April 19, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



229 



$m md 



iiver ^fishing. 



To insure prompt attention, communications should be ad- 

 dressed lo the Forest and Stri'am Publishinij Co., and lint to 

 individuals, in whose, absence from the office matters of im- 

 portation are liable to detail. 



ANGLING RESORTS.— We shall be glad to have for publi- 

 cation notes of good fishing localities. Will not oar uorre- 

 spondents faeor us with notes of desirable points for angling 



OLD ANGLING BOOKS. 



ASSORT time ago we noticed the new edition of the ' 'Bib- 

 Jioujcca Piscatoria," by Mes'fs. Wostwond anil Satch- 

 el!. The revision bv Mr. Salehell was entirely a labor of 

 love, and he has rendered angling literature a great, service 

 by not taking his information at second hand, and in cou- 

 sequence his book is of the greatest value possible and one 

 that (he buyer of angling books can not well dispense with, 

 As insi ii • of Lhd i borough manner in whieh lie lias done 

 his work we Qite Hie following: 



The "Treaids : Fysshyuge," etc., attributed lo Dame 

 Juliana Seiners, or Barnes, was looked tip, not only in the 

 different editions, but also in the manuscript. The ouiy 

 known manuseripl of the "Trcatvseof Fysshyug," printed 

 in the 1496 edition of the "Boke of St. Albans," formerly in 

 the possession of Mr, Herbert, afterward of Mr. Haslewood, 

 and now in the famous Denison collection, has been exam- 

 ined by Mr. Satchel! who finds it to contain an independent 

 text, of a date not later (says Professor Skeat.) than 1450. It 

 is drawn from the same original as that printed in 1490, but 

 iustead of the ■readings between it aid the printed copy" 

 being, as alleged, (Pickering's reprint 1327. preface) "very 

 few and unimportant." it varies the phrase throughout, and 

 in many places varies the sense, besides containing many 

 ' ;i s not included in the priuted version. Mr. 

 Satchell is preparing the text for publication, and as it is 

 unfortunately imperfect, will supply the heunm from the 

 edition of 1496, which will also be 'printed by him with a 

 bibliographical introduction, the matter on each page of the 

 two volumes being made to correspond to facilitate com- 

 parison of the two texts. 



The same careful search in Walton's work has revealed 

 some n. w points regard i h a- the first (1653) edition of the 

 ■'(-'ompleat Angler." Mr. Satchcll has noticed that there 

 exist two impressions of this book, or certainly of signature 

 F., and he would be glad to have the reports" of possessors 

 Of the volume as lo which of the two their copies belong. 

 One has the woodcut at the foot of page 81, with the words 



the description of a trout" above it; the other has the 

 woodcut in the text, seven lines from the bottom of the 

 •page, and without superscription. Tlie three copies in the 

 British Museum are all of the latter form, while several 

 copies in other collections prove to be of the former. 



Mr. Satcbell's address is: Thomas Satehell, Downshire 

 Hill House, London, N. W., and we hope that any of om* 

 readeis who may have the books in their possession will 

 communicate with him. 



WITH HACKLES AND GENTLES. 



An Angler's Look "Around and About." 



" Fishinp vo-uther's coming, lads, 



The winter dies apace ; 

 Dark aud boist'rous days awhile 

 Rob the streamlets of their smile, 



Tbe landscape of its grace." 



T A] this tickle climate the first day of April is far from a 

 genial one, but, at its approach, the angler begins to feel 

 in a different mood than for long days past, and eye and hand 

 take the " line, of direction " to the shelves where his ang- 

 ling hooks repose and to where his tackle is stored. His 

 fishing blood begins lo warm and his pidse to be feverish, 

 and at the least suggestion of his pastime his thoughts run 

 riot. 



