Oct. 8, 1904J 1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
and skill in the parlor were in the "higher piscatorial alti- 
tudes," while on the stream they had as much knowledge 
and skill as a mud dweller. In all cases I have observed 
that the beginner is always the noisiest and wisest, seek- 
ing the lime-light by words and clamor rather than by 
deeds. 
I would have Mr. Fowler know that bait-casting re- 
quires more skill in manipulation than fly-casting. The 
fly-caster uses his tackle as a whip ; the bait-caster has 
to guide his bait and manipulate his reel delicately at the 
same time to prevent back lashing. That is much the 
more difficult. He also has the same problems to solve 
with unresponsive fish; 
The fly-caster knows nothing whatever as to what fly 
his fish will take, or whether they will take it at all. A. 
"fly-fisherman" is a misnomer. In most instances he 
should better be designated as an owner of tackle in 
high-keyed color schemes festooned with some fishing 
ideas. 
In any event, the excellence of a class which depends 
on self-eulogy cannot be considered as firmly secured. It 
would be much better if the world at large bestowed the 
eulogy and the recognition. Francis L. Green. 
Fish and Fishing. 
Late Ouananiche Fishing. 
It is surprising how little advantage has been taken 
of the extension of the ouananiche fishing season from 
the 15th of September to the 1st of October. Hitherto 
anglers have complained that the open season closed too 
early, and just as the best of the sport was being afforded 
by the fish. It required considerable urging before the 
federal authorities consented to extend the open season, 
and now that the change has been made, scarcely anybody 
takes advantage of it. To such an extent is this the case 
that the hotel people stopped running the boat across 
Lake St. John and closed up the Island House several 
days before the end of the season. Unfortunately they 
had scarcely done so when a number of American anglers 
appeared on the scene at Roberval, only to find that there 
were no means of reaching the fishing grounds. 
Many complaints are being made of the licenses for 
netting in Lake St. John, which are being issued by the 
Government of Quebec. It is true that these licenses are 
only to authorize fishermen to take coarse fish for com- 
mercial purposes, but nobobdy believes that the 
ouananiche found in the nets are returned to the water, 
and it is surmised that not a few of these gamy fish thus 
find their way to market. Up to 1897, when the netting 
in the lake was controlled by the Dominion Government, 
no licenses were issued. The recent granting of them 
has caused much adverse comment, not only among 
anglers, but even from some of the Government's own 
officers. Thus Mr. Beliveau, the Inspector of Fisheries 
for the Province of Quebec, says in his last report : "In 
Lake St. John, the general yield of fish is about the same 
as that of the previous year, with the exception of the 
famous ouananiche, which shows a slight diminution. Of 
recent years the provincial authorties have issued a few 
gill net licenses in this inland sea. Last year the activity 
of these fishermen was stimulated by a couple of fish 
traders who shipped to foreign markets. I have been in- 
formed that during the spring months over 500 pounds of 
fish were shipped weekly from one station alone. I do 
not believe in netting permits being granted at all in this 
beautiful lake, but at least they should be confined to. 
settlers for their domestic consumption only. Although 
it is illegal to capture ouananiche with nets, it is probable 
that not a few of these fish are thus taken and easily dis- 
posed of." 
The Sportsmen's Fish and Game Association of the 
Province of Quebec is taking this matter up very 
seriously, and will endeavor to bring about a cancellation 
of the existing licenses. Backed up by the inspector's 
opinion and by the fact that large sums of money are be- 
ing spent -in order to stock the lake and its tributary 
waters, the Association certainly ought to succeed. 
The Missirqttoi Bay Affair. 
