S12 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Oct. 16, 189?, 
foruia trying to recover from an attack of pneumonia, and 
lie often urged me to go to Florida and fisli witliliim. Once 
be wrote me: "Come down here and try the fishing, if only 
for a month. We can't giv^e you salmon nor trout, but can 
give you some other good fishing. How I would like to have 
old N'essmuk and you here together, and hear each of you 
tell the story of that rainy night on the Fulton Chain and of 
the fishing next day. If you and he get fighting over the 
proper kind of fishing rod, 1 assure you I would referee the 
fight with strict impartiality.' ' 
1 replied that it was impossible far me to get off in the 
winter, when the hatching of salmon, trout and tomcods was 
going on; but I would write to N^ssmuk and try to get him 
to go, for he could make shoes in Florida as well as in Penn- 
sylvania. 
In 1883, and again the next year, Mr. Geddes was elected 
a member of the State Leg'slalure, where he watched all 
hills that affected fish, game or agriculture, having been ap- 
pointed on the committees on game laws, State prisons and 
charities. He was the highest type of a sportsman, but 
being of a high type of manhood he could not be other^vise. 
He could not tolerate the game hog nor anything that savored 
of him, and he was frank to the point of bluntness when 
offended. He was a most companionable man with men w ho 
could be companionable. 
When he formed the Ragged Lake Club, to put up a club 
house and hatchery on the lake of that name in the northern 
Adirondacks, I planned the hatchery and met him at North 
Creek when he was on his way from Albany to Malone. 
"What arc you doing in this desolate place?" he asked. 
"Don't mention it here; I am studying the effect of saw- 
dust in the river from this place to Mecbanicville. I want 
to see where the eddies deposit it, and ho^ . But I go up 
and down and take a few trout with the fly, or an occasional 
pike with a spoon or a minnow, and they take me for an 
ardent angler who does not know of better places to fish than 
these almost barren waters." 
"That'rf a good idea. We may want some such, informa- 
tion before the fish and game committee this winter, and I'll 
make a note of it This dumping of sawdust into the streams 
smothers the trout spawn, and it should be stopped." 
"Thtre's another point," said I. "and one which the angler 
would naturally overlook, which the fishculturist knows, 
but which no writer has published, and it is that pine or 
hemlock sawdust need not cover trout eggs in order to kill 
them, for water containing an infusion of fresh pine or 
hemlock is a poison to trout eggs or to trout fry, if it hatches 
in such water. Livingston Stone charred his troughs to 
burn out the turpentine some twenty years ago, but now we 
coat them with asphalt or coal tar, with belter results, and 
get a smooth ' rough " 
■ . "How does the raw wood in the trough affect the fijh?" 
"It puffs out the yolk-sac with water, in which the 
microscope shows loose blood corpuscles to be floating 
arouud, and the swollen sac has a peculiar bluish cast, and in 
the hatcheries this is vulgarly known as 'blue-belly,' and a 
baby trout so sfllicted was never know to live long enough 
to take food, But I did not meet you here to give you a 
lecture on flshculturp, but to talk on any other subject, or 
to take a trout in Thirteenth Brook or a pike in the river " 
"What aie the chances? 1 don't know this place well." 
"In Thirteenth Brook younaay fish several miles up to the 
pond of the same number, and you may get a whole lot of 
fingerlings which you would not kill, with a chance of half 
a drz.?n 4oz, trout. Yesterday, between here and the hotel 
at l}orth River, I hooked a pike while skittering with a 
spoon. That pike took away my spoon for which I had 
paid $1, currency of the United States, and also a foot of 
gimp, all of which is my property. Mark me, it is not the 
value of the goods which disturbs me, but it is the principle 
of the thing. As a legislator you will concede that I have the 
right to cast a bit of bright metal into the river, and that I 
retain ownership in that metal as long as I have a string tied 
to it by which it may be recovered, and if a fish attacks and 
cariies off my property it is a felony. It is my belief that a 
big, and therefore dangerous, pike, weighing a ton, or less, 
did, with felonious intent, rob me of personal goods worth 
$1." 
