March to, iqgo.] 
In the Pound-Net. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
(From a manuscript lelt by Mr. Mather and found in his desk 
after his death.) 
No matter how anglers may view pound-nets in gen- 
eral, they seem to be necessary in some waters for supply- 
ing food. Tliey catch good fish and others not so good, 
as well as the flotsam cf the coasts. My net does nuich 
the same, and following the practice of the cominercial 
fishermen, the good, according to my standard, is sent to 
Forest and Stream and the rest is disposed of in a man- 
ner governed by the inclosure of postage. 
Coacetaiag Lychoobltes. 
There is a club in London which is named the Lychno- 
bites Angling Club, and the name struck me as familiarly 
strange, or strangely familiar, and on looking it up I 
found that I had been a practical lychnobite for years and 
never knew it, just as a person may have some physical 
trouble which is as clear as mud to him when the doctor 
gives it a seven-syllable Greek name. It is not painful to 
be a lychnobite, as at first thought it might seem to be 
from the formidable name. On the contrary, the con- 
firmed lychnobite is usually free from the dreaded in- 
somnia. After my lexicon had told me that the long 
name w-as merely a term for him who works o' nights 
there loomed up a possibility of knocking a little fun out 
of this club. Therefore I wrote to the London Fishing 
Gazette, for their issue of y\pril 8, 1899, a screed, from 
which the following is extracted: 
"The name of the clitb attracted me long ago, and I 
wondered if they worked in the dark of the moon in pri- 
vate ponds, or only worked o' nights in the club room. 
* * * Byron was a lychnobite, and wrote: 
'Most glorious night! 
Thou wert not sent for slumber!' " 
Then I warned these men who had ransacked the an- 
cient Greek for a name for their club against the use of 
"Pelusian wine, which in England is heavier than the 
German article, and hath a somnolent spirit in it which is 
a foe to lychnobite; rather let partake, in moderation, of 
something more warm and cheering, not the doleful 
lachryma christi from Vesuvius, nor the liebfrauenmilch 
from the Rhine, but rather the usquebaugh from the 
hills which unfolds the rugae of the Ijrain and makes it 
active and fit for (k) nightly labor." 
Then I asked if they were night fishers, as well as what 
fat Jack called "minions of the moon," and recommended 
to their consideration a most beautiful word picture of 
night fishing, written many years ago by a friend of mine 
named William Shakes Beer, from whom I quote from 
memory : 
"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! 
TIere will we sit and get our tackle out, 
While heavy-throated frogs do stun our ears 
With communistic croakings like the anarchist. 
Come, sit thee down, and let the songs of "skeeters 
Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night 
Become the touche.s of sweet harmony. 
Sit, Jess, my boy. Look how the surface of the pond 
Is thick inlaid with frog-spittle of bright greiu ; 
There's ague in it; don't cast there. 
Because perchance you'll only hook 'blind eels,' 
As urchins term the pond weed, or a snag. 
Give me another grub; now cast j'onder 
Among the lilypads, and I bet you seven dollars 
You'll hook a gudgeon before your line gets down. 
Look, Jess, my boy! Hhw those tadpoles swim! 
There's not the smallest pollywog which thou behoideist 
But in his motion like an angel sings; 
Still 'quiring to the youtig-eyed sticklebacks : 
Such harmony is in the wide-mouthed bullhead, 
But while this muddy pickerel weed 
Doth close it in we cannot hear it." 
This, together with my classical allusion to beer as 
"Pelusian wine,"' took this night-working club in such a 
shape that they "could do no less than honor themselves 
by making me an honorary member, and in turn 1 honor 
them for their discernment; but at present writing the old 
hat seems to fit as well as it did years ago, and I wonder 
at it. 
The Pufifyhig Eel. 
The eel seems to be forging to the front as an unsolved 
problem, not only as an animal whose breeding habits are 
not understood, but as to its general utility. While I love 
the eel in a stew or a fry when an impaired digestion will 
permit of this form of dissipation, I think of it, from a fish- 
cultural point, as an animal which, for the interest of 
man, should be exterminated. If I try to look at the 
question from the eel's point of view, it seenjs as if man 
should be abolished. After giving the matter grave con- 
sideration for over two minutes, I am unable to decide 
which would be the best for all the animal life on this 
planet — the extennination of the eel or man. We all 
know that it would benefit the forests and much other 
vegetable life if man was eliminated, and on the whole I 
think that we had better resign the control of this little 
hit of the great universe to the forms of life which do not 
devastate it as we do; but not till after I go. 
