FOREST AND STREAM. 



75 



\m ami Miver 



GAME FISH IN SEASON IN SEPTEMBER. 



Bluefisti, ( Temnodon salta/crr. ) ' Striped Bass, {Labrax lineatus.) 



Land-locked Salmon, (salmo (Uoveri. Black Bass, (Cenlrarchu.s fasciatm. 

 Trout, (Salvia fontinalis.) Maskinonge. 



We have most favorable reports of the black bass fish- 

 ing in the upper Potomac river, of great catches of fish all 

 along its course that run up to six pounds in weight some- 

 times, and all the result of the most judicious system of 

 restocking depleted streams that was inaugurated only a 

 few years ago. At Little Falls, eight miles above Wash- 

 ington City, fine sport has been enjoyed all through the 

 season, and will continue until the ice begins to make. It 

 in a beautiful drive up there from town; or one can jump 

 aboard a steam tug that plies on the canal, and soon reach 

 his destination. At Great Falls ten miles further from the 

 head of the aqueduct that supplies Washington with water, 

 the fishing is still better, and at Harper's Ferry, mouth of 

 the Shenandoah better yet. The last named points are not 

 quite as accessible as Little Falls, which accounts for the 

 greater amount of fish. At each locality are sporting 

 houses for guests, where bait is furnished and tackle, if 

 desired. Al Great Falls the bed of the river is much filled 

 with great boulders, and the fishing is all done from the 

 shore. At other places boats are anchored in the stream to 

 enable the angler to get better casting room. Use small 

 minnows for bait, a medium-sized hook, with rod and reel, 

 it will pay our anglers to run down to Washington for 

 three days. When they are tired of fishing, they can pass 

 the time by loafing around the Capitol. 



Of striped bass (sea fish) we have writen at length in 

 our two previous numbers. The fishing has been fair 

 among the islands off Massachusetts and along the east end 

 of Long Island, but we hear of no great catches such as 

 we herewith append, It is the score of a single day's 

 fishing at Pasque Island made by Jacob L. Dodge on July 

 17th, 1868. The figures given specify the individual 

 weights: 



40—37— 33— 82— 27— 24— 22— 20— 20— 18— 17— 15— 15— 15 

 14_14_14_13_13_11_H_10— 8— 8— total 451 pounds. 



This must have been a hard day's work for Jacob, and 

 would have astonished Peter as well as James, and John, 

 "•'who also went a fishing." On the 17th of September, 

 1889, Mr. J. B. Dunlap caught at the same place a bass 

 that weighed sixty-two pounds. 



Here is a feather in the sea-side hat of Mrs. T. E. Triplet, 

 whom may the propitious fates forever serve ! She took a 

 bass on the 23rd of August just past, 1878, at Pasque 

 Island, that weighed thirty and one-half pounds. The 

 powers this lady has displayed in bringing such noble 

 game to hand should excite the emulation of all the fair 

 sex who go down to the sea in ships, or in railway cars and 

 steamboats. 



As respects blue and bass fishing there seems to 

 have been a hiatus for both fish and anglers lately. The 

 fish ceased biting altogether for a time, and jolly yachtmen 

 rigged out their outriggers in vain. But within a few days 

 past some boats have made a fair showing, and the advent 

 of a. large run offish is confidently anticipated day by day. 

 The market fishermen have on occcasion taken good fares 

 of bonita ami king-fish. By the way the indefatigable 

 Genio C. Scott took eighty-two king-fish outside of Rocka- 

 way beach a week ago, which was unusual luck. We met 

 him on the morning of his success, he with his'bait and his 

 tackle, and we with our central fire shot gun, and promised 

 to exchange two of our snipe for one of his king-fish when 

 Hie day's sport was over; but as we went home early in the 

 day, we lost the opportunity of clinching the bargain. 



The most convenient place for Brooklynites to obtain 

 boats for a day's fishing is at Canarsie; for New York- 

 ers at Jersey city. There is excellent bass and weak fish- 

 ing at times on the Jersey Flats, and down at the Narrows, 

 and out at Rockway Beach. Among the rocks in the vicin- 

 ity of Hell Gate, East river, is a favorite resort for some 

 anglers. Boats can be hired at the Club House, Jersey 

 City, at and opposite Mott Haven, New York, at the Penny 

 Bridge, Brooklyn, and at Canarsie landing, the terminus of 

 the East New York Railway. There are over sixty boats 

 and forty yachts constantly on hire at the last named lo- 

 cality. Roekaway Beach is eight miles from Canarsie, 

 and can be reached by a steamboat three times a clay— 10 

 A. M. and 1 and 4 P. M. We know of no better place 

 tor fitting out or for temporary sojourn than Canarsie. 

