l8 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



five inches square, made of wire with frequent cross wires, to 

 which were soldered fish-hooks. Imagine a small grill made by 

 bending a wire so as to form a square, each side of which is six 

 inches, with five interior wires one inch apart, soldered across 

 it parallel to the handle, and on each of these wires, both inter- 

 ior ones and of the frame, are soldered fish-hooks one inch 

 apart, forty- nine hooks in all, and you have one of the most 

 merciless fishing implements that devilish ingenuity has de- 

 vised. This is the "grab-all," and I have seen many a poor 

 smelt impaled on it when seeking a place to deposit its precious 

 burden of eggs, under cover of the night. I tried to buy one of 

 these murderous implements to exhibit at the London Fisheries 

 Exposition, but failed because the owners had use for them the 

 night which I spent in their company. The men who used these 

 implements were, to judge from their own lips, the most de- 

 praved wretches that I ever met. I never fell into worse 

 company as far as language goes. 



At Locust Valley there was a scarcity of ripe fish and an ab- 

 sence of milt on the night referred to, and I arranged with Mr. 

 John Cashow, Supervisor of the town, to have one of his men 

 save me some fish taken in nets. The man did so, and picked 

 out, as he told me, "all the nice large ones," which of course 

 were females, for the female smelt is many times larger than 

 her mate. In addition to this judicious selection, he left the 

 fish, some two hundred in number, in a can under the horse- 

 shed all night without attention, and " tlie nice large ones" 

 were dead in the morning. The season was getting late, and I 

 sent my foreman, Mr. Walters, over there with a fyke-net; but 

 he was threatened with death in several abhorrent forms by the 

 men who handled the gentle "grab-all " if he persisted in tak- 

 ing a smelt in a fyke. He bought half a dozen fish and we tried 

 to take and hatch the eggs, but failed. Milt was scarce and the 

 eggs were not of the best. 



The catch has been gradually decreasing for the past few 

 years, not only at Locust Valley, but on all Long Island 

 streams, a result which may be attributed to over fishing, and 

 in my opinion there is need of legislation to protect this val- 

 uable little food fish. Their habit of ascending streams at 



