374 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



jthoi 0»« and Sifle. 



-—■—-♦< — — 

 GAME IN SEASON IN JANUARY. 



Hares, brown and gray. 



Wild duck, geese, brant, &c. 



FOR ffLOKIDA. 



Deer, Wild Turkey, Woodcock, Quail, Snipe, Ducks, and Wild Fowl. 



Game in Mabket. — The continued warm weather inter- 

 feres with the shipment of game from the West, and prices 

 for such as is in market continue high. We quote: Ruffed 

 grouse at $1.25 per pair; pinnated grouse, (prairie chick- 

 ens), $1,50 to $1.75; quail very scarce, at $4 to $5 per doz. ; 

 canvas-back ducks, $3 per pair; red-heads, $1.25 to $1.75; 

 mallards, $1 to $1,50; black ducks, $1 to $1.25; widgeon, 

 75 cents to $1; broad-bills, 75 cents; spring-tails, $1; brant 

 very scarce, $1.50 to $1.75; geese, $1 to $1.50; rabbits, 50 

 cents per pairt hares, 50 cents; venison, saddles, 20 cents; 

 steaks, 25 cents. 



Canada— Quebec, January 11, 1875.— Just returned from 

 a nine day's caribou hunt; experienced nothing colder than 

 20° below zero I think, but sufficiently cold one night to 

 partially congeal Lower Canada whisky. Plenty of caribou, 

 ptarmigan, ruffed grouse, snow buntings, hares, and a few 

 Canada grouse in the market, also red deer from Upper 

 Canada. Can hear of no moose having been killed this 

 Winter as yet. Roamer. 



Massachusetts— Salem, January 15. — Gunning and sport 

 generally is very dry now as it is close season, and of late 

 very cold. The law on partridges is a humbug about our 

 country towns, as they are both snared and shot whenever 

 a chance occurs, and parties are very defiant when spoken 

 to*about it. I think the weather thus far has been good for 

 wintering over the quail, and there arc a goodly number 

 of them in our county. An occasional fox is shot, and I 

 saw two coons lately that were shot at Middleton, Mass. 



Arkansas— Jacksonport, January 12. — We live in one of 

 the best hunting and fishing countries in the Slates, pro- 

 bably, with the exception of Teaas. Bear, deer, turkey, 

 and every imaginable kind of water fowl in the greatest 

 abundance, quail, snipe, woodcock, plover, etc., also are 

 plentiful. And the fishing can't be beat; only day before 

 yesterday a couple of our townsmen caught seventy three 

 bass, trout and dominique perch in a little over two'hours. 

 From this you can imagine that sportsmen have a fine time, 

 even in mid Winter. Lunik. 



— Geo. H. Ragsdale, of Gainesville, Cooke county, Texas, 

 sends the following clipping from the Gainesville Gazette, 

 with the remark that "a notice from this place in Fokest 

 and Stream brought Mr. Presow over to this country: — 



"Messrs. W. L. Fletcher, Dunbar, Cain, and J. B. 

 Presow, (an English sportsman,) left here on 5th January, 

 for the West, to hunt deer, turkey, and buffalo. They wili 

 remain out about a month." 



Buffalo are running now, and this is a good time to hunt 

 them. 



—Messrs. G. F. Gilders! eeve and M. Y. Bay lis, both 

 members of the Long Island Shooting Club, shot a match 

 at the club grounds, Dexter's, East ISew York, in presence 

 of a large number of spectators. The conditions of the 

 match were, fifty single birds each, twenty- one yards rise, 

 old club rules, for $250 a side. The match resulted in 

 favor of Mr. Gildersleeve by the following score:— G. F. 

 Gildersleeve— *0 01 1,*0 110 1, 10111, 0010 

 1,11010, 11011, 1*01*01, *01111,0001 

 1, 1 1— Total 50, killed 29, missed 21. 



M. Y. Baylis— 110 1, 1100 1, 0010 1, 1110 

 1, 1 1, *0 1 1 1, *0 1 1 1 1, 1 1 *0 1, 1 1 

 0, 1 0— Total 50, killed 27, missed 23. Referee, 

 Mr. Parks, of the Long Island Shooting Club. Time- 

 Two hours and five minutes. *Fell dead out of bounds. 



