248 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 12, 1911. 
The Key of the Arctic Region 
The Possible Effect of Widening Bering Straits on Far 
Northern Temperatures and Life 
By J. J. MEYRICK 
erman, because he took without distance three 
salmon, weighing ten, nine and eighteen pounds, 
and one trout, in three hours. He and other 
local anglers put their trust in the Hemsworth, 
an English fly, but the silver doctor for salmon 
and the grizzly king for grilse gave me the 
best results. , , . 
Other streams which we have fished during 
the past nineteen years, or have heard about 
from reliable sources, may be worthy of men¬ 
tion. Eleven miles southeast of Yarmouth, at 
Tusket, and two miles up the river from the 
railroad bridge there was and is good salmon 
fishing, with comfortable quarters close at ban , 
although we have always stayed at Mrs. Gil¬ 
man s American House, in the village. At Port 
Clyde, fifty miles east of Tusket, the fishing is 
said to have improved greatly since lumbering 
activities have lessened, and at Sable River, 
5 ©rty-seven miles from Port Clyde, there is fine 
sea trout fishing in June. The Port Medway 
and La Have are too well known to be more 
than mentioned here. 
A few words as to trout fishing also. We 
have taken them in the Tusket, in the north 
branch seven miles up from Mrs. Gilman’s and 
ten miles up at Long Falls in the east branch. 
At Upper Clyde, best reached by a drive of six¬ 
teen miles over a good road from Shelburne, 
they have risen to our flies, both in the river 
and its affluents. In Broad River, four miles 
up from Port Mouton, they abound, also in 
the affluents and upper waters of the Mersey, 
and especially so at Indian Gardens. In the 
Port Medway at Greenfield and in Murray 
Brook, two miles or more down the river, we 
have had good sport in May and June. On 
our recent visit, driving up from Milton, we 
took a fine string at Six-Mile Brook, all of 
them on small flies. They did not appear to 
care for worms, even when spat upon, for I saw 
Parker giving them an opportunity in the deep 
hole under the bridge. 
Only a small portion of the ocean shore of 
Nova Scotia appears to be known to anglers, 
because, prior to the building of the railroad, 
four years ago, it was inaccessible except by 
stage or by coast steamers, all of which have 
gone to the bottom or been broken up. But 
if the province should follow the example of 
Maine, with regard to the pollution of her 
rivers, illegal fishing, fishways and restocking, she 
would, like Maine, be amply repaid by throngs of 
anglers and their families. It is an undertak¬ 
ing in which all good citizens, the railroad and 
the Government could join hands. I commend 
it to them and suggest that, in addition, the 
famous ouananiche of Lake St. John be planted 
in Tusket, Rossignol and Ponhook lakes. If 
this were done they would, in a few years, 
spread through all the western end of the 
province. 
A Shot from a Bulletless Gun. 
Perth Amboy, N. J., Aug. 7 . —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Here is.the way an editorial article 
in Saturday’s New York Times begins: 
“First Gun For Reciprocity.—The first gun 
for reciprocity was a misfire, but it hit the mark 
just as well in Canada, although it was dis¬ 
charged in Lancashire on Wednesday.” 
What do you suppose can be the writer’s idea 
of a misfire, anyway? J. L. K. 
T HE land of Siberia, along the shores of the 
Arctic Sea is, for the most part, a swamp 
devoid of trees over a belt north of 70 ° 
north latitude. 
A short distance below the surface it is per¬ 
manently frozen. When portions of cliffs fall 
down, it is often seen that their interior consists 
of alternate layers of earth and ice, caused ap¬ 
parently by the deposition of mud upon the 
CONGRATULATIONS. 
latter early in summer when floods were pro¬ 
duced by melting snow. 
During the short Arctic warm season, the 
surface of the land thaws to depths varying 
from a few inches to three or four feet and a 
luxuriant growth of marsh plants appears. The 
buttercups, potentillas, saxifrages, angelicas, 
and other brightly colored flowers, mixed with 
various kinds of berry-bearing vaccinia, and 
alders and willows a few inches high. 
Birds arrive in millions and rear their young, 
feeding chiefly upon the insects, their ova, and 
larvae, with which the waters and earth swarm 
and, later in the season, upon the berries. 
I 11 the autumn they depart southward with 
their young, and the swamps are frozen solid 
for the next nine months. 
The only food remaining in winter consists 
of dead grass and marsh plants, moss, and the 
lichen upon which the reindeer subsist, scrap¬ 
ing off the snow with their horns and noses. 
The other animals which do not migrate are 
wolves, foxes, hares, sables, and lemmings. 
It appears strange that mosquitoes, and nu¬ 
merous other insects, abound more in the Arc¬ 
tic regions, during the summer, than they do at 
any time of the year in the majority of warm 
countries. The reason doubtless is, that in the 
latter, there are myriads of ants and other car¬ 
nivorous insects, pursuing their prey during the 
whole of the year, whereas, in countries with 
severe winters, the ova and larvae are protected 
by the ice for months at a time. Intense cold 
is supposed by many people to be very destruc¬ 
tive to insect life. In reality, caterpillars, slugs, 
and many kinds of larvae, can be frozen solid 
w'ithout being injured. 
The climate of Siberia and of all the Arctic 
region was, in former ages, far milder than 
it is now. Underneath the thick layers of moss 
and bog, are found the trunks and roots of 
trees in great quantities. An Englishman named 
Cottrell, who traveled extensively in Siberia 
during the years 1840 - 41 , writes: “In the banks 
of the lakes on the tundra* between the rivers 
Jana and Indigirka, are found entire birch 
trees, incrusted in the soil, roots, bark, and 
branches, all together. No birch trees of this 
size are now found growing nearer than three 
degrees of latitude south of the spots where 
these are deposited. 
“In this part of East Siberia, vegetation ceases 
at the 70 th degree of north latitude. All is 
tundra and moss beyond this, but there is one 
of the lakes remarkable for a quantity of bitu¬ 
minous wood which is thrown up. In it are 
found pieces of petrified rosin, quite clear, like 
amber, and sometimes containing insects in- 
crusted in them. 
“New Siberia, a little island of twenty-five 
versts in breadth, is very remarkable from a 
mountain it possesses on its southeastern coast, 
about 200 feet high and quite perpendicular. It 
is composed of alternate horizontal layers of a 
grayish freestone and shining bituminous wood. 
On ascending it, pieces of coal are found here 
and there, resembling willow charcoal, so hard 
as to be difficult to cut with a knife. At the top 
of the mountain this bituminous wood is placed 
perpendicularly and stands out above the upper 
soil like piles which have been regularly driven. 
Are not these probably the remains of trees 
which grew on the spot?” 
In many other parts of the Arctic regions 
there are clean proofs of a former mild climate. 
In Spitzberger, Nova Zembla and Greenland 
seams of coal have been found containing the 
roots, stems and leaves of the poplar, lime, birch 
and other trees which cannot now grow north 
of 6 o° or 70 ° of latitude. Remains of even mag¬ 
nolias and waterlilies have been discovered in 
both Nova Zembla and Greenland. During 
* A marshy plain. 
