230 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Mauch 19, 1898. 
and awajr we went to a small brook a few miles ;iway. 
It was a charming stream, tumbling, rippling and leap- 
ing in joy in one place, and then quieting down gradually 
into a pool as sedate as a schoolma'am when on duty 
Here I saw my first brown trout, one of 40Z., taken on 
a 3'ellow-sally, and I looked so long at it that my com- 
panion took two before T was ready to cast again, and 
the Captain suggested that I try a few more casts and 
muster the catch for inspection afterward. We were 
fishing in waders, and to stay in them out of the water 
long is torture. I have no love for waders and less for 
wading a cold stream without them, so I stepped into 
the cooling water and cast again. We took twenty 
trout, which in the aggregate weighed over Slbs., and 
had a delightful drive home through the cool forest. 
In the early evening, after dinner, the strange trout 
were inspected one b}' one. No red-bellies, of course^ — 
only chars have that color^ and the American brook 
trout is a char. But the red spots, on a larger white 
spot, varied so much that no two were alike. Absorbed 
in this, I was unconscious that T was unsociable until 
my host asked: "What do you think of our European 
trout?" 
"Not as brilliant as the American char, which we 
call a trout, but for fish of their weight they are fully 
as game. Of their- table qualities I may be better pre- 
pared to speak in the morning." Later six German 
friends of my host dropped in, some of them being men 
Avhom he had tried to make anglers of, and he expatiated 
on the casting and handling of a trout by his friend 
from America ' until my cheek got warm and I ex- 
plained that I was not the only fly-fisher who lived across 
the Atlantic, and that the American angler was a nat- 
ural result from the English settlement on that conti- 
nent, because at the time of the settlement there were no 
men who fished for sport, and were thereb}^ entitled to be 
called anglers, except Englishmen. 
"Gentlemen," said I, "scholars may trace the name 
of 'England' to as many sources as they will; but it is 
my private opinion, here publicly expressed, that the 
name came from a fish hook. Does not Cleopatra say 
to Mardian: 'Give me mine angle— we'll to the river'? 
And Walton: 'I am, sir, a brother of the angle'? And 
this proves that a bent fish hook was termed 'an angle,' 
and that the name of 'England' is a corrupted form of 
'Angleland,' or a land of anglers, of which Capt. Mal- 
colm, of Her Majesty's Navs^, Retired, is one of the most 
clever exponents and missionaries in a land where 
sportsmanship is almost wdiolly confined to the gun." 
As I sat down after this rhetorical effort, the greatest 
of my life, there were cries of "Prosit!" "Gesundheit!" 
and other German exclamations, none of which were 
intelligible to me; and then the evening Avas spent in 
whist, wherein I am a veritable duffer. When the guests 
had departed the Captain asked what my plans were. 
"I think I will visit the hatchery and ponds, give them 
a careful inspection, and take the evening train for Ber- 
lin." 
"Is j^our stay- so limited that you must tear off to 
Berlin to-night and catch the first steamer for New 
York?" 
"By no means. After my mission is accomplished I 
have Prof. Baird's permission to remain in Europe as 
long as I like." 
"Good! Then let me beg you to make my house your 
home for as long a time as you please, and fish with 
me in other parts of the black forest. It will be an act 
of charity in you to do this, for I have actually hungered 
for a fly-fishing companion. I go out alone here, and 
while I do not meet with open ridicule, I know the 
average German thinks my methods a harmless form of 
insanity, for the German is not an angler, much less a 
fly-fisher. There are a few exceptions, but they are 
scattered, and only emphasize the rule. Neither are 
the French anglers; they fish, to be sure, but their sole 
idea is to get fish for the table in some way, and they 
have no idea of it as a sport, to be conducted fairly, as 
they would shoot partridges over dogs. Now I beg 
of you to give me a few d^ys of pleasurable fishing with 
you." 
An angler would be made of sterner stuff than I if 
he could tear himself away from such a proposition. To 
fish for a strange trout in the strange, romantic depths 
of the black forest, and with a host who was as en- 
thusiastic as a boy! It has been said: "Temptation hath 
a music for all ears," and there was music in this; and 
I jumped at the bait. 
And this was really the mysterious black forest of my 
childish reading. Until now it never had a local habita- 
tion, if it did possess a name, but had seemed like the 
intangible places mentioned in the stories which began: 
"Once upon a time," and were as geographically indefi- 
nite as they were chronologically. As I lay down, a 
few stories of human bones being foitnd in the charcoal 
pits, and in disused wells, floated about the room for a 
few minutes, and somehow it was morning. 
