[October 6, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



191 



menl of civic expenditure. Happily, literature is independ" 

 ent of localities, whatever the memories of eaten dinners may 

 be. The site of lzaak Walton's home derives its interest 

 chiefly from the curious contrast it presents to the spirit of 

 the writings by which his name is perpetuated. Fleet street 

 was as tumultuous when Walton moved thither from Corn- 

 hill 257 years ago as it is uow. His was its basiest corner ; 

 it is likely that his was not its least busy shop. Yet there, 

 doubtless, he meditated his prose idyls as serenely and 

 calmly as when he stood ankle-deep in meadow grass on the 

 batik of the quiet Lea. Though he had retired from business 

 ten years before his classical work appeared, a volume like 

 that was no effort of a season ; it was the fruit of a lifetime 

 of patient self-eommunings and luminous reveries. From 

 his draper's or milliner's counter he had set off one May after 

 another "Up Totham hill " to sup at Bleak hall on trout, as 

 good as they were great, of his own catching. Back to Fleet 

 street at the end of one May after another had he returned 

 when his holiday was over, to put in order the thoughts his 

 sport had suggested on the current and eddies of human ex- 

 istence and to concoct new retorts to those 'scoffers,' ' men 

 of sour complexion, money-getting men, poor-rich men, that 

 are coudemn'd to be rich, and always discontented, or busie,' 

 who mocked at a love of angling as a proof of folly. The 

 charm of the book comes from withiu more than from with- 

 out. It mattered little to its writer, it mattered little to his 

 readers, whether he was sitting down ' under this honey- 

 suckle hedge ' by Ware or Waltham, or encircled hy the roar 

 of Loudon. An exquisite egotiwa, utterly distinct from vanity, 

 fences round an oasis of innocent pleasures and happy cares 

 for himself and readers to have their pastimes and work 

 in. He bids them in his preface ' take notice that in writing 

 he has made a recreation of a recreation.' He desires to be 

 perused by none who are no', willing to share his company 

 in all his quaint turns of fancy, from joining in a madrigal 

 to learning how most artistically to slit 'a black snail for bait. 

 Contemporaries and posterity abke have been ready to dance 

 to his low but sweet tuned pipe. Though not by "many the 

 earliest of the school of English humorists, he is the first who 

 has kept his place in popular esteem, 



•' When Fleet street is widened it will be as possible as it 

 is now to be at home with lzaak Walton, though his house 

 be leveled with the gtound. An emotion of regret is felt 

 whenever a local landmark of a gracious intelligence is 

 effaced. But the use and beauty of a vast and toiling town 

 cannot be sacrificed to a memory of which the true shrine is 

 the library. The. fault of Londoners has too often been that 

 they have sometimes sacrificed permanent use and beauty 

 themselves to transitory improvements. Specimens of an- 

 tique architecture have been demolished which would have 

 furnished the perennial source of a delight money cannot 

 buy. Vacant ground has been heaped with buildings which 

 would have been inestimable as breathing space for increas- 

 ing millions. Only r at last does a sense begin to have arisen 

 that. London is a whole, and that what it may bo convenient 

 for one part to subvert it may be for the advantage of the 

 rest to retain. 



FISHERIES, BRITISH AND FOREIGN. 



ALTHOUGH it is some time since the International 

 Fishery Exhibition washeld at Berlin, it may be doubted 

 whether the public in this country have reid any such clear 

 account of it as is contained in the report recently presented 

 to the Home Department. This report contains a memoran- 

 dum by Mr. Walpole of a special visit paid by him to the 

 exhibiiion on behalf of the New South Wales Government, 

 and sets forth in a concise form many of the peculiarities 

 which distinguish the art of fishing as practiced in different 

 parts of tbe world. It suggests, therefore, as may readily be 

 supposed, several points in which our own fishermen might 

 well take a hint ; and on this ground it possesses a special 

 interest, independent ly of other considerations. 



