Oct. 15, 1904.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
327 
Water Pollution. 
Altoona, Pa.— Editor Forest and Stream: At a regu- 
lar meeting of the executive board of the Altoona Rod 
and Gun Club and Fish and Game Protective Associa- 
tion, held at the club house, our attention was called to 
the fact that dead fish in large numbers were frequently 
seen along the banks of the streams below Tyrone and 
Roaring Springs, and that upon investigation it was the 
unanimous opinion of our informants that this destruc- 
tion of fish was caused by the poisoning of the water 
by the refuse from the paper mills, tanneries, etc., lo- 
cated on the headwaters of said streams, being permitted 
to flow into the same. We were urged to take some 
action in the matter, and requested to let the result of 
said action be known to the public in general ; therefore, 
be it resolved : 
First — That a committee of two members from the 
Blair County Branch of the League of American Sports- 
men, one from the Altoona Rod and Gun Club, the Ty- 
rone Rod and Gun Club, the Huntingdon Rod and Gun 
Club, and the Ryde Fishing Club, be appointed to wait 
on the proprietors of all these industries located on the 
Juniata "River and its tributaries, and request them, in a 
friendly way, to try and adopt some means to stop the 
pollution and poisoning of said streams. 
Second — That a reasonable length of time be allowed 
them to complete the arrangements for the purifying of 
all refuse that is now allowed to flow into the streams, 
and if, at the expiration of said time limit, they have 
made no steps to accomplish said result, then instruct 
said committee to adopt some other means to accomplish 
their purpose. 
Third— That the public in general who have the protec- 
tion of our fish at heart, be, and hereby is, appointed a 
comittee of the whole to assist in this work. 
We would also suggest that each organization pay the 
expenses of said committeeman while on duty in this 
capacity. 
The secretary is also requested to send a copy of these 
resolutions to Mr. Meehan, Commissioner of Fisheries, to 
our local fish commissioner, to our two legislative repre- 
sentatives, to all the above mentioned organizations, to 
all our local newspapers, and to Forest and Stream. 
By order of the executive board Altoona Rod and Gun 
Club and Game and Fish Protection Association. 
W. G. Clark, Secretary. 
Grilse on a Trout Rod. 
Large salmon begin to run up the .rivers of New- 
foundland toward the end of June, and the best fishing 
comes early in July, while the time to shoot caribou is 
after September 1. Few of us are able to make two 
such long trips in one year, and fewer still can devote 
a whole summer to sport, so that it seemed as if we 
must either take the caribou and regret the salmon, or 
be satisfied with the salmon and dispense with the 
deer. 
In September of last year I had a very successful 
trip after caribou, but was filled with longing to fish 
those superb rivers when their chief glory was on 
hand for business, so this year planned to reach the 
island about the middle of August, put in the first two 
weeks in fishing, and go up to the barrens about the 
time when the deer were cleaning their horns, so get- 
ting a fair sample of each sport. 
It was late on August 12 when we reached the Junc- 
tion River, and early next morning we began whipping 
that splendid stream, but to our great disappointment 
three days' hard work yielded only a few trout and one 
small grilse; so we broke camp and went up Grand 
Lake, ten miles to Hurd's Brook. Here we found the 
water very low and no fish of any kind; broke camp 
again, rowed to the Sandy Lake River, and went up 
that stream to the first rapid without seeing a fish. I 
had my trout rod mounted, and cast in every likely 
place with no rises, so, while the guides were getting 
ready to haul the dories up the rapid, walked up the 
stream a few yards and cast again. As the flies circled 
over an eddy there was a tremendous rush and a gleam 
of silver, but no touch on the flies. Of course, I 
should have put on a stronger leader and a salmon fly 
and waited at least five minutes before casting again, 
but I was too ignorant and too eager for thig, and 
cast again and again. That salmon rose six times and 
then went down in disgust and stayed down. 
