216 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Fish and Fishing. 
f, 
Atlantic Salmon in Lake St. John. 
Exactly how much the ouananiche of Lake St. John 
are indebted for their preservation as a class to the fish- 
cultural operations of Mr. Beemer’s hatchery it _ is ex- 
tremely difficult to say, but it is quite safe to risk the 
assertion that in view of the enormous quantities _ of the 
fish that have been annually taken out of the lake in nets, 
in addition to those captured by anglers, it would have 
been quite impossible to have kept the supply of fish up to 
its present standard, were it not for the number of fry 
annually planted in its tributary waters for a number of 
years past. It is probably almost as safe to say that only 
for the work of the Roberval hatchery, the ouananiche of 
Lake St. John would now be as practically extinct, so far 
as sport is concerned, as would have been the salmon in 
many .of our most wantonly netted coastal streams, but 
for the fishcultural operations of the Dominion Govern- 
ment. 
It is not alone, however, in the work of ouananiche 
hatching that the hatchery at Roberval has proved its use- 
fulness. I have contended for many years past that the 
ouananiche, being the original form of the Atlantic sal- 
mon, the product of the development of the species, due 
to its acquirement of the anadromous habit, could equally 
well subsist in the ouananiche waters. Thanks to the 
work of the hatchery, this product now promises well to 
become firmly established in Lake St. John. I have re- 
ported from time to time during the last few years that 
smolt and grilse have been taken in different waters con- 
nected with the lake, since the planting of salmon fry in 
them. This season the capture has been reported of a 
small number of adult salmon. Some of them were taken 
on a fly in the Peribonca River and others in nets in Lake 
St. John itself. I am told that one of these weighed i6 
pounds. I am sorry to say, however, that I did not see 
any of these fish, nor does it appear that they were brought 
under the observation of anybody capable of pronouncing 
scientifically and with accuracy upon their identification. 
The guides and others who saw them do not hesitate to 
proclaim them to have been true salmon, and they em- 
phatically declare that they were not ouananiche; a fact 
which may be taken for granted in consequence of their 
larger size. I hope in the near future to be able to speak 
more definitely upon this interesting experiment, and also 
to be able to ascertain whether the adult salmon in Lake 
St. John, planted there as fry, have ever descended to salt 
water and succeeded in surmounting the falls of the 
Grand Discharge, or whether, like the former salmon of 
Lake Ontario, they have remained in fresh water all the 
year round. 
Netting in Lake St. John and Missisqooi Bay. 
It will be good news to. friends of the ouananiche, and, 
in fact, to all sportsmen who come to the Province of 
Quebec for their fishing, to learn that a number of very 
interesting reforms in regard to the inland fisheries of 
the Province are proposed by the new Minister of Colo- 
nization, Mines and Fisheries, the Hon. Jean Prevost. Mr. 
Prevost has just returned from a visit to Lake St. John 
and has seen for himself the large amount of netting 
which has been going on there. He assured those who 
brought the matter to> his notice that this is the last year 
in which it will be permitted, and he is taking this action 
in direct opposition to the demands of the Member of 
Parliament representing the county, who, in order to se- 
cure the votes of the netters, is doing his best to obtain 
for them a continuance of the netting privileges._ Mr. 
Prevost has made the further declaration that he will per- 
mit no further netting in any of the inland waters of the 
Province. This will mean, if Mr. Prevost is able to en- 
force his policy, that an end will be put next spring to the 
netting of pike-perch in Missisquoi Bay. The matter has 
already been brought to the notice of the Minister by the 
local officials of the North American Fish and Game Pro- 
tective Association, who are leaving no stone unturned 
in the effort to put an end to the abominable practice. 
The endeavor to have the Dominion Government de- 
clare the lake closed against netting has definitely failed. 
Had Mr. Prefontaine, the Dominion Minister of Fisheries, 
taken a different stand, the matter would have been satis- 
factorily settled. His refusal, to do so leaves it optional 
with the Provincial authorities to issue licenses for net- 
ting or to withhold them. Mr. Parent granted them. 
Mr. Prevost, who succeeds him in charge of the fisheries 
of the Province, signifies his intention of issuing no more 
of these licenses, and I have every reason tO' hope that he 
is a strong enough man to withstand the pressure that 
will certainly be brought to bear upon him, in the interests 
of the netters, by the member for Missisquoi county and 
by at least one of his own colleagues in the Cabinet. 