— The champion, Capt. A.H. Bogardus, having accepted 

 all challenges of Ira A. Paine, and his friend Mr Gray, ac- 

 cepting their own terms, a match between these crack shots 

 now appears probable. 



A. Curious Accident.— A correspondent writes us of 

 an unusual accident that happened, to a friend. He had 

 tried a Berdan cap on a brass shell to see if it would fit, 

 and in trying to expel it from the shell again the cap ex- 

 ploded and was forced into his eye. A cap should always 

 be exploded in the gun to be removed with safety. 



-♦•♦- 



THE MEGANTIC DISTRICT AGAIN. 



Editor Forebt and Stream:— 



I am happy to see iu your last issue a communication from Mr. Pierre- 

 pout iu answer to mine of December 23d. There were other parties 

 besides his who camped and hunted in the Megantic District last fall; 

 bat my letter referred more particularly to his party, as the prices he 

 paid were brought more directly to my notice. 1 visited Scotston shortly 

 after he left there, and when I came to pay my own bills, I found them 

 nearly double the amount of those charged on former occasions; and 

 was told that he paid without question the high figures mentioned in my 

 former letter. I protested against those prices, not only on my own ac- 

 count, but also for the many sportsmen who have been in the habit of 

 visiting the Mr tic country every season for years, and hitherto for at 

 least one- half the expense that it has cost us when we go to the Adiron- 

 dacks, or to the lower St. Lawrence districts. I am satisfied by Mr. 

 Pierrepont's explanations that he was badly imposed on by those that he 

 employed there, and was also misinformed by those that he wrote to for 

 information. I have viBited the Megantic District several times a year 

 for a long time past, and claim to be "posted" on prices for teams and 

 laborers, and would say to those who intend visiting that country: Make 

 your bargains with those you wish to employ before you engage them 

 and you will have no trouble in getting teams for $3 a day, and men who 

 are acquainted with the woods for $1 or $1.25 a day, or at even a much 

 less price. There are other points to enter the wilderness than Scotston. 

 The most used route is through Stornoway to '-John Boston's" at the foot 

 of Megandc Lake. Another good route is up the Ditton road, and strike 

 the Salmon Kiver at the upper still water, or go down the Eaton road to 

 Newport, and then through to the Connecticut lakes, tncugh now that the 

 railroad is in operation between Sherbrook and Robinson the wilderness 

 is the easiest reached through Scotston. In all cases procure j'our sup- 

 plies in Sherbrook and take them with you, or have them forwarded to 

 some point where your guides could get them as you want them. I 

 regret that Mr, Pierrepont is "sorry 11 that our "old sporting grounds" 

 are no better. Experienced sportsmen, however, will have no trouble in 

 killing good bags of game there and in other sections of the Megantic 

 District. "Come again and welcome" is our motto. Stanstead , 



HUNTING IN GEORGIA. 



Columbia Co., Georgia, December 15th, 1875. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Far from the busy hum of city life, and twenty odd miles frsm the near- 

 est railroad, it is with great pleasure I hail the coming of Thursday, our 

 mail day, and the advent of your welcome paper. I have imposed upon 

 your good nature to ask what will remove the cap from a shell— Sturte- 

 vant, I think— the movable anvil breaking off in three per cent, at least 

 of the shell before I can force the cap out. Another objection I find 

 shooting a 10 gauge Powell gun, altered by Clarke & Sneider, of Balti- 

 more, who by the way do most excellent work, is that my met£& shells 

 expanded from constant firing, so that out of sixty shells I have only 

 twenty-three that I can force in my gun. I disagree most emphatically 

 with your correspondents, who claim that American shells are as good 

 as English, and for my own use, prefer Eley's brown paper shells to his 

 green, or to any American shell, metal or paper. I have used my breech 

 loader only one season, killing 127 quail, besides other game, but for 

 long range, and when I am doubtful of my opponents marksmanship, I 

 always take my old muzzle loader, disregarding the convenience of the 

 former. Crimpers and creasers I have tried to no satisfaction, mucilage 

 is my preference. I noticed your strictures upon the riding of American 

 gentlemen; should not that have read northern gentlemen? We South- 

 rons, are rather proud of that accomplishment, and I for one, now that 

 I am crippled, refer you to the fact that I once won a hurdle race, during 

 which one horse was killed and two riders thrown. I ought to know 

 how, for I followed Stuart and Hampton through enough of Virginia 

 and Maryland, and a small portion of Pensylvania, to enlighten the most 

 obtuse mind on the subject of equestrianship. As to fox hunting,! 

