March i, 1902.] 
jelled to abandon our sport, as we could no longer see 
when we had a bite. ' 
Our afternoon's sport seemed so good to us that we de- 
cided to try it again the next day, and concluded to hide 
the boat up in the mouth of the creek, bury our minnows 
and walk to town. The plans were quickly carried into 
execution, and with a long sigh of regret we climbed the 
bank and struck off through the patch of woods for town 
and supper. A brisk walk of an half hours duration 
brought lis to the lights of the little village, and soon we 
had our feet under the table while a colored boy was 
cleaning and salting down our fish. E. W. Ellis. 
Topeka, Kansas, Feb. 11, 
Fish and Fishing. 
i . ■ 
The Halifax Fishery Award. 
Many readers of Forest and Stream will recall the 
fact that on the 21st of November, 1878, the United 
States paid over to the government of Great Britain 
the sum of $5,500,000, being the amount of the award of 
the Halifax International Fishery Commission for the 
fishing rights exercised for twelve years by American 
fishermen in Canadian waters. The Imperial Government 
turned over $4,490,882.64 of this amount to the Dominion 
of Canada, and now there promises to be a pretty kettle 
of fish over the disposal of the funds. ' The Provinces of 
Ontario, Manitoba, and the others farther west, had no 
interest, of course, in the Atlantic fisheries, and the 
eastern Provinces are consequently claiming possession 
of the whole sum received by the Dominion Government 
from that of the United States, together with interest. 
The Province of Quebec claims $1,425,855 for its share 
of the principal, and including interest asks $3.393>53 T , 
for which amount a demand has been sent to Ottawa. 
The federal government will probably contest payment of 
the claim, on the ground that it has been employing the 
revenue of the award in the payment of fishing bounties, 
and in this event there will doubtless be a pretty case for 
the determination of the law courts. The provisional 
claims are largely based upon the recent decision of the 
Imperial Privy Council, declaring that the fisheries are 
the property, not of the Dominion, but of the different 
Provinces. Hence the Province of Quebec is also asking 
the federal government to hand over to it the sum of 
$490,000, which it has collected from time to time for 
fishing leases and licenses. These figures are interesting, 
if for no other purpose than to indicate the valuable 
character of the fishing rights owned or controlled by the 
Province of Quebec. 
Net-Fishing in Lake Champlain. 
Thanks principally to the efforts of the North Ameri- 
can Fish and Game Protective Association, it is be- 
lived that a final death blew has been dealt to the suicidal 
policy of netting the pike-perch of Lake Champlain upon 
their spawning beds. The officials of Vermont, of New 
York and of Quebec have tried repeatedly, and in vain, 
for some years past, to stop the nefarious habit. New 
York was anxious to put an end to it, for it was visibly 
decreasing the fish life of the lake. Vermont was just as 
anxious, but permitted her netters to fish because Quebec 
did the same. Quebec has only six miles of the lake, 
but in these six miles the pike-perch come to spawn, and 
in the spawning season they have been ruthlessly 
destroyed by the netters licensed by the Province of 
Quebec. Vermont sent a deputation to Quebec to ask 
the government there to act the part of good neighbors 
and withdraw the netting licenses. But with this deputa- 
tion there went to Quebec representatives of the Vermont 
netting industry to negative the good work attempted 
by the others, and the Quebec authorities, worried with 
conflicting demands from the same State, did nothing at 
all. . ' 
At the recent annual meeting of the North American 
Fish and Game Protective Association, however, held at 
Burlington, Vermont, brave and successful efforts were 
made to bring the conflicting interests into accord. Mr. 
