountiful supper was already spread for our 
refreshment, after which we gladly sought our couches on 
the upper veranda to dream of our return to the Broder 
cabin. Forked Deer. 
A Monster Cod. 
Under this heading, Mr. E. D. T. Chambers speaks of a 
cod taken off the Gaspe Coast which weighed 74 pounds. 
While this is a large fish, still a great many much larger 
have been taken. On pages 138 and 139 of Vol. I., Section 
5, of Brown Goode's Report of Fisheries, it is stated that 
on Bank Bradley occasionally one would be taken as large 
as a porpoise, weighing 70 to 80 pounds; and considerable 
numbers of cod weighing nearly 100 pounds each were 
taken as late as 1879, ten to fourteen miles from Point 
Miscou. It is also stated that these large fish were only 
taken at night; trawls set in the daytime caught only 
small fish. On page 220 of Section 1 of the Fishing In- 
dustry of the United States by the same author, we are 
told that Captain King Harding, of Swampscott, took one 
weighing 101 pounds. On July 22, 1873, Miss Fannie 
Belis, of St. Louis, on board of yacht United States, 
caught a cod weighing 130 pounds. Captain G. H. Marten 
caught off Chatham a codfish which weighed dressed 111 
pounds. Captain Stephen Marr, of Gloucester, saw a cod 
taken" on George's Bank which, after being evacuated, 
weighed 136 pounds. Captain N. E. Atwood, on the same 
page, tells of seeing one which weighed 160 pounds. This 
fish he describes as being "not much larger than an or- 
dinary fish weighing 75 pounds, but very thick." The 
father of the writer bought a cod taken on a hand-line off 
Isle au Haut by Captain Andrew Lunt, of Brewer, Me., 
which weighed 112 pounds. M. Hardy. 
„. * * The current number of Game Laws in Brief gives 
laws of all §tates and Provinces. Price 25 cents, 
Fish Chat. 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. 
Coloration of Fish, 
I have at different times presented my views in Forest 
and Stream in relation to the coloration of trout, etc., 
claiming that mere coloration, no matter how varied it may 
be among different specimens, should not be regarded as 
of sufficient importance to justify separating certain 
groups into distinct varieties. This opinion I advanced 
pretty fully in the issue of July 23 last. A short time after 
the article was printed, I received several letters from 
valued correspondents in which the opinions I had ex- 
pressed were indorsed in no uncertain language. One of 
the gentlemen who wrote me — I wish I had permission to 
use his name here — says : 
"I am perfectly delighted with all you say about pecu- 
liarly marked trout. With all you say I entirely agree, 
because my own experience and observation force me to 
the same conclusion. A man knows little of fish who 
places any great stress on their coloration. * * * Like 
yourself, I have handled the trout of Maine, New Bruns- 
wick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Massachusetts, in all 
kinds of lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, brooks and estuaries 
(salt water), but have never found among them any such 
differences in markings and colors as would lead a fairly 
intelligent man to class them as separate varieties, much 
less into different species. * * * We have here a num- 
ber of lakes and streams in which trout are taken differing 
from each other in shape and colors much more than the 
'sea trout' in salt water differs from one that never smelt 
salt water. 
"So far as my own researches into the causes of this have 
guided my opinions, I attribute the difference more to the 
colors of the bottom than to any other cause. Of one 
thing I am convinced — change the habitat of trout and 
you change the coloration." 
I make this liberal extract from my friend's letter, not 
because it is an indorsement of my views, although as such 
it is very pleasant to me, but chiefly that I may put on 
rfcord an opinion which, it seems to me, ought to be 
public property. 
In addition to the facts I presented in the article above 
referred to, I would offer still anether. A number of 
years ago I visited the studio of an artist in Boston, who 
had, although comparatively young, achieved considerable 
fame from the merits of his still-life pictures. I cannot 
now recall his name, but will say it was not our old friend' 
Walter M. Brackett, whose paintings of fish have given him 
a world-wide reputation. Among the pictures he had re- 
cently painted was one of a six-pound Rangeley trout. 
The coloration of the fish he had limned was simply gor- 
geous. I have, first and last, handled great numbers of 
those trout, but among them all not one, so far as I could 
remember, approached in hardly any degree. that magnifi- 
cent coloration. The drawing of the fish was superb — - 
every fin ray, eyes, gill covers, almost the minute scales, 
even, being depicted with absolute fidelity. But the color ! 
