Notes and Quertes 1G} 
restricted opportunities to indulge in angling 
in Germany is the sole cause of the limited in- 
fluence of the sport on the national pastimes 
of that country. The German is born with a 
love of outdoor sports and, of all classes of 
men who compose our cosmopolitan popula- 
tion, he is the most ardent of them all in pur- 
suit of fishes on rod and line. But, if the Ger- 
mans at home are comparatively behind Eng- 
land and America in indulgence in angling, 
they take almost a front rank in the progress 
and literature of ichthyology. ‘he first work 
on fishes, with colored plates, ever issued, 
came from the German press, and the re- 
searches of her fish savans, and the practical 
teachings of her fish culturists, have placed 
her in the van of ichthyological knowledge and 
its practical results. 
In Russia, but few people indulge in fishing 
as a pastime. Indeed, we know of but one 
man who has made it a study and recreation, 
Baron Tcherkasov, of Kasan, Russia. He 
tells us that it is not a recognized field of re- 
creation in his country, but, through his prac- 
tical and intelligent writings on the subject of 
angling, he has doubtless enlisted many of his 
countrymen in the sport, and the natural in- 
dulgence in it, although apparently of slow 
growth, will, before many years, become gen- 
eral, particularly in the southern sections, 
where the climate is nore in accord with the 
recreation, 
We place Italy on even on a lower plane 
than France in the matter of angling as a na- 
tional pastime. The Italian is not an angler 
Sue generes. 
It is in America, particularly in the Eastern 
and Western states, that angling takes full 
rank as a progressive and thoroughly estab- 
lished pastime. Its votaries are almost beyond 
enumeration, and the rapid increase in the use 
of scientifically made tackle, and the growing 
interest:in the development and protection of 
fishing waters, has placed this nation far be- 
yond all others in the iead. The national 
government spends hundreds of thousands of 
dollars in the cultivation and distribution of 
fish; the local clubs an equal amount for a like 
purpose, and the majority of the states, 
through organized game and fish departments, 
expend from $5,000 to $40,000 each in hatching 
and protecting fish. With such encourage- 
ment and opportunities the American ang- 
ler riots in the recreation of angling. ‘Two 
hundred and fifty different species of fish come 
on 
to his lures, and fruitful fishing waters, both 
fluvial and lacustrine, lie almost at his door- 
steps. Skilled and ingenious tackle makers 
cater to his wants, and supply him with gear 
adapted to his fish and waters, superior to 
that made in any other partof the globe. Out 
of New York city alone 30,000 people go-a- 
fishing every week in the season, and it is not 
beyond belief that 1,000,000 of fish hooks, on 
one of our national holidays, are cast into the 
waters of the country. And with this love of 
the actual sport, there is growing everywhere 
a love of its literature. In our large cities 
many libraries of exclusive angling books are 
in the process of collection, and no edition of 
the book of our grand master, lzaak Walton, 
fails to find the highest bidder or a more en- 
thusiastic and loving owner than with us. 
Many Americans own several first editions of 
this work, and Mr. R. M. Whipple, of Chicago, 
Ill., has, in addition, copies of forty-two other 
editions. And so we find it all along the line. 
A young American angler saves his pennies 
to buy books on his favorite pastime, and, to 
illustrate nearer home, Harris’ ‘‘ Fishes of 
North America,” costing $60 a copy, has 
already booked an aggregate subscription of 
nearly $25,000, and these subscriptions are not 
exclusively among the wealthier classes, many 
of them being mechanics and clerks who are 
saving their weekly wages to increase their 
knowledge of the quarry they love to lure. - 

Notes From Michigan. 
A strange malady appears to afflict the fish 
in several of the Michigan streams this spring, 
to the dismay of fishermen and pisciculturists. 
In the Flint river, in Genessee county, partic- 
ularly in the vicinity of Flushing, fish are 
dying in great numbers, and float along the 
stream, and pile up on the banks. Fine large 
fish are seen swimming along near shore, ina 
semi-conscious condition, and in many instan- 
ces have been taken from the water by the 
hand. Many of them have what appear to 
be ulcers on their backs and sides. 
There are various theories as to the cause of 
this state of things; some attribute it to the 
severe cold and heavy ice in the stream during 
the winter just passed, and the low stage of 
water this spring, others to the practice of us- 
ing dynamite in the upper waters by unscrup- 
ulous persons. The malady, whatever it may 
be, is not general, and may be due to local 
