FOREST AND STREAM, 
880 
liunt in their direction. This was Allen’s plan, the wisdom 
of which was booh made maui fest,f or before noon the silence 
was broken by two tremendous reports from Leonard's 
gun, and before its storm of buck shot and wire, a noble 
five-pronged buck bad gone down. After congratulations 
and a '‘smile" over their victory, tbe now united party 
dressed aud carried the deer to estop. 
The weather was exceedingly hot, and in order to get 
their venison home in good condition, they determined to 
make a forced march toward civilization. Accordingly after 
supper, by which time on’y the tops of the highest hills re¬ 
flected the rays of the setting sim, they packed up their 
‘'traps," and started. With a deer weighing 135 pounds, 
the flesh of five ’coons, guns, aud ponderous knapsacks, 
their progress was necessarily slow-, and before they had 
traveled one mile, it was dark. Allen, appreciating the 
magnitude of the task before therm halted at the creek, 
ana added about a gallon of water to his already enormous 
load. The rest of the party pushed forward to the foot of 
the first mountain, and there halted until the old ranger 
came up. One could not help but admire how philosophi¬ 
cally Allen submitted to the jeers of some of the younger 
members of the parly. But the emergency which that, water 
was iutended to face was not far off, and Allen could af¬ 
ford to await the vindication of his conduct. Up the moun¬ 
tain, over rocks, through the blackness of darkness they 
crawled along, sometimes standing, sometimes falling, 
and now and then lying down to rest a moment. In this 
manner they had ascended about one-fourth of the dis¬ 
tance, when they discovered that it would be impossible 
for them to carry the deer, kuapsacks, and guns, up the 
mountain at one lime. They determined to leave the deer 
and carry the remainder of the burden to the top of 
the mountain, build a fire and then return for their veni¬ 
son. Allen took the advance, and on bauds and feet be¬ 
gan to crawl up the steep rocky side of the mountain. He 
was soon considerably in advance of the others of the 
party. But in au instant, and by one of the most extraor¬ 
dinary backward leaps on record, he landed in the very 
midst of bis astonished companions. One word, “rattle¬ 
snakes,” explained the whole matter, and they all soon 
fully realized the horror of the situation, for from every 
side came the blood-curdling rattle of these deadly reptiles, 
into whose very den they had in the darkness blundered, 
and they dared not move. Some proposed climbing trees 
but none were within immediate reach. The great (testa!- 
emtum was “light.” Amidst inconceivable peril, Leonard, 
who remained hopeful, succeeded in starling a fire. He 
would insist that a rattle-snake would never bite any man 
who had a clear conscience. So it seemed, McKee made 
free use of fire brands, and finally succeeded in quitting 
the furious reptiles. Here Allen's genius was brought, 
into piny; taking liis frying pan Out of his knapsack, he 
built a fire upon it, again took the lead, and started for the 
top of the mountain, followed by the rest of the party. 
They reached the summit shortly after midnight, where all, 
overcome with fatigue, hunger, aud thirst, lay down upon 
the rocks and slept until morning. By this time McKee 
had entirely subsided; he was so completely collapsed that 
he declared water must be brought him, or he would have 
to he hauled out of the mountains. None of the party 
were much better. Allen finally started off toaspiing, a 
mile and a half distaut, aud in an hour or so returned with 
the refreshiug beverage, while Leonard set out upon an ex 
pedition for a horse and wagon, aud by noon they had 
reached the railroad suiting and iu due time arrived at 
Harrisburg, greatly fatigued, out all well able to enjoy a 
venison steak on Sunday. S. 0. B. 
For Forest and Stream. 
FLY-FISHING ON THE HOMASASSA. 
^ A CERTAIN evening last February found ns safely 
landed at the comfortable house of Alfred P. Jones, 
on ifie Homasassa River, Florida, where we met with the 
kindest possible reception. Here we found a goodly num¬ 
ber of gentlemen from the north, heroes of the to 1 and 
gun, with a fair sprinkling of ladies, who had biaved the 
sail hither across the open Gulf of Mexico. 
