718 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 5, 1906. 

coming tame so they would take feed from my 
fingers and remain quiet while I scratched or 
rubbed them. The boys began to call them 
Kamper’s pets, and the thought of being com- 
pelled to kill them in the fall made me squirm. 
So I finally decided to try to winter them; but 
the question of winter food caused some anxiety. 
During the heat of summer the fish consumed 
enormous quantities of food, such as minnows, 
crawfish, grasshoppers, angleworms, etc., but as 
the water became colder with the approach of 
winter, their appetite became less and less, until 
they seemed to have ceased feeding entirely. 
The last week in November, I moved the 
aquarium into the cellar, turned on a safe stream 
of water and left the fish to their fate. 
The following New Year’s day was unusually 
mild, and I induced some boys to dig for me 
a can of good, fat angleworms, which they 
found near some springs on a river bluff facing 
south. Fully expecting to see my pets snap 
up that feast of worms, we went down into the 
cellar, but the fish were not snapping. I 
dangled some of the worms in front of their 
noses, I tickled them with worms and even 
hung some worms on the noses of the fish, but 
they paid absolutely no attention to them. My 
anxiety about providing a winter food supply 
left me then and there. I emptied the balance 
of the can of worms into the water and left 
my pets unmolested until the next spring. 
The first week in March I again moved the 
aquarium to its former place in the window. I 
found the worms still untouched and the fish 
were healthy and plump. Within the first week 
I brought them some minnows, but it was no 
use—the fish were not yet hungry. Their ap- 
petites returned to them gradually with the in- 
creasing temperature of the water, and by the 
time the trees were out in full leaf, my pets 
were again able and willing to snap up and 
devour anything that wiggles, from a worm to 
a mouse or young sparrow. 
Thus I kept that same lot of bass for five 
years, with the same rotation of ravenous ap- 
petite in summer and absolutely none in winter. 
Their position in the water during the winter 
was a few inches above the bottom; they were 
motionless, except for a slight but steady motion 
of the fins; the mouth was kept partly open 
and there was an almost imperceptible move- 
ment of the gill covers. When they were forc- 
ibly disturbed, they would move only a few 
inches and then settle back to the same position, 
the movement being very much like that of a 
person disturbed in his sleep. 
There were twelve bass, ranging in weight 
from two to four pounds each, and they were 
small-mouthed black bass caught with rod and 
reel from the nearby public river, where they 
had already attained maturity. None weighed 
less than one and a half, and some of them 
over three pounds, when I caught them, and 
they became very tame and remained entirely 
free from any disease until, after the expira- 
tion cf five years, I returned them to the river, 
because I had sold my business and was unable - 
to keep them longer. 
While fish in captivity might. acquire habits 
somewhat different from those in their native 
haunts, there is probably no radical difference. 
Small-mouthed black bass were so sufficiently 
numerous in our waters that it was not a very 
difficult task to follow their movements during 
the seasons. After having spent the summer in 
comparatively shallow water, they would move 
down stream in the late fall until they found 
suitable winter quarters, which meant submerged 
logs or rocks lying in the edge of a deep 
channel with a moderate current. When these 
places are so located that the rays of the sun 
can penetrate and warm them, bass can some- 
times be tempted to take a bait during a mild 
spell in December, provided the bait be dropped 
very close to them while the sun is doing its best. 
When the winter conditions are just right, ice 
thick enough to bear man’s weight, and clear 
enough to be transparent, on a good clear day 
the bass can be seen in those places lying close 
to the shelter of rocks or logs. 
In those same places the small boy, fishing 
for suckers with worm bait, would usually catch 
the first bass of the spring, but within a few 
days after that the bass would begin to move 
out of the deep water and bite on minnows. 
GEORGE KAMPER. 





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THE WATERLINE RULE BOATS. 
THE two classes of racing boats that are attract- 
ing the most attention, and for which the greatest 
number of boats are being built, is the Sonder- 
klasse and Chicago Lipton Cup. Both classes are 
to sail under a waterline rule, and comment upon 
them in view of the adoption of the international 
rating rule is timely. 
There is great interest manifested, but little 
opinion is expressed as to the future of these 
classes. Some twenty-two boats are being built, 
fourteen for the Sonderklasse and eight for the 
Lipton Cup, and the cost of the former will be 
about $1,400 each, and for the latter $2,500 each. 
These prices are the direct result. of the care with 
which they must be built, as any sagging would 
produce over-length and would bar the boat from 
the competition. 
