Aug. 5, 1905 . 1 
FOREST AND STREAM 
116 
a school of trout lying around a spring below a mill 
dam, when I decided to see what I could do with bait 
since none of them paid any attention to my flies. On 
the bank I found some large grasshoppers, and stand- 
ing in open view of these trout and throwing the grass- 
hopper on the water with considerable force, I found 
that every few minutes the impulse to get that grass- 
hopper would be too strong for_ some trout, and that 
after rushing around once or twice, it would come up 
and grab it and be hooked. It was not a very sports- 
manlike way to catch trout, but it helped to fill my 
basket with some fine trout. On another occasion I 
had gone to some cold water late in the evening and 
found three or four very large trout lying there. I 
had waded in close to an enormous trout that was 
lying in about two feet of water and I stood there 
watching it and flicking my flies down on the water 
above it when so suddenly and unexpectedly that it 
startled me it came up with its mouth wide open and 
grabbed a white-miller that was on my cast. Well, I 
held the trout for about a minute, when with a lunge 
that no ordinary tackle could have held it tore loose. 
My favorite fishing place after the trout had gone 
to the cold waters was at the head of an old mill 
dam, where there was a large volume of cold water 
coming from a number of springs just in the edge of 
the stream. Here the trout used to gather in a great 
school, and if one. was fortunate enough to meet with 
favorable conditions he could have some fast and 
furious fun. I had gone to this place one evening, and 
after catching a few small trout, found that some large 
trout had moved in, one of which I finally hooked after 
it had made a furious lunge that took it nearly out of 
the water. I soon saw that I could hold this_ trout but 
could not land it. The stream at this point is of such 
depth and width that I needed only to follow the trout 
along the bank until it either broke loose or gave up, and 
so I walked slowly down the stream for an eighth of 
a mile or more, keeping my line on top of the water 
and watching the struggles of the fish. Finally, when 
I had begun to force the fight, a little woodsman with 
a bright red flannel shirt on came down to the stream 
to take a bath, and when he saw what I was doing he 
was very anxious to assist. What appeared rather 
curious to me was that when I pulled a little the trout’s 
tail came out of the water, and his broad tail waving 
slowly in the air so excited the woodsriian that he 
plunged in and had nearly grabbed my line before I 
could stop him. I knew that the fish was poorly 
hooked, and so I asked him to get a slab to place edge- 
ways outside of two large stones on the edge of the 
stream after I had pulled the trout be’tween them. He 
did this and we landed our fish, a trout weighing, three 
and a half pounds- and hooked in the back fin in a slit 
torn an inch long, from which the fly dropped when 
the trout touched the shore. My own satisfaction over 
the capture of the trout was not a bit greater than that 
of the woodsman. 
I started with a friend one evening for this place, ex- 
pecting to fish late. I had several places that I wished 
to fish before reaching the spot where we were to put 
in the greater part of the evening, and I instructed 
my friend to proceed directly to the good fishing and 
wait for me there. . It was later than I had intended it 
to be when I reached him — almost dark, in fact — and I 
could hear him splashing around at a great rate before 
I got to him. When he heard me on the bank he called 
to me that he had just learned how to catch them, and 
when I inquired about the new method, he said that 
when one struck he just threw it on to the bank with- 
out playing it at all. I have had many regrets in my 
life, but none keener than the one when I learned that 
he had hooked probably fifty large trout during the 
evening and had landed but three. Oh, if I had but 
gone with him instead of pottering along the stream 
at the other places where I expected a few trout to be 
lying! 
Another time I had gone with this same man to this 
place very early on a foggy morning in July. He had- 
been staying in the mountains for a week or more and 
as the streams were very low had not been able to catch 
any trout to eat. I had joined him the evening before 
at The cabin where he was staying and had promised 
him that we should catch some trout the next day, 
and had selected this cold water as the most likely 
place to find them. When we reached the spot I recon- 
noitered from the bank above and discovered that a 
large school of fine trout was lying in . just the right 
depth of water. When going on the bank that over- 
looked the pool I had stirred up some large grass- 
hoppers, and it occurred to me that since we needed 
meat more than sport, I. would plan to get meat and 
let him do the fishing. I instructed him to remove his 
flies and put on a small . hook on which I impaled a 
grasshopper. Then from the bank above I would show 
him where to wade, tell him when the trout had taken 
the bait, and direct him when to pull. The trout were 
all large, and as he was fishing with a light fly-rod he 
had plenty of sport landing them. To me it was also 
some sport to watch the trout take the bait. I 
maneuvered it so that he usually threw nearest the 
biggest trout. Sometimes they would take the bait on 
top of the water and again they would pay no atten- 
tion to it until it had gone kicking down nearly to the 
bottom, when a big fellow would dart forward, snap it 
and turn and drop among his companions again. I was 
so close and the water was so clear that I could see 
the bait disappear in 'the trout’s mouth and at the 
proper time I would say pull and the fun would begin. 
