Feb. 15, 1902.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
129 
every modern convenience, including a telephone 
to the outside world. The Boston fishermen are pre- 
sumed not to fish. They have employed natives of the 
State to have hait ready and holes cut. They will "assist 
the natives about putting in the hooks." They have taken 
down c ome of the best tackle, to "loan to the natives." 
Tlrs done, they pledge themselves, that though not fish- 
ing, they will not see a native lose a good fish ; will take 
hold and assist him. There is no law against assisting 
a native of Maine. The Boston fishermen also have 
pledged themselves that they will not stand and see a 
native pulled down through the ice by a big fish; they 
will come to his rescue. They have provided themselves 
with necessary tackle for such emergencies. They have 
taken along one or two shark hooks, of about three-quar- 
ter-inch wire, strongly fixed with iron chain links. These 
hooks will be liberally baited with dried herring, and if 
they see a native in danger from landing a large trout or 
togue. the big hooks will quickly be brought into use. 
Thompson Pond, near Poland Springs, Me., is a favor- 
ite resort for winter fishing. This year a number of 
parties have been fishing there, including several Boston 
fishermen. Togue fishing requires that the hook shall 
be kept constantly in motion, about -three feet from the 
bottom, and ingenious Maine guides and residents near the 
ponds have constructed little houses that they set up over 
the holes. Kerosene stoves are provided, and seats, and 
the fisherman can sit and bob his line in comfort. These 
little houses are let for hire. They are in use at Sebago 
Lake, and also much used by the smelt fishermen. Lake. 
George, near Skowhegan, Me., is also another favorite 
resort for the ice fishermen. Hundreds of ponds in that 
State are open to winter fishing, after Feb. t. to resi- 
dents only, while non-residents fish them without molesta- 
tion. 
The New Hampshire Fish and Game Commissioners 
gave a hearing at Concord, Feb. 4. to petitioners, both pro 
and con. in regard to ice fishing. The continued close 
time on many of the lakes and ponds in that State expires 
Feb. 24. The summer hotel people want the close time 
continued, claiming that open'ng the lakes and ponds to 
ice fishing will ruin the fishing in a very short time, as it 
did years ago, before protectirn and propagation brought 
about an era of better fishing. On the other hand, the 
residents about tbc-e waters claim that they ought to 
have the right to fish waters that they are taxed to pro- 
tect ; a rig'-t to fish at a t'me of the year when they can 
attend to ; t. The interest on both sides is great, and 
the petition- numTous and volumincu-. At the hearing 
almost c\;ry fecti-n of the State was represented. The 
Comm'^imers find that it will take some time to adjust 
so man;, requests. One petition asks for the opening 
of Newfornd Lake to ice fish ng. The petition sets forth 
that this lake was closed last winter by the Legislature 
without notice to the people of Bristol county. Petitions 
also a?k for the closing of Suncook and Pleasant ponds, in 
Northword. the ponds in Hillsboro and a section of the 
Winnipi aukee River at Garden Grove, in Belmont. 
The Ma ne Fish and Game Commisioners have just sent 
100.000 trout eggs frcm the Lake Auburn hatchery to the 
new hatcherj r at Moosehead Lake. As soon as possible 
200000 more trout eggs will be taken to the hatcheries 
there from Sourdnahunk Lake, where they were obtained, 
and where they have been kept in a temporary hatchery. 
In addition to the above 300,000 trout eggs, 300,000 salmon 
eggs will be sent to the Moosehead hatchery from Lake 
Auburn and Sebago. All these eggs will be hatched and 
devoted to restocking Moosehead. 
An Augusta, Me., dispatch says that the Hon. Henry 
O. Stanley says he thinks that the fish and game interests 
should be separated. Special. 
With Game Sea Fish in Turkey. 
My old fisherman Yanni sent me hasty word that, after 
baiting a rock for twenty days, he was beginning to catch 
large merdjian. and that if I cared to have a night out 
with him I must come at once while the moon was still 
up. It is not very often that an amateur has the chance 
of wetting a line on a baited rock without going to the 
trouble and expense of baiting and watching it himself, 
as professionals are exceedingly jealous, and not without 
reason, of anybody else reaping the harvests for which 
they have laboriously sown. It is not a mere question of 
the value of the fish, but they like to catch them then - 
selves, and are averse to showing their grounds. A 
knowledge of the various submarine rocks and their 
peculiarities is a tangible possession, handed on from 
father to son as a capital or stock in trade, and it is by 
no means easy to persuade any of the few line fishermen 
to disclose the nishans, or marks, by which he finds his 
rocks, even to a customer. These nishans are conspicu- 
ous, or sometimes insignificant, objects on the shores 
on different sides, which must be brought into line, and 
when the imaginary lines drawn from, them are pro- 
duced until they intersect each other, there is the pre- 
serve, twenty or thirty fathoms deep. 
