Not. 27. 1897.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
does not stop long enough to become acquainted with it, but 
spends most of its time watching the seals and looking for 
big fish. 
^ Scientists know several species of hermit crab, one of 
■which lives on land, i.utwewill only consider our naiive 
species, wLich actually swarm in the salt water about New 
York. If you askwtiy this fiogular creature is called a 
"hermit," you will learn that while all other crabs bave 
hard shells covering their bodies, as in a suit of armor, 
nature has been stingy whh I he poor little hermit in the mat- 
ter of armor, but the hermit does not mind that dtpiivation, 
and makes the most of lite wbile it can. The claws, bead, 
legs and carapace are as well armed as are the same parts of 
a lobster, but its long abdomen, equivalent to what market- 
men call the "tail" of a lobster, is ihe softest piece of flesh 
imaginable; it is almost as soft as a jtlljfch. The hermit 
crab is built entirely for atlack, and presents a solid front to 
the enemy, while his rear is esposed to the nibbling of the 
tiniest fish, and when his commissary department is gone 
he goes with it. But away back in the prthistoric auld 
lang syne some wise old members of this tribe inserted their 
defenseless abdomens in tte empty shells that surrounded 
them, and the fittest survived; now these animals begin life 
by searching for a small shell, try it on as we do a shoe, and 
find one to suit. They only use the spiral shells in which 
they can get a grip and can withdraw, closing the aperture 
with their claws. Then the drawbridge is up, the portcullis 
has fallen, and the hermit can stand a long siege; he needs 
no sally port, save that in front, lor he never sends out an 
antentse. as a skirmisher until he feels sure that the enemy 
has departed. As the hermit grows, it seeks a larger shell, 
and it is a treat to see him select it. The outside is care- 
fully felt over, to see that no holes exist, and then a claw 
18 inserttd to tsplore the interior. ISIo woman ex:amines 
bedrooms, kitchen, dining loom and closets before hirine 
watchful, never trusting herself to sleep while the building 
is full of visitors, but the two nni-y West Indian seals seem 
to like the crowd; they play, scoit, blow water at the peeple 
occasionally, or cutl up on Ihe platform and sleep, while 
Ihe crowd looks at them and talks. These southern seals 
are a different species from the hair seal of our northern 
harbors and will not, like Nellie, eat ordinary fish. In 
several instances they have starved to dt-ath in confinement, 
and these came near it until small eels, cut into short pieces, 
was offered them and then they throve. The Aquarium is 
closed to the public at 4 P. M and a bell announc s the 
hour for visitors to retire. Then the seals know that feed- 
ing time has come and the building echoes and rt echoes 
their harsh, discordant barks, and ibey try to jump out of 
the water to see if Mr. Spencer is coming with those deli- 
cious eels. 
[to be concluded.] 
IN MISSOURI STREAMS. 
Aurora, Mo , Nov. l.—Ediior Forest and Stream: It has 
been my intention for some time to give an account to Fok- 
EST AND Stream's readers of a fi>hing trip on James River. 
The party, composed of Ben. W, Dillard, recorder of 
deeds; Btrt Gardner, assistant cashier. Bank of Aurora; G. 
M Kirbv. "l?Visco" station aaent; Caarles Robinson, of the 
Verona Milling Co ; Mustir Harry .'Miller and myself, insur- 
ance agent, lelt Aurora on a Tuesday evening this fall and 
arrived at the club house on .James River, near Cape Fair at 
11 o'clock same evening, going into camp on the bank of tbe 
river. We started down the river Wednesday and went 
into camp our second night out about sis miles down the 
river at Rainey's Mill. Tbe fishing duiing the first day was 
not very good. AVe, however, got an early start Thursday 
and the fishing during the day, below Rainfy'p, was some 
Our party broke camp at Wilson's TuFsday morning about 
9 o'clock and drove home to Aurora, arriving at 10 o'clock 
that night. 
The entire party voted it the most trijoyable fishing trip 
we had had the pleasure to partake in for "manv moons." 
WOODFILL. 
AND SOME HE HAS NOT FISHED WITH. 
Editor FoTCHt and Stream: 
In your issue of Nov. 6 Mr. W. E. Wolcott gives a very 
good sketch of that grand old angler, the late Thomas G. 
