302 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Sept. 6, 1913. 
Stories of the Silly Cod 
hang on to life so long after being cut open and 
cleaned.” 
* * * 
Collected by ALEX. 
OME years ago A. E. Levy, an enthusiastic 
New York angler, went fishing down to the 
Fishing Banks. In the stomach of a cod 
he found a ten-dollar gold piece, with two dia¬ 
monds set on the side and the initials “P. C. E.” 
on the other. The story of the find was printed 
and reprinted, until he had forgotten about it. 
Some time later he received this letter from 
Patrick C. Evans, residing in a little town in 
Kansas: 
‘‘I some days ago saw in a St. Louis paper 
an item about your catching a codfish which, 
when you opened it, gave up a ten-dollar gold 
piece, on one side of which was a couple of 
diamonds and on the other letters ‘P. C. E' The 
coin is my property. 
“The coin is valuable to me, for the follow¬ 
ing reason: I was fool enough about five years 
ago to go into a ‘wildcat’ gold mining scheme in 
Colorado. I paid the piper to the tune of about 
$4,000 before I found out what I was up against. 
“The only thing I got out of the enterprise 
was this same ten-dollar piece, which I borrowed 
from the president of the company, a man named 
Harris Colby, at Leadville, Colo., having only a 
check in my pocket at the time, and being shy 
of ready money. As it happened, I did not 
change it, and the next day the mine busted up. 
‘‘So I said 1 would keep the coin as a 
warning to me not to be played as a sucker by 
any man or men who owned gold mines. Frank 
H. Wells, a jeweler, of Denver, Colo., put two 
diamonds in the piece, and also put my initials 
on the date side, charging me $30 for the job, 
and I guess the transaction is still on his books 
if you wish to verify my statement. 
“I wore the coin some years, and it made 
good whenever I was tempted to go into some 
scheme that promised a bunch of money for 
next to nothing invested. I was in New York 
on May 4, and remained over for some time 
with friends. We went blackfishing in the lower 
bay, and I was hauling in a fish, when some¬ 
how or other the chain to which the coin was 
fastened got caught in the rigging of our sloop, 
which just then rolled, the chain snapped, and 
away went the coin. 
‘‘You can prove the truth of this if you will 
write me, when I will write and send you the 
addresses of witnesses of the accident. I will 
also give you references of good men here and 
in New York, who will vouch for my business 
and moral character.” 
Mr. Levy investigated and found the man’s 
story to be true. 
* * * 
The cod is most accommodating in the matter 
of food, and as to what he will lake as bait on 
a hook. Frank T. Rullen has caught cod in 
New Zealand with a lump of coal tied to a piece 
M. D. STODDART 
of spun yarn. Bits of leather, marlin spikes, 
iron bolts, a ball of twine, leaden sounding 
plummets, hoofs of deer are among the curious 
things which dissection shows some of them 
have gathered in. 
C. Volcker, of Penzance, Cornwall, was fish¬ 
ing off Lamorra Cove, near Newlyn, when he 
caught a codfish weighing nearly nineteen 
pounds. On being opened and cleaned the fol¬ 
lowing morning the stomach of the fish was 
found to contain a copy of the Burial Service 
of the Episcopal Church in a complete state of 
preservation. 
* * * 
Herman Brand tells an interesting story of 
the staying, clinging to life qualities of a six- 
pound cod he purchased at Fulton Market. After 
the cleaning process he carried the fish to his 
Brooklyn home in a neatly put-up package. 
“On reaching home after an hour’s travel,” 
he says, “I opened the package and was sur¬ 
prised to find the cod apparently very much 
alive. And this despite the fact that about an 
hour after he had his skull crushed in with a 
club, his stomach cut open and his entrails and 
gills removed. The fish still had sufficient 
strength to writhe and raise part of his body 
in rather a lively manner, and even after being 
cut up into steaks there was considerable mus¬ 
cular action. I have brought many fish home 
alive, but this is the first time I have seen one 
Illinois Casting Club. 
Chicago, Ill., Aug. 25 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: All of the events as scheduled were 
cast at the meetings, Aug. 23 and 24. 
Weather conditions on Saturday, Aug. 23, 
sky clear, wind northeast, shifting to northwest, 
velocity fourteen miles an hour; Sunday, Aug. 
24, sky clear," wind north, velocity seventeen 
miles an hour. The scores follow: 
Half-ounce accuracy bait: 
Pierson . 
.’99.3 
McFarlin . 
. 98.3 
Linder . 
