July i, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
11 
The Spirit of It. 
Salmon fishing is indeed a passion, and the appetite 
: once implanted almost invariably grows rapidly to the 
I end on the very little indeed that it nowadays has to feed 
I upon. Look at that otherwise sensible person, standing 
! midway in the gelid Tweed (it is early spring or latest 
I autumn, now the only seasons when there is a chance), 
; his shoulders aching, his teeth chattering, his coat-tails 
i afloat, his basket empty. A few hours ago, probably, he 
left a comfortable home, pressing business, waiting clients 
and a dinner engagement. On arriving at his “water,” 
the keeper despondingly informed him that there is “nae 
head (shoal) of fish,” although at the utmost “there may 
be a happenin’ beast.” But in his eagerness and ignorance 
he knows better than the keeper, and there he is at it 
still, in his seventh hour. The wind is in his eye, the 
water is in his boots, but Hope, the charmer, lingers in 
his heart. To many this is a marvel, considerably greater 
than that which Byron stated and explained: 
“Though sluggards deem it but an idle chase, 
And marvel men should quit their easy chair 
The toilsome way and long, long league to trace. 
Oh, there is sweetness in the mountain air. 
And life that bloated ease can never hope to share.” 
For surely it is still more marvellous that men should 
quit not only their easy chairs, but their native element, 
in pursuit of something which they very seldom obtain, 
and which is to be got at home for a twentieth part of 
the money and no trouble at all. It has been maintained, 
though not perhaps in cool print, by men of sense and 
sobriety, that the thrill of joy, fear and surprise (nowa- 
days surprise is the predominant emotion) induced by 
the first tug of a salmon, is the most exquisite sensation 
of which this mortal frame is susceptible — whether he 
: comes as the summer grilse, with a flash and a splash ; 
or like a new-run but more sober-minded adult, with a 
[ dignified and determined dive; or like a brown-coated old 
1! inhabitant, with a long pull and a strong pull, low down 
i> in the depths. But this is a satisfaction with which the 
) angler must often dispense ; and after having toiled all 
i day and caught nothing, he turns, soaked and shivering, 
'I to his hut, seeing in his mind’s eye his disapproving wife, 
^ his unanswered letters, and especially his vacant chair at 
I the board of the friend whose good opinion and better 
I dinner he. has recklessly forfeited. For a moment the 
I inclination seizes him to say with Touchstone in the 
I forest, “When I was at home I was in a better place.” 
i But it is but for a moment, and then follows a complete 
i reaction. Everything he sees or tastes near the riverside 
[ seems better than better things at better places — bad 
I whiskey than the best claret, braxy mutton than the 
i choice of Leadenhall, the conversation of an unintellectual 
: boatman than the best mots, and the repose on the pallet 
; of straw sweeter than often visits beds of air or down. 
! Come how it may, come it does, that the memory cher- 
! ishes and chuckles over the discussions, the jokes, the 
incidents of times like these through many dreary years, 
I when multitudes of things, doubtless much less worthy to 
fade, have been utterly forgotten. — Quarterly Review. 
Pennsylvania Fish Commission. 
The Board of Fishery Commission met at Bellefonte 
i Hatchery on Tuesday and received Commissioner 
! Meehan’s report of the work done by the Department for 
I the six months ending May 31. According to the report 
j a vast volume of work was accomplished. From Dec. i 
to June I there were hatched and distributed from the 
1 five hatcheries 145,157,918 fish, with probably several mil- 
lions more eggs hatching after that date. From all ap- 
pearances, at the end of the calendar year the output will 
j exceed any year in the history of fishculture in Pennsyl- 
; vania, and exceed by many millions the best efforts of 
any other State last year. Of the fish hatched and dis- 
tributed the last six months 124,079,000 were whitefish, 
. lake herring, wall-eyed pike, and blue pike; 8,950,000 
pickerel, 8,&o,ooo brook and lake trout, and 3,326,900 
shad. The remainder were fish transferred from one 
water to another. The shad were hatched from eggs 
gathered by the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and 
in the Terresdale hatchery, under a joint agreement be- 
tween Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the United States, 
each doing a share of the work. The United States with- 
, drew on June i and subsequently Pennsylvania, with the 
. co-operation of New Jersey, hatched about 1,000,000 shad, 
which are not included in the above figures. 
