Juse 23, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



405 



arrest a man for debt ; Neil her will the leaue slinging or 

 sucking out the blond of BUdu sluggards vntil like a'Kcadle 

 tlry bring him to bis Master, where- he should labour; in 

 which time of loytering, tJiose flies will so brand snob idle 

 persons in their faces that they may be known from others 

 as Turkes do their slaues." 



1 regret to say that good old Muster Whitbourne lied like 

 an epitaph ; these insects bite alike the idle and the diligent, 

 and spare neither Monarchists nor Republicans in their vo- 

 Mcily. Various more or less abominable preparations will 

 modify their attack, but nothing that I know will wholly 

 do away with the annoyance. For the angler who minds the 

 bite of a tiny iuseet, while his sporting soul is set on the by 

 the whirr of his reel and the dash of a magnificent fish, those 

 lines w T ere not penned; my prosings are for the hearts of 

 those who, like the prince of anglers, have a deep and fer- 

 vent love for the gentle craft who think with Walton " that 

 God neuer did make a more halm, quiet, innocent recreation 

 than angling," "no life so pleasant and so happy as the life 

 of a well-governed angler." 



Both salmon and sea trout are very abundant in New- 

 foundland and on the Labrador coasts. They are caught 

 principally by means of nets set along the shore or at the 

 mouths of the estuaries. So great is the quantity taken, 

 even in the vicinity of. St. John's, that in June plenty of 

 magnificent salmon maybe bought for five cents a pound. 

 The first catch of fish are splendid specimens, ranging from 

 ten to twenty and sometimes thirty pounds. After the first 

 run is over the fish are small, not more than three or four 

 pounds. Strangely enough the large fish rarely take the fly. 

 Small salmon or grilse from three to five pounds are often 

 killed with the rod, but rarely a ten-pounder. I believe the 

 same thing occurs both in Oregon and in British Columbia. 

 Many reasons are given for this unaccountable freak of na- 

 ture, but none, I think, that are wholly satisfactory. It has 

 been attributed by some to the frequent barring of the rivers 

 by nets, whilst others consider that our fish want to be edu- 

 cated to take the fly. Whatever be the eausf, there can be 

 no doubt that the splendid salmon rivers of Newfoundland 

 and Labrador have been shamefully neglected, and that if 

 proper care and attention were bestowed upon them they 

 would become the finest streams for sport iu the world. 

 This is the opinion of all experienced English sportsmen who 

 have visited the c >)ony. 



Sea-trout fishing is par excellence the best angling in New- 

 foundland. The finest sport is obtained from about the mid- 

 dle of July to thelOth or 30th of August. The trout come 

 down the rivers in the spring, and remain about the mouths 

 of the estuaries until July, when they commence to ascend 

 the streams. Their time for this annual migration is uncer- 

 tain and depends upon the movements of their favorite food, 

 a small fish called capelin (Afaliotusvfllosus). When fresh run 

 from the sea the salt-water trout are iu grand condition and 

 afford splendid sport. After August they are invariably to 

 be found in the deep pools on the rivers. I can well re- 

 member one special day's fishing on the southwest coast. 

 The parly who were with me toiled along the banks of the 

 river until they reached a large deep pool, with a shelving 

 granite rock on one side ami a steep bank with overhang- 

 ing woods on the opposite shore. Believing in my own ex- 

 perience, I had whipped every likely place as I went along; 

 but only small trout had so" far rewarded my exertions. 

 As soon, however, as I came iu sight of the pool to which 

 my friends had gone direct, I saw a sight to be lomr re- 

 membered—four rods bent double and four individuals in a 

 frantic state of excitement ; three had booked largo sea- 

 trout, whilst the fourth was fast to a splendid Balmon. 

 Presently there was a gleam as from a molten bar of silver 

 as the noble fish, a twelve-pounder, made a frantic leap; 

 a whirr of the reel as the short line all ran out, then the poor 

 angler, deep in the water, madly trying to follow his prey : 

 a report like a pistol-shot, and" then the disgusted fisher- 

 man holdiug on to a bioken rod and the fragment of a 

 snapped line. My companions' idea of fishing seemed to 

 be that the trout were to be hauled ashore by main strength, 

 but after two more tips were broken and two more lines 

 carried away they began to display a little more skill and 

 patience. Of course each discomfited fisherman declared 

 and swore that they could have held an ordinary fish, and 

 that the trout or salmon that had caused all this wreckage 

 were veritable whales. Naturally I was excited by the scene 

 I have described, and hurried up to mingle in the fray. 

