92 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
but thaws when it is lowered again. If one at¬ 
tempted to pull in the line hand over hand it 
would probably mean the loss of the fish and the 
risk of a badly tangled frozen line. The good 
“bobber” can catch as much as eighty pounds 
in a day of five hours. The men sit on tire ice 
under the lee of a wind-break consisting of 
sticks put together tepee fashion, and over which 
is spread an old blanket or piece of canvas. The 
supporting sticks are frozen into the ice and 
remain in use day after day. In fine weather 
the bobbing grounds look as though a company 
of soldiers were camped on it. The fishermen 
don’t mind ten or twenty degrees below zero 
provided there is no wind, and they do not 
mind the wind provided it comes from the 
north. They then place the wind-break facing 
towards the sun and are quite comfortable. The 
ice varies from six inches to two feet in thick¬ 
ness and extends as far as the eye can reach. 
The hole is made about two feet square and 
the block of ice removed usually comes out in 
one piece which is used to sit on. A small hole 
is made nearby into which water is made to run 
and in which the bait is kept to prevent its 
freezing. The writer has enjoyed many an 
hour’s bobbing and caught as many as seventenn 
fish in one day, the fish averaging from one and 
one-half to twenty pounds. Trout larger than 
twenty pounds are usually lost. 
Another method of taking the trout in winter 
is by spearing. The hole cut in the ice is 
covered with a tent of dark material to keep out 
the light and make the fish more easily seen. 
An artificial herring is used to attract the trout 
and sometimes a live herring is lowered on a 
string and allowed to swim about. Trout at¬ 
tracted in this way are speared, the spear having 
a line attached to prevent its loss. When gill 
nets are used in the fall they are set in from 
one to four fathoms of water. A good haul 
would be about 200 pounds to the net which is 
usually about 600 feet long by five feet deep. 
The smallest mesh allowed is four and one-half 
inches which permits fish smaller than three 
pounds to pass through and escape. It is illegal 
to sell trout of less than one and one-half 
pounds in weight. 
Shoal water net fishing commences in the 
full of the moon in the month of October when 
the fish are in shallow water. As the moon 
wanes the fish move gradually into deeper 
water. The same process is repeated during 
the month of November when the fish are again 
in shallow water during the full of the moon. 
In the middle of summer when the water is 
warm the trout seeks the deeper and cooler 
waters. During the spawning season there are 
government officials on the larger fishing boats 
to save the spawn from the live fish, which is 
promptly fertilized and taken to the hatcheries, 
where the fry are eared for until they are re¬ 
turned to the lakes. 
ITEMS OF INTEREST 
Paintings of Fishes in the Aquarium. —Mr. 
LJjashime Murayama lias recently made paintings 
from life of several species of fresh water fishes 
in the New York Aquarium. 
These paintings with a number of photo¬ 
graphs by Mr. Elwin R. Sanborn and an article 
on fresh water fishes by Dr. C. H. Townsend 
will be published in the August number of the 
National Geographic Magazine. 
Old Books on Fishes —The Aquarium library 
lias recently acquired three valuable old works 
on fishes—the gift of Mr. A. H. Olmsted of 
Newport, Rhode Island. 
They include “The Natural History of British 
Fishes” by the English naturalist, E. Donovan 
(1802-4-8), five volumes in three books, bound 
in leather and handsomely illustrated with 
colored plates. Donovan wrote on birds, insects 
and shells, as well as on fishes, making a lasting 
name for himself in the field of zoology. Like 
Charles Darwin, he was enabled, through the 
inheritance of a fortune, to gratify his love of 
learning by extensive travel in his youth, collect¬ 
ing objects of natural history and making orig¬ 
inal studies of them. 
The second is a copy of Gulielmi Ronde- 
letii’s famous old Latin work, “De Piscibus 
Marinis” (1554), which describes and pictures 
marine invertebrates, turtles and mammals, as 
well as fishes, real and legendary. The work 
displays remarkable scientific accuracy for a 
sixteenth century production. 
The third is a copy of “De Historia Piscium” 
by Francis Willughby, 1686; a large volume 
bound in vellum. This work, also, is in Latin, 
and was published after the author’s death by 
John Ray, his instructor and co-worker. The 
interesting legend “Sumptibus Samuel Pepys” 
appears on many of the plates. I. M. M. 
Fishes from Florida. —A collection of tropical 
fishes for the Aquarium was made at Key West, 
Florida, in June, but the local conditions were 
of a most unsatisfactory nature, far more so 
than at any time the writer has collected at this 
point previously. 
