Oct. 13, 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
[From a Staff Correspondent] 
Rockport and Corpus ChristI Way. 
Chicago, 111., Oct. 3. — I am in receipt of the following 
correspondence from a well known gentleman of Rock- 
port. Texas, at which point I passed so pleasant a time 
last winter, and which I hope to see again this winter 
before the snow flies in the North — it never flies at all at 
Rockpi rt. I can indorse all the encomiums of that 
pleasant corner of the world, and only suggest that Dave 
Herzfield measure hia big tarpon over again. If it 
measure* 9ft. 7in., it should weigh a whole lot more than 
2001bs. I don't think Dave knows a swordfish from a 
tarpon, and I think he has measured the bill, beak, nose 
or foregoing protuberance of his fish just an inch or so 
too freely, though maybe I am wrong. As to the tarpon, 
they are there in plenty at Aransas Pass, and big ones, 
too. . By the way, I wonder if Dave Herzfield remembers 
the time he and Dick Merrill broke open the oyster house 
at midnight in search of fresh oysters. This I saw them 
do, but forget whether or not I ever informed on them. 
My letter reads: 
"Sept. 18. — Capt. A. J. Peeler and party have just re- 
turned from a short fishing trip at Aransas Pass, and re- 
port one of the finest catches of the season. In one day 
they caught 62lbs. of trout, redfish, etc., and three fine 
tarpon weighing 651bs., 95lbs. and I421bs. respectively. 
The Captain had the honor of catching the largest tarpon, 
having struggled with the great king for one and one- 
half hours. He has had many happy experiences in 
angling for tarpon, but this last passes them all. Capt. 
Peeler will return to Austin shortly. 
"Mr. Dave Herzfield and his friends, Messrs. H. B. 
Kokernut, B. M. Peck, J. W. Tinsley, Chas. Berzinger 
and Claude Kent, have just returned from a day's fishing 
trip at Aransas Pass. Mr. Herzfield has the distinguished 
honor of wearing the blue ribbon in having caught one 
of the largest tarpons this season. The silver monster 
measured 9ft. 7in. in length and weighed over 2001bs. 
Mr. H. will have the tarpon mounted and placed on ex- 
hibition at his place of business. In landing the great 
fish Mr. H. compares it to a Texas bucking broncho. The 
largest catch of any one day while on their trip was 
llOlbs. of trout, redfish, Spanish mackerel, etc. The party 
also went "floundering" one night and speared 75lbs. of 
flounders. The distinguished friends of Mr. H. propose to 
return to the coast again at no distant day and try their 
hands at duck shooting. 
"Ducks and geese have begun their southward flight 
and the profeasional hunter and game shipper are making 
extensive preparations for the coming season. On 
account of the peculiar lay of land, with its many water 
inlets, especially the fine feeding grounds, Corpus, Aran- 
sas and Corpono Bays make the finest hunting grounds in 
America. Already this favored section of the country 
has been visited by prominent sporting men from all parts- 
of the United States, and the indications are now that 
our coast will be visited in numbers by the best sportsmen 
of the country. All lovers of sport who try a trip to 
south west Texas coast will be more than satisfied. 
"Dr. J. A. Hunter of Dallas, Texas, formerly of the 
Pearl River Fishing and Hunting Club of New Orleans, 
has been with us for the past ten days — the Dr. caught 
four tarpon in one day and says he has fished and hunted 
from Maine to Texas, but without doubt Aransas Pass is 
the finest place for fishing that he ever saw. Said he, 'I 
saw tarpon by the huudreds, and redfish and Spanish 
mackerel without number.' 
"Dr. Hunter, Mayor Connor, E. M. Rheard on (cashier 
of City Nat. Bank) of Dallas and others propose to organ- 
ize a club of 200 members and erect a fine club house at 
Aransas Pass." .. E. Hough. 
909 Seccrttv Bdilding Chicago. 
Chautauqua Lake Muscallonge. 