 Just as my flies touched the water two splendid fish rose, 

 and I struck both. My rod had seen good service, and my 

 gear was good; so, after about ten minutes' play and some 

 ugly rushes, I managed to land both fish (three-ponuders) 

 in a little cove above the rock. After fitting out my com- 

 panions with fresh flies and repairing damages, we set to 

 work and had grand sport. In less thau two hours we had 

 landed upward of one hundred fine sea-trout, some weigh- 

 ing four pounds, two five pjunds, and none under one pound 

 and a half. Thirty-three fish out of my own catch scaled 

 one hundred weight. A day's sport like this is a red-letter 

 day in a fisherman's calendar, the remembrance of it "a joy 

 forever." There are hundreds of rivers iu the colony where 

 just as good fishing can be obtained. Within one or two 

 days' journey by land from St. John's, both in St. Mary's 

 and Placentia bays, capital sea-trout fishing can be had, pro- 

 vided the angler hits the right time. Every Newfound- 

 lander is a fisherman, but as a rule the codfishers despise fly- 

 fishing; they prefer catching these big sea-trout with a pole 

 fit for the " mast of some tall admiral," a strong line, a big 

 hook and a gigantic float. When they get a bite, with a 

 herculean jerk the fish is sent flopping on the. bank. It is a 

 rough and ready method, but I have often seen these huge 

 polers kill big fish when the scientific fly-fisherman could 

 catch nothing. 



. Three of Her Majesty's ships of war 'annually visit New- 

 foundland for the purpose of protecting the fishery and look- 

 ing after the many vexed questions arising out of French and 

 American fishery rights on the coast. Most of the English 

 officers are keeu sportsmen, and profane people say that 

 amongst the important state documents which the senior 

 officer annually brings with him from the Admiralty are to 

 be found lists of all the best places for fly-fishing in the col- 

 ony, but however that may be, the officers, who are .Justices 

 of "the Peace for the colony, undoubtedly do a good deal of 

 fishins-. One of them, a capital sportsman, writing under 

 the signature of " Mariner," in the London Field, gives an 

 amusing account of his naval worship trying a case whilst 

 fishing, plaintiff and defendant shouting their grievances to 

 the sporting Justice from opposite banks. "Mariner's" 

 views on the Bubject of fly-fishing in Newfoundland will be 

 found to correspond pretty much with my own. 



Space will not permit me to say more than a few words to 

 those meeker souls to whom lake-fishing is an unmixed de- 

 hght. Fresh water trout are simply innumerable, countless 



dozens may easily be caught everywhere in the colony, vary- 

 ing in size, from a few ounces to some pounds. For toe 

 sportsman who delights iu sea fishing the 

 The more adventurous spirits may Indulge 



expedit 

 scaling stei 

 10th of Ma 

 less than a 

 Sometim 

 foundlaud 



id galore. 

 tall Arctic 

 many fine 

 n ts on the 

 killed in 



nth 



he seal fishery 

 nl leave St. John's ana t 

 sveral of these ves : els Ui 

 ver 20,000 seals. 



urious fish are caught around the New- 

 Of late, some very large devil-fish have 

 been killed, but nothing in modern times comes up to the 

 " queer fish " described by Whitbourne. " Iu the year 1610 

 in the morning early, as Iwas standing by the water side in 

 the harbour of St. John's, 1 saw a strange creature which I 

 cspyed very swiftly to come swimming towards me, looking 

 eheerfully as it had been a woman by the face, eyes, nose, 

 mouth, chin, cares, neck and forehead; it seemed to be so 

 beautiful and in taose parts so well proportioned, haying 

 round about the head all blew strokes resembling hayre, down 

 to the necke (but cerlaiuly it. was no haire), seeing (lie same 

 coining swiftly towards me I stepped back, which when this 

 strange creature Stfwft presently thereupon dived a little 

 under water and did swim towards the place where before I 

 lauded, whereby I beheld the shoulders and back down to 

 the middle to be as square, white and smool.be as the Imcke 

 of a man, and from the middle to the hinder part poynting 

 in proportion like a broad hooked arrow. How it was pro" 

