Afril 30, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



2 71 



must record one inore. We were ready to start home, and 

 hzd everything into the wacon; Joe had caught a four and 

 a half-pounder to take home- and to keep it alive as long as 

 possible bad put it ou a string. We left the teamster to 

 watch. everything while we went to bathe and change our 

 clothes, and after half an hour's absence, wo returned in time 

 l,o see a big sow finishing Joe's fish. Ever since then Joe 

 lias been down on pork, And many a one bears his brand 

 since then; he uses a .23 Stevens, and never misses cutting 

 off their tails. "R- 



SpRiNiiifiKLD, Ma 



FLY NOMENCLATURE. 



Editor Forest and Si ream: 



In regard to Mr. Ladd's article on trout flies, I would say 

 that, i think be is great on theories, and that his criticism 

 g;oes "too much into trifles," to quote our mutual friend, Mr. 

 M. M. Radius. 



The flies, as represented in my old plate mentioned iu his 

 article, are the standard American patterns, as tied by the 

 majority of dealers, and used by the leading anglers in this 

 country, and are the flics that many years of experience 

 have demonstrated to be "the most killing.'" What We need 

 most are flies to please the trout, and not flics to please the 

 theorists. I would also say that it is impossible to give the 

 fine distinctions iu the shades of hackles, etc., on a litho- 

 graphed plate, even when colored by hand. 



If Mr. Ladd will call at Messrs. Abbey <te Imbrie, I will 

 show him the new aud corrected plates. 



On the authority of Mr. M. M. BachUS, T would add that 

 the "Rod and Gun" was not written by Prof. Wilson, but 

 by the distinguished naturalist, James Wilson, who invented 

 the "professor." Prof. John Wilsou invented the "grizzly 

 king" and the "queen of the water." 



There is one great difficulty iu the way of keeping flies 

 close to pattern, aud that is the different ideas that people 

 have of color. It seems easj r to be understood, when you 

 tell a person to tie a fly with a gray wing, a red hackle and 

 a brown body, but if you will let a dozen people tie such a 

 fly, the chances are a hundred to one that any two of them 

 will be alike. Another great trouble fiy-tyers meet with is 

 the difficulty of finding proper feathers; good hackles are 

 almost unobtainable, and in dressing flies by the thousand 

 gross the feathers will vary considerably. The flies tied 

 after Mr. Ladd's description would not* answer for our 

 waters, even were it possible to obtain the feathers to tie 

 them. W. Holbertok. 



DEEP-SEA FISHING IN ALASKA. 



Editor Forest and Stream; 



When I first started ou my cruise to Alaska, I, as well as 

 almost every one ou board, was incliued to bemoan my fate 

 in being sent to such an out-of-the-way place, where the only- 

 means of hearing from home, and what was going on in the 

 world, was by mail steamer once a month. 



Certainly the first part of the trip from San Francisco to 

 the Straits of Juan cle Fuca is anything but a pleasant initia- 

 tion. Usually the wind is from the north and northwest, 

 almost dead ahead, and with a long, heavy head sea, a com- 

 bination which is not productive of much solid comfort on 

 board ship. Cape Foiilweather is very rightly named I 

 think. 1 have passed it four times, and I remember dis- 

 tinctly that the weather on those occasions was anything 

 but clear. After roundiug Cape Flattery and entering the 

 straits the scene changes, and from thence for a distance of 

 twelve hundred miles the journey is made through inland 

 passages and straits, with an occasional glimpse of old ocean 

 in the distance. 



The country is mountainous, aud very heavily wooded 

 with a growth of spruce and hemlocks. Most of your read- 

 ers no doubt have taken the trip through Long Island Sound, 

 and the trip to Alaska is not unlike it in many respects, al- 

 though much longer drawn out, and the scenery is certainly 

 wild, grand and decidedly novel. One is impressed with the 

 almost solemn stillness that pervades these solitudes, broken 

 only by the sharp cry of an occasional eagle overhead. For 

 hundreds of miles there is not a sign of civilization nor a 

 human being to be seen, save perhaps a few migratory Indians 

 their dug-out canoes. One of the finest reaches is Grenville in 

 Channel, a passage fifty miles long and from one to two 

 miles in width. The mountains rise almost from the water's 

 edge on each side, and are thickly covered with magnificent 

 trees and foliage. The scenery is almost tropical in appear- 

 ance, everything is so green and grows so luxuriantly. This 

 is due to the large amount of rainfall. I may say roughly 

 that it rains about seven-tenths of the time, but, notwith- 

 standing that, it is a singular fact that when it has been rain- 

 ing hard I have seen the wet and dry bulb thermometers 

 indicate a difference of four or five degrrees. I cannot ac- 

 count for this dry atmospuere uuder these conditions, and it 

 was a common expression among us that "water was not 

 wet in Alaska." 



