318 
FOREST AND STREAM 
tbe hill. The chorus comes faintly for a moment, then as the 
pack plunges into a w ooded glen it wakes again with ten 
thousand wild, mad echoes, and on and on we drive, reckless 
and headlong over hush and bramble, through swamp and 
woodland. What man with a heart and soul could think of 
risk to life and limb. 
And still on aDd on the mad chase drives, till the blue bills 
that maik the outposls of the Blue Ridge Mountains rise 
against the horizon, and it is only then that we estimate the 
distance we have traversed, for horse and rider maintain their 
mettle in four instances at least. 
•• Twere Iodk 'o tell what steads gave o’er, 
Am swept ilie chase t»y Cainhns moor ; 
hut win-n the nrig of Turk was wun 
Tiie lorem at horseman rode alouu." 
Alone, but, with the tattered red bandana waving in defi- 
ance and ti e gray gelding stdl plying bis long, untiriDg stride, 
Uncle Billy was going f.,r the orush, which he swore to him- 
self he Lad pre-empted some four hours ago agamst ihecluim 
of any ridt r in that hunt. 
But where were Madge Wildfire and her rider?’ 1 
Upon our right hand there rose in view a pretty gray old 
mansion surioundid with giant taks on the ris? of hill, and as 
we scoured along the vulley Ulow, the pack lost the trail in a 
cliapperul of alder bushes through which trickled a ‘‘spring 
branch,” a« it 19 vailed in old Virginia. It was not a cold 
fault, however, and Uncle Billy took a rapid glance at the 
situation and waited quic t!y for his two Veterans to find the 
trail, for they were already circling arouDd the little cover. 
As luck would liuve it then,. my eye caught the sight of some- 
thing reddish or yellow tbal flashed through the bioom ridge 
along the hill-side and made right for the house, and I kuew 
that Reynard, Imrd pressed, was after running through tbe 
farm yard and losing the dogs among the sheep and stock ; so, 
quickly getting two of the dogs on tbe trail, I went up tbe 
bill as fast as the Ally could put her feet to the ground, and it 
seemed in a second more I saw the tails of the two hounds 
vanish over the garden fence It was an old rotten paling, 
and down it wmt as soou as the filly’s fore-feet slruek it, and 
then there rose such a hullabaloo as might appal any but a 
huntsman in tbe heat of tbecbasc. Ducks quacked and geese 
squeaked, roosters and bens cackled as they lied, and a half 
dozen dogs of various sizes barked : several little incipient F. 
F. V.'s.yi lied, and a big, fat, greasy-lookiog black cook bawhd 
at everything Bnd everybody; one of them leaped frantically 
up a great old knotted tree and fell sprawling down on his 
back ; but what was the hubbub and clamor to me? I leaped 
from the saddle and rushed for the brush. By this time there 
was a group of people on the portico and several couples of 
bright eyes ready to witness my triumph, when, all at once, 
tbe big black coolc exclaimed : 
“ Run here ; Mars' John, ’fore de Lord, dogs and man done 
treed our yaller cat I” 
And so it was; there was the quarry in the fork of the tree, 
gaziDg down on the baffled pursuers with bis green eyes. 
Reuder, my tal* is done. I wish that I had the one which, 
of 0 urse, Uncle Billy took, and which in the goodness of his 
heart he gave me to sport as my own fairly won trophy. 
GiitNROY. 
ANGLING IN TENNESSEE. 
In Ilallock's “ Sportsman’s Gazetteer ” we find in the article 
devoted to 1 Southern Inland Fishes” the statement that an- 
gling had until recently received but little attention from 
Southern gentlemen, but bad been pursued mainly by the ne- 
groes and “poor whites.” While this statement is in the 
main true, it is necessary to except mmy localities, and es- 
pecially that drained by tbe clear-flowiDg Tennessee and its 
numerous tributaries. It bos been my fortune to pass many 
happy years in this section, and to kill many noble bass and 
other game flab in the clear streams which form one of its 
many beauties. With tbe desire of making some return for 
the many joys that I have received, I pen these lines in order, 
if my feeble efforts may be of any avail, to bring to tbe atten- 
tion of tbe loveis of 6port some of the characteristic features 
of this region, aDd will begiu with Cypress Creek. 
Tuis beuuliful tributary of ibe Tennessee River empties its 
waters into that stream a mile or more below tbe pleasant lit- 
tle town of Florence not very far below tbe far-fumed Mussel 
Shoals. It is true that the stream is no longer, as in former 
yearB, the haunt of tbe multitudes of fibh that once inhabited 
its waters. Tbe shoals of bas9, pike-perch, chauDel-cat and 
other varieties of game and food fishes that once in quented 
its wateis and glaudened the heart of the angler and put fish- 
erman have become for the most part but acberished memory. 
