270 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[April 5, 1902. 
of some modern angling literature is much to be deplored. 
In an illustrated sporting guide book distributed some 
time ago by one of the Canadian Provinces, a picture 
of a black bass was labeled "A Ouananiche." Another 
Canadian publication, devoted to natural history, and pub- 
lished in the French language, recently printed a cut of a 
carp for the ouananiche. More surprising still, is the 
blunder made in the handsome edition of "The Compleat 
Angler," edited by Richard Le Gallienne, and published 
by John Lane, of the Bodley Head, in 1896, where at page 
192 there appears a picture of what is called a charr, 
minus even a shadow of anything like an adipose fin. 
As the illustrations are by Edmund H. New, it is charit- 
able to suppose that another cut must have been ex- 
changed for that intended to represent the charr. 
Since the general substitution of half-tone cuts for the 
old-fashioned line engravings, angling literature, like 
that of nearly every other class, has severely suffered in 
the quality of its illustrations, One of the chief charms 
of some of the old angling books is to be found in the 
beauty of their steel engravings. It is but seldom that 
one finds anything in the way of modern book illustra- 
tions to compensate for the passing of this artistic class 
of work. Where, now, for instance, do we see in any 
book of the day, such a finished production as the frontis- 
piece of Thomas Tod Stoddart's "Angler's Companion to 
the Rivers and Lochs of Scotland," published in 1847? 
The impression from the steel causes the sheen upon the 
salmon to assume a hue almost as silvery as that im- 
parted in oil by Mr. Walter M. Brackett's brush. 
One very modern, as well as very novel and very 
artistic piece of piscatorial book making has recently, 
however, come to my notice. An appreciation of the 
literary merits or demerits of the book belongs to the 
province of the reviewer, but its artistic illustration is 
cognate to the subject under discussion. Mr. Louis 
Rhead, the Brooklyn artist, who gave an exhibition some 
time ago of his ouananiche and Lake St. John pictures, 
is both editor and illustrator of the book, which is 
devoted to the brook trout, and is published bv Mr. R. 
H. Russell. One of its novel features recalls the method 
employed m illustrating Gosden's reprint of Col. Robert 
Ven ^'es 'The Experienc'd Angler; or Angling Im- 
prove!.' This work, it may be remembered, first ap- 
peared in T(56r, only eight years after the publication of 
the first edition of Walton's "Compleat Angler." The 
gentle Izaalc himself contributed a courtly commendation 
of the little volume, addressed to his "ingenious friend the 
author in which he states that he "could never find in 
f other books) that judgment and reason which you have 
manifested m this (as I may call it") Epitome of Angina- 
since my reading whereof I cannot look upon some notes 
of my own gathering, but methinks I do puenlia trac- 
tare. Westwood and Satchell's "Bibliotheca Piscatoria" 
gives the date of Gosden's reprint as 1827 only. The copy 
m my own angling library bears the date 1825. The illus- 
trations of fish are beautifully printed in miniature upon 
nee paper and then stuck into the book at various places 
enmiv P" r P° se 10 text. Mr. Rhead has done 
something of the same kind in his book, which is one of 
the most uniquely gotten up books on fishing which has 
issued from the press for a long time. A few of the 
S?ff™? 3n? " g P'ctures i in this book are printed on 
different paper, and then affixed to the headings of some 
of the chapters, and the effect is very striking. One of 
the most novel features of the book is the binding The 
outside of the cover is a most natural representation of 
the rough outer covering of the white birch. The lining 
Wr^T 1 * r T e f nts th f e ^d-brown inner lining of th! 
£•? i ? eX i* th < e - trunk of the tree - Ly'ng upon the 
white birch bark which forms the outside of thf cover are 
such favorite trout flies as the P.rmachenee -belle coa?^ 
man, gmzly-kmg, etc. Over all there is a handsomely 
decorated wrapper of heavy green paper. Lovers of art 
and lovers of angling alike will gladly welcome the evi 
dence of renewed, interest in the artistic illStration of 
fishing books, furnished by Mr. Rhead's volume 
surp 0 rf,r„norf a t h. ^ ab ° Ut t0 ^ another artistic 
surprise upon the angling community, in the shane of a 
set of fish pictures for framing, and "two vohimes of L 
ter press on fish and fishing i n the United State/ If A 
&S&£2f aItogether ™«> 4\ Dr 
tt. 1. D. Chambers. 
In New England Waters. 
