952 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

and sent the coachman into the old mill race 
close to the wall on the lower side where the big 
one has always hung out. I made a fool cast 
and the fly lit in a crevice a few inches above the 
water, and | jerked it into the water. Say, boys! 
Of all the strikes you ever saw, the water fairly 
boiled. That big trout leaped half. out of the 
water and I was too surprised to strike; when I 
did it was too late. I dropped close to the water 
and waited a few minutes and made another cast, 
but it wasn’t any use. He was too clever. 
“I fished all the way down to the spring brook 
and pretty near filled the basket, but I had lost 
all itnerest in the sport. I was continually think- 
ing of that big trout and cursing myself for 
everything mean because I was too surprised to 
hook him when he ‘struck, and it being the first 
time he was séen this season, too. Up ’til then I 
would have bet a red apple he had died of pure 
meanness or old age. 
“T fished slowly back and schemed and ‘schemed 
to fasten that old foxy trout, but every plan I had 
tried so many times before I gave up in disgust. 
“When I struck the iron bridge it was about 
dusk, but I stopped to clean my fish. I ripped 
open a big fellow and my knife struck something 
hard in his stomach, and investigating I found it 
was a big hard-shell crab, and when I came to 
think of it, I remembered I had seen crabs in 
trout stomachs several ‘times before. An idea 
flashed under this old hat of mine, forthwith. I 
would catch me a crab and try that old fellow’s 
appetite on fresh crawfish, which, I reasoned, 
must be a royal dainty on the trout bill of fare. 
“It was fast getting dusky when I waded along 
shore in the quiet water by the clay bank, and 
after lifting several flat stones I surprised two 
medium-sized crabs and put them in my coat 
pocket. Then I changed my leader for a strong 
double snell hook and in the gathering darkness 
hiked for the old mill. 
“It was plum dark when'I got there, and after 
baiting my hook carefully with one of the crabs, 
so as not to kill him, I dropped it easily over the 
stone wall into the water just where the race 
comes into the brook. I smiled wickedly, I am 
afraid, as I lowered the tempting dainty into the 
water, but after the bait had been there about 
fifteen minutes the smile faded into a sickly grin. 
I started to pull up but something was on the 
hook. Feeling sure I had the old fellow I gave 
a quick strike and broke the hook under a stone. 
Then I figured that that crab had pulled under a 
stone first off and the trout could not get at him. 
“T put on another hook, soaked it a minute in 
the water, and fastened the next crab deeper; 
fixing him so he could not swim so good and 
lowered away again. The bait struck the water 
and I eased out slack line. ‘Three jerks in quick 
succession and I eased out more line and waited 
what seemed hours to me wondering if that fish 
was really on. Finally I reckoned he was if he 
was ever going to be, so I gave a slight yank. 
Say, I had him all right. He made one flop and 
was under the low bridge almost putting a kink 
in my old rod before I knew what was doing, I 
gathered wits enough to head him off from the 
old roots and he shot up in the shaller riff before 
he could turn around. I took to the bridge, I 
could just see it in the dark, but I couldn’t see 
rod, reel or line, but I could feel that fish all right, 
and having whipped that pool so much I knew by 
instinct where he was, and the rest was just 
blamed luck. Once he got in a crevice in the wall 
and sulked and.I -walked across the bridge and 
hauled him out into the pool to fight it out, I 
know that tackle of mine and I tell you, boys, I 
drove that fish with'a curb bit and a high check. 
He soon began’ to give up. He got just one 
chance to jump and then broke close to the shore 
on the open side. There wasn’t no good place to 
land him, so I waded under the bridge and hauled 
him out on the gravel bar below. An’, say, I 
wasn’t nowise sure of that fish until I had him ten 
feet out on shore and was ‘laying on top.o’ him.” 
* Don CAMERON. 

NorFro_kx, Va.—I have been an interested reader 
of your paper for twenty-four years, and it has 
gotten to be a.-habit now. I must compliment you 
on your new paper, for I think it is a decided im- 
provement in every way. The reduced size makes 
it much handier to read and handle, E. C. G. 
[APRIL 7, 1906. 

