Dec. 31, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
531 
Everett Smith stayed with us only a few days, when 
the fair at Mineola was more attractive than hauling a 
seine in the bay, and he was temporarily replaced by Jo, 
Brown, a young man from Freeport, who let the wind 
blow on his teeth when the sun shone in his face. Last, 
but first in many things, was Robert C .Denton, descen- 
dant of the first clergyman that invaded Long Island, and 
who figures largely in the history of the "island of shells." 
He is only "Robert C." in the village directory, and to the 
postmaster, but as the trusty pilot of that catboat he was 
not so addressed. He was young, jolly, musical, and 
had a stock of good humor about equal to the Captain's, 
and that is saying much, for Capt. Smith was a veritable 
Mark Tapley, bound to be jolly under all circumstances. 
We Reach the Island. 
And so with some poling and drifting, for the tide was 
half down when we started, we got out into the great bay 
and set the sail. One could imagine himself in Holland 
if he did not look back at the distant hills which form 
the "backbone of Long Island." A flat landscape of low 
islands and water was all that lay in front. "That's our 
cottage off there to the southeast"" said Dr. Dean, point- 
ing to a speck some miles away, which differed little from 
other specks, which seemed near it, but proved to be on 
other islands, as we neared them and changed our course 
into the different channels. 
Fried ham, potatoes, coffee, bananas and turn in. The 
Doctor and 1 had a large room with two good beds in 
it. As we retired he said: "Did you notice how these 
fishermen eat bananas?" 
"Yes, I saw over a hundred come on board, and sup- 
posed they were for some hotel, but after supper they all 
pitched into them, and Cap must have eaten half a dozen, 
to my surprise, for one would give me a fit of indigestion 
that would last for a week, unless it was a red one, when 
I might get over it in a day. By the way, I have not seen 
a red banana in five years; what's become of them?" 
"I give it up, but it is a fact that the red banana comes 
no more to New York, and while it does not these fisher- 
men eat the yellow ones in great quantities. Then they 
eat fried fish swimming in grease, and wonder why they 
have dyspepsia. They would fry a beefsteak if they had 
one. and eat it swimming in grease." 
"Doctor," said I, "that fried ham is now in rebellion in 
THE COTTAGE. 
my department of the interior; it has started the gas 
factory at work on full time, and when that shuts down 
the vinegar factory will be in full blast, but I' think there 
is enough good leather left in my stomach to stand it for 
a fortnight if we only had prepared for a siege of fried 
things." 
"Well," said the Doctor, "the Captain is the worst 
dyspeptic, because he is older than the others, and he tries 
patent medicines and grunts, but he is strong; he will pull 
his end of the seine against the other three, and dyspepsia 
does not seem to affect his physique. Ordinary dyspepsia 
does not kill people, for many who have the trouble live 
to an old age, it is a source of suffering, as corns are, but 
that's all." 
"That's very comforting, Doctor. I'll turn in and try 
to sleep before the vinegar factory starts in. Good night." 
Some Fried Things. 
There was not a fish to fry for breakfast, but a steak 
had been brought down for that purpose, and swimming 
in lard it was fried, as the Doctor had foretold, and as 
they cooked with boards of old fish boxes, there the coals 
were for broiling, but we had it fried in lard. The tide 
was not right for the men to use the net, so while the 
Captain mended it the Doctor took a gun, seeking the 
meadow hen, also called clapper rail, or the yellowlegs.both 
birds being heard frequently. I looked the net over; it 
had a mesh of 2}i'm., about the size for the smaller fish of 
the bay. It was 100 fathoms in length and fished to a 
depth of 7ft. Bob Dalton and I rowed out to fish for 
"snappers," as young bluefish are called, and finding none 
we stopped surface fishing, put on sinkers and got a dozen 
sea bass, which weighed as many pounds, and there was 
our dinner. The Captain dressed and crimped them to 
the bone at short intervals, so that more grease could be 
absorbed, for he was a dyspeptic and needed lots of 
grease. Dr. Dean did not call down a single yellowleg, al- 
though we heard many answer his whistle, and he found 
nary a meadow hen. From the frequent shots we heard 
we thought he was right among them, but his bag was 
fifteen sandpeeps, which he skinned, and before we could 
protest against it the Captain had them frying! 