 The Bay View House there has a piazza that incloses it en- 

 tirely on three stories. For striped bass, and, indeed, for 

 nearly all kinds of sea fish worth catching, use a stout two 

 jointed plain bamboo rod, a reel, and a stout line with 

 afloat, the whole costing some $12. If the reader never 

 attempted to cast for bass, let him take his friends out in a 

 decked boat when he goes and when he is ready to cast 

 send them all below; then, he will catch his hook in no- 

 body's ear but his own, and bang nobody's head but his 

 with the leaden plummet he uses for a sinker, when lie 

 swings it around for an elegant effort, A novice, however, 

 will bear some instruction in this practice. It beats throw- 

 ing cogged die Vl all hollow." Use shedder crabs or clams 

 for bail. 



one has choice of localities and sports. The steam- 

 boat landing is within a few rods of the East Haven 

 marshes where snipe abound. On the hills wild pigeons 

 abound in their season, and quails also. On the ridge; that 

 joins the East and West Rock, quail are found in considera- 

 ble numbers, and on the West Haven side is a series of salt 

 water fiats that extend for several miles. These of course 

 are much hunted. But it is of fishing we were speaking. 

 Savin Rock or Light House Point are within an hour's 

 drive by carriage, and both afford good fishing, while by 

 the Shore Line Railroad a few minutes ride by the early 

 train will place the angler at Branford, Double Beach, Stony 

 Creek, Guilford, the Thimble Islands, and other places 

 long known as tip-top fishing grounds for black fish, sea bass, 

 weak fish, lobsters, &c. , and now provided with hotels and 

 boarding houses of all classes and every style of preten- 

 sion. The charges are trifling, and the trip perhaps the 

 most enjoyable and likely to be the most profitable of any 

 immediately accessible to New Yorkers. 



A letter from the Saranac , Lakes, "of September 1st, says 

 that there are many people still in the " "Wilderness," but 

 they are not enjoying the same degree of sport as in days of 

 yore. We quote literally: " Raquette river abounds in 

 dead pickerel, and no trout can be taken at their usual 

 places of resort." 



A gentleman writes to us from Jordan river, Shelburne 

 county, Nova Scotia, offering to sell us two live moose. 

 By the Avay we have six of these animals now at our dis- 

 posal, of both sexes and various ages. He says in his 

 letter : 



"Don't imagine the Nepigon is the only place where 

 trout can be caught. I can leave home any day and re-, 

 turn in the evening, spring or fall, and bring from thirty 

 to forty pounds of trout, large ones, but not eight pound 

 trout; about four pounds is the largest. September is our 

 best month for sport. That is for trout and moose. Sal- 

 mon fishing is good from the last of February, until the 

 1st of June. I have killed with the rod and fly in one 

 day's fishing, morning and evening, twelve salmon Jronr 

 ten to thrirty-one and one-half pounds. This Nova Scotia 

 is a good Province for game, but we have but little time to 

 indulge it." 



D. H. Fitzhugh, of Bay City, Michigan, took two hun- 

 dred grayling in Hersey river, of that State, last month. 

 We hope to receive full particulars of this new game fish 

 and his capture for publication in our next number. 



Strange how the Chicago Daily Tribune should get up 

 a French fish story. It talks of a carp 375 years old who 

 was young in the reign of Francis first (circa 1515). Think 

 too of his having been bought for 1700 francs in 1871, and 

 to have been eaten up, not b} r a Prussian, but by a pike! 

 Residence of the carp Chantilly. Mr. Frank Buckland has 

 some trouble in swallowing this fish story; as for ourselves 

 we are forced to reject it entirely. 



«! 



WHAT BECOMES OF THE FISH. 



One excursion which we wonder is seldom taken is 

 by the 11 o'clock night boat for New Haven. You reach New 

 Haven at daylight and have the day before you, returning 

 the second night by boat which leaves New Haven at 11 

 o'clock. Tims the angler looses but one day from business 

 and en ' refreshing rest, At New Hav£n, 



To the Editok of the Springfield Union : 



About three miles east of Springfield there lias been for years a large 

 rookery — or heronry perhaps it had better be called — where [hundreds of 

 night heron have congregated and reared their young annually. This 

 bird is a wonderful fisherman; he fishes in the night and carries Ins own 

 light on his breast: so he just wades into the pond or shallow stream, and, 

 by the light of this strange 'torch, seizes his prey as they approach, at- 

 tracted by its rays. They are great gormandizers and require a large 

 amount of food, as they bolt it whole. They are not given to economy, 

 for they kill and carry away to their r young vast numbers of fish too large 

 for them to swallow, and large'rquantities are found at their rookery. 

