Feb. II, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM* 
Land-Locked Salmo Salar. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of January 28, Dr. Daly, of Sussex, N. B., 
Managing Director of the Pleasant Lake Club, corrobo- 
rates, from his own knowledge, all the statements made 
by Mr. Chambers in your issue of December 10 last 
respecting the fry of Salmo salar placed in that lake some 
six or seven years ago, and confined to it by an arrange- 
ment made to prevent the fish from escaping. Dr. Daly's 
experience seems to have been more extensive than that 
related by Mr. Chambers, whose one rod caught fifty in a 
day, all about the same size, some ten inches in length. 
From the Doctor's letter we learn that he has caught these 
smolts from twelve to fourteen inches in length, and that 
he and a companion "were compelled to move their boat 
on account of catching salmon only." 
Since both Mr. Chambers and Dr. Daly vouch for these 
facts, The Old Angler must not doubt them, and hence 
he is compelled to reconsider and revise all he thought he 
knew about salmon and trout acquired from extensive 
reading and the practical experience of a long life with 
exceptional facilities for the study. In the interests of 
science it is much to be regretted that Dr. Daly did not 
enter somewhat more fully into particulars. As the case 
stands, there is a lamentable want of data for careful 
comparison. If confinement in this lake has not essen- 
tially changed the nature of the fish, some of them should 
have attained maturity in the fourth year, and should 
have spawned at least twice since, if Salmo salar is an 
annual spawner. 
>. From what we know of landlocked salmon in other 
. lakes, we have no reason to think that any essential 
change has been produced in the last hundred years. The 
ouananiche of Grand Lake Stream to-day are precisely 
similar to those caught fifty years ago. If a considerable 
number of the fry. as Mr. Chambers and Dr. Daly state, 
escaped their enemies and attained a length from ten to 
fourteen inches, it is difficult, in the present state of our 
. knowledge, to believe that none attained maturity — say 
an average of tw"elve pounds — like their parent fish in the 
Miramichi. If any considerable number attained this 
I size, it is most extraordinary and wholly unaccountable 
that, in all these years, no member of the club has ever 
caught one. and that, so far, the largest Dr. Daly caught 
has not exceeded fourteen inches in length- — say a pound 
in weight! 
We are- told this is a scientific age — that "the school- 
master is abroad," and natural history forms a part of the 
curriculum, of all our high schools. We have been in- 
formed by two writers in your columns that the so-called 
sea trout is a true sea fish that comes into our rivers to 
feed on salmon ova. By another we have been told that 
it is identical with the brook trout, but is spawned and 
brought up in the sea ; by still another that it is a 
"marine type" distinct from the "fluvial type," which last 
. dictum is applauded and indorsed by the genial writer 
who first made known the wonders of Pleasant Lake, 
where an instance of transformation is in progress beside 
wdiich those recorded by Charles Darwin are common- 
place. This is vouched for by the manager of the club 
which controls the water — a club which includes among 
its members several professional men of high standing, 
some well-read and skillful anglers, and a number of in- 
telligent, practical men quite capable of appreciating the 
biological phenomena involved in the statements made by 
•Mr. Chambers and Dr. Daly; and yet no specimens of this 
transformed fish have reached the natural history 
musevmis of Canada or the United States. 
While thanking Dr. Daly for his kind offer of the hos- 
pitalities of "Kamp Kill Kare," the writer deeply regrets 
that his age and physical infirmities will prevent him 
from investigating on the spot the phenomena presented 
by this unique case. He can only hope that during the 
coming summer the Doctor himself or some other member 
of the club will send him specimens of these Salmo salar 
fry which, in seven years, have attained a length of only 
" fourteen inches and a weight of about one pound. If any 
of your numerous readers can tell of a similar case, he 
will help the cause of science by making the facts known 
through your widely-read magazine. 
The Old Angler. 
Sussex, N. B , Jan. 30. 
Under the Gilded Dome. 
Boston, Feb. 4.- — Editor Forest and Stream: Twenty- 
nine different bills have been referred to the Legislative 
Committee on Fish and Game in our State. House bill 
No. 157 provides for an outlay of $2,000 for the purpose 
of collecting statistics in regard to damage to_ food fish 
caused by dogfish and other predatory fish; this iu view 
of the fact that a bill for this purpose is now pending in 
Congress. The m.oney is to be expended under the direc- 
tion of the State Commissioners . on Fish and Game. 
