168 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Aug. 9, 1913. 
Stories of the Stolid Blackfish 
Collected by ALEX. M. D. STODDART 
H ERE are four blackfish stories with no 
moral attached: 
Frederic Thompson was fishing in Long 
Island Sound four miles from Riverhead. One 
of the blackfish he hooked broke the line and 
of course got away. Mr. Thompson got addi¬ 
tional tackle and baited again. Later he hooked 
the identical fish that got away with his former 
tackle, for in its mouth was the hook he used 
and trailing along was the sinker and a piece of 
the former line attached. 
* =i= * 
M’ene, the last survivor of the six Eskimos, 
brought down by Peary from the far North 
Both men began to pull in, and when near 
the surface it was seen by the fishermen of both 
boats that the men had hooked the same fish. 
Both men stopped pulling. 
“My fish!’’ cried the Anna K. fisherman. 
“My fish!” cried the Elsie K. fisherman. 
“You let go!'’ cried the Anna K. fisherman. 
“You let go!” cried the Elsie K. fisherman 
in reply. 
Both were stubborn. The tackle of the fish¬ 
erman on the Anna K. was the stronger, how¬ 
ever, and that fisherman pulled in a six-pound 
blackfish and part of the other fellow’s tackle. 
* * * 
At the Black Warrior wreck the yacht Ella, 
THE ORIGINAL “FISH WALTZ.” 
from side to side ten times each way. Twist 
the body from right to left and left to right as 
far as possible ten times each way. Revolve 
the body upon the hips from right to left, carry¬ 
ing the head and shoulders low down in a large 
circle ten times. Reverse the motion ten times. 
Rest and relax. 
The above movements are excellent to keep 
the body pliable and elastic, and are a great aid 
to digestion and assimilation. 
The practice of these exercises with moder¬ 
ation and in connection with rest and relaxa¬ 
tion will enable vacationists to get the full 
measure of health and pleasure from their out¬ 
ing, and for those who are unable to take a 
vacation will seem as the best possible sub¬ 
stitute. 
Wild Pigeon. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
1 have just read with much interest C. A. 
Green’s article in your last issue on wild 
pigeons. I am not a sportsman in any sense, 
and never was, but I am a bird lover, although 
as a boy I had the killing instinct common to 
nearly all boys. It is said that the crudest ani¬ 
mal in the world is the small boy. I know I 
wanted to throw a stone at every wild creature 
1 saw and became quite expert at throwing. I 
was the only boy in our village that could bring 
down the swift-flying night hawk. I killed 
more than one on the wing, but I never could 
hit a wild pigeon, although they passed through 
our county every spring in countless numbers, 
generally coming late in March, flying north and 
remaining ten days, during which time they were 
caught in nets and shot by the thousands. Small 
boys were selling them at about twenty-five cents 
a dozen, and everybody had pigeon pie. Perhaps 
the greatest number was caught by the use of 
a net fixed to spring over flocks of fifty or one 
hundred, lured by stool pigeons and grain to 
a spot of ground and the net sprung over them. 
These stool pigeons were not of the wooden 
sort, but live pigeons with their eyes sewed 
shut. I had one given me, and by clipping his 
wings and cutting the stitches that closed his 
eyes, I kept him for some time until he became 
quite domestic. He was a beautiful bird, and I 
became very fond of.him. I believe the wild 
pigeon a bird that might easily be domesticated. 
When I think of the countless thousands 
I have seen I cannot believe they are extinct, 
although their keeping together in such immense 
flocks and breeding as they did in such large 
colonies would tend to their extinction. I could 
tell you of a pigeon roost and breeding place in 
Sullivan county, Pennsylvania, not very far from 
my home where old and young pigeons were 
killed at night by hundreds, but it would make 
my article too long. F. E. Barber. 
(and who two years ago went northward again 
never to return), was fishing near New Rochelle 
one day with Jim Beecroft. The boat got stuck at 
low tide on one of the mud flats. All the hooks 
and sinkers had been lost. While waiting for the 
incoming tide to float the boat, Mene took out 
his knife, and in an hour he cut a hole in the 
end of a clam shell near the hinge, and by trim¬ 
ming fashioned a hook. Then he sharpened the 
point. On the rising tide, getting the boat into 
deep water, he was rewarded later for his 
patience, persistency and ingenuity by landing a 
blackfish weighing two pounds. 
;{s * * 
Two fishermen, angling from different boats 
one Decoration Day at the stone schooner wreck, 
got a bite at the same time and boil, of them 
commenced pulling in. One man was a member 
of the Andy Fishing Club of Tremont on the 
Anna K., and the other man fished from the 
Elsie K. The Anna K. was anchored over the 
wreck at the time the Elsie K. came along. The 
Elsie K. did not hit the right spot, and the cap¬ 
tain determined to heave the anchor. Just as 
he was lifting the anchor, a man on the Anna K. 
yelled in glee, “I’ve got a bite!’’ 
with members of the Parlor Fishing Club on 
board w'as going- 
way that 
This and way 
and Bley was lying rather loose-like in the bot¬ 
tom of the boat. His eyes were partly closed, 
and when he hooked out at time, he saw the 
sky and at other times he saw the green water. 
He never felt so light in his life before. Never 
did he feel so queer in the region of the stomach 
and he hoped so that death would blot out his 
suffering. His line was overboard, but what did 
he care whether the fish took hold or not? 
“Bley, Bley, you got a bite!” yelled Rose- 
field, the commodore. 
Bley merely opened his half-shut eye. He 
didn’t^ care if he had fifty bites. What w'as a 
fish to him at a time like this? Just then a wave 
hit the boat, and Bley got most of the water. 
He had to crawl out of it and finally got up. 
The salt water put fresh life into him, and he 
took hold and never stopped until he pulled in 
his fish. Later in the day the members of the 
club got together and awarded Bley a rod and 
reel for catching the prize blackfish of the day, 
a 754-pound fish. 
Doll Hunt 
