April 28, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



249 



ters in your very interesting paper on the subject of hunting 

 rifles, and as inquiries are being continually made on the 

 Bams subject in the Columns of the Asian, our only sporting 

 ; «pe) . especially one or two lately on the merits of the Win- 

 chester Express rifle, may I be permitted to say that front all 

 accounts this weapon appears to me to fulfill ready all the 

 r.' ii'iins required of a perfect, sporting rifle. Its* one de- 

 fact, however-^the suialluess of its charge for the compara- 

 tively large calibre— will prevent its general adoption, I think, 

 in this country. When that is remedied and the gun is made 

 to take the usual English .500 Express charge of ISO to 160 

 grs. powder, and §40 to 390 lead, the days of the double ritlc 

 will be numbered, for in addition to the advantage of hav- 

 ing a reserve of five shots in the repeater against one in the 

 double-barrel, the price of a really good double rifle would 

 buy several repeaters. — Sepoy. 



A Cuban Qcaii, Snarbr.— Havana, Cuba, April 9.— Our 

 colored sportsman arms himself with a bag and a loDg cane 

 -p ilc with a lasso of horsehair at the end aud a little dog to 

 find and flush up the quail As soon as flushed the dog runs 

 after them, barking as if his life depended on it. The flock 

 generally light in the first tree ; then the dog keeps barking, 

 and as soon as the negro comes up he joins in the bark, ami 

 with his pole he will put the loop over the bird's head and 

 take him to bag, often catching most of the flock before they 

 find out that it is not all noise. This style works best early 

 in the season when the birds are quite young. In this way 

 of catching the birds this season they have taken them all 

 near the small villages. I wish that your game law could be 

 enforced here. — J. W. 



Kitty Hawk Bay Club. — Another large tract of land in 

 Currituck and Dare counties, North Carolina, is to be taken 



up by a club for shooting and fishing grounds. The Kitty 

 Hawk Sportsmen's Club has secured "the purchase and lease 

 of 25,000 acres of the far-famed sporting district on the Car- 

 olina coast where the shooting includes canvas backs, red- 

 heads, black heads, mallards, teal, brant, geese, swan, snipe 

 and deer, and the fishing comprises black and striped bass, 

 Spanish mackerel, sheep's head and mullet. 



Seaboard Shooting Association— Portsmouth, Va. — At a 

 recent meeting of the Seaboard Shooting Association the fol- 

 lowing officers were elected for ensuing year ; President, Dr. 

 H. P. Butt; Vice-President, James M. Binford; Secretary, 

 H. G.Williams : Treasurer, A. O. Ereidlin: Executive Com- 

 mittee— Dr. H. F. Butt, H. G. Williams, E. V. White, A. C. 

 Ereidlin and James F. Carr. 



Bo\\ manvti.le, Ontario. — Our spring has opened in earnest, 

 and the duck snooting has commenced, but as yet the bags 

 made are neither heavy normanj'. 1 have seen no snipe nor 

 woodcock, but expect them in very soon. Wild pigeons not 

 seen so far this spring, which is a very unusual state of af- 

 fairs as some always come in, though often in small numbers 

 compared to what I have seen in years gone by. — Au Sablb. 



Willi Pigeons.— The wild pigeons are about seventymiles 

 west of Atoka, Indian Territory, nesting; Bet in about one 

 week ago. Large body of them reported. 



Quait. for Spmsgfibld.— The Rod and Gun Club, of 

 Springfield, Mass., have received and let loose two hundred 

 and twenty of the four hundred and twenty quail purchased 

 by them, and are in hopes that the balance will arrive soon. 



lln the irny, Ihnl nmiinh «<c— 



APROPOS of the stories published recently in Forest 

 and Stream on squirrel shooting, I send you the fol- 

 lowing to find if anything similar has come within the ob- 

 servation of the fraternity. 



