Nov. 29, 1913. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
687 
host proposed that the party should sally forth 
and see what hand those bunglers were making 
of their salmon. The move being voted by ac¬ 
clamation, a boat was ordered, and a lanthorn 
provided. The brothers were soon found, as 
they had again worked up with the fish a dis¬ 
tance extending three miles and were near Cap¬ 
tain W.’s lodge. “Come, my lads,” cried the 
captain, “what will you take for the rod? You’ll 
never kill that fish if you were after him till 
next Christmas. I’ll give you a good deal more 
for your chance than you’ll ever get for the 
salmon, for you don’t know how to catch him.” 
After some chaffing a bargain was struck, 
and Captain W. having scrambled into Davy’s 
boat, received in his hands the rod he had just 
purchased. Steadying himself as well as he 
could upon his legs, which he kept well apart, 
“Now, you lubbers,” he shouted, “I’ll show you 
how to do the trick. None of you here know 
how to handle salmon. Watch me! Here goes 
for the Castle Connell touch,” and suiting the 
action to the words he bore with all his strength 
on the rod. For a moment the tough ash 
strained, then straightened with a jerk and flew 
backward, whipping the line out of the water, 
which had snapped at the middle of the foot 
link, causing W. to assume suddenly and with 
a terrible bump a sitting position in which he 
remained some time, not seeming to understand 
exactly what had happened. As may be sup¬ 
posed, the weight of the fish was variously esti¬ 
mated by those who had attained a view of him 
when he leaped out of the water, but all agreed 
that they had never seen his equal. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Having read so much about pollution of 
streams in your esteemed issues, and having 
fished streams that contained trout in their tribu¬ 
taries and black bass, both small-mouth and 
Oswego, in the main streams around New York 
and Jersey City, that now contain possibly 
suckers, catfish and eels, I want to relate a queer 
incident that occurred recently. The Hacken¬ 
sack River is known to freshwater fishermen in 
this section at least as the most polluted river in 
this part of the country. No one has seen the 
bottom in ten years on any part of this river 
within fifteen miles of Jersey City. The bottom 
is covered with black mud and sewerage, to say 
nothing of oils, acids and other foreign matter 
that continually flows back and forth with the 
tide. Yet only the other day the writer in 
traveling the meadows between the Plank Road 
and the Turnpike on the Jersey City side of the 
river saw what he thought was a muskrat going 
up one of the ditches that empties into the river, 
but on closer observation it turned out to be 
a fish. The water in the ditch was only about 
two inches deep, owing to the low tide, but the 
black mud was at least two feet in depth. How¬ 
ever, I succeeded in getting into the ditch be¬ 
tween the fish and the Hackensack River, and 
as he could not swim very well, it being so shal¬ 
low, I was able to throw him out on the meadows 
with my hands. Imagine my surprise to find a 
small-mouth black bass which weighed, I should 
judge, close to two pounds, and he was just as 
lively and looked in as good condition as if he 
was just taken out of a spring water lake. 
I placed him in a little spring temporarily 
until I got a pail and water, and then brought 
him to the artificial spring water lake in the 
Hudson County Park, near which I live, and I 
have no doubt that he will thrive there with 
other bass that the writer and several of his 
friends of the freshwater fishermen placed there 
three years ago. I might also add that the bass 
we placed in this lake have thrived and bred, as 
we have seen the young fry around the edge of 
the lake. The bass that we put in were also 
caught in this same section of the Plackensack 
by old Ben Dusenberry in his carp nets. The 
writer has seen not only bass, but trout caught 
in these nets up to two years ago, when old Ben 
Dusenberry passed away, and whom most of the 
old-timers will remember as the dean of the 
Hackensack freshwater fishermen when the 
Hackensack was a real river; not a mud and 
oil hole as it is now. 
Many of the best fishermen in this section 
have tried for the past ten years to get a bass 
to bite in this end of the Hackensack without 
success, yet they are there. We have cooked a 
few of these bass caught in the nets, but found 
they had very dark flesh and could not be eaten, 
at least by anyone who had eaten a small or 
large-mouth bass from a clear water stream or 
lake, which showed they must have lived in this 
polluted water a long time. This shows at least 
that while this pollution may not kill the fish 
outright, it sure does keep them from taking 
the bait while they are in this water. Can any¬ 
one tell us whether these fish pass out to sea 
and go back up clean streams, or what does hap¬ 
pen to them? You seldom if ever see one dead. 
Where do they go? We would like to hear 
from some of your readers who could enlighten 
us on the subject. Nearly every member of our 
association can vouch for the above. 
PI. J. Burlington, 
Vice-President Hudson Co. F. & G. Ass’n. 