The trot line, fish trap, wing and bait net. seine, grab book, 
and other devices of tne enemy, have done their work only 
too well, ana but a tithe of the former multitude now remains. 
Still, the skilled and patient angler may jet eDjoy muny a 
thrill of exultation when at last, after many efforts, he has 
succeeded in luring Irom his haunt some finny patriarch, and 
after a bold fight shall lift him sparkling in the sunlight over 
the gunwale of his skiff. Much, too, can be louDd aloDg iis 
•winding course to delight the eye of the artist and ihe lover 
of nature. On one hank rise bold cliffs of gray limestone, 
over whose rugged brow the laurel loves to display its pink 
tinted blossoms, and the frioge tree to droop its pendent 
sprays. On the olhrr, fields ol grain or Indian corn slope to 
the veiy marg.n, while over all is spread a sky whose azure 
hue muy rival that of 6toried Italy, and the whole landscape 
is vocal with the songs of birds. 1 he fish that are to be found 
here are two varieties of bass, called here black aDd while 
trout, tbe pike-perch or Ohio salmon, many varieties of perch, 
and the blue or channel cat. 1 he las n entoned fish, allhough 
the tribe to which he belongs is universally execrated (and 
it may be said, universally eaten), deserves none of the oppio^ 
bn urn that, jushy or UDjuBtly, has been showered upon all of 
his feline race. Whatever may be said of ibe rest, the cbannel- 
cat is as bold in the water and as toothsome on the board as 
any fish of them all. 
To the bass, however, is tbe attention of the local aDgler 
chiefly devoted, and on aoy day in the season may you find 
him at Hood's mill, the Selim dam. the old factory, Gunnel- 
ford, or at the ‘ mouth,” as the stage of water may war- 
rant, busily plying his favorite art. You will find him 
equipped with a rod A long and taper Japanese caoe mounted 
by Foitloek, who knows what is right in such mature ; a 
Fiaoklort reel, No. 4, containing one hundred yards of oiled 
silk, or cable laid sea-grass line, and a 60 or GO Carlisle hook, 
upoo which is impaled a live chub from Sweet Wuler, or a 
silver-fide Iroin the river. Great iuter. st is tuken by tbe 
Florentines in fish and fishing, and os days when it is known 
that the fill are " biting well ” excitement rises high. 
Many amusing anecdotes might bo told in this connection, but 
I will limit myself to one in which figures a waggish shoe- 
maker, who, as will appear, was thoroughly imbued with the 
idea first promulgated by the ancient artist, to wit : that no 
cobbler should go beyond his lost. 
This Jisciple of St. Crispin bad a son whom be was en- 
deavoring to train in tbe way be should go, and whom be 
was bringing rapidly to a waxed end. This youth had a love 
for nature, and od a balmy duy when the westerly bieeze was 
blowing, and all na'ure seemed to invite one out of doors, be 
hud heard that the fish were abroad and were willing to take 
bait. After many stage asides, and oroad bints in'< nded for 
tbe obdurate parent, who sat pegging away unheeding, the 
anxious youth, driven to desperation, ventured the remark : 
'■ Pappy, they say the fish are biting.” “ Well, my son,” re- 
marked the hard-hearted sire, “stick to your bench and they 
won't bite you, '' Ou ope occasion there came to F. a gentle- 
man who, as Mark Twoip says, was a very good and clever 
man although a clergyman. At that time, in the golden age, 
“ before the war,” Florence bousted an organized fibbing club 
Now it happened that the aforementioned clergyman was a 
votary of St. Peter in a double sense, and consequently was 
inviud to go fishing with the club, As an especial honor he 
was assigned to a seat id tbe president’s boat. The presi- 
dent of the club was a man of much humor but of few 
words. In a few moments after tbe fishing had commenced 
the pareon got a bite, anil without wasting time hoisted a 
three-pound bass out of the water aud into the boat very 
much after the manner in which a red decked urchin ex- 
tracts his first shiner from bis father's spring branch. 
The pareon had just straightened himself aud was look- 
ing around to receive the congratulations of his companions, 
when the old president, removing his pipe from his lips, 
said : “ Throw that fish back ” The member of the club 
nearest tbe scene of action immediately obeyed tbe man- 
date. 
“In the name of redemption! what does Ibis mean?" 
shouted the preacher. 
“Fish bad no chance,” calmly replied the old gentleman, 
at the same lime returning the pipe to his lips. 
