The tile- fish

2BO FOREST AND STREAM. [Afml

_2t, iSea

\;"«5s5^

THE TILE FISH.

pond,

and

they

weighed from

5to7bflbs.each. Threeof

them

Ikilled for

my

epicureanfriends,

and

theremaining three I rolled

up

in a

wet

bag. Istartedwith

them

for Brooklynat3P. M.,

and

on

my way met

Mr.

James

Ridge- way, counselor atlaw,

and

Messrs.Page

and

McLain,ofthe Eagle,

who

carefully

examined

them. Igave the dead ones to

my

friends,

and

placed thelivingoneson theroof of

my

house,with

two wet

bags over and beneath them. There theyremainedallnight. Next,

day

at2P.

M

.,Itookoneof

them

tothe Magicoffice,

and

there

showed him

stillalive

and

ingoodcondition,butasthe tender-heartedKinsellathought

some

ofMr.Bergh's

men

oughttobesentfor, I

made my

es- capeand went to

New York

toMessrs. Middleton

&

Car- ma.n'stis-hestablishmentinPulton Market. Thesegentlemen were

more

consistent,

and

instead of callingon Mr.Bergh, they proposedto givethecarpa drinkafter hislongjourney.

Thatsuited usall,andforthefirsttimeintwenty-four hours Mr.Carp

was

in hisnative element,

and

itisneedless tosay thathe enjoyedit.

The New York Sun

notedthe factthatofthefishdistrib- uted

by

theUnitedStatesCommission,this

was

thelargest oneyetfoundinour water. Itturned thescalesat7%lbs.

The.other

two

stillremainedinthe

wet

bagsinBrooklyn,

and

at 9j30 P.M.Ipoured apailofwater over them.

Next morn-

ingItook

them

toChiefEngineer

John

Y.Culyer'shouseon thebordersofProspect Park,

showed them

to

him and

re- ceived hispermissiontoplace

them

inoneofthelakes inthe park, ItransferredthefishtoMr.Spear, chief clerk,

and

he drove neartothe water,

and

gave

them

toanattache,

who

in

my

presencedeposited

them

aliveandingoodcondition in the.waterofourbeautifulBrooklyn Park. Thisoccurredat iiaiO \_.M., sothat for 43}£ horn's'the fish

were

outofwater.

Thisisaconsiderably longertimeforthe carptobe outof water thanthatmentionedin

my

previouspaper. If Iremain

flithefishculture business,and

am

sparedforanotheryearI willtesttheenduranceofthecarp,studyitshabitsandreport tothis

body

at its nextannual meeting. In conclusion I

would

say,that persons

owning

troutponds could do noth- ing betterthanplacea

few

largecarp

m

them. For a time theywill

become

shy and hide

away

in

some

nook,but soon theywill

become

lessshythanthe*trout,and willactually raisetheirheads outofwatertotake apiece ofbread outof yourlingers.This seasonIfed

my

carpwithstalebread, refuse ofthetable,potatopeels,etc.,andIfindthatthey do notre- fuse,softor

damaged

apples. In facttheyeatalmost

any

^veget- ableoranimalfood,properly chopped

and

ifpossible partially conked. Tgive

you

this,gentlemen,in

my

crude

way and

Without embellishmentin

any

form,usingnolong-tailedLatin

words

ornames, but simply"trustingin the efficacy ofour English tonguetoconveyto

you my

meaning.

THE RAINBOW TROUT.

By James

Annin,Je.

IN

bringing this subjectbeforeyou.gentlemen,I

know how

unable I

am

tohandleitina propermanner,

and

_{have a} fearthat I

may

beconsidered liable toreproachfor

my

in- competency.

Every

article

upon

therainbowtrout thatI

remember

to

Id>.i seenhasbeengreatly initsfavor

and

loudly initspraise.

1thinkthatsomethingistobesaidinthenegative,butdon't wishitunderstood thatItake decided groundsagainstthem, but think thattherearea

few

facts

and

surmises

worthy

of yourattention.

The

advantages claimedtor themountainorrainbowtrout are garneness, rapidgrowth,hardiness,adaptability towaters thatwillhardly supportthebooktrout,etc.

Now

as to their

game

qualities, they certainty areoneof our gamestfish known, andarcquicker than our Eastern brooktrout,requir- ingallyour attentionafter they takefly;butIhave been told by a gentleman

who

has takeninour Eastern waters rainbowtrout

which

weighed a

pound

each,thathe thought after theirfirst

two

or three rushestheytired outquicker than our nativetrout.

