
FOREST AND STREAM. 
397 



Sea and River Sishing. 
FISH IN SEASON IN JANUARY. 
——————e 
SOUTHERN WATERS, 

Pompano, Trout, (Black Bass.) Sheepshead. 
Snapper. Drum, (two species.) Tailorfish . 
Grouper. Kingfish. Sea Bass. 
Rockfish. Striped Bass, Rockfish. 

CANADIAN FISHINGSPORT vs. SLAUGH- 
TER. 

Epitor Forgst anD STRHAM:— 
Pressure of office business has prevented me from,sooner noticing a 
courageous paragraph in Forest anD STREAM of 30th October last, rela- 
tive to trout fishing at Nepigon river. Canadians and Americans alike 
should feel thankful for the outspoken information which it contains. 
Accept my thanks. It is ourinterest to know of and your interest to 
publish such abuses. We spend public money and maintain officials to 
protect and improve our angling streams. We welcome to them those 
neighbors who appreciate our outlay and respect our fishery laws. But 
we might be compelled to restrict or withhold this freedom, if their man- 
ner of exercisingit should become onerous to ourselves or injurious to 
others. If, therefore, any American anglers admitted to these privileges 
commit wasteful excesses, such as that described, it 1s the true interests 
of others to avert universal discredit and obviate general exclusion by 
exposing them. 
The cases of Mr. Avery and others of like ‘character, are now under in- 
vestigation, and the particulars received from the local fishery officers 
will be duly published 1n our own reports. 
it has been for several seasons past the habit of strangers visiting trout 
streams on the north shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, on angling 
excursions, either to picxle down their catch of speckled trout, or to 
bury or burn them about the camping places. The former practice, 
though apparently objectionable, admits of qualifying circumstances; 
the latter is simply inexcusable. Both may, but do not necessarily in- 
dicate a disposition at variance with the instincts of a genuine sports- 
man. 
Although some may think it only a sporting conceit, it is with many 
a cherished principle to kill no game that cannot be used or saved. 
When myself tempted by nature to wantonly destroy wild animals, or 
prompted by rivalry to slaughter game according to the arithmetic, I con- 
fess that resistance is difficult. But there isa noble satisfaction in the 
active, self-denial imposed without any reference to the humanities. It is 
easy cnough to perceive practical difficulty in which an angler would be 
placed who catehes more fish than he can dispose of at once, unless he 
be left ut liberty to pickle or otherwise preserve them. Certainly ifa 
fisherman cannot utilize them on the spot, or deport them for use else- 
where, he ought on no account to catch them at all. They are not ver 
win. There can be no doubt about the gratification of consuming at 
home and distributing among friends the fruits of our sporting skill or 
opportunities. And it must be allowable to provide for thus imparting 
to others the secondary delight of our own enjoyment. How shall the 
liberty be kept within reasonable bounds? That’s the question. It 
seems after all to rest with the generous discretion and good taste of 
sportsmen. If they could eontent themselves with moderate sport and 
eschew the competitive fashion of hunting and fishing merely to excel in 
weight and numbers, I think that such an example would soon 
win adherents, and discourage a prevalent system of genteel 
poaching, such as amongst ignorant barbarians would be stigmatized as 
destructive, and thought deserving of penal correction. Probably the 
initiatory stepis that of exposing those insatiable destroyers who shoot 
and fish to gratify a momentary and vain selfishness, or to satisfy an ig- 
noble desire for notoriety. But the wretched barbarism of men who 
not only destroy excessive quaniities, but abandon them to waste, can- 
not well be shamed by exposure. The only remedy im similar instances, 
so far 4s concerns Canadian waters, seems to lie in adiscriminate exclu- 
sion. In another letter I willexplain how this can be accomplished. 
Candor impels me to own that United States citizenship cannot claim 
a monopoly of sportsmen of the Nepigon type. Ihave in my mind’s eye 
at the present moment two other notable and very recent examples of 
the galt and offal class of sportsmen—a Canadian ‘‘Honorable’’ and a 
British ‘‘Baronet.’’ The former gentleman as a guest on the Resti- 
youche river, last summer, killed and salted down—body, bones and all— 
presumably for the Toronto market—about 21 barrels of salmon The 
latter gentleman, also a guest at the River Saguenay, last autumn, 
amused himself by killing quantities of different kinds of fish with an 
amateur trap net, and left most of them to rot. 
Are these examples from such distant places as Lake Superior, Chaleur 
Bay and the Saguenay calculated to commend the interests of the sport- 
ing fraternity to the sympathy of the general public, either in Canada or 
the United States? If not, then the perpetrators should be discounten 
anced and exposed with unsparing impartiality. W. F. Wuircusr. 
Ottawa, Canada, 16th January, 1874. 
—We are fortunate in having upon our list of contribu- 
tors such worthy and intelligent co-adjutors as Messrs. 
Whitcher and Venning, the Canadian Inspectors of Fish- 
eries, letters from both of whom, and from the latter 
frequently, have appeared in the columns of this jour- 
nal. We appreciate the sympathetic tastes and commu- 
nity of interests which draw such gentlemen as these to 
our side, but we especially value codperation from over 
the border with our own efforts here, because it is only 
by an earnest and strong pull both together that we can 
hope to correct abuses, instruct the unlearned in this new 
dispensation, and re-populate our forests and streams. The 
popular mind is sufficiently alive to the importance of 
these great interests to lend a willing aid, if it Le only di- 
rected aright; and we know that letters of such practical 
men as we have named, with Baird, Green, Norris, 
Mather, Stone, Atkins, Stillwell, and others, such as we 
publish from week to week, must have great weight in 
moulding that popular mind, and so utilizing popular 
