Jan. 7, ipoS-l 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
IB 
flies, '^though I had seen no strike, and it did not feel 
right, but my line went flying about, and there could be 
no doubt I had a fish, and a big one. 
The water was very swift, and I worked with all the 
skill at my command, while Jim stood cn the opposite 
bank and watched the fight. I finally won, and my fish 
came slowly in, but the water was so^ rough I could not 
get a good view of it until I had it safely in the net, and 
then it proved to be an ordinary sucker of extraordinary 
size. Jim lay on the bank and yelled with delight, but it 
was difficult for me to see the joke. How that sucker 
ever got hold of my flies I will not attempt to explain. I 
never knew of such a thing before, though it may be 
common enough to others. It was my first and last 
sucker caught on a trout fly, and was the only fish I took 
that afternoon, while Jim had excellent luck all the time. 
When we had to stop fishing to go to our train I had 
seen him take at least thirty. I did not look at his catch ; 
1 did not want to — I had seen enough. Tired, sick, and 
disgusted, I walked with him to the station, and had to 
listen to a running fire of comments about the ability of 
some people to catch trout. On the way home the party 
accused me of being reticent, and I was. 
I duly reported no catch to my wife, but did not tell 
of Jim's luck. Next morning, when he had satisfied him- 
self that I was at my office, he went to my home and 
presented a half dozen trout to my wife, explaining that 
he had had rather better luck than I, and wished to 
divide his spoils. Later when I came into the house I 
was shown these fish and had to listen to embarrassing 
comments. I was looking at them when a peculiar condi- 
tion of their jaws attracted my attention, and I started 
with blood in my eye in search of Jim. Meeting Will 
on the way, I told him of my suspicions, and he seemed 
to think it was time to let the cat out, so explained that 
Jim, when he went for the driver the day before, found 
that he had been fishing in a private pond on the farm 
where the team was hitched, and had six trout. Jim had 
put them in his basket and sworn the driver to secrecy; 
hence his proposition to fish the second stream. Every 
time he could put a bush or bend in the creek between us, 
he had hitched a trout on to his flies and thrown it into 
the water, and when I was far enough away, so that I 
could not detect the deception, had called my attention, 
depending upon the swift current to give life to the per- 
formance. WiNFiELD T. Sherwood. 
When is One Sure of a Bluefish? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In Forest and Stream for Dec. 31, Mr. E. A. 
Samuels' realistic description of the difficulties in land- 
ing bluefish reminds me of a trip to Great South Bay 
with my young friend Steve, who had never before been 
on the sea. The wind was humming, the waves running 
wild, and the bluefish were springing bear traps on our 
bait. Steve had plenty of trouble with the fish as they 
leaped and splurged and ran under the keel and did all 
of their complicated vigor acts. Finally he managed 
to get one into the net, and up on deck. No sooner 
was the fish unhooked, than it gave four slaps and two 
wallops and a half and described a graceful parabola 
over the rail. The boy was not only losing bluefish, 
but also his ruddy golf color. "By George!" said he. 
"You are never sure of a bluefish until he is actually in 
yonr stomach, are you?" Just then his breakfast of 
bluefish went overboard. 
It is very true, as Mr. Samuels says, that on the 
whole, sea fish are greater fighters than fresh-water 
fish. They are more capricious, and even a maskinonge - 
will hold the bait in his mouth for awhile and think 
about it. The sea fish are more apt to have hair trigger 
mouths, and to incidentally rush at the bait while they 
are hurrying for some spot a mile away, with no in- 
tention of stopping for an instant. Of course there are 
some old striped bass that know the first name of every 
fisherman from Beaver Tail Light to Cuttyhunk, and 
sometimes a bonita will turn her lorgnette leisurely to- 
ward the bait. Sea fish furnish sport for athletes, while 
fresh-water fish were intended for contemplative men. 
A fresh run silvery salmon just up from the sea is , 
a terror. He will make you gasp with his stunts, arid 
as soon as you are through gasping and have a good 
new breath he will make you gasp again. After he has 
been in the river for a month he is a moderate fighter. 
Lie can still make the water boil up under the fly like a 
steam propeller, and can get tangled up with the fly 
after the manner of the same sort of a contrivance, 
but he will not make a broad jump of twenty feet when^ 
hooked, or leap clean over an island in the river and 
take a hundred yards of line whizzing and smoking 
through the blueberry bushes before you have had 
time to elevate the tip of the rod. He is not likely to 
yank you head over heels into the rapids if the line 
snarls on the reel. 
I have caught sea fish and fresh-water fish from,,. 
Labrador to Florida and from Sweden to France" 
From streams in Prussia so small that the trout had to 
get out on the bank when they wanted to turn around, 
to the gulf stream where the channel bass had almost 
all of the room that they needed; and if you ask me 
which fishing I really prefer, my answer would be: 
"Give me all of it." I have no respect for a man who 
does not believe that his own country is the greatest 
on earth, no matter where he comes from; or for the 
man who does not think that the fishing that he likes 
best is best for all of us. Robert T. Morris. 