Boston, March 3i.-^Appearances indicate a verv earlv 
fishing season in New England waters The open Reason 
all b ;°"V n ,f aSSachUSetts be S'' ns to-morrow. Apri ilJ 
all but the three western counties, where it begins Aoril 
fi hinl°™rtic es^m,?? 00 fi^ ^ have lateT/publbh d 
th V + Pen ' n ? of the tro «t season 
to know if til t V b u nd the , re has been som e inquiry 
tc know if the law had been changed. It has not and 
all the eastern countie: 4 re open April 1 Bv* some of 
atdy thaT it™' SP^W ° f the State have sugglsted 
f< V J i d ^ & * ood P lan to change the law 
Apr t Id the ™< T- §PJ"*?* is usually too cold 
till u and , the wa ^r too high and roily. They say that 
But th S V %ear q t U h ntly ^ *» a snowstorm 
with lh! 3 « wealher h ™ been remarkably warm 
morrow "rJJjS 8 °" e ' fu d the fishermen w! " ^ off £ 
Se Cane a fe? ' rr ra1 haVe ? one , to the Preserves on 
• ^ape already. The warm rain of Saturday must hav* 
n« l ^/o-morrow morning. Doubtless the President 
of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Asso- 
ctation will open the season at the Tihonet Club Tuesday 
w *% n \ \ r ° nt ' accordi "-? to his usual custom. Last 
y ft£8 l S ^°f ^ a P°" nd ™« * Htiarter 
Landlocked salmon fishermen are almost startled bv 
the announcement _ that the ice is out of Sebago Lake Me 
-went out March 29 It has taken them fenerally un 
l^Z ' S f3C t- ^though reports have stated that the 
ice was getting thin and uncertain. The warm rain and 
remarkabf ° f f^it* f £ 6 b " siness ™s clearing is 
?n<T1n \f t arly ' a 't h o«gn o'd residents tell of its happen- 
mg in : March once before. I have a record of the 
i 9 'ji ? d j r t! J C kte . 8t law the °P en seas °n on trout and 
landlocked salmon in most of the Mai* P waters hegm 
on the departure of the ice, hence the season will be fully 
on at Sebago at once. Portland anglers will be there in 
good numbers, though they scarcely expected to be fishing 
so early in April. Last year the fishing was remarkably 
good by the second day after the ice went out. W. L. 
Jones, of Portland, took seven fine salmon in one day, 
the largest weighing 10 pounds, with another only a few 
ounces less. The other five weighed from 4^ to 7^. 
But one of the biggest salmon of the season was taken 
on the second day after the ice cleared by Wallace H. 
Babb, of Cumberland Mills. This salmon was 32 inches 
m length and weighed 15 pounds. It was taken on a 
10-ounce rod, and gave the angler all the sport he de- 
sired for over half an hour. 
Angling for sea salmon at the big Bangor pool begins 
April 1. Fishermen seem to think that the sport should 
be good there, since the water has been most remarkably 
high, but has been going down for several days. Still 
the warm rain of Saturday will doubtless send down 
another volume of water and debris. Among the noted 
anglers who have fished there on former seasons, and will 
doubtless be on hand this year, are Charles P. Hodgkins, 
Ira Peavey, Howard Peavey, Guy Peavey, George Willey' 
Ira Doane, Thomas Canning, E. A. Buck, F. W. Ayeri 
Dennis Tracey and Thomas F. Allen. Ladies are also 
taking an interest in angling for salmon at the Big Pool. 
Last year the first salmon was landed by a woman, Miss 
Jennie Sullivan. It weighed 20 pounds, and was caught 
on April 3. Special. 
Hook Wounds, 
My first angling lessons were learned when a boy on 
the stream running through the farm of mv grand uncle, 
a retired sea captain, near Railway, N. t. Beside the 
other help on the place, he always employed a small 
boy, and at the time referred to had a very bright lad of 
about my own age who of course loved angling, or any- 
thing else that was not work, and consequently wel- 
comed me on arrival at the farm, as some days on the 
stream were usually sure to follow. 
The only tackle Joe had was a coarse linen line with 
rather a large hook, "half-hitched" to it, and wound on 
a flat block of wood. This tackle was intended to tie 
on a pole cut in the woods when we got there. On one 
of my last visits to the old place, before the death of 
my uncle, Joe hurried his luncheon, and in his eagerness 
to be ready and not delay me he ran the point of the 
hook clean over the barb into his left hand near the 
thumb. 
