FOREST AND STREAM 
221 
! ^captain Steers of Brooklyn is going to try fly fishing 
for shad in the Connecticut shortly. This week he goes 
after trout down the Island. 
—Eight hundred bass were captured by pound and seine 
in one day in the creek near Sag Harbor last week. This 
10 the way the bass have been almost driven from the Pe- 
conic bays by this pound net destruction of young bass. 
_The steamer W. W. Coit, in charge of Captain Gibbs, 
ffjll run every Tuesday and Friday from foot of Wall street, 
o the fishing grounds off Orient Point, Shelter Island, 
5 aff Harbor, &c., until June 1st when the boat will leave 
VIondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There is fine duck 
in( j sn ipe shooting on Peconic Bay now. 
Two excursion boats tried the “Fishing Banks” last 
Sunday, Grand result, two porgies and a bergall. 
__We have few encouraging reports from the trout 
edons. On Long Island nothing has been done, and little 
Attempt made to fish, on account of the gales and cold 
leather. Last week two of our correspondents snaked out 
wo dozen small trout from the Slug, a very pretty stream 
f clear running water, near Wareham, Mass., two hours 
ide by rail from Boston. The Slug contains a good many 
mall trout, but fly-fishing in it is almost impracticable on 
Mount of the bushes. This stream ought to be protected, 
nd angling prohibited in it for three years, after which the 
mshes should be cut out at intervals for casting stands and 
i tie water broken up ihto pools and rapids by artificial ob- 
:ructions. This would give Bostonians a fishing resort 
uite accessible and very desirable to those who have but 
e occasional day or two to spare for recreation. 
Some few trout have been taken at Yanceboro, Maine, 
rithin the past fortnight, weighing from one to two-and-a- 
,alf pounds. 
In Connecticut the season is more advanced. A letter 
ated April 30th, from the northwestern part of the State, 
y the same correspondent who so attractively portrayed the 
larms of this section in a letter published last week, from 
'win Lakes, says:— 
“Speaking of trouting, you may just whisper to our friend 
lackford that there is a group of the “speckled beauties” 
ow on the easel before me that to see would make even 
. ,s practised eyes sparkle more brilliantly, if that were pos- 
ble. They are from ten to twelve inches in length and as 
ell fed as caddis worms, (with which their maws are 
led,) and “angle dogs” can make them. Only in the 
tawning season could their colors be more enchanting or 
.eir flesh more firm. You may also hint to your anxious 
aders that they were caught in Schenob Brook, a slug- 
sh stream that finds its way from Twin Lakes through a 
ng, wide and deep swamp to the Housatonic at Sheffield, 
id that there are a few left. You can say (out loud) that 
young Salisbury lawyer, whose initials stand for Donald 
, Warner, hooked a big dozen about a month ago—oi the 
stant the law would let him—in Mount Rliiga stream 
filed “Wach-o-cast-in-hook,” by the aborigines for 
.ort,) and that your correspondent “went him a dozen 
itter” in Moore brook a couple of weeks ago in the midst 
a fall of “snow, beautiful snow,” and not a warm snow 
that. The Sages Ravine stream has not yet been fished 
far as heard from; and it is quite too early for so head- 
' ng and rapid an Undine, though, in its season, it is one of 
e very best and always the most picturesque. 
Of lake fishing, there is nothing to speak of since the ice 
ent out, and the season for bass and pickerel hasn’t come 
A This part of the universe is reached in four hours from 
e Grand Central via Harlem Con. West. Railroad, at a 
. st of $2.75 to Salisbury, where are goodisli hotels, and $3 
Canaan, where, at the “Union Depot Hotel;” G. H. 
)rbin will furnish clean beds and the best of fare, barring 
[Hors, at most moderate rates.” 
We have no doubt that many of our readers who now are 
sting about for localities easily accessible from New 
urk, Boston, and Albany, where they can spend a short 
. mmer vacation, will be induced to favor this one. It is 
ntral to all three and can be reached in half the time that 
; e Adirondacks and White Mountains can, and is almost 
: wildly romantic. 