Buffalo, N. Y., Oct. I.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
One of the largest muscallonge caught in this vicinity in 
several years was pulled out of Chautauqua Lake the other 
day by L. A. Wilkinson, an ardent angler who lives at 
No. 377 Prospect avenue, this cii y, Mr. Wilkinson and 
A. S. Williams, of Jamestown, sailed up the lake at 
5 o'clock Friday afternoon, Sept. 28. They were dragging 
a line at a considerable depth when suddenly they felt a 
pull as if it had caught on a rock. Mr. Williams stopped 
the boat and took hold of the line. He is a strong man 
but he couldn't make it lax in one pull. He finally suc- 
ceeded, and to his surprise saw the head of the big fish 
following the line. It was but the work of two minutes 
before the fish was brought within reach of Mr. Wilkin- 
son's gaff, and the two men floundered it in the boat. It 
was 53m. long, 21in. in girth, and weighed 351bs. Mr. 
Wilkinson, not excepting the members of the Sprudels or 
any of the local fishing clubs, has taken the largest fish 
while on a simple angling tour, of any man who has gone 
out in near-by waters this season. V^hen the Sprudels 
went on their last excursion it was with difficulty that a 
few minnows were caught. Aid. Coe, the city's "fish- 
ologist," is surprised, but he believes it because he knows 
it is so. 
Fishing' Tackle in his Grave. 
The New York Herald of Oct. 1 printed what purports 
to be extracts from the wili of Moses H. Katzenberger, a 
wealthy resident of Memphis, lately deceased. One of 
these extracts is as follows: 
"Should there be a boy born to either of my sisters-in- 
law, Cora and Lizzie, and I hope there will be, then such 
male issue is to take, share and share alike, all my fishing 
rods and tackle, except a line and a few hooks to be buried 
with me, in order that if there is any fishing in the other 
world I will be provided with tackle to enjoy the sport, 
which has afforded me such delight in the present mode 
of existence." 
A Correction of a Correction. 
Denver, Col., Sept. a9.— Editor Forest and Stream: I 
must ask your further courtesy to correct the statement 
uver my signature as it reads in Forest and Stream, 
Sept. 2a. The same is evidently a typogragphical error, 
as the context shows. My copy reads: "About noon on 
Sunday I got the 8f lbs. fish." Yours reads: "Two 8flbs. 
fish." I will admit that I am not an expert penman, but 
if this is not corrected, I will get a reputation for being 
an expert fish prevaricator. H. M. Bostwice:. 
Surf Fishing on the Jersey Coast. 
Asbhry Park, Oct. 8. — The past week has been one of 
glory to anglers on our coast. We have had a vivid re- 
minder of the pleasures we enjoyed several years ago. 
The violent wind storm of two weeks ago destroyed the 
pound nets, and the heavy run of weakfish due at this 
period of the year has escaped destruction and been per- 
mitted to enter the undertow, where they feed ravenously 
on the mullet and spearing. 
The grounds taken by the opponents of pound fishing, 
that that system interferes with and hampers all other 
methods of fishing, is clearly tenable and becoming more 
convincing as time produces these mute yet unimpeach- 
able testimonials. 
Nearly every day fine catches of weakfish are made 
from the piers and the beach direct. This method of fish- 
ing requires great skill, and nothing but patient practice 
can make perfect the casting necessary. Last evening, in 
company with Judge Wm. B. Guild and his son Theodore, 
I took eleven, ranging in weight from 3 to 4ilbs.: their 
catch was three and seven, respectively, of equal size. 
Taken with surf-rod and reel these game fellows furnish 
exciting sport and can safely be classed as among the best 
of sea- fishing. 
. Bluefish are notably and unaccountably scarce. None 
have been taken during the week, and but few at sea. I 
was pleased with "Big Reel's"' comments in your last 
issue. He is entirely correct in his views and assertions. 
The average man using ordinary tackle will find casting 
200 to 250ft. a physical impossibility. "Why can't people 
who write and tell fish stories keep 'em straight?" 
Leonard Hultt. 
A Freak Weakfish. 