One morning last, fall, one of our gunners, armed with 

 what " Byrne " would call a " woodchuck gun," was out in 

 the bottoms west of town after squirrels. A number had al- 

 ready fallen to his unerring aim, when, observing a squirrel 

 ivni -king toward him, he sat down on a log to wait. He had 

 hardly "seated himself when a noise in a tree behind caused 

 him to look around. What was his surprise to see a big coon 

 about ready to descend. Thinking this a chance to obtain 

 the wherewith for a coon pot-pie, our Nimrod raised his rifle 

 and fired. By the way the coon kicked he was evidently 

 hard hit, and struggled to retain his grip on the tree. But 

 his coonship was not destined to become a hungry man's 

 meat, for immediately coon No. 2 came out of a hole above, 

 and snatching his wounded brother by the wool, gathered 

 him in to a place of safety.— Anon. 



Tma comes from Macon, Ga.: I read with much inter- 

 est in Forest and Stream of March 31, a very good article 

 on turkey hunting by "Splasher." He writes about killing 

 four out of five turkeys at one shot. This calls to mine a 

 story an uncle of mine told mo some years ago. This uncle 

 was'from North Carolina, aud was, when a young man, very 

 fond of sports,, and I have listened to some marvelous stories 

 from his experience with the game of Nonh Carolina. There 

 was in his neighborhood a man who was notoriously trifling 

 and lazy, disagreeable and offensive in many ways and, in 

 fact, a ''dead beat and a sponge." On one occasion he ap- 

 proached one of his neighbors and requested that he would 

 allow him to use his gun for a day or two— stating that a 

 large flock of turkeys were near his house, and he having 

 baited them could kill several of them at a shot- His neigh- 

 bor, thinking the opportunity to get rid of him a good one, 

 readily consented ; told him he would load the gun for him, 

 and going into his house put in about three charges of powder 

 and shot— enough, as he supposed, to burst the gun and kill 

 the man. As the fellow shouldered the gun and marched 

 away the owner of the gun congratulated himself on ridding 

 the community of the vagabond. Several days after, to bis 

 amazement, the man came to his house with the gun, and in 

 response to his questions about the turkeys entered into a 

 graphic description of how he saw the flock approaching, 

 how they came up to the trench, s,nd he, taking aim, fired. 

 "And t id you kill any?" "Yes ;" said he, " when I came 

 to, I picked up seven." — J. H. J. 



[We wonder if that uncle could not be induced "to tell 

 another." — Ed.] 



im md Eiver M 



riSII IIV SEASON IN ATBIL. 



FKJSSU WATER. 



vnobrt/ttttsyvto 

 /a niyrottiucula 

 ;m annularis. 



SALT WATER. 

 Sea Bass, CentroprUtis atrariiu. I l'OUOCk. T'oltacMux mrtionarivs. 



SlripeaJ3ass, Reccus Untntus. \ Tantng or rilackflsu, Taittoga 



While Perch, Moronc 



■ „;t{h. 



We have also the Literary Angler^ who reads Walton ami 

 admires Mm hugely ; Tic has been inoculated with the sentiment 

 only; ilieji-ee-mUi w& upiiiacrech, injure it 7tmne>t.been fished 

 much, is very, fatiguing to him, lie " did not know he must imde 

 the dream," mid does not until he Hips in, and then he has some 

 trouble at night to get, his boots of. Be is provided with a 

 stout hass rod, good '•strong" lenders of snlmon-gul, and nstoek 

 of Oonrcy's "journal flies," and wonders if he had not better 

 put a shot just above his streteherfl.y. — Tuad Norris. 



SMELLING BLUEFISH AT A DISTANCE. 



THE following letter from Dr. D. Webster Prentiss, Pro- 

 fessor of Materia Medica in the National Medical Col- 

 lege in Washington, to Prof. G. Brown Goode, of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission, contains an idea new to us, and we hope 

 to have a chance to verify the odor of a school of bluefish and 

 locate them by the odor alone, when summer comes, without 

 reliance on the leaping of the fish when feeding, or on the 

 presence of screaming gulls. 1 te writ es : 



Prof. G. Brown Goods : Washington, D. C. 



