Aug. 19, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
183 
and the desire that Mr. Cleveland should be his successor 
has been expressed by many members of the club. 
Reports from Ed. Grant’s camps at Beaver Pond and 
Kennebago indicate no let-up either in the number of 
fishermen or of fish. Mr. and Mrs. M.. W. Waters, of 
Brooklyn, had fine success at Kennebago with the fly and 
make the return trip from the woods via the lakes, Dix- 
yille Notch and ,the White Mountains, where the scenery 
is as fine as can be found in New England. Mr. and Mrs. 
C. F. Felt, of Lynn, occupy Lynn Lodge at the Barker, 
and have as guests Miss Dunlap, of Lowell, and Miss 
Sawyer, of Watertown. They have enjoyed the woods 
life and its accompaniment, the fishing. 
Mr. R. G. Rich, of Boston, left the hotel at Middle 
Dam at 4 o’clock one morning and returned an hour later 
with four salmon and one trout. 
Mr. C. H. Wiswell, of Boston, who' has been for twenty- 
four years a frequenter of the Rangeleys, brought into 
Camp Wiswell four good salmon as the result of an after- 
noon’s fishing. 
Mrs. Samuel Boothby, of Portland, has to her credit an 
8p2-pound salmon. 
Hon. R. O. Livingston, of New York, when he starts 
'Out for “Pond in River,” takes rod and camera; and re- 
turns with a few fish and some fine pictures. 
Mr. and Mrs. N. Sutherland, of New York, with their 
children, are occupying the Bungalow. 
Mrs. J. S. Doane, of Boston, recently landed a 4-pound 
:salmon at Upper Dam. 
Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Sawyer, of Lewiston, have as a 
.■guest at their camp Miss Lowe, of Wellesley, Mass. 
Mr. Stephen C. Young, of New York, has taken a 5 ^ 4 " 
■pound salmon and several smaller ones from Rangeley 
Lake. 
Mr. E. C. Gay’s camps and most of the cottages ^t 
Hlear Water are filled with guests, and some fish are being 
'taken every day. 
At Mr. H. G. Brown’s camp Mrs. Brown is entertain- 
ing her sister, Mrs. E. T. Binnee, of Boston, and her 
niece. Miss Agnes Lawson, of Brookline. The captain of 
Mr. Brown’s 35ft. launch is Gus Spinney. 
The camps on the Megantic preserve have had many 
more guests thus far than usual, and they make a favor- 
able report as regards the fishing. 
The Belgrade Lakes continue to furnish surprises in 
the number of square-tail brook trout and of salmon. A 
I New York angler got a 3j^-potmd trout and a 6 j 4 -pound 
salmon. Another from the same city a 6^-pound salmon, 
; and Mr.^ Cohen, also of New York, a 5 j 4 -pound trout. 
’ Dr. E. Palmer, of Brooklyn, took one of 4 pounds, and 
Mr. M. Peters, of New York, a 5-pound trout. But Mr. 
A. T. Salisbury beat the catch of Mr. Peters by taking 
one of 6 pounds. 
Commissioner Ring, who has been in many sections of 
the State this season, says the prospects for partridges 
never looked brighter at this season. Central. 
Fish Chat. 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. 
Coaceroiog Squid and Other Cott'es. 
■In Forest and Stream for July 29 I had a short paper 
treating of some of the lures which are used in the deep 
sea fisheries in which I inadventently neglected to men- 
tion that best of. all baits, not only in July and August, 
but whenever it is obtainable, the squid. 
This curious creature, which is first cOusin to the 
octopus, abounds all along the coast and thence far out 
to sea, it being abundant in all the waters on which the 
fishermen ply their vocation, from Massachusetts Bay to 
Florida, and its numbers are far from meager from Cape 
Cod to Newfoundland. 
Just now it is the favorite bait among the trawl and 
hand-line fishermen, for it is of a tough consistency, re- 
mains well on the hooks, and seems to be a more tempting 
lure for -cod, halibut, etc., than any other. 
Great quantities are obtained in weirs and pounds, and 
when none of these are set the fishermen usually succeed 
in securing a good supply, which they obtain by employ- 
ing a peculiar hook or “jigger,” which is dropped into 
the water and played up and down until it is seized by 
one of the squid, when it is quickly drawn up and sud- 
denly inverted in order that the creature' may be dropped 
into the tub or bucket which stands ready to receive it, 
and before it 'has an ^ opportunity to discharge its inky 
secretion in the face or upon the person who- hauls it up. 
The squid jigger is a curiously contrived implement, 
being composed of a great number of small hooks which 
are arranged in a circular manner on the base of a leaden 
shaft two or three inches in length, and about a half-inch 
in diameter, which is painted a bright vermilion color. 
This is attached to a stout line and dropped overboard 
and permitted to sink, and as the leaden top or shaft is 
heavier than the base upon which are attached the hooks 
it descends into the water headforemost, the hooks being 
at the top as it descends. 
