Aug. 12, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
ISB 
becomes “a huge unshapely creature, and is of a soft, 
gelatinous and flaccid consistence. Its mouth is enor- 
mous,” and its “antipathy to action is strangely con- 
trasted with the enormity of its appetite, to satisfy which 
it has recourse to stratagem in the capture of its prey.” 
^ The angler is not usually ranked among food fishes, 
and is generally unceremoniously rejected; nevertheless, 
it is said to furnish excellent meat. According to Dono- 
van (1808), “the flesh of this fish is white, and having, 
it is said, the same flavor as the common frog, is eaten 
in many countries as a delicacy.” Couch (1863) re- 
ported that it “is a delicious di.sh.” In Scotland, Parnell 
long ago (1839) had declared that “the flesh is consid- 
ered good, especially near the tail,” and .McIntosh and 
Masterman (1897) state that “it comes under the cate- 
gory of a food fish and is- treated in a similar way to the 
wolf fish. The head is cut off and onlv the trunk is sent 
into the market. This is sold under the name of ‘croan,’ 
and sometimes of john dory, a name that of right be- 
longs to a very different fish.” 
In Massachusetts, where it is most frequently caught, 
according to Gtorer (1855), “no use is made of this fish, 
as its liver contains but little if any oil; and its flesh has 
no fat. This,” he thought, “is a singular fact, as most, 
if not all. other fish have either fat in their livers or in 
their flesh.” But although not eaten now, it was by the 
aboriginal Americans, as is evidenced by the discovery 
by Wyman (1868) of osseous remains in a shell heap in 
Maine (Crouch’s Cove). 
A singular superstitition is entertained in some parts 
of Sweden (Bohuslan) according to Malm and Smitt. 
“It is so feared by many that the tackle is cut as soon 
as the ‘monster’ reaches the surface ; and its captor hur- 
ries home in order to get there, if possible, before the 
misfortune portended by the monster oyertakes him.” 
The extreme of misfortune- — death — is believed by some 
to be indicated. Nilsson tells that the Swedish fisher- 
men on the banks “believe that on board the vessel on 
which an angler is taken, some one is feg, i. e., doomed 
to die soon. They therefore never or hardly ever take 
the angler on board, but prefer to cut the line and thus 
lose the hook with the fish.” 
An anemometrical faculty is attributed to the angler in 
Massachusetts. According to Storer, “among the fisher- 
men in some parts of the bay, there is a common saying, 
‘when you take a goosefish, look out for an easterly 
storm.’ ” ' 
New England Waters. 
Boston, Mass., Aug. 5. — Commissioner Delano informs 
me that the Board is vigorously applying the law against 
the pollution of streams by sawdust, and one offender 
in Berkshire county has appealed a case that went against 
him in the lower court. If the State wins, as the Com- 
missioner thinks it will, this will be a final settlement of 
the authority of the Commission under the statute. 
In the four western counties of our State the close time 
on trout began July 15. In other counties it will com- 
mence Sept. I. From what information has come to me 
I think our trout streams have not yielded their usual 
harvest. At a future time the writer hopes to go more 
into details on this subject. 
In northern New Hampshire the fishermen are still 
having excellent luck and are enjoying the sport with as 
keen a relish as ever. Mr. I. J. Conant, of Boston, has 
taken several good strings from Reservoir Brook, a tri- 
butary of the Pemigewasset River. Several anglers re- 
port good trout fishing in northern Coos county. 
Two- lady anglers at the Rangeleys, whose success has 
been phenomenal, are Mrs. J. D. Desmond, of New 
Haven, and Mrs. C. W. Fisher, of North Attleboro. The 
former rejoicing in the capture of a 5j4-pound trout and 
the latter of a qpi-pound salmon. 
Deputy Luman, who has been actively engaged in en- 
forcing game and fish laws in the central and western 
portions of the State, informs me that he has had several 
cases of violation of the law agaimst the use of seines and 
nets, but thast the law forbidding the sale of trout and 
that prescribing the minimum length of six inches have 
been well observed. 
From several correspondents I learn that the trout fish- 
ing generally has not been up to that of former years. 
Some attribute this largely to the fact that for several 
weeks of the early season the water in the streams was 
very low. Several mention seeing many small trout in 
the brooks and say that very few remain long enough in 
the water to- attain any great size, being taken by the 
great number of anglers while barely big enough to clear 
the law. 
