FOREST AND STREAM, 
289 
—The Sodus “Bay Club,” of Sodus Point, New York, 
has at last taken the game laws in its own hands, aad will 
I push them. A correspondent says:— 
“It has been an outrage the way the fishermen have been 
hauling seines in Great Sodus Bay, catching thousands of 
baBS, pickerel, and pike when spawning, so that during the 
summer months spoon fishing or trolling is one of the things 
of the past. The following resolution was passed at to¬ 
day’s meeting. 
“That the President. Dr. Coventry, and the Attorney, 
Jos. Briggs, and Mr. Chas. Perkeins, of the club, be ap¬ 
pointed a committee to investigate and take such steps as 
they may deem necessary to enforce the game laws so far 
as they relate to the waters of Great Sodus Bay, and that 
this club appropriate the sum of $250 for the above pur¬ 
pose.” 
1 / A Potential Game Protective Club,— Like all its 
other products, the Game Protective Club of California 
is big. Our correspondent, E. J. Hooper, tells us all about 
it in the following letter-.— 
y San Francisco, May, 1870. 
' Editob Fobebt and Stream:— 
We are progressing capitally with our new club. The 
membership already numbers about 140 sportsmen and 
patrons of protection for all kinds of fiBh and game. A 
good foundation for successful operations in all the ob¬ 
jects of the society’s formation has been made at this early 
day in the possession of several thousands of dollars in the 
treasury. At a late meeting, a resolution was passed offer¬ 
ing a reward of $50 for every case of infringement of the 
game and fish laws, members also pledging themselves to 
report every instance of such violations under penalty of 
forfeiture of membership. Besides the fresh water Lake 
Merced, only five miles from the city, and well stocked 
with salmon and trout, the society has leased the fresh 
water lakes San Andreas aud Plllarcitos, the former stocked 
with silver salmon and brook trout, and the latter also with 
abundance of brook trout, with another largo freshwater 
reservoir in their vicinity, distant, severally, from twenty- 
five to thirty-five miles from San Francisco. At each of 
these fine pieces of water, club houses are beiDg prepared 
for the accommodation of the members, with boats, etc. 
When everything of this kind is consummated, with prob¬ 
ably some other pieces of water and streams, and more 
privileges aud advantages for members, this society will 
possess as many, if not more, opportunities for sport and 
recreation than any other similar club in the world, and 
most of them very convenient to the metropolis of the 
State. Outside persons are allowed to purchase permits 
for fishing in the company’s waters at a reasonable rate. 
—At a meeting of the North Carolina Press Association 
at New Berne, in May, a reply to the toast “Our Fishing 
| Interests" Hon, J. E. West said:—■ , 
"The fish of North Carolina arc worth more to the people 
of the State in nett money than the cotton crop. Tens of thou¬ 
sands of our people depend upon the supply of oysters and 
their fish (as our Revised Code has it) for their food supply. 
The hanks of tho Pamlico, Albermarle, Bogue, Currituck, 
and Core Sounds of the Neuse, CapoFear Roanoke, Chowan, 
aud Tar Rivers are thronged with this class of people. My 
friends Lane, Watson, and Daniels, with possibly one or 
two others, pay to fishermen here in iNew Berne alone 
some $75,000 a year for fresh fish just for shipment, to say 
nothing of the immense sums of monfey paid directly to 
them by retail dealers, or by the consumers amounting to 
not less than $150,000 a year. Then again vaot quantities 
of shad, rock, herriDg, etc., are packed, salted, and ship¬ 
ped by the fishermen themselves, who have invested here 
some'$25,000 in boats, seines, etc., and employ about 200 
hands, representing the same number of families. The 
Southern Express Company has carried over our railroad 
within a few months nearly nine thousand tubs of fresh 
fish, to say nothing of the tens of thousands of gallons of 
oysters and scallops, thousands upon thousands of clams, 
turtle, and siinmp shipped by steamer and sailing vessels, 
or by rail as freight. Yes, sir, we sow not ana still we 
reap this bountiful harvest, this great gift of a beneficent 
Providence. 
The Delaware and Chesapeake Bays are being steadily 
depleted of their supplies of oysters, new planting grounds 
are eagerly sought, the creeks and thoroughfares of North 
Carolina offer superior inducements to dealers iu the 
bivalves, and the six hundred oyster boats that I have seen 
at one time oystering iu the Delaware will soon whiten our 
own waters. This industry with us is just in its infancy. 
