258 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



proposed a game of seven up. We all assented, Rud were soon 

 in the mysteries of high, low, jack and the game. It was 



Colonel's deal. I and Douglas were latently watching him to 

 see that be didn't slip the jack from the bottom, when a 

 splendid buck, with branching antlers, cantered sin., 

 us, and disappeared in the woods beyond. Edmund scho-i! Li 

 gun anil tired at random in the tree. tops. Douglas pulled 

 trigger, and his gun snapped, and upon examination he found 

 he had forgotten to load it. Warned by thisjncident, we kept 

 strict watch for an hour, and, nothing unusual happening. 

 Edmund proposed to play the old game out. This we agreed 

 to, and in the midst of the play another deer loped by us, not 

 ten feet away. We finished the game and went home, for we 

 .'had enough of such sport as that, and we left Suffolk County 

 for Richmond, where we stopped several days. While there 

 we had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Charles Palmer, President 

 of the Game Protective Association. By the way, any gentle- 

 man sportsman from, the West or North who desires to know 

 all about huntiug in the Old Dominion, had best write to Mr. 

 Palmer, at Richmond, Vn., for he is the best informed man 

 on that subject, in the State, and he is always willing to afford 

 all information about sporting localities, time, place, and 

 quantities of game, etc. 



I am glad to say that the subject of sporting, so long ne- 

 glected in Virginia, is now receiving much attention from all 

 sections. Game associations are springing up all over the 

 State, who make it their business to see that the provisions 

 of the game law are rigidly carried out and enforced. The 

 Virginia Legislature arc moving, also, in that important work, 

 and last winter organized a new Committee on Game, with 

 your humble servant as chairman. Many new bills, increasing 

 pains and penalties for violation of the laws, were passed, and 

 old ones changed, among them the time of shooting partridges. 

 The old law was from tbe first of November until the 1st of 

 February, but now the shooting season commences the 15th of 

 October, and closes the fir^t day of January. Another law was 

 passed for the protection of wild-fowl, which prohibits the 

 shooting of ducks and geese in the night-time; also debars any 

 decked boat from being used against them, and expressly de- 

 clares that no swivel-gun shall be used, and only those that 

 can be held up and fired from the shoulder. Sportsmen in- 

 tending to shoot in Virginia this winter and fall, will please, 

 like Captain Cuttle, make a note of this. 



Our next point was Fauquier County, where we led an easy 

 life at a bachelor hall. 



We lingered in Warrenton a few days, a little town of small 

 dimensions but of huge aspirations. It is the county seat of Fau- 

 quier. Warrenton is opted for its beautiful girls and its suc- 

 cessful politicians. Whether there is any irresistible strength 

 in tbe union of the two, I leave to some speculative philosopher 

 to determine ; but as this is a game letter and not a political 

 one, I will skip, as the prisoner said to tbe sheriff, when he 

 ■was on bis way to jail. Oh, about Fauquier ! It puts me in 

 mind of an incident that happentd to me in that county that 

 never will be effaced from the tablet of my memory as long 

 as reason— or the sense of smell— remains. 



I was, like Mr. Dick Swiveller, hopelessly entangled in 

 Cupid's net, woven by Venus' fairy fingers and meshed by the 

 magic of dazzling smiles and bright glances. In other words, 

 I was in love, as Socrates, Napoleon, Petrutio and other cele- 

 brated men were. My charmer weighed about two hundred 

 and fifty pounds— a real mountain peony, who took after her 

 mother, who kicked the scale at about 5001bs., and has never 

 left the porch since she was married. Well, tbe girl, as 1 

 was saying, took after the mother, 1 took after the girl, and 

 the old man took after me, for he forbade me to bis house. 

