BBA 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 21, 1903, 
would doubtless show as remarkable collections of 
curiosities as the ordinary magpie’s nest. 
Mr. T. H. Norris killed many very large trout on 
some of the Stadacona lakes, close to the Iroquois 
territory, during the last week of September, while the 
prime minister of the province of Quebec, the Hon. 
Mr. Gouin, killed one weighing nearly five pounds in 
one of the lakes of the Laurentides Fish and Game 
VGlub. , ' 
The Files that Were Successful. 
We found on the waters of the Iroquois preserve — 
and other fishermen on neighboring lakes and streams 
experienced the same thing this autumn — that the fi^h 
did not, as a rule, take the Parmachenee-Belle as well 
as usual. In the spring and early summer it is the one 
favorite fly in these northern waters. Much more suc- 
cessful lures were the scarlet-ibis, the Montreal, the 
fiery-brown and the red-hackle. At night the Lake- 
George and white-moth proved good killers. 
The woods were looking their best during the period 
of our stay in them, the red and yellow tints of the 
autumnal foliage seeming at times in the brilliant sun- 
light like an exaggerated bit of nature’s September 
loveliness. It would certainly be so believed by those 
who had never seen it for themselves, if the gorgeous- 
ness of the coloring that we saw could only be faith- 
fully reproduced on paper or canvas. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
The Dominating Carp. 
Evanston, 111 ., Sept. 7. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
When our Federal Government distributed to all parts 
of the United States the progeny of 345 carp which it 
brought from Germany in 1877, it was exercising the 
paternal duties which it possessed to an eminent de- 
gree. It had in view a great economic measure, a 
distinctive virtue at all times. It desired to furnish the 
entire nation, and in particular the very poor, with a 
cheap and edible fish, and hence the strenuous efforts 
it has put forth for success in this particular propa- 
gation. 
This was exceedingly meritorious, but if there had 
been some discrimination in the transplanting of this 
fish, such as saving our Great Lakes of pure water from 
its incursion, as well as some of our rivers of the 
same nature, there would doubtless have been more 
toleration of the rapidly multiplying carp. 
It has, however, transpired that this suggestive meas- 
ure has not been successfully carried out, and therefore 
an almost complete destruction of the fresh-water fishes 
is threatened as well as the passing away of the pleas- 
ures of rod and reel. A resume of the generous trans- 
platiting of the carp in almost every section of the 
country practically manifests that that fast multiplying 
fish, which in derision as well as in fact, is called the 
scavenger of the waters, will through sheer force of 
its numbers crowd out in a decade or two all our game- 
ful and toothsome fishes. 
All our great fresh-water lakes, except Lake Superior, 
are now giving manifold signs of an overabundance of 
this undesirable fish. That exceptional lake above men- 
tioned will soon be sharing the same fate, provided 
there is ample supply of food for this advancing and 
destroying tribe. The St. Mary’s River, which de- 
bouches from this great reservoir of pure water, has 
an abundant supply of water or river grass and wild 
rice, upon which this fish in part feeds, and it is there 
in very generous numbers. We can hardly realize that 
the United State Fish Commission planted this coarse 
fish in these the greatest connecting bodies of fresh 
water in the world to innocently add the coup de grace 
to the few surviving whitefish and trout. What an ap- 
palling tragedy of the waters is this foreshadowed in 
the destruction of the gameful and highly toothsome 
fish which now make the Great Lakes their habitat? 
Are we to substitute this scavenger of the lakes for 
the delicious table fish that now fairly makes our saliva- 
ries dance with ecstatic delight? Heaven forbid it! 
We might tolerate it in other waters less pure, but the 
Great Lakes, the pride of America, to be thus sullied, 
never. 
