January 3, 1914. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
9 
Are Game Fish Increasing in the Adirondacks, and Where? 
A Serious Question Confronting the Conservation Commission. 
I N view of the repeated utterances of the Con¬ 
servation Commission members and the pub¬ 
lic assurance of Governor Glynn that the 
waters of this State now contain a great abun¬ 
dance of trout and other game fish, young and 
old, and that the people are, therefore, to be con¬ 
gratulated upon having a supply of palatable and 
nutritious food in these days of high prices in 
meat and eggs, it is proper to ascertain just 
what the facts are regarding the actual condition 
of the inland fisheries in the neighborhood of the 
Hudson and St. Lawrence watersheds in the Ad¬ 
irondack region. 
It may be noted that the somewhat optimistic 
statements of these gentlemen are not based upon 
reports of the actual fishing conditions in any 
public waters in that section heretofore stocked 
with trout or bass by the commission, a circum¬ 
stance which would add great weight to their 
opinion, if clearly brought out, but they assume 
that, because so many more millions of young fish 
were hatched and “distributed” among applicants 
for trout and bass this year than the previous 
year, that there will be a corresponding increase 
of game fish in the public fishing waters of this 
state. 
It will at once appear to any person at all 
acquainted with the difficulties of transporting 
fish from the state hatcheries to the lakes and 
streams of the Adirondacks that the mere rais¬ 
ing and sending out for distribution among the 
citizens of this state, is no actual proof that any 
considerable number of said fish ever reach public 
waters or that they live or are allowed to remain 
after being placed there. 
There is a most important link missing in 
the chain between the hatchery and the stream 
preventing a unity of the complete line that 
should exist between these two vital bases. The 
commission, having honorably and faithfully per¬ 
formed its work in breeding and rearing millions 
of healthy brook trout, for example, sends these 
fish without cost to various parties who apply 
for same up to March, using blanks supplied to 
them by the commission. The young trout are 
sent by train to the applicants, the cans contain¬ 
ing them being in charge of an experienced state 
custodian. 
Let us trace a shipment of 1,000 fingerling 
brook trout from the State Hatchery intended 
for some stream in the Adirondack foothills in 
Essex County, New York, along the line of the 
Delaware and Hudson Railway. The request for 
the young fish having been granted, a telegram 
announcing when they will probably reach the 
nearest station to the consignee is sent. This 
message is received by the operator in the village, 
but it often happens that the stream for which 
the fingerlings are intended lies eight or ten miles 
in the back hill country, and the only way of 
conveying the telegram to the farmer or hunter 
who has volunteered to put out the fish is to 
telephone to someone in the locality the substance 
of the message, who then has to “send word” by 
some boy or neighbor going out that way that 
some fish are coming on the train. 
If the consignee had been informed by mail 
a week in advance, and had, by request of the 
commission, replied, using an addressed envelope 
and blank enclosed in its letter, that he would be 
at the station on that day, all would have gone 
well. In the case just given, suppose from any 
cause that the farmer cannot get to the train in 
season to meet the fish. What becomes of them? 
It is a well-known fact that trout get into the 
hands of those who have made no application for 
them at such times, while some consignees com¬ 
plain that their cans contain only a dozen or so 
of bass or trout fry when delivered to them. 
We will assume, however, that our farmer 
receives his full allotment of 1,000 fingerling 
brook trout. These will be contained in three or 
four large cans like those used for transporting 
milk. The fish will be lively and the water ice 
cold. The custodian will give careful directions 
about keeping the water cold or aerated by dip¬ 
ping it up frequently and letting it run back into 
the cans while in transit. He will also advise 
the planter to “temper the water” in the can with 
that of the brook or stream before putting out 
the fish, in order to prevent injury to the young- 
trout by a too sudden change in the temperature 
of their element. 
Promising to attend to those details, our 
farmer, after feeding his tired horses under some 
mill shed or in the sun, starts on the way up 
hill to the locality where the young fish are to 
make their future home. If the weather is cloudy 
and cool all goes well, but if the sun is very hot, 
as is likely to be the case in early summer time 
during the afternoon, with the very best of care 
many fish will be found dead and dying and by 
the time the ten-mile journey is over not one- 
half the consignment will be alive. Men who 
reside all the year around near the best natural 
trout waters are almost invariably small farmers 
who cannot afford to keep help during the year. 
Consequently, our man must put away and feed 
his team, milk three or four cows, and have his 
supper before he can think about those trout. 
