Feb. 2, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
181 
Fish and Fishing. 
Early Salmon Fishing. 
An angling correspondent wants to know 
whether salmon fishing cannot be had in the 
Margaree and other rivers of Cape Breton in 
March. The Margaree is an early stream, but 
not one of the earliest of Nova Scotian rivers, 
though it is certainly one of the best. Mr. A. 
C. Bertram, fish inspector for the island of Cape 
Breton, tells a story that shows the capacity of 
the streams of eastern Nova Scotia for the best 
kind of sport. At the close of the last salmon 
season Mr. Bertram was called to Margaree on 
official business. After he had transacted it he 
took a rod and line, at the end of which, in¬ 
stead of a hook, there was only the shank of 
. one to \vhich the fly still adhered. He cast it 
into a pool and in quick succession managed to 
raise twenty big salmon. It was out of season, 
of course, and Mr. Bertram set the good example 
of observing the law in the face of strong temp¬ 
tation. 
The run of salmon from the sea was later than 
usual last year in the Nova Scotia streams, and 
only toward autumn were the conditions favor¬ 
able. 
If my correspondent wants earlier fishing than 
the Margaree affords he should try the Port 
1 Medwav, which is perhaps the earliest salmon 
stream upon our eastern coasts. Fair fishing can 
often be had by ascending the river six miles 
from its mouth, or it may be descended quite 
easily in canoe from Greenfield, a mill town, 
!j seventeen miles above salt water. In these upper 
stretches its course is somewhat turbulent and 
quite sinuous, in places beautifully sheltered by 
overspreading willows. There are in this sec¬ 
tion of the stream, occasional pools from which 
salmon may be ricked out when conditions are 
favorable, thcnx h the best of the sport must 
be-looked for below, where the river runs in a 
more steady current and is a hundred or more 
yards wide, broken here and there with falls 
which the salmon surmount without much diffi¬ 
culty. 
Fun at a Hatchery Pond. 
The reference to Mr. Bertram’s amusement 
with salmon after the close of the fishing season, 
recalls some interesting sport which I witnessed 
near the close of the last trout fishing season, 
in a hatchery pool near Lake Carolus. It is in 
the neighborhood of this hatchery that the com¬ 
paratively newly discovered Canadian red trout 
j ( Salvelinus marstonii ) are found in largest num¬ 
bers, and the fish which have been distributed for 
the purpose of stocking other waters have chiefly 
come from this very hatchery. I was one of a 
party to visit this hatchery on a tour of inspec- 
i tion with Mr. Chas. H. Simpson, who built the 
hatchery at his own cost and subsequently pre¬ 
sented it to the Dominion Government. General 
! Henry, U'. S. Consul at Quebec, so well-known 
| to every American angler visiting this part of 
I Canada, was also of the party, accompanied by 
a number of ladies. In the hatchery pond were 
some 500 trout running in weight from one to 
five pounds, and all held captive' there awaiting 
the time when they were to be stripped of their 
spawn for purposes of artificial reproduction. 
The water was so clear we could distinctly see 
every fish in the pools and could even distinguish 
between the very red-bellied marstonii fish and the 
more distinctly spotted fontinalis. The hatchery 
official’s brought us a rod and line which had 
no hook attached,and a quantity of the liver upon 
which the fish in the ponds were fed. to use for 
bait. . The latter was tied on to the end of the 
line in small pieces and was not allowed to sink 
much below the surface. It scarcely touched the 
water before there was a remarkable commo¬ 
tion among the inmates of the pool. In the rush 
for the bait, scores of fish, big and little, struggled 
: together. Half a dozen often came out of the 
water after it. When it was allowed to reach the 
,. water and one of the fishes managed to get it 
between its jaws and to rush away with it, it 
was sure to be closely followed and apparently 
jockeyed by scores of others. Judging by the 
i manner in which the marstonii fish seized the 
J bait even before it touched the water, I am in¬ 
clined to doubt the reports that this fish, in the 
waters whicli it inhabits, is not a surface feeder. 
At the proper season, and when the water has 
reached a sufficiently low temperature, they will 
evidently take the right kind of surface lures. 
So free was their rising after the liver at the 
end of the line, that it would certainly seem that 
if a hook were used on the line it would have 
been possible to clean out tbe entire pool in the 
course of a few hours. 
I tried several times, by a rapid motion, to see 
how far I could draw and hold a fish, without 
a hook, that had taken the bait into its mouth. 
It was easy to bring them from the bottom to 
the top of the water, and sometimes to bring 
them quite close to the edge of the pool, but 
only one out of many did I succeed in jerking 
out upon the grass at the edge of the water. Of 
course he was immediately returned to the pond, 
that is as soon as his 'picture had been taken. It 
is not often that a fish has been taken out of 
tbe water, photographed and returned to its 
proper element. The picture of this marstonii 
is, therefore, perhaps unique. Mr. Simpson held 
the fish while a snapshot of it was taken,- and 
when it was replaced in the water it darted away 
as if nothing strange had occurred to *it. 
