150 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 20, 1884. 



TROUTING ON THE BIGOSH. 



FISHERMAN'S LUCK.J 



THE Doctor's preference for fishing up-stream has been 

 stated, and as we laboriously forced our way over loars 

 and through thickets along the shores of the lake' it was de- 

 cided that he should strike in at the mouth of the brook, 

 while I would keep on up the valley as far as was found 

 practicable or convenient, and then fish down until we met. 

 It may be remembered that he chose to wade in low shoes, 

 the best of all things for a niau who does not object to hav- 

 ing his feet in cold water while the sun broils down upon 

 his head, while I had elected to wear wading pants with 

 hoot attachment as a precaution against possible rheumatic 

 twinges in the near future. These appliances for wading 

 diy-shod were slung on my back, for it would have been im- 

 possible to have climbed over logs with them on, and, in fact, 

 they are cumbrous even in water. If the little grasshopper 

 becomes a burden, how much more does a stiff pair of 

 trousers, which hamper the knee action and, ending in a 

 heavy pair of boots, handicap a man who is more than 

 knee-deep in water and on the unsteady footing of mossy 

 stones? So on we trudged over logs and around tree tops, 

 and such other obstructions as are well known to those who 

 love to frequent forests which have never known the axe, 

 and are in^ reality the pathless woods whose pleasures have 

 been poetically mentioned. 



Arriving at the upper end of the lake, I showed the Doc- 

 tor where Jack and I struck in and found the stream, not 

 over two hundred yards from the edge of the swamp where 

 we stood, and wishing him luck kept along the edge of the 

 hill for dry walking, and foraed my way up the valley, in- 

 tending to strike the stream as high up as an hour's walk 

 might hriDg me. 



•'The green trees whispered low and niiJd; 



It was a sound of joy ! 

 They were my playmates when a child, 

 And rocked me in their arms so wild ! 

 Still they looked at me and smiled, 



As if I were a boy. 



"And ever whispered, mild and low, 



'Come, be a child once more!' 

 And waved their long arms to and fro, 

 And beckoned solemnly and slow; 

 O, I could not choose but go 



Into the woodland's hoar." 



And so, mentally repeating Longfellow's lines, I pushed 



on, 



•'Through tangled juniper, beds of reeds; 

 Through many a fen where the serpent feeds," 



until my watch, which I had often consulted, to see if my 

 hour were not up, and the mile covered, which we reckoned 

 would take that time, said that full sixty minutes had passed 

 since the Doctor was left near the junction of stream and 

 lake. I was on the south side of an east and west raviue, but 

 the trees were so thick that I could not see how far it was 

 to the other side, or form any idea how far it might be to the 

 creek. It occurred to me that there might be a valkry com- 

 ing into this one from the north, and that the stream might 

 come down that, in which case there would be no fishing for 

 me that day. This horrible suspicion must be set at rest, 

 and, climbing the hill, I looked about for an opening from 

 which I could see across the hollow. No such place was 

 found, and then a tree which could be easily climbed was 

 sought and found ; and from half its height a view above the 

 tree tops of the valley was obtained, which showed it to be 

 about half a mile wide, and gave the cheering assurance that 

 no valley came in from the north between the lake and the 

 point opposite. Descending the tree, I started down the hill 

 due north into the bottom of the valley, in order to strike 

 the stream. 



It was hard work to push through tke tangled grasses, cat 

 briers, and undergrowth in the swampy bottom, and the 

 stream seemed a long way off. My watch showed that 

 three-fourths of an hour had been consumed in crossing the 

 half mile of valley, and the severe labor in the close atmos- 

 phere was the cause of a suspicion that while wading a stream 

 for trout might be sport, there was less pleasure in wading a 

 swamp in search of a stream. The ground began to rise! 