[ —Now that the season for fly-fishing for shad advances, 
e would like to impress upon our readers who purpose to 
8 ;F this new sensation, the importance of minute observa- 
>n in the following particulars: size, pattern, and color of 
f/ preferred; time of day, stage of water, state of the 
Esther, (cloudy, clear, calm or windy;) whether the fish 
,L kes the fly on the surface or beneath, and if with a swirl, 
•I bulge, or a leap; whether at edge of eddy, in the eddy, or 
lt : Thickest water; at the tail or head of a rapid; whether 
deep or shallow water; whether he seeks the shadow of 
ore or shelter of boulder or reef; whether more than one 
' me i° r the fly at once, and how much line they will reel 
jir at a mn - In. a word, we desire to know wliether the 
^ h an km for flies, or whether he merely takes one oc- 
., <sionally when it is thrust under his nose, as ladies accept 
in-bons at a party; for we do not yet know positively if 
; e shad can be strictly classed as a game fish. There are 
uumerable points of observation which could be turned 
practical use. Some of our Washington friends have 
lr auned an experimental trip to the Great Falls of the 
l/* °mac, as soon as the shad reach that point and the 
team gets clearer and lower. 
^H. Fahnstock, of Jay Cooke & Co., had fine spo 
f «l j week at Kittinany House, Delaware Water Gap, takir 
lar S e str ing of big trout. 
llave complete notes in type of the black bass < 
*j. e * aw are, Potomac and the lakes, but our crowde 
ce compels us to again defer their publication, to tl 
i?•appointment of numerous eager inquirers. The ba: 
it ^on, however, is hardly yet open, and when it come 
; e uotes will be the more opportune. 
—Speaking of fish-hooks, we have Andrew Clerk’s as¬ 
surance of his preference for the Sprout hook. Some 
writer in our paper said that he swore by the Kinsey, 
which is an error in a dual sense, inasmuch as Mr. Clerk 
never swears at all, either “by fish-hooks,” or by any other 
thing. ’ J J 
, According to Rocliard, a French veterinary surgeon, a 
simple method of preventing flies from annoying horses 
consists in painting the inside of the ears, or any other part 
especially troubled, with a few drops of empyreumatic oil 
of juniper. It is said that the odor of this substance is un¬ 
endurable to flies, and that they will keep at a distance 
from the parts so anointed. If this treatment will accom¬ 
plish the alleged result on animals, why is it not applicable 
to sportsmen in repelling black flies, midges, ect? 
Sometimes the most palatable morceaux that come to 
an editor are by private letter, not intended for publication 
by the writer, and this is one of them:— 
“The other morning, it being very quiet, I jointed my 
salmon rod, put on reel, line, casting ditto and fly and com¬ 
menced throwing a measured line. I am a perfect “bungler” 
at fly-throwing and yet found no sort of difficulty in 
mcspnng off fifty feet and throwing the line out perfectly 
straight, then letting it drop gently of its own accord. I 
was practicing near where the cellar for my new house is 
being dug, and as it had rained, it was full of water. One 
old fellow watched me for a while with eyes and mouth and 
ears wide open and finally said: ‘Mister ! you can’t ketch 
nothink in thar, not even bull-pouts; guess you’re a little 
cracked, ’aint yer?’ ” -\v. 
A letter from Malone, New York, dated May 7th, says: 
“We are making good arrangements for tourists going on 
from here this year; and I understood from Smith last 
week that through tickets were to be issued by the Vc. C. R. 
direct to Malone instead of to Point of Rocks as last sum¬ 
mer. The resorts are looking for 50 per cent, more custom 
this season than last.” 
ROCHESTER TROUT. 
