342 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Feb. 26, 19x0. 
bass, until the hatching is complete. Then he 
eats some of his own young—let us hope the 
least active, as a contribution to natural selec¬ 
tion—while the rest escape. No artificial im¬ 
provement over his method is possible. In this 
case protection consists in preventing the catch¬ 
ing of the immature fish and the absolute preser¬ 
vation of the spawning grounds from intrusion 
of net or hook. 
Another class contains predatory fish like the 
walleye and perch, spawning in spring in warm¬ 
ing waters, but susceptible of assistance through 
artificial hatching. In general these are ade¬ 
quately protected by the law of the size limit, 
by which the immature fishes are kept from the 
markets. Sometimes, however, nets must be kept 
out of the line of their spring migrations. 
Still another class is composed of the stur¬ 
geon. It reaches a great size, and when run¬ 
ning to its spawning beds in the spring is an 
easy victim to the pot-hunter. The vast ma¬ 
jority of the sturgeons in our lakes have been 
killed for the eggs, which are made into caviar. 
The sturgeon thus far has resisted the attempts 
at artificial propagation by reason of certain pe¬ 
culiarities of its own. When ripe, the eggs and 
milt are thrown as soon as the fish is touched. 
When the eggs and milt are unripe they die 
without maturing if the fish is confined in a 
pond. With the sturgeon there is but one 
method of artificial increase—to prevent all kill¬ 
ing for a series of years, corresponding to the 
years of unlimited slaughter. 
To protect for their greatest usefulness the 
varying groups of fishes in all the lakes, rivers 
and seas of our northern boundary is the task 
of the International Fisheries Commission. In 
so far as this commission is successful it should 
extend the fisheries, increase the amount of 
available fish food, and bring about a more har¬ 
monious relation between the United States and 
Canada. Furthermore, it should improve the 
lot of each individual fisherman. If the work 
is successful, it should furnish models for the 
statutes of the different States and provinces 
which have like problems and like interests. 
If this international project is carried out satis¬ 
factorily, the same remedy should be applied to 
the difficulties arising from the migration of 
fishes in interstate waters. The conditions are 
the same in Lake Michigan, controlled by the 
variant statutes of four States, as in Lake Erie 
with her five States and provinces. 
The problem of the Columbia with its mag¬ 
nificent fisheries at the mercy of the inadequate, 
greedy and variant statutes of Oregon, Wash¬ 
ington and Idaho is far more difficult and more 
hopeless than that of the Fraser River and 
Puget Sound. 
Twenty-eight years ago in my report on the 
salmon fisheries of the Columbia I called atten¬ 
tion to the fact that these fisheries would be 
depleted or destroyed unless the Government of 
the United States could intervene between Ore¬ 
gon and Washington. In each State fishermen 
try to take all they can get and the two Legis¬ 
latures can never agree on joint action of any 
kind adequate for the protection of the species. 
This has gone on from bad to worse until the 
Columbia fisheries are but a fraction of what 
they were in 1880. At the present time, under 
the referendum laws of Oregon, all fishing 
above tidewater is forbidden in Oregon, and all 
gill net fishing by night below tidewater limit 
is also prohibited. This practically closes all 
fishing on the Oregon side, while on the Wash¬ 
ington side and in the spawning grounds of 
Idaho there is no limit of any kind. These 
statutes may be set aside by the courts—one or 
both of them—but meanwhile very few fishes 
reach the spawning grounds, and the fisheries 
four years hence will amount to nothing. All 
this comes from a struggle, carried into politics, 
between the associated (gill net) fishermen on 
the one hand and the owners of the fish wheels 
up the river on the other. 
The fisheries in the other boundary waters, 
Lake Michigan, the Mississippi, the Ohio and 
the Potomac, are all in similar bad way. For 
this there is no remedy evident except for the 
United States to take control of all migratory 
animals of commercial value and to control and 
legislate for the interstate fisheries as it does 
for the interstate commerce and for the inter¬ 
state weather. Matters of importance which no 
particular State can manage should be taken in 
hand by the United States. Problems which see¬ 
sawing Legislatures find insoluble because they 
cannot agree on joint action are easy enough 
to a. national commission. In this case the 
machinery for investigation and control (and all 
control must be based on scientific investiga¬ 
tion) already exists in the United States Bureau 
of Fisheries. 