I ordered the boys to find a good place and make 
camp, and our whole party proceeded to string them- 
selves along that rapid and whip the water. I put a 
small salmon fly on my light trout leader, went up to 
the head of the rapid and cast some distance above the 
first break. Instantly there was a convulsion in the 
water, a tremendous drag on the line, a leap into the 
air, and that fish started down the rapid, leaping every 
few feet, with myself splashing and scrambling through 
water and over rocks in his wake, while the reel 
screamed and the little rod bent almost to the breaking 
point. He bounded gaily past one of my companions, 
who cast wildly after him, seeing only the _ fish and 
paying no attention to the man in tow. Him I ob- 
jurgated with what breath I could spare and continued 
my wild career, until my locomotive paused in the big- 
pool below. There he circled, jumping every now and 
then, while I wound in line and got my breath, and 
at last drew him slowly toward my guide who stood 
ready to gaff. For some incomprehensible reason that 
guide, as the line came close to him, took hold of it; 
there was a little jerk against his hand, the light leader 
snapped and my fish was gone. 
Such a situation makes one realize how imperfect 
and inadequate are words for the complete expression 
of thought; but I did my poor best to be equal to the 
occasion. My line wasn't touched ■ again during the 
whole trip, so, perhaps, all was said that was really 
necessary. 
There are four rapids on this stream below the foot 
of Deer Lake, and there were plenty of salmon in all 
of them. No larger fish took our flies, only grilse 
running from three to five pounds, so after the first 
day we put up the salmon rods and used only our six- 
ounce trout rods, with one No. 8 salmon fly, double 
hook — the Newfoundland rivers being so clear that a 
large fly is of no use. What sport we did have! We 
would lose at least two fish out of every three hooked, 
so we had all the fun and did not kill more fish than 
could be used, which is the perfection of fishing to my 
notion. _ . 
Black bass? Pooh! Speckled trout? Stuff! Rain- 
bow trout? Bosh! Grayling? Fiddle! I have caught 
them all over and over again, and they don't for an 
instant compare with the acrobatic grilse. The salmon 
is the king of fish, and to take grilse on a trout rod is 
as good sport as this world has to give. 
A. St. J. Newberry. 
Fish and Fishing. 
The Quinnat Salmon in Maine. 
The examination at Washington of the supposed speci- 
men of the Quinnat salmon sent from Pierce Pond in 
Maine, proves that the fish was simply a large and some- 
what unusual specimen of the ouananiche or land-locked 
salmon, though Colonel Haggard has but little doubt that 
one of the fish caught by him in that locality was the 
product of some of the western fish planted in those 
waters by the Fishery Commissioners. The particular 
fish sent to Washington was one which had been caught 
by Mr. Le Messervy, who has camps on Pierce Pond, 
and the Colonel now regrets that some of the other fish 
out of the same water were not sent to Washington, for 
they were, he says, very distinct from the one which has 
been examined; sufficiently so, in fact, to convince him 
of the existence there of two distinct species of the sal- 
monidse. Local people seemed to think that the fish re- 
sembling that which went to Washington were the 
stranger fish, however, and the others the ordinary land- 
locks, and this is how it was that none of the latter were 
sent for identification. Colonel Haggard tells me that he 
caught salmon there so very different in all respects from, 
that which has just been declared to be a landlocked one. 
that he is positive as to the existence of two distinct 
species in Pierce Pond, though he is unable to say whether 
one variety is the Quinnat, the steelhead, or what it may 
be. It is understood that the Maine commissioners have 
planted both the steelhead salmon and also the Quinnat 
salmon in certain of their waters, and it will be interesting 
to note the results. Some of the land-locked variety 
recently taken out of Pierce Pond are said to have 
reached sixteen pounds in weight. 
The Striped Bass of the St. La-wrecce. 
Some of the Canadian newspapers have been printing a 
paragraph relating, as a most unusual occurrence, the cap- 
ture in a weir, a few miles below Quebec, in the River St. 