 However, me and Miss Susan escaped the parental eye and 

 had a stroll together. We sauntered lazily down the public 

 road, with my faithful pointer, Josh, at my heels, who fol- 

 lowed me as closely as the dog Wolf did old Rip Van Win- 

 kle. Josh was a discreet dog, and a useful one, too, for he 

 watched the road closely, ana would bark at the sound of an 

 approaching footstep a half mile away, and every one except 

 — well, I will make no exception — knows how much a court- 

 ing couple needs some faithful monitor to warn them of criti- 

 cal eyes and unexpected appearances. Susan and I stopped 

 at an old blacksmith-shop, and, leaning against the fence near 

 by Susan, was making eye and tongue tell. We discounted 

 any couple in building castles in Spain. Suddenly 1 was 

 aroused from my dream, for I caught sight of Josh in a dead 

 set. He stood on the side of a ditch, with his fore foot 

 raised, bis body rigid and his tail as straight as a poker, show- 

 ing in his splendid pose his thoroughbred blood. 



■"Susan)" said I, '-there's a flock of partridges in that 

 ditch— let's climb the fence and see them." 



So we both scrambled over ana approached Josh, who 

 never moved, but stood trembling with excitement. " Hie 

 on, sir !" But a stone dog could not have been more station- 

 ary. "Hie on, sir!" I ordered a second time. But Josh 

 stood like a soldier on parade. " The devil is in the dog," 

 I muttered, and approached him and locked down into the 

 ditch. I couldn't detect any covey of birds huddled together 

 in a clump, nor could Susan, who was gazing breathlessly 

 and eagerly over my shoulder. Instead of the birds I saw an 

 animal something like a raccoon, with white stripes on his 

 body and the most curious bead like eyes, that gazed into 

 mine without flinching. I again ordered my dog to "hie 

 on," but he, not moving, I got a heavy stone and prepared to 

 cast it on that animal, which to save my life I couldn't 

 make out or understand what it was. Just, as I was about to 

 throw, 1 noticed the singular proceedings of my dog Josh. 

 who struck out across the field in as wild a gait as if he had 

 a tin pan tied to his tail. Josh was smarter and more know- 

 ing than his master, for I heaved the rock and struck the ani- 

 mal plump * * * * * With a wild shriek Susau tied, 

 and I too, but we avoided each other immediately, for, Mr. 

 Editor, it was a polecat that we stirred up. 



Moral to young couples who are parted and medit tte suicide: 

 Let them provoke a certain animal and, my word for it, they 

 will be utterly and completely disillusioned, and love's sweet 

 dream be rudely shattered. 



Leaving Warrenton, we struck for the Alleghany Moun- 

 tains, and hiring a coach, we traveled en m'gneur— stopped 

 wiien we chose, idled where pleased, and enjoyed those sum- 

 mer days in the wild, beautiful mountain scenery as only 

 those men cotdd do who are blessed with good digestions and 

 bad consciences, which, after all, Rochefaucald, that wisest 

 of Frenchmen, says, is the secret of happiness. In the 

 course of time we reached Mountain Lake, one of the great- 

 est natural curiosities in this country, a spot that every tou- 

 rist and lover of fine scenery ought "to visit. It is a lake on 

 the top of the Alleghany Mountains, a half mile long and 

 nearly as wide. It is fathoms upon fathoms deep, is ice cold 

 even in summer, and is as clear as crystal. Many attempts 

 have been made to stock it with fish, but in vain. ' The lake 

 tits like a jewel in the mountains, reflecting back with minute 

 distinctness every object, mirroring with perfect fidelity even 



the spider-web that is woven from branch to branch. I think 

 that, as the evening sun touches the lake with its declining 

 rays, it is the loveliest picture that mortal eyes ever rested 

 upon, lying there in its limpid, placid beauty, its water chang- 

 ing from a pure opaline hue to a warm ruby tint, like Locd 

 Katrine 



When in tbe sort sunlight, it lay, 



And is gads in 11 



Floated amid the Uveiitr light," 



And mountains thai like (Mann s'and 



To keep WRtcb and war] o'er euehtmleu land. 



There is a one-horse hotel at Ihe lake, where travelers are 

 taken in and done for by the proprietress, for she is of the 

 gentler sex, hails from Pennsylvania, wears corkscrew ring. 

 lets, and talks philanthropy. She is a female Joey Bag- 

 stock— devilish sly, sir— and knows a thing or two. After 

 paying their bills at the tavern, the overcharged tourists are 

 like the little boy who was kicked by a mule — not any prettier, 

 but a thundering sight wiser. 