The fish wardens were as vigilant and active as the 
superintendents of hatcheries. During the six months 
, they made 202 arrests and secured 185 convictions, and 
the imposition of fines amounting to $3,920. Seventeen 
, cases were discharged and seventeen defendants went to 
jail, nine in lieu of payment of fines. A number of cases 
were appealed to the county courts during May, and are 
> as yet undecided. One case which went against the De- 
partment in a county court has been appealed to the 
Superior Court. 
Of five cases appealed from the lower to the Superior 
Court during the year 1904 two have been decided, and 
both in favor of the Department of Fisheries. 
For the first time in the history of fishculture pickerel 
have been hatched at the Wayne County hatchery, and 
the Department has apparently completely succeeded in 
rearing frogs and breeding therefrom. The success was 
achieved by Superintendent William Buller. 
Preparations are being made for greatly increased work 
next year. Extensive repairs are being made to the 
Corry hatchery, and about two dozen nursery troughs 
are to be constructed. About thirty trout ponds, 36 feet 
by 15 feet, are to be built at Bellefonte, besides about 
fifty nursery troughs. Six trout ponds, a large-mouth 
black bass pond and a frog pond have been built at 
Wayne. A large pond for Oswego bass is projected, and 
between fifty and seventy-five nursery troughs are to be 
built. At Torresdale there will be built this summer two 
large ponds and at least ten nursery troughs. The nur- 
sery troughs named each have a capacity of from 20,000 
to 30,000 small fish. 
The Board of Fishery Commission on hearing the re- 
port of the work accomplished in hatching fish, unani- 
mously adopted a resolution expressing its high appre- 
ciation of the services rendered by the various superin- 
tendents. The Board also confirmed the appointments of 
William Haas and W. H. Safford as superintendents of 
two of the three new hatcheries authorized at the last 
session of the Legislature. 
Vermont Fish and Game. 
Sheldon, Vt., June 19. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
It is some months since I sent you any fish and game 
items. It is perhaps just as well, as your space has been 
taken up by younger correspondents who look on us 
“old fellows” as old fogies. We may have forgotten 
more about these subjects than they will ever know, 
though it may be hard to make them believe it. If we 
could only get these young friends to take up the ex- 
perience of our lives as we arrive at the end, it would 
in many instances be of benefit to them. But no. They 
must get the experience themselves and in after years 
arrive at the point where we were long before. It makes 
us smile to hear them come out with, to them, some new 
fact, one that we have known all about for years. 
As for general items of fish and game here in northern 
Vermont, we would say that some good catches of 
trout have been made in waters where there is no 
sawdust. Very many of our best trout streams are now 
but a thick solution of water and sawdust, and the shores 
a mass of rotten, reeking, disease-breeding filth. How 
long will our Board of Health allow this? Typhoid fever 
is in many localities becoming a more common disease 
than consumption ever was, and it will continue to> in- 
crease until this contamination of our waters is stopped. 
Deer are to be found in every neighborhood, and also 
fox hounds that have learned to run deer, though the 
local game wardens are thinning out the numbers, and 
will continue their good work until the owners of these 
dogs learn to keep them confined during the spring and 
summer months. Most of the does seen are barren, which 
is caused by being run by dogs when heavy with young. 
The cold, wet season will undoubtedly make the crop 
of ruffed grouse a short one. So far we have seen but 
very few broods of young grouse. Saturday we found a 
grouse sitting on a nest of twelve eggs, a most unusual 
circumstance for this season of the year, June 17. 
We saw numerous coon and mink tracks in that vicin- 
ity, also fresh bear signs, and also saw an old moose 
track. A caribou has been seen in the Diggings woods in 
Lamoille county. 
Public opinion is gaining ground in this State in favor 
of more stringent laws for fish and game protection, and 
at the meeting of our next Legislature there will be more 
stringent laws passed to help on the cause of fish and 
game propagation and protection. Stanstead. 
Some Big Fish. 
What is the record for big fish taken with rod and 
reel ? There are some data of recent exploits. At Key 
West, Fla., Feb. 26, 1905, Maj.-Gen. H. C. Merriam, U. 
S. Army, retired, took with rod and reel a sawfish which 
\yas 14^4 feet in length and weighed 420 pounds. The 
time taken to subdue the fish was 2)4 hours. 