Lawrence, of what they call a bar. Now, the fish known 
to Canadians as the bar is simply the striped bass (Roccus 
I lineatus) of Bloch, and far from a fish of 32 pounds pos- 
sessing claims to be regarded as of exceptional size, it is 
a well known fact that this variety of the bass has been 
known to attain to the weight of 60 and even of 100 
pounds. Frank Forrester reports having seen one of 43 
pounds, and asserts that they sometimes weigh 70 to 80 
pounds, while Dr. Goode refers to one that weighed 112 
pounds. Twenty to 40 pounds is not an extraordinary 
weight for the specimens of this fish which are taken by 
anglers off the coasts of the Eastern States and of the 
Maritime Provinces of the Dominion, but it is an un- 
doubted fact that there has ben a great falling off in re- 
cent years in the size of the striped bass caught in the 
St. Lawrence River, consequent upon the immense 
slaughter of immature fish which has been permitted for a 
long time past. I have seen hundreds of these fish, weigh- 
ing only a few ounces each, taken out of weirs, and also 
upon the fish markets of Montreal and Quebec, and until 
such time as the Federal Government places a limit upon 
the size of the fish that may be taken or sold, and attends 
to its enforcement, large specimens cannot, of course, be 
expected in the St. Lawrence. 
. Only one of the authors who have recorded the exist- 
ence of this fish in the St. Lawrence, has referred to the 
name "bar," which is given it by the French-Canadians. 
This was Sir John Richardson, in his "Fauna Boreali 
Americani." Jordan and Everman do not record the 
occurrence of this fish in the St. Lawrence, though they 
state that it occurs as far north as New Brunswick, and 
■ also occasionally in Lake Ontario. But there is no' doubt 
at all of the bar of the St. Lawrence being the true striped 
bass. Whether we take into consideration its external 
appearance, its gameness as a sporting fish, or the quality 
of its flesh, it is equally desirable. In color it is oliva- 
ceous and silvery, often brassy-tinged, sides paler, marked 
with seven or eight continuous or interrupted blackish 
" stripes, one of them being along the lateral line. It is 
these stripes or bars which give the fish the name by 
which it is known in French Canada. Small as is the 
usual run of striped bass at present caught in the weirs 
in the vicinity of Quebec, the annual catch amounts to 
some 10,000 pounds per annum. 
. Among the islands below the Isle of Orleans, which 
are first reached at a distance of some twenty-five miles 
from Quebec, the striped bass is fished for with a troll. 
The bait used is a small fish, a spoon, or a piece of meat. 
No rod is employed at this sport, the fishing being done 
with hand-lines from schooners, and the sport is best 
during a light breeze. A long and strong line is used, 
which is thrown by hand to a considerable distance from 
the boat, with the aid of the sinker attached to it some 
few feet above the hook. The best fishing is done during 
the rising tide, and there is every reason to believe that 
the fish would take the fly in the St. Lawrence, if properly 
tried, just as they do in the Passaic and at the Falls of 
the Potomac. In any case there is no reason why the 
sport of catching the striped bass in the St. Lawrence 
should not be very much improved by the use of rods and 
lines in the place of hand-lines only. 
Capture of a Big Whale. 
One of the biggest captures reported in the St. Law- 
rence for some time past was reported some days ago 
from the mouth of the Moisie. A couple of fishermen 
noticed a large black object out at sea, and putting out in 
their boats for a couple of miles or so they found that it 
was an enormous whale, and summoned assistance. The 
huge cetacean measured 72 feet in length, and had ap- 
parently been killed by sharks, a number of which fought 
with the fishermen for possession of the carcass, having 
already bitten several pieces from its body. Ten fisher- 
men succeeded in towing the whale ashore, but eight 
sharks were killed during the fight for it, several of the 
savage brutes following the whale right up to the beach, 
the water where they were slain being colored with their 
blood. An enormous quantity of oil was made from the 
carcass of the whale, and now two whaling stations are to 
be established in the Lower St. Lawrence, fitted out with 
all necessary appliances for turning the carcasses of 
whales into commercial products, and to be operated by a 
joint stock company which proposes to go> very exten- 
sively into the project. Both the humped-back and 
sulphur-bottom whales are very numerous at present in 
the Gulf and Lower St. Lawrence, though the Right or 
Greenland whale, the most valuable of its species, is now 
comparatively scarce. 
Ouananiche for Hatching Purposes. 
