Feb. 22, 1896,] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
157 
in my youth. He bad an English fly rod which on his 
death came into possession of my friend and relative 
Harry G. Sargent, who gave it to me. Compared with 
modern rods it was a cumbrous weapon, weighing perhaps 
a pound or more, 15ft. long and heavy enough for salmon. 
I took it West with me and killed many big pike and 
black bass with it. It was burned in the Chicago fire 
with all my tackle and guns. Dr. Betbune was *ne of my 
contemporary anglers. Arthur Benson, of whom yo 
speak, was a great sportsman and a worthy gentleman 
who passed his winters in Florida, where I have fished 
with him at Mosquito Inlet. He was troubled with gout 
and rheumatism, but would have himself carried by his 
boatman and placed in his boat, where he would fish all 
day for black bass in the St. John's Eiver. I have known 
him to go deer hunting and kill his game when he had to 
be lifted into the saddle. 
"I have the records of all my Clarke ancestry in Massa- 
chusetts, from 1620 down, six in number, and five of them 
were fishermen or sailors, probably both. I think that 
Cousin Isaac and I must have inherited our sporting tastes 
from an unole, Capt. A. F. Hull, as neither his father nor 
mine were sportsmen. Capt. Hull was an ardent angler. 
He was killed at the head of his company at Lundy's Lane 
in 1814 The last time I saw him he came to our house in 
Newton, bringing to my mother, who was his sister, a fine 
string af trout caught in the brook that ran through his 
father's farm. The next day he went to the front, and 
was killed not long after. I think the sight of those trotit 
made a fisherman of me, and I never rested till I had 
learned how to catch trout. My four brothers have all 
been afflicted with the same malady, which is more or less 
developed among all the Clarkes. Ever since I spent a 
day on the Nouvelle River in Canada, and made the best 
string of big trout that I ever killed , I have believed that 
the sea trout (Salmo canadensis), from their salmon-like 
traits and behavior, should have a name of its own, what- 
ever the professors may say. Since I came to Marietta, 
Ga., in 1879, I have been only once to Florida. My time 
is much occupied m gardening, which is the favorite pur- 
suit of old men. 
"My old guide, Pacetti, writes me from McEquito Inlet 
that since the building of a railroad to New Symrna (in 
1886) the region is infested with nets and seines and other 
, devices, which will before long depopulate the Florida 
waters. I think I shall try the east coast again next whi- 
ter, and then lay by rod and reel. Last August (1887) I 
went to Ashland, on Lake Superior, and finding no trout 
fishing there I went to Lake Gogebic, where I killed my 
share of black bass, ten or twelve of a morning for three 
days, by fishing early; but trout in the river would not 
take fly or bait. The weather was too hot, 87° at noon, 
and I became homesick, which was natural enough at tbe 
age of 81. So I returned to my own cool piazza and ham- 
mock. That was my la st outing. I killed my first salmon 
(24lbs.) in 1871. I was then aged 65. 
"My first writings on sporting topics were printed in 
the American Sporting Magazine, published in Baltimore 
in 1825 or so by John S. Skmner. The work is now rare. 
I had a bound copy which went up in the great fire. 
Afterward I was a contributor to Porter's Spirit of the 
Times under the pen name of Weston Fisher, and to its 
successor, Wilkes's Spii'it. Then came your Forest and 
Stream. In my youth all the angling books we had were 
Walton, Davy's "Salmonia," Prof. Wilson's delightful 
articles in old Blackwood, and a few old English books; 
nothing American until Frank Forrester began to instruct 
the ignorant natives in his ignorant manner, for he knew 
little or nothing about the fishes of the United States, 
that is, as they are now known from Maine to Florida, 
and from New York to Alaska. 
"I have heard old anglers express their doubts whether 
any trout in America ever weighed over 2lbs. I think I 
was among the first to write about the black bass, musca- 
longe and other Western forms. That was about 1848-9. 
