Feb. 16, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



£3 



"I was much more surprised when I learned that the first chemist 

 of ids time was a professed angler, and that lie thinks that if he were 

 obliged tp rpuounoe fishing or philosophy, that he should find the 

 struggle of his choice pretty severe."— Geo. Tioknor's Journal, Vol. 

 m., p. 57. 



ANGLING. 



I A FELLOW CRAFTSMAN. 



B 



ESIDE the 



irtle 



tream. 

 morning's earliest beam. 

 How BWeet to stray- 

 To hear the bUthe birds sing, 

 As, gaily, on the wing 

 They greet the day ! 



To see the flow'rets peep, 

 As from a blissful sleep, 



At rosy morn: 

 And shake their slender it m 

 Free from the dewy gems 



The night bath worn ! 



To breathe the bracing breeze. 

 Bearing from budding trees 



Perfumes most rare ; 

 To feel ourselves to be 

 With all in sympathy, 



And free from care ! 



Whal pleasure there to stand. 

 With pliant rod in hand. 



Upon the brink— 

 And see the subtle hook 

 Within the rippling brook 



Slowly down-sink! 



The rod, the line.the reel— 

 what a glorious feel 



When floats the fly 

 Upon the water's whirl, 

 Where 'neath the eddying purl 



The trout doth lie I 



Or, when the graceful float 

 Rides like a fairy boat 



Upon the 1ide— 

 Until it warning gives, 

 And impulse quick receives 



Beneath to 'bide! 



Ah, then, my friend, to "strike," 

 What joy to it is like 



When fish is fast? 

 To see the glint and gleam 

 Of trout, or perch, or bream. 



Their struggles past ! 



My friend and angler dear, 

 These joys, for many a year, 



We oft have proved ; 

 And may the future tend 

 Our willing feet to wend 



To sport beloved ! 



O. W. R. 



SILKWORM CUT. 



A RECENT article in our columns on the manufacture and 

 strength of gut. from our correspendent, Samuel Alleock, 

 of Redditch, England, was reprinted in the Fishing Gazette. A 

 correspondent of that paper thus takes issue -with Mr. Alloock 

 and gives his own Views as to the treatment of that delicate 

 portion of die angler's tackle. He says: 



It is a hold act for a man to differ with the dictum of a 

 member of so eminent a firm as that of Messrs. Alleock & Co., 

 of Redditch; hut the detail of tint treatment, of silkworm gut, 

 as .u'iven in the American Forest and Stream, in your issue 

 of the 14th inst. , as emanating from that gentleman, is in 

 many respects so totally opposed to what I have been assured 

 are the proper preparations for this product, that I dare not 

 suffer the statement altogether to pass without challenge. Mr. 

 Alleock says he has been in Mureia, Spain, superintending its 

 manufacture, and has discovered two causes which make gut 

 brittle, and has instructed the managers there to see all the 

 native producers of gut and impress upon them the impor- 

 tance of keeping the gut out of the sun. 



Are we to conclude that Mr. Alleock bas only now, after 

 "thirty-five years' experience/' discovered that the sun has 

 been the cause of the complaint at present so general respect- 

 ing the inferiority of this product? I will grant, for the 

 nonce, that the sun may be one of the causes of the present 

 deterioration; but, if so, we have been in error from the first 

 application of this most useful production, as the sun has not, 

 ceased to shine, nor has it diminished the power of its rays. 

 Then how does Ibis tally with the positive knowledge that tit 

 one time gut was of the; best; no complaints were heard of its 

 Strength and endurance, and it is now charged with abuses 

 directly opposite to those which contributed so greatly to the 

 excellence of the material? We admit that the gut is worse 

 now than heretofore, but we do not admit that the sun has 

 anything to do with it. In case, however, this indictment 

 against: the grand luminary should require proof, Mr. Alleock 

 says that, titter the silkworm has been drawn out, it is put in 

 the sun to dry, and the great heat of the sun takes the mois- 

 ture out of Ihe gut and makes it brittle. Here we have, ac- 

 cording to the above, that the sun is not diminished in its 

 powers of heat and, instead of doing its task in a steady, 

 workmanlike manner, overuakes' the gut; therefore, we must 

 conclude, it is not the want of the solar rays that is the cause 

 of the deterioration. He goes on to say that in bleaching it 

 he discovered another danger in I he manufacture. If the 

 bleaching-oven is too hot and the gut is too long in the oven 

 it makes the gut more brittle. 



