Feb, e, 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
109 
could never do enough to entertain bim, and so after the 
theater 1 took him down to Delmonico's, and, handing him 
the memi and suggesting certain dehcacies and a bottle of 
harzac, my guest told the waiter that he would like ham and 
eggs and a glass of beer!" I imagine, continued Tom, that 
the next friend from the quail grounds of Noith Carolina or 
from the trout streams of the Adirondacks that Frank Endi- 
cott entertained would be led down to Fulton Market and 
stuffed with clama." 
There was a charm of easy wit about my friend which, 
backed as it was by a generous course of reading, classical 
and other, rendered him an entertaining companion and 
correspondent, and while I have some of his serious poetical 
efforts of no mean order, me judice) I take more delight in 
his attempts at jocularity, in which I was the object of his 
assumed wrath: "Your old friend has got the theosoph- 
ical bee in his bonnet, and has gone clean daft. He bored 
me for an hour about mahatmas— things that you are not 
capable of understanding — but I will tell you they are not 
fish, and so you don't have to know anything of them. He 
says we've all been on this earth many times in different 
forms, and perhaps we have; but you, you rascal, if you 
had been with us, you would have irreverently alluded to 
Nat, Goodwin's song, 'We've all been there before, many a 
time, many a time;' but I listened with more respect than 
you would have done, and our fiiend looks upon me as a 
possible recruit to theosophy. When I got home I thought 
this all over, and while mueing on it over a pipe the follow- 
ing thought came up in rhyme: 
" 'When first I met you, Fred, one time. 
Ten thousand years or more, 
When ganoids moved among the slime 
Along old Egypt's shore: 
A reptile crawled from out the Nile 
And bit a stork that flew; 
I was the bird that soared the while, 
The ugly cuss was you.' 
"Bring down some blood worms and we'll have a dav 
with the striped bass, and I'll forgive you the mean trick 
you served me several centuries ago." 
In his early boyhood, when he used to go down to shoot 
and fish at the old homestead at Canton, Mass , he once took 
down a new "Westley Kichards double gun, which delighted 
the eye of an old native who used to shoot with the boy. 
The fine lines and exquisite workmanship delighted the old 
fellow, who fondled it, brought it to his shoulder and then 
felt the smooth working of the locks. Turning to the youth, 
he asked: "What did she co.st ve, Frank?" 
"It cost just 1100 landed in New York." 
The old man looked from the gun to the boy, drew a long 
breath and exclaimed: "Whew! It's my opinion ye orter 
have a gardeen 'p'inted over ye. A hundred dollars; well, 
I swan 1" 
Mr. Eodicott was a natural mechanic as well as an artist, 
and he showed me two ^plit bamboo fly rods which he had 
made in the early TOs, metal ferrules aud all, and they com- 
pared favorably with the professional work of that day. He 
also tied flies when the fancy struck him, but he agreed with 
me that it was much cheaper to sit down and smoke and let 
some other fellow make the rods while the girls tied the flies, 
and the only phyaical and mental exercise necessary to get 
the best rods and flies was to remember in which pocket the 
purse was carried and to count out the sum rt quired. I once 
had a trifle of mechanical skill, and evidence of it hangs in 
my den, but it was never directed to the making of any kind 
of fishing tackle, which can be bought so much better than 
any amateur can make it, not to mention the time he could 
more profitably put to other use. There's a heap of stuff 
written about taking the materials for fly tying with j'ou 
and then trying to imitate the fly that the fish are rising to 
on that particular day. Pardon me for the digression — my 
old friend Eodicott would sustain me if he was on earth — 
but my advice is to go and buy an assortment of flies of dif- 
ferent forms and colors, paying attention to the sizes of the 
hooks for the waters they are to be used in and the probable 
size of the fish to be caught there, and taking plenty of 
them, and you should have something near any kind of flj^ 
that may rise, as well as some equally good nondescripts. 
Mr. Endicott invented the first fly-book in which the gut 
snell was kept straight by stretching, it is stiU on the mar- 
ket and bears his name. I once asked him if he ever got 
any money out of it. "No," he replied, "I didn't expect to 
get any, but I patented it to keep others from claiming the 
invention; no doubt the makers of it have made something, 
although the papers were not drawn broatlly enough to keep 
off infringements, and of course other forms were .soon on 
the market." 