The fishing on rocks is principally for merdjian. a 
species of pink sea bream, wrong!}' named on hotel 
menus a dorade. The merdjian is a very handsome and 
sporting fish, fighting with a strength and determination 
surpassing that of any of his fellows, not excepting the 
bass. Indeed. I doubt if a salmon at the end of a 
20-strand horsehair line and a double trace of best 
tested gut, with a hook 5 or 6 inches long, heavily 
weighted with lead on the shank, in his jaws, would give 
the same amount of trouble. 
An hour's run by train through vineyards, orchards, 
strawberry beds, and fields of russet corn brought me to 
the little village on the Gulf of Ismidt, and there I found 
Yanni and his son Niko waiting in their caique. "You 
should have come sooner. Kyrie, as the moon rises very 
late now, and my merdjian aren't accustomed to stay 
on the rock after midnight. But I daresay we shall 
get some all the same, with a little luck." 
"Inshallah!" said I. "Have you got the crabs all 
right?" He has; and hoisting "a tattered apology for a 
sail to help the rowers, we head straight awav across the 
gulf. 
Is ask how the old man has been doing lately, and how 
it is that he has taken to merdjian this season instead 
of bass, which was his usual and favorite pursuit. "Well, 
you see, Kyrie," was the answer, "for the last four or 
five years they have made May, June and July close time 
for merdjian. so that we could not fish for them. You 
can't keep a baited rock secret, nor smuggle in a pair of 
big fish. Before that I always used to bait' a run. When 
the restriction was taken off this year I thought I would 
try again, as, after all, it is surer, and in some way 
easier than leverak (bass) catching. I am sorry I can't 
do both, but it is impossible to be after shrimps and 
crabs all day and to be up on the rock all night. 
Shrimps have become so scarce now that, upon my 
word, it is harder to get the baits than the bass. The 
other morning I collected about too with great difficulty, 
but you know how they are taken by the fish. In three 
hours they were all gone, and I only had one leverak of 
five okes (about 13 pounds) and seventeen little brutes, 
none of them more than half an oke. As for these 
chagini (mud crabs), they give me bother enough. Since 
I began baiting the rock I don't know how many I must 
have thrown in. To catch them I have first to prepare 
a parak kat (night line) with 100 or more hooks • and 
lay it out in the shallow water of the mullet pond. After 
an hour or two Niko and I go in Up to our waists with 
landing nets and pick the crabs off the bottom. I sup- 
pose I use at least 200 a day. I wonder they don't peti- 
tion against me. I have only been out on the rock about 
half a dozen times, and thrice out of these with an 
effendi who is an adjemi (a novice). Altogether we 
have lost about as many as we have caught — nine to ten. 
How they escape this year puzzles me. In former 
springs I have taken eighty or ninety without one ever 
getting off the hook, but now they seem to be verily 
bewitched." 
As we approach the hidden rock, old Yanni abandons 
his oars and reaches for the crab crate, a wicker con- 
cern about a yard long and a foot in circumference, three 
parts filled with a creaking mass of chagani, averaging 
about 2^2 inches across their shells. By the time he has 
prepared a score or two by stripping them of claws and 
back piece, leaving only the bodies and breastplate, we 
are close to the scene of operations, and the sail is 
furled and packed away, and the decks generally cleared 
for action by stowing snugly everything which might 
catch a line or interfere with us ; in any way. A series 
of careful observations of certain trees, promontories and 
other marks enables us to locate the rock, and we gently 
drop our buoy, consisting of a string of corks, a block 
of wood and an empty tin, painted scarlet. The use of 
the wood and the tin is apparent later, as they give out 
faint tinkles from time to time, showing us our where- 
abouts by ear when we could not see more than a yard 
of two. The boat should never be anchored for merd- 
jian fishing; firstly, because the rope might frighten the 
fish, and secondly, because in his rushes a big one 
would be tolerably sure to foul it. Consequently a buoy 
is laid a short distance north, south, east, or west of the 
rock, and the boat, by gentle paddling, .is kept in the 
right place. 
