3 °o 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Aug. 25, 1906. 
Fish and Fishing. 
American Trout Fishermen. 
The passing of the worst of the fly season and 
of the most extreme heat of the hottest Canadian 
summer of recent years is marked by the reap¬ 
pearance of many American trout fishermen in 
the region north of Quebec. On the limits 
of the Tourilli Fish and Game Club several of 
the members residing on the south of the inter¬ 
national boundary line are already in camp, some 
of them to remain till the end of the fishing sea¬ 
son. Many more are expected about Sept. 1, 
when rifles may also be used. A number of the 
Triton Club men are daily expected, and will 
doubtless be here by the time that these lines 
are in print. 
Messrs. R. H. Brown and Theo. Sheldon, of 
New Haven, and other members of the Nonan- 
tum Fish and Game Club are expected at Lac 
des Commissaires early in September. 
The Messrs. Cheney, of South Manchester, have 
been enjoying good sport near Lake St. John 
on their trout lakes on the limits of the Ama- 
balish Fish and Game Club, and among others 
who are about going into camp at the Meta- 
betchouan Fish and Game Club are Mr. and 
Mrs. W. D. Ives, of New Haven, Conn.; Judge 
and Mrs. Perry, Mr. and Mrs. John Davenport 
and Miss Davenport, of Stamford, Conn. 
Mr. Wallace Durand, of Newark, N. J., re¬ 
cently made a most remarkable catch of ouana- 
niche off Pointe Bleue, Lake St. John, and more 
recently still I learn that the fish are rising well 
in front of the wharves at Roberval. This is 
doubtless altogether due to the suppression of 
all netting in the lake. Mr. R. A. Withans, of 
New York, who recently spent ten days fishing 
for ouananiche at the Grand Discharge, reports 
an exciting experience which occurred to him 
while fishing in Griffiths’ Pool. A large fish 
which never showed itself, but which must have 
been a sea salmon, judging by its manner of 
acting, promptly ran all the line off Mr. 
Withans’ reel and then broke loose. There is 
seemingly no doubt of the increase of salmon 
in these waters. 
At the present time, when the water in the 
Grand Discharge is comparatively low, I believe 
that the best of the ouananiche fishing is to be 
had in the rivers up which the spawning fish 
are ascending. Some exceedingly good sport 
may be had during the present month in the 
lower stretches of the Ashuapmouchouan River. 
Time may be saved by driving some distance 
north from Roberval through St. Felicien and 
St. Prime. Both immediately below the Salmon 
River Falls and also several miles further up 
the Asphuapmouchouan are splendid ouananiche 
pools, but guides must be taken from Roberval 
who know the country. 
Mr. J. J. Hill’s Successful Fishing. 
During a recent visit to the north shore of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, I passed the mouth 
of Mr. J. J. Hill’s splendid salmon river, the 
St. John, and heard a good deal about the sport 
enjoyed there by the railway magnate. The St. 
John is one of the largest and best of the north 
shore streams. There are no falls for some dis¬ 
tance from the mouth, and Mr. Hill’s fishing 
house is built some fifteen miles up the river. 
He is unable to enter it with his steam yacht, 
because of the dangerous sandbar at the mouth, 
but crosses the bar with a gasoline yacht which 
runs up stream to the camp. A year or two ago, 
one of his gasoline yachts was broken in pieces 
while crossing this bar, and one of Mr. Hill’s 
guests who was on board narrowly escaped with 
his life, all his valuable fishing rods and tackle 
being lost. This year Mr. Hill was only ten 
or twelve days on his river, yet in that time the 
railway magnate killed no less than 280 fish to 
his own rod. On the way down the river from 
the camp, when leaving for the coast to take his 
yacht, he killed no less than eighteen salmon. 
