APRIL 14, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

where the “fire water’ was oozing through from 
the broken flask, and that without doubt the 
snake recognized the poison as his natural enemy 
and had promptly cleared out. 
Will knows better than I do what occurred un- 
der the water, I cannot dispute his statement. 
“There’s no doubt about it,’ said Will as I 
helped to scrape off the mud, “that flask saved 
my life. I know what I am talking about.” 
Verily Will has a powerful imagination. 
Joun Fortier, Jr. 
Boston, Mass. 
Hibernation of Black Bass. 
My good friend John D. Whish, secretary of 
the New York Forest, Fish and Game Commis- 
sion, recently sent me a clipping from the Cuba 
CN. Y.) Patriot relating to the hibernation of 
black bass. The writer of the article, after re- 
ferring to the fact that most authors agree that 
it “hibernates in winter” (sic), says “but there 
are counter facts,’ and cites an instance where a 
“handsome string of bass’ was taken in Novem- 
ber from a pond in eastern New York, by an 
angler who reached the fishing ground of open 
water after pushing his boat through a thin coat- 
ing of ice; also that “winter bass” are taken 
“pretty often” through the ice from two ponds in 
southern New England. 
These instances were seemingly from hearsay, 
for relating his own experience he says, “during 
many seasons of winter fishing’ he hooked but a 
single bass. This bass, he goes on to say, was 
“without the slightest sign of hibernation,’ but 
adds that its coating of slime was “unaccount- 
ably” thick, “suggesting, though far from proving, 
some inactivity of movement.” This instance of 
his personal experience is very good evidence that 
the black bass hibernates, though he does not 
seem to know it, for he immediately says: “If 
one may launch his own theory as to the winter 
habit of the mystic fish, the idea may be thrown 
out tentatively that the black bass in native 
waters does not hibernate at all, but becomes 
sluggish, seeks ground food over very small space, 
and is caught infrequently in winter only be- 
cause he is not then an active food seeker. The 
extreme rarity of large catches in winter goes 
far to indicate that under ice the bass drops those 
summer whims in biting which are at once the 
angler’s marvel and despair.” Now, what better 
argument to support the theory of the hibernation 
of black bass in the north could one ask than this 
latter statement? 
This writer, like many others, evidently does 
not understand the meaning of the term hiberna- 
tion. Referring to the dictionary we find: “Hi- 
bernate, v. i. Lat. hibernatum, sup. of hiberno 
=to winter; Mibernus = pertaining to winter. To 
pass the season of winter in close, protected or 
secluded quarters, as birds and beasts ; to winter.” 
From this it is seen that hibernation does not 
mean a profound winter sleep or complete tor- 
pidity, as many suppose. It means just what it 
says, and just what the writer of the article in 
question believes to be the “winter habit” of the 
bass, though he distinctly says “the black bass in 
native waters does not hibernate at all.” 
My only reason for penning this paper is that 
the article so frequently referred to, like many 
others that appear perennially in angling periodi- 
cals, are prompted by the occasional catching of a 
bass through the ice at the beginning or at the 
close of winter, and heralded as proof that former 
observers have been at fault, and that the black 
bass does not hibernate. If one would use his 
common sense instead of rushing into print to 
“knock out” the conclusions of naturalists, he 
might be convinced of the probability that if the 
black bass did not hibernate, in the Northern 
States, it would be taken through the ice as com- 
monly as its congeners the pike, pickerel, pike- 
perch and yellow perch, which fishes, as is well 
known, do not hibernate. 
JAmEs A. HENSHALL. 
WavdsworTH, ©.—I have been a constant reader 
for many years. You have improved your paper 
fifty per cent. by your new departure in size and 
illustrations. This is a great age of picture read- 
ing by the busy people. kt: 
The Coming Days. 
Wuat pays? The days when the rod and reel 
and line will once more be in evidence, and the 
never-zestless pursuit of that warrior, the black 
bass, be taken up in many a lake and stream 
where now the ice has at last vanished, and to 
which countless throngs will ere long flee from 
the torrid south and from the stifling cities of 
the north. With the prospect of those days not 
far off, how fast beats the angler’s heart in fond 
anticipation! He already breathes the fresh, pure 
air of the uncontaminated fields and forests ; his 
eye catches glimpses of the beauty in the htavens 
above and the world round about, and his nerves 
are a-quiver as he feels the quick strike of his 
bold quarry and the touch, under his thumb, of 
the out-running line. 
Aye, he must now dream perforce! It is a 
time for dreaming. Did he not dream, he would 
be no true angler. Verily, no insignificant part 
of life’s joys is that of memory! Delightful is 
it to go hither and yon, to slip and slide, to climb 
o’er rocks or wade round them, to go mile upon 
mile—in short, to put one’s self to many an ex- 
ertion in quest of the gamy bass, a quest well 
worth thrice the attendant inconvenience—which 
is not noticed—and thrice the accompanying 
fatigue—which is not felt; but when the happy 
experience is all over, again it may be joyously 
lived in memory, and lived not once, but again 
and yet again. 
“The coming days!” They suggest the bright 
past; and the glory of the days that are gone is 
projected into those soon to be. Happy, then, the 
angler’s life—the reality he is enraptured by, and, 
later, its image in memory fills him with glad- 
ness; and the joy of the departed makes luminous 
the coming days. Oh, who would not be a true 
angler? Who would not give himself over to 
the exciting, fascinating conquest’ of that finny 
soldier, “inch for inch, and pound for pound, the 
gamest fish that swims.” Only he who has never 
sat docile at the feet of Izaak Walton, and, in- 
spired by him, gone forth to practice what he has 
learned; only he who has never really tasted 
of the angler’s life; only he who has never 
listened to the singing of his reel as the wily bass 
made a dash for liberty and seen him rise sheer 
from the water to shake the hateful hook from 
his mouth or, if need be, tear it out by falling 
athwart the line; only he who knows not the 
health of body and rest of soul that are the fruit 
of the out-of-door life of the master of the noble 
art of fishing. 
