122 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



lews pom ^broad. 



\ LUCKY is your Englishman. He may be a growler, 

 terribly self opinionated, even a trifle of a bully, yet he 

 has a grand reserve of good nature. He may enjoy very 

 little of the peculiar American adaptiveness, but good, 

 true, staunch and reliable is he. If he does brag and blus- 

 ter, he almost invariably proves that words are not mere 

 sounds, and quickly becomes master of the situation. Your 

 Englishman now hunts the prairie with our pwn savages, or 

 tracks the jungles with the Indians. Self reliant, and cool, 

 to gcod judgment he adds the force of solid thews and 

 muscles. If by sheer head work he makes the laws, by 

 his strong arm he inforces them. He joins in all the sports 

 of the world, and the aboriginal man of every clime, pro- 

 claims him as their victor. 



The fact of the eagerness, the readiness with which Eng- 

 lishmen take to all athletic sports, struck us forcibly, when 

 reading an article in our transatlic contemporary. This is 

 .the story, A party of Englishmen are at Osaka in Japan, 

 and witness a native wrestling match. Commodore Wilkes 

 first gave us some idea of the immense size, weight, and 

 strength of these native wrestlers. The ordinary Japanese 

 are generally undersized; rarely taller than five feet seven 

 inches; though they are squarely built, they are light 

 weights. How long it has taken the Japanese to breed this 

 special speeies of wrestlers, is not Known, but there can be 

 no doubt but the present race of huge creatures who com- 

 pete in the Japanese P. R, is the result of selection. Some- 

 times these wrestlers weigh 300 pounds, and have more the 

 appearance of animals than of men. Our Englishmen, on a 

 holiday, saw two or three contests, when one of them, ex- 

 cited by the scene, even itching for a chance to show his 

 prowess, modestly suggested that he would like to try a 

 throw or so. The Japanese received the strangers' chal- 

 lenge with delight. The burly representative of an Oriental 

 race, with his bronzed skin, is pitted against lithe, agile pale, 

 Anglo Saxon. The one is as a mountain, the other as the 

 wild ash which grows on its side. They interlock, they 

 twist, they wreathe together. It is the struggle of a boa 

 and a viper. At last over goes the Japanese, and the 

 knack, endurance, and spirit of the Englishman, (in this 

 case it was a Scotchman) wins the day. One no less pleas- 

 ant feature of the contest, was the good feeling, and evident 

 sympathy the Japanese had for the new comer. Their desire 

 for fair play, in this particular instance, would be worthy 

 of imitation in more civilized communities. Take ten 

 thousand Americans, and find for us a single one, who 

 would have the moral courage to engage in such a contest, 

 or the physical strength necessary to accomplish it? 



— Preparatory to the grand outburst of fox-hunting, 

 when from late October until March, covers will be drawn, 

 and the best riders in the world, mounted on the noblest of 

 horses, will scour the country, just now huntsmen and whip- 

 pers-in are working the hounds 011 cub-foxes. With infinite 

 skill and patience the dogs are trained. The head hunts 

 man, an artist in his way now, selects, gleans and culls his 

 peck. Their education has received its finishing touch. 

 Dogs may have shown great speed, may have outrun the 

 pack, but it may be a true case of "ambition overleaping 

 itself. Stern are the decrees of fate, custom and the chase. 

 Eox hounds must run evenly; it would never do to have two 

 or three dogs in at the death of the fox and all the rest of 

 the pack trailing after the leaders. There must be a certain 

 uniformity about the pack, and they must all work smoothly 

 together. Learned are our English brethern in dog-ology. 

 They appreciate the noble animal, and pay for him a round 

 price at times. Witness the sale of a pack of otter hounds, 

 (their owner was killed by a rock falling on him in the 

 midst of his sport,) twenty-four otter hounds bringing the 

 goodly sum, of £475. 



— The bad weather— constant rainfall — has so far interfered 

 materially with partridge shooting. It seems too that the 

 birds are not entirely free from the same accidents which 

 rendered grouse shooting impossible. Hope is sometimes 

 an admirable stimulant for a sportsman to have in quantity, 

 so our English friends, in despair of grouse, not very cer- 

 tain about even partridges— are falling back on the idea 

 that black-cock later will give them an opportunity of 

 using up their accumulated stock of cartridges. The 

 scarcity of all kinds of game is apparent from the price it 

 brings in the London markets. Young grouse are fetching 

 12s. per brace, and are scarce, and partridges are worth six 

 shillings. While examining the food supply of England, at 

 this season of the year, game usually taking off the edge of 

 John Bulls appetite, some facts in regard to more solid 

 beef and mutton will doubtless be of interest. In 1872 the 

 total supply of meat was 1,211,209 tone, or about 84 pounds 

 of meat per head. The home supply was 1,006,281 tons, 

 and was made up by the slaughter of 1,750,000 cattle, 

 10,640,000 sheep, and 4,846,000 pigs, worth the handsome 

 amount of £73,573,015, of foreign imported meat 142,574 

 tons were used. What capacious stomachs, and splendid 

 digestion English men women and children must have. 



