188 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 27, 1888, 



TWO GOOD MEN GONE WRONG. 



CHICAGO, ILL., Sept. 17.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 It is painful to record the lapse from rectitude oi 

 men who have loug stood high in the esteem of their fel- 

 low men, who have enjoyed to the fullest measure the 

 confidence of the business community in which they 

 have lived. More especially painful is it, and attended 

 with yet greater regret in the chronicling, when those 

 individuals have been not only business men, but also 

 sportsmen, of irreproachable standing. Yet duty to the 

 public cannot be foregone, and to the newspaper the most 

 lenient and forgiving there must be ever present the obli- 

 gation of presenting the facts to its clientage. 



Until very lately no man in Chicago was more univer- 

 sally respected than Mr. A. Montgomery Ward, of the 

 world-known firm of Montgomery Ward & Co. He stood 

 high in the esteem of all who met I dm , and was fairly 

 reverenced by his fellow sportsmen as a man of unim- 

 peachable veracity, integrity and honor. All of the 

 above could also, until lately, have been said of Mr. E. C. 

 Conk, the head of the popular sporting goods house of this 

 city, who has often been heard to say that he would give 

 anything in the world if he could only tell a lie like other 

 folks. Matters remained in this condition with these two 

 gentlemen until when, a few days ago, they returned 

 from a trip to their club grounds along the Kankakee, in 

 Indiana. They were still the two same innocent, light- 

 hearted members of society, marked, as above mentioned, 

 only by a strong tendency to ward things of gravity and 

 by a constitutional inability to struggle with the truth. 

 But immediately upon their return it was noticed that 

 something had gone amiss. The countenances of both 

 were overcast and troubled, and they looked at each other 

 nervously and guiltily, as if fearing the approach of some 

 avenging Nemesis. Mr. Ward was approached by a con- 

 fidential friend as he sat at his private desk, and in re- 

 sponse to an inquiry he told his story: 



"Mr. Cook and I had been out all day, and Ave hadn't 

 had very good luck on the chickens, and rot such very 

 good luck with the early ducks. We stepped lightly into 

 our gondola, and were soon gliding gently over the 

 waters of the Kankakee marsh, whose surface was just 

 rippled by the passing breeze. The mellow autumn sun 

 tinged all the scene with a glorious golden light, and over 

 all brooded the spirit of peace and content. 



"We were not out fishing, but as our gondola lightly 

 parted the silvery waves as we glided into a bayou of the 

 Kankakee, Mr. Cook remarked that if he had his tackle 

 along he would bet a hundred dollars he could catch a 

 string of fish. I replied that there could be no doubt of 

 it. but that unquestionably I could catch two to bis one. 

 This he denied. We argued the case as we rowed gently 

 on. 



"Suddenly, however, our attention was called to a rip- 

 pling in the' water near us. A large bass flung himself 

 bodily into our boat. We were surprised and delighted. 

 Much greater was our surprise when, after rowing for a 

 few yards further, another bass sprang lightly and joy- 

 ously into the gondola, scarcely touching the gunwale 

 as he came over. He was followed by another, and yet 

 others. Before long the air was filled with the lithe and 

 iridescent forms of leaping fish, whose shining scales 

 glitteied weirdly in the rays of the sinking sun. When 

 our gondola glided to the foot of the stair on our return, 

 we took out from the boat and held up to the gaze of our 

 admiring friends one hundred magnificent specimens of 

 stalwart bass and pickerel." 



"Great Scott!" exclaimed Mr. Ward's friend. 



"1 know you may seek to cast discredit upon my story," 

 replied he, "but 1 will bet five hundred dollars'— I 

 wouldn't like to bet less than that— that Cook and I can 

 go down there and do it over again." 



Mr. Ward's friend said nothing. "You'd better go and 

 ask Cook," said Mr. Ward. 