TJie fried trout were good; in fact, very much like 
our own trout when taken out of mountain lakes or 
streams, and had no flavor of mud or weeds, which some 
of our pond trout have. "Capt. Malcolm," said I, "this 
is a grand fish to catch, and a good one for the table, 
and I read that it grows to a weight of iSlbs. or more in 
England. When I go to America I will try to introduce 
this trout there for our rivers." The opportunity came 
in 1883, and I obtained the eggs as a personal present 
from Herr von Behr, President of the German Fishery 
Association, and fearing accident to them in the rickety 
old building which I was using for a hatchery, I pre- 
sented son)e to other fishculturists, and the United States 
Fish Commissipner, McDonald, took the unwarranted 
liberty of changing the good old English name of "brown 
trout" to "Von Behr trout," and at the Caledonia hatch- 
ery they called them "German trout"; but those names 
will never stick, because they do not express the char- 
acteristic color of the fish, are not so handy, and brown 
trout is the good old English name which I imported 
with the fish in embryo; aiid I have rights in thi§ mat- 
ter. 
"Promise me a week?" inquired the Captain; and T 
promised. This gave me a full day with Mr. Scliuster 
without jealousy on the part of the Captain, who kindly 
drove me out and came for me at night. There was a 
suspicion of preparation for something in the Captain's^ 
family which was manifest in a scarcely perceptible ex- 
citement, but I made a mental note of it. The Captain 
proposed chess and beat me two games, after which he 
said: "Schiafen sie wohl," and his next remark was: 
"Good morning." 
_ After breakfast he asked me to pack my bag — "satchel" 
in Americanese — for a four days' trip. "We will drive 
to St. Blasien and take a few there and on the way," 
said my host; and I could only remark: "That will 
be excellent." But where or who St. Blasien was did 
not concern me. The team stepped off lively, and we 
found space for our legs amid baskets, fishing rods, wad- 
ing boots, creels and other impedimenta. The morning 
was clear and the air seemed to inspire a wish for wings 
to float on it, and the way was all up hill until at noon 
we reached the Stern Inn, where we baited the horses 
and ourselves. "We will not fish to-day, but will take 
a tramp on foot, for I wish to show you some German 
scenery which will be well worth the shoe leather, and 
which you may never have another chance to see." 
So, filling our creels with provisions, we started, leav- 
ing the coach road for a mountain trail, and with fre- 
quent rests and as many refreshments — for what so 
stimulates the appetite as mountain climbing and an oc- 
casional spring of mountain water? The springs evident- 
ly were placed at the proper distance to restore all moist- 
ure spent in breathing, and drink naturally suggested a 
rest; and then came hunger, more drink, and the col- 
umn moved forward. About sundown we reached the 
cabin of a wood cutter and charcoal burner, and arranged 
to spend the night. The very place described in the 
horrible tales of childhood, and to complete the picture 
in came the charcoal burner and foitr stalwart sons. Our 
contribution of tea and .sugar was acceptable, and after 
the men had washed they did not look so diabolical. 
Our tobacco was better than that they usually burned, 
and the Captain chatted freely with them; but I was nat- 
urally silent. A question to me was answered by the 
Captain, in which the only recognizable word Was 
"Americanish," with the broad sound on the second "a," 
and then I felt as if I were a freak in a dime museum 
on the first day. If I exchanged a word with my friend, 
all eyes were on me, and I felt my inferiority keenly. 
AVhen we climbed the ladder to sleep on the straw in 
the loft, the story of the lone traveler in the black for- 
est was repeated, except that he understood the lan- 
guage and had gone to sleep and was awakened by the 
charcoal burners, who spoke in whispers; was he asleep? 
Then the sharpening of knives, the careful ascent to his 
loft while he cocked his pistols under the bed clothes, 
the stealthy tread of a man on his floor who approached 
his bed, reached up and cut a chunk of bacon which 
hung from the rafters and went below to have it cooked. 
With this as a last thought on the bed of straw, a tired 
mountain climber found that morning had come before 
he knew he was asleep, and the charcoal burners had 
gone to their work. 
A bite, a short tramp and a halt. "Here," said the 
Captain, "is the summit of the Feldberg, the highest 
peak in the black forest. Through the clear atmosphere 
you can look across the Bodensee, which tha English 
call Lake Constance, for some reason unknown to me, 
and see the Alps. Turning around, you may see the 
Rhine Valley, with an occasional glint of the stream, 
and I hope you think it worth the journey." 
He turned off to contemplate the glorious morning 
sun on the distant hills, and I was so absorbed in the 
grand vista that it was long before I joined him and 
thanked him for one of the grandest treats I ever had; 
and I've been treated many times. 