Without a vast expansion of the work now possible in 
our hatcheries as they exist to-day, anglers who seek trout 
of any considerable size must go- outside of Massachu- 
setts to get them, and further, the remedy lies with the 
sportsmen of the State. Let some one who knows tell 
your readers why there has never been a trout hatchery 
established in the State by the United States Govern- 
ment ? 
Mr. Charles P. Horton, of Boston, has purchased the 
interests of the few remaining members of the Monu- 
ment Club, so that he now controls the fishing in the 
famous Monument River, one of the finest trout streams 
in the State, as well as the fishing preserve at Maple 
Springs, near Wareham. With the possible exception of 
Mashpee River, probably more “salters” have been taken 
from Monument River than from any other of the Cape 
streams. 
One of the fishermen who had exceptional luck at Buz- 
zard’s Bay last week was Mr. Arthur Griffin, who caught 
a 175-pound halibut; another, Howard Eldridge, who 
got a 40-pound cod on the fishing rips, making each 
“high-line” for the season. 
Anglers on the Samoset,- Capt. Robinson, and the Vo- 
lante, Captain Fisher, have brought in large fares of 
bluefish. Among the fishermen was Mr. Garrett Schenck, 
of Weston, a member of the State Association, accom- 
panied by Mr. Henry Tilden, of Providence. Colonel 
Willard, of the United States Engineer Department, is 
now at Newport engaged in preparing plans for the har- 
bor of refuge near Great Point, Nantucket, 
The steamer service in Umbagog Lake has been ex- 
tended this season. Round trips are made and the travel- 
ing public have an opportunity of passing in sight of the 
famous Dutton Camps. 
Several members of the staff of the United States Fish- 
eries Bureau are to be located at the Lakeside, while 
making an investigation of the waters of Umbagog Lake, 
the result of which will be a matter of public interest. 
In Oxford, Me., there is a camp for boys, twenty-five 
in number, under the management of Prof. A. F. Cald- 
well, of De Pauw University. 
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred J. Hobbs, of Bridgeport, Conn., 
are occupying Camp Ideal on Pleasant Island. 
Prof. W. A. Packard, of Princeton, and his brother. 
Dr. C. W. Packard, and Mr. J. W. Argenbright, of New 
York, are all enthusiastic anglers, and are taking record 
salmon. 
Dr. Harry E. Rice and family, of Boston, have taken 
possession of Don’t Worry Camp for the summer. 
Mr. C. W. Fisher, of North Attleboro, has to his credit 
a 5-pound salmon, and Mrs. Fisher one of 3P3 pounds. 
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Tracy, of Boston, have been at the 
Birches on their wedding trip. Mrs. H. B. Kirk, of New 
York, showed .great skill in landing a 5p2-pound salmon, 
which she hooked while trolling. She has sent the fish 
to New York friends. Her guide was Ernest Goodwin. 
Cincinnati is represented by Mrs. A. L. Sanford and 
son, C. V. Sanford with his wife and boy. The party has 
taken several fish under guidance of Bob Martin. 
Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Dickson, of Philadelphia, who have 
been well known at the Rangeleys for many years, are 
again at their island home, Maneskootuck. Their steamer, 
the Oquossock, is always a welcome sight on the lake. 
Mr. J. H. Parker, of Boston, with L. A. Derby and 
others of Lowell, are owners of a large cabin at Black 
Point above Upper Dam, on Mooseluckmeguntic Lake. 
Mrs. Parker has taken a 4-pound salmon and a couple of 
3-pound trout, and Miss Jones has landed a 4-pound sal- 
mon and two 3-pound trout. 
J. J. F. Randolph, R. J. Jackson and F. R. Morse, of 
New York, have had good fishing for several days at 
Round Mountain Lake. R. E. Stevens, M. D., of Marl- 
boro, Mass., has found enjoyment at Blakeslee Camps. 
John G. Morgan, of Norwich, Conn., who- will be re- 
membered by frequenters of Upper Dam, says he has 
made a careful computation of the time he has spent in 
a boat on the pools, and it makes a total of three years, 
“and happy years they have been,” he says. He got a 
514 -pound salmon last week. 
Mr. and Mrs. J. Parker Whitney, of Boston, are enter- 
taining at their camp a bridal couple, Mr. and Mrs. T. B. 
Eastland, of California. There is nothing in the line of 
angling, whether in salt water or fresh, that Mr, Whitney 
is not farniliar with by practical experience, and some of 
his experiences have been graphically described in classi- 
cal En.elish, of which he is a master. 