There are other reforms which the Minister has in 
view. He believes that the Department of Fish and Game 
of the Province of Quebec should produce a very much 
greater revenue than at present, and he will bend himself 
to the task of increasing it. He thinks that it ought to 
yield as much as the State of Maine. His policy will ap- 
parently be to bring about a much more efficient system of 
protection than at present, and then, when he can assure 
the best of sport to visiting sportsmen, to charge accord- 
ingly for it. With the object of improving the present 
system of protection, Mr. Prevost proposes to- dismiss the 
hundreds of so-called fish and game guardians in different 
parts of the Province, who draw nominal salaries of $50 
to $100 a year each, for which they do absolutely nothing 
in return, and to employ the money so saved in the pay- 
ment of a dozen or twenty good men who will be re- 
quired to give themselves .up entirely to the work. 
Spme Very Good Fishing. 
The trolling for ouananiche in Lake St Johm itself, 
where the fish seldom take, the fly after the early part Of 
the season, i's very good at present, especially in the neigh- 
borhood of the Island House, and of Isle -Ronde. 
At- Indi.an guide ryho was in Quebec the other day 
from - Pointe Bleue told ; of: some splendid fishing which 
a party of Americans ha-d- enjoyed who have been out 
wit}i him and a number of other guides in the country 
north of Lake St. John. They ascended the Ashuapmou- 
ehouan River for some distance, subsequently crossing, 
for a couple of days, a portage route which runs through 
fl chain of small lakes and intervening qountry, and SQ 
arriving at Lac a Jim. On the evening of the first day 
after leaving the Ashuapmouchouan River the party 
camped on the shore of Lac aux Brochets, where capital 
trolling was enjoyed. This lake, which is irregular in 
shape, and a mile and a half or so long, is very weedy. It 
fairly teems with pike, one of which frequently seizes the 
spoon almost as soon as it reaches the water. Here they 
caught a number of fish weighing from 12 to 17 pounds 
each. 
Lac a Jim is a handsome body of water seven to eight 
miles lon.g, which takes its name from the site, still 
visible, of the former camp of Jim Raphael, an old-time 
Indian hunter. Its waters teem with fish of various 
kinds. Its ouananiche are so large and dark that the 
Indians call then ouchachoumac or salmon. Seldom do 
they ri..e w-i-y ineGy to the fly in these waters. They more 
closely resemble the landlocked salmon of Maine than 
their congeners of Lake St. John. But the sport to be 
had by trolling is of a very high order. And the party 
which recently visited the lake found that it was not 
confined to ouananiche either, for large brook trout, and 
larger lake trout, as well as monster pike were captured 
by them. 
Lac a Jhn empties into the Mistassini by way of the 
Wassiemska River — a heavy, rough, violent stream, whose 
rapids will bear comparison with those of the large main 
tributaries of Lake St. John. The run down this river 
in bark canoes is a very exciting experience. The Mis- 
tassini River was entered close to the tenth fall, and a 
few hours sufficed to run the remaining rapids and to por- 
tage the intervening falls until the camp at the Cinquieme 
Chute, or fifth falls, was reached. Just below this pic- 
turesque cataract the party found quite a school of large 
ouananiche, capturing several over 5 pounds each in 
weight, and one of which was not much short of 7 
pounds. The entire trip occupied about ten days. 
Fine Sport on the Ristfgooche. 
Some of the fishermen on the Ristigouche did exceed- 
ingly well this season. Perhaps the best of the sport was 
had in the pools controlled by Mr. Archibald Mitchell, 
of Norwich, Conn., and Mr. Fred W. Ayer, of Bangor, 
Me. Their camp is a little above the Metapedia. The 
party of ten, who fished these pools have an aggregate 
of 221 salmon to their credit, besides twenty-eight grilse ; 
the total weight of the lot having been 3,106 pounds. Mr. 
P'orteous, of Norwich, caught no' less than forty-two sal- 
mon and ten grilse, and Mr. C. B. Brown, of New York, 
thirty-nine salmon and twelve grilse. Most of the others 
only fished for a portion of the time that Messrs. Por- 
teous and Brown were on the river. One day, tired of 
the larger fish, Messrs. Porteous and Brown took their 
rods and went toward Campbellton, returning to camp 
that night with fifty-two trout. 
Mr. Brown has traveled all over Europe and pried into 
every nook of Scotland, but says he has never seen a 
more wonderful view than that from the top of Morrisey 
Rock, looking down the Ristigouche, eleven miles above 
Campbellton. 
