FOREST AND STREAM. 



359 



I had joined tlicm in r batteuu I changed my live bait and 

 put, a copper frog, which exceeding disgusted the angling 

 ii. Franklin. 1 got a rise, and pulled out a five-pound 

 jack from under his canoe. "See, Joe, you talk loo much, and 

 make such a noise you'll scare the fish away," but I continued 

 talking and spitting the .juice of my Virginians' delight into 

 the river ; they backed 8ft and proceeded on down the river, 

 singing "My poor Lucy Meal." I soon took five or six more, 

 and being desirous of disabusing them of the idea of scaring 

 fish by talking or moving the waters, which 1 did as soon as I 

 reached, by commencing to catch them as soon as I boarded 

 tliem, greatly to their annoyance. They finally "surrendered 

 at discretion," and went into a good old family running con- 

 versation, the on-u* />'•'' ' " 1: oi which was the'" likelihood of 

 rainy weather." We were successful, however, and toward 

 sunset my old fi iencl, Jos. hua K sadle, joined the association 

 with a large supply of fish, butter, fat bacon, and three 

 gallons of buttermilk. A hearty hand-shaking, and " Well 

 done," smartly connected with '''Here's luck," for — 

 " Fo:d nils Clio warn*, an' Kewa us tivin' ; 

 Tiin' life's a gift no wortk roeeivln' 

 Wilen heavy dragged we pine and grievui', 



Tbe wheels or life ehc down lilll scrlevin' 

 WT rattling glee." 



We got in shore, as I said, and concluded from the cloudy 

 appearance that we were going to have, a bad night. By one 

 consent we Btretched our tent on the island, staked it down, 

 our servants got all things ready, gave as a fine supper, and 

 after smoking Gfea. Tobin, 0. F. Tobin aud myself played 

 violins, and Mr. L. \V. Williams accompanied us with his 

 guitar, until the owls, finding themselves repudiated, with- 

 drew from our society, and low, distant, reverberating thunder 

 began at about eight miles away to the southwest, getting 

 louder and coming closer until the whole covey got in and it 

 began to rain about ten o'clock r. m. 



This "raised a comer " in the grocery department as far as 

 old Barley Com was concerned, and it was soon visible that 

 the oftener we paid our respects to him the less we cared for 

 the murky night beyond our pavilion, and it, was also observ- 

 able that the hilarity was on the increase. 



About tola time, m the midst of the general role of discov- 

 eries that we had pitched our tent under an immense dead 

 tree that was old, rotten and hanging right over our sleeping 

 lodge, this required another invocation to Bacchus and Old 

 John Barley Corn, which gave us more confidence, and we 

 began in the idea of predestination to think what was " to be 

 or not to be." So Willis and Keadle concluded that they 

 would take the rain and he safe from the gravitating proclivi- 

 ties of that crooked dead tree, got out ou the bank of the 

 Edisto River, and, carrying two large benches, got under 

 them aud prepared for a night's repose — the best they could 

 hope for. One of the hands that was a son of temperance 

 and a follower of Gen. Curry, of Cincinnati, Ohio, saw with 

 much concern that grim Death was staring us all in the face 

 who were under the tent, so went down to the water's 

 edge, pulled out a canoe, turned it bottom upward, got under 

 it to keep the rain off, and went fast to sleep. Gradually, one 

 aftor another, each individual began to hunt up and get in 

 charge of Morphea?. The fiddling ceased, the drinking 

 ceased, and the smoking ceased. At three o'clock A. m. a 

 loud noise came from the riparian proprietors. Each one in 

 his sleep had tried to get as far as he could under the two 

 benches they had got under to keep the rain off them, and the 

 biggest man being next to the islaud, pressed the rear rank 

 man or file-closer a little too hard iu his Bleep, and he gravi- 

 tated like the stone of Sisyphus after the order of " Facilis 

 descensus averni" or, in vernacular language, went down 

 against the canoe sleeper, "knocking his canoe forked," 