Thus we find that, firstly, the sun has overdone the pro- 

 and, in the next, that the excess heat of the bleaehiug- 

 oven has caused the same effect. But it does not seem to have 

 occurred to Mr, Alleock how simple was the remedy: a ther- 

 mometer, at the cost of one shilling, would have determined 

 under the sun or in the oven the proper degree of heat. 



Toffee is pliable, hardbake is brittle, both closely allied 

 sweeties. Mr. Alleock seems, however, to have discovered 

 this, for he says in the next paragraph, gait, if made without 

 an excess of 'heat, may b3 WOrft pliable and, consequently, 

 stronger. Who says it would not? He says that he has 

 never found gut get brittle by keeping. Hence we find that 

 fierceness of the sun and over! tea ting of the bleaching-room 



are detrimental; but. how does this agree with the following, 

 if Ave are to take the process as that indorsed by Mr. Alleock? 

 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 houses. 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 ii. 1( is 

 put in yellow and conies out white after if is put in the bleach- 

 ing-oven. 



For our own part we ate inclined to believe, subject to 

 correction, that the furnace, the boiling and the baking, the 

 bleaching, the soap antl soda, have more to do with the recent 

 deterioration of gut than the poor slandered stm and atmos- 

 phere. Mr. Alleock speaks of the moisture being taken out 

 by the sun. I presume he means it solidifies the gum, the 

 most vital portion of the gut that holds together the many 

 threads of silk which form the strand. Rut," surely, soap anil 

 soda, boiling and bleaching, etc., is most likely to extract both 

 moisture and gum than any of the old processes from which 

 we got the best material. 



We have in England tried the following receipt with silk- 

 worms bred by ourselves. Steep silkworms, when just ready 

 to spin, in strong vinegar for twelve hours in warm weather, 

 or two or three in cold; then take them out. break them in 

 the middle, stretch them out as tar as possible on a board 

 furnished with slits or pegs to hold them, and dry them in the 

 sun. The worms may be known to lie going to spin by refus- 

 ing food and by having a fine silken thread hanging from their 

 mouths. - 



The only failures that we have had, have been when the sun 

 has not been sutUciently hot; but even then by artificial heat 

 wc have produced average samples of gut. We should add 

 thai after it is dry we wipe it- with olive or sweet oil and put 

 it away in Russia or wash leather. 



CHUB FISHING. 



IN a late number of your journal, "P. A. B." asks: "Could 

 some of your friends give some points concerning chub 

 fishing?" 



If ' ' P. A. B. " is willing to accept, my definition of the noun 

 "chub," I think I can give htm the desired information. In 

 the South, the land of my nativity, we know tint chub as a 

 short, thick fish, with a mouth exceedingly large in propor- 

 tion to body, dark on the back, shading to gray on the side, 

 and white "under the belly. This fish is found in all, or 

 nearly all, the ponds and lakes in the Carolinas, Georgia, 

 and, I believe, in all the other Southern States. They are 

 frequently taken weighing from 4 to 121bs. Anglers* who 

 make a specialty of chub-fishing use almost exclusively live 

 bait — a small silvery-white fish, to be found -wherever chubs 

 abound — they are locally denominated "roaches." 



Tnto the back of the roach the hook is inserted, usually 

 under the dorsal tin, the bottle-stopper (used as a float) is 

 pulled up the line about 3ft. 6in. from the hook, and the. 

 whole cast into the pond out among the lily-pod and water- 

 cresses. The roach swimming around attracts the attention 

 of the chub. When a chub makes up his mind to dine on a 

 roach be does not wait to say grace, but goes for that roach 

 with a vim — the man at the end of the rod usually knows 

 when this takes place, as the chub is a wicked biter, and, 

 having such an «normous mouth, swallows everything clown 

 at a gulp. The chub is by no means as game as the trout or 

 black bass, but for a minute or tw T o the novice thinks he has 

 caught a whal'j, or at least an alligator. 



While on a visit to Augusta, Ga., in April, 1.880. I saw at 

 Barrett & Land's drug store, on Broad street, four chubs, 

 aggregating 361bs. in" weight. They were caught in the 

 mill pond which supplies power for the cotton factory at 

 Langley, S. C, situate on the S. C. R. R., about nine miles 

 north of Augusta, and about midway between that city and 

 Aiken, a winter resort for invalids from the North. These 

 fish were intended for the banquet given in honor of a party 

 of Cincinnati business men and capitalists, who were on a 

 pleasure tour through the South at that time. The boy who 

 caught the chubs informed me that he often caught in a few 

 hOurS more fish than he could "tote," and that he sometimes 

 tackled one so large he could not land it at all, I under- 

 stand the Langley pond and the one at Graniteville, three 

 miles off, are fairly alive with chub and pike. 