Mr. Walpol'- expresses some surprise that the devices used 

 for catching fish should be so nearly the same among all 

 race?, however widely separated from one another. But 

 there is, perhaps no great reason for astonishment in this, 

 when it is remembered how few and how obvious are the de- 

 vices in question. If we except the use of firearms and 

 dynamite for purposes of destroying fish, we shall not find 

 that there are more than about four methods of taking them 

 tram their native element. The net, the hook and line, and 

 the rap are the modes best known on our own coasts ; and 

 to these must be added the practice of training birds or 

 beasts to the chase, which is still iu vogue in China, and some 

 other countries, In the first of these different kinds of fish- 

 ing—in the use of nets—it would seem that we still hold our 

 own. The specimens of English nets sent to the Berlin 

 Exhibition are pronounced by Mr. Walpole to have been 

 equal at least to those of any other exhibitors, if not superior. 

 Still more practical testimony is to be found in the fact that 

 the Dutch, whose herring-nets formed a "maguificent collec- 

 tion" at Berlin, rarely make them at home, but, almost always 

 import them from Scotland. The only country which seems 

 to compete with us at all on equal terms is, curiously enough, 

 Germany— the country which in other respects is almost be- 

 hindhand in fishing. At Ilzehoe some admirable nets are 

 made ; and the manufacturers there say they can undersell 

 the Scotch makers. The net which must be considered as 

 most efficacious at the present time is the trawl, which is 

 used by some 1,600 boats in England, and finds employment 

 for some 5,001) men and boys and » capital of about a million 

 and a half sterling. The trawl makes a clean sweep of all 

 sorts of fish, the immature a'id the mature; and only on the 

 assumption that the supply is inexhaustible can its use be 

 justified. I'll .t the trawl is, practically speaking, unknown 

 in America, may be gathered from the fact that in that 

 country the name of trawl-fisheries is applied to set lines 

 bailed with fish. The "drift nets," also, or long walls of 

 netting which float along With the tide, and which are used 

 almost exclusively for the herring. fishery, seem to be ne- 

 glected on the other side of the Atlantic, where it is more 

 common to use " gill-natB," wriieh are similar in form, but 

 kept stationary in position by moans of an anchor attached to 

 them. One of the other principal American industries— that 

 of mackerel-fishing with seine nets— seems to have been in- 

 troduced on a large scale well within the last twenty years. 

 The seines are often worth $1,000 or oven $ l ,500 apiece, and 

 are worked by " dories," or fiat-bottomed boats, carried in 

 large swift-sailing schooners. The net is shot round the 

 ehoal of mackerel, and then the lower edge of it is drawn to- 

 other by a puis.. -lice, alter which the fteh inclosed are 

 dipped out with a hoop net. 



The other fisheries of the United Slates are chiefly con- 

 ducted by means of tine and hook ; and iu this branch of the 

 art the Americans have made a striking improvement, which 

 it would be easy for our fishermen to adopt. They use an 



apparatus known as "nippers," and consisting of double 

 rings of flannel, each about the size of a small quoit, bound 

 round with knitted wool and sewn together. The nipper ia 

 used for grasping the wet and slippery line, and enables the 

 operator to do his work with infinitely greater ease aud com- 

 fort, while it, increases his strength fourfold. Another in- 

 vention worthy of notice is the glass bait, silvered and gilt, 

 which is used with considerable success by the Norwegians 

 in their cod-fisheries, and by the help of which they effect a 

 great saving in live bait. The most economical of all 

 methods of ensnaring fish is of course that which has been 

 mentioned under the name of traps, including weirs, stake 

 nets, and fixed engines of various kinds. In Sweden these 

 fixed engines are the uBual means for catching salmon, aud in 

 Denmark they are used more thau anything else for the cap- 

 ture of herring. The foreshores in these two countries, as 

 well as in Norway, are let out and farmed or owned for the 

 purpose of entrapping fish ; w T hereas in England the use of 

 such machines is for the most part prohibited, except iu cases 

 where the owners claim a prescriptive right lasting for six 

 centuries. In the northern countries, as well as in Holland, 

 weirs made of brushwood are in common use; and the same 

 thing may be said of China, Japan and Brazil. The spearing 

 of fish is generally prohibited by most Governments ; but Mr. 

