Maeoh 13, 1897. J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
§11 
cause we pay him, 'but there is more back of it than he 
tells or knows. If we are ordered to leave the country for 
the country's good, we can easily and graceftilly retire 
with all the honors; but, my boy, if it comes to a lynching; 
party I should hate to die in so poor a cause. What d\e 
think?*' 
Bell looked amused, and replied: "This thing is very 
funny. As for the talk of the hotel servants, that's noth- 
ing; I don't like colored servants anyway, and the further 
they keep away the better I like 'em. Let's go up and see 
this duffer, Almy, and talk to him, and find out what he's 
got to say; we may knock a lot of fun out of him if we work 
it right. I know the old excrescence very well, for I have 
talked astronomy to him, and when I told him that the 
moon was shaped like a clam shell and sometimes had 
only an edge toward us he said he knew that.-' 
We sat on the steps of the railway station and talked 
with Almy. Suddenly he said: "I s'pose you don't believe 
in voodoos; most white men don't, but I've been studying 
voodooism, and I know they have a hidden power." 
His remark being partly in form of a question and di' 
rected at me, I answered very truly that I had never paid 
any attention to it. With a look at me, Bell innocently 
asked: "How is the power developed, by gas, coal, electri- 
city or solar heat?" 
Ignoring the question of the young man, he said: 
"There's an old colored woman who lives close by here 
who has great power. After you go to bed, if she should 
mark a cross in front of your doorstep and you were the 
first to step over it, she would have power over you all 
your life. She could strike you blind, or dead, even if you 
were 1,000 miles away." 
"Datta's so," said Pete, ' "de cullod people 'bout yeah's 
pow'ful shy o' her, an' w'en de kyars run offen de track — " 
"Shut up, Pete," said Bell, "you'll find some o' them 
pickled snakes in your bed if you talk too much." 
"This is a new and interesting subject t^» me, Mr. Almy," 
said I, "and I would like to investigate it. Suppose we try 
it! Let her make the cross before our door to-night, and 
I'll make Mr. Bell step over it the first one in the morn- 
ing." 
"All right," said Bell, "it's a go. Here's a |5 bill for 
the old gal in the interest of scientific investigation; no 
doubt the amount can be put in the expense bill and the 
result of the experiment be reported to the Government, 
after which we will receive the thanks of Congress for 
being pioneers in a new field of observation." 
Pet sat with open eyes and mouth, gazing at the man 
who was willing to sacrifice himself for something beyond 
his power of understanding. Mr. Almy gazed awhile at a 
fence lizard which was taking a sunbath on the hitching 
post, and then, in a tone deeply tinged with regret, said: 
"I wouldn't let you do it for all the world! I s'posed you 
didn't believe in the voodoos, none of the white folks 'bout 
yere do, leastwise they say they don't, but I know better." 
Bell was disposed to knock a little fun out of this man b}'^ 
asking ridiculous questions, such as: "Could she make a 
marble statue change from a Roman nose to an ingrowing 
face?" but I looked at him in a manner that stopped his 
fun, and explained our mission to Mr. Almy, and he un- 
derstood why we wanted fish and snakes. 
After we left our new friend Bell broke out with: "Well, 
what's got you? It's the first time I ever knew you to 
refrain from working a mental curiosity for all there was 
in him. Perhaps I alarmed him, and there's more fun to 
be got out of him by your own plan. What are you re- 
serving him for?" 
"Charley," I answered, "there are a few other things to 
be got out of our friend besides fun. Professor Baird did 
not send us here merely to have fun; incidentally we may 
have a little, but primarily we must collect fishe.s for more 
learned men to study, and this man. Pete says, is the best 
man to shoot big fish with a bow and arrow- that there is 
in this parish, and I want to see the work and get a look 
at the fish, thus combining duty and pleasure while Ave 
are learning something. But if we go at him to 'knock 
fun out of him,* as you incline to do, we make him our 
enemy at once. The man is intelligent on all other sub- 
jects than voodooism, just as you may know more than he 
gives you credit for. I tell you, my boy, one man is not a 
fair judge of another. He thinks he is, but he measures 
him by his own mental tape, on which the inches are very 
long. Every man sums up his fellows, but he has only his 
own measure by which to gauge them. As you suggest, 
we can get some fun out of his ''queer notions, but by ig- 
noring these he will be valuable in other w^ays. Every 
man thinks he has tlie proper mental balance. He has 
no other to judge by. He thinks that many things in this 
world were unevenly divided, but knows that he got liis 
share of brains. Let the man alone; he is seriously in- 
clined, and what you may think funny when you are play- 
ing for my applause will not only exasperate him, but will 
make him an enemy. No one appreciates the unconscious 
humor of his theories on witchcraft more than I, but per- 
mit me to call your attention to the fact that the man who 
has the keenest appreciation of humor seldom laughs." 