The Homasassa River winds through a lortuons chan¬ 
nel, aud it is ten miles from Us spring-head to its mouth. 
OpposiLe Mr. Jones’ it widens into a bay about one-fourth 
of a mile in width, the banks sloping gradually towards 
the centre of tbe river. At high water (for there is a con¬ 
siderable rise and fall of the tide) the various kinds of fish 
which inhabit these waters run up the river and hide iu 
the grasses on the edge of the hanks. Before leaving 
home we inquired whether we had heller take our fly rod 
along, and were told that it would be useless in Florida. 
Thosame thing was afterwards told us at Jacksonville. 
Nevertheless we brought it. After several days of most ex¬ 
cellent sport with the heavy rod and reel, catening slieeps- 
head in great numbers, we made up our minds to try the 
fly rod. We bad noted many likely spots along I he river, 
aud particularly the grassy banks opposite the house. We 
had also noticed that black bass (southern “trout’ 1 ), sea 
trout, skip jacks, etc., were to be seen jumping at these 
places at certain times in the morning aud evening, as if 
feeding, and we immediately resolved that these would be 
the most likely places to be rewarded with a rise to our 
flies. The next evening the fly rod was brought out and 
limbered up, much to the edification of the incredulous 
ones. We selected one fly only for our east—a large one, 
with red ibis wings, crimson molian body, ana golden 
pheasant tail—which was tied on a No. 6 hook. With one 
similar we had taken many a bass at the north. 
“Now, Doctor, suppose you exercise your muscles a 
little, and paddle us out into the deep water so that the 
flies will land just at the edge of that bank.” 'Twas done; 
Five or six skeptical disciples of Walton stood on the piers 
of the boat-house awaiting the result of the experiment 
with an incredulous expression on their faces. 
“That will do, Doctor; keep her well off the shore- 
just about so far—paddle slowly so as to go over every 
inch of the ground thoroughly.” Away goes the fly. A 
first, second, and third casts are made with no results; a 
fourth and the water fairly boils, but the fish did not take 
the hook. “Whew! Doctor, did you see that?" "Yes,” 
he says, “give it to him again—quick!” Away goes the 
fly again. This time the fish breaks the water magnificent 
ly, and is fairly hooked. Then follows a tough fight, but 
there is finally brought to the net a magnificent bass of two 
pounds weight, Soon another, and then another are 
caught, weighing as high as five or six pounds each, and 
the astonished spectators on the wharf say they never saw 
better sport iu Florida. 
This was only the beginning of our fly-fishing. We 
whipped almost all the best-appearing places in the river, 
lmt found none where the fish rose better than just oppo¬ 
site the house. Wo took frequently a sea trout or weak 
fish of three and a half to four pounds weight on the fly, 
and When we happened to get hold of a skipjack, there 
was music on the reel equal to a brass band. One day. 
when coming down the river, we cast the flies nearly op¬ 
posite the pier at the old plantation. A school of about a 
dozen large cavalli rose to the fly all at once, fairly churn¬ 
ing the water into a foam. They would not take the flv 
in their mouths, but simply rushed at it in a most- frantic 
manner, and when the fly was drawn toward the boat limy 
very nearly jumped into it. This ooutinuid for fully fit' 
teen minutes, and was a sight never to he forgotten. Had 
one of them been hooked, rod or line would have broken, 
as they were of fully twelve to fourteen pounds weight, 
very powerful, and very tenacious of life, though not par¬ 
ticularly edible. We always found it convenient to have 
a trolling line in the boat. The largest fish, such as red- 
fish, groupers, tarpun, and cavalli are generally taken only 
by this moans, and the spoons and spinners which are usu¬ 
ally sold in the stores proved there utterly worthless, 
owing to their having such slight and frail hooks. Among 
all the fishermen at Homasassa, not one had a spoon which 
was uot thus utterly ruined. Before leaving home, acting 
upon the timely advice of “A1 Fresco," we took several of 
the “James” spinners, and had new steel wires put through 
them, with a round spring loop at the bottom or tail end. 
