March 5, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
189 
"I thought you would come to that opinion, my boy; 
but 3'ou wanted to try it, and are satisfied. The sun is 
now below the treetops, and we can just about make 
the Mountain Home in time for supper." We hid the 
boat and oars, and started, he on the lead, and before 
we had gone a mile a ruffed grouse got up with a thun- 
der of wings and was lost in the woods before he could 
see it. He made a big jump and enjoyed his alarm when 
he learned the cause. 
Wallace came down on Long Island very often and 
stayed several days with me, and he was growing in 
strength as well as in years. He wanted to contest in 
the fly-casting tournaments in Central Park, and I put 
him through a course of training for the purpose; stood 
on the bridge with him and coached him: "A little more 
time on tlie back cast;" "Keep your fly up; throw up as 
well as back, and keep it off the water behind you;" 
"Your rod is thrown too far back;" "Count one, two, 
three, and take as much time on the back cast as on 
the forward," etc., and so I kept him at it until he could 
easily beat me. He cast in the tournaments for at least 
two years and niade good records, which are not at hand 
as I write, and my favorite old loj/^oz. split-bamboo had 
the hardest service tliat a rod can get in this work; but 
it is as good to-day as ever, and Mowry won a contest 
with it in the tournament last month. 
As he grew older I saw that he had great mechanical 
ingenuity. He was an expert amateur photographer, and 
made his own cameras. He was also an artist in oils, 
and made sonic creditable paintings at the early age of 
fourteen. He graduated from the Adelphi College, 
Brooklyn, in 1891, and after a few months' supervision 
by his father the latter turned over his large business 
in Fulton Market to him, in order that the father might 
attend to his banking and other business. After a year 
at this work, Mrs. Blackford, his mother, joyfully told 
me that Wallace had made more money in the market 
in the past year than his father ever did in the same 
time. It was with a full knowledge of the character of 
this boy that I wrote the first paragraph of this sketch, 
and lamented that the stork had not been equally kind 
to me. Yet, while we know that it is as natural to die 
as it is to be born, in some cases the reaper follows the 
stork at a cruelly short distance. 
Wallace was born on Dec. 4. 187 1_, and was married 
on Dec. 4, 1893. It was a large wedding, in church, and 
Mrs. Mather and I were there, and also had cards to 
the house reception. Our seat in the church was 
far back, but we could see that Wallace was not well, 
and that after the ceremony he was hurried from the 
church, Albert Haley gave me the first hint that pneu- 
monia threatened the bridegroom by saying: "It's too 
l)ad, Fred; I'd as soon give up a boy of my own as to 
give up Wallace."^ 
"Do you think he is dangerously ill?" 
"Yes" I do; but I hope he will pull through." 
At the house reception Wallace was not to be seen. 
He had been ordered to bed by the doctors, and we 
hoped that he would baffle the reaper with his vigorous 
physique, and we enjoyed the music and' the feast and 
then went to our Long Island home. 
A week later, Dec. 11, a message came: "Wallace E. 
Blackford died to-day." The missive was put in a vol- 
ume of Longfellow, on the page wherein he says: 
"O, what liadst thou to do with cruel Death, 
Who wast so full of life, or Death with thee, 
That thou shouldst die before thou hadst grown old?" 
Fred Mather. 
Jugging for Catfish. 
"Just About a Boy," by El Comanchs, and its inci- 
dents of the lancewood rod, the black poney, and others, 
bring back memories of my boyhood days; and I think 
I now have, and have used constantly since (with only 
the breakage of one tip) the mate to El Comancho's rod, 
spoken of in his first paper. I have also taken "cats" 
from that 3-pounder hole, and also have fished those 
riffles below the old walnut trees of "Penners"^ pasture; 
and as I sit in my study this cold winter's night, 
with the wind howling round the house and piling the 
snow in huge drifts, there appears to me through the 
smoke clouds from my pipe a picture of long ago. 
It is September, and I see two black canoes slowly 
paddled side by side over the calm waters of the river 
by two stalwart youngsters wearing sombreros, and 
tanned the color of "Otoes." They arc talking to each 
other in siawash as they glide past Beaver Island to 
the long reach of the river below the pontoon bridge. 
