July 1, 1880.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



429 



Took five nearly fresh eggs of the yellow-billed wood- 

 pefcker from a hole in a partly dead poplar tree in apieco 

 of heavy timber. The bole had been newly excavated 

 by the birds, as was evident from its clean and neat ap- 

 pearance and. the great quantity of chips upon the ground 

 at She fool of the tree. The eutrance to the hole was but 

 an inch and a half in diameter — so small that the birds 

 had to struggle considerably in. passing in and out. The 

 male was most devoted to the nest and displayed much 

 distress and boldness at the intrusion. He remained in 

 Ijhe cavity until a hole had been chopped through the 

 solid wood into the nest. A downy woodpecker's nest 

 iu the top of a tall dead poplar stub ; eggs somewhat in- 

 cubated. Found three posvee's nests about an old aban- 

 doned farm. One of them contained young birds, while 

 another was just in process of construction. The situa- 

 tion of the latter was quite novel. The birds w<rre build- 

 ing their nest against the smooth side of the building so 

 that a large nail which projected about two inches from 

 the wood would be embedded in the body of the nest, 

 and so hold it firnily in its place. The neat was begun 

 just below the nail", so that it could he built up to and 

 around it. The idea was a good one and showed some 

 engineering ability upon the part of the pewees. 



The yellow pond lily (Xuphar advena), small yellow 

 lady's slipper (O. parvijlorum) and wild rose (Rosablanda) 

 are in bloom. 



May 28th — 10°, 82°, 65°. — A warbling virio's nest, one 

 egg ;"song sparrow's nest, three fresh eggs, and a cow 

 bunting's. 



Iu bloom : Large yellow lady's slipper (O. pubeacens), 

 lupine (Lupinus pereiiniua), Senega snakoroot [Polmgald 

 senega), yellow water crowfoot (Ranunculus mullilidii.t), 

 olintowlX (barettlis), pitcher plant (Sarracinia purpurea), 

 locust tree (cultivated) and the harry puccoon {L. hirta). 



May 39th— (57"', 78 , 59°.— Found a least flycatcher's 

 nest containing four fresh eggs. It was placed on a low 

 horizontal limb of a large oak tree in a pasture. The 

 nests of this species a/a here usually placed in an up- 

 right unequal fork of a small tree or sapling in deep 

 woods. The present case was, therefore, exceptional, 

 though I nave found them somewhat similarly situated 

 before. An oven bird's nest containing four fresh eggs, 

 and a cow bunting's, a yellow warbler's, with two eggs, 

 and two red-eyed vireos' nests just completed. 



The horse gentian (Triosteum perfoliatam), frost grape 

 ( I" aordifolia), bitter-sweet (Celastrus scandens), and 

 small white lady's slipper (C. eandidum) are in bloom. 

 All the species of lady's slippers are now in bloom except 

 the large white (C. spectabile), which blooms about the 

 middle of Juno. 



May 30th.— 70°, 7o a , 52°. 



May 31st— 52°, 65°, 50".— Yellow-headed blackbirds are 

 building their nests. 



In bloom ; the Fennsylvanian anemone, four o'clook 

 (Oxybaphus nyetagineus) and wild raspberry (R. strig- 



OSU.1). 



With tl io close of the spring ends this outline record 

 of some of the move noticeable occurrences in nature. 

 The season hasboeuone of many fair promises repeatedly 

 broken. iVt first it seemed as though the spring would 

 be an early one, but the prospect soon changed, and all 

 through March and April there was a predominance of 

 cold, rough weather. About May l3t a sudden change to 

 excessively warm weather occurred, and the vegetation 

 which had beon held in check by the cool weather was 

 urged into unwonted activity. The same sudden advance 

 was noticeable elsewhere, particularly among the birds. 

 As great a change took place in the appearance of wood- 

 land and prairie in a few days, as usually occurs in two 

 weeks. The birds arrived iu great numbers, many of 

 them several days or a week ahead of their usual time, 

 so that species usually appearing at different dates were 

 migrating in company. This change obtained through- 

 out the month of May, nearly everything being slightly 

 in advance of previous years. The migration was soon 

 over and the birds busy with their nesting duties. 



Thos. S. Roberts. 



^m and 



FISH IN SEASON IN JULY. 



FlUtSH WATER. 

 Trout, Salmi fnnilnalis. I Maskalong-G, B)oX nr/bilwr. 



Salmon, Siluvi mar. Pike or Pickerel, Ewj* iuciUS. 



Salmon Trout, Sat/no conAnLs. \ YeUow Fureti, Pcrca flavexcens. 

 Land-looked Salmon, Salrno I 

 qUiocH. I 



SAlVr WATKB, 

 Sea Bass. OeatroprUtlis atrarius. I JJluoflau, Fumalomxw mltatrU. 

