FISH NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Our Delayed Issues. 



0\vin<;l' to a serious accident which occurred 

 in our mechanical department, and to the 

 delayed return of the Editor from his extensive 

 Pacific Coast tour, covering over five months, 

 our magazine has fallen behind the regular 

 date of its issue. Mr. Harris is again at his 

 desk, and we publish to-day a double number — 

 October-November — and our December issue 

 will appear at an early date. Our readers will 

 find in this double number a large increase of 

 reading matter, the quality of which will, we 

 trust, condone for the delay in its publication. 



One By One They Pass Away. 



Judge Fitz James Fitch, during our absence 

 on the Pacific coast, died on July 23d last. He 

 belonged to the "old school" of anglers, 

 wherein were gathered a host of aged fishers 

 who are now rapidly passing away from us. 

 Typically these good fellows presented the 

 highest grade of the art with its best attendant 

 qualities — a warm heart and most generous 

 impulses. Their sympathies and help were for 

 all men, but the most welcomed hand was that 

 of a young angler who came for information and 

 encouragement. They went to the stream with 

 simple but artistic tackle and lost their count of 

 the score in the alluring environment of their 

 outing. They were practical in their methods 

 of fishing, and many of them were skilled in the 

 use and making of tackle, but they did not pose 

 as makers, yet never failed to enthuse when the 

 action of their home-made fly-rods was found to 

 be effective. 



If the tenderest and best qualities of a man 

 are broadened by his life on the stream, and 

 who can doubt it. Judge Fitch during his life of 

 over three score years and ten, was an eminent 

 member of the craft. He was a man of the 

 warmest qualities of the heart, of more than 

 ordinary legal ability, and a teacher in the art 

 of angling. His useful life is thus summed up 

 by one of his townsmen : 



"Fitz James Fitch was born December 7, 

 1817, at Delhi, Delaware County. After acquiring 



a good academical education at the Delaware 

 Academy, at the age of 17, in the year 1835, he 

 went to New York and passed about cwo years 

 in the Exchange broker's office of his uncle 

 William Fitch, Wall street. New York. In 

 July, 1838, he entered the law office of Amasa 

 & Amasa J. Parker in Delhi as a student, and 

 inside of one year he became managing clerk ; 

 which position he held until May, 1843, when he 

 was duly admitted to practice as an attorney at 

 law in the Supreme Court and as Solicitor in 

 Chancery. In July following he settled in the 

 village of Prattsville, then a thriving town in 

 Greene County, N. Y., in which very extensive 

 manufacturing industries were carried on, and 

 in which a bank was established— of which he 

 was the attorney — in the month of August in 

 that year. In the year 1852 he was elected 

 supervisor of the town (his first office) and was 

 made chairman of the board of supervisors at 

 their first meeting. He remained here in active 

 practice until February, 1854, when by reason 

 of the decadence of business in the town and 

 the closing up of the bank, which had ceased to 

 be profitable, he removed to Catskill, the 

 county seat, having formed a business .connec- 

 tion with the late Hon. Alexander H. Baily, the 

 County Judge and Surrogate of Greene County. 

 In March, 1855, Judge Bailey having resigned 

 his office, Mr. Fitch was appointed his successor, 

 and in the November following was elected to 

 the same office for the term of four years, from 

 the ensuing first of January ; and at the annual 

 election in November, 1859, he was re-elected 

 for the same term. He continued in practice in 

 Catskill until July, 1870, when he went to the 

 city of New York and became associated in 

 business with Hon. Edwin More. This con- 

 nection, which proved reasonably successful and 

 pleasant, was continued for ten years, when 

 Judge Fitch's health having failed, his physician, 

 who had treated him for a serious ailment for 

 three years, advised his removal to some place 

 among the mountains. He returned to the 

 village of Prattsville and resumed business, 

 which was necessarily confined mainly to office 

 practice. He continued thus in business until 

 Saturday, July 11, when he was stricken from 

 apoplexy, which caused his death. 



