496 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Dec. i6, 1905. 
ing season. It is most destructive to fish life, great quan- 
tities of spawn being destroyed each time it is taken out 
of the water, and the fish that are caught by its means 
are generally worthless as food for man. Beside the nets 
and fish traps here described there are many others in 
use among the Japanese, some being modifications of 
them and others not unlike those in use with our own 
fishermen and poaching fraternity. 
The imagi, or Japanese feel, is quite one of the most 
important-nfishes in Japan, ks well from a culinary point 
of view as from the fact that its capture and sale gives 
constant employment to, perhaps, hundreds of thousands 
of Japanese. Besides being largely taken in traps and 
nets, it is groped for in the mud of rivers and lakes by 
the aid of various spears and hooks. The highest priced 
un-agi are mostly caught at the mouth of tidal rivers, and 
the instrument most commonly used for its capture is a 
sort of hook-spear, called iiimgi kaki. The spear end of 
this is shaped somewhat on the same lines as is a pas- 
toral staff, though in miniature, and without its too de- 
cided curves. The hook is tipped with steel, and is flat- 
tened and sharpened to admit of an easy and quick pas- 
sage through the mud. To the inner side of the hook 
are welded a number of small steel spikes about an inch 
in length. Having a long wooden handle, or haft, the 
unagi kaki can be used either from a boat or by a man 
wading. If used from the former then the gunwale of 
a boat forms a fulcrum, and if by the latter then the fish- 
erman’s foot or knee serves for the same purpose. The 
hook is plunged deep into the mud and carried forward 
and upward, and should an eel have the bad luck to get 
in its way the chances are it will quickly find itself trans- 
fixed on one of the spikes mentioned. Lifting the hook 
out of the mud, the fisherman frees it of all matter ad- 
hering to it by a sharp tap or two on the edge of a bas- 
ket or tub carried for the purpose, and into which will 
necessarily drop any eel that may have been captured. 
The eels caught are then, alive and hearty, and are some- 
times so kept for weeks at a stretch by proprietors of 
native restaurants specially devoted to the preparation 
of miagi meshi, or broiled eels upon rice. A particularly 
rich, though withal a remarkably toothsome and satis- 
fying dish, and the wonder is it is not introduced into 
England, for it would be a perfect godsend to our poorer 
classes there can be no doubt, as both rice and eels are 
cheap. 
On some of the rivers of Japan the ai is taken with the 
aid of cormorants, and though many people declare this 
is a sport peculiar to Japan, I beg to differ from them, 
for the Chinese, have used cormorants for fishing pur- 
poses for centuries, and what is more, their birds are far 
better trained than are those of their island neighbors. 
Both people put rings round the necks of their cormor- 
ants to prevent them from swallowing any marketable 
fish, but, unlike the Japanese, the Chinese do not harness 
their birds. The Chinaman’s bird swims and dives un- 
fettered excepting for the'.'ring round his neck, and when 
he has caught a fish he cannot possibly swallow, he at 
once makes for his master’s boat of his own free will, 
and after being lifted in is relieved of his catch. The 
Chinese and Japanese, however, act alike in rewarding 
their birds after a successful dive. But to return to the 
subject. The cormorants are caught young, and when 
trained and accustomed to their master’s voice and pres- 
ence, the Japanese rig them out with a sort of harness. 
From the center of this, and over the middle of their 
backs, projects a short piece of extra pliable cane, to 
which they fasten a restraining line twenty to thirty feet 
in length. A first-class fisherman handles no less than a 
dozen birds, and considering they are all diving and 
swimming about at the same time, it will be realized how 
very careful and smart he must be to prevent a general 
entanglement of the lines holding them. Unlike the 
Chinese, who make their birds work whenever a chance 
offers of making a good catch of fish, the Japanese work 
their birds only during summer nights, and then with 
lighted torches in attendance, in order to attract the ai. 
Having copied the system from the Chinese, the Japan- 
ese have added to it all sorts' of curious ceremonies, and 
which. I think, points to the likelihood of its having 
been introduced into Japan for the delectation of some 
mighty potentate. At any rate, they are so Japanesey, 
that little wonder people have jumped to the conclusion 
the whole system is of purely Japanese origin. Under 
favorable circumstances the cormorants will work until 
they are twenty years of age, but by far the greater num- 
ber of them suffer severely from rheumatism and vermin, 
and die long before that. — F. J. Norman, in London 
Field. 
