228 
FOREST AND STRE. 
[Skpt. 18, 189 7. 
Lenox Fish and Game Protective Association. 
Lenox, JMass. — At the annual meeting of the Lenox Fish 
and Game Protective Association, held at the Lenox Club on 
Monday, Aug. 9, the following officers were elected to serve 
for one year: President, S Howland Robbius; Vice Presi- 
dent, D. "W. Bishop, Jr.; Sec'y Treas., Clinton G-. Gilmore. 
Executive Cmmittee: F. A. Schermerhorn, Hon. Wm. C. 
Whitnev, W, D. Sloane, John L Kane, John S. Barnes, 
John E Parsons, W. D, Curtis, J. W. Burden, John E. 
Alexandre, Isaac Newton, G. G. Haven, Morris K. Jpssup, 
John Sloane, Charles Lanier, David Lydig, Anson Phelps 
Stokes. 
It is earnestly requested that the residents of Lenox assist 
in enforcing the game laws of tbe State. 
Clintok G Gilmore, Sec'y. 
Chesuncook Fi>h and Game. 
Portland. Me., Sept. 9.— I should feel lost without my 
copy of the Fokest and Stream, which reaches us on Fri- 
day evening. 1 have been into my camp on Chesuncook 
Lake twice this season. In June we had excellent fishing; as 
an evidence of the same I have a ^^Ib mounted square tail 
before me as I write. Our tive largest weighed 30f itts. You 
can form an idea of how plenty the deer are in that locality 
when I'state that on June 26 I counted twenty-one deer in 
my clearing at one time. We also saw several moose upon 
that trip Quite a large party of us leave here Oct. 5, and 
expect to remain about three weeks. F. L. Shaw 
In a Palace Car. 
WoRCESTKK, Mass., Sept. 7 — Editor Forest and Stream: 
A party of gentlemen have bought of the "Worcester Excur- 
sion Car Co. the well known palace car Yellowstone, in 
which they will make a four week's trip to northern Minne- 
sota and Dakota for prairie chickens, duck and goose shoot- 
ing. The party will leave here about S;pt. 22. This will 
be a most delightful trip at the msst delightful season of the 
year. If any readers of your valuable paper should like to 
join this party a limited number could be accommodated, 
either ladies or gentlemen, if application be made at once to 
A. B F. Kinney, Worcester, Mass. A. B. F. Kinney. 
Use for the English Sparrow. 
I AM glad to see they have found a use for the Eoglish 
sparrows. They serve them up at Manhattan Beach as 
Philadelphia reed biid. Unfortunately they do not resemble 
those delicate little bird excepting in siz3; and are wretchedly 
dry and bitter — fried corks would answer just as well, 
W. H. . 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fobest and Stream. 
The "Game Laws in Brief." 
Thk current edition of the Game Laws in Brief (index page dated 
Aug. 1) contains the fish and game laws for 1897, with a few excep- 
tions, as they will continue in force during the year. As about forty 
States and Provinces have amended their lavrs this year, the Brief 
has been practically done over new. Sent postpaid by the Forest 
and Stream Pub. Co. on receiirt of price, 25 cents. All dealers sell it 
MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 
LV.— James L. Vallotton, 
One day last winter I met Mr. Vallotton on the street in 
New York, and as he spoke kindly of my sketches I ven- 
tured to say: "I've been thinking of writing up our trip to 
Pasque Island and will do it unices you make a serious ob- 
jection. I will take pleasure in recalling those days, as I 
did in the days themselves. Now, don't say no, because I 
want to do it." 
"My dear boy," said be, he was ten years my senior and 
therefore had a right to call me a boy; "my dear boy, I 
would have no objection to your writing up that trip only 
there's nothing to wiite about; not the slightest thing of in- 
terest occurred that I remember, and I fear the story will be 
flat. However, that's your attair, to go ahead if you can 
make a yarn of it " 
With this in mind I wrote him on Aug. 28 at the Union 
League Club, where he had made his home since 1888, ask- 
ing for the date of our fishing trip. The letter was returned 
in an envelope of the club with a note, saying: "Mr. Val- 
lotton was tasen to St. Luke's Hospital three weeks ago and 
died on Monday last, Aug. 30; his funeral wdl be held at 
the hospital on Thursday." The letter reached me on 
Friday evening. 
