". 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



89 



above bhe stream, they took possession of it, 



i rrriguilc.quciitly "The Slate in Schuylkill,'' and 



: fur their 



and festive gatherings. Here they are 



d u treaty with the chiefs of the Leni- 



or Delaware Indians, who granted to them and 



U' ever the right and privilege to hunt the 



,id fish the waters of the Schuylkill. 



iriy records of the company are, unfortunately, but 



I incomplete. Pen-craft is not among the primal 



colony, and the mantle of our Izaak seems to 



en far from falling on any one of the fraternity, and 



on him who, a century alter its fotindition, 



memoir in question. For we are compelled to 



: > his "member," that though parcel facetious, parcel 



. parcel bacchanalian, lie is passim illiterate and 



His orthography halts, his syntax has a frequent. 



with that of "Shrewsbury Barker.'' CQfk and pisca- 



tor, who he refers to as "T. Barker. This is a 



for, in skillful hands, the theme might 



have been woven into a very charming chronicle, rich in 



glimpses of early colonial life, and presenting the 



»rl to us in startling and unfamiliar aspe 

 the War of Independence broke out, several of the 

 Schuylkill fishermen took up arms in the good cause, with 

 honor to themselves and their association, but returned (such 

 d), when the strife was at an end, to their pen- 

 sive pasiime and their beloved white perch with undimin- 

 ished ardor. There must have been grand talks under the 

 alnut ti\.es. in the long summer twilights, whefi these 

 tees came back to their haunts, and unusual 

 must have been the demand for "punch and pipes," while 

 they "fought their bailies o'er again," for the benefit of their 

 One need not be Fine-ear to catch, even 

 now, the rattle of the assault, the thunder of the climax. and 

 Schuylkill murmuring in the pauses, among its rocks and 



In the ninetieth year of its existence our company had to 

 draw its stakes and move further afield. A (Jam. built across 

 the stream in their immediate neighborhood, frustrated the 

 Sport by keeping the fish from their ii eding grounds. 



Another site having been selected, the castle was pulled to 

 pieces, packed in a boat, and conveyed, with all the eom- 

 eirlooms and household gods, its "mammoth punch 

 Bowl," its "Mandarin hats," its "great pewter plates," 

 [orris's frying nan," and "the banner of the 

 and Stars," to its new destination. There founda- 

 ■ were laid for it, and the "Hall of Congress" 

 red its head once more with renovated splendor. 

 this from the Schuylkiliiau point of vietv, for a 

 r the building, figuring as a frontispiece, we took at 

 confess, 10 be a "little Bethel." A description, 

 however, underneath set us right. The carpenter who exe- 

 iis wooden exodus received, we are told, a vote of 

 and the liberty of me State for a year. 

 It was in their new' location in 1825 that one of the most 

 incidents of their fiistory occurred, in the shape of 

 the famous General la Fayette, then on a tour 

 through the provinces of America; while, in 1787, the com- 

 pany had received the still greater honor of a visit from 

 Q-eneral Washington, but no record of that interesting cere- 

 mony has been preserved. 



It will have been seen from the foregoing that sport, iu the 

 Schuylkill possessed but little variety; catfish and white 

 :em, indeed, to have formed the staple of it. though 

 shad, sic i i I druurfish were sometimes taken. The 



latter (Pog'oiuas cromis) having been recommended as a sub- 

 stitute for rockfish, was experimented on by the company; 

 but, though- "richly dressed in the lobster style." it turned 

 "as tough as a drumhead." and was eschewed thence- 



in consequence, and the event was marked with a while 

 stone, but found no parallel 



Here our retrospection of this curious book may termin- 

 A hundred ami fifty one years, as we have said, have 

 Lie Association was founded ; modern improve- 

 ments have greatly altered the, character of the river, blasted 

 changed its levels, and converted it from a brawl- 

 ing' impetuous torrent, into a purling and peaceable stream, 

 but still the Schuylkill Company lives and prospers (Dr. 

