1817 SCIENTIA ARTES VERITAS LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TUEBOR SI-QUERIS-PENINSULAM-AMEENAM CIRCUMSPICE SONO3.000OOOO Museum Library RECEIVED IN EXCHANGE FROM Saginaw Public Libraries مر mures QL 625 H 32 Museum QL 625 H32 Museum 6 25 H 32 THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA THAT ARE CAPTURED ON HOOK AND LINE WITH EIGHTY COLORED PLATES MADE FROM OIL PORTRAITS OF LIVING FISHES BEFORE THEIR COLOR TINTS HAD FADED BY WILLIAM C. HARRIS Charles EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN ANGLER, AUTHOR OF FISH AND FISHING IN AMERICA; THE TROUTS OF AMERICA; FLY-FISHING FOR BLACK BASS, ETC., ETC. VOLUME I NEW YORK THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA PUBLISHING CO. MDCCCXCVIII Museum ران 625 H3 COPYRIGHT, BY WILLIAM C. HARRIS 1898 TO THE MEMORY OF THADDEUS NORRIS, THE ANGLER 06-15-33MEW AND SETH GREEN, THE FISH CULTURIST The former, as the Author of the First Systematic Treatise on Angling in American Waters The latter as a most eminent Pioneer in Practical Fish Culture THESE VOLUMES ARE GRATEFULLY DEDICATED THE FISHES - OF NORTH AMERICA DOURI నందంగా PRO SNOW The carp is, without doubt, destined to become one of the most plentiful of our food fishes, and as such we have had its merits heralded for three years past; in fact we have, to phrase THE GOLD FISH. a paradox, been lately surfeited with this fish before we have even tasted it. His gift of age and heft has been conceded, but : “Is he as good to catch as he is said to be good to eat?” Let us look into this serious phase of the carp question, first learning what the old anglers say about him : Dame Juliana Benners, in her Boke of St. Albans," printed in 1496, in her queer, pos- itive old English, lays down the carp law to us, with a woman's directness of language and force of temperament, We quote : He is an euyll fysshe to take. For he is so stronge enarmyd in the mouthe that there maye noo weke harnays holde hym. And as touchynge his baytes I have but lytyll knowledge of it. And me were loth to write more than I knowe & haue provyd. But well I wote that ye redde worme & ye menow ben good batys for him at all tymes, as I haue herde says of persones credyble & also found wryten in bokes of credence. ) We must admit that the Dame is very good as far as she goes, but she does not go far enough. The Father and Teacher of us all, of whom to speak is to revere, Old Isaak,” talks as quaintly and knowingly of the carp, and of catching and cooking it, as he does of all the rest of the fish that he angled for, cooked and ate. Read what he says: 65 THE CARP. If you will fish for a carp, you must be put on a very large measure of patience-especially to fish for a river carp. I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours in a day, for three or four days together, for a river carp, and not have a bite. And you are to note that in some ponds it is as hard to catch a carp as in a river; that is to say, where they have store of feed, and the water is of a clayish color; but you are to remember I have told you there is no rule without an exception; and, therefore, being possessed with that hope and patience which I wish to all fishers, especially to the carp angler, I shall tell you with what bait to fish for him. But first, you must know that it must be early or late ; and, let me tell you, that in hot weather, for he will seldom bite in cold, you cannot be too early or too late at it. And some have been so curious as to say the tenth of April is a fatal day for carp. The carp bites either at worms or at paste, and of worms, I think, the bluish marsh or meadow worm is the best ; but possibly another worm not too big may do as well, and so may a green gentle ; and as for pastes, there are almost as many sorts as there are medicines for the toothache ; but doubtless sweet pastes are best; I mean pastes made with honey or sugar; which, that you may the better beguile this crafty fish, should be thrown in the pond or place in which you fish for him some hours, or longer, before you undertake your trial of skill with the angle rod. So much from the old gentleman, who leaves us ne'er a whit wiser as to the game to the qualities of this coming fish. Sir John Hawkins, who edited a popular edition of Walton's “Compleat Angler," adds but little to our knowledge of the angling traits of this fish. He says : The haunts of the river carp are, in the winter months, the broadest and most quiet parts of the river ; but in the summer they lie in deep holes, nooks and reaches, near some scour, and under roots of trees, hollow banks, and, till they are near rotting, almost on or near great beds of weeds, flags, etc. Pond carp cannot, with propriety, be said to have any haunts; only it is to be noted, that they love a fat, rich soil, and never thrive in a cold, hungry water. They breed three or four times a year, but their first spawning time is the beginning of May. Baits for the carp are all sorts of earth and dung-hill worms, .flag worms, grasshoppers (though not at top), ox brains, the pith of an ox's backbone, green peas, and red or black cherries with the stones taken out. Fish with strong tackle, very near the bottom, and with a fine grass or gut next the hook, and use a goose-quill float. Never attempt to angle for a carp in a boat, for they will not come near it. It is said there are many carp in the Thames, westward of London, and that about February they retire to the creeks in the river, in some of which many above two feet long have been taken with an angle. And we are still in the dark as to the fight that is or is not in the carp, although a little daylight is let in by Ephemera, in his edition of Walton, issued in 1853. He says: The carp is the wariest of all fresh water fish, and none but the wariest angler can take him. We have now reached Frank Forrester, and he states that “though the carp is shy and wary, the difficulty in taking him arises only from his timidity and unwillingness to bite, and he is as lazy when hooked as he is slow to bite." Coming still closer to our own day, Genio C. Scott, in his Fishing in American Waters," has literally nothing to say in an angling way about this coming fish. Old practical Thad. Norris, ditto, ditto. Hallock, in his Gazetter, almost ignores the Cyprinidæ family of fishes, but as a compensa- tion, the complete pages of Chambers' Encyclopedia give us a modicum of comfort, to wit: a free biter. When hooked, however, he runs To the angler the carp is not a very valuable fish, as he is by no means strongly, and fights with considerable determination and cunning. Take it all in all, we fancy that carp fishing will not attract American anglers, as he is essentially a bottom feeder and biter, and it will require the temperament and patience of a a wharf-fisher to successfully uccessfully basket these fish. a I have nothing to add to the decision of thirteen years ago respecting the carp as game fish, but as there may be a fisher here and there who desires to go a-carping, the most modern methods and baits used in luring them are given, culled from letters of per- sonal correspondents: The only time to catch the carp is during one hour at sunrise and one hour at sunset. Use a very small hook, baited with a worm. The line should be dark-colored and have no gut leader. Attach a small cork float to the line six inches above the hook. Cast your hook a few feet from shore, and then throw small pieces of bread into the water. After five or ten minutes the carp will take the bread and the worm on your hook as well. Give the fish plenty of time to suck in your bait. After the float has remained under water one or two minutes haul in your fish. He will hardly struggle at all until you have him in the basket, but there he will flop around for three hours. Do not try to catch carp after a heavy rain, as they will not bite then. Carp are vegetarian, and are supposed to live upon plant life in the water, but they will take worms and flesh baits on the slightest provocation. They like worms best. Lobs of sweetened dough and bits of bread inclosed in an envelope of mosquito netting, are in vogue in Europe, but Passaic River carp and the carp of the Whippaug prefer the worm always. You can catch carp with the hook, carp with the hook, if you are patient, but the fish will not take 66 IL Petri REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE BY ARMSTRONG&CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS. Specimen (weight & lb.) caught and painted at North Long Branch, N. J. اذا The Dollar or Butter Fish. Rhombus triacanthus. Copyright, 1896, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. OF Umb laored 2010 THE CARP a hold of the bait until they are ready. As this fish grows old he becomes carnivorous, feeding on minnows and the smaller batracians. The baits recommended for carp are numerous and many of them very fanciful. Pastes of all kinds and colors, flavored with cheese, sugar, honey, gin, etc.; beans, corn, flies, slugs, gentles, grubs, caterpillars and worms are to be found in this singular catalogue. In Germany, where carp abound, grains of wheat, steeped, in water until they swell and split the outer skin, are considered tempting lures. A small grasshopper has occasionally proved successful; but no artificial bait will seduce the carp. I have never caught carp with an artificial fly except in one instance, and the feathers were then supplemented with a bit of liver. They were caught out of a private carp pond, and they readily took the lure an inch or two under the water. This occurred, however, during the process of feeding the fish, which brought them to the surface. The flies were of the “spider” make and of sombre colors. Admitting the unworthiness of the carp as an angling and table fish, its commercial value must not be overlooked. Professor Barton W. Evermann, the accomplished ichthyologist of the United States Fish Commission, to whom my notes on the carp were submitted before publication, writes me : Viewed from the economic standpoint, the carp is a fish of considerable value in almost every state and territory. The annual output from public waters in the United Statės is not less than 1,950,000 pounds, with a value to the fisherman of $58,000. It is most important in the Mississippi basin, but is also caught for market in large quantities in Lake Erie, on the Pacific coast, and elsewhere. The eleventh census returns showed that in the ten years ending 1890 the value of carp taken from private waters in the United States was $284,650, a sum representing over 9,000,000 pounds of fish. In the western end of Lake Erie, 627,000 pounds of carp were taken and sold in 1893, for which the fishermen received $16,245. “The public waters of Illinois are probably better stocked with carp than are those of any other state, the Illinois river having a specially large supply. The State Fish Commis- sioners, in their report for 1892–94, refer to the carp as follows: “We do not hesitate to say that the carp, which is now found in all the waters of the State, is the greatest source of revenue to those who fish for a business, and has paid larger dividends on the investment than any other fish ever introduced into our waters. From one point on the Illinois river, last season, 250,000 pounds of carp found their way to Chicago and New York markets, at about one-half greater price than could be realized for buffalo. Carp are, undoubtedly, the fish for the great mass of fish-eating people, those who eat fish as food, not as a luxury. Black bass, trout and game fish generally will never be plentiful enough to be considered market fish. Under the most advantageous circum- stances, the waters could not produce these fish in quantities sufficiently large to bring their price within the reach of the average working man. Carp can be raised in such quantities and at the same time in no way interfere with other fish. Carp have not been a failure, but, on the contrary, have given to the people of our State a greater food supply from the waters than could have been produced in any other way from the same area.' The carp holds its own very well in the large marketing centers of the country, even when competing with fishes whose game and food qualities are well recognized. Reference to the weekly quotations of the New York, Philadelphia, and other markets will usually show the carp rated above the cod, bluefish, squeteague, lake herring, and many other highly esteemed fishes. " The aggregate expense to the government connected with the introduction, propagation, and distribution of carp in the United States, to, and including the year 1895, was $218,000, or about $20,000 yearly; this sum includes equipment and construction of ponds which have also been used in the rearing of other fishes. For this outlay, the available statistics, which are far from complete, show that there is now an annual return of over $80,000 from public and private waters.” It is a relief to turn from the subject of Cyprinoids proper, a somewhat lengthy treatment of which is essential in a work of this character, to its relatives, the chub, the roach and the 67 THE CARP. (6 diminutive gudgeon, all of which merit attention as fishes that are caught on hook and line, and, in the case of the chub, because it is not estimated, in my opinion, at its true value as a rod fish. The chub, fall-fish, sometimes called roach, silver chub, wind-fish or corporal, Semotilus corporalis – the generic name from the Greek signifying “banner” and banner” and “spotted," and the ” specific from the Latin, corporalis, “pertaining to the body"—is found from the Province of Quebec to North Carolina, and is essentially an Eastern fish, being, so far as known, never seen in waters west of the Alleghanies. It is the largest of our Eastern cyprinoids, but not the species most frequently met with by the stream fisherman, that being the creek chub or horned dace, S. atromaculatus, hereafter described. The fall fish is found everywhere in the Middle States in the smaller brooks, and in larger streams. As the Eastern angler will meet with three forms of large chubs, indiscriminately and locally called roach, dace and chub, and that he may know one from the other, I have given black and white draw- ings of each, and a portrait, colored, as in life, of one of them, with such textual descriptions as will render the study of their physical markings less difficult. BAB THE CHUB, FALL-FISH OR WIND-FISH-Semotilus corporalis. more, The maximum weight and size of the chub, S. corporalis, are undetermined. It certainly grows to a length of twenty inches, and a weight of three pounds. Mr. Louis Papineau, of Monte Bello, Canada, wrote me that he had taken one of three and a half pounds in Canadian waters, and in New Hampshire, in one of the outlets of Lake Winnipiseogee, he had caught several specimens weighing three pounds. These weights would seem to set the record for the chub of American waters, and, giving the fish referred to fostering conditions of food and habitat, which they evidently had, we cannot doubt the statement of Mr. Papineau, more particularly from the fact that the chub of England, which is closely allied to ours, has been taken weighing six pounds, and that specimens of ten pounds have been caught in European waters, where it has been found at an elevation of three thousand feet or and again at the sea level in the brackish waters of the German Empire. I have taken one weighing two pounds, on the artificial fly, from a dam on Lycoming Creek, Pa., and was somewhat astonished when, on proudly showing my trophy to a resident angler, he told me I had caught a baby, and he had taken them at night weighing five pounds, on eel set line in the same water. He would not modify his assertion when assaulted by strong and heated arguments. No origin of the popular name of a fish has elicited so much discussion as that of the chub, the consensus of opinion being that it is derived from the old Saxon word cop or copp, meaning "head,” because the chub is said to have an unusually large thick head; but if we examine closely we will find nothing so abnormal in the shape or size of the head of a chub as compared with other fish, such as the perch, dace or carp, living in the waters, to indicate that the old Saxons would be apt to distinguish this particular fish by so meaningless à name, but be this as it may, the name has clung to it for ages, and has given us that an sane 68 THE CARP. 66 m expressive word "chubby," which means, Webster tells us, “like a chub, plump, short and thick," a description which applies less to a chub than to many other fishes. Yet in poetry and prose the name, with its derivation and repulsive derivatives, has been handed down to us by the old writers; and even Walton, whose favorite names for this fish were Cheven” and Chavender,” fell into the swim of opprobrium and called it the “logger-headed chub.” The physical markings of S. corporalis, those that may be described without the use of technical language, yet sufficient to distinguish it from its congeners by closely observant anglers, who know a chub when they see it, are as follows: There is no black spot on the anterior end of the base of dorsal fin, which is present on the more numerous and smaller chub, or fall-fish, S. atromaculatus; the dorsal fin is inserted midway on the back between the nostrils and base of tail fin; the length of the head (measuring from end of snout to extremity of gill cover) is four and a half times greater than the longitudinal diameter of the eye; the body (measuring from end of snout to base of caudal fin) is four times as long as the head, and the length of the body is four times that of its greatest depth. There are eight rays in the dorsal, and a like number in the anal fin. The upper THE COMMON CHUB OR FALL-FISH-Semotilus atromaculatus. parts of the body are of steel blue color, varying in tone in different waters, and the sides and belly are silvery with grayish blendings. This fish, like most of the cyprinoids, puts on, in the spring, nuptual robes of more or less beauty; in some specimens the coloration is very striking, with its deep crimson and delicate rose tints alternating; the lower fins with deep pinkish reflections. As this fish is seldom, if ever, found west of the Alleghany Mountains, Western anglers can dismiss the vexing question of identification when fishing on their home waters. The common chub or fall fish, Semotilus atromaculatus—the specific name from the Latin-ater “black," maculatus“ spotted”-is found west from New England to Dakota, and south to Missouri, Georgia and Alabama. It seldom grows more than a foot in length, and is the species most frequently met with by trout fishermen, and it is upon its presence or absence in a trout stream that anglers predicate the continued fruitfulness of such waters. Where- ever it gets a foothold in the smaller streams, it means good-bye to the trout, owing to the fondness of the chub for the spawn and young fry of S. fontinalis. But compensatory nature gives the angler consolation in that whatever stream the black bass lives and thrives, it means destruction to the chub, for which the bronzebacker has an excessive hungering: So great is the terror of a school of chubs when in the vicinity of feeding bass, that I have seen eight and ten-inch fish huddled affrighted in water not deep enough to their dorsal fins; and, on more than one occasion, I have observed large chub stealing, as it were, up the shallow water near the banks, to escape the onslaught of their voracious enemies. This occurred near Philadelphia, in the Schuylkill river, a water, twenty- five years ago, that was celebrated for, and swarming with, large chub, sunfish and channel catfish, all of which have been nearly exterminated by the black bass. a cover 69 THE CARP. on In the identification of the common chub, S. atromaculatus, the angler will note the black spot which appears to be always present at the base of the dorsal fin, in front, and that this fin is inserted midway between the pupil of the eye and the base of the caudal fin ; the length of the body is three and three-quarter times greater than the length of the head, and four times that of the depth of the body; the dorsal fin has seven rays, and the anal eight; the barbel is small and not present in the young fish, on which is a distinct, yet dusky band, ending in a black spot at the base of the tail fin. In the adult fish the color is dusky blue above, the belly and sides silvery with grayish blendings. In the spawning season, the male becomes rosy the belly, and the black spot on the dorsal fin is encircled with red. Another of the larger chubs, Hybobsis kentuckiensis—the generic name signifying “ gibbous” and face"—is popularly known as the “jerker or nigger chub." Its range of habitat is from Pennsylvania to Dakota, and south to Alabama, and it is not often by the trout angler, but more frequently by the bass fisherman, as it lives in the rivers, and is rarely found in small brooks. It seldom grows over ten inches, and the young are suc- cessfully and frequently used as lures for the black bass, pike and pickerel. A dark bar will be found behind the gill cover, but no black spot at base of dorsal fin, hence it can be readily distinguished from the common chub, S. atromaculatus, but care should be taken not seen THE NIGGER OR JERKER CHUB-Hyhobsis kentuckiensis to confuse it with S. corporalis, the large Eastern chub, which is also without the dorsal spot. It may also be readily distinguished from the two previously described species by the trend of the lateral line, which is nearly straight, while those of the others curve downward rather abruptly over the pectoral fin, and then go straight, or nearly so, to the base of the tail fin. The length of the body is four times that of the head, and the depth is four and a half to the length of the body. It may be further identified by its color, which is bluish-olive, with coppery reflections on its sides, and pale orange colored fins. Both of the two preceding fishes described are whitish or silvery on the sides and belly, with plain fins. In the spring, this fish undergoes a sort of metamorphosis, not only in coloration, but in form; the top of its head becomes swollen into a crest which is covered with coarse tubercles, from whence comes its name horned chub”; a deep red spot also appears on each side of the head, the fins become pinkish and the belly a deep rose color. In addition to the three described species of large chub found east of the Rocky Mountains, there are cyprinoids of the Pacific Slope that grow to a large size, and frequently give interesting sport to the rod fisherman. The hard-mouth chub, or chisel-mouth, Acrochilus alutaceus—the generic name from the Greek signifying “sharp-lipped,” grows to twelve inches, or slightly more, and is found in the Columbia river and tributaries. Its scales are irregularly placed on some of the fins, and the lateral line is strongly decurved ; the lower lip is covered with a thin cartilaginous plate, and the peduncle (the fleshy part of the tail) is very long, slender, cylindrical and slightly tapering. 70 gertje IL Tebe Specimen (weight 1 lb.), caught and painted at Riverdale, N. Y. REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE BY ARMSTRONG & CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS MA The Striped Bass. Roccus lineatus. Copyright, 1895, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. OM Umb Btarrid kie 整 ​ THE CARP. The body is four and a quarter times longer than its bluntish head and four times greater than its depth. The tail fin is strongly forked and longer than the head; the accessory or lesser rays at its base are very numerous, and turn back on the back on the peduncle; it has no barbel or feeler”; ten rays in the dorsal fin and nine in the anal; coloration is dark with paler belly, and all parts of the body are covered with small black spots. This fish takes a lure, but is not considered good on the table. Orthodon microlepidotus-generic name from the Greek signifying straight-toothed” reaches a length of eighteen inches, possibly more, and is found in the Great Basin of Utah, and in great numbers in the California streams, where it is sometimes called black-fish, and where it takes a baited hook greedily; quantities are brought to the San Francisco markets and sold mainly to the Chinese. This fish may be known by the knob on the tip of the chin, absence of barbels, and the very large rays at the foot of caudal fin. On the upper side of the head, which is very flat, there are two bony ridges, and its body is four times longer than the head, and four and a half that of its depth. It has nine dorsal and eight anal rays; in coloration it is plain or faintly grayish. Lavinia exilicauda—the generic name is a classical one without special application to these fishes—is another of the chub species, often called Hitch or Chigh, caught in the California rivers, where it grows to about fifteen inches. Although a market fish, its flesh is not highly esteemed, but as it rises, like the other chubs, freely to the fly, it deserves mention. It has a very slender peduncle, a small, short cone-shaped head and a small dorsal, but large THE ORTHODON CHUB-Orthodon microlepidotus. anal fin. Its body is four and two-thirds times longer than its head and three and a third greater than its depth. It has ten dorsal and twelve anal rays, and the belly behind the ventral fins is covered entirely by scales. Its color is dark above, slightly silvering on the sides. The Flat-headed chub, Platygolis gracilis—the generic name from the Greek signifying “ broad," and the Latin gobio, a gudgeon-is found in the Rocky Mountain region from the Kansas and Yellowstone rivers to the Saskatchawan, and of all fishes, seems to be the one best adapted to life in the muddy, alkaline streams of that region ; it is abundant, grows to twelve inches or more, and rises freely to the artificial fly. The upper surface of its small, short head is very broad and flat, resembling that of the Gila monster; its width between the eyes being half the length of the entire head. The body is four and a quarter times the length of the head, and four and three-quarters longer than the greatest depth ; the dorsal and anal fins have eight rays each ; the fins are rather large, and the dorsal is set on the back in advance of the middle of the body; the lateral line is decurved and the eyes are small, placed rather high up and well in front. The coloration is bluish on back, and the sides and belly silvery. The Split-tailed chub, Pogonichthys macrolepidotus—the generic name from the Greek 71 THE CARP. ► on n not signifying “beard” and fish ”-is very abundant in the Sacramento river, and I am told that it reaches a length of twenty inches or more, although the maximum length is recorded by Dr. Goode as being eighteen inches. It is a favorite fish with the poorer classes in San Francisco, and like its congeners is a very fair fighter on light tackle. It has a large eye, a well developed barbel, short, slender head and the upper lobe of its tail fin is longer than the lower, being about half again as long as the head. This singular development of the caudal fin renders this species at once distinguishable from the other American cyprinoids, as none of them shows this pecularity of growth. It is the only species of the genus Pogon- ichthys as yet discovered. The Columbia chub, Mylochilus caurinus—the generic name from the Greek meaning “grinder” and “ · lip,” in allusion to its blunt and much enlarged molar teeth-grows to twelve inches, possibly much larger, and is found in abundance in the Columbia river basin as far up as Flathead lake in Montana and the Great Shoshone Falls in Idaho, and in streams west of the Cascade Range from California to British Columbia, often entering the sea. Its head is rather small with a small barbel on its jaw ; dorsal and anal fins each with eight rays; the body is four and two-fifths longer than the head, and four and a half that of its depth. Its rather singular coloration, in addition to the above description, will enable the angler to readily identify it. It is dark above and silvery on the sides, with a dark lateral band, and below this a pale stripe, under which there is another dark stripe which extends to or near the vent. In the spring, during the spawning season, the belly and the pale stripe be- comes red in the breeding males. Mylopharoden conocephatus-the generic name from the Greek signifying "grinder," "pharynx" and "tooth "—is another of the large cyprinoids, ranking approximately in size “ with the Sacramento pike, with which it is often confused account of size and action when hooked. It seems to be confined to the waters of California. Its head is pike-like, broad and much depressed, the snout tapering and nearly wedge-shaped. The dorsal fin is set a little behind the ventral fins, but so much so as on the Sacramento pike. The peduncle is very long, whereas it is short and stout in the fish just named. The length of the body is about three and a half times longer than the head, and four and two-thirds longer than the depth. It is of dark coloration on the upper parts and paler below; and has eight rays each in the dorsal and anal fins. It reaches a length of three to four feet, probably longer. The Sacramento pike, squawfish, yellow-belly, or chapparel, Ptychochilus oregonensis-generic name from the Greek signifying "fold” and “lip," the skin of the mouth behind the jaws being folded—is one of the longest of American cyprinoids, growing to the length of five feet. I have caught specimens in Clark's Fork of the Columbia that were nearly three feet long and quite vigorous when hooked. It may be distinguished by its long, slender, pike-like head, large mouth and the situation of its dorsal fin, which is set well back behind the ventral fins, which increases its resemblance to the pike, and which, in connection with its head, gives the popular name to it. The lateral line is strongly decurved, trending along more of the belly than the back, and the scales are thickly marked with black dots. The length of the body is four times greater than that of the head and five times longer than the greatest depth of the body. The coloration is olive, and the fins in spring are red or orange. It is found in the rivers of the Pacific Slope, chiefly those west of the Sierra Nevada, but is abundant throughout the Columbia river basin except above Shoshone Falls, where it does not seem to occur. Of this fish Professor Evermann writes me : · P. oregonensis is quite a game fish, rising readily to the fly and fighting with vigor for a time. I had great sport in 1891 catching them at Flathead lake, and again in 1895 at the Redfish lakes in Idaho. It is very abundant in this last place, and takes the fly in the lakes as readily as does a trout. But salmon spawn is the best bait. 'Squawfish' is the Flathead lake name, while in Idaho it is called yellow-belly.'” There are several other species of the foregoing genus which are brought into the markets of San Francisco : P. rapax, probably not distinct from the Sacramento pike, from which it may be distinguished by the lateral line running along the median line, not along 72 THE CARP. the belly, as in the former fish. It does not grow so large, and the dorsal fin is not set so far back. The second species is P. harfordi, a more slender fish than the Sacramento pike, with the lateral line similarly decurved, but the tail fin is less deeply forked. The length of the body is four times that of the head, and five and three-quarter times its greatest depth. It is found principally in the Sacramento river, and owing to its large size is fair game on the rod. The third species, P. lucius, the Colorado pike, is really the largest of the American cyprinoids, and looks very much like the Sacramento pike, so much so that it will require careful study of both fish to distinguish them apart; the restricted habitat of P. lucius (the Colorado of the West) will, however, render the angler's quest an easy one, provided further investigation does not widen the habitat of both of these fishes, or what is more likely, relegate them to one species. The color of both of these fish is very similar, although it would appear from the descriptions in the text books that the Colorado river fish is without the black spots on scales which are present on the Sacramento pike. The length of the body is three and a half times that of the head, and five and a half times more than the depth, showing it to be more slender and longer in proportion than the last named fish. There is also one ray less in each of the dorsal and anal fins, but it should be borne in mind that a variation of one-sixth in number of rays in either direction does not effect classification of species. This fish grows to a weight of eighty pounds and is also called the White salmon of the Colorado. It is considered a great game fish by local anglers. Under the generic name of Gila, we find several cyprinoids on the Pacific Coast that grow to large size, about eighteen inches. They are mainly found in the rivers Gila (whence the generic name) and Colorado of the West, abounding in both waters, and eaten THE SACRAMENTO PIKE-Ptychochilus oregonensis. very generally in New Mexico and Arizona. Their popular names vary in different localities, but those of “chub” and “mullet” are most prevalent. I have selected two species for description, being the largest, and more likely to excite the interest of the angler should he happen to get fast to either of them. Gila elegans.