' Well, what are you going to do about it?" 
"I'm going to try to replevin my properly, try to have his 
corpus, if 1 can get it; and 1 want you to stop here a day 
and help me." 
We took the stage to the little hamlet called North River, 
some six miles above. 1 was stopping there, and 1 rigged 
my friend out with a rod and a trolling rig, for I always 
carry a lot of tackle that I seldom need, but is so handy if 
you do happen to want it; and we fished that river back to 
North Creek that day, casting our spoons into the pools and 
trolling them, i)ut the big pike did not show up. We took 
six small ones, none over 3lbs., and a big sucker, which was 
hooked in the "back. The pool where I lost the spoon was 
fished faithfully, with no result. 
We hired a man to drive us back, and we spent the night 
at Roblee'd. Eirly to bed and early to rise is the rule in all 
country hotels, yet the men who keep them do not seem to 
be healthier, wealthier, nor wiser than other men I sail to 
my friend: "This ho'ise will be closed before ten, and we'll 
have to retire early. That means getting up early, and we 
can fish this six-mile stretch after breakfast and come back 
with the stage. I don't care anything about that pike, but I 
do want to recover my property. He's sporting that spoon- 
hook up and down the river as an ornament, doing the 
grand at my expense, and I don't like it He may want 
another to wear on the other side of his nose, and if you'll 
fish with me the chances of arrestiog him will be doubled." 
"All right. I'm not going to sit here and wait for the 
stage when there is fishing, either good or bad, to be done. 
We had some good exercise and a little sport with the pick- 
erel yesterday." 
"Pardon me, but we have learned to call those white- 
spotted fish pike, no matter whether big or little, and to re- 
serve the name of pickerel for the greenish-yellow fellows 
which have a more or less distinct black net-work on their 
sides. The fish we caught were true pike." 
"Correct. I'm glad you mentioned it. I knew the dis- 
tinction, but it comes hard to change names. In western 
New York, where I was born and have always lived, both 
these fish are termed pickerel, and the name of pike is con- 
fined to one of the perch family, variously called wall-eyed 
pike, yellow pike, glass-eye, etc., and it comes natural for 
me to use these names, which I learned in boyhood, although 
I know better. Always call me down when I need it, for 
we are the fellows who must try to educate the people in 
not only a uniform name for each fish, but the proper one, 
also." 
Here was a chance to do good, and I replied: "Then get 
your Onondago Fishing club to protest against the name of 
'Oswego bass" for one of the black basses, It is a black bass 
of the species big-moutb, yet New York law says: 'Black or 
Oswego bass.' Get the absurd name of Cilifornia trout re- 
placed by rainbow trout, and straighten the kinks out of all 
the absurd names now on the statute books, as far as they 
relate to birds and fishes." 
He thought a moment, then said : "That would be a desir- 
able thing to do, but it would make trouble when some 
ignorant fisherman was on the witness stand. He would 
swear that an Oswego bass was not a black bas3. How do 
you suppose these names got so mixed?" 
"Ssth Green had much to do with it. He was a noted 
sportsman, and was in the fishcultural field soon after Dr. 
Garlick and Mr. Ainsworth, and people thought he must be 
an authority on fishes because he bred them. He caught his 
first big-mouthed black bass near Oswego, on Like Ontario, 
and named it from the place, although the fish originally 
ranged from Dakota to western New York and south to 
Florida. Seth got eggs of the rainbow trout from two 
places in California, and christened them the California 
brook trout and the California mountain trout, but there 
was no real difference in them."* 
In the morning we had Tjreakfast early and started for my 
pike. It was ray pike, because he was wearing jewelry 
which belonged to me, and as far as I knew, he was not 
any other fellow's pike. The river was low and swift. 
Great rocks and gravel beds were frequent, and we took 
three pike b store we came to the pool where I had pre- 
viously struck a pike and lost a spoon. 
We both cast, and Geddes called: "I've got him!" I 
reeled up and ran over to see the fight— and it was a fight. 
