Jan. 13, 1900.]' 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
SB 
The holding and thereby controlling the exclusive right 
to set any nets either in the estuary or within a mile and 
a half of the river's mouth on cither side in connection 
with the lease of the river itself was regarded by me as 
an essential to the preservation of any fish in the river. 
On arriving I found that the local resident, Mr. Theriault, 
had received word from the Dominion Government that it 
would issue a license to him this year as usual, while I, 
as you know, held your department's license. By arrange- 
ment with him joint telegrams were sent both to the 
Government at Ottawa and to your department. In 
response thereto the Dominion Government telegraphed 
that Commander Wakeham would adjust the matter. He 
arrived two days later with the Revenue steamer Canadian 
and exhibited to me the license from the Dominion Gov- 
ernment to Mr. Theriault. He was also courteous enough 
to show me his instructions from tlie Dominion Govern- 
ment, which were to seize any nets set to the eastward of 
the Poiute des Monts, under any other authority than 
theirs, and also directing him to use sufficient force to 
accomplish this result. 
For the purpose of making a test case, I borrowed 
a net and set it from the shore outside of the river mouth 
a half mile to 'Jie east thereof. This net was immediately 
seized under Commander Wakeham's instructions by his 
men. A full account of the incident was reported by him, 
as he informed mc, to the Government at Ottawa, and 
by myself to your department and to Ottawa by telegram. 
In order to avoid the setting of nets to the entire de- 
struction of any chance of fishing during the season, I 
was therefore obliged to purchase immunity from Mr. 
Theriault at an agreed price of $150 for the season. _ 
Being thus deprived of the possibility of protecting the 
river, and understanding that for the present, or until 
some further , decision may be rendered in the courts, 
your department does not intend to raise any active con- 
troversy with the Dominion Government on the subject, 
T desire to notify you that I do not care to continue with 
the river. 
T desire also to suggest that I should be given credit 
on the lease of another river from your denartment to the 
extent of the $50 paid by men to the department last 
spring for the ineffective license. I remain yours very 
respectfully, 
Chas. Stewart Davison. 
The Pickerel Fishermen. 
Boston, Jan. 6. — Ice fishing for pickerel is in season, 
and the recent cold weather has frozen over every lake 
and pond in New England to a depth that renders them 
perfectly safe for the fishermen, even to drive on with 
teams. Up to New Year's, skating was good on many 
of the pickerel ponds, and this added to the sport for the 
boys. With three or four dozen lines in the holes, and a 
pair of good skates the ordinary, pickerel fisherman was 
much in touch with real sport. But the snow of Monday 
has changed all this, and the fisherman has to answer to 
the call of the tip-up flags on foot. Boston fishermen are 
going out for a day as often as business and the weather 
will permit, and they are bringing in some strings from 
Plymouth, Westfield and Winchester. C. H. Tarbox and 
Senator Bailey have put in a part of a day on Little Crane 
Pond with a couple of dozen lines. They took a fine 
string of over twenty pickerel of good size, and were 
considerably pleased with ctaching perch of 1^4 pounds. 
Little Crane Pond is small enough to be under control of 
the gentleman who owns the land around it, and as he 
uses the pond for cutting ice, one has to have a permit 
from him to fish there. His condition with Tarbox and 
Bailey were that they should remove all the chunks of ice 
they cut from the holes, so that his ice scraping would not 
be hindered. The chunks near the shore they would give 
a good kick and send them spinning over the snaooth 
ice toward the land. Tarbox kicked once too often, or 
once too hard. He went over backward, and was kept 
in the house for a couple of days. 
In Maine there is some trouble and some ill-feeling 
concerning pickerel fishing through the ice on many ot 
the lakes and ponds, especially those that have become in 
any way noted as summer resorts. At the last Legisla- 
ture in" that State the Commissioners of Fisheries and 
Game were given the power to prevent any and all fish- 
ing on any of the waters in the State. Generally they 
have waited for petitions before closing any waters. This 
has given the summer hotel and camp people a chance, 
and they have peitioned for the closing of a number ot 
lakes and ponds to all ice fishing for pickerel or anything 
else. They beUeve that even the pickerel are such an 
attraction to the summer boarder it is best not to allow 
the residents to take them through the ice in winter. The 
Commissioners have taken action and closed several lakes 
and ponds that have heretofore afforded the pickerel fish- 
ermen a good deal of sport each winter. x\ccording to 
the papers some ill-feeling has been engendered, while 
dire threats are made by the inhabitants who have been 
in the habit of fishing the ponds in winter. 