 Blieep.sue.ul, A.rcJ»>saTatL$ iiroba- Spanish Mackerel, Cubium mac- 



ttUXphaiVS- I tUalum. 



Striped Ua-s, Itoecus linmatus. | Cero, CybiuniregcUe. 

 Wulto Pt-mh.Unrnncamericana. i lamj/S. 



Weafcllsli, Ciaw-kiu rsifilis. I Kingtlah, MunUctrrua nebulosui. 



—Address all communications to " Forest and Stream 

 Publishing Company, New York." 



FISHING NOTES FROM MIRAMICHI. 



MlKAJlICHl, N. B., June 19 th. 



SALMON and trout have been very late in putting in 

 an appearance here this season. Neither net fisher- 

 men nor anglers did anything before the 1st of June. 

 Since that time a good many salmon have been caught 

 in the bay and river, although they have not yet come 

 •within the reach of our anglers to any extent. 



Messrs. John "White, Skinner and Law, of St. John, 

 Robert Orr, of Frederickton, Ernest Hutchison, John 

 Johnson and the writer, with a few others, have done 

 Indiantown for sea trout, about 1st of June and after- 

 wards. Messrs. White, Law and the Skinners had excel- 

 lent luck for a day or two, taking four or five hundred of 

 excellent weight and condition. The rest of us were 

 there just as the St. John men left, and had ill luck. By 

 going alone to special places on the Remus, I managed, 

 in a day and a half, to take sixty trout and a nice ten 

 pound salmon ; but my companions, who fished nearly 

 all the time near Indiantown Brook, took scarcely any- 

 thing. We did better at the Ox Bow, on the Little South- 

 west, however, though the fishing has not been first class 

 anywhere so far. 



Some good sized trout have been taken at Bartibog of 

 late, but three-pounders are scarce there, only about half 

 a dozen having been caught this season. 



Messrs, Keary, Doyle and others made a trip to Tabus- 



intac a fortnight ago, and went down stream some seven 

 miles below the portage road leading to the river from 

 the Bathurst road. 



They secured some splendid fish, but had a tough t.i 

 of it, as there is no road on either side of the stream, and 

 it has to be waded all the distance by horses or men. 



Several trips have been made by different parties to 

 the Big Hole on the Northwest Miramichi. twenty miles 

 above Newcastle, but there were no signs of salmon until 

 a day or two ago. We shall have good salmon fishing there 

 for two or three weeks, and thereafter, through July, 

 above, at the Square Forks of the Sevogle. the Big Falls 

 and other favorite pools hard of access, but "good when 

 you get there." 



From the present time forward for six weeks the 

 "rough waters " of the Nepissiguit, winch are the most 

 easy of access of all our salmon waters, will be inviting 

 to fishermen. Canoemen and all necessary supplies can 

 be had at Bathurst, only four miles from the pools, on 

 the line of the Intercolonial. The charge on the rough 

 water is $1 a rod per day. The fishing on the Northwest 

 Miramichi is free and excellent, 



The Restigouche Club, composed, as you know, of New 

 Yorkers, is in full possession of what used to be public 

 fishing in the Restigouche and Metapedia. I do not 

 grudge its members their line privileges, but regret that 

 the. angling available to us ordinary mortals who have 

 not a plethora of this world's goods is being narrowed 

 year by year. We have, however, one consolation, which 

 is. that being to " the manner born," we know some fine 

 pools beyond the ken of lessees and clubs, though we 

 have to reach them through portages and fords by cata- 

 marans and gunfloats, A neophyte at the business was 

 taken with us last season on a trip after salmon. It was 

 none of your holiday affairs, but a case of roughing it the 

 most earnest and hearty maimer. To reach a point some 

 thirty miles from " the last house " we had to follow the 

 previous season's trail even when it led into and through 

 the river. When our destination was readied and the 

 sport was begun, our neophyte, who had shown game, 

 said it was glorious " even if "we bad to swim some to get 

 here." If any members of your New York clubs wish 

 to have Broadway and Fifth avenue soaked completely 

 out of them, send" them along in July for a cruise to some 

 of our special pools on Miramichi tributaries. If they 

 can " stand the training " I will guarantee the salmon. 

 ___\^ D. E. S. 



BASS AND MASKALONGE FISHING. 



THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 



"TXTELL," said my friend C. as he came in my 

 \)C VV office one day last week," I'm off for the Thou- 

 sand Islands to-morrow." 



" What for ? " 1 inquired. 



" Fishing, of course, and a couple of months' cool 

 weather." 



"Yes, I suppose that it is somewhat cooler up there. 

 But what are you going to fish for ? " 



"Fish for? Why, bass and maskalonge— guing to 

 catch 'em, too. Never failed yet, when I went there. 

 Bass fishing has just commenced, and I'd rather catch 

 them than brook trout, although I know the men of the 

 fashionable clubs consider it inferior sport. But I don't 

 see why they should," 



"Why not?" 



