NOVKMBBB 17, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



313 



GUT-ITS BR1TTLENESB BY AGE. 



OF all the miseries the angler has to contend with, there 

 are few things more vexatious than one's tackle giving 

 way when a good fish is hooked, or when the hook or hooks 

 have got wedded to a tree in or out of the water. The 

 whipping of the hook may have become slack, the barb may 

 break off, the line may break, or the rod itself may give way, 

 a knot in the cast may slip; but of all the breakages that I 

 know of and that I dislike, it is a goodly piece of stout 

 salmon gut to part company, and leave one "alone 

 lamenting." 



I do not wish to have to lament on this count, and I desire 

 to lay the interest of all anglers before brother Francis and 

 and all lovers of the art, and see if we cannot doctor our gut, 

 so that there will be no more lament ing. 



In the first phce, as prevention is better than cure, Iahould 

 like to know if there is auy way of preventing the disorder? 

 Is there anything iu the preparing of silkworm gut which 

 causes this tendency ? It is a fact which I have observed 

 that all gut has not lie s:une amount of tendency to become 

 brittle, if [ may ao speak. Have the disease* to which silk- 

 worms are subject anything to do with it ? Or is it the sub- 

 stance? used in the staining of it? I may be wrong, but I 

 think I have observed the brittleneSB more frequently in the 

 light iron-blue stained gut, and much kss in unstained gut. 

 Bo much for the cause and prevention. What of the cure? 



We are advised to steep it in cold water. This summer I 

 steeped as fine a cast as any one could wish, for about fif- 

 teen minutes. I fixed one end on a round Dail, and the other 

 otter I attached to a spring- balance. It gave way in the 

 middle between two km is at three and a half pounds. This 

 same cast, which has never been used, and which is a perfect 

 model to look at, was bought in London in 1879 at a Bret- 

 class house. "When tried in a similar way then it withstood 

 a pull of ten pounds, without breaking. I expect my salmon 

 casts, single gut, to stand a dead 9train of ten pounds, and 

 my trout casts three p ur.ds. If they do not stand this on 

 each hook, I do no' trust tkein with a fish of any kind. The 

 cast which I have alluded to is made of picked talmon gut, 

 bluish tinted ; every ihnad in it is as round as need be, and 

 tapering from end to cud. 1 have about a dozen of them 

 now perfectly useless. 



Can Mr. Francis or any one throw any light? Now is the 

 time, when our csis are lying idle and with a strong 

 tendency to become brittle and useless by age. 



Had I not tried my cast in the way I always do, even with 

 a fine trout line, I should most certainly have lost my first 

 fish. 



Byway of cure 1 have thought of many things; and I am 

 about to institute a number of experiments, in order to 

 ascertain the best color and substance to use as a stain for 

 fishing gut— one or more substances which will have no 

 tendency to lead to this brittlenes?. As soon as my fishing 

 tackle returns from the North, and which will be. in about a 

 week, as it is coming by sea, I shall pace one of my brittle 

 salmon casts in strong vinegar for twelve or fourteen hours, 

 and I shall report with what effect. 



The reason why I shall use vinegar by way of a cure is 

 because the silkworm gut manufacturers, before dividing the 

 worm and drawing it nut to form gut, steep the caterpillars 

 in strong vinegar for twelve or fourteen hours. The vinegar, 

 1 under land, has the property of converting the secretion in 

 the sericteria, or silk. vessels, into gut instead of silk. 

 Vinegar or acetic acid baa a similar action upon glue and col- 

 loid substances in p neral. Anyhow, as my casts can hardly 

 be made worse, I shall try a fe w experiments with them for 

 the benefit of the present and future race of anglers. — Cor- 

 rebpoiidmce of London Field. 



Game Protection is New York.— State Game Protector 

 S. V. K. Bray ton, of Albany, lately returned irom making a 

 successful raid upon eel weirs in the Delaware, between Han- 

 cock and Callicoon. Between these points he had discovered 

 eight of these unlawful and destructive fish i rap», some of 

 them partly destroyed and others in full working order. 

