BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 143 



«8.-TI'ATEKPROOFINO FOR H£RK1IVC}-IVET8. 



By TVILLIA]?! IIEARDER. 



[From the Fishing Gazette, March 29, 1884.] 



I am pleased to be able at any time to give any information to my 

 brother fishermen, although some in our trade fancy that all recipes 

 should be kept as trade secrets. I must beg to differ from the general 

 run, for I am never happier than when I am showing an amateur how 

 to tie a fly or repair a broken rod. 



We waterproof our herring- nets in different ways. One plan is to soak 

 them in boiled linseed oil for a few hours, and then spread them out in 

 the open air to dry ; this will take some three or four days, or sometimes 

 more, according to the state of the weather. Another plan is to soak 

 them in Stockholm or gas tar diluted with turpentine, and dry also in 

 the oj)en air. These two plans are open to objections, for they make 

 the nets hard and wiry, and fish do not get meshed so easily in a stiff 

 net as they do in a soft one. The plan I like best is that I use for my 

 lines. We make a solution by taking one-half pound of catechu (which 

 can be obtained from any ironmonger or druggist) to every gallon of 

 water, boil it until all the catechu is dissolved, then put in your nets or 

 lines, and let them stay all night, taking care not to have any heat or 

 fire underneath the vessel while the nets and lines are in. I generally 

 add sulphate of copper in the proportion of one-half ounce to the gallon 

 (this acts as a "fixer" for the tan). When the things are taken out 

 they can be washed in clean water and hung up to dry. By this last 

 method the nets will be found very much softer ; and I have proved from 

 experience that nets preserved with oil or tar do not last as long a& 

 nets preserved with the ordinary tan or catechu. Some firms put a 

 small quantity of size with the catechu; this I disapprove of; it may 

 look better, but after the first once or twice using, it is not only washed 

 out of the twines, but takes a proportion of the tanning with it. 



Plymouth, England, 188-i. 



«9— TRANSFER OF 80FT-SIIFI.I. TFRRAPIIV FROM TflK ODIO TO 



TBG POrOMAC RIVFR. 



By J. P. DUKEHART. 



I put in the Potomac River, below the dam at Cumberland, on Au- 

 gust 25, 1883, eighteen soft-shell terrapins, from the Ohio River, near 

 Moandsville, W. Va. 



I will put in more of them this season at Wordmont, near Club Hou8©» 

 I hope they may in time stock the Potomac. 



Baltimore, Md., April 6, 1884. 



