Dec. i6, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
being those which had spawned. The carp is so re- 
markably reproductive that despite the immense num- 
ber already taken out they are largely on the increase 
each year. It simply proves my table of mathematics 
presented in my last paper on the carp, viz., that from 
1,000,000 carp as the original figure that in twenty 
years in compounding that sum the amount will reach 
the grand total of 1,181,276,000 — carp enough to feed 
the entire world, with sufficient remaining to accorn- 
modate the inhabitants of other planets. But as plenti- 
ful and as cheap as they are, the dwellers on the 
Illinois and nearby care not a fig for the carp which 
is sometimes called “The poor man’s fish.” 
They know a “hawk from a hernshaw,” or handsaw, 
for that matter, as some commentators of Shakespeare 
have it. They can realize on the fragrance of a rose 
the same as on the fragrance of a superior fish. Brillat 
Savarin, the famous epicure, says, “The destiny of 
nations depends upon the manner in which they feed 
themselves.” Now if that doctrine prevails and we 
think it sound, I say, God help this country if it turns 
out to be a nation of carp eaters, and to that end the 
degenerate carp are being propagated everywhere. 
We do not wish to be a Caligula or a Marcus Au- 
relius on this subject, as despotism in any form is not 
to be encouraged; but we do say that society cannot 
exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite 
be placed somewhere. Because a few fishermen are 
coining money in dealing in carp, aie we to give way to 
this greed? Let us do that which will bring most good 
to the largest number. The introduction of carp, aye! 
the cursed carp has only the most infinitesimal minority 
for its advocacy. However, if we must have carp 
eaters, let us present a recipe of “How to cook a carp,” 
which we take from a pamphlet by Mr. Edward Harris, 
of Toronto, entitled, “Our Great Lake Fisheries a 
Vanishing Heritage.” He says: “When fishing, jf you 
catch a German carp, clean it and hang it out in the 
sun six weeks to dry. Then nail it to a pine board 
and cover it thoroughly with salt and mud. Let it 
stand two months longer, and then bake it two days. 
Remove the nails, throw the carp over the back fence 
and eat the board.” 
“Notwithstanding the above recipe, a baked carp 
heavily stuffed with onions and garlic, and eaten with 
sauerkraut, makes a good meal. This is the substitute 
the ‘foreign element wise in their generation’ have 
given to the people who have destroyed and are still 
destroying wffiat once w^ere the finest fresh-water fisheries 
in the world.” Alex. Staebuck. 
Pennsylvanians Good Showing, 
At the quarterly meeting of the Department of Fish- 
eries of Pennsylvania a report was read by the Com- 
missioner of Fisheries, W. E. Meehan, showing the fish- 
cultural and fish protective work for the calendar year. 
The following is an abstract: 
Total number of fish hatched and distributed, 141,- 
527,128, of which 16,873,771 were game fish; 124,653,357 
were food fish. Among the game fish were : Brook 
trout, 7,420,805 ; cut-throat trout, 70,000; lake trout, 
1.000. 000; black bass, 24,.^^^^; other game fish, 8,358,480, 
including 8,350,600 pickerel. x\mong the food fish are in- 
cluded 90,900 frogs. The principal food fish hatched 
were : Whitefish, 34,489.999 ; lake herring, 22,840,000 ; 
wall-eyed pike, 51.300,000; blue pike, 9,450,000; shad, 
3,790,000; white perch, 2,125,000; yellow perch, 174,750. 
The appropriation available for the year was $20,000. 
The number of hatcheries in full or in partial operation 
on Dec. i, six. The number turning out the fish enu- 
merated above, five. Number of hatcheries located but 
not built, two. Total, eight. Total number authorized 
by the Legislature, nine. Number of acres actually ac- 
quired for hatchery purposes, 133, including the two sites 
not yet - occupied. Number of hatching houses, eight. 
Number of batteries, five. Number of jars available, 
1,224 — 760 McDonald, 252 Downing, 212 Meehan. Total 
number of hatchery troughs for eggs and fry, 540 — 414 
inside and 126 outside. Also eleven nursery ponds each 
with a capacity of four times a single outside trough. 
Total capacity of hatchery troughs for brook trout from 
12.000. 000 to 15,000,000. Number of breeding ponds in 
the hatcheries, 117. 
On Dec. i, for the first time in the history of fishcul- 
ture in Pennsvlvania, all the hatching houses contained 
eggs. The total number is 67,101,000, or beyond 7,000,000 
in excess of the same time last year. Of the eggs in the 
hatcheries, 11,545.000 are brook trout. 
