184 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 3, 1893. 



pie, but this is not the case. The carters get as good or 

 better prices than they did when they depended on the 

 boat fisliermen for their supply. What cannot be sold at 

 established prices are thrown away rather than to have 

 the prices lowered, and so again the people suffer an im- 

 position. Barnegat Bay has suffered, perhaps, more keenly 

 than any other point. That lovely body of water has been 

 the delight of thousands of anglers and the support of 

 hundreds of families; but each year it has grown less pro- 

 ductive, until last year it ceased to exist so far as fish and 

 fishing were concerned, and all this was due to the exist- 

 ence of pounds and other illicit nets that guard its every 

 approach from the sea. The great body of men who have 

 hitherto earned a comfortable competence with their 

 boats have grown disheartened at thoughts of the future. 



So much from an economic view; and now from the 

 angler's standpoint. There is not a hotel on the whole 

 stretch of our coast but has during the season some dis- 

 ciples of Walton with theu- families as guests. They have 

 come here for yeai's, spent their money fi'eel}^ and enjoyed 

 themselves at "their favorite pastime. Mr. John Colfin, 

 ex-editor of the Asbury Park Journal, lately interviewed 

 the proprietors of our leading hotels on this subject, and 

 pi-ocured the names of and the amount of money left 

 with them annually b}'- the anglers; and was surprised to 

 find that each season would average $30,000. This does 

 not include the great majority who stop at boarding- 

 houses and cottages; these would easily figure as much 

 more. We also have the important item of bait, boats, 

 tackle, etc., which would swell the figures to the enor- 

 mous sum of at least .$75,000; and this is only om' own 

 town. The past two yeai-s have been, however, seasons 

 of discouragement, and many an old face will be missed 

 the coming season, owing to "the circumstances that they 

 are called upon to face, and will seek other waters where 

 pounds are unknown. This imless some change is made at 

 once. 



Ten years ago the entu-e coast from Seabright to Barne- 

 gat Inlet was a veritable paradise for the salt-water 

 angler. No better stretch of beach existed. From June 

 tm November the waters swarmed with scaly prizes. 

 Bluefish could be taken from the beach any day in pro- 

 fusion. Now the capture of one is regarded as a rare 

 stroke of good luck. Kingflsh, weakfish and other valu- 

 able varieties of game fishes crowded in every stream and 

 were ready for the hook on presentation; but these days 

 of pleasure are now known to memory only. 



The pound men argue that the existence of their nets 

 can have nothing to do with the present scarcity of striped 

 bass, as they are never caught. Their ai'gument is as 

 misleading on this as on all other questions, and the 

 abscence of the striped bass from the nets is easily under- 

 stood. The bass is endowed with more cunning than any 

 of his fellows and is too wily to be taken in any such 

 manner. He is at all times an inshore feeder, and what 

 angler has not seen the silvery gleam of his side as he 

 darts through the very undertow in pui-suit of his prey? 

 Meeting as he does the great succession of nets stretched 

 along the beach, it is small wonder that he takes himself 

 to waters and feeding grounds where he ^vill not encounter 

 what vmdoubtedly seems to him a snare and an in- 

 trusion. 



In view of all these facts, is it either right or consistent 

 that the public sit idly by and allow this wanton destruc- 

 tion to continue? Is it right that the masses shall be de- 

 prived in the f utiu-e of such excellent food so bountifully 

 supplied by our creator? Is it right that our thousands of 

 fishermen shall be driven from their homes, and from the 

 possibilities of earning an honest Hving? Is it right that 

 our hotel keepers shall be deprived of their legitimate 

 revenue? Is it right that the angler (to whom the hum of 

 the reel and the swirl of the rod are indescribable music) 

 shall be deprived of his innocent and glorious pastime? 

 and aU that the plethoric pui-ses of a few men shall be 

 swelled to enormous proportion. For mark you, the poor 

 man cannot enter into this business, as each poimd 

 represents many thousands of dollars in value. 