Fish and Fishing. 
Fish and Game Preserves in Canada. 
The Minister at the head of the Fish and Game De- 
partment of the Province of Quebec has plenty of diffi- 
culties looming up before him, not the least of which is 
the movement now taking shape against the perpetuation 
of leases of public lands for fish and game purposes, and, 
as a matter of course, against the issue of any more of 
such leases in the future. There are, of course, two sides 
to this question, and the rival and contending interests 
in the matter are pretty much in evidence at the present 
time. So many of the existing leases are held by Ameri- 
can sportsmen and so many more of these latter are 
members of Canadian fish and game clubs holding similar 
leases that the present crusade against the continuance of 
these private preserves on public property is of serious 
import to many of the readers of Forest and Stream. 
Among those who take the strongest ground against the 
perpetuation of the present system are some of the rail- 
ways. Not all of them take this view of the matter, and 
the general manager of the Quebec & Lake St. John 
Railway, Mr. J. G. Scott, for instance, alongside of whose 
line of railway there are so many clubs holding leases 
from • the . Government, is strongly opposed to any inter- 
ference with them. The railways which are unfavorable 
to the leasing system are actuated by the fact that private 
ownership of the fish and game upon public lands shuts 
the door of large tracts of the best hunting ^nd fishing 
territory in the Province to railway, sporting and tourist 
traffic. Of course this objection vanishes except where 
the leasing system has been overdone. That there are 
localities ip which pearly all the available territory in 
which fish or game are to be found has been locked up 
by lease in private lands cannot be denied. At the recent 
colonization congress in St. Jerome, Mr. L. O. Arm- 
strong, of the 'Canadian Pacific Railway, produced a map 
showing where the entire country containing game, ad- 
jacent to the- line of his railway in one part of the 
Ottawa district, was closed to the public. This operates 
quite naturally" against the bringing of sportsmen to those 
sections of the Province, and when this particular case 
was pointed’ out tO' him the Minister at the head of the 
Fish and Game Department at once declared that he 
would do whatever lay in his power to put an end to such 
conditions. It is' very wrong, however, to suppose that 
they are at 'all general. Hundreds of square miles of 
territory, it is quite true, are controlled hy fish and game 
clubs or private individuals, but at the same time, the 
whole of such territory forms but an insignificant pro- 
jrortion of those sections of the Province containing 
abundance off both fish and game, which are open to lov- 
ers of fishing and hunting. One disadvantage of the 
leasing policy is undoubtedly the fact that it furnishes 
rival Provinces and States with an excuse for advertis- 
ing that all their public lands are open to^ hunters and 
fishermen, while many of the best of those in the Prov- 
ince of Quebec are in private hands. Yet, the fact re- 
mains that even in this Province there are so many wild 
lands open to sportsmen that there is no possible chance 
for overcrowding in them, for many years to come. 
