412 
FOREST AND • STREAM, 
[Nov. 21, im. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
EnBllsh Angler In America. 
"~ Eeadkes of thia journal will remember Mr. Alfred C, 
Harms worth, who furnished the sinews of war for the 
Jackson-Harms worth Polar expedition that found Dr. 
Nansen; but he will be remembered by anglers chiefly for 
the tarpon article which he wrote for Forest and Stream 
and for the Badminton Library, as he came to this coun- 
try on a fishing expedition, and after trying the tarpon in 
Florida waters pronounced it the finest fishing to be ob- 
tained anywhere. Lately the New York newspapers have 
stated that Mr. Harmsworth was about to establish an 
edition of one of his many newspapers in New York city, 
and on this subject he writes me from London as fol- 
lows: 
"Your letter explains a mystery. Several letters have 
reached me asking for work on some proposed journal. 
Having so far retained my mental equilibrium, I have no 
intention of rushing in where angels fear to tread, and 
my eighteen newspapers over here occupy my time fully. 
I have, however, managed to get a very good ten days' 
angling this year. I had about four days— single days— 
with the trout, and did well always. I have just got 
back from Scotland. But I am not yet a good salmon 
angler. My best fish was 33|lbs. The tremendous cast- 
ing and the cold wading of the Tay are more than I can 
stand. It is veritable labor of the worst kind. I am still 
trying to get to your side and the tarpon again, and wiU 
let you know if I have any chance of getting across." 
Mr. Harmsworth has been good enough to offer to send 
me a collection of English fishes, mounted, of his own 
catching, trout, pike, roach, perch, bream, etc,, for the 
ptirpose of comparison with our own fishes, and already 
some of the fishes have been prepared. It will be a valu- 
able collection and serve as an object lesson, and for this 
reason I will share it with fellow anglers in some way, 
perhaps by putting it on exhibition at the New York 
Aquarium when it is opened to the public. I think Eng- 
lisii anglers are much more given to mounting specimen 
fish than we are, although the custom is growing in this 
country, and it is one to be commended. A young man 
brought me last year the outline of a yellow perch on 
wrapping paper. The fish weighed Slbs. and was by far 
the largest perch ever taken from the waters of Lake 
George, where the perch are fine flavored, but do not grow 
to ilb. except in rare instances. It was glad of the out- 
line of the fish on paper, but would have been much more 
pleased to have had the iSsh for mounting, but it had been 
eaten. The young man's father once caught what was 
reported to me to be a record black bass of the small- 
mouth species. I drove hastily to his house only to find 
the fish in the oven being cooked for dinner. 
Fish Distribution In New York. 
The State of New York during the year ending Sept. 
80, 1896, hatched and distributed in the waters of the 
State 190,519,218 fish of all kinds. In addition the U. S. 
Fish Commission contributed to the waters of the State a 
total of 27,417,533 fish, so that the State waters received 
during the year a grand total of 217,936,751 fish. 
In 1895 the total distribution of fish in the State amount- 
ed to about 191,000,000, of which the Uoited States Fish 
Commission contributed about 17,000,000 (these figures 
are from memory), so that for the year ending Sept. 30, 
1896, the State hatched and distributed from its own 
batching stations nearly as many fish as the total from its 
own stations and the United States combined for the 
previous year. The fish hatched and distributed by the 
State from its own stations were as follows; Trout, 7,675,- 
060; pike perch, 41,315,000; mascalonge, 1,815,000; black 
bass, 43,458; ciscos, 27,500.000; whitefish, 11,250,000; frost 
fish (round whitefish), 9,700,000; shad, 8,690,200 (probably 
twice as many as ever before hatched in one year by the 
State from eggs taken in the Hudson); bullheads, 1,500; 
tomcods, 44,000,000; smelts, 34,000,000; lobsters, 4,414,000; 
fresh-water shrimps, 115,000. From these figures it is 
plainly to be seen that the Fisheries, Game and Forest Com- 
mission is devoting its attention more to the so-called 
food or commercial fishes than to the so-called game 
fishes. Many of the fish contributed by the United States 
Fish Commission were contributed in the form of eggs, 
which were hatched and planted by the Commission and 
do not appear in the table given above, which consists of 
fish hatched and planted from eggs taken from stock fish 
at the hatching stations, or from eggs taken in State 
waters. For instance, the total plantings of shad in the 
Hudson amounted to 13,285,200, the grandest plant ever 
made in this river since the beginning of flshculture in 
the State. The Commissioners erected a new shad hatch- 
ery at Catskill, where the eggs were hatched in jars under 
cover instead of the old-fashioned shad boxes operated in 
the river with the sky for a roof, but I presume they will 
describe this work in detail in their annual report. 