During the year the fish wardens made 530 arrests for 
violation of the fish laws. They secured 430 convic- 
tions before the Justices of the Peace and the imposition 
of $11,992.50 in fines. Of the 430 convictions, 89 de- 
fendants took appeals, and of the too cases discharged 
by the Justices of the Peace, the Department took 
five appeals. The wardens making the above arrests 
numbered 59 regular and specials. 
Warden J. Criswell leads with 82 arrests and 67 con- 
victions; C. PI. Nesley with 56 arrests and 49 convic- 
tions; C. S. Lowery, who ranks ninth on the list in 
the number of arrests, ranks first in the amount of 
fines imposed, the same l>eing $1,490. He made 22 
nrre.sts and secured 19 convictions. Warden Criswell 
secured the imposition of fines to the amount of $i,395- 
C. PI. Nesley was third with $1,110. M. F. x'Vlbert, 
fourth, $1,090. W. E. Shoemaker, sixth, with $i,c8o. 
Mr. Shoemaker made 48 arrests and 43 convictions. 
During tlie year three cases relating to illegal fish- 
ing were decided by the Supreme Court, the Depart- 
ment of P'isheries winning two and losing one, the 
last being purely on a technical point.. 
The Department of Fisheries of PemiS3-lvania has just 
constructed a fishway in a dam on Pine Creek, Potter 
count}'. It is of the Call pattern, thirty-nine feet long and 
five fet wide, inside measurement, with five compart- 
ments. The contract price was $1,750, and this amount 
rvas paid for out of the unexpended balances of the State 
treasury. This fishway makes the fifth built at the ex- 
pense of the State since the summer of 1904. The other 
being one m the Venango River at Franklin, Pa., and the 
other three in Clark’s P'erry 'dam on the Su.squehanna, 
just above the mouth of the Juniala. 
Fish Warden Criswell, of Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, 
Nov. 28, arrested Captain Maher, of the tug boat Hing- 
ston, and four members of the crew on a charge of fish- 
ing in Lake Erie within the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania 
since the beginning of the close season. The boat con- 
tained four tons of fish, these together with the- boat, 
which is worth at least $3,000, was taken possession of by 
the warden, pending a settlement of the case before 
Alderman Cole. 
The Department of Fisheries of Pennsylvania has 
added another hatchery site to those which have already 
been located or in operation, making eight now in pos- 
session of the Department of Fisheries. 
The new hatchery contains at least thirty acres and is 
on Spruce Creek, in Pluntingdon county. Besides a trout 
stream of about 10,000 gallons of water a minute which 
flows through the property, there is a spring which flows 
about 1,000 gallons of water. The hatchery will be de- 
voted principally to the propagation of black bass and kin- 
dred fishes with a few million brook trout on the side. 
Mr. William Haas, at present first assistant at the Corry 
hatchery, has been appointed superintendent of the new 
hatchery. Work will not begin until next spring. 
Freshwater Fishing in Japan, 
Considering the geographical position it occupies, and 
its natural features, Japan ought to be an ideal fishing 
country from a fly-fisher’s point of view, but unfortu- 
nately this is not the case, and the reason is not far to 
seek, for, except in certain remote districts, so excessively 
netted are her rivers and lakes that fish which might 
otherwdse grow to a decent size and breed decent sized 
fish in iheir turn seldom get the chance of doing either. 
The consequence is that what fly-fishing and spinning is 
procurable in Japan is only so in places far removed from 
her centers of civilization, or, in other words, of her 
population, and as accommodation is generally sadly lack- 
ing in such places, the game, so far as an ordinary mortal 
is concerned, is scarce worth the candle. But on the 
other hand, no one need experience any great difficulty in 
getting first-class sea-fishing there, and very often, too, 
with quite superior native accommodation lying close at 
hand. 
If bent upon enjoying fly-fishing in Japan a fisherman, 
must hie himself away to Yezo, the most northerly of the 
four great islands that go to make up Japan proper, and 
though he will find the means of communication and ac- 
commodation there by no means entrancing, he will, on 
-the other hand, find plenty of streams and lakes abound- 
ing in salmon and trout. The Yurap and Shiribetsu are 
generally considered (he best salmon rivers in the island, 
and while the first flows eastward into the Pacific, the 
other flow's westward into the Sea of Japan. In the lakes 
of Yezo, too, of which there are quite a number, ao-masu 
and ami-masu may be caught. The first is a pink-fleshed 
lake trout, and the second a white-fleshed one. Both 
take the fly readily, and are caught up to 3 and more 
pounds in weight. The best time of (he year for a fly- 
fisher to visit Yezo is during the months of June, July 
and August. Unfortunatelj', however, those are the very 
months when mosquitoes and horse-flies, the pest of the 
island, are in full vigor and activity. 