New Angling Books. 
“FISHING FOR PLEASURE AND CATCHING I?” is 
the title of a new and charming book by Mr. -E. 
Marston, F.R.G.S. (The Amateur Angler), which 
has a broader scope than the mere catching of 
fish. The beautiful in nature, the pleasure of 
good fellowship, the study of animals and their 
ways, are made a part of the web and woof of 
the gentle art, and cannot fail to touch responsive 
chords in the hearts of all true anglers. For his 
excellent writings Mr.- Marston is ably and fully 
equipped by natural aptitude, the wisdom which 
comes from years of practical experience, and the 
skill of the trained litterateur. He has written 
many books, most of them devoted to the witch- 
eries of the rod and reel. His son, Mr. R. B. 
Marston, is the editor of the Fishing Gazette, a 
journal justly esteemed as highest authority on 
fish and fishing. 
“Fishing for Pleasure and Catching It’? con- 
tains I52 pages, divided into sixteen chapters, 
whose captions are: My Fly-Fishing in Here- 
fordshire in 1903, Hampshire Days, On the Ithon 
(a Scramble in the Woods), On the Stour, Loll- 
ing and Loafing, More Big Chub, The School of 
the Woods, Unexpected Difficulties, May Fly- 
Fishing in Herefordshire in 10905, Among the 
Rainbows, A Little Brother to the Bear, The Fish 
and the Ring and other Scraps for Christmas, 
How Hiawatha Slew the King of Fishes, Our 
Holiday in North Wales, Some Notes on Sal- 
mon and Trout Fishing in North Wales, and 
Days of the Lledr and Conway. 
While the scenes and incidents have a setting 
in England and Wales, the themes appeal to all 
mankind, or to such of mankind as* have the 
capacity to appreciate the beautiful in nature and 
a fondness for sport. 2 
In “Fishing for Pleasure and Catching It” the 
reader of it will find on page 9 some words of 
generous praise which the talented author be- 
stows on the book of a contemporary author. 
Nothing more happily applies to “Fishing for 
Pleasure,” and we herewith quote it: “I find it 
the pleasantest occupation possible to sit in an 
arm chair and luxuriate in the pleasant pictures, 
scenes, animals, birds and insects which, as in a 
charming panorma, pass under my eyes in these 
pages—this is pleasure, but to perform the al- 
lotted task of writing about them, that is labor, 
for while every page has a charm of its own it 
is not easy to discriminate. It is needless to say 
that the book is an exceedingly readable one. 
The author not only déscribes what he sees and 
does, from the naturalist’s point of view, but 
the book has a pleasant literary tone not always 
found in the works of naturalists.’ The work 
is beautifully illustrated, and is admirable in its 
mechanical features. 