"That's true! There was 'Fat Jack' Evans, of Albany, 
who would laugh imtil apoplexy threatened, and when he 
got through couldn't tell the nub of the joke. But it is 
true that when you want to get a lot of fun out of some 
fellow who is really funny and doesn't know it, you 
mustn't laugh, or you'll queer the whole show." 
Pete tracked a turtle and found its nest containing 
twenty-seven eggs. These we took to eat because he said 
they were good, but we did not care for them. We had 
seen soft-shelled turtles and a fine hard-shelled species 
over a foot in length, but we did not catch any. The 
people there spoke highly of the flesh of the latter, but 
were disgusted to know that we ate frogs. Pete was our 
mentor, and from him we got the local names of the 
fishes. My note book shows that the fresh-water drum of 
the Great Lakes is a "gaspergou." "Warmouth" is applied 
to several species related to the rock bass of the North, 
while the names red eye, goggle eye, etc., were applied to 
the same fishes, and the darky boys disputed over the 
names with the ardor of scientists. "Brim" and "blue 
brim" were no doubt corruptions of the English bream, 
and were large fishes of the sunfish type, growing up to 
21bs. weight, and there were many new fishes. 
I had arranged with Mr. Almy to go down the river 
with him in a dugout and shoot fish with an arrow, leav- 
ing Bell to fish with Pete. That, however, is another 
story. When we finally left Tangipahoa and badegood- 
by to the few friends we had, Pete took from his head a 
thing which he was pleased to consider a tat and said; 
"Ise pow'ful sorry you is gwine away, an' if yo' come back 
nex' yeah I want tu wuk fo' yo'. I doan mine wot dem 
wimmen at de hotel say; Dey say you is voodoo Yankees 
^cause you is got snakes in bottles, but Miss'r Almy he say 
yo' ain't hu't nobody, an' he know all 'bout the voodoo." 
The engine whistled "off brakes," and Bell and I swung 
on board, waving farewells to Mr, Almy and Pete, with his 
bodyguard of darky boys; true and good friends, who stood 
and Avatched the train until it vanished in the distance. 
To those who value friendship merely in a commercial 
way Pete and Almy would be forgotten at the first curve 
of the railway. Often they come up in a backward glance 
and their memories are sometimes with me when musing 
on the pleasures of the past. Fiied Mathek. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Undersized Trout. 
Mb, Albert C, Clifton, of Hagu'^, on Lake George, N. 
Y , writes rae the following letter under date of Feb. 18:' 
"I wish to call jour attention to a practice now common 
on our lake of catching liltle lake trout of ilb. or |lb. in 
weight. When they are of that size they have a habit of 
collecting in certain favorable spots in great numbers, 
and are caught with fine tackle by still fishing. The most 
noted place near us for ihis kiufl ol fl^ihing is at Anthony's 
Nose, where thousands were taken last season, not one in ten 
of which would weigh i^\b. As many a% sixty a day were 
taken there last i-ummer by one boat, and it is not unusual 
to see four and six boats on the spot a1 once The only 
remedy I can suggest would b« 1o make the limit at which 
lake trout can be billed and possessed nothing under 21 bs. in 
weight, with a penalty severe enough to deter the pot-fishers 
from catchiog the litlle flngerlings that tliey never contribute 
a cent toward placing in the lake. No sportsman would be 
seen with such fish in his possession, and no hotel al our end 
of the lake will Duy them." 
The first water m this State to be do ed to trout fishing 
through the ice was Lake George, la the old day^s it was 
customaiy to fish through the ice for trout in season and out, 
for it was always the case that there was ice in the lake after 
the legal season opened, and it has been one long light to 
prevent poachers from fishing for trout during the close sea- 
son. 
When the State began to res*? ;k the lake with lake trout 
the hike was nearly depl ted o. this fish, but after a few 
yearb' stocking the fishermen apparently set to work to 
exterminate the planted fish. The season opened April 
1, and there was ice in the lake (for only once within 
the memory of man has the ice left the lake anywhere 
near April 1, as it does not generally go out until 
toward the last of this month), and the fish caught 
through the ice were little trout such as Mr. Clifton refers' to. 