We then procured some very stout Virginia cod hooks, 
about No. Is, with eyes in the shank, and had the eyes of 
two filed off, and firmly soldered them to one with an eye 
on it. We made several of these gangs of hooks of dif¬ 
ferent sizes, any one of which could be easily attached to 
our spoons. By this plan if one hook became broken we 
could easily Blip on another set without the loss of the use 
of the spinner. By this precaution we did not lose a fish 
from the breakage of hooks. Since our return we have 
sent complete drawings of the size of spoons and hooks 
and our plan of attaching them, to Wm. EL James, at No, 
338 Kent avenue, Brooklyn, and lie has now produced 
from them two sizes of spinners with very stout hooks, 
which hereafter will prove a boon to all fishermen who 
visit Florida. Spoons made with these improvements 
would proven capital bait for bluefish on the south side of 
Long Island or off Baruegat. We found spinners without 
leathers much more taking Ilian with them, especially in 
this case, a spinner resembling a fish when turning in the 
water. 
About a mile below Mr. Jones' house the river runs be¬ 
tween projecting ledges of rocks on eiLher side. Here the 
tide runs swiftly, and the eddies near these rocks are the 
favorite feeding grounds for large fish. We trolled very 
successfully at Ibis place Willi the spoons above men¬ 
tioned. A lady in our boat captured a red-fish thiriy- 
ieven inches long which, two hours after its capture, 
weighed sixteen pounds. These are the fellows that test 
the rneial of your hooks. Above tbe house we found the 
trolling for bass and sea trout at times excellent, frequent¬ 
ly catching four or five in thrue or four hundred yards. 
Near I he head of the river the water is very shallow for 
some distance—not over four feet in depth, but as clear as 
crystal The-bottom is covered with very white sand, 
ivilb occasional dark places where grass grows. By stand¬ 
ee at the bow of the boat aud rowing slowly along, quan- 
lirtes—literally quaniities—of fishes can be seen swimming 
ahead of the boat or darling swiftly by u. But, strange¬ 
ly, the trolling in this place was most excellent. In pass 
ing over an eighth of a mile we took ten black bass, the 
smallest two pounds and the laigest nine pounds fairly 
weighed. 
We cannot close without giving our testimony as to tbe 
comfort we had in the use of one of Holahird’s improved 
fishing coats. It was light, very pleasant to wear, rowing, 
and contained pockets tor all our little traps. We used it 
also with equal comfort as a gunning coat. 
HuNTESGTON. 
S sl l 
HOW BLACK bass spawn. 
F OR several days past we have had the rare good for 
tune to watch the Operations of a dozen bass on 
their spawning bed, aud an interesting sight it is. About 
the last of May. E. S. Pease, the artist, caught some fine 
bass and placed them in a large spring, which is a hexag¬ 
onal inclosure of six feet diameter, walled up to three feet 
above the water line. Here they seemed to thrive, and a 
few days ago we nut in some shovelfuls of gravel and 
coarse pebbles, and were not surprised to find they had 
soon made their bed on it, and were ready to spawn. 
Creeping cautiously to the edge aud peering over, we soon 
had the satisfaction of seeing jubthow they did it. Most 
of the fish were keeping shady under a plault float left for 
the purpose; but presently one of them sculled leisurely 
out and settled over the bed with a “short, uneasy mo¬ 
tion," which soon changed to a brisk jerking of her Bide 
aga inst the bottom, her bright belly gleaming like silver, 
as she coursed Tound and round, slirtmg (Seth Green’s 
word) her spawn over the same spot at every turn. We 
could not see that any of them worked in pairs, and con¬ 
cluded that the milt and spawn both sunk at once to the 
bottom and fastened themselves to the gravel, and as there 
was no current to wash them away (as in brook trout 
spawn beds), pairi ng was not necessary to the impregna¬ 
tion of the ova. For about a week this spawning has been 
going on, retarded, perhaps, by the cold spring water; 
but the interesting young mothers seem to he “doing as 
well as could be expected.”— Gup see. 
