-Dme. 18, 1884] 
: claimants togeth 
— a ~ 
oP . 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
409 
with sitting on your hunkies, for you cannot sit down or 
kneel pn these wet rushes, each one of which is thickly 
studded on all sides with great drops of sea fog or of dew. 
But expericnce has taucht you that you may take continual 
comfort from your dear old pipe without alarming the wild- 
fowl, and you do thoroughly enjoy the dawn, the daybreak 
and the sunrise, of all of which you get the full benefit and 
effect in this level, quiet, lonesome situation. And while 
you are drinking in, absorbing, the freshness and beauty of 
_ the air and sky, suddenly, from vacant space, bearing down 
toward you, appear a score or more of dark points, which 
rapidly increase in size as they come nearer, until a few rods 
distant a thick bunch of yellowlegs or of dowitch, or of 
other bay birds, hover for a moment, eyeing curiously your 
stolid wooden decoys, and then sweep in a lovely curve, a 
true Hogarth’s line of beauty, down within reach of your 
double-barrel. Keep cool, do not hurry, but be very, very 
quick, and as the sight comes in line with the double curve 
where the birds are thickest, let them have it. Now do not 
jump up; keep cool. Whip out the empty shells of your 
breechloader and slip in two more, and whistle for all you 
are worth; peep and pipe, ind tweet and twitter, just like a 
wounded bird—like a chicken if you cannot imitate any 
other bird—and those which escaped your first discharge will 
again sweep around to inspect their injured comrades, and 
at the right instant you may give them the second volley 
with good effect. Now you may go out and pick up your 
teward, you have forgotten the chill and the wet. 
Hide yourself again. How slowly the time passes; bow 
long it seems before anything more comes to disturb your 
quiet and relieve your cramp. But what is that soft whistle? 
And from right among your decoys, too! There they sit, 
unconscious of your proximity, two robin snipe that have, 
come on wings so silent that you heard them not. Give 
them the right and the left barrel (they ure too far apart to 
be taken by one alone), and go pick them up and stretch 
yourself, After another Jong wait you may find a jack 
curlew in the same place, but the probabilities are that 
you will not; and my opinion is that jack curlew can either 
smell tobacco or else distinguish a thin line of smoke from 
the spear point of a bullrush in the morning haze. A few 
more flights of ringnecks or of ployer, a snap shot or two 
at some bird too wary to come near your stools, and the 
broad sun is drying up the dew, and you are hungry, With 
the detachable muslin pockets of your hunting coat fairly 
filled with game, you wearily tramp home to a sponge bath 
and a breakfast of fish fresh from the salt water, and then 
you are ready to sail to the beach for your daily dip in the 
ocean surf. In the afternoon a delightfnl nap makes up for 
the rest that you have lost. This is the way to enjoy your 
summer vacalion—and to get a good square attack of chills 
and fever, JACK CURLEW, 
Vermont Game Nortes,—Highgate, Vt., Dec. 10, 1884. 
The season for shooting duck, snipe, woodcock and wild 
geese is now virtually over in this vicinity. This class of 
game has been quite plenty, and some good bags have 
been made on the M, G, C. grounds. The native bred birds 
were early in the season very plentiful, which shows the 
good effect of protection, Mr, Leach, the manager of the 
club, has handled the poachers and pot-hunters without 
gloves, and several of them have been fined to the fullest ex- 
tent of the law, Foxes, hares and grouse are claiming the 
attention of our sportsmen now, and some poodsportis being 
had. Two important amendments to the game laws were 
ubfortunately, through neglect, lost. The first prohibited 
spring shooting of wild duck and other water fowl by mak- 
ing tie close season extend from Feb. 1 until Sept. 1, The 
second amendment forbade night shooting at wild ducks and 
geese, These amendments passed the House by a vote of 
one hundred and eight to nincteen, and when carried to the 
Senate, the Senator who was instructed to look after the bill. 
