Marc# 31, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

SEA AND RIVER FISHING 



Salmon Destruction and Inertia. 
THERE has recently come into our hands and 
we are permitted to publish an interesting corre- 
spondence which has to do with the salmon fishing 
onthe St. Croix River at the Calais Pool. The let- 
ters tell their own story—a story of stream pollu- 
tion, dynamiting and netting of salmon in the St. 
Croix River, all of which are presumably con- 
trary to law. They tell the story of a sportsman 
earnest, interested, enthusiastic, who tries pa- 
tiently and persistently at the expense of much 
valuable time and effort to induce the authorities 
in Maine and in Canada to take steps to end the 
abuses of which he informs them. They tell the 
story of officials in Maine and in Canada thank- 
ing the sportsman most cordially for his informa- 
tion, promising to take the matter up and to do 
what they can to better existing conditions, and 
then they tell a story of nothing happening. The 
letters are printed in their chronological order 
and run from August to November, three months 
—three months of promises. 

New York, Aug. 17, 1905.—J. W. Brackett, 
Esq., Fish Commissioner of State of Maine, Phil- 
lips, Me.: Dear Sir—I was advised to write to 
you in the following matter: 
I made my third trip, this year, to the salmon 
pool at Calais, Me., on the St. Croix River, and 
found conditions there worse than ever and tend- 
ing strongly to a destruction of the salmon in- 
dustry in that river. As you are, of course, 
aware, the Calais pool and the St. Croix River 
afford the finest salmon fishing for a sportsman 
within the United States, with the possible ex- 
ception of the Penobscot River and its pool at 
Bangor, and the Kennebec River. The Aroos- 
stook, I do not think has been explored by fly- 
fishermen, and I have no knowledge of its fishing. 
The Bangor pool brings into the State of Maine 
a considerable income from visiting sportsmen, 
and the Calais pool on the St. Croix would do 
the same thing but for existing conditions. The 
main source of trouble with the Calais pool lies 
in the fact that it is in a border river forming 
the boundary between New Brunswick and the 
United States, for the smuggling that goes on 
there between Calais and St. Stephen closes the 
mouth of the inhabitants of both places to making 
any complaints about the fishery, because the in- 
habitants of both places are afraid of the counter- 
accusations that may be made against them on 
account of this smuggling, although the hotel 
proprietors and boatmen are awake to the possi- 
bilities of a source of income from visiting fish- 
ermen. 
But at present there is no inducement to sal- 
mon fishermen to visit the pool owing to the facts 
(1) that the laws of Maine are openly violated 
by running sawdust and the refuse wood from 
sawmills directly into the river, thus interfering 
with the ascent of salmon during the spawning 
season; (2) that there is an organized conspiracy 
to an illegal netting of the pool at night by the 
method called “drifting”; (3) that under one of 
the mills on the American side there is a trap 
into which the salmon enter in trying to ascend 
the river and are netted in numbers averaging 
from five to eleven salmon a day during the 
spawning season. This trap consists, or did con- 
sist when I was there last, in June, of a pile of 
stones forming a wall laid diagonally across the 
waterway in which the mill wheel turns, thus 
leaving a narrow opening down river. When 
the mill is in operation of course the salmon enter 
through this narrow way in their attempt to as- 
cend the stream, and when the mill is shut down 
and the supply of water cut off (as occurs sev- 
eral times during the course of a day) the water 
falls and the salmon have to fall back into this 
narrow channel. A man stands here with a dip 
net and sccops up the salmon as they fall back. 
I have called the attention of the game warden to 
this trap. Whether or not he has destroyed it 
since my last visit, which was in June, I do not 
know; but surely there must be some way under 
the laws of Maine for preventing this pollution 
of water, the illegal “drifting’’ (which resulted 
in one single shipment of six barrels of fish, as I 
am informed), and the existence of this trap. 
Furthermore, if, on the erection of the new pulp 
mill at Sprague’s Falls, the mill owners are al- 
lowed to turn their spent cooking liquor into the 
St. Croix River, it will further pollute the stream, 
the water of which is now quite bad enough both 
for fish and men. 
Can you not do something to improve the con- 
ditions which I have outlined? 
Can you not send a special commissioner down 
to investigate the conditions and report? I am 
assured by Mr. L. F. Tobie, Assistant General 
Passenger Agent of the Washington County 
Railway; Mr. M. N. McKusick, one of the most 
prominent lawyers of Calais; Mr. Conant, pro- 
priector of the St. Croix Hotel, and Edwin Smith, 
a guide and local salmon fisherman, that they will 
afford your commissioner every assistance in their 
power and that they will be only too pleased if 
the existing evils can be eradicated. But, for 
the reasons above stated, your commissioner or 
inspector will have to be most discreet, for it will 
not:be easy to learn the facts; but surely where 
I, a casual visitor, had no difficulty in learning 
them, it will not be impossible for your commis- 
ae or inspector to ascertain them for him- 
self. 
I learn that there is a possible question as to 
whether or not these waters are under your juris- 
diction as Commissioner of Inland Waters, or 
whether they come under the jurisdiction of the 
Commissioner of Shore Fisheries, and I should 
be glad to be informed by you of the fact. If 
they do not come under your jurisdiction, I 
should be very glad to write a letter similar to 
this to the other commissioner if you will advise 
me of his name and address. Would it be of any 
use to write to Commissioner Carleton at Au- 
gusta? Would it be of any use to write to the 
Commissioners at Ottawa, calling their attention 
to the facts? I remain, 
Yours respectfully, 
J. E. Hinpon Hype. 