It was now near high-water slack, and at the turn of the 
tide we took twenty sea bass in about as many minutes, 
and there was our supper, sure. Then, while the seine! 
fresh water and the pop went aboard. I «nv (hat we wer** 
on an island covering three to four square miles, with bog 
holes at intervals, and learned that it was called Great 
Tsland. Also that we were on its south side, and that 
r < p h°.ri for neighbors, two little huts some TOftvcs wytfr 
east and west, occupied by men who watch oyster beds 
and live in that solitary manner, doing their own cooking; 
and worst of all, one was a widower with two boys who 
should have been in school, 
So we started off to make some hauls, with Bob at the 
tiller singing : 
"And the moon shines brightly on the water 
Where the heroes of the Maine in silence lie.'' 
This was all that I caught of the song, for the Captain 
would order: "Ease her a little," while Bob was forced 
to stop his song to tell him to shut up, he guessed where 
YOU EAT TOO MUCH FRIED STUFF. 
they wanted to go. 1 turned to the Doctor and remarked : 
"There is one thing that is perfect about this craft." 
"What's that?" 
"The discipline. The crew has the Captain so well 
trained that when one of them gives him an order to shut 
up. he shuts pan at once, as we used to sav in the day of 
Hint locks." 
"He shuts pan. What pan?" 
"Generations before you were born, my boy, \ was 
knocking about, and in the slang of my boyhood the old 
flint lock shooters told a man to 'shut pan' when he 
worked his mouth too hard ; there was a 'pan' to shut 
over the priming — but you have got all the fun out of me 
on that that you will get; I remember the flint locks of 
Arab make, the antique guns alid armor in your study, I 
owe you one." 
We had reached the spot for seining on the shore of 
another island, for this part of Great South Bay is full of 
islands, and the Captain jumped into the water with the 
'land line, and the boat put out and paid away at least 
too fathoms of line before the first of the net went over. 
We went straight away for the same distance until the net 
was all out, when \he boat put back to shore, paying out 
line and striking the beach fully 100 fathoms, or 600ft., 
from the Captain. Then the mud hook was taken shore- 
ward, and all hands went over the side to pull against the 
THE CAPTAIN MENDS HIS NET. 
powerful Captain, who approached them, as he pulled 
until the two lines were together. The result of this haul 
was a few 4lb. weakfish, some half-dozen striped bass of 
3 to 4lbs.. a lot of snappers, sea bass, blackfish, toadfish, 
dogfish, sculpins and a few striped mullet. 
Tn the Evening by the Moonlight. 
When four hauls had been made and we had reached 
home, the. Captain asked me what fish I preferred for sup- 
per, I had decided views on the gastronomic, qualities of 
fish, but I realized the fact that these men, like the farmer, 
must send the best to market, and I did not mention 
striped bass boiled or broiled; weakfish, w-hich I never 
eat if any other fish is at hand, but which is salable; so I 
fell back on the sea bass, which is a real good fish, but 
was then small in the South Bay, and therefore only a 
"pan fish." 
"How about the mullet?" the Captain asked. 
"The mullet is good," I replied, "but it is too rich for 
some stomachs, and mine is in thai category, I find the 
mullet too rich for my blood." 
"Well now, I'm glad to hear somebody say that, for 
when I eat mullet I have dyspepsia the worst way " 
Next day, while telling the Captain that if he would stop 
frying his food and eating so much grease, Dr. Dean took 
a low-down advantage of me and snapped his camera on 
us as I told mv jolly friend that he eats too much fried 
stuff. * - 
I ha\e a chronic grievance against Dr. Dean, who, by 
the way, is young enough to lie my grandson, notwith- 
standing the fact he toots in Columbia University, as it 
is said that he is a tutor of biology there, and my plaint 
is this : He goes out on fishing and shooting trips with me, 
but keeps Ins camera so jealously guarded that I can never 
get a snap shot on him, as he does on other people. He 
does not do unto others as he would that they should do 
unto him, but goes on as if there was no hereafter. 