The boats are of a form which has met with 
success in point of speed only; but they have no 
accommodations. At anchor these boats stand on 
a short and wide water plane, and when heeled 
their lines lengthen and become those of a cata- 
maran. The form is fast, but the boats are in 
reality beautiful rafts, of expensive construction 
and little value except as machines. 
With the adoption of the new rule these boats, 
unless otherwise provided for, must undergo a 
great change. It seems absurd that consider- 
able sums of money should be spent in fostering 
nothing better than the boats now being built for 
these classes. 
There exists a feeling that it is desirable to let 
the worst come to light now, as it cannot fail to 
show the value of the new rule which will foster 
a sane, seaworthy type whose years of usefulness 
will not be limited to a season’s racing. 
Launching of the Steam Yacht Limited 
THE steam yacht The Limited was launched on 
April 25 from the works of her builders, the Gas 
Engine & Power Co. and Charles L. Seabury & 
Co., Cons., Morris Heights. Mr. Albert C. Bost- 
wick, the owner of the vessel, and his family are 
now abroad, and the yacht was christened by Miss 
Marie Seabury, daughter of Mr.. Charles L. Sea- 
bury, one of the members of the firm. 
The Limited is built from the designs of Mr. 
Henry J. Gielow. The principal dimensions of 
the yacht are 98ft. over all, 87ft. 8in. waterline, 
I1ft. 6in. breadth, 4ft. 6in, draft. The keel, stem, 
sternpost, frames and floors are of white oak. 
The engine keelsons are of yellow pine. The 
planking is double, of yellow pine, copper fast- 
ened. The shelf and bilge streaks are of yellow 
pine. The deck beams of chestnut, planksheers 
of mahogany. deck clear white pine. 
The yacht is arranged with flush deck forward, 
with a turtle back. Starting at the bow, there is 
a chain locker, followed by the forecastle for 
crew, fitted with berths and toilet room. Next 
aft, with a bulkhead separating same from the 
forecastle, is a stateroom full width of the vessel. 
On the starboard side is a large sofa, and on the 
port side is a berth with drawers under. This 
room is provided with dressing case, is finished 
in mahogany and white enamel, and a large toilet 
room is directly aft. 
The owner’s stateroom is 8ft. in length and ex- 
tends the full width of the vessel. On the star- 
board side is a sofa and lockers, and on the port 
side is a berth, a bureau and a sideboard. Aft of 
the turtle back the steering deck is arranged, and 
is about 1oft. long. A trunk cabin is built over 
the engine room, galley and dining room, there 
being a waterway 3ft. wide. 
A rail will extend all around the vessel and an 
awning will also be provided. The yacht will 
carry a military mast. The companionway, 
hatches, trunk cabin, etc., are all finished in ma- 
hogany. The machinery consists of a Seabury 
triple-expansion engine, with cylinders 8x1334in. 
and roxtoin. stroke. Steam will be generated by 
a Seabury patent safety water-tube boiler. The 
yacht is lighted throughout by electricity. <A 
speed of 20 miles an hour is expected. 
The yacht will be used in the early part of the 
summer on Long Island Sound, and later in the 
season will be in service on the St. Lawrence 
River. ; 
British Letter. 
THE INTERNATIONAL RATING RULE.—At a spe- 
cial general meeting of the members of the Yacht 
Racing Association, held in London, April 6, © 
England adopted unconditionally the new rating 
rule. Mr. R. E. Froude, the eminent naval archi- 
tect, gave a lucid exposition of the rule to the 
members, so that the less experienced among 
them might get some grasp of its details, work- 
ing and ‘the type of boat it would probably pro- 
duce, after which some discussion took place as 
to internal accommodation. An amendment was 
moved by a member, before the rule was passed, 
to the effect that another rule should be provided 
for the smaller classes, but it was lost by a small 
majority. The meeting was by no means a full 
one, and it dwindled away to about thirty mem- 
bers before it broke up. 
FRANCE ACCEPTS THE RULE.—At the meeting 
recently held of the French yacht clubs, which | 
touched upon in my last letter, France. accepted 
the new rule for the larger classes, with a reser- 
vation as regards the smaller, for which ‘they 
desire some modification in the measurement. 
There is now, therefore, every prospect of com- 
plete unanimity being brought about between all 
the countries concerned, and it appears pretty cer- 
tain that the much longed for universal rule will 
soon be an accomplished fact. There will be an- 
other and final meeting of delegates at which the 
perpen of the small “classes will be finally set- 
tle 
Tue First Ciass Cutters.—Kariad was not 
floated at Port Glasgow until April 9, when she 
was taken to the James Watt dock and her mast 
stenned, afted which she was towed away to 
Sandbank, where she will fit out. It was the in- 
tention of Sir James Pender to have brought her 