"Sleeping we dream of what, awake, we wlsh-- 

 Dogs dream of bones and fishermen of fish,'' 



On a passably tine day in early spring it is pleasant tj 

 walk by an old fishing-haunt and see the swollen stream 

 prepare itself for the "open" season. To let the thoughts 

 " hark back " to past successful days, hither and you, or to 

 forecast the possible creels yet to be. Even to look upon a 

 favorite "water" from afar is very pleasant, and one 

 returns to his fire and " Walton " with a new aud grateful 

 zest. After such a reflective, or prospective, glance, it is 

 meet to "overhaul" one's "kit" and make ready fur the 

 first cast of the season. 



This fly, or that leader, may have pleasant tales to tell of 

 by-gone 'sport, and a glance into the well-worn creel will 

 reveal — O, what line, specimens of conditioned trout, to be 

 forever served up for memory to dine on. There are many 

 streams in the walks and drive's of the angler that make him 

 sad, because they are no longer tenanted. To the eye, how 

 promising are mauv such! The water runs clear, but his 

 shallow no more startles the wary fish, and the riffles of the 

 mimic waves seems to sound the gentle requiem of long-lost 

 trout. Literally ' 'fished to death" have such streams been", and 

 by those (the more shame to them!) who should be far above 

 the ignominy of bringing lingerlings lo creel. 



Other streams there are, whose waters run defiled and 

 muddy with the refuse of factories, and this is a sad sight, both 

 to the trout and beauty -lover as well. In some cases a 

 little care or money might have saved the waters their foul 

 degradation, and tile trout might be as lusty therein to-day as 

 in the" forest primeval," before greed and utility barred beauty 

 an equal right to lis own. 



Many a time ami oft have I stood upon a certain rude 

 bridge 1 wot of, a ! ldge spanning as likely a bit of trout 

 water as one need t <-■■, and sought a "rise." ft seemed 

 as if there must be fish in that "deep," and I would not 

 cease trying till I have been compelled, again and again, 

 to do so from lack of any known lure. Then have I 

 Idled raj pipe and sighed "it might have been." Tiiis 

 refrain is as bitter a charge for a pipe as it is for the 

 heart, and after a little the. "fragrant leaf" seemed to be 

 void of solace, and I turned the ashes upon the lonely 

 waters, where they dispersed like fond hopes upon Life's 

 fleeting tide'. But, avaunt, melancholy, the growing, bud- 

 ding year is no time for sadness, and the fisher's heart ' 



should not long brood over a Ashless water. There are 

 well-stocked streams yet to be east upon, and the time is 

 not far distant when" the now troulless ones will be cleft 

 with their swift fins and glowing with their bonuie sides. 

 Let us take heart of grace, enjoy with gratitude, aud "pre- 

 serve" with zeal. 



'"Tis life to young anglers in early spring time, 



In the spring time all so fair, 

 Through the meadows to go, v. here primroses grow, 



A -breathing the sweet, mild air. 

 When the buvterily comes and the. great bee hums 



Round the sallow bush gosliug elad, 

 And a 'tweet, tweet," sing the dieky lards sweet, 

 Then the heart of the angler is glad." 



The first spring duty (due to his own personal self) of the 

 angler is lo see that his tackle, in every minute detail, is in 

 prime and thoroughly usable order. * Rods, flies, readers, 

 reels, lines and books are a mockery and a snare— to the 

 temper, not to the fish — if they are in 'a condition to prove a 

 failure at the critical moment." 1 once fished with a friend 

 who had left his bait behind him. at home, distant several 

 miles. Fortunately, 1 was well provided to share with him; 

 but "it might have been" otherwise, and our long expected 

 fishing day have proven a blank one—/'. /•., as to well-stocked 

 creels*. This, to be sure, was a ludicrous and unusual "ac- 

 cidental occurrence" lo a careful and precise angler: there 

 fore, the more careful ought those of an opposite class to be. 

 Hold hard, there) My homily is onded. bretliien of the 

 angle, and its application may be made by whomsoever 

 will. 