Now, the squid, on a merely casual examination, par- 
ticularly after it is dead, seems a flabby creature which 
could not by any possibility be endowed with the celerity 
of movement and cruel voracity which many of the pre- 
datory marine animals possess, but its appearance belies 
its real character most astonisbingly, for it is really one 
of the quickest moving of all the creatures which traverse 
the depths of the ocean, and so destructive are its pro- 
pensities it has often been called the tiger of the seas. 
By aid of its powerful siphon tube it darts through 
the water with the celerity of an arrow, and such is the 
construction of this instrument it can shoot forward or 
backward with equal facility, and by inclining it to the 
right or left it can spring sideways as. easily as in the 
other directions. 
The squids travel in schools and prey upon herring, 
small mackerel and other fishes which they can easily cap- 
ture, no matter how swiftly they may flee, and seeing the 
vermilion jigger in the water — for the squid has. a pair 
of large and powerful eyes— it darts at the moving lure 
and grasps it greedily, and before it discovers what the 
character of the object it has seized, really is, it is lifted 
up, sometimes two or three on a single hook, and dropped 
ignominiously into the bait tub from which it never 
again returns until- it is utilized' by the fisherman for a 
trawl bait. 
Some idea of the great abundance of these cuttles may 
be formed from the fact that dozens, even scores, of bar- 
rels are sometimes taken in a single tide in weirs and 
other traps, and a hand-line fisherman has been known 
to have taken from 150 to 200. with the jigger from a 
single school. 
Like many other denizens of the sea the squid is en- 
dowed with cannibalistic proclivities, the larger and more 
powerful ones preying upon the smaller, and for this rea- 
son there is no great difference in size in the individuals 
of a school, for those of different ages, for prudential rea- 
sons, school by themselves. The ferocity with which the 
squids follow a school of young mackerel or herring is 
remarkable, and the havoc they work is limited only by 
the supply of victims, but there are reprisals, for the 
squid in its turn becomes the victim of the matured 
mackerel, bluefish, bass, squeteague, tautog, kingfish and 
other predatory species which regard it as an especially 
tempting bonne houche, preferable to all other creatures 
upon which they prey. 
These cuttles are provided with a powerful biting ap- 
paratus which closely resembles, the beak of a parrot, and 
with this they have no difficulty in crushing- the shells of 
lobsters, crabs, etc., which they easily capture, and de-. 
vour the meat of the unfortunate crustaceans quickly 
and greedily. ; 
This biting apparatus is capable of inflicting a most 
severe and dangerous wound; in fact, if a finger should 
be seized by it the member would be severely lacerated 
if not severed at a single ' snap. 
Like the other cuttles the squid has the curious factulty 
of ejecting a dense inky fluid to cover its retreat when 
pursued, and this, with other fluids contained in the 'Crea- 
ture, are of such a poisonous nature that the hands of the 
fishermen who cut them up for trawl baits often become 
terribly sore and inflamed, the skin draws back from the 
nails, which in many instances become so badly injured 
that they are painful, sometimes in an excruciating 
degree. 
According to Dr, Philip Carpenter, the cuttles have 
very acute senses. “They have an approach to a brain, 
inclosed in a cartilaginous skull. They can hear sounds, 
and evidently enjoy the taste of their food. They have a 
large fleshy tongue, armed with recurved prickles, like 
that of a lion. They either crawl on their head, tail up- 
ward, or swim, tail foremost, by striking with their arms, 
or squirt themselves backw'ard by forcing water forward 
through their breathing funnels. They are ferocious 
creatures, the tyrants of the lower orders, and do not 
scruple to attack and devour even fishes. The large kinds 
are deservedly dreaded by man.” 
L. L. Hartt, in the American Naturalist, in further de- 
scribing the characteristics of these mollusks, states that 
they are distinguished from the others by having a large 
head, a pair of large eyes and a mouth furnished with a 
pair of jaws around which are arranged in a circle eight 
or ten arms furnished with suckers. 
“In the common cuttlefish or squid of our coast, the 
body, which is long and narrow, is wrapped in a mus- 
cular cloak or mantle, like a bag, fitting tightly to the 
back but loose in front. It is closed up to the neck, 
where it is open like a loosely fitted overcoat, buttoned 
up to the- throat. Attached- to its throat, by the middle, is 
a short tube open at both ends. This tube, or siphon as 
it is called, is fastened to its throat and can be moved 
about in any direction.” 
The animal breathes by means of gills, which are at- 
tached to the front of the body inside the cloak and look 
like the ruffles of a shirt bossom. By means of these gills 
the air contained in the water is breathed, and they an- 
swer the same purpose for the cuttlefish that lungs do 
for mammals. 
I wonder how many there are among the fishermen 
who cut up the slimy, flabby body of the squid for bait, 
who associate it with the argonaut and beautiful nautilus, 
with which it is related, whose wonderful life histories 
have furnished a theme for romancists and poets from 
time immemorial? 