there was suddenly called home by sickness in his family 
during the last days of the session, and the bill was allowed 
to lie unnoticed and cyerlooked. There were quite a number 
of less important fish and game laws passed, which will be 
forwarded you in our Fish Commissioners’ report,—STAN- 
STEAD, 
Tue OLD Story.—Some time since I thought I’d have a]_ 
day’s recreation and go down on the shore of Long Island 
below Long Beach, and interview the bay snipe, As luck 
generally has it with me 1 selected a day which turned out a 
scorcher, Plodding around in the sand all day withouta 
sign of anything, I at last noticed a slight ridge of sand 
some distance ahead, and immediately beyond I caught a 
slight glimpse of four Wilson’s snipe. I dropped in my 
tracks, and as previous circumstances made me desperate 
for game, I proceeded along on all fours, knowing that if I 
showed myself over two feet above the ground I would be 
seen. After | had managed to crawl along a good hundred 
yards up to the ridge of sand, and with the sweat rolling out 
of me in great beads, imagine my disgust when I rose up 
suddenly, exultingly and with blood in my eye on what— 
on four wood stools planted in the sand, My first impulse 
was to break them to pieces, but 1 found a little revenge and 
consolation in leaving them as I found them, thinking 
possibly. ae one else might get the juke played on them- 
sclyes,—H. 
Se 
Satem, Mass., Dec, 18,—Shooting ruus very quiet just now, 
even barred owls being less common than a week or two 
aso, The quail seasonis about over, It has not been the 
best ever known by considerable. The Wakefield Sports- 
‘men’s Ciub are to have a shoot Christmas morning, clay- 
pigeons being the game intended. This is a lively associ- 
ation and a good timeisexpected. Herring gulls are numer- 
ous about here now. There are also some other winter 
visitants, as buffle-heads, golden eyes, and mergansers, or as 
named, the sheldrakes.—X. Y, Z, 
AN ORCHARD OwnER ty Distress.—Sharon, Pa., Dec. 
8.—Any one who wants rabbits can go out ten miles from 
here und get “‘loads” of them. There isa young orchard out 
there and the rabbits have started to eatit up, There are 
some 250 or 300 young apple irees, and the owner has to bind 
them to keep rabbits trom eating them.—(@xME.tin, 
Live RourreD GRousn WantTEeD.—An Ohio gentleman is 
anxious to procure a pair of ruffed grouse, wild birds, cap- 
tured this winter, preferred. He would make a desirable 
exchange of other birds, and a line to him through Formsr 
AND STREAM would reach him. 
$200,000 was paid lastivear for claims under the life policies of the 
Travelers. of Hartf Sit Conn,, and $1,164,000 to life and accident 
1er,— cu, 
Dien 
Sea and River Mishing. 
THAT TWENTY-FOUR POUND TROUT. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your readers may recall that in August last Lwrote to you 
from the Rangeley Lakes, and in one of my letters I referred 
to the fact that many years ago a twenty-four pound trout 
was caught up this way. If I recollect, I did not specify 
any particular lake, nor did I intend to say that the fish had 
been taken in any one of this chain of waters, I wrote 
generally of the forest region of Maine. But two of your 
correspondents, one & gentleman who writes as ‘‘Piseco,” 
and the other as J, P. Whitney, saw fit to question the truth 
of the story. I have been at some trouble to still further in- 
vestigate the mutter, and give below copies of letters I have 
received from persons who knew of the facts. The size of 
the fish made it an interesting point in natural history, as 1 
haye neyer heard of any larger trout being caught. Yeiy, 
there is no good reason why a brook trout should not grow 
to this weight, as they are a yery long-lived fish. 
A well authenticated case is known of one living for sixty 
years in a well, and still another for twenty-eight years in a 
well at Dunbarton, England. (See Brown’s ‘‘American 
Angler’s Guide,” p, 33). The ‘‘North Country Angler” says 
that a pond examined some ten months after trout were put 
in it measuring fifteen inches, showed that the fish had in- 
creased to twenty-two inches (Brown, p. 72). The Hucho 
trout has been known to grow to a length of four feet. This 
trout is known to exist in the waters of Maine. (Smith, 
‘Fist. Fishes of Mass.”). 
