July 18, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM^ 
47 
ng, but the men stayed late. No one went down Broad- 
way except Billy, and Mr. Fly would have a man or two 
in waiting to scare him. Sometimes a few stones rolled 
after him would be enough to start him on a run, at others 
"spooks" would spring at him from the churchyard, and 
although the victim may have been well fortified with 
Fryer's whisky his starting for hone required the courage 
of a Tarn 0'Shant<'r, which he did not possess. He would 
go up street with friends and around the back way until 
his tormenters found it out, and in despair Billy told tte 
story of his persecutions, when he was furnished with an 
escort and saw no more spooks. 
Once he confided to me a great secret: "If the eels don't 
bite good," said he, "just go to a stable and look over the 
horses' legs. You'll find a scab on the inside of every leg, 
and when this is big and comes oflF easy just take it and 
put it in your bob and the eels '11 come for miles to get at 
it; it smells powerful strong an' they can smell it for 
miles." 
"Why don't we use it in our bobs?" 
"We don't need it, they bite well enough as it is, we 
don't want all the eels in the river; what could we do 
with so many?" 
That was sufficient, and if the thing was ever tried I do 
not know. Perhaps the idea originated in Billy's brain 
or was told to him by some joker, yet it is possible that 
the very powerful odor of that gland would either attract 
or repel the fish in a decided manner. Let some eel 
bobber try it and report to Fobest and Stream; my time 
for bobbing passed years ago, but if opportunity offers 
I will try it tentatively in the interest of knowledge. 
Once the shad seiners of the village had arranged to 
make some hauls at the lower end of the island which 
lies opposite Albany, and Billy had brought up hia little 
boat the night before and left it at the ferry where "Old 
Josey," the ferryman, kept his skiff for late night service 
after the steamboat had finished the day and the horse- 
boat had carried the early night passengers. The fact 
became known to "Pop" fiuyler, the blacksmith ; Charley 
Bradbury, the livery man, and Steve Miles, the carpenter. 
After some deliberation and discussion of the case they 
decided that a short piece of board, fastened edgewise to 
the under side of the keel and at an angle of about 
forty-five degrees to its length, would be about the 
best thing that could be done at the time. Bradbury 
furnished the board and Miles affixed it, and the boat 
was replaced in the water with the improved combina- 
tion centerboard and rudder. The big scow came up the 
river bearing the great seine on a platform over its stern 
and four stalwart oarsmen made her stem the current 
past the ferry. A crowd had assembled when Billy ap- 
peared with a pair of oars on his shoulder, and casting 
loose the painter shoved off his boat, put the oars in posi- 
tion and began to row. The boat seemed bewitched, for 
it kept going round in a circle, no matter how the oars- 
man tried to keep it straight, and Billy, pale as a ghost, 
dropped his oars and was evidently praying in Dutch. 
The boat drifted near the dock below, when Pop Huyler 
kindly called to the old man to throw him the rope; he 
did so, and Billy was safe, but weak and faint. 
"Must ha' been spooks in the boat last night, Billy," 
said Pop. 
"Yes," he replied, "I 'spect so; might ha' know'd 
there'd be bad luck, fur a hen crowed yestidy an' the fust 
man I see this mornin' was cross-eyed." 
"Sure," said Charley Bradbury, "that's enough to bring 
bad luck; but Billy, come up to Brockway's tavern and 
take something and say that Dutch prayer -once more and 
that'll fix 'em all right." 
While Billy was repeating the exoi^cising words Miles 
got help and pulled the boat on the dock and ripped off 
the board, launched the boat, and then after much per- 
suasion BiUy tried it again, and behold, the spell of the 
witches, spooks and other evil-doers was broken, and 
Billy, with great good humor, joined the party just in 
time to help haul on the line as the seine boat reached the 
shore, fully convinced that while spooks might tempora- 
rily annoy him, he could triumph over them in the end. 
Old Vose, who played the clarionette in the band on top 
of Fly's "headquarters," heard of it and got Billy to re- 
peat the verse which could so undo the work of witches; 
and as neither Billy nor he could write, Bill Fairchild vol- 
unteered to act as amenuensis, and what he wrote no 
man knows, for when Vose asked his landlady to read it 
for him she became angry and burned the paper. No 
doubt but her method was a good one, for no one ever 
heard that Billy's boat was ever bewitched again. 
Good old Billy! He died after I left the place, and is 
remembered by very few. Spooks can no longer chase 
him at night, grease his fiddle-bow, nor obstruct his boat. 