To the credit of the private fish and game preserves of 
the Province ' must be largely attributed the gratifying 
increase in the game fish and big game in many parts of 
the country.' But for their existence and work during 
the last fe'w years many of the best fish and game dis- 
tricts of the Province would now' be practically denuded 
of their fish and game. Especially is this true of the 
country traversed by the Quebec & Lake St. Johni coun- 
try. Experience has proved over and over again in 
Canada that nothing cleans the fish and game out of a 
given district in shorter time than the operations of a 
gang of men engaged in building a line of railway 
through it, or the Sunday fishing and hunting of the 
members of lumbering camps w'hich so quickly follow the 
construction of railways. In the country through which 
the Quebec & Lake St. John Railway runs, much of this 
work of destruction was prevented by the lease of a num- 
ber of sections of territory as soon as the railway reached 
them, and in some cases even before they were reached 
by the construction gangs, to fish and game clubs, which 
both from interested motives and also because they were 
constituted as protective associations by the terms of their 
incorporation, were strictly required to enforce the pro- 
visions of the fish and game law's in the territory leased 
to them. Many of these club limits, which contained 
scarcely any big game at all ten or fifteen years ago, 
are now fairly swarming with moose and caribou. It 
stands to reason that the protection of the fish and game 
within such circumscribed areas protects also, by means 
of its overflow of big game, and the alertness of the 
clubs and their officials, the game of the entire surround- 
ing country'. It is a notorious fact that Government pro- 
tection of_ fish and game has been nothing but a huge 
farce in the Province of Quebec. Such protection as has 
been worthy of the name has only been accomplished by 
the Government, by proxy, so to say. The Fish and 
Game Department has subsidized the fish and game pro- 
tective a'ssociations of Montreal and Quebec, w'hose good 
work is yvell done and worthy of all commendation, and 
it has also constituted into protective associations all the 
members of the clubs to which leases of fishing or hunt- 
ing territories have been accorded. Apart from the 
amounts collected as rentals for salmon rivers the sums 
received by the Government from fishing and hunting 
leases are comparatively small, and while the amounts 
paid by American lessees are about the same as Cana- 
dians pay for similar privileges — many clubs containing 
Americans and Canadians — the fact of belonging to such 
a club relieves American members from the payment of 
the ordinary license fee exacted from non-residents of 
the Province. As the Government is casting about at 
present for means to pay for a better system of fish and 
game protection, it is by no means improbable that instead 
of increasing the rental of fish and game rights it may 
exact license fees from all American, Ontario or New 
Brunswick residents alike, irrespective of whether or not 
they may be lessees of Government hunting or fishing 
rights, on the ground that they already receive value for 
their money', just as residents of the Province do when 
they pay rental for such rights. 
It will be found that quite a number of important re- 
forms will be urged upon the Government at the Fish 
and Game Congress, which is being held in Montreal as 
this number of Forest and Stream goes to press. The 
present bounty of $5 per head upon wolves is practically 
useless, and is scarcely ever claimed, though the number 
of wolves is so much on the increase in the northern 
parts of the Province as to be driving the red deer out 
into the settlements in many instances. It is claimed that 
this bounty should be increased to at least $15. 
There is also an agitation for a complete change in the 
system of Government fish and game protection. At 
present small salaries of from $50 to $150 are paid to a 
hundred or more so-called fish and game wardens, who 
never think of doing anything in return for the money 
so received, regarding it for the most part as a pleasant 
little piece of Government patronage, for which it is their 
duty to be good party men and duly thankful to the men 
in po-wer. The new Minister is to be urged to do away 
with the services of these men and to appoint eight or 
ten good guardians with decent salaries and place each of 
them in charge of a district of country comprising a 
group of contiguous counties. The Government un- 
doubtedly requires more money to properly protect its 
fish and game, and is now casting about for the means 
of obtaining it. The railways say that the revenue of the 
Government would be larger if it leased no territories at 
all for fishing and hunting, but left the country open to 
everybody, simply charging a license fee to all non-resi- 
dents of the Province whether Americans or people from 
the other Candian Provinces. 
It is only fair to say that no proposal to make any large 
increase in the rentals paid by the fish and game clubs, 
will find favor with the people living in the neighborhood 
of thfsfe clubs’ territories. To these the expenditure of 
the clubs means much, A large number of families are 
^ u„|f supported by one of these clubs. 
The clubs in the St. Maurice district spent over $15,000 
this year for guides alone. One of these clubs . has con- 
structed uo less than twenty miles of carriage roads, 150 
miles of portages and thirty-five buildings, two of which 
cost $5,000 each. Many such instances might be given. 
One thing is quite certain, The agitation on the part of 
ihe^ railway companies to do away with all these clubs 
fir.ds but scant favor with their poorer neighbors. 
E. 'T. D. Chambers. 
New York Commitson Fish Distribotion. 
These figures represent the work of the Commission 
for the year ending on Sept. 30, 1905. In addition the 
Commission distributed for the United States Commis- 
sion a total of 4,787,965 fry, chiefly of the pike^-perch 
variety, and gave away fish at the State Fair tO' the num- 
ber of ninety-six, making a total for the year of 171,- 
759,998, as compared with a total of 111,667,830 for the 
previous year. 
