Oot. 18, 1887,] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



227 



6uance of his duty had gone into the water and arrested 

 the complainant when about midway between the shores 

 of that lake, do you, sir, for one moment tliink that the 

 defendant could have landed him? Your Honor, it was 

 a work impossible for one man. Look, sir, at his size 

 [and here Uncle Bill stood up to the gaze of the court, 

 and looking several times his usual size to me]. Your 

 Honor, it would have taken many times the power of 

 this single-handed man to have effected a capture of that 

 culprit; hence it became a necessity to follow on in the 

 only way left to where the party landed and might be 

 reached'in personal safety. That my client did a very 

 wise thing and one wholly legal, I will read, may it 

 please Your Honor, from Parsons, Greenleaf and other 

 cases pertaining to arrests." 



Having read the court and nearly a dozen of the spec- 

 tators to sleep, as nearly as I can recollect, he again took 

 up that portion of the testimony relating to the passages 

 across the dam, after which he made a masterly appeal 

 to the court "to discharge the case under rulings number 

 so and so, as laid down in volume — ," names long since 

 forgotten by me. Following this Uncle Bill's "reserve" — 

 as he used to call him in speaking of the case — the ex- 

 Governor, called the attention of the court to several 

 cases from Blackstone and other authorities, which he 

 quoted and applied to the case of Uncle Bill's being de- 

 prived of his liberty with such telling effect as to cause 

 the moisture to appear in the eyes of many of our young 

 band, and as he referred to the evidence of the people, 

 "Not a single link in the whole chain presented a flaw, or 

 a question raised against its truthfulness during the entire 

 testimony of the people's witnesses" (nearly all of whom 

 were well filled with Uncle Bill's pouts and cider on the 

 eve of that great dinner and had sworn allegiance to 

 Uncle Bill on that occasion). Why! to talk of eloquence. 

 His eloquence rose higher and higher as he reached the 

 eventful points of his case, until Uncle BUI and his whole 

 band, myself included, Avere standing and on tiptoe before 

 we knew it: and when he pictured the flight over mud 

 and water to the various points of safety sought by Uncle 

 Bill, we would look around to see if Uncle Bill got there 

 safely. Then with pathetic appeal he would say, "Your 

 Honor, can you conceive of a more aggravated case of 

 imprisonment or a more villainous plot to deprive an 

 honored citizen of his liberty?" Then with soft and ten- 

 der strains he pictured Uncle Bill "at the bar of justice 

 a prisoner, and a prisoner in the hands of the prisoner at 

 this bar without authority of law. And awful as it might 

 have been had he, my client, been so disposed, your 

 Honor, he could have forced with personal violence his 

 freedom from the clutches of this officer and openly de- 

 fied the court that held him. This he did not do, as it 

 was not in harmony with the kind heart beating in that 

 manly breast. Your Honor, what did he do? He placed 

 himself under protection of the court and boldly awaited 

 its decision in a most complacent manner and becoming 

 to a liberty-loving citizen like my client; in answer to 

 whose appeal justice heeded and set him free." 



After this burst of eloquence he drew his ponderous 

 watch from his pocket and took its standing, then facing 

 the court he said, "It is getting late, and we do not desire 

 to go over more matter, or repeat again and again that 

 which to your Honor must be well understood; so we will 

 submit the case on its merits, believing that you will 

 place the damages sufficiently high to satisfy the people 

 who bring this case before you, for your learned decision." 



The case, after dragging through nearly the whole day, 

 was thus submitted to the judge, who after a few moments' 

 deliberation and a short review of the statutes (during 

 which time Uncle Bill w-as walking around shaking- 

 hands, and stiffening up the doubting ones among his 

 friends, who had great confidence in his legal opinion), 

 called the court to order, and in a very appropriately 

 delivered verdict placed the damages at about $200 and 

 cost against the defendant, which the lawyers soon settled 

 up and Uncle Bill and the boys weve soon seated at the 

 hotel table ordering the best the house afforded. Uncle 

 Bill paid the bill and promised to divide the chink after 

 the expenses were all paid, which he did afterward with 

 this advise to us boys, "Now that we have the chink, let 

 each one put away his little nest-egg as profit realized for 

 the first sale of pouts to those people living over the line," 

 and it was so put away. 



That's all, I now move we retire. It was moved and 

 seconded, and after thanks to brother "W. for the part he 

 took in the drama, and his acknowledgment of the 

 wrong in seining, we all adjourned for the night, to meet 

 at early light for our morning sport. Sid Bromley. 



BASS IN SHARK RIVER INLET. 