Fish Shoals Located by Electric Apparatus* 
Under date of Nov. 7, 1904, United States Consul 
E. Theophilus Liefeld, of Freiburg, Germany, re- 
ports that a German patent has been taken out for 
an electrical apparatus whereby the presence and ex- 
tent of shoals of fish can be ascertained. A micro- 
phone, inclosed in a water-tight case, connected with 
an electric battery and a telephone, is lowered into 
the water. So long as the telephone hangs free- no 
sound is heard, but on its coming into contact with a 
shoal of fish, the constant tapping of the fish against 
the microphone case produces a series of sounds 
which at once betrays their presence. The rope at- 
tached to the microphone is marked so that the exact 
depth of the shoal is at once ascertained. 
Tanawadeh Otjting Club* 
There was a notable gathering of sportsmen and 
patrons of outdoor living at the residence ©f Mr. F. 
James Reilly, 12 Manhattan Square, south, New York, on 
the evening of Thursday, December 29, the occasion being 
a reunion of the members and friends of the Tanawadeh 
Outing Club, arranged by President Reilly to mark the 
close of his two very successful terms in office. During 
the formal meeting which preceded the reception the 
report of the president for the years 1903 and 1904 was 
read. It set forth very clearly the rapid progress of the 
organization in all the departments of its activities during 
this period. A noteworthy fact mentioned in the report 
was that since the erection of the club house in Pelham 
Bay Park in 1903, no intoxicants of any sort had been 
brought into the building, and that no form of gambling 
whatever had occurred at the club house, and this with- 
out the enactment of any prohibitive rule by the club or 
the house committee. 
The host furnished instrumental music and a chafing- 
dish supper, and the evening was passed most pleasantly 
with familiar songs and in reviving pleasant memories 
of camp and trail, of chase and bivouac. Those present 
were President F. James Reilly, Vice-President J. Frank 
Chase, Secretary Harry V. Radford, Treasurer Joseph B. 
Hanf, of New York; S. Valentine Farrelly, of Morris- 
town, N. J.; Frank W. Norris, Jr.; William F. Reilly, 
Charles U. Stepath, of New York; William A. Gillen, of 
Jersey City, N. J. ; Lester Reiley and Robert Reiley, of 
New York. The club is already preparing to celebrate its 
tenth anniversary, which occurs in June, 1906. 
Bulldog's Long', Lone Vigil. 
Bemidji, Minn., Dec. 24. — A big bulldog guarding its 
master's camp was found in the northern wilds of Min- 
nesota by. members of the surveying party just returned 
from several weeks' work along the northern boundary 
line. 
A trapper named Edwards who had lived near Bass- 
wood Lake, north of Ely, for a number of years, making 
his living by trapping bear and other animals, has disap- 
peared. His only companion during his long trips in 
the woods was a huge bulldog, and the scores of deep 
scars on the animal testify to the many hard battles he 
has been engaged in with beasts of the forest. 
While the surveying crew was near Edwards's place 
he left on one of his trips. A month later the same 
party found his camp outfit and boat on an island in 
Bear Island Lake. The bulldog was there, almost starved, 
but still on guard, and it was a long time before he 
would let one of the party get near. It is the belief that 
Edwards may have been killed in a quarrel with Indians, 
though it is possible that he may have been drowned. 
His camp was fifty miles from the nearest town. The 
bulldog and camp eff'ects were brought to Ely by the sur- 
veying party, the dog refusing to go until the boat and 
camp outfit had been loaded on the surveyors' wagon. — 
New York Times. 
Perfect Marine Gasolene Engines. 
BY A. E. POTTER. 
Do NOT think that I am attempting the description of a 
perfect engine. I should be only too glad to do so, to be 
able to say that I had seen a perfectly reliable type, equal 
in every respect to the steam engine, as easily operated, 
and just as long lived. This is the goal to which we 
hardly dare hope to attain. We have made rapid strides 
in the past few years; the coming Automobile Show in 
January, followed by February's Motorboat and Sports- 
men's Show, will doubtless surprise many with the 
progress of even a year. But there is plenty room for 
improvement in this line, and the thinking engineer is 
just now waking up to the fact that the two particular 
subjects just at present paramount over all others are the 
consumption of fuel per horsepower and how to lengthen 
the life of the engine. 
In a U. S. Consular Report dated Havre, August 7, 
1901, describing a new application of the gasolene engine, 
appears a table giving the horsepower, weight, speed per 
hour, consumption of naphtha per hour, and list price. 
The horsepower engine claims a consumption of .528 
quart; 3^ horsepower, 1.27; 41^ horsepower, 1.585; 6 
horsepower, 2.378, and two cylinder 8^4 horsepower, 
3.17. This is the first instance which has ever come 
under my observation where the consumption was listed. 