J. W. Titcomb, then president of the association, repre- 
senting Vermont, Mr. C. H. Wilson, of Glens Falls, 
representing New York, and Mr. L. Z. Joncas, of Quebec, 
threshed the whole matter out very thoroughly, assisted 
by ex-Lt. Governor Nelson Fisk, and others, of Ver- 
mont, and it was plainly shown that Quebec's refusal to 
act was due to the conflicting representations from Ver- 
mont The Vermont Fish and, Game League met in Bur- 
lington at the same time as the North American Fish 
and Game Protective Association, and placed the de- 
mands of Vermont before the latter in a manner that 
left no possible room for misunderstanding in the minds 
of the Canadians present at the meeting. United action 
was at once agreed upon. A deputation from Vermont 
and New York went to Ottawa to interest the Depart- 
ment of Fisheries there in the matter, for that department, 
though it cannot issue licenses itself, can close any 
waters that it chooses to netting. It was easier for Que- 
bec to ask the federal authorities to prohibit netting in 
Missisquoi Bay of Lake Champlain than to withstand 
the political pressure brought to bear upon it for the 
issue of netting licenses. So the Fisheries Department 
at Ottawa has placed the necessary prohibition upon net- 
ting in Canadian waters bordering upon the United 
States and the Province of Quebec, and this difficult 
question has been satisfactorily adjusted, mainly through 
the efforts of members of the North American Fish and 
Game Protective Association, Surely this association is 
entitled to the assistance and support of every sportsman 
interested in the protection of the game and game fish of 
the eastern Provinces of British North America, and of 
the neighboring States. 
Mr, Titcomb's Appointment. 
The members of the association are much flattered, and 
with good reason, at the appointment of their worthy ex- 
president, Mr. Titcomb, to be Chief of the Division of 
Fish Culture at Washington, in place of Mr. Ravenal, re- 
signed, and if zeal and ability can command success! the 
fishery industry of the United States has reason, indeed, 
to be congratulated upon Mr. Titcomb's appointment. 
In this connection, it may be mentioned that the North 
American Ammfav k tefcing an, ffifrrt intent in t!?e 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
application of another of its members to be appointed 
Fish Culturist of New- York. I refer to Mr. C. H. Wil- 
son, of Glens Falls, vice-president of the association for 
the State of New York, and the author of the paper on 
the spawning and hatching of the pike-perch, published 
in Forest and Stream of the ist of February instant. 
British Appreciation of American Methods. 
It is interesting to note the frankness of British testi- 
mony to the superiority of American methods in the 
development and preservatipn of national and State fish- 
eries. A paper by Mr. R. B. Marston, of London, in 
one of the leading reviews, attracted my notice the other 
day, and it occurred to me that all the national and State 
authorities on this side of the Atlantic ought, for their 
encouragement, to read the author's thoughtful com- 
mendation of their work in fishery matters. Mr. Marston 
says: "No one who knows the benefits which the 
United States of America derive from the great national 
and State fisheries departments but must regret that the 
United Kingdom does practically nothing in this way be- 
yond providing a gunboat or two for police duty." He 
further places on record his belief in "a wise national 
development of our natural resources; such a policy, in 
fact, as has placed America first among the nations." 
A Fish Story* 
A friend sends me the following fish story, printed in 
one of the early years of the last century by a Dr. Barlase, 
who claims to have had it from "a clergyman of veracity," 
in illustration of "the patience and sagacity of the lob- 
ster:" "A lobster made several attempts to get at an 
oyster, but the latter promptly closed his shell at the 
former's approach. At length the lobster, having waited 
with great patience until the oyster opened again, con- 
trived to throw a stone between its gaping shells, when 
he sprang upon his prey and devoured it." 
E. T. D. Chambers. 
Drum Fishing off Barnegat. 
From a letter to a frie7id and Jishing companion. 
My Dear W. : 
I did not get your note till after my return home,, and 
then what, with settling in our new home (you know 
we had just been married), and the constant and indeed 
almost incessant demands made upon me by my business, 
I have not found time to answer your note as I meant to, 
but I have kept it lying upon my desk waiting for the 
time to come when I could find time to write you, for 
I have wanted to tell you of my experience with the 
drum. 
I arranged with John Adams to take my chum and go 
out to the inlet, anchor there, start chumming and get 
things started. I was to come down with Captain 
Sprague in the Lively Polly, fish for a while and then re- 
turn. I only took my big surf rod and Vom Hofe reel 
with me and a tarpon hook with piano wire snell. Cap- 
tain Sprague brought his boat around alongside John 
Adams' big bank skiff so handsomely that I sprang from 
one boat to the other without the Captain's having to 
check the speed of the Lively Polly. I was eager for the 
fray. I felt in my bones I would get a drum — and I did. 