But “the coming days” also suggest to the 
angler something quite different. The time has 
come to take down the rods, open the fishing 
tackle box, inspect, in fact, all the articles that 
make up his angling outfit. Are the joints of 
the rods all right, is there no need of new wind- 
ings, no call for varnish? Would that bait-cast- 
ing rod that has been used several summers not 
better be replaced by a new? How much of the 
repairing required shall the angler do himself? 
The lines must be tested, two or three fresh ones 
procured. There is need of a couple of dozen 
new flies and of several dozen hooks. The trusty 
reels require cleaning and oiling, Oh, there is 
enough to be done. With delight the angler will 
himself do all he can, but much he must entrust 
to some one of the many excellent fishing tackle 
houses. 
And this getting ready for “the coming days,” 
how interesting it is! Almost as good is it as 
being actually engaged in dropping the dainty fly 
where the bass is waiting for his prey, or casting 
te him the shining minnow when hunger is upon 
im. 
Very important, too, is this getting ready. 
Again and again does an angler lose a day’s sport 
just because he neglected to make proper pro- 
vision. The present is the time to buy what is 
needed, and now, therefore, the time to be perus- 
ing the catalogues of the fishing-tackle dealers. 
It will be found by him who studies them that 
there are new devices on the market, and he will 
do well to give them attention, for though the 
wise angler is somewhat conservative he is pro- 
gressive, too, and so is on the outlook for new 
and useful inventions. 
Now, it may be that the reader of these lines 
_is an undergraduate in the school of piscation, 
597 
and, therefore, as he thinks of “the coming days” 
wonders somewhat as to the proper preparation 
for them. He is to be congratulated on the joy 
that may be his in obtaining in this period of 
anticipation the knowledge he needs and with it 
the necessary outfit. The acquisition of the re- 
quisite information is downright pleasure, and 
the selection of rods and reels and lines and the 
rest intensely interesting and entertaining. It 
would be profitable for such a one to turn back 
to some of the numbers of ForEsT AND STREAM, 
where descriptions of the articles wanted are to 
be found, to read books on the matter in hand, 
but best of all, to talk things over with some 
friend versed in piscatorial wisdom and skilled in 
the angler’s art. Such a one will contribute more 
valuable information in an hour than papers and 
books in a month; and then his services will be 
found inestimable in determining whether the 
goods offered for sale are really what is needed. 
He can tell in the twinkling of an eye whether 
a rod has balance and responsiveness, and a 
score of other things; though it is not to be for- 
gotten that many to-day are the fishing-tackle 
firms which may justly take pride in their care 
in furnishing the highest grade of goods. Let 
the buyer steer clear of cheap wares, and he will 
be pretty sure to obtain his money’s worth; but, 
this Goes not mean that he may not blunder by 
getting what he does not require for the special 
kind of angling he intends to do. The writer 
has seen a right good fellow, through avoidable 
ignorance, go a-fishing for black bass with a_per- 
fect equipment for catching brook trout. It is 
well to bear in mind that not only success, but 
enjoyment, in angling is found in no small meas- 
sure in fishing in the right way with the right 
tackle. 
“The coming days!’ Let us, brother anglers, 
get ready for them. Let us enjoy them by dream- 
ing of them. Let them suggest the happy days 
that are past, but are yet ours in memory. But 
let us prepare for them, prepare for them now, 
for time flies, and before we know it they will be 
upon us, May circumstances all conspire and 
health and strengih be ours, to help us in our 
gladsome task! For our labors may we be re- 
warded with many a full creel, but best of all, 
with hearts brimful of innocent delight! 
CorNELIUS W. Morrow. 
NASHVILLE, Tenn, 
Federation of Fish and Game Clubs. 
Apany, N. Y., April 7.—Delegates from the 
fish and game clubs in the counties bordering 
upon Albany county met at the Capitol this after- 
noon for the purpose of forming a federation. 
The object of the federation is to secure uniform 
laws for the several counties, to better protect 
the fish and game in each, and to make possible 
concerted action in all matters of mutual interest. 
Each club is to elect two delegates and two alter- 
nates so as to be represented fully at each federa- 
tion meeting. The federation itself is to consist 
of two representatives from each club, who are 
to meet on the call of any one club at the city or 
village in which the club issuing the call is lo- 
cated, and is to be governed in its action by a 
majority vote of the ‘delegates. 
The clubs present at the meeting were the 
Albany Cointy Fish and Game Club, represented 
by John D. Whish and J. H. Callanan; the Cats- 
kill Fish and Game Club, by Clarence Howland 
and William Mattice; the Mechanicville Game 
Protective Association by George Slingerland 
and John Sheehan; the Rensselaer County Rod 
and Gun Club, by J. R. McLaren; the Rensselaer 
County Fish ‘and Game Protective Association, 
by P. J. Gomph and F. D. Sargent; the Schenec- 
tady County Fish and Game Protective Associa- 
tion, by Horace Bolton and W. H. Jackson; the 
Valatie Rod and Gun Club, by E. B. Mesick and 
P. O’Brien. The Hudson Rod and Gun Club 
sent proxies. It was stated that the Saratoga 
County Fish and Game Protective Association 1s 
awaiting the return of its president from abroad 
before taking action. Delegates will visit the 
Chatham Rod and Gun League in the near fu- 
ture to explain the purposes of the federation 
and invite its co-operation. The absence of dele- 
gates from the Coxsackie Rod and Gun Club 
was noted with regret. 
