Aug. 5, 190S.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
118 
cannot sleep, finding^ it impossible to throw ol¥ their care 
and rid themselves of worry, could and would go a-fish- 
ing ! Too bad many of them know not. the art! I have 
heard physicians say that the rod and line have been to 
them of greatest value, enabling them to rid themselves 
of many of the anxieties of their noble calling and be- 
come refreshed in body and in mind. To the lawyer, too, 
and the clergyman and the instructor, angling bring a 
blessed freedom from care, and brings recuperation, zest, 
new life. 
No wonder that those who fish, as you and I, hotly 
spurn the idea that the story is told When it is Said that 
one goes a-fishing for fish. No, indeed! We are not 
such fools as to spend hours, days, even weeks just in 
catching a- few or many of the finny denizens of the 
water merely for their possession, or even the sport of 
catching them. In angling a thousand benefits are ob- 
tainable ! angling may enrich a man in mind and in heart, 
put bronze on his cheek, light in his eye, red corpuscles 
in his veins, strengthen his muscles — invigorate him in 
body, mind and spirit for his life’s work, whether it be 
in the pulpit, at*the sick bed, in the court room, in the 
counting house, or in the shop. Nothing surpasses it as 
an all-round benefactor. And tO' be commiserated is the 
man who knows not how to angle. 
Maybe such a one may read these lines; if so, I urge 
him to arise, and with some earnest Izaak Walton make 
his way, rod in hand, to catch fish — oh, not that only, but 
to begin a pursuit that will prove an ever-increasing 
source of pleasure and comfort to him to the end of his 
dayS; CokfcSLius W. MoiSrOw. 
The Sea Trout Redivivus 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
After all that has appeared in your columns for the 
last thirty years on the vexed question of the identity of 
the so-called sea trout, I thought the subject had been 
pretty well threshed out. After the admission from Mr. 
Hallock and Mr. Chambers?, , tp §£|y nothing of Prof. D. 
Starr Jordan, tile leading iclitnyologi§t ih Anierlfia, tlldt 
‘Jite marine and fluvial tfout.arl .one ind tile §dni.fi fi§H— 
varietally and structurally^ — differing ohly in fiolorlhg. alia 
other conditions resulting from their habitat,” (see issue 
i of March ii last) I, for one, considered the question 
settled ; as did, I think, all who have taken enough in- 
terest in the matter to follow the discussion in your col- 
f umns. But what will Dr. Morris, E. A. Samuels, W. B. 
[ Mershon, Walter M. Brackett and all the other anglers, 
I observers 'and writers who have caught and studied the 
; fish from the waters of Labrador and Newfoundland to 
■ those of'Bay Chaleur and on both shores of Nova Scotia 
from Cape Sable to Cape North, say of this new Rich- 
mond who entered the field in your last issue? 
! The revelations contained in Mr. Hickson’s letter^ to 
I\jr. Hallock must have amused the veteran naturalist, 
snd he must have smiled sardonically at the latest ex- 
emjDh'fication of Pope’s immortal line ; “Fools rush in 
wliere angels feat to tread’’; but to give the jejune effort 
to the. angling wOl'ld through your Columns was “the 
. uipst linkindest cut of all.” 
Mr. Hickson says he has proved, “that sea-trout gd 
to sea, first by the fact that we Have eaUglit tfout 8 atld 
, Q pounds far from the rlVefS in vdiich these trout spawn; 
we have eaugltt them at the mouth of Bathurst Harbor. 
"T these things considered, where do the 
large sea trout which appear in the eafly spring with 
the smelts come from?” Had Mr. Hickson knoWri a 
little more — what, every angler on Bay Clialeur i,S famil- 
iar with — he would know that the estuaries of the Cas- 
capedias and th& .Bohflventure (in which rivers the larg- 
est trout khown in Quebec and New Brunswick spawn) 
find the estuary of the Nepisigiiit face each other, with 
Cnly a few miles of open water between them. . The very 
large trout taken occasionally oh the. New Brunswick 
side of the, bay early in .spring, are, In the opinion of 
(hr§e who have mtldfe the subject a life-study, stragglers 
from the Quebec rivers, in which they ate indigenous. 
What proof is there in all this that these trout “go to 
■‘;Va ? Doe's anyone except ,M'r. Hickson consider the 
almost landlocked Bay, Chaleur, with innumerable 
streams from, both sides flowing into it, and all contain- 
ing sea trout, to- he ‘hhe sea”? 