In his later life he was a frequent guest at the fishing clubs 
at Newport, Cuttyhunk, Squibnocket, and other resorts in 
Martha's Vineyard, where the striped bass of salt water are 
taken of large size; and he wrote up this sea sport for Har- 
per's Magazine and for "American Game Fishes" (1893), 
which was in press when the genial angler had crossed the 
Styx. But among the famous bass resorts mentioned he 
never matched tiie big bass he took in 1876 in the surf at 
Squam Beach, N. J., which weighed 47ibs., and was safely 
landed after a long fight on a sandy beach. He used to take 
his son George with him on fishing and shooting excursions 
as soon as he was old enough, and on these trips they were 
more like old chums than father and son, and under such a 
tutor the young man grew up to be a finished and scholarly 
sportsman. 
Last week I related how my friend kept up his spirits, and 
joked with me while actually dying. To me this increased 
my admiration for him, for 1 have seen many men die in 
many ways, and somehow disliked to hear a man snivel and 
whine at the inevitable. No man dreaded to be born, and 
death is a corollary of birth; divested of suffering it should 
— but you know as much of this as I do, perhaps more. But 
what led to this train of thought was the fact that after I had 
seen my friend for the last time, his brother, Mr. George 
Munroe Eodicott, of Boston, came to see him, and asked if 
he was not tired of the diet of milk which had been ordered 
by the doctors. "No," said Frank. "I like it, for I have been 
used to it. 1 once lived on milk for a whole year." 
"How was that? I don't remember your having been ill 
before. When was it?" 
"No, you can't remember it, Munroe," said the dying 
man, "it was so long ago; it was the first year of my hfe." 
These anecdotes show the man as I knew him, gentle, brave 
and cheerful; three qualities which are absolutely necessary 
to make a man beloved by those who knew him intimately. 
Frank Endicott's word was a bond, and as he voluntaiily 
promised to wait for me upon the banks of the Styx a few 
years, provided there were the ghosts of fishes iif it, he mil 
meet me there. "But," said he, "if you wait too long, or 
the ghostly fishes won't rise to my ghostly flies, I'll just pay 
your ferriage to old Charon and wait for you beyond the 
further shore." 
Long after the old friend of my boyhood, Port Tyler, was 
dead, Frank and I were fishing for weakfish off Staten Island, 
and while waiting for a bite I told him gome stories about 
the old trapper and market-shooter, remarking that he had 
missed a great deal in not knowing him ; but in telling how 
the old man used to cook young quawks and 'pokes and de- 
clare that they were good, he said ; 
"Perhaps they are good, I can't say; but when you talk of 
birds for the table, my boy, the woodcock, snipe, grouse, 
some kinds of duck, as well as a few that are not strictly 
game, such as meadow larks, wild pigeons and others, are, 
by nature of their food, so superior to any of the fish-eating 
waders that they are not to be mentioned in the same 
day." 
i was fixing a fresh shedder crab on my hook, and after 
casting out and getting the line in shape for a run said: 
"Confound youl I did not say that Old Port compared 
young quawks and 'pokes with the birds you have named; 
I only quoted him as saying they were good, and by 'good' 
we understand them to be fairly palatable, just as this ham 
sandwich and cold chicken is good. You don't wish me to 
understand that every blooming thing that's good to eat, in- 
cluding those greasy possums that I've tried to enjoy out of 
compliment to the very excellent dinners which you have 
given, where there were real good things before and after 
J om piece de resistance, were to be ranked with game?" 
"No," said he, as he removed a weakfish from the hook 
and reached for a shedder. "But you were speaking of the 
shitepoke as a table bird, and there was no occasion to go off 
and abuse the possum, of which, by the way, you always 
eat your portion, and no one ever claimed that either the 
'poke or the possum was in that high class of bird or mam- 
mal life which we caU game. I'll tell you about the quawk 
as a table bird. Bill Chadwick swears by 'em, and once 
when George and I were shooting down on Tom's River we 
killed a couple and also a 'poke, and took them up to Chad- 
wick, who not only cooked them, but insisted that we should 
actually eat 'em. With all respect to your old friend Port 
Tyler, I don't hanker after any more. Bill said the 
quawks were not young enough to be good, and I believe 
him, George sampled the 'poke, and declared the flavor to 
be equal to any axle grease which he had ever smelled, and 
Chadwick thought possibly the bird was too fat. George 
thought so too, and as far as I was concerned the verdict 
was satisfactory. No doubt a 'poke properly stuffed with 
any of the commercial fertilizers would be an improvement 
on Chad wick's simple cooking." 
One of his conceits was to get up "a thirteen dinner" after 
the manner of the famous Thirteen Club, of New York city. 
Something prevented my attendance; it was early for pos- 
sums and he substituted roast sucking pig. I have a dia- 
gram of the table, a copy of which was at each plate; with 
the name of Burrows, host of the Nautilus Hotel, at the 
head and Endicott at the foot, were arranged the names of 
the following well-known Staten Islanders: J. Wells, Harry 
Jones, Dr. McDougall, C. S. de Forest, George Buckingham. 