Another notable Florida capture was that of a shovel- 
nose shark by Mr. Thomas Henry Burchell, of New 
York, at Palm Beach, in March, 1903. As told in the 
Palm Beach News of the following day, this was the 
story : 
“Something remarkable occurred off the pier yester- 
day, which was the spectacular catching of a shark with 
rod and reel by Mr. Thomas Henry Burchell, of New 
York. The shark weighed nearly 600 pounds, and meas- 
ured 8)4 feet. When the fish first took the hook Mr. 
Burchell thought it was a jewfish, and he worked to get 
it in, but had to go from the pier and worked with it as 
far as the Styx and back again, playing the line in and 
out. The line was only 21-strand, and great skill was 
used in handling the line, which was considered by the 
large gathering on the beach one of the finest pieces of 
work ever seen. It just took 70 minutes to land the fish, 
and it was then perfectly dead from overwork. Mr. 
Burchell’s reel has a 70-pound drag attachment, which 
was a great aid in tiring the shark. It is not necessary 
to say that this is the first time a fish of that size has 
ever been caught with rod and reel. There were 150 
people watching the exhibition.” 
Mr. Burchell himself adds these particulars : “I be- 
lieve this was the biggest catch on record without the 
assistance of a boat. The shovel-nose was hooked at 
the extreme end of the pier, which is 1,006 feet long, and 
worked in and finally landed on the beach about 500 feet 
from the pier. The line was a Cuttyhunk 21-thread, tar- 
pon rod and Julius Vom Hofe reel, 600 feet, with Rab- 
heth handle drag. The Styx mentioned in the article is 
a small village about one-fourth of a mile up the beach 
from the pier. The shark was landed in one hour and 
ten minutes, completely played out. Weight about 600 
pounds; eight feet six inches.” 
In September of the same year Mr. H. C. Dodge, of 
this city, while fishing off Plum Island, with rod and 
reel, and 15-thread bass line and gut-snelled hook, 
hooked a six-foot shark in fifteen fathoms of water, and’ 
after playing it thirty-five minutes, brought it in close to 
the boat where Capt. Lee Beebe got a noose on its tail 
and towed it ashore. 
American Fisheries Society. 
Appleton, Wis., June 7.— The thirty-fourth annual 
meeting of the American Fisheries Society will be held 
July 25, 26 and 27, at White Sulphur Springs, W. Va a 
cool and comfortable summer resort. The place of me’et- 
ing, aside from being historic, affords a quiet place giv- 
ing full opportunity for discussion of the various subjects 
brought up before the Society. The objects, of this 
Society are “to promote the cause of fishculture; to 
gather and diffuse information bearing upon its practical 
success, and upon all matters relating to the fisheries • 
the uniting and encouraging of all the interests of fish- 
culture and the fisheries, and the treatment of all ques- 
tions regar4ing fish, of a scientific and economic nature ” 
Geo F. PEABopy, Secretary 
Black Bass vs. Bluefish. 
Commenting on a recent claim that there is no fish so 
lively and full of gameness as the bluefish, a fresh-water 
angler writes : 
It is quite true that the bluefish is lively, and as the Sun 
says, the angler who gets hold of him may think he has 
the devil by the tail. But it is also true that with rela- 
tively strong tackle, the angler who gets a river black 
bass of the small-mouth variety will, perhaps, think the 
devil has him. 
If cannot be admitted that the bluefish exceeds the 
black bass in gameness. Plere are some facts : August, 
1900, off Fire Island, a ten-ounce rod, with 400 feet of 
line, landed bluefish after bluefish, each weighing from 4 
to 6 pounds. The rod was of split bamboo, by a well 
known maker, all gaffed within five minutes of hooking. 
September, i8go, at Black Jim’s Eddy, near Narrowsburg, 
on the Delaware River. The same angler who landed the 
bluefish, using split bamboo rods by the same maker as 
the one who made the rod with which the bluefish were 
landed, had two rods smashed and ruined by twO' small- 
mouth black bass. The rods, used were five-ounce and 
the fish leaped and were seen and weighed about 2 pounds 
each, not over that. 
Each of these bass took out over 100 feet of line, and 
then came toward the boat, faster than the reel could re- 
cover the line. Then there was a leap and a shoot and 
surge that broke the rod where the tip was jointed to the 
second section. Note that tackle relatively lighter brought 
bluefish to gaff, and that relatively heavier tackle failed 
to land either of two black bass. 