 Walpole mentions tbe exhibition of a " leister," or fish-spear, 

 by the Norwegians as an engine still in use, and concludes 

 that there is consequently much destruction of salmon by 

 means of it in the fiords. There is a very picturesque fishery 

 in the Bay of Biscay, in which a small fish called "aiguille" 

 is killed in the shallow waters by means of a four-pronged 

 spear. 



In other matters connected with the fishing industry 

 foreigners offer us a salutary lesson. In the first place, the 

 art of transporting fish when caught seems to be in some re- 

 spects better understood in the United States. The schooner- 

 rigged vessels used in their mackerel-fisheries are described 

 as" handsome, fast, yacht-like boats of from fifty to ninety 

 tons. They are built especially for speed, so as to be able to 

 run the fish quickly to the Boston or other markets. The 

 vessels used in the menhaden fishery are frequently worked 

 by steam ; the dorys which take part iu it being transported 

 in steamers along the coast. A still newer and more ingen- 

 ious use of steamers is in vogue in Denmark, where they 

 seem to be employed for beam-trawling on the west coast of 

 Jutland. As to the methods of preserving fish, the A mericans 

 understand them to perfection. The preparation of ' • bone- 

 less" cod, salted mackerel, sardines in half a dozen different 

 forms — which are not real sardines but herring or menhaden 

 — together with all the host of " canned" fish, is a science 

 which brings home to the people a vast supply of food more 

 palatable and wholesome than our salt herring, without being 

 much dearer. About 18,000,000 pounds of boneless oxi were 

 prepared in one American town in 1879 ; whi'e 12,000.000 

 pouuds of halibut were brought into the same place and sold 

 fresh. The art of utilizing the waste portions of fish is like- 

 wise well understood in the United States, aud in Norway 

 too, where " fish-flour is ground out of stockfish, and the roe 

 of the cod is separated and sold to be used for sardine bait in 

 Spain and France. 



The last and most important difference between Great 

 Britain and the United States is to be found in the efforts 

 made in the two countries for artifically adding to the annual 

 supply of fish In each country a good deal is done for this 

 purpose, but in a totally different manner. Our Government 

 does nothing iu a systematic way toward breeding either sea 

 fish or fresh-water fish ; neither does it protect the former 

 after any effective method : but it affords very valuable pro- 

 tection to all the river fish, including those which use the 

 rivers merely as breeding-places. The United States Govern- 

 ment, on the other hand, takes no trouble whatever to pro- 

 tect fish of any sort or kind, but expends large sums and 

 infinite ingenuity in artificially propagating them. Besides 

 their recent great achievement of hatching young cod the 

 United States Commission has been for years past hatching 

 eggs of numerous other varieties. In six years alone they 

 propagated, and distributed to various parts of the country, 

 34,000 000, shad, 8,000,000 California salmon, 3,300,000 

 salmon, and over 4,000,000 whitefish. The several inventions 

 used for hatching these different species are ingenious beyond 

 description, and were probably the most interesting feature 

 in the whole exhibition. The Commissioners, it should be 

 added, have a steamer of their own — the Fish-hawk— fitted 

 with tubes, cones and grates and all the approved apparatus 

 both for hatching and keeping the young fish as they are 

 carried to the various stations. The other nation which does 

 the most in this way is Germany, where, though sea-fishing 

 is neglected, the inland fisheries are cultivated with great 

 perseverance. About ten millions of fish-fry are artifically 

 bred in Germany every year, mostly by means of "Cali- 

 fornia trays." Besides saimon and trout and the nobler sort 

 of fish, carp and roach and others of the baser sort are largely 

 propagated; and the German Government devotes a small 

 grant "every year to the support of the Fischerei Verein, by 

 whose exertions the fry are distributed to the various lakes 

 and rivers. 