The hooks are now baited, one to each line, the shank 
being about the thickness of a fine knitting needle, with 
its end moulded into a piece of lead. the size of a pigeon's 
egg. This lead is kept smooth, and is polished at inter- 
vals with mercury till it shines like silver. The bodies 
of the crabs are threaded up it, each one being pierced 
through the breast, and six to eight going to the hook. 
When there is no moon the houits for catching merd- 
jian are the first two after sunset and the last two be- 
fore dawn. During the darkness it is useless to attempt 
to beguile them, as the phosphorescence thrown off by 
the line warns them. With a bright moon this danger 
does not exist. 
It is just 8 o'clock as we drop our first lines, paying out 
until the hook just lies On the bottom at thirty-two 
fathoms, but for nearly an hour we feel nothing but 
futile nibbles from small fry. There is no mistaking the 
bite of a sizable merdjian, who generally begins by one 
or two smart snatches, of which no notice must be taken. 
Then finding he cannot extract the succulent morsels 
of crab, he makes a gulp, pouches the whole hookful and 
sails away with a steady, strong pull, inviting the strike. 
At 9 o'clock Yanni exclaimed. "There is a fish at me," 
and the next moment he is fast. "Siya. siya!" (back 
water!) he shouts as the merdjian bolts aft, the line rip- 
ping through the water like a knife and leaving a glit- 
tering track as it flies. Then the fish bores, and we have 
to pay out line, letting the horsehair whistle and hiss 
over the rounded pole, which is lashed along either side 
of the caique. No sooner are a few fathoms gathered 
in than he takes them out again with determined rushes, 
but after five minutes he seems tiring, and there are not 
more than ten fathoms out between him and the net. 
Already we are speculating. on his size, when he makes a 
dangerous dart under our keel, and then — the line slack- 
ens into sickening limpness. . Words cannot picture our 
feelings, but most fishermen will guess what, they are. 
Yanni emits just one terrible oath, and then quickly 
hauls in the hook. Nothing is damaged, and there are 
still two or three corpses of crabs threaded, while the 
lead is marked deep with the savage teeth. 
"I told you they were bewitched this year. Who ever 
saw a fish get off after being played for five minutes and 
all but killed?" It certainly is extraordinary with a man 
of Yanni's skill, but it has happened, and there is nothing 
more to be said. "You can pull in your line now," he 
remarks; "there won't be any more fish here for an hour 
or two — not before the moon rises. You had better have 
your dinner, Kyrie. I haven't any appetite just now. 
That fish has given me a headache. He was a seven- 
oker (about 18 pounds), every dram of it," and Yanni 
bends over the oar and splashes his grizzled head with 
salt water, with which, I fancy, he mingles some briny 
drops from his own eyes. 
We give them a rest till 11, when a pale glimmer in 
the southeast shows where the moon is lifting beneath a 
heavy bank of clouds. Slowly she rises, but only slightly 
more than a full crescent, surrounded by mist and fleece, 
and Yanni shrugs his shoulders and growls, "That moon 
won't be much good to us yet a while; she is very small 
even when she gets high, but we may as well throw our 
S-oltas.' " 
So we do; but as the night wears on the clouds mass 
thicker and thicker, and never a bite or a nibble from 
great or small-. What a glorious night, though! Fresh, 
but not cold enough for me to use a heavy coat I have 
brought; no dew, but a crisp, sweet air, with occasional 
puffs of stronger wind from over the mountains to break 
a general rippling calm. Even if we catch no merdjian 
it is a delight to lie lazily on the poop of the caique 
smoking a soothing cigarette, watching the shearwaters, 
which never seem to rest by day, swimming fearlessly 
past, and listening to the tinkle of the buoy and the quaint 
wboings of amorous gulls, who are now pairing, and 
turning night into day, instead of roosting in peace. 
Niko is fast asleep in the bows, but old Yanni keeps 
up a ceaseless paddle with .one hand, attending to his 
line with the other, while I also, though half dozing, 
have still a watchful finger on the horsehair. It is get- 
ting on for 3 o'clock, and Yanni remarks, "The dawn 
will break in another hour, and we have had no moon 
yet. But we may be blessed with an hour of her. See ! 
the sky is clearing fast." And indeed it is not long ere 
she emerges into the open blue, renewing our fading 
hopes. "There is a fish." says Yanni, and scarcely has 
he spoken before I feel a tug. "And I've got one at 
me," T reply. But his is already hooked, and the first 
run scares off mine, so I take Yanni's oars as best I 
can from my position while he plays the fish. "A small 
one." he growls, but still he shows sport. "You take 
the line now, Kyrie, while I get the net. It's not worth 
while waking Niko." Two or three minutes more are 
enough to tow him sliding over the mouth of the kept- 
cheh, and he is kicking at our feet, a nice fellow of two 
and three-quarter okes, as he is pronounced by the cus- 
tom officer later, though to look at him and to feel.him 
on the line one would have credited him with a good 10 
pounds instead of under 7. All drowsiness has fallen 
from us. and we rebait without delay, although it is 
seldom that a second fish is caught within less than 
half an hour owing to the commotion below produced 
by one on the hook. Looking anxiously at the moon, I 
see another curtain of clouds advancing, and in the east 
a faint glow already tops the hills. 
