522 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 30, 1911. 
Ancient Fish Bait. 
Washington, D. C, Sept. 22.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Dr. Charles D. Walcott, secretary 
of the Smithonian Institution, at Washington, 
is the author of a recently published paper on 
the fossil worms of British Columbia, based 
upon specimens collected during investigations 
commenced in that part of Canada years ago. 
The paper is entitled, “Middle Cambrian An¬ 
nelids”—which in plain English means the 
worms of both the earth and the sea from one 
of the oldest periods of geologic time. Not all 
worms resemble the plain homely angle worm 
or “rain worm,” but many of them living in the 
sea are covered with long and beautiful iri¬ 
descent hairs, some with scales like fishes and 
still others live concealed in tubes from which 
protrude long frills of brilliantly-colored 
tentacles. 
While the average reader may imagine worms 
not especially useful except as aids to the gar¬ 
dener in loosening the soil, as bait for the dis¬ 
ciples of Izaak Walton, or to enable the early bird 
to break his fast; in geology they have an im¬ 
portant part and enable the scientific student to 
estimate time and to study the conditions of life 
in the past ages. In the paper Dr. Walcott 
makes his first report on the annelids of British 
Columbia. 
As a rule, these worms have been known 
only by their trails and borings in the 
mud and sand deposited in the various periods 
of geologic time. Very few of the actual ani¬ 
mals have ever been preserved, the most noted 
discoveries being those in Bavaria and Monte 
Bolca. In fact, Dr. Walcott searched for sev¬ 
eral years for such fossils in the shales of 
British Columbia, but not one of these animals 
was found until the summer of 1910, when he 
came across them in a form of mudstone called 
by geologists, Burgess shale. These worms and 
other fossils are pressed flat, so that the animal 
is represented by only a thin film which is 
fortunately darker than the shale or rock, and 
being unusually shiny, is thus distinguishable. 
Even the fine details of structure are shown, 
and often the contents of these animals appears 
as a glistening silvery substance. 
Despite the fact that these animals are all 
worms or leeches, the forms vary greatly; some 
are truly worm-like with varying rings or seg¬ 
ments, others have nearly the appearance of tad¬ 
poles with heads, tails and fins, some have a 
tubular construction and tentacles, while others 
with feathery spines or scales as exposed in 
the rocks, present a petal-like appearance of a 
chrysanthemum. The different forms of the 
annelids, as well as their external and internal 
characteristics, are clearly shown by six plates 
made from photographs of the actual fossils 
taken by a system of reflected light. The de¬ 
scription includes several new families and 
genera, together with eighteen new species 
covering a most exhaustive list of specimens 
taken from points along the Canadian Pacific 
Railroad, near Burgess Pass and Field, British 
Columbia. Nearly all the specimens come from 
the Burgess shale, 3.800 feet above Field, or 
about 7,800 feet above sea level. 
Dr. Walcott’s researches relate to paleon¬ 
tology, which is the historical branch of geology 
and covers the collection and study of animals 
and plants found fossilized in rock. The ob¬ 
ject of this science is to unfold the past history 
of our world, as it is thus revealed to us by the 
remains of ancient life imbedded in the layers 
of the earth’s crust. Dr. Walcott shows where 
a new point of view is opened by the study of 
annelids or fossil-worms; the fact that from one 
locality eleven genera belonging to widely 
different families were found, indicates that the 
fundamental characteristics of all the classes 
were developed prior to the Middle Cambrian 
period, which is the oldest of the Paleozoic era 
and is known to scientists as the age of in¬ 
vertebrates. 
It is absurd to venture a statement of the 
age of these animals, but knowing that they be¬ 
longed to the Middle Cambrian period, we can 
estimate an age of many million years—a great 
age for any specimen, but nature has preserved 
them so well that biologists are now able to 
compare them with the life prevailing to-day. 
In the annelid paper the scientific names, de¬ 
scriptions and life histories of these ancient 
worms are given, and those interested in such 
a technical treatise will find much desirable in¬ 
formation in this pamphlet, which is publication 
No. 2014 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous 
Collections. B. A. Bean. 
Australian Casting. 
North Sydney, N. S. W., Australia, Aug. 14. 
—Editor Forest and Stream: I notice that you 
have published my account of Dr. Maitland’s 
record cast of 118 feet inches and inclose 
an account of a further fine achievement of Dr. 