I do not believe any American manufacturer of marine 
gasolene engines would dare to publish so low a horse- 
power consumption, or to guarantee any more than that, 
when the engine was tested at the factory, it developed 
a certain brake horsepower at a given speed, and that 
the consumption of fuel was a certain amount. In the 
test the valves were in all probability as nearly perfect 
fitting aS:They ever will be again, adjustments as fine as 
they couW .make them, probably no mufflers were used, 
piston rings -tight, and in fact conditions: just as near 
perfect as it was possible to get them. Is.it reasonable to 
suppose that these conditions will ever -be just the same 
again when installed in the boat? , Decidedly not. When 
you come to investigate and find how few manufacturers 
ever test their engines for fuel consumption, or having 
tested them keep the results religiously to themselves, 
you may be surprised ; but you will be more so when you 
find how few will even give a guarantee, that a certain 
consumption was noted when being tested. 
The constantly advancing price of naphtha in itself is 
causing some apprehension, but couple to that the fact 
that a waste of naphtha usually results in a diminution of 
power, and I think you will all agree that a better knowl- 
edge of the principles of carburation is absolutely 
necessary. ... 
I should very much like to attend a competitive test 
of the various vaporizing and carburetting devices, 
American-made, another test of foreign high-priced car- 
buretting and mixing appliances, and then see the best 
American pitted against the best foreign production. 
These devices are advertised in glowing terms to give 
10 to 20 per cent, more power than others ; that there 
are more of one particular make in use than any other; 
that another is the cheapest because it is the simplest, 
but glancing through our trade publications not a single 
one that I have found advertises its economy per horse- 
power produced. 
Some of these devices cost but three or four dollars, 
while some cost %bo and upward, and not one dares to 
advertise increased or the same power with decreased 
consumption of fuel. 
It will have to be admitted that, all , things considered, 
an engine in a launch or around salt water will show 
more power the first season than the second. Frequently 
before the end of the first season a decrease in the num- 
ber of revolutions will be noticed, and it will be found 
necessary to make extensive repairs before its efficiency 
is restored. This should not be, but unfortunately .^occurs 
too often. It may be the result of ignorance on the part 
of the operator, or due to poor design, careless rnachin- 
ing, accident, poor cylinder oil, dirt or any one of scores 
of other causes. It may be that particular type is more 
susceptible to deterioration' than the other. I was once 
asked a question as to which would last the longer in use, 
the two or the four-cycle engine. I am free to confess 
that at that time I "dodged the issue." I am going to 
explain quite fully the causes which may reduce the effi- 
ciency and power and shorten the life of Ijoth types.. 
One: of the most frequent causes of excessive wear that 
I have found in two-cycle engines is the presence of core 
sand in the crank case. I ha_v^ frequently taken from a 
crank case two or more heaping tablespocfnfuls of dirt, 
largely consisting of beach sand used in forming the 
c ore s. This comes from not being particular to clean the 
caRings carefully. The cored passage between the crank 
case and the inlet port is an excellent place for , core 
sand to be overlooked. Of course if the castings had 
been sufficiently "pickled" in dilute sulphuric acid the 
sand would have been dissolved and washed out, but 
some manufacturers object to "pickling" on account of 
trouble to make paint and enamel remain without peeling 
and flaking. For mine, I would rather have less sand 
and not be so particular about the paint. It is not neces- 
sary to explain how the sand cuts connecting rod bear- 
ings, shaft bushings, crank-pins and crank-shaft bearings, 
cylinders, and rings. 
Two-cycle engines are usually designed with a connect- 
ing rod twice the length of the stroke, occasionally less, 
hardly ever more. The reason for this is to reduce the 
clearance in the crank case in order to make the -crank 
case compression as high as possible. The shorter the 
connecting rod the more the side thrust against the sides 
of the cylinder wall, both on the up stroke when com- 
pressing the charge, _ and on the power stroke. Then 
there are double the impulses that there are in the four- 
cycle cylinder. One mitigating feature, however, is the 
fact that the average meaia effective pressure is about 
45 pounds in the two-cycle against 66 pounds in the 
four-cycle. 
In a two-cycle engine the incoming gas through the 
inlet port has a tendency to dissolve and carry with it a 
part of the film of oil on that side of the cylinder, while 
the hot gases on their way out burn up the oil on the 
opposite side. Reducing this film of oil has a tendency to 
wear more there than on the forward and after sides, 
and when the compression begins to lov/er from leaks 
past the rings, the burned gases mingle a little with the 
fresh gas in the crank case, appreciably reducing the 
volume of the explosive mixture, rendering it slightly 
"foul.'' As leaks develop around the crank-shaft from 
wear in the bushings, the crank case compression is 
lessened, and the volume of eaich charge is correspondingly 
reduced. These losses are, with one or two exceptions, 
inherent in the two-cycle construction, and might be 
characterized as structural, as they cannot be eliminated 
entirely. 
The four-cycle engine has its troubles as well. 
Valve- poppets , are liable to warp under the excessive heat 
of the exhaust; their faces have a predilection foi- scal- 
ing; the valve seats become worn unevenly,- all developing 
leaks which reduce the horsepower of the engine, but- 
the consumption of gasolene goes merrily on. It takes 
but a veiy little trouble with inlet or exhaust' valves ti* 