Nothing has yet been accomplished in the matter of the 
shameful netting of pike-perch in Missisquoi Bay, and 
there is, so far, every reason to believe that the nefarious 
practice will be pursued next spring as usual. The re- 
cently published report of the Marine and Fisheries De- 
partment of the Dominion of Canada, shows what the re- 
sult of the netting was last year. Outside of about one 
thousand barrels of fresh fish — oickerel or wall-eyed pike 
predominating — and some $5,000 worth of whitefish, cap- 
tured by the American fishermen licensed by the State of 
Vermont, the Canadian eatch included some 30,000 pounds 
of pickerel, 4,000 of pike, 25,000 of perch, and 18,000 of 
mixed and coarse fish. This means that in round figures 
there were taken in nets out of Missisquoi Bay during the 
year over a quarter of a million pounds of fish. It may 
well be asked how long these beautiful waters are to stand 
such a drain upon their resources. The question of an 
international regulation prohibiting all kinds of netting in 
these contiguous waters has been continually on the tapis. 
Missisquoi Bay is now the only sheet of water in the 
whole eastern townships of Canada in which the use of 
seines is tolerated. The State of New York has already 
prohibited any kind of netting on its side of the lake. 
The State of Vermont has given its commissioner the 
power to refuse or to issue netting licenses according to 
the action that is taken by the Canadian authorities. Last 
season the provincial authorities granted fourteen licenses, 
mostly to well-to-do farmers with a political pull. Their 
seines, which they set under the ice, are from 80 to 110 
fathoms long, and require three men each to handle them 
with the aid of cranks. The chief contention of these 
fishermen is that if they did not catch these fish as they 
approach their spawning beds, they would never catch 
any at all, as the pickerel return to the deep water of the 
lake as soon as their spawning season is over. It is under- 
stood that some thirty-five seine licenses were issued by 
the Vermont commissioner last spring at $20 each. Their 
chief fishing ground, in the vicinity of Alburg and Hog 
Island, should be a profitable one, as the fish are caught 
thert, in their deseent fronts ag well as in their Hscent to, 
tht spawning ground. In the autumn mm, between 
»% *u4 mm w&tof pwnlft m tii? tad fy Dp 
State of Vermont. This makes a total of about a hundred 
Vermont licenses, which would be no longer issued if 
only the Canadian authorities would withhold the four- 
teen or thereabouts that are granted by them. Therefore, 
under the proposed system of mutual protection, the 
State of Vermont would sacrifice much more than the 
Canadians would. Yet the Canadian Government seems 
blind to the fact, notwithstanding that it is plainly urged 
by their own officials. 
Good Fall Fishing. 
Many of the fishermen returning from the Lake St. 
John country, report some excellent catches, though, as 
usual, the same good fortune has not attended everybody. 
Some very good three to four-pound trout have recently 
been taken out of the waters of the Nonantum Fish and 
Game Club, and even larger fish have rewarded the efforts 
of those who were fortunate enough to fish in the Jean- 
notte River during the latter part of September. From 
the Wayagamack Lakes, which are fished by the members 
of the Laurentian Club, come also interesting stories of 
the sport had by anglers. In the Lake Edward and neigh- 
boring waters the numbers of anglers this fall has been 
so large that at one time no less than 85 guides were 
out at the same time with them. Yet the extent of these 
waters is such that the different parties rarely met. 
An English Angler in Maine. 
English anglers and English writers on angling seem to 
be at present directing their attention to the fishing waters 
of Maine. Lieut.-Colonel Andrew Haggard, the author 
of "Sporting Yarns" and of the introduction to "The 
Ouananiche and Its Canadian Environment," and a fre- 
quent contributor to the London Field, has been for 
some time past in search of sport and of material for 
sporting articles for British publications, in the woods 
and on the inland waters of Maine. Some of the letters 
IN THE DAYS OF OLD. 