There was a yell of pain, and in an instant the click 
of a knife opening and a loud command from my uncle, 
"You Joe come here, and let me cut it out!" with some 
embellishments probably used on shipboard. We were 
all on the porch just off the dining room at the time, 
my uncle sitting in a big, easy chair, but he half-raised 
and made a grab at Joe as I told him to run, which he 
started to do, but had gone only a short distance, when 
he dropped the block on which the line was wound. 
Some twenty feet had unwound from the block when my 
uncle jumped and placed his foot on it, thus stopping 
Joe's flight and picking up the block while yet holding 
the gleaning knife, he began slowly to land Joe, all the 
while uttering the nautical embellishments to the ac- 
companiment of Joe's cries of fear and anguish. Joe's 
look of terror brought me te my senses, and just as lie 
was nearly landed my knife came in play, and I cut the 
line and freed Joe just in the nick of time. Then my 
uncle's attention was transferred to me, but Joe did not 
wait to hear any more, nor did I, but followed him to 
the brook, out of sight of the house, where together we 
removed the line from the hook, which being of such 
heavy wire and fortunately sharp, we brought the point 
out, and then the entire hook. My uncle was, of course, 
only haying a little fun, and had no idea of hurting Joe, 
but to him and me at the time it seemed a very serious 
matter. 
Since then I have had two experiences of my own. 
The first occurred up on the Rutland Mountain, in Ver- 
mont, at the house of a friend, who was entertaining a 
very particular friend of mine, a surgeon, and myself. 
The doctor was showing how well he could execute the 
switch cast while a party of us were standing on the 
wharf at the shore of the trout pond, and after one or two 
failures to straighten the line, he made an effort of 
greater force, and the leader came under and away 
back, and as I was standing near him on the right, tha 
stretcher fly caught me under the chin and drove the 
point of the hook in over the barb. The hook was No. 
io, old scale, and although the doctor was a skilled 
surgeon it was fully half an hour's work after the gut and 
feathers had been removed and the eye broken off, before 
he could force the point through the flesh by turning the 
hook and then to bring it entirely out. This he did 
without the aid of instruments, using his fingers alone, 
which, with one less skillful, I now think would not be 
possible. The danger is in breaking the hook if too 
much force is used', or it is not properly applied. 
Last summer, fishing in a broad stream at Henryville, 
Pa.. I attempted to cross it at the head of a natural dam. 
When within about four feet of the bank, I discovered 
quite a deep cut in the channel through which nearly 
all the water was flowing before it went over a fall. 
Where I stood the water was only a few inches above my 
shoes, and to step down in the cut and then reach a 
branch of a tree on the bank seemed quite easy; so plac- 
ing the wading staff, I always carry, carefully on the 
bottom and following it, I slowly stepped in; and didn't 
I wish I hadn't! 
The rushing water came to within an inch of the top 
of my waders, and I began to slide down the stream to 
the edge of the fall, but fortunately before reaching it 
caught an overhanging branch with my left hand, which 
also held the rod, I dropped the staff, as it was fastened 
by a cord, and with my right hand still holding the rod 
and placing it over the left shoulder, attempted to throw 
it, handle end first, as one would a spear, through an 
opening in the foliage. The stretcher fly had been 
caught in a small ring I always place for the purpose on 
one of the bars of the reel, and this held the leader close 
to the rod and tight at both ends, and consequently 
as the dropper fly passed my check the hook was driven 
in as far as it possibly could go. Well, I cut the snell 
with my cutters, which are carried on a fine chain m$- 
pended from a button hole in my coat, and threw the rod 
as at first intended, left the stream, and picking up the 
rod walked two miles to a house, where the man and 
wagon were waiting. Under my instructions, the man 
started in to turn the hook, as the doctor had done the 
first time, but he could not do it. Then he found two 
farm hands who each in turn tried by using my pliers, 
but failed, until it occurred to me to use a second pair 
of round-end pliers, which I also fortunately had, with 
which the flesh of the cheek was pressed hard against the 
point of the hook, while with the others the hook was 
turned upward and outward, and so the point brought 
through and then the entire hook, from which, of course, 
the feathers as well as the eye had been removed. This 
took fully an hour and the strength of a powerful man. 
Without the round-end pliers with which to press the 
flesh back against the point of the hook, neither of 
those strong men could have removed that hook without 
injury to me. 