—This is the typical species of the genus, growing to eighteen inches, but of rather ungraceful form. It is known as Bony-tail, or Gila trout. The back in front of the dorsal fin is elevated into a hump, and the peduncle is long and slender, the profile of the back behind the hump being abruptly oblique, giving the fish an unusual and ungainly appearance, the ugliness of which is increased by its short, broad head and depressed snout, the front of the head from behind the eyes being broad and sunken, the posterior part high so that the profile of the head forms a concave arch. . The eye is small and placed low; the fins are all long, narrow and curved, the pectorals reaching the ventrals. The upper arm or lobe of the tail fin is slightly longer than the lower; the scales overlap but slightly, and are much smaller on the back and belly than on the sides where, how- ever, they are much greater in length than depth. The length of the body is five times more than that of the head, and the same proportion exists to the depth in length; the dorsal fin contains nine and the anal ten rays. The coloration is bluish above and paler below. as 73 THE CARP. Gila robusta or "Round-tail" has a stouter peduncle and is not quite so ungainly in form as G. elegans, although the profile of the back shows nearly the same elevation in front of the dorsal fin, but not so great an obliquity posteriorly. The angler must be careful in differentiating this species from G. elegans, and will be greatly aided by measuring the peduncle or fleshy part of the tail (from end of anal fin to base of tail fin), which will show it to be one-third longer than its least depth, while in G. elegans it is seven times as long. The body is four times longer than the head, and five times that of the greatest depth of the fish; the dorsal and anal fins have nine rays each, and the color of the fish is plain or grayish, not pronounced. It grows to eighteen inches. Several other nominal species of Gila have been described in the books ; among them G. emorii, which is identical with G. elegans; G. gracilis, G. zunnensis, G. grahami, G. affinis and G. nacrea, all of which are simply synonyms of G. robusta; and G. seminuda, described by Professor Cope from the Rio Virgin, Utah. But as this last has not been seen since first described it, too, is of doubtful validity. There is a little chub, or dace, of six inches or more, Leuciscus hydrophlox which the angler will meet with in Blackfoot creek, Idaho, and probably in other waters of that section. It may be known by its long anal fin, olive color above with a dusky lateral border, and below this a crimson band, under which will also be found a blackish band running along the lateral line to the base of the caudal fin. The cheeks, sides and belly in the males are crimson anteriorly and silvery in the females. The Utah mullet or chub of Utah lake, Leuciscus lineatus, is one of the largest and most widely distributed of our cyprinoids. It reaches a length of fifteen to twenty inches, and is found abundantly in the Utah Basin, and in Snake river basin above Shoshone Falls. It is said by Dr. Goode to be very destructive to the trout (Salmo mykiss), as it ascends the rivers to spawn at the same time as that fish, and feeds voraciously on the young salmonoids. It has a stout body, small eye, fins quite small, large scales, which only slightly overlap each other, and lateral line decurved and placed rather low. It is of darkish olive color, blackish above, the coloration formed of small black points. The length of the body, is four times that of the head, and but a small fraction less small fraction less as to the depth. This fish takes the hook freely, which fact, together with its considerable size and gaminess, give it a rank along with that of the eastern fall-fish, Semotilus corporalis. The chub of the Rio Grande or Pescadito, Leuciscus nigrescens, is found abundantly in the Rio Grande region, growing to about twelve inches. Its body is spindle-shaped, four times longer than the head, and slightly more as to the depth of the fish; the head is small, broad and flattened at the snout. The general appearance of this fish resembles that of the horny- headed chub so abundantly found in waters east of the Mississippi. Its color is silvery, dark- ish above, with a broad irregular dark lateral band. In Klamath lake, Oregon, there is quite a large chub (twelve inches or more), Leuciscus bicolor. Cyprinoids, as a rule, when living in lakes, do not take a surface lure, but of this fact I know nothing from personal experience so far as this species is concerned, and from lack of acquaintance with the fish, can only copy what is said of it by Jordan and others. It is described as having a robust body, heavy anteriorly, tapering backward, head long, mouth large, the hindmost bone of the upper jaw reaching to the eye; eye small, scales rather large; lateral line decurved; dorsal fin inserted almost directly over ventrals; the length of the body is three and three quarters longer than its greatest depth, and the same proportion as to the length of the head. It has eight rays each in the dorsal and anal fins, and is dusky in color above and silvery on the sides and below. In the rivers of California, there is an abundant chub, Leuciscus niger, which grows to about a foot, and finds ready sale in the San Francisco markets, where it is bought chiefly by the Chinese. It has a short, deep, flat body, arched in front of the dorsal fin, and the peduncle is about as deep as it is long, nearly as deep as the head. The profile of the head is steep, the snout short and pointed. The dorsal fin is opposite the ventrals, nearer the tail-fin than the snout; the caudal fin is short, only slightly forked, and but little broader than the peduncle. The lateral line is decurved, and the length of the body is a little more than four times that 74 2. J. Petra Specimen (weight 1 b.) caught and painted at North Long Branch, XL REPRODUCED IN FACSIMILE BY ARMSTRONG & CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS Umb Btarril The Sea Bass Centropristes striatus, Copyright, 1896, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. AL POTOM THE CARPS. of the head, and only three times that of the depth of the fish. It is of brownish color with white sides, and the scales are profusely marked with dark dots. The young are spotted above the lateral line. There are several other species of Leuciscus, met with by the angler in waters west of the Rocky Mountains, in the Great Basin, and in the Great Lake Region. They are of rather small size, but are sought as food by the white settlers and Indians. The most marked of these species is the red-sided minnow, L. elongatus, which is common in the upper Mississippi and the Great Lakes. It has a long head, the lower jaw projecting very much, with a small knob on the tip of the chin, the upper lip being on a level with the pupil of the eye; it is dark bluish above, and the belly more or less silvery, scales slightly mottled, and on the sides will be found broad, black bands, which become bright crimson anteriorly in breeding males. The second of these species is the leather-sided minnow, L. hydrophlox, which is very abundant in some sections of the Salt Lake Basin, and in Snake River basin above Shoshone Falls. Its coloration is greenish, silvery, dusky on back, with a blackish lateral band between two silvery stripes. There are a great number of other and smaller species of cyprinoids living in the waters west of the Rocky Mountains, of which descriptions are not given, as they are neither food nor rod-fish. The angler living east of that section will, however, meet with several of this family of fishes other than those already described, which, in the absence of the trouts and black basses of the fresh waters, will serve to make an outing pass with enjoyment. Brief description will now be given of those most frequently taken on hook and line. THE CUT-LIPPED CHUB.—Exoglossum maxillingua. The stone roller-Campostoma anomalum—is found from Central New York to Tennessee, Wyoming and Texas. It grows to a length of about eight inches, and is often abundant in the deep and still pools of trout and the smaller black bass streams. It may be recognized by the dusky vertical bar back of gill cover, its brownish color with brassy lustre above, scales more or less dark mottled, and a dusky crossbar in the center, or near it, of the dorsal and of the anal fin. In the spawning season this fish puts on the most gorgeous of nuptial robes; the fins of the males become fiery red, the iris of the eye a beautiful orange, and the entire body seems illumined for the bridal occasion ; its brilliant appearance, however, being slightly marred by the large, wart-like tubercles which appear in spring upon the head and sometimes on the entire body. Dr. Bean states this fish to be one of the most singular, in having the air bladder surrounded by numerous turns of the long intestine. In this respect it is unique among fishes. The smelt or silvery minnow-Hybognathus nuchale—is abundantly found in the streams from the Delaware and Neuse to the upper Missouri and southward to Georgia and Texas. It grows to nearly nine inches. It is greenish olive above the lateral line, clear silvery sides with bright reflection and unspotted fins, which become dusky in specimens living in dark, deep water. There are several varieties of this species, one of which, regium, is found in the streams and rivers of Maryland and Virginia, and is said to be a choice table fish. It may be distinguished from H. nuchale by its deeper body and larger eye. H. regium is the gudgeon of the Patapsco river, so 75 THE CARPS. eagerly fished for by Baltimore anglers, and treated more at length on a subsequent page. Another species, the cut-lipped chub—Exoglossum maxillingua—is frequently taken by the fly fisherman and may be known at sight by its peculiarly shaped lower jaw which has three lobes, a formation not existing in any other of the cyprinoids. It is also called the butter chub, nigger and day chub, and is abundant in the Susquehanna river, and many consider it a good pan fish, although it seldom grows larger than six inches. It has a somewhat limited range, from Lake Ontario southward to Virginia, but is abundant in the Hudson, Potomac, James and other Virginia waters. The spawn eater or smelt-Notropis hudsonius—is another of the chubs taken by the angler on black bass streams. It grows to about ten inches in Lake Erie and other large waters and ranges THE SMELT OR GUDGEON.-Notroțis ludsonius amarus. from the Dakotas and Lake Superior to New York and southward to South Carolina. It is abund- ant east of the Alleghanies and in the Great Lakes, but is rarely taken in the small brooks. The coloration is pale with, usually, a round black spot at base of caudal fin, which is always present in the young. There is also a broad lateral silvery band which in some waters becomes dusky. It is said to be a good table fish and is a choice lure for the black bass, the pike and the mascalonge, for which purpose it is used extensively by the anglers of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence river. Another form of the above named species-N. hudsonius—is the gudgeon or smelt N. hudson- ius amarus, found in the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers and other waters east of the Alleghanies south to Georgia. It is abundant in Lake Erie where it grows to a large size (probably ten inches), THE RED FIN.-Notropis umbratilis lythurus. and is known there as “the lake minnow." There is no specific differentiation of service to anglers between this fish and N. hudsonius, except in the appearance of the caudal spot which is either faint or absent, and it has a longer and less obtuse head. It must not be confounded with the “gudgeon" Hybognathus regius, fished for by anglers in the Patapsco and lower Susquehanna rivers. The spotted shiner-Hybobsis dissimilis--is oftener met with by black bass anglers west of the Alleghanies than by those of the Eastern States, except those who fish the streams of Western Pennsylvania where this fish grows to about six and a half inches. It may be known by its light 76 ne IL Utrie Specimen (weight lb.) caught and painted at North Long Branch, N. Y. REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE BY ARMSTRONG &CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS, NU The Spot, or Lafayette. Leiostomus xanthurus. Copyright, 1895, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS OR belarra SIGN THE CARPS. a a bluish band along the sides, which is interrupted so as to form punctulations or spots, the most dis- tinct being at base of tail-fin. It has a well marked and forked tail, long slender body and large eyes. Its general color is olivaceous. I have often been at a loss to distinguish at sight those little pests known as “red-fins" wherever an Eastern trout stream is located, particularly if it has been fished for a long period. In the mountain brooks of New York and Pennsylvania they seem to be ubiquitous. I have caught two forms and sizes of them, and, as nearly all the smaller cyprinoids in the early days of the trout season assume radiant garbs with roseate fins, I have not been astonished to find that the minnows of those waters were locally and generally bunched and christened “red-fins.” The typical and largest red-fin is Notropis cornutus, which grows to a length of eight inches (Jordan & Evermann) or a maximum of ten inches (G. Brown Goode). I have never taken them, longer than seven inches in the streams of Western New York and Pennsylvania ; but it is highly probable they reach a maximum of ten inches in the Great Lakes, where at the mouths of rivers they can be taken in numbers with the artificial fly. They certainly rise to the feathers eagerly in the trout streams of the East. The red-fins are classified under the sub-genus Luxilus, and consist of four species and two varietal forms, none of which grow so large or range so widely as N. cornutus, the adult of which may be known by its short, compressed body, which is much swollen and convex in front of the dorsal fin. The scales are broader than long, lateral line much decurved and the coloration dark, steel blue above with dusky tints on the edges and bases of the scales. There is a gilt line along the back and one on each side, which are only distinct when the fish is in the water, an inter- esting fact in coloration, parallelled, however, in other fish as they appeared to the artist and myself during our eleven years of catching and painting fish at the moment they are lifted from the water. I have seen the green metallic patch of color at the base of the dorsal fin of the porgy or scup vanish as the fish was drawn into the boat, and the streak of old gold just above the eye of the cisco fade before the fish could be taken from the hook. These instances of instantaneous changes in color tints have warned me to hesitate in dogmatic criticism of coloration as it appears in fish pictures, particularly those that are painted from live specimens. The body of N. cornutus is about four and one third longer than the head and three and a third to five times greater than the depth of the fish; there are eight rays in the dorsal and nine in the anal fin, and the dorsal is inserted slightly back of the ventral fins. The rosy color of the lower fins appears only on the male fish in the spring of the year, at which time the lower jaw and the region from the dorsal fin to tip of snout is covered with small tubercles. The range of this fish covers the waters east of the Rocky Mountains, excepting the South Atlantic States and Texas. Another and smaller red-fin-Notropis umbratilis—of many varietal forms, is frequently met with by anglers on the trout streams, both east and west of the Alleghany Mountains, although it appears to be more numerous in the west. If I mistake not, I have caught them frequently and saw great numbers of them in the brooks of Lewis County, New York, and in the counties of Monroe, Pike and Lycoming, of Pennsylvania. This little fellow may be known and distinguished from its larger brother by its dorsal and anal fins, there being seven rays in the former and eleven in the latter. Its body is much more elongated, with a long head and peduncle. The dorsal fin is high and inserted midway between the ventral and anal fins. The coloration is dark blue above, pale below, with a more or less defined black spot at base of the dorsal fin in front. In the spring of the year the head alone of the male becomes covered with small whitish tubercles, and the belly and lower fins are of bright brick-red color. These two conditions will at once distinguish the little red-fin from the larger one, on which tubercles appear in the spring over the entire region front of the dorsal, and the lower fins are of a rosy tint, not brick-red. There is another little fish-Notropis rubricroceus—which may be termed the typical red-fin of American waters, inasmuch as the fins are red all the year, the two other species named having this distinctive marking only in the spring or spawning season. It is found in the head waters of the Tennessee and Savannah rivers and is a surpassingly beautiful fish. The males are dark steel blue above, with a dark lateral band made up of coal black tiny spots, which passes through the eye around the snout; the dorsal fin is crimson, the tail pink and the lower fins scarlet. The head is a pale red and the lower jaw flushed with blood color; the eyes are either bluish or flushed with red, a 77 THE CARPS. and there is a lustrous streak along the sides, below which it is silvery. In keeping with its extreme beauty, this fish loves to disport in the cold rock pools at the foot of falls or in the eddies of rushing rapids. It is locally known as the red fallfish. Perhaps I should claim indulgence for this somewhat lengthy description of these little fishes so frequently met with by anglers, many of whom, however, have doubtless felt, as I do, that to catch a fish and not know its name or species, robs an outing of much of its pleasures as it cer- tainly does of its value. To pass a day on the stream without a knowledge of, or interest in, the life histories of the fish caught, puts the fisher on the same plane as the pot-hunter-a man who eagerly fishes for meat when his stomach is gorged to depletion. Within the last few years the lesser cyprinoids have undergone extensive and radical revision in classification and technical description, embracing several hundreds of species which are of no special interest to anglers other than as bait fishes. As such they will be described on another page. Fishing for chub has not, as we have before stated, been estimated at its proper value by American anglers. Among those of England this fish holds rank above most of the other so-called coarse fish, and deservedly so, judging from my own experience, for I have found the chub to rise eagerly to an artificial fly and, if of a pound weight or thereabouts, the vigor of its downward surge, restrained by a light fly rod, will confuse the angler's judgment during the early part of the fight as to his quarry being a trout or a black bass. This, of course, has reference the larger chub, fallfish, or wind-fish-Semotilus corporalis-described and illustrated on page 68, although the smaller species (see page 69), when it reaches ten to twelve inches, makes a good fight, and is, perhaps, the better table fish. Years ago, before the black bass became sovereign in the rivers, the chub and the catfish yielded the bulk of fish food to the farmers living along the banks, and both these fish were caught in large numbers on raw meat and worm bait, but since the intro- duction of the black basses, anglers have found that the chub rises freely to the feathers on both large and small streams, for this fish has been driven by the fierce onslaughts of the bronzebackers to seek the protection of lesser waters, and thus do their share in the sad work of depleting our trout streams. As the years pass, the younger anglers of the present generation will live to see the chub prized here as it is in England as a rod fish. Open trout waters will become more and more restricted, particularly near cities; the black basses will usurp the larger streams, and the chub will work his way, wherever he escapes the maw of his ravenous enemy, into the lower por- tions of the trout streams, destroying them as such, and the rod and fly-fishers must be content with luring what he now unjustly contemns as coarse fishes. They will yield him many pleasur- able outings if he approaches their haunts in the proper angling spirit and with the lightest of rod and water gear. I may be pardoned for reproducing a description of one of my chub outings printed over twenty years ago, which I have found in my scrap-book when looking for notes on the chub. It will serve to remind anglers that running waters, even in the most unlikely sections, will be apt to be fruitful of pleasure. For a third of a century I have never visited during the fishing season any place, far or near, without taking my tackle with me, and the occasion described was only one of many where my foresight was rewarded : “ The October days afford pleasant disport with light tackle among the chub, a bony but semi-game fish. Their flesh gets harder, and as the fall months grow upon us they become by no means a bad pan fish, especially when caught in the small and narrow brooks that well out from innumerable springs in the meadows and on the hills of the suburban counties to Philadelphia. Hardly a stream of ten feet width but what is full of them, and in waters which they monopolize they reach ten to fifteen inches in length, and may be called sprightly surface feeders. In waters of this character the chub are only to be caught in numbers with the fly, as here they are as wary and scary a creature as ever a fin floated. We are especially alluding to streams where they seem to have shouldered out every other kind of fish but their own ilk. Even the omnipresent“sunny” in waters familiar to us, has been crowded out, and where we have found this to happen the chub have grown and flourished beyond the scope of any fishing memo. ever made by us. We remember a little illustrative incident that occurred some five years ago while on a flying visit to our family, who were housed but not homed at a farm-house in the lower part of Chester County in this State. We were making our first visit, leaving the city on Friday for a . 78 THE KINGFISH, RB OR WHITING. Menticirrhus nebulosus. Specimen (weight, 1 lb.) caught and painted at North Long Branch, N. J. Umb tarril Reproduced in fac-simile by ARMSTRONG & CO., Cam- bridge, Mass. WA Copyright, 1894, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. The Kingfish, Whiting, or Barb - Menticirrhus nebulosus, they QUIN Copyright, 1894, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS, The Kingfish, Whiting, or Barb or Barb - Menticirrhus nebulosus, - . stilling PS THE CARPS. a sojourn until Monday, and, as it has been our custom, which we cannot reform if we tried, to take our bundle of light rods and fly-book with us wherever our steps tended, we landed beneath the capacious porch armed and equipped for fishing. As our family kiss was being distributed, we were somewhat startled and even dismayed upon hearing : La, pop! why if he hisn't going to fish, is he? There be’n't a fish this side of the Delaware, is they?' “We looked and saw a pleasant but odd-featured old dame, whose best quality—and one she prided herself upon-was plain, outspoken talk, at least so we were told as soon as the season of marital conference and confidence came in. “To cut our story short, we started out with the children the next morning after breakfast on our hunt for fish, after being duly informed that 'thar war nothing but mud-dabblers in the creek.' We found the creek to be a ditch, and passed on, learning from our two boys that a little stream ran through the meadows and woods about a mile from the farm-house. This brook we found to be from ten to fifteen feet wide, the waters of which were quite cold, and about three feet in depth in the deepest pools. Approaching its banks not a fin could be seen, except here and there a tadpole wriggling itself into the mud. Passing along to the next opening in the dense brush that lined the banks, we halted about twenty feet from the margin of the stream, and flung a black-and-red hackle clean and clear upon the tail of a little rapid that gurgled over the stones in the middle of the brook, sub- siding in a sand-bottomed pool below. Instantly the water seemed to be alive with jumping fish, and we landed two, taking care to kill them above the pool, and hiding ourselves behind a bush as we did so. We found our fish to be fine firm - fleshed chubs, one of eight and one of eleven inches. We fished until noon, repeating our first experience, and had our large creel well filled with about four dozen chubs, none of which rated less than eight, and some as high as fourteen inches in length. Our readers can picture the astonishment of our farmer hosts when the fish were spread upon the grass for inspection. We remember but one remark, and that came from the matter-of-fact old lady: 'I declare, pop, if he hain't got a mess! Never seed the like afore! 'Nuff for breakfast, ain't it, pop?' * We went down to that old farm every Friday for a month with like success, and we halt not in affirming that our many mountain trips for trout and journeys for bass on our two noble rivers, the Schuylkill and Delaware, yielded no greater pleasure than we gathered from those virgin chub waters. Our experience can be duplicated by any angler, on any small stream easily reached in an hour from Philadelphia.” Chub will take a lure of almost any description when offered them under proper conditions- grasshoppers, earthworms, pastes of flour and honey, cereals, ripe berries, cherries, grubs, raw meat, trolling-spoons, live minnows, etc. ; all are serviceable. Being of the carp—carp-like-except in superiority of flavor as a table fish, nothing comes amiss to them, but this gluttony is condoned by their rising freely to surface lures, particularly to the artificial fly, which in clear running water they prefer to any other lure, and like the trout, they rise viciously, at times, in the swift rushing waters of rapids against the seething currents of which they poise motionless and breast swiftly without apparent effort. Their first surge when hooked is fully as strong and fierce as that of a trout, but they succumb more quickly, and unlike fontinalis, when brought to creel, they do not struggle when being unhooked. I have had a pound trout, which when netted, lay relaxed and motionless in the net, apparently a dead fish; but when taken in the hand to be put into the basket, their muscular contortions were such that I could only by a great effort hold them. In this partic- ular no other fish known to me is equal to the trout except, perhaps, small specimens of the man- grove snappers and cavalli or jack. In the spawning season the chub builds mounds of stones and pebbles near the banks or in the little bays, and lay their eggs thereon. At such times they are as fierce in attack as a parent black bass, and will seize angrily any foreign matter that passes over or falls on their beds. It is then when their flesh is flaccid and unfit for table use they become an easy prey to the foraging pot-hunter. Being somewhat leather-mouthed, the chub can be “yanked out” to the taste of the meat-fisher. These fish are not particular as to form or color of artificial flies, but 666 a 79 THE CARPS. rise freely to any dressed on No. 4 to No. 12 hooks. But every angler has his pet theories on this subject, and one from Canada writes me that a fly with a green head and brown wings is a sure killer. Another believes that hackles--black, red, brown, and yellow—are most serviceable; but it is at the outlet of Canandaigua Lake (N. Y.) that fly-fishing for chub is reduced to an exact science, and one of the most accomplished and ardent anglers of that section, Dr. C. T. Mitchell, wrote me on the subject : “They seem to take almost any kind of fly on some days, then again you cannot tempt them to rise, except to the best selection. The fly I get most on is the gray miller, which has gray turkey wings, white hackle, red tail and white chenele body (large), on a No. 4 hook. The largest chub, and the only one of that size, I ever caught was seventeen inches in length and weighed one and a half pounds. I prefer those from eight to ten inches long, for, when fried nicely, the little bones are not noticed. These fish are biting freely now (September 26th), and I usually get from fifteen to thirty in two or three hours fishing, say from 3 to 6 p. m. I use a very light rod and silk enamelled line, gut leader with three flies, each differently dressed." In April, 1883, that sterling gentleman and accomplished angler, David W. Cross, now de- ceased and formerly of Cleveland, Ohio, at my request wrote an article on Minnows as Bait,' which was published in THE AMERICAN ANGLER, thus supplying a long-felt want on the subject. I now reproduce Mr. Cross' communication, with such slight alteration as recent changes in classifi- cation and nomenclature of the minnows have made necessary : 3 a a There are times in the experience of every angler, when not all the flies in his book, nor all his skill in casting them, will be rewarded by a single rise. Why, nobody, it is believed, has been able to tell. It may be because the fish are seeking other kinds of food than flies. They may be looking after minnows, or, possibly, worms, helgramites, or crayfish. May it not follow, then, that if any or all of these baits should be offered them, with the same knowledge of their habits, and the same skill in casting that the expert fly-caster brings to his aid, we should oftener return with a full creel and a fullness of joy, instead of an empty one and a sober countenance? Most people will tell us that bait-fishing is not just the right thing, but that fly-fishing is. But they never tell you what difference it makes to the poor trout or bass, whether a false fly inveigled him through the arts of a skillful caster, or a minnow on a chalk line in the hands of an old fogy.” What are we seeking ? Recreation, sport and trout,” you answer. Well, recreation comes all the same, whether flies or baits be used. Pray tell us what can be the difference in the sport, after the fish is hooked (the same kind of tackle being used), whether it was done by the lure of a fly or minnow? If both methods afford equal skill and equal sport, why not place them on equally popular grounds? Now it is of little use to write or talk about the minnows to old fishermen (the boy-fishermen will continue to jerk as he always has jerked them out, flying, with his pin-hook and bait), unless the anglers can find some use for them. Gen. R. U. Sherman, Secretary of the N. Y. State Fish Commission, writing to me from the lodge of that sportsman's paradise, Bisby Park, in the North Woods” of New York, said : “We have several lakes and ponds well stocked with large trout, where, if you fancy, you can sling flies all day to your heart's content. You will probably take no fish, but then you can have the satisfactory reflection that you have spent your time in a sportsman-like manner, and not after the manner of the old fogy pot hunters. Our fishing at this season in these lakes is wholly at the baited buoys, and our tackle simply good-sized drop-lines, hooks about number four, baited with minnows. I am old-fashioned in my notions about fishing, and think a trout looks handsome flopping around in my boat, although it may have been captured with a bait.” Here we find (and that friend found at the extreme end of his angling skill) that the minnow bait and the baited buoys would do the business when the fly utterly failed. It was of daily record at Bisby Lodge that the catch of Bisby trout at the several buoys gave an abundant supply for the table and its numerous and hungry guests by bait fishing alone. If, then, it be conceded that minnows have a position which the angler is bound to respect, their character and their use to fish and fishermen may not be uninteresting, and as this essay is 80 THE WEAKFISH OR SQUETEAGUE. Cynoscion regale. Specimen (weight, 3 lbs.) caught and painted at North Cm Harris Reproduced in fac-simile by ARMSTRONG & CO., Cam- I Lichte Long Branch, N. J. bridge, Mass. Copyright, 1894, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. The Weakfish or Squeteague - Cynoscion regale. OMLET OP IL Fitrie Copyright, 1894, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS The Weakfish or Squeteague – Cynoscion regale. BILET OP Prow THE CARPS. limited to their uses to fish and fishermen, only those minnows well known to the angler, and widely distributed throughout the United States, will be particularly noticed. The minnows (such as are usually preferred by anglers for bait), are classed under the following heads: No. 1. Hadropterus aspro—(Cope & Jordan).—Black-sided Darter.—Body sub-cylindric ; back gibbous ; abdomen rectilinear; scales rough ; apparently hectagonal body banded behind the pectorals with seven or eight white zones, spotted with orange, the intervening spaces green; an orange stripe beneath the pectoral fins on the side of the body. Length, two to three inches. It is preferred for bait to common minnows. No. 2. Etheostoma maculatum (Kirtland)—The Trout Darter. -Body flattish, tapering gradually to the tail. Head narrow, compressed, jaws equal. Back and head olive and black. Sides and abdomen sea-green, with from twelve to twenty carmine dots near X, 13; P. 14; V., i, 5; A. 17; C. 22. Length, two and one-fourth inches, median line. D. THE RED BELLIED MINNOW.-Chrosomus crythrogaster. No. 3 Diplesion blennioides-(Rafinesque)— The Green-Sided Darter.-Body elongate; head small; snout rounded ; mouth small ; lower jaw shorter ; some brown spots on the back, and several brown with transverse lines across the lateral line, which is straight, but rising at the base. D. XV, 13; P. 1, 6; B. 2-9 ; C. 13. Length, two to three inches. For still fishing this minnow is attractive. No. 4. Eucalia inconstans (Kirtland)—STICKLE BACK.-Olive or black upon the back; faintly maculated with olive upon its sides ; throat and abdomen yellowish or white; five or six movable spines in front of the dorsal fin; body smooth. D. 5; 5, 9-12; V. 1; A. 1,9. Length, two and one-half inches. No. 5. Leuciscus elongatus (Kirtland).-Red sides; color of the back sky-blue; edged below with a gilt band-below this an interrupted black band extending from the point of the upper jaw to the tail, passing through the iris of the eye, but broken by a carmine stripe above the end or the ventrals; sides and belly silvery ; body elongated, slim ; dorsal high ; caudal deeply forked. D. 8; P. —; A. 9; C. 20. Length, three inches. This is a hardy minnow and a great favorite among anglers for trout and bass, especially in casting ( STORERS MINNOW. THE GOLD SHINER. No. 6. Hybobsis dissimilis-(Kirtland)-SPOTTED SHINER. --Black, brownish, or olive; belt of gilt along the lateral line, with about twelve blueish dots which enlarge toward the tail ; an ocherous band runs along the back, which is faintly marked with dark spots. Abdomen white and silvery; fins pale, slightly marked with dark tints. Head flat between the eyes ; nose prominent; lower lip slightly fleshy and projecting. D., 8 or 9; A., 7; C., 20. Length, 42 inches. No. 7. Hybobsis kentuckiensis (Rafinesque)—THE HORNED CHUB.-Length, six inches. Olive and blueish above the median line. Fins orange, tinged with ferruginous; a black spot at the base of the caudal fin; vermillion dot behind each eye. The head of the males thickly studded with spines during the spring season. No. 8. Semotilus atromaculatus (Mitchill)—CHUB, DACE.