 scaring him to death,' thinking an alligator was about to pre- 

 empt on the dust from whence his body was made. He riss 

 and made an effort, as old Gen. Tom Woodward said when he 

 was accused of running from the Indians when they got after 

 him as he was out hunting near Tuskugee, Ala,, during the 

 Greek war, which he denied, but his friends pressed it home 

 upon him so tightly that he said, "Boys, I didn't run, exactly; 

 but damn me if I didn't do some mighty lofty walking." This 

 canoe man spread all sail for high land, Willis hunted for the 

 bottom of the Edisto after the style of Sir John Falstaff from 

 the buck-basket into the River Thames, saying afterward, " If 

 it had been deep a3 hell he would have gone down," and the 

 whole affair was accompanied with, such a scrabble and noise 

 that we in tent, fully expecting that bears had attacked them, 

 and supposing them to be in ariiculo mortis, each grabbed 

 for his gun, knocking each other down in every corner of the 

 tent, over table, bench and frying pans of fish, etc., that two 

 guns fired off in the tremendous dark, and Dr. J. G. Guinard, 

 seeing a dark body beforehim and taking itfor a bear, clubbed 

 his gun and knocked down the canoe man as he ran into the 

 tent, as he thought, from the pursuit of the alligator. Day 

 broke slowly upon them in that buck island, and as the morn- 

 ing rays began to illuminate that tent each man therein had 

 both barrels of his gnu loaded with Dittmar powder, cocked 

 and drawing his bead on his friend to the left, who stood 

 squatted in "the corners as low as they could, so as to catch the 

 bne of the hcrizon. A rapid explanation ensued, arcns in the 

 ■■.vre grounded, the " '< Dg roll" was beaten, the wounded 

 looked after, the party assured that no bears were likely to in- 

 vade ,i tci ,,..,; and there was another 

 ies, and each one giving his intellectual 

 views of what was Ihc matter. 



We got a whaling breakfast and put in down the Edisto 

 with heavy weather on our port bow, sails furled and running 

 under top square sail. The rain was Intermitting from heavy 

 mists. The Admiral telegraphed for a hoard of 

 visitors, aud as tin- Edisi was muddy aud rising, though 

 trout were still patronizing out party iiberally, we arrived at 

 Winboru Island, Where the crew were paid off, dismissed 

 honorably aud adjourned sine die, J. Duncan Allen, 



Trial Justice in and for the County of Barnwall, State of 

 South Carolina, and United States Commissioner for the 

 Circuit and District Courts of South Carolina. Nov. 11. 



to 



Gsbkitv's Goat.— "J im Gerritty" was a goat which had 

 been a character of the fourth Ward icily), for years past. It 

 was an habitual frequenter of a saloon on South street, and 

 had acquired great popularity among the bipedal goats who 

 there guzzled their daily modicum. Jim had a taste for 

 theatre' posters, newspnp, rs, old shoes, discarded tin cans, 

 barrel hoops, bottles, and the various other delicacies upon 

 which city goats thrive and grow plump. His peeuUarity, 

 however, was an acquired habit of making away with in- 

 numerable whisky cock-tails and kegs upon kegs of beer. 

 There was an old "chap hailing from Williamsburg who used to 

 drink a cock -tail with Jim regularly every morning, and every- 

 one used to drink beer with the goat. The animal died last 

 week, and was buried Thanksgiving Day with copious 

 funeral libations of beer and brine, 



$1 §ultuw. 



THE CULTIVATION OF SMELTS. 



THE smelt, a most delicious anadromous fish, affording 

 really good sport to the angler, can be easily acclimated 

 in fresh water, as is well known. Fresh water smells are 

 found in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick rivers, in certain 

 portions of Lake Champlain, and in New Hampshire, Mas- 

 sachusetts, and possibly many other places. They arc identi- 

 cal with the sea smelts (osmerus moi da,r). It is said that 

 Jamaica Pond, in Massachusetts, was stocked with them as 

 long ago as the close of the last century. Quite recently, 

 within three or four years, efforts have been made by the 

 Maryland Fish Commissioners and others to propagate smelts 

 artificially, and no doubt such persons will be interested to 

 know how corresponding efforts have succeeded abroad. 

