72 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 28, 1905. 
there is a large tract of high hills. I frequently hear fox- 
hounds (sometimes at night) running on those hills. By 
using my megaphone as a receiver, holding the small end 
to my ear, I can hear those dogs plainly when a long 
distance away. I would suggest to the Massachusetts 
fox hunting clubs that a big megaphone made of light 
metal (metal is much better than cardboard) would be a 
good thing to take along when they have their field trials 
when they are using, some of those flyers of southern 
breeding who are claimed to be able to catch our New 
England foxes (I don't recall hearing of any instance 
where they did). The megaphone would be handy to yell 
at the dogs, also to use as a receiver when the dogs were 
out of reach of ordinary ears. 
Up here we do not want our fox dogs to try to catch 
our foxes (at least I do not). The southern fox hunters 
may condemn our manner of killing foxes. It will not 
cause us to change. We do not drive deer with dogs as 
they do. When we hunt deer still-hunting is the rule, 
and it is a rule which is enforced. A dog running our 
deer stands more chances of getting killed than does the 
deer. C. M. Stark. 
DUNBAETON, N. H. 
Sk«nfc Tfappingf. 
Sayre, Pa. — The reference to the above industry pub- 
lished in Forest and Stream of January 7, calls to mind 
the fact that one need not necessarily invest in vast landed 
estates or remove to remote corners of the earth to cap- 
ture the intrepid polecat. A neighbor living across the 
street from the writer, in the center of a town of 6,000 
inhabitants, has within the year trapped and killed nine 
skunks, and he is convinced that the industry is not on 
the decline. 
When a boy, living on the bleak hillside south of Ithaca, 
N. Y., the writer and an uncle conceived the idea of ex- 
tensively engaging in the skunk trapping business, and to 
that end a supply of steel-traps was bought and a line of 
them run out over a likely circuit of country. The morn- 
ing following, the writer found himself confined to bed 
threatened with an attack of pneumonia, a circumstance 
which compelled the uncle to go over the line of traps; 
'c. duty he performed, I am convinced, with great heroism, 
inasmuch as he was compelled to club one perfume-laden 
member of the fur-bearing tribe to an untimely death. 
The daring feat of skinning the husky beast then ensued, 
during which operation the brave relative acquired suffi- 
cient odor to create a riot at the family- dinner several 
hours later, 
It was only after the interment of the clothes worn at 
the first "husking bee" indulged in by the senior member 
of the newly chartered trapping firm, and overmuch bath- 
ing practiced for many weeks, that final traces of the un- 
studied contact with the fetid outlaw of all creation were 
elimiitated. and life on the wind-swept farm, with its won- 
derful outlook across to the sunset hills, again assumed 
its normal functions.. 
Perhaps it is needless to add the trapping enterprise, 
by virtue of this first untoward circumstance, was 
strangled in its infancy, and its promoters immediately 
and with great cheerfulness turned their attention to 
more congenial and less odoriferous occupations. 
M. Chill. 
All communications for Forest and Stream must be 
directed to Forest and Stream Pub. Co., New York, to 
receive attention. We have no other office. 
The Log of a Sea Angler. 
BY CHARLES F. HOLDER^ AUTHOR OF "'ANGLING/'' "bIG GAME 
FISHES," ETC. 
rV.— Dodging a Sawfish— Dangerous Game — A Hard Fight 
—Sawfish and Thermometers— Collecting Eggs— Vast 
Quantities— A Disappearing Spider— The Cast-Net 
for Mullets— Old Bones in a Keg— Tattooed 
by Physalia— Attendant Fish Nomeus. 
My guide once blew out the flambeau in a cave three 
miles under ground to give me a clear idea of what abso- 
lute darkness meant. I realized on East Key at night 
what solitude was. It was hot, nearly 90 degrees at 
midnight, and lying on the sand just out of the brush 
watching for a green turtle it was absolutely silent. The 
wind had gone down, the stars blazed like electric lights 
in the sky, and constellations were seen that are 
strangers to northern eyes. I could see ghostly spirit 
crabs, wandering over the strand; see lights on the sur- 
face of the sea where some luminous animals wandered. 