force as to make it available in working out the grand re- 
sult desired. It is no ungenerous and invidious reflection 
upon Canadians or Americans, that even the idea of a ‘‘dis- 
criminate exclusion” has suggested itself to Government 
officials as the surest, best and quickest remedy for existing 
evils. 
It may be mortifying to the pride of men conscious of 
wrong doing to be debarred from the privileges of the 
streams; but it wili not wound them half so much as to be 
caught in the offence by and by when the pudlic shall be- 
come educated to an intelligent understanding of the true 
and abstract nature of the offense. We believe that op- 
position and hostility to game and fishery laws lies in 
great part in ignorant misapprehension of their intent and 
application; but where mere cupidity is the incentive to 
violation, punishment ought not to be condoned. If Mr, 
Whitcher can, as he promises, demonstrate what remedy 
will be effectual, he will accomplish something worthy of 
gratitude. We shall await his supplementary letter with 
curiosity. 
—The catch of herring on the northeast coast of France 
is exceedingly abundant this year. During the first week 
of January an enormous quantity of herring were placed on 
the Dieppe market, the number of fish in a single day tax- 
ing the energies of the fishermen to bring to the land. The 
oldest fishermen declare that the yield of herring has been 
greater at the present season than at any preceding period. 
—A private letter states thatthe veteran angler, Thad. Nor- 
ris, Esq., is presently to start a large fishing tackle and rod 
factory at Philadelphia. His rods are very highly prized 
by many anglers, though different persons have their fa- 
vorite makers. 
—Herrings are reported to be plenty at Grand Menan. 
Cod, pollock and haddock are alao said to be more numer- 
ous there than they have been for the last forty years. 
American vessels are taking large quantities of fish. One 
of them caught a full load in ten days, having caught 18,- 
000 pounds in one day.— Cape Ann Advertiser. 
—Col. Nicholas Pike, late U. S. Consul at Mauritius, 
mentions having caught an eel there which measured 
twelve feet three inches in length, and fourteen and a 
half inches around the largest part of the head. 
PREPARING SALMON ON THE CoLtumBra Rrvpr.—Along a 
part of the Columbia river (below Kalama), are the ‘‘sal- 
mon factories,” whence come the Oregon salmon, which, 
oe a ae rT een aN he) eer yes Se er 
put up in tin cans, are now to be bought not only in our. 
Eastern States, but all over the world. The fish are caught 
in weirs, in gill nets, as shad are caught on the Hudson, 
and this is the only part of the labor performed by white 
men. ‘The fishermen carry the salmon in boats to the fac- 
tory—usually a large frame building erected on piles over 
the water—and here they fall into the hands of Chinese, 
who get for their labor a dollar a day and their food. 
The salmon are flung upon astage, where they lie in 
heaps of a thousand ata time, a surprising sight to an 
Eastern person, for in such a pile you may see fish weigh- 
ing from thirty to sixty pounds. The work of preparing 
them for the cans is conducted with exact method and 
great cleanliness, water being abundant. One Chinaman 
seizes a fish and cuts off his head; the next slashes. off the 
fins and disembowels the fish; it then falls into a large vat, 
where the blood soaks out—a salmon bleeds like a bull— 
and after soaking and repeated washing in different 
vats, it falls at last into the hands of one of a gang of 
Chinese whose business it is, with heavy knives, to chop 
the fish into chunks of suitable size for the tins. These 
pieces are plunged into brine, and presently stuffed into 
the cans, it being the object to fill each can as full as possi- 
ble with fish, the bone being excluded. The top, which 
has a small hole pierced in it, is then soldered on, and five 
hundred tins set on a form are lowered into a huge kettle 
of boiling water, where they remain until the heat has ex- 
pelled all the air. Then a Chinaman neatly drops a little 
solder over each pin-hole, and afer another boiling, the 
object of which is, I believe, to make sure that the cans 
are hermetically sealed, the process is complete, and the 
salmon are ready to take a journey longer and more re- 
markable even than that which their progenitors took 
when seized with the curious rage of spawning, they as- 
cended the Columbia, to deposit their eggs in its head 
waters, near the centre of the continent. 
I was assured by the fishermen that the salmon do not 
decrease in numbers or in size, yet, in this year, 1878, 
more than two millions of pounds were put up in tin cans 
on the Lower Columbia alone, besides fifteen or twenty 
thousand barrels of salted salmon.—Charles Nordhoff, in 
Harpers Magazine. 
—The following is a list of the Fishery Commissioners for 
the several States as far as yet appointed: 
United States—S. F. Baird, 918 New York avenue, Washington, D. C., 
Commissioner General. 
Maine—H. O. Stanley, Dixfield; E. M. Stillwell, Bangor. 
New Hampshire—Thomas E. Hatch, Keene; W. W. Fletcher, Concord; 
W. A. Sanborn, Weirs. , 
Vermont—M. C. Edmunds, Weston; M. Goldsmith, M. D.. Rutiand. 
Massachusetts—T. Lyman, Brookline: KE. H. Brackett, Winchester: 
Thomas Talbot, North Billerica. 
Connecticut—W. M. Hudson, M. D., Hartford; R. C. Pike, Middle- 
town; J. A. Bill, Lyme. 
Rhode Island—Newton Dexter, Providence; A. A. Reld, Jr., Provi- 
dence; I. H. Barden, Scituate. j 
New York.—H. Seymour, Utiea; R. B. Roosevelt, New York City 
E. M. Smith, Rochester. 
New Jersey—B. P. Howell, M. D., Woodbury: J. H. Slack, M. D., 
Bloomsbury; J. R. Shotwell, Rahway. 
Pennsylvania—J. Duffy, Marietta; H. J. Reeder, Easton; R. L. Hew- 
tt, Holidaysburg. — 
Virginia—William Ball, Mid Lothian; Asa Wall, Winchester. 
Alabama—C. 8. G. Doster, Prattville; D. R. Handley, Mountain Home; 
Robert Tyler, Montgomery. 
Michigan—Goy. J. J. Bagley, Detroit; 
Clark, Ecorse. 
California.—R.B. Redding, San Francisco; 8. R. Throgmorton, Sac- 
ramento; J. D. Farnell, Sacramento. 
The Commissioners will favor us by forwarding their 
reports. 
G. H. Jerome, Niles; G. 