David F. Marts, second assistant keeper of Ship John 
Lighthouse, Delaware Bay, reports that he took at the 
lighthouse, early in September, a 4lbs. weakfish which 
had two perfectly-formed mouths, one under the other, 
and each mouth was connected with its separate stomach 
and intestines. It is to be regretted that this curiosity 
was not preserved, but this was not practicable it seems, 
for none of the keepers were allowed to go to the main- 
land for some days after the capture. F. S. J. C. 
Mslicnlhtre mid Jfii^li protection. 
Pollution of Pennsylvania Streams. 
Frequent complaint has been made lately of the pollution 
of Pennsylvania streams by refuse from tanneries and other 
manufacturing establishments, which is believed to have 
destroyed great quantities, of fish, and a number of letters 
on this subject have been printed in Forest and Stream. 
Inquiry of the Pennsylvania Commissioners of Fisheries as 
to what could be done to remedy the present unfortunate 
state of things has elicited from Prof. Henry C. Ford the 
following letter. The case is evidently one which calls for a 
strong expression of public opinion, and residents of the 
districts affected should endeavor to impress upon their 
representatives ip the Legislature the importance of the 
subject: 
Philadelphia, Sept. 20 — Editor Forest and Stream: A 
long absence from the city has delayed my answer to your 
favor of July 25 in reference to the pollution of the Youghio- 
gheny River. I am in receipt of many communications of 
similar import from other parts of the State, and regret to 
say that we have no law in Pennsylvania that will prevent 
such pollution of our streams. This has not been the fault 
of the Commissioners of Fisheries, for at the last two ses- 
sions of our Legislature we introduced an act to prevent 
the discharge of refuse of tanneries, wood acids, etc., into 
the waters of the commonwealth. It was defeated each time 
by the efforts of members of the Legislature from the very 
districts affected by such nuisances. It is the intention of 
the Commission to introduce a similar Act at thenext session 
of the Legislature. If your correspondent and all others 
affected by the pollution of our streams will use their influ- 
ence to induce their representatives to vote for such a bill, 
the Fish Commissioners will see to its enforcement if it 
becomes a law. Henrt C. Ford, 
President Pennsylvania Commissioners of Fisheries. 
he Mennel 
FIXTURES. 
DOG SHOWS. 
Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.— Terrier Show, by New England Kennel Club, at 
Country Club, Brookline, Mass. D. JB. Loveland, Sec'y, 128 Tremont 
street, Boston. 
FIELD TRIALS. 
Oct. 23.— New England Field Trial Club, Members' Sweepstake. A. 
R Sharp, Sec'y, Taunton, Mass. 
Nov. 5.— United States Field Trial Club, at Bicknell, Ind. P. T. 
Madison, Indianapolis, Ind., Sec'y. 
Nov. 6.— International Field Trials, at Chatham, Ont. W. B Wells. 
Sec'y. 
Nov. 16.— Eastern Field Trials Club, at Newton, N. C. All- Aged, 
Eastern Subscription and Selling Stakes. Entries dose Oct. 1. \V. A. 
Coster. Saratoga Springs, N. Y.. Sec'y. 
Dec. 17.— Southern Field Trials, at New Albany, Miss. T. M. Brumby, 
Sec'y, Marietta, Ga. 
A Tale of a Dog. 
In an obscure corner in a drawer of my desk I found, to- 
day, a little list of words and phrases made out by me nearly 
four years ago, and then slid into and mixed with other 
scraps of paper until it was "lost in the shuffle." It was a 
pleasure to find it again and a cause for regret to be re- 
minded that my small friend, of whose daily doings it is a 
memorandum, finds difficulty now in obeying almost the 
least. of the commands it contains. So great aehange a little 
time makes in short lives. The infirmities of age have stolen 
upon her. She has grown fat, rheumatic and deaf; but the 
beauty and roguery of her brown eyes are as yet undimmed 
and the activity of her mind is undiminished. 