He has no ice with which to cool the water, and 
his available supply of fresh water is perhaps as 
warm as that in the cans. Well, after dusk per¬ 
haps he takes the live trout, puts them into two 
tin pails and starts for the brook, which he 
reaches after much hard work. No wonder then 
that the tired fellow, unacquainted with the neces¬ 
sary details of his most important task, throws 
both pails of young fish into the nearest hole in 
the stream, which may be either very cold or 
very warm, according- to the character of the 
locality and weather prevailing at the time. Com¬ 
ing back home, he says to his good wife. “Wall, 
I’ve planted them fish.” This is indeed true; 
but what fish cfilturist could properly estimate 
the results, if any, of such a careless distribu¬ 
tion. 
From the writer’s own knowledge gained 
from conversations with men of this class, the 
foregoing is a fair example of what is called 
“distribution” of young trout in public waters. 
Work like this, done substantially in the same 
way year after year, is not likely to improve 
trout fishing in any locality, and in consequence 
we hear complaints about poor fishing as we 
return from city life to our country homes. 
“Yes,” the guide will say, “there were lots of 
trout put out around here by the state two or 
three years ago, but no one has caught any to 
speak of. I can’t understand why the fishing isn’t 
better, unless it is that the little boys catch ’em 
all out with worm bait.” 
On the other hand, where men acquainted 
with the habits of trout and waters suitable to 
contain them have received fry or fingerlings 
from the state, there has been a marked increase 
both in the quantity and size of the catch. These 
farmers or local sportsmen have been instructed 
mainly by city anglers and hunters in the early 
care of the young trout, and in many instances 
the planting of the state’s bass and trout has 
been done by city visitors personally. The writer 
recalls a consignment of brook trout that came 
to him some years since, arriving about dusk. 
These fish, about 500 in number, were carried by 
him in two ten-quart tin pails more than a mile 
up a most precipitous mountain trail to a fine 
little pond under high mountain crags. The day 
had been intensely warm, but Moore had been 
very careful and all the fish were put into my 
hands lively and well, after a ten-mile journey 
up from the Delaware and Hudson train. Upon 
reaching the pond, two or three were carefully 
put in, but they instantly died, on account of the 
warmth of the water. Search was then made 
for a spring hole in an old scow-boat, using a 
board for a paddle. There the lot was distributed 
along the rocky shore and under the mossy logs, 
and I saw everyone swim off apparently in good 
condition. 
A sense of loneliness took possession of me 
as I finished the state’s work back in that moun¬ 
tain tarn, which bears the name of a rare fur¬ 
bearing animal whose dark coat contains a few 
long white hairs. Little “Cliff,” my rabbit hound, 
.led the way through the night most unerringly 
down the rough Goose-Neck Trail and was in¬ 
deed a lamp unto my feet through the dense 
forest. A lawyer friend, whose office is in the 
New York Mutual Life Building, tells me that 
as a result of the planting of that virgin lake, he 
was surprised to find its waters fairiy alive with 
rising brook trout of great size during a recent 
visit, and that a local guide where he stayed had 
taken some trout there last spring of three 
pounds weight, using an angle worm and long- 
cane pole. 
Away back in the good old days when the 
late A. Nelson Cheney was fish culturist, a New 
York newspaper man obtained a supply of brook 
trout fry for two small spring brooks emptying 
into Lake Champlain at Ticonderoga, and for the 
large outlet of a local mountain pond. 
At that time Mr. Cheney used to forward 
the fry trout earlier in the spring than they are 
sent at present, and for some reason of his own 
he advised the planting of fry. He knew that 
trout can stand transportation better in cold than 
in warm weather, and that the little fish would 
not prove an attraction to short-fish men the com¬ 
ing spring, but would have a full year in which 
to get used to their new home and scatter through 
its waters. 
At any rate, on that spring day, many years 
ago, when the consignment arrived, an old, re¬ 
tired attorney and his “sporty” G. A. R. veteran 
friend went after the trout on a bob-sled. The 
fish required all day to plant, as the waters were 
fully three miles apart, and four from the Ti¬ 
conderoga station. Well, these old sportsmen 
took pailful after pailful of water containing a 
few fish each, and trudged uncomplainingly from 
one open shallow to another, and to the little 
spring feeders, until their task was properly done, 
returning to the old homestead thoroughly tired 
out with their exertions, but full of enthusiasm 
at the thought of enjoying some of those fish 
when they “grew up.” And so they did, for along 
in 1892 those waters, which had previously not 