 Bethuue is our sponsor for this assertion), and still above the 

 words rises the glittering vane of its Hall of Congress. Ke- 

 membermg, then, that this American Angling Association 

 ic oldest in the world— that the Walton and Cotton Club 

 is infantine compared with it — that, as its motto declares — 

 ff ■ re look to its antiquity, it is most ancient; 

 If to its dignity, it is most honorable;" 

 we may well doff our hats to it, in a passing but reverent 

 greeting; Suite, 2L 



" [.In illustrated sketch of "The State in Schuylkill" was 

 recently printed in the Century Magazine,'] 



Big S tlkglon.— I have several times read of sturgeon 

 weighing one hundred pounds and called big. "Vet ax/' in 

 a recent issue of Forest abd Stream, tells us about boat- 

 ing eleven sturgeon in a yawlboat. We (on the Delaware 

 I a five hundred-pound sturgeon a big one. "Verax" 

 lauded his fish over the bow. We boat ours over the stern. 

 We catch them with a net and raise the net where the fish 

 We raise it in the same way you would a crab line, and 

 as soon as his head comes up, hook him back of the fin or 

 about three inches back of the eye. After being hocked, 

 the net is taken off of his head and another hook is driven 

 into him in the same way, his head is raised on the stern, 

 and by a quick jerk and with a pull he is landed in the 

 boat. Will "Verax" please tell us what the s'urgeon were 

 doing on the lines? Were they hooked? And what kind of 

 a hook was it? What do they bait with? And why he did 

 not boat them with the line they were fast to without the use 

 of a gaff hook? I ask this for information, never having 

 heard of a sturgeon being caught in that way.— Clayton 

 Von Cilin. [See account of taking: a sturgeon on a line in 

 the note on "Smelt Fishing."] 



The Veterans Called On.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I am very much pleased with the practical hints in the Fish- 

 ing Department of the last two numbers of Forest and 

 SiKEAM, for I am a year-old infant in the trouting way, and 

 must use the experience of others until I can accumulate a 

 little of my own. I indorse "Couples V remarks in the last 

 number, and hope to see the Fishiug column' as practical as 

 Gun and Canoe columns are. Can't some of the old hands 

 help us along a little? We will be respectful and thankful. 

 — F. M. 0. 



A Kingfisher Lost fits Dinner.— Chatham, R Y.— 

 I had been fishing down stream (casting- my liies wilbquite 

 good results for me. having twelve or fifteen nice trout in my 

 basket) when a look at the sun waraed me to reti 

 steps in order to have the twilight fishing in a few 

 places. I thought I would make just one more cast in a 

 little pool, shaded by a low willow, a few rods below the 

 bridge on which I was standing. As I oka red the fence I 

 heard the shrill screech of the Kingfisher, and a moment later 

 he darti d like an arrow from a limb of the willow ints the 

 pool. For a few seconds it seemed as if he had gone to stay 

 (and I wish he had and taken the rest of his tribe with him, 

 especially tho-e who infest our trout streams). He scon, 

 however, came to the surface, and for a little time ii was 

 hard to tell which would have the best of it, the bird or the 

 trout. The bird, however, soon cleared his wings from the 

 water aud rose from the brook with nearly a'four-ouuee 

 trout in his murderous beak. My first impulse was to get 

 square with the kingfisher for spoiling my cast in (hat pool, 

 and for spearing the trout which I anticipated taking in an 

 honorable and legitimate way a f«w moments late 

 red hackle. So, waiting till he was dear oi the brook, then 

 throwing up my arms gave a yell which, in order to 

 the bird was obliged to open his beak, and out dropped the 

 trout on the hank, which I leisurely proceeded to place with 

 the others, which had been procured with more labor, but 

 with the enjoyment which can only be felt by the angler 

 with an eight or ten-ounce rod in hand and -a good-sized Pout 

 tugging away at the cud of thirty-five or forty feet of line.— 

 DiiL. " 