The fair sex, too, are nut always proof against tbe infection; 
and, though there may be those who. aware that the time for 
fishing is the season when, among other natural phenomena, 
spoken of by Mr. Tennyson, 
A yoang man’s fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love, 
frequent the Btream to fish— but not for the scaly inhabitants ; 
yet there are some who go from pure love of sport aDd nut 
as fishers of men. Prominent in my memory stands a lady 
who some years ago, while fishing in old Cypress, bad the good 
fortune to hook a six-pound salmon, and after a long struggle, 
to land him on a low pebbly bar. The salmon getting tree 
from tbe hook began to flounder back to the water. Aid was 
loudly 8ummone J, but before \l could come the fish would get 
back into the wa'er. Now, fair readers, what would you 
have done u-der the circumstances ? Leaving you to guess 
it or to give it up at your pleasure, I will tell you what my 
heroine did. She smply sat down on him, and a9 she was a 
b althy specimen and weighed over 12 stone, the salmon 
wisely concluded to reconsider tbe matter and remained 
where be was. 
Now, while I am on this subject, I might go on aud tell of 
tbe old lady who caught two bass on the same book and at 
the same time knocked two men overboard; but I am afraid 
my readers may think I have ceased to deal in fads and have 
goue to telling fish stories, so I will desist. In glancing over 
what I have written I see that I have been led astray from the 
course first laid out, aod instead of writing about tbe fishing 
in Cypress Creek, and the methods used there, have beeu be- 
trayed into telling a number of fishy anecdotes. However, I 
must take my leave of you for the present, hoping to appear 
again at some future time to tell what I know of tbe fishing 
in other streams of this region. Will. 
Fish Coi.tctfe in Maine.— Mr. Geo. Shepard Page, of the 
Oquossoc Angling Association, 6tates that Capt. Fred Barker, 
of the steamer Oquossoc, which runs from Indian Rock to 
the Upper Dam, at the outlet of Lake MooseDOmognotic, 
writes, under date of May 10, that he had just taken Fish 
Commissioner Stanley to Bema Stream, wheie he deposited 
110,000 young brook trout, and the same Dumber of blue-back 
trout ( Salmo rquoxsa). They were a part of tbe 400,000 
hatched in the house erected last October, at tbe outlet of 
Rangeley Lake, ny private subscription of five members of the 
Oquossoc Angling Association. 
Maine.— Cobbos'ccontee Lake, near Augusta, has been 
stocked with 5,000 landlocked salmon, aod bn equal Dumber 
are to be added annually until the lake is fully stocked. 
Five thousand Sebago salmon have been placed in the Sidney 
ponds. 
Tennessee — Nashville, May 23. — Nothing has been beard 
from tbe shad in tbe Cumberland, though an old lady residing 
here says that when she first settled here, some sixty years 
ago, she remembers distinctly to have seen shad that were 
caught in this river. J. D. H. 
Tennessee— Huntington, May 24.— Mr. S. M. Rixey, of 
tbe United States Fish Commission, on last Monday, placed in 
Beaver Creek at Huntington 50,000 young shad. They ap- 
beared to be in good condition. Foeestkk. 
— 
Fish Cdltobe in Mississippi— Aberdeen, Miss., May 20.— 
Our river (Tombigbee) was stocked with ynUDg shad lust Sat- 
urday, May 18, by tbe Uuited Slates Fish Commission, on re- 
quest of Hon. H. L Muldrow, our able member of Congress 
of this distiict. It was managed under the supervision of 
United States Fish Como issioner Mr. VVm. Russ, of Havre de 
Grace, Md , in presence of our excellent Major, T. B. Lykes, 
and many citizens. Tbe Commissioner deposited at this 
place, Aberdeen, county seat of Monroe. 6d,OU0 youDg shad, 
a id at Fulton, county s at of Itawamba, 30 miles up tbe river, 
00,000 ; also at Deuiopolis, 100 miles down the river, 00,000. 
This is a sufficient numb, r for this part of the Tombigbee 
River, and 1 hope in course . f three or four years we will 
have this fine fish ou our family table. I will have you well 
posted from time to time how the young shad improve, and 
will iulorrn you when the first grown shad is caught in this 
flection. w. K. 
—A new fish has been introduced into French waters. It 
comes from China and is called the Sets. 
Deserving op Mpoh Cekdit. — Mr. G. 8. Lamphear, of 
the well-known firm of Morn & Lamphear, wholesale fish 
dealers of Fulton Market, New York, Las received the 
thanks of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute for his 
exertion in collecting tbe statistics of the fishery receipts of 
New York. At tbe la6t meeting of the American Fish Cul- 
turalists it may be remembered that the society urged on mem- 
bers the neces.-ity of collecting such statistics. It was shown 
by Professor Baird that we were very much at fault in our 
controversy with tbe English Commissioners in regard to the 
Dominion fisheries, because no such data of our own were at 
baud. As the collection of these necessary statistics is a vol- 
untary one on tbe part of Mr. Lamphear, aDd by no means is 
easy, we are pleused to note that an acknowledgment has 
been made from such a high source. 