I know of no subject where economic importance is so 

 disregarded by our authorities. It is only to be explained 

 by ignorance "of actual facts. Could our lawmakers but 

 witness for one week the enormous w^aste persisted in, 

 the pound would be abolished, Leoxaed Htjlit, 



MORE ABOUT LEWISTON RESERVOIR. 



Pittsburg, Pa., Feb. 21, — The weather here is cold and 

 cutting, and as I want to go fishing, but ca^nnot on account 

 of it being against the law and the rivers fnll of ice, I ask 

 permission to take an old one of last year and invite your 

 readers to go along. From my home I have two ways to 

 go and those living along these lines can join me at the 

 different points. By taking the "Flyei-" on the Pittsburg 

 & Lake Erie R. R. at 8 o'clock A, M. and going to Cleve- 

 land, O. , and taking the Big Four R. R. to Belief ontaine, 

 and then to Huntsville, or by taking the Baltimore & Ohio 

 R, R. to Columbus and then the Big Four to Springfield 

 and to Huntsville, we can soon get to our gTounds. 



The place I propose to take you is the Lewiston Reser- 

 voir, situated four miles northweist of Huntsville, in 

 Logan county, O. Huntsville is the station, on the Big 

 Four R. R., and is the only railroad that reaches that 

 place and of necessity you must take it. But I must say, 

 for their credit, that they are reasonable in then- charges, 

 courteous and attentive to ah. their passengers, and 

 especially to fishjng parties. When we land at this vil- 

 lage we shall find Dick Floyd and Jesse Short, two livery 

 keepers, ready to haul us to the lake. The regular charge 

 is 50 cents each M^ay for passengei's, but these two gen- 

 tlemen always haul your camp equipage out and back 

 free of charge; so if you bring tents, etc., they wiU be 

 taken along. Before we go, however, let us stop at the 

 Judge's, who keeps the hotel, and get our dinner. In we 

 go and down the stairs we follow one another, until some 

 one cries out, "Oh, look at the fish;" and sure enough, 

 there, in the floor, the Judge has a hole some 6ft, long 

 by 4ft. wide and 16in. deep, with fine large 61b. black 

 bass and one large 101b. carp, besides smaller bass and 

 minnows. 



The judge is introduced all round and he shows us his 

 living wild geese decoys, trained to bring down all the V 

 shaped flock going either north or south, and says now, 

 boys, when you want them send me word and I will take 

 them out; but come, have a good warm dinner before you 

 go, and we sit down to the Judge's best and we soon 

 satisfy our hunger with good vituals from the Judge's 

 own table. There is nothing too gopd, he thinks, for the 



hunter and fisherman. But the sight of those bass gives 

 us the fever, so out we go to find Floyd and Shorts ready 

 with our conveyances. In we go and away we go over 

 dry, hard, level, smooth roads, bound for Lake Ridge. 



This place is on the eastern side of the water and is an 

 island containing 100 acres, and is owned by a Mr. 

 Spencer, but is in charge of his son-in-law, Mr. W. E, 

 Clarke, who is one of the most pleasant and courteous 

 gentlemen you would wish to meet. The hotel is run 

 this year by Messrs. Becht & Heinmann, formerly of 

 Columbus. In front is a lawn some 200ft. wide, and 

 then, on the edge of the bank is the boat house, contain- 

 ing ovei' 100 flat-bottomed dry and light running boats, 

 which hold two or more persons. In front of this hes 

 Indian Lake, one mile wide, and, I am cretUbly informed, 

 80ft. deep. I do know that in this lake the largest black 

 bass have been caught. Beyond this lies a number of 

 islands, whose shores are covered with stumps, logs, 

 brush, grass and debris of aU kinds, and beyond the ey« 

 beholds the stumpy field where once wild forest held 

 sAvay, but which fell under the jiioneers' axes. Then 

 comes the open water at the bulkhead, in which the out- 

 line a,nd netting fiends deplete these waters unmolested 

 and upon whose banks they find protection. In 1892 

 these two classes of people have settled down upon these 

 waters to destroy, before the law prevents them, the 

 finest black bass fishing in this country, and it seems no 

 one can or will stop them, I was at this place in April, 

 May, November and December, and dm-ing each visit I 

 saw these violations going on. I was told the warden 

 lived on the other side of the lake, but I never saw his 

 face, nor did I see any evidence of his attention to 

 destroying these appliances, although dozens of them 

 were lying high and diy in sight. 



