Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1903 by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $i a Year. 10 Crs. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. i 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1903. 
{ 
VOL. LXI.— No. 5. 
No. 846 Broadway, New York 
THE HIGHER ANGLING. 
The signs of modern times, in a fishing way, seem 
to indicate the decadence of the higher angling ; for there 
are two kinds of angling in practice — one of which is de- 
voted to the actual catching of the fish, and therefore is 
largely physical; the other to the embellishment of the 
fish and the ethical technicalities of their actual catching, 
and therefore the higher angling is a matter largely ex- 
isting in the mind of the catcher. 
The fishy idea may justly be termed the higher angling, 
and is the part of it which seems to have reached a stage 
of decadence. Or it may be that the fish, alas ! are not 
the same that they were in the good old days. 
Where now do we read of the spirited struggles be- 
tween man and fish? Where now is the giant brook trout 
or bass, which, with the strength of an ox, the speed of a 
greyhound, the cunning of a fox, and the endurance of 
a tax collector, swirled about the bank or boat in concen - 
tric circles till dizziness supervened and jeopardized its 
occupants; or which sulked sturdily at the bottom of the 
river or lake, defying all angling attempts whether gentle 
or rude; or which shot swiftly directly at the angler, 
thereby making yards of slack line, and disconnecting and 
rattling everything mental and plwsical in the angling 
combination ? 
Of the higher angling, where now is the hiss of the hot 
line as it cut its smoky way through the water; the 
furious war song of the reel; and where is that master- 
piece of angling strategy, the "giving him the butt;" all to 
be crowned, at last, when victory was all but in hand, by 
the fish breaking away? 
And, in the higher angling, the trout then was such 
a whale! There may be as good fish in the sea as ever 
were caught, but there are no fish in the waters equal to 
those which were caught if they had not broken away. 
Alas, it is regrettable that the higher angling seems tc 
be in its decadence. The beauties and benefits of it were 
not limited to the times and places of the actual happen- 
ings. They were universal and continuous. It was the 
true highest mountain peak of sport. 
There are many other sportive arts of civilization and 
savagery which owe their origin and existence to man's 
craving for a test of his personal prowess against that of 
his fellows, or against the force and craft, relatively in- 
ferior, of the wild animals of earth, air and water. The 
manner of contest has many forms. Some, as football, 
baseball, polo, etc., are mimetic of wars, strategy and on- 
slaught. However, all athletic sports, properly conducted, 
are of priceless value in developing the powers of the 
body with a corresponding benefit to the powers of the 
mind. Still, they are not the superlative of true sport. 
Or they were not till the decadence of the higher angling. 
^ Of all the sports in times past, none could compare 
with the ancient, gentle higher art. Of it, one may 
truly aver that the sun never sets, never has set and 
never will set on its devotees. Men may come and 
men may go, but the' gentle art stays with us, notwith- 
standing the embellished higher angling may be a lost 
art. If lost, it is irreparable. It combined within 
itself all the essential virtues of all the other arts. 
It possessed the best elements of what was recreative, 
developmental and contemplative, thus beneficially af- 
fecting both mind and body of man. 
While, as he was comfortably seated, a man's eyes 
were dreamily gazing into the water, when enjoying 
the higher angling, his mind might be climbing the 
clouds. • No one in the higher angling was immune 
from its benefits. 
If the veriest dullard sallied forth a-angling, and 
thereafter hiked back, he was a dullard no longer. He 
then had swarms of nimble thoughts; his mind took 
exalted and all-seeing flights pitched in a key noble, 
grand, majestic; his visions were intermingled with 
poetry and music; his stjde of expression was changed 
from the commonplace to the exaltations of hyperbole, 
and the details of his speech were ramiflorous, pris- 
matic and ample. 