As

totheirrapid

growth

it

must

be concededthatthey

grow

fasterthan ournative brooktrout.

\i-.-ilieyahardyfish; Yes. Decidedlyso.

A

person has no

troublein raisingthem; theydon't refuse,food,pine

away and

die as

many

ofthe brooktrout willdoinconfinement, but tlnvwilleat oftenandiugreat quantities,

and

willsome- time takea biteouiof their neighbor, as a

pond

of

them

will

show

tobea fait,by

many

marks, scars, loss ofpart,ofa

tin.el.e Adaptabilitytowatersthat willhardlv support our brook lrout isthe bestthing.Ithink, that can besaid of

ilean.(<nitsuchwatersarestockedwith them,

we

willhave

tlieni intheirproperplace, theirmissionwillbefulfilled,

and

peopleingeneral willthenconsider

them

agreat acquisition,

What

Iconsiderall

wrong

isthattheyareturnedintogood troutstreams beforethe resultscan betold.

We would

not consideritany advantageifbass or pickerel were putinto thatgoodtroutstreamorpond.

We

have anendless

number

ofStreams,lakes

and

ponds in

which

thev

would

doubtless thrive. I don't consider thatitwouldbe to theadvantage brooktroutifthemountaintroutwere introducedinto the

same

stream, certainlynotifitistrue that thehardier flrryeout the weaker.

Let

me

suppose acase. Mr.Blank has asplendid trout stream,sajon

Long

island;thereareplentyofbrook trout in it, and itisnotroubleon

any

favorable

day

^for

him

to

make

a goodcatch.

He

takesitinto hishead that hewillput into thisstreamtherainbowtrout,

and

carriesouthisplans.

Aftera yearor

two

he begins catching the

new

comers,of

good

fairsize,

and

heisastonished to see

how

they have grown.

He

haslotsoffun with them, theyare sovery

gamy.

butiftheweatherisatall

warm, he

will findonarrival

home

thatthe

new

fish are beginingtobequitesoft,while the nativefisharehard.

What

Isay abouttheir

becoming

soft Ihave learned partly

by

experience and partly

by

"what severalfishermenhavetoldrne. One.gentleman wrotethat they

were

likedried herrings

when

he got home.

Our

gentle-

man

don't think

much

ofthis,

and

a year or so

more

passes along

when

heinvites afriend outto hispreserveon the opening dayofbrooktroutfishing,

and

theyrhave plentyof sport,hshareplenty

and

perfectlywilling tobite, but,con- found it, they arealmost allrainbowtrout,androustbe returned to the stream, asthe

law

on

them

isnotofffora

month

or

more

yet!

Our

friend

works

hard andlong for a string ofbrooktroutsuchashe could formerly takeina short, timebeforeintroducing the rainbows.

Now,

gentlemen, if thissuppositiouscaseprovestrue,isitadvisable to put

them

intoyourtinetroutstreams? It isprovingitselftobetrue as fastas possible inoneofthebest troutstreamsinthe gtateof

New

York, that has been stocked

some

fouryears,Ibelieve, with rainbowtrout.

A word

tofishculturists. Willit

pay

to

make

any great outlay, until

we know

thattherainbowtrout area,profitable fish?

"And

anotherquestionis, are the\^ragood

market

fish?

They

certainly arenotifthev

become

"softvery soonafter

coming from

the water.

What

will the

market

price be!

Will the fly-fisherman

show

his basketofmountaintrout with the

same

pride, ashedid

when

filledwiththe native brooktrout,are also questions tobe answered.

I

know

one fishermanthat willnot put oneoi

them

into hisbasket,butthrowsallof

them away,

andithas seemed to

me

thatitwilldo

no.harm

toconsider wellthequestions hereraised before,

we

stockour brookswithafish

which may

exterminate,ournative species

and

notprovetobesovaluable intheend.

The

President

—

Mr.

Annin

hasopened aquestion whichit

may

beworth our whiletoconsider. Perhapsitwillbe well tolearn

more

of thisfishbeforefillingourstreams withit. I

would

suggest thatMr.

Mather

give us hisopiniononit.

Ma. Matheb—

I

have had

nopersonal experiencewith the rainbow,or,asit issometimescalled,the Californiamountain trout,

and

I

am

ofthe opinionofMr.Pagethatitwillbowell togo slowuntil

we know

more.

