THE AMERICAN 



SPORTSMAN'S 



JOURNAL. 



|Eutered According to Act of Congress, in the year J87», by the Forest and Stream Pu blishing Company, in the Office of the librarian of Congress, at Washington 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



Answers to correspondents 



AKonaitv :— 



New Yn"k Archery Club; Ohullauges ; Robin Hood Arch- 

 ers: North-Side Arohery Club 



Cricebs':— 



Reports of Matches and News Motes 



Tn° Tiles ton Memorial Fund : The Team Abroad ; The Work 

 of a State Game Protective Association ; How i! Is Re- 

 epived; Cap't, Bdgatdus' New Gun; The Army Worm; 



Motes ... 



Pish Coi.tuke:— 

 The International Fisherv Evhlbit.iou at Berlin; The Rab- 

 bit Mouth Sucker ; The New Lob-ter Law 



Game Bag and Gun :— 



With One Barrel; Xtt« alleged TMttmar Powder Accident; 

 The Uiiur Island .Spuria, ".en's \ssoeiatlon ; A Hint to 



Grizzly- Bear Hunters ; Shooting Matches 



Game Protection :— 

 Imimriatiou of Migratory Quail; Game Protection in Now 

 Jersey 7. 



The EBtrmiij— 

 The St. Bernard as a Field Dog; A Tribute to "Pup;" The 



Cooker Judging Notes 391 



MJuSCBiii. a sv:- 



In . he Alleghanies ; Spring Shooting in Illinois 



Natural History: - 



Pi-user River SbIiiu.h, No. 3; Cape May Warblers; Do Snakes 

 Hiss.' A Carious Accident . ; Linnean Society ; Insect Pests 



Notes un> QOERXES :— 



Shawangunk 



PUBLISHERS' DBPARTHUtNT , 



The Kifle:— 

 Professional Riflemen ; Range and Gallery; The Sighting of 



Sea and River Fishing:— 



Sea-Trout, Fishim? ; Eastern Township ; Connecticut Lakes; 

 Tbe Thousand Islands : Adin.adi.eit. Trout Fishing; Iowa; 



Fly-Kishing for Shad; Canadian Resorts 



Vacbtisi; ami CwoeiNo:— 

 Atlantic I'.i.ii; club; Sew York Yaclvt Club : Regatta, Sec- 

 retary's dp; seawunhaka Vaelit Club 



"stowaway" in a steamer, by which means he. readied 

 home. This stage route offered him employment, so 

 here he was to relate to us his experience. 



"Any rattlesnakes on this road?" Joe. queried. 

 "Rattlesnakes ! Well, you just bet there is ! See 

 them?" said the driver, exhibiting a bunch of rattles, 

 which he declared he had pulled from a snake's tail the 



the 



ac- 



Brazil. 



Jfo the JjflhghmtieM, 



tf 



BY BODINES. 



THIS was the way of it ; but whether to lament or 

 applaud the undertaking, now that it is accom- 

 plished, becomes a matter for serious consideration. 



H. and S. , our two famous experts with the rod, had 

 been fishing on Slate and Cedar runs, two tributaries of 

 Pine Creek, Lycoming County, Pa. They returned flushed 

 with success, and whispered slyly in my ear that trout— 

 and large ones, too — were abundant there. "O you 

 must go, and lay out some of those old lunkers !" they 

 Baid. H. was particularly clamorous for going, declar- 

 ing he would gladly accompany me during the following- 

 week. 



Well, the. ''following week" came, when I apprized H. 

 of my readiness to start. To my surprise, and, when all 

 his excuses had been named, my disgust, as well, "the 

 streams were too low ;" "the sign wasn't right ;" "Brown 

 said it would be just right on June 1st. and this was only 

 May 37th ;" and so on ad infinitum. I was packed ready 

 for a start, and it mattered not to me whether the sign 

 was in the navel or gizzard, nor what reason Brown had 

 for saying trout would rise on the 1st of June and not 

 on the 27th of May, I was ready, and go I would. 



I looked about for other company, and struck Joe. 

 Now that was a lucky strike, for he proved to be the 

 j oiliest sort of a companion. Joe and I therefore took 

 the State Line Railroad, leaving Elmira at 9.30 on Tues- 

 day morning. We readied Lawrenceville two hours 

 afterward, changed cars for Wellsboro, and changed 

 there again for Antrim, at which mining village we ar- 

 rived at 3 p.m. Now, the stage— a very dignified name 

 tor a well-worn "democrat wagon"— leaves Antrim at 

 1 P.M., going down Babb's Creek, and then follows Pine 

 Creek to Jersey Shore. This was our route, so we tele- 

 graphed the driver to wait for us, which I am happy to 

 chronicle lie did with the utmost complacency and good 

 humor. 



The driver of this stage was not only an accommodat- 

 ing chap, but very convivial and communicative withal. 

