Dec. 17, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
491 
extraordinary occasions, and there has been such a glut 
of mackerel that 5 cents would buy a wheelbarrow load 
at the smacks, and then the push-cart man made a 
harvest and the poor were gladdened. Such gluts do 
not occur often, and are only cited to show what might 
be done with an edible fish which is now a curse to the 
fishermen if the poor could only have it brought to their 
doors, for they do not go to market, but depend on the 
push-cart man, whose meat, fish and vegetables have 
often been discarded from the stalls in wealthier local- 
ities. 
Looking back on the list of our five Atlantic skates, 
I am prompted to quote the following from "Fisheries 
Industries of the United States": "They are all trouble- 
some to the fisherman, clogging his lines and pound nets; 
but none of them are of the slightest economical value 
except the so-called barn-door skate, Raia leuvis, which 
is occasionally salted for use by the fishermen of Ports- 
mouth, N. H., and which has, within the last two or 
three years (printed in 1884) attracted some notice in 
New York. _ Miss Corson, in her cooking school, has 
called attention to its excellent qualities as a food fish, 
"and skates may be found on the bills of fare at certain 
restaurants, such as Moquin's on Fulton street. Only 
the 'wings/ or the fleshy flaps to the pectoral fins, are 
used." 
In the "Angler's Note Book," published by William 
Satchell & Co., London, 1880, a periodical that, like the 
"good," died young, I find the following on page 9: 
"The peasantry of Western Ireland will not eat skate, 
however plentiful that fish may be and however famished 
themselves are. It has been suggested that this supersti- 
tion,' for such it may be deemed, arises from the re- 
semblance which the fish, with its depending rays, bears 
to the human face, and possibly to medieval repre- 
sentations of the Virgin Mary. Is the repugnance to be 
otherwise accounted for?" 
This incites the remark that in confinement the skate 
presents a beautiful flying mode of progress, using its 
great pectoral wings in the slow, loggy manner of the 
blue heron, or measured rhythm of a bird of prey, and it 
will shoot up the glass side of the tank and present a 
semi-human face, which is comical ; its lower nostrils 
simulating eyes, while its gill slits resemble whiskers 
of the Horace Greeley style. This line of thought leads 
me to speak of 
The Skate as a Mermaid. 
There are persons who do not believe that there are 
mermaids, but I know positively that there are such 
things, and I' have seen them. About sea serpents I 
am open to conviction; there mought be sea serpents, 
and ag'in there moughtent. Not having seen one of 
their skeletons, hides, hoofs, nor toe nails, I can't affirm 
Figure of clear-nosed skate (R. eglauteria), showing eggs in 
position in the oviducts, a. a., eggs; b, b., ovaries with im- 
mature eggs; c, junction' of the ovi ducts. 
nor deny their existence. But mermaids! How can I 
refuse to believe in them when I have made dozens of 
them ? 
Look at that figure of a barn-door skate. It is a 
dorsal view, but. cut out the tail far up, leaving the two 
"claspers" for legs, take all the flesh possible, turn 
back the pectorals, draw out the mouth and tie a cord 
temporarily about the head to make a neck, and there 
you are. 
I made an elaborate "mermaid" from a skate in 
1880, trimmed it with skirts from the pectoral fins, and 
took it to the Berlin Fischerei Ausstellung, and sold it 
for $50 to a German scientist, who was fully aware what 
the thing was made from. I took it over as a bit of 
fun, with no intention to deceive, nor desire to sell, but 
an offer of 200 marks, in good faith, left the "mermaid" 
in Germany. 
That my monstrosity pleased a German scientist, who 
had never seen such a perversion of nature's handi- 
work, was amusing to me, as this form of mermaid is 
quite common; but I failed for a long time to recognize 
a picture of it by Brookes, which he called the "sea 
eagle." In 1763 there was published "The Natural History 
of Fishes and Serpents, Including Sea Turtles, Crusta- 
ceans and Shell Fishes, with their Medicinal Uses. By 
R. Brookes, M.D., author of the 'General Practice of 
Physic' London, printed for J. Newbery at the Bible 
and Sun, in St. Paul's Churchyard." 
