162 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Mauch 39 1888. 



in the pike, and don't we wish we had some of it. The 

 memory of tlie caviar we have eaten comes over us like the 

 recollections of an Arctic explorer when he thinks of the 

 train oil he has swallowed. 



riTF. )uyy/-:soTA \i<>)'emekt. 



'~pii£ sportsmen of Minnesota have become thoroughly 

 *- aroused on toe important subject of rflnora efficient 

 Conservation of their game supply, and have set about secur- 

 ing a better Qrdei Of tilings. After, a protracted struggle in 

 the State Legislature they have succeeded in securing several 

 amendment* to the game laws, among the most important 

 of which is a non-export clause, bo worded that it is thought 

 to he capable of standing the severest test in the courts. 

 Tin's law will provide a much-needed remedy for the traffic 

 in game illegally killed out of season and shipped to Chicago 

 markets, where the dealers are always willing to receive it, 

 however unlawful may have heen its capture. The sports- 

 men of Minnesota, have expressed their determination to 



iii a ..ningcni enforcement of the non-export law, and 

 it is stated thai the principal game dealers of the State will 

 second their efforts. 



The work of I he game protectors will not, however, be 

 confined TO suppression of the illicit traffic in game. The 

 Minnesota Sportsmen's Association, through us active and 

 efficient secretary, Mr. W. 8. Timberlake, has given notice 

 that its members and agents throughout the State will report 

 all violations of the game law, and the assoeial ion's officers 

 and counsel will prosecute the offenders in every instance. 



We sincerely trugl that the zeal of the gentlemen now in- 

 terested may not abate; the need of well directed and per- 

 sistent effort is great. All right-minded Spoilsmen, 

 whether residents rtr nou-resiilents, will indorse I he present 

 movement. 



There has been in certain quarters a tendency to decry 

 non-export game laws as Wholly unconstitutional, hut this 

 criticism has come from a source which is not altogether 

 above suspicion ol beinu hampered by entangling alliances 

 with the game dealers, and such opinions must consequently 

 be taken for what they are worth, and no more. 



FiauiM, ami BOOOTTjfjG. o.\ Sunday.— The new Penal 

 t'ode of New York, Section 365, prohibits "shooting, fish- 

 ing, playing, horse-racing, gaming," etc.. on Sunday. 

 This was amended in the State Senate last week so that 

 fishing is exempted from the forbidden pleasures; but an 

 effort to also permit shooting and hunting failed. We have 

 not at hand a record Of the votes casl on this occasion, but 

 it is probable that the city members of the Senate voted in 

 favor of Sunday fishing, for the bait and hand-line fisher- 

 men of this city are numerous enough to be a power at the 

 ballot-box: and a queer lot they are, too, but quiet, and in- 

 offensive. There is a very good reason why shooting should 

 be prohibited on the Sabbath; for if it were not, there 

 would he no peace for the dwellers in the vicinity of our 

 large cities. The Sunday shooters would inaugurate a 

 reign of terror, aud the familiar feathered denizen of the 

 Long Island barnyard would become a ram avis in the 

 land. Some of the other States need laws prohibiting Sun- 

 day shooting. 



So.MKPKTintF.s.— Mr. Charles Lanman, of Washington, 

 the well-known traveler, author and artist, has completed 

 a series of paintings of scenes on famous Canadian salmon 

 rivers. Mr Lanman's work is of a very high orderof merit; 

 his pictures are admirable, and fortunate will be the man 

 who secures them. Mr. Charles Zimmerman, of St. Paul, 

 Minn., who some years ago made a happy hit with his pic- 

 tures, "The Tight Shell" and "Trying for a Double," has 

 added to the series of duck -shooting scenes three other 

 water-colors, "A Lost Opportunity," "Stoppiugan Incomer," 

 and "A Side Shot." The pictures are well conceived and 

 most happily executed: the? will appeal at once to the 

 duck-shooter, and eaunol fail to add very greatly to Mr. 

 Zimmerman's already pleasant reputation as a sportsman- 

 art i sf. 



Alaska. — We are in receipt of the reportof Captain L. A. 

 lieardslee. l T . S. Navy. , dative to Alaskan affairs during his 

 command of that Territory, on board the U. S. S. James- 

 town. Capt. Be.ardslee justly won great credit for the ad- 

 mirable way in which he governed the Territory, and we 

 are pleased to know that t he wisdom of his course was appre- 

 ciated at Washington. Our readers, who will recall the delight- 

 i'ulletiers from Alaska, contributed by Oapt. Beardslee to the 

 PoitES'r and Stream, will fie interested in a. perusal of the 

 present report. 



