68 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



L'Feb. 18, 1890. 



prevailed in that school. He was an extremist, but we 

 doubt if in any authority from Walton to the present 

 date he could find one that would indorse such a herma- 

 phrodite as his horny-headed and red-bodied idol which so 

 frequently struck the water with anything but fleecy 

 down lightness. I always smiled when I saw it sailing 

 through the air, and as it fell with a vigorous spat upon 

 the silver ripples I am confident it must have given the 

 speckled denizens of the deep who haunt the rocky 

 crevice and around boulders lie some idra of an earth- 

 quake. It was an awakener, and just the thing, Ned 

 said, for rough water, in which it was most successful. 

 I advised him to be a little consistent in the present work 

 and turn out something that has correct form and sym- 

 metry, and not deal any more in monstrosities. He 

 promised, and completed a very attractive fly patterned 

 after one of his Nepigon favorites, but so fiery red as to 

 almost answer for a luminate. He omitted the horns, 

 and having no more beads for head or eyes, they were also 

 minus. I praised his artistic work, as it really deserved 

 it, and let up for the time being on his first creation. 

 While he was at work I repaired the damage to my 

 broken tip. I charred the wood in the ferrule, and, 

 slightly scraping the broken end, made a perfect fit to 

 the metal tube. The tip was about three inches shorter, 

 but just as good as ever for casting. 



Having got through with our work we called the half- 

 breeds to get the boat ready and then once more started 

 for the reef, not omitting to pass the boulders which had 

 always yielded us a trout. This time, however, we 

 caught nothing there, and then went direct to our des- 

 tination. Ned caught two trout of about 3ibs. each dur- 

 ing the afternoon, wnile I returned without a single fin, 

 much to the delight of the prophet Joe, who joyously de- 

 clared that his augury relative to "loss of first rise or fish 

 no luck," always held good. 



"Y.ou get no supper to-night," was the chaffing he gave 

 me on our reaching camp. I concluded to keep faith 

 with him after a somewhat questionable manner, and 

 told him that I would take half of my prospective break- 

 fast that evening. 



"White man too tricky; too smart for Indian," was the 

 response, and then he hurried off, muttering some diaboli- 

 cal jargon not at all complimentary to me I assure you. 



Early the next morning he came' to mv tent and handed 

 me the fly-book I had lost at Goulais Bay, stating that 

 an Indian who came over the evening previous had 

 found it at our last camping place. I was exceedingly 

 glad to recover it as it contained a fine assortment of 

 flies. I handed him a dollar to give to the finder and 

 then sought my blanket again for another nap. It was 

 useless, however, for the talk going on at the camp-fire 

 was entirely too animated to permit of further sleeping. 

 I arose at once, dressed, and on stepping from the tent 

 saw a huge fellow with an immense head covered with 

 dishevelled hair, yet not ill-shaped, and having the pic- 

 turesqueness of a granite boulder. He was the complete 

 fac simile of the untutored savage, the lion race, who 

 "sees God on clouds or bears him in the wind." 



Joe informed me that he was the one that had found 

 my fly-book, and had come over to spear sturgeon by 

 fire light. He was doubtless waiting for an invitation 

 to break bread with our boatmen, so T told them to give 

 him a good square meal, and that means to the Indian 

 "heap good things." Ned said he put away a good square 

 meal and no mistake, and that many more such meals on 

 the square would soon put us on short rations. 

 Cincinnati. Alex. Starbuck. 



SHEDDING OF TEETH IN FISHES. 



ALBION, Wis., Jan. 26.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 I'm after a little information relative to fish teeth. 

 Will you give us the benefit of your observations regard- 

 ing the "shedding of teeth ?" Do all fish lose their teeth, 

 and is the teething period annual or at shorter intervals? 

 The pickerel in Lake Koshkonong bite well, and on any 

 sort of minnow, until the middle of January, when there 

 is a great falling off in the catch for about a month, and 

 what few are hooked seem to have shunned the hard- 

 scaled bait, like young perch, and to have picked out the 

 softer sort*; and a look into their very open countenances 

 will reveal majbe three or four scattering teeth, and now 

 and then there is one whose toothless gums appear in- 

 flamed and swollen, suggesting soothing syrup and rubber 

 rings. Some fishermen claim that the pickerel "change" 

 teeth every month, but I think that a little doubtful. 

 The fishing referred to is through the ice, with the "Kosh- 

 konong reel" so aptly described by Mr. Hough a few 

 weeks ago. 4. a. B. 



