146 
FOREST AND STREAM 
of April comes the streams will have to suffer and be thrashed. 
Some few graceless poachers have already sneaked off before 
their more honest brethren and are bragging of the trout they 
have caught, but public sentiment has changed very much 
lately, and now gentlemen do not do such things. 
It is to be regretted that there is so little free trout fishing 
near New York. To be sure there are plenty of places where 
anglers can buy trout for $1 per pound with the privilege of 
catching them, but it is expensive and not satisfactory. They 
do sry though, that some celebrated anglers in New York 
will allow themselves to be tempted into buying a big trout 
or two, just to fill up the creel and improve the appearance of 
their catch ; but that may be one of those Long Island stories. 
There were once a good many streams not far from the 
city where a good angler could have fair fishing, but the 
wretched habit of keeping all the flngerlings for the basket 
has depleted.them, and the trout are so scarce that it is not 
worth while to go after them. 
June will now soon be upon us, and then we will have the 
cream of the sport. Nothing can equal a lovely June day on 
a pleasant trout stream. The woods are fragrant with the 
wild grape, the ground studded with violets and hundreds of 
different wild flowers, the banks lined with the beautiful 
laurel in full blossom, and the wood-tobin, the sweetest of our 
song birds, can be heard in every direction. Fortunate is 
the man who knows of such pleasant places and can enjoy 
them. Imagine yourself there some quiet afernoon, with 
pipe alight and a fresh leader and cast of flies just put on. 
You see ahead of you your favorite pool, and here and there 
a dimple on the waters that makes your fingers tingle, for 
you know that the big trout are there. Cautiously you ap- 
proach, step by step, and at last drop your coachman like a 
flake of snow, ju9t where it ought to go. There is a bulge in 
the water and you strike. Wizz ! goes the reel. The pliant 
rod does its duty, and after a few moments the speckled 
beauty is in your net. So you go on until the sun is down 
and the whippoorwill takes the place of the wood-robin. Then 
you trudge back to your tavern, after a good day's sport, a 
happy and contented man. W. H. 
Fish in Market— Retail Prioes.— About three hundred 
shad have been taken in the North River the past week. 
Our quotations are as follows : Striped bass, 20 cents ; 
large do., 15; smelts, 15; 20; frozen salmon, 35; green do., 
$1.25; California 40; mackerel, large, 25; mackerel, small, 
10; Southern shad, 00; native, §1 ; white perch, f5 ; Spanish 
mackerel, 35; green turtle, 15; Terrapin, $18 ; frost fish, 8 ; 
halibut, 12 ; haddock, 6 ; codfish, heads off, 8 ; black-fish, 
15; Newfoundland herring, 0 ; flounders, 10; do., small, 6; 
eels, 18; lobsters, live, 8; do., boiled, 10; sheepsheads, 
20; turbot, 25; scallops, $1.50 per gallon; soft clams, per 
100 , 80 ; do., large, 60 ; whiteflsh, 15 ; salmon trout, 10. 
Massachusetts— Lynnfield.— Humphries' Pond, at Lynn- 
field, is closed for ten years, under lease to private parties, 
who intend to etock it with all the varieties of good food 
fishes they can procure. Humphries’ Pond, or Suntaug Lake, 
is one of the finest sheets of water in the State, and, we be- 
lieve, the only one over the regulated size that is owned en- 
tirely under riparian rights. Of late years trespassing during 
the summer months has become an unbearable nuisance, and 
fishing good only in name, so that the owners have leased the 
pond, and it i9 now closed for all purposes except by special 
permit from lessees. C. T. J. 
New Bedford, March 23. — In this vicinity the spring 
fishing season is at least one month earlier than usual ; large 
quantities of alewives, perch, bass, cod, etc., are now taken 
in our waters. I never saw fish sold at so low a price at this 
time of year. Concha. 
Movements of the Fishing Fleet. — The past week the 
whole number of arrivals reported are 22, against 41 the 
previous week and 65 the week before that. The receipts of 
fresh halibut for the week have been 430,000 lbs. The 
Georges vessels brought in 350,000 lbs. round codfish. — Cape 
Ann Advertiser, March 22. 
Tennessee— Nashville, March 21. — For the past week the 
weather ha9 been most favorable for fishing, and great num- 
bers of persons have been out to all the different streams in 
the immediate vicinity. The best takes have been in Mill 
Creek by a gentleman who is generally successful. One af- 
ternoon he brought home five nice trout (bass), and the next 
time eight, one or two of the latter scaling one and a half 
pounds. Several parties have left town for the Harpeth 
River. A large number of shad have been on the market 
here during the last week. J. D. H. 
