April 4, 1896.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
£79 
fish food the larvae cases can be gathered in the spring, 
or the pupa cases, and placed in a bucket of water and 
carried to the stream or pond it is desired to stock. The 
cases are abundant wherever found, and it should not be 
a difficult matter to gather several hundred in a short 
time, the more the better, for this purpose. I imagine 
the eggs could be transferred successfully, as well as the 
larvae. A. N. Cheney. 
BARRACOUDA AND BONITO. 
San Diego, CaL, March 20. — Among the many guests 
from many climes idling away their time and enjoying 
the mere fact of living iu the delightful climate of south- 
ern California in winter, as represented by San Diego and 
its comparatively new rival, Del Coronado, occupying a 
spit just across and between the city and the ocean, were 
and are a goodly proportion of anglers, and their impa- 
tience for the promised coming fishing has been but 
slightly allayed by the few little perch and surf fish which 
occasionally reward an hour's work on the Coronado pier. 
It has been increased by the pictures shown us and sold 
to us of big jewfish and bass whose weights run up into 
the hundreds, and whose dimensions dwarf those of the 
man photographed with them, all taken lrom the same 
pier that furnishes to us but the little ones and snags. 
And the stories too — such, for instance, as of over 100 
yellow-tails, many from lOlbs. to 30, taken in one day off 
the same pier and with the fly — are aggravating. 
So when a few days ago the news came that the barra- 
couda were running outside, there was a general furbish- 
ing up of spoons and getting together tackle for a try at 
them. 
Outside is but a short way off as the bird flies, but as the 
fish or boat swims about eight or nine miles. Sail boats, 
row boats, naphtha, steam and gasoline launches came 
quickly in demand, and it soon became the fad to go troll- 
ing, and every evening the space on the floor of the lobby 
of the Coronado, which for months had been devoted to 
exhibition of the results of day's work by sundry guests 
among the quail, ducks and rabbits, was covered with 
fish, giving much entertainment and considerable per- 
fume to the guests who gathered around. 
The trip out around Point Lima,to and past the kelp bed, 
which fringes the coast at a mile or two of distance, then 
along its outside edge, was seldom without returns; from 
Point Lima to the kelp beds, bass abounded and struck 
treely, while a boat anchored amid the kelp could secure 
more than any not very avaricious man could require still- 
fishing. 
While I am told of and am shown pictures of bass up 
to 200lbs., the largest I've seen was about 10 or 121bs. 
Outside the kelp the barracoudas one day, bonitos an- 
other, predominate, and passing through the schools (in- 
dicated as in case of mackerel by the gulls) every jig is 
apt to have one on, and we hope it's a barracouda, for 
compared with the bonito — which on bills of fare and by 
boatmen is called "Spanish mackerel" — it is a good fish. 
The market prices show this. While the barracouda 
brings 4 cents a pound, the bonito is hard to get rid of at 
1 cent. The bass ranks with the barracouda, and the 
beautiful yellow-tail, of which a few are being caught, 
rank with the bonito — that is, for a table fish; for catch- 
ing he is superior, for already, although early season, none 
less than say 15lbs. have caught on, while of bonito and 
barracouda lOlbs. is about the outside limit. 
It is said that the fishing is much earlier than usual this 
year; that such luck as we now have should not be ex- 
pected before May. 
There is another fish that we catch in the kelp, locally 
called and on the bills of fare sheepshead, which it by 
no means is, although it has jaws and teeth like the 
sheepshead. This fish I don't know; it is dark brown, 
with a wide band of red encircling it. Piseco. 
THE "BONE FISH" OF BISCAYNE BAY. 
For the past two winters, skillful fishermen among the 
Northern tourists, whom I knew personally or by repu- 
tation among mutual acquaintances, have been reporting 
with enthusiasm the discovery in Biscay ne Bay of a new 
game fish which is to surpass all the other ministers to 
piscatorial amusements. Some went so far as to say that 
the tarpon is superseded as the king of fish ; as expressed 
by one of them who kills annually more than fitty tar- 
pon, "the tarpon is not in it." 
Such strong statements greatly excited my curiosity, 
and meeting Mrs. Stagg, of Kentucky, who holds the 
belt — or cestus, being a lady — upon tarpon, and she re- 
peating again her story (not from her own experience) of 
last year, and being inflamed by this story of the "new 
planet which swims within our ken," I took a day at Bis- 
cayne Bay, returning to-night with three of the fish. 
The bone fish is new to me, and so far as I can ascertain 
is taken only in Florida, at Biscayne Bay and probably 
southward, though as to the latter fact I have no informa- 
tion. A guide did tell me that it is abundant in Cuba, 
where it is called what he pronounced leetha, or "the 
swift." 