"AMERICAN KESRI!!, ReGIBTBB." — The announcement in 

 >:mi last , issue lias already brought in numerous responses, 

 which signify the welcome to be accorded to the American 

 Kiirud Tu!(l*t< i: The initial number wd I) be issued April 

 10, and all entries for it must be in hand by next Friday at 

 the latest. We give details of the Register in our Kennel 

 columns. 



Bums op MainIc— The publication of Mr. Smith's notes, 

 which has been Interrupted by Judge Caton's very entertain- 

 ing "Salmagundi " will be resumed in our next issue. 



NIMROD IN THE NORTH. 



BT LIEUT. J'llED'lt SCUWATKA. tt. S. AJtMY. 



V.-Nimrod with a Fish-rod.-Concluded. 



CtODFlSil of several varieties swarm over the various parts 

 1 of the Arctic shores, no less than a quarter of a million 

 being caught annually in Greenland alone. There is the 

 larger variety similar to those on the "banks" of Newfound- 

 land and elsewhere, but are only eaughl on the hanks of the 

 Arctic seas during the summer with hook and line. Thi 

 smaller cod — the ob-wak of the Esquimaux, seems to be a 

 more Arctic fish. My lirst personal contacl with this variety 

 was when I first encountered the Netsehilluks of King Wil- 

 liam's Land in a little cove on the Adelaide Peninsula. A 

 short distance out on the ice of this cove were a number of 

 holes dug through the ice, some fifteen or twenty, and at 

 nearly every hole was a woman or child hauling Out the 

 herring-like cod as fast as they could put in their lines in 

 pull them out. Their lines were made of the sinew stripped 

 from the superficial dorsal muselss of the reindeer, their 

 hooks being simply twisted bits of metal, barbless, and de- 

 pending upon the rapid hauling in of the line to retain the 

 fish, a dexterity which thev acquire, to such a degree that 

 they lose but 'few. Still, 'our barbed hooks excited their 

 curiosity and desire so that they were fain to give us al- 

 most anything lor them, but we were glad enough to ex- 

 change them tor their rough ones of copper that had been 

 crudely hammered from Ihe sheeting stripped from the bot- 

 toms of Sir John Franklin's ships, ami keep these as mourn- 

 ful mementos of that deplorable disasier. Whenever the 

 wdnd would blow with a disagreeable .strength the fishen 

 would build a high snow wall on that side to protect them 

 and this could be varied in a minute or so to suit, every vary 

 ing gust of wind. Even the many dogs in sneaking around 

 would make out to steal a good meal of fish in the, course of 

 the day. 



One thought could not help impress itself upon me very 

 forcibly. Right near this place was the spot where the last 

 survivors of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition per- 

 ished from cold, hunger and scurvy, the terrible tripod of 

 death that determined their destruction. Here they landed, 

 some ten or fifteen in number, in the summer months, when 

 the first cause was at its minimum, with the means of ap- 

 peasing the second cause almost immediately, swimming in 

 countless numbers under the very keel of their boat, and the 

 same being the means of curing the last in the near future. 

 Man's life hangs on a thread, as the old proverb says, for it 

 certaiulv Imiiir on a fish-line iu this case. The old women 

 of the village pressed around us with their hands full of 

 curious little pearly buttons that came from the head of the 

 ob-wak, wishing to trade them for needles and such material. 

 There is also a large and small kind of halibut in the Arctic 

 seas caught by whites and natives. The large halibut often 

 weigh a hundred pounds, and a few years ago some Ameri- 

 can' ships went into the business of catching them una 

 commercial speculation, but 1 think it has failed. The 

 little halibut is much fatter aud sweeter, and is angled for 

 in the ice fiords of Greenland, at depths of about 200 to 250 

 fathoms of water. In somewhat shallower water of the 

 same places, as from 150 to 300 fathoms, the anglers will 

 often obtain the "red fish," whose flesh is likewise rich in 

 oil aud good to the taste. The nepuak, a fat little Jinny 

 fellow, runs inshore durimr the spring to spawn, aud theii 

 those natives lucky enough to be in the course of their 

 "run" can live off of them for a couple of weeks or more. 

 The northern capelin is a fish that warms the unsports- 

 manlike soul of the native, from its great abundance when 

 it does come, "and may iu a dried state in winter time/'' 

 says Dr. Pink, frequently be said to have constituted the 

 daily bread of the natives. They are actually shoveled on 

 shore for a month during the running season in the spring 

 by the help of nets and seines and strewn over the rocks o'f 

 tlie beach like manure over a field. The natives of Green- 

 land do not catch much less than a thousand tons per year, 

 especially if the season be successful. 