The teeth are shed, or renewed, continually through- 

 out life in all fishes possessing these organs of nutrition 

 Huxley has classified the different kinds of teeth and 

 their mode of arrangement, and we will modify his classi- 

 fication to suit the case in point: 



1. Isolated teeth, more or less pointed, developed from 

 papillae of the mucous membrane, which do not become 

 inclosed in sacs. These teeth are frequently anchylosed 

 to the bone supporting them, but they are not imbedded 

 in sockets, nor are they replaced from beneath like hum an 

 teeth. The pickerel has teeth of this kind. Looking into 

 its mouth you will see teeth in various stages of develop- 

 ment, some in function and others ready to assume active 

 duties when the shedding process makes it necessary. 

 We have never seen any record of the time and frequency 

 of this renewal of teeth in the pickerel, and the observa- 

 tion of "A. A. B." is interesting and valuable. 



2. Isolated teeth, which become imbedded in sockets, 

 and are replaced by new teeth pushing up from below. 

 In the sheepshead, the scup and the sailors choice such 

 teeth are found, those of the sheepshead curiouslv resem- 

 bling human incisors. 



3. Isolated teeth imbedded in the substance of their 

 supporting bone. The teeth and the bone wear off in 

 front and are replaced by new teeth developed behind 

 the others. The parrot fish has in its pharynx an illustra- 

 tion of this kind and arrangement of teeth. 



4. Beak-like compound teeth attached to the tooth- 

 bearing bones of the jaws, the beak formed either by the 

 union of many separately developed teeth into one mass, 

 as in the parrot fish (Scarus), or by the coalescence of 

 broad lamellae, as in the rough swellfish (Tetrodon) and 

 the porcupine fish (Diodori). 



5. In the carp and other members of the minnow 

 family, as everybody knows, the mouth is toothless, but 

 the lower bones of the pharynx are provided with coni- 



cal and sometimes molar teeth in one or more series. 

 These teeth are to be looked for behind the gill-arches, 

 and the presence of loose, shed teeth often confuses the 

 student in his investigations. 



ANGLING NOTES. 



FROM all reports the tarpon fishing in Florida is better 

 this season than ever before. Word comes from Mr. 

 Frank L. Anthony, who, with Mr. Dudley Duyckinck, is 

 at Punfca Rassa, that the fish are plentiful. On Jan. 22 

 they caught two weighiug 101 and 1341bs., measuring, re- 

 spectively, 5ft. lOin. and 6ft Sin. "Using a new Vom Hofe 

 snell for an experiment, it required twenty minutes' 

 play to land the first fish, and twenty-five minutes for 

 the second one. The red grouper fishing is the best ever 

 known. 



Anent the advice given by our correspondent Percy- 

 val," issup of Jan. 2, respecting choice of flies for Yel- 

 lowstone Park waters, Messrs. Abbie & Inibrie say that 

 " the flies should be on No. 3 and 4 hooks. Gapt. Boutelle, 

 the superintendent, is a customer of ours, and we send 

 him considerable tackle. September is the crack month 

 for fishing there." 



The minnow trap recently mentioned by Mr. Hough 

 will be more fully described in a future number. 



Dr. Jas. A. Henshall writes from Cincinnati: " At our 

 winter meeting of the executive committee of the W. C. 

 A., on Jan. 13, in addition to some fine canoe sailing on 

 Ross Lake (near Cincinnati) a fine black bass of 21bs. was 

 caught by one of the gentlemen in attendance with min- 

 now bait. This was owing, of course, to the unusually 

 mild winter." 



Mr. J. E. Hulshizer, a popular member of the Produce 

 Exchange of this city and an enthusiastic angler, has a 

 split-bamboo fly-rod in his possession that is quite a curi- 

 osity. The butt is of ash, tapered below the reel-seat and 

 ending with a steel spike, like the old English rods. The 

 joint and tips are made of four sections of bamboo and 

 built round. This rod, which Mr. Hulshizer has now 

 owned for over thirty-five years, is still in fairly good 

 order, and is yet used by his son. It was made by Samuel 

 Phillippi, of Easton, Pa., who was, as far as known, the 

 first maker of split- bamboo rods. It was from seeing 

 these rods while in that section of the country on a fish- 

 ing trip that Messrs. Green and Murphy, of Newark, got 

 their first idea of split-bamboo rode. Samuel Phillippi 

 was a character in his day, a first-class hand with all 

 kinds of tools, and could make or repair anything that he 

 turned his hand to. An adept with the violin, as well as 

 with the fly-rod, not a dance could be given in that part 

 of the country without Sam Phillippi to lead the music. 

 Mr. Hulshizer states that when he was a boy his father 

 owned a mill on the Pohatcong Brook (Indian for trout 

 brook), which stream Sam was in the habit of fishing, 

 and that from him he acquired his great love of fly- 

 fishing. He saw one of these rods in Sam's workshoo, 

 which was a perfect museum in its way, and was not 

 happy until he managed to savp enough' to become the 

 owner of one. Messrs. Abbey & Imbrie also keep a couple 

 of these curious specimens of the first split-bamboo rods, 

 and will be happy to show them to any angler who will 

 take the trouble to call. 