The whole report goes to show that pisciculture, in its 

 several branches is very imperfectly practiced throughout the 

 civilized world. Those who excel in one branch of it often 

 fail in another ; and there is no example of a nation which 

 both breeds, and protects its fish successfully. Few, how- 

 ever, would deny that both these systems have their merits: 

 and it is difficult to believe that they cannot, or should not, 

 both be employed. In the way of fish-breeding, as well as of 

 improving the means of transport and of preserving fish, 

 there is much to be learned (and easily to be learned) in 

 England before the wealth of the surrounding seas can be- 

 come as available as it should be to the population. — 81. 

 James' {London) Gazette. 



Another Large Pompano. — The common pompano, 

 Trachynotiu carvlinvs, has been quite plenty in New York 

 markets for the past two or three years, being formerly un- 

 known here. It is seldom over two pounds in weight, but 

 within the past two years an odd specimen or two of an 

 allied species common to the African coast has been taken. 

 This is the T. goreensis, and one is now in the Smithsonian 

 Institution which weighed twenty pounds. This week Mr. 

 Blackford received one of the. latter which weighed twelve 

 pounds, and with his usual generosity forwarded it to the 

 National Museum. 



Waterproof fob Hooks. — If your correspondent, who is 

 inquiring for something better than sheiac for hooks, will use 

 common red sealing wax (best quality), dissolved in spirits of 

 wine, I think he will find it satisfactory. I have used it for 

 the past four or five years, and think it is the best article I 

 ever tried. — Albk (Grand Rapids, Mich.). 



THE SILVER SALMON. 

 (Oncoriiynchus kimitch). 



We publish the following from the Field Assistant of the 

 Fishery Census of 1880 for the Northwest Coast, by permis- 

 sion: 



Port Towkseno, W. T., Sept. 10. 

 Prof. 8. F. Baird, U. 8. Wish Commissioner : 



Deab Sir— Mr. J. S- Wykoff, of this place, a gentleman 

 who is an enthusiast in fishing and a very successful angler, 

 told me to-day that a few days since he was at Scow Bay, 

 opposite Port Townsend, taking salmon with rod and line. 

 He was using the "sand l&nce"" (.Xypfa'ster) for bait. He 

 had taken fourteen silver salmon, and as his bait was becom- 

 ing scarce he opened one of them to see what it had been 

 feeding upon. To his surprise he found its stomach filled 

 with prawns, or large shrimp, in a partially digested state. 

 From a portion of one of the most perfect specimens thus 

 found he baited his hook and caught a silver salmon weigh- 

 iug about six pounds. 



Mr. Wykoff says that this is the first instance in his expe- 

 rience of many years as a salmon fisher that he has obtained 

 shrimp in the stomach of a salmon, and as he found them in 

 every salmon which he examined, he thinks it proveB that 

 the silver salmon of Puget Sound is a bottom feeder. This 

 is a fact which I do not remember to have seen recorded be- 

 fore, and as it is new to me and very interesting, I think it 

 important and my duty to inform you at once 



Jambs G. Swan. 



A New Reel— Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 28.— Editor For- 

 est ii/.d Stream : 1 have recently been shown by the inventor, 

 Mr. Louis A. Kiefer, a watchmaker of this city, an improve- 

 ment in fishing reels that will certainly commend itself to 

 anglers, particularly those sportsmen who delight in taking 

 the black bass. The improvement is an attachment by 

 which the parts can be quickly thrown out of gear, the handle 

 disconnected from the spool, and again as quickly thrown into 

 gear. The object in separating the spool from the handle by 

 throwing out of gear is io permit the line (unencumbered 

 with the handle) to play out without resistance, and the ob- 

 ject is so well accomplished by this improvement that the 

 commonest reel, when provided with this attachment, will 

 allow the line to run off as easily as does tbe finest Frankfort 

 reel. It will readily be seen that when out of gear the an- 

 noyance of a revolving handle or crank is dispensed with, 

 and in making a cast the angler can take hold of the whole 

 reel and have a firmer hold, having his hand and finger in 

 the best possible position for controlling the overrunning of 

 the line. The gearing is managed entirely by a small lever 

 protruding from the side in a convenient position, which, at 

 a touch, throws the machinery into place ready for winding 

 in the line. ThiB simple attachment does the thing to a 

 nicety. The great points are the increased speed given to 

 the spool in paying out the line and preventing the handle 

 from coming in contact with surrounding objects when the 

 line is paying out.— C. D. 