His party killed in all 530 fish. Mr. Hill be¬ 
lieves in doing thoroughly whatever he under¬ 
takes. and when he is on the river for fishing 
he fishes nearly all the time from soon after day¬ 
light to close upon 10 o’clock at night, and de¬ 
lights in having every member of his party do¬ 
ing the same. He has bought up all the nets in 
the mouth of the river, so that the fish are ex¬ 
ceedingly plentiful. They are also of pretty 
large size. 
It seems strange to talk of fishing for salmon 
up to nearly 10 o’clock at night, but it must be 
remembered that as far north as this river it 
does not grow dark until very late at night, and 
I have had a salmon take a fly in the Natashquan 
after 9 o’clock. Nor is this experience very ex¬ 
ceptional. On the Grand Cascapedia it is quite 
a common thing to take fish between 8:30 and 
9 P. M., the flies employed being as large as 
3-0 to 5-0, and usually either the silver-doctor or 
silver-gray. When the fish do take these large 
flies so late at night, they generally rush eagerly 
for them as in a perfect frenzy. A 51 ( 4 -pound 
salmon killed by Mr. E. W. Davis, of Provi¬ 
dence, R. I., some year or two ago was hooked 
after 8:30 P. M., and not graffed until well after 
9 o’clock. 
British Columbia Fisheries. 
A gentleman who was recently here from Vic¬ 
toria, B. C., brought very interesting informa¬ 
tion respecting the salmon fisheries of British 
Columbia. There has been a strange falling off 
of late in the supply of the fish, though it will 
be remembered that in the early part of the 
present season the catches were remarkably 
good and many fishermen made big hauls. The 
record catch was made by a boat fishing for 
the Terra Nova cannery. In one night while 
stationed on the North Arm it pulled in over 
700 sockeyes, netting the lucky fisherman $175 
for his night’s work. While this was an excep¬ 
tionally fine catch, many other boats did remark¬ 
ably well before the sudden falling came. It 
appears that several explanations are offered 
for the unaccountable falling off of late in the 
supply of fish. It is generally, however, believed 
that the fish will not now seek the river until 
after more rain, lest the small streams running 
into the Fraser should prove too shallow for 
them to get up. 
Some Salmon Scores. 
I have lately been sent the scores of a number 
of north shore rivers for the present season. 
That of the Moisie has been already given in 
Forest and Stream. The splendid record made 
there this year by the anglers may have some 
connection with the comparatively small num¬ 
ber of fish taken this year in the nets at the 
mouth of the river, owing, it is said, to the fact 
that most of the early run of fish got up the 
river before the nets were set. 
The Washeshoo was fished by two different 
parties of anglers this year. During the first 
part of the season it belonged to Messrs. Bayard 
Dominick, Bart Pardee, Frank Pardee and Dr. 
Smith, of New York, their catch being about 
120 fish. Later it was fished by Messrs. Arthur 
Wainwright, Richard Storey and Henry Blake, 
of Boston, who killed from 60 to 70 fish. 
The Romaine yielded good sport to Messrs. 
E. C. Fitch, of Waltham, and Carroll and Sloane, 
of New York, while Dr. Johnson, of New York, 
and Mr. Toland, of Philadelphia, had good fish¬ 
ing on the Jupitagan, and Messrs. Kirby and 
Nesbitt on the Minga.n. 
E T. D. Chambers. 
Adirondack Notes. 
This July was the warmest known in this 
region for several years. Much of the time also 
quite dry. Recent heavy showers have improved 
the fishing. For example at a nearby pond a 
good fisherman spent two days and caught only 
one trout. The next day—heavy showers having 
fallen meantime—another man, not the equal of 
the first in skill and experience in fishing, caught 
fifty-nine beautiful trout at the same pond. 
On'Tuesday the writer was fishing a favorite 
stream. A seven inch trout took the hook and 
immediately fouled the line on a snag under 
water. To save time a strong pull was given, 
the line parted, another was put on, and fishing 
resumed. Within five minutes, and after casting 
others, that obliging trout came ashore with the 
first hook securely fastened through his lip and 
the snell protruding from his mouth. Yet he 
eagerly took the bait the second time and came 
to creel. Who says trout fishing is cruel sport 
and hurts the fish ? 