All this preamble was caused by a letter which inGlosed 
a slip copied from the Brilish Medical Journal, and ask- 
ing for an opinion on it. The slip is headed. "Eels as 
Water Purifiers." and tells iis that: 
"Professor Sebrero, of Turin, has recently suggested 
that eels should be used as purifiers of water. All that 
one has to do is to put two or three eels, not very big, 
but lively, into the domestic cistern. The reptiles devour 
with marvelous appetite everything which the water may 
chance to contain in the way of animalcules, inftisoria, 
bird droppings from the roof, vegetable matter of any 
kind; nothing comes amiss to them. When the eels have 
fulfilled their mission, they can be eaten a la tartare, or 
they can be kept for further use as purifiers of the water 
supply. Such a method of fattening eels for the family 
table maj' not connnend itself to the average British stom- 
ach, though these reptiles eat worse things in tlieir ordi- 
nary haunts than they are likely to find in a cistern, even 
vv'ithin the area of distribution of -a London company. 
But as ^vater purifiers a useful snhere of action might be 
found for them in resei-\'oirs as Avell as in cisterns." 
- Will the eel question ever cease bobbing up, or will men 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
never cease from bobbing for eels? The owner of the 
pound-net is of the opinion that if Professor Sebrero 
wrote of the eel as a "reptile" he needs further schooling, 
or if some newspaper writer misreported the Professor's 
remark upon a fish, then the aforesaid writer should 
write no more about fishes unless he reads up a bit. 
Let us see what the omniverous eel is alleged to eat 
it) the paragraph quoted: Animalcules of the larger kind 
it may perhaps .see; infusoria lo be found by the eel will 
riced a microscope to enable the devourer to locate them; 
"bird dropijings from the roof" arc usually dissolved be- 
fore reaching the cistern, and if not entirely dissolved 
would not be eaten by an eel. Bless me! Mow much in- 
formation we get that isn't true! 
Now, here are two facts that are true; not a strange 
thing, to be sure, but still, as newspaper "facts" go, they 
may be branded as real, trtie, s'help-me facts: 
Fact No. 1 is that an eel or two may be of use in an 
open-top cistern where mosquitoes may lay eggs, al- 
though I have never experimented with this fish for that 
purpose, but, in boyhood's angling days, of pleasant mem- 
ovy, I recall across an intervening half century, a motherly 
request to bring home three or four live "bullheads," as 
we called one species of catfish, to put into the cistern to 
cat tip the wrigglers, for, said she. "if you don't do it 
soon all those wrigglers in the cistern will turn into mos- 
quitoes and torment us." That the stocking of the cistern 
with bullheads was a labor I don't doubt, nor do I doubt 
that the fish ate the "wrigglers," for they could see them, 
and eels might do the same. But infusoria? No. If the 
larva and pupa of the mosquito are "animalctite, yes; 
but that is a new classification to me, for they are not the 
most minute forms of life, and I would as soon think of 
calling the '"dobson" or helgramite larva one of the ani- 
malculas as the very visible embryo of the mosquito. 
Fact No. 2 — The eel is a fairly clean feeder; not fas- 
tidious, perhaps, but more so than the lobsters and crabs 
and equally as particular as our poultry. In boyhood 
days I have worked set "lines" half the night for eels on 
the upper Hudson, and on warm nights we would run them 
over every half hour ; and if we did not remove every soft 
shiner or other spoiled fish we got no eels. These lines 
went from bank to bank and had hooks on snoods at every 
4 feet, and it required bushels of iced bait and soine labor 
to run them over. 
In bobbing for eels a stale bob was of no use, and we 
kept fresh ones -buried in earth to use after the warm 
river water had spoiled the first ones. All those stories 
connecting eels and dead horses, are only partly true. 
They will eat the horse or any other meat when it is 
fresh. 
Muscallunge Experiences. 
Ovid, N. Y., Feb. 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: Hav- 
ing had several years' experience with black bass and 
trout, I am prepared to say that the muscallunge of the 
St. Lawrence system leads them in fighting qualities. My 
first made me believe it and the last did not change my 
opinion. 
The story of the capture of that first may interest your 
readers. In 1898 it was my good fortune to live in 
Mooers. N. Y.. and to be shown how to shoot hares by a 
veteran in that sport. Dr. W. U. Taylor, who, by the way, 
breeds the best strain of beagles in northern New York. 
