

Dec. 14, 1907.] 
— — = — 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

941 

“Yes, Mrs. B.; De and I were out a while,” 
Charlie replied. 
“And how many did you catch?” 
“How many, Mrs. B.? Why, really, I don’t 
know; never counted them.” 
“Never counted them?” she queried. “Why 
how funny to go fishing and never count how 
many you catch. Why, what do you do when 
you go fishing?” 
“What did we do, Mrs. B.? Why, we saw 
the water smile as our boat passed over and 
caught the dimples in its cheeks as the little 
eddies rolled from the sweep of the oars. We 
watched the insect life on reeds and rushes; 
noted the butterflies; saw those brilliant needles 
that nature makes for some purpose in the dragon 
flies; caught the demure curtsies of the lilies, as 
for a moment they showed us their hearts of 
gold; breathed in deep of the tremulous air—all 
suffused with crystaline sunlight; delighted in 
the play of light and shadow as fleecy clouds 
floated over water and hillside; heard the little 
fairies of nature whispering and lisping their 
musical but unknown language as the wind 
rustled through grasses and rushes—just enjoyed 
the bright day, and occasionally put a pretty bass 
on the stringer. Come down to the landing, Mrs. 
B.. and I’ll count ’em for you.” 
“Really,” said she, “I don’t believe I care to 
know now, but how charming it must be for 
you to go afishing.” L. E. DeGarmo. 