"Well, when you catch a bass, you get a larger fish, 

 and one that is 'fully as gamy, makes a harder fight, is 

 stronger, and up to just as many tricks. They are just 

 as fine for food, to my taste, when taken from the cold 

 waters of Lake Ontario, as the average mountain brook 

 trout. You may smile at this, but such is my opinion ; 

 and there are others that agree with me. If you will go 

 upon the St. Lawrence, I think that you will become 

 convinced very soon. Sportsmen are beginning to under- 

 stand how gamy they are, and the result is that the Fish 

 Commissioners have stocked half of the available streams 

 in the Eastern States with them. Bass fishing is better 

 now than ever before. How seldom you land, in ordinary 

 fly-casting, a trout that weighs more than a pound. A 

 two-pounder, taken wild from lake or river, is the event 

 of your fishing trip, and save in Maine, or occasionally 

 in the Adirondacks, one of that weight is very rare. Yet 

 how few black bass you take that weighs less than a 

 pound, and how ofteu three and four pounds come to 

 your landing net. A five-pound bass is not such a rarity 

 as is a two-pound trout, I fish for black bass with 

 brook-trout tackle, except, that l use a trifle larger flies. 

 The rod, the line, and the leader are the same. A three- 

 pound bass seizes the II v- I stiaighten the line and hook 

 him. He shoots twenty or thirty feet to the right like a 

 flash, then zigzags thirty feet to the left. Seeing he is 

 yet fast, he does what the trout never does, leaps four 

 feet straight up into the air, quivering and shaking, and 

 then alighting head foremost, he makes another dart and 

 another leap. I have had them jump six times in quick 

 succession in their endeavor to shake the hook from 

 their mouths. The trout makes no such frantic en- 

 deavors, although I am saying nothing against the sport 

 of trout catching. The trout being less strong, gives up 

 the fight sooner. The bass will struggle and leap until he 

 turns over on his side of sheer exhaustion, and even then 

 he is good for one or two more darts and leaps when he 

 gets sight of the landing net. With my ten-ounce rod 

 and trout flies, I have been a half hour bagging a three- 

 pounder. A two-pound trout will give up in from eight 

 to twelve minutes. In my opinion there is more sport, in 

 catching half a dozen two-pound bass, than three times 

 the number of trout as they average in ordinary streams." 



" Where are black bass to be found in greatest num- 

 bers ? " 



" The best ground easy of access to New York City is 

 unquestionably iu lower Lake Ontario and the St. Law- 

 rence River for twenty miles below where it flows from 

 the lake. All along the. Jefferson County shore, and at 

 the islands opposite, bass arc very plentiful. There are 

 most excellent shoals off Grenadier Island, near Cape 

 Vincent, at Galloo Island, at the Duck Islands, and at the 

 head of Amherst, Long Island, and Carleton Island, all 

 of which cluster around the opening of the river. The 

 fish run larger there than in the rivers of the State. All 

 the region of lower Lake Ontario is famous fishing 

 ground. Go to Cape Vincent and hire boatmen to take 

 you to the grounds. Going down the river, from the 

 latter named place, the famous Thousand Islands begin, 



and among them the bass fishing is especially good, al- 

 though it becomes worse the further down you go. 

 There is little use in going much below Alexandria Bay, 

 Neai Clayton good sport may be had, but not so excel- 

 lent as about, the islands in the lake.'' 



" Bass do not rise so readily to the fly in the lake waters 

 as iu the St, Lawrence River ; but they take bait readily, 

 and may be captured on trolling rigs. I, have known two 

 hooks to take one hundred and fifty fish of an average 

 weight of two pounds in twelve hours, oil the Grenadier 

 Island shore. An average catch there by ordinarily 

 skillful anglers is from thirty to fifty fish in a day's sport. 

 Just as good grounds may be found' at the Duck Islands, 

 which are some twenty miles from Cape Vincent, di- 

 rectly out in the lake. The Carleton Island Club, of 

 Utica, that goes to the island from which it takes its 

 name, four miles below Cape Vincent, has frequently 

 numbered three hundred fish as a day's catch by its half 

 dozen boats." 



"The season begins about the 1st of June and lasts until 

 the middle of September. June is proably the best month 

 in the streams, and July in the lakes, but I haye taken 

 larger fish from the lakes about the first of September 

 than at any other time." 



But how about the maskalonge fishing? Well, as to that 

 it is a different kind of sport. Maskalonge, of course, are 

 not as plentiful as bass, and they are more particular in 

 thou- likes and dislikes as to weather and bait. You can- 

 not catch them every day, and you must study the 

 weather and winds carefully if you want to succeed. 