Mr. Marcoux, who has charge of the salmon and 
ouananiche hatchery at Roberval, Lake St. John, has 
secured about 150 large ouananiche in the Salmon River, 
a branch of the Ashuapmouchouan, for hatchery purposes. 
They are now inclosed in a pond and will be stripped 
some time next month, and their spawn placed in the 
hatchery. Mr. Marcoux also expects a large lot of salmon 
eggs from the Tadoussac ponds, which will be hatched out 
next spring at Roberval for planting in Lake St. John 
waters. E. T. D. Chambers. 
Fly-Casters and Bait-Casters. 
"O scaly Maine, to give me such a deal, 
To hand me such a bunch when I was true!" 
Vdiior Forest and Stream: 
After reading the article by Mr. Francis L. Green 
anent "Belgrade and Some Digressions," I decided 
it was necessary to take the floor, although the first 
inclination was to treat his communication as "a pass- 
ing dotty dream." His flobert rifle broadside lacks 
both aim and penetration, and he should not go gunning 
again without a guide. 
However lowly a citizen the writer may be, it is 
nevertheless painful to see his name so many times 
mingled with th ^ "loups of kindergarten chin" and 
brought into such intimate association with Mr. Green's 
ego phrases. Especially is this true when the guilty 
party proves to be one who should be a friend. 
Mr. Green has marked me as a fly-fisherman guilty 
of putting on paper much "self-laudatory vainglory" 
(please define the phrase) whereas by all the gods I 
most solemnly affirm that in the article he criticises I 
posed as a member of the united order of plain pluggers; 
in other words, the article placed me in the same class 
among anglers as the gentleman from Pennsylvania, 
and I have been attcked by what should be a friendly 
pen. The smoke clouds /Of his native city have dimmed 
his vision momentarily and he did not read me aright. 
Mr. Green quotes from my article the following: 
"The gentlemen who have reached this high estate (fly- 
fishing) can climb no higher in piscatorial altitudes; 
they can breathe no more rarified atmosphere; they 
stand on the summit and look down with pity on their 
brethren who are groping below." He calls this para- 
graph self-laudation. Now in these lines I attempted to 
wax sarcastic and my remarks would be labeled as sarcasm 
(however poor) by any intelligent reader. I did not think 
it necessary to mark the paragraph, for it did not occur 
at the time that a mortal of such density as the gentle- 
man from Pennsylvania might exist in the universe at 
large; however, there is the consolation that a more 
explicit , utterance would have left Mr. Green without 
the opportunity to over-tax the furrows of his cerebrum, 
and the world would not have received the benefit of 
his melodious sob. 
I would convey to the dean of pluggers the following- 
impressions; his comments on my lack of wisdom in 
doing what he is pleased to term, "holding my com- 
panions up to public ridicule," are unwarranted; I did 
not mention names in the article, and if among the 
many professional men and others who fished at Bel- 
grade there are men who think I spoke directly of them, 
it must be due to the fact that I spoke truly, and the 
truth is always a fit subject for publication except where 
malice is the motive. I have not taken any man's 
name in vain, much less that of a friend. I have not lost 
any friends; and at any rate the question broached by 
Mr.. Green is one which can readily be taken up by 
those concerned without the intervention of any self 
important personage who would howl over that with 
which he rightly has no concern. If Mr. Green' repre- 
sents any of the men whose peculiarities I was so un- 
fortunate as to observe, let him speak out, or if, as I 
strongly suspect, he is an angler with a full knowledge 
of his frailties, hard hit by some one of the harmless 
paragraphs I have been guilty of writing, let him de- 
clare himself. 
Behold the following extracts from the communica- 
tion of the gentleman from Pennsylvania: 
"Bait-casting requires more skill in manipulation than 
fly-casting. The fly-caster uses hi; 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." 
* * * H= * * . 
"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." 
* * * * * * 
"The greater factor (in fly-fishing) is to swell, strut 
and vaingloriously boast of the fly-fisher's superiority 
over every other class of fishermen on earth, the bait- 
fisherman in particular." 
Now, I venture to say that the old subject of fly- 
fishing versus bait-fishing has never received a more 
valuable and forcible contribution than these immortal 