Seventh Annual Meeting of the West Vir¬ 
ginia Fish and Game Protective 
Association. 
Meeting called to order by J. A. Viquesney, 
president, and H. M. Lockridge, who delivered 
the address of welcome. 
In the absence of Charles B. Johnson, of 
Clarksburg, Judge Charles S. Dice, of Lewisburg, 
delivered the response to the address of welcome, 
on behalf of the Fish and Game Association. 
Committees appointed: Membership, Nomi¬ 
nations, Resolutions, and Legislation. 
Dr. T. S. Palmer, of Washington, D. C., 
gave an interesting talk on elk, and how they are 
cared for by the National Government, and why 
the Government is distributing these animals to 
several states. 
Three sessions were held on Thursday in 
order to complete the program. 
George W. Wilson read a paper, “Why We 
Should Protect Our Forests From Fire,” and 
much interesting discussion was brought out by 
the paper. 
A. D. Williams, State Road Engineer, gave 
an address on “Good Roads, and Their Relation 
to Forests, Game and Fish,” which was followed 
by an address of W. E. Hoffheim, of the West 
Virginia Good Roads Association, and an illus¬ 
trated lecture on good roads by Fred M. Schill¬ 
ing, of Allentown, Pa. 
Dr. T. S. Palmer discussed at length the Fed¬ 
eral Migratory Bird Law and gave the reasons 
for its enactment, and why it should be of great 
benefit to all of the states where properly en¬ 
forced. 
Philip S. Farnham, Chief of Staff of the 
American Game Protective and Propagation As¬ 
sociation, read a paper on “Game Protective As¬ 
sociations and What They Have Accomplished.” 
Over two hundred names were added to the 
list of membership since the annual meeting last 
year. 
Constitution and by-laws were amended by 
adding the word Forest to the name of the asso¬ 
ciation, making it “The West Virginia Forest, 
Game and Fish Protective Association.” 
J. A. Viquesney was elected president of the 
association, and W. B. Rector, secretary-treas¬ 
urer, and a vice-president was elected for each 
county. 
The committee on resolutions commended 
the work of the Forest, Game and Fish Depart¬ 
ment and asked the Legislature to restore the 
resident hunter’s license at its next session. 
The game banquet, which was served in the 
two large rooms of the club house, was pro¬ 
nounced the most elaborate affair ever witnessed. 
More than two hundred people were present at 
this banquet. A large elk, a bear and a deer 
had been killed for this occasion, the hides of 
which will be mounted as trophies of the club. 
Wild turkey, grouse and squirrel completed the 
meat menu for this supper, and many other deli¬ 
cacies made it an enjoyable meal. 
Several after dinner speeches were made, re¬ 
plete with wit, wisdom and eloquence. 
The closing and parting address was made 
by Rev. D. S. Hammond of St. Mary’s, West 
Virginia, after which the meeting adjourned sine 
die to meet next year at the call of the presi¬ 
dent. 
Canine Newsdealers. 
Two Chicago dogs—-an Irish terrier and a 
water spaniel—the property of a successful news¬ 
dealer of that city, are proving themselves very 
useful to their master. If the latter goes to 
lunch, or has to leave his stand for a time, the 
two watchful animals sell newspapers for him. 
“Rex,” the Irish terrier, perches himself on the 
stand and grips between his teeth a big calabash 
pipe and a copy of a newspaper, while “Brownie,” 
his partner, takes up his position on a little soap¬ 
box beside the stand and holds in his teeth a 
little “plug” hat for the safe-keeping of the pen¬ 
nies. When a passer-by buys a paper “Brownie” 
sits up to receive the coin. Both of the dogs 
seem to have a fierce as well as a sharp eye to 
business, and their master places great faith in 
them. 
Twenty-one Thousand Miles of Salmon 
Tins. 
That over six.million one hundred and forty 
thousand cases of canned salmon were packed on 
the Pacific Coast of North America during the 
season of 1912 will seem to many people a sur¬ 
prising statement; but it is true, and, further¬ 
more, if all the tins used that season—two hun¬ 
dred and ninety-four million seven hundred and 
sixty-two thousand five hundred and seventy-six 
one-pound cans—were laid end to end they would 
extend in a straight line for over twenty-one 
thousand five hundred miles, or would come with¬ 
in about three thousand five hundred miles of 
encircling the globe at the equator. To fill these 
cans some sixty-seven and a half million salmon 
were needed, while some twenty million more 
were required for the preparation of smoked, 
pickled, mild-cured, and frozen salmon. Several 
other millions were sold in a fresh condition, 
and the whole product was valued at something 
like thirty-five million dollars. 
