280 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 10, 1889. 



THE CH1TTE. 



CHITTE* FISHING IN MAURITIUS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Doubtless both you and your readers are well up in the 

 art of catching the finny tribes from a shark to a trout, 

 yet I think I have had experience with one species of 

 game fish which perhaps no other one of your readers 

 has ever brought to grass. During my long residence in 

 Mauritius, that little island in the Indian Ocean, so famed 

 from early times for its icthyological treasures, I had op- 

 portunities of being in at the death of most of the game 

 fish of both the salt and fresh waters of the region. 



Mauritius has many small rivers emptying into the sea, 

 and some of these contain fine fish, among them are two 

 species of Agonostoma (Nestis) the A. telfairi, and the 

 A. dobuloides of Gunther. The former is native in Mau- 

 ritius and the Comoro Islands, but the latter is indigenous 

 to the one island only. The two fish look somewhat 

 alike, but the dobuloides has thick lips, and a spine more 

 in the anal fin. Its habits are similar to those of our 

 trout, and it is one of the quickest fish known in its 

 movements, requiring great skill to hook and land it 

 safely. Some or these rivers run through the large sugar 

 plantations, and the Black River is especially noted for 

 its chitte. These fish are preserved by the proprietors of 

 the estates, and no one is allowed to take them except at 

 certain seasons of the year, prescribed by law, and then 

 only by permission of the owner. 



Once a year parties of ten or twelve gentlemen are in- 

 vited for a week's fishing, and these piscatorial receptions 

 are always looked forward to with pleasure by the disci- 

 ples of Izaak Walton. A day is fixed for the gathering 

 and the rendezvous announced. Few but expert fisher- 

 men are invited, for if a man cannot handle his rod and 

 reel adroitly and cast his fly in the exact spot every time, 

 he had better stay at home, as he will not capture a fish. 

 In many places the banks of the river are shaded by over- 

 hanging branches, under which the fish are fond ©f lying 

 in wait for any unwary fly that touches the water. Now 

 an old hand with the rod will bring out a chitte every 

 time from just such a place where a novice would only 

 entangle his line and scare the fish. 



I was many times invited to these parties, and always 

 accepted, and I can truly say that the times I have passed 

 with the sportsmen I met at these gatherings were among 

 the pleasantest of my life. We had English officers and 

 French gentlemen of leisure, all men of cultivated tastes 

 and delightful companions, and bent on having a good 

 time. The meeting generally takes place soon after day- 

 light, as the early morning is considered the best time to 

 fish. We assembled usually down stream, it being re- 

 garded as more sportsmanlike, and requiring more skill 

 to fish up stream, especially where the current is rapid, 

 with numerous cascades. Our haugar, or permanent 

 rendezvous for the week, was some miles from our start- 

 ing point, and there we were to eat, relate the incidents 

 of the day and sleep as best we might, and thither our 

 traps were forwarded on the heads of coolie servants. 



When our work fairly began, some of us took to the 

 shallow stream and others to the banks of the tributaries, 

 where deep holes and cascades were numerous. My 

 Companion was a jolly Scotchman and expert with rod 

 and reel, and he and I took to the water together, cau- 

 tiously casting our lines into every cascade and over the 

 deep holes. The second cast my friend made he cap- 

 tured a fish weighing 1-pbs. It requires great skill to 

 hold your fish after he has taken the fly, for his jaws are 

 very tender, and he is much more active than a trout. 

 He darts about with great force and energy to free him- 

 self, and to reel quickly would be disastrous. You must 

 give line and play with him sometimes for minutes till 

 he is exhausted, when he is easily taken from the hook. 

 I very soon found I was not casting my line properly; I 

 did not cast far enough; but when I reached 50ft., if the 

 cast was a good and clean one, without splashing when 

 touching the water, I always captured my fish. 



The chitte, like trout and other fish, is easily fright- 

 ened, and great care must be observed in this respect, for 

 if scared, he is off under the nearest boulder or hiding 

 place under the bank, and you see him no more. We 

 fished up stream for six or eight miles, and every careful 

 cast of the line was successful. 