It is no uncommon thing to get a boat at 25 cents j)er 

 day, minnows 25 cents per dozen, and to get your partner 

 in and spend the entire day in front of the hotel, and at 

 no time out of sight nor beyond one-quarter of a mile 

 away, ond catch from 25 to 50 'black bass and to eat your 

 meals when the beU rings in the hotel. IMr. Clarke has 

 live boxes for the use of the fishermen, with proper fast- 

 enings to keep it safe. 



A gxeat feature of this place among- the farmers is to 

 call themselves "guides," when you could not get lost or 

 get out of sight to save your soul, and you could not stray 

 away from the fishing gToimds if you tried. They are 

 more properly oarsmen, to row your boat if you wish to 

 fish, and t\iej come in handy for that purpose. 



The hotel is fitted with good clean beds and has plenty 

 of good, rich and weU-cooked food, and the charges are 

 only $1 per day. 



There will be this year some twenty cottages for those 

 who desire their own home comforts by themselves at a 

 mere nominal cost. My partner on one triji was Mr. O. 

 M. Bingham, a manager of one of our local business houses, 

 and he has the fever bad. We got over 100 bass and 

 brought home 75, which we displayed to our fi-iends and 

 then distributed them. 



We have arranged to go again, in larger numbers, and 

 all who wish to join us can do so, and be assured of a good 

 time. Besides the bass are the yeUow perch, simfish, 

 caUco bass (called by them the Lake Erie) and mud cat- 

 fish. Tm-tles are abundant and so are frogs, and in season 

 ducks cover the lakes. Adjoining Mr. Clarke's house is 

 the park, with deer, hare, squirrels, raccoons, monkeys 

 guinea pigs, white rats and white mice, etc. 



J. W. Hague, Fish AVarden, 



A SOCKDOLAGER. 



A DECroEDLY cosmopoUtan crowd we were. There was 

 Ryan from Virginia, Whitsett fi'om the Panhandle 

 country, and Cutcheon and myself from a lake port of 

 northern Michigan. Then there was Harvey and his 

 chum Inverarity, Inv'y we called him for short. Once ho 

 was introduced to a feUow in his full imposing title of 

 Duncan G. Inverarity, and the fellow just snorted and 

 said, "Oh, come off now; tell me the fellah's weal name," 

 Din'titmake Inv'y hot though! Well, he and Harvey 

 were from Seattle or Tacoma or some such place in the 

 furthest corner of the realm. There was only one senti- 

 ment in which we ah agreed and that it was which had 

 drawn us from the remotest isarts of our land to the com- 

 mon Mecca and bound us with tenderest ties to our Alma 

 Mater. 



Nothing could be named which was not excelled 

 or at least equalled in Washington, according to Inv'y and 

 Harvey. So when the talk turned to fish and fishing we 

 were at once assailed by the cliarapions of the Occident, 

 But Cut and I thought that we had seen some big fish our- 

 selves, and on fresh water too. For a time we succeeded 

 in holding uj) our end, but finally Harvey sprung a bender 

 that would have daunted any one less courageous or more 

 veracious than us. 