 He had just returned from Brazil, he informed U8, ■ < 

 he had been working and starving on the railroad that 

 a being constructed there. Said he found a chance to 



day before, just as lie was escaping- from the road to t 

 bushes, "But," he continued, "these snake;, 

 count alongside of them fellows what 

 Gosh! I seen a bow constrictor there that measured 

 clean twenty-two feet long. lie belonged to a feller 

 what kept a gin mill. He kept him in a long trough. 

 The fellers used to come there to see him and take a 

 driuk at the same time. The blamed critter wouldn't 

 eat but once a year, and then he'd fill himself so cussed 

 full he couldn't do notbin' but sleep for the next six 

 months. One day, when he waked up from one of his 

 long snoozes, he looked around for sumthin' to eat. I 

 was there and saw him. Just then the gin mill feller's 

 boy. eight years old, cum rimnin' out the house, got in 

 front of that snake, and nitty I be lacked to death with a 

 musskeeter if he didn't swaller that boy quicker'n you 

 could shut your off eye ; he did, b}^ hokey !" 

 "What did the proprietor do?" we inquired. 

 "Do? Why he didn't do a cussed thing! I shouted 

 and hollered to him like a wild Injin that his snake bad 

 swallered his boy ; told him to bring a knife and we'd 

 cut the boy out of the durned snake's belly before he was 

 suffocated. But do you know that blasted cuss said he'd 

 rather lose the boy than the snake. Durned if he didn't." 

 With such stories did our driver entertain us along the 

 beautiful mountain road leading from Antrim to 

 Brown's, sixteen miles away. We reached our destina- 

 tion at 6 p.m., and found Mrs. Brown at home, who soon 

 prepared us supper and assigned us apartments in her 

 comfortable farmhouse. Just opposite her house, across 

 Pine Creek, was seen the mouth of Cedar Run, which 

 came tumbling down from somewhere among the moun- 

 tains to the westward. The water looked clear, cool and 

 inviting, so that we were impatient to try our (lies over 

 its surface. Having partaken of supper, donned our 

 fishing suits and selected our casts for the evening, we 

 waded across the large creek to the mouth of Cedar Run. 

 There we cast our flies, causing them to settle upon the 

 water in the most approved and fascinating manner. 

 Joe was the first to make a capture. 

 "I've got him !" he cried. 

 "How large is he, Joe ?" 



"I hope to scream if it isn't a chub, and a blue-nosed 

 one at that," he replied, 



Just then I had a strike. He didn't behave very trout- 

 like, so I brought him to the surfaca without delay — an- 

 other chub. Then Joe caught a — chub. So did I, So 

 did Joe. I another. Joe ditto. Then we quit, meditated, 

 and went up stream further. Soon Joe caught from a 

 beautiful crystal pool, which was fed by a delightful 

 little cascade that i'ell over a huge, mossy rock — just the 

 nicest sort of an abode for a lively trout— a large and 

 sprightly — chub. 



1 circumnavigated them (Joe. and the chub), and took 

 a very promising pool higher up, where I made quite a 

 satisfactory cast, and landed the very first— horned dace 

 that had yet been captured. It now became a matter of 

 "nip and tuck" between Joe and I as to who should land 

 the most blue-nosed chub and horned dace. We followed 

 that run ; the very run that H. and S. had gone into ecs- 

 tasies over but two weeks before. ; the run they declared 

 was "alive with trout — big ones, too." We followed it, 

 I say, for more than a mile without even getting the re- 

 motest glimpse of a single trout. 



We accordingly reeled up our lines and retraced our 

 steps toward Brown's, determining to try Slate Run, six 

 miles below, on the morrow. 



Mr. Brown being away with the only conveyance in 

 the neighborhood, we, inveigled a small boy, by sundry 

 proffers of nickles, to wade the creek, walk a'mile fur- 

 ther below to where the stage put up for the night, and 

 ask the driver to be so kind-hearted, and yet more oblig- 

 ing, by returning and conveying us to Slate Run. We 

 were emboldened to this experiment because of the long 

 wait he had made for us in the beginning of our ac- 

 quaintance with hint. Soon the boy returned, and 

 shouted as he opened the gate : — 



"All right ; he'll be here at six o'clock in the morn- 

 ing." 



"Bless mo if that isn't the most obliging stage driver I 

 ever struck," said Joe, as he sat on Brown's cosy veranda 

 smoking a fragrant cigar and quizzing the madam as to 

 how she happened to have located in such a wild country. 

 We soon learned that the cause of OUI ill success in 

 catching trout was entirely attributable to the fact that 

 we had not gone far enough up the stream. "Go up as 

 far as the dam and you will catch all you want," said 

 Mrs. Brown." 



She then related to us how two lawyers from Wells- 

 boro (how I wish I had taken their names) came, there a 

 year ago, and brought four pailsful of dressed trout from 

 the pool under the dam. 

 "Caught them ail on a fly?" queried Joo, 



"No, sir; they caught them pricipally in a net," re- 

 plied the madam, 



Scarcely bad we finished the delicious cup of coffee at 

 Mrs. Brown's breakfast table, next morning, ere we heard 

 the shout of the stage driver without : — 



"All aboard !" 