 have always kept a pack of hounds numbering from five to fourteen, and 

 catch a red fox occasionally ; I have only bagged three this season, 

 though my neighbors report several others. I claim neither fox or bird 

 that I do not bag- I was amused at the Tribune's comments on the sub- 

 ject of fox hunting in this country. I suppose that in my county we 

 average over two hundred foxes caught every season, and at least ten or 

 fifteen planters, like myself, who keep hounds, but none of us ride to 

 dogs like Englishmen; on the contrary, if we can ride hard enough to 

 keep in hearing of our dogs without killing our horses, we consider 

 that we have had a fine hunt. I caught a fox yesterday in one hour and 

 five minute?, and by chance was in at the death. How many I lose this 

 deponent saith not. It would take one mounted on a Pegasus to follow 

 dogs over these gullies, rocky hills, and high rail fences. I am tempted 

 to record the capture of a wild cat--the largest I ever saw— after a two 

 hour's race. I thought she was some "cat" until I read in the columns 

 of Forest and Stream of one being captured measuring five feet; mine 

 only went thirty three and three quarter inches in length, and nineteen 

 iu height. Jarbl. 



[ft is a misfortune inseparable from the use of the Stur- 

 tevant shell that an occasional anvil wili break, but there 

 is no reason why the metal shells should expand so as to 

 be worthless if they fit the chamber of the gun properly in 

 the first instance. If our correspondent will look again 

 he will see that in the article on Fox Hunting we alluded 

 only to this locality. — Ed.] 



Men mid iiiver 



FISH IN SEASON IN JANUARY. 



SOUTHERN WATERS. 



Pompano, Trachynotus carohnus. Grouper, Epwephelpus nigtitug, 

 Drum (two species.) Family Scice- Trout (black bass,) Centroprlstls 



mdm. atrarivs. 



Kingflsh, Menticirrus nelwlosns. Striped Bass or Rockfish, Roccus 

 Sea Bass, Sriamops oceUatns. (vieatvs. 



Sheepshead, Archosargus probato- Tailorflsh, Pomat^mus saUatrix. 



cephalus. Black bass, Micropterus sabnoides\ 



Snapper, LMjanvs caxus. M. nigricans. 



Fish in Market.— The supply of fish during the week 

 has been abundant. Two steam smacks are now engaged in 

 making daily trips to the codfish grounds outside Sandy 

 Hook, but the experiment is, as yet, too young to enable 

 an opinion to be formed as to its ultimate success. Striped 

 bass, from Delaware, are worth 25 cents per pound ; smelts, 

 from Maine, 15 to 20 cents; blue-fish, 15 cents; salmon, fro- 

 zen, 50 cents; mackerel, 20 cents each; shad, 50 cents to 

 $1:50 each, the former price being for the Savannah fish, 

 and the latter for those caught in North Carolina waters; 

 white perch, 18 cents; Spanish mackerel, 50 cents; frost 

 fish, 8 cents; halibut, 25 cents; haddock, 8 cents; codfish, 

 8 to 10 cents; black fish, 15 cents; flounders, 12 cents; eels, 

 16 to 18 cents; sheepshead, 35 cents; white fish, 18 cents; 

 pickerel, 18 cents; sunfish, 10 cents; yellow perch, 10 

 cents; salmon trout, 20 cents; ciscoes, 10 cents; pompano, 

 $1; green turtle, 25 cents; terrapin, $12 per dozen; lob- 

 sters, 10 to 12 cents per pound; scollops, $1.25 per gallon; 

 soft clams, 30 to 60 cents per 100; hard-shell crabs, $4 per 

 100; soft, do., 75 cents per dozen. 



— It is a great saving of expense to our Long Island 

 whalers when they can simply launch out on the adjacent 

 waters and capture forty-barrel whales. On Wednesday of 

 last week a large right whale of this yielding capacity 

 was caught off Southampton. 