Prof. Agassiz once said that there was nothing tothe con- 
trary to show that the brook trout might not grow to the 
weight of the very heaviest ever claimed. Mr. Page, of the 
Elmwood House, at Phillips, caught a Salmo fontinalis 
which is figured in the guide books as weighing eleven and 
one-half pounds. We all recoliect how long Barnum offered 
one hundred dollars as a reward for a four pound trout, 
which, in the Gays of his aquarium, was considered a big 
fish. But as soon as the way was open to the waters of the 
north, a much larger trout very soou claimed the reward, 
and was exhibited alive for along time. Whether he gained 
in weight or not I do not know, but as trout in wells grow 
very slowly from lack of food, this leviathan of those times 
probably did not increase very much. 
Many years ago a quantity of brook trout were put back 
in Kennebago, each furnished with a metal tag showing the 
weight of the fish individually. Some two years after one 
of these victims of fate was again caught, and when weighed 
showed a growth of about one BON a year since his first 
capture. This was, however, but a small specimen. The 
facts were given in Seribner’s Monthly some years ago. 
I fear I have trespassed too much upon your space 
already or I should be glad to quote more at length: Many 
of the old writers speak of the trout, and with a greater 
stretch of your courtesy I could give you extracts from Aris- 
totle down, until you should ery, ‘‘Hold, enough!” I will 
only append the letters, and those still doubting can cun- 
sult the writers, who are all gentlemen of truth. 
KNICKERBOCKER, 
LAKE KENNEBAGO, September, 1884.—I saw caught in or 
near 1850, in a pond near this lake, a brook trout weighing 
twenty-four pounds. It was taken by a boy who had left 
his hook baited over night.—C. T. RicHARDSON. 
KENNEBAGO LAKE, Oct. 4, 1884.—Dear Sir—Yours of 
Sept, 29 received. Glad to hear from you. The trout was 
not taken from the Rangeley lakes, but from a pond in the 
town of Mt. Vernon. Since you were here I was out with 
a man who saw the trout, and if [had known any one would 
have disputed your story, I would have taken his name. An 
officer (now in the United States Army) also saw it, and 
helped eat it up. His name is Gilbreth; his address I do not 
know, but will get itif Ican. Also 1 will get what inform- 
ation Ican from the town where the trout was caught. 
Should be pleased to call on you. Hope to see you here an- 
other season, when you can make a longerstay. Yours very 
truly, C. T. RicHARDSON, 
Mr. Vernon, Maine, Oct. 29,'1884.—My Dear Sir—Yovrs 
inquiring about a trout caught in this town is received. In 
answer will say it was caught as I understood at the time in 
what was known then as Bishop’s Pond, My store in which 
I then traded was, I should say, three rods from said pond. 
The length of the pond is about one mile by nearly a half 
mile, some portion of the way, in width. I knew the boy 
who caught it, though I did not see him, and all who were 
here (whom I have seen) at the time it was caught say he was 
Henry C. Heath, now in California. I saw it, as did nearly 
the whole village, as it created a great excitement on ac- 
count of its great size. I remember distinctly it did not 
vary in weight more than half a pound from twenty-four 
pounds. I think it may have weighed a half pound more, 
but.am not sure. My memory is we called it asalmon trout. 
H. ©. Heath sold it to Waldo A, Blossom, who was keepin 
a hotel in this place at thattime, for $1.50 as I understoo 
the price. 
Mr. Blossom invited the editor to come out and dine with 
him upon the trout. Its fame spread through this region. 
Mr, Blossom occupied this place from 1847 to 1850, and it 
must have been caught near 1849, but surely within these 
dates. Yours, etc., CAnvin Horns. 