Rochester, N. Y., May 6, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Seth Green has stated that there are are no trout in unpreserved 
streams within fifty miles of Rochester, N. Y. Yesterday a friend pre¬ 
sented me with a brook trout measuring eleven inches, which he had 
caught within two miles, of this city, and last year he sent me a fine 
string, though smaller fish, caught within four miles of our suburbs. I 
am not surprised that Seth was mistaken in this respect, for very few are 
aware that any trout have survived hereabouts. The friend spoken of 
above is a most remarkable fisherman, with whom I have had many 
tramps in the Adirondacks, and I am sometimes led to suspect that he 
can smell a trout as a pointer smells a woodcock. He was always full 
of enthusiasm. Once while fishing a rapid stream in the North Woods, 
where the guide had bet that he would kill the most trout, our friend 
towards noon suddenly missed the guide. Leaving a trout that he had 
been throwing for some time, he started in pursuit, suspecting what was 
in the wind. After a long search the guide was seen at the foot of a 
high fall, wailed in on all sides by rocks from twenty to fifty feet high, 
and no possible means of approach visible. There he stood, tossing 
his worms into a pool covered with foam, and drawing out a fine fish at 
almost every attempt, with a satisfied sortyof grin on his face, and the 
tails of the trout visible through the hole in his basket. To use an ex¬ 
pression of Mark Twain, our friend began to “foam at the mouth” and 
shake the firm earth with his heavy strides. What he did further no¬ 
body ever knew, but when the rest of the party came up they found him 
casting his fly serenely by the side of the guide, without hat or coat, and 
apicturesquerentinhispants which transformed them into a fore and 
aft apron; but the expression on his somewhat defaced features, by 
scratches, bumps, &c., was worthy of Alexander the Great after a 
victory. 
Seth Green claims that the gold fish placed in Irondequoit Bay by him 
will be lai-ge 'enough to be caught by hooks this season. A few shad 
placed in the Genesee River by him have been caught. A large number 
of bass were taken in the Genesee Rapids last season with the fly. 
There are many true sportsmen here, and they are beginning to talk 
about where they intend to go this season. Some to Grayling, Mich.; 
some to Canada salmon grounds; others to the Adirondacks. Seth 
Green is now at Greyling after spawn. I suppose you will hear from him 
on his return. C. A. G. 
V --- 
Here is a little angling gossip which conies opportunely, 
just at the opening of the fishing season:— 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Did you ever try jug fishing? It is not especially scientific; but as I 
have seen it practiced in the Missouri River for the channel or blue cat¬ 
fish it is good sport. In 18^3, while waiting at Fort Leavenworth for a 
military outfit to cross the plains, four of us made up a party for a jug 
fish, and this was the manner and the result: 
The night before w r e engaged a boat and two stout oarsmen, got a dozen 
or fifteen empty stone jugs, gallon size, corked them tightly, and to the 
handle of each tied a piece of strong twine about two feet long, with a 
large hook at the end baited with a lump of raw beef. Thus equipped, 
we started about daylight in the morning and pulled out into the middle 
of the stream. The current was swift and strong, and after floating 
down a little past Leavenworth City, we began to heave over our hard¬ 
ware. The jugs were towed in every direction except to the rear—jugs 
to the right of us, jugs to the left of us, and jugs to the front of us—and 
as they spread out, tossing and dancing on the surface of the water, we 
followed, closely watching the little fleet. It w r as not long before some 
one sung out “There’s one under!” and away we pulled for the jug that 
was in jeopardy. And now came the excitement, for the finny fellows 
that had pouched the beef tried to steal the jug also,dashing off on a run or 
plunging to the bottom, and when or where he would come up again 
there was no telling. At last, however, the jug was sure to outwind 
him and pop up somewhere, and then the chase would be renewed. 
Often, when nearly reached, away he would go, Kansasward or Missou- 
riward, as he happened to be jayhawker or border ruffian, and when 
nearly in the hand he might part the tackle and give up the jug. The 
fish in that neighborhood had had a bad example set them and seemed 
decidedly slippery. But the excitement was wild when tWQ or three 
j' gs were running off at the same time, and we could not divide our 
forces to follow each. And so we kept it up for ten or twelve miles 
down the rivei, till the Kansas City steam packet, the Alec Major, hove 
in sight, coming up, when we began to gather in our scattered crockery. 
We had arranged beforehand with the captain of the boat to lie to and 
take us aboard, for a row of a dozen miles up the swift current of the 
Missouri would have required more muscle than we chose to spare. So 
as the steamer checked up, we swung under the stern, made fast our 
boat and clambered aboard, able to boast of our luck fisherman fashion. 