 Where was the brook? I had expected to find a rapid stream 

 which changed into the deeper and more sluggish one below, 

 but there was nothing of the kind. I sat down and did two 

 things at once, and did them well. Some one has said that 

 two things cannot be done at once and done well. Like 

 most "old sayings" there is little truth in it, for 1 rested and 

 lunched in the most thorough manner, at the same time. 

 After this 1 essayed to do three things at once and accom- 

 plished it as easily as the two; I rested, smoked and thought. 

 Carefully reviewing the field it seemed certain that the "Little 

 Bjgosh"' must rise between where I lay and the lake. The 

 ravine had no branch to the north and I had not crossed a 

 stream on the south side of it. The result of the thinking, 

 which was arrived at just as the pipe was finished was, that 

 if I traveled back east for half an hour and then crossed the 

 ravine there would be a chance of finding the stream. 



Shouldering the boots I started, and when the watch 

 showed that I had labored for full thirty minutes, I changed 

 the course to due south, again to cross the valley. The 

 growth here was denser, and the footing w T as worse, as tie 

 grouud was more springy and soft, often quite marshy. 

 Twice the boots and I sat down on a log to rest, and at last 

 the springy nature of ihe ground made it necessary to put on 

 the boots in order to keep dry. This was not a thing to be 

 done without cause, for, if it was as much as a man could 

 do to get through the undergrowth without the encumbrance 

 of wading boots, it promised to be more than he could per- 

 form to travel with them. They were put on and the wet 

 shoes slung to the creel strap, and another start made. Each 

 step seemed to be made on softer ground, and the heavy 

 wading boots pulled harder and harder, until it was a ques- 

 tion whether it would not be best to turn back. While con- 

 sidering this I stepped on a stick and broke it, and a few 

 steps further in I heard the Doctor say in a low tone, "You 

 appear to be traveling, sir!" 



"0, no," said I, "the day is pleasant and 1 am merely 

 walking for exercise. It is the height of pleasure for me to 

 pull wading boots out of a swamp, and I have enjoyed it at 

 the rate of half a mile an hour for about three hours. There 

 is nothing like exercise for getting rid of superfluous flesh, 

 and if, like Falstaff, I have 'larded the lean earth' as I 

 marched, and it is pleasant to know that the alders and the 

 skunk-cabbage will be eurichcd thereby. Any grub left in 

 \ our creel' I devoured mine two hours ago." 



No, I took a lunch about half an hour ago," replied the 

 Doctor, "and afterward stepped on a log that was under 

 water and the bark peeled off, and I decided to sitdown, and 

 I not only wet my luncheon hut my tobacco and matches. 

 rhat is a trifle, however, for I have had rare sport on a vir- 

 gin stream. See here!" and he lifted the cover of his creei 

 and showed a glowiug mass of ruby-flecked trout, that under 

 different circumstances would have made an angler's heart 

 throb five beats to the minute more than usual, but when his 

 heart has been doing double duty in pulling wading boots out 

 of the muck for several hours, ic is hard to stimulate 

 his aorta to extra duty by glimpses of fish, unless they are 

 fried. I had tobacco and matches, and we sal on a log and 

 smoked. 



After the ashes were knocked from the briarwoods the 

 Doctor said, "You have had a hard time and are entitled to 

 some fishing; take the stream down and I will follow the 

 swamp around and meet you at the lake where, we parted." 



"Doctor," said I, "you mean well, but if you love me let 

 me get into camp as soon as possible. I have climbed logs, 

 crawled under tree-tops, been mired, climbed trees and 

 worked like a stevedore, in the hope of striking a stream of 

 which I knew nothing when I started, only to learn now that 

 its head is not half a mile from its mouth. I don't want to 

 fish, I only want to get in camp and stretch out on the hem- 

 lock boughs and have fun."* 



"Pshaw," exclaimed the Doctor, "the head of the brook is 

 just there beyond that big cedar, it rises from a big spring, 

 and you must take a trout or two before we go back, and it 

 can lie done from the spring. Then we will return to camp 

 and you ean lie on the hemlocks and 'have fun.'" 



