FOREST AND STREAM 
991 
,ee one Wn taken in them, especially at the short ranges and 
31 hay- * es °P en to military shooters. Long range work 
0 f_Snguished, but on the whole the year shows, so far 
gthe shooting records are concerned, a satisfactory re- 
ya. -Creedmoor is not now the only place in the 
lun try where good shooting is to he looked for. Due 
.'.ten tion is paid to it as the mother range, but here and 
ihere, on a dozen ranges, records have been made which 
jteave to Creedmoor a rusty sort of glory, and an import¬ 
ance as the site where historic matches have been fought. 
] In the selection of Gol. Henry A. Gildersleeve as Presi¬ 
dent of the Association, a good man has been chosen for 
Jthe head of the riflemen of the country. Col. Gilder- 
j sleeve has done good work in the past as a practical shot, 
and his work in the field has been sufficiently well re¬ 
warded to warrant a return of effort on his part. He needs 
only to push the affairs of the Association to make his 
administration a success. He certainly should have in¬ 
fluence enough to bring the Palma out from its retire¬ 
ment, and set it once more before the public as a live ob¬ 
ject of competition. At all events, shooters, with what 
they consider cause for complaint on any subject con¬ 
nected with range practice, may lay their grievances be¬ 
fore the new President of the Association with an as- 
surancethat they will be heard by one who has known 
what it is himself to lie down for long-range or brace him¬ 
self for a short-range shot. 
With F. J. Donaldson as Secretary there should be no 
more complaint that the Association is a purely military 
body, and that civilians had no rights to be heard in the 
"councils. With such a position Mr. Donaldson has 
power to shape the destinies of the Association very ma¬ 
terially. He will make out the monthly programmes of 
matches, and if tne off-hand shooters do not get a good 
showing now they will have only themselves to blame. 
Mr. Donaldson may do much in systematizing the busi¬ 
ness affairs of the Association, and with the abundant 
time at his disposal may introduce new features, and 
rouse Creedmoor from its long lethargy. 
Eating Two Quail and a Pigeon Each Day fob a 
Month. —A correspondent has sent us a clipping from the 
San Francisco Bulletin, which refers to a physician in 
that city who has undertaken to subsist for a month on 
this diet of fowl. As our correspondent is interested in 
the subject, he asks that we give the subject notice in 
the hope that be may learn the result of the attempt. 
This has been tried successfully bo many times that it 
has lost all interest for most people. 
Forest and Stream Game and Fish Directory.— 
We have already received several appreciative let¬ 
ters in response to our prospectus of a directory of 
game and fish resorts. Our large cities are full of 
business men who have but a limited opportunity 
for sport in the field. Time is precious to them. They 
cannot afford to spend a week in hunting up a place 
to go to. It is for the benefit of such that we have estab¬ 
lished our bureau of information. 
Hotel-keepers whose houses are in good game re¬ 
gions are advised that it is to their interest to send us full 
particulars of their attractions for sportsmen tourists. In 
no way can they reach a larger class of customers 
than through these columns. 
New Waters for Fly-Fishing.— Fly-fishing is the re¬ 
finement of the angler’s art. To cast the Silver Doctor 
is the antithesis of bobbing for eels. Fishing with the 
fly is sport pursued alone for pleasure, the fitting recrea¬ 
tion of a man at peace with his stomach, not the hun¬ 
ger-impelled drawing out from the waters of something 
to fry and devour. Anglers, who have felt the thrill 
which follows the strike when the unwary prey has risen 
to the lure, have advanced to a plane in the ethics of the 
craft higher than that attained by the line and lead fisher¬ 
man. It is natural then that the rod, reel and fly should 
appear as innovations and their bearer as a pioneer. Seek¬ 
ing new waters for his favorite sport, the fly fisherman 
becomes the tourist. He carries his methods into regions 
where they are at first hailed with contempt, then toler¬ 
ated, and at last adopted. 
The great army of fly fishers annually migrate North¬ 
ward. We unconsciously connect the paraphernalia with 
the dashing mountain streams on the northern lakes and 
the salmon rivers of Canada. The attractions offered at the 
extreme South have not held a high place in general es¬ 
teem. Possibly this is because those attractions have 
never been adequately set forth. The approved indigen¬ 
ous method of fishing in Florida, for instance, is with 
stout line, lead sinker, and hook baited with fiddler, clam, 
of cut up fish. The fly is used there almost exclusively 
by transient visitors ; the field yet open to those who 
delight in this sport, is not, we are sure, suitably appre¬ 
ciated. 
Dr. Ferber, who is now on the Southwest Coast, will 
use the fly almost exclusively, and “A1 Fresco” has 
promised us an account of the Doctor’s success. The 
record will doubtless serve to show that the waters of 
that coast are the proper winter fishing resorts of the 
country. Indeed, “ A1 Fresco ” goes so far as to claim 
that they furnish the best fly fishing in the United 
States. 
RIFLE, FISH HOOK, AND SMELTING 
PAN. 
^ Sitka, Alaska, Nov. 10th, 18TO. 
