62 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Mat 1, 1897, 
form on them. "Next, we separated the gills from tlie back 
of the lower jaw, and with a sharp knife laid open the fish 
from the gills to the anal fin, removed the entrails and blood 
from tLe backbone, and wiped them dry with a cloth; 
then stuffed the fish with a wad of dry hay or straw to pre- 
vent the soft parts from coming together, and put each fish 
separately in dry hay. Nothing damp should be used, as 
heal is generated and the fish will quickly spoil. We packed 
our fish in this way, and afterward learned that they arrived 
in splendid condition, after being two days on the road. 
We remained three days more at the Big Meadow?, catch- 
ing what fish we needed for food each day, and varying the 
f port by killing some jacksnipe which infest the marshes, 
and gray squirrels in the pine woods, which gave us a nice 
variety for the frying pan, 
We reluctantly broke camp and set out for home, firmly 
bent on ret^j-ning later on when the deer season opened," as 
big game seemed plentiful; while at the head of Big Lake, 
Lassen Mountain, is famous for its big bucKs and cinnamon 
bear, as well as its hot springs, where it is possible to catch 
fish in Butte Creek, and, without moving in one's tracks, lift 
the fish into a hot spring and cook them. 
I hope in the near future to give my readers some short 
accounts of my hunting trips in the Sierras. 
H. W, Wills. 
ANGLING NOTES. 

Thickness of Gut. 
A coKRESPONDENT reminds me that he asked me about six 
months ago to inform him in this column about the different 
sizes of gut, and if there is any rule which regulates the size 
of black bass, trout, salmon gut, etc. 1 legiet that I have 
been so dilatory in my reply, although the letter is not dat( d 
quite six month ago. My disposition is always agreeable to 
an early reply to letters and queries, but unfortunately my 
disposition and my time are not in accord. 
There is no arbitrary rule in regard to the size that gut 
shall be for any particular fish, arid it is a matter for the 
tackle dealer and the angler to settle each for himself. The 
tackle dealer advertises irout, black bass and salmon leaders, 
for instance, or heavy, medium and light leaders for each of 
the fishes named, and the gut of the trout leaders is of li ss 
thickness, as our English brethren say, than the gut of the 
bass leaders, and the gut of the bass leaders of less thickness 
than the salmon; but there is no recogn:zed standard by 
which to measure the thickness of gut to be employed in 
making leaders for either trout or black bass. It is safe to 
assume that for salmon the thickest gut obtainable is used, 
but tor trout one man may desire to use a leader of drawn 
gut and another may feel it incumbent upon him to fish with 
gut that would hold a sturgeon or a small whak ; for I be- 
lieve it is generally understood that, while some men "fish 
fine," others derrick their fish. Therefore, a tackle dealer 
could not institute rules as to the size of gut that all men 
should use in catching the same kind of fish. 
In the trade gut of different thicknesses is designated by 
different names, which the dealers understand and the aver- 
age angler knows little or nothing about. In natural gut, 
and by this I mean the silk sac of the silkworm, drawn ^nd 
dried on a board, from which the yellow skin is removed 
afterward and the gut bleached, when it is graded and put 
into hanks as it comes to the retail dealer and in the condi- 
tion which the angler finds it, this natui'al gut may vary in 
thickness in the same grade of gut; for it is very uneven, not 
only in the hank, but in the strand itself. The natural gut 
is graded as follows, the finest being: 
"Reflna," about.; ..i..., 7 to 9-lOfOiu. 
"Fina,"about...4..ii.,^..i.'.. 11 to 13-lOOOln. 
"Ke^ular," about j^..^, , 13 lo 14-U001q. 
RadroD, 2d, about Uto 16-lOOOin. 
RadroD, 1st, about..., , 15 to 16>g lOOfiin. 
Marana, 'M, about. , '.ii^ to 17J4 100;;in. 