Our horses struck out with vigor past some lakes on 
the road to St. Blasien, but Capt. Malcolm said that 
they were good for jack (pike) fishing, but not worth 
our while. "I like jack fishing," said the representative 
of Her Majesty's Navy; "it's grand sport when you 
can't get any better, and I can get plenty of it nearer 
home with German companions; but I don't capture a 
fly-fisher every day, nor every year, and I propose to 
utilize you as long as you will stand it. You are not 
tired yet, and we will pass these lakes and go on to the 
trout streams near St. Blasien." 
The village of St. Blasien is quaint and picturesque, 
delightfully situated on the River Alb, in the midst of 
thickhr wooded mountains, and the Hotel et Pension has 
a good cuisine and good beds, as German beds go, for 
the Kingdom of Prussia has been described as a "land 
of tall men and short beds"; but the hotel is usually 
well filled with travelers, and in such a place one can 
get blankets instead of the feather covering so dear to 
the German, but so abominable to many others; the 
prices were reasonable and the attendance good. 
We fished four days with good results; only four fish 
of our catch weighed over a pound, but what in the name 
of Izaak Walton does a man want a trout to weigh more 
than 160Z. for? Give me trout fishing where the fish 
run just one-quarter of that weight, and I will be happy. 
In my younger days I preferred woodcock shooting to 
killing buffalo,, and have so recorded my taste,* and 
I prefer woodcock meat to buffalo meat, and to para- 
phrase an old saying, it is not all of shooting to shoot. 
If after a day's fishing or shooting I can't eat my game 
or fish, I take no interest in killing it.f 
But if we did take more trout than the Captain and 
I could eat, we knew that the invalids, ladies and others 
at our hostelry would be pleased with a trout sent 
"with compliments," etc. Verily, a trout well spent is 
its own reward, and thereby a trout is far and away 
ahead of another problem, for an tmexpected addition to 
a breakfast party of a few trout brings a return in nods 
and smiles from fair women and brave men — and here 
my typewriter breaks down. 
I kept no records of this, nQr .of any other fishing. 
I hate records as T hate all statistics; they may be 
useful to scientists, but when I fish I am content with 
my own w'ork and sport, and if some other fellow has 
taken a minnow that weighed a hair more than my min- 
now weighed, it does not disturb me in ihe least. The 
* See "Men I have Fished With," pp. 349-350. 
t Here I will ayain refer to my book, pp. 165-166 — ^wllere I am 
disgusted with selling ducks which I have shot, "to be eaten 
by men who do not thank me for it, do not know me, and may 
be drunk when they eat them, I wish I had my ducks and he 
had his money." Of course this is rank egotism, as my compan- 
ion remarks, but 1 feel so to■da5^ If I catch a few more fish than 
I can use and send them to a friend I expect him not only 
to enjoy them, but to transmit a vote of thanks, and if he. ne- 
glects that he is simply listed in _ this way: Fam.: Forcm; 
genus Gamchogibiis; species: Piscatorial ; variety: Jim Whatshis^ 
name. And Jim is down on my black list. 
chances are that he did not enjoy the fishing any more 
than I did. I wish that there was a death penalty for 
the man who measures Niagara Fails! There are things 
which should be sacred to the photographer. 
After this digression it is evident that space forbids 
talking of the fishing in the River Alb, and of other ad- 
ventures in the black forest; and therefore the editor 
will call # h^lt if I -don't "sound taps." -at St-. Blasien, 
[to be continued.] 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST, 
Some Official Correspondence, 
Chicago, 111., March ii. — I am in receipt of some 
correspondence forwarded me through the courtesy Of 
Mr. Nat H. Cohen, President of the Illinois State Fish 
Commission, wdiich brings up tile interesting question 
of the relation of the game laws of one State to those 
of another State. Perhaps I can best get at this matter 
by offering the correspondence in full, beginning with 
Mr. Cohen's letter to me, which reads as follows: 
"A few weeks ago I confiscated two boxes of fish consigned to 
the American Express Co., of this place. The agent delivered them 
to two parties here; they notified me and asked me what they 
should do with them. I informed tliem they would be liable to 
prosecution if they offered them for sale, so they delivered them 
laack to the express company, and at my suggestion they turned 
them over to the Poor Farm, and held J. S. Johnson and 
G. Schiller, of Green Bay, for the charges. The Chicago fish 
dealers have notified most of the fishermen of Wisconsin and 
Michigan that they would not receive fish that were not in 
accordance with our law, and some of them are using express 
companies to dispose of their illegal products. Inclosed find cor- 
respondence connected with the case." 
