230 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April i, 1899, 
The Forest akd Stream is the recognized medium of entertai.i- 
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/ 
To the Occasional Angler. 
If the times arc unpropitious and you find your "catcli" of fishes, 
As the sun is sinking westward, hasn't panned out quite the 
thing; 
There's a method, "on the quiet" — ah! how many experts try it! 
That may, despite your failure, send you home with quite a 
"string." 
There are natives on the lookout for the man with pocket-I)ook 
out, 
On a fun-and-fishing frolic, when the fates don't use hiin well; 
And he feels his reputation on a slippery, slim foundation — 
They've a remedy convenient — they have always fish to sell. 
Do you ask me how they get them? Why, they ,snare them and 
they net them. 
With the aid of vile "contraptions," which the game laws quite 
condemn ; 
What they're after is your money; that's their manna, milk and 
honey. 
And the "modus operandi" matters not a jot to them. 
If, by look of by suggestion, you their plans should seem to 
question, 
You are simply wasting time, my friend; the truth they cannot 
speak. 
Ananias isn't "in it," they can tell more lies per minute 
Than that star prevaricator could engender in a week. 
Though of aspect dull and drowsy, though of locks unkempt and 
frowzy. 
Though of soiled and freckled cuticle, and costume rude and 
strange; 
In their frowziness and freckles, they're as keen in quest of 
shekels, 
As the diamond-decked deceivers that vociferate "on 'change." 
In their nasal, jangling jargon, they're the boys to drive a 
bargain. 
And their weird and woful bearing knocks expostulation dumb: 
As they swear in gibbering gammon, they're the prey of pinching 
famine, 
Though their beards and breaths betoken much tobacco juice 
and rum. 
Well, ignoring their, devices, be prepared to pay their prices; 
For, with india-rubber consciences, they'll "salt" von every 
time; 
Promptly poar them forth your treasure (you can curse them at 
your leisure), 
At the rate of, say, a dollar for a fish that's worth a dime. 
Then, triumphant, home returning, you will gratify the yearning, 
Of admiring friends and family, and thrilling tales you'll tell ; 
Of the deep pools where you sought them, how they "struck" and 
how you "fought" them, 
While you picturesquely pose, a perfect Isaac Walton swell. 
So, wheti Cometh your vacation, and, as means of recreation, 
You proceed to plot and plan a piscatorial "jamboree" ; 
Bear in mind no bait nor tackle, fluttering fly, nor flulTy hackle. 
Will be half as efficacious as the greenback marked with V. 
Ed. Leggo. 
Hartsdale, N. Y. 
In the Pound-Net. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
If a "fish hog" is one who catches more than he can 
use, then I am right in his class since the pound-net was 
set in the extensive waters within the jurisdiction of For- 
est AND Stream, for the net, now only a few weeks old. 
is capturing more than I can market each week, and 
there is a fear that the Board of Health may come dowti 
on the catch if it is held too long. That's only what Mr,-;. 
Partington would call "a paragorical way of putting it," 
The only thing that really disturbs the relations between 
the supply and demand is the blue pencil of the editor. He 
is analogous to, if not homologous with, the Board of 
Health, which often orders tons of fish, meat, game, 
poultry and vegetable thrown off the docks of New York 
or to be taken to Barren Island to be cremated and is to 
be honored and respected h' u^v.lingly. He is the auto- 
HUNTING MOOSE WITH A CAMERA. 
By S. B. Chittendeh, Jr. 
crat, not of the "Breakfast Table," but of that greater 
lay-out, the Forest and Stream, and, as he sits in the 
clock tower, he carefully scrutinizes all things. Hence, 
he is the man to be dreaded. The things which swim or 
drift into the pound-net have to pass his olfactories be- 
fore the pubhc are allowed to sample them. That's an 
awful state of aflairs, but "what are you going to do 
about it?" as an old-time politician asked. 
Fresh-Water Turtles. 
Mr. 'Russel Mott, in Forest and Stream of March 
18, asks some questions under this head. It is a poor 
Vtay to get anything from a man by abusing him, and, 
notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Mott has branded me 
as "omniscient," whatever that may be, I will ignore the 
aspersion and go on to talk about such turtles as have 
met me in the ponds or in soups or steaks. 
If Mr. Mott; I refrain from calling him hard names, 
will turn over his files of Forest and Stream and read 
my "turtle talk" in the sketches of "In the Louisiana 
Lowlands," Sept. 24, and Oct. i, 1898, he will get some 
descriptions of Southern turtles and also learn how to 
bake a soft-shelled turtle, the best of all the fresh-water 
species. 
The small pond turtles found north of New Jersey are 
edible, but too small to bother with, for it is more of a 
job to disjoint one turtle for soup or stew than to do 
the same thing for a score of chickens, for the turtle is 
put together to stay there. In Virginia and the South 
there are the "sliders," both red and yellow bellied, so 
called because they slide off the logs when danger comes. 