Contrary to the ideas that, most people have on the sub- 

 ject, the climate of Southeastern Alaska is mild and humid, 

 caused by the presence of the warm Japanese stream which 

 strikes the coast near the Aleutian Islands and follows the 

 general contour of the land to the southward. The average 

 yearly temperature at Sitka is about 40° Farenheit, ranging 

 in summer as high as 80", and the lowest point reached by 

 the mercury during my winter there was 10° above zero. 



On our first arrival at Wrangle, your humble servant and 

 two other congenial spirits concluded to take a "drop" on 

 the denizens of the waters of the harbor. Taking the din- 

 gey we pulled across to the opposite side of the bay and 

 anchored. We had very good luck. Our catch was com- 

 posed mostly of flounders, and let me say that the flounders 

 to be found at Wrangle are the sweetest I have ever eaten, 

 and in my estimation fully up to the sole. Many times 

 afterward during my several months' stay at this place, and 

 when the trout were not in season, did I indulge in the cap- 

 ture of numbers of this edible fish. 



When we reached Kilisnoo, which is a fishing station of 

 the Northwest Trading Co., we learned from the superin- 

 tendent that we could get some halibut fishing about two 

 miles from there, and as the ship was to remain a few days, 

 several of us arranged to go the next day and try the "heavy 

 weights." Taking one of the cutters and providing our- 

 selves with an outfit of heavy tackle, we started for the fish- 

 ing ground. We had no difficulty in locating the spot, as 

 we had been furnished with the bearings before we left Kil- 

 isnoo. We anchored on the last of the ebb tide, and in 

 twenty fathoms of water with a rocky bottom. 



Hardly had my line touched the bottem when it became 

 apparent to me that something had made fast to it, and I 

 proceeded to shorten the distance between us. Great Scott! 

 What a tug it was to start that fellow from the bottom ; but 



after he was fairly turned over ou his side I can assure you 

 he made it lively and interesting for me, and also for some 

 of trie other lines. The flight of the Patagonian's boomerang 

 is not more erratic than the course pursued by that fish, and 

 when, after a ion? pull and a hard pull, I got him to the sur- 

 face, hit him on the head with a boat stretcher and "hoisted 

 him aboard," I found that he had mixed those lines up "in 

 a way I despise. " 



We fished for about an hour, when the tide turned flood, 

 and presto! the fish disappeared as if by magic, and we 

 concluded we had sufficiently developed our biceps to fit us 

 for a round or two in the prize ring if necessary. 



I did not keep a record of the catch, but, as I remember, 

 we had twenty-five, averaging forty pounds each. I was 

 told afterward, iu Sitka, that one had been caught off that 

 place, in thirty fathoms, which weighed 700 pounds. When 

 the Indians get a large one hooked it is impossible to get him 

 into the narrow, cranky canoe, aud they take him in tow to 

 the shore. The Indian halibut hook is' not very graceful in 

 appearance, but answers the purpose very well. It is made 

 of two pieces of wood lashed together, and with a sharp iron 

 point for a barb, in this wise, as nearly as I remember. 



That was my maiden experience with the halibut in his 

 native element, and I think 1 can content myself hereafter 

 ia toying with his smaller relations. Reel- Plate. 



Washington, D. O., April 9, 



LEASING TROUT STREAMS. 



'"l^HIS question, which is now agitating the minds of 

 JL certain people in Sullivan and Ulster counties, N. Y., 

 and which has brought out some abusive communications 

 from an excited individual to whom we have alluded, 

 does not seem to be perfectly understood. That a man own- 

 ing a stream or pond has the right to forbid fishiug in it, or 

 to allow only certain persons to fish in it, would seem as 

 plain as that he had the right to forbid trespass iu his orchard. 

 It is always the case that when a stream has been f fee to the 

 public for some time and is then closed by the owner, there 

 are some persons who feel aggrieved at his action. The 

 question whether trout fry were received from the State or 

 not has nothing to do with it. The State has given fry for 

 private waters, but the fact does not make them public ones, 

 as was shown in our last issue by "V. C." The following 

 letter on this subject was written by a resident of the region 

 to the Kingston Freeman: 



In compliance with the request of friends of mine who are 

 members of the Neversink Club, I wish to put the public in 

 possession of the exact state of facts with regard to the 

 affairs of the club so far as they are connected with Ulster 

 county, and I know no better way than to publish a brief 

 statement, drawn up from information furnished me by 

 those fully acquainted with the facts, in the columns of your 

 paper. 