— -*»»■ 



Venice, Italy, Sept. 1873. 

 Editor op Forest and Stream : — 



Sir: In your first issue of Forest and Stream," (whose 

 richly flowing current has borne full eastward, as above) 

 "Carrier Pigeon^ formed a topic, recalling the scene, where, 

 —on the piazza of St. Mark, Venice— those little grey-robed 

 messengers may still be found, fearlesly coming and going 

 amongst, the people. A time honored institution are they, 

 tended and revered, embodying the tradition, that in those 

 days when Venice was the seat and centre of the commer- 



cial world — her history bearing (as it has been said) "all the 

 thrill and interest of a romance" — in the thirteenth cen- 

 tury, Admiral Dandolo, while besieging Candia, received 

 important intelligence from the Island by means of these 

 birds, which he afterwards despatched to Venice with the 

 news of his eventual success. Nesting now in the richly 

 decorated niches of the gorgeous Byzantine cathedral of S. 

 Marks — which all radiant in its gilding and mosaic, presents 

 its imposing facade on the piazza, surmounted by the noble 

 horses in gilt bronze, brought from the Hippodrome at 

 Constantinople, — the descendants of this old lineage multi- 

 ply, and conscious, as it would seem, of this thdr Magna Char- 

 ta, fly down in flocks, startling the new coiner as the. air be- 

 comes suddenly darkened around him, and they drop, im- 

 peding his footsteps, while in their gracefully nodding 

 movements as they walk, they peck about the grains 

 of corn which it is their prescriptive right and title to re- 

 ceive, distributed by the Forestieri, into whose hands the 

 little street urchins press the food for a small coin in return. 

 I have the honor to be yours very truly, 



E. H. P. 



FISH IN SEASON I NT OCTOBER. 



Coast Fish. Lakes. 



Bluefish, Skipjack. Horse Mackeret, Black Bass, {Mia opterus nig 

 {Temnodon saUator.) and archigan.) (two species. 



Spanish Mackerel, (Cero maculatum.) Pickerel, {Esox reticulalm.) 

 Weakfish, Squetattg (Trout) Otoli- Pike per cb, (Lucioperca Americana.) 

 thus.) 



Bays and Estuaries. 

 Striped Bass, Eockftsh. (Labrax hneatus.) 



A friend, who has just returned from the Jacquet 

 river, New Brunswiek, speaks of the stage of water 

 as having been extremely low all through the season. 

 Once, after the river was raised a little by a heavy rain, he 

 struck a number of fine salmon, the largest of which 

 weighed twenty-rive pounds. One singular incident oc- 

 curred while he was in camp near the principal pool. It 

 was twilight, and his canoe had been anchored for the 

 night near the shore, when he w r as suddenly startled by a 

 commotion and a threshing close at hand, and on investiga- 

 ting the cause, he discovered that a large salmon had 

 leaped from the water into the canoe, and was making des- 

 perate efforts to get back again into its native element. 

 Once it so nearly succeeded, that its body poised upon the 

 gunwale, but fortunately for the angler, it flapped back 

 again into the canoe, and so was captured. It weighed ten 

 pounds. 



Here is the latest news from the Umbagog region. Our 

 informant, who left about September 20th, reports the 

 streams very low, and the trout hard to find. Twenty ang- 

 lers at the Middle Dam averaged, between them, only 

 three or four fish per day, the largest weighing seven 

 pounds. One weighing three and a-half pounds was taken 

 in Sturtevants' pond by a gentleman from Boston. 



Walter Bracket!;, Esq. , the celebrated artist, of Boston, 

 was at Upton with his wife. 



The fishing in Jamaica, Bay has been very good the past 

 week or so, large quantities of bass, weakiish, and kingfish 

 having been taken, as well as a few sheepshead — these lat- 

 ter by experts. The outside fishing is good for bluefish. 