We had secured eleven splendid catfish, ranging from ten to twenty 
pounds each; indeed one of them was unanimously voted a thirty 
pounder, and of course those we lost were all still larger. Perhaps I 
ought to say that these were estimated weights, and to be sure the scales 
do sometimes play the dickens with angler’s guesses. As to jugs, we 
lost about half, but as there was nothing in them we didn’t fret about it. 
The channel cat is no mean table fish, at least so all testified "who 
shared in the fifteefh pounder dished up at dinner next day at the Plant¬ 
er s House, fully' - stuffed, baked and sauced, the flakes large, snowy 
white, firm as any sea fish, and of most delicious flavor. From platter 
experience no one would suspect him of any relationship to the huge 
yellow catfish of the western rivers, that grovels and sucks and sleeps in 
the bottom of bayous and muddy eddies. The channel catfish, blue on 
the back and sides, and white beneath, is lively and handsome. He feeds 
in sw'i.t water, and the struggle with the current hardens and sweetens 
the flesh. Everyone knows the difference in the quality of the same 
kind of fish found in rapid or still water. The wliitefish {Corregonus 
albus) caught in the Sault St. Marie at the foot of Lake Superior, are 
far better than those found in the still waters of Lake Erie. Give a dol 
lar to a Chippewa Indian and let him go out into the Sault, the Leap of 
waters, poling up the steep torrent till he sees a fish, and then dropping 
his pole, snatching his net, and giving one quick scoop as Ins canoe 
shoots down like an arrow, and then dropping the net, seizing the pole 
and repeating the process, he will bring you in half a dozen or more 
large plump fellows, and then my word for it,you have whitefish. True, 
it is a good fish anywhere, but when you try those caught in the Sault, 
as an Irishman would say, “You will see the differ.” I speak advised¬ 
ly. All have noticed a like difference in trout, bass, &c., caught in still 
or swift water. 
I ought to add that the channel catfish is said to furnish good sport in 
trolling or angling with strong bass tackle; but I have never tried either. 
It is not often that one can praise the fish or fishing of the lower Missou¬ 
ri, but of this cat and its catching I can honestly speak a good word. 
Veteran. 
” Philadelphia, Penn., May 8, 1874. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
“Jacobstaff” has fished upas new a method of catching large trout, 
which is older than our present fishermen. During the past thirty years 
I have frequently heard bait fishers describe the following as the best 
method of taking trout of large size that would neither rise to a fly nor 
take bait in the daytime: The line to be 15 feet long, attached to the 
centre of a shingle; obtain a nest of young mice still in the jririk, the 
hook to be placed through the tail of the mouse; two or three such lines 
and shingles are thrown overboard of a moonlight night in a lake, and 
the boat retired to wait a bite. Towing the shingle will exhaust the 
trou ^- __ “Red Cedar." 
civ fflublicnfionz ; 
[Publications sent to this office , treating upon subjects that come within 
the scope of the paper, will receive special attention. The receipt of all 
books delivered at our Editotial Rooms will be promptly acknowledged 
m the next issue. Publishers will confer a favor by promptly advisina 
us of any omission in this respect Prices of books inserted when 
desired. 1 
Domesticated Trout. How to Breed and Grow Them. 
Livingston Stone. Osgood & Co. Boston. 
After a most careful perusal of Mr. Livingston Stone’s “Domesticated 
Trout,” we must declare ourselves more than satisfied with the excel¬ 
lence of the work performed. Apart from the pure technical knowledge 
which the author has drawn from the funds of itchyological lore which 
he possesses, the book itself is remarkable as a model of philosophical 
research. The whole subject is treated exhaustively, and one cannot 
help being singularly impressed with the amount of patient toil a book 
of this character must have required in order to perfect. If raising 
trout may be looked upon as one of the fine arts in pisciculture, Mr. 
Stone may be considered then as its master. Not always optimists, 
sometimes having to review material more or less crude on fish culture, 
this book of Mr. Stone’s we have always considered as the leading work 
on this subject. Perhaps our expression of trout culture as a fine art 
may not be taken in exactly the proper sense we would wish to convey. 
