March 20, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
So far we have not refused the title of amateur to an 
angler who has invented and sold some angling in¬ 
vention on which he gets a royalty from the manufac¬ 
turers; but if he gets up a little company and is inter¬ 
ested in it and the selling of his patent, we say he is a 
maker and seller and cannot compete as an amateur. 
* * * Our army and navy officers invent things and 
sell the inventions to ‘our or other governments, but 
they remain eligible as members of the best service and 
social clubs, and can enter any competition as amateurs. 
There are two reasons why one keeps out the pro¬ 
fessional; (1) because as a professional he may acquire 
a knowledge of the implements and skill which is beyond 
the hopes of an amateur; (2) he may utilize his presence 
among amateurs to push his goods in an objectionable 
manner.' * ■* * If you take these two points as a 
criteria and apply them fairly, you get as good a working 
rule as you can find. 
This sentiment seemed to have the endorse¬ 
ment of the meeting, though no action was taken 
on it. 
Since President Henderson made his commit¬ 
tee appointments, there have been some changes, 
and the new list is as follows: 
Programme—R. J. Held, Perry D. Frazer, Ed¬ 
ward Farnham Todd and Tobias A. Wright. 
Tournament—R. J. Pield, Robert B. Lawrence, 
Edward B. Rice, G. M. L. LaBranche, J. L. Kirk, 
Nathaniel S. Smith and William J. Ehrich. 
Arrangement—Robert B. Lawrence, Perry D. 
Frazer, W. J. Ehrich, Jason G. Lamison, Milton 
H. Smith, E. H. Meyers, Harry F'riedman and 
Walter McGuckin. 
Entertainment—Perry Frazer, R. S. Wins- 
more, Tobias A. Wright, William A. Babson and 
James D. Smith. 
Finance—Edward B. Rice, G. M. L. LaBranche 
and J. L. Kirk. 
Pollution of Streams—Nathaniel S. Smith, J. 
L. Kirk and Edward B. Rice. 
The Publicity Committee will be a sub-com¬ 
mittee of the Arrangement Committee, but it 
has not as yet been appointed. The Tourna¬ 
ment Committee will appoint a captain and at 
least two assistants, to take active charge of the 
casting. 
Francis N. Walbran. 
The Fishing Gazette of London records the 
death of Francis M. Walbran, a veteran angler, 
on Feb. 15. On the morning of that day he 
began to fish for grayling in the River Ure at 
Tanfield. The stream was high and the cur¬ 
rent strong, but although Mr. Walbran had been 
warned of the treacherous character of the bed 
of the Ure, which is slippery and has many deep 
holes, he had fished there for forty years and 
started out with confidence. How he lost his 
life is not known, but 'his creel was found in a 
shallow place, and later his body, so it is sur¬ 
mised that he slipped and fell, his waders filled, 
and he was carried into one of the pools and 
drowned. 
Mr. Walbran was 57 years of age and was for¬ 
merly the head of Walbran Limited, Leeds, deal¬ 
ers in fishing tackle. He wrote for the angling 
papers and was the author of “Salmon, Trout 
and Grayling,’’ “Grayling and How to Catch 
Them,’’ and the editor of an edition of “British 
Angling Flies.’’ 
Mr. Walbran’s favorite water was close be¬ 
side the old church at Tanfield, and to a friend 
he once expressed his desire to be buried in the 
churchyard, beside the river. It was in this 
pool that he lost his life, and he was laid to 
rest in the spot he had chosen. 
Fishing Around San Francisco. 
San Francisco, Cal., March 10. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: On April i trout fishing in tide 
waters will be in order, and anglers are now 
making preparations for the opening of the 
season. The trout fishing season proper will 
not commence until the first of May, and after 
that time anglers will be allowed to fish at 
will; that is, provided they keep within the 
limits of the law and secure permission from the 
owner^s of the land upon which they will be 
obliged to trespass in following the course of 
a stream. It was hoped that the law would be 
changed this season so that fishing could be com¬ 
menced in all trout streams on the first of April, 
as when the first of May rolls around many of 
the small streams have but little water in them 
and the fisherman is forced to go far back into 
the mountains to enjoy sport of this character. 
The measure failed to pass the recent session 
of the Legislature, but it is thought that suffi¬ 
cient pressure can be brought to bear another 
season to have the date changed to where it 
was in former years. 
Just what kind of sport will be experienced 
in tide waters when the season opens in April 
is now occupying the minds of anglers, and it 
is the opinion of some that the heavy waters of 
the past winter have swept many of the small 
fish from the creeks into the bay and ocean. 