Bullheads. 
There was a note in this column about bullheads re- 
cently, since which time I have learned something new 
concerning them. I was visiting a friend who has a 
camp on a trout lake which he owns in the Adirondacks. 
The time was during the last of the month of September, 
Bullheads were schooling at the surface of the lake, 
"bulling," the natives called it; when a school of the fish 
were seen at any part of the lake a rap with a paddle on 
a boat would cause the school of bullheads to jump from 
the water. It was not necessary to see the fish, for a 
blow on the timbers of the boat landing would cause the 
fish to jump in the middle of the lake. One sharp blow 
on the gunwale of boat, canoe or boat landing, the timbers 
of which run down into the water, was all sufficient to 
cause the fish to jump if they were at the surface, and 
the whole school jumped as if frightened. 
Silkworm Cocoons. 
Dr, Theodatus Garliok, the "Father of Flshculture in 
America," gathered the cocoons of American silkworms, 
reared the worms, and from them drew gut that was 
"Oft, long and equal in size and strength to the best 
salmon gut" — that is, such gut as is used in salmon fish- 
ing. Gut from the Chinese worm is not 2ft. long in the 
size used for salmon fishing, and if leaders could be pro- 
duced in one price, free from knots, it would be a boon 
to anglers. Mr. C. F. Orvis has reared the worms and 
drawn the gut, but it lacked strength, probably because 
the worms were not furnished with suitable food. No 
one seems to know what the food of the worms should be 
to produce strong gut from the silk sacs, although Dr. 
Garlick and Dr. Sterling both mentioned to me that the 
button bush was the natural food of the worm in Ohio. 
It remains for some one to discover the proper food of 
the American silkworm to produce the requisite strength 
in the gut when the silk sacs are drawn. 
Some time ago I cut from a New York Tribune an arti- 
cle describing a cocoon hunt, from which a collector 
could distinguish the cocoons of the different moths, and 
resolved to quote from it when the time came to gather 
the cocoons, hoping to interest some one who has the time 
and inclination to experiment in producing long gut for 
angling purposes. 
The moths producing the greatest amount of silk are 
Attieus cecropia, Polyphermus and Prometheus, although 
the Attieus luna may produce a large strand of gut; but it 
is a rarer moth than the others, as a rule. The article I 
have mentioned says of the luna: "The caterpillar of this 
moth lives on the walnut and hickory, on which it may 
be found, fully grown, toward the end of July and during 
the month of August, It is of a pale and very clear blu- 
ish-green color: there is a yellow stripe on each side of the 
body, and the back is crossed between the rings by trans- 
verse lines of the same color; on each of the rings are 
about six minute pearl-colored warts, tinged with purple, 
and furnishing a few little hairs, and at the extremity of 
the body are three brown spots, edged above with yellow. 
When about to retire for its winter sleep it draws together 
with silken threads two or three leaves of the tree, and 
within the hollow thus formed spins an oval and very- 
close and strong cocoon about If in. long, and immedi- 
ately afterward changes to a chrysalis. The cocoons fall 
from the trees in the autumn with the leaves in which 
they are enveloped, and the moths make their escape 
from them in June. 
"A moth whose caterpillar is much like that of the luna 
both in coloring and habits is the Polyphemus, He makes 
his cocoon in the same manner and drops to the ground 
in the autumn. To find the cocoons the searcher must 
turn over the dropped leaves of the oak and birch. 
"The caterpillar of the Attims cecropia anchors his win- 
ter home longitudinally to the side of a twig. It is on an 
average Sin, long and lin. in diameter at the widest part. 
Its shape is an oblong oval pointed at the upper end. It 
is double, the outer coat being wrinkled and resembling 
brown paper in color and thickness; when this tough 
outer coat is cut open the inside will be seen to be lined 
with a quantity of loose, yellow-brown strong silk, sur- 
rounding an inner oval cocoon composed of the same kind 
of silk, and closely woven, like that of the silkworm. 
The caterpillar feeds chiefly on the apple, cherry and 
birch trees, as well as on currant, alder and barberry 
bushes, and its cocoons may be found where they grow. 
"The caterpillar of Attieus prometheus has a particular 
love for the leaves of the sassafras and wild cherry, 
though he may also swing his hammock from the twigs 
of the elder bush, the azalea, the swamp pink and the 
buttonball. A few brown and curled leaves may fre- 
quently be seen hanging from a tree or bush when all the 
other leaves have fallen off. If one of these leaves is ex- 
amined it will be found to be retained by a quantity of 
silken thread which is wound around the twig to a dis- 
tance of iin, or more on each side of the leaf-stalk, and 
is thence carried downward around the stalk to an oval 
cocoon which is wrapped up by the sides of the leaf. 