First — A number of gentlemen, for the most part residents 

 of New York and Brooklyn, had been for many years past 

 in the habit of visiliug the west branch of the Neversink for 

 trout fishing, when a rapid decrease in the number and size 

 of the fish created alarm, not only among the sportsmen but 

 among the owners of the streams. On investigation it was 

 discovered that the evil was due to the custom of persons, 

 coming from various localities lying within a radius of thirty 

 miles, catching and taking away the trout regardless of size 

 and true sportsmanship. The farmers in the vicinity were 

 anxious to stop this indiscriminate fishing of strangers, but 

 were afraid to incur their possible enmity. At this crisis 

 these gentlemen, having associated themselves together as 

 the Neversink Club, with the cordial good will of the owners 

 of the land and the farmers of the neighborhood, leased three 

 miles and a half of the stream from Its owners and stocked 

 it with large trout bought of James Annin, Jr., of Caledonia. 

 The rules of the clu b limit each member to a maximum catch 

 per day of twenty-five fish, no fish to be taken under eight 

 inches in length, and all fish to be caught with the artificial 



fly. 



The results of this arrangement, so far, have been very 

 satisfactory to the club and to the farmers of the vicinity, 

 checking the decrease in the number and size of the trout, 

 and being generally beneficial to the whole stream, upon 

 which there are twenty-five miles of open fishing outside of 

 the territory of the club. 



In fact no resident of the neighborhood has expressed any 

 dissatisfaction. The only persons whose clamor has been of 

 sufficient volume to attract attention have been strangers 

 from cities and towns as far off as Kingston, who are dis- 

 posed to believe that there can be no such thing as property 

 in a running stream. These strangers have no social con- 

 nection whatever in the neighborhood, have no abidingplace 

 near it, come and go by the day, do not even hail from any 

 summer boarding house none of which is within many miles, 

 and having no more interest in this particular river than in 

 any other fishable stream within their reach, are by no means 

 careful in their sport, and, as has been intimated, were the 

 chief cause of that impoverishment of the Neversink which 

 the operations of the club have done so much to check. 



Second — One word in regard to the law applicable to this 

 matter. It has been well settled for centuries that non- 

 navigable streams (that is, streams where the tide does not 

 ebb and flow, or streams which are not aud cannot be high- 

 ways of commerce) are owned by the owner or owners of the 

 land over which they run, who have the exclusive right of 

 fishing therein. If a man own both banks he is prima facie 

 owner of the stream. If the banks are owned by different 

 persons, each prima , facie owns to the middle of the stream. 

 The sole difference in the ownership of such streams and of 

 a private pond consists in the fact that in the case of the 

 stream the water runs, and thus makes itself the object to 

 which the rights of owners of other lands over which it may 

 run attach. Therefore as between the owners of the upland 

 along the same river or stream — the different riparian 

 owners — but as between themselves and no one else — each 

 has but a usufruct in the running water. 



As far as the general public is concerned, no man has any 

 more right to fish iu a non-navigable stream without the con- 

 sent of its owner, than to fish in a man's well or his 

 aquarium, or out of his back parlor window, regardless of 

 his protest. 



F ishes in a stream are, with respect to the qualified nature 



of the property which man can acquire in thenij like birds 

 in a wood. If you catch them they are yours. But as the 

 owner of the land on which the trees stand owns the woods, 

 so the owner of the land over which the water runs owns 

 the stream. And as you can have no right to shoot birds in 

 the one, so you can have no right to catch fish in the other, 

 in defiance of the owner. 



Now, the Neversink Club has bought from the owners of 

 that portion of the river it occupies, not merely an exclusive 

 privilege of fishing, not a mere license, but the bed of the 

 stream for a distance of three miles and a half. For that 

 distance, whatever rights the owners had, the Neversink 

 Club has purchased and now has— no more aud no less. 

 That club claims to do no more than the owners of the 

 stream have had the right to do from time immemorial. 



If they had the right to exclude strangers from their 

 stream, to withhold from them the privilege of fishing in 

 the owner's own waters, then the club, so far as the terri- 

 tory included in its lease goes, has the same right, and pur- 

 poses to exercise it. 



If the question were put to me, as a legal adviser, what 

 to do with a lone fisherman who, in frantic defiance of the 

 owner or his lessees, persisted in standing up to his knees in 

 the middle of the stream, or rooted upon its banks, with 

 his fishing tackle obstinately bent over that particular point 

 and no other in the whole course of the river — I should 

 answer, without the slightest hesitation, remove him, peace- 

 fully if you can, forcibly if you must, but at all events re- 

 move him. You have the right, even though he be clothed 

 in the Stars and Stripes. Yours truly, ~D. M. DeWitt. 

 KryusTON, April 21, 1885. 