Small Fmes.— Boslyn, L. L, Feb. 18.— When only a boy, 

 I passed some, mouths of my life among the hills of Craven, 

 Yorkshire. England. It was then and there that 1 was 

 taught fly-fishing for trout by my grandfather, arid my pres- 

 ent reason for dropping you this line is that last evening 

 while examining my fishing tackle I chanced upon one of 

 the English flies, and material for leaders such as I then 

 used, inclosed herewith you will find them, and will see 

 that the leader is of a single fine horse hair, while the fly is 

 no more than one-third the size of those used by most of my 

 trouting friends here. The specimens I send have been in 

 my possession some thirty years, and arc still equal to cap- 

 turing a good-sized fish. I have used both flies and leaders 

 precisely like those inclosed on my trout pond here, and find 

 that the fish will rise to such fine tackle on a bright summer 

 day when they will pay no att.enton to the coarse American 

 trouting outfits. Our American rods and reels cannot be ex- 

 celled in delicacy, why then do we fish with clotheslines .? Of 

 course it needs a gentle hand to take a three pound trout on 

 a single horse hair, but then 'tis true sport, and I, for one, 

 think that cod fishing should be confini d to the smack and 

 her crew. — Thomas ClaphaM. [We will try the little 

 midge this spring. Thanks.] 



Smelt Fjsulncl — Saco, Me., Feb. 18. — There are eighteen 

 smell shanties on the ice near this city, larger than the tents 

 at Belfast, with boarded roof and sides, and furnished with 

 stove, lamps aud bunks, so the fisherman can sleep when the 

 smelts do not bite. The fishing is done wholly at night. It 

 is not a paying business, as there are weeks tit a time when 

 but very few are taken, and, when biting; the best, five or six 

 dozen is considered a large catch for one night. East Tues- 

 day night J. W. McCorrison caught a sturgeon on his smelt 

 line that measured 8 feet 8 inches. It was hooked close to 

 and just in front of the mouth, and drawn to the surface 

 with the line, then by the use of a. gaff it was landed on the 

 shanty floor. The next night McCorrison caught on the 

 same line a sucker, measuring 19 inches, and it is claimed 

 here that it is the fust fish Of the kind ever taken through 

 the ice. — W. F. Cummixgs. 



^mJfmlttm. 



HOW TO COOK CARP. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Dec. 6 I notice some remarks as to the 

 qualities and how to cook carp. Below please find a few re- 

 ceipts translated from, a German cook-book. As a general rule 

 the pond carp is not considered good to eat during the summer 

 months, May, June, July, August (during and'ai'ter spawn- 

 ing), but at all other times it is a most excellent table lisn. 

 Receipt No. 1. 



Clean a carp of about five pounds well, and split and cut it 

 into convenient pieces. Take three tablespoonfu Is salt, hast a 

 dozen kernels black pepper, same of allspice and cloves, a 

 few cardamones, lour laurel leaves, a medium-sized onion, 

 some celery and a sliced carrot, and a quart of water (or 

 enough to cover the carp); let these boil together fifteen min- 

 utes, put in the carp, scale side down, head pieces first, middle 

 pieces next, tail pieces on top, and let bod fifteen minutes 

 longer; add one-haif pound butter in small pieces and a gill of 

 red wine, oi in place of wine pour one-half gill warm vinegar 

 over the pieces of carp before putting them into the pot, and 

 add it to the boiling Boil fifteen minutes longer; takeout 

 the pieces and serve with brownoi butter and slices o 

 Receipt No. 2. 



Clean and split a five-pound carp and rub two tablespoons- 

 ful salt well into both sides and let stand two hours in a 

 covered dish. Take some spices and herbs as in No. 1, and 

 boil thoroughly with one pint water, one pint i ed wine, one- 

 half pint beer, one-half pint vinegar, some lemon peel, bread 

 crust, and one ounce sugar. After this has well boiled, cut 

 the carp in convenient pieces, put into the pot and boil till 

 only about half the sauce is left, serve as before. 

 Receipt No. 3. 