Then the wind would begin to rise, the water along the 
sand giving out a low sweet melody, a tinkling sound, 
and then a dim, far-away roar gradually comes down 
the wind telling of the sea breaking on the reef to the 
windward. A gull came in from the sea with a weird 
cry; a heavy crash sounded where some big fish jumped, 
and the wind began to moan and sough through the bush, 
the gulls taking to the air to see what was abroad. 
The stars disappeared one by one, an inky-black cloud 
shut in the night, and with a roar of mighty sounds a 
hurricane-like squall burst upon the island. The bushes 
were beaten to the ground, hundreds of birds were sent 
whizzing through the air, clouds of water whipped the 
face, and the sands rose like spectres and were whirled over 
the water. Pandemonium was let loose, the spirits of the 
deep were invoked and played havoc; then as suddenly 
it passed on; the stars came out, and the normal state of 
affairs came again. 
We are cooled off ; the mercury has dropped five de- 
grees, and Bob is making coifee. It has been my good 
fortune to see storms and squalls of all kinds, but_ no- 
where do they come and go with such marvelous rapidity 
as in this portion of the world. 
It is not everywhere that one can see a bird lay an 
egg on the wing. I have been almost struck by such mis- 
siles -several times ; and in walking, when the entire bird 
population is on the wing, one must keep a weather eye 
out. The birds have begun to hatch, and one _of the 
mysteries is how a mother bird can tell her own in such 
a swarm. I crawled to-day under and into the bush 
and filled a water bucket with eggs without moving from 
a space five by five feet. 
In reaching a lane in the bush I found a remarkable 
spider, as large as my thumb, yellow and black, perched 
on a big stout web that completely closed the way. As 
I rose up to examine it, the spider began to swing to 
and fro, and in a few seconds fairly disappeared before 
my eyes from the rapidity of the motion. I stood and 
watched it a moment or two, when the rapidity of its 
swing gradually subsided, and it came to a standstill. 
A more clever defense it would be difficult to imagine; 
and that a spider-loving bird would be completely de- 
ceived was very evident. 
Bob and I took the dinghy one morning and sculled out 
over the reef, while John waded alongshore with .cast- 
net slung over his shoulder with an eye out for mullets. 
He was a strange figure, tall and lank. _ Bob said they 
had once used him as a jury mast on a ship that was dis- 
masted down by Trinidad. Suddenly he stopped, swung 
the net to the left, then to the right, and launched it in a 
broad circle over a school of mullets which were 
presently shaken out on to the sands. Mullet of the right 
size with roe is a delicious dish. The dinghy had gone 
out near the channel, and we were moving slowly along 
near the heads when I saw a long gray object passing 
directly across our path. It looked like a shark, but a 
moment later I made out a long snout, and saw the per- 
fect outline of the largest sawfish I had ever sighted. 
It paid no attention to the dinghy, and wishing to take 
its saw, I drove the grains into it. 
Have you ever seen a swordfish leap? It is the 
clumsiest of all motions, a slow rising and dropping 
back, a lift without the forward motion; and this jump 
of the sawfish was almost identical. The whMe, fish came 
out of the water a foot or more, and the ugly sa:^ swung 
around in search of the enemy as the fjsh dropped back 
^tH a splash, sen4?llg fllg gpray flying oyer t|s. \ J^ad 
about fifty feet of light line on the spear; the fish jerked 
that overboard so quickly that I had just time to drop 
on my back, brace and hold to the piece of wood the 
line was fast to, when the shock came. Bob said later 
that he heard my arms crack, and in truth I only held on 
by a miracle while the boat got under way; then I 
slipped the wood crosswise under the seat, and Bob 
steered with his oar. 