Special. 
The Devil Fish. 
Rummaging through sojne' old books in my library, I 
came across "John Howard Hinton's History and To- 
pography of the United States," at one time a noted 
English work, in two volumes, reprinted in this country 
m 1834, "with additions by the American editor, Samuel 
T. Knapp. In it I found the greatest fish story ever told, 
an account of the capture of probably the largest fish 
ever taken. The story is originally told by Dr, Samuel L. 
Mitchell in the annals of the Lyceum of Natural His- 
tory, New York, Vol I. The crew of a fishing boat 
were two weeks finding and capturing the monster and 
bringing him to shore. But let us have the story from 
the "History and Topography" itself: 
"Dr. Mitchell gives the following account of a gigantic 
fish of the ray kind, which he calls the oceanic vampire. 
It had been taken in the Atlantic; Ocean, near the en- 
trance of Delaware Bay, by the crew of a smack.. They 
heard that creatures of extraordinary form and size T?vere 
frequent in the tract situated off Capes May and Henlo- 
pen, during the warm.season; and accordingly equipped 
themselves for the purpose of catching one or rrfore of 
them, After an absence of about three weeks the adven- 
turers returned with an animal of singular figure and 
large magnitude, which they had killed after a long and 
hazardous encounter. The weight was so considerable 
after it had been towed to the shore, that three pairs of 
oxen, aided by a horse and twenty-two men, could not 
drag it to the dry land. By estimjition it was supposed 
to be between four and five tons. 
The length from the fore margin of the head to 
• the root of the tail loft. gin. 
Length of tail .- 4ft. oin. 
Length of fins projecting forward from the cor- 
ners of the mouth •- 2ft. 6in. 
17ft. 3in. 
Making the whole length from the tip of the head fin 
to the tip of the tail 17 feet and 3 inches. The breadth 
from the extremity of one pectoral fin or wing up to the 
other, measuring along the line of the belly, was 16 feet; 
when measured over the convexity of the back, 18 feet. 
On each side of the mouth there was a vertical fin 2 feet 
six inches long, 12 inches deep and 2j4 inches thick in 
the middle, whence it tapered toward the edges, which 
were fringed before with a radiated margin. The fin or 
organ so constituted could, from its flexibility, bend in 
all directions and be made in many respects to perform 
the function of a hand, so as. by twisting around, to seize 
an object and hold it fast. The wings, flaps or pectoral 
fins were of very curious organization. There was a 
scapula, humerus, ulna, carpus and an uncommon num- 
ber of phalanges, of a cartilaginous structure; all these 
joints were articulated with each other, but the articula- 
tion, like those of the human sternitm, had very little 
motion. It had more analogy to the wing of a bird than 
anything else; and yet was so different from it as to man- 
ifest a remarkable variety of mechanism, in organs in- 
tended for substantially the same use. Fish of the kind 
now under consideration may be aptly denominated sub- 
marine birds, for they really fly through the water as 
birds fly through the air. Fishes of this organization per- 
form their flights by flapping their wings after the man- 
ner of crows, hawks and eagles in their progress." 
. MacR. 
What the Fishwives Saw. 
We were usually early risers in Samoa. There was no 
particular reason for it. It was not the pursuit of health, 
wealth and wisdom guaranteed by one sage proverb to all 
such as begin the day before it has had a chance to be 
well aired. It was not even the pursuit of the early worm 
of the other proverb. If one asks "Why?" the only 
possible reply is to ask the other question, "Why not?" 
That is an impass. 
But to be suddenly summoned at 3 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, that is too much even for those who have become 
accustomed to rising at dawn. It is the hour when 
Samoans say they, die most commonly. It is the hour 
when the winds are still, when the sky is a thick violet 
vault and at its darkest before the coming dawn. It. 
is the chill hour, for even in these islands of a summer 
sea that knows no change, there is this time when it is 
chilly. The last flight of the fluttering shades of vampires 
is glooming among the trees for yet another chance to rob 
the fruit before seeking their daylight slumber in the 
dark and dripping jungle. In the village paths no per- 
son would walk at this deep hour of the night, for now is 
the still time when the cocoanut drops its nuts .and its 
leaves which a gale can scarcely tear from the tree by 
day; and a falling nut or a falling leaf might maim or 
kill. It is the hour when the little green and red parrots 
scream in their sleep and wake to chatter and scold mul- 
titudinously. It is the shiver hour of nature. 