"Well, when the diver went down to look at the wreck 

 for the underwriter he found that shark in the hold of the 

 scliooner, swimming round as nice as anything. You see 

 the planks had sprung inwards when he collided and 

 jammed through, and the hole wasn't big enough to let 

 him out. They had to blow him up with dynamite," 



"Yes, some of those sharks certainly do come monstrous 

 big," said Cut, "But now you ought to come up our way 

 some vacation and let me show you what the lake stur- 

 geons are like. Djmamite wouldn't touch them. Now 

 there's that one that used to come into Manistee at times 

 and had to go into the upper barber to turn around; and 

 he wasn't extroardinary at all," and Cut puffed out a 

 couple of ' 'rings" from his corn-cob and appeared to be 

 calMng up old memories. "T remember well the first time 

 he came in. There's a wing bridge over the channel and 

 they didn't see him in time, and — well, you may seem sur 

 prised, but it wouldn't seem strange to one familiar with 

 Lake ]\Iichigan fish — ^but that sturgeon just lifted the 

 bridge off on his back. After that they kept a watch at 

 the Life Saving Station and used to telephone up to open 

 the bridge when the old snoozer crossed the bar. Every 

 one up there will tell you the same thing. But then that 

 is not very strange." 



"Oh yes, I've no doubt that's true," said Inv'y with an 

 air of languor. • 'But then mere size is nothing. It's sur- 

 prising to me how intelligent some fish ai'e. Now there 

 used to be a medium-sized whale around the part of Puget 

 Sound where I lived — don't know but Avhat it's there yet 

 —might have been about a 150ft. long, more or less, and 

 it got so used to the steamera that passed through the 

 channel there that it learned the rules of the road and 

 used tr* equirt water for signals in place Qf blowing a 



whistle. One blast for port, two for sta'board, and three 

 when it came to the bridge in the narrows." 



Our stock had declined ninety per cent, in a breath. 

 WMtsett thought that might be "a right smart fish," and 

 Ryan said it was time for a flag of truce. But not so. 

 Cut's fertile imagination was only receiving stimulus by 

 the yarns that smote me so heavily, and he woiild essay 

 once more to uphold the piscatorial honor of his native 

 State. 



"That's nothing — positively nothing at aU,"he drawled. 

 "Why up in our town there is a museum of natural 

 wonders that can discount that whale. You see they've 

 got an aquarium with a sword-fish in it. Well, twice 

 eveiy hour during the matinee a trainer comes out dressed 

 in a uniform and at his command that sword-fish goes 

 through the entire manual of arms." 



The champions of the land of the setting sun pulled 

 their hats down over their eyes and went out to get an 

 invigorator. HERBERT L. Haro:y. 



Manistee, MicWgan. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[if^'om a Staff Correiipondent.l 

 Beaver Dam Bullheads. 



Chicago, Feb. 18.— The last issue of Forest and Streak 

 contained mention of the bullhead flood now in progress 

 up in Wisconsin, not far from the scene of the gxeat Ke- 

 koskee bullhead upheaval years ago. Tbe conditions are 

 much the same as those of the a^azre Kekoskee, a shallow 

 mill pond full of fish, some open spring holes and a liard 

 winter. My only satisfaction is in seeing the Kekoskee 

 fish story perfectly confirmed, and my own reputation as 

 a strictly truthful man fully sustained. 



In this connection there fu isey an incident wluch carries 

 a curious query in one's niind. i t is. Can animals under- 

 stand human speech, or is there any method by which 

 they can gain a knowledge of what is going on in human 

 affairs? This question is the more natural at this point 

 because Santa Ana, the old MayviJIe horse which Hved on 

 bullheads in the hard Kekoskee av inter, has, without .any 

 agency of human sort, and ai^parently of his own free 

 wiU, deserted the town of Mayvilie and gone over to 

 Beaver Dam, where he has resumed the diet of bullheads 

 of which he earlier became so fond. Now, it seems absm-d 

 to suppose that a horse can read a newspaper, or if this 

 source of information be set aside, the question remains 

 whether or not Santa Ana heard or understood the talk 

 about the Beaver Dam output, and so made up his own 

 mind to move and go over to the land of jjlenty. Cer- 

 tainly the distance to Beaver Dam is too great for Santa 

 Ana to smeU, and no Beaver Dam horse has had any com- 

 munication with Santa Ana. As the old inn-keeper at 

 Mayvilie remarks, "Ach, dot Santy Anny, he vos doch ein 

 crade horse ah-etty!" 