A gentleman who has just returned from Florida in- 

 forms us that the fishing, particularly for channel bass 

 and cavalli, is first-class. The weather is unusually 

 warm— 90° in the shade— but the nights are cool and de- 

 lightful. 



Prof. Henry W. Smith, of Princeton, enjoyed good fly- 

 fishing last September in the smaller lakes about Moose- 

 head, but owing to the warm weather there was but little 

 fishing in Moosehead Lake. He says that he had great 

 luck with fluttering flies, using them as small as No. 8 

 and 10. One evening when there was no ah stirring and 

 the water was like a looking glass, he took thirty odd fish 

 of good size with these flies, when a companion could not 

 raise a single trout with the ordinary flies. 



THE LITTLE GIANT ROD. 



Edjlor Forest and Stream: 



In the article on "Fish of Florida Waters" in the special 

 Florida number of Jan. 9, I referred several times to the 

 "little giant rod," and promised to describe it in a subse- 

 quent number of Forest and Stream. The rod Avas 

 designed especially for the black bass fishing about the 

 "Bass Islands" of the western part of Lake Erie. 



The small mouthed bass of this iocalitv hibernate under 

 the numerous ledges and cavernous limestone reefs pro- 

 jecting from and lying between these islands; and when 

 the liass are coming out of their winter quarters in April 

 and May, and just before going into them in September 

 and October, the fishing is very good about these reefs 

 and ledges; but the bass disappear from them during the 

 summer months, being then absent on their spawning and 

 feeding grounds in other portions of the lake, or up the 

 streams. There are a great many anglers who frequent 

 Pelee, Kelly's, and the Bass Islands about Put in-Bay 

 every spring and fall for this reef-fishing. Some of them 

 are veterans in the sport, having made these semi-annual 

 pilgrimages for twenty-five or thirty years. 



As a rule, Lake Erie anglers use a very short, heavy 

 and stiff natural cane rod, and for this reason: The bass 

 lie close to the reefs and under the ledges, in water from 

 six to twenty feet in depth, and in order to get the bait 

 (minnow) down to the reef as soon as possible and to keep 

 it there, it is the custom to use very heavy sinkers, weigh- 

 ing from two to six or seven ounces, at the the end of the 

 line, the snelled hook being placed a foot or two above it, 

 after the manner using the "dipsey" lead on the east 

 coast. One or two artificial flies are often added to the 

 line above the baited hook. The heavy sinker is often 

 made to pound or strike on rocks, ostensiblv to attract the 

 attention of the bass. 



Of course it is possible to take bass on these reefs in the 

 usual way— with light rods and tackle and smaDest size 

 sinkers or swivels, and it is the method I employ— but it 

 is also certain that those who use the heavy sinkers catch 

 the most fish, and for this reason it is fair to presume 

 that this will always be the favorite method with Lake 

 Erie anglers. 



I spent the most of last summer and fall in the region 

 referred to, and at the urgent request of a number of my 

 angling friends I promised to design a suitable rod for 

 that peculiar style of fishing, in order to induce them to 

 discard the unsightly and inefficient natural cane rod of 

 large caliber and great weight, as usuallv employed. Ac- 

 cordingly, I have devised a modification of the standard 

 Henshall rod for this special fishing, which requires a 

 short, stiffish and springy rod of medium weight, in order 

 to manipulate so heavy a sinker. 



The rod is made in but two pieces (of equal length), 

 with but one joint, the latter being non-doweled, with 

 cylindrical ferrules. It can be constructed of split-bam- 

 boo throughout, or with ash butt and lance wood, green- 

 heart, or bethabara top. The entire length of rod is lift. , 

 and the weight 8 or 9 jz.. according to the material of 

 construction. 



. Tne specifications for an ash and lancewood rod weigh- 

 ing 8oz. are as follows: Extreme length, 7ft. 61n.; male 

 ferrule of joint, iiirj. diameter; extreme tip (of wood), 

 |m. diameter; length of grip (below reel) Bin.: length of 

 reel-seat, 4in. 



A rod made after the above specifications will prove 

 very handy and effective for Lake Erie bass fishing, be- 

 ing stiff and powerful enough to manipulate the heavy 

 sinker, and springy and pliant enough to kill the fish, 

 without being of greater weight than the standard Hen- 

 shall rod. It will also be found very effective for light 

 striped bass fishing, or for weakfish, blackfish and other 

 fishes of the east coast, or for most of the game fishes of 

 Florida, or wherever a heavy sinker or bait is required to 

 be cast from a free-running multiplying reel. 



Cincinnati, O. James A. HENSHALL. 