"There, by that old stump, last week I took a big 'cat- 
tie,' and maybe we'll get another on our way batk," 
says the larger of the two boys. "Maybe," I say; 
"let's go 'shore and get some 'hoptoads' for bait." A 
little further and we run the canoes ashore and are 
filling our live boxes with frogs. 
"Guess we have enough; let's Iclatawa," says my 
chum. 
Now, readers of our family paper who have never 
been "jugging" for catfish, come along with us this 
afternoon, and I will guarantee you a good time. We 
each have a dozen empty beer bottles, tightly corked, to 
w^hich about 3ft. lines are attached. Baiting the hooks 
with frogs, we drop these overboard in line of battle 
across the river, and let them float with the current, 
while we follow along behind. Lighting our pipes, we 
watch for the first cattie to tip up a bottle. Nothiiag 
but the releasing of a line from a snag or a bottle run- 
ning among the branches of a willow that touches the 
breast of the slowly flowing stream occurs, till we get 
opposite the old submerged stump alluded to, when one 
of my bottles begins to bob up and down, and vanishes 
from view. I clear for action«at once, and with a few 
strokes of the paddle reach the place where I last saw 
the bottle. Backing water, I wait for it to rise, for it 
takes an extra large fish to hold one of these bottles 
down for long. It soon rises close to the canoe, and 
grasping it, I pull into the well a fine catfish of 3 or 
4lbs. weight. 
- But m3' triumph is short-lived, for, hearing a great 
commotion in the direction of my chum's canoe, I turn 
and watch the fun. He evidently has a good one, for 
he is leaning over the side with both arms submerged 
to the elbows, and is trying to get hold of its gills. He 
looks up from under his sombrero, and with a broad 
grm on his sunburnccr face says: "If the durned hook 
doesn't pull out or break I'll sure get him; he's a 
\yhopper — 'bout s'teen pounds." Inch by inch he gains 
line, and with the water swirling and a broad tail churn- 
ing it into foam there comes to the surface, still fighting, 
although two strong liands are fastened in its gills, a 
massive black head, followed by the body of a catfish 
that when held up to view will weigh at least lolbs. 
"Gee! ain't he a dandj^, eh?" comes across the water. 
But I am too busy to reply, for two of my bottles are 
bobbing and starting in opposite directions, and must 
be attended to. The result is one "cat" of about ilb., 
and the other is a small bullhead; nothing else is caught 
until after we are by Beaver Island, when we have four 
bottles going at once, and things are quite lively till 
we near the ice-houses, when we gather in our bottles, 
turn loose the rest of our frogs and quietly float down 
to the boat-houses, comparing notes meanwhile. On 
lancUng and counting our fish we find we have just 
thirteen; although this is an unlucky number, we are 
much elated over the afternoon's sport, which is another 
page added to life's diary. May all our friends of 
Forest and Stre.\m be blessed with such pages, that 
m after years, when in the midst of business cares and 
worries, as they are smoking an after-dinner pipe, they 
may live over their boyhood's past, and be more fit for 
the cares of the morrow, by having such remembrances 
to call back to the present. Ak-sar-ben. 
Florida Fish and Fisheries* 
A Plea for their Development and Protection. 
liV DK. JAMKS A. HKNSH.il.L, u. S. HSU COMMISSION. 
[Read before the Tampa Fisheries Congress.] 
TiJK principal fishing industries of Florida are prose- 
cuted on the Gulf coast, at Pensacola, Tampa, Pnnta 
Lrorda arid key West, though the shad fisheries of the 
M. John s River are very important, and considerable 
Dusiness m this direction is also done at various places 
on the East Coast. 