 portioned in theforepart from thencck and shoulders I kuow 

 not. This I suppose was a. mare maide— now because divers 

 bane written much of mare maides I lmue presumed to relate 

 what is most certainie of such a strange creature that was 

 scene at New-found-land ; whether it were a mare maide or no 

 1 know not, I leaue for others to judge." The ingenuity 

 wit h which this ancient, mariner cons' ructa a Newfoundland 

 syren out of a common seal is worthy of Barnum. 



I have stated before that the interior is one vast natural 

 deer park. One solitary settler alone inhabits this vast wil- 

 derness— the telegrapher at Baudy Pond. This is the main 

 cause of the great abundance of deer in Newfoundland. In 

 the spring they migrate from the southern and southwestern 

 parts of the coast to the northeast, and return again to their 

 old quarters in the fall. Good shooting is to be had in Sep- 

 tember by going into the interior. A party of hunters with 

 good Mic-Mae Indians, and well-fitted out. would be sure of 

 fine sport, provided they came in the right season, and were 

 not. loo much pressed for time. September is the best mouth 

 for deer-stalking in the North; by November the deer have 

 returned to their winter quarters in the Southwest. For the 

 September deer shooting take canoe* up one of the many 

 rivers that lead into the inland lakes, fix your camp in some 

 convenient spot and hunt around i?. It is very rough, hard 

 work, and no one but a keen sportsman and a good walker 

 should attempt it. At least three weeks would be required 

 on an expedition of this kind. Good coastal steamers now 

 ply north and south, and the hunting- grouuds may be 

 reached either from the northeast by Hall's Bay, or from the 

 southwest by the Humberlhver: the latter is the easier route 

 into the interior, but it iuvolves a somewhat longer sea 

 voyage. The naval officer who writes under the nom de 

 plume of "Mariner" iu the London Field, has had good 

 sport for the past two years on the Grand Pond grounds, 

 getting l here by way of the Humber. 



Whilst it is an indubitable fact that there are thousands of 

 deer iu the interior, the vast wild country over Which these 

 countless herds roam, and their shy nature will always make 

 stalking a somewhat precarious sport. This very difficulty 

 is probably an addnd charm iu the eyes of many sportsmen. 

 Winter shooting (tracking the deer on the snow), is a far 

 surer method of killing them. Engl shmen profess to despise 

 litis truly indigenous American mode of shooting. 1 fancy 

 I hear some well got up and gai ered son of Albion pro- 

 nounce i ; , "Ah, beastly butchery," quite American, "doocid 

 pot-hunting, ah I" Now, why following a wild animal by 

 his footmarks on the snow should be viewed in this way, 

 whilst stalking the same animal by his tracks on the marshes 

 or the barrens is considered noble sport, is quite a puzzle to 

 me. A thing, I suppose, that no colonial fellow can under- 

 stand. For the winter shooting the sportsman may visit St. 

 John's at any time that suits his convenience. From Christ- 

 mas up to " the beginning of February let him take the 

 coastal steamer to some point on the southwest 

 coast, where lie will obtain either native or 

 Indian guides. On the 17th of March last a friend of 

 mine in company with some Indians killed eleven deer in 

 one day near Bay du Nord iu Hermitage Bay, and they saw 

 one herd in which my informant considers there must 

 have been one thousand deer. In nearly all the great winter 

 hunting grounds the settlers have rude huls for shelter called 

 iu Newfoundland "tilts." In Bay du Nord one sportsman 

 uses dogs and sledges, but even without these luxurious ap- 

 pliances the walking is much better in the interior than it is 

 in the autumn ; the cold is never very intense, and there is 

 a dead certainty of getting a shot at a caribou. 



