March 19, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
229 
Son, of Kelso, Scotland, as I happen to know. I had 
not heard of the tarpon rod presentation, and Mr. Jef- 
ferson told the story. "Sandy thought I ought to have 
a tarpon rod, and all itnknown to me he sent over to 
Forest and ordered one, and when it was finished he 
sent it to me just as I was about to start lor the South 
one winter. don't know what Forest thought of the 
rod, but when I opened the package containing it and 
saw what was in it I concluded that a mistake had been 
made by somebody, for the tarpon rod was nothing but 
a billiard cue with guides and a reel seat on it. I con- 
cluded that Forest must have had two orders, one for a 
billiard cue for one of our champions, and one for a 
rod, and not knowing about tarpon rods had got the 
two orders mixed and put the guides on the billiard 
cue; but I was assured that the weapon was actually 
a tarpon rod, and have never dared to use it — for a fish 
that requires that sort of a rod to land it would pull me 
into the water if I should hook it." 
The day before this story was told, Mr. Blackford, 
who had left us at Tampa to go down the East Coast, 
met us at St. Augustine, and we had a talk about the 
fishing where he had been. Looking at me out of the 
corner of his eye in a manner peculiar to him when some 
kinds of fish stories are told, he said: "I heard of so 
many pompano (it was a large number, so large I do 
not wish to put it on white paper will: black ink) being 
taken while I was — well, on the planet Mars — taken with 
hook and line!" Then I looked at Mr. Blackford out 
of the corner of my eye, too full of emotion to say a 
word. Mr. Jefferson said that he M'as in the habit of 
going to this place, on the planet Mars, in fact was 
then on his way there. I was reminded of Mr. Black- 
ford's pompano story, and I asked Mr. JciTcrson if it 
was customary to take , a hundred and odd pompano 
with hook and line in a day. Very emphatically he said: 
"No;" that pompano were taken with hook and line juvst 
about as often as herring were taken with a hook — semi- 
occasionally, and apparently more by accident than de- 
sign. As this was as I had taught myself to believe of 
this most excellent table fish, I was sorry that Mr. Black- 
ford was not there to hear what Mr. Jefferson said; but 
there was something about the look in Mr. Blackford's 
eye that made me think he did not believe the story 
when he heard it. It really pains me not to believe any 
kind of a fish story (and it is safe to believe most kinds), 
for fish are always doing strange things, and I do not 
wish to become a doubter. If a man .should tell me 
that he caught 100 pompano with a hook in one day, 
on the planet Mars, I could not dispute him, for I have 
never been there, and if I had been there it would be no 
reason for me to doubt the story simply because I had 
failed to do the same thing, or because no one else that 
I had ever heard of had caught pompano at that rate 
with a hook. Things may be happening all the time in 
some neighboring precinct that never happen in your 
own bailiwick, even with fish, and I always try to accept 
all that I hear that fish have done, or that has been done 
to fish; and yet, after all, I am glad that Mr. Jefferson 
explained what he knew about pompano fishing with 
hook and line in the waters around the planet Mars, for 
it corresponds to what is commonly accepted concerning 
the habits of the fish. 
Bream vs. Black Bass. 
In connection with the National Fisheries Congress 
at Tampa, there was an exhibition of Florida fishes 
frozen in cakes of ice, and a fine exhibition it was. One 
morning I went into the Exposition building to see 
some fish exhibits, and the card at the base of one of 
the cakes of ice informed me that the fish imprisoned 
in the ice was a "bream." The fish to me was a large- 
mouth black bass, and I assumed that the cards had 
become disarranged, and I asked the man in charge 
where the bream was, and he pointed to the black bass, 
saying: "That's the brim," pronouncing the word as 
I would if I referred to the brim of my hat. "But," I 
said, "that is a black bass." "No. it's a brim." "Do 
you also call it a trout?" "Yes, it is a brim or trout, but 
not a black bass." Thus it was that I learned of a new 
name for the large-mouth black bass. I was familiar 
with the black bass as a trout and as a chub, and had 
heard of it as perch, jumping perch, black trout, Welsh- 
man, and a score of other names in which bass formed 
a part, but it was absolutely new to me to have the big- 
mouth black bass parade under the alias "brim." A 
gentleman once wrote to me about a fish which he re- 
ferred to all through his letter as a chub, and as his 
letter was dated in New York city I was at a loss to 
locate his fish, for it did not conform to any chub that 
I knew of. I have often identified a fish under an un- 
usual common name from the date line of the letter 
making the inquiry, but this New York chub was too 
much for me. I asked where my correspondent had 
caught this, to me, peculiar chub, and when he said 
Virginia I knew it was the black bass, for the peculiari- 
ties fitted the black bass, and if the gentleman had written 
from his home instead of where he was. visiting he would 
have indicated the fish to me. Now in my memorandum 
book there is this entry: "A bream 'may mean black 
bass when it is mentioned by a native of Florida. 