Ches. A. Peake. 

 Baltimore, Md. 



[It is unfortunate that our fishes' natnes are so mixed that 

 it is necessary to know a man's locality to determine what 

 fish he means by a certain name. " Ches. A. Peake" evi- 

 dently refers to the black bass, which is perversely called 

 "chub" in parts of the South. "P. A. B." meant the small 

 brook fish with soft fins, the Semotilus, a fish called "dace" 

 in some parts of the country, and which sometimes reaches 

 a pound in weight. This is the only true "chub," and the 

 one that "W. J. H." refers to below.]* 



In answer to the wish of a correspondent, "P. A. B.," in 

 your last number. I will endeavor to say a few T words about 

 the chub. To capture this fish, as an artist, use a rod about 

 twelve feet long and very limber; between a light bass and a 

 fly roil, with a plain wooden reel 44 inches in diameter, a silk 

 twist line about the calibre of sewing thread, a cork float long 

 and thin, that will carry four or live shot the size of pests, 

 the hook to hang twelve or fifteen inches lower than the List 

 shot. The bait for early spring fishing is 1 he residuum of 

 fallow inciters' vats which yon can get from any drysalters, 

 but hard enough to fix the barb well in him. Keep your rod 

 well up, and keep a strain of about a pound on your line. If 

 you get over his first rush he is yours after a few plunges. 



One thing is very essential which I have omitted, never, 

 when fishing aloug'way down stream, allow your line above 

 the float to lag or rest on the water, and keep your line 

 moderately taut, so that the shot does not travel lief ore the 

 bait. If you should not get a bite in a dozen swims try B0me- 

 where else, for you may be sure there are none there*. 



W. ,T. H. 



Fishing with Cormorants. — Professor Ward, in a letter 

 to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, thus writes of the 

 way in which tie Chinese catch fish with cormorants: "As 

 We ascend the river we pass many hundred fishing boats, 

 which are noatlngdown with the title, fishing as they go, and 

 which will return with it in the same way this evening. A 

 few of these are Chinese, and titer tire using here lite strange 

 plan of their own country of cormorant fishing. On a large 

 bamboo running several yards out over the bow of their boat, 

 sit usually tw r o cormorants like great black geese, only more 

 sharply and with thinner bodies. They watch the water 

 keenly as the boat floats along, and how one now the 

 other of them rises quickly, gives a flopping sort of a 



dive, disappears beneath the water and in a moment 

 or two emerges wfthi a. fish in his beak. Before he has time 

 even to eat this, "John," draws him in promptly by a 

 fine, strong cord which he bas before made fast to his leg, 

 takes the fish away and sets him back on the bamboo, when 

 be waddles along to the further end and takes station to 

 repeat this thankless labor. When the day's work is over 

 the master regales his faithful fishintr sompanions with the 

 offal." 



"WHAT IS A TEN-POUNDER?" 



TATE publish t lie following extract from a private letter from 

 T T our valued correspondent, ' ' S. 0. C. . " who has given us 

 so much good information about, Southern coast fishes. He 

 Wants to know what fish Captain Dampier called a "ten- 

 pounder," and at the same time gives us some interesting 

 local names for the "■ crab eater." 'He writes : 



The extracts from Captain Dampier's log-book which you 

 gave in Fokest and Stream, .fan. 26. interested me much. 

 With the exception of size, his description of our tarpon is 

 excellent ; but I have never seen one on the East Florida 

 i oast as small as 25 pounds. Of that size they could be taken 

 with rod and reel. Perhaps, like the sheepshead, the tarpon 

 spawns ia Southern waters, and going North in summer, 

 grows larger on the way, by reason of plentiful food. 



The fish which the Captain calls "snooks," I ha,ve taken 

 at Indian River Inlet, East Florida, where it also goes by the 

 name of sergeant-fish, on account of the stripe along the side, 

 resembling that upon the trousers of a non-commissioned 

 officer ; also called cobia and crab-eater. Oavallies, mullets, 

 barracoutas, sting-rays we also know, but what is a ten- 

 pounder V S. C. C. 



[We do not kaow the ten-pounder, at least not by that name. 

 The fish called " snooks, " " sargent," " cobia" and " erah- 

 eater," is the El/irate canaelus, Linn.. Gill., and the latter in 

 his list of fishes of the east coast of North America gives 

 only one common name, that of crab-eater. It is the Eharte 

 caivi'Jn, of Holbrook : " Ichthyology of South Carolina," p. 