Jilarana, 1st, about ,.18 lo 19 10 Oin. 
Imperial, about ISji to IffJ^ lOOCin. 
Koya), about , kO to ?2 lOUOin. 
The length of the strands of gut is an important factor ia 
the cost. 1 have a price list before me just received from 
London, and it gives the price of imperial gut as follows, 
retail, per 100 strands: 
llin. Ui^in. 12}^in. ISin. IS^m. 14m. 14>4in. 
English shillings 21 kd kfi H5 2a 27,6d. :iO 
Royal gut of 14in. is worth 50 shillings and loin, gut 60 
shillings. "Drawn gut" is the "natural gut" drawn through 
plates exactly as wire is drawn, and this being the case it 
does not vary in thickness, if properly drawn, in the various 
grades. Of drawn gut the finest is: 
XXXX CM-lOOOin. 
XXX 'ii^ lOOCiri. 
XX eU-lOOOin. 
X .............. 9-iOOOin. 
drawn..... , 934-iOOOiD. 
34 drawn 10-lOOOin . 
Drawn gut is used comparatively little in this country, 
and I think there is a prejudice against it, but I have had 
drawn gut that has done excellent service. I have some 
leaders tied by Forest & Bon, Kelso, one doz^n drawn gut 
and a dozen natural, and the latter is finer than the drawn; 
but it is remarkably fine and even gut. 
The care of gut is not included in the question, but I will 
say that I have kept gut perfectly sound for years, so far 
as I could judge, by putting the hanks in a roll of paper that 
had been slightly oiled with olive oil and placed wh'^-re the 
light could not strike it. It is the poorest kind of economy 
to use old leaders that have seen service unless they aie 
thoroughly tested. It is far better to throw them out if there 
is the least doubt about their strength. There was a time 
when after a season of fishing I would go over my leaders 
and patch them up, and rub down the frayed places with a 
bit of rubber; but that was back in the drift period, and 1 
have grown older and wiser. 
Cannibal Trout. 
There is a middle-aged man, an excellent mechanic, in the 
town where I live, and I occasionally meet him in the street 
or the post office, and generally we have a few minutes' con- 
versation when we meet, for he has been a close ob'^erver of 
nature during his life and I like to talk with him about 
what he has observed. A few evenings ago I was about to 
pass him -with a bow when he stopped me with the queston : 
"Do you know the capacity of a brook trout as a cannibal?" 
Confes iog that I did not, he told me of a youthlul experi- 
ence of his own. He was a boy attending the district school 
some distance from his home, and carried his dinner in a tin 
pail. A man in the neighborhood desired to stock a pond 
with trout and offered 5 cents each for such trout as the 
boys would bring him alive and in good condition. There 
was a trout brook close to the schoolhouse, and one after- 
noon my friend went there to earn some of the money. Tie 
caught nine trout and put them in his dinner pail and cov- 
ered the pail with his straw hat and set out for the man's 
house. Eight of the trout were about the same size, quite 
small, and one was so large that the diameter of the pail was 
not great enough to accommodate him without bending his 
tail a trifle. When he reached the house of the purchaser of 
live trout he announced that he had nine fish worth 45 cents, 
but when the hat was removed from the pail it contained 
but two trout, and he stood open-mouthed looking into his 
dinner pail, wondering what had become of seven trout he 
had started from the t)rook with. They could not have es- 
caped from the pail, for his hat had kept them in. The man 
saw that the boy's surprise was genuine, for his 45 cents had 
shrunk to 10, and he showed his disappointment in his face. 
The explanation came as both were looking into the pail, for 
the big trout, with a dash, seized and swallowed the remain- 
ing small trout, and his 45 cents shrunk to 5 before his eyes. 