Our jaunt was nearly over; W3 agreed to spend one more 

 week in the mountains, where there was good trout fishing, 

 and then disband. So we went to Rappahannock County, 

 which is, I think, the banner county of the Old Dominion. I 

 could write a long letter about this section, but will have to 

 curtail, as I am already too prolix, I am afraid. Did not the 

 limits forbid, I could give you au account of some raey ad- 

 ventures in old Rappahannock; 1 would tell you how we 

 three comrades were swelled to five by the accession of 

 Sainty Mcnefee and Major O'Uaunon. The major being one 

 of those types of manhood who can shoot, ride, and toss off 

 a beaker to the fairest of his loves, and, like his maternal an- 

 cestors in Onld Kilierankie, he can, like them, sing — 

 "Faith I'm ashamed of work, 



lt'a a way with, all the Bradies, 

 Bu'. bedad, I'd make an i lejjant Turk, 

 For I'm fonu of tobacco and the ladies." 



But I must put on the brakes to my literary locomotive, only 

 to say that we disbanded after having seen as many adven- 

 tures in a quiet way as the Argonauts or the immortal 

 Ulysses, who only differed from us in the fact that he defied 

 and conquered Circe, whi'e the witching Circes in this section 

 conquered ua, but, I am glad to say, didn't change us into hogs. 



The birds— partridges 1 mean— are unusually abundant in 

 Virginia this fall and will afford splendid sport. The best 

 time is from the 25th of this month to about the 10th of De- 

 cember. In this period the birds lly better, are easier found, 

 and do not keep hid in tbe thickets. 



And now, Mr. Editor, in conclusion, let me add that I have 

 a request to make of you. Do, for the sake of suffering 

 sportsmen, give us a receipt for cooking partridges properly. 

 There is nothing that tends to rile a shooter's feelings as to 

 have the birds he has so hardly found and bagged served up 

 to him burned to a crisp, or, worse still, parboiled in water, and 

 having no more taste than leather. Give us a good receipt 

 how to prepare them for breakfast, and the suffering brother- 

 hood of sportsmen can cut it out, paste it in their hats, and 

 s'row it to the 'a ly of the house as a gentle hint how he wants 

 his birds daintily prepared, so that lie can enjoy them, and 

 not say, like the exasperated Frenchman, " By Gar, 1 gives 

 you one belle job partridge, and you brings back a moi une 

 dam little peckerwood." Cuasskub. 



Alexandria, Va., Oct, 1878. 



We can conceive of no daintier dish than a partridge care 

 fully broiled and laid on toast with a sprig of parsley for a 

 garnish.— Eo. F. & S. 



HAND TO HAND -WITH A GRIZZLY. 



THE following account of a fight with a bear, is given by 

 the Calaveras fCal.) Chronkk of a recent date. Mr. N. 

 Rogers, who lives near West Point, Cal., had been out squir- 

 rel shooting during the day and was armed with a light rifle. 

 It is said that, although grizzlies had been frequently seen 

 about, the ranche, no danger was apprehended from them at 

 this lime of the year. The moral of the story, however, is 

 that when there is even the most remote possibility of en- 

 countering dangerous game, the hunter should be provided 

 with a repealing ride. Terrible as is the foe, these arms do 

 equally terrible execution ; 



Mr. Rogers was so successful in gunning that by 4 o'clock 

 his game-sack was well filled, and as he was two miles from 

 home, determined to retrace his steps. In leaving the tim- 

 bered ridge on which he had been shooting, he had t:> cross a 



patch of comparatively op 

 ported being a species of 

 chaparral. "He had gone i 

 cendiug into a little blind 

 feeding on the carcass of 

 The bear was not over t 



the only growth it sup- 

 an occasional bunch of 

 •i distance, and in dee- 



a huge grizzly 



:y feet distant. Man and beast 

 discovered each other at the same instant. For a moment 

 Rogers stood irresolute. His first impulse was to nm ■ but 

 bis better judgment told him that if he did so, and should be 

 pursued by the grizzly, escape would be impossible. Dread- 

 ful as was the alternative of facing his terrible enemy, it was 

 his only hope, and Rogers resolved to stand his ground and 

 sell his life as dearly as possible. 