The opening of the new Ocean Shore railroad 
between this city and Santa Cruz during the 
coming season will result in the opening of sev¬ 
eral new fishing grounds to local anglers, and it 
is likely that many of them will take advantage 
of the opportunities of fishing in virgin grounds. 
It is anticipated that the San Gregorio estuary 
will become a favorite spot, and striped ba>6S 
fishermen especially, in large numbers are pre¬ 
paring to visit the hitherto almost inaccessible 
place. 
The devotees of this sport are highly delighted 
with the action taken by the Legislature in estab¬ 
lishing a closed season for striped bass during 
the season they propagate, and feel that the pro¬ 
tection to the fish will result in much good. 
Bass fishing will soon commence again in earn¬ 
est after an enforced period of inactivity of at 
least two months, owing to the unfavorable con¬ 
dition of the weather. A. P. B. 
Trout Prospects. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., March 13.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: 1 receive many inquiries 
in regard to the prospects of early trout fishing, 
good or bad, in this part of the country. I am 
afraid that nothing very encouraging can be 
said. Hundreds of small brooks dried up en¬ 
tirely last autumn and great numbers of little 
trout perished miserably. The people realize 
their heavy loss and will try to make good by 
restocking. This, however, requires time, two 
years at least, before these fish are large enough 
to afford sport to the angler. 
As far as I can learn, there was a poor show 
of trout on the spawning beds last fall. It is 
possible that some of the larger fish were not 
able to run up at the usual time, owing to the 
extreme low water. These may have deposited 
their spawn in the large waters of the main 
streams. Taking one consideration with another, 
the outlook for fishermen is not at all brilliant. 
The men who have the good fortune to hit that 
461 
short period when weather and water are just 
right for the first time in the spring will doubt¬ 
less have fair sport and an enjoyable time of it. 
The weather must be bad, indeed, and the trout 
exceedingly scarce to prevent anglers from tak¬ 
ing a fishing trip at the first opportunity. It 
would be a difficult matter to hold them in the 
city after the first spring-like day. Good luck 
to them all, say I, and may their lines be cast 
in pleasant places. Theodore Gordon. 
American Wastefulness. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Do you know what lies at the bottom of the 
abominable proposition to turn the Yosemite 
Valley into a lake for the benefit of the water 
supply of San Francisco? American wasteful¬ 
ness ! That is the bad reason; there is no good 
reason. I have not betfore me the per capita con¬ 
sumption of water in San Francisco; it is high 
I know. Safe to say it is twice or thrice as 
much as any city of Europe of similar or larger 
size. But it is not used; it is wasted, carelessly 
and stupidly wasted. It is the same in New 
York city. The whole distributing system is a 
sieve in the streets and in the houses. Col. 
Waring said of Brooklyn: “The sub-irrigation 
of a city is not the chief object of the water 
w'orks, but that seems to be its chief use.’’ 
Secretary Garfield should have told the people 
of San Francisco to first stop their waste of 
water and he would then entertain propositions 
to increase the supply. New York is doing the 
same foolish thing and prefers to spend two 
hundred million dollars for a mere increase of 
its supply, rather than spend ten millions to 
stop the waste and thereby put off any increase 
for twenty-five or forty years to come. We are 
the greatest producers, the greatest consumers 
and the most wasteful people on the face of the 
globe, and the latter is something to be ashamed 
of. 
When in London very recently I examined 
thoroughly the water supply there, and their 
chief engineers scoff at the idea that we in 
New York use 120 gallons per head per day. 
They use forty and no sane man believes we 
use three times as much; half the supply is 
wasted. The Yosemite Valley and the Catskill 
Mountains are being sacrificed because we pre¬ 
fer to waste rather than conserve our natural 
resources. Thos. A. Fulton. 
The Fishing Club de France. 
“A NEW and important fishing club,’’ says the 
Proprietaire Chretien, “has recently been formed 
in Paris under the patronage of the Duchesse 
d’Uzes, Baron E. de Zuylen, Prince Pierre 
d’Arenberg, the Marquis of Segur, and a num¬ 
ber of other distinguished sportsmen. It al¬ 
ready possesses some hundreds of members. 
One of its chief objects will be the prevention 
of pollution in rivers, a task which can only 
be properly carried out by a large and influential 
body such as this club is evidently destined to 
become. It has a monthly illustrated journal, 
and will possess a central club house, at which 
papers will be read and discussions held weekly.’’ 
—London Fishing Gazette. 
All the fish laivs of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
