CCO 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 23, 1910. 
The Barometer and Trout Fishing. 
Recently the London lushing Gazette reprint¬ 
ed an article on this subject, written by J. V. 
Ingham, of Philadelphia, and published in Forest 
and Stream. The Gazette since then has pub¬ 
lished the following comments on that article, 
and we quote them: 
“The idea which J. V. Ingham, of Philadel¬ 
phia, U. S. A., wishes to impart in his article on 
the barometer and its effect on fly-fishing is that 
you take with you to the fishing grounds a pocket 
aneroid and a thermometer, note the inches and 
tenths on the former (making due allowance for 
any altitudes), and the temperatures of air and 
water by the latter. These notes you will put 
in your angler’s diary, along with other usual 
notes; if this is done for a season, and kept for 
reference, there is no doubt that a glance at 
the hall aneroid or barometer any morning when 
contemplating fishing will save anglers much 
time and annoyance, and point out if the day is 
or is not a suitable one for catching trout. No 
doubt the barometer is consulted at present, but 
for rain only, and not as J. V. I. intends it to 
be, namely, the idea of observing the pressure 
or the reduction of pressure of the atmosphere 
on the water’s surface, whereby the life-giving 
oxygen is given off from the surface of the 
water, thus compelling the trout to seek the bot¬ 
tom, where he can get the most oxygen and be 
more comfortable and consequently too far down 
to see the fly, and if he does see it by chance he 
is listless and allows it to go by. 
“J. V. I. would like to compare notes with any 
British anglers.” Forster Hardy. 
I was very much interested in J. V. Ingham s 
article. The suggestion is certainly most ingen¬ 
ious, and worthy of investigation, but do you not 
think if a slightly reduced air pressure dimin¬ 
ished the oxygen in the water to any appre¬ 
ciable extent that artifically-fed trout would feed 
near the bottom during the time of a falling 
barometer? But this is not so. Also rainbow 
trout often lie near the surface, no matter in 
what state the atmosphere pressure is. I fancy 
the thermometer as suggested by Mr. Hardy 
would tell us much, because the temperature of 
the water has a direct influence on the food 
consumed. 
On Easter Sunday, although the barometer 
was falling, we had a good rise on one of our 
ponds, but only a few yards away in the same 
pond, although similar flies were on and trout 
w’ere there, they were not rising at the same time 
as the others. Does not this point to waves of 
temperature in the water? 
Some years ago I and three others were fish¬ 
ing on the Border. I remember one day we 
had a bitterly cold east wind, and three of us 
never touched a fish, and gave it up in disgust, 
but the fourth, with similar flies, got quite a 
good basket. And yet his skill was no better 
than at least one of my companions. 
Probably his success was due to a wave of 
higher temperature in his length of water. 
If high atmospheric pressure produced a good 
rise, one would think an east wind would be a 
favorable one, whereas it is usually regarded as 
the contrary. 
How often anglers notice trout rising greedily 
for twenty minutes or so during which time 
good sport ensues, then suddenly, without any 
apparent cause, all is still for perhaps half an 
hour, more or less, although flies are still on 
the water, and flog it as you will one cannot 
get a fish until the rise starts again. Does not 
this also point to waves of temperature in the 
water? But whether this is so or not, it is 
obvious that the atmosphere pressure does not 
fluctuate up and down so rapidly. 
Can you say what percentage of oxygen would 
be lost between a high and low pressure? 
Donald Walker. 
Most of us have doubtless noticed the fact 
without establishing the connection, or realizing 
that the fish practically rise or fall (that is, sink 
to the bottom) with a rising or a falling barome¬ 
ter, and, moreover, that the same conditions 
similarly affect the hatch of fly, which are tor¬ 
pid and inert under the pre-thunder conditions, 
but hatch out and are active when the thunder 
has cleared the air. The state of the atmos¬ 
phere at such times would seem to arrest de¬ 
velopment in flies, and to create a distaste for 
food of any kind in the fish. 
The feeling of “thunder in the air” affects 
human beings and animals generally much in 
the same way, and in the direction of creating 
enervation and languor. 
Mr. Ingham’s interesting article and his sug¬ 
gestion as to anglers making records of their 
observations, with the idea of testing his theory 
of cause and effect between atmospheric pres¬ 
sure and the total abstinence of fish while the 
barometer is falling, may lead to interesting 
practical results. John Hogan. 