In this way I discovered a use for those pliers in addi- 
tion to that of handling a ferrule when the rod breaks in 
it. and shall in future always carry them. — C. G. Levison 
(Brooklyn, N. Y.) in London Fishing Gazette. 
Adirondack Streams Menaced. 
The following letter of protest has been sent to Gov- 
ernor Odell respecting the Brown bill to permit the con- 
demnation and ruin of Adirondack streams for private 
interests : 
Sir: — There is a bill now before you for your consider- 
ation and approval which might be appropriately and 
justly entitled, "An act to provide for and facilitate the 
destruction and extermination of all brook or speckled 
trout in the streams of the Adirondack preserve and to 
otherwise destroy the preserve for the use of the people 
of the State of New York." I refer to Senate bill No. 
404, introduced by Senator Brown to amend Section 62 
of Chapter 592 of the laws of 1897, being Chapter 307 of 
the General Laws and known as the "Navigation law." 
For many years the-State has been engaged through its 
Fish and Game Commission, their assistants and em- 
ployes, and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars 
in maintaining hatcheries and restocking the streams in 
the Adirondack forest preserves with brook or speckled 
trout and for their protection and preservation, for the 
benefit of the people of the State of New York. And 
the people have enacted laws from time to time making 
it a crime to kill trout out of season or to transport them 
from the Adirondack preserve except in limited numbers 
and only when accompanied by the owner, or to introduce 
into the streams of the Adirondack preserve fish that are 
natural enemies of the trout, or to molest or disturb the 
brook trout while on their spawning beds or in close 
season, which lasts from Sept. 1 to May X, 
During the past seven years I have devoted a large 
portion of my time to the problem of restocking the 
waters of a large preserve in the Adirondacks with brook 
trout and restoring the streams to their natural and 
former conditions with respect to the brook or speckled 
trout and maintaining them as fishing preserves. _ During 
this time various streams of the tract in question have 
from time to time been used for driving, flooding, and 
floating logs under certain contracts subject to which the 
club owning the tract took title, and I have had occasion 
to make a practical study of the effect of damming, 
"flooding," "removing obstructions," or disturbing the 
bed of the stream, increasing and decreasing the volume 
or flow of water for the purpose of floating, running, or 
flooding logs in said streams, and can testify that the use 
of any stream for the purpose and in the manner pro- 
posed in the bill by lumbermen will effect its utter 
destruction as a trout stream or preserve during the time 
such operations are carried on and for years thereafter, 
until the stream has been allowed to rest and resume its 
natural conditions and has been restocked at large ex- 
pense. 
I am convinced that if the proposed act becomes^ a 
law, streams upon which the State and private associa- 
tions have spent thousands of dollars for fish stocking 
will be utterly destroyed for the uses of the people of the 
State. 
At first sight this may seem a small consideration com- 
pared with the moneyed interests of the pulp and lumber 
companies and trusts, but I desire to call your attention 
to the fact that of the hundred thousand or more annual 
visitors to the Adirondack Forest Preserve, nine-tenths 
are attracted there by the fish and game, and the fish is 
principally the brook or speckled trout. Article VII. of 
the Constitution was intended to secure to aU the people 
of the State of New York the Adirondack State Park 
lands as a place for recreation and restoration to health, 
etc. If the streams are given over to the pulp industries, 
as provided by this iniquitous a'.t, a majority of the peo- 
ple of the State who now use the preserve will have no 
use for it, 
A curious feature of the act is that it limits the liability 
of the lumberman while occupying State or private lands 
and streams. Under the privileges granted to them they 
are only liable for damages occasioned by their "negli- 
gent or unlawful exercise" of their occupancy, and claim 
must be made within one year after the act is committed. 
It is well known that where streams and lands are 
flooded for the purpose of driving logs the extent of the 
damage done by the killing of trees, etc., sometimes is 
not evident until more than a year after the act of flood- 
ing takes place. Also the act gives the right of con- 
demnation to any person desiring to drive logs, meaning 
thereby any irresponsible jobber or log driver who may 
commit any sort of unlawful or negligent act to the 
destruction of the property of the State or private in- 
dividuals without incurring any risk excepting money 
claims for damages. 
Altogether the act seems to me as the most audacious 
attempt on the part of the lumber and pulp industries 
to prostitute the great powers of the State for their pri- 
vate ends and profits, and I sincerely hope that the hill 
as passed will meet with your disapproval and veto. 
Yours very respectfully, 
William G. De Witt. 
Chairman Fish and Game Committee, 
A4irondack League Club. 