A -careful observance of the picture will show 
the somewhat forked tail which is one of the dis¬ 
tinguishing characteristics of this fish. The clear¬ 
ness of the eye distinguishes the photograph in 
this case from that of a dead fish in which the 
brilliancy of the eye is, of course, always absent. 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
tympanic, and coronal spines present, the ridges 
all rather strong; interorbital slightly convex in 
tbe center with a slight depression just inside 
of each supraocular ridge; preorbital with -2 
broad, blunt pQints; 2 humeral spines, one at 
upper end of opercle and one large curved one 
at lower end; preopercle with 5 rather strong 
backwardly directed spines, the second and third 
from the top strongest; opercles, cheek, pre¬ 
maxillary, and top of head closely scaled; no 
scales on maxillary or mandible; dorsal with a 
considerable notch, the twelfth spine a little 
greater than half length of longest, which is 2.5 
in head; ventrals reaching vent; pectoral reach¬ 
ing tips of ventrals; small accessory scales on 
membranes of dorsal, anal and caudal fins, also 
on base of pectoral; second anal spine strong, 
Curved, longer than third; inside of mouth and 
gill-covers pale; peritoneum silvery. Color in 
alcohol, dirty yellowish; some evidence of black 
spots or blotches along back; a black opercular 
spot. The presence-of only 9 dorsal rays' is 
doubtless due to an injury which the fish had re¬ 
ceived early in life; the upper edge of caudal 
peduncle and the region immediately in front 
apparently has been bitten or mutilated in some 
way. 
“This species appears to be related to N. atro- 
virens, from which it differs, however, in the 
convexity of the interorbital space, shorter body, 
the less projecting lower jaw, the smaller eye, 
the weaker preorbital spines, the longer gill- 
rakers, and the absence of scales on the mandible 
and maxillary. 
A REPRODUCTION l-'ROM THE ORIGINAL PLATE OF. THE NEW ROCKFISH. 
A New Rockfish. 
The following description of a new rock-fish 
of the genus Scbastodes from California is given 
by Barton Warren Evermann and Edmund Lee 
Goldsborough, of the United States Bureau of 
Fisheries in the Proceedings of the United States 
National Museum : 
“In connection with our recent studies of the 
fish fauna of Alaska and the geographic distri¬ 
bution of the species of fishes known to occur 
in the waters of that district, we examined and 
studied many specimens in various collections 
from the ^coasts of Washington, Oregon and 
California. Among those from the California 
coast we find a species of Scbastodes which ap¬ 
pears to us to be new. The description of the 
type is here given, together with a drawing by 
Mr.. A. H. Baldwin. 
“Sebastodes alexdndri Evermann and Gold- 
borough, new species : Head 2.55 in body; depth 
2.8; eye 4 in head; snout 4; maxillary 2.1; 
mandible 1.9; interorbital 1.5 in eye, 5.75 in head; 
D. XIII, 9*+; A. Ill, 7; pores in lateral line 
about 52; gillrakers 8-^17, rather short, 2.2 in 
eye, toothed, the end one a mere tubercle. 
“Mouth large, slightly oblique; mamillary ex¬ 
tending to posterior qdge of pupil; mandible 
scarcely projecting; without symphysial knob, 
not fitting into *notch in upper jaw; armature of 
head strong; nasal, preocular, postocular, parietal, 
*Mutilated. 
“Described from a single specimen 8 l / 2 inches 
long (type, Cat. No. 55662 U. S. N. M.), col¬ 
lected by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries steamer 
Albatross, March 13, 1890, at station 3125 in 65 
fathoms in Monterey Bay, California. . 
“We take pleasure in naming this species for 
Mr. A. B. Alexander, assistant in charge divis¬ 
ion of -statistics and methods of the fisheries, 
Bureau of Fisheries, in recognition of his long 
and valuable services as fishery expert on the 
steamer Albatross.” 
Maryland Protectors Meet. 
The Executive Committee of the Maryland 
State Game and Fish Protective Association held 
a meeting in Baltimore, Jan. 23. Oregon M. 
Dennis was re-elected secretary and Henry 
Brauns treasurer. -Mr. Dennis said the protec¬ 
tion of fish and game is at present more effective 
than ’it has ever been in the past, due largely, he 
thought, to the honest work of wardens and 
associations, and he believes the people and law¬ 
makers are appreciative. Farmers are urged to 
plant cowpeas for food for the quail. 
A committee from this association will co¬ 
operate with a similar committee from the State 
Fish Protective Association in the formulation 
of bills the Legislature will be asked to pass at 
its session next winter. 