In our trips we often passed an island in the Chazy River 
at the head of which the Doctor told me large fish were 
frequently caught. 
One afternoon in June I took my splil bamboo and a 
little pail, caught a few minnows at the dam and went 
down to the island to reconnoiter. Following the right 
bank I found the island, just below a long rift. On one 
side of the island the river is broad and shallow, on the 
ether narrow and deep, and shaded by trees standing on a 
steep clay bank. This natural canal looked decidedly 
"fishy." As I pondered where the fish ought lo be, a splash 
and big circles just above me on the opposite side under 
a fringe of willows solved the problem. Workmg along 
the bank, I came suddenly to an old boat tied in the 
angle made by an old log jutting out a rod into the pool, 
just across from those momentous ripples. From the 
stern of the boat I finally landed a minnow under the wil- 
low bush. The fish was there. He instantly seized the 
minnow and ran back into the deep pool below the boat. 
After a few minutes I worked him up past the boat into 
shallow water, and then, at sight of his 3-toot length, I 
became nervous. How could I keep him clear from those 
projecting limbs of the log. I had a fine gaff at home. 
Risking everything as he made a circle near me, I caught 
the line and tried to lift him into the boat. It was not to 
be. He fell between the log and the boat and I have not 
seen him since. 
I had had enough. Home I went, calling jnyself names 
unmentionable. 
The next day I went again. The minnow was taken 
three times, but apparently only held in the teeth. I waited 
long enough each time for "the bait to be gorged, but 
when I struck the minnow would come back severely 
torn. 
The third afternoon found me there again. Wading 
across the rift I took a silvery-sided shiner 6 inches long 
and put it on a small sneck hook. This time I cast into 
the pool below the boat. The minnow was seized and 
the line ran out some yards. While waiting a moment 
before striking I adjusted myself on the slippery bank, 
put the gaff in reach — I had it this time— and drew a 
breath. The instant he felt the hook the largest fish I had 
ever struck leaped 4 feet into the air. Then I began to 
live. When I tried lo reel he ran away, taking out 
all the line and forcing me to run. too. to save the rig. 
Then he came back and jumped twice more, opening his 
big mouth at me. By giving him. the butt freely I grad- 
ually brought him near. On each side were overhanging 
scrub willow.;. He jumped twice straight up into them, 
with malice aforethought, but lucknly dropped clear. When 
he saw the gaff his life was renewed to the extent of sev- 
eral short, fierce rushes. He did this the second time and 
ihen tried to foul the line on some short sticks near the 
bank at mv feet. As the gaff' vs'ent liome he gave up, com- 
pletely exhausted. Then the savage in me gave several 
Ions veils. Who said "Blanked fool" to me? 
This muscallunge was 33 inches long. 15 inches in cir- 
cumference and weighed it pounds. My respect for his 
great fight was increased when the hook was found in the 
mouth of his stomach, close to his heart. My rod has 
been askew ever since, but is none the less valuable on 
that account. Bent. C. Birge, 
The Stony Island Club. 
Mr. G. Fred Gregory, of Syracuse, sends us a note 
of the new Stony Island Club. 
The waters of Stony Island, at the foot of Lake On- 
tario, near where that lake gathers into the St. Lawrence 
River, have long been famous for their bass fishing. To 
those who know the grounds and the right methods of 
angling, the shoals surrounding Stony and the near-by 
Calf, Little and Big Galloo islands will always furnish 
abundant sport. For many years past parties fromi 
Oswego, Utica, Watertown, Rochester, Auburn, Buffalo., 
Elmira, and notably from Syracuse, have fished these 
waters, and some of the records made have been little; 
short of incredible. The great drawback attending the 
sport hitherto has been the lack of suitable accommoda- 
tions for its followers ; and it is to remedy, in part, at 
least, this deficiency, that the Stony Island Cltib has 
been formed. 
Stony Island is just about four miles long. Its lower 
end is about ten miles from Sacket's Harbor and seven 
miles from Henderson Harbor. Stony is distinguished 
from its sister islands by the fact that it is practically 
cut in two lengthwise by an inside pond, perfecti}- land- 
locked and with high wooded banks, some two and one- 
half miles long, and separated at each end from the 
main lake by a bar merely. This pond is full of pickerel, 
perch and Oswego bass, for those who care for that kind 
of fishing. Outside, on the shoals stretching around the 
various islands, in the clear waters of Ontario, the Mack 
bass reigns supreme; though in some of the bays, and 
even on the outer edge of the shoals, occasionally percit 
of surprising size and quality are found. But the one 
fish experienced anglers seek for here is Micropferm 
dolomieu, the only black bass, of whom a local bard has 
sung: 
"Then here's to the bass. America's bass, 
May his black sides ne'er be whiter; 
He's our own good fish, and he lives and dies 
Like a true-born Yankee fighter!" 
