On- 11, 1883.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



209 



fountains of the great deep be broken Up, anil time shall 

 en ie 



On Alia occasion, however, I had other business than ro- 

 I I" wilil waves say." We bailed our hooks 

 will) mullet, and casting them into the si a . we settled our- 

 selves for the anticipated bite. We fished with shark nooks 

 and a line, small elotbes line size, having several feet of 

 small chain at the hook to prevent the tarpon sawing oft' the 

 line with his sharp fins and scales at the side of the jaw. In 

 a lew minute.-., perhaps a half an hour, I hooked the fish 

 from whose side this scale came. You will have no doubts 

 of a bite when a tarpon takes your hook. 1 Ihougbtn whale 

 had 

 fish 



get _. 



fun began. Just imagine a lish as strong as a yearling bull, 

 with the speed of a deer, and as active in the water as a I wo 

 pound pickerel, having your boat in low and making for the 

 open sea at railroad speed, three miles from shore, the waves 

 tossing their foamv caps in our faces as the boat rushes sea- 

 ward, impelled by the monster that seems lo possess the power 

 of a locomotive. 



1 was as much frightened at lirst as Tim Smith was when 

 the horse chased him across Crooked bake, but seeing the 

 coolness of my oarsman, my senses came to me aud 1 was 

 able to follow his instructions. Sam's presence of mind and 

 experience were invaluable, as without Fits prompt action the 

 boat would have Swamped or we might have been dragged 

 to sea. or been compelled to cut the fish adrift. After half 

 an hour's playing about in the trough of the sea by the 

 enraged monster, during which time we came vrry near 

 swamping, we finally "Winded" Mr, Tarpon and brought him 

 alongside, thrust a spear through his neck and reached shore 

 with our prize. 



f have bad many exciting experiences while fishing, but 

 this one was the most intensely exciting of them all. and the 

 next time t go tarpon fishing i shall staj at home. 



The lish measured six feet nine inches long, and four and 

 a half inches betweeni.be eves, and weighed 185 pounds. 



BIG BASS. 



AST. JOHNS IS'. B., correspondent reports: "On 

 . the first day of last August. I billed a black bass in 

 Brotne Lake which weighed 1 !. pounds, deadweight; it was 

 21} inches in length and 7 inches in breadth. 1 send the out- 

 lines drawn on birch bark." The Montreal G,r--itf notices 

 the catch of bass to which we briefly referred in our last 

 issue. It says: "An extraordinary catch of black bass was 

 effected at Brome Lake, at Khowltou, on Monday last, bj 

 Mr. 31. Coehenthaler. of this city, and Air. W. Wilson, of 

 the Lake View House. The entire catch weighed something 

 over 100 pounds, and every tish in it : turns the scales at from 

 .",.; to 'i' pounds. Mr. Oochenthaler is going to send the 

 heaviest tish to the Forest a^d Stream, New York, which, 

 hi anticipates, will take the prize of |50 offered by that 

 paper for specimens of genuine black bass over (i pounds in 

 weight." Th&Gasette is mistaken about the alleged prize; 

 we never offered one. From jiillersburg, Pa., October^, 

 comes this report of another large bass: ".Mr. Thomas B. 

 Carpenter, of Clark's Ferry, caught a black bass yesterday 

 which measured 24 Laches in length. 16 inches in girth, and 

 weighed 8J pounds, actual weigh! and measure. The fish 

 was" taken in the Susquehanna Fdvei. at the Clark's Ferry 

 dam."— 0. X. 



Since the above was in type, we have received a copy of 

 the Montreal ClazM., which describes the capture of the large 

 bass by Mr. W, L. Marler, at Bronte Lake: 