Some of the R.estigouche fishermen were very much 
less suepssful this season than the Norwich party, and 
the fishing turned out very poorly upon the Bonaven- 
ture, the St. Marguerite and the Trinity rivers. In the 
Grand River of Gaspe the catch was a large one. The 
Natashquan and Moisie people also did well. 
Capital sport has recently been had in Lakes Vermil- 
lion and Edward by Messrs. Barnes and O. A. Maxwell, 
of Chicago, and S. A. Farr and son of New Jersey. One 
day’s catch included twelve brook trout weighing from 
SH to 5^ pounds each. 
Mr. Gordon Renfrew, of Quebec, was surprised the 
other day while fishing _ for cod in the Lower St. Law- 
rence, to capture a halibut weighing 165 pounds and 
measuring six feet in length. 
Dr. George Porter and Dr. Civilion Fones, both of 
Bridgeport. Conn., who have recently enjoyed some ex- 
cellent tarpon fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, passed 
through Quebec a few days ago on their way to their fish- 
ing preserves in the vicinity of Kiskisink. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
Izaak Walton and the ^^Compleat 
Angler/^ 
A Lecture by Mrs. Comstock before', the Chautauqua Assembly. 
To UNDERSTAND what his art and his companionship 
with nature meant to Izaak "Walton we needs must glance 
over English history covered by the period of his life, 
beginning during the last years bf Elizabeth’s reign and 
ending during the last years of the reign of Charles II. 
The pages simply reek with bloody wars, black intrigue, 
religious persecution and rebellion, the horrors of the 
plague, and the stern excitements of regicide. These 
national tribulations find no mention in the serene, sweet, 
sunny pages of "Walton; pages on which no shadows rest 
save those made by the foliage of trees or the pinions of 
a hawk climbing his skyward spiral above green English 
mieadows. In Walton’s book the sea was never made for 
armada's and ships seeking conquest of new countries and 
vast riches ; nor yet for the Mayflower and religious free- 
dom do his blue waters roll. But rather for ships that 
shall bring or carry the art of Italy and the learning of 
Livy and Tully; and above all does he prize the seas be- 
cause of the teeming life in them and says : “The waters 
are nature’s storehouse, in which she locks up her won- 
ders.” And adds : “An ingenious Spaniard says that 
rivers ■ and the inhabitants of the water element were 
made for wise men to contemplate, and fools to pass by 
ryithout consideration.” 
In the air which “The Compleat Angler” breathes there 
are no germs of pestilence and no roar of distant battle; 
instead- it Is the medium which the lark loves and which 
supports' the' falcon. It is the home of those little nihible 
musiciansjof the air, that warble forth their curious dit- 
ties, with, which nature has furnished them to the sham.e 
of art. And thus he describes the lark and falcon : 
“At: first the lark, when she means to rejoice, to cheer 
herself and those |hat hear her, she then quits the earth 
and sings as she ascends higher into the air; and, having 
ended her heavenly employment grows then mute and sad 
that she must descend to the dull earth which she would 
not touch but for necessity.” 
Thus he 4 ??fitibcs the falcon ; “Jn the air my troops of 
[Sept. 9, 1905. 
hawks soar up on high, and when they are lost in the 
sig;ht of men, then they attend upon and converse with 
the gods, therefore I think my eagle is so, justly styled 
Jove’s servant in ordinary; and that very falcon I am 
now going to see deserves no meaner title, for she usual- 
ly in her flight endangers herself, like the son of Dccda- 
lus, to have her wings scorched by the sun’s heat, she 
flies so near it, but her mettle makes her careless of dan- 
ger ; for she then heeds nothing but makes her nimble 
pinions cut the fluid air, and so makes her highway over 
steepest mountains and deepest rivers, and; in her glorious 
caTeer looks with contempt upon those high steeples and 
magnificent palaces which we adore and wonder at.” 
Little marvel that an atmosphere, thus peopled, should 
bring sweet scents from daisied meadows, and health and 
strength to those that breathed it. 
And the earth over which “The Compleat Angler” wan- 
ders is not a place for contending armies or the foothold 
for bloody conquests, but is instead “a solid settled ele- 
ment ; an element most universally beneficial both to man 
and beast ; to men who have their several recreations upon 
it, as horse-races, hunting, sweet smells and pleasant 
walks.” 
