898 
FOREST AND STREAM 
too tired to eat. When I was asked how far 
I had walked I was silent. I did not repeat the 
trip again. 
One sees many things in untraveled paths de¬ 
noting the tragedies of nature; circumstantial 
evidence you might call them. As I came to a 
bend of the stream there was a beautiful grassy 
plot, and about twenty feet above it a rocky 
ledge. I sat down a moment to rest before 
climbing it and saw upon the grass a foreleg 
and shoulder blade of a fawn, the condition of 
the feet showing plainly that it had been new 
born when killed. The mother had in this beau¬ 
tiful spot given birth and a short time later a 
mountain lion had sprung from the ledge upon 
it, this portion of its anatomy alone remaining 
to tell the tale. To me it was more impressive 
than had it been some human event, as it showed 
me the way of the wild. 
What a country this must have been to the red 
man, and what a pity that we nature lovers get 
to enjoy so little of it. J. H. Kellogg. 
Tarpon in British Guiana. 
The tarpon (Tarpon atlanticus ) is extremely 
common in both fresh and brackish waters near 
the coasts of British Guiana. T. S. Hargreaves 
says in the Field that although he is so well 
known, he is not greatly appreciated as a table 
fish, yet he is seen in the markets fairly often 
and commands a sale probably on account of 
his. cheapness. When young and artless the 
tarpon, or cuffum, as he is called locally, may 
be ignominiously and ingloriously captured by 
any sable urchin with a hook on' a piece of 
string, the bait being a silver bait, or “selibee” 
(a little glittering fish about two inches long and 
nearly as wide), but he gets more wary as he 
grows older. In British Guiana tarpon may be 
hooked in the Mahaica Creek up to sixty pounds 
in weight, while the net fisherman on the Canje 
and at the mouth of the Mahaica sometimes take 
them over seven feet long. 
The professional fishermen, however, are by 
no means pleased to see a cuffum in their nets, 
as his conduct is generally both shocking and 
destructive. I have taken tarpon, not of any 
great size, with the fly as well as with spinning 
bait on the various creeks and fresh water 
lagoons and trenches all along the coast of 
British Guiana. At the Lama Stop-off, before 
referred to, there are some very large land¬ 
locked specimens, variously estimated to run up 
to 120 pounds or 200 pounds. They can be seen 
in the evening rolling like porpoises on the top 
of the water, but they are not open to business 
with the fisherman. 
Where tarpon of from twenty pounds to sixty 
pounds will take a fly—and they generally will 
if it is properly put to them—they give most 
excellent sport. You will be lucky if you land 
one fish out of every three hooked, as the 
peculiar form of the jaws makes it very diffi¬ 
cult to hook and hold. Once fairly hooked, 
however, the tarpon makes a grand fieht. Gath¬ 
ering all his strength, he hurls himself into the 
air perpendicularly, shaking his head like a very 
bulldog in his efforts to free himself from the 
barb. It may be said that fly-fishing for tarpon 
gives the fish a more sporting chance than hook¬ 
ing him in his interior after luring him with a 
dead gorge, but it is almost inconceivable that 
one could land a monster with only an outer 
hold. 
Estes Park Trout. 
Estes Park, Colo., May 25 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Estes Park is the greatest summer re¬ 
sort in the West, and we are trying to make it 
attractive. Our mountains are grand beyond 
description, no more so than in many other 
locations in Colorado, but it is not the moun¬ 
tains that attract the tourists to a certain loca¬ 
tion. The first question that is asked is, “What 
is the fishing?” and when we can say that our 
streams are stocked with fish, and that we are 
operating a fish hatchery for that express pur¬ 
pose, there is no question about having our park 
filled with tourists during the summer season. 
Our hatchery is operated by the Estes Park 
Protective and Improvement Association for the 
express purpose of stocking the streams in the 
park for public fishing, and since the hatchery 
was opened three years ago last July, there has 
been placed in the streams in the park over two 
and a half million of trout of the three varie¬ 
ties, the Eastern brook, the rainbow and the 
black-spotted trout, our native. Fishing has 
been improving for the past two years. This 
season it will be fine, and the more large fish 
that are taken out of the streams the better it 
will be for the young trout. 
I have been educating the fishermen how to 
handle the young fish that have to be returned 
to the streams so not to injure them. Never 
take them from the hook with dry hands, for 
if that is done they will die after they reach 
the water. 