Mxfttrnl %}is(org<. 
RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE U. S. 
National museum. 
While wood and field are rejoicing in their renewed acces- 
sion of cbickweed, bluets, buttercups, anemones, spring beau- 
ties, blood-root, saxifrage, and trailing arbutus, and the parks 
resound with the melody of tbe soDg sparrow, the robin and 
their associates, tbe museum is harvestiug the results of that 
increased activity in collecting which is usually ushered in by 
the advancing spring. 
Tbe anadromous shad and salmon, returning from their an- 
cestral haunts in the mysterious somewhere of the Atlantic, or 
from their “ new reservation ” in the Gulf, seeking, in their 
maturity, the shallows and eddies which sheltered the frybood 
of their existence, become tropbire of tbe skill and guardian- 
ship of their foster parents— the Fish Commissioners. Ven ■ 
turesome 6 irens, tritons, lizards and snakes, burrowing in the 
black ooze of the rice swamps in search of unwary worms, or 
dreaming, in the unsafe retreat of a fallen log, of the twilight 
which lulls the drowsy fly, or tarryiug too long at the fasci- 
nating brookside, or basking dreamily in the warm sunshine, 
fall a prey to the quick hand of the collector, and devote the 
remainder of their lives to the service of the artists, who copy 
their colors and perpetuate their forms in pluster. The num- 
ber of tortoises and turtles has become so great as to call for a 
series of inclosures in which they have access to water and 
grass, and such meats as they require. Here a great many 
species may be collected and observed. Each individual is in- 
delibly marked with a catalogue number and its locality, for 
convenience- in taking notes. When required by the artist, it 
is easy to select any species and have its colors faithfully 
copied. Then a cast is made in plaster or paper mache, which 
is subsequently paiDti d in imitation of the artist’s sketch. The 
series of casts embraces Dearly all tbe te'tudinata from the 
Mississippi Valley eastward, and additions are being made 
rapidly. The species now living in the iDclosures are tbe 
snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina; the diamond back ter- 
rapin, Malacoclemmys palustris ; tbe geographic terrapin, Mal- 
acoclemmys gcographicus ; tbe Florida terrapin, Pseudemys 
floridana ; a Louisiana species, Pseudemys elegans ; the 6 lider, 
Chrysemys piclra ; Troos.’s terrapin, Pseudemys trooslii ; the 
box turtle, Cestudo clausa ; the speckled tortoise, Chelopus gut- 
tala, and the slink pot, Aromoehelys odvrata. Some of these 
burrow and hide away out of sight ; others show only their 
heads and a part of the carapax above water ; but there are 
unguarded moments when one may add something to his 
knowledge of their habits. 
Another object of interest is the 6 nake cage, now containing 
a collection sent by Mr. G. Brown Goode from Florida, for 
which the museum is indebted to Mr. F. C. Goode and 
Col. J. S. Sammis. The species are the green snake, Cyclophis 
cestivus ; the adder, Herterodon atmod s(f); the king soake, 
Ophibolus getulus ; the calico snake, Coluber guttatus, and the 
horn snake, Abastar erythrogrammus. These pets fare sump- 
tuously on mice and frogs, feeding probably at night, since 
they are not observed in the act during the day. The frogs 
nestle fearlessly on the coils of the serpents, little knowing 
how soon they will be honored with inside accommodation. 
With the consignment of snakes from Florida came a beauti- 
ful six-lined lizard, Cremidophorus sexlineulus, which is now 
luxuriating, not in clover, but in a bed of “black moss,” Til- 
landsui usneoides, which may recall its southern home. 
A pretty lot of tritons, Plethodon glutinosa, sent from North 
Carolina by Mr. Milner, Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries, 
adds another species to the vivarium. Tbe great difficulty is 
to catch flies enough for tbeir maintenance. Tbo object in 
sending living reptiles to the museum is to secure faithful 
sketches of tbeir life colors, to serve as models for painting 
the casts which are made after their death. 80 closely do the 
casts imitate the original that it is hard to distinguish them 
from the animals themselves. 
The rattle 6 Dake, prone, passive or defiant, looks out upon 
you in a most realistic fashion; the iguana leads a procession of 
scaly satellites away from the open jaws of the alligator ; the 
tortoises seem about projecting a new trial of speed with a 
colony of over-confident bares. Day by day tbe combinations 
multiply, and material accumulates for tbe student and sight- 
seer. 
Many interesting additions have been made to the collection 
of fishes. Mr. T. B. DoraD, of Montgomery, Ala., has sent a 