They will measure 10 to I2in. on the under shell and 
are worth dressing. They are shipped to Baltimore, 
Philadelphia and New York in great numbers to help out 
their aristocratic relative, the diamond-backed terrapin 
of the salt marshes in his, or her, attempt to provide 
terrapin stew for epicurean palates at $1 per taste, for the 
rapidly disappearing diamond-back now costs from $60 
to $100 per dozen for "counts," i. e., females which meas- 
ure 6in. on the under shell. As the extreme size is Sin., 
and males seldom reach five, is it any wonder that the 
sliders desire to get into such company and be served 
to guests in evening dress who know that_ choice old 
Madeira is the only admissible beverage with terrapin 
stew? 
I have sei'cral recipes for terrapin stew (for this 
princely reptile is never in the soup) two of them given 
me by the late Sam Ward, America's most famous bon 
vivant, but that's another story. 
After the soft-shells, which are unknown east of the 
Great Lakes, come the sliders, but none have the gela- 
tinous flesh of the terrapin as the diamond-back is called. 
Then the snapper comes next, and no others except the 
big land gopher of the pine lands of the South are worth 
notice as food. The Northern land tortoises are poor 
and stringy. 
A snapping turtle weighing above TSlbs. should be 
skinned, because its skin may retain a trifle of the musky 
odor which is exhaled from the animal in quantities pro- 
portioned to its size. If under that weight it may be 
scalded and the outer cuticle rubbed off; of course hav- 
ing been beheaded long before. Then turn the turtle 
on its back, separate the under shell from the upper at 
the joint and cut out the under shell or plastron. Then 
remove the department of the interior, i?aving_ the Hver, 
with care in excising the .gall, and then you will see that 
neck, legs and tail are about that is left, and you 
learn much when you try to separate these from the 
upper shell, or carapace. Opening a sardine can with a 
penknife is nothing to it, even if you have a butcher- 
knife and a hammer. After you have the neck, legs 
and tail unjointed, there is still left a bit which should, 
not be thrown away. 
A turtle is curious in its anatoiny; part of its skeleton 
is inside and part outside. It does not shed its shell, 
like a crustacean, but the shell grows in plates, with 
sutures like those of the human skull. Each rib is at- 
tached to a plate of the carapace and to the vertebra: 
below. Between the ribs and the upper shell lies the ten- 
derloin, and to get it each rib, which is the only soft 
thing in the skeleton, must be 'cut and the connecting 
membrane skinned out. 
With wholesome meat of any kind some sort of frv, 
roast, broil, soup or stew can be made, but the subject 
is too large to even touch upon in a pound-net where so 
many things are found. 
Mr. Mott asks: "Has the fresh-water turtle any ene- 
mies, the human race excepted?" The question would 
imply that there was only one species and does not per- 
mit a categorical answer. His reference to taking small 
turtles from black bass and frogs apply only to infantile 
specimens whose shells are very soft and are easily di- 
gested by fish. After a snapping turtle gets to be Sin. 
long, man, or one of its own kind, seems to be the only 
thing that can kill it; possibly the same may be said of 
the savage soft-shell species. But the raccoon catches 
and eats the smaller pond turtles, and digs them out of 
their shells. I have never seen a coon do it, but have 
found where it has been done, with coon tracks as very 
strong circumstantial evidence. Since writing this I 
have been asked to go into the turtle question in extenso, 
giving all American species, marine and other, with 
recipes for their appearance on the table. Perhaps it 
may be done. ' I \\ 
Making Long Casts. 
A correspondent asksr "What is the weight a trout rod 
should be to get the longest distance casting in trout 
fishing— caster 5ft. gin. and 160 lbs.? My lo^ft. lo^oz. 
for bass is too heavy for trouting. I have 6oz., 70Z. and 
80Z. rods, but they are too willowy to handle a long line 
in bad conditions." 
I have a lo^^oz. split bamboo that is lO^Att. long, and 
it has cast 90ft. in other hands. The records in Central 
Park and other places show that 50Z. rods have cast 
further. Therefore, it is not the weight of the rod nor 
its length that makes it lay out a line so far. It is en- 
tirely in the action of the rod with the know-how behind 
it. "No slim-jim, limber-go-shiftless kind of a rod could 
get there, no matter who was behind it; there must be 
backbone that springs to it when trained muscles call 
for a supreme ef¥ort, or the records will not be ap- 
proached. 
Then, the line must fit the rod and be a heavy one; 
heavy in the middle, for you can't throw a nickel as far 
as you can cast a silver dollar; there must be weight itp 
to a limit, to anything we can throw. Personally I have 
no use for light lines, because I use a stifif rod. which 
will not cast them. I have several rods, one as light as 
60Z.. but my loYi rod is the only one I use for trout, 
bass or anything; T would like to tackle a 20lb. salmon 
on it. ^ I T 1 
T do not class the 40Z. rods as toys, because i have 
seen what work they can do in the hands of P. Cooper 
Hewitt and other amateurs; my preference being merely 
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