Mr. Hallcek, who is familiar with Labrador and its 
rivers, all abounding in Sea trout, must have laughed 
when he read the following ih M.r. Hickson’s instructive 
letter ; “My opinion is, that these trout have recently 
been released front the large Newfoundland and Labra- 
dor rivers, where they were imprisoned by ice, and as 
»oon as ‘releiiSed they have gone out into the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, struck the spring-run of smelts and herrings 
bud (nliowed them into the Bay Chaleur. * * * 
I'heSe are, therefore (?), the trout which we find. feeding 
on the Smelts and herring spawn in May and early June.” 
As Captain Cuttle would say, "here’s an opinion as is an 
opinion,” and it Can Surely claim the merit of originality. 
This new Richmond in the field must be as ignorant of 
geography aS he is of natural history. Is there no cap- 
tive s.mel't, herring spawn or other food along the coasts 
‘of Labrador, -Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Anticosti and 
the hiagdalene Islands (in all the rivers of which sea- 
trOltt abound), that the trout from these coasts and rivers 
should seek it in distant Bay Chaleur? There is not a 
single fact . in this wonderful letter that has not been 
stated in your columns a dozen times, and nothing but 
Mr. Plallock’s well known sense of humor could have 
led him to publish it. 
But enough of this ignorance which IMr. Hickson mis- 
takes for knowledge. Let me come down to matters that 
even his limited intelligence can understand. In a long 
life of observation and study of this subject I have never 
been able to find a sea trout in New Brunswick or 
Quebec waters of 8 pounds weight ; the largest I ever 
saw weighed was from the Bonaventure. but it did not 
turn the scale at 7P2 pounds. I have seen many and 
caught a few in Cascapedia that weighed 6p2 and 7 
pounds. Still, as Mr. Hickson says : “These facts being 
proved [no proof is given in his letter] that we have 
ithe big sea trout. 8 and 9 pounds in weight, caught in 
the open bay. and in the salmon nets four miles on each 
side of ihe entrance of the river,” I will not be so dis- 
.courteous- as to contradict him, strong as are my convic- 
tions ; but, as I am anxious to have the "proof” he speaks 
.of, and as the open season for salmo.n fishing does not 
close until Aug. 15, I will give $io each, and pay express 
charges, for all the sea trout weighing 9 pounds that are 
delivered to G. A. Pearson, M.D., of Sussex, with an 
affidavit from the sender that they were caught on the 
New Brunswick side of Bay Chaleur. 
The Old Angler. 
Black Bass of the Bay of Quinte. 
The Bay of Quinte stretches along the south shore of 
Ontario from the city of Kingston to the Murray Ship 
Canal, nfeSr Trenton, altogether about ninety miles. The 
Murray Ship Canal is about six mlle .9 long and the line 
of boats from Montreal to Toronto go through this canal 
and by doing so avoid about one-half of the lake. 
There is a channel which is defined by buoys through 
the entire length of this bay, and outside of the channel 
the lake is full of bars or shoals of from nine to twelve 
feet deep which constitute the fishing grounds of the bay. 
The head of this bay is about north of Rochester, and 
it can be reached in two ways. One is by Clayton, and 
taking a boat there to Trenton or going over to Gan- 
anoque, nine miles distant, on the Canada shore, and tak- 
ing the cars oil the Canada railroad to Trenton Junction, 
where you can take the cars about three or four miles to 
Trenton or you can go to Rochester and go from there 
to Charlotte, about nine miles, and take the boat across 
the lake to Coburg, and then take the train east, about 
twenty miles to Trenton. 
The ba§s fishing in the Boy of Quinte is very indiffer- 
ent tifitii about Aug. of Sept, I, and then the large bass 
gp ufibii tile ,§iioais, and the average catch after that is 
about 3 bounds up to .say aborlt the middle of October, 
many of the bass weighing ffmil 4 pounds to 
pounds. In my fishing I have taketi all my bass with a 
trout rod weighing about seven ounces, and usitlg about 
300ft. of line with a single snell and small hook, .and 
using a minnow for bait. 
In fishing for bass I have had my boatman drift or 
drag, which .means rowing very slowly so- as to keep 
the hook ffoni . catching on the bottom and letting out 
about 75ft. of line, and when I feel the bass at the hook 
I let opt about 60 of 7 Sit. nlore of line until the bass 
has had time to MvalloW . the bait, and then give a very 
slight jerk to set the hook iil the fish, whldi at the same 
time usually leaps out of the water tWo Of thfee feet, 
and with skillful management I have almost always 
landed my fish. 
In my judgment, this is the finest accessible fishing 
ground to-day in the United States for black bass, all of 
which are small -mouthed bass. 