From the Woodcraft Magazine. 
recently received from him tell of capital sport in the 
Pine Tree State, some of which he participated in, while 
of other he was an eye witness. He writes of two land- 
locked salmon (so-called) which he saw killed upon two 
successive days in the Moose River, one of which weighed 
9 pounds and the other j l / 2 . Thei\ there is a story of 
a third one, but with a different ending. Its weight was 
not ascertained, for it has not yet been got upon the 
scales. But it gave the Colonel lots of sport. It was not 
so big, he says, as either of the other two mentioned 
above, but a splendid fish, and behaved just like a sea 
salmon. It made a run of a good fifty yards down the 
stream before breaking water, when it came out with a 
splendid leap, and then turned and ran right at the 
angler. Of course it was difficult to keep the canoe away 
from him under such circumstances, and as so often hap- 
pens, it appeared as if the guide paddled toward the fish 
instead of away from it, with the inevitable consequence 
that he placed the canoe directly over the fish. The diffi- 
culty of combating rapids, or even currents, has naturally 
to be allowed for, but the Colonel's guide seems to have 
been exceptionally unfortunate or exceedingly stupid, for, 
as he writes me, the Colonel found himself playing his fish 
upon one side of the canoe while it was fighting hard 
upon the other. 
Colonel Haggard certainly seems to have been ex- 
tremely lucky in the fish which he has killed in Maine, 
though his luck is usually well deserved, for he is one 
of the very best anglers that it has been my good fortune 
to fish with. On one day he killed two trout with a fly 
in Pierce Pond, weighing 4*4 pounds each, and a salmon 
of 5 pounds. He killed another salmon on the fly in 
the Belgrade lakes, and a beautiful trout of sV-\ pounds, 
measuring 23 inches long and 14^ in circumference. 
At Pierce Pond the Colonel found a fish which has 
been forwarded to Washington for the purpose of identi- 
fication by the Curator of the Museum. Through Colonel 
Boothby, of Portland, Colonel Haggard sent the fish to 
Commissioner Carleton, of Maine, who expresses his 
opinion that it is a "quinnat" salmon, 
Variation in §L§ of Fteb, 
It la not witheut interest to th& Rngfor to nc4e the 
ftffiMiflg f?ipr« mm iff ft$fl If m IDfW WwW 
inhabiting different waters of the same description and 
answering the same conditions. It may reasonably be 
asked why a large river like the Miramichi should almost 
invariably produce salmon of small size and weight. The 
Grand Cascapedia, a river of only probably about one- 
third the length and productive capacity of the Mira- 
michi, yields fish of large size running from thirty to 
nearly fifty-five pounds. It is recorded that the catch of 
a well-known United States angler during a short visit 
to the Cascapedia in August, 1897, amounted to thirteen 
fish, the largest of which weighed 41, 42 and 43 pounds 
respectively. The average weight of his fish exceeded 
thirty pounds, while from ten to eighteen pounds would 
be a good average for the salmon of the Miramichi. A 
specimen of the same fish has been taken in the Scottish 
Tay weighing eighty-three pounds, while Irish rivers have 
yielded fish of sixty pounds, and some of the rivers of 
Norway, salmon almost as large. 
As long ago as 1863, Mr. Francis Francis pointed out 
that in some rivers the race of salmon and trout are 
naturally small and without apparent reason. He says; 
"In Scotland, for example, there will be four rivers run- 
ning into the same estuary, and the breed, shape, make, 
and size of the fish of every river will be distinct and dif- 
ferent. In some the fish will be long and thin in shape; 
in others, short and thick. In some they will scarce ever 
exceed twelve or fourteen pounds in weight, and'ih others 
they will run up to twenty, thirty, and even forty pounds, 
if allowed to exist for a reasonable time. Now here it 
is evident that the rivers themselves can have little or 
nothing to do with the growth of the fish, since the great 
feeding ground wherein the fish grow and increase their 
weight at a rate out of all proportion to that of any other 
created creature, are identical, being the broad sea ; since 
salmon never increase their weight in the fresh water after 
their first trip to the sea, but rather fall off and deteriorate. 
Why is it, then, that enjoying these feeding grounds in 
common, some thrive so much better and faster than 
others? It cannot be doubted that it is the nature of 
some breeds to increase more and faster than others, even 
as a Hereford or Norfolk steer exceeds a Welsh or High- 
land stot, feed him and breed him how, where, and when 
you will." 