The markets were overstocked with these little trout, and an 
effort was made to stop it by prolonging the close season 
until May 1, as at present. It was the exception to get a big 
trout through the ice, and it was also the exception to get a 
(mall trout after the ice was gone. To be sure, after the ice 
was eone the fishing was mostly trolling, and through the 
ice it was necessarily stlll-fishitig. Trofiing was so success- 
ful ttxHl the oM style of buoy fi'hing in spring and summer 
was practically abandoned. Within a few years I have 
known oi cottagers who again resorted to buoy fishing, and 
from their own statements they rarely get a big trout at a 
baited buoy, fish from 1 to 21bs. being the rule 
B'ook trout cannot tie killed legally under 6in. in length, 
and ttie same Umit law applies to lake trout; but what may- 
save the brook trout until some may .spawn will not, when 
applii-d to lake trout, have any effect upon saving them, A 
young lake trout in the spring is long and slim, and if the 
limit of length at which they could be killed was fixed at 
I3in. it would place them in about the same class with the 
brook trout at 6in. It is difficult to fix the limit of fish to be 
legally killed by weight, and a length limit would be far 
be' ter. 
As Mr, Clifton says, no sportsman would be seen with one 
of tnese little trout in his possession ; but in every commu- 
nity there are a ftw, or many, men who will, unless re- 
strnined by law, ligidly enforced, catch everytning of fish 
kind that comes to their hooks and kill it. They have no 
thought or care about the future fishing in the water they 
despoil, they simply take everything in sight. The killing 
of fingerling fish does incalculable harm, and restocking in 
some waters will not replace the waste from this cause Men 
who .'should know better have been known to bewail that 
there is a 6in. limit law for brook trout, because they like the 
baby trout to eat, fried brown, soon after they have absorbed 
the umbihcal sac. Potatoes cut to the same size and fried 
brown in hot lard would be far better in every way. 
For two years past there have been complaints that lake 
trout fi-hing in Lake George is poor, in spite of the fact that 
500,000 trout fry have been planted annually for many 
years. It is not true that trout are not in the lake, for there 
are plenty of them to be seen even if they are not caught, but 
catching baby trout will not help the fishing. ■ People com- 
plain about the fishing in a lake or stream and clamor to 
have it stocked, and as soon as the water is planted by the 
Stale there seems to be a competition as to who shall catch 
the greatest number of fish. A small lake in New York has 
been overfished without doubt, as it contains large black 
bass and people came from fnv and near to catch them. It 
was-urged ttiat the Siate should make a planting of black 
bass in this lake, and last year 100 adult black bass were ob- 
tained and sent to the lake by the Fisheries, Game and For- 
est Commission, A man who has been active in having fl:h 
planted in the lake owns a hotel on its shores, and a week or 
two after the State had sent the 100 adult bass to restock it I 
saw in a newspaper that the professional fisherman em- 
ployed at the hotel had caught sixty black bass in one day. 
Perhaps that lake will get another lot of bass from the State 
this year and perhaps not. 
Everything that is not popular in these days is called old- 
fashioned, and I am old-fashioned enough that I would not 
attempt to stock any water with fish unless there is a senti- 
ment in the community where the water is located favorable 
to the perpetuation of the fish. If people wish to catch 
black bass on the spawning beds and howl to the State for 
more, they would not get the bass if I were the State. If 
they caught the fingerling trout as soon as they are big 
enough to bite a hook, they would not get any more trout. 
There are waters enough in the State that need stocking or 
restocking where the sentiment favors just and adequate pro- 
tection to the fish to keep up the supply, and let tne spawn- 
ing bed lobbers and fingerhng butchers think it over on the 
stool of repentance. 
Last year I liappened to be on the State fish car wliea it 
was loaded with yearling brook trout, some of them Sin. 
long. As they were being unloaded, a man looked into one 
of the cans and asked where they were to be planted, for he 
would like to go and catch some of them when the season 
opened a few days later; and from his manner I had no 
doubt he would do that very thing, had he found out where 
the fish were to be planted; and yet before he finished talk- 
ing he condemned the commission that was planting the 
fish for not making the fishing better in that locality. 
Trout, Black Bass and Pickerel. 
Here is another letter received from a gentleman in Scran- 
ton, Pa : 
"I notice in one of your Forest and Stkeam notes 
something about black bass in trout waters. When I called 
on you some two years ago or so we were speaking of this 
in connection with a lake near here. This is a lake of 3g0 
acres, 50 to 66ft. deep, spring fed, and unusually clear aid 
cold It was originally a trout like. Some seventy years 
ago or so it was stocked with pickerel. Of course the trout 
disappeared. Then about 1870 it was stocked with black 
bass (small-mouth). Landlocked salmon and other species 
of fish were planted, but never seemed to come to anything. 
The black bass got the upper hand of the pickerel and pretty 
much lun them out. Our Association, on my suggestion, 
started in to stock with shrimp, smelt and different kmds of 
food, and followed it np with different species of trout, prin- 
cir>aliy lake trout about 4in. long, of which we put in tome 
3,000. 