Savannah, March 1. — In this vicinity our fishing season -is 
commencing early this spring. One morning last week I 
took four bass and several perch and bream. We were very 
much annoyed by hell benders, called here water dogs. They 
were out in force, and we caught two that would weigh at 
least 4 pounds each. The mud turtles and moccasins were 
also swimming around, and the former took some stock in 
our minnows. It is very unusual to see snakes, turtles and 
water dogs at this season. Will. 
Notes from Florida. — Halifax Inlet, March 15. — Jean 
Ribault, who visited the mouth of the 81. John in 1502, says 
that the fish were there so plenty that “ye can take them 
without net or angle, as many as ye will.” Two hundred 
years later Capt. Bernard Rowans,, an English engineer who 
surveyed this coast, writes of the fishes of the Indian River, 
that “they so abound that a person may sit on the bank and 
kill them with a stick.” A Mr. Vans, who lives on the Mu.s-» 
quito lagoon, says that when he wants fish to feed his hogs he 
goes to a shallow part of the lagoon with a hoe, and brings out 
as many drums as he wants, just as a Northern farmer would 
resort to his potato field. I myself, lately saw a boy at this 
Inlet kill two large salt water trout with a stick, they were in 
a shallow slough where they had been left by the falling tide ; 
they weighed five or six pounds each. Pacetti went there 
soon after with his cast net, and with three or four casts he 
got enough trout, bass and mullet, to nearly load our boat; he, 
however, is so skillful with that implement as to almost equal 
the Arab fisherman Nasrollak, of whom Southey writes, that 
if he threw his net upon the sand of the desert he was sure of 
catching fish. With all this abundance, the hook fishing in 
these rivers has been for the last four or five weeks very poor, 
No fish have been taken abundantly except sheepshead, and 
of that kind of sport one gets tired when fifty of them can be 
taken in one tide. 
The people at the head of the Halifax River are attempting 
to open a new inlet to the ocean, near Bulow’s Creek, the 
object being to let out the great volume of fresh water from the 
Tomoka, which has caused much sickness this year as well as 
killing the oysters and driving away the sea fish. This is a 
large enterprise for so poor and thinly settled a country. At 
the last accounts Jacksonville and St. Augustine were crowded 
with visitors, and all the Florida resorts were filling up after 
being empty since the beginning of the season. Loud’s Ocean 
House at New Smyrna is full of hunters and anglers, the latter 
of whom have to subsist on faith and hop# for the present ; 
that is, the old hands, whose principal object of pursuit, the 
red bass, is very scarce — the new comers, who are satisfied 
with sheepshead fishing, can have sport enough. S. C. C. 
Wisconsin — Ashland, March 10. — Fred Peterson and Peter 
Anderson caught one hundred and eighty pounds of herriDg 
Wednesday forenoon, hook and line fishing. 
California — San Francisco , March 17. — The Sacramento, 
Russian and American rivers are full of salmon, salmon trout, 
and trout, and will afford anglers and sportsmen plenty of 
sport this season. They are very large. 
— “ Come, come, my son, get up. The early bird catches 
the worm.” 
“ All right, dad; you catch the worms and I’ll go a- 
fishiDg.” 
Beautiful Fly Rods.— Years ago we used to delight in 
the privilege of entry to the little private workshop of the 
lamented Thad Norris, Esq. We should more properly speak 
of his quarters as an atelier, or studio, for he was not a 
mechanic by trade, and the word sounds more distinffue, as 
the Frenchmen say. In his early efforts at rod-making, our 
friend Norris filled in his leisure moments by planing, sawing, 
serving and varnishing his not very excellent rods, pausing 
betimes for a pull at his cob pipe, or to chat with some chance 
visitor, until at last, after many months, his daily practice 
made him nearly perfect, and his rods came to be beautiful 
and much sought for by brother anglers, particularly by those 
who had the good fortune to be numbered among his friends. 
