Deotmbhb 83, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



411 



J>u# and Qivtt fishing. 



FISH IN SEASON IN DECEitlBEK. 



Black Bass, ilicropterus mlmcides 



and .V. pallidum. 

 Mascalonge, Esox nobilior. 

 Pickerel, Bsox TtUeulatvs. 

 Pike or Pickerel, Esox lueius. 

 Pike-perch (wall-eyed pike) 



Stizotethium americanum, S. 



griseum, etc 



FHBSE WATHR. 



Yellow Perch, Peroajtuviatilti. 

 Striped Bass, Roams lineatus. 

 White Bass, Roams chrysops. 

 Rock Bass, Ambhplites, (Two 



species). 

 War-mouth, Chcencbryttus gulasus. 

 Crapple, Pmnoxys nigromaeulotu*. 

 Bachelor, Pomoxye annularis. 

 Ohub, Semotilis corporalis. 



SALT WATER. 



Smelt, Osmems mordax. 



Sea Bass, Vcniropnst.u airarius. 



Striped Bass or RockflBh, Roams 



linealvs. 

 White Perch, Morone amuriatna. 



Pollock, PollacMtis carbonarius. 

 Tatttog or Blackfish, Tautoga 



onitis. 

 Weakflsh or Sq\iela.gue,Cynoacyon 



TegalU. 

 Channel Bass, Spot or Redflsh, 



Scicenop ocellaVits. 



But he that shall consider the variety of baits lor all seasons, and 

 pretty devices which our anglers have Invented (peculiar lines, false 

 dies, several sleights, etc)., will say that It deserves like commenda- 

 tion, requires like study and perspicacity as the rest, and is to he 

 preferred before many of them.— Br/RTOX, Anatomy of Melancholy. 



ANGLING LN IDAHO. 



Bellevtb, Wood River, Idaho Territory. 



LN your late lists of fish in season in September, you Bhould 

 have had, to make it complete, what are called trout in 

 this region, which are now in their prime. I am told that 

 they have been successfully crossed with ihe speckled trout 

 of the Adirondack^, which they resemble in all but the bright 

 colored spots. There seems to be three distinct varieties, 

 differing in form and color of meat. 



The largest variety weighing from one to five pounds, 

 sometimessix. I now mind of one this season, murdered 

 with giant powder, that weighed nearly eight. It looks in 

 every respect, except the bright colored spots, like those 

 caught in the dead waters of the Adirondacka, very short in 

 proportion to its weight ; very dark in the back ; changing 

 to reddish-brown on the sides. The flesh when cooked is a 

 deep flesh color. 



The second, which are called silver trout here, do not, in 

 this river at least, seem to grow to weigh over one-half to three- 

 fourths of a pound, the most of them less than six ounces. 

 They are long and slim, with hardly any spots on their sides ; 

 dark on the back, with bright silvery sides ; flesh as white as 

 the purest snow, and when first caught are of the most 

 delicate flavor imaginable. They take a fly readily, and 

 when hooked spring clear from the water and try to shake 

 themselves loose, as I often have seen bass when trolling in 

 Eastern waters. 



The last variety, called here "mountain trout," and found 

 in the spring brooks, are from four to six inches long ; dark 

 in the back with yellowish sides, and having, in addition to 

 the dark spots, a dark band about one-fourth of an inch wide 

 and half to three-fourths of an inch apart, runningabout two- 

 thirds the way up their sides, and are equal to the regular 

 speckled beauties of the East. 



None of these trout have the white tips to pectoral fins, 

 and all have very fine scales. The first two-named species 

 spawn in the spring. I am inclined to think that the latter 

 do also, as in those caught now there are no signs of eggs. 



This, the Wood River country, was the Eden of the Banocks. 

 Its rivers swimming with trout ; elk, deer and antelope were 

 abundant ; be-irs more than plenty, mostly cinnamon and 

 bald face, with occasionally a grizzly to make it interesting : 

 and otter, beaver and u.ink are found on all the streams. In 

 another season the scream of the "iron-horse" will waken 

 the echoes of these valleys and send the game into the impene- 

 trable mountains, to be secure for a while from the ever- 

 onw.ird march of the white man. 



