July, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAM 
351 
lowing the course I had been around a 
great number of times earlier in the 
season. After making several casts with 
no results, I was beginning to think I 
had struck a bad morning, as the wind 
arose more quickly than had been antici- 
pated, which made it quite difficult in 
handling the boat. 
I succeeded in placing the plug in a 
small pocket, which had been at one time 
dug as an overflow for the lake. 
I was immediately rewarded with a 
little beauty, weighing 114 pounds. By 
this time the wind had arisen to a point 
where it was almost impossible for me 
to handle the boat, and cast at the same 
time. 
1 was forced to pull for the east shore 
sooner than was expected, and arriving 
there found that the wind was shifting 
to the north, which made it as bad, if 
not worse, than where I had just been. 
After a while I succeeded in landing 
another fish about the same weight as 
the first one. 
Seeing it was useless to continue, I put 
on my No. 7 Skinner spoon, and at once 
started toward the north shore. 
Having over a mile to go, and against 
the wind, I thought it was useless to let 
the spoon out until I got to what was 
called the fishing grounds. 
On nearing the shore I found the 
water much calmer, which was the re- 
sult of a very high bank, thickly wooded. 
I at once dropped the spoon, at the same 
time letting out about forty yards of 
line, and proceeded to row around in 
circles of a mile or so. 
I had gotten about half way around 
on my third circle when suddenly I felt 
a sharp tug on my line. Being reason- < 
ably sure it was a bass and not a weed, 
I proceeded to set the hooks in him. He at 
once broke water giving me one glimpse 
of his head and a very small portion of 
the body, at the same time burning my 
thumb as he dove for the bottom. 
My first thought was that I had a pike 
which made me prepare for a hard bat- 
tle. He took at least ten yards of the 
line before easing up, then let me reel 
in about twenty before tightening up 
again. This time he leaped clear of the 
water, giving me one of the prettiest 
pictures I have ever seen, and telling me 
it was none other than a large-mouth 
bass. Again he burnt my thumb, this 
time going a little farther. I thought 
of a thousand things in a very few 
seconds and one of them was that the 
wind was with me. and that as long as 
it was possible to keep him ahead of the 
boat I was safe, as the wind would keep 
the boat in pace with him. 
I was again able to reel in a few 
yards, each time giving me a number of 
yards gain on him. After see-sawing 
back and forth for what seemed to me 
a half hour, I managed to get him with- 
in a few feet of the boat. Knowing he 
must be well hooked, bv the way he had 
torn around, and seeing he was pretty 
we’l tired out. I began to think I was 
going to be the victor. Not having a 
landing net (I never carry one) nothing 
was left for me to do but to make a 
grab for him with my hands. My chance 
came in a very few seconds, and I was 
just about to lay my hands on him 
when he saw me and made one more 
feeble plunge, this time going under the 
boat. 
A chill came over me at the thought 
of the line being cut in two on the bot- 
tom of the boat but luck was with me 
and he went only a short distance which 
gave me time to swing my pole and line 
around the stern and clear of the boat. 
Again I brought him to the edge of the 
boat, and as his mouth was wide open I 
saw my chance to get hold of him, which 
I did, landing him in the center of the 
boat. It was necessary for me to lie 
on him for a few seconds as he seemed 
to have taken new life, and until I had 
adjusted both hands on him I was not 
real sure of keeping him in the boat. 
I then dealt him a blow with my hunt- 
ing knife, thus ending his struggles. On 
attempting to extract the hooks I found 
that two of them were so deeply embed- 
ded in his upper jaw that it was neces- 
Mr. Diem with his 8-pound large-mouth 
bass 
sary to use the knife in removing them. 
Being more or less excited and quite 
anxious to learn his weight I at once 
started for the cottage. 
On drawing up to the shore I was 
very much surprised to find two of my 
friends, W. J. Pierpont and Willis Os- 
good, who had a cottage near by and 
had come down for the usual week-end. 
After exchanging greetings I showed 
them my catch and asked them to esti- 
mate his weight. After both had weighed 
him in their hands several times, Pier- 
pont decided he would go at least seven 
pounds; Osgood saying a few ounces 
more. 
On placing him on the scales at the 
cottage we were all surprised to find 
him tip them at exactly eight pounds. 
Thinking the scales might be a trifle off, 
and that there was a possibility of his 
going a few ounces better we decided to 
verify the result on scales, which were 
obtained a short distance away. On find- 
ing the result the same we were content 
to say he weighed eight pounds. 
Jason Fred Diem, Detroit, Mich. 
A WISE OLD FROG 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
<<P laying ‘possum” is not confined 
E to our old friend opossum, as I 
found on a walk with my wife during 
the latter part of March. Mrs. S. spied 
a large bull frog, measuring approxi- 
mately twelve inches extended, sunning 
himself in some brush along a woods 
road. He had evidently only recently 
emerged from his winter sleep, or I 
would not have caught him. As soon 
as he was in my hand he played dead — 
eyes shut and apparently as dead a frog 
as one ever looked at. Mrs. S. reproved 
me for killing him. I placed him on the 
ground and stepped aside and in a mo- 
ment saw an eye open then the other 
and just as he drew up his legs for a 
spring I stooped down and caught him 
again, when off he went into another 
faint. He remained perfectly relaxed 
for five minutes, until I placed him near 
the edge of a small stream and as soon 
as I stepped back he was off in a great 
leap and out of sight in a fraction of a 
second, the livliest frog I ever saw. 
Ira T. B. Smith, New Jersey. 
THE PASSENGER PIGEON AGAIN 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
T HAVE been much interested in your 
A recent publication of letters written 
on the subject of the passenger pigeon, 
which was formerly known as the wild 
pigeon. 
A great deal has been written con- 
cerning their sudden disappearance and 
the cause that brought about their ex- 
tinction. For some time we have been 
led to believe that a great epidemic had 
brought this about. Then again we read 
of a storm in the Gulf of Mexico that 
swept millions of them into the sea. 
These were seen by people on board of 
vessels which had to force their way 
through floating dead birds. Recently 
we hear of several instances of the birds 
being seen by people who remember their 
great flights forty or fifty years ago, 
when the country was comparatively 
young. 
It is still a great mystery as to what 
has become of the millions of wild pigeons 
which were not swept into the sea or 
destroyed by an epidemic, for these birds 
were not so localized that all could have 
been destroyed at one time. 
To me it seems more probable that 
with the advance of civilization and the 
building up of the country particularly 
the west and south, and the indiscrimi- 
nate destruction of the forests, which 
took away their feeding grounds, was 
the cause of their extinction. When one 
considers the great quantity of feed 
amounting to thousands, if not millions, 
of tens produced by the forests through- 
out the year one can account for their 
extermination by starvation alone. The 
forests teemed with the edible pine nuts, 
black acorns, hackberry, the red and 
black haws and many other things. 
These are disappearing fast. The break- 
