362 
THE PISHING GAZETTE 
[May 13. 1893 
noon three dueks cruising down the banks of a 
river and eating up all the spawn of perch, roach, 
&c., which they come across would do more harm 
to a fishery than would half a dozen determined 
poachers in a fortnight. Speaking not without 
some knowledge of fishery preservation, I say 
most unhesitatingly that a bye-law ordering the 
owners of swans and ducks to keep their birds off 
the river during the spawning season of coarse 
fish would do infinitely more good than the bye¬ 
laws relating to the return by anglers of under¬ 
sized fish. Nothing need be done to which our 
good friends in the City of London (who own a few 
of the swans) need object; in fact I am quite sure 
that if the matter was laid properly before them 
they would gladly acquiesce in the proposed bye¬ 
law. 
It may be remembered that when the Berkshire 
County Council discussed the proposed fishery 
bye-laws for the Thames, Mr. Yan de Weyer, in 
face of the fact that the first draft of the bye¬ 
laws would have allowed smaller mesh nets to be 
used, and would have done away with the licence 
now necessary for nets, said that the conservators 
never had any intention of increasing the 
privileges of fishery owners, that the whole 
matter was to be reconsidered, that Mr. Russell, 
of the Maidenhead Association, and his friends 
would be given full particulars of any change 
which the conservators proposed to make, so 
that they might have a full opportunity of 
discussing them. Mr. C. H. Cook, bon. sec, of 
the Henley Association, wrote to the secretary of 
the conservators to inquire if they acquiesced in 
the promises made by Mr. Van de Weyer, and 
apparently they do not, for the reply was that any 
alterations in the bye-laws would be made known 
in the usual manner—that is to say published in 
the London Gazette, which nobody sees, and twice 
in the advertisement columns of the Times, where 
they are very likely to be overlooked. It simply 
comes to this—that no reliance can be placed 
upon any statement, or upon any promise made 
by anybody connected with the Board of Con¬ 
servators. But I think better times are coming. 
Templak. 
THE ANGLERS’ BENEVOLENT 
SOCIETY. 
We think some of our readers may like to 
assist this most useful society in helping dis¬ 
tressed anglers and their widows and orphans by 
becoming life miembers, as the subscription for 
life-membership is only one guinea. Very pitiful 
are the cases which often come before the com¬ 
mittee, and the greatest care is exercised in the 
administration of the fund. 
Among the life members already enrolled are : 
Mr. Wm. Senior, Angling Editor of the Field. 
Mr. Alf. Nijthall, J.P., President of the Thames 
Angling Preservation Society. 
Mr. T. H. Gouoh, Secretary of the Thames Conser- 
servancy. 
Mr. T. Jennings, Bostonian Angling Society. 
Mr; Edward Marston (“ The Amateur Angler ”). 
Mr. R. B. Marston, Editor Fishing Gazette. 
Mr. E. W. Marston. 
Mr. R. L. Marston. 
Mr. C. H. Cook (“ John Bickerdyke ”). 
Mr. J. P. CoNNELLAN, Eagle Angling Society. 
Mr. D. W. Pine, Ply-fishers’ Club. 
Mr. H. 0. Hinton, Bermondsey Brothers. 
Mr. G. H. Wood, Hoxton Brothers. &c. 
It will be seen from the advertisement, which we 
are happy to give the society, in our columns 
that it now subscribes for five beds in the 
Friendly Societies Convalescent Home, Dover. 
We can answer for it that the angler who 
supports this society will do a real good to some 
poor brother angler in distress. 
Hay Fever. —Some of our angling friends 
almost dread the time of grass-flowering and 
haymaking, on account of hay fever, and are 
unable to go near a trout stream. We know 
several personal friends who speak highly of the 
Carbolic Smoke Ball as a cure for colds in the 
head, and other affections of the nose and throat. 
At any rate, we can advise anyone who suffers 
from hay fever to call and see the testimonials 
received by the proprietors, at their offices, 27, 
i’rinces-street, London, W.; 14, Rue de la Paix, 
Paris ; 196, Broadway, New York. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
“ S.,” Colombo, Ceylon.—We advise you to 
write for information about fishing at Karlsbad 
to the secretary of the Fischerei-verein there. 
The Tepd is a trout stream, the Eger is a pike 
water near Karlsbad. 
CotresjJOitirHtCE 
[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions 
expressed by our Correspondents.^ 
“ One of the charms of angling is that it presents an 
endless field for argument, speculation, and experi¬ 
ment.” —T. E. Pritt. 
“ THE WALTON TERCENTENARY.” 
Dear Sir, —In common with many disciples 
of “ Old Isaak,” I hail with delight the approach 
of the tercentenary of his birth on Aug. 9 next. 
In these days of jubilee and centenary celebra¬ 
tions, it may not be possible to signalise the 
event as it might have been signalised forty or 
fifty years ago, with a man like Christopher 
North, for instance, to put “ spirit ” into the 
movement. But, surely, the forthcoming “ occa¬ 
sion’’will not be allowed to pass without some 
recognition worthy of Walton and his followers. 
With your kind permission, therefore, I venture 
to suggest that a befitting way to “ mark ” the 
interesting event would be to hold a banquet, or 
festival, on Aug. 9 next at Stafford, Walton’s 
birthplace, to be attended by, say, four or five 
hundred representatives of the angling clubs 
throughout the country, with several of the best- 
known sportsmen of the day specially invited to 
take some part in the proceedings. This, it 
appears to me, is the only practical scheme there 
is now time to adopt, and I trust you will kindly 
open your columns for some interchange of views 
on the subject. But it is obvious thac whatever 
is done, if anything at all, to show our regard for 
the memory of one who was a real benefactor of 
his fellowmen. had better be done with alacrity 
and spirit. As a rule, many anglers cast well 
up stream. ” Time and the event ” are yet within 
their opportunity. Is this opportunity to be 
allowed to pass unregarded ? I sincerely hope 
not. I may say that the Mayor and Council of 
Stafford have some proposal of the foregoing 
character presently under their consideration. 