When Mr. Cook was found he was approached on the 

 subject delicately. Looking up, with a guileless smile 

 upon his innocent face, he spoke as follows: 



''Mr. Ward andlhadbeen out all day and we hadn't had 

 very good luck on the chickens, and not such very good 

 luck with the early ducks. We stepped lightly into our 

 bark " 



"It was a gondola, wasn't it?" 



"Who's telling this story? We stepped lightly into our 

 bark, and were soon gliding quietly over the waters of 

 Kankakee marsh." 



Mr. Cook told almost exactly the same story as Mr. 

 Ward, as may be seen. At the end he remarked, "I 

 know you may seek to cast discredit on my story, but I 

 will bet five hundred dollars — I wouldn't like to bet less 

 than that — that Ward and I can go down there and do it 

 over again." 



The evidence of both gentlemen coincided exactly. 

 They told precisely the same story. There was no sub- 

 verting their testimony by cross-examination. It came, 

 therefore, to be generally accepted as a fact, that one 

 hundred fish had jumped into the boat of these two gen- 

 tlemen. But only yesterday, by the merest accident, the 

 real truth became known. Mr. Cook came around to Mr. 

 Ward's place late in the afternoon, and was overheard 

 to say, in an injured tone of voice: 



"Say, 1 haven't seen that box of cigars yet." 



"What box of cigars?" 



"Oh, come now! ' None of that, Ward, I mean the box 

 I was to have, if I didn't say anything about your falling 

 head first out of the boat in six feet of water." 



Some one passed near the door just then, and Mr. 

 Ward was heard to say, in a firm, clear tone of voice, 

 "I sav. Cook, why don't you send that box of cigars 

 around?" 



'• What box?" asked Mr. Cook, getting very red in the 

 face. 



" Why. that box I was to have for keeping quiet about 

 you taking the header out of the boat, you know!" 



The two men rose to their feet and glared at each other, 



"I'll give the whole snap away!" said Mr. Cook in a 

 hard, cold tone of voice. 



"1 wish I may die if I don't make a public confession!" 

 said Mr, Ward, solemnly, 



A little later, Mr. Ward remarked to a friend, "It's 

 too bad about my friend Cook, He's telling an awful lie 

 about a lot of fish jumping into his boat, down in Indiana. 

 You know, Cook' took a header out of the boat, and 

 caught cold. I think it must have settled on his mind!" 



At about the same time Mr. Cook was heard to say to 

 a friend of his, "Have you heard that infernal yarn 

 Ward tells about a lot of fish jumping into his boat, 



down on the Kankakee? Poor Ward! He fell out of the 

 boat, you know, and he's never been quite right since!" 



There is probably a misunderstanding somewhpre, but 

 these are the facts. E, H. 



CHICAGO. 



C1HIOAGO, ill., Sept. 22.— So great has been the de- 

 J mand for fishing tackle, created by the unusually 

 fine fishing of this season in Michigan, Wisconsin and 

 other sections near by, that one of our largest sporting 

 goods dealers actually ran short of flies, and was unable 

 to supply the demands made in various departments of 

 his house. Everybody has been fishing and everybody 

 caught something. 



Mr. James Lightfoot, a gentleman 4!) years of age, and 

 a resident of Elgin, 111., has just died a slow and horrible 

 death of blood-poisoning, caused by a slight scratch re- 

 ceived from a fish fin not long since. 



Capt. Ramage started to-day after the bass at Silver 

 Lake, and will reach them. Mr. J. Clark, of the Wilkin- 

 son Co., goes again next week to Camp Lake, where he 

 last Saturday took nine good bass in a half day's fishing. 

 There have been big catches of bass all through the Fox 

 Lake system lately, especially just before the equinoctial 

 storm. A friend of Mr. Clark's, who fished later into the 

 evening, took twenty-seven fine bass. 



So far from being 'depleted, the Eagle waters have this 

 season been unusually prolific. Our fishermen returning 

 from those localities declare that the bass and mascallonge 

 fishing there this season was better than ever in their ex- 

 perience. 