At one spot we halted to light our pipes, and it was pro- 

 posed that we should see who could cast the furthest 

 when we resumed work. To my surprise the distance 

 was nearly equal, our lines were cast side by side fully 

 55ft. , striking the water together, and, still more singu- 

 lar, each hook soon had a fish attached, and a beauty, 

 too. We went on up stream, fishing as we felt inclined, 

 till we had nearly reached the haugar, and the sun was 

 high in the heavens. By this time the fish were shy and 

 scarce, but as we had nearly 301bs. between us, we felt 

 satisfied with our morning's work. When the sun grows 

 hot the chitte hides away and refuses the most tempting 

 bait. He dives into deep, shady holes, and under the 

 banks of the stream. Near the haugar was a very deep 

 hole by the side of an immense boulder, and it was full 

 of fish that had left the sunny stream for their noontide 

 rest. We tried for an hour, but could not induce one to 

 rise; but the experience and practice I gained in casting 

 repaid me for the trouble, and we reeled up, and pro- 

 ceeded to our home for the ensuing week. 



Some of our party had preceded us, and their catch 

 was already in the hands of a French cook when we 

 arrived at the haugar, and better still, we found a huge 

 bowl of champagne punch resting in a block of ice. 

 Strange as it may seem, ice is now extensively made in 

 Mauritius by a French process, and our good host had 

 sent some over in a mule cart, for which we were duly 

 thankful. While waiting for our breakfast and resting 

 after our labors, a Creole asked permission to show us 

 how his people caught chitte when they would not take 

 the fly. Our curiosity was aroused, for we did not think 

 it possible for such an active fish to be captured without 

 hook, line or net. One of the most expert men was 

 chosen, and he soon stripped, and having procured a large 

 pole was fully equipped for work. Placing one end of 

 the pole on the bottom of a pool, while two men held the 

 other end from the top of a boulder, under which the hole 

 was nearly ten feet deep, he then placed a split bamboo 

 over his nose and down he went hand over hand on the 

 pole. When well down he drove the fish under the 

 boulder, and actually caught them with his hands in the 

 crevices where they had sought shelter. As he caught 

 one he killed it by a nip with his teeth, and it was cer- 

 tainly a most successful but very unsportsmanlike way of 



* Pronounced shc.at. 



fishing. We forebade any further work of the kind, and 

 our host gave them warning of dire consequences should 

 they be found poaching. 



Our appetites were well sharpened by the time our chef 

 announced breakfast, and we were greatly surprised to 

 find that a sumptuous repast of native and imported 

 delicacies awaited us, with the choicest wines of France 

 and Germany at command. Most noticeable were the 

 dishes of chitte cooked in various ways. My beau-ideal 

 of a pan fish had always been a fresh, well-cooked Eng- 

 lish sole, but when I tasted the chitte I awarded it the palm 

 before any fish I am acquainted with. As the sole is a 

 salt-water fish, perhaps the comparison is not fair, but I 

 do not hesitate to aver that the chitte is superior to our 

 trout. Both alike must be cooked as soon as caught to 

 be perfection, as they soon soften, but when taken from 

 a cold mountain stream both are delicious eating. I say 

 the chitte is superior from its peculiar flavor, and I have 

 heard the question discussed by Scotch and English 

 sportsmen, and they usually gave the chitte the prefer- 

 ence. 



After our sumptuous repast was over I was curious to 

 know how the fish I had eaten were cooked. M. Jean 

 Louis, our chef, informed me of several ways of serving 

 them, but theone I liked best was as follows: After the 

 fish was cleaned it was carefully wrapped in white paper 

 with a strip of bacon, and broiled to a turn, over a quick 

 fire. I heard many encomiums on the fish, but certainly 

 did not expect my Scotch friend to pronounce so em- 

 phatically that "it beat Sprey trout." 