COMMITTEE ON THE LEGISLATION NECESSARY FOR THE 
PRESERVATION OF OUR Forests.—The following gentle- 
men, members of the American Association for the ad- 
vancement of science, met on Saturday last in this city, for 
the purpose of organization, and to impress the necessity of 
preserving our forests. All the names below are those of 
gentlemen who have been prominent in measures of this 
character, and combine the fullest practical and theoretical] 
knowledge in regard to trees, their influences on soil, and 
the effects of forests on climate &c. 
Dr. F. B. Hough, Lowville; N. Y; Prof. Asa Gray, of 
Cambridge; Hon. Geo. B. Emerson, of Boston; Prof, W. 
D. Whitney, of California; Prof. W. H. Brewer, of Yale; 
Prof. John 8. Newberry, of New York; Col. Chas. Whit- 
tlesey, of Cleveland, Ohio; Hon, L. H. Morgan, of Roches- 
ser; Prof, Hilyard, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, 
Pachting and Boating. 
All communications from Secretaregs and friends should be mailed nol 
later than Monday in each week. 

— 
HIGH WATER, FOR THE WEEK. 



DATE. | BOSTON. | NEW YORK. | CHARL’ST’N 
—— | |—-—- — | ——_—_-— 
| h. m. he om; h. m. 
PODS LO eee aes ate 9 14 mee) | 5 14 
SOW COT Bassons | 10 10 6 56 | 6 10 
Jan. 31...... A ut | 7 44 aries 
Peg leccee yee ! 11 48 | 8 27 7 43 
eb ier2 seat, Hee | eve. 2 9 01 : 8 24 
WeDetarradecke ce | Te tal | 9 48 OF i 
Webs aye aa eee 1 38 10 23 | 9 38 

—Gen. W. W. Sanford of St. Louis, expects his new 
schooner to ‘‘go into commission” on the first of April. 
She will be launched from the yard near Baltimore, about 
that time. Hecontemplates a cruise to Baltimore, Fortress 
Monroe, Washington, Richmond and perhaps further 
South, expecting to arrive in New York about June 15th, 
in time for the opening of the season here. He will then 
undoubtedly be ready to try conclusions with some of our 
fast ones here. 
Pat. McGiehan, the celebrated yacht builder, has three 
yachts on the stocks, all sloops. One twenty-two feet, over 
all, for South Carolina waters.. One twenty-four, over all, 
for Lake Mahopac cruising. One forty-five feet, over all, 
for the New York Bay. We are glad to see our Southern 
friends taking an interest in yachting again. It looks like 
old times. 
oe 
CONVENTION OF THE ROWING ASSOCI- 
ATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES. 