There "is one tribe of Esquimaux, and only one tribe, that 

 my journeys brought me in contact with, who may be said to 

 live upon fish, or, at least, it is their principal died. I refer 

 to the Oo-mse-dk Sa-lik Esquimaux, who live on the largest 

 branch of Pack's Great Fish River, the Kuoy-ni-yook, about 

 forty miles from its mouth, and at the Dangerous Rapids at 

 the month of Back's River. At the former place, on the 

 i\o<n;i-ui-y'M>l\ there is a long series of rapids in the river, and 

 when tire ice breaks up aud is clear of the liver, about July, 

 the salmon commence to ascend, and they are speared by the 

 hundreds by the fishermen, who boldly wade through the 

 rushing torrent until a good standing place is found. 



Their fishing spears are about ten to twelve feet long, in 

 the inch and a half shaft, and at the lower end is placed a 

 sharpened spike about four inches in length, generally made 

 of copper. Two flaring pieces of horn are bound" to the 

 shaft, and at each one of the free extremities of these pieces 

 is a metal spike bent back like a barb, the points of the 

 three spikes nearly touching and at about equal angular dis- 

 tances from each other. When thrust over a salmon in the 

 water the central spike pierces his back, the two outer ones 

 flaring over his sides until they are pulled _ up, when the 

 elasticity of the musk-ox horu-prougs drive them into 

 Ins sides, and he is "triangled" on three spits that hold him 

 with deadly certainty until he is thrown upon the land. 

 The women and children then clean them, and they are 

 placed to dry ou double rows of reindeer sinew strings, 

 drawn from 'one rook to another and back. When dried it is 

 packed in sealskin hags for winter use. and even as late as 

 May, when we visited them, they had a tolerable supply of 

 pip-see, as they call it, among them. 



Those at the Dangerous Hapids, beside the salmon, catch 

 a herring-like fish which they call cow-we-til-luk, and as it 

 comes later iu the year they have no time to dry it, and pile 

 or cache it away in pens of rocks looking like huge granite 

 beehives often as high as they can reach. Late, as they are 

 caught, they have plenty of time to acquire that taint so 

 characteristic of stale tish, and so much is this killed by 

 freezing, and so generously is it liberated by thawing, that 

 the raw frozen fish are decidedly a luxury as a diet com- 

 pared with those that are cooked. This is (rue of all tainted 

 meats, vast quantities of which are devoured by the natives 

 throughout these regions. Taken in large quantities sick- 

 ness supervenes, accompanied by a practical nausea, and 

 cases often occur of death from this cause when driven to it 

 by necessity, or indulging in it. too freely under other cir- 

 cumstances. Out of 4,770 deaths among the Esquimax of 

 Greenland, 36 were poisoned by putrified meat, 16 of putrid 



fever, probably brought on by this cause, and 73 of com- 

 plaints of the stomach, 83 of vomiting, of which over half 

 would be of this cause, if my experience among them should 

 bold good in that country. 



Colonel Gilder was fain to compare tainted walrus meat 

 to Limburger cheese, and certainly when meats s perfectly 

 marbled with interst.icial fat as that, of the walrus are tainted 

 it is more that of the rancidity of old cheese than a true 

 putrefaction; but no such claims rest with any of the true 

 fishes, even iu the cold zones of the Arctic, although we 

 manage. I to inure ourselves to this diet, in homeopathic doses. 

 In small shallow streams these natives select a place on the 

 ripple and build an oblique dam across, open for about a 

 yard on either end and inclining to the axis of the stream at 

 as an acute an angle as the length of the ripples will allow 

 so as to keep the dam within them. After the eow-we-sU-htk 

 have passed up the stream the upper opening is closed and a 

 large number of natives getting on the up stream side of the 

 shoal of fish frighten them into returning down the stream 

 Where they must pass through Ihe lower opening of the wing 

 dam. This dam is continued along the bank for some dis- 

 tance, if there be one, or the water is directed out into a 

 basin if there is none and in either case the fish are penned 

 into a place so thick they are raked out with a large wooden 

 rake on the bank and from thence deposited iu the large 

 cairns already described and eaten through the winter. 