Mr. Vernon, Me,, Nov. 10.—Dear Sir—Yours of Oct. 30 
received. In reply to your several questions will say, first, 
the line a good hemp one. The hook, a common hook such 
as we used to fish with fifty years ago. The hook was 
baited with a small fish, called here aroach. The line was 
fastened to a fishpole 16 or 18 feet long; and was set at 
night at the end of a plank walk, running out into the pond 
some twenty or twenty-five feet, for boats to come alongside. 
There were iron fastenings made for the purpose of setting 
fishpoles, ‘The hook was baited and pole set by J. H. Morse, 
who was born and brought up in this town, and lived here 
at that time, but is now a resident’ of Augusta, Me. arly 
the next morning a brother-in-law, a boy some thirteen or 
fourteen years old, went to the place, as he was in the habit 
of doing, when he found this big fish. The fish had been on 
the hook Jong enough to be partially drowned or benumbed 
that he could be easily handled; yet the boy could not pull 
him out of the walter. At this time the boy called a gentle- 
man, who was passing by, by the name of D. M. Teague, 
who, seeing the situation of things, waded out in the pond 
where the water was 24 feet deep, and gently towed the fish in 
by the line near enough and, keeping the line tight, he grappled 
the fish by getting his hands in the gills of the fish, and took 
him out in that way. There was another trout caught the 
Same season by Dr. Adams weighing 172 pounds; another 
by Mr. J, Lothrup, 94 pounds, in the same pond. They 
were out in the pond in a boat. At the place where the big 
fish was caught, the shore of the pond is very abrupt, 25 
feet from the edge of the water it is from 10 to 12 feet deep. 
Yours truly, GEo. McGarrry, 
San Francisco, Nov. 12, 1884.—Dear Sir—Your letter is 
received. You wish me to give you some facts about a brook 
trout I caught in Mount Vernon, Maine. You ask me 
several questions which I will answer the best Ican. First, 
bait, what we called there a ‘‘chub,” silver white. Second, 
the hook and line was the same kind used then for pickerel 
fishing, do not know the number. Third, season of the year, 
March. Now about the fish. Length, from tip to tip. 
37 inches. Girth, just back of gill, 24 inches. Weight 24% 
pounds. The fish was baked whole. I sat down at the 
second table, and at that time the fish had not been turned 
over, only the upper half having been carved. The names 
of the parties spoken of in your letter, I know very well. I 
was just seventeen years of age when I caught the fish. It 
was caught in a pond about a mile long, yery deep water, 
A fish like that could not live in a brook, but it is safe to 
say that he belonged to the brook trout family.—Henry C. 
ATH, 
ECHOES FROM THE TOURNAMENT. 
N THE Forest Anp Stream of Dec. 4 is an ‘‘echo” 
from my old friend, Ira Wood, giving his views on the 
tules governing the last tournament and comparing them 
with the rules for fly-casting at the New York State Sports- 
men’s contests. Some of Mr, Wood’s views I agree with 
and others I do not. As he quotes me in his article I will 
say: 
The National Rod and Reel Association based its rules on 
that of the State Sportsmen’s Association and modified them 
where they thought them faulty. The R. and R. Associa- 
tion has held three tournaments, and each year the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements, composed of twenty-cight members, 
of which twenty are trout and salmon anglers, have altered 
and amended the rules of the previous tournament when 
found at fault, and no doubt will change sonmie things in the 
rules for 1885. The State Association is mainly a grand 
pigeon shooting organization with a little side show of fly- 
casting and rifle shooting. Usually they have one class in 
trout casting and one in salmon, and the Association itself 
took no interest in these whatever, and had it not been fora 
few lovers of the art like the Hon. James Geddes, Ira Wood 
and his late brother Reuben, there would have been no fly- 
casting, These contests extend back some ten years, more 
or less, and as Mr. Wood has always engaged in and 
help organize them he naturally feels a fatherly interest 
in them, but the feeling in the Rod.and Reel Association is 
that we have improved on the old rules and it is well known 
in the Association that Mr. Wood and I differ radically on 
many points concerning not only the rules but the objects of 
a tournainent, Mr. Wood seeks to educate anglers at tour- 
naments while I am content to make fly-casters, claiming 
that it is impossible to teach angling except in actual 
practice, while fly-casting can be learned at a tournamentand 
the angler’s education finished on the stream. 
