July 19, 1883. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



487 



Que o'clock P. M. found us both together, with clothes 

 drier!, dinner eaten, ready aud eager for the fray, I said to 

 IJhe Judge; "There is a large trout left at the spring hole, 

 ami by going well up the stream and making long casts, I 



• i ■ on mil raise him.-" 



Iu less than ten minutes he was fast to his fish, up mid 

 down the river, across the current, over and around the 

 rocks, at times nearly a. hundred feet away, the judge 

 played with his fish. After a twenty minutes fig 

 troutsbip was forced to the top of the water with the tight 

 nearly all out of hirn. his great, broad, red sides showing 

 him to be a big fish. 1 stepped iu jusl below the • Judge to 

 net his trout , but the first movement of the net towards him, 

 tarted him down stream with the speed of a race-horse, 

 and carrying the .line dirctlv across, and as he headed up 

 stream nearly around my legs, but by lively stepping he was 

 clear on Je more.and towed up stream to shallow" water, 

 when I slipped the net under hirn, and the Judge scores his 

 pound trout in a rapid river. Imagine a well-built, 

 broad -shouldered man of G7 years of age, with a large, drab 

 hat, with broadbrim turncd'tiown all 'around, and Mother 

 man of 55 yeais of age, who hopes to fish for mauv yeais, 

 with light wool hat turned down behind and up in front, 

 with net in one hand holding the noble fish, and the other 

 extended to grasp the haud and eotigrstulatchis older friend 

 on his success, and you have our picture about as near as I 

 can make it. 



After taking two more good sized trout we decided to 

 walk back to camp. As we passed South Ledge Pool we 

 Whipped thai a few minutes and added enough trout to 

 our string to make tip plump twenty-five pounds weigh! of 

 i-ii every one taken With a flv. and seven of the largest 

 pulled the scales down to the twenty-one pound notch. 

 BefotO we reached camp, lour miles, it seemed lo me that it 

 was the heaviest siring of trout that I ever toted into camp 

 ' In ! dl ■■■, \lramp, the netting and tugging home the fish, 

 was "solid business," but I venture lo say no two sports- 

 men in the Maine woods made a better catch of trout that 

 day, or slept a sweeter, sounder night's Bleep than did the 

 Judge and the Scribe, the night after they "interviewed" the 

 big trout ;it Cedar Stump Landing. Scribe. 



Fei VAM, C'OUII., Jul.v 12. 



SOME ADIRONDACK RESORTS. 



X7"C~U solicit correspondence from fishing localities, and, 

 i as I happen to be one of those fellows that "Didymus" 

 tells about— that occasionally hurry forward at a double- 

 quick trot to publish anything they "know — [ am very glad 

 that I am able to inform your readers where good sport can 

 he had, as well as also a good hotel, and where they can find 

 a sylvan landscape without a thorougbred cow watching the 

 fisherman east his fly, and where you can risk a dose of stfijt 

 at two balls of fire without being embarrassed with a lawsuit 

 for having cruelly murdered some-body's thirly-veur-old 

 horse. Where is 'this enchanted ami much-looked for re- 

 gion? Let me whisper it gently -Franklin county is the 

 place — and the greater pari, of it lies in the most primeval 

 part of the Adirondaek.s, where lakes, ponds and streams 

 are too numerous to mention, but each of which abound 

 with trout. Some of the lakes have well-appointed hotels 

 near them, where good meals, guides, boats can be had very 

 reasonably. Those who wish the better sport of camping 

 out, can find lakes where they will be alone in their solitude, 

 and they can imagine themselves monarchs of nil they sur- 

 vey; the fine buck on the shore inclusive, provided you can 

 bag him. 



To reach this part of the mountains it is best to come by 

 Way Of Malone, which is on the Ogdensburg & Lake Cham- 

 plain Railway. It is a place of 8,000 inhabitants, and one 

 of the liveliest places in the State. A drive of ten miles will 

 take you 10 the mountains, or fifteen miles north, to the St. 