The hills have at last come together above him, but he is 
safe. Fred Mathee. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
From the Restiffouche. 
Theke are letters and letters, as I long ago found out to 
my pleasure and cost. As a rule, letters to me mean a lot of 
work, pleasant work to be sure; but when the unanswered 
letters pile up on my desk until I can scarcely see over 
them I wish that some of them had gone astray in the 
mails before they reached me, as there are only twenty- 
four hours in a day in this century, and nature and the 
medical men insist that a man should devote a few hours 
of the twenty-four to sleep and not all of them to 
writing. 
Then there are other letters which cause one to forget 
all the annoyances that flesh is heir to, and bless the man 
who invented postal facilities and express organizations. 
I have just received one of the last-mentioned letters. 
I have no doubt that when Mrs. Barbauld wrote "Man 
is the nobler growth our realms supply," she was think- 
ing of a fisherman. Perhaps of a fisherman having the 
best of sport with the grandest of fish, who remembers 
his friends "chained to their desks," and shares his sport 
with them so far as he can. The letter is from Mr. Archi- 
bald Mitchell, of Norwich, Conn., and is dated on the 
Restigouche River, June 29, and reads in part as fol- 
lows: 
"1 drove down river to Campbellton last Saturday, 
which is twenty miles from here, and paid a visit to Mr. 
Mowat. I was much pleased to find him in better condi- 
tion than I expected. No complications of a serious 
nature appear to have set in, and the chances of his final 
recovery seem to be good. He was quite cheerful and 
appeared to take as much interest in fishing as ever. He 
was able to talk a good deal, and I spent a very pleasant 
hour with him. 
"I am going to start for home to-night via St. John 
and Boston. Have had fine fishing and this has been an 
unusually good season. There had been a long spell of 
dry weather up to about the last of May. We had two 
6in. rises of water in June and the fish coming in good 
numbers at the same time gave us excellent sport. This 
morning I killed my fifty-sixth salmon on a No. 6 dusty- 
miller, I will send you the fish by to-night's express and 
hope you will receive it in good condition. I inclose in 
this letter the identical fly on which it was taken. It 
may seem small to you, but on some of the pools No. 8 is 
being used with good success. An angler on the river 
killed four fish at Deeside last Saturday on a No. 6 dusty- 
miller. It seems delicate work, but the salmon usually 
take the fly pretty well down, and when both hooks (the 
fly Mr. Mitchell sends to me is a double-hook fly) are 
buried in their throat they seldom break away. My son 
arrived here last Wednesday, and in addition to the fifty- 
six salmon which I had killed he has taken eight, which 
makes sixty-four to one rod, for we both fished in one 
canoe, using the same rod. This is better fishing than I 
expected to get and I may not livelong enough to strike it 
so rich again." 
The fish when it arrived was as fresh as though just out 
of the river, and was a clean, bright salmon of 271bs, in 
weight. Three days from the time it was killed on the 
Restigouche I dined on a portion of it in northern New 
York, and as I lighted a cigar after dinner I had a certain 
feeling which made me think I could say to my friend most 
thankfully: "Your fish rod and your gaff staff have o )m- 
f or ted me, and my hope and wish is that you may dapli- 
cate your score next year." 
A personal letter received from Col. Archibald Rogers, 
of Gov. Morton's staff, dated in camp at head of Resti- 
gouche River, concludes: "I wish you were here to enjoy 
this fishing. I have just killed three salmon of 38, 25 and 
23 lbs." 
In Albany I heard that three rods had killed about 200 
fish on another part of the Restigouche. 
From the Cascapedla. 
Mr. Robert C. Lowry, writing me of his fishing on the 
Grand Casoapedia, says: "We arrived May 30, and that 
afternoon I killed a 40-pounder, of which I immediately 
wrote an account in Foeest and Stream. My friend, Mr. 
Mershon, was with me and together, up to June 22, we 
killed thirty-two fish. His average was 30ilbs. and mine 
27f lbs. ; in fact never before have we known the salmon 
to average so large in size. He killed three fish weighing 
40, 41 and 431b8., and quite a number 30 to 381b8. fish, and 
I did almost as well. As there are two runs of salmon 
still due in the river, we have no doubt but what there will 
be pretty good fishing there through most of July and 
possibly even in August; for the first year I fished the 
Grand Cascapedia I killed eight salmon between Aug. 8 
and 8. There is no trouble about getting plenty of trout 
from 3 to SIbs. weight and occasionally heavier," 
"But you didn't put any hooks in my bob, Billy; how 
can I catch 'em when they bite?" 