The

fish

same

in witha hurrah and everybody seemsto

want

it. It growsfast

and may

Supplant ournative trout entirely,

and

to

my

lik latteristhe bestfish and the handsomest of the two." In portedspeciesoften thriveanddriveoutnative ones,witness theso-called

Norway

rat,which has supplanted _{the native} untilthelatterisextincton theseacoast.and eveninparts of theWest.

An

importedspeciesoften

grows

fasterin its

new home

thanitdid inits originalone,as witness the

German

carpinAmerica. I

am

notpreparedtosav

much

of the rain-

bow

trout:Ihave

watched

itwith interest in ponds,butdo not

know how

itwillagTeeinstreams withthe native. Ifit

!growsfaster,itwillgetallthe foodandthe nativewill Buffe:

InthatcaseI

am

opposedto it. Ifit willli

where

thenative will not,thenit

may

bea good th

now

have thecurse ofsparrows

upon

us,broughti

enthusiasticintroducers of foreignspecies,and with

ample

ofmistaken benevolencebeforeus,Ithink

utioi

Btn ng.

W

^e

boutby this ex- should Mr. Bi.acjkkokd—Idonot yet

know what

value therainbow trout willbeariuthemarket.

When

itfirst

comes

in itwill sellreadily to those desiring toexperiment. Afterthatitwill restonits'merits, Ihave note.iv that it will supplantthe fontinalisonthe table of the epicure. Mr.B.B.Redding,Fish Commissioner ofCalifornia,writes

me

that the

Humboldt

Rivertrout, Salviaelarkii.is

much

superior to the S. itl"3^•-', orrainbowtrout.

The

Cahforninnsare

now

introducing our Eastern brooktrout into then- streams,

and

are loud Intheir praises ofit.

Mr.

Phillips

—

Mighttherainbowtroutnotfollowtherule thatallthe salmonida- of the Pacific coast are inferior tothose, of the Atlantic coast? IbelievethatT have understood Mr.

Blackfordto assert thatthePacificsalmonare inferior toours.

Mr. Blackford— They

are.

They maygrow

fasterthanout Easterncoastfishes,butCalifornian salmonare nut sogood.

When

thevfirstbegantosend

them

h^ya thevsold ear loads of

them

at forty tofiftycentsper pound.

Now

it isdifficult to sell a smalllot at thirty cents. Inoticeanother

market man

here,one

who

has

had

experiencewith these fish, and

would

ask Mr. Middleton

what

hisopinionis.

Mr.

Middleton —

I agree withMr.Blackfoidentirely.

The

salmonofthePacificareinferiorand do not sell well here, now.

Mrs.

Lewis—

Ithinkall fishshould be judgedb\the color ofitsskin. The dark brooktrout is c^ur-.-rand of fuller fibre,and

where

thisisthe ease it ;> the best, i think the rainbowtroutbrought East

would

be dark. Californiasal-

monhavenot

gainedthehighrep!i ii u the markets of Europethat the

Salmo

salur has" Itisnotconsidered agood salmon.

Mb. Annin—

I have eatenthe rainbow trout. Lieutenant Mansfield, oftheU.S,Navy, has caught

them

in the

West

andin

my

stream,atCaledonia,

N

Y.

One

ofthe partv

went

onthelower endofthestreamtotakerainbowtrout

and

caught

many. He

saved thelargeronesinthe wellofthe boat

and had them

cookedinthe morning.

We

allate of

them

andit

was

the

unanimous

verdictthatthey

were

in- ferior. Lieut.Mansfieldsaidthattheytasted likeblack bass

from warm and muddy

waters. East

summer

I cooked one which

was

good. Ithad redflesh,theonly oneofthe species that1ever

saw

with red flesh.

Some

Rochestergentlemen

own

thelowerpreserveon ourstream,

and

theyhave said thatthey

would

give a hundreddollars ifthere

was

not a rainbow'troutinit.

Mr.

Weeks—We

needallthe trout

we

can getinPennsyl- vania,but^theproperthiutt todoistoget

them

into the

n-h

places.

Rainbow

troutshouldneverbeputintogood streams

where

the native trout will thrive. Those,

who

handle, ifiem should becertainthattheyare not

making

a mistake, and shouldhave,a correctknowledgeofthehabits andmerits of thefishbefore distributing

them

too widely.

The

meeting then adjourneduntilthe followingdav.

THE TILE FISH.

