The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-05-01

drlft through which White river rms.
1t is remarkable how firmly the fishes, and
the very best OF the game and food fishes at
that, have maintained their foothold in our
streams. All the game that once roamed the
woods IS gone Even the little gray squirrels,
tilat IN the beginning were not considered as
game and not even as fit for food, but which
were so numerous as to contest, grain by grain,
the corn raised by the pioneer farmers have
disappeared, and all the legislation in the
world can not bring them back again. The
conditions of the country have so changed, and
me s1otguns are so numerous, that 1t IS not
possible Tor the gray squirrels ever 10 thrive
In Indiana again. Nor will it be any better
with the fox squirrels. 1t was about the time
OF the election of President Pierce-now thirty
seven years ago-that these rodents began to
move In, and there time when they were
more numerous than they are now Thew are
Dy no means as abundant as they were fifteen
years ago.
And so of all other animals of the woods
that have not disappeared altogether. With
the most, as the pioneer stepped in at the front
door they stepped out at the back. But the
nshes are still here, though in greatly reduced
numbers. Some of the larger varieties, as for
instance the sturgeon and the drum, may have
gone with the Indians, but the best are here
yet The conditions tor their continued exist
ence in the streams flowing through the drift
region are so potent that in spite of all the de-
structlve agencies brought TO bear during the
past nifty years and more, some of the streams
are yet fairly well stocked. Ofall our streams,
that very same White river wherein are found
such a superlatively large number of varieties,
has had the hardest fight against the destruct-
i've influences. How many species must have
found homes in its springfield pools and on its
white-pebbled beds in that long ago before the
white man came to pollute its waters, that have
since fed 10 more favored retreatsl From its
source to It's mouth the poisonous filth and
garbage of not less than twenty-eight towns
and villages is dumped or drained into its tide,
to the destruction OF its fish life.
There was time when the filth and pollution
from Indianapolis alone expelled all the better
varieties for distance of ten miles or more, as
the crow flies, down the river. The wonder is
there should DE any fish worth the catching
left in White river from the mouth OF Pogue's
run to the Wabash, but in spite of seining,
dynamite, indianapolis and all the other de
structIVe agents and agencies, there are places
along White river where the bass and other
fishing is superb yet, in season. And what is
true of White river in respect to its fishes is
true of other streams running through the drift.
Sugar creek, stream having its source IN Henry
county and flowing thence through Hancock
Shelby and Johnson. into Blue river, has main
tanned the purity of its waters as well perhaps
any stream in the state. There are but lew
villages its banks and these are very small.
Sugar creek, like all the other drift region
streams, is led by a system OF springs flowing
from its banks at short distances apart all the
way from its mouth to its source. The stream
itself, and its numerous tributaries, flows
through fertile valleys bearing rich harveSts OF
fish food, much of which finds its way into the
currents and is carried down by them. Any
one who has seen the sandy soils OF the far
north or the red and yellow clay soil of the
south, and then examined the valleys along the
brooks and creeks and rivers of the drift region
will surely be struck with the superior rich
ness OF the latter in comparison with either OF
the others, in ali that goes 10 make fish food
supply. The decaying wood and the earth
itself fairly teens with fish food such as larva,
grubs, beetles and worms. 1t IS because or this
that the streams swarm with muldtudes of
small Try, which multitudes of small fry invite
the presence of the larger fish.
Perhaps no creek in the state has been more
persistently seined and dynamited than Sugar
creek. The law breakers in this respect have
piled their vocation without fear of prosecution
or fine, nevertheless hook and line fishing In
Sugar creek has always been fair, and there are
times when it is eminently good--when black
bass and rock bass and croppies are taken in
large numbers. And besides the black bass that
are taken are the gameSt | ever saw, every whit
as game, no doubt, as the bass caught by the old
angler in White river. Oh, il the people could
only be restricted 70 legitimate fishing what
abundant sport and food fish our central lndi-
ana streams could afford The cool, bracing,
brain-clearing, life-prolonging atmosphere of
the pine woods might call many 10 the far
North but surely none would 90 solely for the
sake of the fishing.
] have been struck with the silence Of the
early writer's ana of the local historians in gen.
eral as TO FISH and fishing in Indiana at the be-
ginning. We have, 1t is true general state
ments but it is rare that any one descends to
particulars, while of deer-shootng bear-fght-
ing and the like there is a tedious iteration.
Quite recently. however, my attention was
called 10 the journal kept by Col. John May of
Boston of his journey 10 the Ohio country III
17Ss. aud again IN 1889. He struck the Monon-
gahela few miles above Pittsburg, and floated
down in boat as far as Marietta where be re-
manned for some time. Col. MAY does not seem
to have been fisherman himself, but he was,
nevertheless, greatly interested in the fish he
saw in the Ohio, and from what he says OF them
one may gain some idea of their great abund-
ance well as size in that river, and from that
draw a conclusion as to what the condition in
our Indian streams must have been at the time.
The fish that engaged his attention were the
pike, buffalo, sturgeon, cat, perch, bass, her
ring "and Others" The bass were
OF two sorts" he says, and likewise the stur-
geOn. From the time the author struck
the river his observations began. The fame of
the Ohio for Its fish seems TO have reached him
in his Boston home before he left it. for in q
letter written from Pittsbnrg to his wife he
says, What has been said of the fish in these
quarters ] am certain must be true from what
| have seen and experienced in the short time
! have been here-Only twenty-fOur hours.
Within fifteen rods of where | now sit they are
all day catching fish of various kinds. Some
do not weigh more than one pound, but have
seen others that weighed eleven pounds.
Within ten minutes after / put up at this
house a little boy of ten years old fetched a
perch alive that weighed FIVE and half pounds.
These aresthings / have seen, and have dwelt
on the subject somewhat because it strikes me
agreeably."
Col. May was destined to stop over fourteen
days at Pittsburg, nearly every one of which
days he had something to say about the
fish One day it is that "two lads
brought 10 my quarters a number of
fine fish Just caught. Amongst them
were two perch weighing forty and OGe-fourth
pounds together. They have been caught
weighing twenty-four pounds" But there
seems TO have been larger fish than twenty-four
pound perch at Pittsburg. There has been"
says he, "a fish caught here which weighed 40
pounds. and the story goes" he nsively adds
that he drowned the men who caught him.
After Col May reached Manetts he cOntin-
ues his notices of the fish. lie is inclined 10
find fault with the size of the fish, for he says:
There are seven stout hearty men OF u.s. and
we have not been able 10 eat more than one
fish at a meal" On another page he throws
some light on this: "Dined on buffalo fish, the
weight of which when caught was fourteen and
three-fOurths pounds. We had also a pike
weighing seven and one-fourth pounds The
men and | ate the whole" Pixies weighing
eighteen, twenty-four and even twenty-nine
and a half pounds, cat ffty-nine and a half
pounds, and a sturgeon four and half feet
long, ali fell to his lot.
The author. however, does not state how
many were engaged with him in eating the
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