House bill No. 214 provides for the continuance of the 
close season on quail on the Island of Nantucket until the 
first day of March, 1908. House bill No. 251 provides 
that the open season on quail be the months of Novem- 
ber and December instead of October and November as at 
present. It has been the contention of sportsmen gen- 
erally that after the leaves have faUen the birds should 
not be slaughtered, and that to continue the open season 
into December would be very unwise. Bristol county has 
been persistent in its desire to make December an open 
month. House bill No. 252 prohibits the shooting of wild 
ducks "from a boat, raft or other structure in any pond 
owned by the State or any fresh-water pond," and to 
allov/ their shooting only from the shore "in the county 
of Dukes county." This bill is the outgrowth of occur- 
rences described by your correspondent some weeks ago, 
when a State officer slaughtered many ducks in a man- 
ner .contrary to the customs of the natives, and to what 
they regard as an unwritten law of the county. 
House bill No. 287 is designed to repeal the provision 
which gives deputies the right of search in enforcing the 
laws against short lobsters. It originates from the Nortli 
Shore, which has alwavs been conspicuous for violations 
of the lobster laws. House bill No. 288 provides for a 
license fee of $10 to be paid by "ev^ry unnaturalized for 
eign-born person" before beginning to hunt in tlji?' Coni- 
nionwealth. One-half the nioney so paid is to go to 'the 
towa and the other half to ihs. Coranussioner»; to be iised 
by them for the enforcement of fish and game laws. 
House bill No. 289 is designed to fix the length of trout 
that may b& legally caught in the county of Berkshire at 
five inches; in all other counties, six inches. The ques- 
tion of the length of trout that may be caught in the 
four western counties, like Hamlet's ghost, "will never 
down." 
H ouse bill No. 336 originates with the Springfield 
Sportsmen's Club, and is sure to have strong support and 
perhaps equally strong opposition. It provides for a 
license fee of one dollar for citizens of the State and of 
ten dollars for "unnaturalized persons." One-half the 
money derived from the sale of licenses is to be used by 
the Commissioners for "the employment of game war- 
dens for the enforcement of laws for protection of birds 
and game, and one-half for the importation and liberation 
of quail," but 10 per cent, of the same in any year may 
be transferred from one class to the other. The bill, how- 
ever, exempts persons hunting on farm land owned or 
leased and occupied by them and any member of the 
owner's family "acting with his authority and consent," 
This last provision leaves a wide opening in the bill. An- 
other provision limits the bag of ruft'ed grouse to five 
in one day. Section 9 puts a limit of three years, un- 
less sooner repealed. From interviews with many 
hunters, the writer is of the opinion that there is a 
growing sentiment in favor of some such enactment 
and some express doubt whether it will ever be pos- 
sible without such a law to put a stop to the indis- 
criminate slaughter of every species of bird by the 
horde of foreigners which swarm in all our manufactur- 
ing centres. Others think such a law will antagonize 
the farmers and lead them to post their lands much 
more extensively than they do now. The hearing on 
this measure is sure to bring together a large number 
of men with diverse opinions. Last winter a similar 
bill met with no favor from the committee. 
Representative Charles S. Davis, of Salem, is sponsor 
for a bill which ranks as a curiosity, not only in its 
provisions, but in phraseology. It embodies the 
chimerical plan, which has been broached before of 
regulating the size of lobsters caught by the distance 
between the slats of the pot. It does away with all 
measurements of lobsters. 
It seems, to the writer, that the purpose of the bill 
could be accomplished in a much more direct way, by 
simply expunging every statute for protection of 
lobsters. Possibly that might be the quickest way to 
convince lobster-fishermen that they cannot "have the 
cake and eat it, too." We shall be interested to see 
what the hearing on the bill will develop. 
Our fishermen friends in Franklin, Hampshire and 
Hampden counties have in a bill to 'fix the length of 
trout that may legally be caught in those counties and 
Berkshire at five inches. To outsiders it appears they 
have a good reason for desiring that they be put in 
the same class with Berkshire. Perhaps some time they 
will all agree to be classed with the rest of the State 
and agree to a six-inch limit. 
House bill No. 441, by Salem D. Charles, provides 
for a fine 01 $50 for the owner of a dog found chasing 
a deer, "with the knowledge and consent of the owner 
or keeper," and authorizes the killing of the dog under 
such circumstances by any person. 