Raymond Brown, C. Peck, Col. Wm. Patten, J. J. Kenney, 
E J. Cunningham and Fred Jones. In the middle a skull 
and cro5sbones rested on a tablet containing the date ' 'Nov. 39. 
A.D. 1888," and below all was the black flag, with the death's 
head, so dear to those who served under the pirate captain 
of the last century, the terrible Jolly Roger. Now mark 
the sequel of this braving of superstition. Fred Jones, who 
took my place at the dinner, was an athlete and a member 
of that once great baseball team known as the Giants. 
Within a month, so Frank informed me, that man's bull 
terrier was chewed up by a mongrel dog, and a dozen soft 
crabs which he had bought in Fulton Market were not only 
lost, but his best coat was ruined at the same time by the 
way he sat down in a ferry boat. 
"It may be all right to fly in the face of old sayings," I 
remarked to Frank, "but I'm awfully glad that I missed 
that Thirteen Dinner, You remember that Falstaff says: 
'There is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance 
or death,' and don't you remember the story of the old 
Dutchman whose dog howled at night and in the morning 
paper he read to the doubting Katrina: 'Dere vos a man 
died in Philadelphy,' how about that? I tell you, my boy, 
'there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt 
of in your philosophy.' " 
He looked at me, more in sorrow than in anger, and re- 
plied: ''Such superstition as this Would be funny if it were 
not sad. To quote Jack Falstaff's saying is very bad author 
ity for a belief in fate. The Dutchman's dog is, however, 
a howhng argument in favor of your evident belief in fatal- 
ism, but somewhere I have read . 
' 'Tis writ on Paradise's gate, 
Woe to the dupe that yields to fate. 
Give me another shedder crab, my bait is gone. " 
In September, 1887, Mr. Endicott wrote me from Chad- 
wick concerning the bluefish there: "The sport of casting 
in the surf is grand and fish are plenty, but not of large size" 
running from 3 to 51bs. Raymond Brown is here with me| 
but for some reason he wants you ; why, is more than I can 
tell. He is wild over this surf fishing, and as Chadwick 
says the run may last two weeks, you should come down 
and see some fishing— real fishing, I mean— but don't put 
yourself out to do it, for there is a mill-pond near you. and 
when you want to fish you can dig some worms, get a string, 
bend a pin and capture the noble sunfish near the dormitory 
where you pass your time." 
This was a challenge — a taunting and aggravating one 
that could not well be passed — and while we were casting in 
the surf of New Jersey there was a lull in the run of small 
bluefish, probably caused by a school of larger ones, and 
then Raymond Brown landed an 8-pounder. Endicott was 
busy with something, and I played it on him as a specimen 
from the mill-pond at Cold Spring Harbor, The school of 
big fish struck off up the coast and we continued to get the 
smaller ones, but the worm had turned, and vengeance was 
mine. 
In July, '89, he wrote: "Staten Island is a good place for 
striped bass. There is a place which I discovered and kept 
to myself for a number of years, but was indiscreet in giv- 
ing it away to a friend, who in turn let in a whole lot of his 
friends. You cannot do worse, so come down and share my 
bed and bass grounds. Come to-morrow; don't try to make 
any other date for the bass to bite, for you are apt to forget 
the angler in the wretched fishculturist that you are. You 
seem to think that fish should want to feed when you offer 
food, as you do to your tame trout bred in the troughs, but 
the wild striped bass has some knowledge of tides and does 
not govern his appetite by your arbitrary rules. Go to Mr 
and get a lot of worms; the 'bloodworm' or 'white 
worm, ' that is the only bait for striped bass on Staten Island; 
the sand worm will not do. If you find that blood worms 
are not in stock, send out and get them no matter what they 
cost. I know that you don't value 5 cents more than a 
farmer values a yoke of two-year-old steers, but get the 
worms if you have to sefl a bond. Please take this seriously, 
if you can so consider any proposition, for you might as well 
offer a bait of carpet tacks to a striped bass on this beach as 
to try them with sand worms. Shedders are of no account, 
shrimps have no call and only blood worms are in demand." 
We took a few bass, the largest weighing 91bs. and the small- 
est something less. 