"Wednesday last was a gala day for those who were for- 

 tunate enough to enjoy the opportunity of fishing ou Brome 

 Lake at Knewlton, P. Q. The day opened clear, but 

 toward noon the sky clouded, and hid the sun, aud it hid 

 fair to be a good time for angling. Accordingly, a parly of 

 three composed of W. L. Marler, Esq., manager Mer- 

 chants' Bank. St. Johns, P. Q., Col. F. G. Noyes. of Nashua, 

 N. H., aud Mr. Fred 11. Baker, proprietor Of the Lake View 

 House, Knowlton, P. Q. Mr. Marler alone in one boat, aud 

 Col. Noyes and Mr. Baker in anolher, started about eleven 

 .1 I. n'k for the black bass grounds, Mr. Marler was the first 

 to open the day's sport bv landing a pretty pound and a 

 half bass, following his success by three others of about the 

 same size. Then Mr. Baker surprised the party ((he other 

 two had taken a boat aud gone on a little trolling trip across 

 the bass ground, and were some eighty or one hundred yards 

 away, leaving Mr. 15. .still-fishing with minnows) by giving a 

 regular East Indian war whoop. The party stopped rowing 

 and looking around to see Mr. Baker jumping from one end 

 of the boat to the other, as we imagine a man might were a 

 dozen of rattlesnakes in the boat and all after him, he now 

 and again, bet ween the whoops, would wave one hand for 

 an instant and here frantically catch the rod. Messrs. Marler 

 and Noyes were not long in solving the mystery of these 

 wild sounds and gyrations, in one breath they said: 'He has 

 a big fish on one of the short rods, a short line and no reel, 

 and we have the landing net,' and they were not long in pul- 

 ling up lo him, when Col. Noyes skillfully slipped" the net 

 uutlcr the finest baas up to that "time taken tins season, which 

 upon being hooked upon the scales tipped them at even 

 64 pounds. Mi-. Baker had a short but determined fight, 

 end was extremely fortunate in keeping his game 

 until the arrival of the net, but it was evident, 

 when landed, that the, fellow was very thoroughly 

 hooked, and could not get away, even from the cumbersome 

 rig: the sport was then about evenly divided for about half 

 an hour, when Col. Noyes got Stake-on his eight-ouueegreen- 

 heart rod, with which tie was casting a "Silver Doctor' and 

 "White Miller" fly. The Colonel is* a thorough sportsman, 

 has landed many a fine salmon, and. of course', had no diffi- 

 culty in killing his game, which he did in the remarkably 

 short space of twenty-two minutes, and when weighed took 

 the lead of the previous one by a quarter of a pound, being 

 65- pounds. This the party thought was glory enough for 

 one day. but Mr. Marler said he disliked to act as a back- 

 ground to a chromo of this kind, and proposed moving to 

 another ground a few yards away, and in a very short lime 

 he struck and landed 'the --monarch" fish of the day and 

 season. Mr. Marler was using a light English tiy-rod. aud 

 secured his fish in an easy, true, sportsmanlike manner, in 

 about twenty-five minutes, which, when placed on the scales, 

 called forth exclamations of joy and astonishment, upon 

 showing the figures '7-!,.' thus making a Catch of thirty- 

 eight or forty pounds of black bass, three of whi eighed 

 30| pounds. Besides Ibis another party of three On 

 grounds came in showing oti pounds of pike. Tail 

 two parties, together wiiii the several others which >• i 



but. not interviewed, Brome. Lake yielded a beautiful lot of 

 tisLi for the season. Our friends hope to report more anon. 

 "Mr. Marler owns the picturesque little Eagle Island, 

 about one-half mile from the landing, and has a log cabin 

 with all the conveniences for camping out aud enjoying a 

 few weeks' fishing, which he with his friends do each bass 

 season. Mr. Marler, and bis friend and fellow-fisher, Mr. 

 Benaud, drove to Coon's Pond, about six miles from Kxowl- 

 ton, Tuesday afternoon, and secured thirty of the speckled 

 beauties, trout, all very hue and of good size." 



ST. LOUIS SIFTTNGS. 



t'HE Bremen Fishing Club, at its last meeting, resolved 

 to give a series of brilliant entertainments during the 

 winter months. The. first will he given in October, and all 

 except one will be complimentary. The membership is com- 

 posed of some of the best business men of North St. Louis. 



H. B. Loudermau exhibited on 'Change the 28th ult., the 

 shell of a monstrous lobster, caught by bis sou. Master Wm. 

 M. Loudermau, off the capes of Delaware recently. The 

 fish Was not only vast in size and weight, which was thirty 

 pounds when caught, but was evidently of venerable age", 

 for his shell was pretty nearly as thick as sole-le; llnr, and 

 had attached to it numerous barnacles, large and small, and 

 other small shellfish. 