Mr. J. A. Cook asks for legislation to prohibit the 
taking of fish by nets and seines or any movable device 
in certain waters of Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket and 
Vineyard Sounds. 
House bill No. 560 is to prohibit the running at large 
of female dogs. When Mayor Bryant's bill (Senate 
No. 143) is heard, the largest committee room in the 
State house is liable to be too small to accommodate 
all who will desire to be heard for or against the fox. 
I will try to keep your readers informed of the result 
of hearings. Centr.^l. . 
Fish Chat. j 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. ] 
A Fly-Boofc Revery. 
A WILD northeast gale is blowing and the snow, in dense 
masses and in fleecy clouds, is fleeting across the fields 
and pastures, bidding fair to pile up drifts which will fill 
the roads and obstruct travel in all directions. The sky 
is of a leaden darkness, and so furiously are the clouds 
of snow driving along, the entire horizon is shut out, 
the view from my study vvindow being circumscribed to a 
very few rods. 
The northern sides of tie pines and the buildings near- 
by are so densely covered with the fleecy mantle they 
seem almost lik grotesque creations of snow, and the win- 
dows are completely hidcfcn from view. How the wind 
howls as it rushes by the house ! It seems impatient at 
being shut out from the warmth within. Not a sign of 
life is visible, even the sea gulls and crows seeking pro- 
tected hiding places from the blast. Yesterday a small 
flock of those hardy little isprites, the blue snowbirds or 
j uncos, were flitting about the dooryard, busily engaged 
in seeking for the seeds of weeds and grasses which were 
left uncovered by the snow; but not one is visible to-day, 
and probably they departed during the night for a more 
genial clime, where snow drifts and ice and cold and 
piercing winds are unknown. Plucky little mites they 
ordinarily are, and, like the chickadee or black-cap tit- 
mouse, they often brave the intensest cold ; but many 
there are which mount high in the air when a storm like 
this is approaching and wing their way to the sunny 
South. 
Huge rollers from the miglity Atlantic are rushing and 
crashing up the long, shelving beach a few rods from 
where I sit by the cheerful fira of the king of grate coals, 
that from the "Old Sydney Mines," and with a. thunder- 
ing roar dash upon the rocks and boulders with tremen- 
dous force. The surface of the ocean has lost its cerulean 
hue, and is of a leaden gray and white, and has a cold and 
hungry look. 
This is winter— frigid, storm-bearing, relentless wiutcr 
— the season which has the fewest attractions and enjoy- 
ments for those , who are obliged to endure its rigors. 
It is true, it. has charms for the hunter; to him who ha.-^ 
.ilio vigor, strength and endurance to follow the mighiy 
liioosc-dr' rCbtltfss caribou over the^ snow -covered barreiis 
or throu,ah -.thi; dim YlHai of the forest, to -him it is 3, 
season replete with exhilaration and keen enjoyment; but 
to the angler its long and weary months are blank ones 
in his existence. The glorious rivers and streams whose 
meanderings he follows in the halcyon days of summeir 
in quest of the royal salmon or the beautiful and gamy 
trout, are sealed with ice; and where a few short months 
ag© were pools upon whose surface he cast the delicate 
feathered lure, nothing is visible but drifts of snow and 
huge masses of particles of ice which have accumulated 
below the rapid water that still comes down from the 
mountains many miles away. But if he is debarred by the 
inclemencies of the season from visiting those dearly 
loved streams, he still has the blessed privilege of enjoy- 
ing in retrospect the pleasures that on them have been 
vouchsafed him. 
On such a day as this when I am storm^bound, as it 
were, my thoughts, like those of my other brothers of the 
angle, revert to the many thrilling encounters I have had 
with the denizens of the water, and instinctively I remove 
from the tackle cases my fly-books filled with the beauti- 
ful feathered lures which have in the past given me such 
perfect enjoyment, and examine them one by one and 
smooth their delicate fibers as tenderly and softly as does 
the loving mother stroke the golden tresses of her darling. 
To the uninitiated the contents of an angler's books seem 
but a collection of more or less gaudy imitations in 
feathers, wool and tinsel, of moths, butterflies and other 
insects. As imitations they are really impossiblities when 
viewed in such a way, for most of them resemble nothing 
that ever possessed life and motion ; but to him who has 
acquired a knowledge of the peculiarities each fly has 
when drawn through the water, they are not weighed 
and valued as artificial insects, but are to him delicate, 
even exquisite, pieces of handiwork especially adapted as 
lures for the capture of certain species of fish in different 
waters, and even in different conditions of water. 