But the prince of the polar fish is the salmon, although it 

 is impossible to get as much sport out of him here as in the 

 temperate, zones, owing to the ice, which bars such sport for 

 the greater portion of the year. They are caught by means 

 of holes cut through the ice, and the amount of satisfaction 

 derived is about, equal to that of pike or pickerel fishine 

 under the same circumstances. Whenever the native trav- 

 eler goes "into camp" and the water-hole is dug, he alwavs 

 makes allowance for fishing by making the' hole large 

 enough to draw through this iey'avenne the largest salmon 

 that may perchance be swimming in that lake." He some- 

 times gets deceived in this calculation. I was once on the 

 upper surface of seven or eight feet of ice, with a twelve- 

 inch salmon on the under, separated by a ten-inch bole 

 and connected by the strongest kind of sinew line and 

 stout Limerick fish-hook. Our efforts to gel together were 

 finally crowned wdth success by one of the natives, who en- 

 larged the hole in the ice with the chisel. These holes are 

 dug with two instruments, the ice chisel consistin" of a 

 bayonet, a mortising chisel, a sword point or such like in- 

 strument fastened on the end of a ten or twelve-foot pole 

 about two inches in diameter, aud an ice scoop, consisting 

 of a ladle holding about a pint, made of the splayed base of a 

 musk ox's horn fastened on a similar pole. The hole is dug 

 about a foot or eighteen inches in diameter, aud about as 

 deep, with the chisel, and its contents removed with the 

 scoop, and this alternating process kept up until the water is 

 reached, which wells up to nearly a level with the upper 

 surface of the ice. 



A REMINISCENCE OF UTAH. 



HAVING seen but very little in the Pobest and Stream 

 in regard to the game of Utah, it is the purpose of the 

 writer to mention some of the small game that can be found 

 in certain portions of the Territory. While from a strictly 

 scientific standpoint, the matter presented may not be very 

 instructive, the perusal of this article may be the means 

 of imparting some slight information regarding the section 

 of the country referred to. 



In the northwestern corner of Utah, about thirty-five 

 miles from the Nevada line and twenty -five from the Idaho 

 line, is the Rosebud Mining District" and it was the good 

 fortune (or otherwise) of the writer to spend nearly a year 

 in this camp. It is right, ou the borders of the' "Great 

 American Desert," and close by the old emigrant trail, over 

 which so many poor pilgrims tweed their weary way during 

 the great excitement of the Pacific coast. ' The camp 

 proper is situated in the foot hills of the Goose Creek range 

 of mountains, and the district extends to the Raft River 

 Range. 



During the year the writer sojourned iu the land of the 

 Mormon, he had plenty of spare time to ramble over the 

 hills and mountains, and so was enabled to gain a very good 

 insight into the ways, etc., of the inhabitants, biped and 

 quadruped. Many very laughable affair*, happen in the wild 

 West, and many strange sights and scenes are alwavs in the 

 y of those who have dwell in the mountains. A 

 person meets strange characters, in tact all those one meets 

 are strange, for it is not the common kind that emigrates 

 West They stay at home and do as their fathers did before 

 them, it is the man who in some way is different from his 

 brothers tit may be more utterly worthless, but it don't 

 matter, he is different) who strikes out for himself, and 

 wanders forth into the world seeking his fortune by laud 

 and sea. And among these men you will find characters 

 that it only needs the hands and brain of a Dickens to make 

 as immortal as the characters to which the great novelist 

 has given life We of "Rosebud Camp" had our characters, 

 and "in the course of my rambling notes 1 will relate a few 

 incidents which occurred during my residing in the camp. 

 1 will not attempt to enter into any'description of the mines 

 or mining of the region, suffice it to say. that as far as the 

 writer knows the camp is at this time deserted, for though 

 there seemed to be plenty of good indications and great 

 quanjties of rich float, etc., no one has been able to strike 

 the main body or ledge of ore. It was in the fall of the 

 year, when the writer "struck" the "camp," and in the 

 morning of what proved to be a very rainy dnv. After 

 having ridden twenty-five miles on horseback," getting 

 horoughly damp, to say the least, he spent the night on the 

 loor of an empty building, vainly trying to keep warm 

 ■villi one pair of blankets. It was cold enough to snow, too, 

 so one can imagiue that his introduction to the Rosebud was 

 not of the pleasantest kind. But all disagreeable things 

 have an ending, and after a month or so 1 was qidte happily 

 situated in a little house of my own, where 1 had two bed 

 rooms and an office. 



My lirst. experience in the way of shooting was the puis 

 suit of what we called "mountain hare." I am at a loss to 

 classify the animal. Baud gives a number of bares that 

 seemingly arc identical, and i imagine to any but the natural- 

 ist are "the same Ihingv" The nearest resemblance this hare 

 has to those Kaird describes as the prairie hare {Ltpux cum- 

 pes(ris) is its taking a white fur in the winter. 1'ou will be 

 put in the hills to-day, aud a hare will jump up from be- 

 neath a little bush with its suit of gttiy and dirty white, and 

 at niglt the snow falls; the next day you start the same 

 hare — aud lo aud behold I he is white. JHo doubt the ehajinv- 

 is not so sudden, but it really seems so; and the tran^' 

 back to the summer garb is done as quickly. T 1, 



1 