I picked up Vol. III. of this quaint old work, and 
among other things found the cut of the sea eagle, with 
the following description, under the head of "Cartila- 
ginous Flatfish": "The sea eagle has a head almost 
like that of a toad, and the eyes are large, round and 
prominent. The sides are expanded like wings, and the 
tail is long and slender, being sometimes above two 
ells in length. It is armed with a long, sharp weapon, 
and the body in bigness exceeds a fire-flaire (sting- 
ray?), and the weapon is not less dangerous than that 
of the fire-flaire, being greatly dreaded by fishermen. 
The mouth is full of teeth, and the skin is soft and 
smooth; the upper part being livid and the under white. 
They are generally taken very small, but some have 
been found to weigh 30olbs. It may be distinguished 
from other cartilaginous fish by the length of its tail and 
by its large weapon or spine, which is sometimes single 
and sometimes double, but always venomous. Tt is an 
inhabitant of the Mediterranean Sea, and is often brought 
to Rome and Naples. The flesh is smooth and moist, 
with a rank nauseous smell, and therefore is seldom or 
never eaten." 
Verily, there is nothing new under the sun! After 
puzzling over what I thought to be a bit of imagination 
in the production of the "sea eagle," I came into posses- 
sion of Ogilby's "America," published early in the 
seventeenth century, and there was a figure which made 
a connecting link between my mermaids and the "sea 
eagle." But Dr. Brookes put a clown's hat on his aquatic 
bird, placed feathers in its wings and worked out its 
tail with a scroll saw; Ogilby made his monster tly over 
the water! This shows how writers of a century or two 
ago used to copy from each other without credit. I 
can't find my copy of Ogilby; it is in storage, but it 
would be interesting to know how far back this fraud 
has been practiced. 
Skins of the Rays. 
Simmonds, "The Commercial Products of the Sea," 
London, 1879, says : "The quantity of ray skins, dried or 
salted, imported into France in 1863 was about 18,- 
ooolbs. weight, principally from Portugal. Formerly 
they used to fetch as high as seven francs the pound; now 
they may be had for is. a pound. 
"The best galuchat, or what we should call shagreen, 
is made from the skin of the sephen (a sting-ray, Hy- 
polophus sephen of the Arabian coast. — F. M.), which 
abounds in the Mediterranean Sea, * * * This 
skin is remarkable for the size of its osseus protuber- 
ances. * * *" 
These skins are used by workers in wood and ivory 
for rubbing down and polishing their work, and are pre- 
ferred to either sand or emery paper. They are also 
utilized in covering sword hilts, cases of mathematical 
instruments and other objects where a hard surface is 
desired, and also for ornament on jewel cases. When 
ornament is desired the tubercles are rubbed down until 
they show a pearly interior, which contrasts beautifully 
with the several dyes that are first applied to the skin. 
An intermediate species between the rays and the 
sharks is the hideous animal called in derision "angel 
fish," a name that scientists have perpetuated in Sqiia- 
tina angelus — the squat angel ! But from the skin of 
this beast are made the most beautiful sea-green cover- 
ings for jewel boxes and other articles of vertu. 
All this food, and the by-products of the rays, are 
wasted with us, the matter is considered to be too 
trifling; but we import the prepared and manufactured 
skins of skates and waste tons of good food daily because 
the day has not come when we must make the most of 
what nature has bountifully provided. The day is com- 
ing, and there is a fortune for the man who takes hold 
of the great waste of our fishes and saves it. All the 
skates are not wasted. Those taken by the menhaden 
steamers are turned into "scrap," mixed with the phos- 
phate rock from the Carolinas, and come back to us in 
vegetation of some kind, but this is not the way to get 
the most out of these fishes. As a fertilizer, a iolb. 
skate may be worth a small fraction of a cent. Under 
intelligent handling, the tons of skates which are daily 
caught from Cape May to Cape Cod should yield a 
large revenue to the fishermen and to others who 
handle them. 
"What's that? why don't I go into it?" Bless you, 
the work needs a man to go out among the fishermen 
night and day, and to have enough pennies in his sock 
to live while the business was working up. I have 
neither youth nor pennies, and am content to say that 
when we Americans come to the point where we will 
utilize all of nature's gifts, we will then take our place in 
the front rank of all nations, for we have both the ma- 
terial and the ingenuity to make use of it. Among our 
neglected material for economic use is the skate, and 
its relatives, the rays. 