[From our own Special Correspondent. ] 
Harrrorp, Conn., January 23, 1874. 
Epiror Forest anp STREAM:— 
Wednesday, 21st instant, the Rowing Association of 
American Colleges met at the Allyn House, in this city, to 
decide where the regatta next summer should take place. 
Delegates were present from the following colleges:—Am- 
herst, G. E. Brewer, F. W. Whitridge; Bowdoin, E. Gerry 
Jr., G. F. Harriman; Columbia, J. K. Rees, F. D, Shaw: 
Cornell, J. F. Southard, J. F. Cluck; Dartmouth, W. J. 
Eaton, J. 8. Aiken; Harvard, R. H. Dana, Jr., Wendell 
Goodwin; Agriculturals, E. P. Chandler, J. M. Benedict: 
Trinity, J. D. McKennon, W. Stark; Williams, J. Guns. 
ter, C. B. Hubbell; Yale, R. J. Cook, ©. H. Ferry, 
It was voted that this meeting take the place of the reg- 
ular annual meeting, and Princeton, with A. Marquaad and 
D. Nicoll, and Wesleyan, with J. P. Stowe and D. Dor- 
chester, Jr., as delegates, were regularly admitted to the 
Association. 
Nomination of officers then took place, and resulted in 
the election of J. H. Southard, Cornell, President; Vice 
President, R. H. Dana, Ji., Harvard; Secretary, J. K. Rees 
Columbia; Treasurer, J. Gunster, Williams. 
A motion to change the name of the Association, and 
call it the ‘“‘Rowing Association of New England Colleges ” 
and to admit Columbia, Cornell, and Prince nen 
bers, was made by Aiken, of Dartmouth. It was opposed 
by Cook and Ferry, of Yale; Cluck, of Cornell; Rees. of 
Columbia; and Gunster, of Williams, Dana, of Harvard 
was in favor of it. 
A resolution offered by Cluck, of Cornell, seconded by 
Ferry, of Yale, to the following effect, was passed :— 
Kesolved, That the constitution be amended so as to read 
amendment 2:—Undergraduated students of colleges, mem- 
bers of this Association, candidates for the degreee of A. 
B., Ph. B., or such other degree as represents a parallel or 
similar course of study, with the exception of*those who 
are candidates for the degree of L.L.B., or M.D., or B.D., 
ton as mem- 
shall be eligible to the regatta crews of this Association 
and it shall be understood that the term undergraduates 
shall mean all students candidates for such degrees as are 
mentioned above, with the above exception, but who shall 
not yet have received any degree.” 
Here Yale came antagonism with Yale on this 
question. Goodwin thought that something wunder- 
hand was meant by excluding the Harvard law students 
who were studying for a degree. Dana spoke to the same 
effect. Ferry, of Yale, said the idea was to secure men of 
approximately the same age. 
On a vote the yeas were:—Bowdoin, Cornell, Columbia 
Agricultural, Trinity, Yale, Wesleyan, Princeton. : 
Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, Williams, 
the morning session. 
In the afternoon Hubbell, of Williams, opened the de- 
bate by moving the next regatta be held at Saratoga. Mr. 
J. P. Conkling, President of the Saratoga Rowing Associ- 
ation, was allowed to take the floor and give his views on 
the merits of Saratoga Lake. It must be said that Mr. 
Conkling handled his subject ina manner which did him 
infinite credit, and, fortified with facts and ‘igures, he made - 
a most favorable impression. He deprecated the sectional- 
ism of Harvard, and the bias of New England generally 
against Saratoga. ‘If we are frauds, scourge us through 
every newspaper in the laud,” said Mr, Conkling. id 
The course, shown ona plan of the lake by Mr. Conk- 
ling, is three miles straight, narrow near the finish, and 
visible from many points over its whole length. 
His speech was loudly cheered, and a lively discussion 
followed it. Brewer, of Amherst, said many of his col- 
lege were opposed to Saratoga on account of the cost. 
Rees, of Columbia, favored Sarotoga, also KMubbell, of Wil- 
liams. Shaw, of Columbia, said the morality question was 
settled by the promises of the Saratoga committee, and, at 
any rate, for some colleges Saratoga would be cheaper 
in 
Nays— 
This finished 