It so happens that Mr. Percy Stono was up at Fond du 

 Lac last Friday attending a nieeting of the stockholders 

 of the Horicon Club, While there he saAv two sled-loads 

 of bullheads; with side boards on the boxes and heaped 

 fiill, wliich had come up from Beaver Dam, 60 miles 

 away. The bullheads were offered at 60 cents a bushel. 

 The Fond du Lac men, and indeed all of those present, 

 for they all live around Horicon and Beaver Dam way, 

 expressed regre^to Mr, Stone that be did not bring with 

 him the representative of Forest and Stream. This is a 

 regular btillhead revival, and every genuine Wisconsin 

 man is feeling good over the retm-n of the good old days. 

 They all a.ssured Mr. Stono that so many bullheads had 

 been taken out of Beaver Dam Lake in the past few 

 months that the water of the entire lake had fallen over 

 a foot. The Beaver Dam geysers have now been in action 

 for over six weeks. I trust' that after this no discredit 

 may be cast upon any fish story I may see fit to tell. Any 

 one must admit that a man is very sti-ong medicine who 

 can produce an irruption of bullheads, if necessary, to 

 pi'ove the truth of his assertions. 



Horicon Club. 



It is cause for congratulation all aroiuid to state that at 

 the Fond du Lac meeting of List Friday the stockholders 

 of Horicon Shooting Club, of Wisccjnsiu. transferred the 

 entire management of the club nnd the handling of the 

 reserved shares over to Mr. Percy Stone. Mr. St<:)ne will 

 next summer put up a club house exactly like that of the 

 Diana Club, at the opposite end of the great marsh, and 

 will also make an-angements for a good steward, etc., etc. 

 Mr. Stone, it will be borne in mind, was the man who 

 made the Diana Club what it is to-day. The most suffi- 

 cient comment on this is, that, as soon as the meeting was 

 over, the club shares stiffened up at once, and are noAv 

 held at a great advance over the market value of last 

 year. Mattel s on the vast and valuable Horicon Marsh are 

 now in admirable shape. 



Trout Have No Wings. 



If Mr. Fernandez, State fish warden of Wisconsin, will 

 go to the Pine River, one of the best sti-eams of the State 

 for trout, and will ascend it to a point about three miles 

 below flie mouth of the Poplar River, he will find a big 

 logging dam, over which no trout can go. This dam has 

 no fishway, as the laws of the State demand. There are 

 no trout in the Pine above this dam, so the logging men 

 say. Certainly there ought to be, yet trout have no wings. 

 These facts are brought me by Mr, 0. F. Norris, who has 

 been ui) looking for some good trout coimtry for us next 

 spring. 



Mr. Norris tells me that the snow in the Wisconsin 

 woods is 5ft. deep on the level, and so soft and fluffy that 

 snowshoes cannot be used. It is truly an awful winter 

 through the West, and the game can not fafl to suffer 

 sadly. E. Hough. 



175 Monroe Street, Chicago. 



Mussels Caught on a Hook. 



Chattanoooa, Tenn., Feb. 15.— Concerning the "Curi- 

 ous Cajjture of Mussels" in your edition of Feb, 9, While 

 trolling in Canadian lakes, notably in Cook's Bay, Lake 

 Simcoe and Lakes Rosseau and Nipissmg, it was an every- 

 day occuri-ence to catch mussels on tlie hue. I never 

 caught one on any bait. D. G. Charles. 



Sunapee Saibling. 



At the meeting ' of the 'Biological Section of the New 

 York Academy of Sciences, to be held March 13, Dr, J. D. 

 Quackenbos will read a paper "On the Snnapee Saibling," 

 a fourth New England variety of Salvelinus. 