But should it be found unsuitable to hold the 
festival there, the metropolis would be an easy 
alternative. The date would, I think, be generally 
convenient.—Yours faithfully, 
Alexander Cargill. 
0 , Ravelston-terrace, Dean, Edinburgh, 
May 6,1893. 
WALTON AND COTTON’S FISHING HOUSE 
AT THE WORLD’S FAIR. 
Dear Mr. Marston, —Please accept my thanks 
for the illustrations sent me in addition to the 
photo of Walton’s statue. The Cotton fishing 
house will be erected in an ideal spot in a little 
grove at the edge of the North pond, near the Art 
building. The illustrations you sent will be 
enlarged and suitably framed before being hung 
on the walls of the fishing lodge. 
Mr. Senior, who brought your letter of intro¬ 
duction, I find to be a very genial and com¬ 
panionable gentleman; it is a great pleasure to 
me to converse with him and compare notes on 
the subject of our mutual hobby. 
Trusting that you may at last find that you 
can come over and have a look at our “ big 
show,” and with my warmest regards—I am, 
yours very truly, J. A. Henshall, 
In charge Angling Pavilion, 
World’s Pair, Chicago. 
Re THAMES PRIVATE FISHERIES. 
Dear Sir, —As Mr. Plummer’s reply to my 
letter of the 29th ult. appears as a report in your 
last issue, allow me to draw attention to this, 
as some of your readers may not be interested in 
these river reports. I thank Mr. Plummer for 
sparing me the infliction of further correspon¬ 
dence, your readers being well able now to judge 
of the veracity of my letters, every word of 
which I am quite prepared to prove at any time. 
—Yours faithfully, 
BENJA.\nN Robert Bambridge. 
Eton, May 5,1893. 
THE NORWEGIAN AGENTS AND 
ANGLERS. 
Sir, —In common with many others who have 
travelled in Norway, I have been forcibly 
impressed with the scrupulous honesty of its 
people. Probably, in no part of Europe is the 
foreigner so little likely to be imposed upon as in 
that beautiful land. I am sorry, therefore, to 
hear of any instance in which the national 
character for good faith is impugned. 
Such a case is that of Mr. Thorvald Beyer, the 
bookseller and agent of Bergen, who has recently 
been represented as having dealt unfairly with 
an English gentleman to whom he let part of a 
salmon river last autumn. Now, I happen to 
know Mr. Beyer very well, and am aware that he 
holds a very high character in his own country 
as an energetic and upright man of business. I 
have also some knowledge of the facts of the 
case in which he has been concerned, and it 
seems to me that he has been rather hardly dealt 
with in the matter. 
The accounts hitherto published about this 
affair have been very one-sided, and have 
suppressed material circumstances connected 
with it. Mr. Beyer brought an action to recover 
the rent of the river, and lost it because it was 
shown that his description of the water had been 
not quite accurate in certain particulars. But 
we are not told that it was a good river, and that 
the gentleman who took it killed considerably 
over 6001b. of salmon during the month of his 
tenancy. Nor is it stated that this essential fact 
is to be taken into consideration by the assessors 
who are to settle the amount properly due to 
Mr. Beyer. 
Altogether the case has been very unfairly put 
before the public, and has, in some instances, 
been accompanied by sweeping and disparaging 
remarks, which I believe to be wholly uncalled 
for. The Norwegian agents I know to be as 
honest and straightforward as any of their 
brethren elsewhere, indeed a great deal more so 
than many, and, after a careful consideration of 
this case, I fail to see that Mr. Beyer’s conduct 
has been unworthy of their good character. At 
any rate he gave his client abundant sport, and 
what more could the most ardent fisherman 
require P—I am, sir, yours truly, 
E. J. Goodman, 
Author of “The Best Tour in Norway.” 
London, May 2, 1893. 
Mr. Beyer’s Explanation op the C.yse. 
Julian Corbett v . Thovald Beyer. 
Sir, —From the note in your paper of 15th ult., 
I learn that you have received my letter of the 8th, 
and I thank you very much that you are kind 
enough to allow me to state in your columns my 
points of issue of above-named and now so 
famous case. For this purpose I beg to be per¬ 
mitted to repeat here the five points which I 
promised you to demonstrate. These were : 
1. That the misrepresentation was not wilfully 
done, but entirely against my will and knowledge. 
2. That I (the “ well-known Bergen agent ”) am 
not the creator of the so-called “ Bergen system,” 
or generally practising it, as your readers may 
judge me to be from Mr. Corbett’s letters in 
English sporting papers. 
3. That I, to the contrary, have the reputation 
of giving exact and correct information about 
salmon fishing in Norway. 
4. That the verdict in my case contra Mr. 
Corbett is so far from being a victory to him, 
that it is entirely equal to what I o&red him 
beforehand, viz., arbitration. 
5. That the price of the fishing (£60 for a period 
of thirty-two days) was so reasonable and the bag 
made (6351b.) so good, that not many sportsmen 
would have acted as Mr. Corbett did. 
First, re Point 1. 
When advertising my river last season I 
thought that no truer description could be given 
of it than the one written by an Englishman in 
an English sporting paper. I therefore quoted 
the account of the Evanger river which I had 
found in the Fishing Gazette of June 8, 1889, and 
which reads as follows:— 
“Vossevangen is a large station, prettily 
situated on a large lake, whence runs a first- 
rate salmon river, the Evanger. The Evanger 
itself is a splendid stream, all rocks and rapids 
and short pools. The fishing is very difficult, 