His back was to me and he was looking upward. He 
smacked his lips, put something in his pocket, and said: 
"I have to taJie a little saaferiller fer my lungs, the doctor 
told me. O, no! we don't want no hooks; the eels just 
gets theu' teeth tangled in the threads ana comes up, if 
you bring 'em easy, then when they are just up to the 
surface of tJie water lift 'em quick and gentle inter the 
boat an' they drop off theirselves; but if you jerk 'em 
they're gone, er ef you hit the side of the boat with 'em 
they're gone. Drop yer bob over easy, so," and he lowered 
his bob into the water without a splash. Soon I felt a 
.iiK> jig> very sharp, and said to Billy, "I've got a bite." 
"Pull up," said he, "never let 'em more'n touch it," and 
he landed an eel in the boat, I tried it, but Billy said I 
was too quick, for the eel left. He took several before I 
boated one, for what with jerking the line and slapping 
them against the side of the boat they dropped back into 
the water, if they even got fairly started on the way up. 
It came easy after once getting the hang of the thing, 
and it soon came natural to haul up slowly to the surface 
and then swing them into the boat. Good fun this is in 
shallow water, when no better fishing offers, and many a 
night have I rowed from Albany down the Hudson to 
Van Wie's Point — some six miles below Albany, more or 
less — with a friend or two and spent a pleasant evening, 
in later years, fishing behind the dyke and just above 
Van Wie's light, and then rowed back to the city about 
midnight with a bushel of eels, weighing from nothing 
up to two pounds or more, for the larger eels are not so 
easily captured in this way, their weight tearing them 
loose in the air. 
The night was clear and starlight, bats circled about 
picking up insects here and there, Billy told me that 
they could be caught if I threw up my cap and said, 
"Bat, bat, come into my hat and I'll give you a pound of 
cheese." There was no room in the boat to do this, but 
I tried it afterward and did not get any bats. A large 
bird flew just over our heads with slow and noiseless 
flaps and Billy said something in Dutch. "What was 
that?" I asked. "They're bad, them things that fly at 
night a-making no noise, an' i doan' like 'em," and he 
took a little medicine for his lungs. The moon, a few 
days past the full, came up slowly just south of the spook- 
house barn and Billy said if a bat flew across ite face I 
must say: 
"Hookum skookum, 
RoUlcum kookum, 
Holliche Bolliche, 
Baniche apookum," 
"Ef you don't," said he, "you'll go blind on the side 
next the moon." No bat crossed the moon that night to 
my knowledge, nor do I ever remember seeing one cross 
it, but the charm has been remembered and held in 
reserve should such a thing happen, for no man cares to 
lose an eye when it can be so easily avoided by simply 
following the directions of a man so skilled in spook lore 
as Billy Bishop. 
This night we had fair success, and when Billy put me 
ashore he saw me safely home only a few doors below, 
and said that he would send us up a lot of -dressed eels for 
breakfast, and he did. During the fishing Billy faith- 
fully followed the directions of Dr. Getty and took his 
medicine frequently, as I could testify, but he did not 
seem to be as disgusted with it as I was when the same doc- 
tor prescribed his great tablespoonful doses for me. I 
mentioned this fact to mother, and she said that Mr. 
Bishop was older and more accustomed to medicine, and 
knew the importance of following the doctor's orders 
better than I, No doubt mother was right, but I can't 
help thinking that what Dr. Getty gave Billy must have 
tasted better to him than what he gave me, but I was 
young. 
Several times afterward Billy Bishop took me with him 
when he went eeling. Mr. John Ruyter, the tanner, said 
it was because Billy was afraid to go alone, but it is pos- 
sible that a luncheon which mother left on the table for 
us on our return may have had its influence. Father said 
that Billy was not good company for a boy, and besides 
that, "it would be better for Fred to stay at homeland 
read or study instead of being out bobbing for eels; his 
mind runs too much on such foolishness;" but mother 
argued that a boy must have some fun and could not 
study all the time, and Billy Bishop was a kind-hearted 
man who had never done anything wrong, and the result 
was that we had eels for breakfast many times. 