"This present winter a number of lake trout 41bs. in weight 
have tjeen taken through the ice. We have not yet provtd 
much, but as far as it goes this would indicate that lake trout 
can take care of themselves as against pickerel and black 
bass." 
The chief interest to me in this letter is the pers-st- 
ency displayed on the part of the writer and his friends 
to stock the lake in the face of adverse circumstances with 
the choicest fish, and apparently the lake trout were estab- 
fished only after the lake had been planted with fish food. 
Another point is that the lake trout were estabfished by 
planting fingerling fish. It is not unusual to find lake trout, 
black bass and pickerel {Lucim lucius) in the same water, 
living without one interfering with the others. Lake 
George, already mentioned ia this column, has always had 
pike, the so-called pickerel, lake trout and black bass, and 
never, so far as diligent irquiry ran discover, has a trout been 
found inside of the bluek bass or p'ke except in one instance. 
In Upper Saranac Lal?e a lake trout wa,s cautrht with a num- 
ber of piKe in ide of it. In Sunapee Lake, New Hampshire, 
there may be found common speckled trout, landlocked 
salmon, Sunapee saibling or golden trout, black bass, pike 
and pike-perx;h. The speckled trout are not as abundai l as 
the golden trout or tne landlocked salmon, but all the fish 
named are found in the lake. It is the speckled trout and 
the black bass or pike that fall afolil of one another as a 
rule, for all three maybe considered shallow-water fish in 
contradistinction to the lake trout, landlocked salmon and 
golden trout, Avhich may be termed deep-water fish. More 
and more I am inclined to think that brown and rainbow 
trout may be made to thrive in waters containing pike (pro- 
vided food and temperature conditions are suitable) if the 
pike are netted at spawning time in the spring, and the trout 
planted are yearlings or older fish. 
I have frcqueuily referred to Loch Leven, in Scotland, 
which contams pike and the Loch Leven trout, and yet by 
netting pike the trout have increased in size and numbers, 
for carefully prepared statistics concerning the fish of the 
lake are published annually. That food for fish is one of 
the most important factors in establishing any species of fish 
there is no reason to doubt, and perhaps further expt riments 
will demonstraie lhat we have held erroneous ideas regard- 
ing the habits of some of our fishes, because the conditions 
have not been what they should be or what they could be 
made to insure other bubits. 
Planting Lake Trout Fry. 
The Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission of New York 
issued a circular giving instructions how to transport and 
plant young fish. In it occurs this passage: "Lake trout 
should be planted among boulders or rocks on a shoal in 
mid-lake, very near to deep watir, into which the young 
trout soon find their way," The circular further s-ays the 
trout may be planted on spawning bed shoals if other shoals 
are not to be found and the spawning beds are known. Tne 
reason for this distinction has been explained that eels and 
other fish resort to the spawning beds and the fry may be 
safer on shoals i ot usi d as spawning beds. 
Recently I was talking with a professional fisherman, and 
he said the directions in the circular were correct, but they 
were not always carried out by those who planted lake trout 
fry, and he cited a planting of lake trout fry made last year 
on the shore of a lake. The fry were planted among the 
boulders near deep water, but on shore instead of in mid-lake. 
He said he caught perch on the shore in Jxmethat were filled 
with little trout, and this would not have been the c-dse had 
the trout been plauted as directed, for the perch spawn on the 
shores in May and do not resort to the mid-lake shoals until 
July, by which time the young trout would have found their 
way into deep water, and so they would not meet the perch. 
The reason for planting the tiout on the shore was that 
one of the men who planted the fish wished to make sure 
that the trout would oe established ne-ar a cottage he owned 
(.n tne shore. The man ought to have known better, as he 
has lived on the lake all his life, and has Isnown of trout 
being planttd since 1876, and they have always been found 
on the same grounds, no matter in which part of the lake 
they have been planted, 
"Forest and Stream's" BIg-Flsh Record. 
Forest and Stream's record of big fish is now in its 
infancy, but I expect before a year rolls around that addi- 
tions and corrections of the record will bring out some big 
fish that have perhaps been Ling dormant for lack of just 
such a record as Forest and Strbam has now provided t© 
bring them before the public, 
I have a letter from a gentleman in New York city, from 
which I quote: "Referring to your contribution to Forest 
AND Stream's record of big fish, 1 would call your atten- 
tion to the followine faces, and perhaps Dy looking further 
into the mat er j on may get some information taat will be 
of interest to you. Some time during May or -June of last 
year a young man came into the oifice to order some goods, 
and showed me a veiy large mounted brook trout, which he 
was taking to somebody" in Walton, N. Y. I asked him 
what it weighed and where it was caught, and he said it 
weighed over lOlbs., and was caught in the Delaware River 
near Waltoo. I have forgotteu the aame of the persoa for 
