May 13, 1893] 
THE EISHING GAZETTE 
347 
On Friday last two gentlemen—Rev. Mr. 
Davidson, Dundee, and Rev. Mr. Bonar, Edin¬ 
burgh—out from Dunalastair Hotel, fished Loch 
Rannoch, and caught seventy-six trout, weighing 
801b. The following day they had twenty-seven 
on the river, weighing 17.Ub. 
On Monday of last week, on the Killin 
(reserved) water of Loch Tay, Captain Stewart 
had two salmon, weighing 291b. and 191b. 
The annual competition of the Ellem Fishing 
Club was held on the Whitadder last Friday in 
excellent weather. The club medal for the 
heaviest basket fell to J. G. Mason, S.S.C., 
Edinburgh, for 102 trout, lO^lb., all caught with 
the fly. From the weight of the baskets recorded, 
it does indeed look pretty much as if most of the 
sizeable trout of the Whitadder nowadays were 
little better than 2oz. sile, but I fancy it is less the 
fault of the stream than of the hordes of anglers 
that constantly punish it, basketing almost 
everything they catch. 
The Tummel trouting is presently doing 
better than most. _^ 
At this early season of the year anglers from 
the south are forward on the lochs of the High¬ 
lands in greater numbers than usual. Loch Awe 
would need to stand a lot, for it has, for a month 
past, got a frightful pounding from club 
members and others. We have repeatedly said 
that those who fish this beautiful loch annually 
might at least subscribe a little for the purpose of 
getting fresh blood imported to keep the fishing 
as good, if not make it better, that it is. 
Colin Gunn writes from the Brora:—“ You 
guess rightly; I had nothing worth reporting 
last week. River nearly dry, glass steady as a 
rock, sun very bright and strong. Mr. Gunnis, 
Gordnnbush, had both rods last week, and got a 
few fish, but the number I have not learned. 
Angling all round is in as bad a state as it 
could be.” 
THE YOUNG MAY MOON. 
(Vide Court Circular, Wednesday, May 8, 1898.) 
By Cotswolh Isys. 
’Tis the bloom of May, 
And the land is gay 
At the news that spreads this happy day. 
That the rose of York 
And the rose of May 
Are blent in one for aye and aye ! 
And in mood optative the people pray. 
Wherever the glad news cometh—“ May 
The young May moon 
Beam on to June 
Of bliss consummate in summer noon ! ” 
Flyfishers’ Club. 
ilotes anir terics 
Grilse Caught in Caulingwark Loch. —Mr. 
T. Rutherford, Blackburn, and Mr. W. Seggie, of 
Castle Douglas, caught a grilse in Carlingwark 
Loch last week. Mr. Rutherford hooked the 
fish, and afterwards handed the rod to Mr. 
Seggie, who succeeded in landing it—a rather 
lanky specimen of 2|lb. weight. 
The trout anglers on the Brora are not happy. 
During the month of April they were doing 
splendidly, but since the beginning of this month 
the Duke’s netsmen are regularly dragging the 
tidal water pools, and the anglers get little. It 
is not, however, of dragging, but of stoning, that 
they complain, for the men begin by stoning at 
the bottom of the pool and so drive the fish up. 
The net is then pulled across, and the stoning 
begins at the upper end, and the fish are driven 
back. The upper end of the net is then pulled 
across, and the poor fish are trapped in their terror. 
When the Stoners have left trout anglers get no 
nibble, and they write to the papers to complain 
and to ask about the legality of the stoning. 
almost every part of the northern half of the fair. 