OCEAN BEACH, N. J., Oct. 4.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: In your note from Key East, N. J., in issue 

 of Sept. 29, your correspondent seems very particular in 

 giving your readers to understand that the striped bass 

 fishing is on the Key East side of Shark River Inlet. I 

 admit that the fishing is generally better on that side, but 

 there have been a number of days this summer when the 

 Ocean Beach side was preferable. We will however award 

 the palm to Key East as claimed, but were it not for the 

 Hon. Geo. I. Ferr r , Messrs. Napier and Seeley and your 

 humble servent (all summer residents of Ocean Beach), 

 there would hardly have been any better fishing at Key 

 East this year than heretofore. We have been to the ex- 

 pense of having large signs made and set up, advertising 

 in local papers for upward of seven weeks and having two 

 men patrol the beach nights, all to prevent the seiners 

 from hauling; with what success those that have fished 

 can most favorably testify. 



Oct. 1 being the end of the season we had the signs 

 taken down. Now mark the result. The enemy swoops 

 down like a hawk on his prey and captures at one haul 

 over 2,500 pounds of striped bass (it sickens one to think 

 of it). Now of course you may fish all day without suc- 

 cess, for those that were not caught have been frightened 

 away. I trust that although Key East must be awarded 

 the palm for being generally the best ground, you will in 

 justice let it be known to your readers that the cause was 

 entirely the result of the interest taken by the few gentle- 

 men beforementioned, and who also hope that next sum- 

 mer the same causes will produce like effects. This is a 

 fine bass ground and we suggest that if those who come 

 to enjoy a day's good bass fishing would agitate this ques- 

 tion of seining, thus assisting us greatly, the feeling would 

 then soon be such that an attempt to haul would hardly 

 be thought of before Oct. 1, when most people have re- 

 turned to their winter homes; E. Hitrtzig* 



ON AN OLD TIME STREAM. 



GHARLESTOWN, N. H.— I have done about all my 

 angling in your columns this summer, but have 

 picked up a few trout, entirely with "the festive worm," 

 and have rigged up a fly-cast but once, and even then 

 unsuccessfully. 



I had tramped for a couple of times down what in old 

 times was called the " Big Brook," catching perhaps a 

 dozen fingerlings, all of which were returned to the 

 water, and not catching as many more, for the simple 

 reason that I used so large a hook, a No. 1 Limerick, and 

 so generous a bait, that the little chaps usually missed 

 getting hooked — when I met my companion, who was 

 to have fished down from a point below, coming up to 

 meet me, saying that he found other parties ahead of 

 him, and could find no fish worth savmg. After a short 

 confab on the subject we decided to eat our luncheon 

 and then drive over to the small river into which the 

 brook falls on its way to the Connecticut, and in which, 

 below a milldam, one or two quite large trout were re- 

 ported to have been taken a day or two before. 



Reaching the river we separated, and I put on a leader 

 with a yellow hackle and a coch-y-bonddu, and tried 

 every available or probable pool, hole or rapid, for over a 

 mile, without a rise. The fact was there was nothing for 

 the trout to live on, the bed of the river was simply clean 

 washed rock and stones, exposed to the sun, with no 

 shelter for insects or worms or any other food. 



Such is the case with about all of the streams in south- 

 ern New Hampshire and Vermont where there is room to 

 cast a fly; they are merely the ragged and exposed beds of 

 the mountain* torrents which filled them in the spring, 

 and the smaller brooks are in most cases so overgrown 

 with alders and willows as to render the use of the fly 

 impossible. 



This is the case with the "Big Brook" referred to. When 

 I began to fish it, some half a century ago, there was a 

 long open meadow for half a mile above the old farm- 

 house, wdiere I always started, and an equally open 

 stretch of pasture and corn land below, until the brook 

 reached a long, narrow, deep millpond a mile below, 

 where I was sure of a half-pounder or two on any good 

 fishing day. 



How it is changed now! The old farmer and his sons 

 are all gone, the old sawmill has resolved itself into dust, 

 and a few huge stones too heavy to be washed away are 

 left to mark the sight of the old dam. Meadow and pas- 

 ture are alike overgrown with alders, and there are 

 scarcely a dozen places in the whole long stretch which 

 are accessible to aii3 r one but the ubiquitous small boy, 

 who can crawl under tbe branches of the bushes with a 

 Oft. pole and a 2ft. line and skin the brook of the few 

 fingerlings that are left. There are long stretches of open 

 hill pasture above and below, where the bushes are not 

 so thick, which I tried with the result above noted. 