The two species of salmon found in the River Yezo are 
the shake, much like the ordinary salmon of Scotland in 
general appearance, and the masu, or Salmo japomeus. 
The first, though growing to a good size, up to 30 pounds 
in weight and more, will seldom look at a fly or spinning 
bait of any kind wliatsoever, but the second is a decid- 
edly sporting fish, and though never w'eighing much more 
than 10 or 12 pounds, yet it always is a game and hard 
fighter. The masu having only to be considered the fish- 
erman need never take other than medium-sized flies with 
him, but wdiat he does take should have plentj' of color 
about them, orange and yellow, and be of a slift'er and 
more brittle make than the salmon-flies he would use in 
the home waters. .A.nd then he must not forget to drown 
his flies well, for a masu rarely looks at a fly on the sur- 
face, by which it may very rightly be inferred that spin- 
ning or trolling with live and artificial baits are most 
useful and killing baits with him. 
Coming south of Yezo, to Nippon, the main island, a 
keen fly-fisher can get very fair trout fishing in its ex- 
treme nonheriy pror inces, and though it is not quite so 
good as that obtainable in Yezo, .it is, on the other hand, 
much more get-at-able. This is a very important point, 
indeed, and perhaps more especially so in Japan than in 
any other country, for camp life there is not to be han- 
kered after for man\- and veiy obvious reasons. The 
Japanese are great and most painstaking cultivators, and 
wherever there exists a few quare yards of fairly level 
country it is either highly cultii'ated, and it may here be 
added — as highly manured, or reserved for some purpose 
sufficiently preventive of its being turned into a camping 
ground. iVnd even supposing one did get permission to 
pitch a tent anywhere, in the courtyard of a temple, for 
instance, the chances are the w'hole countryside w'ould 
immediately' take a holiday for the purpose of viewing 
that tent, and what th.at would mean for its occupant 
may be easily imagined, for though our b'ar Fastern 
allie.s are most cercimmiuiis in their manner, y'et they are 
far too (jften considerably lacking in thoughtfulness for 
others when their cm'io.sity is aroused. 
Some hundreds oi nhles south of the northerly' prov- 
inces of Ni]ipon comes Lake Chuzenji, and th )ugh the 
intervening country teems with brooks and streams that 
ought to shelter trout, yet they do not. Chunzenji and 
another lake, Biwa, were some few years back stocked 
with lake trout from Yezo, but only those in the former 
will rise, to a Hy. This is curious, for both lakes were 
slocked from the same source and with the same species 
of trout, and so it must be that the wartu waters of Biwa 
have destroyed the sporting instincts of the trout turned 
into it, for w'hile it lies almost on a level with the sea, 
Chuzenji shelters enormous quantities of izvana, a small 
species of vhite trout, delicious from a gourmet’s point 
of view, but utterly worthless from that of a fly-fisher’s. 
The accommodation at Chuzenji is first-class, the village 
there being a great summer resort for members of the 
diplomatic corps at Tokio. 
Though there is such an extrarodinary absence of 
suening fishes from the ris'ers cf Japan, yet it must net 
be supposed there are not other fishes inAhem, The at 
and yamame are both small species of trout, and are 
found in all the rivers running through the warmer parts 
of the empire. The haya is a sort of carp, found mostly 
in mountain streams, and can be caught with a rod and 
line, though never with a fly. All these three fishes, as 
well as the koi (Cyprimis hcemotopterus') and the funa 
(Carassius lan^ardot^i) , and others of lesser note, afford 
the Japanese no end of fine fun and sport, from their 
point of view. The ai and yamame, if taken by the, rod, 
are generally foul hooked, and the manner in which it is 
done is as follows : Armed w'ith a long bamboo rod and 
a silken line, with about six feet of stout and stiffened 
and weighted cord fastened to the end of it, and with 
six or eight hooks attached to this at intervals of a foofi 
or so, the fisher casts his line up stream. The line i.s 
then allowed to be carried down by the current, and 
when this has been done sufficiently far, the fisher draws 
it up stream and across such places he thinks the ai and 
yamame arc swimming about in shoals. An expert at 
this poaching-like method of fishing will often, .if he 
know's his waters well, hook two or three fishes at each 
cast. The haya are angled for in the usual way, the hook 
being baited with boiled sweet potato. The koi and funa 
are also caught in very much the same way, though some 
Japanese anglers bait for the first with worms, grasshop- 
pers, cockchafers, etc. The warm months of the year 
are the best for ai, yamame and Aaya fishing, and the cold 
for koi and funa, which, it may here be added, are fonder 
of sluggish and still waters than brawling streams. The 
native rods and tackle are often exceedingly well got up ; 
the hooks being the weakest part among them. The rods 
are invariably of bamboo, their socket ends are bound 
with silk, and are as often as not lacquered. The lines 
are generally made of the best silk procurable, and are 
dyed a rich red brown with kaki shibu, or persimmon 
juice. The floats are of all shapes and sizes, and not un- 
like those in use in English waters. The Japanese reels 
were, until the last eight or ten years, the most primitive 
affairs imaginable, but the native makers are now fast 
copying Occidental methods in this, as they are in so 
many other matters. 