Masktnonge.— A superb specimen of this noble fish, 

 the monarch of the pike family, tipping the beam at forty 

 pounds, was received at this office on Monday last, from 

 Mr. Joseph A. Davenport, of Davenport, Iowa. The fish 

 was taken in the Wapsie, a tributary of the Father of 

 Waters, the Mississippi, near its confluence, twenty miles 

 above Davenport. The experts assembled in our office, 

 book in hand, claim it to be a genuine maskinonge. — Turf, 

 Field and Farm. 



Movements op the Fishing Fleet.— There has been 

 quite an addition to the La Havre Bank fleet, and it now 

 numbers forty-five vessels. The first arrival from there 

 this season was schooner David Sherman on Monday, 

 bringing in 60,000 pounds of codfish and 4,000 pounds of 

 halibut. The latter sold for 19|-, and 13| for white and 

 gray. The Tragabigzanda arrived yesterday with 10,000 

 pounds of codfish and 2,500 pounds of halibut. The lat- 

 ter sold for 16 and 12 cents. There have been live arrivals 

 from Newfoundland with frozen heiring, and now that the 

 weather has become colder the prospect of the fleet is much 

 enhanced. — Gfyfie Ann Advertiser, January lbth. 



The Godbout Salmon Scores.— The strictures of our 

 correspondent "Littell," in a recent number of this paper, 

 upon the published salmon scores of the Godbout River, 

 in Canada, have evoked some- distinguished testimony in 



verification thereof, which we print below. If ■* 'Littell" 

 be not convinced by this written testimony of two such 

 credible witnesses as Allan Gilmour and the Dominion 

 Fishery Commissioner, then we can only pity his unbelief 

 as past all hope. He is a more obdurate doubter than the 

 disciple Thomas, who, we may presume, was unable to 

 account for the "miraculous draft of fishes," until the catch 

 was made plain to his comprehension. Moreover, in addi- 

 tion to their very lucid exposition of the conditions which 

 make these remarkable scores intelligible as well as prac- 

 ticable, we have a duplicate of the casting line in use 

 which Mr. Gilmour was considerate enough to forward to 

 us by mail. Never have we seen a single gut of such 

 quality and strength. The fly is dressed upon a double 

 hook, which, once fairly fixed into the jaw of a fish, will 

 be likely to stay there. With a Castle Connell or Forrest 

 rod— far more ponderous implements than the bamboo 

 rods used by our experts on this side of # the border ; with 

 a gut that will lift ten pounds of dead weight; with a pool 

 favorable for play, and a scientific angler to handle the 

 captive; and with a shelving beach where the fish can 

 readily be run ashore and landed without a gaff— we can 

 easily conceive the possibility of the exploits related. 

 Neither do we gainsay the assertion or the fact that salmon 

 of the weight indicated can be killed in ten minutes, one 

 after the other, as fast as they are struck. In rivers where 

 fish are so abundant that fifty or more can be taken in a 

 single day with a rod, the loss of a fish is trivial. Ill luck 

 can be retrieved immediately. The tactics to be then em- 

 ployed are quick and hard work, and no play. The fish 

 are not to be handled tenderly until they gradu lly suc- 

 cumb from exhaustion, as would be the policy if fish were 

 scarce, and the loss of a single one to be deplored. The 

 battle must be sharp and decisive, with the whole power 

 of the rod exerted from first to last. No matter if the 

 hook tear out. It were better so than to waste an hour in 

 cautious handling of a fish insecurely hooked, only to lose 

 him in the end. Fish are plenty; we have merely to cast 

 again, and a speedy rise will reward the effort. This is 

 the philosophy and the secret of big scores. 



Ottawa, Canada, January 10th, 1876. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