Mr. J. M. McKay, better known as "Jimmie," an en- 

 thusiastic young sportsman of this city, has recently re- 

 turned from a two months' hunting trip in the North- 

 west, including the Sound country, and is delighted with 

 the sport he had. He in company with two friends 

 "packed it" into the woods 150 miles from the railway 

 and shot blacktail deer, antelope and mountain sheep. 



Sept. Mr. Paul Morton, of the Q road. Mr. Jay 

 Minion, his brother, Mr. W. B. Chatfield, Mr. Kirk, of 

 Kirk & Co., and two or three other friends of theirs, 

 start to-day in a special car for a grand sporting trip in 

 the Northwest, British Columbia, the Sound country, etc. 

 They will turn themselves entirely loose on the country, 

 live chiefly by hunting and fishing, and have one of the 

 largest times ever measured up to date. E. H. 



SOME BASS RECORDS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



If my friend W. W. Byington, the president of the 

 Anglers' Association of the St. Lawrence River, was not 

 such a modest fellow, he would have added to your last 

 week's record of bass catches, In a private letter to me 

 he says, "I spent seventeen days up the Bay of Quinte 

 with t)r. Louis. I never saw such bass fishing. We had 

 one that weighed olbs. 2oz. He was twenty-two inches 

 long. We had numerous ones that Aveighed 4Ubs. I 

 sent the Fort Orange Club here a barrel of the handsom- 

 est pastel that ever came to Albany. Then I fed the 

 whole community where we were fishing." H. S. C. 



If the following story is true New Jersey may claim 

 the honor of producing the largest black bass yet caught 

 in any of the Northern States. The New York Times has 

 the following: 



"Phillipsburg, N. J., Sept. 22. — The largest black bass 

 on record was caught in the Wallkill at this place yester- 

 day. It ran into the turbine wheel running March's mill 

 and stopped it. The wheel was taken out and the bass 

 was found to weigh a trifle over 9ibs." 



A Large Striped Bass. — Mr. W. F. Sibley, of New 

 York, was fishing in the Great Kills, last Saturday, for 

 striped bass. He used a light two-jointed chumming 

 rod and caught fast to a "big one." This is what he told 

 a Sun reporter: "Such plunging, such mad breaks, such 

 surging here and there, and such determination to foil all 

 efforts to subdue it, I never had the pleasure of seeing 

 and feeling hi the case of any striped bass I ever handled 

 before. I knew that this one must be an enormous fel- 

 low, but I hadn't the slightest idea of seeing what I did 

 see when after nearly half an hour's steady and wearying 

 work at the end of my rod I had tuckered my game out, 

 I reeled it, still stubborn and showing all the fight its 

 tired nature could provoke, and saw the length and 

 breadth and thickness of the bass I had been pitting my 

 skill against. As it came up alongside of the boat its great 

 head and broad sides were actually startling to me. I 

 had the monster bass contmered, but looking around in 

 the boat I discovered that I had no gaff hook. Here was 

 a pecarious situation. I knew by the look of the bass iu 

 the water that it would be the largest one on record to be 

 killed in any water within twenty miles of New York, if 

 I could only get it in the boat. There was only one way 

 to do it. Holding it close with a stiff line, I ran my hand 

 up along its great shoulder and slipped it beneath 'its im- 

 mense gill covering. That fish would have had to pull 

 me out of the boat and take me along with it if it had 

 made a break to get away, for I'd have clutched that gill 

 and held on from the Kills to Sandy Hook. But I had 

 too nearly exhausted the fish for it to make this break, 

 and, putting forth a good deal of strength, I lugged the 

 big fellow into the boat. It lacked just half an inch of 

 3ft. in length, and weighed a full lSIbs. The largest 

 striped bass on record caught within twenty miles of 

 New York before this one was the 12-pounder caught by 

 George Graham a year ago in the Great Kills. This one 

 of mine beats the record." 