Mr. Wood says: ‘The introduction of his peculiar style 
of casting, by Mr. H. L. Leonard, in the fly-casting tourna- 
ment, held under the auspices of the State Sportsmens’ 
Association, at Niagara Falls, in 1882, and since generally 
followed in the fiy-casting tournaments by his pupils and 
his pupils’ pupils, has had a tendency, and I may say, has 
completely revolutionized the real objects, aims and rules of 
the tournaments as conducted under the rules of that associa- 
tion.” This may be true, but not haying the reverence for 
the State Association that Mr. Wvod has, I am not as con- 
servative in this matter. In 1881 that Association asked me 
to manage their tournament on Coney Island. J did so and ~ 
it was said by Reuben Wood and others that up to that time 
it was the most complete one held. It was the only tourna- 
ment, before or since, which gives the record of the 
direction of the wind and its force both in miles per hour 
and pressure to the square foot during the casting of each 
man, (See Forest AnD SrrREAM, vol. XV1., p. 429). 
If such records hadbeen kept for a series of years, they 
would be of value in showing the influences which helped or 
hindered a cast. The State Association did not appreciate 
the labor and it was never undertaken again, for as an asso- 
ciation it cares little for fly-casting. 
Concerning the rule requiring the buoy to be struck when 
contesting for accuracy, Mr. Wood is correct. That rule 
was @ new one, was tried and found to work badly, and no 
doubt the next committee will change it. In distance cast- 
ing Mr. Wood recommends: ‘‘Time five minutes; time to 
be taken when contestant steps to the mark and says he is 
ready. Rod and flies shall then be in hand, and no allow- 
ance of time shall be given for untangling line or other 
pauses, except in the minds of the judges the delay is caused 
by pure accident, and not caused by the unskillfulness of the 
contestant, or from the fact that he has more line out than 
he can control.” Perhaps this might work well and it is 
worth considering by the Association, it would expedite 
matters but might curtail the scores. His suggestion of a 
floating object for accuracy does not seem so good because 
the swirl of a trout does not float. Tests of delicacy he 
would have made at the same time and judged by the light- 
ness, not only of the flies lighting on the water, but also by 
the manner in which they are taken from the water, a most 
excellent plan. 
The Rod and Reel Association dropped ‘‘style” as a factor 
in contests which Mr. Wood thinks should be retained. I 
have held that the most awkward and ungainly man should 
not have these things registered against him if he drops his 
flies delicately, and that the style of the man, no matter how 
angular, should not count, and that the judges should watch 
the flies and not the man. Neither does the Association 
agree with Mr. Wood that a handicap for length of rods is 
desirable. It holds that if 2 man cannot cast as well with a 
10-foot rod as with one of eleven feet, then he has learned 
the proper length of a rod and should use it. He says: 
“The angler has his rod, or probably rods, to suit himself, 
and adapted to his heigth and strength; the rods he uses for 
fishing. He cannot afford to have one set for fishing and 
one for tournaments; so, perforce, he must enter with the 
one he has, and unless he is a large man with a heavy bass 
rod, he cannot hope to contest with any prospect of success 
against a rod made for that purpose alone. So that, asa 
rule, the angler must enter a contest handicapped or stay 
away; and it is evident from the list of entries for the past 
two years that they, as a rule, stay out. I have always 
thought the allowance of five feet to the foot excessive. In 
testing rods of different lengths and weights I have come to 
the conclusion that a proper and fair handicap would he 