Maitland’s—129 feet 1S4 inches with the wet fly: 
The New South Wales Anglers’ Casting Club 
held a wet-fly distance casting competition on 
Saturday afternoon in cold, windy weather, in 
spite of which nearly all the contestants im¬ 
proved on their previous performances. The 
wind was blowing nearly straight from behind 
the competitors, and while it was practically im¬ 
possible to straighten out a- long line behind, the 
wind acted as a cushion, holding the line sus¬ 
pended in the air and of course assisted the com¬ 
petitors in the forward stroke. The wind blew 
with added velocity at times, some of the con¬ 
testants faring worse than others in this respect, 
and the conditions throughout were very un¬ 
pleasant, in spite of which there were twelve 
entries, and a number of highly interested spec¬ 
tators watched the proceedings. Dr. H. L. 
Maitland made the remarkable cast of 129 feet 
1 Vs inches, establishing another world’s record,* 
easily beating his own figures by over 8 feet 3 
inches. When it is considered that in this style 
of casting no weight of any kind is used, the 
line being propelled by the spring of the rod 
skillfully manipulated, with accurate timing to 
determine the precise moment at which the for- 
[*Not a record.—E ditor.] 
ward cast must be made, this is a truly wonder¬ 
ful performance. It is only a few years ago at 
the first fly-casting competition ever held in Aus¬ 
tralia that the longest cast made was only 79 
feet. True, the casting was done with ordinary 
fishing rods, such as are used on the rivers, but 
even so, this was a very poor performance, the 
lowest score made at Centennial Park on Satur¬ 
day afternoon beating it by six feet. C. li. Gorrick, 
who has been spending a lot of time lately coach¬ 
ing members in distance casting, has earned the 
hearty thanks of his pupils, enabling them all to 
considerably improve on their former perform¬ 
ances. He cast in his usually fine style, reaching 
120 feet—an advance of five or six feet on his 
previous record. C. H. Gorrick will not compete 
in the championship, which commences on Sept. 
2 this year, as, having won the Usher challenge 
cup three years in succession, he has presented 
a challenge cup of similar value. Judging by the 
improvement shown there should be some very 
close work in the championship this year. The 
result of the contest was: A. D. Pedley cast 
105 feet 8 inches (received 38 feet), 143 feet 8 
inches, 1. W. E. Wilson cast 104 feet 7 inches 
(received 31 feet), 133 feet 7 inches, 2. H. O. 
Chidgey cast 117 feet (received 17 feet), 134 
feet, 3. C. PI. Gorrick cast 120 feet (received 
13 feet), 133 feet, 4. Dr. S. H. Hughes cast 85 
feet 10 inches (received 45 feet), 130 feet 10 
inches, 5. 
Up to the present I hold the Australian record 
for half-ounce distance casting with single- 
handed American overhead rod. 
H. K. Anderson. 
Channel B ass Fishing. 
Asbury Park, N. J., Sept. 23.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The channel bass fishing season 
this fall thus far has been a record breaker and 
the members of the Asbury Park Fishing Club 
and others on their annual sojourn to Barnegat 
City declare it to be the best ever experienced. 
The channel bass as a general rule do not come 
in close to the shore in that vicinity until the 
early part of September and usually depart about 
the middle of October. They seem to like to 
gather near the inlet to Barnegat Bay, but ex¬ 
cellent fishing has also been experienced at Sea¬ 
side Park, which is located about eleven miles 
north of the inlet. 
The first captured this year was taken at Sea¬ 
side Park on Sept. 13 by Bernard Wisenfeld, 
which weighed twenty-four pounds six ounces, 
since which time there have been in the neigh¬ 
borhood of fifty fish taken at Seaside Park. At 
Barnegat City over one hundred have been cap¬ 
tured, the record number for one day being 
twenty fish. 
The fish range from eighteen pounds, the 
smallest, to one caught by Robert Wiechert which 
weighed forty-one pounds eleven ounces, which 
is the largest to date. The average weight is in 
the neighborhood of thirty pounds. 
The record fish for Barnegat and vicinity is 
forty-nine pounds, but Joe Cawthorn, the well- 
known actor, captured one at Corson’s Inlet two 
years ago which weighed sixty-three pounds. 
It is unnecessary to dwell on the sport attached 
to this kind of fishing, but ask* any fisherman 
who has ever caught one and he will tell you 
that for gameness no fish caught from the beach 
gives a longer or more desperate fight. It ordi- 