Professor Prince, the Dominion of Canada Fishery 
Commissioner, and a prominent authority in the world 
of science, attributes to heredity, as the main factor, the 
differences which distinguish the runs of salmon in dif- 
ferent rivers, though he also makes due allowance for 
other conditions such as food, physical evironment or 
physical surroundings, age, congenital variation or in- 
herent strength or weakness, adaptability, and security 
from pernicious influences. But neither in -food nor in 
environment can be found the cause for the production 
of such exceptionally large fish as those which are pro- 
duced in the comparatively small Scotch and Norwegian 
rivers already referred to, or even in the Cascapedia. 
In support of his plea for heredity as the most im- 
portant of all the causes of corporeal magnitude. Pro- 
fessor Prince points out that dwarfed parents produce 
dwarfed progeny, while the young of large creatures are 
themselves almost invariably large. Like begets like,- 
especially in regard to bodily size. . When a farmer de- 
sires to raise large sized cattle he will select appropriate 
parents, and will thus secure, with almost absolute cer- 
tainty, progeny surpassing in dimensions the average size 
of the stock on his farm. He does not expect animals 
like large Durham or Hereford cattle if the parents are 
of the diminutive Kerry or Scottish Highland breed. 
The Professor shows that it is the same with fishes, and 
that trout which inhabit small mountain brooks and rills 
are almost invariably diminutive. The parents are small, 
and the resulting progeny are small, too. There- can be 
no doubt that food and external conditions, as Professor 
Prince himself admits, have much to do with the differ- 
ence; but, to quote his own words, "heredity is one of 
the most; potent factors, and a brood of large trout can- 
hot be obtained if small burn trout are selected as parents. 
Nor will the large river trout produce diminutive moun- 
tain trout." 
It has been well said that most people attribute the 
size of an unusually large specimen of any fish either to 
its favorable environment, its food, or its mature age. A 
large fish, in their view, must be an old fish. This is by 
no means the case, however. By the crossing of breeds 
of almost the same variety of animals we have discovered 
how we can get those which best carry flesh, and which 
grow the fastest upon a small amount of food. Why 
should it not be just as easy to discover the same thing 
with regard to fish and then to transplant and cross the 
salmon of different breeds or rivers, and different families 
of other fish as well, until we find those which are most 
valuable and most suitable to our various waters? It is 
certainly not too much to claim that this is a branch of 
the science of fishculture, of which but little is known, 
and in which there is abundant room for patient investi- 
gation and elaborate experiment. 
The Effect of Food Supply upon the Growth of Fishes. 
In the matter of food supply and its effect upon the 
growth of fishes, experiments have not been lacking. 
Various writers have repeated the story of the trout 
placed in three separate tanks and fed, respectively, with 
worms, minnows, and water flies, and how those fed with 
worms grew slowly and had a lean appearance ; those 
nourished on minnows grew larger, while such as were 
fattened upon flies only attained in a short time pro- 
digious dimensions, weighing twice as much as both the 
others together, although the quantity of food swallowed 
was in, nowise so great. 
It, has, too, been fully ascertained that while the quality 
and size of fish improve under the influence of plentiful 
and nutritious food, they will degenerate, even in rivers 
and lakes of large size, if food be lacking. 
The English trout, Salmo fario, which is considered to 
have attained a very good size in England when it reaches 
a weight of two or three pounds, accumulates bulk so 
rapidly when transplanted into New Zealand waters, 
where it finds an unlimited food supply of the most favor- 
able kind, that it has been caught there up to 25 and even 
28 pounds in weight. 
So, also, Hen- Jaffe, the German fisheulturist, reports 
exceptionally rapid growth of specimen-; of the rainbow 
trout when transplanted into German waters and jvil 
ehiffly upon wojjuski i$} imill fen,- 
- .: 4> < ■ — — & T» P> Cmumh 