 We are pleased to give them the experience of so valued an 

 authority as Francis Francis, Esq., Naturalist Director of the 

 Brighton Aquarium. He says, first, that it is one of the 

 most difficult fish to keep in health for any length of time ; 

 referring to the cucumber smelt (osmerus eperlanus), lenown 

 in London markets, and not to the Argentine or sand smelt of 

 the South Coast. There is no difflcidty in keeping a stock of 

 the. latter on hand ; indeed, they are kept for the dories to 

 feed on, The dories will eat nothing else while confined. 

 These two varieties of fish, called smelts, though very much 

 alike in general appearance, belong to wholly different genera, 

 the cucumber smelt belonging to the salmonidie, having the 

 small soft adipose fin common to that family, while the 

 Atherine is destitute of it, as it is also of the cucumber odor, 

 which so strongly marks osmerus eperlanus. We quote from 

 a late issue of London Fkld, of which paper Francis Francis 

 is also an editor. . Speaking in his capacity of Naturalist Di- 

 rector of the Aquarium, he says : 



" Wo have had a good many small consignments of this 

 fish, but have never succeeded in keeping them long, the 

 difficulty being to get them to feed. If that be got over, 

 there should be no difficulty in keeping this lovely and strik- 

 ing fish in confinement, because it will live and thrive in al- 

 most any kind of water — salt, fresh, brackish, or in the 

 dirtiest sewage. It is a voracious little fish too, and feed3 

 upon al most anything. Lately Mr. C. Pavitt, of Battle Bridge, 

 near Chelmsford, happened to be at the aquarium, and offered 

 to give us any number fresh from the water if we would send 

 for them. Mr. Lawler went down and drew the mill tail, up 

 to which the smelts made their way from the coast, and se- 

 cured some two hundred of them, the greater part of which 

 he managed to bring back safely, and a lot of them have been 

 put in the table tanks in their new position in the eastern cor- 

 ridor and in other tanks. Mr. Lawler sends me word that 

 though some of them are, as was to he expected, dying off, 

 yet those in the table tanks are beginning to feed; and, as 

 those tanks arc now in a far more favorable and healthy place, 

 having purer air, less valuation of temperature, better light, 

 an excellent fresh and salt water supply, with a heating ap- 

 paratus under each for delicate specimens, I have hopes that 

 we may succeed in naturalizing them. The herrings are a 

 handsome brilliant fish in the water; but the smelts far ex- 

 ceed them, and the flashing gleam of their brilliant scales is 

 very rich and beautiful ; they arc quite a fine spectacle in the 

 table tanks." 



Thero can be no doubt, surely, of the identity of the fish in 

 question. They are closely allied to osmerus mordax, our sea 

 smelt. And if these things can be done in England they are 

 equally possible iu America. We extend to our industrious 

 and aspiring fish culturists the hand of encouragement. 



V POUND NETS. 



Editok Forest anp Stream : 



It is time that some proper legislation was had to supple- 

 ment the efforts of the Commissioners of Fisheries in in- 

 creasing the supply of fish. In no direction is this more neces- 

 sary than in controling and limiting the use of pound nets. 

 As it is probable that there are among your readers many who 

 have never seen a pound net, I will describe in general terms 

 its construction and method of operation. In its simplest 

 form it consists of a " wing," a wall and a "pound " or trap. 