Witti their opportunities American anglers ought to be 
the best in the world, and I think they soon will be, if 
they are not now. Compare the numbers of species of 
European game fishes and those of America: what Eng- 
lishman has the chance to try conclusions with a tarpon? 
But I find now that to read about the new and wonder- 
ful things is all that now remains for me, who am left 
'superfluous on the stage.' 
The foregoing memorabilia are collated from corre- 
spondence which covers the past seven or eight years 
only. The latest of these, taken chronologically, and 
dated Dec. 19, 1895, says: "I do not desire to be written 
up. I have done nothing to distinguish myself from 
others, except perhaps in living to be nearly 90 — and 
for this I deserve no credit, it being involuntary on my 
part — and I have no photograph with which to illustrate 
such a paper. Almost all of my old fishing companions 
have gone before me, and there are few, if any, who 
know me now." 
This is as pathetic as the plaint of Gen. Lew Wallace's 
"Prince of India." 
Such instances of consanguineous longevity are rare 
, indeed. Charles Hallock. 
Eel Bay and Lake of the Islands. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I.wish co second the suggestion of E. M. Hartley in the 
Forest and Stream of Feb. 8, as to the convenience and 
value of a canal through the isthmus between Eel Bay 
and the Lake of the Islands. I have no longer a personal 
interest in such a communication between these two por- 
tions of the same waters, for after visiting the 1,000 Islands 
for some thirty years I have becone a back number. But 
I have camped several seasons on the shores of each bay, 
and have tramped across the isthmus several times, in pre- 
ference to being rowed either to Clayton or Alexandria 
Bay, thus materially shortening the distance home, which 
is quite an object when night is coming on and you feel 
chill and stiff from a days, exposure while duck shooting. 
Twenty-five or thirty years ago Eel Bay and Lake of the 
Islands were two of the best locations for late ducking 
that I ever found between Cape Vincent and Chippeway 
Bay. When I get to thinking or writing of the delightful 
days and weeks I have spent among the 1,000 Islands, 
other things are forgotten. But to return to the canal. 
Judging from the current that runs between Wells and 
Hill islands, which forms the dividing line between the 
United States and Canada, there can be no question about 
a canal being kept free from filling up, but instead the 
continual flow would deepen and broader the channel. 
Iijrhe ground is low much of the way, so that the exca- 
vation would be comparatively inexpensive, compared 
with the advantage to boatmen, sportsmen and tourists. 
My recollection is that there would be but little if any 
rock cutting required in a nearly straight line from water 
to water. 
Canadian shippers could ud aided well afford to build a 
ship canal through this narrow neck of land, provided they 
could have the free use of it for their vessels up and down, 
as it would considerably shorten each trip and avoid several 
points of rather difficult if not dangerous navigation along 
their present route. Of course such a canal would be of 
but little value to American shippers, as they have a fairly 
good channel on their own side. But to summer residents 
and visitors of whatever nationality it would be a very 
convenient, useful and much valued improvememt. 
J. H. D. 
POCGBKEEPSIE, N. Y. 
NEW JERSEY POUND FISHING. 
Asbury Park, N. J., Feb. 13.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Under date of July 12, 1895, 1 said in your col- 
umns that the pound men would receive a setback unex-; 
pected and from a source unanticipated this coming win- 
ter. In relation to this I received many inquiries. To 
the man up a tree the prediction was an easy one. Here- 
tofore all efforts to secure legislation against that system 
have been by individual effort or through fish protective 
associations. On Tuesday our Commissioners introduced 
a bill more stringent than any that has yet been presented, 
and they will urge its passage. The measure provides a 
season in which it may be lawful to set pound nets within 
three miles of the coast, provided, however, that the 
owner or owners of such nets shall first secure a license 
from the Commissioners upon the payment of $100. That 
S. C. CLARKE. 
they shall furnish to them the distance of such projected 
pound to the nearest inlet and pound then erected or in 
course of erection. That the leader shall not begin at a 
point nearer the beach than 1,000ft. at low water mark. 