This was something absolutely new to me, that trout, just 
caught, .nnd confined in a small dinner pail, would eat'one 
another in the manner deFcrihed until but one was left, the 
survival of the biagest. I do not question the story in any 
of its parts, but before it was told to me had I been asked if 
such a thing could be possible I woulil have said no. I have 
carried hundreds of trout in pails and other vessels during 
boyhood, and later, but never even suspected such pro- 
nounced cannibalistic tendencies in fish freshly caught and 
confined in such small space, That trout will do this same 
thing in an aquarium 1 have had ample evidence, but not 
until they become accustomed to their new quarters and 
other kinds of food was not forthcoming to appease hunger. 
We live and we learn. 
The New York Bass Season. 
Having read the article by Mr. Van Cleef in Forest and 
Stheam of April 17, I feel that I must dissent from his con- 
clusions. 
JSTeaily thirteen years ago I wrote an article in this journal 
advocating a close season for bkv^k bass extending to July 
1, and not for a moment sicce that time have T had reason 
to think I was wrong in so advocating, if we were to save 
our blackbass from practical extermination, Fobest anb 
Stream commented upon my article editorially in the same 
issue, viz. : Sept, 35, 1884, and I will quote briefly from 
the editorial, which is nearly a column in length: 
"If Ihe ot)ject of the law is to protect the black bass while 
they are spawning, and during the time they are protecting 
their yeung. as we suppose, then the period between Jan. 1 
and June 1 is not sufficient. * * * In the Slate of New 
Tork, the date at which all law-abiding bass should have 
finished spawning and protecting their young has been fixed 
at June 1. but we regret to say that the majority of bass are 
so drpraved and have so little regard for tlie law as to delay 
their family agreements for a month later, and the question 
is: Shall the fish be compelled to change their habiti to 
comply with the wisdom of our legislators, or shall we 
acknowledge that they know best when th^y want to spawn 
and accommodate ourselves to them. * * * The fish 
begins to take food, after its winter fast, as soon as the 
temperature of the water risss to about 45'' Fahrenheit, and 
not until then does any increase in its ovaries iaM place. 
* * * We thmk Mr Cheney has rather understated the 
case. Even in southern N w York the bass are not done 
spawEing by the middle of June. * * * The law needs 
changing." 
My article was not based upon observations made at one 
or half a dozen of local ponds. I had been in correspond- 
ence with anglers in all parts of the Slate and made an 
honest effort to reach conclusions that would benefit the 
black bass of the entire State, that the close s asoa advo- 
cated should cover their breeding season and give them time 
to rear their young before they could be killed legally. 
From 1884 to the present time I have urged with all power 
of my pen that the close season be extended to July 1, and 
every single fact that has come to my knowledge regarding 
the spawning of bass, has convinced me that this lime was 
proper for the purpose. In 1890 a Commission was ap- 
pointed to take testimony from one end of the State to the 
other, and from top to bottom, regarding the spawning sea- 
sons, etc., of fishes, and the breeding seasons of game, to en- 
able the Commission to codify the game laws in accordance 
with what was proven to be the proper seasons to protect the 
fish and game to perpf tuate it. Thi^ Commission was com- 
posed of Hon. Robt. B Roosevelt, formerly president of the 
^few York Fish Commission ; Hon. E Gr Whitaker, Deputy 
Attorney- General, and Gen. Richard JST. Sherman, one of 
the Fisii Commissioners. 
Gen. Sherman was elected president of the Commission to 
codify the law, and meetings were held all over the State. 
1 think the appropriation for this purpose was $10,000. After 
"the hearings were finished, Gen. Sherman wrote me under 
date Dec. 19, 1890, asking me lo submit my views regarding 
the proper season for opening the fishing for certain fishes, 
among them black bass. I urged that the season should not 
open betore J uly 1 and close Dec. 34; with the testimony taken 
in the State before him, he wrote me: "I am glad to find m your 
suggestions confirmation, substantially, of my own views " 
We did not differ as to the season for black bass, but I did 
want the lake trout season toopen May 1, asitwas, while Gen. 