I made the acquaintance of Mr. Vallotton at the angling 
tournaments in Central Park, in which he took great inter- 
est, especially in the contests in "heavy bass casting," 
usually acting as judge or referee. He was the treasurer of 
the National Kod and Reel Association and I the secretary, 
therefore we were often brought into contact after the tour- 
naments. One day, about a dozen years ago, he asked me to 
fish for striped bass with him at tne Pasque Island Club, of 
which he was a member and for some years had been its 
president. Here was a chance to see and take part in the 
capture of big bass of 10 to SOlbs. in the waters of Martha's 
Vineyard, Naushon, Nashawana, Pasque, Cuttyhunk and 
Penikese were all familiar names of the Elizabeth Islands 
which separate Buzzard's Bay from Vineyard Sound, and I 
had read much of the fishing there. I did not decline the 
invitation, and joined my host at the comfortable club 
house. 
It was Monday night, and before retiring the members 
present drew for stands for the next day. There were about 
fifteen stands around the island and these were drawn for 
each night, the highest number taking first choice, and so 
on. Mr. Vallotton drew only once, as he intended to stay 
with the novice and be his mentor. The stands were not 
near together, and thus his being with me was a necessity, 
for while I was an adept at bobbing for eels, bottom fishing, 
chumming and trolling for salt water fish, skittering for pike 
and tly-fishing for trout and black bass, I had never used a 
free-running, multiplying reel to cast from in actual fishing. 
I had seen it done in the tournaments, and my friend Frank 
Endicott had given me some lessons, yet I had not attained 
'the art, which seems to be more difficult than to cast the 
fly. 
A stifE rod, not exceeding 9ft., is used. A 3oz. bail of 
lobster tail, or a slice of menhaden, is the bait, The latter is 
reeled up to about 2ft. of the tip, and with a sidelong sweep 
it is sent into the surf a hundred or more feet away. It looks 
so easy when done by an expert, like Mr. Vallotton, that the 
beginner is surprised at his failure. His free-rur.ning reel 
has overrun, "back-lashed," and his bait is suddenly checked 
in its flight. The reel is on top of the rod and must be 
checked by the thumb of the rod hand, and in a nice differ- 
ence between too much checking and not enough lies the 
secret of bass casting. My trials had been on land with a 
2oz, lead sinker, which gave less resistance to the air than 
the bait. I could not do it, and Mr. Vallotton cast for me all 
the first morning, while I watched the process. 
The stands are built on prominent rocks, with iron 
stanchions firmly let into them, and on top is a semicircular 
rail of iron pipe about waist high, to allow the angler to cast 
without fear of falling. These are often reached by plank 
bridges stretching from rock to r-ck. If the sea is rough, 
the angler is clad in oilskins, and looks out that he is not 
washed away. 
We fished the rising and the falling tide faithfully and did 
not get a strike. We tried it for five days with the same re- 
sult. From seven to eleven men fished the different stands 
on Pasque Island that week, and only one bass was taken, a 
small one of 61bs 
On Friday night Mr. Valloton saidj "There seems to be 
no use in trying; the bass are not here. 1 regret very much 
that I should have selected such an unfortunate time, for I 
wanted to see you take a good fish." 
I assured him that I had enjoyed the trip, and thanked 
him for it; that I was enough of a fisherman to know that 
no man could tell when there was going to be an oft' week, 
but that I had learned much about casting from the reel 
which might be of use on some future occasion. 
"As to-morrow is our last day," said he, "and there have 
been no bass taken of any consequence at Cuttyhunk and 
the other clubs, with no prospect of any better fishing for 
some days, I can assure you some of the best bottom fishing 
for tautog and sea bass on the coast. They are always with 
us in great numbers, and are ever hungry. Would you like 
it?" 
"Yes; it beats no fishing all to pieces, if it is not the high- 
est form of angling. There was a time — when I was 
younger and had only just learned to take a trout or -bass 
with a fly — that I turned up rfly nose at all bait fishing, es- 
pecially of the bottom kind, and compared it to dragging the 
East River for dead bodies, but that is a state of mind that 
often comes to young fly-fishers. You remember that Dr. 
Bethune, in speaking of fishing with the worm, in fresh 
waters, said : ']Vly hands have long been washed of the nasty 
things.' Well, I thought so at one time, but, while I like to 
take a fish with a fly, my philosophy says if they will not 
have it in any of its varied and artistic forms, then offer them 
what you think they want." 
"That's my philosophy exactly," said my friend, "we've 
fished faithfully for five days for the grandest game fish in 
the world, not excepting the salmon, and they are either not 
in our waters or are not in need of menhaden or lobster tails, 
so I will tell the steward to order baits for bottom fishing to- 
morrow." 