 Last year, while some parties were out to shoot ^specimens for our Tax- 

 idermist, Mr. Horsford, they foundlbaskets of fish from the Wilbraham 

 ponds and brooks, — trout, perch, pickerel, etc. There was formerly a 

 large heronry just east of thejone mentioned above. "between the ponds in 

 Wilbraham, but the swamp was cleared and the birds had to move their 

 quarters. A large heronry was broken up in Agawam, a year or two since ; 

 also one below Hartford, near the Connecticut river. Since I commenced 

 this article I have learned that a large herony has been discovered in Lud- 

 low the present season. 1 believe the one east of thisj city has been 

 broken up this spring. I have indicated some of the habits of the night 

 heron, let me give them more in detail: They are nocturnal, never mov- 

 ing in the day time, and hence the difficulty of finding them; they are 

 gregarious; living and breeding in large communities; they seek the most 

 secluded and inaccessible swamps in the neighborhood of ponds and shal- 

 low streams; they live almost exclusively on fish, but sometimes gobble 

 up young chickens, and young birds fall a prey to their capacity. Prof. 

 Horsford informs me that he has found in the stomach of a night heron a 

 chicken as large as a pigeon. Now, the conclusion from the above facts 

 is, that the night heron is catching all the smaller fish from our ponds 

 and shallow streams. Trout, pickerel and perch are growing scarcer 

 every year owing to this nocturnal fisher and I Avould respectfully suggest 

 to the owners of trout fisheries the necessity of providing a grating screen- 

 ing for their race-ways, to prevent the nightly depredations of this terrible 

 enemy to fish breeding. Especially is this necesssary as trout always 

 seek shallow water at night. I would also suggest to sportsnu^i the neces- 

 sity of destroying these lawless fishermen. 



S. W. Hammond. 



Mhat %tm mtd 



tne. 



GAME IN SEASON FOR SEPTEMBER. 



A disagreeable discovery has been made in Fifeshire, which tends to 

 destroy all confidence in fish, who appear to be ^'qnite as unscrupulous as 

 retail tradesmen with regard to their own weights and measures. It 

 seems from the account given by the Dundee Advertiser that one day last 

 week a Pittenween fishing boat put into the Dysart laden with skate, ling 

 and cod. One of the cod, of enormous size, "was purchased by a ship 

 carpenter who lives in a neighbouring village. On the fish being cut open, 

 the stomach was found to be so exceedingly heavy that the carpenter was 

 induced by curiosity to open it, and to his astonishment found that it con- 

 tained an ironfmallet upwards of six pounds'in weight. This article now 

 lies at the building yard where the carpenter is employed, and is an object 

 of great curiosity to large numbers of persons who come to inspect it. The 

 mallet is worth about seven shillings and sixpence, and the carpenter is 

 satisfied that in purchasing the cod |he made a good bargain; 'but if, 

 instead of a useful |and marketable article, the fish had stuffed itself 

 wifli heavy rubbish to increase its weight, its purchaser would have suf- 

 fered a serious loss. In the meantime, it must be admitted that since the 

 day of the prophet Jonah no more singular instance of the voracity of fish 

 has been recorded than the case of this cod, captured by the«Pittenween 

 fishermen, indeed, nine big fish out of ten would infinitely prefer »wn) 

 lowing a prophet to swallowing an iron mallet. 



Elk or Wapiti. Cercus Canadensis.) Red Deer. Caricm Virginiamts.) 



Rabbits, common Brown'and Grey.; Squirrels, Red Black and Gray.) 



Woodcock, Scoh yta.i ■ ruyfienla.) Pinnated Grouse, r l el ran CltMdo.) 



Ruffed Grouse, Tetrao wmftems,) Curlew, Nvmeuius Aripmla,.) 



Esquimaux Curlew, Wwmenius ho- Sandpipers, Tiinqime.) 



re.edis.) Willets, 



Plover, Charadraius.) Reed or Rice Birctv, poachoriyx QTiz- 

 Godvvit, Lhnonine.) icon. 



Rails, Rcdlus Virqinianus.) 



Wild fowl generally after 15th September, and Ruffed Grouse also in 

 many States. 



