260 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 18, ig>n- 
the influences in the atmosphere affect them 
strongly anil cast their shadows long before. 
W ho does not know that eels feed ravenously 
when the air is over-charged with electricity. 
But few have watched them forty-eight hours 
before a thunderstorm with their noses just out 
of their mud holes, then protruding half theii 
lengths, expectant, uneasy, almost till the first 
discharge of thunder, then sallying forth to de¬ 
vour. 
"Feyther,” said a Somersetshire lad, “get thee 
hay in an’ stop theck mower.” “Nay, lad,” 
quoth the father, “the glass is high an’ it ne'er 
looked more zettled vor vine.” I tell ee fe\- 
ther ’tis gwain to rain; the eels down the brook 
be pokin’ their ’eads out.” And the yeoman 
lamented the next day because he had not list¬ 
ened to the boy who knew his eels. 
“The glass is high.” Tut! On Dartmoor last 
summer it became a fashion among the moor- 
men to make them serve as targets for rifle 
practice. A reproach upon human intelligence 
will be removed when such a fashion has spread 
and spent itself so lavishly that not a glass is 
left except in centers where men are so huddled 
between walls that to observe nature is impos¬ 
sible. 
If creatures have instincts wherewith to guide 
them, man at least may observe those instincts 
and make some endeavor to understand them. 
What strange force brings forth the eel, ex¬ 
cites him and stimulates him to hunger? We 
say “it’s marvelous” and leave it, but nature 
holds no marvels; all is immutable law and 
order in her workshop. Things only seem mar¬ 
velous, because not understood. Something 
draws the eel, stirs his activities, stimulates his 
hunger. What is it? Palpably it is a form of 
magnetism. What does it affect in him? Piob 
ably his digestive organs. But what a provision 
that he should hear, so to speak, a first and sec¬ 
ond dinner gong and have notice of the banquet, 
for his prey are already abroad. 
Fish, even as we know them, are full of por¬ 
tents. Certain actions due to certain coming 
events unsuspected by man are law with them. 
We could learn incredible things from them if 
we would only take the trouble to verify one 
another, but we will not waste time by observ¬ 
ing. The most alert at sport are the greatest 
laggards at science, more’s the pity. 1 hey are 
acquainted with facts, but it is too much bother 
to make deductions. They know, for instance, 
that a salmon will not rise to a fly when the 
sky is steely, and glibly say “bad light” or “too 
bright.” If one says “too little electricity,” one 
is scoffed at. Or, if he tremblingly suggests 
anything as to the state of a fish s liver, he 
has to listen to a highly trained guffaw and is 
told to tell it to the horse marines. 
The fount of wisdom is dammed—I hardly 
knew which way to spell that word. You tell 
the same man a far more subtle truth—that the 
deer in his forest, for instance, know whether 
the guns are out intent on slaying them, or only 
the birds, and act with corresponding alarm, 
and he says, “Who doesn’t know that?” How 
does he know it? By the unerring behavior of 
the herds, time after time by repeated experi¬ 
ences. Then why not let others tell of less won¬ 
derful things which repeated experiences have 
made so evident to them. It is easier for him 
to swallow his own camel than another man s 
gnat. 
Is the effect of electricity upon piscine livers 
half so unintelligible a problem as that of the 
purpose of the hunter being capable of trans¬ 
mission to the intuitive perceptions of the 
hunted? It is not. The line of demarcation 
between mental and physical impulse may be 
very indefinable, but certainly the mind of the 
stag is an organism less open to explanation than 
the liver of the fish. 
I particularize the liver because in fishes there 
is reason to believe that organ is extremely sen¬ 
sitive probably more the central seat of stimulus 
or depression than is the case in most other 
creatures, and almost as quickly influenced as 
the leaves of a tree in wind. That being so, 
and water being a full transmitter of aerial 
vibratory waves, we might understand why fish 
are particularly sensitive to every passing change 
and acutely aware of prospective ones. 
We cannot doubt that fish, in their sudden 
disturbances and as sudden revivals, are re¬ 
sponding to the variations of atmospheric con¬ 
ditions conveyed to them, possibly through the 
medium of their own element in an intensified 
form. What is far off to our senses may be 
very near to theirs. We cannot detect the death 
throes of a horse twenty miles distant like the 
vulture, nor like the horse can we scent water 
through two feet of sand. Let us allow attenu¬ 
ated powers to fish also, and to a degree to 
which we are utterly incapable of putting any 
limit. J- Berryman, 
[to be concluded.] 