The illustration of what Mr. Mather calls a mermaid 
is from a photograph sent to the Forest and Stream 
by Dr. - ames A. Henshall, author of the "Book of the 
Black Bass." The photograph is by Woodward, of Titus- 
ville, Fla., who has devised this legend for the back of the 
card : "This wonderful curiosity was taken at Matanzas 
Inlet, Florida, by a party of gentlemen fishing in October, 
1893, and has been pronounced by eminent doctors and 
naturalists to be a connecting link between the fish and 
the bird. Webster describes it as the sea devil, in part. 
The American Encyclopaedia and History makes no men- 
tion of anything of its kind." 
Fishing at Anglesea, N. J« 
No place along the Jersey coast can offer as many in- 
ducements, and no place is less frequented by New York- 
ers, than Anglesea, N. J. This little fishing village is 
situated at the outlet of Hereford Inlet, and at the eastern 
end of Five-Mile Beach, which is famous for beautiful 
Holly Beach and Wildwood. Probably the many changes 
one has to make to reach Anglesea from New York have 
something to do with its obscurity — ferry to Jersey, train 
to Haddon Avenue Station, Camden, South Jersey train 
to Cape May Court House, where one is liable to wait an 
hour for the old "Mud-hen," which is made up of a 
rickety freight engine and a superannuated smoking 
car. This is the worst part of the journey. Mosquitoes 
and green-head flies infest the marshes in swarms; and 
owing to the slow pace of the train the insects have full 
play. I doubt if Alaska, in all the glory of her short 
summer, can give points to the marsh on mosquito breed- 
ing. 
At the end of the journey one is well repaid for all 
hardships of the trip. As you stand-on the station plat- 
form the outlook is picturesque, to stay the least. Seven- 
Mile Beach boldly throws out a sandy arm into the 
swift out-rushing current of Hereford Inlet, while Five- 
Mile Beach gives away, seemingly, after a useless strug- 
gle, and extends out to sea at right angles to its sister 
points. The great lighthouse looms up boldly near the 
point as a comrade of the life-saving station, the two 
together bearing mute testimony of the power of the old 
ocean. The fresh salty breeze bears to our ears the 
minor protest of the bell-buoy. Such a situation is en- 
trancing; we linger on the platform for some minutes 
after the "Mud-hen" has puffed herself away -into the 
gathering dusk; ' • 
Anglesea boasts of three hotels — Schiriner's and the 
Hereford for fishermen, and the Anglesea Hotel for the 
more fastidious. Several small fishing sloops make daily 
trips to the fishing banks, and on favorable days those 
who make the trip at a dollar a head are loaded down 
with sea bass, croakers and bluefish. In the inlet the 
still-water fishing is equally as good, and any of the nu- 
merous-captains can place you on a fishing ground which 
would be productive of fine sport. Weakfish, hake (king- 
fish?) and sea bass are exceedingly plentiful. Off the 
front beach black and red drum are caught in certain sea- 
sons. Aside from the wealth of fish, very fair rail and 
snipe shooting is to be had in the early spring. In sum- 
ming up the resources of Anglesea I will recommend it 
to any sportsman in search of a good outing — providing 
he can stand the onslaught of myriads of mosquitoes and 
green-heads, which take possession when the wind is off 
shore. Chas. G. Blandford. 
he Mennel 
Fixtures. 
BENCH SHOWS. 
Feb. 21-24. — Twenty-third annual show of the Westminster Ken- 
nel Club at Madison Square Garden, New York. 
FIELD TRIALS. 
1899. 
Jan. 16.— West Point, Miss.— U. S. F. T. C. winter trials. W. B. 
Stafford, Sec'y. 
Feb. 6.— Mad'ison, Ala.— Alabama Field Trial Club's third annual 
trials. T. H.. Spencer, Sec'y. 
Continental Field Trials. 
The field trials of the Continental Field Trial Club, run 
at Lexington, N. C, commencing Dec. 5 and ending on 
Saturday of that week, were a success in every particular. 
The stakes were well filled, according to the support 
given in latter days, birds were abundant, the grounds 
as a whole were good, horses and wagons were quite 
sufficient for the purposes required, and last, but no least, 
a more congenial gathering of sportsmen never as- 
sembled at a field trial. The president of the club, Mr. 