Stop Nets. 
Florida_ boasts of her fishes and fishing, and well she 
niay, for in spite of the personal experiences already re- 
lated in these notes her wealth of fishes, of manv species, 
is enormous. With a coast line which, if 'extended 
north from Jacksonville, would reach nearly to the State 
of Maine, and with more lakes within her borders than 
are possessed by New England, the field for fishing is 
-vast; and more than that, the waters swarm with fish. 
It is this very abundance, however, that gives rise to 
waste, and unless the methods of fishing now employed 
are modified Florida will find herself with some of her 
fisheries worn out before all are developed. On a trip 
to Mullet Key I had a long talk with a "fish dealer from 
Georgia, who maintains three fishing stations in that 
neighborhood. In explaining to me how his business 
was conducted, how fish were caught and brought to 
market, he mentioned among other nets in use a "stop 
net," and it being new to me I asked how it was oper- 
ated and_ where it got its name. A small bay is selected, 
and at high tide a net is stretched across its mouth, and 
as the tide goes out all the fish in the bay are stopped 
by the net, little and big, and all kinds are imprisoned by 
the stop net, and at low tide the marketable fish are 
selected and the others take their chances of being left 
on a mud bank until another tide. My friend the fish- 
erman admitted that the method was destructive and 
many fish were absolutely destroyed from various 
causes. The catch might overstock the market or the 
fish might be "stopped" when the supply of ice was 
low, so that altogether it was a questionable method of 
fishing, and was quite apt to operate against a further 
supply of fish. He said that after listening to the papers 
and discussions at the Fisheries Congress he believed it 
wisdom on his part to abolish the stop net in his fishing 
operatipns and consider the future as well as the present 
supply. Where fish are so abitndant as they are in Flor- 
ida it is difficult to comprehend that the supply may be 
cut off_ in the future by injudicious methods employed 
in their capture, and by taking certain species at the 
spawning- season, Already fears have been expressed 
that the larpon fishing is now suffering because the fish 
are killed on their way to the spawning grounds, and 
that spent fish are killed which offer little or no sport 
as compared with a fish in prime condition. A letter 
calhng attention to this state of affairs was read before 
the Fisheries Congress, and it will form part of the 
printed proceedings. At my request this letter was pub- 
lished in Florida papers, asking that those who knew of 
the habits of the tarpon would communicate with me, for 
the habits of the silver king are not yet fully understood; 
but I have received no communication on the subject. 
Fly-Casting in Florida. 
It was announced that a fly-casting tournament would 
be held at Tampa. Fla., during the meeting of the Fish- 
eries Congress, and Mr. Goddard, fresh from victories 
at Madison Square Garden during the Sportsmen's Ex- 
position, and who was appointed by Gov. Black as a 
delegate from the State of New York, went prepared 
to enter several of the contests. The congress resolved 
Itself into a serious business convention, and there 
seemed to be no place for an entertainment so light and 
airy as a fly-casting contest with trout rods. A paper 
on the habits of the oyster, its cultivation and develop- 
ment, aroused a discussion that lasted long after the 
session of the day, and transporting fish from the net 
to the consumer would be debated for hours; but not 
a paper was read or discussion held upon angling pure 
.^'jiiple- and so the fly-casting contest was 
crowded out. And yet among the" serious-minded 
men gathered at Tampa there were some Avho 
desired to see how a fly was cast with light rod for 
distance, and one evening Mr. Goddard took his rods 
down to the river and showed the people such casting 
as they had never before dreamed of; and the enthu- 
siasm was such as to prove conclusively that such a 
contest _ would have been extremely popular. At St 
Augustine, again, Mr. Goddard was persuaded to .give 
an exhibition before a large crowd, and with a 4oz."rod 
he cast 86ft., and with a looz. rod loift. 