 A great number have been taken, chiefly with bait, running 

 from ten to sixteen pounds. 



On September 32d, one gentleman took sixty-seven, some 

 of which weighed sixteen pounds. 



Oil Far Rockaway, Mr. J. H. Batty took five bluefish 

 that weighed seventeen pounds each by scale test, and fares 

 of 100 to 150 fish per boat are not unusual. Those who can 

 avail themselves of this magnificent last run of the season, 

 ought to do so. Goto Bath, Canarsie, Penny Bridge, Brook- 

 lyn, or to Jersey City, and hire your yachts. 



The largest run of fish occurs in October, as 

 a rule, and the fishing will undoubtedly continue 

 good until the first frost, which will cut the 

 season short. Bluefish always disappear with the first cold 

 snap. 



All through Long Island Sound great sport has been en. 

 joyed for three weeks past, at the estuaries and mouths of 

 rivers, in catching the small bluefish or "snappers" with a 

 rod and float. These fish seldom exceed a quarter of a 

 pound in weight, but are so gamey that even veteran ang- 

 lers hugely enjoy the sport of catching them. They run in 

 "schools" or "shoals," and bite voraciously. 



Although the season for fishing is almost at an end, it 

 may be well to print a few additional notes of localities for 

 future reference, for we find, from constant inquiries ad- 

 dressed to this office, that there is a dearth of information 

 among anglers, which we had supposed did not exist. 

 Where, in the name of patience, we ask, have these eager 

 inquirers been in the habit of wetting their lines, outside of 

 the circumscribed limits of their own immediate neighbor- 

 hood ? 



In Jefferson county, New York, which, in fact, lies upon 

 the outskirts of the Adirondack region, there are the usual 

 varieties of maskalonge, black bass, pike, pickerel, and 

 salmon trout, and the fishing grounds are most easily 

 reached from Theresa and other points on the Utica and 

 Black River Railroad. Notable among these is the Indian 

 river and adjoining lakes. Comfortable accommodation is 

 afforded for small parties at the summer houses on the 

 lakes. Trolling is almost the only mode of fishing in vogue, 

 and W. D. Chapman, of Theresa, the patentee and manu- 

 facturer of various kinds of spinning tackle, does a large 

 business in supplying the fish with " spoon victuals." Ang- 

 ling has been fair the past season, and the fares have been 

 divided between some four score of practitioners. Among 



the remarkable weights taken are one maskalonge wcioldno 

 forty pounds, a black bass of four pounds, a pike of eight, 

 een pounds, and a salmon-trout of twenty-five pounds.- 



In Stanley's Creek, Smyth county, Virginia, there is 

 good trout fishing easily accessible from Marion, which fg u 

 station on the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. Black 

 bass are also found/though not abundant, and have h C en 

 taken weighing six pounds, although the average is per- 

 haps two pounds. By-the-way, we find a uniformity in 

 the size of bass, wherever taken, that is not Observed in 

 many other species of freshwater fish. The front in this 

 section average a half pound apiece, and seldom afti ai : 

 weight of two pounds. The number is said to "have in- 

 creased of late. Attention has recently been directed f ( v 

 fish culture in this section, and a breeding pond has been 

 established near Marion, at which place there is also an aiig.- 

 ling club, of which Dr. H. Stevens is president, Jacob 

 Wagner, vice-president, and Dr. E. Haller, secretary. 



Within a radius of one hundred miles from East Sagi- 

 naw, Michigan, there is splendid trout and graylin ■: 

 the fish in certain localities ranging from one-half to 

 pounds in w T eight. Four pounds is an unusual weight for 

 grayling. The largest we ever saw was a little above three 

 pounds. The grayling is a comparatively new addition to 

 the angler's list of game fish, and is thus described in "Hal- 

 lock's Fishing Tourist," the only work on angling that 

 gives a description of the grayling of America: 