Capt. J. W. Collins is head of the department, 
and I was introduced to him by Dr. Henshall, to 
whom a letter from friend Marston had duly 
introduced me. I was amongst friends at once, 
and paired off soon with the doctor, who it may 
be remembered published an exhaustive work, 
‘ Book of the Black Bass,’ some years ago. It 
was little less than a Bible in volume (and ortho¬ 
doxy), and everybody supposed that the black 
bass was done for to this extent, that nothing was 
left to be said about it for at least several genera¬ 
tions. But the doctor himself two years ago cast 
the helve after the hatchet by his work ‘ More 
about the Black Bass.’ Here he is installed as 
head of the angling section, and whatever jobbery 
there may be in many appointments in this 
country, these two gentlemen are undoubtedly 
square pegs in square holes. This is one reason 
why the building was really ready last year. The 
exhibits are coming in, so far as live fish in the 
tanks, and objects from Canada and the Continent 
are concerned; but the angling space is well 
nigh bare as Mother Hubbard’s larder now. and 
1 pass it by, merely remarking that our British 
exhibits are a very poor show, and that Mr. R. B. 
Marston, who, at the invitation of the Royal 
Commission, wrote the chapter about Euglish 
Angling for tbe catalogue of Sir H. Trueman 
Wood’s catalogue, has to apologise for our short 
comings. Truly, they are so short that I may 
have done with them out of hand. It may, how¬ 
ever, be mentioned that in view of exhibits, thirty- 
four pages of the catalogue are filled by Professor 
Ray Lankester’s chapter on the progress of 
knowledge in regard to the sea fisheries of the 
United Kingdom. That is not sport to be sure, 
nor are the cured ling and dry fish exhibits, four 
in number, correctly speaking in that category. 
In the sea fisheries group, Mr. Anderson-Smith, 
of Ledaig, exhibits literature of sea-fishery and 
marine productions; Mr. J. Buchanan, of 
Glasgow, deep sea fish-hooks and tackle; Sir 
Albert Rollit, model of a steam trawler ; and 
Mr. C. Tooke, of Lowestoft, oil clothing. In the 
group of “ Fresh-water Fishing and Angling,” 
the entries, I blush to state, are just four in 
number—Anderson, Anderson, and Anderson, 
of Queen Victoria-street, wading gear; William 
Bartleet and Sons, Abbey Mills, Redditch, 
fish hooks; E. Stanley, West Kensington, 
lobster trap and eel trap; W. Turnbull, 
60, Princes-street, Edinburgh, feathers used 
in making salmon Hies. Comment is truly 
needless. Dr. Henshall tells me that his American 
angling friends—and they are a large family— 
are continually deploring to him the absence of 
the rod and tackle makers of Great Britain. To 
return for a few moments to the building and its 
contents, to which the doctor kindly constituted 
himself my guide—not counsellor, perhaps, but 
friend assuredly. As naturally as the hart takes 
to the cooling water brooks, so did he first 
conduct me to his adored black bass. I believe 
he was sorry he could not take them out and 
stroke them, or groom them down, as they do 
cattle and dogs at the shows. Indeed, some of 
the fish were so touched with fungus that a salt 
bath would have done them no harm. And I 
might take this opportunity to explain that the 
design of the building is due to American cute¬ 
ness of the first degree. When Captain Collins 
arrived at Jackson’s Park two years ago, he was 
shown the place where the fisheries building must 
be. It was an island shaped like a banana, a 
strip of land, to change the similitude, resembling 
a boomerang, only slightly curved. So an idea 
was given to the architect, who simply jumped at 
it; there must be a central building (the water 
being converted on one side into dry land), with 
an arcade thrown out right and left, following 
the curve of the banana, and terminated in each 
case by a circular building. The main structure, 
for commercial fisheries, scientific investigation, 
and fish culture, is rectangular, 868ft. long by 
163ft. wide, and there are pretty galleries running 
the entire length and at both ends. The circular, 
or, to be quite accurate, polygonal pavilions, 135ft. 
across, are one for aquaria and the other for angling. 
The following notes from Dr. Henshall will sutfi- 
cently indicate what is to be done in the latter. ‘ All 
of the space has been assigned for several months, 
though a few changes have been made, giving 
to new applicants the space relinquished by 
certain exhibitors of New York City and vicinity. 