Steel Rods.— St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 6. — Editor Forest 

 and Stream: In answer to "Percyval's" inquiry as to 

 steel rods, would like to give my experience. I used a 

 Horton tubular steel rod forty-two days trout fishing in 

 Bayfield county, Wisconsin, and seven days at Long- 

 Lake, in same county, for large fish. My experience is 

 that the rod is indestructible, as several falls over mine 

 failed to injure it; that for fishing in alders or thick 

 brush it is absolutely faultless. I know that I did not use | 

 one-tenth of the hooks on this trip I usually do. This 

 because it is so easy to unsnag your hook when fast. I 

 know by its use I have saved the Recording Angel a wo rid 

 of trouble. W. EL Woodward, Esq., of this city, an en- 

 thusiastic angler for large fish, used it one day at the 

 lake, and declared that his first business on his return to 

 St. Louis would be to purchase a similar rod.— Henry B. 

 Davis, 



CO-OPERATION IN FISH CULTURE. - II. 



BY JOHN H. BISSELL. 

 [Road before the American Fisheries Society.] 



A NOTHKR direction iu which co-operation can, I believe, 

 xx be advantageously employed is in a thorough examina- 

 tion of i uteri or 1 akes. By interior or in land lakes the dwellers 

 along the Great Lakes are wont to distinguish the smaller 

 bodies of water wholly within the boundaries of the several 

 States, in Michigan, the numbers, size, and natural condi- 

 tions of the inland lakes make them a considerable part of 

 the wafers we are called upon to care for. In the earlier 

 days of this work these lakes were planted with different 

 kinds of fishes, not with any special reference to their adapta- 

 bility to the fish planted, but because the Commission had 

 fish for that purpose, and in a general way the people in the 

 vicinity of the lakes wanted fish. I do not say this with the 

 design of casting any reflection upon t he authorities of those 

 days. The promiscuous planting of fish was then perfectly 

 natural; and our experience is based largely upon their mis- 

 takes as it is still more largely upon the notable success of 

 many of their experiments. As the years went by a very 

 natural curiosity arose among citizens and fishery authori- 

 ties to know what had been the result of those plants. Had 

 all failed? If so, why? If the fish planted had not lived 

 and prospered, would no others live in those waters? And, 

 finally, the question formulated itself, are these waters suit- 

 able for any fish? If so, what kind? 



There was but one way to answer these questions, and that 

 was to go and tiud out. And so we went (by proxy). In 

 1885 in a desultory kind of a way the work of examining the 

 lakes was begun. In 1886 a projier crew was organized, con- 

 sisting of three men, otie being in charge. They were pro- 

 vided with a gang of gill-nets having meshes of four differ- 

 ent sizes, thermometer's, a small drag or trawl, sounding 

 lines, fishing tackle, blank reports with printed instructions, 

 and a co nplete camping outfit. And so with fairly good 

 and practical results the lakes of three counties on the south- 

 ern border of the State were examined and reported on. For 

 a short time toward the end of summer a second crew was 

 sent out to examine some places where there were special 

 reasons for knowing the contents and capabilities of several 

 lakes. In 1887 further improvements were made in the out- 

 fit, and the crew increased to four. The addition of one man 

 secured more expeditious work. The result of these exami- 

 nations give the Michigan Commission, in permanent and 

 convenient form, not only the exact, hut the essential, size, 

 depth; character of bottom, quality of water, temperature, 

 inhabitants, kinds and quantities of food; in a word, what 

 fish are there, and the knowledge what can and ought to be 

 there in order to obtain the greatest productivenes of the 

 given waters. 



One characteristic, these examinations have lacked. They 

 afford an opportunity for scientific investigation, which 

 would add materially to their practical utility, and which 

 would certainly make them more complete from all points 

 of view. We have not the means to supply that want. The 

 United States Fish Commission has the meansandthe men. 

