The Red Cloud chief., 1881-12-22
FISHING WITH A PICKAX.

For people pl talk.
~ -
FISHING WITH A PICKAX.
Hammers for Rods, Chisels for BAIT
Fossil Fish and Where 10 Find them
Fences Made OF whales BOncs-
some Big Fish stories.
"Going into the plumbing businessP"
a well-knOwn scientific man, who was
rugged out in \ rough-and suit
and carried a bag suggestive OF bad
drainage and defective iiues, was asked
in the Grand Central Depot.
mo-" he replied. laughing. I'm
going a-fishing. and this is my outfit l
have found a place in the country
where saltwater fishing can be had.
Sunderland, Mass, is the spot. though
other equally choice places are Scho-
harie, n. Y; parts of the Caitskills.
Milford, N. Y; Ithaca, Buffalo, Cum
bcrland, Md; Moorstown, Pa; South
bury. Conn.,, besides many other places;
and if you want large game 60 to Canon
City or Charleston, S. &. OF course
this is sub rosa. because if i. gets out the
country will be flooded with Waitons
next summer"
You said salt fish, not salt codr"
"NO. They are genuine sea Bsh
from salt water. It's all in the bait l
use this kind" opening the bag and
dragging out four or five hammers and
IN assortment of cold chisels, ''and one
kind answers for ALL"
"Ah, ! see. You refer to the rock
fish,"
"Yes, fossil fishes. II is far ahead
of live fishing. L think. No squalls.
scasickness, or waiting for bites, and
when you do hook one it don't get of.
Then there is the same variety. only
they arc much more curious, ranging
from armored fellows related to the
gars up to sharks a hundred and fifty
feet long, and whales perhaps larger
yet. My rod is a hammer. and cold
chisels make the best flies; and here is
something in lieu. of q harpoon for
large game" holding up a wad OF gun
cotton.
"Does it require any skillP"
Certainly" was the reply. 81
have over seven hundred different kinds
in my collection, SO you see L a cast
the fly TO some purpose. OF all fossils,
fishes are the most difficult to get out
whole. the slightest wrong stroke, in
many cases, spelling the specimens.
Many of them / treat to a glue bath as
soon as possible, and this prevents
further breakage. / find them in all
sorts of positions, upright fst, some
torn to pieces by larger fish. but most
of them have evidently died and be-
come covered by the mud of the bot
tom in shallow water. so when taken
out you have the fish itself, or its per-
feet shape, and the cast Sometimes o
skillful blow will separate the shale SO
that the upper pieces a be lifted of
and used as a cover and protection in
the cabinet. We often find the food of
the fish in its stomach, and in this way
its habits become known. 1 don't
known" in answer to o question,
(which is the hardest work. l have
tramped all day through the toughest
Adirondack country, wet and hungry.
for one trout. and have blasted and
hammered at q ledge. torn down stone
fences and set them up all day and only
realized one lower jaw for my pains,
but as it was a new species | felt paid.
Doubtless the latter involves the most
manual labor. and l have frequently
tramped ten or twelve miles with q load
of rocks on my back. Had l been
forced to do it, l should have consid-
cred myself a martyr. Stone fences in
the right localities are good places to
look for specimens. and l have been rs
saulted. blackguarded and even sued
by farmers for hauling them down. but
it is one Of the excitements OF the
sport"
'All the localities You mentioned
were once under water?"
"Yes, the Devonian Sea covered the
spot, and the aspect of the continent
was materially different from what it is
now. The temperature, even, WIS de-
cidedly different At this time the
Rocky Mountains and ~Appalachians
were only islands, and the Green
Mountains. though above water, were
much lower than at present"
"How long ago was this?"
"WelI, the time is given as 80, 0OO,-
600 years-mere guess work; but we
can easily form ideas of the immensely
of time by looking around us. aud we
see that the surface of the earth has not
changed ~perceptibly as far back as we
have information. say four or five
thousand years. Now, during the De-
vonian age, strata were deposited from
five hundred to hfteen Thousand feet in
thickness. You can draw your own
conclusions as to whether this deposi-
ton could take place in q hundred
thousand or q hundred million years.
Mn aorlsacf fossil f,ehaz .~l-.1~1 49,
two thousand have been discovered in
all-are found in the Schoharie grit.
and were ganoids-remarkable creatures
with bOny plates OF scales. q regular
armor. They were related to our gar.
fishes and sturgeon of to-day. and,
stranger yet. to the reptiles. They
could move their heads up and down. 8
decidedly unfishlike arrangement Some
had plates, like a green turtle. and pad.
dies instead of fms, with which they
moved along. They all had curious
vertebrated tails, that is. the vertebrs
extended into the tail, either the center
or the upper lobe. giving them q re
markable appearance. One OF these,
the megalichthys, coming from the
coal age, had such enormous teeth thai
thew would be taken for those ola croc
odile, some of them being seven inches
long. The head of this monster wa
projected by immense plates. The as
teroiepis was twenty to thirty-ive fee
lOug. and was q savage creature. Ont
Of the largest was called the din
3chthyR A single massive plate occu
pied the center of the back, and wa
more than two feet in length ant
breadth. The head was three feet il
diameter, and the mandibles were twt
test In length, by six inches in depth
and solid bone. One you might call thu
buckler- fish had . head formed like
shield,a and was prolonged backward intx
Two long points. sothe animal resemblet
. gigantic blunt arrowhead. Its eyes