From the Lochy-Speau 1 learn, as my corre¬ 
spondent puts it, that there is “ still no water 
and no fishing. The fish cannot get up, but it’s 
not that only, for they are not on the shores, 
except in driblets. Now they must be late, and 
there is no appearance of rain yet to encourage 
them, by tasting the freshed water running out 
of the river, to come in about. This is the 
worst fishing season, so far, that I have known.” 
Our old advertiser, Mr. William White, of 
Rodono Hotel, St. Mary’s Loch, Selkirkshire, 
writes:—“ We are leaving this hotel, but we shall 
still be in the angling line. We have secured the 
Old George Hotel, Stanley, Perthshire. It is the 
property of Colonel Stewart Sandeman, who has 
the magnificent salmon reaches of the Tay 
adjoining. The want of good accommodation 
has been much felt by salmon anglers and others 
resorting to this pretty place. This is now to be 
put right. The hotel, which will in future 
be known as tbe Stanley, is to be enlarged— 
ten bedrooms, smoking-room, lavatories, &c., 
will be added, also stabling, as posting is 
much required. Colonel Sandeman is to give 
a beautiful wooded stretch along the banks of 
the Tay for the use of the hotel visitors, and it 
will be our endeavour to push the bushiess and 
bring an excellent class of people about. We 
shall be able to entertain our visitors at most 
moderate cost, as we are at the base of supplies 
—different from St. Mary’s Loch, which is 
eighteen miles from a market. Had I not been 
leaving, my advertisement would have been re¬ 
peated in the Gazette before this time. I do not 
intend to advertise the Stanley until I see the 
house in a forward state. After that, I hope to 
have a good advertisement of our hotel and 
fishings in the Gazette.” We wish Mr. White all 
success in his new sphere, whither the good 
wishes of his many friends will follow him. 
The weather has not yet turned the kind that 
is exactly suited to bring up the fine large trout 
of Loch Tummel, but, notwithstanding this, 
there have been some good ones caught since I 
last heard from Mr. Dow—among others, a grand 
one of 6|lb. 
Proposed Government Licences for Sea 
Salmon Fishings. —The proprietors of the sea 
and river salmon fishings in the north of 
Scotland are at present taking steps to protest 
against the proposal to grant licences for fishing 
for salmon with hang and drift nets in the 
coast fishings belonging to the Crown. A 
memorandum embodying the principal points 
of the private proprietors’ objections has been 
prepared by Mr. George Davidson, of Well wood, 
lessee of the Ythan and Coast Salmon Fishings, 
&c., in which it is contended that such fishings 
would not only result in the ruin of private 
salmon fishings, but would entail serious loss to 
the national exchequer and diminution of the 
fish food of the people. As the fishings of 
private owners and of the Crown are inseparably 
mixed together, extreme difficulty would be 
experienced in preventing poaching without the 
aid of a large and expensive body of marine 
police, the value of the fishings lowered, the 
rentals reduced, and the run of fish seriously 
interfered with. The use of hang nets is seriously 
objected to as implying a destructive and waste¬ 
ful style of fishing, and would greatly diminish 
the quantity of fish caught. It has already 
proved prejudicial in many parts of the country 
already. The system of licences, it is pointed 
out, could not yield a tithe of the sums at present 
received as rents for unchartered fishings. 
ANGLING EXHIBITS AT CHICAGO. 
Extracts from “ Red Spinner’s ” article in the 
Field :— 
“ It is not because of bias in favour of a loved 
sport that I hereby declare that the Fisheries 
Building at the World’s Fair to be one of the 
most beautiful. It certainly is one of the most 
noticeable, though it would be a mere corner 
cupboard inside some of the huge white palaces, 
loaded with classical architecture, in other por¬ 
tions of the park. Long before I knew what it 
was I asked its character. Everybody passing 
near does this. The design is Spanish-Roman- 
esque, and its red tiles, gables, countless little 
white pillars and arches, elaborate tracery, and 
characteristic decorations, show pleasantly from 