I yielded, and took his rod and line, which he had not uu- 

 jointcd, and said 1 would try for a trout or two, and ap- 

 proached the pool, which was the head of the stream, with 

 great caution, in order not to disturb the trout by jarting the 

 bog, which shook with a heavy tread. After a few casts of 

 thirty feet, as long as the bushes would allow, I stepped into 

 the pool and waded down a short distance. There was a 

 "likely place" under the roots of a sycamore, and a cast there 

 w T as rewarded with a rise. I had him, I fought him accord- 

 ing to rule, and against it, for all I know now, and as I put 

 the landing net under him a slippery root sent my boots up 

 and even my ears obtained a free bath. The trout was still 

 in the net, and the Doctor remarked, as he unscrewed the top 

 of his life preserver and handed it to me, "We might as w-ell 

 go back to camp, but I'm glad you have one trout, and a big 

 one. " 



I emptied the water from the big boots, and shouldering 

 them, we went homeward. It was late in the afternoon 

 when two tired, wet and hungry fishermen tramped in and 

 devoured everything eatable in the camp, which appeared to 

 be deserted. By the time that the last bone was polished, 

 the boat, with the Colonel, Jack and Uncle Ben, drew up on 

 the beach, and they crowded around to see the results. The 

 Doctor's creel showed up well, but when the Colonel heard 

 the story of the day's tramp and my misfortune, he repeated 

 a couplet containing some allusion to "fisherman's luck" and 

 his being wet and hungry, which I have forgotten. 



Fred Mather. 



*This has lon^r been a favorite expression of mine for sleeping, but 

 as it is not generally understood, I explain. With Sancho Panza I 

 ean say, ••Blessed be the man who invented sleep; it covereth one all 

 over like a blanket." My idea of jolly, hilarious fun is a sleep of in- 

 sensibility. I know that I will enjoy that last sleep that knows no 

 waking, no printer howling' for copy, and no boots to pull out of the 

 mud. If the fisbing in the Styx is all done from a boat, I know I 

 won't care to get out on the other side. There is no fun like that 

 which one enjoy s. 



HOW THE LEADER IS BROKEN. 



HAVING already re-echoed "J. G. W.'s" question in 

 your issue of March 6, 1 am now tempted to answer it 

 myself, and, as human nature is weak, I yield to the tempta- 

 tion. 



He says, "We have all read time and time again of a bass 

 when hooked leaping from the water, and falling on the 

 leader so as to break it. How does he do it?" 



We have all read it again and again. But for a bass to so 

 break a leader, is as impossible as it is for a man to lift him- 

 self by the straps of his boots. 



Perhaps the following explanation may not be quite so 

 severe a draft on our credulity. 



That the leader is in peril under such circumstances, is 

 undoubted. Why? 



The bass leaps from the water, throwing into the movement 

 every ounce of his immense muscular strength. His mo- 

 mentum then equals his weight multiplied by his velocity. 

 But the weight which here enters into the problem is not his 

 weight in water (which is less than nothing since a dead 

 bass will float), but his weight in air — we will say four good 

 solid American avordupois pounds. When, therefore, the 

 angler seeks voluntarily or involuntarily to check or control 

 this gyration with a tight leader, he subjects it to a strain 

 that no fish of four times the weight could begin to impose if 

 beneath the surface, and it not unnaturally parts. What 

 the angler then does I will not say. Hentiy P. Wells. 



"New York. B 



But is it True?— Boston, March 13. — 1 clipped from 

 Saturday night's Transcript the following: "Hon. Hannibal 

 Hamlin and party have returned from Moosehead Lake with 

 a fine catch of trout," It speaks for itself. If a poor devil 

 was camping out at any of the many desirable places in the 

 State of Maine, and tried to vary his bill of fare or eke out 

 his provisions by shooting a solitary deer or caribou before 

 Oct. 1., the Great American Game Warden was pretty sure to 

 find it out and to "sock" it to him accordingly. But the honor- 

 able gentleman makes bis annual trip, and comes home with 

 a "fine catch of trout," caught, as I understand it, through 

 the ice, against the law of the State. Where was the Great 

 American Game Warden, of whose zeal in enforcing the law 

 (principally against non-residents) we have read so much in 

 Forest akd Stream lately? Where was he?— C. G. G. 