In Forest and Strbam of the 6th hist., I observed a communication 

 over the signature of "Littell," with the heading "Prodigious Salmon 

 Fishing, 11 in which the writer expressed his views rather dogmatically 

 on the subject of salmon fishing, while at the same time asserting that 

 the statements of Salmon Fishing on the Godbout, which have appeared 

 at different times in Forest and Stbeam, could not be correct. It ap- 

 pears that "Littell,' 1 in Forest and Stream some time ago, asked for 

 an explanation of my big score of forty-six salmon, (on 10th July, 1865), 

 but I did not happen to see his communication, arsd so it passed un- 

 answered. What I have now to say is, that I caught that number of 

 salmon of the aggregate weight of 426 pounds on the day above named- 

 all in what is known as the Upper Pool on the Godbout— that I com- 

 menced fishing at half past six in the morning and fished steadily till 

 half past twelve— when I stopped half an hour for lunch— and had then 

 thirty salmon ashore. I afterwards fished pretty steadily until about 

 half past seven, during which time I caught and landed sixteen more, 

 making in all the forty-six of that day. And I may add, that as the fish 

 were still taking, though not very freely, I might, had I continued, have 

 made that days 1 sport up to fifty. But I felt quite satisfied wich what I 

 had done, believing, indeed, that I had made the largest days 1 salmon 

 fishing on record, or off it I was, besides, somewhat fatigued, and 

 having about two miles to walk back to our cabins, over a hilly and then 

 bad pathway, I concluded that discretion under such circumstances was 

 the better part of valor, and so left off and beat a retreat, though as I 

 then thought, and still do, not; from an inglorious field. Now, as to the 

 time required to play out a salmon of say up to eleven or twelve pounds, 

 it can be done frequently in three minutes and need not, nor seldom 

 does it take experienced fishermen with us, over five minutes. Larger 

 salmon will, of course, take longer time, somewhat in proportion to 

 size, though not always so; and with twenty to twenty-six pounds— 

 about the largest found on the Godbont— from fifteen to forty-five 

 minutes is about the range of time required to bring them to gaff. And 

 now, when I have got such skeptics as ''Littell 1 ' to deal with, and hope 

 to convert, it may be well to give a few more facts. On one occasion in 

 fishing on the Godbout (at t?he same pool above referred to), having let 

 my experienced gaffman go with a young fisherman and taken his gaff- 

 man, rather a novice also, I determined to give him as little to do as 

 possible, and on that day caught and landed twenty-two salmon running 

 from nine to twelve pounds, twenty -one of which I beached with the rod 

 and line, and only one was landed with the gaff. "Littell, 11 and very 

 likely many others, may wish to know what tackle we use in what it 

 seems to him are such impossible feats. We use rods of Forrest & Sons> 

 Kelso on the Tweed, Scotland; length mostly eighteen and a half feet; 

 silk lines, one hundred to one hundred and twenty yards in length, to 

 which is attached a treble gut, casting line of about nine feet, and to 

 that a single gut casting line of about live feet in length. The flies we 

 use are also nearly altogether on single gut, which we much prefer, get- 

 ting, of course, the very best we can, and which will lift a dead weight 

 of eight or ten pounds, and some even more. In regard to "LitteHV 1 

 remarks respecting the fishing by the river guardian (in 1874), I may 

 state that it was by permission of the lesees, who that season fished only 

 eight full days, and it was after they had left the river that the guardian 

 fished, as may be seen on reference to Forest and Stream of 23d De* 

 cember last. And further that the lessees may safely be trusted to pro- 

 tect their own interests in allowing no fishing that would lessen the 

 supply of salmon so as to impair the magnificent sport with the rod 

 which the Godbout has for years heretofore supplied. 



This communication will, I dare say, be found long enough for the 

 present, and so thinking I will close, with the assurance that the guardian's 

 fishing on the Godbout to which "Littell 11 referred may be accepted as 

 perfectly reliable, and quite as correct as that for which I can and now 

 vouch as of my own experience; while free to admit in both cases very 

 exceptional pieces of good luck— pretty well availed of— as they should 

 have been when so unlikely to present themselves often in the lifetime 

 of any fisherman. Allan Gilmour. 



V 



Ottawa, January 8'h, 1876. 

 Editor Forest and Stream:— 



Your quasi endorsement of "LitteHV unbelief calls me out in sup- 

 port of the authenticity of my friend Mr. Gilmour's scores on the river 

 Godbout. Already you know my humble views in favor of genuine 

 sport as contradistinguished from mere slaughter, and can therefore un- 

 derstand that in relating some earlier experiences of my own, I make no 

 boast of them, and do not wish even to excuse them in the light of later 

 knowledge. My sole object is to show, by personal trial, the probability 

 of these questioned scores being feasible; their accuracy is amply 

 vouched for by the practical ability and honorable character of Mr. Gil- 

 mour, who is known to be a most accomplished salmon fisher, and in 

 every respect a high minded sportsman. Several years ago, when fish- 

 ing at river Morale, I undertook, for a small bet> to "hook," "play/ T 