A. N. Cheney. 
Trbuting m the Black Forest. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
In childhood the fearful tales of dark deeds done in 
the depths of the black forest of Germany, the dreaded 
bchwarzwald, made an impression never to be effaced 
Ghastly legends of wayside inns which offered the trav- 
eler rest for the night and gave him rest for eternity; of 
mysterious disappearances of men who could never be 
traced; and of later discoveries of bones which were 
past identification. Ju.st where this mysterious and for- 
bidding country might be my childish mind had no 
dehmte idea; it was somewhere off in the unknown 
_ world, and I never bothered about its exact location 
any more than I did about the garden where Jack raised 
his beanstalk, the place where he built his historic 
house, or where he killed his giants; nor indeed if the 
three Jacks were all one and the same individual. 
Some twenty years ago I was seated in a Berlin cafe 
talking with Connt von dem Borne, the noted fishcul- 
turist, when he remarked: "You should go to Baden 
and see the fish-breeding establishment of Carl Schuster 
the Ober-Biirgermeister of Freiburg. You will not need 
a letter of introduction, for he wrote me a week ago say- 
ing that he hoped you would visit him." 
And so it came about that I took an evening train 
for Freiburg in Baden, some 300 miles to the southwest. 
The morning gave glimpses of the valley of the Rhine, 
and here and there a peep at the river itself, and Heidel- 
berg, Carlsruhe and other historic places were passed. 
This was well for a while, but unfortunately for me I 
am constructed on the same general plan of architec- 
ture that other men are; and about 10 A. M. there was 
a loss of interest in the scenery, the fertile valleys and 
the proUfic vineyards. There was that base and igno- 
ble desire to eat which somehow seems common to man 
and his earthly companions, from the highest mammals 
to the loAvest protozoan. I sighed for the army hard- 
tack stamped "A. D. i;" for the anhydrous bean, or the 
beef dried on the hoof which marched with us in former 
years. I approached the guard and asked in the best of 
German how long before "freestick," but alas! he did 
not understand his own language. "Breakfast, free- 
stick!" I yelled, for it is always best to veil when you 
are not understood, but as all the passengers made a bolt 
for a particular room in the station I bolted too, and had 
a most satisfactory "freestick." The Germans don't 
spell it that way, and I don't spell it in any other way 
—it is literally an "early piece," and is just as. satisfying 
as if they called it breakfast. There was good coffee, 
and the meats were sausage of many kinds, for Germany 
is the land of sausage, and there might be wurst. Veal 
and hares rank next, and I ate the hare in both the 
stewed and roast form. 
It is a fact that the hare is an appreciable factor in the 
food of the Germans. It is found in most all restaurants 
and cafes, but it abounds in the railway eating houses. 
In America it is not popular because, perhaps, it has a 
dry quality; but when this is overcome in a stew it is 
a good dish, and I often buy our little cottontail in the 
market, although I do not now take long tramps in 
the winter after him. 
After the generous breakfast, and before we get into 
the mysterious region of the Scliwarzwald, let me digress 
in order to consider the hare, rabbit, el omne genus^ 
it exists in America. 
Within a fortnight the editor of Forest and Stream 
put a plain, straightforward question to me in language 
like this: "Do yoit consider the rabbit as game or as 
vermin?" 
I gave him an evasive answer, which is not warranted 
to turn vrath aside, but may sometimes parry a direct 
question. Said I: "There are two sides to the question, 
and I will give them both my best judicial attention, 
without splitting hares, and ferret ont the differences be- 
tween a European hare and a Welsh rabbit, even if I 
have to call in a 'golden buck' as a rebutter; and will 
give_ you the decision later." And so a threatened dis- 
cussion of the_ merits and demerits of the non-succulent 
hare and rabbit was postponed. 
A telfgram had brought Herr Schuster to the station, 
and somehow we met. He knew neither English nor 
my Gernian; and again I wondered; not at his ignor- 
ance of English— that was natural — but why no person 
in Germany understood the langua.ge of the country. 
Afterward I had this fully explained. It was due to the 
very different pronunciation of the vowels. On the home 
trip I dropped in to see Dr. Otto Finsch, a world- 
knoAvn zoologist, then in charge of the museum at 
Bremen. In course of conversation I said: "While Eu- 
rope is richer in species of cyprinoids, America excels 
in the pike family; we have at least five species of Eso.v, 
while Europe has but one. and that one we also have." 
"I do not know the fish you speak -of," replied the 
Doctor; "are you sure it exists in Europe?" 
"Surely; it is the common Esox Iticius, called 'hecht' 
in Germany; you know the fish well!" 