A great fault with many anglers is to get excited when 
another has a fight on hand, and to shout advice to him. I ' 
have been annoyed by this so much that I never say a word 
if the man who has the fish, hooked is an expert, unless I see 
some danger of rock or drift which is not visible from where 
' f 
nON, JAMES aSDDEB. 
he stands. This pool had some large rocks but no piles of 
drift wood. I stool beside Geddes and watched the contest 
without remark. He gave line when forced to do it, or 
smash his tackle, and kept a taut line on the fish all the 
time. Just how long the fi^ht was we did not know, for 
neither of us was cold-blooded enough to put a watch on it. 
It seemed an hour, it may have been ten minutes, when a 
tired pike was reeled up and towed on a sand-bar, sporting 
my j awelry in his nose. 
"There's your spoon," said Jim, "and I've lost a day try- 
ing to recover it for you; but the fun I've had wipes out the 
score. How much will. he weigh?" 
"T don't know. You mark what you think he weighs on 
one side of this card and I'll mark on the other. The one 
who comes nearest pays for the cigars." 
Jim marked 9|lbs. and I put down lO^lbs. 
Jim won — the fish weighed exactly 81bs, 
FflEB Mather. 
* la 188) I imported eggs of the brown trout from Germany, and 
gave some lo >etli Green for fear of accident. The fish is common to 
all the call waters o£ Earope, but unfortuQately I told Seth that 
thev came from Germany, and he sent out their progeny as "German 
trout," a name ihat survives in some places to-day, and at the Cale- 
donia hatchery I have even heard them called "Dutchmen" by the 
employees. ' 
On A Cuban Sugar Plantation. 
Maine.— In the 603 I was engineer on one of those Cuban 
sugar estates, which at that time were fortunes for the 
owners. One day I called one of my firemen, and ordered 
him to take a large flat basket such as was used to gather the 
bogasso for fuel; we went to one of the deep holes that never 
run dry, and the slave walked into the creek and stirred up 
the mud. Then slipping the basket under the fish, he would 
throw them on the bank, [and I would put them in a bag. 
Soon my boy struck a large one, which was darting around 
the roots of the trees under the bank, and holding on to the 
roots with its mouth, as he explained in an eager voice, 
However, after tiring it he got a firm hold and threw out a 
large spotted snake, as large as my wrist, at my feet. I left 
instanter, and so did my colored helper. That fish we did 
not eat. 
The small fish called "behaccos" were sweet and firm, and 
resembled the salt-water cunners. L. Mc Lellan. 
Flycasting' Record llSft, 
San Francisco, Cal., Oat. 11. — At the annual tournament 
of the San Francisco Fly Casting Club, Walter D. Mansfield, 
the champion long distance caster, who broke all existing 
records a few months ago by a cast of lll^ft., again broke 
the world's record yesterday, held by himself, increasing his 
cast by 6in. 
The American Fisheries Society. 
PJditor Forest and Sfream: 
I note what you say about the reports of the American 
Fisheries Society and its policy of restricting their insue to 
members only. I agree with you that to be of vdlue "in 
fishculture and fish protection they should be given the 
widest possible publicity." But, there is another side to the 
shield. 
If the policy of wide distribution was adopted there would 
be no reports to distribute. All that a member gets for his 
.$3 dues, paid annually, is his report, and as an old member 
of the Society I opposed a free distribution for the above 
reason. A few members of the Society travel long distances 
at their own expense to attend the meetings and listen to the- 
papers which are read and to the discussions which follow 
them. Others, who cannot find time or means to attend, 
prepare papers to be read, or pay their annual dues to help 
on the good work. 
The Society is poor. Many years there was not enough 
revenue from its members, the only source it has, to pay for 
the printing of the report, and a reference to some back 
numbers will show a line in the financial statement which, 
reads: "Due Treasurer, $ ." 
I speak by the card when I say that dozens Of wealthy 
men have asked for copies of the report, but would not join 
the KSociety and help support it. I have been besieged for 
copies, both in person and by letter during the years when I 
was an officer of the Society, but always replied with a sug- 
gestion that the applicant could help the Society and get its 
reports regularly by becoming a member. 