I am not alone in this denunciation, for an alarming 
cry comes from Canada, as will be seen in the sub- 
joined extract taken from the Toronto Mail and Ex- 
press of Aug. 26. It enunciates that: 
“Mr. Harris rightly classes with the witless intro- 
duction of the Canada thistle and the English sparrow 
to this country the introduction of the German carp to 
the Great Lakes. This fish might be well described as 
the scavenger of the waters. It feeds on refuse, and is 
about the poorest substitute for whitefish, trout, and 
pickdrel that can be imagined. Any mud puddle will 
suit a carp. Before 1890 it was practically unknown to 
American waters, in 1904 not less than 20,000,000 pounds 
of carp were taken from Lake Erie, which must be con- 
sidered a carp lake, as is Lake St. Clair. It took just 
five years to destroy in Lake Huron the finest yellow 
pickerel fishery in the world. From Ottawa there was 
no protest. The people did not know what was going 
on. There was no outcry. In silence the tragedy of 
the Great Lakes was perpetrated. 
“The carp is scarce in Ontario yet, but soon these 
pigs among fish will be guzzling where once the salmon 
swarmed. Then we shall have plenty of cheap, coarse, 
fish food for awhile. Canadians, of course, will not 
care to eat it, and so it will be sent to the sweat-shop 
population of New York, and other large American 
cities. The story will be finished, and our lakes be- 
come a pasture ground for the foreign-born element of 
the United States.” 
Again' Mr. Frank Jack, a prominent and influential 
citizen of Peoria, as well as an expert and keenly ol> , 
serving sportsman, writes me on request for informa- 
tion concerning the carp, saying: 
“The Illinois River, within fifty to seventy miles of 
Peoria, is the noted carp stream of this country, and. 
the shipments from Peoria and a couple of other points 
are wonderful. These shipments mostly go to New 
York and, it is said, that the carp are there served on 
the tables of -the leading hotels — probably under some 
other na'me. The commercial fishermen use large seines 
haJT a milfe to a mile long, .and there have been catches 
at different times of 30 tons at a haul. Frequently they 
build stockades out in the river and pen them in as they 
would cattle, and there keep them until ready for ship- 
ments, which are made mostly in car loads. Very few 
of these fish are eaten here, being considered too coarse 
for any cultured palate. Until four or five years ago 
we had fine bass and perch fishing here — much better 
than I saw this summer in Ontario. Now the carp 
keeps the water muddy and have driven out all other 
fish, and are credited by many as destroying their 
spawn. 
“One undeniable advantage of this fish is its remark- 
able reproductiveness. Just think of fifty tons of carp 
at one haul of the seine. This alone is manifest evi- 
dence that not other fish could so multiply, and it has been 
a grand_and lofty tumbling of other fishes seeking other 
Vv'aters if they can be found minus the carp. That as- 
sertion I am positive will not soon be disproved by 
mere talk or bluster. 
We do not, I am positive, desire to emulate the 
European countries in making the carp our all-im- 
portant fish, nor do we consider it a “blessing to the 
poor.” The' working classes of Europe live on black 
bread with an extraordinary dessert of meat once a 
week. To them the carp is doubtless a blessing. But 
this prosperous country, where the day’s wage of a 
mechanic equals a week’s pay of the foreigner, while 
tliat of a laborer’s two days’ work makes the same 
weekly equivalent, is sufficient evidence that it does not 
desire to take any stock in the coarse, ill-tasting carp. 
THE SCALE CARP. 
Photograph from Mature. 
going on for years. It would be well, however, to re- 
mind you that no other river in the United States, with 
the single exception of the Columbia, in Oregon, fur- 
nishes as many fish. Havana, in Mason county, is the 
largest market for fish there is on the Illinois, there 
being 2,000,000 pounds shipped last year from that place, 
carp of course being in the ascendency. The carp was 
placed in the Illinois by the United States Fish Com- 
mission fifteen years ago, and, according to authentic 
reports, have so rapidly increased as to threaten the 
life tenures of all other fishes there.” 
