Sept. 12, 189«.] 
2d9 
time ahead of us. Atwood, Van Beuren and I brought 
up the rear. We did the stretch in four and a half hours 
— some claimed less time — pretty well tired and with 
numb feet. We all wore high boots. The skates had 
great turned-over prows ending in brass acorns, were 
guttered in the bottoms, and strapped so tightly over the 
foot that the blood could not circulate. We did not think 
skating possible under any other conditions. When the 
strap would not take up another hole we drove wooden 
wedges between the strap and the boot to make it tighter. 
A few years ago I tried on the old style of skate and 
could get around a little, but could do nothing with those 
of the present model. 
At Hudson Gen. Miller took us to a hotel and we had a 
good dinner. We had a strong wind from the west on the 
homestretch and the ice boat did not have to tack once, 
and we were not long on the way. Skipper Wilson re- 
marked, "You boys beat me when I had to tack against a 
head wind, but you couldn't do it now." On telling the 
story the General said: "The boys are aU good skaters, but 
you should see 'em eat! They cleaned up everything in 
that hotel, and if they ever go to Hudson again that 
landlord will close his house when he sees 'em coming." 
•IHans Breitmann gife a barty— 
Where ish dat barty now? 
Where ish de lofeJy golden cloud 
Dat float on de moundain's prow? 
Where ish de himmel strahlende stern-' 
De Bhtar of de shpirit's light? 
All goned afay mit de lager beer — 
Afay in de ewigkeitP' 
Without intending any levity, this philosophical verse 
of Leland's comes up when that day is recalled, for all 
except the writer have passed into the eicigkeit of the 
Plattdeutsche, or evigkeit of the German . Five died peace- ' 
fully. John Atwood was killed by a boiler explosion, 
Van Beuren was drowned in California, and Phillips was 
killed by interlocking bis "turn-over" skate with that of 
another boy, and his skull was broken on the ice. Surely 
I may ask: Where is that party now? And ewigkeit ov 
eternity, as you choose, is the only answer. 
I learn from one of boyhood's companions who has 
not yet crossed the Styx that Gen. Martin Miller was born 
on May 13, 1816; was Doorkeeper of the State Senate in 
1845-46; was member of Assembly in 1858, and died in the 
summer of 1882. The General married a sister of my 
friend, Garrett M. Van Olinda, who is now in business at 
18 Harrison street. New York, and one son survives him. 
For a few days during the time of the Mexican war the 
sleepy little village of Greenbush was disturbed over a 
very small word ard argument ran high. Abram Van 
Olinda, brother to the General's wife, had raised a com- 
pany of volunteers for the war and the citizens of Green- 
bush purchased a sword to be presented to the Captain, 
but it must have an inscription of some kind to tell who 
presented it and also who it was presented to. A few 
had agreed that the blade should be inscribed: "Pre- 
sented by the citizens of Greenbush to Captain Abram 
Van OUnda, and never to be sheathed but with honor." 
This was the sentiment of Volkert P. Douw, Squire Hdge- 
boom and John L. Van Valkenburg. Isaac Fryer moved 
to strike out the word "but" and insert "except." and 
Thomas Miles and others backed him. The inscription 
hung fire and the women of the village took it up and hot 
arguments were held as to which of the two words was 
the best to tise in the inscription. A meeting of all who 
had subscribed for the sword was called at Fryer's tavern, 
and after much argument from each side "Mat" Miller 
was asked to give his view of how the inscription should 
read. He rose and said: " 'Never to be sheathed but 
with honor' is good, we all know what it means. We 
also know what it means if we say, 'Never to be sheathed 
except with honor,' and it's only a choice of words and 
'but' is Dutch." That settled it. The Douws, Van Val- 
kenburgs and Hogebooms were defeated by this thrust. 
Captain Van Olinda was killed while leading his men at 
the charge on the heights of Chapultepec, on Sept. 13, 
1847. The result of General Miller's epigram is still pre- 
served on the sword, which was sent home and is stiil in 
the possession of his family. 
Mat Miller — I love to think of him as "Mat" — was a 
warm friend to boys. Perhaps he liked some boys better 
than others, but he was always my friend, and he was the 
manly sore of man that I could look up to with confidence. 
He was a man when I was a boy. When I was fourteen 
he was thirty-one, but he was always one of us on such 
frolics as have been related and never seemed to know of 
that gulf which separates the fun-loving boy from the 
money-grubbing man which some men develop into. 