— Above, dark olive green, with a broad and dark longitudinal band extending from the gill-covers to the tail. Flanks golden yellow, beneath silvery white. Head deep brownish black. Dorsal fin with a dark spot at the anterior portion of its base. Black, anterior to the dorsal, with a depression in the vertebral line. Lips fleshy. D. 9; P. 15; V. 9; A. 9; C. 20. Length, 5 to 1o inches. They are abundant in almost every brook and river. During the spring the heads of the males are spinous and tuberculated. These minnows are used more generally than any other for bait in every place. During winter, they are frequently taken in great numbers through a hole in the ice, and fishing with a small hook baited with fish, beef or pork. At that season they are excellent pan-fish. 81 - NO. DOmamas antragantar Baimset NS-Two Tonginimal man sies on the sites space between the stripes siivery and we women witte, sal siest with time in some specimens, im ers the winnile surface of the abiem is bright carmine. Fieni Short D25-2.5:5: C. Lengti su inches Most streams swarm with this minnow, especially from April to July. After that time, Thaving spawmed, they lose their bright colors and collect in deeper waters. They are highly prized as a bait for trout and bass. INO. ID. Limanis nusadzus ci-Gon Sams-Bacisih, with shing with one yediowisit scelles Gill covets gulistiem, sm when the scales are of the blank is egentlig inged with an ambite. Dersal ani zibilominal certimas cumes 1.9:P.17:4.13: C Lang 3 > - inches This lively, handsome fish rises to the fly and is a troublesome fish to the fly caster for trout; but it affords good sport to the boy angler with his pin and minnow hook, and is highly prized by fishermen as a valuable kind of bait for bass and pickerel. ND. II. MT925 sill - Sags Wakenis animem com the Tank and heat white and serta tine sities, and operatium siomalliset muhameemism the base of the head to the cautal fin and involves the late Freits posterior half: Therezin tühistami z delicate in armistismallisist in the potete of the alaman. Mouth, diagonal: eres large D. P. 15 to 20 W. 9: 1 9: C. Length is This mümmom is common in all permanent streams and extensively used for baiting trout, bass, pike, pickerel, mascalonge and eels by anglers who love the sport of catching fish more than the fun of merely casting for them without a rise. NO. I. Ivana ZDLES Kret— Ss Wack and wer sunne of the Thy and heat olivaceus sissiert and of brilliant metallic sce, with a misin muni estening the wine length of the laterale peciteall an entral is yellow - mal white and translucent, sunt is projecting begumiste muneris comes in ont of the cursele Ties free canteil acute D. 9:25:59: 9: C. 33. Lengin eigin its "They are very prolific, and in midsummer vast numbers of the young swarm in the still waters of bays and the mouths of rivers and will rise to the surface (as will also most minnows) at , might when a strong light is thrown upon the water. They are very tender, but make an attractive bait for bass and pike still-fishing- IND.13. Pimedulas namelis Raimss Dameter come fourth of the lengrtii; Thondig is silvery, blackish sont tous- cated and with so mans, tos wit sit-ins with angeregular man stat its anterie these in eight foredrags, and come simple, sitter obtusse, hard anal with exit szysateral ime fistins ami musei an the base: tail limmatet. Length these inches. Ratinssone speaks of it ases- tremely rare. Hiss eomm in Ohio ami master waters IND. TH Umma Krimi - Bonummis cogienic, fustine, Silingitiliy qurmessed thehind the dorsal ami amal Firs. dark above, inregiilarity wzme with Sus imeguiar Srese un amicom the Indig met die lese of the cautial fm D.13.P. - V-3: A 10; C.14. Lengin, thee incites. Very rare and very tenacious of life. A good bait, but too rare to be in much use. Most of these minnoms are well known to the angler, and enter largely into his programme for inveigling the mary big tromt, ravenous bass and voracious pike, to bite, and then by "applied science“ reducing them to possession Various modes by various anglers are adopted in hooking on the live minnow. The kind and manner of fishing should be taken into account in hooking them on. If you are old and lazy enough to fish with a float (nemer is with one-it robs you of that indescribable electric thrill with 82 THE CARPS. which the bite strikes you), then it is a good way to run your hook just under the skin beneath the dorsal fin. (See plate No. 11.] In this way the minnow will move about lively, be very attractive, and live a long time, unless, happily, “chawed up” by the three-pound bass you are fishing for. It is claimed that the best way to hook a minnow for trolling and casting is to pass the hook up through both lips, as shown in plate No. 8. This is endorsed by a long line of expert bass fishers who practice casting for that noble and game fish in the Detroit River, and on the St. Clair Flats especially. Other ways of hooking, as exhibited in the several plates, have long been practiced, and have met with great favor and success in still-fishing, and casting with rod and line, where the water is only moderately swift, and small minnows are used. The mode practiced by Dame Juliana Berners, as far back as A. D. 1496, no doubt would work well now, especially if the manner of inserting the snood and pulling it through were reversed, so that the minnow, when drawn through the water, would move head first, instead of tail first, as shown in plate No. 16. The trout, bass and other fish that feed on the minnow will almost invariably seize hold of the head, particularly if the minnow should be a large one. This fact, no doubt well known to the good Dame, may have determined her in adopting the “tail first” process of trolling the minnow. This is what she says: “And for to take hym (a ‘pyke') ye shall do thus: Take a codlynge hoke, and take a roche or a fresh heeryng and a wyre wyth a hole in the ende, and put it in at the mouthe and out at the tayle downe by the ridge of the fresh heeryng; and then put the lyne (snood) of your hoke in after and drawe the hoke into the cheke of ye fresh heeryng.” There are some, no doubt, who have started out at mature age full-fledged anglers; but most of us have the thrilling pleasure of recalling the excitement of jerking out our first minnow with a pin-hook. The minnow pool is in fact the nursery of anglers. There is just enough of the savage inbred in us all to glory and revel in the capture and death struggles of our enemies. All boys who have pointed an arrow at a bird, or dropped their pin-hook into a stream, look upon the bird and minnow as an enemy to be captured. Herein is the angler's starting point. But in riper years when education and refinement, the love of nature and all her sublime teachings, have eliminated the savage from their hearts, they grow stronger in their devotion to the sports of the rod and the field, while they become in their deportment as tender and plastic as a woman. They study nature for the love of it. They see the wise hand of Providence in the gorgeous forests and the living streams, in the prolific minnow and the voracious trout and bass that feed and fatten on them. Insect and minnow life are sure to be utilized in feeding the game fish and birds in which the sportsman so much delights. Were it otherwise, insect and minnow life might become an appal- ling nuisance, and game and food fish and birds might be sadly depleted. The minnow as food for other and larger fish to feed, grow and fatten upon, plays a very important part in the economy of nature. What would become of the bass and the trout If it weren't for the minnows a-swimming about? “Gone, for want of food,” would be written on the gravestone of our memories of them. Did you ever see a big trout or bass in the act of gorging himself with minnows? Of course, you have; and it was a sight to be remembered. They dart at a single minnow or a school of them with lightning rapidity, causing those they fail to gobble up to leap for life clear out of the water. They will feed thus for two or three hours, and then sulk away in some secluded nook. Three or four hours of repose follow, during which no lure, however dainty, will tempt them; and then again they are up and at it. This we know from various observations and experiments. May it not account for those mysterious occasions which every angler has noted, “when the fish won't bite." The mascalonge, pike, pickerel, perch, catfish, eel, and the gamy bass and trout, make their main dinner on the minnow, as the worm, grub, helgramite, crayfish, fly and little frog are only side-dishes. When the black bass are feeding on minnows, during a tolerably still time in Septem- ber or October, on the reefs and rocky shoals near the islands of Lake Erie, the leaping of the minnows attracts large flocks of the beautiful terns (a small species of the gull). And what is very 83 THE CARPS. curious, the terns hover over the water in the form of a funnel, and seem instinctively to move around so as to bring the birds that form the nozzle of the funnel right over where the minnows jump out of the water, driven by the bass. Instantly the birds nearest to the water seize the little jumpers, and then take their place at the top of the funnel-shaped flock, giving the next birds in their order a chance to go through the same proceeding. The observing angler is ever on the watch for this apparently equitable “turn and turn about” of the terns, and when discovered makes a straight wake for that locality, and then and there, almost invariably, when the live minnow is used for bait (the fly and the spoon will also do good execution), will “fill up" with sport and fish. To show that minnows rise to a light, and that fish will feed on them at night, the following singular facts are given: About thirty years ago, while fishing for catfish on a dock at Cleveland, in front of the grain elevator of M. B. Scott, near the mouth of Cuyahoga River, in the month of June or July, a catfish hook became hitched and the line tangled on the side of a raft moored at the dock. A light was procured and held close to the water during the slow process of disengaging the hook and unsnarling the line. While this was going on, the little minnows, which at that season swarmed in the river, began to assemble in large numbers and whirl around where the light was most reflected upon the water. This was observed, and excited a great deal of curiosity; but the surprise and interest were intensified when a large black bass was seen to rise to the surface, near the mass of rotating minnows, back water with his fins and tail for a moment, and then with a sudden dart jump at the school of minnows, gobble up a big mouthful, and as suddenly disappear! “ That might be the mere result of favorable circumstances.” To test the truth of this thought, our now excited catfisher let the light stand and watched what further would come of it. He had not long to wait, for presently a large wall-eyed pike rose up, lay still for a second or two, and then made a dart for the minnows similarly to the bass. Soon another came, and then another, in rapid succession. This was enough. The catfisher at once determined on capturing nobler game, and the next day busied himself in collecting and making materials for the coming sport. He procured a capacious, low-sided, flat-bottomed boat of the old ferryman Demars, and anchored it securely to the same dock. Two canal-boat lamps, with bright reflectors, were fastened upon boards placed athwart the boat, so as to cast a blaze of light for several feet near the boat's side. He then had two light pine rods made, about six feet long, one inch at the butt, and truly tapering to one-half inch at the tip. Six large-sized, long-shanked hooks (such as are used for Mackinaw trout), three for each shaft, were procured; the shanks heated and bent back at right angles, one-fourth inch from the upper end, and the bent ends inserted in holes bored in the small end of the shaft at equal distances apart, so as to show a hook capable of hooking in any direction the shaft might be sharply drawn against any object, and the hooks firmly secured to their places by winding around the shanks and the pole a small copper wire. With one of these contrivances in the hands of his old friend and brother bass and catfisher, Hon. Samuel B. Prentiss, and the other in his own, the two repaired to the river, a little after dark, lighted the lamps, and between hope and doubt waited for results. “I see one!” exclaimed the Judge, excitedly, pointing his gaff toward a long dark object in the dim margin of the light. “Jerk him out, quick, or he will jump for a mouthful of minnows and be gone." (The bright lights had already collected a swarm of minnows.) “Run your gaff-hooks under him and jerk up sharply. Ha! ha! well done! a fine two-pound bass. Shake him off quickly; there is another on a a your side." Instantly the water flew, as the Judge deftly threw another large bass into the boat. Then followed, as chance favored each, pike after pike, and bass after bass, with many misses, many losses, and roars of laughter, until the boat was nearly full, the night nearly spent, and the excite- ment flagging through sheer fatigue. A few nights later the same experiment was repeated by the same parties in the same way, with the addition of F. W. Bingham armed with another gaff, which resulted in great sport, from the novelty of it and the many ludicrous incidents that followed. From that day to this it is be- lieved that no such experiment has been repeated. 84 --- Specimen (weight 3 lbs.) caught and painted at North Long Branch, N.J. REPRODUCED IN FAC SIMILE BY ARMSTRONG &CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS Come Atarris The Spanish Mackerel. Scomberomorus maculatus. godl Flow Copyright, 1896, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS THE CARPS. Minnows may readily be caught in small nets, made of foundation muslin, such as is used for making mosquito bars, fastened to two rods about five feet long, so as to make quite a bag in the center, using a strong cord above and below, and leading the lower end of the net, by stringing on to the cord bullets with holes bored through them, or sheet lead wound on, about two inches apart. With this net, in a small stream, properly manipulated by the upper ends of the two poles, it will be nothing but fun to fill your minnow pail. Great trouble has been experienced by anglers in conveying minnows alive for any consider- able length of time, or any great distance, without slopping the water all over the vehicle and losing half of them. The subjoined device has been used for years by the writer, and has proved a complete remedy for these troubles. This improvement over the common straight-sided, double minnow pail consists of the following points: The outside pail is much wider at the bottom than the top, while the inside one is straight up and down. The latter is perforated with small holes in the top, bottom and sides, and is one and one-half inches shorter than the outside pail. It has a flat lid, which, when shut, is securely fastened by a nut turned under the projecting margin around the cover, making the hole, when open, just large enough to insert your hand easily. The cover of the outside pail is oval, and also punctured full of holes to let in the air. The sides being on a slant, and the inside pail one and one-half inches shorter than the outside one, when carried by hand or jostled around in a carriage, the water will strike the sides at such an angle as to fall back into the bucket, instead of slopping over through the holes in the upper cover. No matter how rough the road, scarcely a drop will swash out. The motion given to the water tends to aerate it, and prolong the life of the minnows without a change of water, as long as such motion is kept up. From the ordinary pail, if left open, the water will slop out, and the minnows will soon die unless more water is added. If closed up, the minnows will die for want of air, although the cover may be full of holes. This pail may be made smaller than the dimensions above given when used in fishing streams without a boat. They should be made of the very best of block tin, and before used covered with two coats of shellac varnish put on when the tin is heated quite hot. This will keep the pails from rusting for many years. One pail of the above size will hold about a hundred minnows, and if the water be aerated, changed, or a small lump of ice introduced, they will live in it several days. THE CROSS MINNOW PAIL. In addition to the above-named bait, minnows, the young of nearly all species of fish and hundreds of other forms of adult minnows, are serviceable as bait. The much-mooted question: “Do black bass eat young shad ?” so hotly discussed during 1880–85, by anglers and fish-culturists, was settled affirmatively by my own experience at Havre De Grace at the mouth of the Susque- hanna, where I found in the early days of November that the young shad was the most attractive lure for the black bass, which fish when feeding will take live bait of any kind, not excepting its own young, and the same may be said of all our so-called game-fishes, including the trout and salmon, the latter only, however, in the estuaries, according to English authorities. Dr. Barton W. Evermann writes me that he has successfully used on the St. Lawrence river and Lake Ontario, particularly from Sackett's Harbor to Ogdensburg, the shiner, described on another page as Notropis hudsonius, and the common baits for mascalonge in that region are the blunt-nosed minnow, Pime- phales notatus, the silverfin, Notropis whipplii, and the stone-roller, already described at length. In Spirit Lake, Iowa, the trout-perch, Percopsis guttatus, is also considered a most excellent lure for pike, pickerel and black bass. Insignificant in size as is the little cyprinoid, called in Maryland and Virginia “the gudgeon," it has been from the earliest settlement of those States an object of eager pursuit by the resident fishermen. A similar condition exists at the present time in England, and “ weigh-in day"at the London angling clubs often shows that a catch of gudgeons wins the much-coveted high- ) 85 THE CARPS. a more, wrote me: hook award. But the gudgeon of Europe, though one of the smallest fishes caught on the rod, is not identical with the American fish, except in its exquisite savor; zoologically considered, we have no true gudgeon in our waters. The foreign fish, Gobio fluviatilis, is, however, also a cyprinoid, grows to a length of ten inches, has distinct barbels or feelers, but is found only in fresh, clear waters. The American fish has no barbels, never grows larger than nine inches, and is caught in greatest numbers in brackish waters and a short distance above tide-water, in the spring of the year. I have taken them in my school-boy days by the gross, when fishing from the wharves in Baltimore, on a minnow-hook baited with small pieces of earthworms. In this connection Mr. A. F. Dresel, of Balti- “Our gudgeon is caught in the fresh-water streams in the vicinity of Baltimore from April to June, when they ascend from salt water to spawn. In the fall and winter months they are caught in the brackish waters near the mouths of rivers, and are undoubtedly larger in such waters than in fresh. They are, therefore, anadromous, and should go in your list of such fishes.” The attraction of gudgeon-fishing seems to grow among Maryland and Virginia anglers ; with them, as it should be among all good members of the craft, the delicacy and flavor of this fish, when properly cooked, increase the pleasure of catching them. The capture, except as a casual or incidental experience, of fishes that are unfit for the table, is justly considered as unsportsmanlike; it is destroying life for the pleasure of killing something. The true angler will carry his better nature to the waters, and on his way thereto will lift his heel for fear of crushing a creeping insect, and take the hook tenderly from the mouth of an unsavory or undesirable fish, and gently return it to the water to fulfill the purpose of its creation—that of food for predatory fishes, which in turn are devoured by their stronger, fiercer, and less procreative congeners. If this law of nature ceased its operation, the waters of the earth would become matter composed of decayed fish-forms causing disease and death. Thus we see in the cosmos of Providence conditions which are repugnant to our sympathies, but necessary to our existence. We feel effects, endeavor with our feeble powers to find the causes thereof, and, despite our elation at being God's elect in intellect, drift rudderless and helpless on the sea of human fallibility. The angler, when wading a mountain stream or alone on a secluded lake or salt-water channel-way, is more apt to be impressed with such influences than a denizen of bricks and mortar. His environment, with its dense solitude, that seems almost tan- gible to the touch, begets such thoughts, and feeble are the sensibilities of the man in whom wonder and wor orship do not arise when thus communing with nature. Under such conditions it is but a step from agnosticism to Christian faith. The gudgeon, like its greater kindred, the carp and the chub, is an historic fish, and has been the theme of writers for many centuries. Ovid, in the first century, wrote of it as a "slippery” fish; Ausonius, 450 B. C., said it was fat and savory; Walton, in 1653 A. D., has a good word for it as a table-fish, and other old English writers, including Shakespeare, have taken the gudgeon as synonym for a man easily cheated and ensnared." This, because when hungry the gudgeon seizes the bait greedily, but the derivation weakens in application when we consider that this fish must be fished for with extremely delicate tackle and with care not to disturb the feeding shoals of fish. The American gudgeon, under consideration, is a varietal form (H. regium) of the silvery or smelt minnow, Hybognathus nuchale. It is the largest of the species, and is said to be found only in Maryland and Virginia waters; possibly, however, according to Professor Cope, in the Susque- hanna and Delaware rivers. The most striking difference between it and the typical fish (nuchale) is its deeper body and larger eye. Its color is greenish above the lateral line, getting paler below, with a broad silvery band on the sides. It has eight rays in the dorsal and anal fins, and nine in the ventral fin. The lower jaw is shorter than, and fits into, the upper. The gudgeons swim in large shoals, and at times are taken in great numbers. A small min- now-hook must be used, and it should be baited with a minute piece of earthworm ; at times these fish will take greedily anything in the shape of flesh-bait, and many anglers use small pieces of raw beef with success. As a rule, quill floats form a part of the delicate gudgeon-tackle, but the more practiced rodsters prefer to feel the thrill of the pluck of even so small a fish as the gudgeon, rather than the gratification at seeing the dip of the float when the little cyprinoid is taking the bait. 66 Τ 86 IL Petria Specimen (weight lb.) caught and painted at Jamaica Bay, Long Island, N. Y. REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE BY ARMSTRONG &CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS Me Amb Otarred The Porgee, or Scup, Stenotomus chrysops. Copyright, 1895, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS 19 THE CARPS. Colonel F. G. Skinner, the veteran angler, field sportsman and dilettante, now deceased, wrote me some years ago from “the Relay," a great resort of the gudgeon-fishers of Baltimore and Wash- ington. He describes, con amore, the scene presented by these anglers when fishing for their favorite fish : “Your passed grand masters of the gentle art, the aristocrats of the rod and reel who capture the lordly salmon in the Canadian rivers, and who cast their flies upon the remote waters of the Aroostook and the Nepigon, may look with lofty disdain upon their humble brethren who find enjoy- ment in angling with earthworms and gentles for so diminutive a fish as a gudgeon, and yet the annual run of these little fishes in the Patapsco, Gwyn's Falls and Stemmer's Run, small streams in close vicinity to Baltimore, is looked forward to by thousands of people of all ages, from the gray- headed grandsire to youngsters not yet in their teens, with anticipations of delight. * The gudgeon, like the swallow and the bluebird, is the harbinger of spring, and as he annually returns to his natal stream, the trees on its banks assume their vernal covering of tender green, the starlike blossoms of the dogwood glitter through the woods, and the wild flowers bloom forth as if to welcome his coming. * When the announcement so eagerly looked for is made, “The gudgeons are running!' pater- familias and his boys prepare the simple tackle and dig the worms, while the good wife fills the ample lunch-basket; the young folks, boys and girls, pass sleepless nights in anticipation of the coming Saturday, when, released from the discipline of the school-room, they can make a raid on the gudgeons which swarm in incredible numbers in all the adjacent streams. · As I sat in the early morning at my window in that most delightful of all county inns, the Revere,' at the Relay on the B. & O. R. R., and looked with wonder on the crowd of people of every age and condition who descended from the cars laden with rods and creels and corpulent baskets and hampers-prophetic of good cheer-and witnessed the eager rush made for the stream to secure points of vantage, or favorite rocks from which to cast their lines; noted the absence of vulgar rudeness in the scramble for good places; but why should there have been rudeness—did they not all belong to the gentle brotherhood ?–I descended to breakfast with the complacent feeling that I, too, belonged to that eager, but gentle brotherhood of anglers. With an appetite strengthened by the pure, brisk morning air, I fairly devoured the crisp and golden gudgeons served hot and hot' on the bountiful board. And here I beg to be excused for a short digression which the educated gourmet will appreciate. “ The ever-to-be-lamented Brillat Savarin, the greatest of connoisseurs in gastrology, and our own renowned Sam Ward, who seems to have inherited the Savarin inantle, both agree, that, simple as it may appear, the process of frying with oil, lard or butter is one of the most delicate within the whole range of culinary art. The sacrilegious scullions—the curse of our country—who profane a divine art by pretending to be cooks, will serve you up a fish or a potato sodden with indigestible grease; these wretches are totally ignorant of the philosophy of frying, which consists in simply cooking your fish or vegetable through the medium of lard or oil heated to the maximum which the fire can impart. The universally popular potato-chips, crisp and golden, so dry as not to soil a kid - glove, are fried by placing them, not in a pan, but in a wire cage which, with its contents, is dipped into boiling lard and withdrawn as soon as the desired color is attained. The 'chef' of mine host, Leach, of the Revere, is an artist; he gilds his fish in boiling lard, and like his immortal predecessor, Vatel, he would commit suicide rather than soak his fish or potatoes in melted grease, as is the fashion with the bog-trotting Biddys who rule our American kitchens. With a young-lady companion I strolled along the picturesque banks of the stream and wit- nessed the fishing, and truly it was a novel spectacle, reminding one rather of the gay and noisy Corso during a Roman carnival, than of an assemblage of silent, contemplative anglers. For a mile on either bank of the stream were groups of men, women and children, pulling up the little silver- sided fish as fast as they could throw in. The silence was perpetually broken by the joyous shouts of some urchin who had made a double capture. Perched on the rocks as far away from the crowd as they could get, were the old men, the veteran gudgeon-fishers of the Monumental City, who, from boyhood to old age had made regular annual pilgrimages to the gudgeon-streams, and thought it a day lost when they captured less than fifty dozen of the shiners. These old fellows, because of their 66 87 THE CARPS. apparent unsociability, were irreverently dubbed 'curmudgeons' by my witty school-girl com- panion, but she was astonished that same evening at the hotel on hearing one of them sing with great pathos and sweetness that fine old Scotch song, Lovely young Jessie, the flower of Dumblain'-- the young lady bears herself the sweet name of Jessie.” I have been somewhat puzzled to identify the typical fish among the many so-called “roaches” of American waters. Several of the recognized chubs have the local name of “roach," and the three names-chub, roach, dace—are used very generally for one and the same fish, but the roach of my boyhood outings was the fish now most commonly called the golden shiner or bream, and I find, from investigation, that this is the fish that Norris, and other early American writers on angling, designated as the roach. In appearance it resembles more the bream of Europe, and it bears that name generally among the resident fishermen south of the State of Maryland. It ranges from New England to Minnesota and southward, and grows to a foot in length and a weight of one and a half pounds, and, as will be seen by the drawing given, it resembles the shad in shape, and may be readily known by its long anal fin which contains from thirteen to fifteen rays. Abramis crysoleucas is the scientific name of the roach-Abramis, an old term for the bream, and the specific name from two Greek words signifying “gold” and “ white.” It is of a beautiful THE ROACH OR GOLDEN SHINER. green color on the upper parts of the body, with silvery sides and bright golden reflections; the fins are yellowish, and the tops of the lower ones slightly orange in the breeding males. In the rivers of the South Atlantic States, where it is abundant, a varietal form occurs, Abramis crysoleucas bosci which also grows to a length of twelve inches, but may be known from the typical fish described above by its larger scales and longer anal fin. Its color is pale olive with a silvery luster, and its dorsal fin is short and shaped like a sickle. Another form, A. gardoneus, is said by Jordan and Evermann to be probably a hybrid between A. crysoleucas and some other fish. It has ten dorsal and nine anal rays, and by this peculiarity it can be readily distinguished from the above-named forms, as both of them have eight dorsal and from thirteen to fifteen anal rays. As only one speci- men of this form is known, however, it is not likely that it will be often met with by the angler. Fishing for roach is not indulged in as a pastime by American anglers. It is a boy's fish, one that excites the incipient taste for angling during the pin-hook and minny” days. It is unfit to eat until the frost-months set in, and although caught sometimes in quantities, when one is fly- casting for black bass, it is looked upon as a pest. In late October and November it is a good pan- fish, and when taken, as it often is, through the ice, its flesh is savory and fleecy. It should be fished for with extremely light tackle, and the float should be discarded, although every English and Ameri- can writer on roach-fishing advised, and some of them still do so, that a quill float should be used in roach-fishing, because they assert this fish to be a very delicate biter, a fact which upsets their theory 88 THE CARPS. a a and practice; all experienced anglers have found that they can “ strike” quicker and with greater success on feeling the “pluck” of a fish, than they can after seeing the motion of the float, and that the resistance of the tip of a light, springy rod to the pull of a small fish is no greater, particularly if a good angler has charge of it, than is made by the float, however light it may be. "Uncle Thad” Norris, the Walton of America, was very fond of roach-fishing. No bright day in winter, forty years ago, found him absent from the old pier at Gray's Ferry bridge, on the Schuyl- kill river. He fished through the ice, using reversed bristle snoods on a half-dozen hooks, baited with whitewood-worms, and line leaded with half-ounce sinker. So constant was his attendance, and so careless of his person when fishing, that he was familiarly called “Old Mud” by the bridge- tenders and ferry-men. The fishing on Norris' favorite ground is a thing of the past, as it has been entirely destroyed by the coal-tar from the gas-works and oil-refineries which have spoiled the fishing in the tide-water of the Schuylkill. The baits used in roach-fishing are as various as those that lure the carp; they are: earth- worms, barley, soaked wheat, berries, and best of all, writes an English angler, small pieces of the ripe banana, on the point of a No. 12 or 14 hook. They certainly rise freely to the artificial fly. The United States Fish Commission some years ago imported the tench, Tinca tinca, and this fish has been introduced into the Potomac river and other waters. It is closely allied to the carp, and will, doubtless, be found to be equally valueless as a rodfish and table-fish. It is, however, one of the most interesting fishes in American waters; its maximum of growth and flavor of flesh மாமனாரா கனாவனா BORSE WANI THE TENCH. are in dispute; its power of healing the ills of fish, and even of man, has been asserted—" the touch of tenches ” being held to be efficacious in curing the wounds on fish and sickness in the human invalid. That most voracious of our fresh-water tigers, the pike, it is said, will not eat him, a fact observed by some modern English anglers and those of the era of Walton; the latter writes that the pike "for- bears to devour him, be he never so hungry.” Keene, in his “Practical Fisherman," writing in 1881, says: “I, myself, know of a complete cure of a bad case of jaundice by the agency of a tench. The fish was split open and the inside and backbone taken out; it was then tied over the region of the liver, and in three days the cure was almost perfect. The tench was found dyed a complete greenish- yellow hue on being taken off.” It has been deemed beneficial in case of headache if applied alive to the brow; if planted on the nape of the neck, it is said to relieve inflammation of the eyes, and Rhondeletius tells us he saw a miraculous recovery from fever by the application of a tench to a sick man's foot. Apparently, the tench is esteemed by its fish congeners for its medicinal attributes, and several of the old writers believed that the thick slime with which this fish is en- coated, had a healing power. Its body is almost entirely free from fungous and other diseases, and Camden states that he has seen "pike's paunches opened with a knife to show their fatness, and presently the wide gashes and wounds came together by touch of tenches, and with their glutinous slime perfectly healed up.” Finally, Wright, in his “ Fishes and Fishing,” states that he was an eye- " witness to seeing a wounded minnow in an aquarium, immediately after being gashed in the nose by 89 THE CARPS. a hook in the hands of a clumsy attendant, descend to mid-water in the aquarium, poise himself for a moment with his nose downward, " then swiftly swum and rubbed the wound against the side of a tench which was at the bottom of the tank. Immediately the little fish became as frisky as ever.” Many more records of the miraculous powers of this fish could be cited, but they would only show the facility with which old writers on fish and fishing, became mythologists when writing about an animal, the life of which is spent in an element practically impervious to the human eye. All of these interesting and curious stories are of value, chiefly because they illustrate how difficult it is for the human mind to attribute observed results to the proper causes. The maximum weight of the tench is in dispute; one of eleven pounds is recorded in “Daniels Rural Sports,” but an average of three pounds has been adjudged a fair estimate, and one of five is considered exceptionally large in English waters. It is probable that, like the imported carp, the tench will find extremely favorable growth-conditions with us, and grow as the carp has, beyond all weight-records. It finds a congenial habitat in all waters that suit the carp; in fact, in England these two fish are, with sparse exceptions, always found living together. The coloration of the tench is golden-green on the head, sides and cheeks, darker on the upper part of the body, the belly being of orange and the iris of the eye red and orange; the fins are dark. The coloration varies in these fish as it does in many others, deepening or becoming paler in different waters, although it prefers sluggish, foul water of considerable depth. It is of the mud, muddy, and such seems to be the consensus of opinion as to its table qualities, which can be improved, however, by allowing the fish to scour itself for some days in clear running water. It is taken on similar tackle and lures as are used in the capture of carp. 90 90), p3 Specimen (weight i lb.) caught and painted at North Long Branch, N. J. REPRODUCED IN FAC SIMILE BY ARMSTRONO&CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS Amb Dravid The Blackfish or Tautog. Tautoga onitis. Copyright, 1896, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. GAME low THE BONEFISH OR LADYFISH. -а An earnest discussion has recently taken place among anglers as to the proper classification of the so-called bonefish or ladyfish, particularly the one taken, most