It is now many years since, returning from my office one 
January evening, I was invited to look behind the kitchen 
stove and there discovered a little retriever puppy, black as 
the midnight except for a frill of white down her throat, 
curled up on a coat thenceforth to be missing from my ward- 
robe. It was not the last garment to be similarly sacrificed 
before she was made to understand that the family washing 
did not weekly festoon the back yard for her especial benefit. 
What her antecedents, both of ownership and kindred, were, 
we never knew. She made her appearance in the express 
office, of the Denver & Rio Grande R. ti. here one day, con- 
signed from far-away Michigan to a railroad clerk. But the 
consignee had moved away, it seemed. There was no one to 
receive her, and owing to an ungallant and short-sighted 
prejudice against her sex, no hospitable door opened to her. 
Then it was the Providence that watches over all of us in- 
terfered and guided her puppy footsteps to my old coat be- 
hind the stove and thenceforward in paths of pleasantness 
and peace. 
Owing to the prejudice and preference of the lady who had 
become her preserver and owner, her life was diverted from 
its natural course in the fields and woods to the less adven- 
turous one of a household pet. In all her life she has been 
hunting only once, bat on that occasion she nobly proved 
her sporting blood by retrieving three ducks that had fallen 
seventy or eighty yards away, wading and swimming for 
them, one by one, in the marshy lake, although at that time 
she had never before seen a duck. She had already learned 
to fetch and carry, however, and this feat was probably only 
an instance of her remarkable intelligence rather than any 
manifestation of hereditary instinct. It is of this intelli- 
gence, so unusual, that I believe an authentic account of 
some of its manifestations would interest your readers, that 
I mean to write. 
She was never in any sense a "trick" dog. Beyond a few 
amusing little things, she was never taught anything ex- 
cept what it was necessary or convenient, or otherwise de- 
sirable in the household economy for her to know or do. 
Much of what she knows she learned, as people do, from 
hearing conversation or having it addressed to her without 
any definite intention to teach her. Usually in teaching her 
to do any of the simple things within her comprehension, 
it was only necessary to perform the thing desired a few 
times— two or three — for her, I recollect that when she was 
taught to shut a door I stood her on her hindlegs with her 
forepaws against it, pushing it slowly shut once only, and 
repeating several times the command "Shut the door!" She 
grasped the idea of moving the door as quickly as a child. 
But to teach her to go behind it and push it shut instead of 
in front of it and push it further open required another les- 
son. As long as she had full possession of her faculties she 
continued to be an exception to the rule, "It is hard to teach 
an old dog new tricks." I never noticed that it was harder 
for her to learn at seven or eight years old than at one or 
two. Usually, of course, if a command could be as it were 
illustrated for her by a gesture she grasped the idea quicker, 
just as a man would; and as she was always a lazy dog, it 
seemed also to stimulate her movements. However, a ges- 
ture is not at all necessary. It is a common thing to call to 
her from the house as she stands at the back gate whining 
to be let in, behind a tight board fence, where she cannot see 
me nor I her, to "go around to the front gate" (which she 
can open herself). 
The list or vocabulary referred to, and which is here given, 
was made in an idle hour when she was in the daily habit of 
doing the things indicated therein as the occasion for - them 
happened to arise. It occurred to me that some time some 
ill-informed person, incredulous of canine accomplishments, 
might question the tales told of her, and that, if I couid pull 
on him a memorandum made on the spot, to the accuracy of 
which I was willing to make affidavit, it might, for this as 
well as for many other reasons, be a valuable and interesting 
record. I remember that I carefully struck out at the time 
any word which there was a reasonable doubt in my mind 
of her understanding. My present impressions confirm the 
correctness of the list. Since it is hard to recall off-hand; in 
category, all that one knows or might on occasion remember 
about any subject, the list could doubtless be extended. 