The three specimens taken by my friend and myself 
weighed (by estimation) 6, 5 and 4lbs. respectively. The 
bait is surf bugs or sand fleas such as are used occasion- 
ally on the Jersey coast for sheepshead when that capri- 
cious fish declines his ordinary diet. They sre taken in 
the same manner as there, by a scoop net, or digging 
with the fingers, when the breaker recedes. 
The cast — two hooks No. 7 O'Shaughnessy, above a small 
sinker and 1ft. apart — is made 70ft. or more from the 
boat, along a sand bar, on the rising tide. Three inches of 
water on the top of the bar are preferable, but the day I 
was fishing was at the tail end of a •■norther," and I had 
to fish the shallow channels next the bar in 8 or 4ft. of 
water. The strike is a slow nibble or mumble, and it re- 
quires quickness and discretion to hook the fish. But 
when ho is hooked, which is by a sudden, slight motion 
of the wrist, the aspect of the contest changes from 
apathy to fierce activity. There is a lightning-like run of 
perhaps 100yds., then a return -nearly to the boat, then an 
equally extensive run whicn cannot be checked, and then 
zigzag rushes and flourishes here, there and everywhere 
until the fish is exhausted, and finally lifted into the boat 
by the line — no gaffing or other ceremonial; there is no 
leaping or jumping — all honest fishwork, below the sur- 
face and in his own element. I have taken small-mouth 
bass of similar weight and length, and brook trout not so 
large, and they simply do not compare with this fighter. 
There is no fish (of his class) which can be named with 
him. Comparison with the tarpon is absurd. They are 
not in the same category unless it be in beauty. It would 
be like comparing snipe shooting with hunting deer. 
The fish is round barreled and heavy for its size. It 
has a pointed snout, with mouth under its nose like the 
hake, which is most erroneously called by New York fish- 
ermen kingfish. Its head has no scales, but iR covered by 
a shining silver epidermis. The eye is black and quite 
large. The scales are large and are closely set on the 
body, and look like a network of closely compacted silver 
rings. A most gleaming fish! The back shades from 
light to bright ultramarine. It is certainly one of the 
prettiest as well as the most graceful of fiBh. 
The first question asked as to a fish, "Is it good to eat?" 
This one is very good to eat. It has the disadvantage of 
the best of all fish for the table— the shad— of being full 
of bones, but the flesh in the intervals is delicious. I like 
it better than the pompano, and next after the shad. 
Now is this fish a new discovery? Mr. Hulings, who 
spends his winter outing, pursuing them with occasional 
lapses into tarpon fishing for variety and exercise, tells 
me that he took the pains last year to stop over in Wash- 
ington to consult the Fish Commissioners, and all the 
satisfaction he received was a disquisition verbally upon 
the lady (or "bony") fish very common in Florida waters 
and in no way related to this fish. Again, Mr. McFer- 
rand, of Louisville, who claims this fish to be superior to 
the tarpon, reported to the same commission and received 
an elaborate (written) description of the same, lady fish. 
What is this fish, and how is it to be classified? 
F. S. I. C 
BLUE LOBSTERS AND BAHIA QUAIL. 
Secretary Frederick F. Dimick, of the Boston Fish 
Bureau, was presented with a blue lobster two or three 
months ago. The crustacean was taken by a lobster 
fisherman in Boston harbor and is of a beautiful indigo 
blue color. Mr. Dimick had it kept alive in a lobster tank 
till a day or two ago, when it died. It retained its 
brilliant blue color for several days after death. It at- 
tracted considerable attention among lobster fishermen 
and others. But investigation proves that it is not so 
much of a wonder after all. Francis Hobart Herrick, Ph. 
D., in his "Lobsters of America," from the Government 
Printing Office, 1895, mentions blue, black, red and gray 
lobsters, with great variations in color shadings, spots, 
mottles and blendings. He attributes the variations in 
color to light and other conditions acting on the pigments 
of the lobster skin. In 1893 J. W. Savage received in 
Boston, from Nova Scotia, about 100 blue lobsters. That 
gentleman said at the time that they were of a beautiful 
blue: "As blue as bluejays." The same year A. P. Green- 
leaf-received a large number of blue lobsters from Nova 
Scotia. 