frequently, in Biscayne Bay, Florida. This perplexity is caused, in part, by the existence and general use of the same common or popular name for two widely differentiated fish. I have passed many winters in Florida, and have, doubtless, caught more than a thousand of the so-called “ladyfish or bonefish,” and in 1895 my companion, Mr. J. L. Petrie, the artist, painted a portrait of one, in oils, before its life-colors had faded, on examination of which it was plain to see that it was not the true bonefish, Albula vulpes, although so-called on both coasts of Florida. It was a full brother of the tarpon-a big-eyed her- ring, Elops saurus, a fish that has many of the physical markings of the silver king, and some of its game qualities when restrained by the rod. That the angler may, on sight, distinguish one from the other, illustrations of both are given. Upon examination of a captured fish, it will be seen that the true bonefish, A. vulpes, has fifteen rays in the dorsal fin and eight in the anal, and the ladyfish, or more properly the big-eyed herring, E. saurus, has twenty rays in the dorsal and thirteen in the anal fin. The first-named fish is much stouter in build, has large scales and is brilliantly silvery in color, shading into olive on the back with faint streaks along the rows of scales. The big-eyed her- ring has much smaller scales, is also of a bright, silvery coloration, but in lieu of the olivaceous shading above the lateral line and on the back, which occurs in the true bonefish, there is a distinct but soft bluish-green coloration extending from the shoulder to the fleshy part of the tail. It is difficult to ascertain from the articles appearing from time to time in the sportsman's journals, on the capture of the ladyfish or bonefish, which of these two fishes the writers are describing, but in most instances they doubtless refer to the big-eyed herring, as the frantic leaps of the fish are described in glowing terms. The Hon. Matthew S. Quay wrote me in 1882 : The bonyfish–I took two of them, two feet in length each, on a spinner at Juniper and one at Punta Rassa. They resemble the herring, except they are narrower in proportion to their length. When hooked, they are as frantic in their leaps as the tarpon.” These fish were certainly the big-eyed herring, E. saurus. The true bonefish does not leap from the water when under the restraint of the line. The bonefish or ladyfish, Albula vulpes-generic name from the Latin, “white;" the specific, also Latin, meaning "fox"—is classed in the order Isospondyli—from two Greek words signifying equal," "vertebra.” In this order we find many other fishes that are taken on hook and line the salmons, trouts, graylings, mooneyes, tarpons, herrings, shad, smelt, whitefishes (cisco), pike, pick- erel and mascalonge. The fishes of this order are characterized by the soft rays in their fins; presence of a flat bone on the upper side of the head; an arch of bone in front of the shoulder; absence of bones in the ear-formation, and the bones in the mouth and in front of the oesophagus are not shaped like a scythe as in the fishes previously described. The true bonefish (Albula vulpes) is the only representative of the family Albulidæ. Its range is stated in the text-books to be from Cape Cod southward to the warm seas, but it has occurred to me that the confusion arising from a similarity of popular names, alluded to above, might possibly have led to error as to range of habitat of this fish. I have examined a specimen of the big-eyed her- ring, wrongly called lady fish, that was caught on a hook in the waters of Princes Bay, Staten Island, but in my familiar personal and editorial intercourse, extending over a quarter of a century, with the ; a W 91 THE LADYFISH OR BONEFISH. а. salt-water fishermen of New York city, ten thousand of whom go a-fishing every week of the season I have never heard of A. vulpes being taken by any of these rodsters. But negative proof is no proof at all, even when reinforced by the fact that no angling-record exists of the true bonefish being caught on the hook in any waters north of Biscayne Bay, Florida, a circumstance which is unusual when we consider that the east and west coasts of that state are annually visited by thousands of eager, intelligent and observant anglers, a few only of whom have caught this fish, and only in Bis- cayne Bay. They at once classed it as the fiercest fighter for its size in southern seas, and in this connection it must be noted that the presence of game qualities in a fish is an assurance that its habits, habitat and physical markings will be studied by the angler who catches it, particularly or THE TRUE BONEFISH (Albula vulpes). when the fish is the first of its species that has fallen to his rod. With this fact before me, I am impelled to question the accuracy of the recorded northern range of the bonefish. But little is known of the angling traits of A. vulpes, although for several years past there has THE BIG-EYED HERRING, LADYFISH OR BONYFISH (Elops saurus). been great interest shown by anglers, in Florida, as to its fighting qualities and habitat. In the winter of '94-'95, a large number of enthusiastic anglers gathered at Naples on the Gulf of Mexico, and none of them had any personal knowledge of this much-talked-about fish. It seems to have fallen to the good fortune of an intelligent and observant, but anonymous writer, to herald its superi- ority as a game-fish. He wrote: “For the past two winters, skillful fishermen among the Northern tourists, whom I knew per- sonally or by reputation among mutual acquaintances, have been reporting with enthusiasm the discovery in Biscayne Bay of a new game-fish which is to surpass all the other ministers to pisca- torial amusements. Some went so far as to say that the tarpon is superseded as the king of fish; as expressed by one of them who kills annually more than fifty tarpon, the tarpon is not in it. Being inflamed by this story of the 'new planet which swims within our ken,' I took a day at Biscayne Bay, returning to-night with three of the fish. 92 THE LADYFISH OR BONEFISH. The bonefish is new to me, and so far as I can ascertain, is taken only in Florida, at Biscayne Bay and probably southward, though as to this I have no information. A guide did tell me that it is abundant in Cuba, where it is called what he pronounced leetha, or “the swift.' “The three specimens taken by my friend and myself, weighed (by estimations) six, five and four pounds respectively. The bait is surf-bugs or sand-fleas, such as are used occasionally on the Jersey coast for sheepshead when that capricious fish declines his ordinary diet. They are taken in the same manner as there, by a scoop or net, or digging with the fingers, when the breaker recedes. “The cast-two hooks No. 7 O'Shaughnessy, above a small sinker and one foot apart—is made seventy feet or more from the boat, along a sandbar, on the rising tide. Three inches of water on the top of the bar are preferable, but the day I was fishing was at the tail end of a 'norther,' and I had to fish the shallow channels next the bar in three or four feet of water. The strike is a slow nibble or mumble, and it requires quickness and discretion to hook the fish. But when he is hooked which is by a sudden, slight motion of the wrist, the aspect of the contest changes from apathy to fierce activity. There is a lightning-like run of perhaps one hundred yards, then a return nearly to the boat, then an equally extensive run which cannot be checked, and then zigzag rushes and flourishes here, there and everywhere until the fish is exhausted, and finally lifted into the boat by the line-no gaffing or other ceremonial; there is no leaping or jumping-all honest fishwork, below the surface and in his own element. I have taken smallmouth bass of similar weight and length, and brook-trout not so large, and they simply do not compare with this fighter. There is no fish (of his class) which can be named with him. They are not in the same category unless it be in beauty. It would be like comparing snipe-shooting with hunting deer. “This fish is round-barrelled and heavy for its size. It has a pointed snout, with mouth under its nose like the hake, which is most erroneously called by New York fishermen kingfish. Its head has no scales, but is covered by a shining silver epidermis. The eye is black and quite large. The scales are large and are closely set on the body, and look like a network of closely compacted silver rings. A most gleaming fish! “The first question asked as to a fish. Is it good to eat?' This one is very good to eat. It has the disadvantage of the best of all fish for the table—the shad-of being full of bones, but the flesh in the intervals is delicious. I like it better than the pompano, and next after the shad.” 93 THE MOONEYES OR GOLDENEYES. Under the family name of Hiodontidæ and the generic one of Hiodon—from two Greek words signifying “bone" and "tooth”—we find the mooneyes, fishes which in some sections, particularly in the northwest, attract the attention of many anglers. There are three species, all of which are handsome fish, but of little value as food, yet they have very fair fighting qualities when taken on a light rod and surface lures. None of them are found in waters east of the Alleghany Mountains. The mooneyes, or goldeneyes as they are popularly called by Northwestern anglers, may be recognized by the golden hue of their big, bright eyes; their shad-like body covered with large, smooth-edged scales; their naked head; short snout; the lower jaw extending upward and fitting in the upper; sharp canine teeth on tongue; straight lateral line; large ventral and strongly forked tail-fin, and large, well-defined nostrils which are placed close together and separated only by a flap. The species most sought by anglers is Hiodon tergisus-specific name from the Latin, “ pol- ished”—which, in addition to the common name of mooneye, is also called the silver bass and THE MOONEYE (Hiodon tergisus). toothed herring. This fish is beautifully colored, its back being olivaceous with blue tints iridescing and the sides glowing in silver sheen. The body is about four and a half times the length of the head, and three times that of the depth of the fish. It has twelve rays in the dorsal and twenty- eight in the anal fin, grows to about fifteen inches in length, and is abundantly found in the Great Lakes, the upper Mississippi Valley, and north to the Assineboine river. Another species (subgenus Amphiodon) is H. alusoides-specific name from the Latin, alosa, “shad," and a Greek word signifying “like.” It may be distinguished from H. tergisus by its shorter snout, narrower dorsal fin (nine rays) and broader anal with its thirty-two rays. The fleshy part of the tail is stouter than that of the first-named fish, and the tail-fin is not so deeply forked. The general color is bluish, the sides silvery with golden lustre. The third species, H. selenops--specific name from two Greek words signifying “moon” and 94 . I. Letnie Specimen (weight 3 lbs.) caught and painted off Catalina Island, Coast of California. REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE BY GEO H. WALKER & CO BOSTON, MASS W6 Sorrid The California Redfish or Fat-head. Pimelometopon pulcher. Copyright, 1898, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. MAI PION THE MOONEYES OR GOLDENEYES. "eye”—is rather scarce and found only in the Cumberland, Tennessee and Alabama rivers and con- fuents. The body is stouter and the belly more round than in the two above-named species. It has twelve dorsal and twenty-seven anal rays. The mooneyes are eager biters and take indiscriminately the feathered lures, small spoons grasshoppers, grubs, and, doubtless, other natural baits. They rise freely to the artificial fly in the early spring months, but seem to disregard them as warm weather approaches, at which time they favor the grasshopper above all other lures. In the waters of Middle Canada they are said to take the artificial fly in the latter part of August, and anglers of that section prize highly the sport of casting for them ; in Canadian waters it is said they leap, when hooked, repeatedly into the air. The favorite flies in use, three in number, are dressed as follows: No. 1. Wings, silver pheasant; body, dark-green floss and silver twist-the latter wide; head, black crewel. This fly can be varied in the following manner: wings, brown mallard or wood- dluck; body, light-green floss, silver twist; tag the same; head, black crewel. No. 2. Wings, brown pigeon; body, bright-yellow floss, silver twist, tag the same; head, black crewel. This fly is varied thus : wings, gray turkey; body the same as the above; no tag; head, black crewel. The bodies of these flies are dressed heavy, and the wings should be selected narrow and made to lie close. They are dressed on No. 3 or 2 Limerick. 95 THE BIG-EYED HERRINGS—THE TARPON. -а In this family, Elopidæ-Elops, a Greek word signifying the “name of some sea-fish”-are in- cluded the tarpons and the big-eyed herring, Elops saurus, to which reference has been made under the chapter-caption of “The Bonefish or Ladyfish,” accompanied by a drawing of the same; a litho- graph, colored as in life, taken from an oil-painting made from at least twenty-five live fish caught and painted at Gordon's Pass, near Naples, on the Gulf of Mexico, is also given. From these illustra- tions, anatomically correct in structure and in coloration, it will be seen that one of the most characteristic features in this fish is its large and brilliant eye. It has an elongated body, the caudal peduncle being unusually long, and the tail-fin deeply forked; the rays number twenty in the dorsal and thirteen in the anal fin. The scales are very small, none on the head, and the number along the lateral line (120) will serve, on sight, to distinguish it from the true bonefish, Albula vulpes (see illustration, page 92), which has an average of only seventy scales on the lateral line. Another pecu- liar formation serves to distinguish E. saurus from the last-named fish-a series of membranous sheaths developed at bases of fins and on other parts of the body. It will also be seen that the gular plate (a bony plate situated on the upper fore neck) is very long and narrow, about three times as long as it is broad. This fish has a very wide distribution, being found in all warm seas, and is very abundant in the Gulf of Mexico, along the east coast of Florida and Texas, and in all tropical waters. It is a straggler north of the Chesapeake, and only found there in the depths of summer. The big-eyed herring has a wealth of popular names-ten-pounder, John Mariggle, ladyfish, bonyfish, Matajuelo Real, chiro, Lisa Francisca, silverfish, silver-shuttle, and horse-mackerel. It is a bottom as well as surface feeder, and when land-breezes prevail, causing the shore-water to be free from floating sand, they come into the inlets or passes of the Florida coast in immense shoals, and at such times will take a surface-lure, artificial or natural, with ferocious greed. I caught, some winters ago, seventy-five on Jock Scott flies tied on No. 4 hooks, during the last half of a flood- tide, and could have doubled the score had I been so inclined. From my own experience it affords more sport than any other fish of its size on the Florida coasts. No sooner is it hooked than it be- gins to throw itself from the water in successive and lofty leaps, then darting round and round the boat, under it and over it until exhausted, or until it escapes by casting out the hook, or cutting the line with its sharp labials. In fact it seems to do most of its acrobatic feats on the tip of its tail. No Reynard of the field ever doubled, leaped and skipped to the dogs in better fashion. The big-eyed herring is esteemed as a table-fish in Bermuda, and in some sections of Florida; the quantity of small bones in its body has created a prejudice, as they do toward all other fishes except the shad, as to its edible qualities, but when cooked fresh from the water, it has a pleasant taste, superior, I think, to the pond-pickerel of our northern waters. It is said to grow to a weight of ten pounds, but I have never seen one that was over five pounds, and the average of those caught on the coasts of Florida will certainly not exceed two pounds. The tarpon or tarpum, Tarpon atlanticus, is the typical representative of the big-eyed her- rings. It is the largest of our so-called game-fishes taken on rod and line, and, with the exception of the jewfish, or warsaw, and the sawfish, the heaviest fish ever killed on the rod. The angler will find no difficulty in identifying this fish, as there exists no other of its size in sub-tropical waters a a 96 THE BIG-EYED HERRINGS-THE TARPON. a with which it might be confused. The long filamentous last ray of the dorsal fin will serve as a sig- nal mark at once, as this formation does not exist in any other fishes except the gizzard-shad or hickory-shad, and in the thread-herring, which, although sometimes found in the same waters as the tarpon, seldom exceed a length of twelve inches. The scale upon the tarpon is another distinguishing mark; it is very large, and I have one in my possession which is nearly three inches in breadth. The outer or exposed portion of each scale is covered with a rich silvery epidermis, and they are highly prized for fancy-work by the curiosity-shop keepers in Florida, who, it is said, pay about fifty cents per dozen for them, and retail them for twenty-five cents apiece. Little is known of the habits of the tarpon. In the St. Johns river, Florida, they appear in June and leave in October, and it is thought they follow the coast-line southward and winter in the lower Florida Keys. In many of the streams of southwest Florida they are said, by the natives and others, to be residents, and do not visit the lower or briny portions of the streams. I observed them frequently in March, 1895, entering the waters of the passes on the first of the flood-tide, returning to the Gulf during the ebb. At such times it is difficult to capture them on the rod, particularly at or near the mouths of passes, for when hooked they persistently rush for the deeper waters of the Gulf, which must be smooth to tempt the angler to venture far from the beach. Mr. Chas. A. Dean, an observant and accomplished angler, wrote me in 1892 : THE TARPON (Tarpon atlanticus). “The theory has prevailed in Florida that in cold weather, when the temperature of the water is lowered, the tarpon go out into deep Gulf waters, but my experience, this January (1892), con- vinces me to the contrary. When no fish could be seen or found near the Gulf, it was in deep pools of brackish water where the fresh water from the river mixes with the tide, that my fish were mostly caught. The water in the rivers is warmer than in the salt bays or passes. Florida rivers run be- tween banks covered with trees and high grass; the sun heats the water and the cold winds do not reach it. My theory is that the tarpon stay in these places, near salt water, until the latter gets warm, and then they run out and scatter. Some, at least, stay in the large rivers all winter, to my knowledge, and if any winter in the Gulf, it cannot be verified by the tarpon-angler.” The tarpon, true to the purer instincts of the nobler game-fishes, delights in the sparkling spring-waters whence many of the rivers of Florida have their sources and I have been told that many of these fish remain in the springs during the entire winter. The range of the tarpon is from the West Indies. northward, occasionally straggling to the New England coast, several specimens having been taken by nets in Long Island Sound and from the ocean at or near Coney Island. In some of the streams of the southwest coast of Florida there are broad and shallow reaches of water, the bottom being covered with a dense growth of grass. The tarpon enter the grass and approach the shore as closely as possible without exposing their backs, their object being appar- ently to bask in the sunshine. If a boat should approach close enough to disturb them, they rush for the deep water with lightning-like rapidity. When in deeper water they do not take fright easily, as I have stood on the beach at Gordon's Pass and observed them feeding within twenty feet of my position, rolling out of the water much like a porpoise when leisurely feeding. At other times 97 THE BIG-EYED HERRINGS—THE TARPONS. © THE LEAP OF THE TARPON. I have observed the tarpon sportively leaping into the air as if in play, very similar to the actions of a shoal of black bass, who appear now and then to take an outing unto themselves when the gloam- ing comes on. At such times these fish are indifferent to lures of any kind. Should one of either species, however, be hooked and held, others of their ilk seem to be attracted, the tarpon rising to the surface and showing their resplendent backs. A black bass will seize the disengaged fly, par- ticularly if it be the end one, and the angler is always sure of making a double catch of bronze- backers, if the one that is first hooked is allowed to surge around for a brief period. The above- described trait of the tarpon has been observed by many anglers at Fort Myers, Fla. The tarpon is said to spawn in the latter part of May and to continue in the act until about June 15, but we have no definite knowledge of its habits in this respect. Baby tarpon of one and a half pounds have been taken with the artificial fly, but their age when of this size is only conjectural. At certain seasons this fish is more resplendent in coloration than at others, which analogically which analogically would indicate the approach of the spawning-season, were it not that the tarpon when “fresh-run” from the ocean, like the salmon in more northern seas, has a brilliancy of color-tints which fade when the fish reaches the shallows of the bays and the fresh water of the spring-fed streams. In June they sometimes gather in great shoals often numbering two to three hundred, and are then seen sculling leisurely around and around with their high top-gallant dorsal rays sticking out of the water. When thus acting they present every appearance of a shoal of fishes in the act of spawning; the mullet of Florida, and doubtle-s other species when spawning, swim in concentrie circles. The sailor's name for this fish, by which it is also known at Key West, Bermuda, Brunswick, Georgia and elsewhere, is tarpum. In Georgia and in some parts of Florida, it is called the jewfish, a confusing local name which is duplicated in the case of the big perch-like "jewfish,” found in the same waters as the tarpon. It is the grande-écaille (large-scale) or “gran-dy-kye” as it is sometimes spelled and pronounced, and the "savanilla” of Texas. Mr. S. C. Clarke, of Marietta, Ga., claims that this fish should be called the "tarpom,” and gave his reasons therefor in a letter to The American Angler, in 1884. He wrote: “I write the name of this fish with a final «m,' *tarpom,' because the earliest writers on the fishes of Florida, Romans, for instance, so spelled the name, and because the Minorcan fishermen of St Augustine still call it tarpom or tarpum. I had been hearing of this fish for many years in Florida waters, often seeing it, before I heard it called, tarpon.'” Eleven years ago much discussion arose among anglers as to the existence of lungs in the tarpon. It was asserted that it was a warm-blooded fish because it TARPON SCALE (NATURAL SIZE). was known to rise to the surface and blow," as the whalemen term it, hence it required more air than o'her. gill-fishes, and that traces of true lung-formation were found in the air-bladder, all of which seemed to the disputants to substantiate the claim that the tarpon was less cold blooded than its congeners of the southern seas. It was argued that its high aerial leaps and intelligent attempts to free itself, when hooked, indicated a higher degree of development than exists in many other fishes, particu- larly those of salt water. During this earnest discussion among the craft, Mr. W. H. Wood, of New York, wrote me, in 1885, from Punta Rassa, Fla.: " I have seen thousands of these fish come up to the surface of the water to take, as it appeared to me, a mouthful of air, but until my last prospecting expedition I never heard them make a dis- "1" In The 14 tipi til 1 14 Wita 16 1 "6141011 119 he life Will //lall MI Willy IIVIT il ly n de a TAKEN FROM A FISH WEIGHING 168 LBS. 98 be I. L Tetrie Specimen (weight 2 lbs.) caught and painted at Alturas Lake, Idaho. REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE BY GEO H. WALKER & CO BOSTON, MASS The Sacramento Pike, Squaw's-fish or Yellow belly. Ptychocheilus oregonensis. Copyright, 1898, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. INTRE Tone U16 Dard THE BIG-EYED HERRINGS-THE TARPON. tinct breathing-sound. This only instance was from a tarpon which came up to the surface, head toward me, being about thirty-five feet away, he making the distinct sounds of blowing out air and drawing in air, exactly like the porpoise. Perhaps this is not always done, for I have seen fish come up and take the mouthful of air, and after they had gone under I could trace them for a hundred feet or more by means of the bubbles of air that escaped. May it not be that generally the air is gradually expended from the air-chamber, and when empty the fish comes to the surface only to fill the same again? “That these lungs are used for breathing is, I take it, pretty well established. Among many examples is the fish I took season before last, which, during about an hour after he had given up leaping, was swimming partly under my boat and towing it stern first. This fish, about every five minutes, would turn slowly to one side from under the boat, scarcely changing his course, and come slowly and steadily to the surface of the water, and, as I then thought, take a mouthful of fresh air to pass through the gills, in addition to the air subtracted by the gills from the water, and then slowly swim down to his former place partly under the boat, not an inch of line taken in or let out, but everything under a strong strain. This fish, no doubt, came up to breathe, though I did not distinctly hear the blowing out or drawing in of the air. He seemed stronger at the end than at the beginning of the hour. My observations are that they come up about each half-hour when undisturbed.” Notwithstanding these interesting observations of Mr. Wood, the tarpon does not possess a true lung. Like nearly all others of the great group of isospondylous fishes, it has the air-bladder well-developed, with a pneumatic duct opening from it into the mouth. In the tarpon this duct is quite long, and the air-bladder is profusely supplied with blood vessels, a fact which has doubtless misled Mr. Wood and others as to its lung-formation. Dr. Barton W. Evermann, of the United States Fish Commission, writes me in this connection: " It should hardly be called a lung, and the fish is no more nearly warm-blooded than a sucker or any other fish. The air-bladder is very lung-like also in the gar-pikes and the like.” Dr. Günther, the English ichthyologist, in his “ Study of Fishes,” covers the entire field of in- quiry on this subject. He states: The air-bladder, one of the most characteristic organs of fishes, is a hollow sac, formed of several tunics, containing gas, situated in the abdominal cavity, but without the peritoneal sac, entirely closed or communicating by a duct with the intestinal tract. Being compressible, its special functions consist of altering the specific gravity of the fish or in changing the center of gravity. In a few fishes it assumes the function of the organ of higher vertebrates, of which it is the homologue - viz., of a lung.” The leaps of the tarpon, when restrained by the line, are a grand acrobatic exhibition, and are, in fact, the source of the attraction by which anglers are led to pursue this great fish. When he ceases to vault into the air, the contest with him on the rod levels to the plane of fishing for shark, sawfish or jewfish, monster water-denizens whose capture simply exhibits the individual prowess of the rodster -a combat of muscles. But exact as this statement surely is, the leap of the tarpon is a thrilling sight, and is apt to create an electric pulsation in the holder of the rod; it is the grandest sight that ever fired the eye of an angler. The magnificent fish, over six feet long, with his gleaming coat of molten silver, shoots into the bright sunshine with a full foot of daylight showing between the tip of his tail and the seething foam of his wake! Look at him as he, dog-like, shakes his mail-clad head to void the hook, and then slides back into the water, only to gather momentum for yet more furi- ous leaps and plunges and mad throes of desperate combat! Look at him as he makes the waters boil and surge until they glitter and sparkle like his own unrivalled panoply of resplendent armor, in his vain efforts to escape from the trifle of thread, which vibrates perilously between his huge jaws, and the yielding tip of your rod one hundred and fifty feet away! Of such is the delight and excitement in tarpon-fishing. Reports, trending upon the marvellous, come to us about the height and compass of the leap of the tarpon. Dr. J. C. Kenworthy, to whom is due the credit of being the first to bring the tarpon as a great game-fish to the notice of American anglers, writing under the nom de plume of “ Al Fresco," stated that he had seen tarpon frequently jump eight feet perpendicularly from the water, repeating the act on one occasion fifteen times, leaving the water fully eight feet each time. a a 99 THE BIG-EYED HIERRINGS-THE TARPON. steamer“ -а He also reported that on another outing he had a large tarpon seize the bait and then jump, landing at least twenty-five feet from the point of departure. Again he writes that the captain of the Water Lily” a St. John's river boat, was seated on the forward deck when a small tarpon (62 lbs.) jumped over the guard of the boat and landed in the captain's lap, “knocking him head over heels." But those reports, unquestionably truthful, pale before the one printed in the Houston Post and vouched for by an angler of Velasco, Texas: · As the steam-tug Mollie Mohr was coming up the river from the jetties this morning, she ran through a school of tarpon about half a mile below the city. Three of these huge fish leaped clear across the tug's forward deck, one of them narrowly missing Tom Ross's head, the second struck the cabin near where Captain Marshall and a fireman were standing, and made a dent as large as a man's fist in the hard wood. The third struck and bent an iron drift-bolt half an inch in diameter, and glancing off hit Wm. Schunfield between the shoulders, knocking him senseless; in fact, it was thought for a time he had been killed, and it will be some time before he will be able to resume work." I have never seen a tarpon leap higher than about eight feet, that is, allowing six and a half feet as the length of the fish, I have seen them in the air with from one to two feet intervening be- tween the tip of the tail and the surface of the water. But I had an experience, novel and interesting, some years ago in Florida which convinced me that this fish relies entirely upon his strategic leaps to free himself from the hook. One day, at Gordon's Pass, I was fishing with light tackle and min- now-lure in the hope of taking a cavalli, when the bait was taken by a large tarpon, which, as is usual when they feel the slightest impact of the steel or restraint of the line, cavorted into the air within twenty feet of the beach upon which I stood. He frantically repeated his vaulting at least six times, shaking his head vigorously as he rushed seaward, although the line was broken and hung slack from the tip of the rod when his first jump was made a clear case of buck- or rather hook- ever, on the part of fish. It is authentically stated that the tarpon will leap at the sail of a boat, particularly on moonlight nights, if the sail be new and bright, and Texan anglers report that at such times they will take the mullet-bait greedily. The table qualities of the flesh of the tarpon are in dispute, conflicting opinions having been placed on record during the last twelve years. Jordan and Gilbert, in their “Synopsis of the Fishes of North America,” state that it is excellent eating; Professor G. Brown Goode, in his “American Fishes,” says: “It is rarely or never eaten in the United States, its flesh being dry and bony." Dr. J. C. Kenworthy, corresponding with “The American Angler," wrote some years ago : Possessing ichthyophagous tendencies, I resolved upon determining this matter and cut some steaks from a specimen tarpon weighing 128 lbs. I had them fried, and upon testing them I arrived at the conclusion that as an edible fish the tarpon rates next to the pompano. To me it resembles a spring chicken in flavor. Several gentlemen tasted the fish and confirmed my opinion. Since that time the flesh of this fish has been sold in this market (Jacksonville, Fla.) at ten cents per pound. The flesh is very tender and of a light walnut-tint.” Another correspondent writes: “I consider the tarpon good eating and think the time will come when it will figure on Fulton Market stalls.” The Mexicans consider the tarpon excellent eat- ing and the Spaniards and negroes of that country salt them for winter use and eat them with relish. Mr. W. H. Wood wrote me : Their edible qualities are fairly good. I have eaten of a number of them, and may say that the grain of the flesh is fine; the color indescribable, but may be said to be somewhat similar to that of the shade of a light black walnut. I jokingly called it a wine-jelly color; the flesh in the sunlight is partly translucent; the flavor is somewhat meaty and oily, but not unpalatable; it turns to a cream-color when fried. I have not tasted it boiled. It is eaten by inost of the alongshore sailors.” In summing up, it may be well to state that although I have seen hundreds of tarpon brought in and displayed on hotel-porches as trophies of angling skill, none of them, with one exception and that to satisfy the curiosity of a non-fisherman, have ever been used as food, a fact which goes far to demonstrate the undesirableness of the tarpon for the table; were it otherwise the average Boni- face of Florida would undoubtedly have utilized the fish. Notwithstanding the distaste that prevails for the flesh of the tarpon, it is a choice feeder, ap- 66 a I OO THE BIG-EYED HERRINGS-THE TARPON. W a parently preferring crustacean food to any other. It is often seen in January, February and March on or near the oyster-beds, where it is evidently seeking small crabs and other and smaller crusta- ceans, for when hooked near these localities it nearly always ejects these creatures from its mouth in its effort to void the hook. The tarpon is also a voracious feeder on live mullet and other fishes, but will eject a dead natural lure of any kind, if in the least tainted or impure. The largest tarpon ever taken on rod and reel, was captured by two Texan anglers who made affidavits to the weight of the fish, which was slightly over 209 lbs; the next-largest was one killed by Mrs, Stagg, of Frankfort, Ky., whose fish weighed 205 lbs. Several of 185 and 190 lbs. have also been captured, the average weight, however, will not exceed one hundred pounds. While no tarpon exceeding 209 lbs. has been taken on rod and line, much larger ones are reported as being killed with the harpoon and the weight of these fish should not be disputed on slight grounds, when we consider the abnormal and enormous weight which fish, under favorable conditions, often