The picnic at Frcdericktown, Sept. 20, under the manage- 

 ment of the Gun Club, was not largely attJ oded. There.wi re 

 twelvi members of the be Sbto Quh present, and a few visi- 

 tor.- iron, other places. The shotgun offered as a premium 

 for thebesl rifleshot was won by John Oest, of that place, 

 and the ritie offered as premium for the best shotgun shot 

 was won by Mr. Hammond, of De Soto. Tin- hall in the 

 evening was a very pleasant affair. 



Cropnie and bass fishing is ai it- height a1 Grove Coeur 



l.ak.. within eighteen miles of this city, and large strings 



taken each day. The following are some of the 



Strings taken in the pas! two days: Mr. Wolf, of 3,907 Choi; 



teau avenue, caught sixty-three croppie; Mr. R. Ballison. 

 -J.:;:;ti. t lark avenue, caught sixty-five large croppie and bass 

 in three hours; Mr. Kurtin. (U„>n ollice, fifty-three croppie. 

 Dr. K. Morris Swander and Col. W. 1'. Paulding stalled 

 on a fishing excursion about 7 o'clock Saturday morning. 

 Sept. 20, to Creve Coeur Lake, and returned about 5 

 o'clock in file evening. The doctor says that the wind and 

 everything were against them, but for all that they caught 

 338 fish, all but three of which were croppies, some" of them 

 weighing two pouuds. They had a skiff, and each man used 

 three poles and a liang line. The fish were distributed 

 among friends. For bail only minnows and one half-pint 

 flask were used. 



Dr. Joseph Davball and son have just returned from a 

 day's fishing al St. Paul Station, on the Meramec River, the 

 catch consisted of four fair-sized jack salmon, two bass and 

 a channel cat. The Doctor is noted for making a truthful 

 report, never exaggerating, let the string be ever so small. 



Camp. Belt,. 

 St. Locis, Mo., Oct. 4. 



A Queer Fish.— New York, Oct, 2.— I have just re- 

 turned from a couple of days' fishing down to the Olympic 

 Boat Club at Bay Shore, Long Island. We started out" early 

 yesterday morning, and remained nearly all day. We had 

 very good luck, as the sea bass bit very prompt and sharp. 

 Sea bass and porgics were the order of the day, when one 

 of the gentlemen pulled and tugged as if a hammerhead 

 had hold of bis line, and after consideralde pulling and tug- 

 ging lie landed a very strange fish. I wisli you would 

 oblige by lettting me know what it was if you can do so 

 by description. It was a flat fish, aud somewhat resembled 

 our American bream, with a few exceptions; it was in the 

 neighborhood of ten inches from the belly to the back; it 

 was about one and one-half to two inches from one pectoral 

 fin through to the other; it had only a second dorsal tin, the 

 first dorsal being replaced as it were with a fin that had two 

 very thick and hard horns that he seemed to be able to put 

 in aud out (as a cat's claw) at will; it would fit in S groove 

 in Ids back the same way as one would close a. knife, and 

 when he had it iu, it was invisible, and looked as if he had no 

 fin at all in the place of the first dorsal; he had no gills, 

 that is, such as common fish have; he seemed to breathe 

 through a small hole the size of a small bass scale; a mouth 

 resembling a sheepshead, and small straight teeth running 

 back as far as the base of these horns; he had a. tail re- 

 sembling a bream, aud no scales, his skin resembling that 

 of a common shark, being like about sandpaper; it was of a 

 dull gray color, and had bright blue spots about the size of a 

 pea on all itsfins; its horns were a 'dull brown color, and 

 it was about a fool and a half long. One of the gentle- 

 men said he thought it was a Southern pompano, but 

 others said it differed from that fish. I would be exceed- 

 ingly obliged to you if you could give me the name and 

 species of this, to me curious fish. — Osioi.io. [The fish 

 is one of the "file fishes" (£itl<«fi-.s), but its species is not 

 clearly indicated. | 



Golue.v Ftsn-HooKs.— Ciiffou Springs. Oct. 8.— Editor 

 Fortst ami M mint: Speaking of gold fish-hooks, my friend. 