The meshes in the leader shall not be less than 4Jln., and 
those of the pocket or heart not less than 3iin. The 
pockets or hearts shall be let down at 12 o'clock noon on 
Saturdays and kept down continually until 12 o'clock 
noon of the following Monday, so that all fish may have 
ffee egress therefrom. 
To men who are at all familiar with pound fishing the 
importance of each of the foregoing provisions is appar- 
ent. That a wail should go up condemning the restric- 
tions was to be expected, and that the fight will be bitter 
there is no question, provided that it can be moved from 
the hands of the committee on game and fisheries in the 
lower House; that body presents an anomaly of having 
as its chairman a member who is largely interested in the 
pound fishery, and, like all the pound men, is strongly 
opposed to fish protection of any sort. However, we 
shall see what we shall see, and be thankful if we get 
any relief. 
• The history of pound fishing is black with evil. No- 
where has it been pursued unrestrictedly without leaving 
in its wake extermination of food fishes, and bringing 
poverty and consequent misery upon the poor fishermen 
who are unable to embark in the costly enterprise. Years 
ago the salmon rivers of the Pacific coast were placed 
under protection in just the manner prescribed in the 
section which provides that two days each week shall be 
given to free passage of all fish. 
It may not be generally known, but it is a fact never- 
theless, that quite a number of pompano have been taken 
in the pounds the past two seasons. It may be that with 
less net obstruction along our coast we might have this 
delicious fish with us as a perpetual summer visitor in the 
near future. Certainly it cannot be claimed for them 
that they are more of a tropical fish than is the Spanish 
mackerel, whose aversion to cool waters is well known. 
Summed up, the pound fishery is a gigantic trust or 
monopoly, trading in one of the most potential factors of 
life at all times, controlling the market price of the same 
and barring all poor men from their fair share of catch 
and profit. Leonard Hum. 
Game Laws in Brief. 
The &ame Laws in Brief, current edition, sold everywhere, has 
new game and fish laws for more than thirty of the States. It cover 8 
the entire country, is carefully prepared, and gives all that shooters 
nd anglers reauire. See advertisement. 
IHon, Emery D. Potter, Sr. 
Toledo, O., Feb. 14.— The death of the Hon. Emery D. 
Potter, Sr., which occurred at his home in this city on 
the morning of the 12th inst. , removes a striking and 
picturesque character from northwestern Ohio. A native 
of Rhode Island (born 1804), his early years were spent in 
Cooperstown, N. Y., where, under the tutelage of John 
A. Dix and Abner Cook, Jr., he was admitted to the bar. 
In 1834 he removed to Toledo, when what is now the city 
of that name was only a collection of semi-isolated vil- 
lages. His history is a long and varied record of public 
services — postmaster and collector of customs at Toledo, 
presiding judge of tbe thirteenth judicial district of Ohio, 
member of the State Senate and twice chosen to represent 
this district in Congress, he has left his monument in the 
statute books of both State and nation. 
During the travels incident to bis life on the judicial 
circuit in tbe early forties, Judge Potter had a wide ex- 
perience in the vicissitudes and hardships of pioneer fife, 
and no doubt developed the taste for outdoor sports which 
was always so strong a characteristic of his career. He 
was an enthusiastic lover of the rod and gun, a thorough 
sportsman in the best sense of the word, but he was more 
than this, he was a patient and intelligent student of the 
secrets of wild life everywhere, and in his later years no 
man in tbe State did more to develop and educate a 
proper public sentiment for the protection and propaga- 
tion of the fish and game in her borders. As a member 
of the Ohio Senate in 1873-75 he was largely instrumental 
in procuring the passage of the law providing for the 
propagation of food fishes at the expense of the State, and 
as superintendent of the Ohio hatcheries under that law 
he was mainly instrumental, through his personal man- 
agement, in making that policy a success. 