The demands grew so that he was unable to fill them, and a 
market having thus sprung up, the value of his rods was en- 
hanced. He put a big price on them, and thenceforward, for 
several years, his business was sufficiently remunerative to 
keep him supplied with pocket change and tips to the contri- 
bution box on Sundays. But, finally, time grizzled his locks, 
and the good-natured dimples on his physiognomy deepened 
into furrows ; his handiwork became less complete through 
that unsteadiness which the accumulation of years imposes 
upon the nerves, and then the few rods that he occasionally 
made were purchased more as souvenirs, so that he who is 
now so fortunate as to possess one of them, exhibits it with a 
fervor that does not attach to a contemplation of ordinary shop 
goods. William O. Prime, Harry Venning, of St. John, 
Walter Brackett, and other well-known gentlemen anglers, 
speak in the highest terms of the Norris rods which they own, 
and can hardly be induced to admit that there are any superior 
to them. No doubt veneration for the maker engrafts a 
quality upon them. Good old Norris 1 Many scores of friends 
lament his untimely taking off Our retrospection has been 
naturally awakened by the visit of a resident of Utica, Mr. H. 
P. Buckingham, who has shown us a most exquisite eight- 
strip split bamboo rod of his own make. It is a beauty to the 
eye and confiding to the hand. Last year we saw three of his 
rods ; but this one is so incomparably superior that it reflects 
much credit upon his study and perseverance during the inter- 
vening months. Mr. Buckingham is as strictly an amateur 
rod-maker, as Mr. Norris was. His success has induced him 
to manufacture for the market, and he places his price at $30 
per rod. Of course he can make but a’ limited number, and 
he will not be strictly a competitor to the trade. Those who 
have any curiosity to inquire farther will be served with de- 
sired information by addressing him. 
£}<icJttintf and gloating. 
HIGH WATER FOR THE WEEK. 
Dale. 
Boston. 
Nno York. 
Charleston 
March 28 
March 29 
March 30 
e. m. 
7 66 
8 61 
9 33 
10 19 
10 61) 
11 31 
M 
H. M. 
4 23 
6 15 
6 05 
6 40 
7 23 
7 .52 
8 24 
n. m. 
3 42 
4 34 
6 19 
6 69 
0 33 
7 03 
7 44 
March 31 
April 1 
April 2 
April 3 
Boston and Vicinity. -The South Boston Yacht Clut 
holds its annual dinner April 10. The club has recently re- 
ceived several new members and several new yachts. The 
Boston Herald, which offers a cup for competition among 
six-oared amateur crews, speaking of yachting and boating 
says : The Addie Elmer, lately purchased by Mr. Robert 
Kidd and now undergoing extensive alterations, will be 
added to the South Boston Club. Mr. Howard P Elwell 
of Gloucester a new accession to the club, has nearly com- 
pleted a very handsome 24-foot centre-board cat-rig yacht 
which will make her appearance in the regattas the coming 
season Captain Woodward is making numerous alterations 
in the Ivy a much needed one being the setting of the mast 
®?“ e feet ., a /u Mr- Seavy, who has lately joined the 
club, will swell the fleet by the addition of a 20-foot kell cat- 
rig. The annual Fast Day regatta of the mosquito fleet will 
be sailed April 11, and already the hammer, brush and putty 
knife are being applied to the tiny craft. 
“ Probably no city in the country can produce as many fine 
pair-oared crews as Boston, among whom are Faulkner- 
Reagen, Gookiu Brothers, Connolly Brothers, and McGahey 
aud Henry. Mahoney is as yet undecided whether he will 
row pair; but, with such a male as Biglin or Plaisted, the 
two would make a strong team. In the four-oared working 
boat class, the Lakemau crew will, without doubt, main- 
tain its position of last year, ranking first, though this is by 
no means certain, should the Shawmut crew secure a good 
man with Mahoney and Gookin Brothers. The Riverside 
and City Point crews have fallen off, especially the latter, 
which now ranks about medium. Both will be represented 
at Silver Lake. The Lynn, Casey, Atlantic, East Boston 
CharlestowD, and other minor crews, may also enter in the 
coming regattas. At present there is no professional four- 
oared crew in this vicinity, but there is excellent material 
for several such crews. In single-scull open boats a num- 
ber of new comers are to enter the lists for prizes, and a fine 
contest may be looked for among this class of scullers." 
—The officers of the Young Men’s Christain Assciation 
Rowing Club are arranging for building a new boat-house. 
Four new hydraulic rowing machines have been added to 
the gymnasium. 
—The Water Lily, a South Boston 19-foot open yacht, 
which left lhat city about Jan 1, on a cruise eastward, has 
just been heard from as having reached Mount Desert. Her 
crew consisted of two men, and the successful cruise of such 
a craft in such waters, and in such a season of the year has 
created no little comment among yachtsmen. 