I baited with a bit of menhaden which Adams cuts so 
nicely from the back of the fish, making a bait that looks 
almost good enough for a man to eat, let alone a fish. 
I had not been there over ten minutes before John, who 
was fishing for bluefish with a hand line, struck a drum. 
He handed his line to me and held my pole while he 
watched the fun. We could see the fellow plainly. He 
was a red drum. I should think he weighed about 25 
pounds. He made very little resistance, coming along 
not easily, but still not fighting. I expected him to make 
a rush every moment, and so hauled him in slowly and 
warily, hand over hand, keeping my hand at right angles 
to the line ho as to be prepared for him when he broke. 
He came up this way to say within fifteen feet of the 
boat, then suddenly he seemed to realize his danger, and 
as he slid down the side of a wave he threw his whole 
strength into one sudden lunge and the line parted just 
above the snell, and he was gone. While John repaired 
his line I took up my own rod and reel and in a few 
moments I had hooked a fish; what it was I never found 
out. I had out perhaps a hundred and twenty-five feet 
of line. The fish never once came to the surface, but 
at apparently one burst of speed, reeled out another hun- 
dred feet of line. The handle of the reel flew out of my 
fingers, rappmg my knuckles till they bled. The line run- 
ning out fairly burnt my thumb, for I had left my thumb 
stall in the Lively Polly. I tried my best to check the 
fellow and thought I had succeeded, but only for an in- 
stant; then he was off again. I was using a No. 15 
Cuttyhunk line, that I got from Mr. Chandler, one of the 
finest and lightest lines of the kind I ever saw. I had 
taken off the old heavy Cuttyhunk line I had on my reel, 
which I was using the day we tried for striped bass over 
on the North Beach. I had only 300 feet of it and was 
afraid it would not hold him, and it did not. When he 
started with apparently undiminished vigor the third 
time, the line parted, and I never knew what it was I 
had hold of. It felt as though it might have been the 
submerged torpedo boat Holland. 
While John was bending a new snell on my line, I 
took his line and in a few moments was fast to a black 
drum. I knew him in a moment by his actions. He 
bored down to the bottom persistently, head down, tail 
up. Again and again I raised him, only to have him 
slowly and sullenly bore his head down again as though 
he were bound to have one more clam before he gave 
up the fight. Gradually he came to the boat, but within 
about six feet of it the hook pulled out of his mouth, and 
he sank for the last time to our gaze, in search, probably, 
of that lost clam. 
This made three fish I had lost, and Pete, the chummer, 
told me if I didn't catch the next one he'd spatter me with 
a handful of chum. (I had told him if he got any chum 
on me that day I'd take an oar to him, for I had just 
had my flannel shirt washed, preparatory to going home.) 
When John .got my line fixed I soon had it out again. 
Then I caught a few bluefish, which I regarded as al- 
most fingerlings, I was not out after bluefish. ' Presently 
171 
time, .until I felt he was fairly mine, then set the hook 
and commenced cautiously to pull him in. I wasn't go- 
ing to lose that fish if I could help myself. He started 
to fight from the word go, but I felt my tackle hold him 
even in his wildest rushes, and then I felt, barring acci- 
dents, he was mine. Foot by foot, fighting every inch of 
the way, he came closer and closer to the boat, always 
on top of the water; we could see him from the time he 
was hooked, a hundred and fifty feet off, till gradually he 
came within ten feet of the boat. John, stooping low over 
the gunwale, his eyes fired with excitement, was wild to 
gaff him. "Steady, John, steady," I said. "Don't touch 
him till I give you the word, and -that won't be till I bring 
him up the third time." I swung him back and forth as 
youwouldswingabass when you are playing him, and the 
third time as I brought him up he turned slightly on his 
side, and in an instant there was a flash of steel and John 
had the gaff in his gills and hauled him aboard. He was 
a beauty, weighed 32 pounds, and I didn't get spattered 
with chum. I wished ever .so much you had been there. 
I know you would have enjoyed it so much. 
At five o'clock I was back at Barnegat. In two hours 
— indeed, in much less than two hours — I had been fast 
to three drums and a Mother Hubbard engine, lost three 
and captured one. It was a fitting close to a delightful 
two weeks' trip. J. H. Fisher. 