The Trout Opektxg.— Mr. E. G. Blackford has issued 

 his annual invitation to inspect the many varieties of wild 

 and cultivated trout. It is a beautiful card with an original 

 picture of a trout rising at a fly. by the well-known artist, 

 W. Holberton. Mr. Blackford's display will comprise fish 

 from many of the States and also from Europe, and Fulton 

 Market will be crowded, as usual, by lovers of the beautiful 

 fish. 



Striped Bass in Connecticut. — On the 12th inst. John 

 Wilber caught 800 pounds of striped bass in the Thames, at 

 Norwich. Com)., (he largest catch in many seasons. 



Smelt Fishing in Matne.— I read in your issue of Feb. 

 20 an account of smelt fishing in Saco. and I think an 

 account of the same in another town in Maine may be of 

 interest, I left Waldorough, Me., seven weeks ago. There 

 were then about sixty shanties on the river. They are neat 

 little houses of f-inch stuff, and vary from 4x6 feet to 6x10 

 A cousin and myself fished in a shanty (3x10. and we used 

 twelve lines. From Dec. 26 to Jan. 20 we took From fifteen 

 to forty pounds every day, usually averaging in size about 

 nine to the pound. We fished about four hours each day. 

 just before and after low water. I left for home Jan. 22, 

 but I have learned that there has been not more than a week 

 since when the smelts did not bite. We use a great variety 

 of bait, but nothing attracts them like marine worms or 

 clam worms.— George W. Singer. 



JgislfcuUure. 



THE SHELLFISH COMMISSION OF CONNEC- 

 TICUT. 



WE have the third report of the Shellfish Commissioners of 

 the State of Connecticut, to the General Assembly, 

 January session, 1884. Before the passage of the act of 18S1, 

 placing the State grounds in charge of the Commissioners, all 

 designations were made by town committees. With few ex- 

 ceptions these committees* were more familiar with the water 

 and its industries than with law, and their work was defective 

 and incomplete. The boundaries of grounds were not well 

 defined. This has complicated the work of rnappins; old 

 grounds and made changes necessary. These have bees ac- 

 complished to the general satisfaction of the ovsterruen. 



During the three year's of their service the Commissioners 

 have sold 38,548 acres, which netted to the State the sum of 

 §42,403.79. Besides this 12,539 acres more have been allowed, 

 and deeds ordered therefor, which will net the further sum of 

 $13,793.78. Rejected applications have generally been owing 

 to the fact that the grounds applied for were on natural beds, 

 or had already been designated to others. Taxes were laid 

 upon the oyster grounds within State jurisdiction for the bene- 

 fit of the State for the first time during the past year ; 

 was collected without resort to legal measures. By law all 

 owners are required to file with the Commissioners a state- 

 ment under oath, wherein they shall not only give the number 

 of acres owned by them, but also' the value thereof per acre. 



The report is very interesting and gives much information 

 about starfish, natural beds and the laws relating to the shell- 

 fisheries. It is time that New York did something in the way 

 of systematizing the leasing of oyster beds and placing the 

 whole matter in the hands of the State and ending the conflict 

 between the towns and counties of Long Island, which has 

 been in progress for a century or more. The Connecticut Com- 

 missioners are R. G. Pike, chairman, Middietown; Dr. W. M. 

 Hudson, Hartford, and G. N. Woodruff, Shennaa. 