Clean a good sized carp carefully by opening it as little as 

 possible, cut off fins and tail; make a number of crosscuts on 

 one side, rub the fish well with two tablespoonsitil salt, let it 

 stand covered for some hours, then dry it witn a tow. 

 a filling of four ounces tallow or fresh fat pork, four yolks of 

 eggs, some wheat bread slightly softened with water, three 

 sardelles, some capers, mace, salt, pepper; lemon peel, onion, 

 and the liver of the carp (but be sure that bh 

 carefully removed) all chopped very fine, till the carp and s/w 

 up the opening. Put it into a bakng dish with the cue, side 

 up with one pint wane, one-half pint vinegar, one-quarter 

 pound but tor, spices and herbs as in No. 1, and a few slices of 

 lemon, bake quickly for three-quarter hours and baste fre- 

 quently. Don't turn the fish while baking. 

 Receipt No. 4. 



Take carp of one to two pounds, scale and clean well, rub 

 inside and out with plenty of salt, let stand an hour or two, 

 wipe dry with a towel, roll in well-beaten eggs and bread 

 crumbs or meal and bake in plenty of butter till nicely 

 brown. 



Receipt No. 5. 



Boil carp as in No. 1, place the pieces in a bowl with a few 



slices of lemon, add to the sauce one-half pint vinegar and boil 



jowl. Pour 

 the sauce over the carp through a sieve and let it cool 

 thoroughly. 

 J. tried receipt No. 1 on bi ad them excellent. 



C. G. 

 Webster, Mass., Dee. 10, i 



WHAT FISHCULTURE HAS FIRST TO ACCOM- 

 PLISH. 



BY CHAS. W. SMILEY. 



A I that fishculture proposes 



imediatelv fill our streams wit b fish, to such an ex- 

 tent that the supply will be I [exhaustible. In 

 order to show that this is a very extravagant expectation, 

 attenl i I I to the following facts ; 



be but sparsely populated in 

 order that its inhabitants may soon ii able 



food i-i fish for reproduction 



and growth are nut sufficient to Wittistand the inroads of man, 

 when added to any considerable extent, to the natural 

 enemies with whie: unrounded. Very early in the 



ie United States, its leading riv era were mostly 

 depopuli best fish. A hundred yeais ago nearly all 



the streams of New York which emptied into the Great La6 es 

 were visited annually by salmon in such enormous exuautities 

 that fcherr mimbers seem to us incredible. There aremost 

 authentic account li inti to the water being fairly alive 



with them in . wb-u seeking the upper waters of 



these streams for th It is well known 



also that ii:: tsquehanna rivers 



at that early time visited by vast schools of shad, 

 and the ornier, i>le. quantities of salmon. 



Such a population e Itatea contained seventy 



years ago was sufficient to exhaust these rivers of the more 

 valuable fotd tishes, and before artifie ai ( shculture was 

 undertaken a A remained in this exhausted 



condition for a considerable length of time. 



The lir-t and great task of lishcttlttn e, therefore, is not so 

 much to increase the number of edible fishes in any given 

 stream as to withstand the enormous forces which are at 

 work to produce their enth As illustrative of 



this, the presence of shad in the Potomac Fiver may be cited. 

 For some years piioi he shad fisheries 



of the Potomac had been practically exhausted. They had 

 reached so low a limit that it was very unprofitable to rish 



1 to deter men from fish- 

 ing: bUt the occupation of the banks of the river fry hostile 

 forces for the pei iod of nearly four years made tshing practi- 

 cally Pi itiire an opportunity to leejbore 

 the fisheries. As a consequence, at the close of the war it 

 was ion ad that the river had seen restocked to such an extent 

 that the yield for a few years was very large indeed. The 

 ■of large numbers of rish, however, called out the 

 fishermen; and there was a steady decline, annually, in? the 

 ;nd, had it not been lor artificial- propagation, there 

 would not be s in the river at present to 

 warrant ami I in using a hundred-fathom seine. 