STATE OF MAINE, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONERS OF 
INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME, PHILLIPS, Aug. 
19, 1905.—J. E. Hindon Hyde, Esq., New York 
City: My Dear Sir—I thank you for the infor- 
mation in yours of Aug. 17, and I will take the 
matter up at once. If anybody else should be 
written to I will let you know it in a few days. 
Yours very truly, 
J. W. BRAcKETT. 

New York, Aug. 24, 1905.—J. W. Brackett, 
Esq., Phillips, Me.: Dear Sir—On my return to 
the city I received your courteous letter of the 
19th inst., and am glad that something will be 
done in the matter. 
There is one further incident to which I should 
have called your attention but which I forgot to 
state in my former letter, and that is that there 
was the boldest kind of an attempt, and a suc- 
cessful attempt, to dynamite the pool at 10:30 in 
the morning on a day last June, just previous to 
my arrival. The man who was out in a boat at 
that time, close to the spot where the explosion 
occurred, subsequently claimed that somebody had 
attempted to blow him up. Of course, the facts 
were that he used too large a charge of dynamite 
in his ignorance, and the noise was so great and 
attracted so much attention that he had to invent 
an excuse which would explain his being there 
at the time that the explosion occurred. There 
were eight or more salmon killed by the discharge 
but the man did not dare to pick them up, and 
they were collected by people along the shore. 
This man’s name is well known to everybody in 
Calais, and there were eye-witnesses to the cir- 
cumstance on the Canadian shore. 
If you will pardon my making a suggestion, I 
think that the only possible solution of the diffi- 
culty is to have two fish wardens, both of whom 
should be men competent to pole a boat in that 
heavy water, and intrepid and intelligent enough 
to deal with the poachers, and these men should 
alternate in taking night and day duty; but, of 
course, you know this as well as I do, and I hope 
you will pardon my intrusion in regard to the 
matter, 
I think you will be pleased to learn that our 
New York Senator told me on the steamer on 
my return from Europe last month that it is very 
likely that Mr. Shiras’ bill to give the United 
States Government control of migratory fish and 
game will become a law at the next session. This 
would make it much easier to deal with situations 
of this kind, and in places like the Calais pool, 
where the questions arising are international, in 
a measure. Yours very truly, 
J. E. Hinpon Hype, 

STATE OF MAINE, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONERS OF 
INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME, PHILLIPS, Me., 
Sept. 9, 1905.—Mr. J. E. Hindon Hyde, New 
York City: Dear Mr. Hyde—Your letters of 
Aug. 17 and Aug. 24 at hand and contents noted. 
I wish you would write Hon. L. P. Carleton, 
chairman of the Fish and Game Commission, Au- 
gusta, Me., regarding the matter. 
Yours very truly, 
J. W. Brackett, A. M. G. 

New York, Sept. 12, 1905—J. W. Brackett, 
Esq., Phillips, Me.: Dear Sir—I am in receipt of 
your favor of the oth inst. I wish that you had 
told me if you made an inspection of the condi- 
tions at Calais, but I assume that you have been 
unable to do so. 
Following your suggestion, I will send a copy 
of our correspondence to Mr. Carleton, and I[ 
think that I shall send a copy of it to the Fish 
Commissioners at Ottawa, so that they can assist 
in ameliorating present conditions. 
Yours very truly, 
J. E. Htnpon Hype, 

STATE OF MAINE, OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER OF 
INLAND FISHERIES AND GAME, Puituips, Me., 
Sept. 18, 1905.—J. E. Hindon Hyde, Esq., New 
York City: Dear Sir—Yours of t2th inst. at 
hand. I suggested that you now write Mr. Carle- 
ton, our chairman, for the reason that I have not 
had a chance to take the matter up with him yet, 
and he is the one to move, so far as the warden 
service is concerned. I will bear the matter in 
mind and assist to better the conditions. 
Yours very truly, 
J. W. BRAcKETT. 
New York, Sept. 18, 1905.—Hon. L. T. Carle- 
ton, Augusta, Me.: _Dear Sir—Complying with 
the request of Mr. Brackett, I inclose a copy of 
the correspondence which I have had with him, 
and sincerely hope that something can be done to 
change the existing conditions. 
Yours very truly, 
J. E. Htnpon Hype. 

New York, Sept. 18, 1905.—Hon. Fish Com- 
missioners of Dominion of Canada, Ottawa, Can- 
ada: Gentlemen—I inclose a copy of the corre- 
spondence which I have had recently with Mr. 
J. W. Brackett, one of the Fish Commissioners 
of the State of Maine; and I have also sent a 
copy of this correspondence to the Hon. L. T. 