The hook used in taking the bluefish was relatively 
heavier, as the teeth and bony mouth of the bluefish make 
a stronger hook relatively imperative. But the size of the 
hook has no bearing on the question of the relative 
strength of the fish. 
Chicago Fly-Casting Totirnament. 
The Chicago Fly-Casting Club will hold an interna- 
tional fly and bait-casting tournament on Aug. 18 and 19. 
Fly and bait-casters throughout the world are earnestly 
invited to attend this tournament Contestants will find 
every effort made to arrange contests in conformity with 
those forms of casting with which they are familiar. 
Among the events scheduled will be long distance fly, 
delicacy fly and distance and accuracy fly, together with 
long distance bait ()4 ounce, weight), distance and 
accuracy bait ()4 ounce weight), and delicacy and 
accuracy bait ()4 ounce weight), and a large number oi 
prizes will be awarded. 
The rules of the Chicago Fly-Casting Club will prevail 
but exceptions will be made, where deemed advisable, 
in behalf of visiting anglers — the desire being to make 
this tournament as nearly representative as possible of 
expert an.gling at large and suggestions from anglers 
contemplating attendance at the tournament are earnestly 
requested and will receive careful consideration if re- 
ceived in time. 
The tournament is open to either representatives of 
clubs or unattached individuals. A nominal entrance fee 
will be charged in each event. Handsome souvenirs, 
illustrated, historical programmes will be provided, and 
no expense will be spared to make this the most success- 
ful tournament in angling annals. 
All anglers contemplating entering the tournament and 
all clubs proposing to send representatives, are urged to 
communicate at- the earliest moment with the secretary, 
B. J. Kellenberger, 52 St. Clair street, Chicago, 111 . 
Pennsylvania Fisheries Association. 
One of the very active concerns in Pennsylvania is 
the State Fisheries Association of Pennsylvania. It is 
composed of representatives of fish protective associa- 
tions, rod and gun clubs and of the bodies affiliated with 
fishing and fi.^hculture in Pennsylvania. At its annual 
meeting in Bellefonte, Center county, on June 21 and 22, 
besides visiting the State fish hatchery near Bellefonte 
and fishing, the Association transacted a large amount of 
very important business, which, if carried out by the vari- 
ous clubs and organizations, will render the present ad- 
mirable fish protective laws even more widely enforced. 
The most important action taken was a resolution, recom- 
mending each county organization to request the Com- 
missioner of Fisheries to appoint at least three of its 
members special fish wardens for the county in which the 
organization is located. Also that each member of said 
organization do pledge himself to report to the wardens 
named any case of violation of the fish laws, which he 
may observe and to appear as a witness before the justice 
of the peace after warrants have been served on the 
offender. 
It adopted another resolution to recommend the county 
.clubs to work for the passage through the next Legisla- 
ture of an act empowering the Commissioner of Fish- 
eries to designate small mountain streams in trout coun- 
ties as nursery streams in which it shall be unlawful ever 
to fish. 
Mr. Hallock on Swift River. 
The Messrs. Hitchcock handsomely entertained the 
veteran sportsman, Charles Hallock, on Tuesday last at 
their home by the riverside, on the occasion of his first 
outing- in these parts after his long absence in California. 
Vernon Hitchcock took the active old gent (he was the 
founder of Forest and Stream as long ago as 1873) 
with his trout rod through the difficult intricacies of the 
Swift River gorge, which forms such a notable feature of 
our rugged landscape, while Hitchcock, pere, prepared 
a I o’clock menu of beefsteak, fried trout, hot coffee, 
cold spring water and Porto Rico cigars, against their 
home returning. A large number of fingerlings rewarded 
these expert anglers’ quest, but only a regulation few 
were basketed, the individual counts being generously 
merged in the common score. Meanwhile, Vernon’s 
record still holds to the fore. Mr. Hallock’s vigor holds 
out well, and his comrade insists that he scrambled over 
the marginal rocks between the trout pools like a village 
school boy, in a way that would shame the professional 
mazumas; We all feel like giving this old-timer a warm^ 
welcome on his annual visitations to the heme of his. an- 
cestors, several _ generations of whom are buried in 
Qoshen and Plainfield.— Northampton Gazette, June 17. 