An Improved Reel Fitting has appeared in England. The 

 Redditcb Indicator says: "Messrs Allcock & Co., of the 

 Standard Works, Redditch, have just purchased the exclusive 

 patent right of a new mode of attachment of the reel to tbe 

 rod, which ia alike so simple, so convenient, so easy of appli- 

 cation and so certain in its arrangement, that the only won- 

 der is it was not brought into use years ago, for like many 

 other really practical inventions its simplicity is obvious at 

 a glance. Every old angler has at some time or other found 

 himself in difficulties from the setting fast by the rain or 

 otherwise of the brass ferrule which attaches the reel to 

 the rod, and sometimes he has had to trudge homeward with- 

 out being able to free the reel. The new patent, winch fit- 

 ting is simply this : A brass plate, grooved at the sides, is 

 let into the butt of the rod where the reel is attached, into 

 which the winch plate of the reel is made to slide with abso- 

 lute accuracy. When the reel is pushed into its place a 

 spring at the base rises aud holds it in security. Depression 

 of the spring by the thumb or finger releases it. Nothing 

 could be simpler, nothing more secure. The new fitting can 

 be adapied to any rod, but the plate on the reel must fit the 

 groove with absolute nicety." 



Smithsonian Publications. — Among the publications of 

 the Smithsonian during the present year are Prof. S. H. Scud- 

 der's index of names used for genera in zoology ; a quarto 

 edition of new tables of the rain-fall, with charts of the pre- 

 cipitation of moisture from the air during the four seasons 

 by Charles A. Schott ; an octavo " Nomenclature of American 

 Birds," by Robert Ividgway ; a synopsis of the fishes of North 

 America, by Prof. D. S. Jordan, and an octavo giving direc- 

 tions for collecting specimens of natural history, with'special 

 reference to deep sea dredging, by Richard Rathban. It is 

 not generally known that, according to a law on the statute- 

 books, any citizen may subscribe to a Government publica- 

 tion by notifying the Uoverument Printer at an early date : 

 If any person desiring extra copies of any document printed 

 at the Government Printing-office by authority of law shall, 

 previous to its being put to press, notify the Congressional 

 Printer of the number of copies wanted, and shall pay to him, 

 in advance, the estimated cost thereof, and ten per centum 

 thereon, the Congressional Printer may, under the direction 

 of the Joint Committee on Public Printing, furnish the same. 

 —Sec. 3,800 Revised Statutes. 



Large Cod and Halibut. — Mr. James G. Swan, Field 

 Assistant to procure statistics of Fish and Fisheries of Wash- 

 ington Territory and the Northwest Coast for the census of 

 1880, writes to Prof. Baird from Port Townsend, W. T., as 

 follows: "For more than four months past the water be- 

 tween Point Hudson and Point Wilson has swarmed with 

 young cod — true cod — and they are taken in great numbers by 

 book and line. They are from a foot to twenty inches in 

 length, I have specimens in alcohol. None of the old resi- 

 dents here remember to have heard of true cod being taken 

 in the vicinity of Port Townsend for the past twenty years, 

 and this visit of a school of youug cod lasting for such a 

 long time and in such great numbers is worthy of special 

 note. While at Victoria last week I saw a halibut, that had 

 been taken at the entrance of the harbor, which weighed 

 235 lbs , aud at the thickest part measured seven aud a* half 

 inches through. I am told by the fishermen that recently a 

 true cod weighing sixty pounds was taken iu Victoria har- 

 bor. This was mentioned in the Colonist of that date." 



Volumes of the Forest and Stream. — Mr. W. L. Col- 

 ville, Grauiteville, S. C, has three and a half years' numbers 

 of the Forest and Stream for sale, 1876 to 1881. Also a 

 dozen numbers of the London Field. 