A Substitute for the Landing Net. 
We are all fairly familiar with, or, at least, 
have heard of, tailing or tickling or beaching 
trout, or even salmon, when gaff or landing net 
is not to be had, and some little skill in these 
arts has its uses as a mechanical equipment for 
the angler in cases of emergency, but to regard 
any of them as permanent substitutes for the 
landing apparatus is somewhat unusual. If, how- 
ever, one wishes to do without these, the one 
obvious and sufficient substitute for them seems 
to me to be the priest. A correspondent says in 
the London Field that it is an easy first. Indeed, the 
coup de grace can be administered more con- 
veniently and effectively in the water than on 
land if it comes to that, and in the case of trout 
a little weighted weapon, six or eight inches 
long, which can be carried in the pocket, is quite 
sufficient. Nor is there much risk of knocking 
the fly out with the blow if the rod top is low- 
ered in unison at the moment; nor, indeed, does 
it matter, as the fish, spent as he already is, is 
sure to be killed or completely stunned by the 
blow, and can be picked up with ease. 
In boat fishing the foot stick comes in very 
handy for this, and when trolling treble hook 
flights is far before net or gaff. The landing 
net is simply impossible with free hooks hang- 
ing about the fish’s mouth, and should never be 
used, while a gaff is not at all effective except 
with very heavy trout. Trout of even 3 pounds 
or 4 pounds will yield again and again to the 
blow of the gaff without being transfixed, and 
fish are often knocked off the hooks in this way 
and lost. One tap on the head with the stretcher 
settles the business, and with a played out fish 
one can hit him where one will with ease. Were 
one entered to this method of “landing” fish 
from the first, there can be little doubt the net 
or gaff would be largely regarded as superfluous. 
A Record Muskallonge. 
Crayton, N. Y., Nov. 14.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I am sending you a photograph of 
Herman Mann and Edward Page, one of our 
guides, with a muskallonge that was caught Oct. 
13 and weighed forty pounds. This fish was 
caught at Clayton and is only one of many that 
have been caught at the Thousand Islands this 
season. This is the largest muskallonge caught 
here this season. 
Mr. Herman Mann is a resident of your city. 
He and his wife have been regular annual visitors 
at Clayton, N. Y., for many years and spend 
most of their time fishing. They are very fond 
of muskallonge fishing, and are expert anglers 
for muskallonge and black bass. 
R. P. Grant. 
Fish Culture in New York. 
[A paper read by Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, State Fish Cul- 
turist of New York, at the recent Anglers’ Conference.] 
On April 22, 1868, the Legislature passed an 
act entitled “An Act to appoint Commissioners 
of Fisheries for the State of New York.” The 
first commissioners were Hon. Horatio Sey- 
mour, Robert B. Roosevelt and Seth Green. 
In pursuance of the provisions of the act re- 
quiring them to report “the result of their 
labors and any recommendations they may have 
to offer,” they made their first report to the 
Legislature March 9, 1869. At that time all of 
the New England States and Pennsylvania had 
fish commissions, and a movement had been 
started to establish them in New Jersey, Mary- 
land and Virginia. 
Twenty or thirty private establishments for 
raising trout and selling trout eggs were known 
to Commissioner Roosevelt, and he gives the 
names and addresses of eleven of these in the 
report for 1868. Mr. Roosevelt also made the 
statement that hundreds, if not thousands, of 
persons were engaged in raising trout for the 
table. 
Mr. Green’s services as a commissioner were 
discontinued after the first year when it became 
necessary for him to take charge of the hatch- 
ing operations under the title of superintendent. 
Mr. George T. Cooper was appointed in the 
place of Mr. Green in 1869. Another early 
member. of the commission was Mr. Edward M. 
Smith, whose name first appears in the report 
for 1873. 
The first commissioners at once adopted the 
policy of stocking public waters only, a policy 
which has continued in force up to the present 
time. 
They visited the Southern rivers, the James, 
Potomac, Susquehanna and Delaware to in- 
vestigate the condition of the shad fisheries, 
but found them so depleted that no assistance 
to New York fisheries could be expected of 
them. They examined the Hudson River 
fisheries thoroughly, commencing June 4, 
when the nets in the lower. river were 
being taken up as the main run _ had 
passed. The fisheries had fallen off immensely. 
Never before had so few shad been taken. The 
retail price rarely fell below 75 cents for fish 
worth 10 to I5 cents each ten years before. 
Scarcely any shad passed above Albany, where 
formerly they were most abundant, because 
they could not pass the nets below. 
The absolute need of protective laws to regu- 
late the mesh of nets and to reasonably restrict 
their use’ so as to allow the ascending fish to 
reach their spawning grounds during a. short 
period each week were urgently set forth. It 
was not intended by any means to destroy or 
diminish the fishing industries, but simply to 
regulate net fishing so far as necessary to in- 
sure natural reproduction and to supplement 
natural spawning by artificial means, thus in- 
creasing the yield beyond all danger of destruc- 
tion by fishery. In other words, the commis- 
sioners were of the opinion that fishculture could 
so multiply the shoals of fish as to make un- 
restricted fishing practicable. 
After nearly forty years’ experience in the 
artificial culture of shad we have reached the 
conclusion that the best efforts of modern fish- 
culture will not avail to maintain the shad fish- 
ery unless net fishing be intelligently regulated, 
and especially at and near the mouths of shad 
rivers. 
The commissioners plead with the Legislature 
year after pear for many years to enact fish 
protective laws, but with indifferent success. 
It was early proposed to stock the inland 
lakes with fishes that will live in amity. Pike 
and ‘black bass were associated in nature and 
might be placed together. The pike-perch was 
recommended for small lakes. It was recalled 
to mind that black bass first came into the 
Hudson through the Champlain canal, and that 
the species had been introduced into the Po- 
tomac only a few years earlier. 
Under the authorization of the Board of 
Canal Commissioners the Fishery Commission- 
ers collected black bass, bullheads, white bass, 
rock bass, roach, perch, sunfish and pike-perch 
from the State canals after the waters were 
drawn down in the fall and these fish were given 
to persons who went to Rochester for them, to 
plant in public waters. This work was con- 
tinued for many years. 
New York has a great many interior lakes. 
The appendix to the first report contains a 
classified list of 647 with an area of 728 square 
miles, and it is probable that this does not in- 
clude one-half of the number existing. Up to 
1874 the lakes and ponds stocked by the State 
aggregated 200 or more. 
The New York commissioners were in hearty 
accord with the commissioners of other States 
and tried in every way to co-operate with them 
in all measures looking toward the increase and 
protection of fish. Desiring a clearer inter- 
change of opinions and experiences than could 
be secured by correspondence, a fishery conven- 
tion was called to meet in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
New York, on Dec. 29, 1868, to promote uniform- 
ity of law and action among the States. Among 
the specific objects to be discussed by the con- 
vention were: The regulation of nets and net- 
ting, the limitation of fishing seasons and the 
selection of suitable fishways. This was a meet- 
ing of far-reaching importance because of its 
direct influence upon the foundation of the 
American Fishculture Association and of the 
United States Fish Commission. 
Several of the members of the convention had 
been identified with the beginning of fishculture 
and were afterward more or less intimately as- 
sociated with the Federal fishery service or 
attained to the chairmanship of their State 
commissions. One of them, Mr. Chas. G. 
Atkins, has been for many years in the United 
States Bureau of Fisheries and is now superin- 
tendent of a salmon and trout station at East 
Orland, Me. 
In the convention Maine was represented by 
Mr. Atkins and N. W. Foster; New Hampshire 
sent Hon. H. A. Bellows and W. A. Sanborn; 
Vermont, Prof. A. D. Hager and Hon. Charles 
Barret; Massachusetts, Alfred R. Field and 
Theodore Lyman; Connecticut, H. Woodward, 
Jas. Rankin and Jas. A. Bill; Rhode Island, Al- 
fred A. Reed and Newton Dexter; Pennsyl- 
vania, Jas. Worrall. New York was represented 
by three commissioners already named Mr. 
Thaddeus Norris, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Howe, of 
New Jersey, and Mr, Livingston Stone, of New 
Hampshire, were also present. 
Mr. Roosevelt called the meeting to order 
and nominated Mr. Worrall as chairman and 
Mr. Lyman as secretary. 
Mr. Worrall spoke chiefly about fishways in 
the Susquehanna River and the grave injury 
done by seines and drift-nets in the lower part 
of the stream. Mr. Norris stated that he had 
seen masses of decomposed shad eggs floating 
on the Susquehanna; also that shad had not 
yet been propagated artificially in Pennsylvania 
and trout culture was limited to a few private 
ponds. 
Mr. Howe, of New Jersey, said that from the 
earliest period of the colonial history of New 
Jersey to the present time the riparian owner 
claimed and exercised the exclusive right of 
fishing in front of his land. This the compact 
of 1783, entered into by New Jersey and Penn- 
sylvania, for partition of the islands and the 
settlement of the jurisdiction of the river dis- 
tinctly recognized. Shore seines were the only 
ones used until 1820, when the drift-nets were 
introduced and rapidly multiplied till now, he is 
informed, they number over 1,000. * * * With 
their increasing numbers the shad have greatly 
diminished. The season of 1820 was remarkable 
for the number of shad caught, showing that 
there had been no appreciable decrease till after 
the introduction of the destructive gill seine. 
* * * Yet owing to local causes these fisheries 
cannot be established along the whole shore 
line, and, therefore, the gill seine has in a man- 
ner become a necessity. In 1852 the Legisla- 
tures of the two States passed a concurrent act 
permitting their use in such parts of the river 
not occupied by shore fishermen. No fishing is 
allowed by law from Saturday sunset till 12 
o’clock Sunday night, and shad fishing is pro- 
hibited below head of tide at Trenton after 
June 10 and above after June 15. Herring and 