 He has requested District Attorney J. Curtis, Esq., of Calli- 

 coon, to institute proceedings against Leander Conklin and 

 Lewis Hill, of Damascus, Wayne county, Pa., two eel weir 

 owners, who come from the Pennsylvania border to catch 

 New York State fish by wholesale. He has a memorandum 

 in which are recorded the names of trespassers, and it is 

 hoped that he will secure a list of all the gaui; which has for 

 many years persisted in openly violating the game laws of 

 that vicinity. Mr. Brayton says, regarding the difficulties 

 in detecting this class of criminals, that the effectual sup- 

 pression of i'legal fishing and shooting is greatly in the hands 

 of the citizens where the outrages are perpertrated. It be- 

 ing impossible to provide a patrol of constables sufficient to 

 thoroughly canvass the forests aud streams, it is the duty of 

 every right-minded and public spirited citizen to report to 

 the game constable and sportsmen's clubs any violation of 

 the game law which comes under his notice. A vigilance 

 of this kind, were it general, would soon abolish the pot- 

 hunter, and secure good fishing and shooting in the proper 

 season throughout the Stale. During the past summer Mr. 

 Brayton bas been doing some sharp work about Oneida Lake 

 and other neighboring lakes of the chain in capturing nets 

 and indicting Hieir owners, someof whom are already under 

 the lash or the law. 



A Trout Hides in THE Mud— Putram, Conn., Oct. 22.— 

 Forty-five years ago trout were abundant in all the clear 

 spring brooks in Plymouth county, Mass., and for such as 

 would weigh one-half a pound and upward I usually got ten 

 cents a pound, and often caught so large a string ihat I would 

 prefer to return home Kir the wagon than to try to caTry them. 

 I recolleet that at one lime, on my return home with quite a 

 nice string I thought it belter to go to the lower mill on 

 Trout Brook, as thefs were two or three pools below the mill 

 where I usually secured a nice trout. The water was low 

 and the mill had shutdown. With carefulness I soon struck 

 a big fellow, but in trying to lift him out the line broke. I 

 was determined to secure him, and waded iu as the pool was 

 only a foot del p 6) 90, and some twelve feet square. I care- 

 fully scanned every part if it, and could not.sec the trout. 

 It could not get out any way, and I waded up anddowr, and 

 iust as 1 was about giving up 1 saw a piece of my line, and 

 carefully fecund the end ami followed it up, and soon found 

 the trout, which had bidden away in the only little spot of 

 mud in the pool. 1 secured it, and if I recollect, arijjht it 

 „as : ol full twopoi' " , --" ighl.— G, F. W. 



Tun Mammoth Cod.-'i .• mOrinpUB codfish are occa- 

 sionally taken is not a surprising fact. That One should ! e 

 thioffu-ion of poem inav, however, eeem. a trifle Btrnnr e, 



ioh a poem, iTititlftd " The Mam.. iuth 



Cod," from the pen of Mr. B. JIawca. The verses are fault- 

 less in metre and (he style is llyrotiie, and, were they more 

 directly in bar line, we would gladly publish ihetn. No 

 doubt the " Fisherman's Memorial, ' about to be published 

 at Gloucester, Mass., w< uld gladly embalm them in its pages 

 and the wriier of " The .Mammoth Cod " would go down to 

 posterity alongside our most gifted poets. 



Tue " Belgian Devil.'' — The London Fix/ring QtxzetU 



has nil illustrated article with this heading. The "devil" 

 is a heavy iron implement like four fish-hooks fastened back 

 to back. It is three feet lrgh, and the inside part of the 

 hooks are sharpeued. Ir U claimed that the Belgian fisher- 

 men in the North Sea, engaged in trawling, carry such an 

 implement hanging from the bow, which cuts llrrough the 

 English nets audleisthe fish into theJBelgian trawl. One was 

 recently lost from an Ostcnd trawler and captured in an Eng- 

 lish fishing net. If this is practiced, brtaches of the peace 

 between the fishermen cf England and Belgium may be 

 looked for. 



Habits op Trott. — We recently published a letter from 

 Judce Caton on the habit of trout hiding in 60ft bottom, or 

 burrowing. He cited Capt. A. F. Young, of Escanaba, Mich., 

 as having seen this strange habit. We now learn that Mr. 

 W. H. Ballou, an observant naturalist, of Illinois, has ob- 

 served the same thing in the Stale of New York. We im- 

 agine that some peculiar bottom is favorable for this habit, 

 as it does not seem possible that trout would go in mud. 

 The bottom described by Capt. Young seemed like a whitish 

 loam. Who knows more about this ? 



Tris Memiadkn Fisheries.— Surveyor King, of Green- 

 port, L. f , reports the number of menhaden rendered in the 

 district during the past season ss SO, 000, 000. This immense 

 quantity of fish yielded 425,000 gallons of oil and 8,500 tons 

 of fertilizer. Long Island fishermen returned from the Chesa- 

 peake report a good season. The Virginia season was a fail- 

 ure owing to the scarcity of fish. 



«0isl(cuhure. 



FISHCULTUEE IX SOUTH CAROLINA. 