General "Mat" Miller I You covered yourself all over 
with glory when you attacked a desperate burglar, who 
outclassed you in weight, alone and single-handed in the 
old "spook-house" barn and brought him to justice. May 
you be crowned with glory now as the reward of an 
honest life, is the prayer of your boyish friend. 
Fred Mather. 
O, dearl I've "been and gone and done it" again. 
When I come to read the sketch of Capt. Ira Wood in 
cold type there is the blunder of placing Mrs. Malaprop, 
with her "derangement of epitaphs," in the "School for 
Scandal" instead of "The Eivals." That pens will slip is 
evident and it is possible for an old fellow's memory to 
get mixed. No doubt the mail of Forest and Stream will 
be full of corrections of this slip. All right! Boys, you 
have got me, and I've not a word of excuse. I only hasten 
to get this to the office before every one of you has 
jumped on me. F. M. 
Sept. 4. 
Magnolia, Md., Aug. 33. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
From boyhood through life I have been an ardent lover 
of field sports or rather the enjoyment of nature's beauti- 
ful and inseparable surroundings, and still love them 
equally as well in memory as when a youth, bounding 
eagerly over the green hills and through the lovely val- 
leys along the margin of the historic river whose waters 
sing their everlasting dirge along the shores of Mount 
Vernon. Since age has interposed its prohibition of the 
practical enjoyment of those exquisite pleasures, I find 
great consolation in perusing the sporting papers — and I 
truly say I never was more delighted in reading any 
article than I was with one in your paper of Aug. 32. 
It afforded me infinite pleasure to know that there is a 
gentleman who has known through life and appreciates 
the loCty and sterling qualities of a gentleman I take the 
lioeijty of caiiing my friend. 
I thank the author for affording me the infinite pleasure 
of reading his generous and just tribute to my friend, 
Col, Charles H. Raymond. J ■ N. 
NEW JERSEY COAST FISHING. 
ASB0RY Pare, N. J., Sept. 4.— Despite the fact that the 
first cool evenings of late August gave us cheering prom- 
ise of good surf fishing, it has not yet materialized. 
While there is yet sufficient time, still the outlook is not 
of the brightest. Striped bass should now be plentiful, as 
well as kingfiah and weakfish; but such is not the case. 
Fishing, however, continues fair in the rivers and bays, 
and inland fishing is now the order of the day. Snapper 
fishing has been looked forward to with great expectations 
and as a certainty, but not in years have they been so 
scarce. 
The growth of snapper fishing has something of the 
marvelous in its nature. A few years since it was little 
appreciated, whereas now but few are too great to 
pay it homage. With the lightest of tackle, and when 
the snapper (which is the young of the bluefish) has 
reached the size of the herring, the sport is grand, and 
ranks as the best of our salt-water fishing. The average 
trout rod is too pliant to resist the pressure of the tides in 
which snapper fishinK is always to be had under its best 
conditions, besides the split-bamboo is soon affected by 
salt water. I use a very light lancewood stock fitted with 
a Bethabara tip of lightest caliber 6ft, in length over all. 
For line I use Barbour's linen thread No. 30, thoroughly 
oiled, then dried and afterward waxed. This makes a line 
of extreme lightness, and will resist the action of salt 
water, which is so ruinous to silk lines. For a float I pro- 
cure two bottle corks 3|in. long and paas a piece of bam- 
boo through them, having first connected the ends to- 
gether. I then shave and sandpaper them down, pointed 
at either end, until the greatest diameter about equals a 
lead pencil; this will sustain the small bait and split T shot 
sinker. I use a 3,0 ringed Carlisle hook, to which I fasten 
a 6in. section of hair wire ending in a small brass swivel, 
into which the line is fastened, I have found the fore- 
going rig most admirable, and it gives to the angler every 
atom of sport obtainable. 
There is no doubt but the spearing, or what is usually 
termed white bait, is the most killing bait to be had, 
although they will bite readily at almost any fish bait or 
clam. A strong attraction for the snapper is found in 
the menhaden when ground or chopped fine and a 
portion inclosed in a muslin bag or other porous material 
and hung frbm the side of the boat. Agitating or gently 
squeezing the bag at intervals sets free the oil, which 
creates a slick on the surface of the water, which will be 
followed by the snapper to its source, no matter how 
great the distance; and once around the boat, with tackle 
as above described, fastidious indeed must be the angler 
who cannot extract true enjoyment therefrom, 
Leonard Hulit. 