Billy occasionally played the fiddle for dances, not for 
the balls and parties of the more fashionable sort, but 
just dances, where the musician did not become wealthy 
all at once. I was too young to know much of this, but 
once he told me in a low voice, while putting on a fresh 
bob when the water was warm and the old one was 
spoiled, that he had played for a dance a few nights be- 
fore, and the big boys had been "pizen mean. They 
asked me out for 'freshments an' I laid down my fiddle 
an' bow, an' when I come back they'd sawed that bow 
'cross a candle an' it was that greasy that it sp'iled the 
strings, an' I wais done fur the night. Who done it I 
do'no, but there was Bill Fairchild, John Stranahan, Pole 
Sherwood an' a lot on 'em there, an' they made out like 
they was awful sorry." 
Poor Bill Fairchild in after years died of burns received 
while rescuing the books from the burning freight house 
of the B. & A. R. R,, for which he was a bookkeeper; 
the others have gone to rest with old Billy, and no more 
will they grease his bow nor pour water in his fiddle when 
he goes out for " 'freshments," but I was told that Billy 
learned to take his fiddle and bow with him when called 
from labor. The humor of these things did not strike 
Billy in the least. This was evident when he asked me: 
"Now, what fun was ther' in that? They hed to pay me 
fur the evenin' and it stopped the dancin'. I tell ye there 
was folks there that was mad, but bless ye, they couldn't 
find out who done it. No one done it. It done itself 1 They 
tried to make me believe it was spooks, but spooks don't 
come to dances where folks is; they catches you all alone, 
in the dai'k," 
Some years later, probably about 1845, when a large 
country store was kept in the brick building on the corner 
of Columbia street and Broadway, and in great letters an- 
nounced "I. Fly, Headquarters," there was a large shad 
seine being knit in the notel of Isaac Fryer, just above. 
About a dozen men had an interest in it ana they knit 
away every evening, Billy Bishop and Jakey Van Hoesen 
being busy filling the needles with twine. I somehow 
used to drop in there and knit a little early in the even- 
The Upper Dam of the Bangeleys. 
Andover, Me., July 10.— The record of the big pool 
below the upper dam was broken yesterday when, 
it is estimated by conservative anglers, over lOOlbs. 
of trout were taken from it. The oldest angler never 
saw its parallel. I arrived at the pool at about 3 
P. M.; found Mr. Stewart and Kit Clarke from New 
York, Mr, Parish from Philadelphia, and Mr, Dougherty 
from Willimantic, Conn. Most trout under lilbs. were 
returned to the pool. Mr. Dougherty alone took sixty- 
six fish during the day, but he kept only eleven. 
J. W. B. 
Abigone. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., July 8— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I read the accounts of other men's good catches in your 
paper, so I will tell of mine. 
On July 4, fishing in the Delaware at Egypt Mills, Pike 
county. Pa., at Swartwood's farm, I caught a black bass 
weighing 5ilbs,, and measuring 21in. Is not that a pret- 
ty big one for a river fish? Robt. Evans. 
r REPORT YOUR LUCK 
With Rod or Gun 
I To FOREST AND STREAM, 
1 New York City. 
From England. 
Recently I quoted from the letters of Mr. John J. 
Hardy in the London Fishing Gazette and from one he 
sent me about the fly-casting tournaments, particularly 
about the salmon casting records. Last year I quoted 
from a letter of Mr. Hardy's directly after he had won 
the championship, and I also quoted from a letter written 
to me by Mr. Enright, of Castle Connel, the Irish cham- 
pion, who, unopposed, won the championship this year. 
Mr. Hardy was the first long distance fly-caster and rod 
maker to denounce the style of rods used at the tourna- 
ments in England, and in fact the only one to my knowl- 
edge to this date. When he said that the rods were 
specially made for the purpose, and were unfitted for or- 
dinary angling, and the hnee were what English anglers 
have since called "faked" lines, he was fresh from victory 
in an international contest, and must have written from 
a sense of conviction that the contests were a sham so far 
as ordinary angling tools were concerned. Had he re- 
mained silent it is quite possible that the angling world 
would have remained in ignorance concerning the special 
tools made for what an English writer has called "show- 
men casting with faked rods." It was in the flush of vic- 
tory that Mr, Hardy demanded a change in methods and 
tools to conform to those ordinarily used in angling by the 
average angler, and for this he should have full credit; 
and he was competent to speak on the subject, for he had 
just won the championship of the world with the longest 
cast made with a salmon rod. 
He writes me this morning that he is agitating a reform 
in easting tournaments through the London angling pa- 
pers, and says, "You can help yxs if you will to put things 
on a satisfactory basis. As records at angling tourna- 
ments are made with rods an ordinary man could not use, 