In 1883 Mr. Endicott organized the National Rod and 
Reel Association, which held annual tournaments in Central 
Park, New York city, and which did so much to popularize 
fly-casting and bring forward experts whose records were 
most wonderful, and were at first received with doubt in 
England. He was its president for many years, and by his 
personal magnetism held it together years after chques were 
formed and elements of discord were developing. These he 
held in check with a tact that never gave offense to any who 
were gentlemen, but his firm hand came down on any mag 
hunter who deserved it, and as membership was open to any 
who wished to join, this firmness became necessary. The 
Association did not live long after he resigned because it re- 
quired a great amount of labor to keep it going, which to 
him was a labor of love, to which he could devote his whole 
time, if necessary." 
This is a rude picture of a man whom I was praud to call 
my friend, and to whom I could quote Hamlet's saying: 
"Give me that man 
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him 
In my heart's core, ay, in my heart, 
As I do thee." 
Feed MaThbb. 
NEW YORK FISH COMMISSION. 
The preliminary report of the New York Commission 
of Fisheries, Game and Forests for 1896 contains a sum- 
mary of the work done, with a number of suggestions 
and recommendations, some of which here follow: 
During the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1896, this Com- 
mission has hatched and planted in public waters in the 
State 191,726,678 fish of various kind, all the eggs having 
been taken from stock fish at the hatching station ponds, 
or secured from wild waters in the State. The fish were 
hatched and distributed at a total cost of 19 6 cents per 
thousand. The cost per thousand in previous years nas 
been as follows: 1894, 30 cents; 1893, 48 cents; 1892. 
$1.11. 
Output for the Year. 
One of the most important items in the cost of hatching 
and distributing fish is the rearing of fingerlings (eight 
months old) and older fish. 
Within the year we have reared and planted 130,400 
trout of eight and ten months of age, and 14,585 trout 
from twelve to eighteen months of age, or a total of 144,- 
985 trout above the age of what are commonly called 
fingerlings. Previous to the date of the organization of 
this Commission, the printed reports of the fisheries work 
in the State made scarcely any mention of the rearing of 
fingerling fish, as practically all the fish hatched were 
planted in the fry stage as soon as they were hatched, 
and before they required to be fed. In addition to the 
fish hatched and distributed from the State hatcherie=> the 
United States Fish Commission contributed to the State 
37,417,533 fish and eggs, the eggs being hatched af the 
State hatcheries, makina: a grand total of 319,144,311 fish 
of all kinds planted in State waters during the year. 
Authority to Close Waters. 
We would again most earnestly recommend that power 
be given to this Commission to close waters for a term of 
years, not exceeding five, when in the judgment of the 
Commissioners it is necessary to close streams for nursery 
purposes or to establish or re-establish fish in such waters. 
Already similar commissions of sister States have this 
power by posting printed notices on the banks of waters 
it is desired to close. 
Three New Fish. 
During the past year the Commission has obtained from 
the New Hampshire Fish Commission a number of adult 
sunapee trout and planted them in public waters in this 
State. This is a famed fish, found only in two lakes in 
New Hampshire and one in Maine, and is the highest type 
of game fish and one of the most delicate of food fishes. 
We have also obtained from the United States Fish Com- 
mission 75,000 eggs of thesteelhead trout from the Pacific 
coast, and hatched and planted them in State waters. 
Another new fish obtained during the past year, from a 
lot of eggs sent to the National Government by the Swiss 
Government, is the Swiss lake trout. These three new 
species, having been obtained and planted in the waters 
of the State since the last session of the Legislature, have 
no protection under the law, and it is most desirable that 
a close season be provided for them similar to the close 
season already provided for the native brook and lake 
trout. 
Salmon in the Hudson. 
Since the year 1883, plants of Atlantic salmon fry and 
yearlings have been made in the waters of the upper 
Hudson River annually, until the total plantings amount 
to about 3,500,000, and the Government has furnished 
100,000 eggs to be hatched and planted the coming spring. 
Dams and falls in the river have prevented the salmon on 
their return from the sea ascending to their natural 
spawning grounds, where they were planted as baby fish, 
and they have been obliged to seek clear water and gravel 
beds wherever they could be found together for spawning 
purposes. Where these spawning grounds were located 
was not deterrnined until last autumn, when it was found 
by this Commission that salmon were running up Living- 
ston Creek on the left branch of the Hudson, below 
Linlitbgo Station of the New York Central & Hudson 
River Railroad, where they found clear, cold water and 
gravel bottom in what was once a famous trout stream. 
It is the intention of the Commission to visit this stream 
when the spawning season of the salmon again comes 
around and capture the fish on their spawning beds, now 
plainly to be seen, and take the eggs artificially for the 
purpose of hatching them and planting the young higher 
up the main river. In spite of the law to the contrary, it 
has been found that the salmon were speared on their 
beds or while making their way up Livingston Creek to 
1 