To the lovers of big game grouse shooting will be consid- 

 ered very tame and humble sport, but to my own mind good 

 grouse or snipe shooting over well-trained dogs is the finest 

 amusement in the world. 



Of all the joys that sporting yields. 



Give me to Hunt, i lie stubble fields, 



Quite early Iu September. 



Thus sang Somerville two hundred years ago of partridge 

 shooting in England. Pretty shooting certainly if you know 

 a Duke who has good manors, but tame and unexciting sport 

 when compared to gr.iuse shooting over the wild, wind- 

 swept barrens of Newfoundland. Here as far as the eye can 

 reach are level plains alternating with undulating hills. 

 There may he no "bonny, blooming heather," but there is a 

 wealth and profusion of berries, mosses, ferns and wild 

 plants, fit concomitant for this truly indigenous wdld sport 

 of the West. With good dogs and straight shooting powder 

 bags of ten and fifteen brace may be made in a day, and in 

 killing that number of birds the sportsman will have enjoyed 

 genuine, good, manly sport. 



All I ask of my readers is lo come and judge for themselves 

 about the sporting capabilities of this unknown island of 

 Newfoundland. The trip is short and inexpensive, the coun- 

 try is a virgin field of exploration for sportsman, artist and 

 naturalist, and far all there is health and lusty vigor in this 

 new playground of North America. 



%ntwnl gipiorv. 



Geoegk is Well— Gouverneur, N. Y., June 15.— In Foe- 

 kst and Stream, of May 2(5, "X" (Canton. N. Y.), reporting 

 some of the exploits of the favorite guide George Muir, stated 

 that "George" was out of health this season, in which he was 

 in error. "George" was sick a short time early iu the spriug, 

 but. is fully recovered. I saw him yesterday; he had just re- 

 turned from a successful trip in the woods, 



THE ANTLERS OF DEER. 



THE iheory that the spike buck is a new species develop- 

 ed on account of the greater utility of the spike as ;i 

 weapon of offeuce has been pretty thoroughly disposed of, 

 and- is uot likely tube resuscitated at once. A valued corres- 

 pondent has brought to our notice a letter Written by him 

 sonic years ago to the Oermantovvu Tdfrjraph which contains 

 so much valuable information in regard to the antlers of doers 

 that we reproduce it here. After stating the novel theory 

 that the spike horned deer is a new species the writer says: 



Now, to any one who knows anything at ail about Ihe na- 

 ture and habits of deer, this new fanglcd species will be 

 only laughable. The transmission business would sound 

 plausible enough, if it were uot for the fact lhat the horn is 

 not a permanent peculiarity, either in lime or form. The 

 deer's horns arc not completed until he rub? Ihe velvet, off in 

 September, and be loses them again in January; while as 

 to form there is no rule and any amount of variety. The 

 spike buck is an eighteen months old deer; born in the 

 spring, his horns begin to grow the next spriug and are hard 

 spikes in the fall. If he is not strong enough aud active 

 enough, he will not whip off the old veteran bucks, and the 

 next year he adds a prong on his new horns aud bccoir.es a 

 "forked horn." The popular idea, and under condii ions as 

 to undisturbed solitude and plenty of food, the true idea, is 

 that the deer adds a prong to the main beam each year ; that 

 the deer with four prongs on a beam is four years old— iu his 

 fifth year. 