Dear Sir — Visiting Nantucket last summer (1880), I was 

 present on the South Beach when several fishermen came in 

 with bluefish in iheir dories. In conversation with one of 

 them I asked how it was on the broad ocean he knew where 

 to fish. " We smell them," was bis reply. I looked in- 

 credulous, and he added, "But strangers won't believe it." 

 I certaintly thought at the lime that it was a- "fish story." 

 The next day, sailing up the harbor of Nantucket to Wau- 

 winnet, I saw a flock of gulls hovering over a particular por- 

 tion of water, screaming and diving into it. I asked the 

 skipper what they were after and was informed there was a 

 school of bluefish at that poiut feeding on the young men- 

 haden, which they drove to the surface, and the gulls were 

 attacking the small fry from above. Shortly after, passing 

 near t lie spot, I noticed a peculiar fresh odor, something be- 

 tween the smell of cucumbers and watermelons. 



On the return from Wauwinnet down the Nantucket har- 

 bor we again passed through a school of bluefish, and a Hue 

 was cast and one caught. On board the yacht was a party of 

 twenty-five or thirty ladies and gentlemen. Just after the 

 fish was caught one of the ladies remarked, "I smell water- 

 melons: where can they her" 1 I noticed the odor very 

 Btrougly, and several others of the party also spoke of it and 

 conjectured as to bs source, coming to the conclusion that a 

 sloop in the distance must be carrying a cargo of watermelons 

 Such, however, was not the case. The day after this occur- 

 rence I joined a party for a trip— bluefishing out to the 

 "riffs" at the northeastern extremity of Nantucket. On 

 reaching the fishing grounds the captain of our yacht called 

 attention to a smooth surface on the water a Short distance 

 ahead and explained that a school of bluefish had recently 

 been there feeding upon menhaden, I he smooth appearance 

 being caused by the oil liberated iu chewing up the young 

 fish. He further remarked, as we approached the spot, "If 

 you will notice now you will smell 'em." In a few moments 

 I perceived this same odor of watermelons. " Do the bluefish 

 smell like watermelons ?" I asked. " Yes, that is the smell, 

 and we always know in that way when we are near a school 

 of them." 



After this, while beating back and forth along the "riff," 

 I was reminded frequently of fresh-cut watermelons, and 

 each time we had evidence of the presence of bluefish iu the 

 catch, either on our own yacht or another on the same course. 

 Thus, from being utterly skeptical of the story of the South 

 Beach fisherman, 1 became a thorough convert to the belief 

 in the reality of a peculiar and easy recognized odor betray- 

 ing the presence of schools of bluefish. This odor, as nearly 

 as"l can describe it, is as already stated, that of a freshly-cut 

 watermelon and combined with fresh cucumbers. Whether it 

 i3 au emanation from the bluefish, or whether it is produced by 

 the mangling of the small fish which they make their prey, I 

 am nnable to say. The odor, however, is certainly not the 

 same that the bluefish gives out after being taken from 

 the water, and I am inclined to the belief that ir. owes its 

 origin to the small fry upon which it feeds. 



There are three ways in which schools of bluefish are 

 tracked by the fishermen in their pursuit : first, by the 

 flocks of gulls which hover over them, feeding upon the men- 

 haden which they drive to the surface; second, by the 

 spots of smooth water caused by oil escaping from their 

 mangled prey ("this, however, only indicates that the blue- 

 fish have recently been at that point) j third, by this pecu- 

 liar watermelon and cucumber-like odor. D. W. P. 



The vigor ot youth siren to r.he ueecl and iriflrm by using Hop Bit- 

 ters. Try it. 



WEIGHING vs. GUESSING. 