"I am afraid we shan't get any more to-night, Yanni. 
By George! Look out! One touched me then. Here 
he comes again. Yeoho!" I have a fathom or two in, 
when he is gone; Instantly I drop the line again, and 
before it has straightened he has come at me like a bull- 
dog. This time no mistake. Though certainly nothing 
like as big as the first one, he must be a decent fish, to 
judge by his rushes, but they avail him nothing against 
Yanni's'cunning handling of the caique, and the elastic, 
well-tried line. In three or four minutes he joins his 
brother, and the scales give him over four okes. 
There is little use in going on now. as before the dis- 
turbance this fish has created can subside the sun will 
be up, so we pound all the remaining crabs into a tasty 
mess, enough to fill two strawberry pottles, and lower 
them on to the rock in a slip net,, where we jerk them 
out and spread them as a peace offering to the friends 
and relatives of our pair. 
I should like to try for leverak, but we have no 
shrimps, and I must be back in town early. The first 
train leaves soon after 5, and we row quietly back, reach- 
ing the scala at half past 4. The me'mour is asleep, and 
the fact of my being in a hurry to catch a train does not 
appeal to him in the least. I must have a teskereh, 
though, to show I have paid on my fish, or they may be 
confiscated at the terminus. Prayers are of no avail in 
this instance, and the official finally appears just as the 
engine puffs out of the station. I cannot help pointing 
out to him that he has made me lose an hour by not 
hurrying himself. "Missed the train?" he murmurs. 
"Zararyok (it does not matter) ; there will be another one 
soon." I turn away as much in sorrow as in anger, and 
Yanni murmurs. "This is Turkey."— A. Hulme--'Beaman 
in London Field. 
Niagara County Anglers- 
Lockpqrt, N> Y.. Feb. 4— The club that can make 
thousands of brook trout to grow where before there was 
none is certainly well worth while. The Niagara County 
Anglers' Club, numbering 250 members, has within the 
last four years, accomplished something that has attracted 
the favorable comment of the State Fish, Game and Forest 
Commission. The lowlands of Niagara, with here and 
there slight elevations cf from 100 to 200 feet above the 
surrounding country, do not afford streams well adapted 
to the common brook trout {Salmo. fontinalis), for springs 
are few and far between, the little spring water being 
modified by surface water to an extent which makes the 
streams uncongenial if not entirely unadapted to the 
gamy speckled beauties. However, a half-dozen streams 
in the vicinity of Lockport have been found habitable for 
certain varieties of trout. Four years ago brown trout 
we're planted in a spring-fed pond, and since that time 
each year thousands of trout fry have been planted in 
various streams. This included brown, rainbow and 
black-spotted trout. Last summer some splendid catches 
were made by local anglers in this vicinity. In one 
brook, three miles long, averaging only two feet in width 
and two in depth, it is estimated 1,500 trout averaging 
three-quarters of a pound in weight were caught. Some 
of the brown trout weighed over one pound each, and 
the largest was fourteen inches in length. -They had 
attained that splendid growth from fingerlings in four 
years. The three-yearlings averaged ten inches and over 
.a half-pound in weight. 
At the meeting of the Niagara Anglers' Club this week 
it was decided to secure 100,000 trout this year and stock 
more streams in the county. Postmaster Charles W. 
Hatch, chairman of the Committee on Planting, made the 
following interesting report, which should encourage other 
clubs to take up the work of re-establishing the speckled 
beauties in streams that now afford only dace, bullheads 
and suckers : 
This club has done a great amount of stocking public 
waters in this county. This report also shows the amount 
of work done by members of this club to make this 
county second to none in this part of the country as an 
ideal spot for the trout fishermen. 
It has been demonstrated beyond a doubt that we can 
grow the rainbow and brown trout in our spring brooks, 
which will afford in years to come plenty of sport for the 
expert trout fishermen. Last summer many fine samples 
were taken, and it was the pride of the club when we 