Brook trout 966,364 
-Brown trout 1,862,693 
Lake trout 3,350,976 
Rainbow trout 316,407 
Other trout 46,010 
Total trout 6,541,460 
'Total trout distributed in 1904 5,044,914 
Increase in 1906 1,496,536 
Frostfi.sh 1,100,000 
Maskinonge 2,025,000 
Pike-perch 68,610,525 
Yellow perch 31,011 
Shad 2,361,900 
Smelt 25,300,000 
Tomcod 30,600,000 
Whitefi,sh 30,500,000 
Miscellaneous 2,061 
166,971,937 
Total in 1904 108,663,329 
Increase 58,308,608 
Prospecting for Black Bass. 
Cherryvale, Kan., Dec. 5. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some weeks ago I promised that I would soon go and 
lake a day with the bronzebacks and make report of my 
succes.s, but the season has passed and all of our ponds 
and lakes are covered with ice, none of them containing 
more than a half hundred acres of surface, and none 
over ten to twenty feet in depth, so that the bass are 
safe until another season, unless we have a. warm spell, 
which we usually have, until about the holidays, and 
those who know where the bass have congregated in the 
deepest holes in the rivers and ponds, on bright sunshiny 
days can have fair sport with minnows. I had a boat 
ride of twO' hours on the Walnut River at Winfield last 
week with the Santa Fe agent there, Mr. Samuel Miller. 
We were w'ithout bait of any kind and just went pros- 
pecting over two miles of the stream near the city; and 
it was a delightful trip, even if we did not wet a line. 
Along the south bank of the river a land slide occurred 
during high water twO' years ago, and when the river 
was frozen over all of the trees were cut off at the top 
of the ice, and there were the stumps along a half-mile 
of bank just rising above the surface of the water, fur- 
nishing such lurking places as the bass love, in a pool 
where the water averaged about twenty feet in depth. 
As we passed one big stump after another and, by the 
eye of faith, could see the 4 and 5-pounders waiting for 
the minnow or crawfish, and in fancy had them hooked 
to a suitable split bamboo, and waging a battle for self- 
preservation, we derived as much if not more pleasure 
than we could possibly have had if at the end of our two 
hours’ ride we had h"d a dozen or more captives astern 
of the boat fastened wl'ili bait chains. 
Truly an experience of this kind proves the wisdom 
of shrewd Izaak AYalton’s maxim, “It is not all of fishing 
to catch fish.” W. F. Rightmire. 
Fishing at Lake Erie. 
Consul Harvey, of Fort Erie, Ont, furnishes the fol- 
lowing on fishing in Lake Erie: 
“The Canadian government issues fish licenses to 
parties all along the north shore of Lake Erie. I re- 
cently visited a Eort Erie man who has a lease of six 
miles of the shore between Port Colborne and Dunn- 
ville, for which he pays $600. He has six nets extend- 
ing from the shore one and one-half miles out into 
the lake. The nets are deep enough to allow the lead 
line to rest on the bottom and the cork on the surface 
of the water, the outer end being forty-feet in depth. 
Each net has two or more cribs. The fish follow along 
the net until they come to the crib, which is about 
thirty feet square, the bottom and sides composed of 
small meshed netting that holds a fish of one-fourth 
pound weight. 
“When the nets are lifted they contain from 500 to 
2,000 pounds of fish which are dipped out with a scoop 
net, except the sturgeon, which are lifted with a gaff 
hook. The law requires the black bass to be returned 
to the water, but as there is seldom any inspector 
present the law is not enforced. The 100 or more black 
bass I saw taken would not average more than a pound 
in weight, while a few years ago the average run was 
three pounds. 
“If the two governments would join and prohibit net 
fishing in Lake Erie for four years fish would become 
plentiful and of good size. Net fishing is not allowed in 
Niagara River, but the net fishing on. both sides of the 
lake prevents fish from getting down the river, and 
Buffalo anglers have to go to Canadian lakes for their 
sport. The fish caught in the lake are sorted, packed 
in lOO-pound boxes, and expressed to Buffalo or New 
Yoi'k, where they are sold to> the consumer for 10 cents 
per pound.” 
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directed to Forest and Stream Pub. Co., New York, to 
receive attention. We have no other oMce, 