At 10 o’clock we stopped fishing with some thirteen or 
fourteen large trout which we cleaned and took back 
to the cabin for our dinner and the dinner of the large 
family with whom we were stopping. Just as the trout 
were frying nicely a tremendous thunder shower came 
up, and it rained down around the stove pipe so hard 
that the fire was put out and the trout almost set to 
swimming again. But the old lady had been through 
that many times before, and when the shower had 
passed -the fire was started again and the children and 
fishermen sat around the stove hungrily watching the 
trout fry to a turn, and from then on we had no 
trouble to keep the horde of hungry children and our- 
selves very well supplied with fish. 
For more than a dozen years I camped annually about 
the first of July in a fine grove of old maples that 
stood on the bank of my creek. From my camp I 
could reach easily in a fifteen-minute walk the mouths 
of two little mountain brooks or a section of) the 
stream where some springs kept cool the edge of a 
long strip of water. The latter place was overhung by 
some fine old trees, and it was great sport to wade 
down the middle of the stream and cast under these 
trees into water so shallow that the trout had to roll 
on the fly to take it. This^ fishing I did in the morn- 
ing, reserving the cold water at the brooks for my 
evening fishing. One of these brooks emptied into a 
pool so deep and dark that we could not see what it 
contained. I had gone here one evening after supper 
and had continued to fish until long after dark, catch- 
ing a ten or twelve-inch trout every few minutes. 
Finally I found that a large trout was coming up into 
the shallow water near my feet to feed. I could hear 
him. splash but it was too dark to see him and he paid 
no attention to my flies. I went to shore and by the 
aid of a match selected a very large queen that I had 
in my fly book. At the first cast he struck and I sur- 
prised my companion by dragging up on to the beach 
a very large tfout without playing him at all. When I 
showed him the size of the fly on our return to ..camp 
he understood what gave me such confidence. There 
was a native angler near our camp who was an expert 
fly-fisherman and who knew the Cold Water even better 
than I knew it. One morning just at dawn as I was 
lying in bed with my hands under my head watching 
the trees on the opposite shore of the creek, a fly-rod 
curved in the shape of a drawn bow came within my 
line of vision. Springing quickly to my feet and run- 
ning down to the stream I was just in time to see this 
angler net a two-pound trout that had been lying at a 
cold spring just in front of my tent. This man worked 
every day but holidays until 6 o’clock in the evening, 
and I suspect that to be able to take his rod after sup- 
per and catch a half-dozen trout that had gathered at 
the cold water made life more worth living to him. 
I am not sure that any trout should be caught at the 
cold water; it is quite probable that they ought to be 
let alone when they have gathered at such places. 
But this kind of fishing has a peculiar fascination for 
me. It is best late in the evening, a time of the day 
when I most like to fish; the trout must nearly always 
be caught with fly, if caught at all; and when the trout 
are rising at these places the sport is unequalled. How- 
ever, if the Legislature should see fit to close the trout 
season before the fish have gone to the cold water, I 
shall be well content to stop it and to dream over the 
deeds I have done at the cold springs and the mountain 
brooks of the stream I -love so well. Chas. Lose. 
New Brunswick Salmon Rivers. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of July 22 your generally well-informed 
correspondent, E. T. D.’ Chambers, had a bewildering 
array of figures to cozen his .readers into the belief that 
salmon culture has increased the catch of this fish in New 
Brunswick rivers. He takes exception to my fairness in 
comparing the catch of 1874 (the year the hatcheries 
were started) with that of 1903, after twenty-nine years’ 
operation, because, he says, the former catch was ex- 
ceptional.- My object was simply to show what the fish 
did without any artificial assistance, when they were 
allowed to reach their spawning places and propagate in 
the natural manner. 