Notes on Massachusetts Fishes — What a warm 

 winter we are having 1 The temperature of the water 

 to day is 40'. There were in the harbor some schools of 

 mullet— both the white and the striped species. I caught 

 some of each and put them in the aquaria. There were 

 also some young menhaden— more than we have seen 

 here for two years. They were in schools at the surface. 

 I caught some and fed the codfish with them; they were 

 4 to 5m. long. Sperling, or young herring, have been 

 plentiful all winter; the harbor has been completely full 

 of them for about two weeks. I have caught quite a 

 number of two year-old cod in mv fyke. I have taken 

 them this winter for the first time. Small tautog have 

 been here during the entire winter. Sea fowl are still 

 absent; but there have been plenty of kittiwake gulls, 

 and they are here yet* In previous years they have left 

 our region about Dec. 1.— Vinal N. Edwards (Woods 

 Holl, Mass., Jan. 20. 



Fishery Economy in Natural Inland Waters 

 (Fischerei-Wirtschaftslehre der naliirlichen Binnenge- 

 wa>ser. Von Eduard August Schroeder, Dre.-den, 1889). 

 —Dr. Schroeder's hand book of fishery economy will be 

 found extremely valuable because of its great scope and 

 concise statements. Chief among its popular features are 

 the accounts of the fishes of Middle Europe which are the 

 objects of fisbculture and of the plants useful to the fish- 

 cultunst. The notes on the fishes refer to their common 

 names, distribution, spawning season and spawning 

 habits, food qualities, etc. As to the aquatic plants, he 

 gives the common and scientific names, shape and color 

 of flowers, time of blooming, method of propagation and 

 nature of habitat. 



That Florida Number.— Portland, Oregon, Jan 26.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: I desire to express my full 

 appreciation of "Supplement No. 8," Jan. 14. Your 

 "Fish of Florida Waters" is so truly delightful, and 

 shows such an earnest desire on Your part to acquaint 

 your angling readers with things of beauty about which 

 the great majority of them arc in ignorance, that all lov- 

 ers of the gentle art should hasten to manifest thm- grati- 

 tude, so that you may know and feel that such efforts are 

 not wasted.— S. H. G. 



Saratoga Lake. — Saratoga Springs, Feb. 2 —We 

 have no snow to speak of, but very fine ice. The lake 

 is covered with about lOin. of blue black clear ice, hard 

 and fine— bad for fishing. I am glad of that rest for the 

 fish.— Wash. 



Fishing in Florida Waters.- Auplers who intend visiting 

 Florida this season will find it to their ad vantage to inspect the 

 superior tackle for taipon and other fisheH. manufactured by 

 Thomas J. Conroy, 65 Fulton street, New York.— Adv. 



Forest and Stream, Box 2,833, N. Y. city, has des«ript1ve illus- 

 •rated circulars ot W. B. Leffln<well's book, "Wild Fowl Shoot- 

 ing." which will he mailed free on request. The book is nro- 

 r -imred liv "-M fm it." "Mloan." "Dick Swiveller." "Svbillene" »nd 

 other competent authorities to be the best treatise on the subject 

 °xtant. 



Names and Portraits o'e Birds, by Gurdon Tnimbuu. a 

 book particularly interesting to gunners, for bv its use they can 

 Wntity without uneaten all the Aoier^n cramp birds which 

 they may kill. Cloth. 230 pages, price $2.51). For sals by FoBjSst 

 and Stream. 



Mutual Life Insurance Compant. — The annual statement «f 

 tins company, published on another patje, shows the corporation 



t/l lin i-rt o rr\ ft »»<-i Hnnrirliin.i / 1 4- 1 II _ -wi • . . 



the surplus has increased seventeen huudred thousand dollars 

 and the receipts uearly five million dollars. There wa< paid to 

 policy holders during the year more than fifteen million dollars 

 an increase of nearly half a million over the payments of the vear 



$565,949,981. the as?et« more than Siae'.obu.oriu', "and" the 3 e^u'Dlus 

 nearly ten mfllions. Truly this is a great business.- Adv. 



Brief but TRUE.-In view of the fact that the following state- 

 ment is m harmony with what is appearing in gvery part of the 

 country respecting Humphreys' Veterinary Specifics, we regard it 

 a pleasing duty to place the same before so many of our r< aders as 

 have horses and eattle under their care. Huestis & Buestis. livery 

 stable proprietors, Wyandotte, Kan., in a letter write; "We have 

 hadgrtat success in treating every case of sickness Hmoug our 

 horses with these veterinary specifics, and c« nsider their book of 

 directions invaluable.-' Albert Hill, livery and hoarding stables 

 St. Paul, Minn., in a letter to the Humphreys' Medicine Co 

 wrtes^ "Have j n my stables from one hundred to one hundred 



the 

 in a 



cifics for twelve years, and find no cause for regret. "-(-Boston) 

 American Cultivator. . 1 