The cocoon itself is about lin. long, and so strong is the 
coating of silk that surrounds the leaf-stalk and connects 
the cocoon with the branch that it cannot be severed 
without great force, and consequently the chrysalis swings 
securely within its leaf -covered envelope through all the 
storms of winter." 
There is another moth, the caterpillar of which spins 
silk, which is comparatively new to this country. Like 
those already mentioned, which have been called Ameri- 
can silkworms (although the writer I have quoted says 
of the cecropia that the cocoon is "composed of the 
same kind of silk, and closely woxen, like that of the silk- 
worm," as though the worm were not a silkworm), it is 
a large moth and may produce as much gut as any of the 
worms mentioned. This moth is the Attieus cynthia 
and came to America from Japan with the ailanthus 
tree, on which it feeds exclusively and on which it spins 
its cocoon. The cocoon is larger than that of the Prome- 
timis and is spun with a whiter silk, "Like the Prome- 
theus, the cocoon is chained, if not to the rock, at least " 
to the twig, and a hurricane would only rock the chrysa- 
lis intoaluUaby, The moth expands from 5 to S^in,, 
has pale olive-green wings, bordered by a pale lilac and 
white streak on its upper and lower wings." 
I have a friend who is an enthusiastic collector of 
cocoons and he gathers many of them, but I cannot in- 
duce him to rear the worms and draw gut from the silk 
sack, for he is not an angler, and he prefers to impale the 
moths on pins and put them in a case. It is not unusual 
to find the moths about the electric street lights, but the 
Iv/na is rare as compared with the other big moths. 
However, it is not the moths that the collector must seek 
if he desires to experiment with silkworm gut. When 
the moths escape from the cocoon they mate and live but 
a short time after depositing their eggs, which hatch 
into caterpillars. 
Birch Bark Cup. 
Birch bark serves many purposes in the woods, and 
this year one of my guides in Canada made a drinking 
cup from birch bark that was to me entirely new in 
form. Coming over a portage, the men took the canoes 
first, leaving the pack with all the drinking vessels be- 
hind. A cup was needed, and one of the guides procured 
a piece of birch bark, made a cornucopia of it, cut off the 
pointed end, split a green twig, inserted the lower end of 
the cornucopia in the cleft, pinched the open ends of the 
cleft twig together with his fingers and presented it to 
me. It was better than a hat or your hand, and almost 
as good as a ti n cup. A. N. Cheney. 
Transporting Crayfish. 
In last week's Forest and Stream Mr. Cheney suggests 
for transporting crayfish to place them in water, chang- 
ing the water occasionally, etc. My experience has been 
that many will die when kept in water, and that the 
greatest success is attained by placing grass sod in a box, 
with a cover having holes bored in it; moisten the sod 
somewhat and keep the cover on the box to prevent cray- 
fish from crawling up and out. I have kept a supply for 
several weeks in that way with no loss. The crayfish 
will be found when wanted by pulling the sods apart. 
They can be transported any distance if kept cool. 
Spbnobb M. Nash. 
New Jersey Coast Fishing. 
AsBURT Park, N. J., Nov. 14.— The destruction of the 
fishing pounds along the coast has brought a season of 
conditions which give joy to the angler. Surely not in 
years has fishing been better than for the past two weeks. 
The catches of plaice or flake have been something enor- 
mous; tons have been taken by rod and reel, while weak- 
fish, ling and what is something of a phenomena, the 
codfish, are taken directly from the beach. Never be- 
fore have I known the cod to be so close inshore; 
they are attracted by the sand eel or sand lant, 
which is a favorite food for all fish at this sea- 
son of the year, and they are now on the coast 
in enormous schools. They are distinctly a cold-water 
fish, rarely sojourning further south than Cape May, 
where they apparently leave the coast and pass out to sea, 
where they are pursued and greedily fed upon by the cod 
and other carnivorous fish. Their place in nature is quite 
similar to that of the menhaden, being a bait fish. I 
have frequently known the weakfish to scorn all other 
baits and take the sand eel greedily at every cast. If 
there is any better sport than taking weakfish from the 
surf when they are in a biting mood I have never yet dis- 
covered it. Leonard Hulit. 
Sunapee Saibling for New Tork Waters. 
Last week State Fish Commissioner A. N. Cheney 
brought from Lake Sunapee, N. H., forty-five saibling 
which were put out in Lake George, with ten for the 
Caledonia hatchery and four for the New York 
Aquarium. He germed also 6,000 saibling eggs, which 
went to Caledonia. 