 05. It is easily recognized by the descriptive stripe running 

 from its eye to the tail, from which the name "sargent" 

 comes. Gunther gives its range as : '-Indian seas, Tropical 

 parts of the Atlantic, Atlantic' shores of the United States," 

 Gill gives it as : " Cape Cod | () West Indies." It does not 

 appear in " Goode's Fishes of Bermuda."] 



TENNESSEE FISH NOTES. 



TO-MORROW Squire Knight will entertain a, select com- 

 pany from among the amateur anglers of Nashville, at 

 his farm near the city. His object is principally to show 

 them his two fish ponds, and to try to organize a company 

 for the purpose of increasing his present facilities for culti- 

 vating game fishes on a large scale. From what I learn, the 

 supply of clear, cold spring water is xmlimited, superb sites 

 for other ponds, and all within easy aeeess of our market. It 

 is to be desired that the enterprise will meet with encourage- 

 ment, as it assures our citizens a fair supply of delicious and 

 healthy food, and a place of resort to those* of our townsmen 

 who have not the time to make prolonged fishing excursions. 

 Should the company be organized as proposed by the Squire, 

 it will partake more of the character of a club, and' he is 

 specially desirous of procuring a large number of stock- 

 takers in order to make the place one of all taction. 



Pond-building and fishculture have become very popular in 

 this State of late years. A goodly number of farmers have 

 secured stocks of German carp, but many others are experi- 

 menting on our local game fish. If they' meet with lair suc- 

 cess, it will not be many years before Tennessee will be abun- 

 dantly supplied with all the varieties of fish which will thrive 

 here. 



Since the floods in the Cumberland have subsided, quanti- 

 ties of buffalo, cat and drum are being taken ou trot lines, 

 but amateur angling is at an end until sprint;;. Several new 

 clubs have been organized this, winter, and the old rtiiables, 

 the F. A. C. and Cumberland, have assumed. new vigor and 

 will do good work when they take again to the tented field. 

 J. D. H. 



Snapper Fishing in Florida.— A Jacksonville corres- 

 pondent'of the Savannah A^es says: "Mr. Hamilton Disston, 

 President of the Florida Land Improvement Company, with 

 a party of friends from Philadelphia, is now in the city. A 

 day or two since a few of tltese gentlemen took the 'yacht 

 Mischief and steered for the snapper banks. They were 

 fortunate in finding the fishing grounds without difficulty and 

 captured thirty-six of the beauties in an hour and a half, the 

 aggregate' weight amounting to seven hundred pounds. The 

 sons of the City of Brotherly Love were bewildered with their 

 success and astonished at the size and abundance of the in- 

 habitants of our waters. The fish are caught at a depth of 

 from sixteen to twenty fathoms, and when the lead shows a 

 bottom of coral and shell cast anchor and you can be sure of 

 a heavy bag." 



Large Striped Bass. — Philadelphia, Feb. 8. — Please give 

 us a list of some of the heaviest striped bass on record, caught 

 with rod and reel. Our veracity is doubted when we say 

 fifty pounds. What is the difference between (lie rock bas*s 

 caught in the Delaware and sold in our markets under that 

 name, and the large striped bass caught elsewhere ?— Con- 

 stant Reader. 



[We have pubhshed accounts of striped bass caught at 

 Montauk this summer, some of which weighed seventy 

 pounds. Mr. A. B. Dunlap took one of sixty-two pounds at 

 Pasture Island some years ago ; and Mr. Frank O. Herring 

 took one two years ago, at the same place, Avhich weighed 

 sixty pounds. This fish is called "rock" and "rockfish," 

 south and west of New York, but it is the same fish. | 



A Big Black Bass.— This week Mr. Blackford received 

 a black bass from Georgia, which weighed ten and a half 



pounds. It was sent to the Smithsonian Institution and will 

 be preserved in the shape of a plaster east. We did not see 

 it. but no doubt it was of the big-niouth species. 



Big Western Trout.— The Sacramento, Cat, l^ron!- 

 Uninn of Feb. 1, contains the following: "Last week R. T. 

 Bennet, of Excelsior, caught in the Sausal, Sonoma county, a 

 trout weighing thirteen pounds, and Al. Turner another 

 weighing nine pounds." 



Fish Specimens Wanted. — Prof. Baird is anxious to pro- 

 cure specimens of fish called hagfish, sucker and slimerish 

 (Myxine ■ghitinosa), and any of our salt-water fishermen who 

 may capture them will confer a favor by sending him a few, 