There was a chance that the grizzly might not attack him 

 if he retained a bold altitude; but whatever hopes Rogers 

 builded upon thai foundation were speedily dispelled by the 

 bear giving a low growl, dropping his mutton, and advancing 

 toward him. The hunter's heart leaped in his throat, and 

 then, with every muscle and nerve drawn to its utmost ten- 

 sion, he awaited the onset of the beast with as much coolness 

 as though his life were uot at stake in the unequal contest. 



As the grizzly slowly advanced toward him, and got. within 

 a distance of about fifteen steps, Rogers threw his rifle io his 

 shoulder, and with a steady aim planted a bullet iu the bear's 

 breast, just inside the point of the right shoulder. The ani- 

 mal was hit hard, but no sixty-to-the-pouud bullet ever 

 stopped a grizzly. With a growl resembling a roar, the in- 

 furiated beast rushed to the al tack. Throwing aside the now 

 useless rifle and drawing his knife, Rogers braced himself for 

 the death struggle. As the shaggy monster reared upon its 

 haunches, its great, black, convex' head lowering two feet 

 above Rogers, the latter involuntarily threw up his left arm, 

 like a pugilist on guard. The bear seized the arm in its 

 mouth, and throwing its great paws over the shoulders of the 

 hunter, hugged him iu an embrace that forced his eyes from 

 their sockels and the blood from his nostrils. 



Rogers' right arm was free, and he drove the long, keen 

 blade of his knife to the hilt in the side of the grizzly close to 

 the shoulder. The blade reached a vital point, inflicting a 

 fatal wound, but lis immediate effect was only to intensify 

 ihe grizzly's ferocity. It hugged Rogers the closer, its long, 



sharp, chisel-pointed claws tearing gaping jnwnds in the 



hunter's back, while the bones of his left arm were crushed 

 and ground to powder in the bear's vise-like jaws. 



Wild with the agony of his wound?, Rogers plied his knife 

 with the energy of desperation, driving it again and again into 

 the bear, literally carving it aiivc, while the lat- 

 ter, with claws and teeth, lacerated its human foe most fright- 

 fully. Itwas, ud ad,s struggle to the death. Rogers, weak 

 from the loss of blood and half delirious from "pain, now 

 fought by intuition, having only a vague consciousness that 

 his life depended on his killing "the bear. The terrible wounds 

 of the grizzly began to tell upon its vitality. He- 

 were not so dulled but that he knew that the grizzly was 

 gradually relaxing its bold, and the ray of hope the knowledge 

 itnulated him to renewed exertions with his knif'c 

 The bear endeavored to support itself despite its wounds, 

 wavered for an instant, and then, with a low moan that 

 sounded almost human in its expression of pain and despair, 

 toppled over, dragging the man with it, the latter falling, 

 partially beneath. Summoning all his remaining strength, 

 Rogers plunged his knife into'tke grizzly's abdomen, thekot 

 life blood and viscera spouting full in his face. 



The. bear relinquished its hold, and Rogers, torn, lacerated 

 and bleeding, crawled far enough away to escape being rent 

 to pieces by the terrible death struggle of the grizzly. Al- 

 though victorious, Rogers' condition" was critical in the ex- 

 treme. He was a mile and a half from home, so weak and 

 faint that he could hardly stand, and in danger of He 

 death before he could reach help. His left arm hung crushed 

 and lifeless at his side, his left scapula and clavicle were 

 broken, the blood trickled from the terrible wounds in his 

 back, and his legs were literally furrowed by the crooked 

 claws of the bear's bind feet. Conscious that he must soon 

 have help' or perish, he summoned all his resolution and slag- 

 set ed aloDg in the direction of home, more dead than alive, a 

 trail of blood marking his footsteps. He managed to reach a 

 spring in sight of his honse, and then his endurance gave way. 