Notwithstanding the stringent game laws enacted by the 

 Territorial Government, the use of giant powder early in the 

 season has, in one season, cut off more than half the supply 

 of the trwut in this valley, and another such slaughter next 

 spring will destroy the fishing almost entirely.- 



I found accidentally this last week that there are plenty of 

 the small fish in this river which were mentioned in a late 

 article in your paper, "Do Garter Snakes Eat Pish?" 

 They are perfectly identical with those of mountain streams 

 in New England and your own State, and I have often used 

 them very successfully two or three times since. G. B. F. 



8HAKESPEARE AND THE CARP. 



Sohbkbotadv, N. Y., Dec, 19. 



Editor Forest and Stream • 



I was much interes'ed in the quotations from Shakespeare 

 on fly-fishing, from Mr. S. C. Clarke, in your last issue. I 

 now send you the following from the Antiquary : 



Among fresh-water fishes the carp was held in high es- 

 teem in Shakespeare's time as a fish easy to rear and keep in 

 preserved fish-ponds, and so readily available for the table. 

 He mentions it rwice: 



Here la a pur oi 'fortunes. Sir, or of fortune's cat (but nor 



fallen Into the unclean Ash-pond of her dls- 



s he = i.vs. Is muddled withal. Prav you, Sir, use the 

 • —AWt Well thai Ends Well, Act t\, Seen* t. 



1 takes the carp of truth.— JIamlet, Act II.. 

 Samel. 



There is a peculiar Alness in Polonious's comparison of his 

 own worldly-wise deceit to the craft required for catching a 

 carp — for the carp was proverbially the most cunning of 

 fishes. " The carp is a deyntous fysshe, but there bee few 

 in Englande, and therefore I wryte the lasse of hym. He is 

 an euyll fysshe to take." " The carp is the queen of rivers," 

 says Walton; "a stately, a good, and a very subtle fish." 

 And it is the fact that the brain of the carp is six times as 

 large as the average brain of other fishes. 



a musk- 

 pleasun 

 earn as 



•2.' ftrf 



Sacked Fish. — In Northcote's "Account of the Roman 

 Catacombs," it is stated that ; " In the Catacombs at Rome the 

 fish is the most sacred symbol, the most important perhaps of 

 all, and certainly as ancient as any. Origen speaks of our Lord 

 as figuratively called 'The Fish.' 'We little fishes,' says 

 Tenullian, ' are born in water, after the example of Jesus 

 Christ, our fish,' The fish was the recognized conventional 

 sign for Christ. Hence we find a multitude of little fishes in 

 crystal, ivory, mother-of-pearl, in the graves of the Cata- 

 combs— some of them with holes drilled through the head, 

 to be worn round the neck. " 



SWEDISH POPULAR BELIEFS. 



The teeth of large fish should be burnt, in order to be 

 lucky in fishing. 



One ought to tell no one when one goes out to fish, and not 

 mention whether one has caught many or few. 



Nor should any stranger see how many fish one has taken. 



When one rows out from land to fish, one must not turn 

 the boat against the sun. 



Pins found in a church and made into fish hooks catch the 

 best. 



If a woman passes over the rod, no fish will bite. 



Stolen fishing tackle is lucky, but the person robbed loses 

 his luck. — Thorpe?* Northern Mythology. 



AMERICAN BROOK TROUT IN GERMANY. 



IN a recent letter from Mr. H. Haack, the celebrated fish 

 culturist in charge of the Government hatchery at Hunin- 

 gen, he tells us that he has had poor success in obtaining im- 

 pregnated spawn from the fonlinalis this year, for the reason 

 that among all his fish he had not one male. He says : '* Sal- 

 no fontinalis is not an American trout, but an American 

 char. I have found that out by making hybrids with our 

 German trout, Salmo fario, using a female of the former and 

 a male of the latter species. The result was nearly nothing. 