Sherman favored, without persisting in it, a uniform season 
for all species of trout; and in this he was right, as I believe, 
although the uniform season should begin May 1 ia«tead of 
April 1 or 15. But that is another matter. 
The most persistent advocates of an open season for black 
bavs dating trom June 1 are the summer hotel keepers, who 
desire guests for the June fishing when the bass are ia shal- 
low water spawning or guarding their young; and tne 
Fokest and Stream editoiial of thirteen years ago refers to 
them iu the^e words : "Tue main opposition to the change 
(from May 30 to July 1) would come trom summer resorts 
and country hotels, which look for the black bass fishers in 
June." That prophecy has proven true. 
Under date of Jan. 23, 1891, Gen. Sherman wrote me: 
"Our Commission finished the code on the 14th, but have 
delayed its presentation to the Legislature for a few d'tys, to 
give time for a careful revision and verification. » * * 
Tnere is no class of nien so pertinacious antt exacting as the 
sportsmen, and if we had lisleued to one half the demands 
for special provisions and exceptions our work would have 
been a miserable bundle of patch-work. * * * For the 
State, the black bass season opens May 30; i consider this 
too early but it is a compromise date." The original code 
provided for a season to open June 15, and that, too, Gen. 
Sherman considelnjd a compromise date. 
What has been tbe result of June fishing for black bass? 
Ask the Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission to show 
the applications made each year for black bass, to stock 
waters from which the bass are disappearing. Where are 
these bass to coxae from? One man, when I put that ques- 
tion to him, said. Lake Ontario, as though you had only to 
lift a gate on the shore of the lake and the bass would flow 
in a stream into other waters within the State. But Lake 
Ontario asked the State for 1,000,000 black bass in one 
year. The black bafs is not a fish of small waters, and 
nature jUaced them only in big waters. Man has tried to 
improve on matters, and in most of these cases man has 
failed of success, anei to continue the open season for bass 
fishing through June will result in destroying the bass in the 
interior lakes. The remedy I would propose is for the State 
to stop planting black bass, as they cannot be hatched artifi- 
cially, until a committee awakens to the fact that June fish- 
ing is doing more injury to the black bass fishing than the 
State can repair, and this lets the Slate help the awakened 
community to restore the fishing. This is a slow process, as 
one community has found. Bass were for years caught 
through the spawning season, and became practically ex- 
tinct. Then a law was passed to cover the spawning season, 
and strictly enforced, for the people were aroused on the 
subj ct, and the lakes stocked by the State; but the fishing 
improves very slowly. The dearly-bought experience of 
this sort seems to be the only thing to look forward to to 
arouse the people to act for their own interests. It is not 
fair to take bass from one water where the sentiment is in 
favor of June protection, to stock waters that have been de- 
pleted by June fishing. I have no desire to even attempt to 
analyze Mr. Van Cleel's argument, but he refers to advice 
he has received from Canada that black bass are through 
spawning there by June 15 to 30. I do not know where 
this is, but I see that Ontario has a close season from April 
15 to June 15, and only twelve bass over lOin. long can be 
taken in one day, and Quebec has a close season from May 
25 to July 1; so the Provinces do not seem to be in accord. 
There is one thing I do know beyond a peradventure, and 
that is that black bass spawn on Long Island, Is, Y.. as late 
as June 25, and I believe we have no earlier waters than on 
Long Island. Black bass should be protected for two weeks 
after the young are hatched. When anglers and sportsmen 
generally become broad enough to unite and seek legislation 
that will cover the breeding seasons of all fish and game for 
the genera] good of all the people of the State, and not try 
lo exempt their individual backyards from the operation of 
the law for reasons purely personal, then we may hope tor 
laws that will, when enforced, do what fish and game laws 
are supposed to do, but which nowadays they do not do, 
when one man desires to get the bulge on all the other men 
in the matter of fish and game. A. N. Cheney. 