To all men, the higher angling, when properly ac- 
quired, brought greater mental horizons— an uplifting 
out of themselves into the full brotherhood of man- 
kind. Any true devotee of the higher angling, if he 
did not tell where his favorite fish pool was situate, 
would delight all listeners by telling how the fish were 
caught. The length and breadtii of the narrative were 
measured only by the amount of time which the audi- 
ence could spare, or by its powers of physical endur- 
ance. 
So either the higher angling is in decadence or the 
fish are no longer what they were in the good old 
days. The swirls, the crimson sunsets, the screeching 
reels, the bent rods, the hissing lines, the demon fish, 
good old compounds all, these seem to have belonged 
to a stream of angling literature which lias been fished 
out. 
MAIZE THIEVES. 
Ax early and observant traveler in North America was 
Peter Kalm, a Swedish botanist and a friend of the great 
naturalist, Linnaeus, whose name was used to characterize 
the American laurel. Kalm journeyed in America in the 
years 1748-1751, having been sent here to collect specimens 
of plants and their seeds, with which to carry on experi- 
n^.ents in the acclimatization of various species in Sweden. 
It was not only for plants that Kalm had a keen eye. 
In his work, "Travels in North America," published at 
Stockholm on his return to Sweden, he set down a mass 
of observations on many subjects, but especially on natural 
history. Among these items, interesting in themselves as 
well as for the quaintness with which they are set forth, 
are many on the birds, and because he was a friend of 
LinnEeus, Kalm had in many cases a ven.' clear idea of the 
birds which he saw, and of their systematic position in the 
ornithology of the day. In a recent number of the Auk, 
Mr. Spencer Trotter has called attention to Kalm's 
ornithological observations as given in the first English 
edition of his work, which was translated from the 
Swedish by John R. Foster, an English naturalist. 
If it is true, as suggested by Mr. Trotter, that Peter 
Kalm's observations have little value at the present day, 
it is also true that their freshness makes them interesting 
to all lovers of nature and of outdoor life. His accounts 
of certain birds were used by Linnjeus, the tenth edition 
of whose great work was published in 1758, the date of 
the twelfth edition being 1766. 
It is interesting to note that at the time when Kalm 
visited America, it was already seen that the coming of 
the white people had greatly reduced the number of the 
birds. While sailing up New York harbor between Staten 
Island and the town of New York, he saw wild ducks on 
the water in immense quantities, yet in another place he 
says : "But since the arrival of great crowds of 
Europeans things are greatly changed : the country is well 
peopled and the woods are cut down; the people increas- 
ing in this country, they have, by hunting and shooting, 
in part extirpated the birds, in part scared thefn away; 
in the spring the people still take both eggs, mothers and 
young indift'erently, because no regulations are made to 
the contrary. And if any had been made, the spirit of 
freedom which prevails in the country would not suft'er 
them to be obeyed." Again, speaking of cranes, and writ- 
ing from a point in New Jersey a few miles below Phila- 
delphia, and almost opposite the city of Chester, he says : 
"Certain old Swedes have told me that in their younger 
years, as the country was not yet much cultivated, an in- 
credible number of cranes were here every spring; but at 
present they are not so numerous. Several people who 
have settled here eat their flesh when they can shoot 
them." These Avere perhaps whooping cranes. 
In those days the wild turkey was abundant along the 
Atlantic Coast. Their eggs were found in the woods and 
often hatched under domestic turkeys, giving a larger and 
far more palatable table bird. Kalm tells us that the 
Indians tamed wild turkeys and kept them near their 
homes. 
Not a little is said as to the damage done to crops by 
the various woodpeckers, the crows, and the blackbirds, 
called by the Swedish settlers "maize thieves." These 
maize thieves were the red-winged blackbird, the purple 
grackle, and even the bobolink, which Kalm calls the 
white-backed maize thief. He tells how the people of 
New England almost extirpated these birds because of 
their destruction of the Indian corn, and how, after this 
had been done, "in the summer of the year 1749 an im- 
mense quantity of worms appeared in the meadows which 
devoured the grass and did great damage," so that the 
people "abated their enmity against the maize thieves; 
for they thought they had observed that those birds lived 
chiefly on these worms before the maize is ripe, and con- 
sequently extirpated them, or at least prevented their 
spreading too much. They seemed, therefore, to be en- 
titled, as it were, to a reward for their troubles. But 
after these enemies and destroyers of the worms (the 
maize thieves) were extirpated, the worms were at liberty 
to multiply; and therefore they grew so numerous that 
they did more mischief now than the birds did before. 