What we desire to express is, that American pisciculture in its highest 
walks has achieved most distinguished success, and that having grap¬ 
pled the most difficult and highest rounds of the fish ladder, it will be by 
no means hard for us to become masters of all the simpler processes. 
The dangers and troubles in the way of propagating trout are indeed 
very great. M. Stone’s book will tell you that no man should rush into 
it heedlessly. “Domesticated Trout” teaches the reader that, to para¬ 
phrase a well known quotation, “eternal vigilance is the price of trout.” 
If trout be worth in Pulton Market $1.25 a pound, the graceful yearling, 
the handsome two-year old, the noble four-year old can only be ob¬ 
tained by means of a watchfulness, which must commence at the cradle 
and end at the tomb, or from the time the egg is placed in the hatching- 
house until the fish is knocked on the head and packed in ice and saw¬ 
dust for the public mart. “Domesticated Trout” grapples fairly aiid 
squarely with the all-important, question, the money one. Between the 
estimated profit aud the actual one, there always comes in that unknow'n 
quantity X, “the evil genius,” as Mr. Stone calls it, the risk, which up 
sets the best calculations. There is no valid reason why an intelligent 
man, who prepares his ground thoroughly, who drives entirely out of his 
head all ideas of becoming an Astor or a Vanderbilt, by means of raising 
trout in a six months or a year, will not, in due time, just like in any 
other business, make a good living out of his trout ponds. In 1866 Mr. 
Stone asked Mr. Seth Green “How many of those engaged in trout 
breeding would succeed?” The answer from the Nestor of American 
aquaculture was as follows: “One in a million.” Since that period, 
however, our knowledge of this subject, thanks to Messrs. Green, Stone, 
Lyman, Collins, Clift, Mather, Ainsworth, Leoanard, Stanley, Furman 
and a host of others has wonderfully improved. The seed laid” by Coste, 
in France, has borne prolific fruit in the United States, and we now at¬ 
tain results which ten years ago would have seemed miraculous. Mr. 
Stone’s book is a perfect encyclopedia in its way, and we somewhat 
doubt if for many years to come anything much better can be produced. 
Written in a graceful style, it is lightened up here and there with sly bits 
of humor, and we defy the most indifferent reader to take up “Domesti¬ 
cated Trout” without feeling the deepest interest in the noblest of fish. 
We take, then, great pleasure in recommending Mr. Stone’s book to all 
our readers. Those—even the most familiar with the subject—will find 
in it much that is novel, and those ignorant of pisciculture wiil certainly 
by reading it become interested in a subject which has particular charms. 
Mr. Stone’s “Domesticated Trout” is exactly the .book fitted to popular 
ize American fish culture. 
Chadwick’s American Cricket Manual. R. De Witt. 
New York. 
In a most comprehensive volume Mr. Chadwick has given us all the 
rules for cricket, and a running commentary written in concise style, to¬ 
gether with a series of illustrations, makes this work admirably adapted 
in every way for the lovers of the game. It is a manful effort made by 
the most competent authority to popularize cricket in America. One 
great feature of the book is the clear apercu it gives of the rules of 
cricket, and it will be found invaluable, not only to players, but for the 
use of umpires. The rules are not only given in full as in force at the 
Marylebone Club, bu t Mr. Chadwick has added explanatory notes, which 
must be of great assistance. The Manual is complete m everyway, 
the author having collected all the memorable events in the history of 
American cricket. To cricket is added the rules of La Crosse. It must 
be considered as standard authority on these subjects, and we look to see 
it in the hands of all cricketers. 
No Name. A Novel. By Wilkie Collins. N. Y. Har¬ 
per & Bros. 
The fine library edition of Wilkie Collins’ novels, now” in course of 
publication by the Harpers, is the series that most persons would be 
pleased to place in their libraries. It is handsomely bound, good paper 
print, &c., and will, we trust, have a large sale. * ’ 
—Grand Medal of Merit, Vienna, 1873, awarded W. S. Kimball & Co., 
Rochester, N. Y., for their tobacco. 