DO GERMAN CARP HIBERNATE IN CENTRAL NEW- 

 JERSEY?— Authorities on carp culture inform us that this 

 fish passes the winter in a semi-dormant state ; that a number 

 of them assemble together, thrust their heads m the mud with 

 their tails upward and outward, thus forming what'is called a 

 kettle of fish. That they do not pass the entire winter iu this 

 way in the latitude of Central New Jersey Iras been clearly 

 proven during the winter just closed, as shown by the follow- 

 ing statement: Having accustomed my fish to a certain por- 

 tion of the pond by throwing them small bits of bread for 

 which they showed great fondness, and after which they 

 come to the surface of the water, they continued to make their 

 appearance there on pleasant days till the 9th of December 

 last. The pond then becoming frozen over, I saw nothing of 

 them again till tfie mild w T eather in February. On the tenth, 

 and again on the twenty-seventh of this month they made 

 their appearance. Besides the fragments of the submerged 

 leaves of the yellow pond lily (Nujrhar advena) which the 

 winter does not kill, floating about and partly eaten, gave un- 

 mistakable evidence that they had been feeding. As they 

 continue active all winter in Southern waters, may they not 

 do the same also in this latitude?— J. H. B. 



PENNSYLVANIA STATE HATCHERY.— It is reported 

 that the property of H. J. Schantz, near A lien town, has been 

 rented by the Pennsylvania State Fish Commission for a 

 period of ten years. New buildings will be erected this spring, 

 and the State fishery will shortly be removed from Donegal, 

 its present location, to the new site. 



CALIFORNIA TROUT FOR TENNESSEE.— The United 

 States Fish Commission car from Wytheville (Va.) hatchery, 

 arrived at Chattanooga, Tenn. , on March 14 with 4,000 Cali- 

 fornia trout. The fish are to be distributed in the streams of 

 East Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, and it is said this lot of 

 fish is the most valuable ever sent South. 



^he Mennel 



FIXTURES. 



BENCH SHOWS. 



MarciilSto 21.— Washington Bench Show, Masonic Halt, Wash- 

 ington, D. ('. Chas. Lincoln, Superintendent 



March 26, 27 and 28.— The Dominion Kennel Club's Second Annual 

 Bench Show, Horticultural Gardens. Charles Lincoln, Superinten- 

 dent. W. S. Jackson, Hon. Secretary. Toronto. Canada. 



April 3, 4 aud 5.— The Cleveland Bench Show Association's Second 

 Bench Show. Charles Lincoln. .Superintendent. CM. Mmiho.ll, Sec- 

 retary, Cleveland, Ohio. Entries close March 24- 



May 6, 7. 8 and 9.— The Westminster Kennel Club's Eighth Annual 

 Bench Show, Madison Square Garden. Entries close April 21. Chas. 

 Lincoln, Superintendent. K. C. Cornell, Secretary, 51 William street, 

 New York. 



A. K. R. 



THE AMERICAN KENNEL REGISTER, for the registration of 

 pedigrees, etc. (with prize lists of till shows and trials), is pub 

 lished every month. Entries close on the 1st. Should be in early. 

 Entry blanks sent on receipt of stamped and addressed envelope. 

 Registration fee (25 cents) must accompany each entry. No entries 

 inserted unless paid in advance. Yearly subscription $1. Address 

 American Kennel Register," P. O. Bos S838, New York. Number 

 of entries already printed 1010. Volume I., bound in cloth, sent 

 postpaid, $1.50. 



CLEVELAND DOG SHOW. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



From the number of entries already received the indications 

 are that our second bench show will be a great success. The 

 citizens of Cleveland are taking a great interest in the ex- 

 hibition, and are donating a number of special prizes, which 

 will be announced in due time. Count Noble and Dido II. will 

 be here for exhibition. They will be a great attraction for 

 sportsmen, and we hope to see many of them here from all 

 part's of the country. ^ Te can assure them a hearty welcome, 

 ('- M, MuNiiALL, Secret 



Cleveland, March 15 