Mr. J. M. Grosvenor, Jr., of Boston, has been taking 
snapshots (and trout) at King and Bartlett camps. With 
him were Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Andrews, also of Boston. 
After leaving King and Bartlett they went to Mr. An- 
drews’ cottage at Clear Water. 
Dr. M. F. Garvin and .son, of Boston, have been for 
two weeks at the Birches. 
Mr. W. H, H. Ward, of Amherst. Mass., as usual, has 
been several weeks at Carry Pond Camps, Bingham. He 
is an ardent fisherman and one of those who believe in 
fish and game propagation and protection. 
The United States Bureau of Fisheries has recently 
planted 10,000 silver salmon in Seven Tree Pond in 
Union. Central. 
The Lateral-Lines in Fishes* 
In the Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries for 1904, 
Prof. G. H. Parker, of Harvard University, reports on a 
series of elaborate experiments conducted to determine 
the functions of the lateral-line organs in fishes. We 
quote the preliminary remarks and the conclusions drawn 
from the experiments : 
“The habits of fishes, like those of most other animals, 
are inseparably connected with their sense organs. Thus 
in the matter of feeding, Bateson has pointed out that 
probably the majority of fishes seek their food by sight. 
Many such fishes when kept in confinement are known 
not to feed at night or even in twilight, though they may 
be ravenous feeders in daylight. Other fishes, including 
the eels, skates, sturgeons, suckers, flatfishes, etc., many 
of which are bottom fishes and often nocturnal in their 
habits, seem not to depend upon sight in seeking their 
food. Their powers of sight are often deficient, and food 
excites them chiefly through its action on their organs 
of taste, smell or touch. As Bateson observed, none of 
these fishes start in quest of food when it is first put into 
their tanks, but remain undisturbed for an interval, doubt- 
less until the scent has been diffused through the water. 
1 hen they begin to swim vaguely about, and appear to 
seek the food by examining the whole area pervaded by 
the scent. The search is always made in this tentative 
way, whether the food is hidden or within sight, and it is 
first seized when by accident it is come upon. 
“Herrick has made the interesting discovery that in the 
catfish, which seeks its food in the way just described, the 
organs of taste pervade the whole skin, and the fish will 
seize unseen food with great precision, provided only that 
it is brought near the skin. Thus in this fish the organs 
of taste largely replace the eye as a means of discovering 
the food. 
“From these examples it must be clear how close is the 
relation between sense organs and habits. The sense or- 
gans, in fact, are the usual means of initiating those sim- 
ple acts which, when taken collectively, constitute what 
are popularly known as habits, for the sense organs are 
the avenues through which the external influences enter 
the animal and excite it to action. How essential, then, 
in studying the habits of any group of animals, must be 
a knowledge of their sense organs. 
“From this standpoint the elucidation of the habits of 
fish is particularly important, for their sense organs bear 
close comparison with those of human beings, and their 
environment withal is so different that they afford a most 
fascinating field for investigation. It is now fairly well 
established that many fishes possess in a high functional 
state the five chief senses of man — taste, "smell, touch, 
hearing, and sight ; but it is also known that many fishes 
possess a sixth set of organs, the lateral-line organs, for 
which there is no representative in man. As these are 
well developed and conspicuous structures in many cases, 
they may be suspected of playing an important part in 
the economy of these animals, and it is the purpose of 
this investigation to ascertain something of their role in 
the ordinary habits of some of our fishes. 
“Everyone who is at all conversant with the external 
marking's of fishes is familiar with a line which, in most 
instances, extends along the side from tail to- head. This 
line, known from its position as the lateral line, consists 
usually of a row of small pores which lead into an under- 
lying canal, the lateral-line canal. In the head of the fish 
this canal usually branches into three main stems, one of 
which passes forward and above the eye, another forward 
and immediately below the eye, and a third downward 
and over the lower jaw. These three canals, like the 
lateral-line canal, open on the surface by numerous pores, 
and, together wiht this canal, constitute the lateral-line 
system. 
SUMMARY. 
“i. The lateral-line organs are not stimulated by 
light, heat, salinity of water, food, oxygen, carbon di- 
oxide, foulness of water, water pressure, water currents 
and sound. 
“2. The lateral-line organs are stimulated by water vi- 
brations of low frequency — six per second. 