Our hangar was a building about 20ft. square, one 

 story, open at the sides, with two long tables in the mid- 

 dle which were used as dining tables by day and served 

 for the "downy" couch of the poor tired fishermen at 

 night. The situation was most romantic, as it was in a 

 grand gorge of the Black River Mountains. The valley 

 we were in was once a living, very active crater, but the 

 revolutions of ages have partially filled it up with 

 detached rocks and debris. When not inclined for fish- 

 ing, we were tempted to ramble through the lovely 

 scenery. We were not far from some giant cascades, and 

 nature had covered every rocky ridge with a vesture of 

 luxuriant vegetation. Ferns, orchids and other varieties 

 dear to the botanist, were to be had for the hunting, so 

 little of our time was unoccupied. Near by was a coffee 

 plantation, in full bloom, filling the air with fragrance, 

 and as the proprietor had planted rows of lime trees to 

 screen the delicate plants from the prevailing winds, we 

 had abundance of this most refreshing fruit. There were 

 tall trees in our neighborhood, inhabited by a small 

 species of monkey, so disgusted that their haunts should 

 be invaded by the footsteps of man, that we were often 

 startled by what we took to be shrieks of defiance. At 

 night our slumbers were at times disturbed by the pecu- 

 liar cries of the flying foxes (Pteropus edillis), which 

 resemble the yelp of a lap dog. We killed one that 

 measured 8ft. 4m. from tip to tip of his wings. He was 

 Foon converted into curry by our Creole servants, who 

 preferred it to fish. After a week of unalloyed pleasure 

 in this invigorating mountain ah", with companions all 

 we could wish, we returned, far better able to bear the 

 discomforts of the heated city of Port Louis than when 

 we left it. Nicholas Pike. 



The Waterproof Myth.— Most men believe that there 

 exists a kind of leather which either is or may be made 

 to be impermeable to water. Clad in these waterproof 

 boots the sanguine man dreams that he would be able to 

 stand for hours in a trout stream, or to walk miles over a 

 road ankle-deep with mud, or even to get on or off a 

 street railway car in winter and still keep his feet dry. 

 From time to time he buys a pair of boots which he thinks 

 are waterproof, and when he finds that they admit water 

 almost as freely as if they were made of paper he always 

 imputes the fact to some alleged oversight of the boot- 

 maker in leaving a small hole through which the water 

 enters, and his faith in the existence of waterproof boots 

 remains unshaken. There are very many men, especially 

 among those whose regard for veracity has been weak- 

 ened by habitual fishing, who will claim to have owned 

 at some remote period a pair of waterproof boots. A 

 man of this kind is not infrequently heard to say, "I had 

 a pair of boots about ten years ago that you couldn't wet 

 through. Why! I've stood for six or eight hours up to 

 the tops of these boots in water and never had a drop 

 come through them." It is a curious fact that assertions 

 of this kind, if examined, are uniformly found to be 

 wholly false. The tendency to make them, while almost 

 invariably found among fishermen, is not confined ex- 

 clusively to that class, and it is not easily explicable by 

 experts in ethics. It is, perhaps, worth noticing that the 

 story is always the same. The teller never claims to have 

 owned more than one pair of waterproof boots, and he 

 never takes the trouble to explain why he has not always 

 bought boots of the same quality and from the same 

 maker. He must know that scarcely any one believes his 

 marvelous tale, and yet some strange impulse urges him 

 on to repeat it, and so blacken his soul with useless and 

 aimless per jury.— Funny Man of the New York Times, 



Galveston, Tex., Sept. 24.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Fishing in the Gulf waters here is excellent at this season of 

 the year. Large catches «f sheepshead, Spanish mackerel, 

 channel bass and sea trout especially, are being made, 

 and red snapper and grouper can be had on the banks, a 

 few miles out, by any who see fit to go after them. The 

 great silver king, the tarpon, is also plentiful in Galves- 

 ton Bay, though, so far as I can learn, no one has ever 

 taken one here on a rod and reel or even attempted to do 

 so. Lines are often lost to them, however, by persons 

 angling for the smaller species, and the market fishermen 

 occasionally get them in their nets. The uninitiated 

 have a good deal of fun with the tarpon in these waters by 

 baiting shark tackle with live mullet, attaching it to a cask 

 and setting it afloat. Sometimes a number of these floats 

 are put out at once and it is said to be no uncommon 

 thing to see three or four of them sailing round the bay 

 at once. A boat follows them up and when the tarpon or 

 shark, as the case may be, tires himself out he is hauled 

 up to the boat by main force and slaughtered. The tar- 

 pon will, no doubt, soon be proceeded against by some 

 of our Western and Southwestern sportsmen, for this 

 point is nearer to many of them than the Florida ports 

 which have heretofore been the field for this class of 

 sport. I sorely regret that I did not bring my tackle 

 with me and devote a day or two to the tarpon while 

 here, but shall see them later.— G. O. Shields. 