T HE monthly connecting link between us who are ex¬ 
iled (I trust for our country's good) from the rest of 
the world—in other words, the mail steamer California 
came in, bringing us news from the Eastern States up 
to Oct, 15th. What said news may be, I haven’t the 
ghost of an idea, except so far as gathered from items of 
the public, sandwiched in between the layers of private 
matter in my letters : for, when the mail comes once a 
month and leaves the day after, one don’t- have much 
time for aught else than reading and answering letters. 
One from your editor gives me a hint that there is an In¬ 
dian war going on in Colorado, accompanied, however, 
by his prognostication, based upon familiarity with the 
situation and good opinion of the Utes (what are Utes?) 
that it won’t last long. 
I read with pride of the good work of Laird, Lauritze, Dr. 
Scott, and Adie, and referring to my score books I found 
that in quite a number of off-hand rifle matches, I have 
beaten them as often as they have me, except the Doctor, 
whose record I find always a little ahead. 
I am keeping up my rifle practice on ducks, divers, and 
other sea birds, and find that on account of the excessive 
wildness of all which have as yet reported, I can do quite 
as well as with my Parker. Early in October the ducks 
began to come, and in a few days they were all around 
us in countless numbers; and a visit to their feeding 
grounds at daylight was rewarded with no end of shoot¬ 
ing, but when we found at the table that our game was 
of inferior and fishy flavor, our ardor cooled and we 
worked harder for less numbers of mallard and teal, a 
few of which had come. Then came a few days of cold 
weather, thermometer down to 25 degrees, and every duck 
started for warmer climes. And dow, although the 
snow is gone (except from the mountain tops, where it 
is perpetual) and the ice has melted, and a bull movement 
in mercury has occurred, few successors have arrived. 
And a long tramp is frequently unrewarded. The In¬ 
dians bring in plenty of venison and ducks, but they are 
more enterprising than we are: go further from home, 
ambush among the lakes up among the mountains, and 
wait patiently by a deer trail, confident that "Spose he 
no come to-day, he come to-morrow,” and a couple of 
mallard, at two bits each, rewards them well for a day’s 
work, while a good buck, worth from three to five dol¬ 
lars, proves a fortune and set3 them up in hoochenoo and 
smoked salmon for amontli. 
We depend upon the Indians, too, for our fish ; the 
salmon season is over. Now and then a purple, hump¬ 
backed monster is gaffed out of the head waters of the 
streams, and welcomed by the capturing Lo ; but we 
don’t take stock in them. The trout fishing is ended. I 
tried Indian River thoroughly, on a bright day a week 
ago without success, but the Indians bring us splendid 
halibut and what is called “ cod” here, but which is not 
cod unless said fish has adopted a habit of shaving off its 
goatee, for there are no—what is the word ?—barbels. 
I mean the tentacle-like appendages to lower jaw. But 
Alaska waters do furnish plenty of good and genuine 
codfish. 
I have interviewed James Haley, skipper of the 
schooner Nellie Martin, to which belongs the honor of 
being the only arrival in Sitka Harbor, since our arrival 
in June, except the monthly steamer. She brought up a 
load of lumber, 11,000 feet, which was quickly absorbed 
by the superintendent of the Stewart Mine, at $27 per M. 
Haley is a Connecticut man, from Saybrook, and 
knows all about Yankee cod and menhaden, so is compe¬ 
tent to speak, which be does, as follows 
In the summers of 1877 and 1878 be took the schooner 
to the entrance of the great bay which makes into Ad¬ 
miralty Island, which island iB about the middle of 
Chatham Straits, on the eastern side. There is now an 
Indian ranche called Kon-tzi-noo—which, by the way, is 
supposed to be the original starting point of the fiery 
liquor named after it. Taking advantage of slack 
water, for the ebb and flow into the bay produces a fearful 
rapid, he has moored his schooner well inside, and while 
lying there, in one run twelve, in the other fourteen days, 
lie has filled her, on each oocasion, with eighteen tons of 
excellent codfish ranging from five or six to thirty or 
thirty-five pounds weight ; that he was not, nor any of 
his men, permitted to fish, this business being monop¬ 
olized by the Indians who sold him the fish at $25 per 
thousand, big and little, just as they run, and that as he 
paid in trade, their cost was much lower ; that the In¬ 
dians fish with barbless hooks, using herring for bait, and 
that the herring are beyond computation in their abun¬ 
dance. The season for the cod begins in March, and for 
the herring at the same time. He says that the Indians 
say that in July and August they catch the cod in the 
greatest numbers On the surface, gaffing them into the 
boat. He describes the herring as being the most oily 
fish that he knows of—more so than the menhaden—to 
use his own words : “ A dozen of them fried in a frying- 
pan will furnish fat enough for their cooking, and a 
yeast-powder box full besides.” Abarrel of this oil, which 
he bought for twenty-five cents trade, he sold in Portland 
for forty-five cents each per gallon, and it proved very val¬ 
uable for tanners’ use. He says, further, that all through 
Chatham Straits there are banks on which cod are plen¬ 
tiful, and near Auk and several other places where 
streams abound, salmon are plentiful, all of which 
looks as though it might pay somebody to establish a 
fishery up here. 