 Col. W. H. Young, of Columbus, Ohio, aud late United 

 States Consul to Germany, has just shown me one which he 

 picked up a few months ago ou the banks of the Talembi 

 River, C S. of Colombia, S. A. If is one inch and a 

 quarter in length, and one-fourth of an inch across the bend, 

 which, by the way. is regular sneck bend pattern. There is 

 no trace of a barb, and both point and end of shank are 

 equally sharp, the latter tapering off like the old-fashioned 

 Kirhy. The ■•wire.'" instead of being round, is nearly four 

 square along the wholo length from tip to point. The 

 marks of the hammer are still plainly visible upou it. Col, 

 Young tells me that these gold hooks are quite common 

 along the Talembi, a goodly portion of the gold which is 

 procured from the sands of the river being made up of 

 them.— H. P. U. 



Fly-h-ishis,-i:i for Frogs.— This is a New Jersej amuse- 

 ment. The Newark (N. J.) Call reports; "A veracious 

 angler of this city, while bass fishing in the Passaic one day 

 last week, espied a large frog on the bank. He dangled a 

 crayfish in front of it and the crustacean was immediately 

 engulfed. A struggle ensued and the frog finally came into 

 the boat, where be was dispatched and dissected. In his 

 stomach was found a crayfish threo inches long, seven varie- 

 gated caterpillars and a large fresh-water mussel, the outer 

 shell of which was partly digested away, exposing the pearly 

 green inner shell. With this overloaded stomacll he could 

 not resist I he tempting bait offered. 



A Bus Haiti,.— D. C. McCoy. Adolph Miller. Mat Shelcop 

 and a number of others went out to (be Mnuvriis Torre last 

 night to seine fish. The evening was fine and the prospects 

 good, lie. held the shore brail, while Shelcop took the 

 outside. Dolph waded ahead to clear the brush away and 

 to attract the fish. He stumbled and fell, without being 

 seen by the others, and was dragged along, puffing and 

 blowing, sometimes above and sometimes beneath the water. 

 When the seine was brought up on the bank Dolph uas 

 lauded with a pile of lish." "It's a whale." shouted McCoy 

 and grabbed Dolph by the heels to keep him from getting 

 iu the water, while Shelcop jumped aer >■ , lo -msii-Ii. At 

 this Dolph raised a howl. "It's a sturgeon," said Mat. 

 "Knock him in the head," and Sam Fernando, catching up 

 a dogfish, two feet long, gave the supposed sturgeon a terri- 

 ble blow- across tin- ace with if. This was too much for 

 even the good nature of the Boss of the Boulevard, and 



throwing off his tormei irose and laid about him 



with feet, hands ami (Jah. doing at the Same time some tall 

 swearing in English, German and French, lb* scattered the 

 crowd and most of the fish, only about a bushel of the latter 

 remaining. The. entire party is engaged this' morning in 

 picking out die lish tins from their flesh and scraping the 

 mud off of their clothe;;. Western S» /ne'/i 



JfisJfmlture. 



MISSOURI.— 1st. Louis, Oct. 8.— The Missouri Fish Commis- 

 sion have just issued the following circular: St. Louis, Mo., 

 Oct.l. 1883. ttr.-.e Sic. -The _ slbpne nl .| ; carp wil' 



its. Tie sitpph i- amindant, not only for prf- 



Such applicants must also i ayforeansand express chaises! 

 asthe Commission has no fun ■ . rpenses. 



New applicants < an addi c-.- i'hii. k"o|o!m. Jr. . Forest Park, 

 St. Louis, or L. Cottroll, St. Joseph. -ire fur- 



nished free, but cost of can and express charges must be paid 

 for, c. O. D. Due notice will be riven each applicant before 

 shipment. - I. O. W. Steedman-, Chan man. 



C \ltP ON 1ST AT K.N ISLAND.- The Richmond emmty (N. 

