THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN 



JOURNAL. 



fEntered According to Act of Congress, In the Tear 1679, by the Forest & Stream Publishing Company, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington^ 



emu, Four Dollars a. Year 



'J'<m CcnfM a Copy. 

 month-, .$2; 3 monthH 



"} 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JULY i 7 1879 



For Forest and Stream and Mod and Gun. 



\rt$ to §enr 



SITTING here in theU. S. Oourt-room at Jackson, Miss., 

 awaiting the infliction of being placed upon the jury, 

 it occurred to me that it might not be amiss to detail the ex- 

 perience of a party from Vicksburgh who went overinto Louisi 

 ana in search of game and fish. 



Bear Lake had been often mentioned as a body of water 

 abounding iu nab, where they could be hauled out by the 

 cart-load; and as to game, the woods literally swarmed 

 with squirrels, with such an abundance of wild turkeys and 

 deer as to make hunting sport indeed So it was not diffi- 

 cult to get together a party of ten, including the gentle- 

 man of color who was to preside over the culinary fixings, to 

 make a trip and explore the country. 



The time was February, and the weather was unusually 

 mild. The winter had been a warm one, and the plum, peach 

 and cherry trees were in bloom. At the date of departure 

 there had been no rain for a length of time, and one had al- 

 most forgotten that rain could fall in the South. And for 

 this reason, perhaps, the preparations of the party for en- 

 countering inclement weather were quite meagre. But they 

 have learned from experience Bince to provide for the worst, 

 and now that aU of these gentlemen are attached to a promi- 

 nent club they are not caught out half "fixed up." The 

 party crossed the river by ferry early in the forenoon and 

 took the cars to a crossing called Lake One, a distance of 

 twenty-one miles into the interior, where we found a large 

 yawl which the railroad, in timo of high water, used for 

 transferring passengers over that part of the road that was 

 submerged, and which the superintendent had directed to be 

 turned over to us. Into this monster we loaded our entire 

 outfit, including a fine lot of minnows one of the party had 

 captured ten miles back of Vicksburgh. Bell, Boswell and 

 myself, being the chief fishermen of the party, were ordered 

 into the yawl and started up the lake. The rest of the party 

 started out afoot with their guns, promising to have a supply 

 of meat for our supper when we should arrive at Bear Lake. 

 It was two o'clock, and the distance was eight miles by 

 water, and about live miles by land. The yawl was down 

 nearly to her guards and moved as lubberly as a water- 

 soaked log. None of us were experienced oarsmen, and all 

 rather light weights except Bell, who is as strong as an ox 

 and as tough as a pine knot. Our progress was slow and 

 very tiresome. We passed out of Lake One through a 

 narrow channel, now and then obstructed by trees and brush, 

 into another lake, longer and broader, and upon which it 

 seemed our progress was slower than that of a snail. After 

 leaving this lake we came into Kound-a-way bayou, a horse- 

 shoe-shaped stream which drains this part of the country, 

 and after a painful amount of twisting and winding, ultimate- 

 ly finds au outlet into the Tensas River near the western part 

 of the State. Our course was down stream. In many places 

 we found the channel very narrow and the current quite 

 swift. The drift-wood and brush proved an intolerable nui 

 Bance. Often these offered an almost insuperable barrier to 

 our progress. The axe was constantly brought into requisi- 

 tion. Now and then, when we saw a pile of this material 

 ahead of us which we supposed would yield to a shock, we 

 would give it a shock by putting ou all the steam we could 

 muster and driving our heavy yawl into it. Often we forced 

 our way through ; then again we didn't, but ou the contrary, 

 were brought up standing against some solid obstruct ion with 

 a jar that would have smashed an ordinary vessel the size of 

 ours. At other times the momentum we gave her would be 

 just sufficient to run us fairly and squarely upon a substantial 

 bruoh pile aud leave us there to dig and scratch and pry out 

 as best we could , At one time we ran upon what Bell has 

 always persisted in calling a "stuub," say a snng, just tar 

 enough under the water not to be visible, and near enough 

 the surface to assume a very firm position as near the centre 

 of our boat as well could be. The water was over ten feet 

 deep and we could not reach bottom wiLh our oars, so we just 

 staid there about half an hour, heaving this way and that, 

 nearly upsetting now and then, and thinking many things 

 even if we never said them, till at last Boswell got out his rod, 

 put it togetlwi , i \ag twine to it, succeeded 



in hooking it over a strong litnb near shore, and with this 

 hawser we pulled off. 