 The ■fontinalu is a river char, and not a sea char, more beau- 

 tiful than our trout." 



Mr. Haack is right in calling our fish a char, although the 

 popular name is too well fixed and endeared to Americans to 

 ever be changed. The dentition separates it from the true 

 trouts. It is for this reason that in the revision of the Sal- 

 monidffl by Gill and Jordan new genera were made for both 

 our Eastern brook and lake trout. The genus is changed from 

 Salmo to Salvelinus for the brook trout, and to Crittiwmer for 

 the lakers. Therefore, if the new nomenclature is accepted 

 they become Salvelinnsfontinalis and Cruti-pomer namayeush. 

 The common brook trout of Europe is Salmo fario. 



THE ANGLE IN MISSOURI. 



St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 13. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



Tears ago there was excellent fishing, for such fish as our 

 State was~blest with, but now the sport is almost a forgotten 

 one with many who formerly enjoyed it. The nets" have 

 skinned our streams, in season and out of season, and either a 

 lack of law, or of its enforcement is the main cause of the 

 present barrenness of our waters. True, there have been 

 fishing-clubs, but they have lacked influence because they 

 have contented themselves with their owu enjoyment, and 

 lacked the public spirit necessary to carry on a fight with the 

 violators of the law. 



It was hoped that the appointment of Fish Commissioners 

 would either remedy or at least alleviate the evil, but it has 

 not done so. The Fish Commission propagate, but do not 

 protect. They do good enough work in their way, but are 

 powerless to stop the wholesale depletion of the waters which 

 bas been going on for years, until those who do it look upon 

 it as intetfering with their vested rights to forbid them to 

 use nets at all times and in all places where fish may be 

 found. 



Murdock Lake, about thirty miles south of this city, is a 

 splendid sheet of water, and fishing is tolerably fair there. 

 The same may be said of King's Lake. Both these lakes 

 have their fishiDg-clubs, and their waters are protected partly 

 by the clubs and partly by the stumps, logs, etc., which 

 make it impossible to haul a net in some parts of them. 

 Murdock Lake is probably the best of the two. These clubs 

 do little or nothing in the way of propagating, or of enlisting 

 the Fish Commission in the work, but simply fish. It con- 

 tains black bafis which are as gamy as those of any waters, 

 dogfi-h, catfish and croppy. This last is a fine little fellowj 

 and well worth cultivating. „ E. B. 



Angling fok Albatross. — In January, 1879, when off 

 Cape Horn, on the ship Twilight, we were becalmed for some 

 hours. A great many albatross had been following and circ- 

 ling round the ship, and "The Rime of the Ancient 

 Mariner" having no effect on our non-superstitious minds, 

 we determined to secure one of them. " Chips" immediately 

 rigged up a hook and line, baited it with a piece of pork, 

 attached a float about a foot from the hook, and threw it 

 over. After fishing (would you call it fishing?) for some 

 time without success, the hook being very large and pulling 

 out of the birds' mouths, we gave it up as a bad job and went 

 to dinner, leaving the line hanging over the stern. Hardly 

 were we seated at the table when we heard a shout from the 

 man at the wheel. We rushed on deck and found that an 

 albatross had taken the bait and was securely hooked. He 

 was as gamy as a twenty-pound salmon, but we finally got 

 him aboard and releasing him from the hook, allowed him to 

 waddle about the main deck, he being unable to fly over the 

 bulwarks. After examining him fully, he was killed, pre- 

 served and mounted by "Chips," who, like most ship-carp- 

 enters, was a regular jack-of-all-trades. I brought him to 

 Boston with me, and he makes a pretty little ornament for a 

 small room, as he measures 7 feet 8 inches or 8 feet 7 inches 

 (I cannot remember which) from tip to tip. In color he is 

 pure white on the body, with the exception of some pink 

 markings on the throat. There are also some gray streaks on 

 the wings. That night a heavy gale began, which lasted un- 

 til the next afternoon. Killing an albatross and storms have 

 always been associated, regardless of Ihe fact that the alba- 

 tross is only found in stormy latitudes. In the " Encyclo- 

 paedia Britaonica," (9th edition — subject, Albatross) it is said 

 that these birds sometimes measure 17 feet from tip to tip. 