Hobart Ames, of North Easton, Mass., was present from 
start to finish; Mr. Chas, A. Keyes, of East* Peperell, 
Mass., famous in the dog Avorld as a terrier breeder, en- 
joyed the trials greatly; Mr. Frank Fleer, of Philadelphia, 
was present a part of the time, and Dr. J. S. Brown, of 
Montclair, N. J., was present on Monday. There were 
also present Messrs. Edm. H. Osthaus, Toledo, O.; 
Irving Hoagland, New Brunswick, N. J. ; W. B. Meares, 
Hillsboro, N, C; J. H. Ogden, J. L. Wolfenden and 
Dr. R. H. Harte, Philadelphia; R. V. Fox, Harrisburg; 
Theodore Sturges, Edward C. Hoyt, J. B. Baker and 
Arthur Stern, New York; Theodore R. Hoyt, Boston; 
F. H. Beall, Linwood, N. C; Major J. M. Taylor, Ruth- 
erford, N. J.; C. W. Buttles, Columbus, O.; : Capt. C. 
E. McMurdo, Charlottesville, Va.; Mr. S. C. Bradley 
and daughter, Miss E. B. Bradley, Greenfield Hill, 
Conn.; Leon E. Gray, Salisbury, N. C, and many gen- 
tlemen of local domicile whose names I did not learn. 
There were present many well-known handlers, namely, 
C. E. Buckle, S. C. Bradley, D. E. Rose, Victor Hum- 
phrey, John White, C. Tucker, W. H. Hammond, W. J. 
Giles; and R. Storey and J. Armstrong — Messrs. 
Brokaw's and Gould's trainers respectively, who are both 
training at High Point, N. C. — were present a day. 
The judges in the Derby and All-Age stakes were 
Messrs. W. B. Meares, Hillsboro, N. C; Edm. H. 
Osthaus, Toledo, O. ; and Irving Hoagland, New 
Brunswick, N. J. In the Free For All Mr. Theo. Sturges 
acted in place of Mr. Osthaus. who ran Ripsey in that 
stake. They were diligent and attentive from start to 
finsh, and their awards in the majority of instances were 
heartily indorsed. They were handicapped in conducting 
the running by not having a knowledge of the grounds, 
so that there were delays between the heats in con- 
sequence, though none of the delays were of important 
length. The grounds are excellent as a whole for field 
trial purposes, though a part is rather heavily grown 
up to pine thickets. 
Mr, W. F. Thomason, of Lexington, who acted as 
guide to the Central Field Trial Club judges through 
many years, was the guide this year. 
The headquarters were at the March House, but not 
the March House famous in the gatherings of the Central 
Club. The old March House was burned. Mrs. March, 
the gentle, matronly landlady, passed away before that 
event, and Mr. March, who loved apple-jack unwisely, 
passed away soon afterward. The new March House is 
unlike the old rambling homelike structure, with its 
rooms opening on balconies, and halls opening on no- 
where, in every respect. Instead of search party for the 
descendant of a Senegambian king to build a fire, one 
now presses an electric button, and the colored boy 
instantly comes a-running up the stairs and through 
the hall with a thunder of shoe leather not unlike the 
noise of a runaway horse on a bridge. 
But it was very comfortable, and Mr. Springs, the 
landlord, did his best to make every one comfortable. 
The grounds contained an abundance of birds. A large 
part of them were the same used by the Central, and 
were associated with the victories of Rowdy Rod, Harry 
C, Sam C, Rip Rap, King's Mark, Chance, Roger, 
Lebanon, Duke of Hessen, Pontiac, Prince Lucifer, 
Simonides, Antonio. King of Kent, Wun Lung, Hope's 
Mark, Bob Cooper, Promotion, Paul Bo, Orlando, Count 
Gladstone, Maid of Kent, and a host of others, most of 
.which have taken the plunge into eternal darkness. 
The club held a meeting on the evening of Dec. 9. It 
was decided that four stakes will be run next year, name- 
ly, a Derby, open to all setter and pointer puppies 
whelped on or after Jan. 1, 1808. First forfeit $10, due 
Aug. i; second forfeit $10, due Oct. 1; $10 additional to 
start. Entries close Aug. 1. Purse $500; to first, $250; 
second, $150; third, $100. 
All-Age btake, open to all setters and pointers which 
have not- won hrst in any all-age stake of previous seasons 
in any recognized field trial. Entries, close on Oct, 15, 
with- $io- forfeit, $20- additional to start. "Purse the same 
in- amount and its division as in the Derby. 