But it is not the hour even for early risers to be 
aroused by the word that the steamer is in ahead of time 
by many hours, "The mail," that means so much to those 
who must depend on its monthly visits for all news of the 
world. The mail is too serious a thing in Samoa to be 
joked about. And it is no joke to be called to the chill 
and the savage swarms of mosquitoes and to see nothing 
but the violet sky and the Southern Cross and the flash 
of the torches on the reef where the fishwives are at work 
with net and spear. 
If Samalia had not been on the reef outside Vaiala 
engaged in torch fishing it would never have happened. 
If the tide had not been out at 2 A. M. Samalia would 
not have been on the reef torch fishing, and it would 
never have happened. 
If the moon had not quartered just when it did the tide 
would not have been out at 2. A. M., Samalia would not 
have been on the reef torch fishing, and it would never 
have happened. That's as far as there is any need of 
seeking to place the responsibility; when we've fixed the 
blame on the moon there's nothing further to say — the 
solar .system never kicks back. 
Yet there is another explanation possible — Samalia may 
have lied. To support that explanation, there are two 
most excellent arguments. The former, that she was a 
Samoan, ahd_ under all ordinary and most of the ex- 
traordinary circumstances that which a Samoans says is 
untrue, a custom of the country. The latter, that she 
was on a fishing trip and fishermen are notorious. Well, it 
might be better couched in the statement that a grain of 
salt is so necessary in connection with the things 
brought back from all fishing trips as to account for that 
peculiarity of codfish and mackerel as manifested in the 
corner grocery period of their careers. Despite the 
plausibility of this theory of the matter that Samalia 
lied because she was a Samoan, and by reason of her occu- 
pation on the reef, could not avoid telling a fish story, it 
is a false theory — the woman did tell the truth so far as 
she knew. That w.as brought, to light in the subsequent 
proceedings. 
Samalia was the next door neighbor across the village 
green of Vaiala, where all sorts of savage ceremonials 
were forever taking place with no concern that the United 
States had taken its official residence on a large slice of 
that place of public meeting. From ray veranda I could 
look through and through the thatched house of this 
neighbor and witness the whole story of savage house- 
keeping. In some mysterious fashion, for I never could 
fathom the . system of Samoan relationships in which the 
nurnber of mothers of any given infant varies, according 
to circumstances, at any rate Samaji^ w;a3 apparently step- 
grandmotber-in-law to the only bashful Samoan I ever 
knew, a very rolypoly little girl named Apikali, who was 
far more amusing than the dolls of my younger years. 
Solely because of this relationship, I could he induced 
at odd times to relax the severity of the rule that my 
Vaiala neighbors were not to regard my tanks as a 
reservoir system for their comfort. But once in a while 
the frightened appeals of Apikali with a burden of empty 
cocoanut shells were permitted to outweigh the i-ule, and 
she was permitted to fill the shells from one of the tanks. 
For that reason Samalia was inclined to regard me as a 
good neighbor. Samalia was also the mother of Nuku- 
fetau, and both of them said so. But Nukufetau had 
another mother up at the other village green, and a 
blear-eyed old father, who had once been Lord Keeper 
of the Great Seal of this ridiculous kingdom. Nukufetau 
did my washing. At least she did until I discovered that 
she had been systematically securing a double allowance of 
soap, bluing and starch in order that she might supply 
SamaUa with these expensive articles. And Samalia was 
related to Nukufetau's husband, Samuela, who was the 
captain of the official boat 'until it became necessary to 
reduce him. Altogether, Samalia was quite generally 
connected with the rapacious group which had us in their 
keeping, and she was ready to look after our interests up 
to the limit that connected them with the interests of her 
relatives. That will supply a sufficiently exigent motive to 
send Samalia hurrying back from the reef in the dead 
of night to wake us up with the information that the mail 
steamer had rounded the point and had dropped anchor 
in Apia harbor. Not being in the habit of receiving many 
letters and papers from over seas, Samalia would have 
watched a fleet of mail steamers go by uncongerned, but 
Samuela could earn half a dollar by rowing us out to 
the steamer, and Samalia was not the woman to see all 
that good money lost out of the family. 