A contrary opinion is expressed in the following letter 

 from Pennsylvania by a writer who does not seem t& be 

 aware that the Blooming Grove Park Association owns miles 

 of trout streams in Pike county. Pa., in which none but 

 members or guests may fish, and thousands of acres over 

 which they control the shooting. The club is organized 

 under the laws of the State. The privilege of passing to and 

 fro over the streams does not necessarily carry with it any 

 right to shoot or fish on these wateis. Our correspondent 

 says: 

 Editor Mreit and Stream: 



In your issue of April 23 a correspondent, uuder the head 

 of "Leasing Trout Streams," attempts in a very feeble way 

 to substantiate his argument by illustrating the planting of 

 seeds procured from the Agricultural Department. A horse 

 of a different color, my dear sir. Those seeds are planted 

 in land deeded to you in all its rights. Not so with the 

 water courses or tributaries to our rivers in Pennsylvauia. 

 The original land grants of this State (Pennsylvania) reserve 

 the right of way to the public, consequently I hold that no 

 organization has the right to usurp the right to exclude the 

 public from fishing in those streams that nature has stocked 

 with trout. I hold that it is all wrong for any organization 

 to have the individual right to say to those along our open 

 mountain streams that the man born along those mountain 

 ways, that has always had the right to fish from early boy- 

 hood days, "Thou shalt not fish here now." I think it 

 right and just that organizations shall have full right to fish 

 or say who shall fish in private ponds stocked by their own 

 money; but I say it is all wrong that they shall try to control 

 our mountain streams that are stocked fn nature's way, and 

 it is unlawful, at least in Pennsylvania, and the law will 

 bear me out. We don't want fish monopolies; we have a 

 plenty or rather too many now existing for this free Amer- 

 ica. Let our mountain streams be free. Fair Play. 



SOME REMARKABLE CATCHES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



A year ago last June a friend, whom 1 will call Charlie, 

 and myself started out for some trout fishing in the Acliron-' 

 dacks," arriving at our camping ground at about 4 o'clock in 

 the afternoon. After we had gotten our camp pretty well 

 settled, I told Charlie to go to the brook, which flowed right 

 past, our door, and get some fish for supper, while I made 

 up a fire. As he had little or no practice in fly-fishing, he 

 took some worms and sallied forth. He had not been gone 

 more than fifteen minutes when he called me to see how well 

 the fish were biting. I looked up just as he was making a 

 cast, and saw a fish take his hook. He was a little excited, 

 and jerked so hard on the line that the hook was torn from 

 the fish's mouth, and the trout went whizzing almost straight 

 up in the air to a height of about ten feet, and then fell back 

 right through the opening in the cover of his fish basket, 

 which had swung around in front of his body. Charlie says 

 to this day that the Adirondack trout are the most accom- 

 modating fish he ever knew of. Uncle Jack. 



Tivoli, N. Y, 



How it Seems to a Tyro. — I had never taken a trout 

 until last week, when I went with two others to a friend's 

 farm in New Jersey. At 7:20 A. M. we started from the 

 house for the stream, three miles distant. Arrived there, 

 our host told me my rod would be useless; so he cut for me, 

 as well as my friends, sticks about four feet long, and start- 

 ing with us up the stream dropped us off one at a time, first 

 showing us how to bait the hooks with the worms, and then 

 going still further up the stream, which at no point is too 

 wide to be jumped across, began himself to fish. In less 

 than two hours I came up with Ambrose, who had taken 

 six nice trout, and 1, who only had taken two, suggested 

 that we should go to the wagon and luach. This we did, 

 and were soon followed by Frank, who had taken seven, 

 and together we exchanged our views on trout fishing, it 

 being the first attempt by either of us. We all agreed thai 

 we had had an ample sufficiency of the sport, so after a 

 smoke we curled up on the cushions and took a nap. On 

 waking we went and found Adon, who by his art, with a 

 common shank hook and line and an ash stick, had taken 

 fifteen trout, besides small ones returned to the stream. Let 

 those who delight in fronting indulge in it if they please. 

 As for me, casting over brush and branches, and continually 

 getting your three feet of line hung in a tree, does not please 

 me one half so much as fishing from a boat for catfish with 

 a dipsy or sinker, where a clean strike can be made, and one 

 has a chance of getting his fish. This stream or rather run 

 is within twelve miles of Philadelphia State House. — A. W. 

 B. (Philadelphia, Pa., April 22). 



A New Price List. — We have received an illustrated 

 retail price list from Mr. Thomas J. Conroy, dealer in fish- 

 ing tackle. It numbers 130 pages, and contains everything 

 needed by the angler, with a few hints on fishing, selecting 

 tackle, flies, camping, etc. , with an index. It is nicely printed 

 and well worth preserving. 