Lots of other businesses are starting. The arrivals by 
last month’s steamer comprised a few miners, accom¬ 
panied by their satellites, faro-bank men and saloon 
keepers, • but this month’s has done more; again a few 
miners, but with them saloonkeepers, gamblers, a skat¬ 
ing rink man and a dance house proprietor. Every¬ 
thing indicates that in spring there will be a rush here. 
Already the town is assuming the characteristic features 
of a mining camp. Fortunately for law and order we 
have a good solid basis of actual miners, respectable, 
orderly, hard-working, adventurous men, who will, I 
guess, keep down the rough element, with onr help. I 
trust that when the spring comes the mountains will 
draw away a large percentage of these people prospect¬ 
ing ; but unfortunately it will draw away the real miners 
too, and deprive us of the treats we now enjoy listening 
to the yarns and tales of adventure, hardships, dangers, 
starvation and suffering, of which all have good stock, 
and which is issued freely to the circle around Whit- 
ford’s big store. I thought a sea-faring life an adven¬ 
turous one, but it is tame compared with “ prospecting.’’ 
Wishing them all good success next spring, and that 
they may all “ strike it well,” I remain, Piseco. 
GAME PROTECTION. 
Butchering the Deer. —Chopping down a huddled 
herd of deer is exactly the same thing as slaughtering 
beeves in a slaughter-house ; rather, it is worse. Beef is 
an important article of food, and in killing the ox the 
bntoher is simply doing what society recognizes as a 
proper because uecessary act. But no plea of necessity 
excuses the brutal deed of a man who makes a slaughter¬ 
house of God’s forest. The wholesale, cool-blooded, de¬ 
liberate and cruel murder perpetrated by the old and 
young “ hunters " whose exploits are detailed below, is 
an offence mitigated by not one single consideration of 
necessity or sport. If this is the kind of “ fun ” the par¬ 
ticipants wanted, we confess ourselves at a loss to imag¬ 
ine what conception they may have of “ fun.” We know 
many professional hunters who will indignantly disclaim 
that these Kentucky deer butcherB belong to the craft. 
It may be added that this slaughter must have been accom¬ 
plished simply for the “ fun” alone, for the laws of Mis¬ 
souri forbid a non-resident killing deer to take ont of the 
State. Here is the story :— 
Mr. Clay Rice passed through Paducah a few days ago 
on his return to bis home in Lyon County from a hunt in 
the swamps of Missouri back of New Madrid. He in¬ 
formed us that liimseif and son, about seventeen years 
old, and one other person from his neighborhood, had 
been there hunting for two weeks or more, having very 
fine success, and that on the two days after Christmas 
they and five others killed ninety-three deer. There was 
a sheet of water pretty much all over the country, with 
frequent small islands or ridges sticking up just above 
the overflow, and the deer would get on those in great 
numbers, and on the two days spoken of there was a 
thick sheet of ice over the water, which prevented the 
deer from escaping from one vidge to another, the party 
driving and hemming them in on the narrow points, until 
they had all the fun they wanted killing them. One man 
stood in his tracks and killed eight before moving. Two 
of the party got about fifty huddled up, and killed fifteen 
before the others got away. Six were killed on the ice by 
cutting their throats, that never were shot.' Mr, Rice is 
an old hunter, and Bays he has never seen such slaughter 
among deer before. His son, who had never shot at a deer 
before, killed six in one day. This kind of slaughter, 
however, only held good while the ice lasted, as at other 
times the deer would wade or swim from ridge to ridge, 
and could not be hemmed. Those who had rubber boots 
waded about and got quite a number, however, even 
when there was no ice. 
Migratory Quail in Georgia.— We are publishing 
from week to week data which when collated will make 
a very fair history of the introduction of the migratory 
quail into this country. Our correspondent at Law ton- 
ville, Ga., Writes under date of January 5th of their ap¬ 
pearance there. We hope that the little fellows will else¬ 
where enjoy the same immunity awarded to them by St. 
Clair:— 
On the evening of Dec. 19th, on returning from a shoot¬ 
ing excursion, my dog pointed as I supposed a covey of 
quail. Intending to flush them but not shoot them until 
next morning, for it was nearly dark, I walked up my 
birds. What was my astonishment to see six dark birds 
rise, with not half the noise of our own quail, nor indeed 
near then) size. Marking them down accurately, by day¬ 
light I was on the ground. In a few minutes I had'a 
point, from which, after “roading” for fully fifty yards, 
there rose a quail. But not our quail. I could have shot 
it easily, but I think I had no right to shoot a bird intro¬ 
duced by Northern gentlemen at so much expense. I 
could find no more of them, owing to the fact that there 
was a large cypress swamp near by, into which the bird 
ran, forniy dog trailed them into that place, into which 
it was impossible to follow them, owing Lo thick briars 
and covert. I never before saw a true quail (migratory) 
in the flesh, but from all that I have read, I know that 