When the sun was nearly down and we had journeyed but 

 little over half the way, we came to the "boss" obstruction 

 in the shape of a giant cypress tree that had fallen entirely 

 across the bayou. -Near the shore, and from the roots ten 

 feet out, the tree was submerged but not deep enough to al- 

 low our laden boat to pass over. The banks were steep, and 

 a " carry " was a serious matter. All of us were very tired, 

 and many of our "traps" were heavy, especially one immense 

 box containing our "grub" and cooking utensils. So we 

 tried to get over by moving our load towards the stern of the 

 boat, running her as far up as we could and then transferring 

 to the bow, thus getting the vessel across by sections. It 

 wouldn't work, and at the present writing I cannot but 

 wonder that we did not break her literally in two. If our 

 plan of placing the cargo in this way had succeeded, I guess 

 that when we had transferred enough in the bow to elevate 

 the stern and given her a push to send her over, she would 

 have instantaneously sought the bottom head foremost. 



A hasty consultation resulted in a determination to stop and 

 go into camp, then and there. Bell, in our efforts to lift over, 

 had got out on the body of the tree, and was standing there 

 when this conclusion was reached. He was on the side of the 

 boat toward the centre of the stream, and the stern ot the boat 

 had drifted in toward shore, the bow resting lightly on the 

 log. We determined to Are a gun to indicate our location to 

 the other party. There was a gun in the yawl. Bell called 

 for it. Upon handing it out we warned him of the danger 

 of being kicked off into the water, He pooh-poohed the idea, 

 and insisted on firing the signal. We let him do it, and he 

 did it. As he pulled the trigger he leaned up to the gun to 

 counteract the shock, hut it did no good. The gun was a 

 deuce of a kicker, anyway, and in this instance had an extra 

 charge. At the report Bell, hopelessly out of perpendicular, 

 cast a hurried look toward the yawl, threw the gun to the 

 writer, and fell with a splash upon his back into the chilly 

 bayou, fifteen feet deep. When he took the unlucky shot his 

 back was toward the boat, and of course he fell in that direc- 

 tion, and so near it that Boswell and I grappled him end 

 hauled him in After going ashore we built up two large 

 fires, put our soaked companion between them, gave him a 

 good smoking, and dried him out. 



Later, two of the hunters came up the bayou to see what 

 was the trouble. They had been to Bear Lake, and left their 

 comrades there. None of those were woodsmen, and our com- 

 rades had to return for them and conduct them to camp, which 

 they only reached about ten o'clock that night. Of course 

 we had no supper. The cook was exhausted, and the hunters 

 had killed no game. 



The next morning we cut a passage for our boat through 

 the tree-top, and resumed our journey as hefore. We had 

 not rested well during the night. The fire had broken out 

 among the leaves two or three times, and came near consum- 

 ing our tent and commissary. We reached Bear Lake, after 

 an awful time of it, a little before noon. All the hunters, 

 save one, had returned from the woods "down in the mouth," 

 having seen nothing to shoot. Bear Lake looked inviting, and 

 anxiety was manifested to see what the fish would do. Bell 

 and I tried it first from shore. We soon got several bites, and 

 as soon learned that we were among the gars. Well, to end 

 it, we hauled our lumbersome boat out of Round-a-way into 

 the lake, fished it up one side and down the other, tried every 

 manner and kind of bait, natural and artificial, the result 

 being not a solitary fish or a single nibble, save those from a 

 pack of infamous gars. Of course we determined to pull up 

 and leave. While the preparations for this were going on, the 

 writer tried the bayou, and succeeded in catching a species of 

 white perch, called in this country "gasper goo." This one 

 weighed about four pounds, and though not regarded as a 

 very edible fish, we determined to devour him for supper. 

 Meat was growing to be a serious question. 



We put up a written notice, telling our absent hunters we 

 would return and camp at; the camp-ground of the night 

 previoug. 



Boswell deserted the boat's crew and gave us the colored 

 cook as a substitute. We reached our old camp-ground so 

 much earlier than we anticipated, that we concluded to push 

 on further up before going into camp. Not long after leaving 

 this place we ran the boat upon an obstruction, so as to put 

 her nearly upon a balance. Bell had been standing upon the 

 bow with a long pole, steering and pushing drift aside, and 

 when we hung here and stuck he told the writer to go astern 

 with an oar and give her a heave. The order was obeyed. 

 Bell was at the time enjoying the luxury of a smoke. It so 

 turned out that both of us gave a terrible push at the same 

 time in opposite directions, and the boat described a cncle 

 like a flying horse, while Bell pitched out like a flying squir- 

 rel, head-foremost, going under just as though he was pur- 

 posely making an experimental dive. Of course we hsd to 

 dry him out again that afternoon. He hung on to his pipe 

 with his teeth, and declares he took one whif under water. 



We went into camp early, and were soon joined by our 

 absent hunter, who, though one of the best woodsmen and in- 

 defatigable walkers in the country, wa3 pretty badly blown. 