Views of Estes Park, Colorado. 
Through the kindness of George FI. Thomp¬ 
son, the superintendent of the Estes Park fish 
hatchery, we have received an album of beauti¬ 
ful views of Estes Park scenery. The photo¬ 
graphs, by W. T. Parke, are admirable and show 
off wonderfully the towering mountains with 
their great snow fields and glaciers, the hurry¬ 
ing streams, no doubt full of trout, and the lakes, 
some of them surrounded by forests and others 
close to the timber line, which make this beauti¬ 
ful country so attractive. Estes Park is now 
full of settlements, yet there are wide stretches 
of territory which remind one of the days of 
a generation ago, when it was really a wilder¬ 
ness. 
Black Bass Length. 
New York City, April 12. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: I was very much interested in a let¬ 
ter which appeared in the issue of April 9, 
signed by A. J. Fox, on the law regarding length 
of black bass, and thoroughly agree with him 
that the limit in this State should be twelve in¬ 
ches. His article is very able and correct, and 
I will be glad to join or do anything I can in 
any movement that may be formed to accom¬ 
plish this result. 
I l.ote also in that issue mention of Assembly¬ 
man McGregor’s bill making the open season 
July 1 to Dec. 31. I have written several of 
the neighboring Assemblymen and others hoping 
that it may do some good. The only thing I 
would suggest is that it be made to close Dec. 
1 and not 31. Carmen’s River Club, 
Geo. C. Pennell, Sec’y. 
The New York Aquarium. 
The report of Charles FI. Townsend, director 
of the New York Aquarium, which is a part of 
the fourteenth annual report of the New \ork 
Zoological Society, has just been issued. 
The attendance of the Aquarium during the 
year 1909 was 3,800,000 persons. Its collections 
have greatly increased and the growing public 
interest in them is shown by the fact that with¬ 
in the past thirteen years not less than 25,574,369 
individuals have visited the Aquarium, an aver¬ 
age of 5,389 per diem. The management of the 
Aquarium is now a great business, and besides 
exhibiting and caring for large collections for 
exhibition purposes, there is a hatchery where 
8,000,000 specimens of ten species were hatched 
last year and delivered to the New York Fish 
Commission for planting in State waters. The 
species so hatched were brook, lake, rainbow and 
black-spotted trout, chinook and silver salmon, 
yellow, white and pike perch and whitefish. This 
was the first year of the employment of the air 
pump in the New York Aquarium, and its value 
as an accessory to the pumping equipment seems 
to b*e demonstrated. 
The Aquarium is used—as it should be— as an 
aid to school teachers, and during the year small 
aquaria were placed in seventy-five school houses. 
From the beginning such aquaria have been 
stocked for about 350. schools. 
The great and progressive increase of attend¬ 
ance at the Aquarium and the increase of the 
collections has made the present building alto¬ 
gether too small for its purposes, and Dr. 
Townsend urges, and submits plans for, a con¬ 
siderable addition to the size of the building 
by the erection of wings which will double the 
space. The carrying out of these plans would 
not only give more room for the public and for 
collections, but would give space for a class 
room for school work, space for working library, 
for a marine laboratory and for an assembly 
hall. 
It is high time that New York should have • 
and with the facilities that the Aquarium could 
provide, it might well have—a marine laboratory 
which might do as good work in marine investi¬ 
gation as is done by any marine biological sta¬ 
tion in the world. The Zoological Society should 
bend every effort to establish such a station. Its 
usefulness to science can hardly be overesti¬ 
mated. 
Besides this the director needs more help, and 
for purposes of investigation a good library is 
needed; something the Aquarium does not now 
possess. 
The Aquarium stands on historic ground. 
Originally it was a fort erected in 1807 by the 
Fmited States Government and called West Bat¬ 
tery. It had a battery of thirty guns, the em¬ 
brasures for which still remain in the outer wall, 
which is nine feet thick. In 1823 the building 
was ceded by Congress to the city of New York 
and became a place of amusement with a seat¬ 
ing capacity of 6000. It was then connected 
with Battery Park by bridge. Here General 
Lafayette was received in 1824 and many im¬ 
portant meetings and receptions took place. The 
building was used as a landing place for immi¬ 
grants from 1855 to 1890, and was opened as an 
Aquarium in 1896. In 1902 its management was 
transferred from the Department of Parks to 
the New York Zoological Society. 