Pennsylvania. • 
Potomac Fishing. 
Members of the Fish and Game. Protective Association 
of the District of Columbia are displaying some anxiety 
concerning the proposed amendment to the Maryland fish 
law so far as Montgomery county is concerned, reports 
the Washington Star. The amendment pending before 
the Legislature provides that persons who fish or hunt 
within the county mentioned must first take out a license. 
Particular attention is being paid by the local association 
to the question of angling. It is claimed that the pro- 
posed amendment is the work of' anglers who live in and 
about Rockville, and that its enactment will deprive many 
Washingtonians of legitimate pleasure after they have 
worked so hard to stock the river and canal with game 
fish. 
The matter is one which also appeals to the keepers 
of hotels and boarding houses along the Potomac River 
from the Chain bridge to Washington Junction, as many 
of these people depend almost wholly upon Washington 
anglers for support. Admiral Robley D. Evans, presi- 
dent, and Dr. William P. Young, secretary, of the local 
association, have prepared a circular letter concerning the 
subject, which is of interest to all anglers in this city who 
visit the upper Potomac. 
The letter is as follows : 
"The Game and Fish Protective Association views with 
alarm the suggested amendments to the Maryland fish 
and game law, which proposes to require persons who fish 
or hunt within Montgomery county to take out a license. 
The members of the Game and Fish Protective Associa- 
tion of the District of Columbia originated the agitation 
which resulted in the enactment of the tri-state Potomac 
River fish and protective law, and expended consider- 
able money and energy in securing the passage of that 
act. 
"This Association instigated the movement to seine the 
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the winter after the water 
had been drawn off, and paid the expenses for the seining, 
assisted by contributions of the angling fraternity in the 
District, and thereby saved thousands of bass, crappie 
and other fishes, which would otherwise certainly have 
perished as soon as a heavy freeze occurred. All these 
fish were put in the Potomac River, which practically 
restocked the stream. Our Association did this two 
seasons at a large expenditure of money. 
"In the fall of 1800, through the efforts of this Asso- 
ciation, nineteen cans of black bass fry were placed in 
the Potomac River between Little Falls and Great Falls, 
all within Montgomery county. During the year just 
passed this Association made requisition for, and had 
placed in the Potomac River, 1,750,000 pike-perch, Other- 
wise known as wall-eyed pike, or Susquehanna salmon. 
This plant was made above Little Falls in Montgomery 
cotuity. Individual members of this Association have 
also stocked the Potomac River at various times with 
crappie, and very recently the Association had placed in 
the mouth of one of the creeks a large consignment of 
rock bass. 
"This is some of the work which has been accomplished 
by an Association composed of as conscientious sports- 
men as ever organized, with the reasonable expectation 
that they would derive in part the pleasures and benefits 
accruing from their efforts, and now that these great 
ends have- been accomplished, it is but natural that we 
should be alarmed at threatened legislation which would 
practically debar us from reaping any of the fruits of 
our labors. 
"Aside from the foregoing, the Anglers' Club is located 
on the river in Montgomery county, possessing a very 
valuable property there, improved and established at a 
large cost, the members of which are mostly citizens of 
the District of Columbia. The purpose for which this 
club was organized was that the members might have a 
quiet and retired place where they might go from time 
to' time for rest and recreation. They are all true and 
law-abiding anglers, who never violate a game or fish 
law, and their presence tends to restrain others who in- 
cline to disregard those laws. The enactment of the 
proposed law would largely destroy the usefulness of this 
club because of the increase in the cost of the pleasure. 
"The Montgomery County Sycamore Island Club is an 
incorporated body composed. of anglers, which has bought 
and improved the island whose name it bears. Many of 
the members of that club, like those of the Anglers* Club, 
are citizens ©f the District of Columbia. They, too, ob- 
serve the fish protective laws and jealously guard the 
waters which surround their island against violations 
of the fishing laws. The moral support of both these 
clubs has been thrown with that of the Fish and Game 
Protective Association in the matter of restocking the 
river, as well as protecting the fishes from vandalism. 
Citizens of Montgomery county have been in no way dis- 
disturbed because of these organisations, as they have 
crested conations wbfcfr art desirable rather thai* mjde* 