. 98.0 
McCandless . 
. 96.4 
Bauer . 
. 97.3 
Swisher . 
. 97.7 
Whitby . 
. 98.7 
Hoxey . 
.9S.3 
De Garmo ... 
. 99 
Kerr . 
. 9S.S 
Cook . 
. 97.6 
Stoltz . 
. 98.6 
Humphreys ... 
. 98.7 
Cali McCarthy .. 
.98.3 
Hartley . 
. 98.1 
C W Grant . 
. 98.1 
Hornstein .... 
.96.4 
Tice . 
. 98.4 
Re-entry: 
Pierson . 
. 99.5 
Humphreys . 
. 98.9 
Linder . 
. 98.9 
Kerr . 
.98.4 
Cook . 
. 97.5 
I Talf-ounce 
distance bait, 
feet: 
Me Lari in . 
. 94 
W T Grant . 
.. 99 
l)e Garmo ... 
. 93 3-5 
C McCarthy .... 
.. 161 
C W Grant.... 
. 69 2-5 
Lingenfelter . 
... 224 1-E 
Re-entry: 
C W Grant ... 
. 54 1-2 
C McCarthy . 
... 15S 4-E 
W T Grant ... 
. 112 
Longest cast -MO feet. 
Salmon fly: 
C McCarthy . 
. 125 
Stanley . 
.Ill 
C W Grant .. 
. 121 
*Lingenfelter ... 
. 11: 
De Garmo ... 
.134 
How far a cod may go is not known. Ob¬ 
servations occasionally give the opportunity for 
judging the distance. French fish hooks, used 
only at the Grand Banks, have been found in 
the stomach of a cod taken at Cape Ann, Mass., 
a distance of 800 miles. 
* * * 
Some years ago a vessel was wrecked on or 
near Cape Sable, on the southern extremity of 
Nova Scotia, and among the articles lost in the 
wreck was a lady’s watch, upon the case of which 
were engraved the initials of the owner’s name. 
Cod has the curious habit of picking up and 
swallowing any metallic or shining object it dis¬ 
covers on the bottom of the ocean. A few days 
subsequent to that on which the wreck occurred 
a cod was captured in Margaret’s Bay, fifteen or 
twenty miles southwest of Halifax, in whose 
stomach was found the watch which had been 
lost over 100 miles away. 
ifc ij; 1 
This is George E. Gamble’s story: 
“Let me cite an instance which happened to 
me some eight years ago during the great cod 
season which we had then. I was fishing with 
a friend of mine off Coney Island Point, and 
he was fishing with a drop line, which he laid 
down for a minute, without fastening it. When 
he went to pick it up it was gone. 
“About a half an hour afterward I caught 
a cod which had my friend’s hook in his stomach 
and his line and sinker and all trailing from its 
mouth, thereby proving that a cod, although it 
has a hook in its stomach, will still take the 
hook.” 
Re-entry: 
C McCarthy .... 
. 117 
*Lingenfelter .. 
. 121 
C W Grant _ 
. 120 
*Guest. 
Light tack’e 
drv-fly accuracy: 
Under . 
.. 99 1-15 
( W Grant ... 
... 98 6-15 
Pierson . 
.. 99 11-15 
W T Grant . 
... 97 13-15 
Whitby . 
.. 99 4-15 
Swisher . 
.. . 99 6-15 
De Garmo' . 
.. 99 10-15 
Tice . 
... 96 14-15 
C McCarthy ... 
.. 98 14-15 
Re-entry: 
Linder . 
.. 99 2-15 
C W Grant .... 
...99 
Pierson . 
.. 99 2-15 
Swisher . 
... 98 12-15 
C McCarthy .... 
..99 1-15 
Tice . 
... 98 4-15 
The club record in the light tackle dry-fly 
accuracy event was 99 10/15, gained by Wm. 
Stanley, July 20, 1912, was equaled at this meet¬ 
ing by L. E. DeGarmo and surpassed by E. K. 
Pierson, who now holds the record with a score 
of 99 11/15. 
Our next contest, and the last regular one 
of the season, scheduled for Sept. 6, the events 
to be quarter-ounce accuracy' bait, - quarter-ounce 
distance bait and accuracy fly, will be postponed 
until Sept. 7, owing to the annual tournament of 
the National Association of Scientific Angling 
Clubs at our pool on the 5th and 6th of Sep¬ 
tember. 
CHUNK CONTEST AT THE ILLINOIS CASTING CLUB. 
The chunk contest on Aug. 17 was a sue- 