I have had one day, however, which gave me trout 

 enough for a breakfast, and a tramp over old haunts 

 which I enjoyed. I determined one morning in June to 

 try a once favorite brook across the river in Vermont, 

 which I had not seen for many years, but from which, 

 in days long past, I had filled many a good basket. Hav- 

 ing secured a boat the day before, I went down to the 

 river to cross, to find out that I had mistaken the moor- 

 ing, and that the boat was half a mile up the river. Up 

 the bank I went, to find out when I reached the boat, 

 that I had got the wrong key; and leaving my net and 

 basket, I climbed the hill to the village, about a quarter 

 of a mile off, and getting the right key, finally reached 

 the landing on the opposite side of the river about ten 

 o'clock, or a little later. I saw some one standing on the 

 bank above me as I made fast the boat, and on climbing 

 the bank was accosted by an elderly individual of bucolic 

 appearance, with the query "Goin' fishin'?" I told him I 

 thought of it, when he picked up an ancient rod out of 

 the grass, and informed me that he "would go with me." 

 He said that he had brought down his grand-daughter 

 with him, from somewhere, within a few miles to get 

 her father, who was working for the man who owned 

 the farm at the landing, to take him home for Sunday, 

 and as it was too early to go home, he would go "a-fishiu " 

 with me. I did not think it worth while to offend the 

 sociable old chap by declining his company, so off we 

 started, the old man, the little girl, and I, up the steep 

 hill, which there separated the river from the brook, 

 which empties into it about two mdes below. 



The girl luckily found her father at work in a field 

 nearly at the top of the hill, and left us, and we kept on 

 until, on reaching the little valley of the brook, the old 

 man made a rush for the bridge, unwinding his fine from 

 the top of his rod as he went as actively and eagerly as if 

 he was only ten years old. I turned up the brook about 

 an eighth of a mile, through what was once a good stretch 

 of open pasture, where I have formerly caught many a 

 trout, but I now found it so overgrown as to be imprac- 

 ticable, and finally reached a meadow which was in old 

 times the "bonanza" of the brook. Here I sat down in 

 the grass, put my rod together, and had basketed two or 

 three pair trout, when by me came the old granger, post 

 haste to get ahead of me— which he did, and kept there. 

 I caught two or three more trout before reaching an alder 

 tangle, which utterly covered three-quarters of the lower 

 meadow. Giving up the brook here I went around the 

 alders, and on reaching the upper meadow, which had 

 been ditched, and all the old "holes" spoiled, I missed my 

 companion, but not for a long period. I had scarcely got 

 at the ditch, and found a deep spot in which I got another 

 trout, when by me he went again! either coming up 

 through the alders, or going round on the opposite side 

 from the corner I took. 



Then I let him go ahead, merely working up through 

 the meadow and the pastures beyond, until I reached a 

 sidehill, once covered with wood, down which the brook 

 came, and where there used to be some good holes. I 

 found the wood all cut off and the sidehills bare and open 

 to the sun, and came to anchor against a big stump, and 

 lighted my pipe. I had gone up the brook much further 

 than I intended, and missed the lunch which I forgot to 

 bring with me, but the pipe had to answer the purpose, 

 and after a good smoke I turned back over the ground 

 which the old chap had fished coming up, and getting 

 one or two more trout for the basket, and throwing back 

 some little ones, until I reached the upper meadow, when 

 by me came old "Rusticus" again like a race horse, and 

 took the lead and kept it, for I did not see him again. I 

 worked quietly down to where I started and then came 

 back to the river, 



As I reached the farmhouse at the landing, the farmer, 

 an old acquaintance of mine, came out as I sat down by 

 the spring for a drink, with the greeting of "What luck?" 

 "Not much," said I, "about a dozen." "Why," said he, 

 "that other man got thirty-five!" "All right, he ought 

 to, he has kept ahead of me all day," Meanwhile the 

 farmer opened my basket, which I had taken off at the 

 spring, and holding up his hands said, "Well! I'd rather 

 have your string than his, by a long chalk." My No. 1 

 Limerick and a big bait had secured me fifteen trout 

 from 7 to 9in. long, and a good breakfast, while the old 

 granger had been pocketing the fingerlings. Von W. 



NEW JERSEY COAST FISHING. 



THE season for hook and line fishing along the coast 

 of New Jersey is about over. Drum and sheepshead 

 fishing has been a comparative failure. A few years ago, 

 from the 10th of May to the 1st of June, from Barnegat 

 Inlet to Cape May and in the Delaware Bay, dram were 

 numerous and could readily be taken with the hook and 

 line, especially off Fishing Creek. There with an old 

 fisherman, Hugh Holmes, well known to many sportsmen, 

 we caught 28 drum in one day; then: weight were from 25 

 to 801bs., averaging about 401bs. The largest one weighed 

 1051bs. ; it was the largest I ever caught. This season very 

 few have been caught there or along the Jersey coast, 

 almost all have been caught in the surf. Formerly they 

 were numerous in the sounds. 