The Captain remarked: "I never see herrin' so sca'ce 
jn the bay as they be this year. I tell you they are the 
fish we want, they sell better 'n weakfish." 
The alewife, or river herring, comes into the bay and 
runs into the fresh streams, and even up rivers to spawn, 
and after this spring migration is over they go back to 
salt water. Of course, the bay is salt, but the fish go off 
to sea, therefore I asked: "What fish is it they call a 
herring here, Doctor?" 
"I can't tell you, possibly one of the alewives, not the 
glut herring, for that fish goes out to sea in winter, but I 
am not sure how far the branch herring. goes, are you?" 
"I am certain that it is not found in this bay in Sep- 
tember, unless possibly a stray one, and I am curious to 
know what fish 'the Captain calls a herring; of course, it 
can't be the true sea herring. Chtpca." 
The fishermen retired and we sat watching the flash 
light off southwest at' Sandy Hook, the Fire Island light 
to the southeast, and listening to the ceaseless roar of the 
surf on the outer beach. After a while 1 broke the silence 
with: "It would be a good scheme to get the Captain 
to take us outside Fire Island to fish for bluefish; I've all 
sorts of tackle, and enough to rig several biuefish lines. 
Is it a go?" 
"It is not a go. You could not get the Captain within 
five miles of Fire Island Inlet. I won't tell you why, be- 
cause I might spoil the story, but ask Bob Denton about 
it when we are all in the boat, for the Captain likes to 
hear the yarn. Have you noticed how these fishermen 
are continually guying each other, and how kindly they 
take it?" 
"Couldn't help it ; only Byron never guys anyone, but 
} 
THE CAPTAIN PULLS AGAINST THREE MEN. 
gets plenty of it. I am only bothered now to know what 
kind of a herring is caught in this bay in the fall. I'm 
going to bed to dream of herring with spines on their 
backs and eyes like Fire Island light." 
Here I may say that a few days afterward they caught 
one "herring," and my only wonder was that they did Hot 
call it a shad, for it is nearer the shad than the herring, 
and as soon as I saw the faint lines on its sides it. was 
recognized as that fish of many names, the hickorv shad 
(from its stripes), or "mattowacca," which De Kay called 
"fall herring," While on the Potomac it is the "tailor 
shad." This fish we had not thought of. 
The Doctor looked over at the moon and said: "After 
breakfast the men are going to Freeport with their fish 
and will stay over night, while we will do our own cook- 
ing. How shall we spend the day?" 
"You take that rickety old gun that I wouldn't shoot for 
an interest in the Keely motor and — " 
"Then you value the Keely cure high," 
"Motor, I said, a thing which makes wheels go around; 
as I understand the cure it stops them, but you take the 
gun and I'll wait for the tide to get up, and then fish. 
While I am waiting I'll — what does the Captain call it?" 
"Do you mean 'muck out' ?" 
"That's it, I'll muck out our room, the dining room and 
the kitchen with a broom, but what does he mean by 
'muck in,' as he said to-day?" 
"Oh, that means come to dinner." 
The Captain and the "wT-ate. 
The day and the night passed. We varied our diet with 
oysters, onions and potatoes, without frying the first 
durned thing, and the party came back next noon with 
more wood, water, ice, pop and bananas. Then we had 
a dinner of fried ham and potatoes, but I had found the 
onion sack and a couple "raw" in vinegar, cut the grease, 
somewhat, and while the Captain mended the net and 
Bob and Byron washed the dishes as Everett mucked 
out, I stretched in the sun on the bench outside, and amid 
the clatter of dishes and the roar of the surf heard this 
alternately sung and said : "So peacefully we lay within 
the harbor, where Havana's lights — say, Byron, don't put 
so much soap in the water, it makes the 'dishes sticky— 
were shining bright and gay — shut that door and keep the 
flies out, will you? — We were dreaming of our home and 
of our dear ones, when — Byron, if you'll throw away that 
pipe I'll buy you a new one." etc, 
When Bob had finished his dishes and his self-inter- 
rupted song, we sailed away for a distant fishing ground 
Aiter we had gone as far as one pipe would last, and al« 