attain. The San- ford, Fla., Journal reported a tarpon caught at Punta Gorda, a few years ago, weighing 383 lbs; this was looked upon by the anglers of the county as out-pointing Munchausen. But the weight of this great fish was nearly paralleled by the one seen and bought by Captain Willard, now of Homassa, Fla. The captain many years ago owned or controlled a fish-manure factory on Sarasota Bay, Fla., and bought from the resident fishermen any and all fish irrespective of species, and one day a negro brought him a tarpon which weighed 362 lbs. Captain Willard told me at the time, some ten years ago, that his books would give the date and verify the weight and purchase of the fish. Manure- factories of this character have been abolished in Florida for many years. On Thursday, April 18, 1885, an epoch occurred in the history of the art of angling fully as eventful and important as when the Atlantic salmon was found, many years ago, to take an artificial fly. On the day named, William H. Wood, of this city, captured the first tarpon ever taken on rod and reel with natural bait and by scientific methods. It is true that several fish of this species had been captured by the hand-line or trolling-line, but these were accidental occurrences, and several years had intervened between the dates of capture. The tarpon was for many years as much dreaded on the hook as the shark, and its capture more despaired by the angler who chanced to become fast to one of them. Its enormous and fre- quent leaps from the water, and the muscular energy with which it shook the hook from its mouth, rendered its capture beyond the reach of the experienced angler. It is now as easily brought within reach of the gaff as a thirty-pound striped bass. William H. Wood was a worthy exponent of old Seth Green's doctrine of using common sense in fishing. He thought out the subject of tarpon-catching before he stepped aboard the steamer bound for the South. He had heard that the tarpon on the hook invariably shook the steel from its jaws; hence—here the common sense comes in—when the fish took the bait and moved off with it, slack line should be given, as anglers of the North do when pike or pickerel, and, under certain con- ditions, black bass, take the natural bait. He determined to “pay out” line when the tarpon drew away with the bait, before he struck the hook into the fish. This done, the steel would be sunken into the gullet of the fish, and the wild shake of the head and the desperate leaps and surges would be powerless to free it. It was on these lines that Mr. Wood captured his first tarpon, and the rules he laid down in this city, eleven years ago, and more than a thousand miles from his ultimate quarry, are still followed by all successful tarpon-anglers. The young angler who essays for the first time this lordly fish, will know him at once by his overcoat of molten silver and the long filamentous ray of the dorsal fin, which at times may be seen protruding from the water when the fish is on the shallows or swimming near the surface. When he leaps from the water, the veriest tyro cannot mistake the fish; he looks like a streak of light, the sun's rays strike the scales, and the fish seems to sparkle and blaze. Fishing for tarpon may be termed composite angling, for a tarpon-rodster should be master not only of the methods of handling salmon, but also of those employed in killing a striped bass on the rod—the salmon and the tarpon are leapers—the striped bass and the tarpon are desperate surgers. From these conditions arises the tyro's difficulty in handling and bringing the tarpon successfully to the gaff. The rod should be a stiff one, from six to seven feet long, with enough “give and take" quality a ΙΟΙ THE BIG-EYED HERRINGS—THE TARPON. about it to respond to the action of the fish. It can be made of any approved wood, but one made of strong natural bamboo, in one piece, with enlarged handle or butt, and fitted with guides and a tip- ring, is to be preferred. The reel should be at least ten inches from the butt-end of the rod. The line used is the ordinary standard Cuttyhunk linen line of Nos. 15 to 21, which should stand a breaking- test of at least thirty pounds. A good striped-bass reel should be used-one known as 3-0 or 4-0, holding five to six hundred feet of line. Have a leather guard sewed to one of the bars of the reel. Soft linen or cotton snells about the diameter of an ordinary lead-pencil, and about three feet in length, are effective, as they are seldom cut by the plates of a tarpon's mouth, and when severed by a shark, sawfish, or jewfish, the loss is small and much time is saved in getting rid of foul fish so easily and cheaply. Take plenty of snoods with you. The hooks should be the 10-0 O'Shaughnessy, either knobbed or ringeyed. The size and construction of the gaff is important; it should be made not less than five inches in diameter, of the best steel, and then attached to a handle of ash, hickory, or other tough wood of about 1 1-2 inches in diameter, with a hole bored in the hand-end, through which a lanyard may be riven if desired. Provide yourself with heavy thumbpieces, and always test your tackle before using it. With such an outfit, and with that inseparable factor of angling-success-a marvelous patience -you may chance to kill a tarpon every day, or, more likely, one in a week's fishing, but your score will depend much upon the month in which you seek them—the later the better. April is a good month, but May a more fruitful one. Fishing for tarpon has been aptly likened unto sitting all day in a Turkish bath watching a string, and that is often enough just what it amounts to. Your luck will be of the most spasmodic character. Days upon days will pass by in waiting for “the draw” that comes not; but your time will not be altogether spiritless, for the shark, the jewfish, and the sawfish will enliven and discomfort your soul by inroads upon your tackle and amiability. Upon anchoring, your first act will be to make a two-handed cast from the reel of fifty to seventy-five feet (or more if you wish or can) of line. The least distance named is required to place the boat out of sight or hearing of the fish, and to avoid its first leaps, which are often furious and wild. After making the cast, place your rod across the thwarts of the boat, and still holding the reel- end of the line, coil at least twenty-five feet of it upon the deck-board, or seat, which should be en- tirely free from obstructions. The line should then be overhauled, so that it will run off freest toward the hook. After this is done, wait, wait, wait; it may be one minute or it may be a week of minutes before you feel a tarpon "draw.” To relieve the monotony you may divert yourself by a little “chum- ming," if you chance to see evidences of tarpon coming in toward their feeding-grounds, on the edge of which your boat is presumably anchored. This chumming is not like what is done in the North for bluefish and large weakfish. The mullet you use will not create “a slick," as this fish in the spring or late winter months is not sufficiently fat or oily to do so, and if it was, it would be no attraction to the tarpon, which is a bottom feeder; hence all the chumming that is required is simply to cut the waste portions of your mullet into small bits and throw them as far as possible from the boat, and in the direction from which the fish are thought likely to come. After waiting an indefinite time, you may see the coil of your line running out swiftly but evenly, and you then know that the bait has been lifted from the bottom and a large fish is going with it, possibly a tarpon, or it may be a shark. Be it either, you will take things calmly, see that all is clear for the line, and soak your thumbstall over the side of the boat. A moment more, when the line is entirely out, you will spring the steel into the fish, and presto! all doubts are solved. It is the Silver King, high-vaulting monarch of the magnolia-seas! You know him by his shield of hammered silver, and by the wavy sheen of sunlit pearl on his back. Up with the anchor! Now comes the tug of war. Steady as you go. Let him earn every inch of line. Keep, if you can, a five- a pound pressure on him, for the steel is imbedded in his throat, and that ferocious, rabid shake of the head cannot free it from the flesh. Mark! Now he is again in the air, six feet to a millimeter! Can your rod and line stand it? If so, give him the butt with both hands, not too fiercely, but with all your strength, just at the moment he is at the maximum height of his aerial flight, and you will bring him flat upon his side. If this is well done, and just at the right moment, with proper force, you will take the breath out of the giant, and render him helpless at your command. Failing to make this movement effective, the lordly fish will take “the bit in his mouth," and you are subject to IO2 太​基​汉学 ​S. L. Petrea Specimen (weight: b.) caught and painted at Naples, Gulf of Mexico REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILE BY ARMSTRONG & CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS The Striped Mullet, Mugil brasiliensis Copyright, 1897. by WILLIAM. C. HARRIS, Amb Harris GAN THE BIG-EYED HERRINGS-THE TARPON. a an hour or more of long, powerful, sullen surges before you can bring him to gaff. The highest reach of angling skill is to kill your tarpon, not in the water, but in the air. Finally, let your fish tow the boat; never row against him ; hold your rod well up in playing your fish; do not fear "holding too hard”; do not let your boatman gaff the fish until it shows exhaustion; gaff the fish in the gills or throat-latch. The foregoing notes describe but imperfectly the skilled methods of tarpon-fishing. A volume has been written and has not exhausted the subject, and the scope of the work before me does not include, or permit space for, a treatise on angling as applied to each species of fish. The angler will not be apt to expect a historical or sentimental element as existing in the rec- ords of this great vaulter of the seas. The grayling, or the umber of the old monks, is the poetic fish of the craft; the trout is the type of beauty among fishes, and has been heralded as such from time immemorial, and even the history of the carp is year-worn, although barren of sentimental interest. But it falls to the tarpon to possess a heraldry studded with gems of splendor through all the pre- historic ages, and the chronicler thereof is Mr. Charles Hallock, the accomplished author and stu- dent of nature. He wrote me in 1885: “ Last summer I showed samples of some tarpon-scales to the Indians of Montana, by whom they are highly prized as ornaments; but so seldom are they seen, and so little are they known, that even the possession of such is traditional. It is said that in the pre-historic era, wealth scarcely sufficed to purchase a single one; for not only were the scales valued for their rarity and beauty, but for their extraordinary talismanic powers. Indeed, they were regarded as the key to all the joys of heaven, as well as to the full fruition of the earth. Some such legend as the following is still preserved among the River Crows. I transcribe it from a manuscript now in the hands of C. H. Barstow, at the Crow Agency. It runs in this wise :- Many creations ago, when the salt ocean covered all the surface of the Great Plains, and the Rocky Mountain range formed the shore-line of the primitive continent-long before any land- animals existed except reptiles—the Great Spirit had constituted the tarpon-fish the great Silver King, and appointed him to be the guardian of the then undiscovered vast ore-beds of silver which fill the mountain crags. He clothed him with silver armor-plates, and made him ruler over all the anadromous fishes which came up out of the salt-water estuaries into the limpid fresh-water moun- tain streams to spawn. Once in every century the Silver King was permitted to bathe in an electro- thermal medicine-spring of liquid silver, and thus preserved and renewed the brightness of his The silver springs flowed from the hidden ore-beds of the inner mountains. « « Finally, the growth of the continent southward drove the ocean before it, and thus the tarpon —the Silver King-was forced gradually into the Gulf of Mexico, where he now chiefly inhabits. He has gone from his former haunts, just like the buffalo, which once covered the prairies; and the great silver-mines, being thus left unprotected and exposed, soon became revealed to the knowledge and cupidity of the men who are now swarming more than ever into the country, bringing their picks and crushers and driving off the game. But the Great Spirit took pity on the Silver King be- cause he was thus deprived of his ward and heritage, and because he could no more renew his armor by bathing in the silver spring; and so he made him an everlasting coat of silver mail, which never fades or wears off, either in the water or out of it. It will neither dim nor tarnish. Any Indian brave who wears the scales of the tarpon on his person will possess a medicine which will ever be to him a talisman of good fortune, both in this world and in the spirit-land to come. Plenty will surround him long after the buffalo have ceased to run. To the above Mr. Hallock adds a postscript in which he says: “Now this is certainly a very ingenious yarn, but I am free to say that I take no stock in it. I don't believe a word of it. It looks very much as if somebody had mining-claims to sell in the Indian Reservation, and had set up the tarpon to catch gudgeons. Some paleontologists may read it differently, and fancy they discover a glimmer of the early Christian light shining through the darkness of barbarism. The legend may seem to be symbolic of the armor of faith which one must put on and keep bright in this life in order to experience beatitude hereafter. It is sad to destroy such an illusion by a doubt, but the truth is, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the true light from the phosphorescence of decayed fish." armor. 103 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. The herrings, Clupeidæ, are estimated to be more numerous in individuals than any other family of fishes. They consist of thirty genera and one hundred and fifty species which are spread over the waters of the temperate and tropical zones. Commercially they are the most important of the food-fishes and in the economy of nature seem to have been created for one purpose only—to be eaten. They supply the tables of the rich and poor in nearly every quarter of the globe, and millions of millions of them serve as food for countless shoals of marauding bluefish, cod, pollock, striped bass and weakfish, their savage foes, but more valued as table-fish. Thus we see a compensatory distribution by natural laws, ceaseless in operation, of which man receives the benefit. Remove THE COMMON HERRING (Clupea harengus). the herring from the waters of the earth and our choice table-fish would disappear from the market-stalls, The pursuit of no other fish gives so great employment to labor or yields so bounteous a harvest. Billions of herring are caught annually by the net-fishermen of the North Sea and the Atlantic, and about fifty millions of pounds are taken annually, in favorable years, on the eastern coast of the United States. Extravagant as these estimates seem to be, they can readily be believed when we consider that two or three millions of herrings are contained in one shoal covering six square miles, and much-larger schools are on record. Of all migratory fishes the herrings seem to be most erratic or capricious in their movements. Professor Spencer F. Baird wrote of them : “They sometimes frequent a portion of the European coast for many successive years, and then abandon it gradually or suddenly, presenting themselves usually at the same season in some far-remote locality. Sometimes a wind blowing on-shore will favor their inward migration; at other times it appears to have a directly opposite effect. Even when they reach the portion of the coast for which they are bound, the facilities of their capture depend upon meteorological conditions.” Pursued as the herring are, incessantly, by their ferocious hostiles, among which, exclusive of those above-named, are the fin-whales, the sharks and the dolphins, as well as those of the air, the gannets, fish-hawks and the larger gulls, the sudden appearance of their enemies in numbers or a persistent pursuit by them so long as their victims remain to be devoured, would seem to explain, in 104 THE UNSPOTTED MASCALONGE OF WISCONSIN. Lucius masquinongy-Jordan. Weight, 14 lbs. Specimen caught in Big Fork Lake, Wis., by Umb Barried Painted by J. L. PETRIE. OF GARTE Powe MW OF H Pay C THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. en CRAB OR a measure, at least, not only the sudden disappearance of the herring, but their entire abandonment of a predetermined line of migration, inshore or outward, also their sudden departure from waters where every facility existed to net them. Experienced salt-water anglers, without exception, have frequently observed analogous instances of the instantaneous disappearance of the weakfish and other species without apparent cause, and have for hours fished fruitlessly in a tide that yielded bounteously during the early part of their outings; they could not account for change of luck, until a big dogfish chanced to be boated or the dorsal fin of a shark was seen cutting the surface of the water near the boat. It is a matter of angling-record that when dogfish, bluefish or sharks frequent weakfish-waters or a porpoise is seen rolling in the outer surf, it is time for the angler to reel up his line and depart. Another experience of anglers, both of fresh and salt waters, would seem to be ap- plicable in this connection. Their old and best fishing-grounds in some years become suddenly barren of fish-swims that had always yielded bounteously to the rod, and the experienced angler at once seeks for the reason therefor and finds it in the evident exhaustion or disappearance of the food, crustacean, or otherwise, that attracted the larger fish. When the natural exhaustion of the food- supply is not apparent, the changed conditions can be accounted for, mainly, through storms that THE ALEWIFE OR BRANCH-HERRING, FEMALE (Culpea pseudoharengus). create great tidal sweeps, piling sand-heaps in waters where none existed, forming new sand-bars, cutting deep channel-ways or sweeping away the big growths of water-grass that formerly sheltered the shrimps and other food-animals of the fish sought by the angler, who finds, every year, analogous causes producing similar though modified results along his favorite trout-streams and in the larger lacustrine waters, though less strongly marked, where the pursuit of the black bass, the pike and other game-fish is followed. From my own somewhat extended experience as an angler I could cite scores of instances where, in both fresh and salt water, the sudden appearance or disappearance of the so-called game-fish and their apparently erratic movements could be accounted for with as little satisfaction as in the case of the herrings in their broader field of migrations. In the absence of positive knowledge I have been content in the belief that fish, like men, seek conditions that will give them the greatest amount of comfort in life—where the best supply of food, with the least exertion, can be obtained; where they will be most secure from danger or annoyance and where the best health-producing elements exist. Therefore the condition of the food-supply, the presence or absence of their enemies, the demands of their spawning-instincts, and the temperature of the water are the impelling factors of what we call instinct in fishes, which is only another name for inherited reason, and to these we can look confidently for explanations of their actions. 105 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. Much uncertainty prevails as to the range of the herring. The theory accepted for many years that they started from their home in the polar seas, then came southward like a great armada, separating into lesser bodies, each trending shoreward for spawning purposes, which, being accom- plished, the fish returned to their arctic habitat to recuperate, is now exploded, it being irreconcila- ble, as Professor Huxley aptly states, with the fact that herring are found in the stomach of the cod- fish all the year around. The uncertainty which exists concerning the migration of this fish will, THE GLUT-HERRING, FEMALE (Clupea æstivalis). probably, never be removed, as it has not yet been definitely ascertained whether the herring is a sur- face or deep-water fish. They come inshore to spawn in dense shoals and in smaller ones to feed and then depart, whence no man knows, although they have been caught in Newfoundland waters at a depth of one hundred fathoms and probably descend to much greater depths. In American waters these fish range from Sandy Hook to Northern Labrador. THE INLAND ALEWIFE OR SKIP-JACK, FEMALE (Clupea chrysochloris). The herring spawns from March to October, and their fry, when about six months old, consti- stute the genuine “whitebait," although the young of other species are frequently and fraudulently sold by market-dealers as such. It deposits its eggs on the bottom at various depths and conditions of the water; on the coasts of Great Britain at a depth of seventy to one hundred and forty feet in water of full oceanic saltness, and in some of the estuaries of the Baltic in water that is compara- tively fresh and only two or three feet in depth. This latter practice suggests that of the shad 106 Specimen (weight lb.) caught and painted at Detroit Lake, Minn. REPRODUCED IN FAC SIMILE BY ARMSTRONG &CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS, Umbreonid The Rock Bass. Ambloplites rupestris. Copyright, 1896, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS SAP) OR THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. a ) (closely allied to the herring) which ascends to the upper spring waters to spawn; the common herring (Clupea harengus) has never been known to enter water in the least degree brackish. When in the act of spawning, the parent fish dart rapidly about, and the water becomes cloudy with the flow of the milt of the male, the impregnated eggs, not larger than No. 7 shot, falling rapidly to the bottom, and immediately become attached to stones, shingle, old shells, sand or seaweed, and not infrequently to the backs of living crabs and other crustacea, adhering tenaciously to what- ever they fall upon, and maturing in from twenty-five to thirty-five days. The food of the herring consists almost entirely of minute invertebrate animals, which are found floating on the surface, particularly on the Norwegian coast, in such quantities as to color the water red, yellow or black, according to the presence of these animals which vary in color as stated. As many as sixty-one thousand of these minute crustaceans have been found in the stomach of a single herring, in the mouth of which the closely set and interlacing fringe of teeth and the arches of the gills form a sort of “lobster pot,” through which the water readily passes while the animals are left behind. The popular nomenclature of the herring in this country and Europe is rich in product: To the Scandinavian tribes it is the “sill”; at Cape Ann our own fisherman call the young herring a “sperling.” British fishermen have names which designate the size of the fish-to wit, “fry” or “sill,” “maties” (a corruption of the Dutch word for maiden), “full” fish and “spent” or “ shotten” fish. Maties” when gorged with food are called in Scotland “Guypock” herrings. In Sweden the following names prevail : “ Norwegian herring," "graben herring," "fat herring," Gottenburg” or Bohusliän herring,” “Kulla” herring, “bleking herring,” “small herring," anchovies,” “skarp herring,” etc. In the United States they are known as “French sardines,” “bloaters,” “ Digby chickens” and “hard” herrings, also as “brit” by the fishermen of Eastern New England. On the west coast of Sweden they are also called “boundary,” “grass,” “great,” Norwegian," “winter,” “old,” “real sea,” “Cattegat,” and “sea herrings,” to which may be added “fjord,” “Scotch,” “Dutch,” “lard,”“half” and “tender herrings.” A correspondent of the Chicago · Globe writes: “Catch him in one place and he is a bloater; in another a sodger; in a third a sprat, and when young he is taken from the Thames and called whitebait, while across the channel in Brittany, before he is more than a couple of inches long, he can be found tinned and labeled in pure olive oil as a sardine. He is a wonderful fish and from the out-and-out genuine ancient and fish- like smell during the herring harvest that obtains in the neighborhood about Amsterdam, it is not so very hard to believe that that ancient and highly respectable town is really built, as they say, on herring bones. “ Once upon a time the herring used to be worshipped in Holland, a custom that obtains to- day in Scotland in a very practical manner. They have a cheerful method at some of the fishing ports in that country of insuring luck before they start out with their boats on a fishing trip. Each man thrashes his wife, and the one who first draws blood is sure to have the biggest haul. For self-protection the women invented a peculiar method of lacing their corsets, which thus became known as herring boning, a term now in everyday use among seafaring men. en will not go out, however, if a woman wishes them 'good luck,' or if a rabbit or a pig crosses their path, being perfectly sure that they will have nothing but their labor for their pains.” The interested reader will find in the publications of the Fish Commission of the United States volumes of valuable information regarding the herring and its allies. What I have given is merely a brief summary of the life history of the common herring, Clupea harengus, which possesses no traits of sufficient value to enthuse the most impressible member of the craft of anglers, although it can be taken on artificial lures, particularly in Scotland where the art of catching the herring with the hook has been known for over a century. A correspondent, whose name is forgotten, wrote me some years ago : “It is more than thirty years ago that I commenced to catch herring with the fly, using a fly that will take nearly every fish that swims. It is the best mackerel lure that is made, but when one is fishing one requires a good long line, because a large fourteen-pounder will often tackle this fly and you will have to give and take. In Scotland we give it the name of the dandy lion,' though it is not so dandy as a Jock Scott, or so expensive. a The mer 107 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. Ι “I will try to explain the way to make them. Use from six to twenty-four hooks-six is plenty for sport. Take seven strings of gut for the body of the line. When tying the knot leave one and a half inches of each string for the snell. At the one and a half inches tie the hook with black silk thread. Cut two inches of silver tinsel and fix it on the shank near the bend of the hook, and when the gut is tied put the tinsel round the shank to the end, showing the silk at every turn of the tinsel. Then a small piece of blue, yellow, red, gray or dark feather. You can use all colors of feathers. No. 5 Limerick is the size of hook in use, but when fishing for large mackerel use No. I and plenty of feathers. " In Portland, Me., I fished from one of the draw-bridges and people were amazed at my tak- ing herring and mackerel. I took six nearly every time and as fast as I could lift them.” The common herring is occasionally caught by our own market fishermen on baited hooks intended to lure other fish, and I have taken them on a red fly on the surface of the water when fishing at Atlantic City, N. J. I have been told, however, that the best lure is one made of white feathers, to be used in trolling and allowed to sink several feet. Thaddeus Norris tells us they will take a bait and that he has caught them with a piece of red flannel tied to a hook; that the best time to catch them is on a sunshiny day with the wind from the south, when they will jump eagerly at the improvised red fly. He also adds : An old Scotch merchant of New York, a superannuated trout-fisher, some years ago (1840 or thereabouts) was in the habit of fishing for them with a fly from the decks of vessels in the East River.” The common or commercial herring bears the scientific name of Clupea harengus, the generic name being from the Latin “herring,” and the specific from low Latin for herring, the word being allied to the German Heer, “army,” a fish that swims in armies, and also meaning a herring. It may be known by the egg-shaped patch of teeth on the front part of the roof of its mouth; by the absence of the lateral line, its loose scales, and the series of saw-like projections on the belly, which, however, are very weak. It may also be distinguished by its upper jaw, which is slightly forked at the tip which is covered by small scutes or plates. Its body is 472 times as long as the head, and as length 472 times that of the depth. There are eighteen rays in the dorsal fin, seventeen in the anal, and fifty-seven scales along the lateral line. The color is bluish above and silvery below the lateral line, with a bright sheen on the entire body. It will be remembered that this fish never has been known to enter the fresh waters of the Eastern coast of North America, a habit possessed by the other species of herrings described in this chapter. I have talked and corresponded with many fishermen who have found difficulty in the iden- tification of the herrings that are permanent in or visit our fresh waters; the terms alewife, branch herring, glut herring, blue-black herring, gaspegeau, et al., being often indiscriminately ap- plied to one and the same fish, lead to confusion and the following notes and descriptions, brief and incomplete as they are from a technical standpoint, are given to enable the layman to differ- entiate the species of herrings on sight. The early writers on American fishes are to some extent responsible for this confusion of popular names, and the market fishermen perpetuate, particularly regarding the herrings, this Babel of nomenclature. The fishermen obstinately cling to a commercial name for a fish, despite the clearest demonstration of their error, and continue to place difficulties for popular education in one of the most interesting of studies. They tell us they could not sell the fish by any other names, and the matter of the dollar comes in as an irrepressible factor, as it did some years ago when an attempt was made to rearrange the numbers of the various makes of fish hooks by which a specified number would represent a specific size, no matter who the maker might be. The iron-clad demands which each dealer presented in objection caused the subject to be dropped, and the angler continues to be burdened by hundreds of sizes, varying in the diameters of the bend, in accordance with the trade marks of the manufacturers. The alewife (Pomolobus pseudoharengus)—the generic name from two Greek words meaning “opercle” and “lobe,” the specific name from the Greek "false,” and Latin, "herring”-is also " —is known as the branch herring, gaspegeau, wall-eyed herring, spring herring, big-eyed herring, gray-back, Cayuga lake shad, in various sections, and as the elewife or ellwhop along the Con- necticut River. The body of this fish is deep and heavy in front; the head, which has thirty-five 108 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. scutes or plates but no scales, is short, being nearly as deep as it is broad; the eye is large, and the lower lobe of the tail fin is longer than the upper; there is a round dark spot at the shoulder and faint streaks, only visible in large fish, along the rows of scales. The color is bluish above the median line and silvery on the sides, with sixteen rays in the dorsal and seventeen to nineteen in the anal fin, and the fish seldom grows longer than fifteen inches. The alewife may be readily distinguished from the common herring (C. harengus) by the absence of teeth on the roof of the mouth of the alewife. It is very abundant from Newfoundland to South Carolina and enters the streams to spawn, becoming landlocked in the lakes of northern New York, particularly in Lakes Ontario, Cuyuga and Seneca, and at times it swarms in the St. Lawrence River. A closely allied species to the alewife is Pomolobus æstivalis—the specific name from the Latin signifying “belonging to the summer,” a name appropriate to its habit of visiting our waters during the summer, the alewife P. pseudoharengus coming to us in the early spring months. It is popularly known as the glut-herring, blue-back, black-belly, summer herring, kyach and saw-belly, and the young are sold by the marketmen of Boston under the name of “sprats.” This species is probably taken in greater numbers by the net fishermen than the alewife, but the quantity of either cannot be determined as the two species are sold together, without discrimination, so that statistics can- not be even approximated. The first two, however, are very difficult to distinguish apart, as their general appearance is very similar, although as a rule the body of the glut-herring is longer than that of the alewife, the fins lower, the eye smaller and the back darker in color. Upon dissection, however, the two species can be readily differentiated, as the lining membrane of the stomach in the glut-herring is black, that of the alewife being pale in color. The skipjack or blue herring (P. chrysochlorus)-specific name from two Greek words, meaning “ gold” and “green”-is also classed as one of the alewives, and is sometimes called the “inland alewife” in the Mississippi valley, where it is abundant. It was so called because considered strictly a fresh-water species until in late years, when specimens of large size and very fat were caught in the comparatively deep water of the Gulf of Mexico. The name skipjack applies to it from its habit of leaping frequently from the water. When in waters near the coast it frequents the salt water, but never does so when distant from the coast. It grows to a length of fifteen inches and is said to take a baited hook but rarely. A handsome fish, but worthless as food, the flesh being poor and full of small bones. It may be known by the absence of the dark spot on the shoulder; by its brilliant blue color on the upper part of the body, silvery sides with golden reflec- tions; also by its widely forked tail fin. Another of the alewives is P. mediocris-specific name from the Latin, signifying “mediocre.” It is popularly known as the hickory shad, tailor herring, fall herring and Mattowacca. It is com- mon from Cape Cod to Florida, but not valued as a food fish. Differing from its congeners, it does not ascend the streams to spawn, and may be known by its rather long head, with its straight and not very steep profile and the faint longitudinal stripes on the side of the body, which is four times as long as the head. It has fifteen rays in the dorsal and twenty-one in the anal fin. It will be noted that the alewives, with the exception of the hickory shad (P. mediocris), are anadromous in their habits, ascending the streams to spawn. Their appearance in a given river can always be determined by the movements of the shad. The branch herring (P. pseudoharengus), as a rule, precedes the shad by several weeks and the glut herring (P. æstivalis) comes later in the middle of the shad run. Unless prevented by obstructions, the two above-named fish seek the head waters of streams for spawning purposes, and, under ordinary conditions, return to salt water during the summer or in the early fall months, and are either followed or attended by their young, which have reached by this time a length of two or three inches. The mature fish, that have become landlocked, retire to the deep water of the lakes and undergo, it is said, a semi- hibernation during the winter months. The majority of the fish, however, are supposed to die after spawning All the alewives can be captured with artificial flies. Some years ago the anglers of Balti- more, Md., were excited over a run of hickory shad in their near-by waters, and many of the fish were taken on gray or drab flies on sunny days, and “green hackles,” coachmen and professors on dark days. These fish rise to the fly with a little splash and then surge away with great power. 