Alvord. It gives me a chance to remark to Judge Van 
Cleef— Jacobstaff— Mr. R. B. Marston, of the London Fish- 
ing Gazette, Dr. Robert T. Morris and other joking friends, 
that I knew Mr. Alvord, but never fished with him. 
That's one on those men who wrote: "What bait did yoij 
use in the Ark?" "Did you ever fish with Ananias?" "I 
am probably the only man on earth that vou haven't 
fished with." "When you fished with Izaac W^alton, what 
did that pious man say when he got a fishhook in bis 
thumb?" And so on, away beyond my memorv to quote. 
I applied a simple arithmetical rule to Judge Van Oleef 
in Forest and Stkeam, and showed that up to date I had 
not written of as tuany men as I was years old, and surely 
a man mav fish with ten men in a year, which would give 
me over 500, without close figuring. 
^ Returning to Mr. Wolcott's article, I find Mr. Wolcott 
fished with eighty-two men, named: "and others," on the 
St. Lawrence River alone, and fished in the Adirondacks 
and on Long Island and in salt water. But Mr. Wolcott 
only quotes names mentioned in Mr. Alvord's article, 
"The Men I Have Met Upon the Great River"— meaning 
the St. Lawrence— an article whinh I missed seeing. Up 
to date I have written of fifty -nine men and boys, and I 
have fished -since 1S40. 
"ABLE 
GOOSE." 
a house more carefully than does our hermit. If the in- 
spection is satisfactory, the new tenement is put in posi- 
tion, there is a wiggling of antenras, a scanning of the sur- 
roundings, a placing of claws on the rims of each shell, 
and popl before the keenest fiah or crab can wink, the her- 
mit has moved, and is doing business at the new stand, 
and you ma3'^ pull him into fragments, but can never dis- 
lodge him by force from the shell into which the hook- 
prncesses that terminate its abdomen hold like grim death 
to a deceased African. 
If I linger over the hermit crab it is because it is one of 
the things that are most interestiae in an aquarium. They 
are small, the largest of our native species being content 
with the shell of our large snail, Bucciiium, which seldom 
exceeds 2^in. in diameter. When I was with the old 
aquarium, to which I have leferred, I lent myself to a 
scheme to deceive the public. The press agent came evei-y 
day for items, and I did, with malice aforethought, and en- 
tirely in the interest of my employers, break the shell of a 
hermit crab and then put the animal in a small table tank, in 
which tbe only hollow thing that tbe poor hermit could hide 
its diminished abdonrenin was tbe bowl of a common clay 
pipe. The pipe had no convolutions, but was the best thing 
at hand, and next day the city press told how a hermit crab 
had been caught which had taken up its quarters in a "T, 
D." pipe, for the press agent never forgot uiraself so far as 
to omit the pai-liculars, and Mr. Blackford has a wood-cut 
of the unfortunate crustacean, which would gladly have 
swapped its tenement for a more spiral one, but it had no 
choice. 
In the summer if you will dig a trench a dozen feet long 
and about 2tt deep about halfway between high and low 
water, you may get great numbers cf hermits; they come up 
with the fiood tide and to avoid the dogfish and skates, which 
devour them and their castles of retreat as if there were no 
such things as sanctuaries, and these little crabs hueldle in 
the trench and are powerle's to climb up the shifting sand 
when the tide goes down. The fact that the hermit is called 
such hard names as "Jack in-the-box." "thiet" and ''stone 
lobster' does not discourage it in the least; it keeps on its 
mission of being a scavenger, and its services in an aquanum 
in cleaning up the paiticles of food which fishes may drop 
make it a valuable servant as well as a most Interestiae ex- 
hibit. 
Taliing a lOok into the pools in the floor, we indistinctly 
see some great sea turtles, large striped bass, big sturgeon 
and other fishes. Nellie, the harbor seal, is alone and ever 
better, and the third night found ns camped near Byron 
Carr's, about eight miles further down stream. Ws passed 
Jackson's Hollow the following day, but had considerable 
hard work getting our boats over the shoals just below this 
point, owing to the low water. The fishing improved won- 
derfully after passing Jackson's HoUosv; Dillard made a 
nice catch of bass before getting to camp, his largest bass, 
(large mouth), being caught here. We went into 
Ciimp near the mouth of Aut's Creek Friday night with 
some good strings of bass. 