■ [Under the head, of li &ame^ and Fish in Season'" we can. only specif)/ in 

 gem red terms the several varieties, because the laws of Stales vary so much 

 that were we to attempt to particularize, we could do no less t/ian publish 

 those entire sections tlud. relede to the kinds of f/a.ine in question, This 

 WOUlG l require a ' great amount of our space. In designating game u'c or< 

 guided by the laics of nature, iipon which ati legislation is founded, ami 



our readers ivonld dowellto uroride themselves With fhe la n\-< of tli/.ir re- 

 spective stidesfor cons/aid reference. Otherwise, our attempts to assist them 

 ■will only create confusion . J 



Just at this season one of the finest shooting grounds to 

 be found anywhere, is in the vicinity of the Bay Ohaleui, 

 in New Brunswick. By taking railway to St. John, and 

 thence 108 miles to Shediac, connection can be made by the 

 Gulf Port steamers With Dal bougie, which is near the 

 mouth of Restigouehe river. All through the month of 

 September, the marshy and grassy islands that, till tbe river 

 swarm with wild geese and other water fowl, and in what 

 is known as Eel river, which is but twelve miles drive from 

 Dalhousie, curlew, brant, snipe, ducks, and geese, and mi 

 merous other varieties of wild fowl- abound. Tbe place is 

 accessible by a wagon road, and canoes and Indians can be 

 always had at Dalhousie, if not on the spot. It abounds 

 With suitable feed., and here the birds tarry long in their 

 migrations southward to the Avaters of the Chesapeake and 

 the sounds of North Carolina. The shooting is equal l<> 

 that found later in the places last named. The journey can 

 lie made in three days from New York via Bangor'and I lie 

 European and North American Railway, and the cost of a 

 'fortnight's trip should not exceed $75, all expenses in- 

 cluded. The climate- of September and October is delight- 

 ful, though liable to be interrupted by storms. Moreover, 

 when the migratory birds have departed, other resources 

 remain, for the sportsman is here upon the outskirts of the 

 finest game country on the Atlantic. Here are a million 

 and a quarter acres of primitive forest, traversed by many 

 streams navigable for canoes, and abounding with moose, 

 caribou, bears, pheasants, beaver, and various kinds of fur 

 bearing animals. 



A larty of gentlemen, including Henry L. Brevoort, 

 Esq., of New York, started for this region last we 

 call moose, intending to return 1st October. They went 

 by railway to Woodstock, New Brunswick, and thence by 

 stage via Grand Falls to the mouth of the Grand river, 

 whence they took batteaux and wyagetirsup the stream 

 fifteen miles to the portage. At this point they find canoes 

 and Indians that have been sent to them from the lower 

 Restigouehe, whose waters are reached by a- portage of a 

 mile and a half. Descending some twenty-five or thirty 

 miles they reach the heart of the hunting territory. Our 

 readers will some day be favored with an account of their 

 experiences. 



Now, as regards grouse shooting, some of our sporting 

 friends make themselves almost ridiculous. Everyday men 

 who ought to know, waste sixpence .(they always enclose a 

 three cent stamp for answer, which isproper,)by asking us 

 "where shall Ave g© to shoot grouse?" Why hang it, man, 

 " go West, " Sportsmen of Wisconsin generally go to Iowa ; 

 residents of Minnesota usually cross over into Wisconsin, 

 and Iowa men always go to Illinois. There is no " chick- 

 en " ground like Illinois— unless you except Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, and Iowa, In Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin' 

 you can drive an empty wagon at daylight, out into fche 

 scrub-oak prairie, and bring it back at night filled with 

 birds. At certain periods of the year we have seen them 

 sell at five cents apiece in market — when buyers could be 

 found. In those times a bird is worth just the price of a 

 cartridge. To speak point blank, there is no species of 

 game, except wild fowl and buffalo, so abundant in America 

 as the pinnated grouse. All through the prairies wagon 

 trails lead out to sundryjpoints, and any fine day in Septem 

 ber or October the teamster can whistle his lonesome way 

 along, and sitting in his wagon knock over the fowl as they 

 rise from the edge of the road. It is no trick to do it either; 

 for the birds just get up quietly and fly in a straight line 

 over the tops of the scrub a few rods and then settle down. 

 No use to send a dog in for them, for you have only to jog 

 on a bit, and let your horse put up another bird from the 

 road. It is all very well to work a dog, but two men can 

 beat the bush with all the success one could desire. We 

 don't intend to mislead our eastern friends by inducing 

 them to believe that game lies around promiscuously, waiting 

 to be put into the bag, for grouse are like other birds— on 

 some days they are more plenty than on others, and they 

 seem to have their choice of ground. .But if any one thinks 

 we exaggerate, let him step into Washington market and 

 he will learn from the dealers in game that tens of thous- 

 ands of birds are brought to this city every year. 



We read of early shooting, and the putting up of coveys of 

 birds, and men boast of knocking over three at a shot as 

 they arise from the stubble fields. Doubtless, on occasions, 

 we should follow suit, if Ave had a gun in hand; but we 

 don't fancy this practice of knocking over coveys, for it 



-means that the birds are still young and under the wins of 

 the hen. Later, they scatter, and arc found singly most 



. frequently, They' are tin,, wilder aa d Q-- greater distences, 