To quote your words again: "The American Fisheries 
Society is and should be educational in its aims." From a 
few fishculturists who organized it in 1872 for the purpose 
of a trades union lo regulate the price of trout eggs, it 
jumped away from that purpose and never entertained it. 
it assumed a broader scope, and became an educational in- 
stitution which deserved greater encouragement than it ever 
received. To your statement that "it is made up of men 
whc are in put-lic service," I would invite an inspection of 
the list of members which is published in each report. It is 
true that the list of oflicers of the Society shows many names 
who are in the service of their States as Fish Commissioners 
or fishculturists, and these men usually attend the meetings 
as a matter of interest to themselves and to their Stales, but 
they do not comprise the bulk of membership in the Srciety. 
Writing without access to a list. I doubt if State or Govern- 
ment officials form one fourth of its members 
For reasons which I have given, I approve the action of 
the Society in restricting its re .orts to members, but would 
approve sending them to journals which will make extracts 
and let the world know that such a society exists; and if 
they, the people, want its reports they should join the Soci- 
ety in such numbers that it could afford to reduce its annual 
dues. Kego e-Kay. 
The Pennsylvania Association. 
The Pknnsylvania Fihii Protective A,ssof::iATiON, Phil- 
adelphia, Sept. 27. — At the convention of citizens and fish 
protective associations held in Harrisburg, Sept. 15, to de- 
vise ways and means to maintain the work of the Fish 
Commission, about f!ll,000 were subscribed. This is lesf* 
than one-half th" sum desired, and it has been decided to 
make a further appeal to the citizens of the State, with 
the understanding that the next Legislature ,will be asked 
to refund the money to the subscribers. It is confidently 
expected and believed that the sense of justice, and the 
practical and disinterested work that the Fish Commis- 
sioners are doing will induce the next Legislature to make 
an appropriation for this purpose. 
The brood fish, the property of the State in the care of 
the Commission, are worth not less than $45,000. All of 
this will be lost to the State un ess relief is given as pro- 
posed. 
Advances may he made on the following basis: 
First — Advances of $500 or more may he paid in quar- 
terly installments; one-quarter at time of subscription, 
one-quarter Jan. 1, 1898, one-quarter June 1, 1898, and the 
last quarter Dec. 1, 1898. 
Second — Advances of from flOO to $500 can he made on 
the same terms and conditions. 
Third — Advances of less than $100 it is desired should 
be made, one-half at time of subscription and one-half on 
June 1, 1898, or all at time of subscription. 
The Pennsylvania Fish Protective Association has sub- 
scribed $500 from its treasury, and desires, in fact is 
pledged to raise $2,500 additional from its members and 
friends, a part of which has already been subscribed. 
Subscriptions and remittances should be sent to Alfred. 
Hand, Treasurer, 204, Walnut place, Philadelphia, who- 
will issue a proper receipt therefor. 
The sum of $25,000 will enable the Fish Commission to- 
preserve the brood fish and other property of the State for 
the years 1897 and 1898, and also moderately to continue 
the 'propagation and distribution of food and game fish to 
the inhabitants of the State. Since June 1, '97, the Com- 
mission has preserved the property without aid from the 
State or others; but inasmuch as the Commissioners ar& 
unsalaried officers, they should be immediately relieved 
in their disinterested work. 
HowAKP A. Chase, Chairman Executive Committee. 
Marton G. Sellers, Sec'y. 
"Uncle Lisha'd Outing," 
By Rowland E. Robinson, is now ready in an attractively 
bound volume of 308 pages, the twenty four chapters re- 
counting the homely adventures of those Danvis Folks with 
whom Forest and Stream readers are so well acquainted. 
Sent postpaid on receipt of price, $1.25, by the Forest and 
Stream Pub. Co. 
REPORT YOUR LUCK I 
With Rod or Gun j 
To FOREST AND STREAM, [ 
New York City. I 