 The former arrests the fish in their travels and guides them 

 into the latter, from which they cannot escape till they are 

 taken out by the fishermen. To set this engine, a large row of 

 stakes arc driven into the bottom leadiug from the shallow 

 water out to the channel, if there be a channel, or if not into 

 deep water ill such localities as the fish frequent. The wing 

 is set on these stakes, and, being of fine mesh, forms an im- 

 passable barrier to the fish which, either in their annual mi- 

 grations or in their local movements, come in contact with it. 

 the fish, being stopped by it, naturally try to pass around it 

 by going to the outer end, where they are led into the pound. 

 The pound is composed of two parts, the first being like a 

 heart with its rounded arches approaching the wing which is 

 introduced between them, and its point projecting into a 

 " bowl" or round trap. The fish, following the "wing," en- 

 ter the "heart" and afterward into the bowl, and as it" is not 

 in their nature to turn a short corner, they never get out. 

 There they stay, little and big, food fish and manure fish, 

 good and bad, valuable and worthless, till they are ladled out 

 by the fisherman who visits them every day or two. This 

 machine, it will be noticsd, is fishing all the while, day and 

 night, aud taking everything that comes along. I have de- 

 scribed its simplest form, which may not have more than a 

 wing of a few hundred feet in length, but I have kupwn at 

 their being twelve miles in length, with a pound af every mile. 

 They are tremendous engines of destruction, and have ex- 

 hausted the fishery wherever they have been used. Nothing 

 escapes them, and they constitute a complete barrier to tho 

 fish. So fatal are they that they have been interdicted abso- 

 lutely in Canada, where of late years wise and intelligent at- 

 tention has been paid to protecting and increasing the yield of 



salmon and other fish. II, is only a few years since they were 

 introduced into the South Bay of Long Island, but in that 

 short time they had utterly ruined the fishing until uot only 

 did no one go out with rod and line for weakfish, but it was 

 found useless to troll for bluefish. They have nearly ex- 

 hausted the Great Lakes, and will inevitably do so unless 

 promptly restricted, 



It would seem an easy matte* to secure such necessary legis- 

 lation to limit the dire effects of what is practically a mo- 

 nopoly confined to a very few hands, but in fact nothing has 

 appeared more difficult. In the South Bay it was found by 

 investigation that there were not over thirty owners of pound 

 nets among a population of 30,000, all of them more or less 

 interested in protecting and saving the fisheries. But those 

 thirty meu set the 30,000 at defiance, and the county of Suf- 

 folk was twice turned over politically— once from Republican 

 to Democratic and then back to Republican on the question. 

 Finally the act was passed forbidding pound nets, only by the 

 active efforts of Senator Wagstaff, who, although a 'resident 

 of Long Island, was elected to the State Senate from the city 

 of New York. As an evidence of the wisdom of this legisla- 

 tiou, the removal of the pounds has resulted in the finest fish- 

 ing known in the bay for many years, 280 bluefish having 

 been taken by a single boat, and from thirty to fifty kingfish 

 in a day's fishing last summer. 



In the Great Lakes pound fishing has been extended and ex 

 tended as it exhausted the fishing which was within easy 

 reach till it has assumed gigantic proportions. Not only are 

 these nets with wings six miles long and a pound at every 

 mile, but the stakes are driven in water forty feet deep. Such 

 stakes are an obstruction to navigation and as dangerous as a 

 sunken reef to sailing craft, which have to go miles out of 

 their way to avoid them. They are a foot in diameter and 

 would sink any vessel coming in contact with them in a heavy 

 sea, and, if there is no other means of getting rid of them, 

 they should be torn up by the general government for this 

 reason. But why cannot we obtain proper legislation about 

 the whole business ? Why must we go indirectly about ef- 

 fecting what has at most a few hundred individuals in its 

 favor and the entire rest of the community against it ? When 

 shad poles eighty feet long were planted in our harbor, in- 

 stead of passing laws to forbid such a monstrous infraction of 

 public right, the people left the matter to the Harbor Com- 

 missioners, who pulled them up on account of their injury to 

 navigation. The New York Fishery Gommission, in its offi- 

 cial reports, condemns the unlimited use of pound nets year 

 after year, but no result will follow unless the sentiment of 

 the community is aroused. Somebody should make this busi- 

 ness of protecting everybody and everybody's fish their own. 