Urbana, 111., Feb. 23.— J. S. Johnson, Esq., Green Bay, Wis,— 
Sir: I have to-day confiscated fish consigned to American Ex- 
press Co. by you contrary to law, violating Sec. 6 of the fish laws 
of the State of Illinois, and have notified all wardens in the 
State to arrest any express agent who offers fish for sale under 
size. Allowing the head and tail off, not one-quarter that were 
sent here will come within the limit of Sec. 6. I have notified 
the Wisconsin Commission of this action. Respectfully, 
Nat H. Cohen, Pres. 111. State Fish Com. 
Gre-en Bay, Wis., Feb. 24.— Nat H. Cohen, Pres. State Fish 
Commission: Your favor of 23d inst. to hand and contents 
noted. In reply will say in regard to chapter 6 of the Illinois 
State game law this does not apply to any law in our State. We 
have a right under the Interstate Commerce law to ship into State 
of Illinois and sell in original package anything that is not con- 
trary to oiu' laws of our State, and shall hold you responsible 
for any or all you may confiscate in the future. And you will 
have to pay for these fish you have already taken of me and G. 
Schiller. Yours respectfully, J, S. Johnson. 
C. SCHII.T.ER. 
Ukbana, III., Feb. 25.— J. S. Johnson, Esq., Green Bay, Wis.: 
Your favor at hand, and in reply will inform you that the State of 
Illinois enacted a law last general assembly regulating the size 
of fish that would be illegal to sell or offer for sale. It went into 
effect July 1, 1897, and it is the intention of this Commission 
to enforce it at all hazards. A test case has been decided by the 
Supreme Court regarding birds shipped into the Slate,' and 
they upheld the decision of the lower courts; and fish come under 
the same head. The Chicago dealers realized tlie fact, and have 
issued circulars to fishermen outside of the State not to ship 
in fish contrary to law; and I have notified our wardens that, 
should they find small fish of the species named in our law in the 
hands of express agents, and they offer them for sale, to prosecute 
them to the full extent of the law, and if you feel like testing the 
validity of our law, we are ready to meet you at any time. Re- 
spectfully, 
Nat H. Cohen, Pres. 111. State Fish Com. 
The question of a right of a State to confiscate game 
from another State, shipped in violation of local laAvs, 
if; one that has been taken up in different cases, notably 
in_ Ohio. The trend of decisions upholds any State in 
seizing contraband game, no matter where it came from. 
We have yet to see this principle fully established in 
Illinois. _ Far back in the archives of the sportsmanship 
of Illinois a case was brought against F. M. Smith, a 
dealer of this city, for having in his possession several 
thousand head of prairie chickens out of season. I re- 
member that Col. Bond, at that time king of South 
Water street, told me that the defense Smith would 
make would be that about 2,500 of the birds were sharp- 
tail grouse, ainl not prairie chickens; also that all the 
birds were_ killed legally in the States from which they 
came. This case languished, after the fashion of many 
sportsmen's cases, and finally faded away out of sight. 
We are bound to have the same thing come up again 
some time, and I hope Mr. Cohen may get a test case 
here, where the principle involved is practically the same 
as that in the game cases. 
Milwatjfcee Rod and Reel CItib. 
There wdll be organized at Milwaukee, Wis., to-day a 
body of amateur anglers which will be known as the 
Rod and Reel Club. Their purpose will be the pro- 
tection of game fish in Wisconsin, and they will aid all 
they can in the stopping of seining, spearing and other 
destructive methods of fishing. 
San Francisco Fly-Casting Clufa. 
The San Francisco Fly-Casting Club re-elected its 
officers on March i as follows: President, Walter D. 
Mansfield; Vice-President, John P. Babcock; Secretary, 
Horace Smythe; Treasurer, H. Muller; Executive 
Committee, "George C. Edwards, James Turner, F. H. 
Reed, Willis E. Bacheller and C. G. Young. 
The Trout Season. 
The greater part of Chicago's trout fishers go north 
into AVisconsin for their fishing. Already there is talk 
among some of the enthusiasts about celebrating open- 
ing day, April 15, in Wisconsin. Several members of 
the Chicago Flj'-Casting Club have been in the habit 
of patronizing the Prairie River near Merrill, Wis., a 
stream which last year gave ver}^ good sport. Mr. Ed- 
ward G. Taylor, of this city, will be on hand on opening 
day this 3'-ear, as last, at the Prairie River, near Dudley. 
The best flies for the Prairie River are reported to me 
to be the grizzly king, Reuben Wood, coachman, royal 
coachman and brown hackle, size No. 8 or No. ro. 
E. Hough. 
1206 BoYCE Building, Chicago, HIi 
SfThe PoEEST AKD Stream is put to press each roeek on 
Tuesday. Correspondence intended for publicntion 
should reach us at the latest hy Monday, and as mnjCh 
ea/rlier as pracl^cable. 