P. S. — I xise a very small Kosmic multiplying reel, 
which will hold about 80yds. of above line. 
Barnegat Inlet, N. J., Sept. 1.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Bright days, sunny skies and northerly winds 
are contributing to the sport of pleasure-seekers at Barne- 
gat Bay, 
The fishing during the past week has been especially 
fine in the vicinity of the inlet. Numbers of yachts have 
caught large quantities of bluefish in the inlet, and many 
captains report good catches of large weakfish and croak- 
ers just outside the bar. 
I saw one of the first flocks of ducks last Thursday, 
There were about fifty of them and they were headed 
southward. Sea Doa. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Shad In August. 
A NEWSPAPER that comes to me daily prints a lot of in- 
formation about what to eat and how to cook it. I did 
not know about this feature, as I never happened to strike 
the culinary department of the paper until one of my 
family asked me if shad were in season in August; and 
then I read under "Menu for Friday, Aug. 7; * * * 
Dinner — Clam broth, planked shad," etc, I answered the 
question by saying that the legal shad season extended 
only from March 15 to June 15, but the query made me 
think of something. 
The expression, "Poor as a June shad," is meant to 
convey the idea that a June shad is a pretty poor article, 
but if you consult a shad fisherman on the subject he will 
tell you that the best shad are taken, or rather used to be 
taken, in July. I was out with the shad netters on the 
Hudson one night this year and naturally the conversa- 
tion was abput shad. Some of the oldest men on the 
river were present and all agreed that a July shad was 
sweeter and fatter than any caught earlier in the season; 
that shad improved the longer they were in the water, 
and it used to be the regular thing, before the law inter- 
fered, to set the shad nets on the night of July 3 to get 
shad for a Fourth of July feast. Further, that shad were 
taken with hard roe as late as August; this was not un- 
usual; and that shad had been netted in the Hudson as 
late as November. 
So in talking to a shad fisherman the expression, "Poor 
as a June shad," will not express what it has been sup- 
posed to express during all the years that it has been used. 
If necessdry, this may be amended to read "Poor as a 
June shad that has spawned," and it will go. 
One evening when rowing up the river to the shad- 
hauling grounds I noticed the young herring turning out 
of the water exactly as the whitefish do the same trick. 
This action is particularly noticeable in the round white- 
fish, or Adirondack "frost fish." Swimming near the 
surface, if they are disturbed they turn to seek deeper 
water, and if the surface of the water is still they slap 
the water with their tails as they turn, and it makes a 
sound which I have compared to hail on a tin roof, par- 
ticularly if the school of fiish is a large one, 
Bullheads. 
If I made a note of everything told to me supposed to 
be unusual about fish, I would have to carry a good big 
memorandum book to record the strange things. For- 
tunately perhaps most of the strange things are not as un- 
usual as they are believed to be by those who relate them. 
Here is one that will bear investigation: An engineer 
on the N. Y. Central R. R. was spending his vacation at 
Lake George, and told a friend of mine that about Aug. 
20 each year the bullheads come to the surface of the 
water in the Mohawk River at Schenectady in schools, 
and that at such time they can be scooped out in a dip net. 
He did not pretend to account for the action of the fish, 
but declared that it was a fact, and my friend came to 
me to explain why it was so. I could only say, if it was 
so, that the fish were probably feeding on something at 
the surface that made its appearance about Aug. 30 each 
year. 
This reminds me that I saw the largest brood of bull- 
heads this year that I ever saw. It was at the Cedar 
Island House dock in the Fourth Lake of the Fulton 
Chain. Standing on the dock with Col. A. W. Cole, wait- 
ing for our guide, I looked into the water and there was 
a black cloud moving here and there, and I called Col. 
Cole's attention to the brood cf bullheads, and at first he 
was inclined to think I was not sincere as to what they 
were. ' Two parent fish were in attendance, hovering over 
and around the babies, and in spite of their care a baby 
skirmisher would get so far away as to be gathered in by 
waiting fish. The brood was so large that I thought it 
must be two broods combined. The ranks of the little 
bullheads were thinned as we watched them, and as they 
were apparently a week or so old there must have been 
many more originally, and this was more reason to make 
me think there were two broods in one, but I never heard 
of such a thing, and could not determine if what I thought 
were true, 
Stain for Gut. 