AMONG the many departments of a paper like the Forest 

 and Stream there is hardly any more interesting to 

 the angler than the advertising columns, lie scans them 

 closely from week to week, and in every issue his attention 

 is sure to be called to some useful article pertaiuing to his 

 craft. But for once, at least, there has appeared an advertise- 

 ment against which we most earnestly protest, as it is so an- 

 tagonistic to one of the most valuable pleasures enjoyed by 

 the angler. 



It says, " Weigh your fish on the spot." Great heavens! 

 Mr. Forest and Stream, when you knock Piscator's privi- 

 lege of guessing at the weight of his fish, aud guessing as high 

 as he pleases, by producing a pocket scale that tells the exact 

 truth, j-ou are depriving him of one of his most inestimable 

 privileges. Measuring was in a degree an infringement of 

 his prerogatives, aud he was obliged to resort to innumerable 

 quibbles to circumvent its accuracy, one of which was iusist- 

 iug that the fish he caught made lip in thickness what they 



lacked in length. He would say, " I do not doubt flint, the 

 system of calculating weight by first finding tholeng b might, 

 in many cases, prove Dearly accurate, but mark the unusual 

 breadth and thickness of these fish. Why, man, (IK ordinary 

 twelve-inch trout is a yearling in comparison to these nine-inch 

 fish iu my basket. You must invent a system that takes iritfJ 

 consideration not only length, but breadth and thickness, be- 

 fore it approaches anything like correctness in all cases. 

 Besides, did you ever feel a fish so firm and solid as this 

 one ?" 



Measuring was bad enough, but against weighing, oh, 

 shade of gentle, truthful Walton protect us! When we re- 

 return from a day's sport and with radiant smile display the 

 result of our skill— "Isn't that a beauty?" " What will he 

 weigh?" Well, three pounds and a half. "Hardly," says 

 Mr.'Matter-of-fact. "Oh, yes, easily." Mr. M-o-f unfor- 

 tunately is the possessor of a pair of pocket settles, and un- 

 ceremoniously attaches them to the jaw of the fish in dis- 

 pute, and the record is two pounds and a. quarter. 



"It's devilish queer," says Mr. Piscator, " but that is the 

 blggestl ever saw to weigh so little." and he immcdia'elv 

 prooeerlS to impeach the veracity of the scales. They have 

 the sfclffest springs, the appearance of the graduate is faulty, 

 and they show no mark of ever huvhie been offli dally in- 

 spected. No, i! will never do to ring in on an old traveler 

 such a plaything as that. It is not had as accurate as the 

 old-fashioned style of weighing Western hue,, which was to 

 take a rail, balance it across a stump, put the pork on ono 

 end, and in a bosket attached to the other end place stones 

 until Ihc pork was hoisted : then guess at the weight of the 

 stones, deduct the basket, and there yon arc, so much. per 

 pound. 



These scales are robbers of the angler's reminiscences. 

 They will dwarf a five-pounder into a fingerling quicker than 

 the angler can till his creel in his mind. For the dealer they 

 may be necessary iu order to protect his trade from any ex- 

 aggerating tendency he may have to overstate weight ; but 

 so far ai the angler is concerned they are an encumbrance 

 and a nuisance that ought to be abolished. 



He can tell no fi-h stories with a clear conscience and un- 

 blushing perversion of Ihe truth, with the evidence of Scales 

 staring Mm iut.heface. He isnot so lost to all moral restraint 

 as to misrepresent when he knows he is going to be smoked 

 out. He is the most: genial and unselfish person iu the world. 

 He will not keep secret a good place where the trott Of ' 

 may be captured, but he will brook no infringement on the 

 cherished privilege of weighing his fish to suit himself. 



A scale that will at least double the weight of the fish 

 caught seems to us to be the great desideratum, and such a 

 one might be made which would meet the approval of the 

 ansrler and put money into the purse oft lie inventor. Its 

 sale should be restricted to those who go a-lishing. BUt even 

 then the demand would test the capacity of any manufactory. 