Minnesota Legislation. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 8. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: We are now waiting for spring 
so that once more we may take down the rod 
and creel and hie away to the streams for a 
tryout with the sly ones. There are the bass in 
the ripraps and the trout in the little brook that 
dashes among the rocks down from the hills. 
Still all have the same feeling, and we have the 
same notions as to what we are going to do 
when the time comes. At present we can fish 
through the ice. 
Fishing was very poor last summer; in fact, 
it was about the poorest I have seen. Frogs 
were scarce; shipments were sent from other 
States, and Minnesota's reputation as a frog 
State suffered. Fishermen now on the ice are 
having great luck. The Minnetonkas are the 
center of the fishing activity and thence stream 
hundreds of men. The common way is to cut 
a hole in the ice at a likely place, and then use 
minnows, which are hard to be found. Previ¬ 
ous winters we have been able to get them out 
on the swamps by cutting into a deserted musk¬ 
rat house. There they gather and may readily 
be scooped out. From the way men board the 
cars with heavy sacks I can vouch for the fact 
that there is no observance of the limit. The 
average croppie caught runs to a good size. 
It has been decided by the fish and game com¬ 
mission that the date for the opening of the 
bass season should be changed from May 29 to 
June 15. Bass and other fish are at that time 
still spawning, and in the Northern waters even 
to the first of July. Nine out of ten fish caught 
earlier than that date are fat with spawn. As 
it would be unwise to make different dates for 
the opening of the season in various parts of 
the State, hence it has been decided that the 
later date apply throughout the State. The 
commission’s views are embodied in a bill in¬ 
troduced in the House by the committee on fish 
and game. Other bills prepared under the super¬ 
vision of the fish and game commission purport 
to strengthen the present laws. One measure of 
note requires a non-resident fisherman to pay $1 
for a general license. Another bill provides that 
the possession of green moose, deer and caribou 
hides out of season will be regarded as prima 
facie evidence that the animals were killed out 
of season. Still another bill provides that a ship¬ 
per be allowed to send heads and deer and moose 
for mounting purposes outside the boundary of 
the State. A bill requiring that all fyke nets be 
lifted at least once every seven days has also 
been under discussion. The executive agent of 
the fish and game commission explained to the 
committee that large numbers of game fish 
are caught in the nets, and if these were raised 
only once in two or three weeks, the fish which 
are to be released are so weakened that they are 
unable to provide for themselves. 
R. P. Lincoln. 
The First Tarpon. 
Punta Rassa, Fla., Feb. 10 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The first tarpon taken on the 
West Coast was brought in at Shultz Hotel, on 
the San Carlos Bay. C. E. Rich, of New York, 
having strained his light rod, borrowed a 6j/2-ounce 
greenheart to go out on the Matlachee Sound 
for spotted squeteague. He had a nine-thread 
line on a light 100-yard reel and was using a 
strip of ladyfish on a 6/0 sproat hook with music 
wire snell. Mr. Rich saw three tarpon rolling 
and avoided them for fear of smashing the bor¬ 
rowed rod, but another tarpon caught him un¬ 
aware, and the hook sunk well in a tough spot. 
The big shiner showed his size in the air the 
moment he felt the restraint and made leap after 
leap. Mr. Rich had an experienced guide who 
worked the boat with great skill to meet the 
rushes out and back, and it required just one 
and one-half hours to boat the fish, a gaff being 
handed to the guide by an angler in another 
boat who was attracted to the scene by the mag¬ 
nificent aerial flights of the fish. 
The fish was weighed and measured at the 
hotel wharf by a self-constituted committee of 
anglers including Mr. Foster, of Long Branch; 
C. B. Jones, of Babylon, L. I.; H. C. McDougall, 
of Newark; Dr. Martin Shultz, of Punta Rassa; 
Morris and Livingston Rutherford, E. Vom Hofe, 
Dr. Binion, the Egyptologist, who pronounced it 
Mccjalops thryssoidcs, and Col. Brabson, of Mem¬ 
phis. 
The measurement was six feet and eight inches 
and the weight 125P2 pounds. Harrimac. 
Right. 
Irish Medical Student, explaining to a col¬ 
league how he was unfairly “ploughed” at a 
viva-voce examination on osteology: 
“What’s this, sorr?” says he. 
“A bone, sorr,” says 1 . 
“What bone?” says he. 
“The ‘faymur,’ ” says 1 . 
“The roight or left ‘faymur?’ ” says he. 
“Roight.” says I. 
“Wrong.” says he. 
“Left,” says I. 
“Roight!” says he.—Fishing Gazette. 
