550 
tained these fish I never ascertained. In those 
days trout breeding establishments were not as 
abundant as they now are; but in some way he 
obtained them, and hundreds of them, too. 
I often visited his little fish farm, and felt 
almost as much interest and satisfaction in 
watching the troutlings as did he. They were 
very tame and accepted food from his hands. 
Those little fish grew apace, and as the months 
went by and a year had passed, attained a length 
of six inches, and Mr. Prouty’s undertaking 
seemed an unqualified success. But, alas! fatal- 
ity came, and in a spring freshet of unex- 
ampled height and force, the dam was carried 
away, and the pond, together with its valuable 
stock of trout, were swept down the former bed 
of the brook and soon disappeared into the 
river. At that time the Neponset was the abid- 
ing place of great numbers of pickerel, huge 
fellows, too, some of them were, but any and 
all of them were large enough to pouch a six- 
inch trout, and without much effort, too; and 
it was decided by all who knew of the accident, 
that Mr. Prouty’s fish had become victims of 
the merciless ‘‘shovelsnouts.” 
But one day, greatly to my surprise and sat- 
isfaction, I discovered that all the trout had not 
become food for the pickerel. I was snipe shoot- 
ing on the Fow! Meadows on a morning in 
September following the accident, when, as I 
was moving along by the side of a large brook 
which emptied into the river some three miles 
or more below Prouty’s stream, I saw what 
was unmistakably a trout dart up the brook 
and disappear below the shelving edge. I was 
greatly surprised at this discovery, for never 
before had I known of a trout being seen in 
that brook. 
The stream was, in most places, nearly six 
feet in width, and was full of deep holes and 
excavations in the banks of a foot or more in 
depth. It was by all odds the largest brook 
that emptied into the Neponset anywhere in that 
neighborhood, and it was of no mean dimen- 
sions for a length of several miles, and took its 
rise, I think, somewhere in South Dedham. To 
make assurance doubly sure, I followed the 
bank of the stream a considerable distance, 
stamping heavily on the sward as I moved 
along, and it was with no little gratification that 
I succeeded in dislodging from their lurking 
places a half dozen or more of the trout, which 
darted up the stream and hid themselves from 
view. It is hardly necessary to state that, armed 
and equipped with rod and creel, I hurried to 
the brook on the following morning, and before 
the shades of evening fell, I succeeded in pick- 
ing out a dozen or more of Mr. Prouty’s trout, 
and on several occasions afterward made two or 
three more catches of quite satisfactory dimen- 
sions. — 
Now, that these fish should have run the 
gauntlet among voracious pickerel through 
three or four miles of river, and succeeded in 
finding and establishing themselves in the only 
brook of considerable size and purity of water 
there was for miles in any direction, and that, 
too, under the most adverse circumstances pos- 
sible, for the meadows had been heavily flooded 
by the spring freshet that swept the dam away, 
seems to me a remarkable instance of the 
adaptability of this species to a complete change 
of conditions and environment. 
Interesting to Commercial Fishermen 
CoNSUL-GENERAL MAson writes from Paris 
that there is now offered to the fishermen of the 
New England coast a ready and _ profitable 
market in France for fish roe or spawn, an im- 
portant by-product of the cod, haddock, hake and 
pollack fisheries. The uses to which such roe 
would be put are thus explained: 
“The. sardine fishery, a valuable industry of 
France, is confined principally to the 150-mile 
stretch of Atlantic coast from Lorient to the 
mouth of the Gironde, the principal mart of the 
sardine fisherman being at Les Sables d’Olonne. 
The sardine spawns in deep water and comes 
about five months of the year to shallow waters 
‘ along the coast in search of food. The different 
minute marine growths which form the natural 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

CRANBERRY LAKE, 
food of the sardine have become depieted, and 
in order to attract and retain the immense shoals 
of that fish on the French coast the fishermen 
have been obliged for years to feed or bait the 
sardines with some material as similar as pos- 
sible to their natural food. For this purpose the 
main recourse of the fisherman has been to the 
roe or eggs of codfish and mackerel, derived from 
the fisheries of Norway, pickled in salt. brine, 
packed in wooden barrels, and imported to France 
under the name of roe of codfish and mackerel, 
dutiable at sixteen cents per long ton. 
“There are engaged in the French sardine fish- 
ery about 2,000 boats, each of which uses under 
ordinary conditions about twenty-five barrels of 
roe during the fishing season of each year. Of 
this vast quantity about 30,000 barrels per an- 
num have been derived from the Scandinavian 
fisheries, some from the French cod fisheries on 