I have found only two kinds of drum along this coast, 

 the light colored drum which are the big kind, and the 

 small drum weighing from 10 to 151bs., sometimes called 

 sheepshead drum from having bars across them like 

 sheepshead. Whether they are young dram or a small race 

 1 cannot answer. I never found roe in them. There are 

 black drum which I have only found in the lagoons of 

 southern Florida. They are found mostly in the Mosquito 

 Lagoon, are jet black and appear very nasty and duty, 

 and are not used for food. 



The fish that are called red drum are not dram; they do 

 not make the drum sound from which drum takes its name ; 

 do not even croak or make a gutteral sound, nor do they 

 resemble a drum; but in shape they are more like the 

 striped bass. In Eastern Florida they are called channel 

 bass. They are really the spotted redtish of the South. 

 They are red on the back, white on the belly and ha ve from 

 one to three black spots on the butt of the tail and some- 

 times on the sides, resembling the spot on a peacock 

 feather. They have upper and lower rows of very fine 

 teeth and readily take fish bait, which is not the case with 

 the drum. I have caught them weighing from 2 to 501bs. 

 They give good sport with the rod and reel. 



Why drumfish has disappeared from the coast is a 

 question. Whether it is that there must be a change in 

 the waters or in the state of the bays where they used to 

 come in the season to spawn, or have taken some other 

 course more congenial to them or have been gobbled up 

 by the purse-net of the fish factory we cannot tell. I have 

 been informed that 25 tons of drumfish have been caught 

 at one haul by those nets off Little Egg Harbor, about 

 spawning time. If such netting has been continued the 

 parent fish must have been destroyed or there would be 

 some offspring; certainly no drumfish have been caught 

 in.those bays for some years. This may account for their 

 disappearance. The people living on the southern coast 

 of New Jersey will regret the disappearance of drum. Al- 

 though not the best fish, they are good and cheap food, 

 and salted down for winter use are much better eating 

 than snowballs or icicles. Purves. 

 Philadelphia. 



A RANGELEY LANDLOCKED SALMON. 



PHILADEDPHIA, Pa., Oct. 10.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: It may interest the readers of FOREST AND 

 Stream to learn that on Monday, Sept. 26, I took a land- 

 locked salmon in the Rangeley Lakes (near the end of the 

 lake at Green vale) which weighed 741bs,, a profile of 

 which I send herewith. I used an ordinary 7oz. fly-rod, 

 small linen line, 6ft. leader, dark Montreal, and a light- 

 colored fly, the latter being the drop, which he took in a 

 manner that showed that he meant business. 



I was alone in the boat with anchor out in about ten 

 feet of water. Near the stern of the boat was an old 

 stub which projected above the surface of the water, 

 which together with the anchor rope and shallow depth 

 of water, compelled me to land tbe fish without giving 

 him much line, although he called for more several times 

 in his frantic leaps to get clear of the difficulty he seemed 

 to be in. 



Knowing that I had him well fastened, I proceeded to 

 hoist anchor, in order, if possible, to give him more sea 

 room. Having got the anchor into the boat, I found the 

 wind was taking me toward shore, where the water was 

 even more shallow, and I was therefore obliged to land 

 my fish at once, which I proceeded to do safely. 



I do not know long I was in getting the salmon into 

 the boat, as 1 had no opportunity of measuring time after 

 he took the fly. Several gentlemen w^ere present, also a 

 lady, in company with her husband, and they may have 

 noted the time. 



This is said to be as large a salmon as was ever taken 

 from the Rangeley Lakes with fly. A fish of the same 

 size and kind was taken a> few days before in the Kenne- 

 bago Lake bj a young gentleman from Massachusetts, 

 whom I had the pleasure of meeting, and upon compari- 

 son of profiles of the fish, we concluded them to be of the 

 same age. 



This salmon made more business for me to attend to in 

 a short time than any fish ever did before. L. A. 



Mr. T. H. Ciiubb of Post Mills, Vt., manufacturer of 

 fishing rods, etc. , appeared in New York last week with 

 a fidl line of samples, the first time he has shown any in 

 twelve years. Mr. Chubb's specialty is the jobbing trade 

 though he makes fine goods for retail trade. His line of 

 samples comprised rods of all kinds, brass and wood 

 landing nets, brass rod trimmings, camp chairs, etc., etc. 

 Mr. Chubb has a large factory 120x32 with an ell 24x30, 

 beautifully located on the Onpompanusic River at Post 

 Mills, Vt. , employs about sixty hands and is not troubled 

 with a lack of orders. He is something of a politician, 

 having represented his district one term in the Legislature, 

 but his ambition does not lie in this direction. He prefers 

 to be known as Chubb, the rod maker, and we believe has 

 already attained fame in this direction^ 