The winter, also, is ended, and the face of nature begins 

 lo smile: the meadows will soon be "wearin' of tin; green," 

 and, before we are aware, the May lly will be dancing its 

 brief life over many a "pretty water." and may we "be there 

 to see." To see? "Yes, to see and to feel tlie resistance ol 

 the trout as we "strike" and prepare for — what the fish may 

 bo preparing for us! 



"Fishing weather's coining, lads, 



Look to your rods and flies ! 

 ■Winter soon shall puss away, 

 Hope and spring will gain the day, 



And sport delight your eyes." 



O. W. B. 



FLORIDA FISHING. 



I HAVE just returned from a four months' trip to Florida 

 and traveled quite extensively over the State, including 

 the Kissirnmee eouutrv, Indian River and the lake region. 

 Everywhere I went I tried the fishing, and on the whole, the 

 results were not satisfactory as lo the catch, but I eujoved 

 the fishing all the same. 



I first tried fi-hing for black bass in the large lakes about 

 Maitland and Winter Park in Orange county, in the month 

 of December, but while I saw plenty of fish jumping, it 

 scemeel almost impossible te take them' although 1 tried live 

 bait, trolling, bobbing, and fly-fishing, at all times ol the day 

 and in all kinds of weather. 



An old settler told me, they were hard to take because the 

 water was too clear. So do not go to the clear water lakes 

 of Florida for fishing at the sametimeof the year thai I did. 



The month of January I passed at Kissimmee city on 

 Lake Tahopekaliga, and in this lake I had all (he fishing a 

 sportsman could wish. The water in the hike is eolfce- 

 colored like the water in the St, John's River. The lake is 

 about twenty miles long and about twelve miles wide in its 

 widest part," and has a uniform depth of about, twelve feet, 

 and contains plenty of large-mouth black bass, pickerel, 

 grinnel and catfish. 1 saw a man there who told me he 

 caught a black bass by Irolliug thai weighed fifteen pounds. 

 The largest fish I caught was an eight-pound bass, five- 

 pound pickerel, and a twelve-pound cat. The grinnel are 

 very plenty, large and very voracious, and give "good sport 

 with rod and reel. The twelve-pound cat! captured with 

 au eight-ouuee fly-rod. The blue cat are uot to be despised; 

 they are very frisky and afford excellent sport. 



I' reached 'my particular favorite spot by pulling across 

 the lake from Kissimmee city to the mouth" of a run a few 

 hundred yards to the northward of what is known as Ex 

 celsior Island. There is a deep hole there, and I have had 

 four fish hooked on four different liues at the same time. 

 and as three of them were attached to light fly-rods, you 

 can easily imagine the sport and excitement. 



F. W. Diokins. 



VERMONT AND CANADA NOTES. 



rHAVE at this moment received a. letter from an old 

 sporting friend who resides in Franklin county, Vermont, 

 ! the welcome news that the lovers of the rod aud 

 at last thrown off their lethargy ami 

 there for the purpose of protecting 

 -vill make an earnest effort to restock 

 a that vicinity. Hon. Herbert 

 Stale Fish Commissioners, offers to 

 ■a quantity of 8. fontiiuilis. rainbow 

 d salmon fry, so that they can begin 

 You have started the ball, and now, 

 ing. It will be uphill work til first, 

 vcrauce will surely overcome all ob- 



gun in that countv ha 

 have formed a socien 

 fish and game, aud also 



?fo 



Bra 



pro 



trout and land-f 



their work at once. 



gentlemen, keep it re 



but energy and pert 



stacles. 



Two of the most, noted net fishermen of Swanton, Vt., 

 Messrs. Donaldson aud Helliker, were a short time ago ar- 

 rested while pursuing their nefarious work, aud we are 

 watching the action of those who have taken their punish- 

 ment in hand, to see if it will be dealt out to them as they 

 deserve, in full measure, or that it will be allowed to fizzle 

 out. and no good results come out of it, These men have 

 openly violated the fishery laws for years, and have made it 

 a standing boast that they would, and iu spite of the game 

 officers continue to do so, 



I passed the Matepedia and Ttest : gouche rivers a few days 

 ago ami they were firmly ice-locked, and will continue "in 

 that state for some wei-ks yet. The trout and salmon sea- 

 son iu the province of Quebec and Maritime provinces will 

 open late. 