 This hardly appears possible, and I think it must be a mis- 

 take, as mine is only half that size and is as large as any I 

 have seen.— Jums P. Boston, Dee. 13. 



The Coming Trottt.— At the recent meeting of the New 

 York Association for the Protection of Game, President R. 

 B. Roosevelt said of the rainbow trout of California (Salmo 

 iridea) that they are twice as strong as our Eastern brook 

 trout, and twice as rapid growers, often reaching a weight of 

 eight to ten pounds in California, while in our waters they 

 grow to four and five, while the S. fontinalis i6 growing to 

 less than half that weight. The complaint against them, 

 said Mr. Roosevelt, is that they are too gamey — they smash 

 light tackle with their tremendous rushes, and the angler 

 must be especially prepared for them. They can be easily 

 introduced into our trout streams, will live where our trout 

 will, and in some places where they will not. "They ate 

 the coming trout 1 They are perfection!" 



THE MANUFACTURE AND CARE OF GUT. 



Redditoh, England. 

 Editor Forest and Stream : 



In your issue of Nov. 17 I notice the correspondence re- 

 specting silkworm gut. I have for the last thirty rive years 

 purchased and sold large quantities, and always have at our 

 works an extensive stock, which has had my personal super- 

 vision, my firm having in Murcia. Spain, a maaufacto 

 silkworm gut. I have been in Murcia superintending i he 

 manufacturing and have discovered two causes which make 

 gut brittle, and have instructed our manager in Murcia to see 

 all the producers of the gut and impress upon them the im- 

 portance of keeping the gut out of the sun. 



The great evil is this ; After the worm has been drawn out 

 it is put in the sun to dry, and the great heat of the sun tukes 

 the moisture out of the gut and makes it brittle. I also dis- 

 covered another danger in the manufacture of it. In bleaching 

 it, if the bleaching-oven is too hot, and the gut is too long in 

 the oven, it makes the gut brittle. If gut is m/tde without 

 an excess of heat it will be more pliable : consequently, more 

 strong. I have never found gut get brittle by keeping. The 

 best way to keep it is in wash-leather. If large stocks, in 

 drawers or rooms which are not over-heated. Some tackle 

 dealers will expose gut, gut leaders, etc., in their windows. 

 The sun gets on it and consequently tato s the nature out of it 

 and it becomes hard and brittle. 



The cause of flat gut is disease in the worms. Healthy 

 worms produce round gut. The manufacture of gut is very 

 simple. The gut from the worms is bought from the small 

 country people who breed the worms in their bouses. The 

 first process in making is to put the gut in a furnace with 

 water, a little soda and soap. After boiling a short time the 

 outer skin comes off it. It is put in yellow and comes out 

 white, filter it is put in the bleaching ovens. Then girls mb 

 it straight with wash-leather, holding one end in their teeth. 

 The next process is to sort out the different strengths. It is 

 then rubbed again; counted into bunches of one hundred, 

 then a man puts in the red jute on each bunch, and then ties 

 it in bundles of one thousand. 



This may interest your readers and prevent gut being spoiled 

 by exposure to the sun. S. Axlcook. 