 Those who have spent a season on the St. Lawrence know 

 just when to exchange their bass tackle for the heavy 

 trolling spOon, that is indispensablejfor this business. A 

 thirty or forty pound maskalonge is an ugly customer to 

 handle, and I know of parties that have worked over an 

 hour, faithfully, too, before they could get one alongside 

 the boat, and the gaff hook into him. It is a red letter 

 day in the annals'" of most sportsmen that witness the 

 capture of a forty-pounder, though I have seen and cap- 

 tured many of them, and know of cases where as high as 

 half a dozen were taken by one boat within as many hours. 

 When one of this size strikes your hook your first im- 

 pression is that you have hooked a log or something of 

 the sort. You will begin to pay out line and yell at the 

 oarsman to back water for fear of breaking the trolling 

 rig. About then you will discover that the supposed log 

 is possessed of the animatedest sort of animation, and you 

 will think that there is a two-year old steer at the other 

 end of the line, judging from the pulling. Now com- 

 mences the work and sport. Keep a taut line all the 

 time; don't let him get an inch of slack if you can help 

 it. If you should happen to allow him a foot or so I 

 wouldn't give much for your chances of securing him. 

 Out of water he comes, with his immense mouth wide 

 open, shaking the spoon fiercely, as a bull dog will shake 

 a smaller canine, and with just as much of a display of 

 grit. I don't know as I can think of a fish that the term 

 "bull dog" fits better. When he disappears after this 

 porformance he will seek the bottom and immediately re- 

 turn for another fight above the water. Thus it continues, 

 varied with occasional rushes toward you, to the right, to 

 the left, above, below, always working to get some slack 

 line if possible. When tenor fifteen minutes of this sort 

 of proceeding has passed (you will think it an hour at least) 

 he will be quiet and perhaps allow himself to be drawn 

 in close to the boat. To all appearances he is tired out and 

 all you have to do is to take him in ; but look out that 

 you don't get "taken in"— badly, too. Right here comes 

 in one of his most successful tricks— one that he will play 

 every time, too. His apparent giving up is only for the 

 purpose of recruiting strength for another feature of the 

 contest, and nine times out of ten the novice loses both 

 fish and spoon, together with a portion of the line. Seem- 

 ingly exhausted, he is drawn along, perhaps lying on his 

 side, until he is within a few feet of your hands. You 

 can see his great, wicked-looking eye perhaps, but you 

 won't see it long. Like a flash he shoots forward and. 

 directly under the boat. Now is the time that your dex- 

 terity and presence of mind are needed, if ever. If by any 

 means the line is fouled, or if you don't manage to bring 

 him up gradually, he is gone ; and the remarks that you 

 will make would astonish Denis Kearney himself. But 

 we will suppose that you manage matters all right. 

 When he stops or is checked at the end of this spurt, tie 

 line will be paid out to nearly the extent that it was whtn 

 ho first struck the hook, and the programme I have de- 

 scribed will be repeated again and again until from gen- 

 uine exhaustion he is hauled alongside, and by the aid ( f 

 the gaff hook lifted aboard. You will then be happy, arid 

 look for another one." 

 "Arc the fishing grounds difficult of access?' 

 "Not at all. Go to Capt. Vincent and inquire for Ed. 

 Fox. You will find him readily, and he knows just 

 where to send vou. He has cultivated an intimate ac- 

 quaintance with every portion of the river in that vicin- 

 ity, and will direct you so that you can't miss the best 

 points. Furthermore, he won't take a cent for his infor- 

 mation, and the more fish you get the better it pleases 

 him. A. D. 



New York, June 26«i. 



* • 



Bass Fishing in Illinois.— Peoria, June I9r«. — I am 

 provoked to write you by the article of Charles Linden, 

 entitled "Spring Shooting in Illinois," in your issue of 

 the 17th inst., who is wrong in saying that Peoria is at 

 the. mouth of the Illinois River. He says he went to 

 Henry, forty miles above here, and, if so, he ought to 

 know better than to make such a mistake. 



I make a point of this because I want to say that at 

 Copperas Creek Dam, twenty-nine miles below here, is 

 to be found, at the proper stage of water, as fine black 

 bass fishing' as one can wish for. Some five or six years 

 ago the State built a dam, with suitable locks, at Henry, 

 forty miles above here, to improve the navigation of the 

 river. After that dam was finished, the fishing below it 

 was very fine ; but recently another dam has been built 

 at Copperas Creek, about "seventy miles below Henry. 

 Since that was finished, tile fishing at that point- is the 

 finest we know of in the West. At present the water is 

 too high, -as boats and fish pass over the darn, the vol- 

 ume of water in the river being remarkable for this sea- 

 son of the year. We think there is no doubt but that 

 by July 10th and on till October there will be plenty of 

 sport at Copperas Creek dam. The. be-t [route by which 

 to reach the dam will be to come to Feoria ; from here 

 either regular packets, or other boats leave for the data. 