The boat-builder, Mr. Geo. Roache.is building for his own 
use a catamaran, which is to be composed of two outrigger 
boats, each 30 feet in length, 2 feet 3 inches depth of hold 
and 2 feet 2 inches in beam. The platform is 8 feet wide 
and 14 feet in length, and is fixed midway between the two 
outrigged boats, which are fifteen feet apart. The catama- 
ran will carry a jib aud mainsail rig, and when loaded will 
only draw nine feet of water. 
New Modeled Yaoht.— Mr. JohhC. Foster, of East Glou- 
cester is having a yacht built on a new model, which is ex- 
pected to afford extra speed and good seaworthy qualities. 
She will be between 50 and 00 feet in length of deck, with 
keel about three-fourths as long, and a deck width of nine 
feet. 
New York Yachting Notes.— T he schooner-yacht Ata- 
lanta will be put in commission on the 15tli prox Mr. 8 
J. Colgate’s yacht Idler will not be brought out this season! 
The Tidal Wave has been thoroughly overhauled... 
Mr. A. Cary Smith has been making important altarations in 
the sloop Madcap, now owned in Boston. Her shoe has 
been dispensed with, and the balance of sail preserved 
The schooner-yacht Nettie is fitting out for Europe Mr' 
W . II. Langley, the owner of the Comet, which will not 
race this season, has returned to the New York Yacht Club 
the Bennet Challenge Cup recently held by the Comet, and 
it will be one of the prizes competed for at the June regatta 
of the club The measurements of the new schooner- 
yacht Intrepid, N. Y. Y. C-, are : length over all, lie feet 3 
inches ; at water-line, 100 feet 11 inches; beam, 24 feet 5 
inches ; depth of hold, 11 feet 6 inches ; draught of water 
6 iD l ? 1 be9 .; tonnage, 270.60 tons; cubical contents! 
13,422. ib. bhe 18 to be commanded by Captain Belmont 
recently of the schooner-yacht Clytie, and before that of the 
schooner-yacht Ermengarde. 
ou urn uakolina. 
t-i ru f leiciesi in aquatic matters is reviving 
The Charleston Regatta Association will probably soon pre- 
pare a fine programme for their annual regatta. Several 
yachts are now being prepared for the fray. The Carolina 
Independent Boat Club, which has among its members some 
of our best oarsmen, will put some good crews on the river 
this year. . . .The Palmetto Boat Club held their aaniversarv 
meeting on the 20th. Pres. E. A. Smyth having declined 
re-election, Wm. M. S. Lesesne was elected President ; 
Robert W Means Vice-Pres.; Charles S. Chervey, Sec. and 
Treas. ; Hi Nabb Parker, boatmaster. The new President, 
Mr. Lesesne, is one of the oldest members of the club and 
the enviable position now held by the Palmettos is 'in a 
great measure owing to his personal exertions. The club is 
m a very flourishing condition, both financially and as re- 
gards membership, and they expect to keep to the front this 
season, as they have done hitherto on almost every occasion. 
It is rumored that a splended first crew is made up and 
among them some of the old first crew of the Palmettos 
whose backs never have been seen in a race. Yenots ' 
Charleston , March 22. 
-The Florida Yacht Club of Jacksonville, Fla., gave a 
reception last Monday evening to Capt. Jas. B. Eads. 
t Club will hold its annual regatta 
j une o. 
Rhode Tsland Championship. -i-The Narragansett Boat 
Club, of Providence, has challenged the Boat Club of Paw- 
tucket to a three-mile race, wilh turn, in six-oared shells 
for the championship of Rhode Island and a four-oared 
shell. The time and place has to be mutually agreed upon. 
—Yale sends Kennedy, of Philadelphia, and the University 
crew of '66, to the Seneca Lake regatta. 
The Watkins Regatta.— I f we may judge from the great 
interest in the forthcoming regatta at Seneca Lake, that 
event will be one of the best attended events of recent years. 
About April 1 the Watkins Regatta Association will issue 
circulars containing full information respecting the boating 
reunion on Seneca Lake the latter part of May. 
—Plaisted is practicing on the Harlem. He rows Hanlon 
on Toronto Bay May 15. 
Y., will send representatives to Seneca Lake. 
Osgood’s Portable Boat.— Messrs. Osgood and Chapin, of 
Battle Creek, Mich., manufacture a new portable folding 
canvas boat, which unites in. its construction the very de- 
sirable merits of simplicity, lightness and durability; and its 
price, $20 and $35, is, moreover, within the means of a 
a moderate purse. Fitted for trouting, ducking, etc. The 
boat weighs 20 pounds; with bottom-boards, oars, etc., 40 
pounds. 