 He had had no success, and if a few poor rabbits had not 

 been sacrificed for our benefit our meat diet would have been 

 light. Rain began to fall early, but stopped by dark, when 

 mosquitoes put in an active appearance. We had only one 

 small tent, and were put to for room. It is not remembered 



who was honored by the companionship of the cook. Later, 

 rain feel in abundance, and in the morning we found every- 

 thing soaked. Our journey was resumed in the same order, 

 with an understanding that the hunters must shoot peewees 

 if they could find no larger game. We had barely gotten 

 under way before a drenching rain-storm came up and wet 

 every one to the skin. The writer had a brimless cap, and he 

 shivers now at the recollection of the stream of water that 

 found its way down his back bone. The party that reached 

 the railroad station were the sorriest-looking fellows I have 

 ever seen. They staid there shivering over a little fire for 

 nearly two hours before the train came along and took them 

 home. 



The expenses of the trip, not including individual outlay 

 for tackle and ammunition, were $44, and it is a standing 

 joke in Vicksburg that our party captured a fish that cost $11 

 per pound. And the worst feature of it was that when we 

 left Bear Lake we forgot our fish, and left it haltered out in 

 the water there, thus being deprived of eating this most high- 

 priced member of the finny tribe. Thus ended a barren ex- 

 cursion to Bear Lake. Bubb H. Poix. 



sm tWm 



For Forest and Stream and Bod and Gun 

 y CONCERNING EELS. 



THIS is a subject proverbially slippery, and having escaped 

 from the grasp of so many writers, I feel sensible of the 

 difficulty of handling it successfully myself. Although many 

 very interesting facts have been clearly established in regard 

 to the natural history of the common eel (Anguilla tenuiros- 

 ««•«), it is to be regietted that there is yet a want of precise 

 data on some important points. For more than two thousand 

 years the reproductive process of the species seems to have 

 been involved in doubt and obscurity. I find on turning to 

 my copy of " Oppian's Halieutica," written during the early 

 part of the Third Century of the Christian era, that among 

 many other errors and absurdities contained in his poem — 

 sanctioned by the Kornan Emperor Caracalla — was that false 

 notion, so prevalent in subsequent ages, that the eel was her- 

 maphrodite and impregnated itself, as it set forth in the fol- 

 lowing lines : 



"Not thus concha, eel and polypi embrace, 

 Nor pnrple lampreys rear their embryo race, 

 la selfish coils hermaphrodite they sit, 

 Aud their own power the vital spume emit; 

 Which gradual dropp'd on sands or slimy mud, 

 A silver offering renders to the flood." 



Whether Oppian was indebted to Aristotle — who lived 

 some five hundred years before — for this notion, or whether 

 it came from his own brain as a poetic fancy and was palmed 

 upon the world under a poet's license, no one can tell ; but it 

 is certain men who claim to be close observers of nature, in 

 Europe and in our own country, strange as it may seem, en- 

 tertain the same opinion. 



While I am not disposed to undervalue the labors or dis- 

 coveries of any of the recent writers upon this subject, but 

 rather to give them the full meed of honor due, I confess that 

 I have been a little surprised that certain facts discovered and 

 clearly established by other workers iu the same field years 

 ago were entirely ignored, or, at least, not duly recognized 

 and credited. The migration of the eels in the spring and 

 fall, as a regular habit, was noticed and mentioned by some 

 of the English writers on fish a long lime ago. 



In the interesting paper read by Robt. B. Roosevelt hefore 

 the "Fish Cultural Society" at its last meeting in your city, 

 he refers to an article on the generative habits of eels, read 

 by him the year previous, Feb. 27, 1878, and says: "Then, 

 for the first time, was made public an authoritative announce- 

 ment of the discovery of their eggs, Prof. Spencer F. Baird 

 stating that he had received some six weeks previous several 

 eels in which the eggs were not only visible but so far ad- 

 vanced as to be nearly ripe for emission." 



As long ago as 1833, the following public announcement 

 was made in England : "One of the most interesting investi- 

 gations on fish is that of Mr. Yarrol on the generation of the 

 eel. This vemla quimtf.o, which has occupied the attention 

 of naturalists from Aristotle down ward, has been at last 

 set at rest by Mr. Yarrel, who has proved by actual ex- 

 aminations aud dissections, carried on through eighteen 

 months in succession upon specimens of eels procured from 

 different parts of the country, that it is oviparous, having 

 melt and roe like other fishes. He has traced them down to 

 the brackish water, whither they go generally, though not 

 universally, to deposit their spawn ; and he has followed the 

 young in their extraordinary spring journeys up the great 

 rivers and into the brooks and rivulets, in which they seek 

 our, for themselves appropriate haunts." 



Now, the above appears, to me at least, to be a public and 

 authoritative announcement, and contains all that was claimed 

 in the announcement made by Mr. Roosevelt, February 27, 