A S our readers are aware the State work of fisberdtnre in North 

 **- Carolinais a pub-department of the Department of Agriculture. 

 A monthly bulletin is issued, called "The Monthly Bulletin North 

 Carolina Department of Agriculture." It is published by Ash & 



Gathng, State printers, 



cents. We have just received 



which Mr. B. O. Worm ... 



Fiah and Fisheries, lor the yeai 

 The propagation ol fieri by I 

 only a few daj i aft 

 the Legislature of Marcl 

 on the corps of the t Bited Btal 

 by the Eoard. and operations ii 

 undertaken oh the Nouae. Hi 

 at naught ah effort*, aud the 

 f.om the- Government liutchu' 

 pla.d of only 410,000. A numb 

 (ol h itching, the eggs being mi 

 river current, the box bottoniH 

 in the State, and these ' 



lialeigh. Subscripts 



part 



c 25 

 r, 188a, In 

 Fisheries, 

 mtof 



tirieial methods was undertaken 

 i of Ihe Board of Agriculture by 

 1. Mr. Frank N. Clark, an expert 

 5 F.nb Commission was employed 

 shad batching were immediately 

 h water and other difficulties set 

 result there and of fry obtained 

 ■a iu Massachusetts made a net 

 c of floating boxes were then used 

 ,-ed in Ihe process by the natural 

 eiug wire. No hatchery existed 

 i part a loan from the United 



Statea Commissioner. At that, time no one in our State knew 

 thing of the artificial batching of liah eggs, aud such pra tical 

 knowledge which has spread rapidly iu all directions is entirely 

 due to the agency of the Board and a" kindly disposed pros. 



The second step taken whs the erection of a salmon hatchery In 

 September following it SwannanoaGap, Buncombe countv, mak- 

 ing a plant of 234,000 fish with small loss, 



A joint subscription of fund*, and the Unite I States and Mary- 

 laud Commissioners sent their hatching fleet (of boats) intj tho 

 Albemarle Sound. They assumed the collecting aud hatching, 

 and when the fry were ready lor shipment th>»y were allotted ont 

 to the different commissioners for their respective States. The 

 means furnished me were used to best advantage in snipping 

 the fish, 'ihe result was 3,243,000. In the season oi 1879 (re 

 operated on the same plan, merely shipping as many fry as wo 

 could secure from the officials in charge. 



In 1680 the appropriation for the United Stales Commission was 

 so delayed that no opera lions were undei taken by them on the 

 Albemarle. We assumed the undertaking of collecting, hutching 

 and distributing. Their apparatus heinjj on bouts had been trans- 

 ferred to the r hcBapeake Bay, and we had no nucleus to budd to. 

 Within forty-five days, however, an order was given and a hatch- 

 ery near their old seat was perfected. It contains a four and one- 

 half horse boiler and engine, two powerful force pumps rut. by 

 steam, and twenty-eight hatching cones, with a weekly hatching 

 capactty of four millions of eggs. The building is of rough 

 plank, twenty-five by thirty feet, single story. All meals are 

 served and eaten in thie building, and the corps sleep in ham- 

 mocks and on cots iu simplest style, above the machinery. Tho 

 entire hatchery and fixtures cost "less than 81,500. The engir 

 was steamed up on April H, and the pumps worked twenty-seve 

 days and nights without an hour's iiiterrnption. There waa 

 working f roe of sixteen men. The hauls occurring every si 

 hours at two fisheries, two miles distant, were attended, and the 

 hatching cones were filled to the utmost capacity, and were empty 

 only at the close. Ihe point at which this work is done is Avoca, 

 the home of Dr. W. It. Capehart. The watera of the Albemarle 

 are here fresh and six miles wide. The seines used for fishing are 

 one and one-quarter to one and one-half miles long, most of them 

 shot from two fifty-foot boats, manned by ten oarsmen to 



each. With 1 

 power and * 

 and hauled 

 shad vield c 

 In i»3l t 

 down liv tb 

 Froi ' 



''-'!'• 



(Jim 



then hauled ashore by horse- 

 are carried out by steamers 

 nginus ashore. The annual 

 Jilhoi 



ted Btates 

 her cones 800,000 fry we 

 turned over to us ou the 



■, Fish Hawk, waa sent 

 nmissioners to hutch at Avoca. 

 released and the remaining eggs 

 a oi her departure, May 1. We 

 had made no prepaid' .tching, the United States of- 



ficials having assured mo that they would do it all. But on her 

 departure we began, and with no force except nine 

 men to distribute fry with, and with every disadvantage, we 

 . , rthi - ID, 000 fish released from the 



Fish Hawk the North Caro' in iota up 6,545,000. The 



work is really twice as good as that of lis", showing above all 

 things that we are iu a hue of progression. 