Me the pike-perch, or as we call them "dore," taking fiy, 

 it is a common occurrence to lake them in the St. Law- 

 rence, Ottawa aud Richelieu rivers, during the months of 

 July and August, after suuset, on a while-winged fly, but 

 during Ihe daytime a live minnow is the most killing bail. 

 I u our cold Northern rivers they are a game fish, first cousin 

 to the black bass, and when broiled are nearly equal to the 

 bass in flavor. Stakstead. 



r Rctlakd, Vt., April 10, 16S3. ' 



THE SECRETS OF SALMON GROWTH. 



IFrom Blackwood's Magazine, February, 18K!,] 



ALTHOUGH the salmon has been asked, again and 

 again, to render up the secrets of its life, it steadily 

 refuses lo reveal the number of its days or the timetable of 

 its progress: from the moment it quits its watery nest till 

 the period when it finds an honored place on our dinner- 

 tables, many of its movements are shrouded in mystery. 

 As was said once upon a time by the Eltrick Shepherd, 

 who was a teen observer of the habits of Sotnw sator, 

 " Whereabouts it goes to when it is putting on its flesh, or 

 how long it takes to garni h its banes, neither me nor 

 Charley Purd.e can tell— it's a problem." And a problem, 

 to all intents and purposes, it still remains. How many are 

 ihe day.- of a salmon iu Ihe waters, and to use another 

 phrase "of James Hogg's. " How the fish fills in its time" 

 from its cradle lo its grave, are still puzzling questions 

 alike to naturalists and fishery economists; while to the 

 general public the iajic of growth of that or any other fish 

 is, at all times, as a sealed hook, When paterfamilias is 

 selecting Ihe middle cut ol a choice 33-lb. fish with which 

 to grace his dinner-table and honor his guests, it may piob- 

 a.hly occur lo him to ask his tish-mei chant what the age of 

 that fine salmon perchance may be; but the fish meichant 

 is most likely as ignorant as himself, and cannot tell him. 

 Notwithstanding that the fact Of its 01 tgosngs and incom- 

 ings has been frequently diagnosed, the time-table of salmon 

 life is full of mysterious blaoks; it is in vain that men have 

 assiduously watched these fiali and taken note of their 

 growth, and trii d to find out. at what periods they become 

 reproductive, and at what age they die — such labors have 

 not added much lo the sum of our knowledge. 



Taking the salmon with which we have started as a basis 

 of argument— the 33 lb. fish referred to— it would be inter- 

 esting indeed if its age could be correctly determined. 

 Absurd stories and ridiculous conjectures have, we know, 

 been at, various times circulated about the rapid growth of 

 this fine fish, hut most ot the tales told have requited a very 

 large pinch of salt to make them palatable, so manifold are 

 the perplexities which beset the growth of this "monarch of 

 the brook, "and so numerous are the dangers whichasalmon 

 has to encounter before it attain.-, a weight of 33 lbs. avordu- 

 pois! One of the controversies which environed the early 

 life of the salmon has been singularly difficult to "put to 

 silence." Tlie "parr question," as it was called, had lasted 

 aud raged for sixty or seventy years, during which period 

 the war of words and letters hail been imbued with such a 

 wonderful amount of vitality as to keep all who were inter- 

 ested in the natural and economic history of the salmon in a 

 perpetual state of excitement. The parr question is an old 

 story now, but it is one which will bear to be told iu a brief 

 fashion 



Long aero — and to-day as well — many rivers were found at 

 a particular season to lie populous— to'swarm, in fact, with 

 a small linger -marked fish, which in Scotland was known as 

 "the pan/'' but iu England was called a "samicfor "brand- 

 were men, naturalists aud 

 i tiny things were ' 'distinct 

 Indeed, some of the more 

 n — Sir Humphry Davy was one of 

 ither— said the parr 

 -ell 



sis: 