Unfortunately there are no persons at Trenton, which 
is at the head of the lake and where you will find much 
of the best fishing, or at Northport, about twenty or 
twenty-five miles east of Trenton, where the fishing is 
equally good, who have any knowledge of the shoals or 
bars, and it is therefore necessary to get a boatman 
from Clayton, and guite a number of them are thor- 
oughly acquainted with these grounds. This, of course, 
entails a considerable expense, as these boatmen expect 
to be paid $3 a day from the time they leave home until 
they retufn, and algo td have their expenses paid, which 
is usually about $t a day at the hotels. In addition to 
this we have to pay our own expenses — ^^about $1.50 a 
day at the hotels — and provide our boat, which costs 
about $i a day, so that the daily expenses of this trip 
amount to about $8 or $9 a day, B, B. B. 
Conditions at Temagami. 
BuffAlP, N. Y., July 3!. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Coming out from Temagami last week I met a man going 
in with a bundle of golf sticks. 1 was startled at first, 
then the humorous Side struck me and I thought what 
fine grounds he Could find in that Country of timber and 
rocks for playing the game. But, in a sense, it is only a 
foTeruUner of the summer boarder and the opening up 
of one of the finest spots in America. Already there is 
a hotel at Temagami station, one at Temagami Island, 
and a boarding house on Bear Island, and more to be 
built this winter. While most who have gone there this 
year are enthusiastic fishermen, another year will find 
loungers around the hotels and guests dressing for din- 
ner. With this the charm of the place will be lessened 
and the magnificent stillness be disturbed, but the beauty 
of the lakes, islands and woods will be a perpetual pleas- 
sure, for the place has been set aside as a reserve: Right 
now it is a breaking up of the old ways and the new rail- 
road in there will do the rest. 
On Bear Island lives Mr. McLean, who has lived in its 
vicinity for thirty-eight years, and who has been hunting 
and trapping in the Hudson Bay territory for over fifty 
years. He is a willing talker, and it is a treat to listen to 
his experiences and the hardships he has passed through. 
There were no wolves or Virginia deer in that district 
when he first trapped there. Now there are both. His 
opinion is that the wolves have been baited in by the 
moose carcasses left by hunters, who take the heads and 
leave the rest in the woods, but it seems more probable 
that they have followed the red deer there. Many moose 
and deer are seen there b}^ camping parties, and I saw a 
fresh mooseskin from a moose recently killed by the 
Indians. They are allowed to kill them at all times. But 
it seems that the laws have been of little bother in the 
past. 
A lady told me that she was camping there last sum- 
mer, and she expressed a desire to one of the forest 
rangers, who are also .game wardens, for a grouse. The 
next day a bag was left in front of her tent with the re- 
mark that there was a bag of Spanish onions for her. 
There were several brace of grouse in the bag. Some of 
the fishermen this year are catching over the limit in 
numbers and keeping l)ass under the' ten-inch limit. The 
printed regulations are posted around, and there is no 
excuse for this. But no one seems to bother about it. I 
suppose it is because fish are plentiful and easily' caught. 
The largest bass I saw in two weeks weighed a little 
better than 2Lt pounds, and the largest lake trout weighed 
26 pounds and 14 ounces when brought in. It is amusing 
to liear these trout called ouaninche, landlocked salmon, 
salmon trout, etc., by the different fishermen. It seems 
that the great majority are not informed and do not 
trouble themselves very much as to what they are catch- 
ing, and what is more, do not bother themselves to find 
out. The trout are lake trout, Chistivomer namaycush. 
One man who has made different fishing trips up north 
asked me the name of “those duck-billed fish.” He alluded 
to- the common pike, Esox lucius. By the way, Cabia 
Blanco writes in Forest and Stream that he saw a mas- 
kinonge 27 inches long which he estimated to weigh 40 
pounds. Is there not some mistake here? You are not 
allowed to keep one in Ontario under 30 inches. 
^ Ihe guide question around Temagami is a serious one. 
1 here are not nearly enough of them. They are very 
hard to get. I did all of my fishing without one, as I was 
unable to- get one. 
I do not think the bass there so full of fight as in some 
other waters, but the sport is good. The water is prac- 
tically free from weeds ; in fact, there is nothing but an 
occasional pond lily in some of the deep bays, and this 
makes fishing very pleasant. It is very easy, though, to 
get caught m the rocks trolling and to- get caught trolling 
for trout with 200 or 300 feet of line out is quite a bother. 
It means lots of reeling and backing up. There seems to 
be quite a difference of opinion as to the pleasure of 
catching the trout there. One gave me the most excite- 
ment of any fish I caught, and yet some do not care for 
the sport. It seems to me that some give up easily while 
others fight very well. Dixmont. 
The Life History of the Angler. 
BY THEODORE GILL. 