 We are discussing with the Commissioner, and the head of 

 the Department of Scientific Research of the United States 

 Fish Commission, a practicable method of co-cperation in 

 carrying on further examinations of Michigan lakes. Here 

 is a field well worth cultivating. If fishculturists are to do 

 anything for the interior lakes they must know as well as 

 possible* the conditions under which their efforts must be 

 tried. There are six or seven ^Northern States besides Mich- 

 igan, of which 1 have some knowledge, where such efforts 

 ought to he made. 



And while the lakes are being examined, why not the 

 streams and rivers? Our ex peri mee has proved that there 

 are huudreds of spring brooks in this State suitable for the 

 growth of speckled trout where that fish was not native. A 

 systematic examination of all streams would, in this State, 

 within a. few years, secure the planting of trout only in. 

 waters entirely adapted in temperature and food supply to 

 trout. It would in my judgment also result in our being 

 able to establish black bass in miles of water suitable for 

 tnis admirable game and food fish where now they are un- 

 known. Definite and comprehensive knowledge of the 

 rivers and streams of the State, xmt into the same perma- 

 nent and accessible form as the reports Michigan is getiing 

 of the lakes, is of importance just as the work on the lakes 

 is. 



Secondly, what cooperation can there be between State 

 B*isb Commissions? The most obvious points for coopera- 

 tion between States are where they border the same waters, 

 as on the Great Lakes, or have a common boundary on a 

 river — as the Ohio, Mississippi or Missouri. And here we 

 must touch upon the regulation of fisheries, a subject preg- 

 nant with difficulties. For the States bordering the Great 

 Lakes, a uniform system for every mile of the great waters 

 ought to be established. Not necessarily identical enact- 

 ments; for the waters of a single State, like Michigan, re- 

 quire a diversity of regulations to make complete for all its 

 waters the operation of a general system. The objects to be 

 sought by each State are the same, the means to reach these 

 objects will necessarily be somewhat modified by local con- 

 ditions. From our own experience, I assume that it is a 

 difficult thing to secure the passage of suitable laws by the 

 State Legislatures for the preservation of industrial fisher- 

 ies. We have no difficulty in obtaining fairly good laws for 

 the protection of game fish- but we have tried in vain thus 

 far to persuade the Legislature of this State to do tor the 

 fisheries of the Great Lakes what must be apparent to any 

 man of common sense, who gives the subject any attention, 

 is essential to preserve them 



I think the common judgment of men, who are entirely 

 disinterested, but careful observers of the past and present 

 condition of our fisheries, accords with that which is always 

 expressed by the most intelligent and candid of practical 

 fishermen and fish dealers, to the effect that our laws should 

 cover three vital points: 



First— To regulate the size of the meshes of nets, the times 

 and places of fishina. 



Second— The market size of the various valuable kinds of 

 fish. 



Third— The employment and authorization of competent 

 State officers to enforce the regulations and inspect the pro- 

 ducts being marketed; and there should be confided to the 

 chief officer discretionary power to suspend, within prescribed 

 limits, the regulation respecting the apparatus, when such 

 suspension will not result iu the destruction of immature 

 fish and may be an advantage to the fishermen. 



Regulations should be as general, as exact and as simple 

 as is compatible with efficiency, in order that they may not 

 be oppressive or obscure. Of course, eacb State must enact 

 its own laws. Each State has exclusive jurisdiction of its 

 waters to its boundary line; this on the Great Lakes is a 

 matter of great importance. It has many times Uceu sug- 

 gested by persons who bad not examined thoroughly the 

 question of jurisdiction, that Congress could better provide 

 for the regulation of the fisheries of the Great Lakes, because 

 these lakes bordered so many different States. This question 

 has been settled once for all by the Supreme Court of the 

 United States, so that whatever of advantage Federal legis- 

 lation on this subject may seem to offer, it is a legal and con- 

 stitutional impossibility, and must be dismissed. The States 

 must do all tuere is to oe done, and do it in their own sev- 

 eral ways. Thus far it has been badly done, or to speak 