 S'.i Herald says: 'Mr. Abe VVjnanfc, of. Ro3sville, one day 

 this week, caught 8 can. weighing live pounds in the pond of 

 Mr. Kennard. Tl. ■■ ■ iMi were piu in the pond some three, 

 years ago, about an inch long. Mr, Winani says he has no 

 doubt t leit there is carp in the pond that will weigh eight 

 pound--. The bait he used was a crust of bread." This is kill- 

 ing the carp whic I i .produce. the golden ova too 

 soon. At least anothi /year should be allowed these fish before 

 capture in order that they may leave progeny in numbers 

 sufficient to stock the waters. Probably they spawned last 

 spring, but as it will tie two to three . -ills before the young 

 crop will spawn there will lie a gap in t he crops i f i he adults 

 are taken too soon. 



CARP IN MARYLAND.— A few cane not over tweuty- 

 live, were placed in a pond just outside of Rockville, Md., 

 about n year and a half ago. The pond was made merely for 

 the cutting of ice and no attention was paid to the fish. Early 

 this month the pond was cleaned preparatory to the ice-cut- 

 tiug this winter, and some, fish eighteen inches long- and weigh- 

 ing three pounds were taken and they were identified as the 

 German carp. The pond is not over four feet deep and covers 

 about one third of an acre.— B. 



i tone of 



ir," said his neighbor. "A gopher i; 



THE WONDERFUL GOPHER. 



ITM3TJR business men sat in a Third avenue ear ou their way 

 down town yesterday. Looking up from bis newspaper 

 one of them said: 



"Here's an item that says gopher holes make horseback 

 riding dangerous on the plains. Now, I'd like to know what a 

 gopher is anyway," looking around inquiringly. 



"A gopher is a striped squirrel," said a tall lie 

 rpriet assurance. 



"You're mistaken 

 lanrl turtle, that bur 



"I shall have to differ from you, gentlemen,'' interposed the 

 fourth man. ''A gopher is neither a striped squirrel nor a tur- 

 turtle. It is a kind of rat." 



A man on the opposite seat, who had listened to the conver- 

 sation with evident interest, -aid: 



•'Excuse me, .gentlemen; but yon are all mistaken. A gopher 

 is a snake, I've tailed lots of "em, and I know- what I'm talking 

 about." 



•'Are you willing to back up your opi: 

 gopher-squirrel man. taking a roll of bills fn 



isked the 



••C'erti 



He had i 



which t 



figured J 

 soon ami 

 settle tln: 

 into a ho 1 



"Gol-gi 



nlv 



Here's *5 that sa 

 sput into - 



abr 



snake." 

 :1s of the gentleman who 

 ;d it under "protest, saying 



d discussion followed, in 

 squirrel, rat. and turtle 

 i the stakeholder's hand 



•eed that Webster should 

 ighted from the ear, went 



' was procured. 



stakeholder, as he 



OeCies. The name 



lie; 





Missouri, a. common species is a pom 

 chestnut brown color, with broad, l 

 Georgia a snake, is called by the same 

 turtle." 



As the stakeholder, refunded the m 

 men, it appears that We are all right 

 have, at least, learned something.— W 



. d squirrel. Id 

 led rat of a redo\ish"pi 



lame, at <1 in Florida a 



mey, he said: "Gentle- 

 iml all wrong. But we 



Koxbury. N. Y.. Aug. lo, 188S. 

 DEAR Sib— .Tours, of the 3d has but just reached me. The 

 bluebird Often builds in the cavity of an old woodpecker's 

 nest, SO does the chickadee, so does the nuthatch. The house 

 I I sometimes tit up an old oriole's nest. The English 

 sparrow wUl appropriate an old swallow's Best. 1 can think 

 of no others just no iv. Tniiy yours, John BURROUGHS. 

 Ms. R. K. McTnuTTiiiOK. 



TO MIGUEL DE CEKTANTEs'SAAVEDRA. 



A hliiel.ini lives In yonder tree, 



AndUkowisednesacliiel ■ 



In two woodpecker nests— rent fr 



There, where the weeping-willow weeps, 



A dainty house-wren sweetly cheeps— 

 From un old oriole's nest he peeps. 



I see the English sparrow tilr 



elimbwi 

 His uest an olden swallow Bunt. 



Soil eei ia .1' torn -ill Jests, 

 Eb.'Mig. Cervance I 



in re are no ,,ln '!s in last year's nests?" 



H. K. UlrsjUTTRwu, 