“3. The lateral-line organs may be of service to the 
fish in orientation, but they are of no more significance 
in equilibration than the skin, and are inferior in this re- 
spect to the eye and the ear. 
“4. Waves on the surface of the water produced by 
air currents and the disturbances made by bodies falling 
into the water produce vibrations in the deeper water 
that stimulate the lateral-line organs. 
“5. The skin, the lateral-line organs, and the ear form 
a natural group of sense organs whose genetic relations 
are such that the skin (organs of touch) may be said to 
be the first gpaeration from which the lateral-line system 
has been derived, and this in turn has given rise to- the 
Aristotle on a Danger to Fishes. 
Many vertebrates and some invertebrates have, as a 
part of the ear, a hard bone or sometimes a particle of 
calcareous matter which is called the earbone, and the 
general term for which is otolith, meaning earstone. 
Owing to the hardness of these bones they are often long 
preserved, and recently paleontologists have been de- 
scribing certain fishes from fossil otoliths. In a recent 
note to a scientific journal Dr. Theodore Gill, the emi- 
nent ichthyologist, calls attention to a statement made 
about fishes by Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, who says; 
“Those which have a stone in their head, as the chromis, 
labrax, scijena and phagrus, suffer most in the winter, for 
the refrigeration of the stone causes them to freeze and 
be driven on shore.” 
Striped bass fishermen should take warning. 
Fate of Bullhead Johnson. 
Buffalo, N. Y., Aug. i. — “Bullhead Dick” Johnson, 
the most daring fish pirate on the Niagara frontier, 
was instantly killed about 4 o’clock this morning while 
trying to dynamite fish in the Niagara River opposite 
Tonawanda. 
Charles Duffy and Charles St. Inges, the latter a son- 
in-law of “Bullhead,” were with Johnson at the time. 
The three were in a rowboat and Johnson tried to 
throw a stick of dynamite into the river. The dynamite 
fell into the boat and exploded there. The explosion 
tore both arms from Johnson’s body and severed the 
head completely at the neck. 
Duffy, who was in the middle of the boat, was badly 
lacerated about the legs and St. Inges, who was in the 
bow, escaped without a scratch. The boat sank. — New 
York Sun. 
FLOATING DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 
{Continued from page 128 ) 
Here and there across the land were single and double 
mule plows, behind which the forms of gaunt negroes 
were tramping. Some of the land was marked off by 
stakes, and these patches showed that many of the 
workers were preparing their own rented land for a 
crop. Women and children were out in more conspic- 
uous numbers than the 'men. The bright red and blue 
of the women’s clothes were visible for miles by means 
of the glasses. They were planting seed cotton from 
aprons full. The levee was the only high ground in 
sight. From its top one could see further than from 
some hills. At 2:20 o’clock, March 15, we dropped into 
Milliken Bend, of which one reads so much in the 
story of General Grant’s operations before Vicksburg. 
I have reason to remember this bend, for one of the 
Government inspection boats came along — The Missis- 
sippi. It’s a fine boat, and runs fast, kicking up a con- 
siderable of a wave behind it. The black-mustached 
pilot came down about forty yards from our cabin 
boat, turning to tell a man who was sitting down in the 
pilot house of what was doing. The man got up and 
the two watched the two cabin-boaters swing their boat 
end on to the rollers and endeavor to get breakable 
things on the floor unbroken before the jouncing came. 
It did us no damage, but it did rankle our 'feelings a 
great deal. , This same Mississippi was heartily cussed 
by the pilot and captain of a raft tow-boat on which I 
traveled from Vicksburg to the mouth of Red River. 
The Mississippi deliberately sheered in close to the 
great raft and the wash of the waves put hundreds of 
logs in jeopardy, threatening to break them loose, and 
loosening a good many of the logs. This was on the re- 
turn trip of the Mississippi after having “shook us up.” 
However, it is cheering to remember that most river 
pilots have learned to respect cabin boats. Steamers 
found it expensive paying for smashed rowboats at 
landings, and they are equally careful of cabin boats in 
mid-stream. In fact, cabin-boaters have stories of dis- 
asters not unmixed with pleasure. A friend of the 
Medicine Man bought a cabin boat for $15. ■ He had a 
$10 shotgun and a $5 outfit on boat. The boat was 
wrecked at a landing, “tore loose” and sunk. By a 
judicious mixture of perjury and fact, the cabin-boater 
“settled” for $156. A few bills of this size and oc- 