 Lawrence River, At both the river and in the lakes and 

 ponds, the fishing is the best known for years, and from 

 present outlook, deer promise to be plenty for fall shooting. 

 Those of your readers, thoielore, who'arc yearning lor a 

 lodge in some vast wilderness, where he can soothe his tired 

 brain, and expand his mighty limb. I will say: Coine over 

 into Macedonia and help us— catch trout. ' F. S. C. 



N, B.— Artists will find the usual number of pretty girls, 

 each with a stern father, to fall in loieyvith. 

 HTUiOHE, Franklin county, N. Y. 



BLACK BASS IN THE MOHAWK. 



.1 S a. constant reader of your valuable journal, I And many 



1\ good things, and much valuable information iu it. Mv 

 especial interest, however, is in the columns devoted to an- 

 gling: and it amuses me (while it appears a little singular) 

 that the only persons who write of their experiences among 

 the tinny tribes, are those who have both the leisure and 

 means, 10 pursue the sport, cither in the streams of the 



Jjlirondacks, the granite hills of Maine, or the balmy atmos- 

 phere of Florida. None seem to dare to ebainp'ion tine 

 cause of the historical Mohawk; so sweetly sung about 

 years ago, or tell of the royal sport to be had within our 

 TOry hones. 



So it occurred to me just now, while reading the Forest 

 and Stream, that I should be less than grateful if 1 failed to 

 speak for that noble stream where I've spent once iu a while 

 a day. I always go when I can, and been well repaid bv lots 

 of fun black bass fishing. And 1 was reminded when I sat 

 down lo write, how on one bright Monday morning I seemed 

 to have an insatiable desire for a day's Ashing, I well knew 

 that a brother-in-law, a royal good fellow, would be sure to 

 he at his favorite grounds, Fori Fern , a point about eight, 

 miles from Troy, X Y, , so I would be sure of good company. 

 This only served to increase my desire. But the thought 

 would come up — "Business, mv boy, before pleasure." So 

 I bustled around, did up my chores about the barn, went 

 into the house to change my clothes preparatory to going to 

 ifftce, whet! it occurred lo me that possibly there was 

 nothing needing my special attention; if .so, I 'could hook 

 up my horse, put my baskets and rods in the wagon, and in 

 a short sixty minutes be at the Ferry, and keep Frank com- 

 pany. I didn't change, but ran down to my office like a 



i . , ;,..ki.-i! my head inside of the door and said: "Anything 

 needing my attention?" My assistant looked up with a 

 smile on his face, (he knows my failing) and "no," name out. 

 "Well, I WDO'I be here to day." Hack to the house, hooked 

 up and was off. Pony was feeling good, and in an hour I 

 was on the ground, my horse put away in farmer Sharp's 

 barn, and 1 set oui. to rind my friend. 



>l>ied him, halloed iohim to come ashore and take 



me in his bout with him. Up anchor ami ashoie he came. 



"What luck'?" "Poor, 'taint a good day," "Well, we'll 



try it." So off we put hack to his old anchorage. Soon 

 had my rods (we both used two) ready, and at it wc went. 

 "Frank, they are here, 1. feel 'em, and I've got him!" 

 And sol had. A good fight be made. 1 kept cool as pos- 

 sible, for I knew he was a good one, and a. single leader and 

 snell would not hold a whale. But I had faith, to which 1 

 added work, and soon swung the beauty alongside, too tired 

 to make any fuss, and quietly lifted him into the boat, 

 "My! my! a good four-pouuder!" savs my companion, "he's 

 a beamy." We look sixteen in all that afternoon, the small- 

 est weighing not less Iban a pound. On my arrival home 

 I found a, call that obliged me lo go down street at once. 

 On my return I asked, "Who cleaned those fish?" Mv wife 

 responded, "f," "Did you weigh the large one?" '"Ye-, 

 and he weighed a trifle over three pounds and a half after 

 he was cleaned and his head taken off " So you see he was 

 full four pounds and over. And this within ten miles of Al- 

 bany. We don't, say much about such things here, hut we 

 have the fun all the same. And just here let me say that a 

 four-pound black bass at the end of a nine-ounce, rod is the 

 acme of fun, and n kind I'd go many a mile to have. 