The few thousand bushels planted by my friend Ives, of 
Bcauford, will soon swell into millions, and every acre of 
oyster ground be worth not less than one thousand dollars, 
Talk of your Nevada and Arizona gold mines, why, sir, 
we have a big Bonanza at our very doors, a mine that -will 
return, if properly worked, untold gold. * * * 
It is our duty to protect this great gift by proper pro¬ 
tective legislation, by enacting stringent laws requiring all 
nets and seines to be removed from the navigable waters of 
our State, say Friday night at sunset, and not set again 
until Monday morning at sunrise, during the season our 
food fishes are ascending the rivers and creeks for the pur¬ 
pose of depositing their spawn, providing means to restock 
our rivers, - now nearly depleted of fish, by artificial means, 
etc., etc.” 
—A correspondent speaks of some high-handed proceed¬ 
ings lately in the Adirondacks. If such doings are 
probable in future we advise no one to go into the woods 
,, without a rifle and army revolver:— 
W Adirondacks, Slay 30th, 1676. 
v Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Quite an affray took place in Pish Creek Bay, Saranac Lake, last 
week. The Hoy t-Homeyn party, hearing of Bet lineB in the hay, went 
to the camp of the St. Germains, who were violating the law, and re¬ 
monstrated with them. They were defied, assuming that they had the 
right to “fish as they please, and would,” Cot. H, assured them he 
woatd cut their nets and lines, if not removed. Insolence demanded 
immediate action, and their nets were cut, but the lines were trolled for 
unsuccessfully. ThB next day the Hon. W. A. Wheeler’s party was 
fired into while trolling in the bay, while removing hooks from the set- 
line, accidentally becoming caught. The ball passed nearthe row-lock, 
tbtough the boat. Undoubtedly they supposed they were firing at the 
former party. The next day, in trolling, X understand the sportsmen 
went armed, and though passing the camp of the desperadoes all was 
qniet. Wbat the repull will be remains to be seen. The sheriff of 
Franklin county has bean written to, and it is presumed that the 
Wheeler party will see that the offenders are brought to justice and the 
law maintained. Here they have no game constables. We need State 
Fish Commissioners to visit tho lakes and summarily arrest all violators 
iff the law; hotel keepers and guides will not do it, O. P. Q, 
Illicit Whiskey.— Major Jacob Wagner’s mounted 
revenue force, to which the editor of this journal was 
permitted to attach himself for a period of several weeks 
last fall, has recently finished a roost successful campaign, 
having nobly sustained the American flag, and demolished 
an inordinate amount of contraband whiskey. No less than 
13Q Illicit distilleries were broken up and 128 arrests made, 
while property onough was captured to far more than pay the 
expenses incurred by the Government. These concerns 
were capable of producing fully thirteen hundred gallons 
of whiskey each day, the tax of which, at ninety cents per 
gallou, made quite a loss to the Government. 
The operations of Major Wagner’s force have extended 
along the Blue Ridge, where the States of North and South 
Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Tennessee border, aud 
the duty required some personal risk as well as the exercise 
of considerable hard work and ingenuity to discover the 
distilleries, which were usually sequestered among the foot 
hills and well concealed. The offenders were tried before 
United States Circuit Court at Charleston, S. C-, and 
sentenced to pay fines and suffer imprisonment in sums 
as high as $500, and terms as long as three years. Fifty 
of these prisoners signed a petition praying for clemency, 
and beggiDg their friends to never violate the revenue 
laws again. They declared their readiness to bind them¬ 
selves under oalh never to still again illicitly. To Major 
Wagner is due the whole management and engineering of 
the suppression of this illegal truffle. 
McCarty’s Bis Hunt Heamd From. —Some considerable 
stir was created a year and a half ago by Col. McCarthy’s 
announcement of a grand buffalo hunt in Texas and the 
mountains, so magnificent in its appointments and propor¬ 
tions as to eclipse the Prince of Wales’ battues in India, 
The publication of this in our paper excited great 
indignation against wholesale and indiscriminate slaught¬ 
er, although some persons were inclined to favor McCar¬ 
thy’s project. Many thought McCarthy and his expedition 
to be frauds, while others predicted its annihilation by 
starvation or Indians, if it was undertaken. We lost sight 
of the whole affair in the dust that was raised, and had 
forgotten that such an expedition was ever talked of, until 
we received the following statement from our regular 
Texas correspondent, whose word can always ho relied 
upon, and from which it appears that the redoubtable Col. 
did really attempt to carry out his programme, or some 
part of it, despite all slurs and innuendoes:— 
Gainesville, Cooke county, May 2Gth, 1878. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
I met Mr, A. G. Crowell, of the Montague Nitos, recently, (who was a 
surveyor for some years on the border) woo told me that bo saw McCar¬ 
thy Red party rb they passed through Moutuguo and as they returned. 