Among younger and robuster men the casting net is 
generally in more favor among the Japanese than the rod 
and line, and it must be admitted they stand unrivalled in 
the use of it. The net is very often made of silk, and a 
really first-class one costs a lot of money. When opened 
out it may measure anything from ten to twenty feet 
in diameter, and around its circumference are attached 
pieces of lead to make it spread out flat when cast and 
sink rapidly. To the center of the net is fastened a thin 
cord, some three to five yards in length, one end of 
which, when the net is in use, is looped round the left 
wrist of the fisherman. Upon the net being arranged in 
order it is hung over the fisherman’s left forearm, and a 
part of its outer edge being opened out, he takes it lightly 
in his right hand. Before casting he will make sure that 
his feet are firmly planted, and then, turning his body 
from the hips upward, so as to face the left rear of his 
position, he will, when ready, swing round sharply and 
strongly to his front, and, with a heaving sort of motion, 
send the net over his right shoulder on to the spot aimed 
at. If properly cast the net opens out to its fullest extent, 
and. falling upon the water, sinks rapidly, imprisoning 
at the same time any fish that may happen to be beneath 
it. The fisherman then proceeds to carefully draw the 
net toward himself until the further part of the circum- 
ference has met the nearer part, and then carefully lift- 
ing the net out of the water he will remove all the fishes 
that may be entangled in its meshes. Ground baiting is 
sometimes used for attracting fishes to certain advanta- 
geous spots, and quite big hauls are often made under 
such circumstances. 
The poorer class of Japanese, those who fish for a 
livelihood, employ all sorts of cunning and extraordinary 
artifi.ces and traps to catch trout, ai, yamame, etc. They 
will sometimes Imild a rough dam or weir across a moun- 
tain stream, and erect upon this a bamboo platform point- 
ing down stream and inclined upward at an angle of 
about fifteen degrees. The current in forcing the water 
up this platform carries the fish trying to gO' down stream 
with it, and any fish caught are left stranded at the top. 
A. man on the lookout then catches them before they can 
flap their way over or back again into the stream, and, 
imprisoning them in specially made baskets for the pur- 
pose, keeps them alive and wholesome for days or weeks 
at a stretch. The yotsu-de ami, or four-armed net, is in 
constant use in the lakes, creeks and more sluggish 
streams of Japan. It is a square net, and may be of any 
size, from what a child can handle to a huge affair re- 
quiring pulleys and two or three men to manage it. It is 
stretched square by the help of two bamboos bent in the 
form of a cross at right angles, and fastened together at 
their center. This cross of four arms, or yatsute, is 
then attached by ’.ts center to the end of a strong bamboo 
or pole, which is itself again pivoted upon a short post 
fixed upright, either upon the side of a boat or driven 
into the ground on the bank. The net is lowered into 
the water until it nearly touches the bottom, and after 
remaining immersed for some time it is raised as quietly 
and quickly’ as possible, and whatever fish may have lieen 
passing over it are taken. Large net.s of this sort are 
much used at night, lorclies being lit and held over them 
when immersed in order to attract the fish. The yeri is 
a kind of maze made of stnall bamboos driven into the' 
giajund at the l)Ottom of shallow lakes and .slow -running 
streams. Tlic fish enter, pass on. and eventually lose 
themselves in (he intricacies ,of the maze, and remain 
swimming around until removed by hand nets. The 
koi do is a bamboo cage, or basket, with a semi-circular 
opening at one end by which the fish enter. This open- 
ing is furnished with a hinged door made of bamboo 
spikes and hung in the same slanting manner as is that 
of the common wire mouse-trap so much in use all over 
the world. The trap is baited, and a fish desirous of en- 
tering, gropes his way in under the slanting door, and 
once in the trap must stop until the fisherman removes 
it. Such traps are weighted and sunk to the bottom of 
lakes, ponds and sluggish streams, and seldom other than 
mud-groping fish are caught through their instrumen- 
tality. The nama-dsu do is a long cone-shaped basket, 
about ten feet in length and about two feet in diameter 
at its larger end. After being crammed with straw and 
brushwood, it is freighted, sunk, and k,ft at the-bottem of 
rivers and ponds for days at a stretch, during the spawn- 