1 have said " the true rule," but true under ccrtiin condi- 

 tions, and my experience ruuoiug through Ihe last twenty 

 years puts it about thus: The normal growth of a deer's 

 hotns, where .Ihe dec-r lived undisturbed by either man or 

 wild animals and had p!euty of suitable food, would be repre- 

 sented bj r a spike at a year old, that is in the second year ; a 

 forked horn at two years, and a prong added each year — the 

 deer heing called three-year old, four-year old, etc., or ihree- 

 prouged buck, etc. After the deer had passed the meridian 

 of bis life, however, his horns would be irregular as to size 

 and the number of prongs, so that his horns would no more 

 determine his age. In reality we find this rule working, but 

 under difficulties. The constant disturbances to which the 

 deer are subject from both man and beast, can e liennettt 

 changes in location of haunts and character of food and 

 water, and the horu when young being very soft, and brush 

 and trees plenty in the deer countiy, very few deer manage 

 to carry their horns from spring to "fall without more or less 

 harm coming to them. S> that out of a hundred pair < f deer- 

 horns from deer killed iu the same season and locality, not 

 more than twenly per cent, would be tolcnbly even, and not 

 more than half those could be called perfectly even. I killed 

 this fall a buck whose saddle weighed fifty-five pounds, and 

 took from his head as perfectly even a pair of ho ns as I ever 

 saw, weighing four and a half pounds, with five points on a 

 beam ; but this doer was killed in acountry where thechances 

 were a hundred to one against his having been disturbed 

 during Ihe season by anything un'ess a panther. Theie are 

 no wolves there. 1 killed in the same region a year or two 

 ago, a buck whose ha ors, cut. above the joint and with no 

 saddle weighed forty pounds, while his horns were mere 

 spikes, one of which made a feeble attempt to fork. A deer 

 killed a day or two after, not by me, had four points on a 

 beam on it< horns, while the saddle, wih the lees cut below 

 the joint, only weighed forty-twp pounds. I killed a deer iu 

 1874, whose horns had fewer prongs and were not even half 

 the size of the first one I mentioned as killed this year, and 

 yet be was as large a deer. I have seen thousands of pairs of 

 deer horns from deer killed in all parts of the couotry, and 

 yet have rarely seen two pair exactly alike. I have seen one 

 born straight, the other curved : one with no prong, the other 

 with several; a head of horns with a third harrj growing 

 between the two regular ones. 1 have a pair hanging on my 

 wall at home, with twenty-six points on the two beams to- 

 gether. 



1 have also a pair of horns which, if I did not think too 

 highly of the natural sagacity of the deer to suppose that 

 he would so far fly in the face of Providence and the ex- 

 perience of the world for the last few thousand years as to 

 walk in the Darwin runways seeking pasture, I might judge 

 the buck who wore them to have adopted on the natural se- 

 lection principle. The buck lived in a dense windfall, sur- 

 rounded by a desperate country of thick spruce, laurel and 

 rocks. Traveling with a widespread set of horns being 

 troublesome there, this deer crossed his in front about an 

 inch, so that they would part the bush instead of catching in 

 it. This deer, by reason of his living in the windfall, the na- 

 tives knew as the " Hurricane buck." 



The most curious head of horns I have ever seen came 

 from the head of a deer killed by a friend of mine two years 

 ago. These horns are very thick in diameter of beam", but 

 the beams, instead of curving, stand straight up like candle- 

 sticks a foot, or more high, and then a' the top spread out 

 with a number of points starting from the same base, some- 

 thing like a man resting his elbows on a table and holding 

 his forearms erect with bis hands and fingers half spread 

 out. The argument against the transmission and survival of 

 the fittest business is, that there &ro always in any one year 

 more deer over the. spike buck age than under it, so that if 

 each deer transmitted his own peculiarities to his descend- 

 ants there would be more deer with large heads than small 

 ones. 



But what the spike buck transmits is not the peculiarity 

 of having straight horns, but the faculty, among others, of 

 shedding his horns every year and growing a new pair, of 

 which the size and shape depends on a variety of circum- 

 stances. If tile spike horn is making its appearance as a new 

 variety in the Adirondack. 4 ;, it is simply because the deer are 

 slaughtered so reckleesly in lhat region by cockneys in sum- 

 mer and market hunters in winter" that the average life of 

 the deer has been reduced to such a low poiut that no buck, 

 sis a rule, has a chance to get beyond the spike age. 



Baxnkuidge, Ga., June 7. 

 Eojtoe Forest asd Stream : 



In your issue of the 2d jnst, the question is asked : 

 " What is a spiked buck V" Well, Mr. E. A. Bonuetti tothc 

 contrary notwithstanding, it is a young Oervits mri/ini<mut, 

 not a new species as fie chdms. Both naturalists and old 

 hunters know when this species abound, by actual observa- 

 tion, that spiked buck is but the young of the Uerwt vir- 

 ginianit*. Catch one and raise it, as many of us have done 

 when this variety exists, and all doubts will be at once dis- 