During the last few years Judge Potter has lived quietly 
at home, until quite recently maintaining his physical and 
mental faculties to a remarkable degree. He was not a 
demonstrative man , and rarely spoke or wrote of his knowl- 
edge of matters of wood and stream unless called out by 
some special issue. It is a matter of no small regret, now 
that he is gone, that some of the younger men had not 
beguiled him of the vast accumulation of early experi- 
ences and the lore culled from nature's books, which is 
now largely buried with him. Jay Beebe. 
New Berne's Fish Fair. 
The East Carolina Fish, Osyter, Game and Industrial 
Association will hold its ninth annual fair at New Berne 
from February 24 to 29 inclusive. This association has 
done much to promote diversified farming in Eastern 
North Carolina, and among its members are some of the 
most successful agriculturists, stock raisers and fruit grow- 
ers in the South. It has prepared a large premium list, 
which will doubtless insure an unusually extensive exhibit. 
THE STORY OF THE INDIAN.* 
This is the first volume in a series which is designed to 
tell the Story of the West by portraying its typical figures, 
the Indian, the explorer, the trapper, the soldier, the 
miner and the railroad builder. Some of these types 
have disappeared. The Story of the Indian is a Btory of 
the past; it ha3 to do with phases of life which belong to the 
old regime and a with people which no longer exists. For 
tbe Indian concerning whom one must write in such con- 
nection was the wild dweller of the plains, a being quite 
distinct from the reservation Indian of to-day. The his- 
torical character waiting to be pictured, and the one 
worthy to be pictured, was neither the unsubdued enemy 
of the frontier settler nor yet the dependent ward of the 
nation; but he was the primitive inhabitant of the plains, 
who lived, before the advent of the whites, in a country 
which was all his own, and who followed Indian life in 
Indian fashion. This is the type and this is the period of 
which we know least, but concerning which there is mani- 
fested a growing desire for knowledge. As the era of 
frontier warfare recedes, and as we outgrow the long 
time conventional attitude, which is one of hostility, 
toward the savage, we shall be the more interested to 
learn what manner of men they were who held the land 
before us, bow they lived, what motives controlled them, 
and what philosophy cheered them. 
To describe the North A.merican and to tell the story 
with life and spirit and realism were a task only for one 
who himself has known the Indian, who has had his 
part in the wild life of the plains, who has dwelt in the 
lodges, sat with the chiefs in council, joined in the buffalo 
hunt and gone with the war parties against the enemy. 
He must have studied the savage with the rare insight 
which comes of a sympathy rarer still. The Indians 
must have been very real to him, if he would make them 
real to us. 
The first thing to be said of the "Story of the Indian" 
is that it comes from the pen of one thus qualified to 
write it. Mr. Grinnell's acquaintance with the Pawnees, 
the Blackf eet and other tribes was begun when they were 
yet living as their fathers had lived before them the no- 
madic life of the plains; when they depended on the buf- 
falo for subsistence; when they went to war one tribe 
against another, and when in all essentials they were as 
yet the real Indians of the West. The acquaintance then 
begun and the friendship established have been continued 
through a quarter century. The period has been one of 
transition from the roving life of primitive days to 
the reservation system of the present. It has been 
a period of perplexities and of hardships not few 
for the savage in his slow progress toward civilization. 
During all this time the interest of Mr. Grinnell in his 
Indian friends has been constant and unwavering; on 
occasions more than one it has proved to be of practical 
advantage to them in a large way; so that to-day, by 
reason of what he has done, for them and in a measure 
not to be overestimated, these tribes are further advanced 
toward attainment of the civilized methods of self support. 
It would be needless to say that in addition to the fami- 
liarity which he has acquired with their ways, Mr. Grinnell 
possesses also the implicit confidence of the people whose 
* The Story ojb" the Indiau. By George Bird Grinnell, author of 
"Pawnee Hero Stories," "Blackfoot Lodge Tales," etc. The first 
volume in the Story of the West Series, edited by Ripley Hitchcoci, 
13mo. Cloth, gl.50. 