And so we went out and anchored in one of those tide- 
ways between the islands, which are curiously called 
"boles" by the natives, and fished in the swift water with 
drop lines, heavy sinkers and clam bait. If the striped bass 
were absent, the sea bass, tautog or blackfish, and other 
kinds were present in great numbers, and had appetites for 
clams that were surprising. There is a little fish which is 
always found where the tautog is and which is soundly 
hated by aU salt-water anglers. It can remove a bait with- 
out letting the man at the other end of tbe line know it, and 
he only finds that his bait is gone when he has waited awhile 
for the bite which does not come, and then pulls up to find 
that he has been fishing with a bare hook. It is rare that 
one of these nibblers is hooked, but Mr. Vallotton brought 
up a large one, fully 6in. long. He fastened it to a line, 
with a piece of cork to fioat it, and for half an hour played 
with the gulls, snatching it away when they were about to 
seize it, untfl finally one gull "got a grip on it and tore it 
loose. 
This to me was very amusing, for it was done so seriously. 
Mr. Vallotton was one of the most dignified of gentlemen; 
stately in manner, careful and precise of speech, and always 
EO carefully groomed that a speck of dust would avoid him 
if it could. He was one of those trim, elegant old gentle- 
men who can be seen by the score any afternoon on Fifth 
avenue, and who are more plentiful in New York than in 
any other American city, and therefore 1 was amused to see 
him play with the gulls. Evidently he thought it as good 
sport as bottom fishing, which he stopped in order to tease 
the gulls. And I don't know but it was as good, or better. 
The fish bit so fast and were so turely hooked that it was 
poor sport to haul them in as fast as one could bait and 
throw out. It lacked that uncertainty— those mingled sensa- 
tions of hope for a strike and fear of loss, which is the 
charm of angling, 
"Can you tell me," said he, when he resumed fishing, "of 
what possible use these little nibblers are?" 
"Certainly; they serve many useful purposes, as all living 
things do. I'hey take your bait, and as you provide enough 
to cover this expected loss the clamming industry is encour- 
aged. They enlarge the vocabulary of the market-fisher, 
who invents choice epithets for them, and so our language is 
enriched. They, in common with some other fishes, have 
several names which sharpen our wits to remember; for in- 
stance, about New York, where the Dutch settled, they are 
known as the bergall ; along the Connecticut shore the fish is 
a cunner; further east it bears tbe Indian name of chogset, 
uotil we reach Cape Ann, where the fish attains its extreme 
size of lOin . and appears on the table under the name of 
blue perch. In its turn it serves as food for larger fishes, 
and is of great service to an angler who tires of fishing and 
wishes to have sport with the gulls," 
"Is thatallf 
"All that I can think of at present. If more time for 
thought could be allowed, I might find more good in the 
little bait-stealer, which seldom exceeds oin. in length about 
New York, and is considered as a pest of the first water. " 
"Well," said he, "you've made out such a good case for the 
little nuisacce that I'll send down some more clams for it to 
nibble on ; we have plenty, as the steward said he had ordered 
200 to be opened, and there are a great number left." 
He had hardly lowered his line, when there was a violent 
tug on it, which drew it through his fingers so rapidly as to 
scorch them, for he held it loosely. He grasped it firmly, 
and declined all assistance, saying: "It must be a 20ft. shark, 
if not a whale; but it must come in." As it neared the sur- 
face, I saw that he had a big "bam door ' skate, one of the 
largest and smoothest of our skates; and I got hold of its tail 
and swung il in the boat, where it flopped around until I 
killed it with an oar, for it was too large to go into the clam 
baskets, which had been brought to hold the other fish and 
keep them from spattering us. 
"Now," said my friend, "since you gave such a good char- 
acter to the little cunner, perhaps you may speak a good 
word for this misshapen thing." 
"I can, and am glad to do it. The skates are good food; 
not of the first-class like salmon, striped bass, shad or others, 
but they are better than weakfish, and equal to many others 
that go to the markets ; yet there is a senseless prejudice 
against them. They are common in the markets of Europe 
and I've eaten them there, but you can't get our fishermen to 
try them because their grandfathers didn't eat them, and 
tons of good food are thrown away everyday through preju- 
dice." 
The old gentleman looked the fish over and then said: 
"Pardon me, but are you serious in this matter? Is this sea 
monster really good to eat?" 
"1 am serious, and if you will have it cooked at the club 
and will taste it. after I do, you will find that it is of real 
value as food. Mr. Blackford has eaten it, and it was this 
fish which, more than anything else, led to the founding of 
the Ichthyophagous Club, which was organized to overcome 
prejudice by sampling all living things which came from 
the water." 
"But," said he, "there appears to be but little meat on so 
broad a fish. After you take off its winga there seems to be 
nothing left of it " 
"The wings," 1 replied, "are really great broad fins, which 
it uses like wings, and flies in the water as a bird does in the 
air, and these are the edible part of the fish," 
The result of this talk was that we bad the fins of the 
skate fried and induced some ladies at the club to try them. 