They only went to tho Copper Region. Crowell Bays he primed them a 
lot of ball tickets as they went ont, and they had a big time, bat as they 
returned they were rather low spirited. C. says McCarthy is living in 
Dallas, Texas. G. H. R. 
The Pleasures of Angling. By Geo. Dawson, Editor 
of the Albany Journal. Sheldon & Co., New York. 
This is a Vade Mecum for salmon anglers. It is the 
only American book that treats secunden a,Hern of the 
technology of angling for salmon. Hallock’s “Fishing 
Tourist" is comprehensive in its designation of salmon 
rivers, but it does not attempt to impart much instruction 
in the art of handling fish or rods. The author assumes that 
he is speaking to adepts and not to pupils, which is an er¬ 
ror of judgment, Inasmuch as there are not two dozen sal¬ 
mon anglers in the United States, outside the city of New 
York, as the venerable Mr. Dawson remarks in his work. 
Because Mr. Hallock had the advantage of several years’ 
residence in Canada, where salmon anglers arc as numerous 
as salmon rivers, it was perhaps natural for him to forget 
that his relatives across the border had not been trained in 
the same school as himself. He made a similar error in 
his noteworthy illustrated article published in Harper's 
Hagamie several years ago, entitled the "Restigouche,” 
writing as if to the well informed. The Restigouche is 
the largest and most romantic salmon river in Canada, and 
was one of the first which the Dominion Government 
placed its protective restrictions upon. Without doubt 
Mr. Hallock's article was the first direct means of awaken¬ 
ing the attention of American gentlemen to the delights of 
this pastime, and the facilities for.its enjoyment which tho 
Provinces offered. At least two score of trout anglers 
have since become ambidextrous experts, who had not be¬ 
fore dreamed of even taking a salmon, or realized how su¬ 
perlative was the sport beyond anything that had come 
within their practice or conception. Nevertheless, the 
proportion of Walton’s disciples is so small that the "Fish¬ 
ing Tourist" has never received that consideration which 
a work catering to more universal tastes would have com¬ 
manded. When, as at our State Sportsmen’s Convention, 
10,000 pigeons are shot at, and the call is for more, while 
only three contestants are mustered for the fly-cnBling 
competition, it cannot he wondered at that there is little 
show of appreciation for works on angling. However, it 
is not altogether indifference to this subject that makes the 
authors sad; there are thousands of people in the United 
States anxious for the very information these hooks im¬ 
part, who would study it con amore if their attention were 
properly directed to them, with judicious advice as to the 
selection. The truth is that this class of books is laid out 
of sight by the reviewers, who draw a sheet over them, 
depositing them with a chaplet aud a peean in the general 
literary receiving vault, where they may mould away, or 
be resurrected, according to chances or the solicitude of 
friends. We trust that no such fate will befall the admir¬ 
able book before ns, namely, Mr, Dawson's “Pleasures of 
Angling,” 
The venerable author appreciates at the outset the disad¬ 
vantages which we have designated above, albeit a few 
admirers of the Gentle Art have importuned him to write; 
and he even humbles himself to apologize for what he im¬ 
agines younger men may interpret as the garrulity of his. 
age. Nevertheless, as he writes, his enthusiasm for the old 
sport kindles, and he becomes oblivious to all things but 
the Woods and the streams, and the witchery of his favor¬ 
ite vocation. He pleads for it, not only for Us present al¬ 
lurements, hut because the reminiscences it conjures up are 
a solace and tangible joy to declining years. However, we 
think Mr. Dawson too ready to bend bis shoulders to the 
mantle cf outlived usefulness. Mr. Dawson is only rela¬ 
tively old—not yet sixty, we believe. Only last week a 
venerable gentleman whom all the world reveres, did us 
the honor to climb tbe stairs that lead to our office to make 
a complimentary visit. He was hale, vigorous, and full 
of vivacity, and as well preserved as a person of much 
younger years. His name was William Cullen Bryant, 
and his age was 82! Mr. Dawson maty be as vigorous at,. 
82, and Mr. Bryant may live to write a centennary ode, as 
he promises. 