In the summer of 1749 the worms left so little hay in New 
England that the inhabitants were forced to get hay from 
Pennsylvania and even from Old England." 
From which it appears that even in the good old times 
tliere was an unfortunate and expensive misapprehension 
of the office of the birds m their relation to agriculture; 
and out of the ancient books of travel we may draw ex- 
amples to illustrate the lessons of bird protection we are 
so strenuouslv teaching to-dav. 
PUBLIC FISH IN PRIVATE WATERS. 
Our correspondent, X. Y. Z,, who writes of the abuse 
of stocking private waters with fish from the public 
hatcheries, is entitled to consideration, because he repre- 
sents a class of anglers who have substantial reason for 
feeling aggrieved. They have assisted in the planting of 
trout fry in streams which were at the time open to the 
public for fishing, only to see the stocked waters subse- 
quently posted and forbidden to them. A transaction of 
this character savors of sharp practice on the part of the 
individual patriot who is the beneficiary. But human 
nature is so prone to get something for nothing, and the 
average man is so willing to enrich himself at the expense 
of the public treasury, that even United States Senators 
have been known to stock their own private fish ponds 
from the car of the United States Fish Commission. Such 
statesmen look upon the fish as a part of their "graft;" 
and after all, it 'may be said for them that there is little 
perceptible difference in principle between the distribution 
of free seeds at public expense to their constituents and 
the distribution of free fish to their own private ponds. 
The seed gifts, it is true, are sanctioned by law, and are 
free from the taint of swindling which attaches to the 
fish "graft." But is there am^ good reason for either ? 
To repeat what has been said as to the planting of 
public fish in private waters : The statute provides that 
when any waters have been stocked with State fish they 
may not be set aside as private parks with the special 
penalty for trespass. That is to say, the owner of such 
waters may maintain action for common law trespass 
damage, but may not sue for the added exemplary dam- 
ages which are awarded by statute to the owners of pri- 
vate parks. 
The statute forbids the planting of State fish in private 
waters. If fish are so planted, the act is in violation of 
law. The fish so obtained have been obtained by fraud. 
Presumably the remedy would be to institute a suit by the 
State to recover the value of the fish, on the ground that 
they had been obtained under false pretense. The possi- 
ble recovery of this sum by the State might not be con- 
sidered of great moment by the defendant, but the average 
citizen would shrink from the moral stigma put upon him 
bv the accusation of fraud. 
On Monday of this week the Legislature of Georgia 
put that State in line with the numerous others which 
have adopted the so-called Audubon bird bill. This is a 
measure prepared by the A. O. JJ. Committee on Bird 
Protection in association with the Audubon Societj'. It 
classifies certain species as game .birds and certain others 
as vermin, and puts all others under absolute protection 
at all times. The general adoption of the law over the 
.country means a new era in bird protection. The success 
of the movement to secure uniform legislation is due in 
large measure to the personal activity of Mr. Wm. 
Dutcher, chairman of the committee, who has for years 
made the cause his own. 
It 
Dr. James A. Henshall, Superintendent of the United 
States Fish Commission hatchery at Bozeman, Montana, 
reports continued and growing success in grayling propa- 
gation. The fry have been shipped in large numbers to 
widely separated parts of the country, and the promise 
is that grayling fishing will not become a lost art, but one 
in which, as the years go by, constantly increasing num- 
bers of anglers may have . part. . Only time can reveal 
whether Dr. Henshall will be rem.embered most lovingly 
as the apostle of the black bass or the father of artificial 
grayling culture. 