No State is more favored in streams than ours. We are lacking 

 in lake area, however, and in nearly all running waters above thb 

 shad Unfit, there is a very great scarcity of fish. While these 

 localities have engaged thoughtful attention, we have not been able 

 to organize any large work by winch wo could fully restock them. 

 We have made attempts to overcome ten- scarcity of fish in the 

 headwaters of such streams by the introduction of tho Schoodic 

 salmon of Maine and the Galifprnia trout ol the Weel 

 Meanwhile I would earnestly reoonuneud pareons in theint run 

 to cultivate the (tcrmn carp in ponds. By la: -. 



of the State is unfurnished with shad, and bvbo U we succeed in 

 establishing successful tishnays ou all the flams IS tt - B thi 



will yet receive shad in only comparative small numbers. The 



carp grows quiaklj and slmo-t every farm n 



tions for m inoro iRtotheawp 



In 1880 I spawned a large roekfish* of fiftv-seven pounds »Dd 

 hatched 500,000 fry. I found milt for the, impregnation of 700,- 

 000 eggs Only, but the eggs remaining iu the ovaries which were 

 subsequently removed, wire to thoee taken about four to ono, 

 making the yield abont 3,000,000 in ,'■ '■ To, spawning and 

 spawned rock of like bize were taken in «l ad fishing that spring 

 within four mdeB of our station. Three of the same, I am in- 

 ioinied, were taken last seasou at Wood's fishery opposite .na. 

 Their full period of spawning follows the close of shad-lishmg, 

 and we have been compelled from lack of means to close our work 

 without making a special work of rock. In 1816 Dr. Capehart 

 made a haul on May 6 (after he had finished hi- bhad- fishing) and 

 took 840 fish ; 350 averaged r-ixty-five pounds, and many weighed 

 eighty to ninety pounds. The 'total weight of the haul was 35,- 

 000 pounds. Though an acute observer, he at that time was not 

 much attracted to the spanning of fish, and it is not known how 

 many may have been ripe, but the spawn of one weighed twenty- 

 eight pounds— over three and nearly four times as much as tbv 

 spawn contained in the ono handled by nieiu propagation in ln8D 



"The " striped bass," of New York, Button liivatm. 



nches in 

 Wood's, neai 

 Warrington's, 

 rfed down on 

 oid liberated. 

 ,th of M-rcei 



BLACK BASS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



Philadelphia, Nov. 14. 



MR. JAS. W. OEE, Fish Warden of Caradeu county, N. J., has 

 just finished his report ending Oct. 1, 1881, which has been 

 forwarded to Fish Commissioner Howell, of Woodbury, Glouces- 

 ter county, N. J. Mr. Ore states that during the past year there 

 have been many black bass caught in many Camden county 

 ponds, the result of stocking these waters a few years ago. Some 

 of the fish weighed four pounds. The following are the pondi/ 

 which have been supplied with this game fish, two hundred and 

 fifty being placed in each, measnring from four tt 

 length : 0. S. Ifidwav's. at Brown's Mills : Alberl 

 Blackwoodstonu; Russell's, near Twedesboro, and 

 near Swedesboro. The fiah for tie- !••.•■ 

 the Woodbury and Swedesboro Railroad J aterday 

 The superintendence of stocking all the ponds so 

 county has been delegated to Fish Warden Ore. 'ihe ponds al- 

 luded' to were stocked with bass three years ago by Mr. Ore, aud 

 this yoar some of them were caught measuring tea and twelv» 

 inches iu length. 



The large pond belonging to Mr. Black at Swedesboro is uot 

 mentioned as being stocked. We wonder at this, as the writer in 

 his vouthiul davs used to catch white perch in this pond weighing 

 one'and two pounds, tho fish having originally been placed thera 

 from a tide water creek ( Raccoon) running into the Delaware River, 

 and had become land locked. 



The writer was once one of four who subscribed to a fund for 

 the purchase of bass for tho Swedesboro pond, but the fish 

 bought were nothing but falltish, a chub— the person doiug the 

 biivrng, being ignorant as to the appearauce of the black bass, 

 took what be thought were the fish wanted, as he saw them swim- 

 ming at the bottom of the tub. 



The result of this experiment i3 the presence by thousands of 

 the fallnsh in Swedesboro pond, where thoy were never known 

 before, Mr. Ore should not neglect this grand sheet of water. 

 The white perch from tide water will Jive there and thrive. Whj 

 will not the bass ? Hosio. 



GROWTH OF CARP IN VIRGINIA. 