p. S .—When the bass were put in the spring it was in¬ 
fested with a vegetable growth, usually called “frog- 
spittle,” which has now quite disappeared; and the ques¬ 
tion comes up as to how lar fish (of this genus) are vege¬ 
tarians. That they will bite at minnows, even on their 
spawn beds, we daily prove by dropping a few small fry 
iu among them, which disappears in an incredibly short 
space of time. 
Relative Value oe Pickerel and Mascalonge — 
There is as great a difference between the two varieties of 
fish named as there is between a bullhead and a Mississippi 
catfish, the pickerel never attaining a heavy weigh!, while 
the mascalonge is often enormous. We saw one lasl year, 
taken from the St. Lawrence, that weighed forty lour 
pounds. The following on the relative value of I he mas¬ 
calonge and the pickerel lor the purposes of propagaiion 
was read before the Massachusetts Angler’s Association, at 
their last regular meeting, and is from the pen of Dr. E. 
Sterling, of Cleveland, Ohio, being written for tbe Associ¬ 
ation. With it was received a photograph of a forty eight 
pound mascalonge, which can be seen at the rooms of the 
Association, 608 Washington street, Boston;— 
“The inclosed photograph taken from the colored plaster 
of a mascalonge \Msox nobilior), weighing forty-eight pounds, 
gives a very correct idea of the form of the well grown 
female when ripe with spawn. Forty pounds is about the 
average weight of the full-grown fish iu the western lakes, 
though it once often attained a much greater size. The 
largest ever met with iu this vicinity I speared in 1844. That 
turned the scale at eighty pounds. The same season a 
friend of mine on the Maumee river took from their spaw n- 
ing beds, in a forenoon, fifteen that weighed together 000 
pounds. He remarked to me afterward, ‘As I speared these 
fish I hung them up by the gills to the trees along the bank, 
and at noon when I had tired of the sport, 1 could have 
scraped up from the ground a half bushel of eggs that had 
passed from them.’ This destructive mode ot’fishing, be 
it remembered, was practiced at a lime when tbe mere men¬ 
tion of the protection of fish and game by law, or any other 
means, would have been looked upon as more than a mere 
piece of folly. 
A neighbor of ours had a walled-in pond, fed by springs, 
50x15 feet divided into two compartments Inio one he 
placed five pickerel (Esox reiioulaius), of two pounds each, 
in the other three mascalonge, weighing one and one-half 
pounds each. At the eud of the first year two of the pii k- 
erel died from the effects of bites given by their lel-luw piis- 
oners. The remaining six (three pickerel and three masca¬ 
longe) continued to grow rapidly tor four years; alter this 
lime tlieir increase was hardly perceptible, though feeding 
as well as tormerly. At the end of the seventh year ihe 
pond was removed to make place for other improvemenls, 
when the six fish were found to weigli as follows’ 'I wo 
female pickerel eleven aud thirteen pounds each. 1 he 
male ten pounds. Two female mascalonge twenty one and 
tweniy-ihree pounds. The male eighteen puuuds. Tbe 
mascalonge, although the smallest fish on the Man, were 
seen to ouigrow rapidly the pickerel, anil conliuui a to do 
=o until destroyed. This growth was probably noi t-oiapid 
as it would have been iu their natural stale, and its imper¬ 
fection was also shown from the tael that none of them 
ever exhibited any sexual proclivities or development in 
the spawning season. 