Phcenix. 



Ai.iunv, N". Y. 



GOOD BLACK BASS FISHING. 



r>LACK bass fishing has a charm for the angler Beyond 

 > any other spoil in this part of the country. One as 

 enthusiastic as myself cannot hold himself contented till Un- 

 law allows them to be taken in Ibis Slate or in Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



When the balmy air of May comes and a gentle shower 

 iiedews the earth, when the angle-wot ms begin to air them- 

 selves by lamplight and the oriole chirps his sweetest nobs 

 the fever seizes me. Gentle reader, have vou ever had ilY 

 Well, it is a purely nervous disease, originating in the brain, 

 and is partly hereditary and the other half acquired. 



ft comes on strongest, when we have the most to do and 

 cannot possibly get away fiom home; thus the trouble is 

 tenfold intensified, A prominent symptom is the blues; 

 then conies pouting, distaste for work or study, in fact, One 

 has no taste for food, and lastly a fit of insanity conies on, 

 and nothing short of stopping everything else and taking the 

 rod an! flies cures the disease. 



When you have reached the haven of your joy. the rod is 

 strung and the oarsman pulls you to the bass grounds: then 

 a three-pounder strikes the leader like a clap of thunder. 

 Soon the glassy eye begins to fade, the back stiffens, and 

 the muscles grow tense; then "Richard is himself again," 

 the disea.se is cured. 



Some sportsmen go to one place and some to another. 

 Now listen while I tell you where 1 go. For tive couseeu- 

 tive years I have spent one or two weeks in Wyalusing, 

 Bradford county, Pa. There is the best bass and pike fish- 

 ing, in the season, in the United States. This sounds large, 

 but I think it. is so or 1 would not say it. I can go out on 

 the beautiful Susquehanna, less than a mile from the hotel, 

 in the early morning and capture forty or fifty black bass, 

 and get home to early tea; all of them tearing fighters, 

 weighing from 11 to -H pounds each. Now and then I have 

 hoc-feed wall-eyed pike weighing from three to eighteen 

 pounds each. 



A party of four with rue last summer caught fourteen 

 pike besides a great number of black bass, all in one day. 

 The fly-fishing and trolling is good, the bait-fishing excellent. 

 The first day I went out, three or four years ago. I took 

 forty-two very large ones ; they were a back load for two 

 landlords. 



There is every facility there for comfort— good hotel ac- 

 commodations a't one dollar per day. good living at reason- 

 able rates, good boats, and any quantity of bait at a low 

 figure. The bait that, kills the" best is small bullheads, the 

 second best clippers or kelgramites, also called dobsons. 



Quail are abundant there; also woodcock, partridge, and 

 black and gray squirrels. 



Go the last, of July and stay till the middle of August, 

 and you will be well paid. .Those who wish to go can do 

 so via Lake Valley Railroad. The air is salubrious and the 

 scenery grand. M. M. B. 



SVIIACUSE. N. Y. 



THE FISHERIES EXHIBITION. 



FISHING was a far earlier mode of supporting human 

 life than agriculture. However far back in the stream 

 of terrestrial events we may suppose it allowable to carry 

 the date of man's appearance on the scene, still he must have 

 been preceded by fish. The rivers, lakes, and seas, when he 

 first looked upon them, must have teen peopled very much 

 as they are at this day. There was as great a variety of 

 species, and probably much the same infinitude of individ- 

 uals in some of those species. And as a savage population 

 must be always sparse, and in anv locality few in number. 