LOPHOLATILCS CHA3L3SLEONTICEMJ—

GOODE

AJNDBEAN,

THIS

^fish

^was

^firsitdiscovered in 1870

by

Capt.

W.

II.Kirby

.

ofGloucester, Mass.,

who

forwarded

a

specimenboIheXJ.Bt National

Museum, where

it

was

described and

named by

Prof. G.

Brown Hondo

and Dr. Tarleton fi, Bean,

Gang

Kirbv took aboutfivehundred poundsof this fishonacodfish trawl, atadepthofeighty-four fathoms, eighty mile n;

of

Nomaiis

Land.

The

largestoneofhiscatchweighedfifty pounds.

Messrs.

Goode and Bean

saythat the speciesappearstobe geneticallvdistinct

from

the alreadydescribed species of the family l.afllidreofGill.Itisrelated

bv

itsfew-rayed vertical tins,andother characters, to thegenus LalilTISas restricted

by

Gill,butisdistinguishedbvthepresenceof a large adipose appendage

upon

the nape,resemblinc theadiposefinofthe Salmonida,

and by

afleshyprolongation upon eachsideof thelabialfold extending

backward

beyond theangle of the mouth.

Several of thesefisheshave been taken and have beeneaten

and

pronouncedexcellent,but no

number

has been sent to market. Inourissueof

March

^:«.).willbefound an aeeoi.mt of thegreat

number

ofdeadfishwhich were foundfloatingin theAtlanticbetweenthe

Grand Banks

and Barnegat,N.J.

Whether

the miles ofdeadfish which half adozenvessels, whosecourse

was

wideapart, report as visible, were,ailof this speciesis impossible to say. Prof.Bairdthoughtthat they were numerous,atleast,

among

thedeadfish,andafter- wardthespecimensent hituproved hissurmisecorrect Eoj

they wereall"tile." fish.

Strolling

down

toFulton Market one day nearthe close oj last

week we saw

^{a large}hshhangingaboveBlackford's stand anda

crowd

ofpeople surveying^it.

Upon

nearing if

we

saw thatit

was

the

much

talked oftile fish, a

handsome

yellow- fleckedspecimenoffifty,poundsweight. Thisfish

was

picked

up

on Thursday, April30, bythe schooner Heraldof the Morning, CaptainLevi N.McLean,inlat.nT.'.'f,long, eighty-fiveutiles offthecapesof Virginia.

When

seenitwas floatingonitsbackandstruggling,and

was

broughtOBboa.1d witha gaffandlivedfor

two

hourson thedeck.

'

The

name

"tile fish"is

one

designed by the. scientistswlio described for theuseofthe.fishermen,andthose

who

ianhol handleitsfullname. Itwillbeseen thatit isashortening of itsgenericname.

What

has causedthe excessive mortality in thisfishisatpresent

unknown,

butif all thedeadfishre- portedtohave beenseen

were

ofthis species,theymust ex 1stin

immense

numbers, andifnotexterminated",woiddbo well

worth

fishingfor.

FtSHERY EXHIBITION

IN

LONDON NEXT YEAR.

I

OUB

English friends arealreadysthrinn in themat!

inducingthe United States totake partillthe Fishery ExhibitofVSSS,

and we

wish

them

successiuit. Thereis no doubtofthe advantagesto be derived by ourfishermen

and

iinterestedby auexhibition ofourfisheryresources in London.

As

the case standsitwillrequireaspecial appro- priationby Congresstoenableour countrytobe represented.

astheCommissionerof Fisherieshasno funds whichhi car

>rthis purpose. If,however,MinisterLowell rnovi thematteritin a.yl>e accomplished. .Advices hi oabli from London,AprilSJO,say:

A

meetinfl^rtlfe held at theMansion to-dayinfurtheranceofefieproposedlisle; ..,,

bionftt

London

in 1888 Mr.

Lowed,

the

American

Minister.

said that he

had

groundsfor believing thatIdsgi

would

participate.'Tiehad,hesaid,thismorningtransmitted bj cable toWashingtontheformalinvitati

'The

Prmee

ofWaleshas interested himself inthismatter.

as

may

beseen

by

the followingvhieliwas..-ahledtothe

New York

Herald onthe 9I

n influential ni - lis'Looms, London,

the Prin lies presided, and thus brieflystated the objects of the exhibition: "Ladiesandgenl

of the

Duke

of

Richmond

has brought sauem,munts and importani