Signs indicate plenty of deer in the woods. 
Blue Mountain Lake. JUVENAL. 
The Sharks of the Australian Seas. 
Considering the number of the various species 
of the shark family frequenting Australian waters 
and the many people who frequently bathe in 
open, unprotected places during both summer and 
winter, it is surprising that so few fatalities 
occur. Sydney Harbor, for instance, is given a 
notoriety for the ferocity of its sharks, and yet, 
as a matter of fact, it is seldom that more than 
one or two persons are killed by sharks during 
the course of an entire year. The majority of 
deaths caused by sharks occur in the upper 
reaches of the harbor, where, the water not being 
clear, especially when the tide is on the ebb, these 
predatory terrors are enabled to approach almost 
unobserved and seize the unsuspecting bather 
with far greater ease than would be afforded 
them in water uncontaminated with mud, sand, 
or other matter. 
For me deep sea fish, sharks and their habits 
have always possessed a very great interest. I 
was for two years engaged in shark fishing as a 
business on behalf of a firm of Chinese mer¬ 
chants. They employed small schooners manned 
by Polynesians, and our fishing grounds were 
Providence Lagoon and other isolated and shark- 
infested atolls in the North Pacific. It occupied 
us from six to eight months to obtain a cargo 
of dried fins and tails for the Chinese market, 
and the labor of catching, killing and sun-drying 
the fins and tails of from 200 to 300 sharks every 
day was arduous in the extreme. 
In Sydney harbor the species of sharks that the 
Sydney fisherman knows best, and which prove 
such a pest to him when pursuing his calling, and 
destroy human life, are the tiger shark, the so- 
called white shark, and the gray nurse. Then 
,there are the six-gilled and seven-gilled sharks, 
two or three hammerheads, and the saw-billed 
sharks, which have never been known to attack 
human beings. Among these may also be in¬ 
cluded the well-known and curious wobbygong, 
a creature of extraordinary and beautiful color¬ 
ing, haunting rocky bottoms and feeding largely 
upon crayfish and other crustaceans. I have 
never heard of a wobbygong attempting to attack 
a man. It is sluggish in its movements, and dur¬ 
ing the daytime may frequently be seen lying 
upon the bottom, its body markings resembling 
a gaily-colored and motley-patterened strip of car¬ 
pet (some people term it the carpet shark). It is 
a nocturnal feeder, but is yet often caught on the 
line in daylight if the baited hook is lowered 
directly in front of its mouth, which, unlike that 
of most of its brethren, is not underneath. The 
jaws are filled with a mass of ugly-looking, 
pointed teeth set in an irregular manner, but all 
inclining inwards. The shark has the most ex¬ 
traordinary power of assimilating the coloring 
and markings of its skin to its surroundings, and 
it requires a keen observer to determine whether 
the object at which he is gazing and which is 
lying under ten feet or so of water is not a patch 
of blue, red and orange-colored seaweed growing 
upon stones or coral of equally brilliant and the 
same hues. 
I have frequently found a wobbygong lying 
asleep in shallow, rocky pools at low tide, and, 
seizing it gently, but firmly, by the tail, dragged 
it out of the water. I have never seen one ex¬ 
ceeding five feet in length in Australian waters, 
but have heard of several attaining seven feet. 
Along each side of the head, and extending as 
far as the first gill slit, there is a very curious 
arrangement, consisting of a series of flaps of 
skin growing out from the side of the head, the 
lower part having irregularly-serrated edges; in 
fact, they struck me as resembling ragged maple 
leaves in autumn. These appendages when the 
creature is lying quiet, will often be seen to un¬ 
dulate gently, as would seaw'eed when swayed 
by the influx or egress of water through the sides 
of a pool or by the current. Doubtless they are 
an aid to concealment, and possibly a source of 
attraction to inquisitive fish or Crustacea. 