All pronounced the skate very fair, and I've been curious to 
know if any of them ever tried it again, or if their curiosity 
was satisfied. None of the boatmen, nor the fishermen along 
our coast, will eat this fish. They destroy tons of it every 
day, and people in our large cities are looking for cheap and 
wholesome food. Such is the effect of blind, unreasoning 
prejudice, which follows a beaten track and dares not sample 
a skate, sea-robin or toadfish, partly because they are . not 
handsome, but mainly because some onefold them that these 
fishes are "not good to eat." 
When we had fished to our satisfaction, and wearied of 
pulling in fish which seemed to be anxious to be caught, we 
went ashore. The half-bushel clam baskets were full of 
good sea bass and blackfish, which the steward would use in 
some way; but how many there might be we never knew. 
Several times after this I dined with Mr. Vallotton at the 
Union League Club, and he always spake of the time when 
we ate the fckate. I think he regarded it as one looks back 
upon some daring deed from which he has escaped un- 
harmed. 
A friend who is a member of the Union League Club, and 
who only knew Mr. Vallotton slightly, says: "He spent 
much of his time m the library and was never known to 
have been engaged in any business His rooms at the club 
were richly furnished and contained many valuable paint- 
ings. He had no very intimate friends, but was always 
pleasant and agreeable." 
That deseTib3S him well. He was a most agreeable man 
to all men, but one who never seemed to unbend from his 
formal manner under any circumstances. He was a man 
whom you might know for years, but with whom you would 
never be intimate. Yet he was not a cold man despite his 
dignified and ceremonial manner, which one soon learned to 
know was not assum.ed. 
James L Vallotton was born in Savannah, Ga., in 182B, 
and his mother brought him to New Y'ork after his father 
died, about 1840. His mother died in 1860 and then he 
married a daughter of Robert Shell Is, who left him a com- 
fortable income. She died in 1875, and from that time Mr. 
Vallotton devoted his spare time to angling. 
He was as fastidious about his fishing tackle as he was 
about all other personal matters. His reels must be sent to 
the maker to be looked over and oiled, and the rods must be 
tested at the beginning of each season, while all last year's 
lines were discarded for fear that there might be a chafe on 
a rock, or some weakness which might cause the loss of 
the very large bass which he might possibly hook. 
He took many large bass, and the record of them is on the 
books of the Pasque Island Club, but there are so many 
miles between those books and my den that I can't attempt 
to give the weight of his biggest fish, but I do rem»imber 
how his eye brightened as he told of fighting a 3olb. fish. 
In rounding up this sketch of a gentleman angler, I wish 
to record my belief that angling for big striped bass in the 
ocean surf, as practiced by the anglers who compo.se tne 
bassing clubs of the Elizabeth Islands, is a sport not u whit 
inferior to salmon fishing. Fred Mateer. 
Chicago Fly- Casting' Club. 
CHiCAeo, Sept. 4 — Editor Forest and Stream: The casting 
tournament held to-day was the last one ot the season. These 
were the scores made: 
Long Dis- Distaneeand Afc'yand Deli- Bait Cast- 
tanceFly,Ft Acc'y. PerC'i". cacy, PerC'c.ing.PaiC'c. 
W. T, Church ... .... 85=5 
B. W. Qoodsell 101 83 '.9*5 
E. D. Letterman 61 .... .... iJS's 
0. A. LippincotE 89 9IJ^ 
C. G.Ludlow... 86 78 V,% 
G. A. Murrell.. 95 8lfg 844 
F. N. Peet 10.^ 9t|| 91)4 TT'-ij 
J.E' Strong T8 
H. G. Hascall .... .... 89'5 
M.D. Smith 73 .... .... Sdij 
Holders of medals: Long distance fly, F. N. Peet; distance and 
accuracy, b". N Peet; accuracy and delicacy, F. N. Peet; bail cast- 
ing, E. D. Letterman 
A Cumberland Catfish. 
AiTG 27.— A Barbourville, Ky., correspondent records the 
capture of a yellow catfish which tipped the scales at 42ilbs. 
and measured 4ft. in length. It was taken from the rivtr at 
Barbourville, Ky., about sixty miles above the Cumberland 
Falls. The lucky sportsmen were Will Hinkle, Capt. 
McDaniel and James Seweli. 
Bluefish at Fire Island Inlet. 
BiiTJEFiSHiNG has been good for the past week at Fire 
Island Inlet of Great South Bay, Long Island, boats going 
out from Babylon, Bayshore and Sayville have made fine 
catches. The fish run large. The sport should hold for 
some time yet. 