In this respect they are like the English sparrow, 
they monopolize the territory, and the other fish are 
driven out. And that also will be the result wherever 
the German carp is transplanted. When I consider that 
the noted fishing waters in the Great Lakes, where I 
have had so many days of unalloyed enjoyment with 
Look in the market baskets of our working classes 
and you will see therein the choicest cuts of meat, and 
fish that is a perfect delight to the gastrics. Why then ■ 
all this fanfare of trumpets, and beating of drums to : 
force this coarse-fibered fish of repulsive savor upon ' 
us as a blessing? Shall our whitefish, trout, black bass, 
maskinonge, pike, perch, pickerel, etc., be eliminated 
from our lakes and rivers of pure water that the un- 
regenerate carp may roam at his sweet will and take 
on his lordly proportions, and swagger as the king of 
the waters as he turns its purity into seas of turbidness? 
The Fish and Game Commission of the United States 
are officials of high standing and great ability, and 
have accomplished a great work in propagating and : 
transplanting fishes of superior quality throughout the | 
country. I here simply call attention to one of many | 
instances, where they have won grand triumphs, and j 
THE LEATHER CARP. 
From “Fishing Industries.” 
the rod and reel, are soon to become pastures for the 
carp, it saddens me beyond all expression. I must re- 
gretfully admit that the carp will not in this case make 
his sudden exit, for he possesses to an eminent degree all 
the qualifications that will enable him to retain his 
present position and finally make him monarch of all 
he surveys. He is exceedingly hardy and very pug- 
nacious, will live in waters where other fish die, and, 
with his years of longevity and rapid growth, will as- 
suredly dominate unless immediate measures are taken 
to avert it, as the strength of the two opposing forces 
will soon develop that fact in the Illinois. 
They have threshed this question over and over again 
in the “American Fisheries Society,” of which I am 
proud to be a member, and it appears that the scavenger 
fish has now a majority, or a tolerant majority, in that 
board. In a late discussion on this all-important ques- 
tion one of the members said: “I am stating, the cold, 
hard' fact, when I saw that the Legislature of Penn- 
sylvania has practically declared the carp an outlaw 
by prohibiting the planting of it any longer in our 
waters.” On the other hand, a member from Michigan 
said: “I think the carp was sent here as a blessing to 
the poor. The carp is here to stay, and all the barrels 
of money we can open will not destroy them. I like 
them and am going to keep on eating them.” 
I have seen certain parties immediately after an 
election eat crow, butThey did not like it one bit, so 
with, the carp. 
In "regard to t.he adhesive persistence of the carp, I 
will simply repeat that if it [lere to stay there will be 
:i 
that is in the planting of the shad in the Pacific Ocean, | 
an'd it has been such an eminent success that you can 
now purchase shad as cheap in California as you can .j 
in New York. _ i 
If there had been some discrimination in the trans- ,j 
planting of the carp in our Great Lakes of pure water, j 
such as we have mentioned, there would have doubtless 1 
been more toleration of the rapid multiplying fi.sh. | 
The Game and Fish Commission of Illinois made a ,j 
similar admission in their report of 1904, when it says 1 
that, “The carp are detrimental to clear lakes and _ 
rivers, but they get into them and we are doing the very 
best we can to relieve the situation in that respect;” 
and that is what we justly claim. 
One of the great culinary triumphs of the greedy carp ; 
was in the eating of all the wild rice beds in Lake Huron j 
and thereby driving all the wild, ducks away. This 
yellow peril of the fresh waters will not stop at this ^ 
gastronomic feat, for it will perform many others that ’ 
will throw that one completely in the shade and so 
startle its advocates as doubtless to revolutionize them. 
Its daily menu, when the market is well stocked, con- ; 
sists of vegetation, worms and larvae of aquatic in- 
sects which it turns up from the mud with its classic nose, 
the refuse o.f the kitchen, slaughter house and brewery, ; 
and many other nauseating things which would not j 
look well in print, and also prove offensive to those | 
who declare they like them p.d will continue tO' eat 
them despite all adverse criticism. j 
As a passing incident of the multiplicity of carp al- j 
ready in our Great Lakes of p.ure water, 1 will simply | 