Trout Prospects Bright. 
Berlin, N. Y., Feb. 11 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: We are looking forward to a good 
trout season this year. When the snoW fell at 
Thanksgiving the ground was not frozen, and 
as we have had continuous sleighing since No¬ 
vember, there is a very large accumulation of 
snow on the hills. The snow in the woods will 
melt slowly in the spring and will to a great ex¬ 
tent soak into the earth, filling the springs and 
insuring plenty of water in the brooks. In over 
seven or more miles of valley there are at least 
fifteen trout streams. From every notch in the 
hills a spring-fed brook comes down to join the 
Little Floosac River, which flows north and west 
and empties into the Hudson near Troy. 
Two thousand trout were put in the Vvater 
here last spring and application has been made 
to the State hatchery for a large supply for this 
season. Rob Saunderson. 
Tarpon in Cape Cod Bay. 
Springfield, Mass., Feb. 14. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Last August, while I was at my 
summer cottage in Eastham, Cape Cod, there 
was caught in one of the fish weirs a tarpon 
weighing about seventy-five pounds. 
Have you any records of these fish having 
been taken from the waters of Cape Cod Bay? 
The weir fishermen did not know the name of 
this fish, as they had never seen one before. 
F. C. Hatch. 
[The tarpon occurs annually as an accidental 
visitor on the New Jersey and on the Long 
Island coast. It has been taken, we believe, at 
Woods Hole, Mass. Its occurrence in Cape Cod 
Bay is surprising and this, we think, marks the 
limit of its known range to the north.— Editor.] 
Atlantic Y. C. Report. 
Chairman Horace E. Boucher, of the Atlan¬ 
tic Y. C., at the annual meeting of the club, held 
last week, submitted the following report: 
“ “As has been the custom in the past, your 
club had the honor of opening yacht racing on 
Gravesend Bay with an interesting regatta for 
all classes. This event was sailed on May 31, 
and from that day until the final regatta was de¬ 
cided on Sept. 18, your committee conducted 
seventy-one events; of these thirty-seven were 
the usual Saturday afternoon fixtures for classes 
M and below, twenty-seven races were sailed 
during race week and annual regatta and the 
remainder were specials, which included the 
Bermuda race and interesting contest around 
Long Island in connection with the New 
Rochelle Y. C. 
“Notwithstanding the heavy schedule of 
events, your committee has pleasure of report¬ 
ing that, thanks to the generosity of Commo¬ 
dore Leonard Richards, Vice-Commodore 
Probst, Rear-Commodore Noble, Capt. Francis 
M. Wilson, Capt, Gherardi Davis, Mr. Nash and 
other members, it has been able to make an 
excellent showing in the matter of prizes with¬ 
out any serious drain upon the treasury of the 
club. These gentlemen all contributed one or 
more handsome trophies, which did much to 
stimulate racing on Gravesend Bay. 
“The race to Bermuda was apparently a suc¬ 
cess. Five yachts started and the first boat to 
finish was the Amorita, the flagship of Dr. 
Baum, Commodore of the Chicago Y. C. On 
time allowance, however, Amorita was defeated 
by Margaret, the property of George S. Runk, 
of the New York Y. C. The race, which started 
on June 5, was a remarkable one, as the sailing 
yachts, favored by a fair breeze for the entire 
course of 670 miles, made better time than did 
the power boats that started on the same day 
for the same distance. 
“The race around Long Island was rather 
successful. The contest was started on July 31 
and first prize was won by Nutmeg. Race 
week, which was held in September, brought 
together not only an excellent fleet of small 
craft but also the big sloops Winsome, Aurora 
and Istalena, which sailed a most interesting 
series of races over the America’s Cup course. 
The sloops Gardenia and Aspirant also sailed off 
Sandy Hook during the race week. 