said I hat the 

 ng sain 



other experts, 

 fish," and noi 

 learned of the broth i 

 them, Dr. Knox the ai 

 was hybrid. Mr. Ya 

 opinion, although he v 

 some other naturalists. In 

 valence of an opinion that pa 

 His reason foi 



as pretty much of the same 

 decided in his utterances than 

 one place he states the prc- 

 -Ts are hybrids and all of them 

 ig that "the parr is not the 



young of the salmon" is worth stating; it is to the following 

 effect: "Th t the parr is uot the young of the salmon, or, 

 indeed, of any other of the large" species of salmonidas, as 

 still considered by some, is sufficiently obvious, from the 

 circumstance lhat'parr by hundreds may be taken in the 

 rivers all the summer, long after the fry of the year of the 

 larger migratory species have gone down to the sea." . 



To have said in those days that the parr was the young of 

 the salmon was to court abuse, or at least ridicule; but. for 

 all that, there were men of original views who asserted their 

 belief that the little fish which were so plentiful were un- 

 doubtedly salmon iu an early stage of growth, and that, in 

 time, they would obtain tlie dignity of scaled fish, and be 

 recognized as smolts — "smalt" being at that date the name 

 given to the recognized young of the salmon. Among those 

 who so believed was James Hogg, to whoni reference has 

 already been made; he repeatedly declared, "with all his 

 might," that he had seen the fish in the very act of changing 

 — in other words, that he had more than once haudled parr 

 just as they were becoming smolts. ' 'Have [ not held them 

 in these hands many a time," said the Shepherd, "just as the 

 scales were forming upon them? In fact, I have a hundred 

 times rubbed off the newly-formed scales, and seen with my 

 own eyes the marks of tlie pan, and no mistake about it." 

 The Shepherd certainly shed some degree of light over the 

 darkness which then prevailed, and down to his day has 

 surrounded the salmon. Moreover, the Shepherd was 

 patriotic in his views— he knew that thousands of the parr 



ualiy . 



spor 



yei 



and hi, 

 eat thei 

 toaffor 

 Auot 

 with euthusiasn 

 than the Shepl 



tptured to fill the frying-pans of Twcedside, 

 as, "Spare these young ones; let us rather 

 r or two, when they have become of an ago 

 the angler and food to ihe people." 

 i who entered into the parr controversy 

 but at the same time with more method 

 rd, was Mr. Shaw of Drumlamig, forester 

 lo the Duke ol Buceleucu. Mr. Shaw, being at tiist a little 

 awkward iu his method of manipulatian, contented himself 

 with privately gathering salmon eggs from the "redds" 

 on whieh they had been deposited by the female fish, and 

 placing them in an enclosed place saw that they produced 

 parr; hut on announcing his discovery and the method of 

 it to some friends, he was told he had made a mistake, aud 

 that his fish weie not true parr hut young salmon. "They 

 must be young salmon," was said, "seeing that vou got 

 them from the eggs of that fish. But the Duke's" forester 

 was not to be driven from his purpose ; and to make good 

 bis discovery lie cough 1 one day a few parr — it was on" the 

 in h oi July, 1833, mat he did so— and kept them in a pond 

 until they had changed into smolts, which they did between 

 April anil the middle of May, 1831. Yei, iu the face of such 

 a fact Mr. Shaw and his " theory " were slid discredited. 

 To make sure of his ground, therefore, he repeated his ex- 

 Is with a dozen parrs of larger giowth, which he 

 vi a salmon-stream (Ihe Kith), anil in due time had 

 taction of seeing them beeoms smolts — the change 

 from parr to that more advanced si age of salmon life re- 

 quiring a period of two years to accomplish. 



On this very remarkable point of salmon biography Mr. 

 Shaw met an opponent who traversed his views. Mr. Young 

 of lnvershin, gamekeeper to the Duke of Sutherland, had 