“THE WATERS OF THE BROOK RAN WILD.” 
[APRIL 7, 1906. 

the coast of Newfoundland, and a small quantity 
from the United States. The price, delivered in 
France, has ranged from $12 to $20 per barrel, 
but this year, for some reason—a poor catch of 
fish or a diversion of the roe to other purposes— 
the supply from Norway has been small, and the 
price has advanced to nearly $30 per barrel. 
“The situation has become one of threat- 
ened calamity for the fishermen, who even under 
normal conditions have a hard struggle for exist- 
ence. They usually work under a yearly con- 
tract with a canning firm, which supplies their 
bait, sometimes also nets, provisions, etc., and 
takes their catch in return. Without bait their 
season’s work would not only be doomed to cer- 
tain failure, but if the system of artificial feeding 
were discontinued, or even suspended for two or 
three successive years, it is probable that the run 
of fish along the Brittany coast, on which the 
sardine fishery depends, would be seriously 
threatened, 
“Tf the fishing interest of New England has 
any surplus spawn to offer, now would seem to 
be an exceptional opportunity to find a profitable 
market in this country. As nearly as can be as- 
certained large quantities of the roe of cod, had- 
dock, hake, and pollack are produced by the fish- 
eries having headquarters at Gloucester, Nan- 
tucket and other points, and which are worth, 
in ordinary times, from $5 to $8 per barrel. A 
few are already exported, mainly to Havre, but 
by reason of slovenly packing they are less es- 
teemed by French fishermen than those which 
come from Bergen and other ports of Norway. 
The American barrels are so carelessly packed 
that, when opened, there is a space of four or 
five inches at the top which is not filled at all. 
This space being accessible to air, promotes fer- 
mentation in the upper layers and gives the whole 
package the appearance of having been carelessly 
thrown together, whereas the Norwegian casks 
are completely filled, and the eggs pressed in so 
that the air is excluded and the contents are held 
firmly in place during transit. 
“Neat, careful and substantial packing counts 
a great deal for any merchandise exported to 
or sold in France, and American exporters who 
may engage in this trade should bear that fact 
carefully in mind. The roe should be packed in 
casks of the same class as mackerel barrels, which 
contain about twenty-five gallons each, and strong 
enough to endure transportation by sea, rail and 
carts without danger of leakage or deterioration. 
The principal ports to which shipments might be 
made are Havre, Bordeaux and perhaps La 
Rochelle, whence they can be conveniently dis- 
tributed along the coast to meet the needs of the 
fishermen.” 

Queer Fish on the Sunflower. 
Rotiinc Fork, Miss., March 15.—Editor For- 
est and Stream: Mr. Jabe Powell brought into 
Rolling Fork recently one of the strangest freaks 
T ever saw in the way of a fish. It was about 
twenty-four inches long, of the buffalo sort, and 
had no mouth, the skin being unbroken where the 
mouth should have been. The fish was given to 
a local justice of the peace, Fred. Graff. 
Mr. Powell also brought in “the largest trout, 
or black bass, that I have ever seen, 61% pounds 
in weight. These fish were taken in the Big Sun- 
flower River above Choctaw Landing. The 
striped bass and trout, or big-mouthed black bass, 
give us as fine sport in the rapids and near the 
wing dam as can be found in the South. It is 
nothing unusual to make a catch of 30 or 40 
pounds in a day’s fishing with a fly from May to 
October. R. E. Stratton. 
An Ohio Anglers’ Association. 
Mino, O., March 21.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Columbus Anglers’ Protective 
Association has just been launched. Two im- 
portant committees have been appointed. One 
on by-laws and constitution and one to see the 
legislative members to find out what bills are be- 
fore the two law-making branches of the State 
of Ohio. ' > MEGA 
GLoucesTER, Mass.—I wish to congratulate you 
on the improved appearance of the paper, and its 
handy form for reading. M. A. WALTON. 