Tue Loc oF A SEA ANGLER, by Prof, Charles F. 
Holder. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Riverside 
_ Press, Cambridge, Mass. Price, $1.50. 
A good many of these sketches now collected in 
one volume have appeared already in Forest AND 
STREAM, Outing and other periodicals, but this 
has not taken the salt out of them. The author’s 
whole experience is novel. 
Pelagic fishing forsooth! Here is big game 
with a vengeance, and the pursuit of it takes one 
into the wilds of mid-ocean, where are found the 
marine monsters. which are counterparts of the 
wild beasts of the forests and mountains. It is a 
new and untried field of constructive sport, and 
by no means an ignoble one. Giants are in the 
me _ Victor Hugo recognized but never occu- 
DIGG Ite 
In these salt-water recitals, which have no 
smell at all of the fo’castle, Professor Holder 
poses as no other man has; but few, we fancy, 
would have the courage, the taste or the brawn to 
emulate him. One can hardly call encounters 
with devil-fish, torpedoes, stingrays and basking 
sharks angling. It is outside of the province of 
Kit North or Izaak Walton; neither is there any- 
thing “gentle” in the art or practice. Such levia- 
thans are not game fish; and he who goeth forth 
with spear and trident to filch the honors which 
belong to Neptune and the Old Man of the Sea 
has outclassed his kind. 
One unmistakable value, 
this book, and that 
tr, attaches 
information 
: however, 
to is the 
- bellished * with numerous 
which it gives of out of the way places, strange 
practices and queer people. The young fellow 
who loafs in his hammock at Palm Beach cer- 
tainly knows mighty little about Florida. One 
must keep company with vikings to know how 
it is himself. Verily, their works are mighty in 
Opefation. < 
But aside from its heroics, and its dramatic 
deeds of daring, and coolness and self-pos-_ 
session under stress and great emergencies of 
storm, hurricanes, waterspouts and battle, the 
whole volume of 380 pages is replete with the 
marvelous and beautiful in nature; wonders 
which the untaught mind can have no possible 
conception of, set with color which the genius of 
a Kiralfy might envy. One sees but a small part 
of creation unless he has some glimpse of life 
in the tropics. The curriculum on shore is slug- 
gish in comparison, and one is only half informed 
who is\not possessed of the secrets of this book; 
and the value of it is that it is not the conceit 
of a romancer, but the work of a naturalist of 
repute who is able not only to describe most 
graphically the phenomena of nature, but to give 
them scientific place and weight. Verily, one- 
half of the world does not know how the other 
half lives. Professor Holden’s remarkable de- 
scriptive talent enables him to tell us. 
CHARLES HALLOCK. 
Old Angling Books. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In an article in your issue of Feb. 24 Mr. E. 
T. D, Chambers quotes the names of several ad- 
vertisers from an old copy of the New York 
Herald, one of which was John J. Brown & Co., 
103 Fulton street. This same Mr. Brown must 
have been the author of the “American Anglers’ 
. Guide” or “Complete Fishers’ Manuel for the 
United States.” The fourth edition, published in 
1850, lies before me, H. Long & Brother, 43 Ann 
street, were the publishers. The title page says: 
“Handsomely illustrated with twenty engravings 
of the principal angle fish of America,’ and em- 
engravings on_ steel, 
stone and wood by the’ best artists.” It is cer- 
tainly a very interesting book of 332 pages, and 
Mr. Brown must :have been well posted in his 
business. I got it in Washington, D. C., in 1863 
at the same time and place with “Davy’s Sal- 
monia,” also the fourth edition, published in 1850 
by John Murray, London. I was rather sur- 
prised at Mr, Samuels saying, when quoting from 
it, “Author unknown,” for so well informed an 
angler as he we are apt to think “knows it all.” 
The fourth edition of “Salmonia” has the au- 
thor’s name on title page. The advertisement of 
the fourth edition says: “This edition is printed 
from a copy of Salmonia, which has been revised 
by the author shortly before his death. The few 
alterations, additions and omissions which have 
been made are either chiefly from his dictation or 
in compliance with instructions expressed by him 
at the time.” It is signed J. D. (Lesketh How, 
Ambleside), Dec. 7, 1850. It also contains the 
preface to the first edition dated Laybach, Illyria, 
Sept. 30, 1828. : WATERS, 
[Sir Humphrey Davy’s “Salmonia; or Days of 
Fly-Fishing, in a Series of Conversations,” was 
printed anonymously in the first (1828) and sec- 
ond (1829) editions. The author’s name ap- 
peared in the subsequent editions. Our corre- 
spondent is correct in his surmise that the Brown 
of the “Anglers’ Guide’ was John J. Brown, The 
name appears on the title page of the fifth edition 
published in 1876.] 

St. Jouns, Newfoundland.—Congratulations on 
the improved shape and appearance of Forest 
AND STREAM It is even better than the late For- 
EST AND STREAM, and praise can no higher go. 

Futron, N. Y.—Since the summer of ’82 I 
have regularly read Forest anp StrEAM. The 
paper has been a constant source of pleasure and 
instruction for over twenty-four years, H. L. L. 

Uprer Troy, N. Y., Feb. 27—Inclosed $3 for 
Forest AND STREAM for another year. It is cer- 
tainly a grand, good paper, and I am more than 
pleased with it. 