At Pensacola the principal fish product is the red 
snapper, a fish of good size and of firm flesh of fine 
quality, which bears transportation w^ell. It is taken with 
hook and line on the snapper banks in from ten to fiftv 
fathoms, and from ten to fiftv miles ofl^ shore. At Cedar 
Iley, Tampa and Punta Gorda the bay and brackish 
water fishes are taken by haul seineS on the shores of the 
'^ays and inlets; the varieties mostly handled are mullet, 
red fish or bass (as it is known commercially), sea trout' 
pompano (the best of all fishes for the table), Spanish 
inackerel, jackfish, etc., while large quantities are cured 
by salt. At Key West manv of the fishes are entirely dif- 
ferent from those of the other waters of the State, and 
belong rather to the' West Indian fauna. They com- 
prise the coral fishes, the salt-water fishes par excel- 
lence. All are taken with hook and line, as the various 
seines and nets cannot be utilized owing to the ragged 
coral formation of the shores and reefs. The principal 
fish are kmgfish, mackerel, groupers, snappers, grunts 
]ewfish, etc., which exist in great variety. The catch 
IS almost entirely consumed at Key West. Formerly 
a fleet of smacks carried live fish in wells to Havana 
until a prohibitory import duty was imposed by the 
Captain General upon fishermen from the United States, 
which compelled the abandonment of the industry ancl 
the sale of the smacks to Spanish fishermen, who in 
addition to taking fish contrary to law in Florida waters 
carried on a nefarious trade in smuggling vile rum and 
poor cigars. 
The Gulf coast line of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi. 
Louisiana and Texas is more than 6,000 miles in length, 
being about 1,000 miles longer than that of the Middle 
Atlantic States, which rank next in extent of coast line 
of the East United States. Of this extent Florida has 
nearly 3,000 miles, or one-half. 
A statistical review of the United States Fish Commis- 
sion, published some ten years ago, says: "The Gulf 
States occupy a favorable location for supplying a large 
part of the country with marine product. A dozen or 
more States in the lower Mississippi Valley have the 
nearest coastal connection through these States, and it 
will probably be in response to this section's demand 
for marine food product that the Gulf fisheries will 
reach their highest development." 
The fulfillment of this prediction has been realized; 
for at present a large demand exists for the food fishe.s 
of Florida in_ all the South Atlantic States, while the 
choicer varieties, such as red snapper, pompano, Span- 
ish mackerel, etc., are shipped to all the principal North- 
ern cities. The same report says: "This regio.n is favored 
with many highly esteemed food fishes, which occur in 
greater abundance than elsewhere on the coast of the 
United States. The undeveloped resourses of the Gulf 
States invite outside attention and afford a promising 
outlook for future increase. The possibilities of the 
region in the matter of oyster production and cultiva- 
tion are believed to be great." 
Few sections of the United States are better supplied 
with desirable and important marine fishery products, 
including fish, reptiles and invertebrates, than the Gulf 
States. Among the invertebrates the oyster ranks first 
in commercial importance. It is extremely abundant 
throughout the entire section and constitutes the most 
prominent_ fishery product. No other mollusks have 
as yet attained economic prominence, though in Florida 
the round clam or quahog is taken in small quantities, 
and the meat of the conch is used for bait and eaten 
locally,, 
"A number of species and varieties of sponges occur 
off the Florida coast and are objects of an important 
fisherv, the only one of the kind prosecuted in the 
United States." 
Among crustaceans the shrimp is the most prominent. 
Crabs are abundant in this region. In addition to the 
common blue crab of the Atlantic coast, there occur the 
shore crab, the lady or sand crabs, and others of less im- 
portance. The stone erab, which reaches a large size 
and is very palatable, is probably iTiost abundant on 
the coast of Florida. 
The economic value of the reptiles inhabiting the Gulf 
States is greater than in any other section, Foremost 
among them is the alligator. There are at least five spe- 
cimens of the terrapin in this section, which are valuable 
as food. Four of these occur in fresh water. The salt- 
water or diamond-back terrapin is also found in the 
salt marshes from Florida to Texas, and is a valuable 
article of fishery. The region is included within the 
range of three soft-shell tortoises. Two species of snap- 
ping turtles also inhabit the fresh waters of these States. 
Three important marine turtles frequent the Gulf of 
Mexico and are sought by the fishermen; these are the 
green turtle, the loggerhead and the hawkbill or tortoise- 
shell turtle. 
From the foregoing brief account of the fishery re- 
sources and kindred industries of Florida it is evident 
that the present active demand for fish, oysters, etc., will 
be largely augmented in the future, especially in view 
of the fact that there is a material decrease in the supply 
of these products in Northern waters; indeed there are 
already many fishing smacks in Florida waters every 
winter, and lately there have been oyster grounds lo- 
cated and taken up by Northern parties with a view 
to an increased cultivation of oysters. The granting of 
these privileges should be paid for by the parties inter- 
ested and made a permanent source of revenue to the 
State, the same as is done in the States of Virginia, Marj'- 
land. New Jersey, New York, etc. This is a very im- 
portant matter and should be attended to" before the 
best grounds are disposed of gratuitously. A State 
fish commission could be made self-.supporting by the 
revenue derived from the rental of oyster grounds alone, 
and there should be therefore an intelligent supervision 
of this branch of the fisheries in order that those inter- 
ested may keep pace with the improvements and discov- 
eries that are yearly being made in the cultivation of 
oysters and be better enabled to foster this important 
industry. 