109 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. The eggs of the alewife are adhesive like those of the sea herring, and vary in number from sixty to one hundred thousand, the quantity being dependent upon the size of the parent fish. The time of spawning depends entirely upon the temperature of the water; in the case of the branch herring (P. pseudoharengus), a temperature of 55 to 60 degrees, is necessary, and 70 to 75 degrees for the glut herring. The period of development of the ova also varies with the tempera- ture of the water. The eggs of the herrings have been artificially propagated, although it is less necessary than with other fishes, such as the shad, because of the peculiar spawning habits of the herrings; "the eggs stand a better chance of being hatched out, and a very slight protection of the fish during spawning season will be sufficient to keep up the supply.” Col. MacDonald also states : During past years, the alewife has frequently been artificially introduced into new waters or over dams by the transportation of fish of considerable size. This is constantly done on Cape Cod in the restocking of the herring streams which have been exhausted, and was successfully accomplished as long ago as 1750.” When placed above the dams referred to, or in ponds or lakes, these fish will spawn in due season, their young will thrive and become landlocked in lacustrine waters, or follow in due season the adult fish to the sea, returning after reaching maturity to the water in which they were born. 66 1 THE CALIFORNIA HERRING—Clupea pallasii. The California herring (Clupea pallasii)-the specific name, after Pallas, a Russian ichthyolo- gist—is very abundant on the Pacific coast, from Kamchatka to San Diego, and grows in length to eighteen inches. It may be distinguished from the eastern herring (C. harengus) by its strongly projecting lower jaw, and the serrations extending only from the ventral to the anal fin; those on C. harengus will be found in front as well as behind the ventral fins. The Pacific herring is, like its eastern congener, bluish above, with sides and lower part of the belly silvery, but has not the bright reflections shown on the eastern fish; it is, however, very similar in color and shape and equally abundant. The California herring is found all along the coast of Alaska, sometimes arriving as early as the middle of April and remaining several weeks. They come in great numbers, and at Sitka are so abundant that the natives not only take all they want by the simple means of an oval-shaped stick with three or four sharpened nails in one end, but likewise secure tons upon tons of the roe without killing the fish. Herring roe is to the native Sitkans what the shad roe is to the dwellers on the Susquehanna and the Potomac—it is a very important part of their winter diet as well as a luxury, and their mode of securing it is very simple. Lashing a lot of hemlock boughs to lines of suitable length, one end of the line is made fast to the prow of a canoe and the other to the stern, and given sufficient slack to bring the boughs two or three feet under water. Thus equipped, the native paddles out to the herring grounds, which are co-extensive with the whole of Sitka Bay, drops his line of boughs over the side of his canoe, and whiling away an hour or two, possibly IIO Specimen (weight lb.) caught and painted at Greenwood Lake, N. Y. REPRODUCED IN FAC SIMPLE BY ARMSTRONG&CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS, Umb Barrio The Common Sunfish. Eupomotis gibbosus. Copyright, 1896, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS Wall Priet THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. dreaming of what the harvest will be, pulls them up coated an inch thick with the coveted spawn. Taking the boughs ashore they are hung up or spread out in the sun for the roe to dry, after which it is stripped off by the women and put away in oil for future use. Under the family name of Clupeida (the herrings) we find, in addition to the forms previously described, eight genera and twenty-six species, all of which, under favorable conditions, will take a baited hook. Two of them, known as the true sardines, are generically classed Clupanodon, from the Latin clupea, “herring,” and a Greek word signifying “without teeth,” this genus being sup- posed to differ from the herrings by the absence of teeth. The more prominent of these two species is the California sardine (C. coeruleus), which I have caught on a baited hook from one of the western wharfs in the harbor of San Francisco; it was active and plucky under the restraint of a light rod and line, and I found it to be an excellent table fish. It has no teeth; there are about seven long stripes extending backward and downward on the opercle; it is dark bluish above and silvery be- low. The top of the lower jaw is yellow, and the lower part of the dorsal fin yellowish. The max- imum length is about twelve inches, and it ranges from Puget Sound to Magdalena Bay, being very abundant on the coast of California. It spawns in the sea and resembles closely in physical appear- ance the European sardine. A TOOTHLESS SARDINE—Clupanodon pseudohispanicus. a a Another of the toothless sardines (C. pseudohispanicus)--the specific name from two Greek words signifying “false Spanish ”—is found in the Gulf of Mexio, abundant about Cuba, and some- times ranges as far north as Cape Cod. It is closely allied to the European sardine, but distin- guished from it by the absence of stripes on the gill cover. It has a few feeble teeth in the lower jaw and some minute ones on the tongue. It grows to a length of about eight inches. Another genus of the herring family, Jenkinsia-named for Dr. Jenkins of Stanford University -contains three species, of no special interest to anglers, although they will take a lure when pre- sented. They are all very small and have a silvery band, which in one of the species (J. acuminata) is very indistinct, the fish being translucent with a line of dark specks above the lateral line and black specks on the bases of vertical fins. It is found in the Gulf of California in deep water. The other two species inhabit the Gulf of Mexico, ranging to Yucatan, and seldom exceed two inches in length. None of them is known by popular names. Another genus (Etrumeus)-named from the Japanese—has only one species, E. sadina—the specific name being the diminutive of shad—which is doubtless the one occasionally caught in waters of the New York and Jersey coast. It has no lateral line; the fins are all small, the dorsal being placed well forward, much nearer the tip of the snout than the base of the caudal. It is of an olive color above the lateral line and silvery on sides and belly, and ranges from the Gulf of Mexico to Cape Cod, and is known as the “round herring”; Dr. Mitchill called it the New York Shadine," but it must not be confused with the hickory shad or tailor herring previously described, which also bears the names of “Shadine" in the vicinity of New York, and which I have taken on shrimp > III THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. bait in the Shrewsbury River (N. J.) and found it to be quite a lively fighting fish on a light rod. An additional genus, Perkinsia-named after Governor George C. Perkins, of California-has but one species which has not been authoritatively differentiated from some of the other Pacific herrings. It was found at San Diego and grows to twelve inches. It has a deeply forked caudal fin ; dusky upper fins and a dusky blotch in the middle of the ventral fins with the inner surface of the pectoral fins of a blackish color. The shad, Alosa sapidissima—the generic name from the Saxon Allis, the old name of the European shad, and the specific from the Latin “most delicious”—is very closely allied to the ale- wives (Pomolobus) from which, however, it may be known by the lower jaw fitting into a notch in the tip of the upper; no teeth ; cheeks much deeper than long; the body also deeper and the lining membrane of the stomach white, not pale, as in the alewives. It has a dark spot behind the oper- cle and sometimes several intermediate with the color of the back and that of the sides. The true shad may be distinguished from the hickory shad, with which fish it is most likely to be con- fused, by the number (50) of scales along the lateral line; by its comparatively deep head, and by its equal jaws, the lower one in the hickory shad (P. mediocris) being considerably longer than the upper. This fish is also marked with faint longitudinal stripes on the sides, coloration which does not exist in the true shad. The habitat of the latter is from the east coast of Florida to the Miri- machi in New Brunswick, Canada; that of the hickory shad from Cape Cod to Florida. The shad found in the Gulf of Mexico are smaller with a less number and shorter gill rakers than the Atlantic species; hence it constitutes a slight variety known as Alosa alabama. V THE CALIFORNIA BANDED HERRING—Jenkinsia stolifera. The shad has been introduced by the United States Fish Commission on the Pacific coast, where it is now abundant from Monterey, Cal., northward, and they have also been planted, but with- out marked success, in some of the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, particularly in the Ohio and other tributaries of the Mississippi. It is now believed that the shad, except to a very limited extent, are not migratory; that they descend to the sea when the temperature of the upper waters in which they were born gets below 60 degrees, and remain in the deep water of the ocean, proba- bly in the Gulf Stream, until the following spring, when, under the impulse of the spawning instinct, they return as mature fish to their native river, the annual period of their first appearance depend- ing upon the temperature of the water. In the St. John's River, Fla., they commence to run up in the month of November. I have eaten them at Mayport at the mouth of that river in the early days of December and found them, when cooked fresh from the water, delicious as a Hudson River shad in May. In the Savannah River (Georgia) they are found in January; in Albemarle Sound in Feb- ruary; in Chesapeake Bay they make their appearance in January, but the fishing season is at its height in April and May ; in the Delaware, Hudson, Connecticut, Merrimac and in the Canadian rivers they are seen at later periods, the date of their arrival varying each season, according to the temperature of the water. Shad, like many other fishes, show straggling traits, and are occa- sionally found at an unusual season, generally as loiterers from the spring shoals. Mr. Charles Hallock reports two as being taken in the Neuse River near New Berne, N. C., on September 28th and 30th. Shad are seldom seen in southern waters between May and January. Another is re- II2 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. : ported in The American Angler, as being caught near Dobbs Ferry, on the Hudson River, in the latter part of November. The fish was a female shad of three or four years' growth, and contained a large, mature roe. The late Col. Marshall MacDonald, United States Fish Commissioner, made the shad a special study for many years, and to him science and the reader of these pages are indebted for many interesting and valuable facts connected with the life history of this delicious table fish. It is doubtful whether there is any general coastwise movement of the shad. That there is an occasional migration of this kind is evidenced by the following facts : The shad of the South At- lantic coast, as a rule, have black-tipped caudal and dorsal fins, which distinctive marks of colora- tion are absent in the shad of more northern rivers, and yet occasionally shad with black-tipped fins are caught as far north as the tributaries of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. The age at which the shad reaches maturity and becomes capable of reproducing is not defi- nitely determined; it is generally held by fish culturists, however, that the female shad attains this condition when three or four years old. The favorite spawning grounds or “Shad Wallows,” as they are termed by fishermen, are the sandy flats which border the streams and the sand-bars which are found at intervals higher up the river. When the fish have reached suitable spawning grounds and are ready to cast their eggs, they move up the flats seemingly in pairs. The time of this move- ment is usually between sundown and eleven at night. When in the act of spawning they swim close together, their back fins projecting above the water. The rapid, vigorous, spasmodic move- THE SHAD--Alosa sapidissima. ments which accompany this operation produce a splashing in the water that can be plainly heard from the shore, and which the fishermen characterize as “washing." The number of eggs in the ovary of the shad, as in other fish, bears a certain relation to the size and weight of the fish. As a result of experience in the artificial cultivation of the shad, it has been ascertained that a ripe roe shad, weighing four to five pounds, contains from 20,000 to 40,000 eggs, the average number being about 25,000. A much larger number, however, has been obtained from individuals. From a shad weighing about six pounds, over 60,000 impregnated eggs were taken, and in one instance, from a Potomac River shad, the yield of eggs from a single fish was over one hundred thousand, which were full sized, thoroughly impregnated eggs, hatched out with a loss of hardly one per cent. Shad ready to deposit their spawn seem to prefer waters of a warmer temperature than 60° F.; therefore when the mature fish leave the lower waters of that temperature and ascend to those of 65° to 70° F. and upwards, they are unaccompanied by the half-grown shad, the latter ceasing to ascend as soon as they encounter a temperature of more than 60° F.; the mature fish will, however, when a higher temperature does not prevail, deposit their spawn in water colder than 60° F. The fry of the shad, which spend their first six months of their lives in their native waters, feed on certain species of crustacea and insect larvæ, common to the fresh waters of our rivers. 113 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. In about seven days after hatching some of the young fry have been observed to eat, and a few days later they were all vigorously engaged in pursuit of food. Col. MacDonald further states that it is probable that shad in their early lives vary their food with minnows and the young of other species of fish. He adds : Indeed, from the stomach of a shad, taken in one of the ponds at Saybrook, I found an un- digested minnow two to three inches in length. In the fresh-water life of the mature shad the fish do not seem to take food at all. Repeated observations of the contents of the stomach show no food whatever.” It is now an established fact, long disputed, that shad, as well as the salmon and other anadromous fishes, feed in fresh water, and the claim that food has been found only in rare instances in their stomachs during their upward migration, hence the shad do not eat at that period, has been set aside by the mass of evidence to the contrary. It should also be considered that the natural food of the shad probably consists mainly of soft annelids or delicate small fry, eaten principally during the night, and that digestion of such food follows so rapidly that no trace of it can be found, unless dissection is made in a very short time after the food is taken. From the angling standpoint, the evidence that shad feed in fresh water is indisputable, and if the pursuit of these fish as an angler's quarry were more persistently followed by Waltonians, the proof would be strongly re-enforced. I give a few instances, coming under my own observation, wherein shad have fed, and somewhat eagerly, in fresh water. The most notable case is that in the Connecticut THE HICKORY SHAD— Pomolobus mediocris. River, at Holyoke, Mass., where the shad are taken in numbers on the artificial fly; with the same lure on the Hackensack River, N. J.; on the Savannah River, Ga., by Mr. Charles Hallock; on the Raritan River, N. J., by Mr. Wm. L. Force; on the old Back Bay waters, by Mr. Walter M. Brackett; on the Delaware River, Pa., and formerly at Fairmont Dam on the Schuylkill River. The shad have also been caught with the worm, shrimp, minnow and crab baits, notably at Fairmount Dam, years ago (worms and shrimp); near Raleigh, N. C. (with crab); in the Housatonic River, Conn. (with worms); at Lambertville, N. J., on the Delaware River, with minnows, and also in the York and James rivers in Virginia, and in the Lower Bay of New York harbor, on a small“white miller” artificial fly. Mr. Frank Fuller has taken them in the upper Hudson, near the head of tide water, on a yellow fly. These are only isolated instances, which, I doubt not, could be many times du- plicated if the records had been kept. A female shad of a certain age, Col. MacDonald states, is always larger than a male of cor- responding age. A general average of both sexes as found along the coast would be about four pounds, the extremes for males being from one and a half to six pounds, and for females from three and a half to eight pounds, the latter representing maximum weight at the present time, although in the early history of the fisheries there are records of the capture of fish weighing eleven, twelve and as much as fourteen pounds. Eight to ten years ago I saw a Hudson River shad in the Wash- 114 Specimen (weight lb.) caught and painted at Winnebago Lake, Wis. REPRODUCED IN FAC-SIMILF BY ARMSTRONG & CO THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE MASS, Come Otarril The White or Silver Bass, Roccus chrysops. Copyright, 1896, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. با اي OR 10 THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. a one ounce. W a a ington market, New York City, which weighed twelve pounds, and a correspondent from Tivoli on the Hudson River wrote me in 1885 that a shad was taken, weighed before witnesses and exhibited by Alfred Cole, which was two feet in length, nineteen inches girth, and weighed nine pounds and Another shad was taken at Bristol on the Delaware River, in the year 1886, which weighed nine pounds. The next largest in weight, eight and three-quarters pounds, was caught at the same place in 1844. On the Pacific coast where the shad was introduced by the United States Fish commission in 1871, individuals are caught reaching ten or more pounds in weight. This un- usual growth and size of shad when introduced in waters previously barren of them, verifies a condition which I have observed prevails, to a more or less extent, when other fish (the brown trout and carp are striking examples) are placed in a new habitat. Given a favorable environment as to water and food supply, and the planted fish will thrive more lustily and grow to a greater size than they do in their native habitat. When ill-health, which is often merely another excuse- term for ennui, or that tired feeling arising from a long period of wear and tear in routine daily duties, prompts us to ask the family doctor what is good for us, his order is simply “change of habitat.” How often his prescription, when taken, gives renewed vigor to our physical and mental powers. We doubt not that similar, but more acute and far-reaching causes, produce like effects in the life of fishes. Restricted range, the same daily food approaching exhaustion, causing canni- balism in some fish communities and interbreeding to an extent devitalizing to an already en- feebled progeny, all combine to produce a stagnation of the vital powers and a change of hab- itat,” prescribed by nature, the great physician, is the only cure-all. As a mere matter of record, interesting and prophetic, I state that the shad fry for planting in Pacific coast waters were placed in charge of Seth Green, who wrote me under date of July 3, 1882: “On the 19th day of June, 1871, I started with a shipment of shad fry for California. I suc- ceeded in getting them through in good condition, and deposited them in the Sacramento River on June 26, 1871. This was the first shipment of live fish ever made across the continent. Under date of June 17, 1882, Mr. S. R. Throckmorton, California Fish Commissioner, writes me as follows: “The shad are a perfect success, and are taken of full size, sometimes reaching ten pounds weight.' “Since I made the successful transportation, Mr. Livingston Stone of Charleston, N. H., a thorough fish culturist and trout breeder, has made successful shipments of shad to California, and it will not be many years before shad will be quoted in the San Francisco market as they are here.” When shad are one year old, they weigh, on an average, two ounces; at two years old, one pound; at three years they weigh from three to four pounds. They continue growing for the succeeding two or three years, but their growth is not so rapid as during the first three years. We would naturally judge from the above statement that their greatest growth was during the second and third years, but it is during the first year they grow faster than at any other period of their lives. Their weight when hatched is about one grain, and when one year old they weigh 775 grains. The shad has been crossed with the glut, or blue-back herring (P. æstivalis). During the early days of shad propagation on the Hudson River, it occasionally happened that in a haul of shad there were more females than males, not enough of the latter to impregnate the ova of the females, which would not live until another haul of the seine was made. Rather than throw the ova away, they were impregnated with the milt of the herring, which were caught in the shad seine. A very small percentage of the ova were hatched and the grown fish were reported to be dwarfed and stubby, but not a bad fish to eat, about as good as No. 2 shad, and they were sold with what is called “culls." The etymology of the popular names of fishes would be an interesting study. I once had a talk with an old angler, who sixty years ago lived on the banks of the Delaware River above Trenton, N. J. One of his remarks confirmed our pet theory that fish are frightened by the shadow made by the body of an angler, rather than seeing his substance on the bank or when wading. He told me that he had often watched the upward swim of shad, from the bridge at New Hope, 115 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. 6 being stationed there to signalize the shad fisherman above, whenever a shoal of fish were bound up. The bridge cast a dense shadow, with sharp outlines, over the water, and as the shad approached this dark spot they would always sheer off in a frightened manner, and it was only after a careful and thorough inspection of the shadow that they would continue their course up the river. Our veteran friend also informed me that the name “shad,” as applied to this fish, originally came from the fact that they are frightened by shadows-shad-oh! The discovery of the methods by which the artificial breeding of shad and the white fish could be successfully accomplished have been of more benefit to the public at large than the arti- ficial propagation of all other American fishes; in fact, at the time of this discovery, the shad, more than any other commercial food fish of our waters, required a prompt and effective policy that speedy annihilation might be averted. The salmons, three decades ago, were swarming in the Pacific coast waters, serving in the more northern sections “as bridges to walk over dry shod,” a phrase of expression which was also applied to the great shoals of striped bass and shad seen years ago in the waters of Virginia and Massachusetts. An old resident of Boston, alive in 1880-1885, told a reporter of the Lawrence American : “I have seen shad so thick in the east channel that a man in slippers could walk almost across to the Island on their backs without wetting his feet.” This statement was reinforced by Mr. Charles Hallock, in 1890, as to the salmon in like numbers in Alaskan waters. He states in his book, “ The Salmon Fisher": “In some inlets and estuaries of the Alaskan Coast, I have seen them (salmon) jammed to- gether so that they could not move at all; so that it is very easy to comprehend how it would be possible for a person to cross the stream, dry shod, if a plank were laid across their protruding backs." The delicious white fish of the Great Lakes were still caught in enormous numbers, and the lesser salmonoids, the trout and its allies, never entered into general consumption to an extent reaching an economic demand for enlarged production. The salt water fishes, such as the cod, mackerel, herring, blue fish and others, still visited our shores in enormous shoals; but the shad, doubtless less exacting for an acquired taste than any other fish, and entering into comsumption by every family who could afford to pay the relatively small price, were decreasing in number with every season. It was at this period, 1867, of threatened disaster and public loss, that Seth Green invented his shad hatching box, simple in construction, but effective in action. He wrote me in this connection some years after the date of his invention : The eggs of the shad differ very much in appearance from those of the salmon and trout and require entirely different handling to hatch them artificially. They are much lighter in weight, also smaller in size. If a trout or salmon egg is dropped into water it sinks at once to the bottom, but a shad egg will almost float. Shad eggs are about half the size of brook trout eggs, and require as their best condition for hatching a temperature of water from sixty-five to seventy- five degrees. They will hatch at a lower temperature, but in that event are much longer in maturing, while eighty degrees of heat is as much or more than they can endure, and very fre- quently kills them. When I made my first experiments in propagation I used ordinary trout troughs, and found much difficulty in handling them in that way. If I turned on a current of water to the same extent as with trout it would wash them all out; while on the contrary, if I di- minished the supply so that they retained their places, they would die from suffocation. After trying many experiments, I finally hit upon my box, which has often been described. My first success was an ordinary box with the bottom knocked out and replaced with wire seiving. The box has two wooden floats, one on each side, so that the box is at an angle to the current, and the degree at which it is inclined depends upon the swiftness of the water. As the water strikes against the lower part of the inclination on the bottom it causes a reaction of the water, which, as it bubbles up through the seiving, keeps the eggs constantly in motion. It is this circulation of the water around the eggs which keeps them healthy and causes them to hatch. This same prin- ciple applies to the successful hatching of all kinds of fish eggs, but is applied in different ways with different kinds of spawn. “The spawn are taken from the shad at night, at which time only can they be taken in any Į16 THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. a a quantity, as it is then that the females seek their spawning ground, which is on the rocky reefs near the shore. As the fish are taken from the seine they are stripped as quickly as possible, as they die in a short time. The fish are afterward used for the market, as they are in no way injured for that purpose. After the eggs are taken in the pan and impregnated they are allowed to stand in the pan until they are filled out, which is told by agitating them gently with the hand. If they are fully developed they will feel hard like shot, and are then ready for the hatching box, where they hatch in from three to six days, according to the temperature of the water. When the ripe eggs of fish are first taken they are soft, but when impregnated and developed are full, round, and hard to the touch.” Some years after the invention of Seth Green's shad-hatching box, Col. Marshall MacDonald, former Chief Executive of the United States Fish Commission, discovered another and more suc- cessful method of hatching shad and other fishes. Briefly described, it consists of a series of glass jars arranged upon tanks and containing glass tubes to which are attached rubber hose extending into the tanks, so that the jars are constantly supplied with water in motion, thus insuring a con- stant circulation. It is this circulation of the water around the eggs which keeps them healthy and causes them to hatch. Care must be taken to remove the dead eggs, which are lighter and more opaque than the live ones, and which readily rise to the top of the water, and are withdrawn by means of a syphon. When the hatching commences care is also taken to notice the progress at each step, from the time the little eye specks begin to be perceivable until the fish has escaped from the egg and is seen swimming about with its little food sac attachment. This sac is upon the un- der side of the fish, and through it life is preserved until the throat and stomach are developed, when the sac is absorbed and the food is taken naturally. Before this development takes place, however, the miniature shad are withdrawn from their tanks, placed in tin cans and sent to stock the rivers in the various parts of the country, for so soon as the fish has escaped from the egg and has attained a growth of from a quarter to half an inch, it is then considered safe to be left to it- self. It is a funny looking thing at this period of its existence, being perfectly transparent, with a tiny little bulb of a head and a long slender body, underneath the upper part of which hangs the food sac. Its movements, however, are decidedly active, and it wriggles through the water with the celerity of a full-grown shad. The period of hatching from the time the eggs are received un- til the fish has sufficiently developed to be ready for shipment averages about seven days, and during this time the water must be kept at a uniform temperature, usually about 63 degrees Fahrenheit.” By using Col. MacDonald's method, fish culturists are enabled to hatch the ova of shad, sal- mon, trout, whitefish and other fishes under cover and at a distance from the spot where the eggs are taken from the parent fish; the percentage of loss in hatching has also been much reduced. In any water visited by shad in numbers, patient angling for them with the artificial fly and other lures will doubtless be successful, the proper conditions being a large quiet pool at the foot of a turbulent rapid. Frank Forester many years ago wrote: “The fly-fisher will find much sport in fishing for shad during his upward run in the spring,” and Thad Norris in the fifties also wrote: “I was once fortunate enough to hook three (shad) in succession, when fishing for perch with a bright little minnow below Fairmount Dam.” Thus we see that angling for shad is in no meas- ure a recent pastime, and if they are seldom taken on the rod the cause doubtless arises from the fact that they are seldom fished for, and never with the patience and skill that evolves a successful salmon, trout or black bass angler. I should fail in angling courtesy and respect did I not place on record the fact that successful angling for shad is due to the description by Mr. Thomas Chalmers, of Holyoke, of the proper tackle to be used, and also to his enthusiastic pursuit of the fish, believed by many to be a superior fighter to the black bass. I give Mr. Chalmers's methods in his own words: · The season for shad fishing is at hand, and as they take a liberal supply of food (science to the contrary notwithstanding) in fresh water, I do not see why they cannot be taken in other waters which they frequent for the purpose of spawning. I can only account for it on the suppo- sition that the proverbial patience has been wanting. “ To any of your readers who wish to give it another trial in their home waters, I would say select a few flies as near as possible to the natural fly to be found on your own waters. The white a w 117 THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. miller is a universal fly, and much sought after by epicures of the finny tribes. The red fly-well, to say it as Sir Boyle Roach would say it—is an imitation of nothing, pretty hard to see, gentle reader; at least I have found it so, for I have many times closed my eyes for a sight of it and failed. With eyes open I have not seen, in the water or out of the water, anything that has a re- semblance to the red fly, yet the shad take it greedily. Another favorite fly is peacock herl body, red or brown hackle for legs and woodcock feathers for wings. A winding of silver tinsel is very attractive. With the water in good condition (every angler knows that condition) I would not advise a large fly, not larger than No. 6 Limerick hook, or better still a No. 7, as the fish rise more freely to a small fly. With a No. 3 or No. 4 hook we can persuade more fish into the boat, when the fish rise to them, as they take a better hold. · When you have made your selection of day and flies, take any rapid as far as convenient above tide water, anchor your boat at the foot of the rapids in a current running into deep water; let your flies float down the edge of the current some thirty, forty, or fifty feet to deep water. The shad always lie and congregate in these pools before ascending the rapids. If your first attempt is a failure it may be an off day; so try again, and keep trying. Should you succeed—which I have no doubt you will you will bless your lucky stars. Then we shall hear no more puffing the game qualities and endurance of the black bass, which are very good when there are no better to be had. THE FLORIDA SCALED SARDINE—Sardinella humeralis. و Does the black bass study astronomy, and, like the eagle, go skyward ? So do the shad. Does the black bass try all the dodges known to the scaly tribes to free himself from the treacher- ous hook? So does the shad, and when that caudal comes thwack across your line you will be inclined to think there is something desperate going on below, down in the depths. Take the two fish, pound for pound, the same conditions every way, and by the time you get three five-pound bass into your boat, your five-pound shad is still on your hook and in the water, with plenty of fight yet left. A light trout rod makes tedious work, although it gives a great amount of sport.” Classed among the herrings are the scaled “ sardines,” Sardinella, a diminution of Sardina, a sardine. They are of small size, seldom exceeding eight inches in length, and there are nine species, seven of which are found from Key West to Brazil and two in the Gulf of California and southward to Panama. “The genus Sardinella, as at present understood, covers a wide diversity of forms and may be divisible into several genera when the anatomy of the species is better known.” These little fish are mentioned here because they will take a bait, as will all fish that belong to the her- ring family except the menhaden. The scaled sardines are essentially similar in form to the alewives (Pomolobus). They have, 118 THE PIKE. Lucius lucius. Weight, 8 lbs. Specimen caught in Detroit Lake, Minn., by 2 E. Harris Reproduced in fac-simile by ARMSTRON bridge, Mass. CO,Cam- < Retrie Copyright, 1893, by William C. HARRIS. The Pike, OF Doll 18 Lucius lucius. - Jordan. Petril Copyright, 1893, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. The Pike. DI OF Lucius lucius. - Jordan. 