Pumpkin Seeds.— The Washington Post pokes a bit of 

 fun in this wise: "A private letter from Peoria, 111., in- 

 forms us that Mr. Eugene Baldwin, the gifted editor of 

 the Journal, while fishing in Spoon River recently, 

 caught forty eight pumpkin seeds in less than thirty 

 minutes. We deem it to be our patriotic duty to inform 

 the esteemed Secretary of Agriculture of this wonderful 

 catch. We know very little about pumpkins, but we 

 should think that a river which yields this remarkable 

 number of seeds might be cultivated with profit. We 

 leave the matter in Secretary Rusk's hands, quite assured 

 that he will know what action is wisest to take in the 

 matter." "Pumpkin seeds" are to be found in large 

 numbei-s in most of our eastern rivers and ponds. They 

 are the small boy's delight, and have proved a source of 

 enjoyment for years to the older boys as well as the 

 younger. Drs. Gill, Jordan and Gilbert and other writ- 

 ers tell us that the pumpkin seeds found in the waters 

 build nests which they defend with great courage, and 

 that they are carnivorous, voracious, gamy, and are 

 valued as food. 



A Channel Bass at Fire Island,— New York, Oct. 7. 

 — One of our customers, and in fact a personal friend of 

 mine, Mr. H, C. Wilson, of 28 Beekman street, and an 

 enthusiastic angler, was fishing Saturday for bluefish 

 outside of Fire Island with a light bait-rod and about 

 150yds. of our No. 9 Cutty hunk line, when he struck a 

 very heavy fish. The catboat was pitching heavily and 

 it was quite a task to play the fish; in fact part of the 

 time he had to be held from falling overboard. After a 

 stubborn fight of three-quarters of an hour he managed 

 to get him near enough to the boat to see that it was a 

 large channel bass, or spot, a stray wanderer from the 

 south. Not having a landing net or gaff, it was a diffi- 

 cult matter to land him, but Capt. Phelps, by lying at 

 full length on the deck, managed to get his hands in the 

 gills, and with the assistance of all hands lifted him into 

 the boat. It was in fine condition and weighed 35 Hb&. 

 Mr. Wilson says the fish attracted a great crowd when 

 he got back to" the hotel, and he felt that he had a very 

 exciting time.— W Holberton. 



The Fisherman's Jug.— "G. A L." sends us a copy of 

 the child's paper Little Helpers, which is published by 

 the Women's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society at Bos- 

 ton. It has a very pretty little story of a New Jersey 

 Sunday school's "missionary jug," which was deeoratad 

 with a speckled trout rising to a fly; and was left for the 

 season at Edington Park, in the Adirondacks, where 

 visiting anglers were invited to drop into it their contri- 

 butions. The jug took in $58 the first season, and was 

 bid off by one of the fishermen for 810. 25; the second year 

 it took in $100 and was again sold, this time for $100 

 the total earned being $268.25. It is needless to add 

 that the New Jersey Sunday school scholars have an 

 exalted opinion of Adirondack fishermen. 



A Large Lafayette Fish. — New York, Oct. 1. — I 

 found a few days ago at my fishmonger's a Lafayette 

 fish of such extraordinary size that I think it worthy of 

 record. I neglected to have it weighed before it was 

 cleaned, but the next morning the weight, dressed, was 

 13oz., so that the fish when whole and fresh from the 

 water must have weighed very nearly, if not quite, a 

 pound. Prof. Baird, as quoted in Goode's "American 

 Fishes," says " the usual size in New Jersey is about 6in., 

 although occasionally measuring lOin." I have never 

 caught any larger than 7in., nor do I remember seeing 

 any in the markets longer than that. These nice little 

 fish have been very scarce this season in New York — E. 

 Titus, Jr. 