All aboard we quickly climbed, and were soon set down 

 at the mouth of Slate Run. Here Mr. Tombs, a plump, 

 jolly looking native of the Alleghanies, met and trans- 

 ported us and our baggage over the creek to his mansion 

 at the mouth of the run mentioned. 



"Any trout on this creek, Mr. Tombs I" 



"Lots of 'em, sir ; and rousers, too. Some chaps were 

 here last week, and caught some whoppers below my 

 dam . You can have fine sport here in the evening, if 

 you know how to throw a fly." 



"Glad to hear it ; we will certainly try, Mr. Tombs," 

 we replied. 



Slate Run proved to be a charming stream. Numerous 



smaller runs empty into it here and there, at the mouths 



vhich beautiful cascades are seen playing over tbe 



most delightful mossy rocks that I had ever beheld. The 

 ravines through which these little runs found their way 

 were exquisitely decorated with mosses, ferns, violets, 

 forget-me-nots and brilliant and fragrant azalias. I wan- 

 dered in and among them, drinking in their fragrance 

 and beauty, almost forgetting the rod in my hand. At 

 the mouths of these streams, one or two fine trout were 

 invariably taken, and at the "splash dam," four miles up, 

 over forty fine fish rewarded my efforts at fly-casting. 

 Joe, who expected to have joined me here for our noon- 

 ing, he having taken another run, failed to put in an ap- 

 pearance at the appointed hour; so, according to a mu- 

 i ual understanding in case of tardiness of either party, I 

 prepared my trout dinner. First, I built a fire on the 

 hea th, far enough away from grass or leaves to prevent 

 communicating flames to the forest, and while this was 

 burning to coals I dressed a few trout, salted and pep- 

 pered them well, then rolled each trout in a piece of 

 man ilia paper, well smeared with butter. When a dozen 

 had been so enveloped I placed thorn all in a solid pile 

 and wrapped them snugly in a larger piece of the paper, 

 i lien rolled the wad in a newspaper, and put the bundle 

 to soak for five minutes in the creek. The woodpile hav- 

 ing become a glowing bank of coals, I excavated a hole 

 in the center of them with a long stick, and threw my 

 w r et budget of trout therein, hastily covering it with the 

 flowing embers. My tin quart cup was now removed 

 from the creel-strap, filled with water from the brook, 

 and placed on the coals. I selected a shady, grassy spot 

 on the bank, washed two flat stones for plates, placed 

 my chunk of bread and butter on one, while the other 

 served for a platter. The water having boiled, I threw a 

 handful of black tea into it, and stood the pot from the 

 fire, covering it tvith a flat stone. In twenty minutes 

 the package of trout was removed from the fire, the out- 

 side paper only being scorched, while the trout were 

 steaming hot, and as delicious a morsel as ever was 

 placed iu a tired fisherman's mouth. There, with the 

 pot of tea and a chunk of bread, was a meal not to be 

 despised, even when prepared indoors, with more elabo- 

 rate cooking appliances. Here 1 fingered, enjoying tbe 

 delicious meal and the surroundings as well, waiting for 

 the shadows to fall upon the creek and for the trout to 

 commence their feeding on the natural flies that then 

 betrin their careless and seemingly aimless flights over 

 the surface of the water. 



About 4 o'clock I noticed a break in a pool under an 

 overhanging limb from a great scraggly beach. Imme- 

 diately I strapped on my creel, took my rod in hand, and 

 started down tbe stream. A cast under tbe hmb re- 

 warded me with a ten inch trout, sleek and fat, who 

 fought violently to free himself from the deceptive fly. 

 Others were taken on my way down, until I reached 

 Toma's mansion, at 6 o'clock, with a creel well filled as 

 a reward for the day's exertion. 



After tea I succeeded in landing a twelve and thirteen 

 inch trout from under Tomb's dam, and as the two beau- 

 tiful tish lay upon the porch, where the woodsmen had 

 assembled to admire them, many and varied were the 

 stories that were told of the immense fellows that had 

 been taken front that same pool in days gone by. 



"I saw a twenty-two inciter taken there last Beason," 

 said a native fisherman. 



"With a fly?" 1 innocently inquired. 



"Yes, sir-ee ; and a awful splashin' and floppin' he 

 made of it, too, before we got him ashore." 



Just then a brawny woodchopper, who sat near me 

 smoking his pipe, whispered in my ear :— 



••Ask him how many Itoops his lly had on." 



Indeed we had encountered that same fly in the nar- 

 row stream leading to the pool under the dam that very 

 evening, and noticed with what care (he channel had 

 been dammed, so that not a tish of any sort could as- 

 cend the stream without becoming a prisoner in the net 

 set to entrap him. This, we note, is one of the means 

 the, natives have adopted for '■protecting" the streams, 

 offering hut a slender inducement to anglers to seek their 

 haunts and spend money with them. 



In the morning we sought and found passage upon a 