The fish, maddened by the sudden attack, ran straight 
inshore, dragging the bow down, making a menacing 
wave of foam ahead of us; then, on nearing the beach, 
turned so suddenly that the dinghy partly filled, and 
sped away up the long white sandy beach, from which 
John waved his straw sombrero and cheered. There ^vas 
nothing to do but to tire out the fish, and after enjoying 
the run a while, I put over a pair of oars and tried 
to stop it, forcing the fish to swim in a circle while we 
climbed to windward on the turns and displayed our 
agility. 
The water was not over four feet deep, and the saw- 
fish took us nearly around the island before it began to 
weaken; then the dinghy, being a third full of water, 
proved too much of a pull, and I took the line and in 
half an hour had the boat over the sawfish. 
The grains had struck just over the gills ^ where the 
neck ought to be; in a good place for towing, but as 
1 tried to lift it, out came the big saw, and we dropped 
into the bottom of the dinghy, while the toothed saber 
struck the gunwale a slashing blow, breaking of¥_ several 
teeth. A cut from such a weapon would, Bob said, leave 
a man full of holes, and the quickness with which the 
fish sent the weapon around to right and left was amaz- 
ing. Three times it literally swept the deck, ramming its 
teeth into the soft cedar of the boat, breaking several, 
suggestive of the damage it might do. 
It was essentially a "down bridge" performance, and 
no jackies dodged shells quicker than did we drop when 
that ivorj'-toothed saw cleaver came whirling across the 
boat, while the sawfish, partly held by myself, seemed to 
stand on its tail. Bob finally got the end of the Hne and 
literally lassoed it, and with a jerk hauled the saw down 
to the rail, placing the big fish hors du combat, as help- 
less as a turtle on its back. 
The sawfish has certain claims on the angling frater- 
nity as a game fish; at least by another name it is a 
game fish, but by some it is classed with the sharks, and 
looked upon as vermin. I have had as hard and gamy a 
play with the sawfish on a rod as some tarpon have 
given me, and the struggle this fish gave me on the grains 
established its reputation with me at least as a game, 
not to say dangerous, animal. 
In swordfish fishing, one is liable to be spitted, and 
a friend told me he was twice rammed by one he had 
hooked, and forced to cut away the line; but the sword- 
fish hacks you with a bludgeon filled with ivory nails. 
We now made the fish fast by its saw, and towed it in, 
and when the other men came along, hauled it up — a 
splendid specimen weighing at least 500 pounds, a strange 
combination of ray and shark, with a four-foot sword, 
the sides armed with stout ivory teeth an inch in length 
—a savage and dangerous weapon. 
The body of the sawfish is wide, the side or pectoral 
fins giving it the appearance of a ray, making it a con- 
spicuous object against the bottom. The sawfish is in 
demand for a singular purpose. The big saw is mounted 
as a base for thermometers, and all the specimens the 
men caught were sold for this purpose to a little German 
in Kew West who collected strange flotsam of the sea. 
The sun was so hot that I determined to return to 
camp, and had hardly started — Chief bearing the trophy 
and John his net and mullets — when I tripped and fell, 
and found myself waist-deep in a big hogshead, having 
landed on a human skeleton, crushing in the jaw and 
lower part of the skull. The men professed complete 
ignorance, although they have been here twenty years. 
There was nothing about it to tell the story, no _ vestige 
of clothing, and the supposition was that some sailor had 
died and been buried in the cask in default of a coffin. 
These islands back in the forties or early fifties were 
the resort of pirates and freebooters, the harbor afford- 
ing an excellent retreat for vessels which, did they 
know the reef, could slip in through the narrow channels 
and easily throw an enemy off the track. 
The heat on this and other keys at midday in the last 
,4)art of June was sometimes unbearable. A thick nebu- 
.lous caloric wave rose from the white sand and distorted 
every object. Masses of old timbers, pieces of wreck- 
age, " f||aji'0'-war birds roosting— all too^ 011 gigaritie 
shapes in this heat mirage. There was no getting to 
windward, as there was no wind, and the thing to do 
was to go in swimming every half hour, five minutes in 
l-be sun being sufficient to dry my linen, trousers and _ 
shirt, and create an appetite for another swim. 