 Some capricious people would perhaps cry out, "Leave tho 

 angler alone for over-estimating the weight of his catch, 

 You cannot give him any points in that gome-" Very true, 

 hut fortify him with a pair of patent dnplcxers. and he will 

 observe more strictly the commandment treating of this 

 particular point, There is nothing mean about him. for lie 

 will let the scales do the lying for him, aud attach the charge 

 of perjury to the manufacturer. 



Dr. Johnson's drive about a fool at one emi of a rod and a 

 worm at the other was ignorance, but for a vicious attack on 

 auglers tho scales promenade away with the sweetmeats. 



THE TROUT STREAMS OF COBBY. 



Corrt, Erie County, Pi,, April 3, 1881. 



ACCORDING to law, trout-fishing began on Friday in 

 Pennsylvania; but from the look of the landscape around 

 here not a trout will be caught, or even fished foi B * many 

 along diy. With snow from twelve to twenty inches deep qna 

 level, and the nights so cold that tho morningsuu, from Sunrise 

 to eleven o'clock a. m., doesn't even cause a drop of water to 

 fall from the pend mt icicles draping the e;,es or theeast and 

 south sides of our houses, it don't look much as it ;m : , ais- 

 ciple of Walton would attempt to* catch the Bj leckled denizens 

 of the sparkling (frozen) brooks ; and if they were so rash as 

 to wade through the snow, whether the fish would he visible 

 is a mooted question. 



We have here in our vicinity and near neighborhood some 

 of the best trout streams iu America ; and an bom's ride on 

 the railroads will bring us to brooks and streams literally 

 crowded with trout, which arc almost as anxious to be caught 

 as the famous fabulous pigs of our childhood's days, which 

 our nurses used to tell us ran about with knives and forks in 

 their mouths, brying, "Eat me, eat me." Whether these 

 streams will continue to be as numerously stocked with trout 

 by natural production is a somewhat mooted question, as the 

 catch is so very large annually, and the smallest is taktn 

 home as eagerly as the largest, and counting one iunuineu- 

 cal luck and boasting equally with the larger ours. I often 

 have wished, when J have seen the on Is I mptied by so- 

 called sportsmen that there was a law forbidding the catch- 

 ing of trout of less than half pouud weight. Than we 

 should not only have trout in their prime, but every otte 

 could spend a day catching something of epicurean value. 



In my boyhood days, when 1 used to " wdiip the streams" 

 of grand old Kent* ( Eng. ), and in the moonlight nights 

 would sec the pounders and such sized trout juui] o r up 

 the hackle, or the white moth, or whatever ' Mi v" was in 

 season, and occasionally land one of them. There was not 

 only sport in it, but "in the quietude of those summer 

 nights, with no noise except the gentle hum of insects tin 

 distant warble of the nightingale, or the rippling 

 natural or artificial waterfall of a foot to four in he., 

 was a delightful communing with Nature and Naturt - God, 

 which did the heart good, ami made those who <! P ■-:■:■ 

 preeiate it better and happier men. 



The season this way is very backward ; not so much as to 

 temperature, for our forest, verdure does not begin I u i itil 

 forth generally till May; but by this time the snow ia gen- 

 erally gqne, and the roads alternate with mud one] frozen 

 roughness. But now sleighing is yet good, a 1 Ioj »ing a 

 wood-hauling carried on with fust "as much vis r i£ tl nigh 

 it was mid-winter. Speaking about logs and Wood, reminds 

 f ihe immense quantitv of limber cm and hauled this 



if In 



of ' 



which 



id i 



all naturally sriv 

 rswho arc c 



outii 



e that each ) 

 to the eye ; and as one passes 

 along by the fast traveling raili 

 acres upon acres, miles upon n 

 forest and woodland, beautifyii 



nereaseil impetus 10 Unit, 

 illy prophesying a dearth 

 ■bitaiit prices. But I no- 