 He fell in a dead faint by the water's edge. He was soon dis- 

 covered by hia son and was taken home" 



The grizzly was the largest ever killed in the county (l 

 measured nine feet in length, "over all," and weighed"!, 400 

 pounds. The left side of the bear was literally torn to pieces, 

 there being no less than twenty-two knife wounds, nearly 

 every one of which reached a vital point, One of its fore 

 paws just covers an ordinary dinner-plate. 



Mr. Rogers is lying in an extremely critical condition. In 

 addition to his horrible wounds the shock to his system was a 

 terrible one. His left arm, literally mangled and torn to 

 shreds, has been amputated at the shoulder. His left, clavicle 

 and scapula were fractured, and the three lower ribs on the 

 right side broken. The flesh and muscles on his baclt are so 

 torn and abraided that the vertebra; are actually visible in 

 places. 



S$k SfatouLfr 



ExcotRAUEMENT to Bbkebers of Fish. — An esteemed cor- 

 respondent, R. E, R., of Ferrisburg, Vt. , says that the salmon 

 placed in Lewis Creek (an old-time salmon stream) in -May, 

 1875, have none of them been seen this season, though this 

 should be the time for the returning i , and asks 



if all hope of a successful issue Of the experiment mu 



ndoned. Fifty thousand fry were turned out there, 

 In reply, we can only say that if we were to argue unfavor- 

 ably from premises like these, there would be little encour- 

 agement to continue the work of uttempted fish culture h) 

 this country. Although scientific, earnest men have heen at 

 work for ten years past, the results seem by no mi D 

 mensurate with the outlay of time, money aud patience; yet 

 they are not only not discouraged, but are 

 known method for propagation; they have spread theirefforts 

 from a single State to thirty-six at least; and they look for- 

 ward with faith and patient waiting for the time when the 

 seed sown broadcast will not only n appear again in spawn 

 and small fry, but in fully developed and mature fish, 

 which will assume for themselves the work of reproduction 

 in the old natural way when fish were abundant everywhere, 

 The best assurance that fish eulturists have of future success 

 is in statistics of work done in Great Britain and on the Con- 

 tinent, where fish culture has been prosecuted much longer 

 than it has here, and where the supply of ' 

 largely increased and cheapened. dnt to the 



experiments of several centuries iu China, and 'he persistence 

 with which the breeders there have stuck to their business. 



Toe Vaiued Colors ov Tiiout Flesh. - The other day we- 

 fouud in the Loudon Field an article with the above beading, 

 signed by that well-known angler and author, Francis Francis,, 

 and we eagerly scissored it out and laid it aside I 

 study ; but alas ! after we had journeyed through many specu- 

 lations aud statements of facts about such and such fish hav- 

 ing been caught in waters which were named, we found Ihe 

 conclusion of tbe whole matter in the following paragraphs 



" Indeed, there seem to be so many contradictions and ex- 

 ceptions in every theory set up as regards color, that I hardly 

 know what to think. Certainly, a 1 pinker OS 



the season advances. In March you meet fish with very little 

 color, if any, whereas in A,; 



"Altogether the matter is a puzzle" and 1 1 ■■■ 

 not see my way in it so clearly as 1 should like to." 



Never were we so Borely disappointed. When the Oracle 

 opened its mouth to speak, we felt iustified in expecting 

 authoritative utterances; but we found only humble confes- 

 sions of ignorance and doubt. The my tcry still remains a 

 •' puzzle.'' 



One thing is certain : color in Iron 

 difference in age or variety Of Species, There are pink, white, 

 red, saffron, carmine, and yellowish tints in fingcrlings, and 

 also in three-pound fish. In the clear mountain b" 

 New Hampshire, in the quiet poud3 Of Loi 

 tamarack-dyed waters of the Adirondack?, iu the brc u 

 streams of Michigan, and in the timber belts of V 

 the white, the pink and the led are taken ii 