Also, I make small mention of the numerous comMnations 
of these words and ideas to which, in the shape of commands 
or questions, she was accustomed to respond, and in which 
form, for the most part, she gave token of her comprehension 
of the meaning of the separate words. For convenience the 
words are roughly classified under the various parts of 
speech. This list was made in the winter of 1890, and is as 
follows: 
Verbs.— Come, go, hurry, run, shut, open, want, lie, sit, 
roll, wag, get, bring, take, ask, fetch, scratch, ride, look, find, 
climb, keep still, jump, walk, find, sweep, cannot, drink, eat, 
comb, bite, cry, hold still, see, shake, catch, bark, tease, stop, 
hurt. 
Nouns.— Yard, prairie, walk, barn, house, gate, grass,win- 
dow. door, floor, kitchen, stairs, cellar, upstairs, downstairs, 
table, corner, chair, room, bed, water, milk, drink, meat, 
bones, bread, crackers, back, medicine, pill, cake, fly, rat, 
mouse, paper, stick, comb, broom, paw, belly, tail, side, 
hand, head, ear, leg, mouth, hat, shoe, glove, horse, buggy, 
fence, shame, crumbs, cat, kitten, chickens, hens, snow, dirt, 
dog, puppy, baby, "Tatty," "Teddy," "Bob," "Rab." 
Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases— In, out, around, 
on, under, up, down, away, over, behind, through, by> on top, 
other side of. 
Unclassified.— Further, outdoors, front, back, other, to- 
day, to-morrow, she, her, him, he, all, your, sick, where.wet, 
dry, fast; here. 
1 submit that the foregoing vocabulary would be a very 
creditable one to a child three or four years of age. When i t 
is further taken into account that a dog is in the position of 
a dumb child, unable to form a single sound of the language 
he hears, to ask a question or express a wish; that he is sel- 
dom noticed or spoken to as compared to a child, and that it 
is from this association and asking questions that children 
learn most; that his senses are all widely different in degree 
and, as far as taste and smell at least are concerned, differ- 
ent in nature from ours; that his bodily structure and habits 
are wholly different from ours; and last, that so far as apt- 
ness and predisposition to learn what we know goes, heredity 
can do nothing for him; I submit again, in view of all these 
things, that the acquisition of a vocabulary so extensive in 
meaning and so far from the natural field of canine thought 
as this, implies intellectual ability of a very high order, and 
very little, if at all, inferior to the lower degrees of human 
intelligence. 
Perhaps a few instances may not be uninteresting and 
may help to remove the doubts which, I am well aware, will 
be entertained by many who, for whatever reason, are not 
intimately familiar with the nature and capacities of the 
canine race. This dog has always been extravagantly fond 
of riding. Several years ago I happened to drive through 
the alley back of the yard where she lived and, seeing her 
there and being alone, determined to take her with me, but 
did not wish to do so without the knowledge of her mistress 
who might, else, think she had run away or been stolen. She 
had beeu taught when teasing for anything, to go, upon com- 
mand, and "ask her" or "him," as the case might be, if she 
might have it, whereupon she would go to the person desig- 
nated, attract his attention and stand waiting and teasing 
him to direct the person who had sent her to "give Bug" 
(her name) the article of food or other thing she wanted. 
The meaning of this performance she thoroughly under- 
stood. Accordingly, when I stopped at the alley gate, she 
scampered toward it in great delight at the prospect of a 
ride. I told her in a clear and emphatic tone, two or three 
times repeated, to "go ask her," whereupon she rushed to 
the rear door and set up a scratching and whining which 
soon brought her mistress. At her appearance the usual 
"asking" was gone through with and the request granted in 
the customary way. She rushed back to me, a distance of 
50 or 60ft., I leaned from the buggy, unfastened the gate 
latch, told her to open the gate, which she did, and 1 lifted 
her into the buggy, without having stirred from my seat. 
The whole proceeding was exactly the same as if she had 
been a dumb child, incapable of articulate speech and able 
to express itself only in signs, looks and inarticulate cries. 
It was also the first time her teaching had been applied in 
this particular way, though often repeated afterward. 
She never cared much for the companionship of dogs, nor, 
indeed, very much for that of any one else except her 
mistress. However, she was always delighted to play with a 
little dog, a terrier or a puppy. They seemed, to judge from 