A big catch of pickerel was made at Hurd's Pond, in 
Way land, the other day. A Mr. Irwin, of Waltham, put 
in fifteen lines and caught in one day a bushel basket full 
of fish. Some were several pounds in weight. He found 
the ice over a foot thick, though it was past March 20, a 
condition unheard of at that pond. The legal opening 
day on trout in this State, Wednesday, April 1, promises, 
at this writing, to be "much of a failure." The streams 
are not open, and the ponds are locked in ice, as noted 
above. Some of the streams at or near this water may be 
open, and these will be tried should the day be fine. But 
it is mentioned at the tackle stores that very little prep- 
aration has yet been made for the opening of the trout 
season. "Home-raised trout" (?) are to be had in the 
markets here, though they have attracted very little at- 
tention. It is likely that the legal open season on trout, 
at which time cultivated trout have always brought fancy 
prices heretofore, will be followed by very unsatisfactory 
prices to the marketmen. The presence of cultivated 
trout all the spring kills all the novelty at the early legal 
open season. 
A few saddles of Maine or New Hampshire venison 
have just been seen in the market here; evidently lately 
killed, the hair being very long. I have asked the 
market salesmen where it came from, and they have re- 
plied: "We do not know. We are not supposed to know 
vi here goods are shipped from. Our business is to sell." 
This explains the whole situation. The venison was ille- 
gally killed and shipped out of Maine without a doubt, 
which fact the receivers prefer to keep dark. The Forest 
and Stream's platform is the only true one: "Stop the 
sale of game at all times and altogether." 
Mr. Arthur L Finney is at home, in Boston, on a vaca- 
tion visit. He has been in Bahia, Brazil, for several 
months, where he has charge of the warehouse and stores 
of the largest coffee concern in this country, Messrs. Hard 
& Rand, of New York. He loves the dog and gun just as 
well as he did when shooting on the Cape, before he left 
this country. Then there was no better wing shot than 
he, and he has always been a friend of the Forest and 
Stream. His gun went to Bahia, but not his dog, the cli- 
mate being too severely warm there for a high-blooded 
dog, bred in New England. He says that they use dogs 
there some for hunting, but they lack training 
and are poorly bred. Of quail shooting, he says he 
scarcely ever dreamed before. No dog is needed. One 
has simply to go out and shoot. But the climate; there's 
the rub. It is so enervating that one does not care to 
go out, even for shooting where the quail are as plenty 
as English sparrows. If one does go out, he wants a 
servant or two to carry the gun and pick up the game. 
The growth and underbrush present difficulties in moving 
about that are a trial to the gunner of North America. 
Venomous snakes are more abundant than the gunner 
cares for. Mr. Finney killed a number. One day when 
snipe shooting the Portuguese guide suddenly cried: 
"Cobra! cobra!" Mr. Finney jumped back none too soon, 
for he was very near stepping on the reptile. It was but 
the work of an instant to discharge both shot barrels at 
so short a range that the snake was blown into atoms. 
He describes the quail of that country as of brighter 
plumage than the quail of Massachusetts, with the beak 
straighter and more pointed. The snipe shooting he found 
also to be very fine, but the swamps are hot and so rank 
with vegetation that one makes very slow progress. The 
snipe he found to resemble closely those of this country, 
He goes back in a few weeks, aud will follow up the 
shooting of that country as much as his spare time will 
allow. ' Special. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach ux at th 
atest by Ma> iay and as much earlier as practicable. 
SOME BOSTON NOTES. 
O. R, Dickey, of Boston, has just reached home from a 
shooting trip to Muskeget Island, down by Nantucket. 
He went after brant, but only killed fourteen birds. They 
were there in great numbers, but flying very-high Mus- 
keget is reached by sailboat from the mainland, and Mr. 
Dickey was kept a prisoner there for ten days by severe 
stormy weather and heavy sea. A return trip from the 
island is always subject to conditions of wind and weath- 
er, and he who visits its shores must abandon all hope of 
speedy return if storm and sea combine against him. 
The Magaguadavic Fish and Game Club is an organiza- 
tion of bportsmen which was started in 189:2. At its in- 
ception, enthusiasm ran high among its members, and for 
a short time the club flourished wonderfully well. This 
condition of prosperity Was followed by a relapse, and 
for the last two or three years the preserve has been rarely 
visited, and interest has sadly waned. That new blood 
was needed in the club was recognized by all the mem- 
bers who took an interest in its affairs, but it is not 
always an easy matter to get bustling and desirable mem- 
bers into an organization partially defunct. This almost 
impossible task, however, was accomplished last year, 
and several bright and earnest sportsmen were added to 
the membership, who have already aided in placing the 
club on a new and solid footing. The corporation has a 
capital stock of $20,000, divided into 400 shares. The pre- 
serve lies in one of the beBt sections of New Brunswick, 
and consists of a tract of land 5,000 acres in area, known 
as the Stanus Grant. The property is covered by a dense 
forest, interspersed by more than a score of lakes and 
ponds, and traversed from end to end by the beautiful 
and picturesque Magaguadavic River. It is a fine shooting 
and fishing country, and the waters are so connected as 
to form the best of sport in canoeing. Some of the old 
camps have been abandoned, and three new ones have 
been built, one at Birch Island in Digdeguash Lake, 
another at Sparks Lake, and one at McDougal Lake. Mr. 