18 THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. however, five to ten less vertebræ; the scales are larger and more firmly attached to the body; the fatty eyelid is not present as on the alewives, and the scales are often covered by vertical stripes. Of the two species found in the Gulf of California one, S. thrissina, may be known by its large blunt head; its projecting lower jaw; the fine but distinct branching stripes on the cheeks and gill-covers; the roughened edges of its scales; by the round black spot on the shoulder and by its pale fins. Its general color is bluish above and silvery below. The other California species, S. stolifera-stolifer, bearing a stole or white zone—is a beautiful and delicate food fish. It may be known at sight by its translucent greenish coloration and sil- very sides; the dark lines along the middle of the back; the dusky shading of the snout and tip of lower jaw; the very bright and well-defined silver band margined with blue on the side, and the jet-black tips of dorsal and the lobes of the caudal fins. This fish seldom exceeds six inches in length. Angling tourists who visit Florida may possibly meet with several species of the "scaled sardines,” two of which are known to range from Pensacola to Key West and southward. Of these S. sardina, has a very large eye; rather long body, the lower or ventral line showing a very weak arch, and each scale with four vertical wavy stripes on its free edge. The color is palish ; no black spot on the shoulder; the body is streaked longitudinally; a dusky coloration on tips of dorsal and anal fins, with orange tints back of the gill-cover. The other species, S. humeralis, may be easily recognized from S. sardina by its deeper body ; large patch of small teeth on its tongue; dark spot on the shoulder, usually present, but sometimes obscure; color silvery with golden tints and usually a row of dark spots (not streaks as in S. sardina) extending backwards. Instead of the THE FLORIDA SCALED SARDINE—Sardinella sardina. arch on the ventral or belly side of the fish, as in S. sardina, a gentle curve exists from chin to the vent. Neither of the above named species exceeds eight inches in length. There are two additional species of herring, known as the thread herring," one of which, Opisthonema oglinum, although most abundant in the West Indian waters, is found on the Florida and Carolina coasts, which it frequents regularly, straggling occasionally as far north as the New Jersey coast. It may be known by the long filament in its dorsal fin; the minute teeth on the tongue, the jaws being toothless; the faint bluish spot on the shoulder and a dark spot on the back of each scale. The general coloration is bluish above and silvery below. It is abundant in the tropics and seldom grows beyond twelve inches. The generic name Opisthonema, is derived from two Greek words, signifying behind” and “thread,” in allusion to the long thread-like filament in the dorsal fin. The Pacific form of the “thread herrings” is classed O. libertate—the specific name from Libertad, a port of San Salvador, where the first of the species were taken. It is very similar in 119 THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. : form to the Atlantic species above described, but may be distinguished from it by the yellowish streak on a level with the eye; a faintly marked dark spot on the gill-cover and a large spot on the shoulder. There are no spots on the sides; the tail fin is tipped with jet black, and the tip of the snout and lining of the gill-cover is also black. It is especially abundant in the Gulf of Cali- fornia and on the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America. I have known one instance only when the menhaden has been taken on a baited hook; it was in the Great Kills, Staten Island, N. Y., where it apparently seized a trolling shrimp as the angler retrieved his line trailing in the tideway; the hook was found imbedded in the throat of the fish. Repeated efforts by many fishermen have failed to duplicate this incident, hence the menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus-generic name after James Carson Brevoort, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and the specific from the Latin, a "ruler”-cannot be classed as an angling fish, but its importance as a food fish for other fishes and its use as bait by anglers, calls for a brief résumé of its life history. Two species and two sub-species of menhaden are known, the most important of which is B. tyrannus, the common or commercial form, with nearly as many popular names as the number of scales along its lateral line. Those most in use are menhaden, hardhead, moss-bunker, bony- fish, whitefish, bugfish, fatback and pogy. It is called bugfish because of a crustacean parasite which is found in the mouth. Its extreme length is about eighteen inches and it ranges from Nova Scotia to Brazil, being most abundant southward. It is said to be herbivorous, which habit of feeding may account for its failure, so far, to take bait of any kind, yet the industrious and experimental fisherman may be rewarded through the courage of persistance and finally boat the THE MENHADEN—Brevoortia tyrannus. menhaden with a vegetable lure. I have often thought it practicable to take the menhaden on extremely small flies, dressed on about No. 22 hooks, letting them float on the surface with the tide, without being manipulated as in ordinary fly fishing, This fish may be known by its comparatively short and yellow fins; strongly serrated scales which are arranged very irregularly ; rather short and heavy head, and the nineteen rays in the dorsal and twenty in the anal fin. Its general coloration is bluish above the lateral line, silvery below, with a strong brassy luster on the entire body and a prominent dark blotch on the shoulder, behind which are often found smaller but rather lighter colored spots. The products of the menhaden fisheries are of large commercial value. Dr. Hugh M. Smith, the statistician of the United States Fish Commission, states: “ The taking of menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) for the purpose of converting them into oil and guano is one of the most important fish- eries prosecuted with vessels on the eastern coast of the United States. The fishery is most exten- sive on the coasts of Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Virginia. Purse seines, operated from steam and sail vessels, are used. There are at present fifty to fifty-seven menhaden factories with an investment of $2,580,000, and giving employment to about 1,800 fishermen. Some years over 700,000,000 menhaden are handled by these factories, giving over $1,000,000 of manufac- tured products annually." I 20 THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. In 1894 the United States Fish Commission designated three special agents to investigate the complaint and protest of sportsmen and others relative to the capture of important food fishes by the menhaden fishing vessels. This Commission reported in substance that on the three steam- ers where the agents were placed, only 6,990 important food fish, exclusive of 86,000 alewives, were taken during the brief period of the investigation; hence “the menaden fishery is not seriously detrimental to any species of game fish.” Unfortunately for the value of this decision, the inves- tigators did not estimate the disastrous results arising from the employment by fifty-five men- haden factories of a fleet of eighty-four vessels during the year 1894. If three vessels used nets that caught nearly seven thousand important food fish, eighty-four would have taken 196,000 and this aggregate is only estimated for the brief period that the officials of the Commission were on board of the three vessels. The food fishes taken included the bluefish, shad, butterfish, mackerel, flounders and Spanish mackerel. At a low estimate the weight of the fish would be about two pounds each, as the greater number consisted of bluefish and shad, hence the total catch would have provided one meal at least for one hundred and fifty thousand families; or if these fish had been permitted to visit the estuaries, where they are fished for by the hook and line fishermen, the outlay for boats, fishing tackle, employment of boatmen, meals at fishing hostelries and other in- cidentals of an angling outing, would have reached a very large sum to the benefit of an ordinarily poor class of our population, and every fish caught would have been eaten, and not subject to the chance of being ignobly compressed into oil, or ground up for manuring purposes. The menhaden approach the Atlantic shores about the same time as the shad, bluefish and weakfish, when the temperature of the inshore waters rises to 51° F., and depart when it falls below that point. Their geographical range northward varies each season, their wanderings being gen- erally restricted to 25° north latitude; southward, as before stated, they are found as far as the coast of Brazil. In the winter they are seen only south of Cape Hatteras, and we are in ignorance as to their range oceanward. Dr. G. Brown Goode, in his book “ American Fishes,” states : The arrival of the mackerel is announced by their appearance at the top of the water. They swim in immense shoals, their heads close to the surface, packed side by side and often tier above tier, almost as closely as sardines in a box; a gentle ripple indicates their position, and this may be seen at a distance of nearly a mile by the lookout at the masthead of a fishing vessel. At the slightest alarm the school sinks often to the bottom, often escaping its pursuers. Sailing over a body of menhaden swimming at a short distance below the surface, one may see their glittering backs beneath, and the boat seems to be gliding over a floor inlaid with blocks of silver. At night they are phosphorescent. Their motions seem capricious and without a definite purpose; at times they swim around and around in circles, at other times they sink and rise. While they thus remain at the surface, after the appearance of a vanguard, they rapidly increase in abundance until the sea appears to be alive with them.” Why the menhaden appear on the top of the water, where they are in the greater danger from man, birds and predatory fishes, can only be because they are merely disporting. The same habit prevails among several species of fish sought after by the rod fisherman. The black bass, the trout and the yellow perch I have seen swimming in schools near the surface of the water, jumping out of it and apparently enjoying themselves greatly. At such times the attempt to cap- ture them by the choicest lures was labor lost. They were not feeding, only playing. We are in ignorance of the spawning habits of the menhaden, and ichthyologists have failed to find any evidence of mature ova in many thousands of specimens that have been examined; it is believed, however, that they spawn on the off-shore shoals lying between Key West and New- foundland. Their fecundity almost surpasses belief, 150,000 ova having been found in a single fish, which much exceeds the yield from either the shad or the herring. In closing his chapter on the menhaden, treating of it as food for other fishes, Dr. Goode states: “In estimating the importance of the menhaden to the United States, it should be borne in mind that its absence from our waters would probably reduce all our other sea-fisheries to at least one-fourth their present extent. It is, therefore, of great importance to anglers as well as fisher- men." The Gulf 'menhaden, B. tyrannus patronus—the sub-specific name, patronus, “ patron,” in allu- a I 21 THE HERRINGS-THE SHAD. ; a sion to the crustacean parasite in the mouth of these fish—is found in the Gulf of Mexico and is usually abundant on the coast of Florida. It is not easily distinguished from B. tyrannus; the pectoral fins reach beyond the front of the ventral fins (in tyrannus they do not extend to the front of the ventrals); the fins are larger; head larger and the blotch on the shoulder much less con- spicuous. The coloration is greenish-gray above with silvery sides, a brassy luster over the entire body, and the bone (operculum) on the upper and posterior part of the gill-cover is delicately marked with thread-like lines. Two other varietal forms of the menhaden are known, one of which, B. tyrannus aurea—sub- specific name aurea, indicating its golden coloration-is found in great abundance on the coast of Brazil. Its head and jaws are shorter, body deeper than in B. tyrannus, and the scales are arranged with more regularity. The other form is B. tyrannus brevicaudata—the sub-specific name, from the Latin, signifying "short-tailed.” It is very similar to the variety aurea, with shorter caudal fin and jaws. It has been found as far north as Noank, Conn. There is a species of herring found on the Pacific Coast of Mexico which is a beautiful fish with golden-silvery sides, a greenish tint above the lateral line, yellow fins, a black spot on the anterior bone (preopercle) of the gill-cover and a strongly marked blotch on the shoulder. It sel- dom grows longer than six inches and is technically known as Opisthropterus lutipinnis, the specific name from the Latin, “yellow and fin.” We now reach a family of fishes with numerous species, technically designated as Engrau- lidido and popularly known as anchovies, but few if any of which merit notice as fishes sought by the angler, although they are carnivorous and take the bait freely. None of them grow larger than eight, and some species not more than three inches. Their general appearance is somewhat similar to the herring (Clupeida), and many ichthyologists class them as a sub-family of the her- rings, from which, however, they may be distinguished by the very wide gape of the mouth, which is “usually overlapped by a pointed, compressed, pig-like snout ” and the absence of a lateral line. All the North American species have a silvery band on the sides with the exception of Stolephorus opercularis, found in the Gulf of California, southward to Panama, and the California anchovy, Engraulis mordax, which is met with from Vancouver Island to Lower California. Of the larger anchovies, and one likely to be met with by the angler, is the striped anchovy, Stolephorus brownii—the generic name from the Greek, signifying a stole or white band worn by priests and the specific name after Patrick Browne, author of the “ History of Jamaica.” This fish reaches a length of six inches and is very abundant, particularly on the Florida coast. It is found from Cape Cod to Brazil, and may be known by the sheath of scales on the anal fin ; large snout, projecting much beyond the tip of the lower jaw; the olive coloration on the upper part of the body and the very distinct beautiful silvery band, about as broad as the eye of the fish, on the sides. So translucent and delicate is the flesh of this anchovy, and so closely allied to the Medi- terranean species in all essential qualities as an edible fish, that it would, when properly prepared, rival if not surpass in commercial importance the celebrated sardine now so largely imported. As a matter of fact, however, these importations are to a great extent fraudulent in character, as most of the boxes of the so-called foreign sardines are filled with pilchards or sprats and the young of the coarser grades of herrings. And the same imputation is truthful as to the so-called sardines put on the market by American factories. Two of the anchovies, S. opercularis—the specific name from the Latin, “pertaining to the opercle, which is very long," and S. compressus, the specific name from the Latin, “ compressed ”— are found on the Pacific Coast, the former from the Gulf of California to Panama, and the latter from Point Concepcion to Lower California, being abundant at San Diego. S. opercularis grows to a length of five inches and may be known by its usually long opercle ; large, compressed head ; blunt snout extending beyond the lower jaw and by the absence of the silvery bad on its sides. S. compressus has a silvery band on its sides as broad as the eye; lower lobe of the caudal fin is longer than the upper, the pectoral fin is sheathed with scales, and the snout projects but slightly be- yond the lower jaw. It grows to six inches, is translucent and has a faintly marked olive colora- tion. The smallest species of anchovies found north of the tropics is S. mitchilli-specific name I 22 Lucius reticulatus Specimen (weight, 1 lb.) caught and painted at Green- Umb Barrel THE EASTERN POND PICKEREL wood Lake, N. Y. Reproduced in fac-simile by ARMSTRONG & CO., Cam- bridge, Mass. de Copyright, 1894, by William C. HARRIS. The Eastern or Banded Pickerel – Lucius reticulatus, NE OP 10 Copyright, 1894, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. ME The Eastern or Banded Pickerel - Lucius reticulatus. THE HERRINGS—THE SHAD. a after Professor Samuel Latham Mitchill. It never grows longer than two and one-half inches, and is found from Cape Cod to Texas, entering rivers in great numbers. It is translucent, silvery, with a faintly marked, very narrow silver band on its sides. It has a very large eye and short snout. One of the largest of this family of fishes is the California anchovy, Engraulis mordax-generic name that of the ancient name of the common anchovy of Europe, and the specific from the Latin, biting.” It grows to a length of seven inches ; its head is about twice as long as it is deep; the snout pointing and protruding ; has no lateral band; is not translucent; the flesh is comparatively dark and " is easily torn as in a sardine”; is bluish in coloration on the upper part of the body and silvery on the sides and abdomen. This species ranges from Vancouver Island to Lower Cali- fornia, and is extremely abundant, serving as food for the larger and more esteemed table fish of the Pacific waters. The largest of the anchovies is found in the Gulf of Mexico. It is known as Anchovia macrole- pidota, the specific name from the Greek, “ large-scaled.” It grows to eight inches and has a faintly marked bluish band on the sides. The body is very short and deep, and the upper and lower lines strongly arched. a a 123 THE DEEP-SEA FISHES Many fishes, such as the groupers, flounders, red snappers, jew fishes, sea perches, barracudas, eels, pompanoes, rock cods and other forms that are captured by the angler in comparatively shal- low water, are also found in the oceans at various depths, and are classed by ichthyologists as deep-sea fishes, or those that dwell in salt water of five hundred feet or a greater depth. The systematic study of “Oceanic Ichthyology,” or that of the deep-sea fishes, commenced scarcely two decades ago; yet the progressive and interesting results, during so short a period, surpass in value that of any other study of nature. Twenty years ago only a few specimens of fishes had been obtained which, from their anatomical structure, it was believed inhabited abyssal depths. In 1885 Prof. Collett, of Christiana, published a volume on the Norwegian North Sea Expedition ”; in 1887 Dr. Gunther, of the British Museum, issued his book, “ The Deep-Sea Fishes of the Challenger Expedition "; in 1888 Dr. Valiant, of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, reported on the results of the Travailleur and Talisman Expedition ; and in the same year Prof Alexander Agassiz published his work, “ Contributions to American Thalassography,” the result of 327-4-4--4-3333333333 THE HEADLIGHT FISH– Æthoprora effulgens—FOUND AT THE DEPTH OF 10,000 FEET. his observations of the work of the United States Coast Survey and Fish Commission. Since then the deep-sea work has been practically abandoned, but Goode and Bean, in 1895, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, gave us their “Oceanic Ichthyology,” a work which discusses "all forms of fishes found in the seas of the world,” and gathers in systematic form all previous knowledge of deep-sea fishes. The efforts of the above-named laborers in a comparatively new field have produced results not only of great value to science but of much general interest. It has been ascertained that nearly one thousand species inhabit the waters of the great oceans, at depths varying from 500 to 16,500 feet. Many of these fishes were found to be modified forms of surface types exhibiting abnormal shapes, sometimes grotesque and beautiful, with resplendent colorations. Many of them were dredged from a depth of a mile or more, and on being relieved from the great pressure of the water a I 24 THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. -estimated to be about a ton weight to each one thousand fathoms of depth-the bony and mus- cular tissues were so affected by the expansion of gas in their bodies that their flesh fell from the bones, which became so soft they were easily pierced by a pin or other sharp instrument. This condition could not exist when the fish were in their natural habitat, as many of them were known to be fiercely rapacious, feeding upon their swift-motioned congeners, to capture which a strong physical structure of the pursuers is an imperative condition. As it is believed that the rays of the sun do not penetrate beyond a depth of two hundred fathoms, it necessarily follows that fishes living below that depth must be possessed of auxilliary organs, by which they would be enabled to see and pursue their prey or seek their food on the bottom. Hence we find many deep-sea fishes with peculiar organs, luminous glands or plates, situated on the head, tail, gill covers, or diversely on their bodies. One species of the genus, Æthoprora, has a luminous gland, a brilliant head-light, which covers the anterior part of the head, overlapping the front margin of the eye and extending down to the upper jaw and along its side nearly to the eye. Another of the same genus has a lantern on its tail, and in some forms there exist two veritable side lights located on the gill covers, thus presenting in the depths the appear- ance of a steamship at night under the requirements of the law. These fishes have been taken from depths varying from 3,300 to nearly 10,000 feet, and both species have been found off the coasts of the United States-one with the dredge from the Pacific Ocean, the other from the stomach of a codfish captured on the banks of Newfoundland. Other species have their bellies densely covered with these phosphorescent organs or spots, by which the water below them is illuminated. In another species there is a long glandular phosphorescent spot just below the eye, WW muti P. imenila A FISHING FROG OR ANGLER OF THE DEEP SEA. Melanocetus johnsonii. THE TORCH FISH–Linophryne lucifer. which organ can be protruded at will; others have their eyes on top of the head and are called star-gazers—they have been taken from a depth of 612 feet. The phosphorescent glands or spots are usually of an iridescent pale gold color when seen on freshly caught fish. It is satisfactory to the layman to know that these phosphorescent plates and glands are given the fish solely to aid them in searching for food or escaping their enemies; but the scientist is not content with so simple an explanation of their presence and use, and are investigating their construction and functions. Some ichthyologists believe that both the plates and glands are ac- cessory eyes; others think that only the plates, being lens-like in structure, are additional eyes, and the organs, which are of a glandular nature, merely emit phosphorescent light. The last con- clusion is now held by the majority of scientists despite the fact that many fishes possessing these lens-like organs and living at great depths, are furnished with large ordinary eyes, quite suf- ficient in their power to see by the aid only of phosphorescent light furnished by the glandular spots on different parts of their bodies. In this connection Dr. Gunther concludes: While we must admit those compound organs (lens-like) may prove to be organs of sense, we maintain at the same time that their morphological nature is not opposed to the belief that they, also, like the glandular organs, are producers of light.” Supplementary to the phosphorescent and lens-like organs which deep-sea fish possess, there appears to be another condition by which their plane of sight is much increased. A great many m I 25 THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. of them have their mucous system enormously developed, and this occurs even in fishes found above the two hundred fathom line. Below that depth the entire body of the fish seems to be en- veloped with a layer of mucous which in fresh specimens has phosphorescent properties. Thus in the abyssal depth we find flashing meteors of brilliancy to illume the gloom of its perpetual dark- ness and light the fin-paths of its curiously endowed inhabitants, and yet in contrast with this compensatory ordainment for the benefit of these sparkling dwellers in the depths we find, here and there, species without eyes, and with no special organs of touch with which to grope for their food—blind denizens of nature's eternal night. In many fishes that live only at a depth of about five hundred feet, the eye becomes propor- tionally larger than in those living at the surface. The eyes appear to increase in size with the depth inhabited. Beyond two hundred fathoms fishes with small eyes are found in company with large-eyed species, the former, however, having filamentary organs of touch—" feelers "—to aid them in seeking their food. In one species of the "fishing frogs or sea-devils” the ends of their “ feelers” are furnished with small phosphorescent glands which illuminate their feeding grounds at a depth of 10,000 feet. In another of the deep-sea fishes taken from a depth of 2,150 fathoms, it is stated by Goode and Bean that the eye seems to have lost its natural function and assumed that of producing light. Another abnormal eye formation occurs in one of the flounders taken from a depth of 528 feet. It is cross-eyed, one eye being situated below and in advance of the other one. Adult flounders usually have both eyes on one side of their head. The deep-sea fishes are found, as before stated, at depths ranging from 500 to 16,500 feet, al- o A SEA-SERPENT FORM— Chlamydoselachus anquineus—THIS FISH IS ALLIED TO THE SHARK. though a dredge in which fish were enclosed has reached a depth of 17,400 feet; but we are told that specimens obtained at this depth belong to a species which is abundant in the upper strata, , hence were probably captured as the dredge was being raised. The difference in anatomical struc- ture is, however, sufficient to distinguish the deep-sea from surface fishes. In the former, when taken from the water, the bony and muscular systems are found to be feebly developed. The bones are light and fibrous with very little calcareous matter in them, and are loosely connected. The muscles, as compared with those of surface fishes, are very thin and easily separated from each other. The withdrawal of the fish from the enormous pressure of many fathoms produces these anatomical conditions. Many fishes caught in comparatively shallow water and familiarly known by their popular names are found at considerable depths. Four species very similar in form to the salmon, and classed by Gunther as salmonoids, have been taken from depths ranging from 8,136 to 12,240 feet. All of them have the adipose of fatty fin, so characteristic of the salmon family. Sharks have been taken from a depth of 4,896 feet on the Pacific Coast ; few of them, however, are found deeper than 1,000 to 1,200 feet. One about 24 feet in length, seen at Pemaquid, Me., in 1880, and mistaken for a sea serpent because of its long, slender body and snake-like appearance, is doubtless a deep-sea rover, as only a few of them have been seen. Another form, the largest of the sharks, and growing to a length of 35 feet, is also believed to visit very deep water and breed there, as the young have never been caught or seen. It must be remembered in this connection that the appliances used in I 26 THE FRESH WATER DRUM. Aplodinotus grunniens. Weight, 1% lbs. Specimen caught in Winnebago Lake, Wis., by umb Otarril Reproduced in fac-simile by ARMSTRONG & CO., Cam- bridge, Mass. IL Petric Copyright, 1893, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. The Fresh Water Drum, or Sheepshead. Aplodinotus grunniens, SANTO OF Lletrie Copyright, 1893, by WILLIAM C. HARRIS. The Fresh Water Drum, or Sheepshead. Aplodinotus grunniens. Wall (e THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. fishing great depths is not adapted for the capture of large fish, or those that move very swiftly. Goode and Bean, in their “Oceanic Ichthyology,” in reference to this matter aptly state: “ It seems probable that there are many inhabitants of the depths which are too swift, too wary and cunning, or too large thus to be taken. It cannot be doubted, for example, that some- where in the sea, at an unknown distance below the surface, there are living certain fish-like ani- mals, unknown to science and of great size, which come occasionally to the surface, and give a foundation to such stories as those of the sea serpent.” One form, allied to the catfishes, is found in water 14,358 feet deep, and in strange contrast of habitat fresh-water catfish are captured in the streams of the Andes at an elevation of 14,000 feet. Some of the ray fishes have been taken from a depth of 2,500 feet; halibut from 1,500 feet; cuda from 6,348 feet; pompanoes from 750 feet; red snappers from 1,500 feet; rock cods and groupers from 1,890 feet. The fishing frog, frogfish, angler, or sea devil, as it is promiscuously called, well barra- TAKEN FROM A DEPTH OF 6,300. FEET. known to the fisherman in the estuaries of the Atlantic coast, has been taken in the ocean at a depth of 2,190 feet; an allied form (Melanocetas) only four inches long contained a fish which was seven and a half inches long and one inch deep. It was rolled up spirally into a ball and laid snugly in the capacious stomach of its captor, which was found in water 9,000 feet deep. Another allied genus (Mancalias), which Dr. Gunther calls a “sea devil,” a degraded form of the fishing frog, has been found by the Albatross in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of 10,116 feet. Some forms of the eel family have been taken from a depth of 12,500 feet. They range in size from four inches to eleven feet in length, and one of them doubtless can be classed among the most voracious and de- structive fishes of the deep sea. The illustration on page 129 shows that its length of jaw is nearly Аллоллаллолл.