It seemed to me it was altogether too brilliant. As I 
paused before the painting in closest scrutiny, the artist 
asked me how I liked his trout. I replied that I thought 
the painting was a remarkably fine piece of work, but if I 
dared to criticise it I should say it was altogether too 
highly colored. 
"It may seem so to you," he answered, but the colora- 
tion is an exact reproduction from nature, and here is the 
original study," he continued, taking down from a shelf 
a small painting. "I made this at the Upper Dam last fall, 
its accuracy can be vouched for by all who were in camp 
at the time." I replied I did not question its accuracy, but 
I had never before seen a trout in such gorgeous livery. 
This incident occurred in June. In the following Sep- 
tember I w as a t the Upper Dam, and while I was there the 
artist, Mr. Coolidge — I new remember his name — arrived, 
he being an ardent angler as well as painter. A day or 
two subsequent to< his arrival I took a trout in the pool 
at the end of the quick water below the dam which was 
ot about the size of the one he had painted, and the colora- 
tion was fully as brilliant. Never have I before or since, 
seen two such magnificently hued fish in those waters. 
They had all the gorgeousness of the most brilliant nup- 
tial dress, multiplied tenfold, if such an expression is 
allowable. The eyes of the artist glistened triumphantly 
as he gazed upon my beautiful prize. It seemed, as he 
afterward said, as if I had caught it to substantiate the 
statement he had made concerning the other fish. 
Odinarily the large trout taken in those waters, even at 
the close of the season, are far from being beautiful fish, 
so far as form and color go, and the two I have named 
were exceptions to the rule. It is not impossible that some 
writers on viewing my fish when laid side by side with 
one of every-day colors, would class them as quite distinct 
varieties, but to an old Rangeley angler they could not be 
reckoned as such. 
In Lake Edward, and in some of the other P. Q. lakes, 
the majority of the trout are very handsomely colored, 
even long before the nuptial dress is assumed ; but among 
them all the difference in coloration is not sufficient to 
class any as varieties. 
I have taken trout in Lake Edward quite early in the 
season — almost as soon as the ice went out, in fact — and 
more than half of them were very highly colored. I have 
often wondered at this fact, for the season for spawning 
had not many months past, and the belief is that after the 
spawn is cast the fish not only lose their bright lines, but 
also have a gaunt, dishevelled look, so to speak. The 
bright colored fish I creeled were plump and well-condi- 
tioned, and I can account for this only by the belief that 
some of those trout do not spawn annually; or in other 
words, they do not all mature their ova in the same year.. 
Anglers and others who are interested in our game 
fishes; will add much to our fund of information concern- 
ing them if they will look into this matter and have the 
question settled once for all whether the salmon and trout 
spawn annually or biennially. 
Coloration of Black Bass. 
Every black bass angler has noticed the great variation 
of color that exists in these fish in different localities. 
Sometimes bass are creeled from the same water varying 
all the way from a yellowish brawn to a dingy black. 1 
have seen dozens of such bright fish, almost as light 
colored as white perch, which have been a long time in 
fresh water — I do not mean the bass were silvery in color, 
but yellowish to brown in their varicolors — taken from the 
wharves at Detroit, Mich. At first I could not identify 
them as black bass, they were so different from any I had 
seen. Just across the river, however, at Windsor, fish of 
very much more sombre hues were being landed, and even 
after laying specimens of each catch side by side and com- 
paring them, I could hardly be reconciled to the belief that 
they were of the same species, i. e., the small-mouthed 
black bass. Although those fish were separated only by 
the river, which is not wide at that point, the separation 
seemed sufficient to cause the difference in color, and this 
proves that my correspondent and I are right in our be- 
lief that "a change of habitat produces change of colora- 
tion." In many of the ponds of Plymouth county, Mass., 
one takes variously colored bass, ranging all the way be- 
tween the colors I have named, some on fine sandy bot- 
toms being extremely bright, while those from more 
muddy or rocky bottoms are, as a rule, much more darkly 
colored. 