When he speaks of great men they are not the great 
generals nor yet the struggling nor oppressive monarch, 
but instead are scholars who have known many things and 
have written books or they have lived the perfect life like 
“that undervaluer of money, the late Provost of Eton 
College, Sir Henry Wotton, a man with whom I have 
often fished and conversed, a man whose foreign em- 
ployments in the service of this nation, and whose ex- 
perience, learning, wit and cheerfulness made his com- 
pany to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind. This 
man whose very approbation of angling were sufficient to 
convince any modest censurer of it, this man was also a 
most dear lover and a frequent practicer of the art of 
angling, of which he would say, ’twas an employment for 
his idle time which was then not idly spent; for angling 
was, after tedious study, a rest to his mind, a cheerer of 
his spirits, a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet 
thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer of con- 
tentedness, and that it begat habits of peace and pa- 
tience tO' those that professed and practiced it. Indeed, 
my friend, you will find angling to be like the virtue of 
humility, which has a calmness of spirit and a world of' 
other blessings attending upon it.” 
And of all the turmoil betwixt Pope and Puritan there 
is naught mentioned by Izaak Walton except the follow- 
ing gentle allusion : “I will speak of a memorable man 
that lived near to our own time whom I also' take to have 
been an ornament to the art of angling. Dr. Nowel, 
some time Dean of the cathedral church of St. Paul in 
London, a man that in the Reformation of Queen Eliza- 
beth, was so noted for his meek spirit, deep learning, pru- 
dence, and piety, that the then Parliament and Convo- 
cation both chose, enjoined, and trusted him to- be the 
man to make a catechism for public use, such a one as 
should stand as a rule for faith and manners to their pos- 
terity. And the good old man, though he was very 
learned, yet knowing that God leads us not to heaven by 
many nor by hard questions, like an honest angler made 
that good, plain, unperplexed catechism which is printed 
with our good old service book. I say this good man 
was a dear lover and constant practicer of angling as any 
age can produce ; and his custom was to spend, besides 
his fixed hours of prayer, a tenth part of his time in ang- 
ling; and also, to bestow a tenth part of his revenue, and | 
usually all his fish, among the poor that inhabited near 
to those rivers in which it was caught, saying often that 
charity gave life to religion. And at his return to his 
house would praise God he had spent that day free from 
worldly trouble ; both harmlessly and in a recreation that 
became a churchman.” 
It is only by comparing the history of England during 
Walton’s life, and contrasting its turmoil with the serene 
peace of Walton’s spirit, that we can understand Walton 
at all. History says he was persecuted for religious and 
political opinions more or less. That he felt deeply and 
lived keenly with his times. Thus it was that from sheer 
self-preservation he turned his back upon struggle and 
bitterness of civil strife, to nature and his prt of angling, 
that made him forget that earth was less than paradise. 
To nature he turned for comfort and consolation. 
Walton’s Attitude Toward Science. 
Walton’s attitude toward science was characterized by 
broad minded tolerance. He discriminates with nicety be- 
tween what he knows from personal observation and what 
he has heard. Anything, whatever, may be true; he has 
no prejudices. This is especially noticeable when he 
discusses spontaneous generation of various animals: 
“And others say, that as pearls are made of glutinous 
clew drops, which are condensed by the sun’s heat in those 
countries, so eels are bred of a particular dew, falling in 1 
the months of May or June on the banks of some par- ' 
ticular ponds or rivers, adapted by nature to- that end ; 
which in a few days are by the sun’s heat turned into 
eels, and some of the ancients have called the eels thus 
bred the offspring of Jove. I have seen in the beginning 
of July, in a river not far from Canterbury, some parts 
of it covered over with young eels, about the thickness 
of a straw, and these eels did lie on the top of that water, 
as thick as motes are said to be in the sun.” , The above 
exemplifies well his attitude; he tells what he has heard 
without comment on its probable truth or untruth and 
then simply adds his own observations ; note how cautious 
he is about the motes in the sun. 
He quotes Sir Francis Bacon; “That if you knock two 
stones together very deep under water, those .that staild 
up.on a bank near to that place may hear the noise' with- 
out any diminution of it by the water.” And this reason 
of Sir Francis Bacon has made me crave pardon of one 
that I laughed at for affirming, that he knew carps come 
to a certain place in a pond, tp be fed, at the ringing of a 
bell or the beating of a drum ; and, however, ' it shall be 
a rule . for me to make as little noise as I can 'when I am. 
fishingj until Sir Francis Bacon be confuted; which I 
shall give any man leave to do.” And then he adds ■v^fith 
pious humor, “All the further use that I shall make of 
this shall be to advise anglers to- be patient, and forbear 
swearing, lest they be heard and catch no fish,” a most 
cogent argument against the use of profanity by one who 
has evidently often experienced the exasperation of los- 
ing a fine trout at the critical moment, 