The club has been incorporated under the name of the 
Stony Island Club, with a capital of $6,000, representeci 
by thirty shares of $200 each. Ten of these shares will he 
issued in payment for the property and the remaining 
twenty will be sold at par, one share to one mtinber. 
With the funds thus realized a modest but substantia! and 
roomy club house will be erected after the design shown 
within. 
The officers of the club are: President. G. Fred 
Gregory. Syracuse; Vice-President.' Henry O'Neil, Svra- 
cuse; Secretary-Treasurer, Leroy B. Williams. Syra^ 
cuse. 
In disposing of the stock effort will be made to secnrv 
high class, congenial membership of good, true men an l 
sportsmen, whose assembling at this charming spot \\y > 
or three times a year will be a mutual pleasure and ben- 
fit. The promotion of a money-making enterprise is the 
thought furthest from the minds of the organizers. 
San Francisco Fly-Casting Club. 
Medal contests, series 1900, contest No. 1, held a* 
Stow Lake Feb. 17 and 18. Wind, westerly; wcrjthcr. 
foggy — cold. 
First Day. 
Event 
Event 
No. 1, 
No. ?, 
Distance, 
j\ ecu racy, 
Event No, 
8, 
Feet. 
Per cent. ' 
' Acc. % 
Del. % 
Net % 
Battu 
83 
92.8 
71.8 
82.2 
70.4 
75.8 
60 
67.10 
Brotherton. 
. 104 
Edwards . . 
.. .S3 
91 
88.8 
74.2 
111 
89.4 
90.4 
76.8 
83.6 
Mansfield . 
95.8 
92 
76.8 
84.4 
'99 
93.4 
86.8 
74.2 
S0.5 
Keed 
.. 80 
91.4 
93.8 
68.4 
81 
V ogelsang. 
. . 90 
95 
93,4 
89.4 
73.4 
81.4 
Second Day. 
Brotherton. 
.. 105 
90.4 
88.8 
70 
79.4 
80.4 
79 
62.6 
70.9 
Daverkosen 
.. 105.6 
89 
m.i 
70.10 
■ '78.7 
.. 113 
91.8 
79.2 
86.7 
.. 75 
83 
ss 
57.6 
.72.9 
Mansfield . 
91 
92 
75.10 
83.11 
"84 
Stratton . . 
.. 85 
74.8 
S4.8 
.57.6 
71.1 
. , 79 
81.8 
87.4 
71.8 
79.6 
Fractions are twelfths. 
Judges, Brotherton. Golcher, rurner ; referee. Mau'- 
field. Officers elected for 1900 : President, Walter D. 
Mansfield; Vice-President, F. H. Reed; Treasurer. H. F. 
Muller : Secretarj', Horace -Smyth: Executive Comm'l- 
tee, Col. Geo. C. Edwards, John P. Babcock, C. G. Young. 
Jas. S. Turner, Edw. Everett; Captain.s, A. E. Lovett ami 
T. W. Brotherton. 
San Francisco Fishing. 
San Francisco, Feb. 6. — I have two boys, ten and seven 
years old; we sail a boat, fish and hunt, according tj 
Forest and Stream rules. My older boy caught an iiK 
pound shark a few weeks ago from a boat. Four of m .' 
neighbors caught 254 tomcod last Sunday in San F^ran- 
cisco Baj'. About fifteen years ago the tomcod Avere very 
plentiful in the bay, but they tlisappeared, and no on .• 
knew why. In the past year they have been gradually 
coming back. We also have had the striped bass in the 
bay for about a year or two. which is a new fish for these 
waters. Salt-water eels have also become quite plent-ful. 
Some day I w-ill tell you how I got the first fo.x that I 
did not get. V. L. 
Balled Eels. 
SpEAKiNt; of eels "balling up," as has been several T tnes 
mentioned in Forest and Stream of late, what ' li.-ill he 
said of the same trait in Donahes of sundry varieties 
which do the same thing? Here is an additional resem- 
blance between the two critters. 
The first chorus of peep frogs was heard on Valentine's 
Day on the edge of Fayetteville, N. C. C. H. 