Fishermen and Fishermen. 
This is what Editor R. F. Wormwood of tbe Portland, 
Me,, Express, has to say about them and their ways: 
Confined beneath the ice of Maine's lakes and rivers is a 
familiar spirit which, as soon as that winter covering is re- 
moved, escapes and enters into and forcibly takes possession 
of the bodies and wills of a very large proportion of the able- 
bodied male residents of the Pine Tree State. In fact its 
jurisdiction is not bounded by the limit of our common- 
wealth, but extends far beyond the borders of the State, and 
more and more each year the irresistible spell works its perfect 
work on the wayfarer and the stranger, who gladly pay the 
tribute imposed or mortgage their possessions to pay ransom 
when ransom is necessary. In other words, the season is 
fast approaching when the desire lo go a-fishing will become 
overpowering. The spell h a potent one, and those who are 
insensible to its power are those who prefer the music of a 
mouth organ to the melody of the birds and brooks; who 
prefer the conglomerate smells of the factory aod the shop to 
the delicate odor of trailing arbutus; who prefer the artifi- 
cial to the real. For several weeks fishermen have been 
looking over their supply of tackle, reading seasonable liter- 
ature, and otherwise inoculating themselves in anticipation of 
the shibboleth, "the ice is out." When the longed for word 
comes, then the exodus begins. Men who ordinarily think 
of a day's absence from business as something to be brought 
about only by death or a baseball game, can always manage 
somehow to get away for a day or so for a little fishing. 
And the sport, if properly approached, is worth almost any 
sacrifice, for in addition to the supreme en j oyment for the 
time being, nothing can be depended on to turnish so many 
inexhaustible topics of conversation for months as an outing 
of this sort. If you are successful in what should properly 
be considered a secondary object, catching fish, there is the 
satisfaction of knowing that you are enrolled in the list of 
those who are to be envied; if you are unsuccessful in this 
particular respect, then, if you are worthy the honor of 
looking a canned salmon squarely in the face, or of casting 
a fly over a pool from which a barefoot boy has just lured 
an 8 jz. trout with an angleworm on a bent pin, you will 
take matters as a philosopher and humble disciple and fol- 
lower of Walton should, and remember that it is not all of 
life to catch fish nor kU of death to go home with an empty 
bisket. For, verilj', there are fishermen and fishermen. 
There are those who can have all the sport they want pulling 
in codfish, hand-ovcr-hand, with a clothesline; to them the 
season does not appeal. There are those whose souls are so' 
thrilkd by the music of the click of the reel that they forget 
they owe something to society and allow their wives to sup- 
port the family whde they commune with nature along the 
bank of some purling brook. Between these extremes are many 
grades. The genuine fisherman is a compound of many of 
the qualities that enter into the making of a man, and the 
simple fact that he likes to go a fishing does not necessarily 
detract from his value and usefulness as a citizen. 
Chinese Fishculture. 
The included clipping is taken from Littell's Living Age, 
Boston, Dec. 2, 1848, and credited to tbe Medical 'limes: 
"Hatching eggs by artificial heat is well known and ex- 
tensively practiced in China, as is also the batching of fish. 
The sale of spawn for this purpose forms an important 
branch cf trade in China. The fishermen collect with care, 
on the margin and surface of the water, all the gelatinous 
matters that contain spawn of fish, which is then placed in 
an egg-shell (which has been fresh emptied) through a small 
hole; which is then stopped, and the shell is then placed un- 
der a sitting fowl. In a few days the Chinese breaks the 
shell in warm water, warmed by the sun. The young fish 
are then kept in water till they are large enough to be placed 
in a pond. This plan, in some measure, counteracts the 
great destruction of spawn by troll nets, which have caused 
the extinction of many fisheries." 
The described process of hatching fish seems to reveal a 
lost secret, which may be of advantage to all those interested 
in fish culture and natural history. G. von Heyss. 