ллллла CAUGHT AT A DEPTH OF 16,500 FEET. half the length of the body and the gape is enormous, but fortunately for its fellow fins it seldom grows beyond nineteen inches. Allied species of similar formation have been taken off the Pacific coast at a depth of 8,802 feet. One species of the codfish family has been taken in the Antarctic Ocean from a depth of 11,850 feet, and one of the flounders, or flat fishes, from 11,050 feet. The common flounder, so numerous in the estuaries of the east Atlantic, has not been found in water deeper than 600 feet, although there is a small flounder, or sole, that has been taken from about 2,900 feet. Many curious shapes, vergingupon the grotesque and fantastic, appear among the deep sea fishes, one of the most singular being the ribbon fish (Regalecus), which grows to a length of twenty- four feet, is scarcely twelve inches broad, and only one to two inches thick. It has never been taken by the dredge, but owing to the character of its bony and muscular tissues, as observed in specimens found floating or on the shore, it certainly when alive resorts to the abyssal depths. From its great length and shape several writers have supposed it to be, from time to time, mistaken for the sea serpent, but its physical construction renders it impossible for it to live on or near the surface. One specimen, seventeen feet. long, was washed ashore at Bermuda in 1860, and those present de- I 27 THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. scribe it as having a head like that of an immense horse with a flaming red mane. It appears prob- able that this and similar species are only brought to the surface by great commotions of the ocean. Another of the sea serpent forms (Derichthys) is believed to grow to an enormous size and live at great depth, although only one has been taken by the dredge, and it was only eight inches in length. Its neck is much contracted and, as will be seen in the illustration, it looks very much like a snake, hence has been probably mistaken for the sea serpent. It must be remembered in this connection that very few of the fish that visit or live in the deep seas have popular names, and sos Ouv סטטטטטטטט uoou ovo ONE OF THE DEEP-SEA RIBBON FISHES—Regalecus glesne. can only be designated by their technical appellatives. An oddly shaped fish living 3,250 feet be- low the surface belongs to the genus Malacosteus, the under jaw of which extends backwards and be- yond the head proper, and seems to work on an axis of very weak proportions. Its color is black, with numerous light dots over the entire body, and its luminous gland, crescentic in shape, is longer than the eye, with a smaller gland located on and about the center of the upper jaw. A very curious little fish (Sternoptyx), with an oblique body and a remarkably large eye which is about one-sixth as large as the entire length of the body, has been taken in the dredge at depths A DEEP-SEA FISH OF SERPENT FORM—Derichthys serpentinus—TAKEN FROM A DEPTH OF 6,200 FEET. ranging from 3,000 to 15,000 feet; its normal habitat in the ocean is as yet undecided. Among the many other curious forms of fish life found in the deep seas, that of Chiasmodon must not be over- looked. The illustration speaks for itself, and we have only to add that it has been found in 9,000 feet of water, and is capable of swallowing a fish many times greater than its own size. It is evi- dently an inhabitant of very great depths. The smallest fish (Paroneirodes) ever taken from the deep sea is an allied form of the fishing frog or sea devil. The only specimen ever taken was 112 inches long, and was captured in the Bay of Bengal at a depth of 7,560 feet on a soft bottom of blue mud. The largest form known to be a deep-sea fish is the shark of thirty-five feet, before described, the size of which prevents its capture in the dredge. I 28 THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. Although the coloration of most of the deep-sea fishes is very plain, being either dark or sil- very, there are several species the brilliancy and iridescence of whose color tints surpass not only those of all other animals, but their mellow, irradiating transfusion and independent touches and tints are beyond reproduction by human art. There are two fishes that stand preeminent in this respect. One, the beryl-fish, the name indicating its beauty, is found from 300 to 9,000 feet below the surface, and is thus described by Naturalist Lowe: “At the moment of capture, whilst the fish is still alive, the whole body beneath the lateral line is a pure, translucent, silvery white ; the fins alone, and merely the ridge of the back and head, the inside of the mouth, the lower jaw and parts beneath the eye being of the brightest scarlet, contrasting strongly with the pure silver of the whole sides and belly, which only after death turns ONE OF THE SMALLEST DEEP-SEA FISHES TAKEN FROM A DEPTH OF 7,500 FEET LARGE-EYED OR OBLIQUE FISH TAKEN AT A DEPTH OF 15,000 FEET. iridescent rosy, or sometimes rich golden scarlet. The hind parts of the dorsal and ventral fins are transparent; the iris is pale scarlet. There is a watery transparency about the scarlet of the back in this state perfectly inimitable by art. This description applies to Beryx splendens, which has been taken at a depth of 424 fathoms from the Pacific Ocean. The tile fish, found in the Atlantic off the New England Coast at a depth of about four hun- THE BERYL FISH-Beryx splendens dred and fifty feet, is the most beautifully colored fish that inhabits the salt or fresh waters of the world, not excepting the brilliant parrot and angel fishes of the West Indian coral groves. It is bluish on the back, with a green iridescent tinge changing through purplish blue and bluish gray to rosy white below, and milky white toward the median line of the belly. It is iridescent rosy on the head, with the red tints most abundant on the forehead; blue under the eyes, and fawn-colored on the cheeks. The throat and under side of the head is pearly white with here and there a tint of lemon-yellow. On the back there are many spots of bright lemon or golden, and the anal fin is I 29 THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. purplish with iridescent tints of blue and rose. The margin of this fin is of a rich purplish blue, iridescent like the most beautiful mother-of-pearl, and this coloration pervades more or less the entire fin which has large yellow spots on it. The technical nomenclature by which the deep-sea and, indeed, all other fishes are desig- nated, is an interesting study. The names are generally from Latin and Greek derivatives, and, as a rule, illustrate either their habits, habitat, color or physical construction for instance, the new genus called by Goode and Bean Acrotus (from the Greek) signifies “without oars," in allusion to the absence of the ventral fins. Æthroptera is a name applied to a lantern-bearing fish with a large, brilliant, luminous gland on the front of its head. The name is derived from two Greek words THE TILE FISH. meaning “with a flashing light ahead.” Another, Bathylaco, is also from two Greek words signify- ing“ a warrior of the ocean depths,” in allusion to its combative qualities and the great depth (9,000 feet) in which it is found. Citomimus, also from the Greek, meaning “very like a whale,” is applied to a small fish, scarcely five inches in length, found in about 8,000 feet of water. Its head is a fair a A CROSS-EYED FLOUNDER-TAKEN AT A DEPTH OF 528 FEET. counterpart of that of the whale. Lampadena, from the Greek, signifying “having a lamp-like or- gan on its tail,” is descriptive of a deep-sea fish found 3,300 feet below the surface. It has a large, luminous gland, club-shaped, situated on the upper fleshy part of the tail (peduncle) immediately in front of the tail fin, and another similar gland on the lower portion of the tail. Manducus, ap- plied to a ferocious fish, is from the so-called manducus, a grotesque figure used in the Roman 130 THE YELLOW PERCH. Perca flavescens. Weight, 3 lb. Specimen caught in Island Lake, Wis., by in Harris Painted by J. L. PETRIE. the THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. SM . theatres in classical days, representing a person chewing-an allusion, doubtless, to the great and unusual number of teeth possessed by this fish. Cervinum, “spotted like a fawn”; “ Cruentifer,'' “sanguinary,” “ cruel,” descriptive of the habits of this fish of boring into the flesh of living fishes; Dilecta, “ admired,” “ beloved,” in reference to the great beauty of the fish ; Gemmifer, “studded with gem-like studs”; Gracile, “ slender and graceful in form ”; Brevibarbes, “ short bearded,” in allusion to the short barbels or “ feelers” on its under jaw ; Paxillus, “spindle shaped”; Ranula,“ like a tad- pole”; Simula, “pug-nosed”; Unicornis, “ with one horn on its forehead”; and Torvus, “ gloomy and savage in aspect.” A CUP-MOUTHED FISH–Eurypharynx pelecanoides—CAUGHT IN THE DEEP SEA. -а This brief list of technical names, with their expressive derivatives, could be multiplied al- most indefinitely, as every fish known to exist has one or more scientific names of its own-a fam- ily, a generic and specific name, comparing, as it were, with our Christian and patronymic names -such as “ John Henry Smith.” These family names of fishes, like our own, have been handed down for ages, in some instances from the days of Aristotle. The family name, however, is not M. Hypsicometes gobioides—FOUND AT A DEPTH OF 2,000 FEET. used so frequently as the generic and specific. As an example: Our red-spotted trout belongs to the salmon family, Salmonide, but it is referred to almost exclusively as Salvelinus fontinalis. During the last decade or two, American ichthyologists have distinguished allied forms with slight anatomi- cal difference between them, by sub-specific names; hence we find in the salmon family and others, such names as Salvelinus fontinalis agassizii, which distinguishes the Dublin pond trout of New Hampshire from his more modestly christened brother of the brooks—S. fontinalis. For the Greek and Latin scholar, or to the layman ignorant of the dead languages, there is a peculiar charm in the study of ichthyic terminology. 131 THE VIVIPAROUS SURF FISHES OF THE PACIFIC a In September, 1896, while cruising on the California coast, around Catalina and the adjacent islands, we landed at San Clemente, an island about thirty-five miles distant from Catalina. Our purpose in landing was to have an island dinner, cooked on shore, as those served in the confined space on the yacht were becoming less enjoyable. When all hands were ashore and our land dinner under way, I strolled along the shore of the island, from which boulders, large and small, extended some fifty feet from the land, with here and there a beach of dark sand intervening from twenty to fifty feet in breadth. Climbing over the rocks to a point upon which the breakers were dashing, I sat down to enjoy the beauty and seren- ity of the Pacific, stretching out before me as far as the uncheckered horizon on the north, west and east, while the breaking waters at my feet threw the spray upward and over me, wetting me to the bone; but so soft and yet invigorating was the breezy balm of this island atmosphere that every splash of the surf, as it overtopped the boulders and my old felt hat, was entirely free from the cold clamor or "sticky” effect produced in most climates by being drenched. Watching an incoming swell which was likely to give me an extra shower-bath, I saw within fifteen feet from where I stood at least a dozen fish of a bright silver color, dashing hither and yon, on the crest of the approaching wave. It broke on the outermost rock and its spray went over me, but not a fish could be seen in the subsiding water; yet the exciting effect of their rapid move- ments and the sheen of their beauty remained, and in about ten minutes I was armed with a six- ounce fly rod and a book of flies, both of which I had fortunately brought from the yacht. My cast was a black hackle, slightly gray mixed, and a royal coachman, both tied on No. 8 Sproat hooks; these were intended to give the fish a choice of strongly contrasted colors, but correctly judging, as the event proved, that in the bright water clear as crystal the fish, whatever species they might be, would take the darker fly. Without waiting to see another batch of disporting fish, a cast of about fifty feet was made, and the flies lit upon the crest of an incoming swell. At the instant the feathers fell both flies were taken eagerly, and two fish of about a pound each were netted after a vigorous water fight of about fifteen minutes. I caught in the course of an hour eleven of those fish, some weighing as low as half a pound and none over one pound. They all gave good sport, and my first fly-fishing in the surf of Pacific waters was as exciting from its novelty as my former experience on the west coast of Florida, where at certain points and under certain conditions I have caught channel bass, sea trout, cavalli and other fish with flies cast on the outer edge of the surf, and in the pockets of an irregular beach, when effected by a rising tide. That day's enjoyment, entirely unexpected, has led me to investigate, by no means exhaust- ively, the families of viviparous perches, one species of which I caught at San Clemente. They are a newly found angler's fish, and as such deserve description, for they take the feathers with avid- ity-preferably, so far as my experience goes, a dark fly. These fish belong to that class of scaled and true fishes that bring forth their young alive, the earliest specimen of which was described by Bleeker, the ichthyologist, in 1849, and the last known species in 1889 by Prof. Eigenmann. I allude now exclusively to what are classed as Em- 132 THE VIVIPAROUS SURF FISHES OF THE PACIFIC. name. biotocidæ,* of which there are forty-nine species, eighteen of which are found on the Pacific Coast, from upper Puget Sound to San Diego, Cal. These are all shore fishes except one, which is found in deep water, where the greatest number of the species of another family of viviparous fishes, the Scorpaenida, make their habitat. The fish caught on my rod is classified as Cymatogaster aggregatus, and so far as I could learn all the shore species of the family of Embiotocido are called by the fish- erman and market dealers “surf perches,” and the external appearance of the fishes justifies the . The species (C. aggregatus) that rises so eagerly to the fly—and I believe that all the other shore species will do likewise—may be easily distinguished from its congeners by the illustration given and by the spines of its high dorsal fin, the fifth or sixth spine being always longest; by a series of longitudinal stripes formed by a cluster of dark spots on each scale, and by three vertical light yellow bars on which no black spots are found in the adult fish. In the spring of the year the adult males are almost entirely black. In the dorsal fin will be found nineteen spines and twenty rays, and in the anal three spines and twenty-two rays. In the female fish, Dr. Eigenmann states, the ventral regions, belly and breast are free from pigment, and the cheeks and the lower parts of the head are also but sparingly pigmented. The lateral bands of dark are quite incon- spicuous (in the female), except in three vertical bars on the sides of the abdomen. In other regions See SENS Cymatogaster aggregatus—FEMALE—TAKEN WITH THE ARTIFICIAL FLY AT SAN CLEMENTE, CAL. a they are overlaid by a golden tinge.” The male fish is always much smaller, averaging not quite two-thirds the size of the female. One species only of these viviparous fishes is found in the fresh waters of California—the Sacramento Valley-where it will doubtless take the artificial fly. It is known as Hysterocarpus traskii. It may be distinguished by its small head, blunt snout and strongly convex body, also by its long spinal dorsal fin, which contains sixteen spines and only eleven rays. The spines in the anal fin are very strong and curved, and are three in number. This family of fishes has attracted the earnest study of several American ichthyologists, more particularly and recently Dr. Carl H. Eigenmann and his accomplished lady, and to them science is indebted for an exhaustive mono- graph on the fish which it was my happy fortune to place among the angler's fishes of America. The other distinguishing features of this family of viviparous fishes briefly described, are : The dorsal fin is continuous, consisting of an anterior spinous and a posterior soft-rayed portion, the spines ranging in number from eight to eighteen, but on the anal fin they never exceed three, and are placed anteriorly. One of the front rays of the anal fin in the genus Hyperprosopon, is trans- formed on the male fish into a triangular plate, a marking of value to the observant but unscien- tific angler. The lateral line in this family of fishes is arched and runs along the entire body; the mouth is small, and the anterior teeth have always the appearance of being much worn. One Jap- anese genus (Neoditrema) has no teeth, very thin lips, and jaws greatly protractile. * From two Greek words signifying “living" and " bringing forth." + From two Greek words signifying " fætus” and “ " belly.” | From two Greek words signifying “womb” and “fruit." a 133 THE VIVIPAROUS SURF FISHES OF THE PACIFIC. The physical markings of these fishes, which as a class are not strikingly characteristic, at- tract much less attention and need less investigation than their physiology and habits. Most im- portant and interesting is the mode of nourishment by which the young fish are kept alive in the ovary. The yolk of the egg, because of its small size and not being absorbed until gestation is nearly completed, is not sufficient to nourish the young fish. Dr. Eigenmann states that the yolk disappears long before the development of the embryo, but when the first gill-slit is open in the young fish, absorption of food through the intestinal canal takes place. “Before the mouth is opened a continuous stream of the fluid contents of the ovary enters the gill-slit (of the embryo), and passes out apparently unchanged through the anus." Thus we see that the blood corpuscles of the ovarian fluid, and the yolk of the egg, would seem to be, through the process of absorption, important nourishing factors of the unborn fish. How the young fish are kept alive, through respiration, in their later stages of development is another subject of great interest. It is stated that the closest intimacy between the respiration of the mother and the young exists, the latter showing asphyxiation before the former shows ex- haustion, if the mother is kept in stale water; if she is taken from the water she will die before the young The embryo and the larvæ are at all times in contact with the structure of the ovary, which gets its blood direct from the gills of the parent fish. The young, unless they have nearly reached maturity, invariably die when placed in either fresh or salt water. Mail A VIVIPAROUS SURF FISH WITH YOUNG. The probable duration of gestation is five months, from December to May, and in the follow- ing February the smallest individuals are sexually mature, hence from the birth of one generation to the beginning of the next is about ten months. The manner of generation has not been deter- mined; some ichthyologists believe that it is accomplished by the spermatozoa reaching the ovar- ies through the medium of the salt water. The fact that this family of Pacific coast fishes produced their young alive was nearly simul- taneously discovered in 1852 by J. K. Lord, of Vancouver Island ; A. C. Jackson, at San Francisco ; W. P. Gibbons, San Francisco, and Dr. Thos. H. Webb, at San Diego, Cal. Prof. Agassiz published the first account of these fishes in 1853, from specimens collected by A. C. Jackson, who gives an in- teresting description of his discovery of their viviparity. He states : “On the 7th of June I arose early in the morning for the purpose of taking a mess of fish for I breakfast ; pulled to the usual place, baited with crabs, and commenced fishing, the wind blowing too strong for comfortable angling. Nevertheless on the first and second casts I fastened two fishes, male and female, that I write about, and such were their liveliness and strength that they endangered my slight trout rod. I, however, succeeded in bagging both, though in half an hour's subsequent work I got not even a nibble from either this or any other fish. I determined to change my bait, and put upon my hook a portion of the fish already caught, and cut for that pur- pose into the largest of the two fish caught. I intended to take a piece from the thin part of the 134 THE VIVIPAROUS SURF FISHES OF THE PACIFIC. a belly, when what was my surpise to see coming from the opening thus made a small live fish I was vastly astonished to find next to the fish and slightly attached to it a long, very light violet bag so clear and so transparent that I could distinguish through it the shape, color, and form- ation of a multitude of small fish (all facsimiles of each other) with which it was filled. There cannot remain in the mind of anyone who sees the fish in the same state that I did a single doubt that these young were the offspring of the fish from whose body I took them, and that this species of fish gave birth to her young alive and perfectly formed, and adapted to seeking its livelihood in the water. The number of young in the bag is nineteen, and every one as brisk and lively and as much at home in a bucket of salt water as if they had been for months accustomed to the water." Mr. J. K. Lord, of Vancouver Island, a co-discover of the viviparity of these fish, gave a some- what detailed account of their habits. We quote: a A VIVIPAROUS SURF FISH.—Damalichthy's argyrosomus—MALE—TAKEN AT FRIENDLY COVE, B. C. " The habit of the fish is clearly to come into shallow water when the period arrives for pro- ducing its live young; and from the fact that some of these fish are occasionally taken at all peri- ods of the year, I am induced to believe that they do not in reality migrate, but only retire to deeper water along the coast, there to remain during the winter months, reappearing in the shal- A VIVIPAROUS SURF FISH-Rhacochilus toxotes--FEMALE—TAKEN AT MONTEREY, CAL. low bays and estuaries in June and July, or perhaps earlier, for reproductive purposes ; here they remain until September and then entirely disappear. “ They swim close to the surface in immense shoals, and numbers are very craftily taken by the Indians, who literally frighten the fish into their canoes. At low tide, when a shoal of fish is in the bay or up one of these large inlets that intersect the coast line, the savages get the fish be- tween the banks (or the rocks, as it may be) and the canoe, and then paddle with all their might and main among the terror-stricken fish, lashing the sea with their paddles and uttering the most 1 35 THE VIVIPAROUS SURF FISHES OF THE PACIFIC. fiendish yells. Out leap the fish from the water in their panic to escape this (to their affrighted senses) terrible monster; and if not out of the 'frying pan into the fire, it is out of the sea into the canoe. It appears to be a singular trait in the character of viviparous fish to leap high out of the water on the slightest alarm. I have often seen them jump into my boat when rowing through a shoal, which is certainly most accommodating.” Admitting that under the impulse of frantic excitement these fish jump out of the water, they do not do so when caught on the surface of the water by the artificial fly. None of the fish caught on my rod rose after being hooked to the surface, but took the feathers and surged deep until exhausted. Although these fish find a ready sale in the Pacific coast markets, their flesh is insipid and soft, being about on a par with the carp as an edible, which, however, is not flattery to the latter- named fish, than which no coarser table fish swims the sweet” or “bitter water.” ” All the species of fish known as viviparous belong to the two families, Embiotocida and Scor- panida. The former are shore fish and the latter are all deep-water fishes, with one exception, a surface species, having no popular name. They have been taken at depths ranging from sixty to twenty-one hundred feet, and possess no interest to anglers, for when brought to the surface they are hideous to look upon, their eyes protruding from the sockets and air bladders from their mouths; when on the hook they are dead weights, without struggle or movement, coming lifeless over the gunnel of the boat. 136 INDEX TO VOLUME I I . 108 66 . . 66 %%%%%贝​48刀​48 H刀​的​刀​的​刀​仍​仍​n 66 66 . . 66 66 66 66 . . Alewife Popular Names of. Anchovies California Largest Species Beryl Fish Big-Eyed Herring Big-Jawed Sucker Big-Mouthed Buffalo Black Horse Sucker Blue Mullet Sucker Bone Fish Bowfin .. Origin of Name Tenacity of Life Bullhead California Anchovy California Herring Carps Antiquity and Weight Destruction of Wild Fowl Food Economical Value of Gold Fish Leather King Mirror Scaled Tenacity of Life Carp Sucker Catfishes ... Affection for Young Channel Catfish of Spring Waters Common Danube Duck-Bill Electric Gaff-Topsail Great Mississippi Jugging for Long-Jawed Marbled ... Medicinal Qualities Mud Peculiar Habits of Salt Water Smallest Adult Stone Yellow Channel Catfish Chisel-Mouth Chub . 63 63 . 63 66 Chub, Gudgeon 108 Hard-Mouth 123 Hitch 123 Jerker 123 Klamath Lake 129 Leucisci 96 Nigger 58 Orthodon 54 Pescadito 55 Potomac River Gudgeon 58 Red-Fin 91 Rio Grande 31 Roach 32 Round-Tail 33 Sacramento Pike 39 Spawn Eating 123 Split-Tail ΙΙΟ Spotted Shiner 60 Squaw Fish 60 Smelt 64 Stone Roller 67 Utah 63 Utah Mullet White Salmon Chub Sucker Classification of Fishes 63 Colorado Pike 61 Coloration of Fishes ... 54 of Rocky Mountain Trout, (S. mykiss).... 35 Columbia Chub 36 Common Catfish Common Chub 38 Common Red Horse Sucker 35 Cross-Eyed Flounder 27 Cup-Mouthed Fish 37 Cut-Lipped Chub Deep-Sea Fishes 35 Beryl Fish · 38 Coloration of 43 Cross-Eyed Flounder 44 Cup-Mouthed Fish 37 Depth of Range 43 Headlight Fish 36 Largest Species Organs of Sight 36 Phosphorescent Glands 45 Ribbon Fish 43 Serpent-Like forms of . Serpent-Like Shark 70 Shapes of Technical Nomenclature of 73 Tile Fish 72-73 Torch Fish 71 Devil Fish or Manta 70 Distribution of Fishes · 69 Fossil Remains. 73 Fresh and Salt Water 72 Dogfish 76 Duck-Bill Catfish 68 Electric Catfish 87 Fall Fish 71 Fishes Captured on Hook and Line 73 Fishing for Mooneyes 88 Flies-Artificial 76 70 71 70 74 74-75 70 71 74 86 77 74 88 74 72 76 71 76 72 75 75 74 74 73 51 .9-13 73 .III III 72 38 69 56 130 131 .76 124 129 128 130 131 I26 124 123 125 124 128 127 126 127 130 130 125 .24 5 5 6 31 27 37 69 II 95 15 66 . . 66 . . . 66 . . 66 66 66 . 66 66 47 . 孙​59485985%84们​仍​%A9%B4%8仍​仍​刀​&B仍​刀​%83刀​仍​% . 66 . 66 . . . . 66 Chub ... . . . 66 66 . 66 66 66 . . 66 Bony-Tail California Species Chigh Chisel-Mouth Common Colorado Pike " Columbia Cut-Lipped Fall Fish or Wind Fish Fishing for Gudgeon Flat-Headed Gila Golden Shiner 66 . 137 INDEX TO VOLUME I . . . . . . . KENSAぬ​88888844 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 70 . 56 57 Flat-Headed Chub 71 Gaff-Topsail Catfish 45 Game-Fish-Name defined .IV Gila Chub 73 Goldeneyes 94 Golden Shiner Golden Sucker 57 Goldfish 63 Great Mississippi Catfish 35 Grey Sucker of the Yellowstone 51 Gudgeon 76 Gudgeon Fishing 86 Hair-Lipped Sucker 58 Hard-Mouth Chub 70 Headlight Fish I24 Herrings 104 California IIO Caught with Hook and Line 107 Common or Commercial . 104 Food of 107 Popular Names of 107 Skipjack or Blue . 109 Tailor or Mattowacca 109 Hickory Shad 109 Hitch Chub 71 Hooks 15 Ichthyology-Introduction to study of Jerker Chub Jump-Rock Sucker Klamath Lake Chub King Carp 63 Lady Fish Lake Red Horse Sucker 57 Leather Carp 63 Long-Jawed Catfish 43 Long-Tailed Red Horse Sucker 57 Lures-Artificial and Natural Marbled Catfish Menhadens I 20 Minnows Used as Bait 81 Mirror Carp 63 Mooneyes 94 Mud Catfish 43 Nigger Chub 70 Northern Sucker 50 Olive Sucker 54 Orthodon Chub 71 Outfit of an Angler 14 Pescadito Chub 74 Potomac River Gudgeon 86 Qualities of an Angler Quill-Back Sucker Řays 23 Devil Fish or Manta 24 How to Identify the Stingray 24 Stingray 23 Reels Red-Fins 77 Red Horse Sucker Red Mouthed Buffalo .. Ribbon Fish of the Deep-Sea 128 Rio Grande Chub 74 Roach 88 Roach Fishing 89 Rocky Mountain Trout (S. mykiss)—Variations in Color and Form Rods—Varieties of 15 Sacramento Pike 72 Sail Fish Sucker 54 Salt-Water Catfish-felis . 47 Sawfish .... 19 Eggs of Length of Range of Habitat Scaled or Asiatic Carp 63 Scaled Sardines 118 Serpent-Like Shark 126 . 研​乃​%n%2%乃​$5%99%85%85858585355885589588 $88 Shad ..112 Artificial Breeding of 115 Caught on Baits 114 Caught with Artificial Flies 118 Hybrid .. 115 Range and Habitat II2 Size of . 114 Spawning Habit 113 Sharks 21 Experience in Catching 21 Skipjack Herring 109 Small-Mouthed Buffalo 54 Smelt Chub .. Spawn-Eating Chub 76 Split-Tailed Chub 71 Spotted Shiner 76 Squaw Fish ... 72 Stone Catfish 45 Stone Roller Chub ... 75 Stone Roller Sucker 49 Striped Sucker 55 Sturgeon Caught on Hook and Line .29 Tackle and Baits Used 29 Suckers 49 Big-Jawed Big Mouthed Buffalo 54 Black Horse 55 Blue Mullet 58 Carp 54 Caught With Artificial Fly 52 Chub 51 Common Red Horse Golden Great Pedee River Grey of the Yellowstone 51 Hair-Lipped Jumping Mullet 57 Jump-Rock 57 Lake Red Horse 57 Long-Tailed Red Horse 57 Method of Angling For · Northern 50 Olive 54 Quill-Back 54 Red Horse 51 Red-Mouthed Buffalo 54 Sail Fish 54 State of Georgia Stone Roller 49 Striped White Mullet White Nose White or Common 49 Yadkin River Tarpon Habits of 97 How Taken on the Rod IOI-IO2 Popular Names of 96 Range of 98 Tench 89 Thread Herrings .119 Tile Fish 130 Toothless or True Sardines Torch Fish 125 Utah Mullet 74 Viviparous Surf-Fishes of the Pacific .... 133 Caught on Artificial Flies .....133 Discovery and Observation of their Habits .135 Nourishment of Unborn Young 135 Species of 134 Wels—The Danube River Catfish White Mullet Sucker White Nose Sucker White Salmon of the Colorado 73 Yadkin River (N. C.) Suckers 58 66 . . SNHIR$1898474%88%E8%ANATS A131437055&&& mF2%9D%%%88% . 66 . . 56 . 58 96 66 . . . . . . . . . . III . . .III . . . 66 20 . 20 . 20 40 58 56 . . 138 133373 Paraty s PART XVIII. rrer, THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA S 2))))1, BY! WM.C.HARRIS ILLUSTRATED en Nus TO UUTTA JRKS rum r VOL. I. NEW YORK, JUNE, 1898. No. 18. Entered as Second-class Matter in the New York Post Office. THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA THAT ARE CAUGHT ON HOOK AND LINE. Announcement by the Publishers. The publishers present to you in monthly form “The Fishes of North America, "an illustrated periodical of the literature of ichthyology. As the publication, owing to its high grade, is an expensive one, we place it within the reach of all by issuing it in series, the first of which will be completed in forty monthly issues, each containing two portraits of fishes on heavy plate paper, size 12 X 19 inches. The subscription price per series is sixty dollars. Upon the completion of the first series others will be issued, covering the entire field of ichthyological knowledge, the great range of which, justifies a periodical devoted exclusively to this subject. Each series will form a complete work in itself, and subscribers are held responsible only for the series to which they have subscribed. The portraits of fishes used in illustration are first painted in oil, then lithographed on stone in colors, of which as many as fifteen (15) different tints have been required to reproduce the exact tone and mellow transfusion of color so frequently seen in many species of fish when alive. So closely has the oil effect been followed that an expert cannot distinguish the painting from its copy at a distance of ten feet. This accuracy in reproduction of the canvas effect renders the lithographs still more attractive when framed. A full set of these portraits forms an art collection, which, as works of reference, will become invaluable. The cost of the issues of the first series will be at least fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). The paper, presswork, type and general mechanical execution will be the best that can be obtained, and neither labor nor money will be economized in the effort to make the publication unsurpassed in literature. AGENCIES.—Liberal commissions will be paid to agents, to whom exclusive territory will be assigned. They will be re- quired to canvass with a copy of the first issue, in order to show exactly the character of the work and the field it will cover. The first number, with subscription blanks and descriptive circulars, will be furnished by mail to accredited agents on the receipt of one dollar. Clubs. To anglers whose circumstances may deter them from subscribing on account of the cost of the entire issues, we make the following liberal offer: Send us the contracts of five (5) new subscribers to the first series (40 issues) with $7.50, to be credited to their subscriptions, and we will present you with the complete series, postage paid. TERMS.–Subscribers to the complete series can pay for single issues ($1.50) as published, or for such issues in advance, as they may desire; the latter method being adopted by many to avoid the trouble of small remittances. Payments can be made by drafts on New York, post office or express orders, or by registered letter. No subscriptions taken for less than one complete series. Address THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA PUB. CO., 385 Broadway, New York Notes by the Editor. The delay in publication of this series has resulted from the superior grade of lithographic work demanded, and the difficulty experienced in reaching the high standard determined upon. Scrupulous care, however, in that direction insured success, and the portraits of the fishes contained in this number, and those to be given in future ones, are minutely accurate in anatomical de- tail and in the more difficult matter of coloration. That these results might be obtained I have spent many months on selected fishing waters, accompanied by a skilled artist, and have caught specimens of all of the game fishes of America, which were trans- ferred, on the spot, to the canvas, before the sheen of their color tints had faded. The design is to furnish a series of popular text-books and kindergarten studies of fishes. To aid in this object, the fish are shown in an upright position, that of the act of swimming, and extreme care has been taken not only to give the coloration in life, but also with distinctness the specific markings, including the exact number of spines or rays in the fin construction. Each fish represented was caught on my own rod, with the artist, ready for work, within a short distance from the pool or with his easel in the stern sheets of the boat. In many studies of individual fish the artist has caught the coloration from at least ten, and often twenty-five specimens laid before him as they came struggling from the water. Under no other conditions can be procured an accurate transcript of the evanescent tints, which, in many fish, fade or alter in tone the moment they are lifted from the water. The text of this series will consist of full biological notes on all the fishes that are the objects of pursuit by the angler in American waters; their habits, habitat and modes of capture will be described and illustrated, with drawings and diagrams illustrat- ing the anatomy and physiology of fishes. The expense of publication will be very large, the plates alone aggregating $35,000, and I trust the anglers of America will earnestly aid me in publishing a representative work on a scale commensurate with the importance and refinement of the art which we have all learned to love so well. WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Editor of The American Angler. Portraits, Colored as in Life, THAT WILL APPEAR IN “THE FISHES OF NORTH AMERICA.” FIRST SERIES. The annexed list gives the popular and scientific names of the fishes that have been selected to be given, two in each number, in the first series of “The Fishes of North America." As the work progresses other portraits may be added, if occasion demands, and the right is reserved to give substitutes for those named in the list below; the schedule is, however, substantially complete : ed 10 ec 06 The Atlantic Salmon-Salmo salar. Quinnat Salmon of the Pacific-Oncorhynchus tschawytscha. Silver Salmon-Oncorhynchus kisutch. Eastern Brook Trout-Salvelinus fontinalis. • Lake Trout-Salvelinus namaycush. " Land-locked Salmon-Salmo salar var. sebago. Sunapee Trout-Salvelinus alpinus var. aureolus. Rocky Mountain Brook Trout-Salmo mykiss. « Rio Grande Trout-Salmo mykiss spilurus, " Rainbow Trout-Salmo irideus. Dolly Varden Trout-Salvelinus malma. Oquassa or Blue-back Trout-Salvelinus oquassa. « Steel-head Trout-Salmo gairdneri. Michigan Grayling-Thymallus signifer ontariensis, • Montana Grayling-Thymallus signifer montanus. “ Alaskan Grayling—Thymallus signifer. " Rocky Mountain Whitefish-Coregonus williamsoni " Cisco or Lake Herring---Coregonus artedi. " Smelt-Osmerus morda x. " Loch Leven Trout-Salmo fario levenensis. European or Brown Trout-Salmo fario. “ Calico or Strawberry Bass-Pomoxis sparoides. “ Sacramento Perch-Archoplites interruptus. Rock Bass-Ambloplites rupestris. « Common Sunfish-Lepomis gibbosus. • Small-mouthed Black Bass-Micropterus dolomieu. Large-mouthed Black Bass-Micropterus salmoides. Striped Bass or Rockfish-Roccus lineatus. • White or Silver Bass-Roccus chrysops. • Yellow Bass-Morone interrupta. White Perch-Morone americana. " Black Grouper-Epinephelus nigritus. " Red Grouper--Epinephelus morio. “ Sea Bass--Centropristis striatus. * Mascalonge-Lucius masquinongy. " Pike-Lucius lucius. Eastern or Banded Pickerel-Lucius reticulatus, Little Pickerel of the East-Lucius americanus. Little Pickerel of the West-Lucius vermiculatus. • Fresh-water Drum or Sheepshead-Aplodinotus grunniens. " Salt-water Drum-Pogonias chromis. " Red Drum or Channel Bass-Sciana ocellata. * Roncador of the Pacific-Roncador stearnsi. Spot or Lafayette-Leiostomus xanthurus. * Croaker-Micropogon undulatus. The Whiting or Kingfish-Menticirrhus nebulosus. Kingfish of the Pacific, Cynoscion nobile. Squeteague or Weakfish-Cynoscion regale. Southern Weakfish-Cynoscion maculatum. " Yellow-tail-Bairdiella chrysura. - Yellow Perch-Perça flavescens. Pike-perch or Wall-eyed Pike-Luciaperca vitrea. Sauger or Sand Pike-Luciaperca canadensis. " Common Mackerel-Scomber scombrus. Spanish Mackerel-Scomberomorus maculatus. Bonito_Sarda sarda. Common Herring-Clupea harengus. Common Shad-Clupea sapidissima. Mangrove Snapper-Lutjanus griseus. " Sailor's Choice or Hogfish-Orthopristis chrysopterus. « Red-mouth Grunt-Hemulon plumieri. Scup or Porgy-Stenotomus chrysops. Sheepshead-Archosargus probatocephalus. Tautog or Blackfish-Tautoga onitis. " Cunner or Bergall-Tautogolabrus adspersus. * Crevallé-Caranx hippos. "Pompano-Trachinotus carolinus. " Pilot Fish--Naucrates ductor. Common Flounder-Paralichthys dentatus. Winter Flounder-Pseudopleuronectes americanus, · Burbot-Lake Lawyer-Lota lota maculosa. * Codfish-Gadus callarias. Tomcod-Microgadus tomcod. " Yellow-tail Rockfish of the Pacific-Sebastichthys flavidus. “ Green Rockfish of the Pacific-Sebastichthys atrovirens. " Fliaum or Orange Rockfish of the Pacific-Sebastichthys pinniger. Red Rockfish of the Pacific-Sebastichthys ruberrimus. " Bowfin or Dogfish-Amia calva. Small-mouthed Buffalo Fish-Ictiobus bubalus " Leather Carp-Cyprinus carpio. " Chub or Fall Fish-Semotilus bullaris. Ladyfish or Bonefish-Albula vulpes. Tarpon or Tarpum or Grande Ecaille-Megalops atlanticus. Bluefish-Pomatomus saltatrir. • Dollar or Butterfish-Stromateus triacanthus. Sergeant Fish or Snook-Elacate canada. Sawfish-Pristis pectinatus. Squaw Fish or Yellow Belly. Humped-backed Salmon of the Pacific. 20 60 16 60 66 The Fishes of North America Publishing Company, 385 BROADWAY, NEW YORK,