 We will soon have no fish in the Great Lakes if they do not. 

 It must be remembered that wild animals are not like domes- 

 ticated ones : there is a limit to the supply that no amount of 

 demand will increase. Something can be done by artificial 

 breeding, but protection in adapting the take to the yield must 

 be added or exhaustion will ensue ; for no matter how many 

 are raised, still more may be fished out if the appliances of 

 destruction are increased faster than the means of production. 

 Robert B. Roosevelt. 



Spermatozoa in Eels.— Mr. B. G. Blackford informs us. 

 that Dr. A. S. Packer, of Brown University, Providence, R 

 I., has found the male eel with the mill or spermatozoa. This 

 is added testimony to what has already been published in our 

 columns, and the "eel question " may now be considered 

 practically settled. Mr. Blackford says : " Now give us some- 

 thing new to work at." Well, how about the sea-serpent ? 



A Now Fish-Way.— Colonel McDonald, Fish Commis- 

 sioner of Virginia, has invented and patented a fish-way 

 which he thinks cheap, and which will let down the volume 

 of a river over a dam of any height with such gentle flow 

 that shad in ascending it will only encounter a current of a 

 velocity uo greater thau sis miles per hour. The Colonel 

 is very sanguine that this way can be successfully employed, 

 and that with it the migratory fish that are so valuable will 

 rapidly stock our upper waters snl become abundant. Wa 

 hope the Colonel will send us a diagram soon, with any ac- 

 companying suggestions he may bo kind enough to give us. 



Fish-Wats in Michigan. — President Miller, of the Board 

 of Fish Comissioners, makes public complaint by request of 

 the Governor that fish-ways have not been erected in places 

 where required throughout the State, in accordance with the 

 Act of May, 1877. It is the business of the township Super- 

 visors to look after these matters and compel compliance 

 with the law. The construction of these fish-ways for the 

 passage of fish through our streams would seem to commend 

 itself to all good citizens (whether interested in dams or not) 

 as a just and wholesome requirement. The plans were 

 furnished by the board last spring. It is encouraging to sea 

 our public officials so alive to their own duties and the 

 public benefit. 



\k ** ' 



New H.AMPsniBE — Manchester, Nov. 23. — Editor Forest 

 and Stream: I am very happy to report to you that the Cali- 

 fornia salmon sent to the State of New Hampshire by the 

 United States Fish Commissioners, 250,000 in number, to- 

 gether with 100,000 for the State of Massachusetts, destined 

 "for the Merri mac River, have been all hatched very success- 

 fully. The loss by dead eggs when received was not over 

 four per cent., and we have lost less thau one per cent in 

 hatching, so that our total loss so far is within five per cent. 

 Of these fish 200,000 will be placed in the Pemigewasset and 

 Baker's rivers, and the other 150,000 iu our large inland lakes 

 — Winnipesaukee, Squaw, Sawtpee, etc., where they can go 

 to the sea if they like, or lake out their naturalization papers 

 and remain in fresh water. We are also much gratified al the 

 proof of the success of our former operations, as evinced 

 by the taking iu the pemigewasset this Bummer, by Kail 



Warden E. B. tlodge, of Plyi: 

 California salmon of las! ' I 

 the Salmo salar iu their first y 

 young of the salmon, which, for I 

 ascended the Merrimac last suuir 

 gated in the natural way. Here 

 in fish culture, which promises w 

 taken at the Plymouth Hatching 



i.h, i 



of the young 

 ng, and also of parr of 

 ;rowth, evidently tho 

 t time in thirty years, 

 iJ which have propa- 

 e evidence of success 

 the future. We have 

 this month 50,000 



brook trout eggs, which are laid down in the boxes for hatch- 