The same necessity exists for an able and competent 
supervision of the sponge interest, in which Florida 
alone is concerned, for in the waters of that State are 
the only sponge beds in the United States. It is of 
vital importance then that those beds should be properly 
protected, the taking of the sponges subject to Avise 
and judicial surveillance, and their cultivation prosecuted 
with vigor and intelligence in order that the supply may 
lie maintained and increased, and the revenue to the 
State consequently enhanced. 
The shad fishery of the St. John's River constitutes 
one of the most important branches of Florida fishing 
industries, and the first shad of the .season are shipped 
thence to Northern markets at a time when they com- 
mand the highest market price. As the supply has 
lately been seriously decreasing, it is of paramount im- 
portance that the yield should be increased by artificial 
cultivation. The artificial proiiagation of shad has been 
attended by more pronounced success perhaps than that 
of any other fish, a most convincing example being that 
inaugurated by the United States Fish Commission in 
California, where by the planting of less than a million 
shad fry in the bay of Sacramento a few years ago they 
have become so numerous that this fish is now sold 
for a less price than in Eastern markets. When it is 
considered that prior to this experiment there were no 
shad whatever on the Pacific coast the argument in 
favor of artificial culture of the shad is incontrovertible, 
and its success is at once assured. 
The State of Florida could have at least one hatchery 
on the St. John's River, and as the shad hatching season 
lasts but a couple of months the expense is trifling, 
while the results are all important, far reaching and most 
bountiful. 
There has also been a marked decrease in some of the 
coast fishes, -while a complaint of the scarcity of the best 
food fishes in the inland waters of the State is universal. 
Now is the time to do something toward a restoration 
of the fish supply of these waters or at least to prevent 
a further depletion by the proper and fostering care of 
a competent Fish Commission — one that is able to cope 
with the situation and to apply a proper remedy, whether 
it be by artificial cultivation' or by increased protection, 
and by so doing to increase tlie food supply of the 
people. 
In the Northern States the fishes of many of the in- 
terior streams have either been totally destroyed or very 
materially decreased by the pollution of the streams 
through the refuse and oft'al from manufacturing estab- 
lishments. It would be the part of wisdom for Florida 
authorities to be forehanded in this matter, on the prin- 
ciple that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
cure," and to enact such laws as will prevent a like de- 
crease of the fish from similar causes. The United 
States Fish Commission has done considerable work in 
Florida and will do a great deal more; and it is also con- 
templated to establish a station for the cultivation of fish, 
oysters, sponges, etc., at no distant day. In view of such 
an event, therefore, it is all the more important that good 
protective laws and their effective enforcement by a 
competent State Fish Commission should be provided 
for, otherwise the work of the National Commission 
would be to a great extent rendered nugatory. 
It will be readily seen from what has been said that 
it is of the utmost importance that the fisheries indus- 
tries of the State should be looked after by an efficient and 
competent commission. It has been demonstrated in 
Northern States, and particularly in Florida, that the plan 
of a complimentary fish commission composed of several 
who receive no compensation has not worked advan- 
tageously, although liberal appropriations were annually 
made in the older States. Too often such commissions 
degenerate into mere political machines, for the securing 
of votes, for the legitimate work of the commission 
is neglected or frustrated. It cannot be expected that 
men will give much time and attention to duties for which 
they receive no compensation; so it follows as a matter 
of course that if they cannot command dollars they will 
command votes if possible. 
The Fish Commission of Florida is virtually obsolete 
at present, for notwithstanding the appointment of three 
Commissioners several years ago, as provided by law. 
the Secretary of State has informed me that nothin;:: 
has been done by them, and that to all intents and pur- 
poses the Commission has ceased to exist. 
What is needed is the enactment of laws that prgvid? 