Thos. A. Sullivan, of Bonny River, one of the best known 
mm in all that country, has been selected as the clerk and 
superintendent of the corporation. He is a man of great 
intelligence and well versed in all the fine points of wood- 
craft, in fact, an ideal man for the position. The Sparks 
Lake camp is about seven miles from the Bonny River 
House. It is a large and commodious affair, two stories 
in height. An ice house with a capacity of ten tons is situ- 
ated near the camp. The lake itself and the streams near 
by furnish good trout fishing, and the scenery all about is 
very fine. Digdeguash Lake is about six miles long and 
one mile in width. The camp is located on Birch Island, 
about midway in the lake. There are three buildings here, 
consisting of a story-and-a-half frame cottage, a cook 
house and dining room, and a well filled ice house. The 
situation is euperb, commanding a view of the entire lake. 
The fishing is excellent, the trout being large and ex- 
tremely gamy. The third camp of the club is at 
McDougal Lake, in one of the wildest sections of New 
Brunswick; Mt. Pleasant rears its imposing peak only a 
short distance off, and the scenery on every side makes 
an imposing picture. Good fishing is found here from 
May to October, and the shooting is excellent in the woods 
and marshes surrounding the lake. Taken altogether the 
Magaguadavic Club have a preserve unsurpassed by any 
other in the East, and the best of sport with rod and gun 
seems to be assured to them for many years to come. 
Mr Herbert Dumaresq, of the firm of Jordan, Marsh & 
Co , Boston, has just returned from a four weeks' trip to 
Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Fla. Mr. Dumaresq is a mem- 
ber of the Sebago Fishiag Club, and it seems to make no 
difference whether he drops his line into Northern or 
Southern waters, success accompanies him just the same. 
He is both scientific and lucky, and when these two qual- 
ities are combined in one p=rson success is inevitable. 
While in Florida he fished tor kingfish in the open sea 
with very favorable results. He caught two of these fel- 
lows trolling, one of 381bs. and one of 401bs., and on a 
light split-bamboo rod he took a kingfish of about lOlbs. 
In Lake Worth he had very fine bluefishing with rod and 
reel. So well satisfied was he with the trip that he has 
about determined to repeat it another y«ar, and hopes in 
the future to capture a tarpon, for which he will go well 
prepared. 
The many Boston members of the EDglewood Fishing 
Club, who have a preserve in New Brunswick, were much 
shocked a few days ago on hearing that their beautiful 
club house had been destroyed by fire. Just how the 
calamity happened I have not heard, but sportsmen 
everywhere will sympathize with the club members over 
this great misfortune, happening just on the eve of the 
fishing season. 
Marches. — By the time Forest and Stream is again 
placed before its readers the trout season in Massachusetts 
will have opened, and regardless of snow and ice or any 
other natural impediment to the sport, very many of Bos- 
ton's anglers will have taken up rod and reel and jour- 
neyed to the streams (mostly on the Cape) which are 
situated near the city of culture. In spite of the very 
severe weather which has just preceded April 1, thereby 
promising poor conditions for fishing, I have found very 
few of the old-time fishermen who are going to misa the 
first few days, and it certainly speaks volumes for the 
lasting popularity of the sport to find that so many are 
not to be deterred from trying their luck, even though 
Dame Nature has been unusually severe this year. Most 
of the club members and many other gentlemen who 
have preserved streams on the Cape will leave town next 
Tuesday. Those wuo fish for sea trout in tide water 
streams will have a decided advantage over their less for- 
tunate brethren who are compelled to break tho ice over 
their favorite pools further inland. Augustus Fiagg, who 
has not missed a year in a very long time, is all ready to 
make a start, and J D. Brown will get away promptly to 
his preserved stream, where he always manages to get a 
few big trout to start the season. James Bird, although 
just recovering fro m a broken arm, has already gone 
down to Hoxie's at Plymouth, and will make his 
usual try for success in the streams of that neigh- 
borhood. Waldron Bates will also go down as the 
guest of some club friends. An acquaintance residing 
in Taunton tells me that the ponds and streams around 
that city are free of ice. This section of the State lying 
between Narragansett and Massachusetts bays gets the 
first benefits from the south winds of early spring, and its 
waters generally clear of ice some days earlier than other 
sections of the State which Lie further inland. A number 
of the Taunton trout fishermen will get away for the first 