A writer in the Fishing Gazette, London, teUs how to 
stain gut brown, and the editor commends it as a useful 
discovery. Here is the formula: "It may not be known 
to your readers that a brown stain may be obtained by this 
very simple process: Add a few granules of permangan- 
ate of potash to a tumblerful of water, and in this im- 
merse the gut, which should have been previously soaked. 
A few seconds suffice for a fairly deep stain, and I always 
keep a basin of cold water in which to rinse the gut from 
time to time. A very few seconds are sufficient to pro- 
duce an ordinary brown stain. The solution does not in- 
jure the gut, and removes the 'glitter.' " I just received 
some leaders stained very dark, and the maker thinks 
they are the better for it. I will find out in a few days. 
A, N. Cheney 
THE FONTINALIS CLUB, OF MICHIGAN. 
In an earlier article in Forest and Stream mention has 
been made of the beauty of many of the streams of the 
lower peninsula of Michigan, and something has been 
attempted by way of description of their natural excel- 
lence as fishing streams for trout. Any such description 
would be unfair and inaccurate which did not take into 
account the gradual but unmistakable and inevitable de- 
pletion which has taken place in those waters since the 
country has opened up. It is the history of all the wild 
regions. As soon as the railroads come there are paths 
along the trout streams. I spoke in this earlier mention 
of the disappearance of the grayling in Michigan, and 
mentioned the character of the trout fishing in some of 
the streams which once were famous. 
It was at that time a matter of surprise to me to hear of 
a preserved trout stream away up north in the wild coun- 
try of the pine-clad south peninsula, for it seemed as 
though each and every stream of that land should stiU be 
swarming with trout, I wondered when I heard of gen- 
tlemen coming all the way from the town of Grayling, on 
the Au Sable River, and from Detroit and other cities to 
fish in this preserved stream, and I could not understand 
the reason for existence of a trouting club in that coun- 
try. It seemed to me like carrying coal to Newcastle, 
This was a different thing from the Castalia Club, of Ohio, 
which is right at the doors of the settlements and conven- 
ient of access for many business men. It seemed to me 
likely that this Fontinalip Club, which I heard of over on 
a branch of the Sturgeon, near Vanderbilt, must surely 
be ihe idea of a few men not contented with the earth 
and the fullness thereof. I learned later that it was the 
idea of a few men who have seen the inevitable advanc- 
ing, and who have realized what we must adl reahze 
before long, that the American system of game and fish 
laws is inadequate to prevent the extermination of the 
game and fish of the country. I learned, even in my 
short experience in that region, that but for the continual 
stocking of the wildest streams by the State authorities 
the paths along the streams would long since have disap- 
peared, for there would long ago have ceased to be any 
trout left worth fishing for. More than that, it became 
plain to me that even the best of State stocking cannot 
keep up a supply of trout in a stream, no matter how 
good a stream it may be naturally, if that stream is left 
open to the tender mercies of the general fishing public. 
The latter is bound to solve for itself the great problem of 
how to both eat your cake and have it, a problem which 
the wise men tell us never did have but one conclusion ta 
it. 
By this no disparagement whatever is intended for the 
noble efforts of the Michigan Commission to supply cake 
to the public, for theirs is a work which has restored many 
streams to the public which once were fished out, and 
made fishing streams out of some that would otherwise 
never have had any trout fishing in them. Of this latter 
fact I had a very good illustration near at hand to the 
camp on Mullet Lake, not far from Cheboygan, where I 
was stopping when first I heard of the Fontinalis Club. 
There was a little, tangled, brushy stream that ran through 
a cedar swamp-for a few miles, and which carried the 
euphonious name of Nigger Creek. It was said to have 
trout in it, and I tried it one day. Near its mouth in Mul- 
let Lake I found the farm of the settler, a gigantic negro 
by the name of Bush, who had been cause for the name 
of the creek. Bush proved a character in his way, and 
was able to tell me the history of the stream. He said 
there never was a trout in it till they were planted there 
by the Fish Commission some twelve years ago, though 
he had often since then seen them, lately of a size up to 
3 and 41bs. Bush told me that he came out into that wild 
pine coimtry as a homesteader immediately at the close of 
the war, which found him living in West Virginia. He 
had lived before that in Virginia, and I was surprised to 
find, out here in a wild Michigan pine wilderness, a man 
who knew of members of my own family, back in Vir- 
ginia, more than thirty-five years ago. Buah told me 
that he had heard of this land open for homesteading, and 
had concluded he could never start younger, so he had 
headed for Michigan, He had not known of the thou- 
sands of better farming coimtries he could then have gone 