Let the intelligent reader take the figures furnished by 
Mr. Chambers from the official reports and see if they 
work out any better, with all his ingenious groups, 
periods and averages which only confuse the general 
reader, but do not alter the practical result. He quotes 
from Mr. Wilmot, the late superintendent of fishculture, 
to show that it was not until the year 1877 that the 
hatcheries commenced to work satisfactorily, and he 
gives the catch of the next year as 1,763,772 pounds. 
Since that year up to 1903 the presumption is that the 
hatcheries have all worked satisfactorily, since the enor- 
luous number of 129,286,200 young fish have been turned 
out, with the result, as Mr. Chambers’ figures show, that 
the catch in 1903 w^as 1,300,540 pounds — just 463,232 
pounds less than it was in 1878, the year after the hatch- 
eries had begun to work satisfactorily. 
I have the greatest admiration for Mr. Chambers’ 
genius for manipulating- figures, and will be much pleased 
to have him exercise it in working out the following lit- 
tle sum ; If the planting of 129,286,200 young salmon in 
twenty-nine years decreased the catch by 463,232 pounds, 
how many young salmon and how many years’ opera- 
tions will be required to bring the catch up to 3,214,182 
pounds, w'hich it w'as in 1874, the year salmon culture was 
started? The Old Angler. 
Sussex, N. U., July 24 . 
A Large Muscalunge. 
Theresa, N. Y., July 24. — On July 4 guide Dave Ty- 
ler, of this place, wa_s ro-wung a Mr. Doyle and lady of 
Ogdensburg on Indian River and Red Lake, when near 
the Red Lake House Mr. Doyle hooked a large musca- 
lunge on light tackle. After playing the fish for one 
hour and twenty minutes guide Tyler succeeded in get- 
ting his gaff-hook into the- fish, but the lady occupant of 
the boat objected to his boating at, as it was so large. 
"Dave” told me that it was five feet long and would 
weigh over 50 pounds. Tyler then decided to land it on 
the sandy beach nearby. After hooking the fish the boat 
was worked out into deep water between which and the 
beach were many weeds. While going through these the 
fish escaped. An excursion party of young people at the 
Red Lake House watched the fight .with the big fish. 
It has long been known that there were a few large 
muscalunge still in Red Lake, as parties have reported 
hooking on to them only to have them escape by break- 
ing the hook or line. 
In November. 1898, you published the photograph I 
sent you of one w^eighing 42V2 pounds. Since then only 
one larger (46 pounds) has been taken, but a dead m.us-' 
calunge measuring 4ft. 3in. was found at the foot of the 
lake a few years ago. I have the lower jaw and other 
bones ©f the head of this . fish, one side of the lower jaw 
had been broken and was twice its normal size. I know 
that I should say "maskinonge,” but it would hardly be 
recognized here. J. L. Davison. 
A Siwash Whale Story 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Norwegian steamer Tricolor brought in a report 
to San Francisco the other day of a whaling voyage 
that was made .by the Siwash Indians of the Pacific 
Coast, in Neah Bay, off Cape Flattery, lately. 
According to the account of it given to the Call by 
this steamer’s captain, the whale had been seen off the 
cape for several days, and at last about sixty Siwashes 
organized a party to capture him, going out in canoes, 
each canoe having one or more harpoons, with beef 
bladders tied to their shanks. Every time a canoe 
would get within striking distance of the whale, a har- 
poon would be thro^yn into him, until at last there was 
hardly room for any more harpoons. This is the news- 
paper’s version of the story. Some of us who have seen 
harpoons thrown into whales know about how long 
the whale will lie on top of the water after he has got 
the first harpoon, and wait for more of them to be 
thrown into him. He either goes below or else goes 
for the boat out of which the harpoon has been thrown. 
I’liis whale \vas probably an old humpback, or a sul- 
phur bottom. Neither of these would be noticed by a 
regular whaler’s crew; they are of little or no account. 
Had he been a sperm or a right whale, there would 
have been a scattering of canoes and Indians when he 
had got that first harpoon. 
After harpooning him they used a few bombs on him. 