This experiment, I think, goes to prove, with the many 
other observations niade uy intelligent fisheimau, lliul ihe 
rapidity of growth is grtally in favor of the uiaecalonge; 
although many others aieof the contraiy opinion '1 here 
are other pomls, aud very imporlaul on s to Ihe. fish t ul- 
turist, in lavor of this fish Its great size, superior game 
and table qualities are w ell known; but Jinle uieuliou, how¬ 
ever, has been made, or uoliee lakeu. ol in .mmeune quan¬ 
tity of spawn, whit h is vastly superior in the number ot Us 
eggs to any of its genus. To satisfy ourselves tin tins point, 
we have made mauy caretul estimates, of which the fob 
lowing is an average resuli:— 
Fish. 
Roes. 
Evgs. 
Mascalonge.48 lbs- 
5i lus. 
805, b00 
Si “ 
220,000 
Pickerel.20 “ 
a “ 
1U5J.00 
“ .14 “ 
n •» 
8u,000 
The eggs are about Ihe same size in each, and bui little 
larger uTttu those of the while fish, with ikese two ai.van 
lages in lavor of the mascaluuge, viz.: rapidity of growth 
and superior fecundity. Living upon the same varieties 
of food, aud frequenting like localities, we would expect 
to find ibis fish much more numerous than its wonhless 
congener, the pickerel, but from our owu ouservauuti and 
Ihe reliable statements of fishermeu whose ob.-etvalion ex¬ 
tends over a period ot forty years, f we eun safely assert ikal 
ihe latter fish has always averaged a hundred or more iu 
number to one of the former This being llie lact, how 
are we to account for the i-iffeience in tbe. relative uuin 
oers of Lliese two fisbV The common belief is uiar ibis 
difference is caused by tbe Bubsiuc-noe of high Water in 
May, at which period Hie mascalouge is known lo -pawn, 
leaving its eggs exposed on the diy mud, white the spawn 
of the piokerel, depo iled tbe Iasi of March or first ot Apiil, 
is nut liable to this wholesale uecibeut Tills, bowevei, 
does not admit of a satisfactory explanation, as Hi- n-e-.iul 
lall of the water in our.maisbes ar« as) Irequeni and exten¬ 
sive in April as iu the lauerparlof May, so mat in is cal* u 
ity to tbe deposited eggs wou d be equalized betweeu the 
two varieties in a series of y ears. 
In latjjJ, 1 think, I was put on tbe right track by a San¬ 
dusky Bay fi.-hermaa He accounts lor the Oitleium.e in 
the number of these two fish in this wuy : "You bee it is 
them bull frogs that tals them mascalonge eggs. They 
uever touch the pickerel's eggs. They are spaw in tig itu u 
themselves and you know a fish or a reptile duti’i eaL muck, 
when they’are spawning. But when they get cleverly ov er 
it they are right hungry and in lime tin- ihe mascalonge, 
who are then on tlieir spawniug beds. In the early spring 
we don’ltake trogs with bait; we have in hook’em and 
trap'em; but la'er they will lake bait, flyiug or silting, 
and spawn is as gotd bait as a bit of red dag. To ten me 
ti-ulb, they are generally crammed with it.” 1 have siuce 
had the opportunity of verifying the Iruih of this lasL re¬ 
mark, and when we consider the number of fro^s dial once 
frequented these marshes, we are only surprised that the 
mascalouge was not long ago annihilated. In 1865 one 
firm alone at Fremont, Ohio, shipped 16,000 dozen frogs, 
taken in the marshes of Sandusky Bay and Port Clinton. 
Owing to this excessive fishing the Log to day is about 
exterminated. 
The wuler puppy {Menobranchus Itdmilti), almost as 
abundaut, inhabits the lake (Luke E.i'ej, ami visits Hie 
marshes in April for the purpose ol spaw nine, compara¬ 
tively few remaining iu this locaii'y .Throughout iIil- year. 
I once witnessed on such an oeua-iyn the aurui.ee ol ,-ver 
three acres of marsh water alive with this lizard, apparently 
copulating, Mr, George Clark, of Ecoree, Michigan, m 