It may be fancy on my part, but it has always 
seemed to me that the bass taken over bright bottoms were 
more gamy than those over darker ones. They seem to 
make stronger runs and leap more frequently and higher 
than do the others. They do not wander about very much 
even in the same pond; they seem to be local in their 
habits, quite home lovers, and the bright ones, consequent- 
ly, are not often taken in the localities in which the others 
domicile themselves. All this, of course, is meant to ap- 
ply to such ponds as I have named. In rivers they seem 
to follow the current considerably, but not so rapidly as 
one would suppose. I knew of a lot of these fish which 
escaped from a protected pond into a river, and it was 
over two years before any were caught at a point not 
much over two miles from the place in which they entered 
the stream. 
Does the Black Bass Always Hibernate? 
I think not, and for the following reason, although Scott 
and some other writers describe it as a hibernating 
species : I have more than once taken good fish through 
holes in the ice when fishing for pickerel, the bait used 
being a live minnow. On one occasion I, with some 
friends, had a number of lines set in a pond in eastern 
Massachusetts, and during the day the flags were tilted 
quite as often by big yellow perch-as by pickerel, and now 
and then a black bass was drawn up through the holes, 
greatly to the surprise of all who were present. 
Those bass vvere strong, active fish, and had no appear- 
ance of having been awakened from a hibernating sleep. 
Mr. Scott cites several instances of the bass being torpid 
in the winter, hiding in crevices of submerged ledges. 
There were no rocks in the pond I refer to, the bottom 
being of clear sand and gravel, the only deposit of mud 
in it being around the borders, where aquatic plants flour- 
ished iii the summer months. Whether these fish abandon 
the habit of semi-hibernation in such localities as this 
pond, I cannot say ; but those we caught were as lively 
as any taken in the summer, and well-conditioned, too. 
Vari-Colored Tautog. 
Variation of color of tautog, or blackfish, is often quite 
marked. Prof. Goode, in his valuable work on fishes, 
figures a specimen which must have been quite gray in 
color, with the irregular markings peculiar to this species, 
and I have taken several as light as the one he figures. 
Well-conditioned tautog are often of a yellowish green, 
or rather light green color on their sides, and I have occa- 
sionally seen them almost yellow. Ordinarily, however, 
the dingy black prevails. And here again we see the effect 
environment has on coloration. Those tautog which are 
taken in deep, clear water are much brighter than those 
creeled from water which is constantly filled with sedi- 
ment and mud. _ Thus the tautog caught from the surf- 
beaten cliffs which are surrounded by the pure water of 
the ocean are brighter colored and more gamy than those 
taken m the water of the harbor. Those fish which the 
angler delights to conquer from the great rocks of Eastern 
Point, Gloucester, seem to be different in every way from 
those taken in the harbor, just as the tautog which are 
caught over the kelp-covered sunken ledges off Cohasset 
are incomparably brighter, stronger and more gamy than 
those taken in the muddy water of Weymouth River not 
many miles distant. 
Change in Color of Pkktrel. 
Every old pickerel fisherman has noticed the great 
variety of coloration that is found in a day's catch of 
these fish. This diversity of color has led to considerable 
error among writers, causing them to classify and describe 
some half dozen species when they were all identically the 
same. I have taken pickerel in ponds in Massachusetts 
which varied all the way in color from a golden sheen on 
their sides to a dingy, dirty gray. In the same body of 
water, and perhaps not five rods apart, one captures a 
bright golden fish and the next will be muddy colored, 
and as ugly shaped as it is colored. In a great stretch of 
meadows around the lower in the Schoodic Lake system, 
where the bottom of the water is of a deposit of alluvium 
brought there in years long past by, the rivers and brooks 
which empty into the lake, the pickerel are almost in- 
variably dirty gray on their sides. I have taken great 
numbers in that lake, some of them of large size, but none 
showed the bright coloration exhibited in fish caught over 
a cleaner bottom.. 
Per contra, there is an extensive range of meadows in 
Massachusetts through which a sluggish river meanders, 
tapping here and there wide trenches which have muddy 
bottoms throughout, the bed of the river being mostly of 
gravel. In the trenches the pickerel vary in color from 
very bright to dingy, while in the river they are generally 
light in color, almost yellowish, with beautifully graduated 
marks and bars of different shades of brown. Pickerel, 
as a rule, do not wander very much; each individual 
seems to be content to remain in his own lurking place 
and this fact seems to show that the environment does not 
always affect the coloration of the fish. 
Coloration of Detp Sea Fish. 
If one stands on the wharves where "bankers" and other 
deep sea fishermen land their cargoes, he will notice that 
the cod are of a great variety of coloration, ranging from 
light yellow to dark grayish brown. J have asked the 