What kind of bombs the captain did not state. The 
bomb part of the story is rather fishy. They were not bomb 
lances that are now used on most northern whalers ; the 
gun that fires them could not be mounted on a canoe, 
and a Siwash Indian would have about as much use for 
a bomb as he would for a pair of wings. Before they 
had quite killed the whale, they tried to herd him toward 
the shore, but failed; then after killing him they tried to 
tow him ashore, but failed in that also; and a tug came 
out and towed him ashore for them. Then they beached 
him and began to cut in, but did no trying out; they 
v/ould eat him, blubber and all; and when the steamer 
left the bay, they were still busy eating him, and giving 
parts of him away to all comers. Cabia Blanco. 
Barnegat Bay Fishing. 
Barnegat City, N. J., July 27 . — Editor Forest and 
Stream-: It may be of interest to your readers to know 
that bluefish are here in abundance, and are large and 
fine. The bay is white with sails, and fishermen are hav- 
ing great sport. Weakfish, bonita and channel bass are 
also in evidence. A shark, weighing 250 to 300 pounds, 
was captured off the Sunset Hotel pier yesterday, and 
created some excitement and sport. We are expecting 
each day to have the time-schedule of the . steam launch 
Adelia to run between this place and Barnegat Pier. The 
cottages are well rented here this year, and, so far, have 
been free from mosquitoes. James H. Romain. 
Amefican Fisheries Society, 
The report of the meeting of the American Fisheries 
Society of last week has been delayed in transit, pre- 
venting its publication to-day. It will be given in our 
next issue. 
Bookmakers^ Profits on Races. 
Not five men in fifty who bet on a horse race win. If 
this were not so, the bookmakers could not live, for their 
expenses are heavy. Until near the end of May it cost a 
member of the Metropolitan Turf Association about $100 
a^ day to make book. It was necessary, therefore, for the 
eighty members of this body who "booked” regularly to 
take: out of the pockets of the public $8,000 each day, in 
order to quit even. The 100 outside layers with their 
daily expenses of $55 each had to win another $5,500, 
while the thirty back-liners whose expenses were $30, 
were forced to mulct the followers of the turf to the ex- 
tent of $900 more; and the forty field layers wdth their 
$40 outlay had to collect from their golden geese $1,600. 
Thus the 250 gamblers who habitually do business at the 
tracks had to win $16,000 daily in order "not to lose money, 
and it was rarely that they failed to do so. The mean- 
ing of these fio-ures is that the 10,000 persons who on an 
average attended the race track, were forced to lose $1.60 
each in addition to the payment of a $2 admission fee, car 
fare, programme, etc. 
It is impossible to obtain exact figures as to the daily 
losses on the New York race courses, but that they are 
large can be readily understood from the foregoing. An 
ex-bookmaker tried to make an. estimate for the writer, 
but finally gave up in despair, saying: “All that is posi- 
tive is this,_ that a layer, a member of the Metropolitan 
Turf Association, who has not a net profit at the end of 
the season of $20,000 considers the season to have been 
a bad one.” This meant a loss by the public to the 
Metropolitan Turf Association alone of $3,120,000, the 
$1,600,000 net profit and the $1,520,000 of expenses, based 
upon the old order of doing business. This is a daily 
winning of $205 a man, which is undoubtedly low. The 
cx-bookmaker admitted this, and said that during his 
career as a layer he had cleared as high as $200,000 in a 
season. The bookmakers that lose, he said, are those 
who, not satisfied with making a wanning book, try to 
increase their “rolls” , by betting on their judgment in 
other books. 
When rich men lose from $10,000 to $20,000 on a race, 
as certain Wall Street plungers have been known to do, 
it is eas}^ to realize that the estimated winnings of the 
members of the Metropolitan Turf Association are 
placed, if anything, below the real mark. — Elisha Marfield ■ 
Kelly, in Public Opinion. 
Upon a nobleman’s estate in the Highlands, a splendid 
eagle was caught in one of the traps which Mr. Jerome 
condemns. Examination of its w'ound showed that whe’n 
the keepers found it the bird must h^ve been a prisoner 
for days. Yet it was strong and vigorous; around it 
-'vere the bones of birds and anirpals,. and. within its 
reach, a leveret and a partridge. Who had brought. tSis 
food to the captive all these days ? Its mate had. It was 
hovering overhead, bringing ' up further supplies, while 
the keepers were examining the prisoner-’-St. James’ 
Gazette. 