This is the first time saibling have been taken out of 
New Hampshire for stocking purposes; it may be regarded 
as the beginning of an important enterprise of adding the 
formed fish to many of the waters of this State. 
The saibling has always been claimed by New Hamp- 
shire as an unique possession, shared by none of her sister 
States. It will be remembered, however, that some years 
ago Mr. James Annin, Jr. , the present Superintendent of 
Hatcheries of New York, suggested that there might be 
saibling in Sterling Lake, which is in Orange county, fifty 
miles from New York city. 
Florida Fish and Game. 
Brooksville, Fla., Nov, 12.— In the bay at Bay Port, 
Fia., last Wednesday, a fisherman caught in his net a tar- 
pon measuring 4ft. Three fine deer were killed near 
Brooks-ville by Col. Martain and A, N, Chef. Quail are 
in abundance in this county. J. Watkins Leb. 
'he Mmml 
FIXTURES. 
BENCH SHOWS. 
Dec 1 to 4.— City of the Straits Kennel Club's local show, Detrlot, 
Mich. R. H. Roberts, Sec'y. 
Dec. 8 to 11.— Augusta, Oa.— Georgia Poultry and Pet Stock Associ- 
ation. J. W. Killingsworth, Sec'y. 
Deo. 15 to 18.— Central Michigan Poultry and Pet Stock Associa- 
tion's show, Lansing, Mich, C. H. Crane, Sec'y. 
1897. 
Feb. 2 to 5.— New England Kennel Club's annual show, Boston. 
FIEILD TRIALS, 
Nov. 23.— Newton, N. C— U. S. F. T. Club's faU trials, W. B. Staf- 
ford, Sec'y. , , . , 
Dec. 14.— Athens, Ala.— Dixie Red Fox Club's second annual trials 
J. H. Wallace, Sec'y, Huntsville, Ala. 
1897. 
Jan. 11.— Tupela, Miss.— Continental Field Trial Club's quail trials. 
P. T. Madison, Sec'y, 
Jan. 18.— West Point, Miss.— U, S. F. T. C. winter trials. W. B. 
Stafford, Seo'y, Trenton, Tenn. 
Not. 8.— Carlisle, Ind.— Union Field Trials Club second annual 
trials. P. T. Madison, Sec'y, Indianapolis, Ind, 
DOGS IN TOWN. 
Hartford, Conn, — Editor Forest and Stream: I read 
with some pleasure the contemplated action of the Board 
of Health of the City of New York in the matter of dogs 
running at large in the streets of the city. Although I 
am a dog owner myself, I realize that those who are not 
dog owners have rights which are bound to be respected, 
and those who are dog owners have rights too — of which 
they have a right to the enjoyment of their property in 
dogs, but they have no right to make their dogs a nui- 
sance to others or the public at large. Many people are 
so blinded by their personal affection for their dogs that 
they seem to consider any objection to them as a personal 
affront aimed at themselves and resent it as such. They 
do not consider that their dogs may be an annoyance or 
intrusive or even a nuisance to others. 
In the great cities especially are dogs a great nuisance, 
and their oftensiveness is greatly aggravated by the do- 
ings of the owners, either from neglect on their part by 
allowing their dogs to run at large and thereby giving 
them an opportunity for all kinds of offensive liberties, 
or by turning them into^or leading them in the street 
for the sole purpose that they may relieve their animal 
needs. 
It is not an uncommon occurrence for dogs to soil 
ladies' or gentlemen's garments in the streets if the wear- 
ers are stopped in conversation, and the soiling of food 
and groceries displayed in front of stores and markets is 
a very common occurrence, a most exasperating imposi- 
tion and a cause of direct loss to the tradesmen. 
Many people take their dogs with them when they go 
shopping or to market, giving the dogs the freedom to over- 
run the place and in a way presuming on the tradesman's 
fear of the loss of trade to restrain him from resenting the 
gross imposition. The proper treatment would be to kick 
the offending dog into the street. No tradesman, how- 
ever, cares to take such initiative, as not only would force 
make a spectacular disturbance of his business, but there 
would be such a gross perversion of the facts and such 
an exaggeration of its importance that it really might 
make a scandal and a consequent serious disturbance to 
his business. 
It is a strange phase of human nature that so much of 
imposition will become almost a custom when those who 
are imposed upon cannot resent it. Suppose that the 
tradesman in delivering his goods to his customers was 
to take his dog with him and let him overrun the house, 
soiling such articles as pleased his fastidious fancy, stick 