We are finely located for the propagating of 
the trout. Our hatchery is situated close to our 
mountain streams, so the fish do not have to be 
carried any length of time in order to place them 
in the stream, and then the hatchery is operated 
with spring water that stands at 46 degrees in 
temperature the year round, and at that tem¬ 
perature will give us the strongest fish. 
I have in the hatchery at the present time 
over 300,000 Eastern brook trout that will be 
placed in the streams this spring from my winter 
hatching. 
I have introduced barbless hooks for the pro¬ 
tection of the small fish. They were tried last 
season for the first time, and they were spoken 
of very highly by those who used them. This 
year I shall have more of them. The hook can 
be removed from the mouth of the fish without 
injury. G. H. Thomson. 
Mr. Thomson’s paper on the subject of hand¬ 
ling trout, read before the American Fisheries 
Congress, is in part as follows: 
I desire to state a few of the facts which led 
me to take up the cause of the small fish, and 
which from my own personal investigation con¬ 
vinced me beyond a reasonable doubt as to the 
effect of grasping an undersized trout (which 
the law requires shall be returned to the stream) 
with a dry hand, when removing from the hook. 
One year ago I desired to have a couple of 
large trout to place in one of my hatching 
troughs, in order to compare them with the 
records, and also to show the beauty of the 
trout in their natural state. I caught, with a dip 
net, two yearling Eastern brook trout from the 
stream that runs in front of the hatchery, and 
removed them from the net to a bucket of water 
by grasping them with a dry hand. Immediately 
my hand was covered with the slime from the 
* 
[June 4, 1910. 
backs of the fish. Several days after placing the 
fish in the hatchery I noticed that a white fungus 
growth had begun to form upon their bacRs 
where I had grasped them with my hand. I 
watched them closely from day to day and found 
that the fungus was increasing. I had observed 
fish in this condition before, but did not have 
them where I could follow them. 
When I have any trouble with my fish in the 
hatchery I always use salt in the water, as salt 
is a disinfectant. So I then prepared a strong 
solution of salt water in a pan and placed the 
fish in it, one at a time. One of them was over¬ 
come by the salt in three minutes, and I re¬ 
moved it to spring water, where it revived in 
ten minutes. The other one I held for five 
minutes in the salt solution and it recovered in 
fifteen minutes’ time. 
I watched the fish very closely from day to 
day and found that I had checked the fungus, 
but I also found that I had destroyed the sight 
of the first one, so I killed it. The other one 
began to lose all of its outer coating and colora¬ 
tion, but after a few days it began to eat and 
the beauty to return, “like a bird molting.” I 
kept it in my hatchery all of last 'summer and 
showed it, an object lesson, the result of grasp¬ 
ing with a dry hand. I have since caught this 
fish with my hand wet, hundreds of times with¬ 
out injury. I have the same trout in my hatchery 
at the present to exhibit its beauty. 
From this experiment I was led to the print¬ 
ing of the cards, “A plea for the fish,” for the 
education of the fisherman, but have found that 
some of our old and experienced fish men re¬ 
quire enlightenment of this same kind. One de¬ 
nounces the proposition as “bosh,” stating that 
he has had twenty years’ experience in the fish 
business, and has never found that condition to 
exist, but his statement simply goes to prove 
and support the position that I have taken, for 
he was speaking from the standpoint of a fish 
man, and when he handles spawning fish, he 
takes them from a tub of water with hands 
always wet, but the fisherman takes the fish 
from the hook with his hands dry. 
I never show the beauty of a Trout here in 
the hatchery without pointing out the effects and 
danger of the dry hand. I called upon the ad¬ 
vertising agents of all of the railroads that run 
trains into our mountains during the fishing sea¬ 
son, and urged upon them to insert in their ad¬ 
vertising matter for this season the information 
as to how to handle a fish taken from a hook. 
They did so, and the work last summer in this 
direction is having its results this season, for 
the information given is being applied by the 
fishermen, and they are educating others. It is 
all a matter of education. 
For Eyed Flies. 
So minute are the eyes of the smaller sizes 
of hooks used in the making of floating flies 
that, unless the angler’s vision is excellent, he 
finds it difficult to thread gut tippits through the 
eyes. ' Toward night the difficulty is even more 
noticeable, and is annoying especially to those 
who wear eyeglasse^. Now a device is being 
sold in the European market which is said to be 
very useful. The fly is held eye up in a tiny 
vice fitted with a groove through which the gut 
is threaded. The price, however, is prohibitive; 
about $3.50, counting the duty. 