So she woke Samuela. And Samuela got his crew 
together and woke us by the scraping and grating of 
moving the boat on its roller ways under the house, where 
it was stored between times of use. It shook the house 
like a young earthquake, and made a most terrifying 
racket with which to wake the sleepers. Then came 
Samuela in explanation that Samalia had been fishing on 
the reef and had seen the steamer pass, and had hurried 
back to notify him, and then had hurried back to the reef. 
In a general way he would mention that she had prob- 
ably had to forego the very best of the fishing in order 
to render us a service, and that the least regard for our 
own high station should prompt us to reward the fishwife 
with one "pisupo," which is not literally pea soup, but 
the generic name for a tin, of any kind of meat. If it 
should be our pleasure to so reward the service he -would 
suggest that it might be just as well to do so now in order 
that Samalia might find the "pisupo" waiting for her when 
she came home from the fishing wet and hungry. If we 
cared to place the "pisupo" in his hands for delivery, he 
would see that it was delivered without delay or mistake, 
a statement which a pretty familiar acquaintance with 
certain moral deficiencies of Samuela entitled us to doubt. 
Instead of yielding up the tin of beef, I assured Samuela 
that he was lying, and that the steamer had not come 
in; that it was easy to see through his little game — in 
fact, that he thought by getting the boat out at night and 
then later in the day when the steamer really did come 
he, could charge double. Samuela denied the charge of 
untruth and scheming, though it was plain that he was 
grateful for the suggestion, and was storing it away for 
use at some future time. He vowed that the steamer had 
come in because Samalia had told him so in great devo- 
tion to our interests, and it must be true. Her story 
had been that while she was fishing she suddenly saw the 
lights of the steamer just abreast of her and no more 
than two miles away; that while she was watching the 
wave of the vessel's wake had washed over that part of the 
reef where she was fishing; that she watched it around 
the point and had then heard distinctly the rattle of the 
chain cable. 
It seemed circumstantial enough as a story, and it would 
have taken us in if we were not well habituated to the 
specious nature of Smaoan stories in general. In the up- 
shot, Samuela was ordered to hasten down to Matautu 
Point, which was the nearest spot from which the harbor 
was to be seen, and to satisfy his own eyes that the mail 
steamer was already in. 
Samuela hesitated, and was clearly disinclined, and the 
shiver which could be seen under his light cotton raiment 
was not entirely due to the chill of the morning. It was 
not the distance which made him object, for the tip of 
Matautu Point was less than half a mile away. The real 
trouble was that in the roadway near the point there was 
a very dangerous spot to travel; it was the abode of a 
most malicious "aitu," or devil, and this dead hour of 
the early morning was the worst hour of the day in which 
to be brought face to face with any of these demons. 
Not on this score did Samuela receive any considera- 
tion; he was told that he must go to the point and see if 
the steamer were really in the port, and that he might 
just as well do it in a hurry. There could be no doubt as 
to Samuela's hurrying; nothing could cause him to delay 
any longer in passing the haunted spot than the time con- 
sumed in throwing at it the customary small pebble which 
was supposed to be a proper offering to the resident 
demon. 
On his return Samuela was sufficiently sheepish. He 
was forced to confess that a mistake had been made 
somewhere. He had looked the harbor all over, and the 
steamer was not there ; the only lights to be seen marked 
the anchorage of the German corvette and the Danish 
slaver under charter to the German firm, and therefore 
entitled to lie at ease in close proximity to the war 
vessel. But there was no sign of the passen.ger steamer 
which was due later in the day to carry the mails to 
San Francisco. It almost began to seem that Samalia had 
lied. The other boys of the crew who had been put to the 
needless trouble of lugging out a 22-foot hokt and of 
attiring themselves in their red, white and blue uni- 
forms, were not chary of the expression of their own 
personal opinions. And Samalia had gone out to the reef 
again, and was merged in the crowd of unseen bearers 
of quite picturesquely visible torches a mile out at sea. 
Samuela reiterated his former story and tried to make it 
nlain that all the responsibility rested on the woman who 
had gone a-fishing and not on himself. 
It was inconvenient to be routed out so early, but that 
might be forgiven under the stress of .good intentions. A t 
the same time these savage islanders are much like 