 their supply of wod from this source could oulv have been 

 limited by their inability to capture it. What the wild 

 game of the forest and of the open plains were to the inland 

 hunting tribes, the fish of the fresh and of the saltwater were 

 to the riverine and maritime tribes. Between these early 

 days and the first beginnings of agriculture vast periods of 

 time must have elapsed. First because in these, and more 

 or less iu all latitudes, nature offered to man no plant that in 

 Is unimproved state was worth cultivating. The suitable 

 orm bad to be evolved or created by long processes of ob- 

 servation and selection. This is why we know nothing of 

 the parentage of wheat, barley, oats," rye. beans, or maize; 

 d why the tropical breadfruit, plantain, banana, and 

 .uir-cane have lost the power of producing seed, and so of 

 reproducing themselves; this must have been a result of 

 long ages of human selection. Nothing of (lie kind had to 

 be done for fish. There it was as fit for human food on the 

 first day that man stood on the river bank, or the sea shore, 

 as it is at this day. Agriculture also required implements to 

 clear and stir the ground, and to gather in the crops with; 

 :d these implements we know were the result ot along 

 series of discoveries, improvements and advances. Primeval 

 man, therefore, as we now read his history, could not. have 

 lived by, or known anything of, agriculture. Nor could he 

 have lived by wild fruits" for they are not continuous 

 throughout the year. They have their season, and that a 

 rief one. He must then have lived hy hunting and flatting; 

 nd of the two fishing would be the most continuous and 

 mailing throughout ihe chancing seasons; the most valu- 

 able of all qualities for those "Ill-supplied times. It would 

 not be more difficult to hook, and spear, and net, and trap 

 and fish, aud to gather rnollusks from the rocks and saud- 

 bfluks, than to trap, or pierce with arrows, wild game. Our 

 immediate comparison, however, is with agriculture; and 

 we may be sure thai not in it were the foundations of society 



laid, but in hunting and fishing; and that of these two, as 

 the great carm'vors at first hau possession of the forest and 

 of the plain against intruding man, fishing was the main 

 primeval oecupaiion, and means of subsistence. 

 Virgil notes that it was their wants that sharpened the 



wits of mankind (mrtS downs mvrtoli.t mr<b<). Th. is no 



inquiry more interesting, or indeed that, we are more con- 

 cerned in. than that of how the human mind has grown to 

 be what it is in ourselves. The fishing, which was an initial, 

 and a very long stage in man's career, has had much to do 

 with this growth. The ingenuity in adapting means to 

 ends, and the patience required in tin; fisherman, when he 

 had logo without food if he could not catch fish, was one 

 of the earliest, most general, and most powerful stimulants 

 of his mental development. He had to elaborate the idea of 

 the hook and line, and of the net, while as yet the.e were 

 no materials for them except for the hook, word and bone, 

 or for tlie net but the intestines of animals, strips of leather, 

 aud some very poor vegetable fibres. To work out the con 

 ccption of these instruments with nothing- to start from ex- 

 cept a knowledge of the existence of the fish, mid to put, 

 them into form with no other materials than those just, men- 

 tioned, required much observation and thought. Here was 

 the first human training that mind received. The habits of 

 the fish had to be carefully noted, and the iiisfi •uineiils 

 nicely adjusted to the conditions under which they had to 

 be used. Another mental quality this early pursuit drew 

 out aud established was that of patience, both patience In 

 waiting, and patience under exposure to heat, ami cold, and 

 wet. 



After a time a further step was taken; there arose in the 

 mind the thought of pursuing the fish on their own element,, 

 (It a distance fl,,l!l 0» baafe, or the shore. This must, have 

 been first attempted on a log of wood, then on two or more 

 logs tilted and tied together, which would be a kind of raft, 

 then on a burnf-ouf, or dug-out trunk, which would be a 

 canoe. We are thinking, by the aid of what may still be 

 observed of the ingenuity of savages, aud by ihe light 

 Miii can be derived from prehistoric arehteology, of what 

 were the attempts of the primaeval savage to extend the area, 

 of his fishing, in limes prior lo the possession of iron tools. 

