52 The American Angler 
on the black crickets, which, in this particular 
stretch of the stream, were constantly hopping 
into the water from the bushes, which thickly 
lined the bank. 
Dissecting a fish’s eye, ear or organ of smell, 
and reasoning from structural analogy and the 
quality of the senses of land animals, will not, 
we think, yield us any information as to the 
senses of fish. Every species of animal, from 
man to the microscopic creature, is gifted with 
qualities or powers adapted to its necessities 
and environment. Fish live in the water, their 
organs are constructed to be used therein, and 
until we can take upon ourselves the nature 
and all the physiological traits of a fish, we 
are all adrift as to the scope and character of 
their senses, as we are now entirely ignorant 
of their emotional nature. And this reminds 
us: Some years ago an angler, inthe ardency 
of investigation, got into his bath tub filled 
with water and instructed a companion to 
“cast thereon flies of divers colors,’ opened his 
eyes and gazed upon the feathers,and from 
that day he thought he knew that his future 
outings would be iron-clad with success. ‘They 
certainly will be if the fish are hungry and he 
manipulates the feathers with the life-like mo- 
tions of a struggling insect. 
The Secret of Catching «Catties,”’ 
Do you know the secret of success in catch- 
ing catfish? One man here caught them by 
wagon-loads, while every one else failed. If 
you know the secret, write me what it is, and 
the price. Je B. G: 
Co.tumeus, Texas. 
Dear brother hand-liner, there is no secret 
about catching catties, and there would be no 
price attached to it if it existed. Just find out 
where they are, put a gob of wums on your 
hook and haul’em in. If that other fellow 
gets them and you can’t, he is smarter than 
you are, and has studied pretty thoroughly the 
ways and means by which the catties get a 
living. Hunt up their haunts, their hours and 
habits of feeding, their choice of tid-bits, if 
they have any, and go for ’em. True, you 
might catch them more readily, as we did forty 
years ago, with a bait of Limburger cheese, 
made tough by mixing with common cotton 
batting, but—keep out of society the day you 
go-a-fishing.—[Ep. 
Reminiscences of « Nessmuk.” 
[Continued from our January issue.] 
The annexed personal letter was received 
from ‘‘ Nessmuk”’ on July 15, 1882: 
‘‘The three ‘ashies’ duly received. You are 
right. None of them are new to me. Also, I 
shall count them as bass flies. Likewise I 
shall tie to them on the deep water, below 
dams, on Big Pine creek, when three or four 
of us are out all night, with a full moon shin- 
ing overhead—for Sa/mo fortinalzs of one or 
two pounds. ta Eh ° Oa e * Ra = 
‘‘Now it is warmer; the rain just comes 
down day and night, the streams are turgid 
and swollen, and, if I can’t write as much non- 
sense as I please, what's the use of turning 
out mornings to make fires with wet kindling, 
cook, eat, and turn in again—to dream of im- 
possible trout, positive tramps, and very prob- 
able camps, with a diabolical certainty of mos- 
quitoes and an unknown quantity of persistent 
punkies? 
“T have been young and now Iamold. Yet 
have I never seen the angler forsaken, or his 
seed begging—anything more important than 
a little plug tobacco or whiskey—as it were.— 
Scriptural, 
‘©Yes, I am on the pious lay this morning. 
Casting about for something novel this dull 
weather, I ran on to an old bible, and at once 
began to hunt for fish stories. I found several 
that will compare favorably with the toughest 
yarns of to-day; notably, the ‘miraculous 
draught,’ and the Jonah business. Walking 
on the water rather staggered me at first—un- 
til I remembered doing the same thing my- 
self—when the water was frozen. On reading 
carefully, I see reason for thinking they had a 
fish-warden about the Sea of Galilee, and that 
he had been cutting nets for Simon Peter, 
which would account very satisfactorily for 
Simon Peter giving up the business in disgust. 
‘© As to the Jonah affair, when you come to 
reflect that there are millions of reading, think- 
ing men, who swallow that yarn without ques- 
tion or doubt, the only wonder seems to be that 
Jonah didn’t swallow the whale. 
‘““But I will not dilate. When you want 
something new in the way of fish-stories, you 
just get a bible—you can borrow one most any- 
where—and look up the fishing yarns. 
‘Yours fraternally, 
‘¢ NESSMUK.”’ 