Fishing with the fly has been a rulling passion with me 
for many years, and I have, in consequence, a large and 
varied collection which has been gathered from many 
sources on both sides of the Atlantic, These flies have 
been arranged systematically in different books, according 
to the variety of fish for which they are intended. Thus 
in one or two books are nothing but salmon flies ; beauti- 
ful creations they are, and wonderfully perfect in texture 
and workmanship. In another book are trout flies, and 
the variety of these and the delicate manipulation dis- 
played in their construction are as great, if they do not 
exceed, even those that were bestowed upon the others. 
In another book are flies especially intended for the 
gamy black bass and the maskinonge; most of these 
latter are large and rather gaudy affairs, such as no 
angler would ever think of offering to a trout or 
salmon, and in still another book is a collection of 
faded, tattered wrecks of flies, each of which has its 
history and brings to memory incidents that have 
transpired and struggles with gamy antagonists in the 
long ago, and causes the eye to brighten, the nerves 
to tingle and the hand to grasp impulsively, as if the 
fingers clutched the rod, whose supple form is bent 
in a great circle by the struggles of a splendid fish 
that has been hooked. Most anglers discard those 
frayed and torn creations, but I have saved mine as 
scrupulously and almost as tenderly as does the lover 
treasure the letters of his sweetheart, or the mother 
the toys and trinkets which delighted her daughter when 
she was but a child; and I sometimes feel that my 
collection of broken, bedraggled flies is of as high 
value to me, if not higher, than is that of all the rest. 
The Tomah-Jo Fly. 
Among these defaced and broken lures are three or 
four of one of my favorite flies, the "Tomah-Jo," which 
was named in honor of_, and probably was first put 
together by an Indian guide who lived in a little Indian 
settlement near Princeton on the lower of the Schoodic 
chain of lakes, 
Tomah Jo was well known to anglers who visited 
the Grand Lake stream in the long ago in quest of 
the landlocked salmon, or, as it was called in those 
days, the "white trout" and the "Schoodic trout," and 
the old fellow was as expert with the fly-rod as with 
the paddle and setting pole. This fly, which is now a 
great favorite among anglers who follow the ouananiche 
and other so-called landlocks, is tied with a yellow and 
white floss body; wound quite hard around it is a 
narrow strip of silver tinsel. The tail is composed of 
a number of fibres from the crest of the Chinese 
golden pheasant; the hackle, which is rather full, is 
red and yellow, and the wings, which are somewhat large 
in size, are made of the beautiful striated feathers, with 
their black and white bars, from the ruff of the wood 
or summer duck. The first of these that I will speak 
of here is so badly torn by the sharp teeth of sea 
trout, that it is almost unrecognizable, I had used 
it on that beautiful and picturesque river, the Jacquet, 
which empties into the Bay des Chaleurs, a few miles 
from Dalhousie, and it proved a taking lure, for I suc- 
ceeded in landing two salmon with it, much to the 
astonishment of my guides, Hiram and William Miller, 
to whom it was an absolute novelty, I had for a long 
time been casting on two or three of the best pools 
with the usual varieties and changes of flies without 
succeeding in stirring a fin; we knew that salmon must 
be lying in them, but they semed to have been educated, 
and disdained to accept my offerings. 
Having on many occasion proved that the Tomah- 
Jo was a grand lure among the landlocks, and, believing 
I could do no worse than I then was doing, I affixed 
one to my casting line and threw it out, and this in 
opposition to the advice of the Miller brothers, who 
declared it was too large and light-colored for those 
waters. As a rule, experienced guides are good advisers 
in the matter of choice of flies, but they dislike innova- 
tions and. they are, moreover, not infallible; but when 
I rose my first salmon and hooked and landed him, 
their excited congratulations knew no bounds. 
"Really, sir!" exclaimed Hiram, removing the fly 
from the salmon's mouth and smoothing the ruffled 
feathers carefully, examining its make-up critically at the 
same time, "T never saw its like befo"e!" 
' '•■Nor I," added William. " 'Tis a beautiful fl}-, surely., 
but the last one I Would pick tor a saumon." 
After rav second fish was landed with that fly, the 
delicate wmg^ were broken and torn,, ^nd I relcgate4 