Mr. Dawson tells us in his hook why salmon angling fills 
a higher plane of ecstacy than pin-hook fishing and inter¬ 
mediate grades of the art, and having touched upon tbe 
charms of natural belongings, as all sojourners in the 
wildwoods arc wont to do, he shows how the avocation 
gives healthful vitality, robust constitutions, gnd pro¬ 
longed years; and in succeeding chapters he reverts to the 
abundance of salmon in past times, the causes of their de¬ 
pletion since, and the inducements that led the Canadian 
Government first, and our own afterwards, to undertake 
their restoration and preservation. He gives necessary in¬ 
formation as to leases of Canadian rivers, and regulations 
governing fishing therein; the duties and wages of over¬ 
seers and wardens, the system under which they work, 
fines and penalties for violations of protective laws, the 
effect thereof upon the people, and the general benefit that 
has resulted. Leases, we find, apply only to salmon; trout 
fishing is unrestricted throughout the Dominion. Mr. 
Dawson pays the Canadians the high complement of saying 
that they never do anything by halves, and we wish to add 
our own personal testimony to his assertions. Our 
State Governments can do no better than to imitate them, 
and Mr. Dawson’s pen labors to stimulate them to the en¬ 
deavor. 
The author reaches the marrow of his subject by gradu¬ 
al approaches, and having mentioned several prominent 
anglers of Canada (we could multiply his list ten-fold at 
least), he comes, on tbe 46th page of the book, to his fish¬ 
ing outfit, which he shows us costs not leBS than $100 for 
tackle alone; tells us the best routes by which to reach the 
rivers, aad the time to start, and at last embarks in his ca¬ 
noe with kit and guides, at the Cascapedia River, on the 
Gaspe side of the Bay Chaleur. Tho canoes are described, 
and the mode of paddling, or poling, as circumstances re¬ 
quire; camp is made, tbo first fly is cast, and the vacation 
experience begins. The author imparts what he learns in 
the acquisition groulo passu, relates many an exciting inci¬ 
dent of loss and capture and patience under trying difficul¬ 
ties, and gives enough instruction at odd times—here a 
little and there a little—to transform a tyro into an expert, 
if it were only followed. Perhaps we shall weave this 
material into a chapter for the edification of our readers. 
Then follow observations on the habits of salmon, inci¬ 
dentally interspersed speculations as to what they eat, and 
declarations as to what they are when eaten. T he hook is 
divided into three sections, the last devoted to trout fishing, 
and it may be imagined that the author gathers improve¬ 
ment by experience—that he becomes more oracular and 
useful as he gains confidence by acquired knowledge. 
One thing is certain: He does not venture to describe un - 
trodden ground. Whatever he says may he depended upon 
as the fruits of careful observation and cautious reflection. 
This is a comfort. It is a satisfaction to know that wo 
can read without fear of being misled. 
We leave our review now, not because we have touched 
with a needle, as the bee does, all the sweet and salient 
points in the book, but because to present a complete re¬ 
view would be to reprint the book itself; and as the latter 
is copyrighted, the best we can do is to advise all who read 
these lines to buy it. Part the 3rd, we should say, treats of 
rambles among the Adirondacks. 
Another Style of Canoe.— Some time ago, a Nova 
Scotia correspondent incidentally mentioned in a narra¬ 
tive of his, a canoe made of a frame and canvas that he 
used in fishing. He has since sent a description of it, at 
our request—which we print herewith:— 
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. 
Editor Forest and Stream:— 
Ido not know of any manufacturer of each as mine. It was made 
by Mr. John Richards, of Yarmontb, for his own use, and 1 got it of 
him. He is an insurance clerk, but would probably make a oanoe to 
order for any one, in his spare time, for $30 or $40. I do not know 
who was the inventor. Theflrsc in Yarmouth was made here by Mr. 
Joseph Johnson, machinist, from Bangor, Me. I cannot say exactly how 
constructed, but think that the gunwale is made Hrst, io which ribs 
of pine, about two inches wide by an eighth thick, are bent in the form 
desired. Longitudinal strips of tho same are then lacked as closely as 
possible to the riba outside, and over nil, a covering of canvas is 
tightly stretched. A keel of pines an inch Wide and one-half inch 
thick (tapering at the sides) Is then screwed on, and the whole outside 
coated with shellac varnish, In which a little boiled llnaeed oil has been 
mired. This makes a perfectly waterproof canoe capable of standing 
nard knocks. Such a one, fonrteen feet long, will weigh about flfiy 
pounds. W. A. L. 
—The pillory is in use on Prince Edward's Island, Gulf 
of St, Lawrence. 