He grasped the meaning at once and corrected what, 
to him, was my mispronunciation, and drawing a long 
breath, ejaculated: "Oh. ah! Aysoax." And we got 
alon,g splendidly afterward in our' talk about Esox, and 
then it dawned upon me that the Germans understood 
their own language, but did not know how to pronounce 
Herr Ober-Biirgermeister Schuster was a strong, in- 
telligent man of fifty-five years then, and I was ten years 
his junior. He hustled me into his carriage after a hearty 
handshake and a mutual attempt at conversation which 
somehow ran into an abattis and never got out alive, 
as has been the case with many braver men. 
The coachman stopped before a private dwelling, and 
Herr Schuster got out and held an animated conversa- 
tion with a middle-aged, stout gentleman, who came 
out and said: "Permit me to introduce myself as Capt. 
George John Malcolm, of Her Britannic Majesty's Navy, 
Retired, and to beg that you will stop Avith me to-night 
and rest before you ,go to inspect the fishery at Selzenliof 
to-morrow." 
There is a suspicion that I have quoted De Balzac in 
saying: "I can resist anything but temptation." But 
It will bear repetition, for the temptation was great; it 
meant an evening with a cultivated gentleman who 
would not require an interpreter if the talk should stray 
away from "Eisenbahn, was cost das? Kalbsbraten; ich 
bitte, halbe flasche Pontet Canet," etc., in which I was 
fairly proficient. So with an "auf wiedersehen" I shook 
hands with Mr. Schuster and entered the hospitable door 
of my new friend. He had married a charming German 
lady, and his Avife and daughters spoke English with 
more or less difilculty. After supper, Avhen Capt. Mal- 
colm and I Avere left alone to burn some of the Virginia 
weed m his den, he told me that of late years he had 
spoken English so little that it seemed almost a foreign 
language to him. Our talk naturally drifted to fish- 
culture and my mission to Germany, and he shoAved 
some knowledge of the subject, for Schuster and he Avere 
close friends. 
"Said he: "My interest in angUng naturally intere-^ts 
me m fishculture, and I've tried to interest Schuster in 
angling, but have failed. The Germans are fond of 
shooting, especially of hares and pheasants; but they 
do not look on angling as a sport: they only regard i*- 
as a means of getting fish for the table, and as this may 
be accomplished quicker with a net, they ridicule my 
expenditure of time and labor in casting the fly for • 
trout. By the Aivay, do you care to fish?" 
If any man who has written of angling since the first 
issue_of Forest and Stream, say as Charles Hallock 
and 1 have done, imagines that his reputation is AA^orld- 
wide and all wool, it aviII do him good to have a stranger 
ask him that question. It broadens his views, and like 
the traveled toad he finds that his voice which re-echoed 
from the hillocks about his own puddle has not reached 
beyond those confines. I ansA\-ered: "From boyhood 
angling has been a faA^orite sport, and in later years 1 
have learned to cast the fly and to enjoy that best of all 
forms of angling." 
Capt. Malcolm jumped up, grasped botli my hands, 
and said: "This is a treat. I will drive yon to the hatch- 
ery m the morning, about four and a half miles, and we 
Avill take a few trout in the evening in a nearby stream; 
but as a fly-fisher I have been lonesome here for years! 
I want you to promise to make my house your home 
for at least three weeks and fish the black forest with 
me. Will you do it?" 
"I can't promise you all those weeks, but I've read of 
the black forest; hoAv far is it from here?" 
"My dear sir, you are on the edge of the famous 
bchwarzwald uoav, and in fact in it. Schlafen sie wohl!" 
And he closed my room door. 
In a German hotel you can order vour bed made as 
you please, and raise all kinds of a 'rumpus until you 
are suited, but in a private house the German bed is 
not only of feathers, but the only covering is another 
feather-stuffed abomination; you can't throw off a por- 
tion if too Avarm, and you can't complain. There you 
are! As I can endure feathers in a pillow, and nowh^^re 
else, I dressed, put a pillow on the floor, and slept the 
sleep of a tired fisherman on a luxurious hard bed— the 
only kind of bed that truly gives rest and refreshment 
to the tired man who is educated to enjoy it. The Ger- 
mans love to sleep on feathers, and my grandmother did 
Selah I 
A trip to the hatchery and an inspection of the ponds 
and processes seemed to bore my host; he Avas an-ctous 
to be on the stream. The hatchery was some four Eng- 
lish miles from Frieburg, and as the rods were in the 
carriage I told Mr. Schuster that Ave Avould come again, 