 Fisbeu.ture. I i as a restorative. Each 

 IS73 : Ji L States Fish omission has hatched 

 . one million to ten millions, the numbers 

 muaHy. The principal re'sult, however, has been 

 it anihijation rather than to cause considerable in- 

 ereas ■■■'. umber of shad received at the 

 rton market annually for the past five years were as 



1879 311,583 



830,799 



1S81 S3I.S68 



: 



18S3 361,474 



In spite of tt siblc during these years the 



has declined. That for 1 883 is smaller than might rea- 

 sonably have been e e< ted ._ the temperatures of the 

 river happened to be unusually low during the spawning sea- 

 ay fish were 

 diverted to other tr die Chesapeake which would 

 legitim: bme into the Potdmac as a fruit of fishcul- • 

 ture on that river. 



fish of our rivers have not only to contend with enemies 

 within theirwater, such as a great variety of carnivorous fishes; 

 the destruction of their eggs by numerous forms of aquatic 

 animals; the injuries of abnormal temperature and sudden 

 changes there •(, ana the damage produced by sawdust, sew- 

 d other filth introduced into the rivers; but the agres- 

 sive character of our citizens has told against the food fishes 

 in lucre* o annually, The increase of population pro- 



duces a correspond in p the demand for these tishes, 



bat tie numerous fae'lit es which modern inventions have 

 b: ou :hc to the aid of the fisherman in the way of wholesale 

 appliances foroa itjuring this kind of food complicate the ques- 

 tion exce tie appliances a hundred 

 Years ago uffic to exhaust a river of shad, what may 

 be said of the ingenious traps andthemilesof netting operated 

 by horse power with which fish are met to-day; To success- 

 fully run thegauntlet of a erissof nets, but a few rods or 

 mites apire uon a coasi lin'ji i portion of bha ieirtu. of the 

 rive: 1 , aud bo elude the ii-herman evep on a flood-tide at mid- 

 night, has becone practically impossible. Fisheult tire thus 

 has all the m [vantages of a hundred years ago to 

 contend with, and has the accumulated ingenuity of nineteen 

 nvent, in order even to maintain a decent 

 supply of food tishes. 



A striking example of the task of fishculture may be found 

 at the G He would indeed be rash who would call 



upon the half-developed science of fishculture under existing 

 circumstances to materially increase the supply of food fishes 

 in the Great Lakes. Its mission is rather to try and keep the 

 supply up to three-fourths, two-thirds, or even one-half of 

 what these lakes formerly jitlded. dn 1871 there -were '.'M 

 pound-nets being used in "Lake Michigan, and 481 gill-nets. 

 These appliances were sufficient to cause a continual decrease 

 in the number of fish contained in these enormous bodies of 

 water, and, fishculture aside, were sufficient to practically ex- 

 terminate the iish in to. tv year:. But in 1879 the 281 pound- 

 nets had been replaced pounds-nets, an I the 450 gill- 

 nets by 24,599 gill-nets. £ team tugs devoted to fishing, scarcely 

 used in 1871, numbeied thirty in that lake in 1879. Fuither- 

 m ore, the larger iish of the lake having been caught, it be- 

 aryto decrease the size of mesh of the net?, and 

 to lengthen the nets, so that without doubt there have been 

 for several years nets enough in use on Lake Michigan to reach 

 entirely around the lake. Fishculture aside, and without any 

 additional efficiency ^ u apparatus, it is only a question of some 

 ten years when the whitofish aud trout "fisheries will be en- 

 tirely exhausted. • 



ITisheultui c is practically a science of the past fifteen years. 

 ft has not yet reached a stage of eiheieuev which can cope 

 with any such state fi Lie nisei ves on thtsa 



Great Lake-. Even if five millions of dollais and filtymen are 

 placed at the service of the State Fish (Jo. missioncrs in the 

 ratei est of fishculture, what are these, in the contest with 

 000 of peope. demanding food, and millions upon mil- 

 lions of capital naturally drawn upon to supply their need. 

 The- -fruits- of fisheuiture', like bread thrown upon the water, 

 must return alter many days. It mu-twait the coming of 

 the young fish to maturity before results are apparent. The — 

 fishermen, however, reap the fiuit of their labors on the same 

 day, if at all, and thus know the- degree of success they are at- 

 taining at any hour. With them it is largely a question of 

 muscle ; they put down their nets and haul up their fish. With 

 1 fishculture it is a serious question of soientiho knowledge. It 