 Some, instead of using the trunk of the tree, may, like the 

 North American Indians, have, used its bark; others, like 

 the Irish, may have constructed their boats of hides; others 

 of the skins of seals, like the Eskimo Here was a wrv 

 fruitful germ. It was not commerce that set man afloat on 

 the waters. We are looking back into times long antecedent 

 to the first beginnings of commerce. When iu a. very dis- 

 tant future the time for commeicc shall have come, the vis 

 sels and 'he men lo navigate them it will require, will be 

 ready for it. It will not have to invent the one, or to train 

 the other. The fishing craft step by step elaborated, and 

 the knowledge of how to manage their vessels slowly accu- 

 mulated by the fishermen of the antecedent periods, will be 

 the machinery of transport for nascent commerce. Its first 

 essays, therefore, were made in undecked vessels, drawn up 

 on the beach at night and in bad weather. Between them 

 and the ocean shipping of our day the distance is great, the 

 steps are many. The first step," however, of all was taken 

 by the primaeval fisherman. His log and his dug-out have 

 had in an ever-ascending order a goodly progeny. The 

 starting point was in him. He originated what those who 

 came after him, as the conditions of their times required 

 and permitted, only enlarged. 



In looking on the early stages of the art and early indus- 

 try of fishing, as far as we may recover its history from 

 what may be found in caves and shell mounds, we see every 

 where all over the earth that, however much men may have 

 differed in the conditions of their lives, and in their climatic 

 and other surroundings, they hit upon the same' con 

 trivances for capturing their scaly prey. Everywhere there 

 was an adaptation of the idea of the hook and* line, and of 

 the net which would allow the water to pass but not the 

 fish. Among all tribes of men in all latitudes these were the 

 primitive ideas aud practices. Theu came the contrivances 

 lor floating and moving on the water ending in Me' canoe 

 Since those days many discoveries, many advance, have 

 been made; command has been acquired over man v new 

 materials. The primitive ideas and practices, ho, ver, 

 have not been departed from. The hook and liner,. .: the 

 net are still the uuiversal implements of the fisherman. This 

 sameness, however, in the apparatus among all people, 

 which in the Exhibition is almost wearisome, has its interest, 

 and instruction. It shows the identity of mind, aud as mind 

 is almost man, the identity of the race*. All, under the most 

 diverse circumstances, have dealt with the same problem in 

 the same fashion. The iteration in gallery after gallery of 

 nets and hooks, and of hooks and nets, goes some way to- 

 ward establishing unity as against plurality of origin in 

 mankind. 



It is also interesting, and somewhat of a corrective to 

 modern pride, to see that the devices adopted by our earliest 

 and rudest ancestors in this matter, have throughout all 

 times been maintained, and are still practiced by ourselves. 

 We have not worked out anything better than their original 

 thought. Just so has it been with many other matters of 

 primary importance. It was our prehistoric ancestors who 

 subdued to the use of man the ox, the sheep, the pig, the 

 horse, the doa\ We are still benefited by their thought, 

 their inexhaustible patience, and their success. In this mat- 

 ter we have added nothing. So with the plants they se- 

 lected and improved by cultivation. So again with the arts 

 of spinning and weaving. In all these master arts of life 

 we are only doing to day what was done before eveu tra- 

 ditional history begins. Some of these processi s we can 

 carry on with greater ease and rapidity. This is all we can 

 claim. For the idea of the thing, for thinking out how it 

 was to be done, we are indebted to our remote unknown 

 predecessors. We are as much indebted to them for all 

 these essential arts as we are for our language. 



It would have very much added to the interest and in- 

 struct]' veness of the Exhibition, if a page had been put in 

 circulation on which were tabulated the estimated magni- 

 tude and value of the fisheries of the different countries of 

 the world, and the number of hands they severally employ. 

 Some particulars of this kind we will endeavor to extract 

 from the notices contained in the Official Catalogue, adding 

 as we go along such comments as the matter before us may 

 seem to require. Professor Leone Levi, on page 103, tells 

 us that the fishermen of the United Kingdom number lyo,- 

 000 men. and that the value of the fish they capture is £11,- 

 000,000, By these 120,000 men he means those actually 

 afloat and engaged in fishing, for he says that with their de- 

 pendants, by which I suppose he means women aud chil- 

 dren, they give a population of 400,000, To these, when 

 we are estimating the fishing industry of the country, must, 

 be lidded all the people engaged in building and equipping 