Baltliiobe, Md., Nov. 5. 

 .Ed&or F.inst and Stream : 



I clip the following item headed "Carp in North Carolina" from 

 the Baltimore Su>i of to-day: "The caip raisers iu North Carolina 

 are rejoicing over the success attouding the introduction of tbia 

 excellent fish in that State. One gentleman residing near Green- 

 ville dragged his pound a few days ago, and the re-ult astonished 

 him The carp that he deposited in January— ten months ago, 

 of infinitesimal size and an ounce in wtight— are now seventeen 

 inches long aud weigh four pounds apiece." 



German carp are known lo bo of rapid growth in still ponds fa- 

 vocable to Eheii propagation, and I will give you an instance that 

 will be additionally convincing. Whi e on a repent riait to W,n- 

 chester, Va.. I was informed by Mr. Crump, the efficient maiugei- 

 of the paper mills near that city, Ihat be sec ired a fe i carp— v rj 

 small specimens ('such as tho U. S. Fish Commissioner dintril ates h- 

 ou Aprd 15, placing them in a small pond at the mid. July 15, 

 exactly three months after puttiug thiui in, he had the watel 

 drawn off, and to his "amazement and surprise' 1 found the carp 

 bad altained the remarkable length of ten and one half inches. 

 Any one acquainted with Mr. Crump vrill accept hia statemenl 

 without question. He is not a disciple of Laak Walton. N. P. 



FISHCULTURE IN TEXAS. 



LAWS BELATCJCt TO EEOTEOTIOH OF FISH. 



Offenses Relating to the Protection of FUh, etc.— Article 423. 

 If any person shall drag or haul any fish net or seine, or set, 

 place or use any fish net, seine trap or other contrivance of any 

 character whatsoever, for the purpus. . , .- o !; > teept tho 



ordinary hook, line and pole), in any Stream, lake or pool of 

 water svithra this State above tide-water, between the fourteenth 

 day of February aud the fourteenth day ot Jnno of each year, he 

 Bhall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars. 



Article 424. Each day that any net, seine, trap or other contriv- 

 ance remains set or placed, shall constitute a separate offenos 

 under the preceding article. 



Artiolo 425. If auy person shall catch or take, or attempt to 

 catch or take, any fish in this State by the use of any poiapaput 

 substance put intu tha water, he shall be oned not less thau 

 one hundred dollars. — Penal Code, 



Title XIH., Chap. 5. 



An Act for the Pre 



Fiah-Ladders.— Be i 



rraas.ThatitshftU I 



n of Fi-h and to Build Esli-Wavs and 



,■/,,'■ the Stale itf 

 ins, irnw or corporations, 



ho may hereafter erect, anv mill-dam, 

 water-weirs, or other obstructions, ou rivers or streams within the 

 waters of this State, within ail tnontba after tho passage of this 

 n struct and keep in repair ftah-wayB or' n-hdadders at 

 Mich mill-dam, waters-wears, en ODBtructioinyso that ail aeaeons ol 

 tho year fi-h mac ascend above such dam, weirs, or obstructionn, 

 to deposit then SO iwu. Any person, firm, or corporation, owuittg 

 such mill-dam or obstructions, «ho shall tailor rei I ' tol 



or keep in repair such fisb-wavs or fish-ladders, after having bean 

 notified and required by the Fish Commissioner to do ho, shall In 

 deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof 

 sbaU be punished by a tine uot exceeding ono hundred d illarn nor 

 less than twenty-five for every such neglect or refusal. The 

 eruor is hereby authorised to appoint a fish ournniisBioiicr, who 

 .-bali serve mtiiorit compensation, whose duty it Bha.l bo to see 

 that the provisions of this act are complied 



Section. 3. Ail prosecutions under this act shall be commenced 

 witliin two months from the time when such offense was com- 

 mitted, aud the same shall he upon eomplaiut under oath before 

 anv justice of the pence, recorder or mayor of auy city iu tha 

 county where the offense was committed or where the detemlaut 

 may reside or be found ; and all lines imposed aud collected uudol 

 this act. shall I." paid ouc-half to the complainant. 



Section 3. Alltawsand parts of laws which conflict with the 

 8 of this act ha the same arc hereby repealed 



Section '! take elf eel and be in loreoon and afte 



the first day 



roved April 17, 1878 



OB March 14, ISil, the Legislature amend- I the' law of 1871) 

 e the pay of the Co c annntn,. aoa 



also making an appropriation of ><5,i>00 per annum tor the pro 

 lection and dist'ibution offish. 



H Dinkinsis the oulv 1 ■.-'. Bl appotrM 