It was during one of these cooling swims that I tested 
the stinging powers of the Portuguese man-o'-war 
{Physalia). These beautiful fairy ships were common 
everywhere; the shore was lined with their dried bal- 
loons that exploded as I trod upon them, and the lagoon 
was the field of action for myriads. In swimming on 
ray side, I ran over one, the mass of tentacles, which 
extended away about fifteen feet, covering my abdomen 
and legs with a purple, virulent mass. The impact came 
like an electric shock, and I had barely power to get to 
my feet and stagger inshore; and I was told by Bob that 
J. had had "a close call." The mass was cut or scraped 
off with a razor, then covered with sweet oil while I 
was dosed with whiskey. Singularly enough, while the 
burning was excruciating, the most serious symptom was 
loss of breath; doubtless the action of the heart was 
affected. For a year or more the flesh was covered with 
the fanciful markings, and I could have passed a credit- 
able examination as the tattooed man. _ Some French 
naturalist has made a number of interesting experiments 
with Physalia, killing dogs and cats by internal _ doses 
of the tentacles, proving the presence of a virulent 
poison. I am confident that if I had not had immediate 
common sense treatment I might not have recovered, 
and I doubt if off bottom I could have reached shore. 
I was on the lookout for these animals when swim- 
ming, and saw this one, but did not suppose that its 
tentacles were extended so far behind. In large indi- 
viduals the train is sometimes one hundred feet in length. 
No more beautiful object than Physalia can be, imagined; 
a floating bubble four inches long, with a perfect sail 
that can be elevated or depressed, and depending from 
its lower surface a mass of vivid blue or purple zooids 
or tentacles which can be held closely to the body or ex- 
tended many feet. 
They constitute at once the drags, the keel of the fairy 
ship, and lures as well. I have often watched their 
action; lowered into a school of sardines they resemble 
purple worms twisting about a small fish, bites at one, 
and, as though struck by lightning, turns over dead; it is 
instantaneous. Bob said, "The sardine never knew what 
hit him." The moment contact came tens of thousands 
of lasso cells — animate bombs, capsules loaded _ with 
screw-drivers- — exploded and struck the fish, piercing it, 
pouring into the myriad of wounds a purple poison that 
was as eft'ective as so many electric bolts. 
But this is not the strange part of it. I can imagine 
no more terrifying creature in the sea than this- — a liviiig 
torpedo made up of millions of tubes, death lurking in 
every one; yet among them, swimming about freely, 
were from one to half a dozen little fishes {Nomeus) 
that had been endowed by nature with the exact color of 
the tentacles, a vivid purple. So perfect was the imi- 
tation that a "tenderfoot" would never see them. When 
I lifted a Portuguese man-o'-war by the sail and held 
the mass of death-dealing darts above the water, the lit- 
tle purple fishes appeared, darting about, terrified_ at be- 
ing disturbed by their protector; upon releasing it, they 
immediately came back and resumed their position be- 
neath it. 
I have been told that the Physalia devours its attend- 
ants; but in hundreds examined, I never found a 
Nomeus in the toils, which of course does not prove 
that they are immune; but it does show that they know 
more about it than the sardines. When the Physalia 
is feeding, its fishing line is lowered many feet, and the 
moment a fish is caught it is hauled in by short jerks and 
pulls, so that in two or three minutes a two-inch sardine 
will be hauled ten or twelve feet and surrounded by the 
tentacles. When the Physalia wishes to move, it ele- 
vates its beautiful pearl-colored sail tinted with pink, 
which displays a wind surface of six or even seven square 
inches, and with its purple drags trailing behind to steady 
it, sails away over the' Gulf with countless hordes of 
Porpita and Velella and the purple snail lanfhina — all 
ships of the sea of greatest beauty. 
Daisy — "Why, Rose, dear, what have you done to your 
poodle? The last time I saw him his hair was white." 
Rose — "Yes, but it was such a nuisance to keep hin) 
washed, you know; so I just hacj him dyed brown!"--' 
Detroit Free Pregs. 