"It varies in size from eight to fourteen inches in length; 

 and much resembles the sisco. The back is of a, dark, 

 gray color, and its sides are covered with fine, whitish, sil- 

 very scales, running in well defined lateral lines, and dotted 

 with shining, diminutive black spots a half inch or so apart 

 — especially about the shoulders. It has a very large, 

 square dorsal fin. Its second dorsal is adipose. At three 

 years old it weighs a half pound, and adds a quarter of a 

 pound per annum to its weight, until it attains a weight of 

 three or four pounds. It is in season from May to Oct fi- 

 ber. It thrives best in rivers flowing with gentle current, 

 whose beds are composed wholly or in part of sandy gravel 

 or loam. It feeds on minnows, but takes the fly or artifi- 

 cial grasshopper with avidity. In Michigan, it is caught in 

 the Muskigon river, which is as far south as they are 

 caught in any stream that empties into Lake Michigan; in 

 the Manistee, and all the streams to the northward as far up as 

 Mackinaw; in Jordon river, a stream connecting two lakes 

 and emptying into Traverse Bay; in the Au Sable and An 

 Gros rivers, on the eastern shore of the State ; and in the 

 river Hersey, a tributary of the Muskigon. The latter is 

 the most accessible of any of the streams — eleven hours 

 from Detroit, by the Flinty and Marquette Railroad, with a 

 good hotel a quarter of a mile from the depot, kept by A. 

 D. Wood, who is himself a thorough sportsman, and well 

 posted. One mile from the hotel fishing begins, and ex- 

 tends along a mile and a half of cleared bank, which gives 

 the angler a fair cast. It is a beautiful stream of elei 

 spring water, about twenty rods wide. There are no other 

 fish in it but suckers. The Au Sable is the next mosi ac- 

 cessible stream, and is reached from Bay City by the Mack- 

 inaw Railroad. 



"The grayling is not quite equal in activity and pluck to 

 the trout ; nevertheless, he is a superb game fish, and a 

 great acquisition to the angler's somewhat limited category. 

 It is quite as shy as the trout, fully as critical in his selec- 

 tion of flies, and " contrary " about taking hold at thu,- . 

 although the fish may b3 rising all around the vicinity."- 



The best time for fishing is said to be just after the spring 

 freshets, but we notice that June is the month preferred by 

 Michigan anglers. September fishing is also fine. The 

 flesh of the grayling is of a rich, cream color, and most de- 

 licious in flavor, whether it be fried, boiled or baked. 



We have the following welcome letter from a friend, who 

 speaks highly of the fishing in northern Alabama: 



Cortlandt, Ala., September 20th. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



As for fish, we have some of the finest that swim. Our game fish are 

 the trout, so-called— in reality a congener of the northern bass, and al- 

 most identically the same fish— the land-locked salmon, the pike, and The 

 speckled perch— a fine iish, often weighing several pounds. Our 'ttrojlt 

 often weigh from ten to fifteen pounds, though the average is under.tcn 

 pounds. These fish are usually taken with the minnow for bait, though 

 in Swan and Beaver Lakes, near Decatur, they are taken successfully 

 with the fly, and by "bobbing." Swan and Beaver Lakes are the place? 

 most visited by anglers from a distance, being as good as any, and are 

 only one-mile from Decatur, where strangers can always find good hstel 

 accommodations. Besides, these lakes are free to all, there being no re- 

 strictions to bar any from fishing in them. Next to these the Maxell 

 Shoals afford the best fishing. Indeed, to the enthusiastic angler, I no 

 not know if the Shoals do not afford the best grjoix The Shoals are 

 fished not only with hook and line, but also with what in common par- 

 lance is called a "jig,' 1 a three-pronged harpoon, fastened to along wood- 

 en handle. Armed with this weapon, and one end of his canoe filled 

 with blazing pine faggots, the sportsman quietly paddles his way at night 

 through the shallows and shoaly places, until he catches sight of some 

 finny denizen of the water, which he soon transfixes with a dexterous 

 cast of his '•jig.' 1 If a large and strong fish, there follows a long strug- 

 gle to land him, and oftentimes the canoe is emptied of all its occupy nts 

 into the river before victory rewards the fisherman" s skill. As Coffee IS 

 nearly always an indispensable assistant in these midnight ventures, no 

 little amusement is afforded on such occasions. The glare of the torch- 

 light, the gleam of African ivory every now and then, when some luck) 

 stroke of good fortune has safely landed a ten pounder in the bottom ol 

 the canoe, or the loud guffaws amid the splash and rush of water when 

 "all hands" have been emptied into the stream m a tussle with same 

 larger fish than usual, lend to the occasion enough of incident and gro- 

 tesque variety to give a zest often denied the angler who has only the 

 reel and his rod to aid him in his sport. I). K. H. 



We frequently receive letters from the Western States, 

 asserting that fly-fishing for black bass is not practiced m 

 that section, trolling being the only mode of taking them. 

 One correspondent, an expert angler, states that he never 

 heard of the fly being used, and did not know that the bass 

 would take a fly. It seems singular to us that gentlemen 

 living in the very midst of the best black bass regions of 