From the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 
One of the most interesting and remarkable fishes of 
the north Atlantic is that whose cognomen in books is 
angler, but which has received a number of true ver- 
nacular names in the countries bordering the waters in 
which it lives; it is scientifically known as Lophius 
piscatorms. It is the best known representative of a 
large group (order or sub-order) of fishes named 
pediculates. 
For a long time only a couple of species of this family 
were known, but successive deep-sea explorations have 
brought to light quite a number, and the last reviser of 
the group — C. Tate Regan — in 1903 recognized as many 
as thirteen distributed among three genera — Lophius, 
Lophiomus and Chirolophius. 
The name angler, which is almost universally used for 
the fishes of this genus in books, is really a book-name, 
and not one in general use among shoremen and fisher- 
men. It was, indeed, especially coined for the Lophius 
piscatorius by the English litterateur and naturalist, 
Thomas Pennant, in 1776; in his British Zoology, as he 
says, he “changed the old name of fishing frog for the 
more simple one of angler,” simply because he did not 
like the former, which was one of the popular names. 
But there was no lack of real vernacular names. In Eng- 
land, besides fishing-frog, there are frogfish, toadfish, 
pocketfish, monkfish, nassfish, sea-devil, devilfish, wide- 
.gut, wide-gap and kettle-maw, and these are sup- 
plemented by other local names in Wales, Scotland and 
Ireland. In America another set of names replaces the 
English ones. The most common along the Massachu- 
setts coast is goosefish ; in Rhode Island bellowsfish is in 
use; in Connecticut, molllignt may be heard, and in 
North Carolina allmouth. One who has looked into- the 
vast cavity behind the jaws will concede the aptness of 
the last name. 
Although angler is not a true vernacular name for the 
Lophius, is is an analogue of names in popular use in 
other countries, as Pecheur or Poisson-pecheur at Bor- 
deaux, Pescatrice at Rome and some other places in Italy, 
and Petricia at Malta. The modern Greeks have adopted 
the Italian name with a modified form (Peskandritza or 
Peskantritza) into their own language; a true Greek 
word, Batrachopsaro (frogfish) is also- in vogue at some 
places (Patras). Among the ancients it was known as 
the sea frog, the Greeks calling it Batrachos o aliens; 
the Romans, Batrachus marinus. 
The angler’s horizcntal as well as vertical range is 
great, and covers a large portion of the north Atlantic 
on both sides, where the temperature may range between 
32 and 60 degrees Falirenheit — perhaps even higher. On 
the eastern side it is common in the Mediterranean and 
along the western coasts of Europe, becoming less com- 
mon along the Scandinavian shores to the northward; it 
wanders upward, however, to the North Cape and the 
Faroe Islands.* Along the American coast it is most 
common in the comparatively shallow waters of New 
England, and in deeper water about Nova Scotia and 
Newfoundland to the no-rth,_and as far to the south as 
the Caribbean Sea. “There is some reason to think that 
south of Cape Cod it retreats to deep water in summer.” 
While thus quite common along many coasts in rather 
shallow water, it appears to be at home in deep water. 
In the cold water under the tropical surrounding Bar- 
bado.s, at a depth of 20.9 fathoms; at another place, from 
“a depth of 365 fathoms” (according to- Goode and 
Bean), specimens were dredged.f 
It is emphatically a bottom fish, as its depressed form 
and up-looking eyes sufficiently indicate. It is also ad- 
dicted to solitude, living apart from its fellows. In some 
selected nook, perhaps - “hidden among -seaweeds or 
stones” ; perhaps “buried in the mud, with only the 
mouth and the gill-openings free,” it “lies in ambush 
for ils prey.” At depths where algal vegetation no more 
thrives, it doubtless lies exposed or half-buried in the 
bottom, for the light is dim and extraneous concealment 
not much required. According to- Day (evidently guided 
by Couch), in England “during the summer and autumn 
it resides near the sliore where, by means of its pectoral 
fins, it forms for itself a cavity in the sand,” or, should 
the ground be rough, it lies as if dead, while “its floating 
filaments, kept in motion by the tide, decoy other fish, 
and the angler’s tendril is no sooner touched than the 
game is caught.” Saville Kent, who had excellent op- 
portunities of observing a large individual in the Man- 
chester Aquariuin (1874), was struck by its adaptation 
to its natural environments, and has given a graphic -de- 
scription of it. 
“Commencing with generalities, one of the most strlb- 
*If the idenllfication be correct, it even, reappears around South 
Africa. 
tThe deep-sea Caribbean fishes are not in the National Museum 
and the writer is unable to confirm the identification. They probl 
ably belong to a different species. 