The following day we had splend'd fishing. Dillard, pull- 
ing his own boat the first two miles, got twenty-two good 
small mouth black bass, weighing from l.t-to ^Jlbs. Kirby 
got twelve of about same size, while the rest of the crowd 
got enough more to make a big string of fish before we went 
into camp. 
Saturday norm found us at James Wilson's ranch, at the 
cor junction of James and White rivers, and after getting our 
dinners we put up our two tents, one for sleeping and the 
other for storage tent, and arranged things for permanent 
cfimp, naming it Camp Wilson. Charley Knight, of Cipe 
Fair, was one of our party down Ihe river from that point, 
and his assistance in handling the boat was highly appreci- 
ated. Charley left us Siturday evening, however, and made 
his way back home on horseback, 
Mr, Lipe Stone, a veteran river man and all round good 
fellow intended to accompany us from Ceps Fair also, but 
on the morning of our departure from that point he got on 
his horse to come down to the river and the unruly aoimul 
threw him, anrl injured him so badly as to put him to bed, 
which occurrence was very much regretted by all of us, as 
we had counted upon Lige to make one of our party, and of 
cour-ie we were very much disappointed. 
We were at Camp Wilson from Saturday until Tuesday 
morning and had good luck fijhing in both James and White 
rivers, our entire catch amounting to 158 good-%iz .d bass, 
and T might add, in justice to our good-natuied recorder, 
that he caught ninety-six of them, all with Skinner spoons. 
I think he used a No 4^ or 5 spoon, this sizs proving better 
than any others accordiog to our experience with small- 
mouth bass. We tried minnows quite a good deal, tut they 
seemed not to be biting minnows, however; I can assign no 
reason for it, as the water was not too clear I did not think. 
I understand, however, from a parly just returning from 
White River last week that mrst of their catch was with 
minnows. They reported getting some large- mouth bass as 
good as 6lbs. and one jack salmon dressing Slbs. 
ANEMONES. 
Of coiu'se there is little in all this, further than to ac- 
knowledge the wit of a few friends as expressed in the 
columns of Forest AND Stre.^m or in private letters. For 
their benefit I will merely state a few facts. Noah used 
only one kind of bait, and that was clams, salted at Essex, 
Mass.; and it was not his custom to expectorate on aiiy 
clam which could expect to rate as a first-class inducement 
for a sand porgie to catch on. Ananias was not a truthful 
man, and there is no record that he ever went a-fishing. 
If he had, his tendency to prevarication would have been 
lost. The spear of Ithuiiel would never strike the angler 
nor the fisherman, make the distinction as you will. 
What was theanswerof those fishermen of Galilee? "We 
have toiled all night and caught nothing," an answer 
many an angler has made after an unsuccessful day, and 
one that he is not ashamed to make. No man can see 
into the water and see if the fish are there; or if the water 
be so clear that he can see them, they simply place a pec- 
toral fin in front of a nose and wlggle it. The result is the 
same. 
The public has been l^d astray by the jocular news- 
paper reporter, who has a set stock of subjects to joke 
about, but does nut know that the angler really catches 
fish at times and at others he doesn't. 
To get down to personal matters, this will illustrate: 
When I go on short trips, to be home at night or the next 
day, I am ant to say something like this to the woman 
who looks closer to my -interests than I ever did: "Well, 
good-by, I'll try to get back on time anel to br ing you some 
nice fish for dinner, but you know that I always tell you 
to go to the market and order a generous supply of fish 
when your husband goes a-fisbing. If he brings home 
some we'll have 'em for dinner and send those from the 
market to our friends, with our compliments." 
That system is far ahead of the plan of buying fish in 
the market yourself and having vour wife say: "John, 
these fish, which you caught yesterday, should have been 
caught a month ago." Or: "James, 1 thought you were 
going out to troll for blue fish and these are fresh-water 
perch." If the angler is truthful to his wife he can look 
the world in the face. If, in the advice of Polonius to his 
son, the word "wife" be substituted for "self" it would ex- 
press my meaning. He says: 
"To thine own self be true; 
And it must follow, as the night the day, 
Thou canst not then be false to any man, ' 