A Card feom Me. Mubphy — Newark, N. J., Dec, 16. — 

 Editor Foi est and Stream : I wish to use your columns to 

 correct some errors and exaggerations which have appeared 

 in the newspapers as having come from me, knowing that in 

 this way the sportsmen of America will see the retraction 

 and that they will not hold me guilty of such absurd exag- 

 geration, or of attempting to cast a slur upon a brother 

 sportsman who has long been dead. It is now some six 

 weeks ago since a reporter from the Newark .S ,, 

 visited me and held a long conversation on shooting and 

 fishing in the olden time. He took no notes, but relied on 

 his memory for facts concerning the old anglers and fisher- 

 men; and his memory must have distorted my conversation 

 wonderfully. I gave him merely a plain statement of facts, 

 showing how much more plentiful fish and game were in the 

 early day than at present : and as for Mr. Herbert i Frank 

 Forester) I merely said that I knew him well. I was stir- 

 prised at the way "the interview appeared in the Call under 

 the heading of '• Reminiscences of an Old Sportsman." Per- 

 haps 1 would not have thought it wortb while to refute the 

 article, had not the New York Times, of Sunday, December 

 11, published substantially the same article with a few ad- 

 ditions and omissions, under the head of "Fish poles and 

 Fishing." I now wish to say that all the statements in the 

 Call in regard to the quantity of game and fish formerly 

 taken in and around what is now the city of Newark were 

 grossly exaggerated, and those in the Times were still more 

 so. Also that the account of my exploits with the rod and 

 gun in company with Mr. Herbert, or "Frank Forester," as 

 he was called, were an entire fabrication. I never hunted 

 nor fished with him in my life, nor did I ever tell any person 

 that I had done so. The remarks concerning the character 

 and habits of Mr. Herbert, which followed in"the account of 

 the interview, were pure fabrications. I hope that I would 

 be the last man to attempt to traduce a man so well known as 

 "Frank Forester," especiall y after his death. — C'uaelkb F. 

 Mttbphy. 



Let the Iohthtophagoi Look to Theie Laurels. — The 

 famous Ichthyophagus Club, of this city, has a rival across 

 the sea. Food and Health says ; " If ever a small but heroic 

 federation of philanthropic enthusiasts was fairly entitled to 

 the gratitude of civilized mankind that body is the Z » 

 cal Committee of the Westphuliau Provincial Association. 

 From its recently published report upon ' Measures taken by 

 the committee during the past year for the development of 

 humanity's comestible resources,' we gather that t be asso- 

 ciates have carried out a series of experiments in the eating 

 line which are probably unprecedented in the annals of in- 

 vestigation. They have partaken of stewed bear and badger, 

 both roasted and hashed, with sweet sauce, and fouud them 

 delicious. Baked crane, stuffed with chestnuts aud plums 

 they pronounce to be superior to any stubble goose that ever 

 waddled o'er the lea. In their opinion frog-spawn, which 

 they recommended to epicures by the tempting designation of 

 'batrachian caviare,' is an absolutely first-class delicacy, in- 

 finitely superior in flavor to the roe of the sturgeon. The con- 

 cluding paragraph of thisamazingreportisus.follows : 'During 

 the Munster Exhibition of tortoises, snakes, alligators etc, a 

 venerable crocodile, aged about one hundred and fifty, 

 breathed its last. Two days after its scaly hide had been re- 

 moved the meat round the root of its tail presented so ap- 

 petizing an appearance that the chairman and secretary of 

 the committee determined to prepare a piece of it. m 

 four pounds, in the manner of turtle soup. After simmering 

 for three hours or so, a soup was served to them of such 

 vigorous aspect and seductive power that all their g 

 called loudly for plates, and in a few seconds the tureen was 

 emptied.' " If any of the members of the American club with 

 the horrible name go to Florida this winter let them act 

 on this and try the alligator. 



The Fishlesb Passaio. — The Passaic River, New Jersey, 

 formerly contained many valuable fish, It was especially 

 famous for shad, smelt, striped bass and white perch, since 

 it has been used as a sewer for all kinds of chemicals the fish 

 have left it, and now a dam is to be built, which a Newark 

 newspaper thinks may improve the fishing. The Call says : 

 A score of years ago the project of building a dam acrora the 

 river at Bellevilla would have met with the stoutest reefctancx 

 from all Newark anglers and Ashmen. Now scarcely a word 

 will be heard in remonstrance. Gas-tar, lime and various 

 chemicals flowing from our sewers have been thorough in the 