Pliny and Aristotle both mentioned the argonaut in 
their works and wove most fanciful stories concerning 
them, and many modern writers have given these crea- 
tures attributes and characteristics which really do not 
belong to them, 
ikmong the works of English poets Pope’s lines : 
“Learn of the little nautilus to .sail, 
Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale,” 
are familiar to all, and James Montgomery, in his “Peli- 
can Island,” gives some verses to the same effect. 
Unfortunately, however, the poets’ verses, although 
beautifully rendered, are not correct in a scientific point 
of view, for the nautilus, etc,, do not possess the habits 
that have been attributed to them. A writer in Science 
Gossip, in commenting on this fact, says: 
“The highly poetical idea of the animal’s hoisting up 
Its sails and scudding before the breeze is not true, but 
observers .say that it does occasionally make use of its 
other feet as oars or paddles. The female only , is pro- 
vided with the shell we so much admire, and the functio-u 
of the two broad dorsal arms, which were supposed to be, 
used as sails, is in constructing this.” 
he cuttlefishes, among which the squid belongs, con- 
stitute a group whose study is full of fascinating inter- 
est, and of them all none has attracted greater attention 
than the octopus, whose characteristics have been treated 
of by many writers. Many are the names that have been 
bestowed upon it, such as the “sucker,” “man sucker,” 
blood sucker,” devilfish” and “poulp,” being common 
appellations. A species of this genus was the celebrated 
Polpus of the ancients, performing all sorts of wonders 
and terrible deeds, sucb as seizing and devouring human 
beings and even capturing a boat’s crew or pulling down 
a vessel, which was said to have been done by the Kraken. 
In describing the peculiarities of the octopus an English 
writer, Mr. W. H._ Booth, says : “As the name implies, 
the octopus has eight fleshy arms or feet, which on . an 
average are about twice the length of the body, are very 
muscular and flexible, and taper down to a point little 
thicker than ordinary twine. Along the whole undei 
surface of these arms is situated a series of circular discs 
or suckers, of strange construction. These suckers are 
fixed in pairs, except the first half dozen near the mouth, 
which are placed immediately over each other, they form 
the chief means by which the poulp is enabled to seize its 
prey and are of curious construction, for in the hollow 
of each is a piston exactly fitting the aperture, capable of 
being, worked up and down at the wall of the animal. 
When, therefore, the surface of this sucker is pressed 
against any substance the withdrawal of the piston 
creates a vacuum, and powerful adhesion takes place.”. 
Having seized its victim, by encircling it with its arms, 
the octopus drags the unfortunate animal to the powerful 
horny mandibles, .with w'hich it is furnished, and makes 
short work , of it. Tlie number of suckers possessed by 
the poulp fall but little short of two thousand. 
The squid, like the other cuttles, has the power of 
changing its color like a chameleon, assuming the tint of 
the bottom, sandy or rocky, over w'hich it passes. 
Darwin, in his “Voyage of a Naturalist,” in comment- 
ing on this factulty, says : “These animals also escape 
detection by a very extraordinary chameleon-like power 
of changing their color. They appear to vary their tints 
according to the nature 'of the ground over which they 
pass. When in deep water their general slrade is brown- 
ish purple, but when placed on the land, or in shallow 
water, this dark tint changes into one of a yellowish 
green. These changes were effected in such a manner 
that clouds varying in tint from a hyacinth red and a 
chestnut brown were continually passing over the body.” 
The cuttles have also a phosphorescent glow which is 
often displayed at night to the wondering gaze of the 
fishermen as their craft lies at anchor on the star-lighted 
sea. . .. 
The Decadence of Salmon Rivers. 
While 1 do not wish to be regarded as a crank, or as 
riding a hobby, tliat hobby being the decadence of Cana- 
dian salmon rivers, 1 am free to- confess that this matter 
occupies a good share of my thoughts and anxieties, and 
that I lose no opportunity to secure such facts in relation 
to it as are obtainable. In a recent issue of Forest and 
Stream I made mention of the injury that is being done 
to that noble river, the Miramichi, by excessive netting 
at its mouth and by poaching in all the pools for scores 
of miles up the river. A correspondent of one of my 
friends has recently written him a letter in which occurs 
the following passage : 
“We have no anglers. There are no salmon; they are 
of the past in the Miramichi River. There have been only 
two salmon caught above Boiestown this season. I have 
just come to-day from Burnt Hill. Ha-ve been on the 
river four days and never saw one salmon or grilse. We 
caught a few small trout and that is all. 
“None of those parties who own pools along the rive-t 
have been here for years, nor in fact any sportsmen. 
There is nothing to fish for, and unless there are some 
restrictions made in the fishing at the mouth oi the river 
and in tidal water.? there will never be any salmon fish- 
ing up the river again.” 
In commenting on this my friend says : “I am afraid 
this fine salmon river is doomed to- destruction. The 
Ottawa Government has no interest in its protection, 
since the New Brunswick Governrnent assumed control 
of the Provincial Inland Pfshery, and this Government 
